Wisdom From Living With & Dying From Cancer – With Dr. Mindy & Elissa Goodman

Mindy: Okay, Resetters think about this for a moment. Imagine if you were given a diagnosis of cancer and you change your lifestyle, you change the way you eat, and you overcome that diagnosis. And then a few years later, your husband. Is given a diagnosis of cancer and passes away, how would your life be different?

How would you look at things through different lenses? What the, what would that impact be on your children and their perception of health? Well, in this episode I had one of the most heartfelt discussions with Alyssa Goodman who. Lived that experience and has come out of it a better person, a woman on a mission to really educate us all on how we can eat, how we can live so that we all can prevent a diagnosis of cancer.

This was one of my favorite interviews. This woman has such a huge heart and I’m really excited to share it with you.

So let me start off by just welcoming Elissa Goodman to the resetter podcast.

Elissa: So welcome. Thank you for meeting with me. Thank you for having me. Yeah, so great to be on your podcast.

Mindy: Oh, I can’t wait to pick your brain. I actually have a whole list of questions because. Your story is really fascinating. And, um, I think there’s a lot of gifts that, that everybody could benefit. So I really want to dive into your story, but before I do that, I love people’s missions. Like that’s something that just gets me, I love people on a mission to change the world. And I want to read your mission statement because one of my staff members was like, you could have written this mission statement. It’s our mission statement.

Elissa: It’s what you do, right?

Mindy: Exactly. So here’s your mission statement. Um, just for our listeners to know is that her mission is to educate and encourage healthy, mindful living and to help others embrace the concept that we are a product of what we eat and how we treat ourselves.

Holy cow. I feel like right now, I mean, it depends when people listen to this, but in this time where we’re so sheltering in place, scared of everything, everybody that breeds on us or touches us, that we have forgotten, that we are a product of what we eat and how we treat ourselves. We are not a product of a virus coming in contact with us.

Elissa: You’re, uh, you’re absolutely right. You hit the nail on the head right there. I mean, I think more than ever right now within the times that we are living, it’s so crucial for us to up our up the game in that area. You know, it’s like we’ve got to like be the first ones to take care of ourselves and own and really honor ourselves and own our health and mental well being.

We don’t, you know, we get in our life and we just forget about it and we’d go on about our life on a fast track. And we just let go of what is really important is that, you know, reconnecting with ourselves, loving ourselves, you know, really feeling the feeling of I can heal from anything. If you have some health issues or if you need you to lose weight, that you can do that.

You know, there’s, everything is possible.

Mindy: Yeah. Oh, I love that. And that was like my first, like I was so in awe when we all went into shelter in place because I was like, does nobody believe in themselves here? Like this is, this is ridiculous. 

Elissa:We, a lot of us are going to get the virus, but a lot of us are gonna recover. Most of us absolutely been on slotted with viruses and bacteria and toxins and you know, really shitty stuff out there that is in our bodies that does give us cancer, autoimmune disease too. 

Mindy: I totally agree with you. So let’s start off with your story because here’s a couple of things I find interesting about your story. So you’re going along, doing life successful, having fun. Yeah. And, and you get a diagnosis sort of, you get a diagnosis that dramatically changed your life. So let’s start with that first diagnosis.

What was, what was that like? You got a cancer diagnosis. Did it just sideswipe you? Did you have any idea cancer was building in you.

Elissa: Absolutely none. I didn’t even, I never really felt, well, growing up is the bottom line. I, my immune system, I don’t think was that strong emotionally and physically. I wasn’t really ever in a good place.

So I beat up on myself a lot over the years, and I also always got sick, so I just never, so that. Dad’s just a precursor to not really knowing what symptoms were happening. Cause I never felt well and I was getting a massage. And the woman was this, I was sitting up right like this, and she was massaging my neck and collarbone and she felt a lymph node on my collarbone.

And she said, you’re not supposed to have swollen lymph nodes there. But I would never, you know, if I wasn’t sitting up for the massage, she probably never would have felt it and I never would have gone. It probably could have gotten worse. So I’m thankful for her. And I went and got it checked out. But.

