Breaking Free With Whitney

A Lifestyle Guide To Setting Yourself Free From Chronic Illness

Interviews

Breaking Free Interview – Kiersten Spain

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Hey!!

How are you??

This last week was crazy for me. I packed a ton of stuff in, and over did it a lil.’

So I apologize that this interview is a day late…

Health has to come first.

Today I am bringing you a very special interview.

Kiersten, she has recovered from breast cancer!

◊ Tell us a little about yourself. What chronic illness or symptoms do you have? & how did they start & when? ◊ :

At the age of 40, I was diagnosed with breast cancer (I am now 45). Chemotherapy and radiation, left my body completely depleted.  I was placed on several meds for my anxiety and depression, lost 25lbs, wasn’t sleeping… After my lumpectomy, I was declared cancer-free, however, my doctors put the fear of God in me that I needed treatment.  I feel the treatment nearly killed me – not the cancer.  After I had completed the chemotherapy and radiation, I was still not feeling well.  I knew I had to get off my meds.  Taking medications (and going through chemo and radiation) felt wrong to me. I despised swallowing the pills and desperately wanted to not be on them.  I was able to wean off over time, however, a year later, I felt another mass in the same breast and found out the cancer had returned.  At that moment, I knew I had to take matters into my own hands and completely change my life.  I did have the mass removed (and was declared cancer free yet again), however, I did agree to chemotherapy again from pressure from my doctors.  I began researching and found many alternative ways to heal, but I was yearning for someone to tell me exactly what my body needed. I wanted a plan specific to me. I wanted to know why…Enter Anthony William…that’s when my life changed!

◊ What’s your daily healing routine? ◊ :

I just have kept it the exact same as what Anthony told me three years ago. My eating is very clean (vegan, g-free, no sugar…) and I never miss a day of my supplements.  Also, the angels play a big role in my daily life now.

◊ What does your typical day of eating look like? ◊ :

My morning involves lemon water, celery juice and my wild blueberry smoothie, along with my supplements. That holds me over until I eat an early lunch, which usually involves some kind of a salad, hummus and rice cakes, or potatoes and fruit. I am not completely raw and do eat grains every now and then.  I am currently addicted to potatoes, both white and sweet. Dinner is usually a soup and vegetables, or salad.  My evening ends with a tea before I go to bed.

◊ What was your diet like before you started the Medical Medium protocol? ◊ :

I ate a lot of cheese!  I also ate meat and gluten and everything I now know I need to avoid.  I love cooking, and always thought I was cooking healthy meals for my family.  That all has changed.

◊ What’s your favorite meal/recipe? ◊ :

I love recipes from the “Oh, She Glows” cookbooks.  I love her vegan Caesar salad (minus the nutritional yeast).  She has a vegan “cheese” sauce, which is outstanding.  I give it to my children over quinoa pasta and they love it. As I mentioned before, I am also obsessed with potatoes and sweet potatoes. I love putting my salad right in a baked potato. I also love soups this time of year.  I have a lentil soup recipe that I love.

◊ What are some of the supplements you are currently taking? ◊ :

I take iodine, B12, zinc, cats claw, barley grass juice powder, spirulina, chaga, reishi, liposomal C, curcumin, D3 and lysine. If I ever feel like I am coming down with something (or my kids), I have a cabinet full of supplements to take. I love how empowered I feel now over the health of my family.

◊ What are some of your strategies to deal with pain or symptoms that you experience? ◊ :

The only symptom I ever get is a heavy fatigue every now and then.  When that happens, I will readjust my supplements or add in foods to counteract it.  Before speaking with Anthony, I used to get headaches, joint pain, acid reflux, brain fog…but I have none of that now.  I feel I am so in sync with my body, that I can usually pinpoint why I may be experiencing a certain symptom and know what to do to alleviate it.

◊ Have you experienced push back from people in your life or even strangers, after changing your diet and lifestyle? If so how do you deal with that? ◊ :

Not really, I think people were so happy to see me well again. I think in the beginning, I may have been a little pushy though. My mindset was: “Hey, everyone, I want you to feel as good as I feel and know what I know, so do this…”.  But, then when I felt someone wasn’t responding, I would feel disappointed and sometimes angry.  I have learned to back off.  It is hard to see people I love suffering when I know how they could heal. I find myself trying to figure out what is wrong with people all the time and how they could feel better. I now ask the angels to help me with this (and to help them).

◊ Now for a little more about you! What’s your favorite book right now? ◊ :

“Life-Changing Foods” by Anthony William is my bible.  We are going away in February and my plan is to read over Anthony’s first book again.

◊ Can you share with us your go to tv show right now? ◊ :

I love getting lost into a series, like something on Netflix.  I am currently watching “Veep” and “This is Us”.

