The Risks of Ozempic, Fruit First Diets, Intermittent Fasting & Health Influencers w/ Cara Clark

This episode delves into dietary health strategies and concerns with integrative nutritionist Cara Clark, covering topics from Ozempic risks to intermittent fasting and fruit-first diets.

1. Ozempic Risks: Cara Clark discusses the potential dangers of using Ozempic for weight loss, highlighting the lack of long-term safety data.
2. Fruit First Diet: The concept of eating fruit first for better digestion and nutrient absorption is questioned, with a focus on the importance of balancing glucose levels.
3. Intermittent Fasting: Cara advises against intermittent fasting for women, suggesting it can disrupt hormonal balance and is generally more suited to men.
4. Dietary Impacts on Health: The discussion emphasizes the link between diet and various health aspects like energy levels, mood, and disease prevention.
5. Personalized Nutrition: Cara advocates for a personalized approach to nutrition that respects individual dietary needs and health goals.

1: Introduction

Mari introduces Cara Clark, detailing her background and the episode's focus. Key topics include dietary strategies and their health impacts. Mari Llewellyn: "Today we're diving deep into how what we eat affects our health, with expert Cara Clark."

2: Discussing Ozempic and Diets

Cara explains her views on Ozempic and fruit-first diets, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of any diet's impact on the body. Cara Clark: "While Ozempic is popular, we need to think about the long-term consequences of such medications on our health."

3: Women and Intermittent Fasting

The effectiveness of intermittent fasting for women is debated, with Cara providing insights into why it might not be beneficial. Cara Clark: "Intermittent fasting can disrupt women's hormonal balance, making it less ideal for them compared to men."

4: Nutritional Advice for Specific Needs

Cara gives advice on managing cravings and dietary needs during pregnancy, as well as general tips for hormonal health. Cara Clark: "Balancing your diet can help manage not just your weight, but also your overall health and well-being."

1. Evaluate any diet or medication thoroughly to understand its impact on your health.
2. Consider your unique dietary needs and health goals when choosing what to eat.
3. Balance your diet to manage glucose levels, which can help prevent mood swings and other health issues.
4. Be cautious with trendy diets or fasting regimes, especially if they contradict your physiological needs.
5. Seek personalized advice from nutrition experts to tailor your diet to your lifestyle and health conditions.

Ep. 98 Today we’re talking all about holistic nutrition with Cara Clark, renowned integrative nutritionist and wellness educator. From advising A-list celebrities to guiding Olympic athletes and NBA prospects, Cara shares her wealth of knowledge on fostering a healthier relationship with food. Join us as we explore topics ranging from managing glucose levels and histamine issues to fertility tips and navigating pregnancy cravings. With insightful discussions on weight loss, the impact of social media, and practical advice for feeding both kids and infants, this episode is a treasure trove of wellness wisdom. Whether you're seeking guidance on nutrition, fitness, or overall well-being, Cara's expertise offers valuable insights to help you thrive.

People

Mari Llewellyn, Cara Clark

Companies

-None-

Books

-None-

Guest Name(s):

Cara Clark

Content Warnings:

None

Cara Clark
You manage your glucose, you manage your energy, you manage your moods like you prevent so many diseases. This is the pursuit of wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn.

Mari Llewellyn
Hi, guys. Welcome back to the show. Today we have an amazing episode in store. I know you guys are gonna love it. We are talking to Cara Clark.

I flew to Nashville to speak with Cara. She is an integrative nutritionist, also a celebrity nutritionist, nutritionist to clients like Carrie Underwood. She's a wellness educator and certified in sports and clinical nutrition, blood chemistry, and integrative health. She has helped thousands of clients, from group challenge participants to celebrities, to Olympic athletes and NBA and MLB draft prospects, to feel better in their bodies by moving away from dieting and instead understanding the connection between what we eat and how we feel. She had such a good perspective on food and nutrition.

I feel like we really connected right away, not just because she brought me energy balls. Guys. I walked in the room and Cara had brought me these delicious energy balls, which is exactly what I needed because I had, like, four podcasts in one day in Nashville, and I just thought it was so cute. She also has four daughters. It may be three, but I think it's four.

So she's a mum. She's incredible. She's a superwoman. And I just love her approach to health. We talked about so many different topics.

We talked about the most common barrier to losing weight. Her thoughts on Ozempic, managing your glucose and diet suggestions, metabolic dysfunction, how histamine issues affect people. Progesterone, what she thinks of the fruit first concept, fertility suggestions. She had a lot for that. So my fertility girls, listen up.

Cravings and diet during pregnancy, processed foods, working with celebrities, biotoxin binders, dissociative eating, disordered eating, the dangers of social media, and how to keep kids meals fun and nutritious, plus baby food recommendations. I had so much fun with Cara. I really feel like we connected and have a very similar approach when it comes to food. I know you guys are going to absolutely love this episode. So without further ado, let's hop right in and talk to Cara.

Cara, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. We've already been having such an in depth conversation behind the scenes because I feel like we have a lot of similar beliefs in this space, and I'm so excited to dive in. You are an integrative nutritionist, a wife, mother of four girls.

I can't wait to dive into that and talk more, but I'd love to start with how you became so interested in this field and how nutrition has played a role in your life personally. Yeah. And there's different stages of that, so I'll try to make it quick. But I was also a college basketball player, and I forgot to mention that. But that's a big piece of my story, because back when I was playing, I don't even know how many years, I can't do math that fast.

Cara Clark
There was nobody to guide us through performance nutrition, and I always knew that this was something that was like a hole, you know? And even at a collegiate level, they would literally give me the same meal plan as the football players, and I was like, this is not right. And why am I getting sick every playoff season? Four out of four years, during playoffs, I got sick, and it was really frustrating because I was a starter. That's when you're supposed to be feeling your best.

So it was about my coach, God love him, he was a psychologist, and he thought he knew better, but he would not let me study science because he was worried about how it would consume my time. So I broadcast journalism in college, which has been helpful for writing and that kind of stuff. But anyways, after college, I not only went through an identity crisis, I didn't know how to feed myself because nobody taught me. I still wanted to perform, but I didn't know for what. And so I kind of went down the rabbit hole of disordered eating, and in order to kind of pick up my own pieces, I started studying nutrition.

Like, what I was always so curious about, like, God put that in my heart to be so curious about performance nutrition. And so I kind of developed my philosophy to heal my disordered eating cycle, but also to support people that want to perform on a daily basis, and not just as athletes. And obviously, I have an athlete protocol, as well. But I think generally, like, people are always complaining about their energy. Energy is what performance.