I’d had two miscarriages prior to that diagnosis to get pregnant. I mean, I was definitely climbing the corporate ladder. I mean, my goal was to make money and be successful. It really wasn’t to be happy and miss school and to be healthy. I had none of those things happening. So I wasn’t interested. God for the cancer diagnosis cause it, yep.

I had a job that I was way over my head in terms of what they expected from me. It was Vogue magazine. It was like, I thought it was the end all, but it was happened to be the worst thing I could have ever jumped into because it was just the demand of what they wanted from me I couldn’t do. Yeah. Yeah.

Mindy: How old were you when you got that diagnosis? 32.

Elissa: 32 yeah. I feel like every 20 something year old should listen to this because what I love is what you said is, I didn’t have a call of health and happiness. I had a corporate goal and that is, that is where health got off track.

Mindy: Yeah. Do you feel like there was any connection between the miscarriages and the cancer building?Like if you look back on it now?

Elissa: think spiritually, um, you know, my body said, you’re not ready to have a child. Yeah. I do believe in that connection. Emotional, spiritual, and the physical. I just think it all goes hand in hand. And I was one big stressful, like I was not. So when I did go see, I see, I saw three doctors, two of them were ma much into the Western medicine, chemo, radiation, the whole thing.

Freeze your eggs. Cause you know, we. You haven’t had kids yet. Do you have a donor? Cause he might have to do a bone marrow transplant. The third doctor sat me down and was like, tell me about your life. Are you happy? Do you love what you do? Are you in a happy relationship? And I just burst into tears and I was like, Oh, I’m so miserable.

You know, I, I don’t even know if I’m coming or going. Like I had no feeling of, you know, what happiness meant, what peacefulness meant. None of it. So I am so indebted to him too, because he was way ahead of his time.

Mindy: Oh, absolutely. Have you ever read a book called the rushing woman syndrome?

Elissa:No

Mindy: Oh, go read it.

I recommend it to everybody. It’s written by a woman named Libby Weaver, and she explains how hormones that, that a woman’s body is not meant to rush, and that it really throws our hormones off. But if you’re, you’re the rushing woman’s story, you know, like the body’s breaking down from the rushing, and it’s incredible.

Elissa: That’s incredible.

Mindy: So, okay. And then you had one of those three doctors. Who basically said it’s cancer, like pretty callous.

Elissa: Yeah, just like that. He felt my lymph node anyway. Oh my God. It’s probably cancer hadn’t had, you know, we hadn’t done a, we hadn’t taking it out or we haven’t tested or anything. So yeah, it was like petrified.

Like, Oh my God, I’m 32 I have no kids. You know, like, and then your mind goes right to that. You could die because that’s what we all do right. So how do you, how do you pull yourself back from that moment at 32 it was tricky. I mean, I went right into therapy. That was huge just to get my mental wellbeing.

Like I also was lucky in my early years, my mom had really bad asthma, so she used to go to this health ranch in Rio Rancho, LA Puerta and Takadimi.Way ahead of its time. They did meditation. They grew all their own food massages. It was, you know, she took these women twice a year there and she felt she felt so good after that week there she was off the grid.

And she was very accomplished and very rushing woman too, but she was healthier than me. So, but I just went back to those days, like I saw those women feel so much better in seven days from, you know, yoga and relaxing and eating real food. I kind of incorporated all of the, I said, wow, my life’s not working for me.

I got to go a different direction. And emotionally I knew I needed to take care of myself in my, in that regard. But I also. Food wise, I was eating too much sugar and caffeine and animal protein, you know? Then we were dabbling so much in Atkins diet and all of that.

Mindy: Oh I remember the sugarless cookies 

Elissa: Oh yeah.

Mindy: Sugar free, low fat, low fat, sugar free. That was our gig. Yep.

Elissa: Yeah. I was eating all that crap and I still wasn’t, I was never feeling well. So I did. I became vegan. I started juicing. I, I’m kind of a seeker in every way. Like I want to find out everything about, you know, wellness and I do now as well, but, and I do really crazy stuff too, so awesome.

I was lucky, you know, I, I went that direction and I chose to do half the radiation, not the chemo.