◊ What’s your favorite herbal tea? ◊ :

Ah…so many to choose from.  I just started drinking nettle leaf each day, but I love ginger tea.  I like lemon balm, but it makes me feel a bit sedated, so I have that at night.

◊ Are you more of a beach or forest girl? ◊ :

Beach for sure.  I moved to Newport, Rhode Island after college for the summer one year, on my own, without knowing anyone. Something was calling me there.  I worked as a hostess at a restaurant that was right on the ocean and I felt completely at home.  The waves have always been so soothing for me. That was one of the best summers of my life.

◊ Consistency is big when it comes to healing. Can you share your tips on how to stay consistent with the diet and supplements? ◊ :

I think when you overcome an illness, like I did twice, you will do whatever it takes to be healthy.  My motivation comes in the form of never wanting to go through that again and once you have the knowledge and confidence of how to truly heal, there is no going back.  Feeling good is motivation for me also.

◊ At Breaking Free we always try to look at the positives. What are you grateful for as a result of your illness? ◊ :

I am grateful for everything – it’s so true when they say “pressure creates diamonds”.  Every dark hour I had (and there were many), led me to the brightest light possible.  Honestly, I believe my reoccurrence was both a blessing and a slap in the face by a higher power saying, “Wake up! Take the steering wheel and drive!  Use this hardship to become stronger and to help others”. This is exactly what I am doing.  When I work with people now, I truly understand what they are going through.

◊ What would you say has been the most challenging obstacle/s in your healing journey? ◊ :

I think when I was trying to do it on my own.  The period between when I decided I needed a new plan up until I found Anthony, I felt a bit lost.  I knew I needed a different direction, but didn’t know exactly which way to turn.  After the first three minutes of speaking with him, my fear turned to love and strength.  The Practitioner’s Group has been amazing and I feel so close to the other members. We all share a common bond.  If there is something bothering me, I go straight to that group and they lift me up – no judgement, just pure love and reassurance.

◊ Starting a healing journey can be overwhelming. Do you have any tips for someone just getting started? ◊ :

I love the quote “Hold the vision, trust the process”.  I think when you can visualize how you want to feel and look and what you want to be doing, it acts as a catalyst for things to start moving in the right direction.  If you can hold that visual of yourself in your mind, it can ignite a healing process to begin, even if you don’t see it at first.

◊ The foods and supplements can get expensive, do you have any budgeting tips you can share? ◊ :

I think you have to think of it in terms of what you are pushing out of your shopping cart and of what you are swapping out of your diet.  Like, maybe you’d always buy soda, but now you are buying tea.  Maybe you’d go to Starbucks and get coffee each day, but now you are just drinking lemon water at home (and are now saving money).  My family never has to go to the doctor for illness anymore, nor do we use any prescriptions or over-the-counter meds, so we are saving a ton right there. When you realize the investment you are putting into your health, your perspective starts to shift.

◊ With the knowledge to heal yourself, do you have any goals and dreams for the future that you would like to share? ◊ :

I am a holistic health coach and enjoy working with individuals, and I love sharing what I have learned from Anthony with others.  I would like to share with as many people possible though, so I have started doing workshops to reach a bigger audience. I just did two focusing on ten of Anthony’s life-changing foods. The second workshop was sold out.  I have a goal to do more and keep reaching more and more people. Another goal is to completely change the food and snacks at my sons’ school district – which I am in the process of doing with a few other parents. My friend and I started a smoothie club at our elementary school, where we serve over 340 smoothies to the students and staff every other month.  I’d like to get this into all of the schools in our district. I want the concept to spread. I’d also like to speak to the doctors at my oncologist’s office to speak to them about how to help patients prevent and heal from cancer after treatment. Another idea I am putting out there is that one of my doctors will reach out to me to be their health coach :)…

◊ How can we connect with you? Social Media, website…  ◊ :

Website: www.kierstenspain.com 

Facebook: Kiersten Spain Holistic Health Coach

Instagram: @spain1225

Twitter @KierstenSpain

Isn’t she magnificent ! School District snack changes! Life changing foods workshops! Way to go Kiersten!!

Be sure to follow her!

& if you haven’t subscribed you can do it HERE so you don’t miss an interview 🙂

Wishing you a beautiful week !!

With Love,

Breaking Free Interview – Ashleigh Foster

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Hey there!

Today I am bringing you the interview of a woman, who has been a huge inspiration to me on my healing journey with Medical Medium.