And so, like, I created something that was sustainable, that wasn't a diet that could help people perform and have energy and then also be preventative of so much disease. And so I got started with sororities because I knew they were also struggling with disordered eating. So I was kind of just, like, preaching to my own choir and trying to help these girls develop security around food and teach them how to grocery shop and all of that. And then I started babies at the Lazarus. So that slowed my role with the sororities.

But then you know. And you know how business grows and expands, like, turned into seasonal challenges, that turned into a subscription model that turned into a membership model that turns into, like, group health pods that turn, you know, all these things turned. But after I was done having kids, I had four kids in five years. What? Yes.

Mari Llewellyn
What? Mm hmm. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I got pregnant on my honeymoon, so that says a lot about me.

Cara Clark
Like, I was ready to be a mom. Like, my husband, God love him. I've fallen more in love with him, you know, in these last five years than I did at the beginning. He was just my means to an end. I wanted to be a mom.

He was a means to an end. I wanted to be a mom so bad. Like, my whole life, all I ever wanted was to be a mom. And so that, in so many ways, was, like, it healed my identity crisis. It healed so much for me that I was, like, yearning for.

And, you know, and marriage is obviously its own thing, but, yeah, I'm like, we're 15 years married. We have a daughter going to high school next year. So there's been a lot of ebbs and flows, but when I was, like, two years out from nursing my fourth child, I got really sick. And in that process, I was healing my four year old's, dare I say, injury from conventional medicine. And I was working with a functional medicine doctor and some other specialists and doing my own stuff with her to heal her, put her on several protocols, and as I was working with that functional medicine doctor, she's like, when are we going to work on you?

And I was like, what about me? And she's like, you're so stressed. And I was like, I've always been this stressed. And she's like, that's the problem. So I had what she diagnosed as walking mono for, like, nine months.

Mari Llewellyn
Wow. I couldn't even turn my neck. Like, functional mono. Wow. Like, just Epstein bar flare up to the max.

Cara Clark
Which made sense. Cause I had a history of chronic histamine issues with hives and stuff like that. So I went on my own healing journey outside of food and exercise, which I was doing so perfectly that, you know, I was almost ashamed to admit I was so sick, and there was more happening. I had insomnia. I, like, couldn't have a business meeting without crying.

Like, I felt bad for anybody meeting with me. I just sob. I was so overwhelmed. I never asked for a career, for one thing. And then all these people just kept coming.

So when I worked through my own health issues, I developed a more integrative approach to helping clients. That includes the nervous system, that includes circadian rhythm, that includes hormone health, and most of the time I'm telling people to eat more and slow down, you know? So in terms of your histamine issue and nervous regulation issue, like, how did you approach that? Because I can relate in a lot of ways. I feel like I can eat the right things, take the supplements, exercise the right way.

Mari Llewellyn
But when it comes to slowing down, I think that's the biggest challenge, in a way. It totally is. And I learned how to really meditate, and I call it listening prayer because I have a very strong faith worldview, and I had an experience with my listening prayer once where I could actually cry, but Jesus walked me through healing waters, and I never got hives again. And so there's, you know, there's so many sides to it, but we are not, we're not calculators, we're not just clinical, we're not just physical. There's so much more to the human than just what appears, you know?

Cara Clark
And so the histamine system, I've learned over the years, is really kind of controlled by the adrenals. And so when the adrenals are not functioning well, and this can happen, like I was saying before, sorry to get emotional. What the hell? No, it happens a period. It happens all the time on the podcast.

Mari Llewellyn
Something comes out, you know? Me too. Yeah. And I've never really shared that on anything outside of my own stuff, but it's a longer story, too. But I had hives chronically here and there from the time I was eight to 34, and then I've never gotten them again.

Cara Clark
So there was some spiritual healing involved. And then, you know, the emotions of regulating the nervous system and learning how to breathe. Right. Like, I don't think I knew how to breathe through my diaphragm because nobody ever taught me. And then, like, having nervous system dysregulation and cortisol metabolic issues can, like I said, happen in vitro.

Like, this isn't something that you. That I started. Do you think it's passed down from our mothers? Yes. And I learned this the hard way because I have a daughter that has been struggling with asthma, and so I had to go back to that route and keep digging for that root.

Like, why is her histamine system more sensitive than the other girls? Why does she have spring allergies? Why does she have asthma during basketball? Like, I started asking myself these questions and digging into similar podcasts to yours and going to my favorite experts for help, because I'm not the end. All right?

So when I started working on her adrenals and I saw the improvement in her histamine system and really, like, regulated her asthma, her lung issues. I'm like, okay, well, there's something to this. You know, that's our own story. I'm not promising, you know, these crazy healing stories for everyone, but.

Mari Llewellyn
This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. I feel like we all have our own problems and stresses. That's something I've realized through, you know, having acne or trying to conceive. We all have things that are kind of weighing on us constantly, and I personally find that when I bottle it up is when the problems get bigger and bigger and bigger. Therapy has been the best resource for me in terms of talking about the things I'm struggling with.

Just even hearing myself say it to someone really helps me sort through my own thoughts. I feel like learning positive coping skills and setting boundaries has been a huge part of my inner healing. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists any time for no additional charge.

It really is so easy. It makes it so convenient, and you have no reason to not do therapy. Get it off your chest with betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com pow to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp help.com pow.

If you're anything like me and my husband, you don't trust your tap water. Having safe, clean water is the last thing you should worry about. And unfortunately, according to extensive research by the environmental Working Group, three out of four homes in America have harmful contaminants in its tap water. I've had a lot of experts come on the show and tell me about this and tell me how prevalent this problem is. I drink a lot of water throughout the day, as should you, and I want to make sure it's the healthiest water possible.

You guys need to check out Aquatru. Aquatru purifies using a four stage reverse osmosis purification process. Their countertop purifiers work with no installation or plumbing. It removes 15 times more contaminants than ordinary pitcher filters and are specifically designed to compact chemicals like pfas in your water supply. We use the aquatru pitcher in the bloom office, and the girls absolutely love it.

I know a bunch of them have ordered it themselves. Pfas are found in almost 45% of us tap water, and I'm so grateful that Aquatru is now certified to remove these contaminants. They have water purifiers to fit every type of home, from installation free countertop to higher capacity under the sink options. I feel like I can truly taste the difference from my old water filter. And I also feel so much better about giving the dogs purified water.