Mindy: I was going to ask you, what did you end up doing? Cause that’s a, I’ve walked that path of cancer with a lot of people. And there is that moment, you get the diagnosis and then you gotta decide what, which camp do I live in?

Am I alternative? Am I in, am I going conventional? That’s a tough decision.

Elissa: It was a tough decision because it was scary because I was totally going rogue, you know? I was like, Oh, the doctor, another doctor to help me do it. Um, but that one guy that basically said emotionally, it’s an early stage, and emotionally, if we get your emotions, you know, that’s a precursor.

When you’re stressed, your immune system is totally compromised. So you’ve been living stressed your whole life. So I kind of like, I thought about him, I thought about Rancho LA Puerta, like I had all these great things that I had in my toolbox, and then I was able to make a decision. It still wasn’t, you know, still was hard and it was still scary because I didn’t know what I was embarking on.

Mindy: Yeah. How, how dramatically did your lifestyle change after that?

Elissa: Oh, totally. Completely different. Uh, was therapy two times a week? It was, you know, doing yoga. It was okay. Eating really healthy, you know? It was just, it was trying to find like seriously trying to find my BA. My life stopped basically. Yeah.

So it was, and also, you know, I had learned at the time that maybe also the people that were in my life weren’t serving me. All of it changed, you know, friends and new friends came in and. Yeah. It’s so weird cause you don’t know. You know, you don’t know what’s ahead for you. So it’s a little scary. Like right now for all of us, you know, it’s, it’s still cause it’s uncertainty, but yeah.

You know, when I look back, I’m also so grateful that I went through it all. 

Mindy: You know, I’ve watched so many people struggle with that friend issue because there’s so much, um, connection we can have in like, let’s go do this crappy thing for ourselves together. And more bonding. When one person says, I’m no longer going to do that crappy thing, I’m no longer going to go get a frappuccino at Starbucks with you, then it breaks the friendship apart.

Elissa: Totally. Totally. I know my life’s a lot of friends. Yeah. He’s like, save your life. Lose your friends. Like Holy cow. I know, but then when I got to kind of reinvent myself 10 years ago to do the nutrition thing, the same thing happened. A lot of friends fell off. When my husband passed away at 45 it was like, it’s always been this transition, and now I realize, you know, there’s always going to be a transition with all of that and.

When you, when you’re out there and you’re manifesting something bigger and better in your life because that’s what I want for people and myself. I just, I want to thrive. Then it’s, then you get these people that come into your life and you’re like, Holy crap. Yeah. You really just came into my life like, yeah, we’ll see.

Mindy: Yes, you’re going to speak to me and you’re going to lift me up. And yeah, I think especially like now, but when you’re healing, you need to surround yourself with people whose vibration, their thoughts, their energy is at a higher level because those, that negativity makes you sick. And if you can move beyond that, it’s so powerful.

Elissa: So powerful. I know I just posted today on my feed about vibration foods. Ooh. You know, to protect our energy and eating whole foods just to get, you know, with everything going on, it’s, you know, we’re built on energy. So all of that’s crucial. It’s like who you’re with, what foods you’re eating, you know, what kind of water you’re drinking.

I mean, what kind of intentions are you putting out there into the world for yourself? 

Mindy: I love that. I love that. So, okay, so you change it. You get the diagnosis, you change your life, and you go into remission.

Elissa: I go into remission, but they radiated my thyroid. So they radiated it this area, like the upper body.

And so I ended up getting hypothyroidism and then I got Hashimoto’s. Um, but it took like four or five years for doctors to actually diagnose the hypo and Hashi, which, yeah. Was challenging. Um, I did go on to have two kids, two girls, and then 11 years after my diagnosis and my husband’s diagnosed with cancer.

Mine’s was Hodgkin’s and his is non-Hodgkin’s. It’s still, lymphoma is just a little farther along, little more aggressive, two different kinds.  He just, um, you know, we had two bone marrow transplants in a year and a half, which is kind of unheard of because they take you down to nothing.

And he died at 45 of fungal pneumonia. Wow. It was, yeah, it was when the rug was really pulled out from underneath and it was devastating. I mean, I was traumatized.