Let me introduce you to Ashleigh Foster …

◊ Tell us a little about yourself. What chronic illness or symptoms do you have? & how did they start & when? ◊ :

I am a wife and mama with a two year old daughter. We live in Southern California in a sunny apartment by the ocean. I work as a writer, filmmaker and recipe creator. My health struggles began in early childhood, even as a young girl of 8 or 9 years old I remember feeling constantly exhausted. I grew up with a traumatic home-life and a lot of instability. In hindsight, even at that young age I believe I was already struggling with adrenal fatigue, thyroid imbalance, and depression caused by Epstein Barre Virus. Through most of my life and into my early twenties I felt constantly exhausted and overwhelmed. I struggled with a cyclical depression that always seemed to come back around even when I thought I was beyond it. In college, I was plagued by sore throats often and came down with mono two times in the space of a year. I desperately wanted to feel good and threw myself into many different alternative health fads in an attempt to heal, without knowing exactly what I was trying to heal from! After having my daughter, my health crashed completely. I went through this awful postpartum depression and lost a ton of hair. I started having panic attacks and found the basic obligations of being a mom unbelievable overwhelming. I felt suicidal every single night and went through a period of harming myself through cutting. It was an awful, dark time during what should have been this magical season of new beginnings. The gift that came from that though was that things got so bad I was willing to try absolutely anything in order to heal which resulted in a consultation with Anthony William. He was able to explain the things that I didn’t understand at the time— how all of the seemingly unrelated struggles I was having linked back to Epstein Barre and severe adrenal fatigue. I felt the truth in what he was saying and followed all of his advice. Two weeks later I could feel myself beginning to heal and it is a journey that has continued over the last two years.

◊ What’s your daily healing routine? ◊ :

I would love to be a morning person but I am just so not. It doesn’t help that my daughter still nurses at night. Most of the time I roll out of bed when she is already awake and drag myself to the kitchen. I try to do 32 ounces of lemon water first thing. I just chug it and it really does feel like it floods my body with hydration. After that, I try to have some kind of a green juice. My favorites are wheatgrass juice or celery + apple + cucumber juice, but that doesn’t always happen. My first meal of the day includes the heavy metal detox ingredients that Anthony recommends. I will combine them in a smoothie or a fruit bowl and snack on that through the morning. I take my supplements around this time too. For the rest of the day I eat whatever combinations of raw fruit and vegetables I want. I often make a chunky version of spinach soup and eat it wrapped in nori. Sometimes I make veggie wraps with avocado or a dipping sauce. And at the end of the day if I want to I will include a nice cooked meal with my family, something vegetable based. But more often than not lately I stay completely raw. I find that it really helps to avoid any of my depression symptoms from coming back when I am able to stay raw.

◊ What was your diet like before you started the Medical Medium protocol? ◊ :

Before healing with the Medical Medium guidelines, I tried to eat what I thought was healthy but it changed a lot because nothing worked for long. I tried eating a paleo diet for a few years and felt horrible. I tried eating a vegan diet for awhile. I tried doing an all fruit 80/10/10 diet and it caused all sorts of flare ups. I even tried doing a diet based on intermittent fasting with green juices all day. I tried everything! Some of it helped for awhile but nothing worked for the long term and it usually left me feeling worse than when I began!

◊ What’s your favorite meal/recipe? ◊ :

Oh man that is so so hard. I really love the aloo matar recipe from the Healing Path booklet. It is so yummy and easy. I also love the mini apple pie bites from that book. I love chunky spinach soup and raw avocado sushi and twice baked sweet potatoes (from healing path). From the newest book, Life Changing Foods, I love the coconut curry recipe, the chili loaded baked potato recipe, and the tabbouleh salad.

◊ What are some of the supplements you are currently taking? ◊ :

I take a lot of supplements to help with mood and hormone support. I love taking gaba and neuromag for that reason. I try to get raspberry leaf tea in as often as possible. And vitamin c and zinc have made a huge difference in my immunity!

◊ What are some of your strategies to deal with pain or symptoms that you experience? ◊ :

I’m learning to rest and really trust my body and to let go of expectations of where I should be in this journey. Because I’m still in the midst of healing, I’m often not able to do as much or be as productive as I feel like I “should”. I still get overwhelmed sometimes and I find that frustrating because I have a tendency to be so hard on myself. But I’m learning to just rest and accept that this is where I am right now and it won’t be forever. Learning that patience with myself has been such a gift and is something I am now able to offer others in my life too. I think culturally we’ve bought this lie that the more you run around like crazy working yourself to the ground the better. But that’s terrible for our health, especially for women because we just weren’t created to operate in that mode. We’re meant to be receivers and offerers of this deep spiritual beauty and the only way to truly step into that high calling is to be listening and living in the sweet spot of grace and rest.

Create habits. And then turn your habits into rituals by giving them a sacredness.