And if you have kids, I would feel the same way. It got delivered straight to my home, and it was really easy to set up. And Greg and I drink so much water. It feels so much better to be using this and using it in our coffee. I feel like we don't think about that.

Aquatru comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and even makes a great gift. Today, my listeners receive 20% off an aquatru purifier. Just go to aquatrue.com, that's a q dashu.com, and enter code pow. Pow at checkout. That's 20% off any aqua tree water purifier.

When you go to aquatrue.com and use code pow, would you say histamine issues show up differently in everyone? Because, for me, I've struggled with acne for ten years. Some people have horrific gut issues. Like, I really. Psoriasis.

I feel like these show up in different ways. Do you feel like the solution can still be applied to everyone? Like, would adrenals benefit me? Would they benefit someone with psoriasis? Yeah, I think it's honestly easier for adults a little bit because we, you know, food.

Cara Clark
Food obviously plays the biggest role in gut healing. Like, I have a daughter that's 14 that's also struggling with some skin issues, and we're working on healing that. But she's also a very competitive athlete that needs a ton of calories, and it's hard for her to, you know, be out with friends and not get ice cream or whatever it is. So I have an autoimmune protocol, which is really, like an anti inflammatory protocol, and it really kind of cuts to the chase on a lot of different issues. So it takes all of the energy, not all of it, but, like, 60% of the energy your body is using on digestion.

So our body's digestion is a lot of energy, which is why some people say, like, go longer without eating, give your body a longer break. Because it's consuming, it's, you know, you have to use energy to digest. So the autoimmune or anti inflammatory protocol, it actually floods your body with nutrients without using all the energy. It doesn't take as much energy to digest it. And so that would be, like, my kind of like, all in approach on a lot of, like, inflammatory issues.

So. And the reason I say inflammatory is cause, you know, at the histamine alone is not ever the problem. There's other things associated. And so now we're talking adrenals. Well, adrenals, too.

There's, like, usually other things stacked. Right. And that's why we need an integrative approach. Like, there's a lot of people I won't work with that aren't already seeing a therapist. You know what I mean?

So there's that emotional piece with adrenals that's sometimes, like, very hard to work through for some people. So can you just take a supplement and heal the adrenal system? No, but with my twelve year old who has some asthma and histamine issues, we do breath work a lot. We do a lot of prayer. I'm very available to her when she's heightened.

I understand, like, my kids emotional needs, and I feel like that's what helps to resolve the adrenal system as adults. Like, we can do a more restrictive diet, so to speak, to help heal the inflammation and sort of reset our system. We can fast. We can do stuff like that. Not intermittent fast.

I'm not promoting that for women. I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting. Yeah, I wake up starving. Right. And you should.

As you should. The woman's internal clock, it doesn't function like a man. So whenever somebody tells me so and so said to intermittent fast, I'm like, were they a guy? Listen, my husband loves it. He'll go, mine's fine, and he's fine.

Mari Llewellyn
But I really do think there's a huge difference between men and women in that way. For women, it's much better to incorporate fasting with the full 24 hours. Or, like, when my clients get to 36 hours, they're like, I can do 72. I never recommend more than that. And I always would like them to be monitored.

Cara Clark
I'm not, like, giving the green light to all of that. But if you need a full body reset, it's 24 hours. It's not going to be the 14 hours, 16 hours, and then cramming all your food into this period of time. In fact, my philosophy says to eat within the hour of waking up. Oh, really?

Mari Llewellyn
Yeah, because of hormone health. Okay, that's interesting. Cortisol. Yeah. And then cortisol protects progesterone, and so the female endocrine system relies on the food that we eat.

Cara Clark
So we're not using cortisol. I feel like progesterone is like, kind of an epidemic right now. Everyone has really low progesterone, me included. Right. I had to start taking bioidentical progesterone.

Mari Llewellyn
Yeah. So I agree with you. There is an epidemic in that, and that's a very bio individualized approach. I would love to dig in to that with you, but, yeah. Cortisol is a precursor for progesterone.

Cara Clark
And if you're on the west coast or, like, in New York, people think it's really good to stress out. You just live. You thrive in stress, and a lot of people do. Yeah. Yeah.

What's hard is slowing down. What's hard is regulating cortisol. So I incorporate, like, the circadian rhythm, like, okay, what time are you up at night? Are you being able to fall asleep? Cortisol is the yang with melatonin.

And so if that's. If your melatonin is dysregulated, your cortisol is probably gonna be dysregulated. So that would be, like, my starting point with somebody is circadian rhythm. And cortisol. When you say anti inflammatory diet, what does that look for you?

Mari Llewellyn
Are you more of a keto approach? More of a paleo? It's funny we're getting into this right away, because that's not even my philosophy. Oh, that's my philosophy to heal. So when people come to me, I'm like, do you want to just have energy and feel better, or do you want to heal?

Cara Clark
So I leave it up to them. You know what I mean? I'm not the driver. I'm just mapquests, like, ways in this day and age, I'm not going to determine that for them. So my philosophy is very non restrictive, that the body knows that you get to decide for yourself.

It's intuitive. But that with that in mind, I teach thee within the hour of waking up, I teach the every, like, four ish hours after that, especially if you're a cycling woman, if you are not cycling anymore. So perimenopause or postmenopausal, then you can get away with 5 hours, and you can get away with some other things, too, but that's another conversation. So even the hour of waking up, every 4 hours after that, always combine your Macros. So here's my, like, big, big, big one is you manage your glucose, you manage your energy, you manage your moods.

Like, you prevent so many diseases by utilizing the glucose, by getting it to your brain, by getting it to your liver, by not over driving your pancreas on insulin production. So managing glucose, in my opinion, is, like, the king of everything. So if you're gonna have, let's say, fruit, you'd wanna pair it with protein as well and fat. Have you seen this concept that some people follow of fruit first? Yes, I have.

And that's kind of actually an older concept. I think it's. I know the girl's name, but I'm not going to say it. And I would say, like, okay, I understand. Like, you want the antioxidants, you want the vitamins to hit, but you also have to be protective of your glucose.

Mari Llewellyn
Right. So that is the most important pillar of my philosophy. While it's not the first pillar, I do it in order. Eat within the hour of waking up every 4 hours. Always combine your macronutrients.

Cara Clark
And I teach 50% carbs, which is, like, unheard of. But I like to work with women, I don't like to work with men, so I'm very much, like, pushing them on. I don't blame you. Yeah. And then eating five colors a day.