Mindy: How old were your kids? How old were your girls at that point?

Elissa: Eleven and seven. Yeah. Well, I didn’t know if I’d ever come back for that really.

Mindy: Yeah. That’s a whole nother discussion. How do you come back from that moment?

Elissa: The idea that I’d have to go back to work into the world that was so stressful for me, and I’d have to support them and how it was going to raise them. And then they had two parents who had cancer, so it just was like, Whoa, I’m really hard to digest.

And. But a couple of years when I did get my feet on the ground and a friend said to me, Hey, you love to, I was dabbling back in the nutrition and she said, you know what about going back to school just to like learn more for yourself, to get yourself healthy, to get the girls healthy, to make sure that they don’t think they’re going to automatically get cancer.

I want to, I want to pick your brain about what their mindset has been like. Yeah, they kind of, I’m, I’m sure they already think that. You know that stuff is still on the horizon. Cause it’s hard when you’re that young that’s subconscious is fully downloaded at the age of seven. Yeah. So they’re legally traumatized.

So that’s something they kind of have to deal with and live with for the rest of their life. I mean, yes, it’s made them stronger and. Definitely more, you know, owner may own their health a little bit more, so at their age, and they do love, you know, living healthy and all of those things. And emotionally they’re very tapped into that as well.

So hopefully all of that is created. You know, something that will give them that leeway to go into their adult years. Um, not like mine. No, I’ve heard that. Um, millennials in general, so they’re 21 and 25 so they’re like, one’s a millennial, one’s a. Yeah. Gen Z or I don’t know, we always have this debate in my household of who’s in what, what generation, but I’ve heard that millennials was the first generation where they lost parents to cancer.

And because of that, the way they prioritize health has been greatly affected as like you and I, we are the generation that are, we’re watching our parents get Alzheimer’s and dementia at age really quickly. So like. Our generation is now in this anti-aging movement because we’re like, we don’t want to age like that.

Whereas millennials are going, I don’t want to get cancer. So you, you learn a lot from what the generation that your parents is going are going through. You learn a lot about their health and how you want to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel lucky, like I got to, you know, it was the right place at the right time, and I got to go into this field and hopefully, you know, and then also help him out in that regard.

You know, if they need the help they have to ask, I do push it on them and that’s not good. So say that. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. I’m like, Oh, so many times I’d like walk, like walk away. Don’t give your opinion and got to figure it out. Yeah. So did your husband changed diet? I mean like, like when you first get a diagnosis, there’s, you’re a little naive like the first time, but now you’ve already been through all the changes.

So when he get, he gets the diagnosis, you have to be like. Oh God, here we go. It wasn’t, it was slightly crazy-making because even the doctors, you know, I said, Hey, we need to give them a little break to get his immune system stronger, give them real food. He was in the hospital so much, he was eating so much crap, and then they were giving him insurer, you know, which is full of sugar.

That doctors were not in my camp at all. Um, it just was really, he was so terrified that it was hard for him to take a step back and really breathe and. Like, I think have hope, but you know, I wasn’t sure, like his, basically his dad died of cancer when he was two. I don’t know if psychologically that played into this, the way it kind of played out because you know, he thought maybe cancer did mean death.

Yeah. His dad had died and then that was so traumatizing for him when he was born. You know, young. Yeah. So he did not go the route I did. He did everything the doctor said. And they just demolished his immune system and basically, you know, down to nothing. He just couldn’t fight off anything. So. Yeah. It was really, it was really awful to watch someone goes, he was so strong.

It seems strong, but he also, he was a big stress ball too. He was sort of on that same, not sort of, he was on the same road I was. He was out to prove to the world that he could be successful and he already was successful actually, but that wasn’t enough for him. He was very driven. And he also, this doesn’t give you cancer, but he was huge animal protein eater three times a day.

And after each meal, he was a huge sweet person. So had to have sugar. So the animal protein, the sugar, the stress, that doesn’t bode so well with what I know. Now, I’m not saying that, you know, a lot of people can eat that way and how and how stress and not get cancer. So not saying that that was what gave him cancer, but.