◊ Have you experienced push back from people in your life or even strangers, after changing your diet and lifestyle? If so how do you deal with that? ◊ :

Oh Help Me! Yes, so much push back! My parents think I’m killing myself because I no longer eat meat. My mom frequently sends me news articles about vegan people dying. I don’t know where she finds this stuff. In my birth family, everything revolves around going out to eat at fancy restaurants so there has been a lot of pressure to do that which is fine in moderation but it gets old paying $20 for a crappy small salad that inevitably comes out with bacon bits on top or something. Thankfully, things are starting to shift and we are doing more meals together as a family around the table at home where anyone can eat whatever they want! There’s been other issues too. One member of my family loves to have people over for dinner and gets really offended when I bring my own food. People are funny and they really hate change, especially with food. It seems to be something that everyone struggles with for some reason. I think all we can do is stick to our plan while giving people space to have their own reactions. And ultimately, keep sharing the vision and hope that meal time can become a time of safety and freedom for everyone no matter where they are at with this stuff. At the table in my home, everyone is welcome to show up as they are and to eat or not eat whatever they want. The more of us who set that as the standard, hopefully things will begin to shift in that direction culturally. But right now, sad as it is, it seems like for some reason it is socially acceptable to give people a really hard time about food. 🙁

 The more of us who set that as the standard, hopefully things will begin to shift in that direction culturally. But right now, sad as it is, it seems like for some reason it is socially acceptable to give people a really hard time about food. 🙁

◊ Now for a little more about you! What’s your favorite book right now? ◊ :

I cannot possibly pick. I loved reading the Outlander novels for something light and romantic. In that category, One Day by David Nicholls is my favorite book most likely. I love anything by Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, or Wendell Barry. I’m currently into sort of escapist stuff for late night reading so I’m enjoying Philippa Gregory’s novel The King’s Curse.

◊ Can you share with us your go to tv show right now? ◊ :

Oh man! Okay, This Is Us is definitely the best thing I have watched in a long time. It’s a new show this year and I can’t get enough. It’s sweet and funny and moving. I loved Parenthood with that was on and it reminds me of that show a lot. I also love Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, and The Bachelor/Bachelorette.

◊ What’s your favorite herbal tea ? ◊ :

Fresh mint.

◊ Are you more of a beach or forest girl? ◊ :

Beach.

◊ Consistency is big when it comes to healing. Can you share your tips on how to stay consistent with the diet and supplements? ◊ :

Create habits. And then turn your habits into rituals by giving them a sacredness. Really be present and enjoy the sound of water filling your glass or the spoon clinking as you stir your supplements. Maybe you even buy yourself a nice pretty glass to use for this purpose. So much sacredness has been stripped from our lives and it has resulted in a generation of women that are threadbare and worn. We have the ability to give sacredness back by imbuing even the simplest moments with beauty and meaning. When you create habits and instill them with beauty, you will be acting out of a deep joy that makes “sticking with things” irrelevant. You’ll be living in the flow of the magic of your daily life.

◊ At Breaking Free we always try to look at the positives. What are you grateful for as a result of your illness? ◊ :

Everything. I am truly grateful for everything in my life that brought me to this moment now. I wouldn’t change a single thing.

◊ What would you say has been the most challenging obstacle/s in your healing journey? ◊ :

Balancing healing with being a mom is really difficult. Being a mom alone is really difficult, much less being a mom who is chronically ill. But as you walk out that journey you begin to see your own strength. It just requires a lot of patience because sometimes the needs of my child are in conflict with my own needs and the journey is not a straight line.

◊ Starting a healing journey can be overwhelming. Do you have any tips for someone just getting started? ◊ :

Pick one aspect that feels least overwhelming and do that. Then expand your timeline. Instead of thinking of healing in terms of weeks or months, start to think of it in terms of years. Be endlessly patient with yourself and those around you (they’ll have to change too!)

◊ The foods and supplements can get expensive, do you have any budgeting tips you can share? ◊ :

Buy in bulk. Look for deals. Eat simply. The food gets more expensive if you start to get into gourmet health products. There’s nothing cheaper than a bag of potatoes or a box of bananas. You can also ask your grocery store about buying in bulk. Some places will even sell you discounted boxes of produce that are too ripe to sell but perfect to be eaten. If there is a wholesale market in your area that is open to the public take advantage of it! It can be intimidating but just head down there and ask questions. You’ll figure it out!

◊ With the knowledge to heal yourself, do you have any goals and dreams for the future that you would like to share? ◊ :

My biggest dream is to open a retreat center where those needing healing can come to truly rest. Can you imagine a place where you’re greeted with celery juice and a plate of fresh fruit first thing in the morning? I think a place like that is desperately desperately needed and am hope to be a part of seeing it come together!

OMG Yes! Please to a retreat center!! That would be a dream come true !

To find Ashleigh :

@Ispythebeautiful

www.ispythebeautiful.com

I am so ready to make my daily routine in sacred rituals! What a perfect tip – taking all our supplements, drinking juice, meditating, going in nature into a beautiful ceremony. A celebration if you will…

I’m off to do just that.

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Have a beautiful day !

Talk to ya soon.

With Love,