So we kind of talked about how you grew up eating, and you were the meat and potatoes and sandwich and bread kind of person. Same. I grew up in the midwest of America's same thing. But eating five different colors a day adds the variety to our gut microbiome, but also the antioxidants, the different fruits and vegetables. So, yeah, I'm not a fruit first person, but I'm also not super particular on the order.

As long as it's all eaten within the same 30 minutes. Our body's not as particular as we think. You know, we're not calculators. We can't, like, calculate calories. Calories are information.

They're like a messenger, just like a hormone, you know? So then we teach people to drink about half their body weight and water, a pure water, adding a little celtic salt. So that's kind of that. We're gonna hydrate the whole body so that your hair shines and your skin shines, and you're getting water into the cell, which needs a little sodium. I really love your approach.

Mari Llewellyn
I feel like a lot of people in this space tend to be quite intense, and I even fall in the trap sometimes because I have so much information coming at me. It's easy to get really controlling with the order we eat our food, the supplements we take, and at the end of the day, we just need to be also managing the cortisol. And that kind of defeats the whole purpose if we're being so anal about everything we do. Yeah. When people hang out with me, they're like, oh, you live a little bit more loose than I expected.

Cara Clark
Well, yeah, like, the whole point is live more. Like, feel better, live more. And that's what I've kind of taught forever. And then even with exercise, we obviously include that as part of our philosophy, but a lot of times we're telling people to do less. Do you feel like women are doing too much HIIt workouts lately?

I just think that they're not mindful of their stage of life, their stage of hormone life, as well as their stress and their cycles. So, like, I know that's kind of a lot, you know, coming at women, but when you have this intuitive approach of life, which is. That's the final piece of our philosophy, is, like, it's intuitive eating, it's intuitive living. Like, avocados are so good for most people, but for some people, they're terrible for they cause them more inflammation. They're.

They're, you know, an intolerant food or whatever. Like, some people do great with chickpeas, and some people do horrible. Some people do fine with oats, some people do terrible. But you can't go by somebody else's standard. Yep.

You have to intuitively know that yourself. So I look at workouts the same way. Like, am I waking up feeling, like, pretty low energy or, like, stressed or overwhelmed? Like, what is going to support me that day? And I'm looking at the big picture, like, where am I in my cycle?

Okay, I can push through. Like, if I'm in my follicular stage, I'm going to push through. I'm going to take advantage of muscle building in that stage. If I'm, like, premenstrual, which is right now, I'm gonna take it easy and probably go for a longer walk and do some sort of pilates. And I shouldn't say pilates is easy, but it's something more flowing and not so hard hitting for someone listening, like.

Mari Llewellyn
Myself, who's trying to get pregnant. We're in the fertility stage. What do you recommend for nutrition and working out? So same as the philosophy I just said. But like so many other people that have been on your podcast, I'm a big fan of supporting the foundation.

Cara Clark
So, like, supplementally, I would want to just do, like, the core foundation support, and then potentially, if somebody's dealing with chronic inflammation, so that's what we are kind of getting into. I would actually recommend them do the anti inflammatory protocol, which is not limited carbs. It's not. It's the same, like, macro breakdown is what I teach but it's food restricted based on supporting the foundation of your body, getting rid of excess inflammation. So that's not conflicting with a healthy pregnancy, you know?

Mari Llewellyn
So inflammation, in turn, is important to lower when you're trying to get pregnant. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. And so I've had a couple clients get pregnant using my anti inflammatory protocol, and they're like, but I'm not having pregnancy symptoms.

Cara Clark
And I'm like, you're not inflamed anymore? Wow. Like, she's like, should I be taking magnesium? Like, well, we'll see. Like, you may not need it.

I wish I knew this when I was pregnant, because I was severely ill. Okay, so what should you take if you're severely ill and pregnant? I mean, there's. That's the thing is, people are always like, what should I take? But a lot of times it's like, what should I take away?

You know, I should have been doing more detox baths. I should have been taking magnesium. I didn't. You know, I was 24 to 31 when I was pregnant. So this was, like, premature in the integrative part of my.

I was eating balanced blood sugar. I, you know, I ate all the right things. I was eating high omega three s, flaxseed, and all the seeds and obviously fish and that kind of stuff. But, yeah, I think, again, like, anti inflammatory, getting rid of all the excess inflammation and letting your hormones, you know, work, respond well really helps a lot. And it's not a guarantee that you won't be sick.

I think there is some genetics involved, and, you know, the hypermyesis or whatever it's called. So, yeah, b six and ginger was like my go to all day long. And then there's acubands or whatever. I've seen those. How do you handle pregnancy cravings?

Mari Llewellyn
Because I see on TikTok and other pregnant influences. This might be controversial to say, I'm just gonna say anyway, but I often see women who are pregnant sort of, like, caving to these cravings that are kind of extreme, like the chick fil a and high sugar, like, processed foods. And that makes me sort of cringe a little bit, I guess, because I'm trying to get pregnant. And in my head, I'm like, oh, if I'm so lucky to get pregnant, I would never eat something like that. Well, and it's good that you understand that and see that, because I have so many people that are like, can I do your program if I'm pregnant?

Cara Clark
I'm like, not only can you, but you should. You should. Like, now is the movie flooding your body. You're growing a human. Yes, exactly.

But people don't see it that way because, you know, the standard was, when I was having babies, you know, ten years ago, you need to gain 25 pounds. You need to gain this much weight. And so people think, like, my mom was telling me at one point, you need to drink a milkshake. And I'm like, how does that support the end goal here? Cause I only gained, like, twelve to 15 pounds, but my babies were still, like, seven to eight pounds a week early.

Mari Llewellyn
There is this conception that you have to double the amount you eat. No. And I was speaking about it with my friend Celeste, who has a baby, and she was like, oh, no. It's literally, like, a couple hundred calories more. I say 1.15, which is kind of sad.

I was really excited to kind of, like, bulk up. But, you know. You know what, though? You will have a very intuitive approach. And the nice thing about, like, cravings is there's always a healthy alternative.

Cara Clark
Maybe not at a fast food restaurant, but, like, we've come so far with recipe development. There's always a healthy alternative. Yeah, yeah. Like, go make your own panko, chicken crusted, whatever, chick fil a sandwich or. Daca chocolate, strawberry or something.

Right, right. Like, I have so many. Like, I have a whole dessert book, you know, with peach cobbler and stuff like that. And I don't restrict. Right.

And I think that's the whole thing is people let themselves, like, think that because that's what the system has told them.