That was definitely all the cancers, all the cancer cell is, it once was a healthy cell and it became a cancer cell and then it goes rogue, so something turns it into a cancer cell. How much do you think, how much do you think mindset, I mean, I think the part of his story that when he used to, he lost his dad like you would, you would think that perhaps he gets the diagnosis and then he’s like, I’m done.

Like he already made the decision at the diagnosis. He could have. That’s very, you know, that definitely could have happened. I mean, subconsciously, maybe consciously. Yeah. Couldn’t fight it. Yeah. There’s some great books. There’s one book out there called radical remission. You know that one? No, but I know radical for forgiveness.

Have you read that book? But now, okay, go ahead. I love all that stuff. But radical remission is this woman did her PhD and she interviewed stage four cancer cases. They healed holistically. They didn’t do Western, and she came up with 10 modalities. Seven of them were emotional. And then the eighth one was food, the ninth one was supplements.

The 10th one was exercise. How these people heal from stage three four. Brain cancer, like one brain cancer that the doctor said, get your affairs in order, you’re going to die. He totally healed. So then there’s another book that I love by dr Alyssa Rankin. Mind over medicine. She talks about those first seven years, if you had any trauma or you know, it doesn’t have to be hardcore trauma like death or divorce.

It could be someone sliding you and not being nice to you or saying you’re fat or you’re not smart. That sets the tone for your messages that be, that are replayed in your subconscious three, operate 90 to 95% out of our subconscious today. You and I do. Right. Wow. And then, which is set from zero to seven.

Yeah. So when I work with clients, I’m always like kind of what went on in your early years, you know, how was the birth? What was mom like? How was the family, you know, did you experience any trauma? And nine out of 10 of my cancer people and autoimmune experienced trauma. Wow. And it is, it’s physical, emotional.

I would even probably throw in chemical trauma too, because one of my concerns about the generation coming up now as they’re growing up in the most toxic time in human history, and I have no idea what they’ll be like in their thirties and that’d be a whole other podcast. Yes, it is. Speaking of that in a nutshell, um, I kind of healed.

Four years ago with the medical medium by Anthony William. Okay, great. Yeah, they came out with a, he totally got me on the road to lowering my chemicals, my pathogens, my bacteria, my viruses in my body, and I totally like put, went into remission. He came out with a new book called cleanse to heal. It’s all about, it’s all about that.

Awesome. Brilliant. That’s a new one he has out. Yeah, it’s his big fat. Oh, awesome. We’ll have to, we’ll have to get it. We do a ton of detoxing. We take people through heavy metal detoxing, and we have found, it is like that linchpin. You pull those metals out and like all of a sudden the innate healing can happen so quickly.

So do you have like your cleansy modalities on. Somewhere. Well, yeah, we can send you some information on it. So I’ve done a bunch of videos on YouTube on it, but I also, so the one of the things on cleansing that we have found really interesting is that you don’t just start detoxing the body. You actually have to start by opening up the detox pathways.

So you support the liver, the gut, the kidneys, and then they’re like little things that you look for to make sure that things are opening up. And there’s a lot of things you can do there. That’s where like juice cleansing that is celery juice stuff would be. Awesome. We do castor oil packs. We do supplements.

We are in my clinic. We have a biohacking center here in Silicon Valley and we do infrared sauna and PMF and eight hyperbaric oxygen like we’re like spend our days opening up people’s detox pathways. That’s brilliant and what it’s all about. That’s what this generation is going to need. We then, that’s been like my big plea is that we have to stop looking at.

Are taking care of our health the way we did 40 years ago because we, the environment has changed and we like, let’s use the virus for example. Why is this virus so very lint? Why, what has happened to the human body that it is able to spread like this? I know. And why is it taking over the human body? You know, body isn’t really being able to fight it off.

You’re right. It’s because we’re toxic, right? Yeah. Toxic. And we have a chemical warfare going on in our body. Absolutely. And then a virus comes to town and that’s the, our body’s like, ah, hello, we can’t do this. And like, we’re over here like trying to deal with what you’ve already given us, and now you want me to fight a virus.

So, yeah, absolutely agree. And I think in terms of like, as you were talking about your husband’s story, I think in terms of like a toxic bucket. So I think what’s happened is that we have, we’re all born with a different size bucket. So our genetics determine how many toxins we can handle, which is why you can take one person and they can say, Oh, I eat meat and ice cream all the time, and my, you know, or my grandpa did and he lived to a hundred.

And then we take your husband who dies at 45 eating that. What was the difference? Yeah. Right. And it’s our ability to handle these toxins and then how many toxins there are. Right. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. I mean, I, I’m really on that bandwagon now too, just like you, I just did a, what you say?

I mean, I just, I think that. The way, you know, inflammation is caused by toxins. I mean, cellular toxicity or, you know, Oregon’s are toxic. They can’t excrete toxins or heavy metals or any of the chemicals out of the body cause they’re so dogmatic, they’re full of bacteria and viruses, and there’s no way we’re going to get better unless we go to the root of what the issue is.

And that root issue is exactly what you’re saying. Yeah, right. Yep. Totally. Great. And my prayer for this moment in human history is that while everybody’s waiting for the vaccine to show up, which I don’t think is going to show up, I don’t think they’re going to find a safe way. I hope that because it takes so long to prove it, and they’ve tried to get fine one before, but while we’re waiting for medicine to save us and it’s not saving us, we need to maybe look at ourselves and look within and go, okay, medicine is not going to save me in this moment.

So how about I saved myself right. And that’s, I hope that getting born out of this moment. I know. I really hope so. So I agree. I agree. I’m just, I’m hoping that too. I just feel like it’s such an opportunity, such an opportunity, huge opportunity to like, I mean, there’s so many, wellness is expanded so much and there’s so many incredible players out there that are singing the same tune, that are talking the same way, and also all these stories of people healing getting better, you know?

So, yeah. A lot of times with the medical medium, a lot of people are like, well, he’s not based in science. You know? So poopoo it. But he has, he’s result-based. Right. Thank you. Yes. You know, these drugs aren’t healing people. Yep. So this is what I say all the time on my YouTube channel. I always. I say, okay, here I’m bringing you the science.

And then sometimes I’m like, I’m just going to bring you the evidence of what I’m seeing. And we’ve gotten so focused on the science must teach, but sometimes the darn evidence is more powerful than what a Reese controlled research study is going to show you. So, so one question I have for you that like a common theme that I see in your story is that your stress case, your husband was a stress case.

So I’m kind of curious how you deal with stress now. Is it, do you make stress management a priority? Yes. I’m still a little bit of a stress case. I hate to say I will have to like deal with that the rest of my life. I was kind of brought up that way. It was a fight or flight mode in my house. Everything was kinda like, Oh my God, Oh my God.

You know, that type of, so it’s, it’s hard for me, but I. It’s a constant work in progress. And I’m a big meditator, so I do meditate almost every morning. I reconnect myself. You know, I, I use apps like unplug or just calm. I mean, I’m constantly trying to like. Slow down my brain, get my breathing back and, and check.

I’m a big journaler. So I do write down my stresses, my anxieties, my fears to get them off of and out of my body, because I know they circulate like crazy with me. So I just, you know, and I just write intentions and. For the day. I mean, I take 30 minutes in the morning and just kind of like get to know myself again.

That’s huge. And throughout the day, I kind of constantly have to get myself back because I can easily go off, you know, into the. Sky in terms of floating around because there’s so much I want to do. I mean, I, I just turned 60 and I never thought, Oh my God, you don’t look 60. I feel better than I did at 30.

That’s amazing. So there’s so much I want to do so much. I, so I do this. Stress is a big thing. I, I Burnell at night, before I go to bed, I write down three things I’m grateful for. Cause that kind of helps with my, uh, more pleasant sleep. Um, and I just. I do a lot of exercise, a lot of yoga. You know, I do walk and I just try to really focus on, cause I know stress is really is what’s going to compromise my immune system again, right?

And sleep. Sleep is huge. I really do get eight hours of sleep and. And then I just try to, and then I eat super healthy, but, right. Well, and I think what I’ve seen with a lot of people who go through the cancer journey is that they go, okay, well maybe I need to start eating better. Maybe. I mean, we do, we have a whole fasting movement, uh, in our resetter world.