Mari Llewellyn
Mother's Day is coming up, and I cannot think of a better gift than caraway. I just had my mother in law staying with us, and she asking me all about my caraway pans, not only because they look gorgeous, but they are non toxic. They have so many different collections to explore. There's sure to be caraway for every kind of cook. Greg and I love the stainless steel pans.

We use them every single day. I feel like it's the best way to cook your red meat, your veggies, whatever it may be. Caraway's Internet famous kitchenware is a staple for my home and comes in a variety of modern shades to fit any design aesthetic. I've also been baking a ton. I made bagels this weekend, and I used my sage green baking pan from caraway, and it just looked so cute.

Ditch the chemicals with caraway. Caraway Home's non toxic kitchenware features a chemical free ceramic coating so food can be prepared with peace of mind that no hard to pronounce chemicals will leach into your healthy ingredients. They are made without pfas, ptfes, pfoas, or any other hard to pronounce chemicals. And just as a reminder, their Internet famous cookware set comes with a saute pan fry pan, dutch oven, and saucepan, plus lids for all of them, a canvas lid holder, and a magnetic pan rack for storage. It's the ultimate kitchen setup and will save you $150 versus buying the items individually.

Plus, if you visit carawayhome.com pursuit, you can take an additional 10% off your purchase. This deal is exclusive for our listeners, so go to carawayhome.com pursuit or use code pursuit at checkout Caraway. Non toxic cookware made modern.

Let's talk about weight loss. When people come to you and they want to lose weight, what would you say is the most common barrier for them? Like, what's the most common issue? Getting in their way that they think. It'S weight that they need to lose.

Cara Clark
Like, they think if I just lose this weight, that I'm gonna feel a certain way and losing again. Go back to numbers. We're not calculators. That's fleeting. And so I've seen, you know, I've been doing this for 17 years, and I've seen the scale really be a driver for people, and then their results aren't sustainable because then they go right back to the way they were eating or whatever.

They can't wait to have a brownie again or whatever it is. So with weight loss, I always say, well, what got you here in the first place? Okay, let's evaluate what got you here in the first place. And let's do, like, a root cause assessment of why you have the weight. Why did your body adapt to this size?

Because you can't just do a deficit and lose and sustain that because your body's already adapted. So we need to target the reason why it adapted. And again, that's like cortisol, adrenals, like stress, trauma, like, you name it, those are all a part of it. And so I evaluate people. I don't work a ton of one on ones, so don't just, like, email me out the wazoo asking.

I have programs in place for all of this. I actually have a weight loss masterclass where I break down the hormones, and that's like, remember I was saying yin and yang with melatonin and cortisol. There's yin and yang with your hunger hormones. There's yin and yang with every hormone in the body. Estrogen, progesterone, and so we break all that down, and then we break down, like, is it visceral fat?

Okay, if it's visceral fat, that's a really hard kind. It's been there for a while. There's probably some insulin resistance involved. There's probably, you know, like, our body's not optimized. We need to change some things.

We need to support the liver. We need to do more sauna, that kind of stuff. When there's subcutaneous fat, which is a really soft kind, you actually don't have to work as hard to lose it, you know? And then when there's inflammation, you need a whole different approach entirely. You need that anti inflammatory protocol.

Mari Llewellyn
I often feel like when I get questions about weight loss, people have this perception of, like, magic food. Yeah. Like, oh, if I eat green beans, therefore I will lose weight. I eat a salad every day. Right.

Which is just kind of. They think that they have to be hungry to lose weight, and it's actually the opposite. You actually need to be fueling your body for where it's at now. So, like, if you're a higher weight, you need more calories to burn efficiently. 100%.

And I feel like when I started learning about nutrition, I realized that, let's say a Starbucks frappuccino that has 800 calories is a whole meal. Like, you could eat salmon and potatoes and salad and be full for much longer than the frappuccino. And I remember that being a big ah ha moment for me and choosing the things that I felt like were gonna get me through the day. Right. And just that switch alone.

I mean, when I first started eating healthy, I pretty much copied my husband's style of eating, and he's a bodybuilder, so I did oatmeal, eggs, definitely way too much food, the fitness way. But, like, it was a better choice than the two muffins I was doing prior. Absolutely. And I was able to have a better mood. It was just, like, a better step in the door.

Cara Clark
Right. And I do think a lot of women struggle with this idea of, like, overly restrictive eating over exercising. I mean, both of us lived in southern California. It's rampant there. And people are now using ozempic to curb their appetite.

Yeah. How do you feel about ozempic? That's a question I'm getting a lot, and people are very curious about right now. There's so many other things I would like to try before resorting to something that could potentially harm several different organs, especially your stomach. I'm hearing research is finally coming out a little bit.

And that's the thing about taking something new is you don't really know. You're the guinea pig. Yeah, you're a guinea pig. A crab shoe. So nobody really wants their stomach paralyzed forever.

And, you know, we're not sure what the risks associated are. And for what, I don't know anybody that's been like, I feel so good, right? And so that. And then also, then what happens when you come off of it? But the problem is with our culture, and, like, we've already talked about this, is people just want to take, they want to consume.

We're just a culture of consumption. We over consume everything. We over consume information, we overconsume supplements. Like, people come to me taking, like, 30 different things, and so they're looking for the next best thing that they can consume that's gonna give them what they want. And, you know, losing your muscle tone, like you're risking your muscular skeletal system.

There's just so many risks, in my opinion, associated. I would love to try so many other options, including the anti inflammatory approach in a lifestyle approach. But the problem is people aren't willing to put that time and energy there. Cause they don't have energy, you know? And I think social media is contributing in a negative way because we're seeing people drop 30 pounds between two posts.

Right? Do you get what I'm saying? Like, all of a sudden, someone we knew has lost 30 pounds overnight. And the comments are like, oh, she must have done ozen pick. Like, it's kind of when they're saying, I'm eating whatever I want.

Oh, and stuff like that. And it's like, well, why do you want to eat goldfish? It's like a bite of a goldfish. Yeah. Like, why do you want, like, let's get to that route.

Mari Llewellyn
How do you feel about processed foods? Like, what would you tell someone who comes to you who's eating a majority diet of processed foods? Yeah, it just like, so I was telling you before we started recording, sorry you guys missed out on such a good conversation. Such a good conversation. Recorded.

It's exclusive, exclusive content. So I always look at somebody's food log, for instance, or I take a day in their life and I try to adapt it so that it's easy for them to adjust to. I don't think most people are capable of 180s in their life. And so there are some options for processed food. Or, like, for instance, I just sent a client.

Cara Clark
He's going on, he's in the music industry going on tour for a month with minimal control. We utilize a lot of healthy, processed foods, you know, like bars and that kind of stuff. So I don't. I don't know if that's what you mean by processed foods, but, like, simple meals, like CTA, like, there's good brands out there that are doing what I would do if I were to, like, make a homemade cracker or homemade chip, which I'm never gonna do. I love that you're saying this, because I do think there's this, like, umbrella, like, no process foods ever.

Mari Llewellyn
And currently, I'm traveling from Austin, I'm eating a bar. I'm doing what I need to do to feel good about my choices. And I think a lot of time with the fear mongering online, it's like, well, if you don't like what the options are, make it yourself. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Cara Clark
And that really pushes people away because they're like, I don't want to spend. I heard on average, people spend 3 hours a day in the kitchen. Oh, you know how many? I think I do. Yeah, I do too.

And I don't mind, but not everybody wants to. I enjoy it. Yeah. I'm there by choice. Right.

I am, too. I don't feel good when I eat out, so, like, I'm gonna. When I go on the road, which is every weekend with my kids, sports, I have bars, I have oranges, I have apples. Those travel easy. I have all the things.

Hard boiled eggs, like, things that travel easy. Hummus, vegetables. But, yeah, you have, like, simple mills, crackers, or, like, another cracker similar to that, so. Yeah. And I love chips.

I'll be very honest. Like, chips are kind of a vice for me. Like, I am. I like salty stuff. I like butter, and I like salt.

Mari Llewellyn
Oh, that's me. Yeah. Savory girl. I call it butter babes. Yes.

Cara Clark
Yeah. So, like, if I'm gonna have a cookie or a baked good, like, it needs to be semi sweet and super buttery. Yeah. Like, a croissant is like, ah, croissant in America. No, you cannot.

Mari Llewellyn
No, you cannot. Actually. Wild grain. Have you heard of wild grain? Yeah, I have.

So good. Really? You just put them in the oven for 20 minutes? Okay. They actually sponsor the show, but this is not sponsored.

Like, I am obsessed with. Okay, that's good. I make them for my husband every weekend. It's like his little. Yeah, I have a gluten free entirely kid.

Cara Clark
One kid, so. And she loves croissants. Are they gluten free? Oh, are they croissants? They can be so wild.

Grain's not. They're just. No, it's not. It's not. But it's good ingredients, you know?

Okay. Yeah, I'll check it out for sure. The bread that we get from Colorado is called outside the bread box. If you butter that bread up, it tastes like a croissant. No, it's so good outside the bread.

Got, like, five ingredients. No way. I need to check that out. Yeah. So I rely on, like, processed foods.

Mari Llewellyn
You know what I mean? Like, I don't, obviously, I make most of my foods, and most of it comes from the refrigerator, but I would be lying if I said that it all did. I love that. Even with lentils, sometimes I'm gonna buy the premade version and not soak them for 24 hours. My brain doesn't work that way, so I have to just do the best I can with what I have.

And it's also about doing the best most of the time and then giving yourself grace when you can't. Right. I always say consistency pays interest. That's my new favorite phrase. Cause my husband's in finance, so we talk about interest and stuff like that a lot, and I'm like, no, no.

Cara Clark
In my world, consistency pays interest. If you do this, like, 75% of the time, then that 25% is, like, accumulated interest. Like, it's forgiven. Yep. 100%.

Mari Llewellyn
So, you just mentioned that you're working with a music artist on tour, and I know you're Carrie Underwood's personal nutritionist, so. I'm friends with carrie Underwood. Got it. Yeah. So, does she follow my teachings perfectly?

Cara Clark
No, but I would say that she probably tries a lot. But, you know, it's hard on the road. I've seen her do so good. Like, I've been there, but I wouldn't say I am her personal nutritionist. She doesn't totally listen to me.

Mari Llewellyn
I love the honesty. She would appreciate that. But she thinks for herself. Let's just put it that way. I think a lot of people would be very curious about working with celebrities.

Are they coming at nutrition with the same goals as, like, us? Like, average people kind of. Are they on the go? More like, what's the vibe? I think they're just trying to feel good, and that's why my book that comes out in a year publishing world is really slow right now.

Cara Clark
It's called the feel good way. And I think that, like, people like the, you know, entrepreneurs and the entertainers and the people like that that I work with, they just want to feel better and to be very honest. They're pretty. They're feeling gaslighted by their doctors, you know, and I don't want to throw doctors under the bus at all because I think it's actually the insurance system that's the problem. And I will throw that under the bus.

But anyways, they come to me and they're just like, I need to feel better. Like, for instance, and I'm not going to name any names, but this guy, he didn't. He felt like he couldn't get deep breaths and, like, a couple tweaks, and he's like, I breathing better than I ever have, you know, and they aren't getting proper sleep. And so, like, trying to manage that kind of lifestyle with, you know, the techniques that I teach, the food, the exercise, the water with celtic salt, magnesium, you know, the foundational support, that kind of stuff, it really does change their life. It adds more value because this.

It's a very hard life. People don't understand. And I've worked with professional athletes and the same thing. Like, perform, but, like, sleep in a hotel. You know what I mean?

But perform. I think that's wild. Like, even me just being away from home, I have my supplements ready. I'm trying to stay so on routine, but just being in a new environment in itself is really difficult. Like, I never sleep as well in a hotel as I do at home.

Yeah, try an rv. Like, that's what these people like when they live on tour buses and stuff like that. Or, like, you know, I think of the NCAA March madness. Cause I was a basketball player. Some of these guys, if you're looking at their time zone, they're playing at 11:00 no, you know what I'm saying?

Like, that's not good for anybody. And so, like, managing this lifestyle, they just want to feel good. Yeah. That's all. They don't want to be injured.

They want to feel good, and that's all they care about. It really confuses me. Even with Taylor Swift on that eras tour, when they're like, I mean, how many concerts did she do? I don't know. Drew's like, that's crazy.

Yeah. I can't even imagine, like, the inflammation, cortisol, circadian rhythm issues. I'm too sensitive for that. I could. I am, too.

Mari Llewellyn
I could never. I'm so sensitive that when I travel, I have to take biotoxin binders. Cause I just don't know what the environment holds. Wow. What's a biotoxin binder?

Cara Clark
It just binds up anything that, like, is new to your body. Or, like, I don't want to give people an out, but, like, if you're gonna have a glass of wine, I need that. Yeah. So high vitamin C, vitoxin binder after, and it doesn't cause the same harm. Huh.

Mari Llewellyn
Okay. Good tip. Mm hmm. It pulls it out. It's kind of like magnet.

I feel like a lot of us eat in kind of a dissociative. I think we're all dissociated all the time, if I'm being honest. Like, when you see people walk around with their head and their phone. This is such a good point. You're eating in the car.

Like, everyone's just dissociated eating and running around. Like, how does that affect our digestive system? Well, it's almost like you knew I wanted to say this because digestion starts with smell, so it starts in our nasal passage. And if we're not being mindful of the moment, then we're already, like, skipping a couple steps. If our digestion is starting with taste, we're in big trouble.

Cara Clark
Then that didn't give our stomach enough time to create the acids and the enzymes that we need to break down food. So I try to get people when the first thing I say, I can't digest this, I can't digest that. What can I take? You know my answer. What can we take away, first of all?

But second of all, let's relax the nervous system. Let's get into parasympathetic nervous system. Before you eat, like prayer before a meal or breath work before a meal. So I have them do, like, five breaths in, hold for five. Five breaths out, hold for five, five times.

So five, five, five times. And it gets their body into parasympathetic mode to improve the digestion. So that digestion is starting with the smell and not when it hits the stomach. I actually didn't know that. Oh, good.

That's good for me. Yeah. And do you want to, like, sniff the food? Is that part of it? I mean, it is.

I mean, it's aroma of, like, cooking it. Yeah. You know, when you go into a restaurant, you start the digestive process by the smell. But, yeah, you do want to sniff it, for sure. Do you feel, like, with the dissociation and social media and kind of where the world's at right now, is that contributing to disordered eating?

Mari Llewellyn
Like, are you seeing an increase in people struggling with that? You know, I haven't actually seen an increase. A lot of people that are struggling with disordered eating, they don't necessarily want help. You know, or they're not asking for help. Somebody is asking for help for them.

Cara Clark
And so that's kind of the tricky part there. I have worked with people that have suffered immensely from disordered eating, and they were the ones asking for help. And so I honestly, I feel like the new disordered eating is like ozempic. Wow. You know what I mean?

Mari Llewellyn
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, we're seeing a whole new wave of disordered eating. Right. And they're not calling it what it is. That's true.

And I also have had conversations about the fact that some health influences online are potentially struggling themselves and then almost promoting what they're doing, and people are interpreting it. I mean, young girls are on TikTok and Instagram watching this information and thinking that it's health advice. Right. And my daughter's friends, I don't. My kids don't have social media, and they probably never will.

Cara Clark
That's another conversation for another day. But their friends are asking them to ask me, wow, they want to know about the skincare. They want to know, like, they're. They're eager to know, but they're not just consuming it, which is actually quite impressive to me. That is cool.

Yeah. That is what I was telling one of my daughters, because they still, like, get on YouTube, and then they find TikTok on YouTube and stuff like that. And I was like, these people are getting paid to say what they say, so, like, you have to be really careful, you know? I don't know if you saw that article that came out that says only 2% of health advice is true on TikTok. Wow.

2%. People are using it as a search engine for information. Right. I don't know. I'm not on TikTok, so I don't know.

Mari Llewellyn
I wouldn't. I wouldn't even. Don't even dip a toe. I'm too old. I think I'm bridging on too old as well, frankly, because I'm on there and I'm like, I don't relate to any of these people.

I'm just. I think I'm in the wrong place. I feel like you're definitely an old soul. I'm millennial, but just, you know. Yeah, I'm an old soul.

And I think just from what I've been through and being in fitness and health, it kind of, like, speeds up your maturity a little bit, and I'm just not. Anyway, well, and I think that you're aware of, like, the dopamine cycle of it, too. And I think that that's kind of the things that, in my opinion, that people are struggling with is, like, getting their next hit instead of, like, regulating their neurotransmitters, which is a part of this whole process, you know? And it's an addiction. The speed of everything.

People are playing videos on two x mode because they can't even stand to sit there. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. You're, like, terrified. So your kids are not on social media?

Cara Clark
No. That's impressive because the oldest one's 14. You said she's asked for Instagram. She's asked for Snapchat, and it's just a hard no. Wow.

Mari Llewellyn
Good for you. That's impressive. I'm a mean old mom, but I really like hanging out with my kids. Like, I take them everywhere with me. I do everything with them.

Cara Clark
So, like, we have a lot of, like, real connection and not virtual. How do you keep your kids meals fun and exciting, but also nutritious? So my kids could literally teach what I teach by now because they want to feel good. They all play sports. They strive to do well in school, even without me putting pressure.

They want to look a certain way, so they know what I teach. They know that they're supposed to eat five colors a day, and they know they're supposed to eat a protein with every meal. And I think that's what gets lost with kids. It doesn't translate. Kids just eat carbs and a lot of processed carbs all day long and, like, high sugar.

And I don't restrict that from my kids. I mean, obviously, I don't have it in my house, but even when they're at a friend's house, they take chomps with them. No. Yes. Stop.

Mari Llewellyn
That is amazing. And then this morning, my daughter was having sourdough, and she's the one who's gluten free, so she can only eat homemade sourdough. I mean, that sounds pretty. I, like, ferment it. But she was like, mom, I don't have any protein.

Cara Clark
And, um, can you, like, warm me some bone broth? What an adorable child. I mean, yes. And so, like, my kids are a little bit weird. College is gonna hit them hard when they.

You don't have all the options in the world. But where's my sourdough? Where's my long fermented sourdough? Yeah, mom's sourdough was good. Clearly not fermented for 24 hours because it hurt my tummy.

So when it comes to the kids, I'm teaching them the basics, like how to fuel your body. Like, how to have healthy hair. They all have really, like, shiny, long, thick hair. And, like, that's part of it. Like, your cells can only function optimally when we are fueling them.

My youngest hates when I say fueled, because she says, that's not a word. That's a nonsense word. Fueled. I was, like, one time on the way to practice. Do you feel fueled enough by the food you ate?

Because she didn't get a whole dinner, and she just had, like, a snack, and she's like, fueled is not a word. It's a nonsense word. I think it is a word. It's a word. But she doesn't get it yet.

Yeah, she still knows. My youngest is eight, and she still knows, like, I'm have a couple nuts with my oranges. That's incredible. Yeah, that is incredible. Yeah.

They know what carbs are. They know what protein is. They know what healthy fat is. And, like, that's what we have at our house. Yeah.

But we still have, like, those llama whatever ice cream cones that are gluten and dairy free from sprouts. Oh, my God. Amazing. They're so good. I love that.

Mari Llewellyn
That sounds like a really healthy approach. Yeah. And they acai bowls, homemade every single morning. Yes. Out of curiosity, how did you handle baby food?

Because I feel like baby food. There's not a lot of options. Am I right in saying that? Yeah. I just always did real food, and I didn't necessarily do, like, the baby led weaning because that was a little bit premature for me.

Cara Clark
But I just did, like, smashed avocado and smashed bananas and smashed eggs and stuff like that. I fed them when I was feeding, but I kind of, like, processed it a little bit. Okay. So I don't. We would get the pouches for just easy access, like, once upon a farm or whatever.

Mari Llewellyn
That's what I think. Those are still available. Yeah. But we never did, like, the jars and we never did the cream of whatever. Rice or whatever they want you to be.

Right, kids? Yeah. Cause when you look at the packaging, a lot of it's really high sugar, and that always surprised me. Right, well, breast milk is high sugar. Yeah.

Cara Clark
So babies brains take a lot, like, a different macro breakdown to develop. Got it. Yeah. So higher fat, higher sugar. Like, the letdown of milk is sugar, and then it turns fattier.

Mari Llewellyn
I had no idea. So, realistically, they should be eating more. Sugar a little bit. Got it. Yeah.

Okay, good. Still needs balanced. Like, even breast milk is naturally balanced. Higher in protein, no fat. They don't need a lot of protein.

Got it. Okay. This is good for me to know, because I would have fed my baby, like, too much protein, probably. So. Yeah.

Do you mind if we do a little fan q and a? Because the girls had a lot of questions. Really? Yeah. Let's do it.

Let's do kind of a rapid fire. Okay. Best foods or diet protocol for postpartum? What I teach, and it's not necessarily the foods, but the philosophy. Five colors a day, pairing your macros.

Cara Clark
Energy bites. The things I brought you are like, clutch when you're postpartum because you're ravenous. If you're nursing, you need to have healthy options around guys. Car brought me energy bites, and they look amazing. I'm gonna eat them right after, so.

Mari Llewellyn
I'm so excited. Nutrition tips for insulin resistance. So that's where I would go. Autoimmune or anti inflammatory protocol. It kind of just, like, allows your body to heal and surges your body with nutrients you need.

Cara Clark
And then I would be dropping the carbs at that. If you're sure you're insulin resistant. I would be dropping the carbs. Carbs to allow the body to heal. Okay.

Mari Llewellyn
Eating. When you have high testosterone. Interesting. I wonder if this is a female or a male. Female.

Cara Clark
Okay. So it's different for female and male generally. I would actually start with anti inflammatory protocol because high testosterone can be associated with autoimmune reproductive disease. And that's where I would start. Okay.

Mari Llewellyn
Navigating a menu when eating out. Yeah, that's always a good question. I examine the menus before I go because I don't want to feel the pressure to choose. But obviously, people go with, like, a salad. But a lot of times I go with, like, a fish option and then choose my own sides.

Cara Clark
We can't always control the oil that it's cooked in, but we. I think that the goal is, if you're going to be social and eat out, is just to make the best choices and not worry about it. If I'm feeling brave, I will ask what oil they cook in. Oh, really? And I'll say, like, I'm allergic to canola oil.

Mari Llewellyn
Can you use butter? And they do. Yeah, they've done it before. But I get nervous. Yeah, I know.

Because I don't want to be annoying. I know. I'm like that eleven out of ten pedestrian that if somebody lets me go, I run across the street. I'm, like, weary at restaurants. I don't want to make somebody mad and have something end up in my food.

Same. But I also feel like seed oils are in my body for three years. And it gives me so much anxiety. I know. I agree with that.

Okay. How to eat more protein as a. Vegetarian, that is tricky. But we use a lot of seeds and legumes and marine collagen for our vegetarian options because I'm not really a big soy fan, but fermented organic soy once a week is okay. Have you ever helped someone on a parasite cleanse?

Cara Clark
Yes, but I don't recommend jumping into parasite cleanses without supporting the foundation for, like, 30 to 60 days. Okay. Any cleanses? No. Detoxes?

Mari Llewellyn
No. Anything unless the foundation is supported. But, yes, I have. Okay. What does that look like?

Cara Clark
I mean, they love to send me pictures. People love to tell me about their poop. It's hilarious. Yes. Because Emily always asks me about it.

Mari Llewellyn
It's just so uncomfortable, you know, about your poop. Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah. It's definitely uncomfortable with listeners. The stool tests, like, the whole, you know, you got.

Cara Clark
You can tell a lot about people's health by looking at their poop. Oh, my gosh. It's so sink or swim. Does it? Or, like, everything.

Mari Llewellyn
Is sweet potato better than white potato? Yes and no. I'm a fan of all potatoes. I don't like to rule out things that can be grown in our vegetables, but a sweet potato has a better effect on your glucose than a white potato. And people that struggle with small intestine bacteria overgrowth struggle with white potatoes.

I love sweet potatoes. Yeah, I do, too. I think they're better. But I also love white potatoes. I love potatoes in general.

Cara Clark
Butter potatoes. I feel like I digest them way better than rice. Totally. I'm a potato. I do fine with rice, but I don't do well with many other greens.

Mari Llewellyn
Yeah, I feel. But I'm with you. Like, potatoes can go on the menu. Every night because you can smash them. You can mash, like, whatever.

You can do so many things. Roast them. Yum. Yeah, Kara. Now it's time for the question we ask every guest.

I started this podcast because I believe everyone's pursuit of wellness looks different. What does wellness mean to you? For me, it's that integrative approach of mind, body, and spirit. Like, I really think that we take on food to build that foundation, to build the physical body so that we have the energy to pursue emotional health and spiritual health. So wellness, to me, is, well, in the mind, body, and spirit.

Beautiful. Thank you so much. Where can everyone find you? You can find me on Instagram, Caraclark nutrition. That's where I'm the most active Facebook.

Cara Clark
I think we do a little Pinterest here and there and then my website is almost officially updated and it might be, I guess, by the time this launches. Yeah. Amazing. Caraclognutrition.com thank you so much Cara. Excited for your book too.

Yes, me too. Thank you for having me. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player.

Mari Llewellyn
You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites@marioland.com. It will be linked in the show notes this is a wellness out loud production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attics and Kelly Kyle. This show is edited by Mike Fry and our video is recorded by Luis Vargas. You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel, Ari Fitness. Love you, power girls and Pow boys.

See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.