And a lot of people are like, Oh, well, maybe I should start fasting. But it’s the stress piece. That doesn’t get enough credit. And it is that missing link, which is why I think it’s so interesting in both of your stories. It was so, it was, it was so apparent. And as I, as life went on with the Hashimoto’s and the hyperthyroidism, and then I got celiac and I got all kinds of health issues after the cancer, and it was from the stress, you know, and still today I deal with a lot of clients and.

And I could say that I really do try to manage my stress, but I’m still stressed because it, it doesn’t mean it has to be something hardcore, like a deadline, but I’m a little stressed at what the future holds, you know? And what does my new norm look like? Right? It’s still, or like. Sometimes I have to gear myself up for things that I kind of get the adrenaline pumping and that’s stress.

Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Just little things that stress us out. Yeah, absolutely. That’s scares me today with this next generation. They don’t even know what lack of stress is. No. They don’t know what boredom is. They don’t know. Downtime is like, right. So, yeah. Yeah, no, and again, back to the younger generation, I think we’re, you know, we think we have a problem with this virus, but we have a chronic disease problem that needs to be addressed as well.

So, so in between your diagnosis, you’re losing your husband, you became really passionate about nutrition. And so talk a little bit about what you discovered, like what nutritional habits that you needed to implement and what really made some changes for you. So what did, what I found was, you know, when I ate certain things, I started to tune into how I felt.

Cause I love cheese and I love bread and wheat and gluten, you know, and I love sugars. So when I ate those things, I noticed, I felt like shit. I was like, I crashed, I had headaches, I didn’t sleep well. There was, so I didn’t have any energy. So I started to just try to incorporate more like whole foods.

Sorry about that. Oh, no worries. No worries. Okay. Um, just whole life foods. I started, there was one juice place in LA that actually was walking distance from my apartment. So I started going there to pick up juices, and after I drank those juices, my whole body felt like it was a lie, you know, so that, I mean, the juicing.

It started then when I was 32 and it’s sort of continued now into being 60 I juice a lot and now then I use carrots and beets and things that were high in sugar. Now I don’t do any of that. I mostly do greens and no Apple, no sugar. So, but that’s what I discovered. I discovered, you know, I didn’t know about, I still ate gluten in those days, and I dabbled in dairy, but I did cut out the sugar in those days.

But as time went on, when I started cutting out all of those things, I definitely felt better. Yeah. And adding in live foods, I think this is important for people to realize is that when you’re eating meat, and I’m actually not, I mean, like I think you, if you eat clean meat, that there can be a lot of benefits to it.

Um, but I do think that people are missing this idea that you have to look at your foods and ask if it’s alive, like put some greens in there. Um, juicing is intriguing to me because I love that you said. I ha I’m doing all greens now because a lot of people will come to juicing and do carrots and beets and apples cause tastes good.

Yeah. So, so what do you advise people to stay away from that? Those sugary, yeah, all greens. And they just cut it with the lemon and ginger. Yes. So, um, there’s like, I’ve had a lot of people on celery juice, a lot of clients, myself included. Um, it’s, it’s really changed people’s lives. Yeah. Sodium cluster salts in there.

Um, what are you talks about. It lowers inflammation, like viral loads in the intestines and the colon, and a detox is a liver. So skin stuff, acid reflux, GERD, like, you know, even digestive issues. All my God, life changing, someone doing 16 ounces of celery for seven days or 14. They go, you know, their digestive system is back.

It’s like a beautiful thing. Yeah, I know. Like I’m a big bitter greens girl, so I love dandelion greens and a Rogalla and all those things for also for the liver, and I think that they clean up the blood also. So we need to, when we’re eating all these saturated fats, like animal protein or even the vegan flat based.

You know, almond butters and things that are heavy in the fat. They clog up the blood and they also make the liver sluggish. So we gotta do something to clean the blood and to like lower those toxins or lower the fat load in the liver. That’s why hardcore Quito makes me a little nervous, you know, for some people, I think it’s great for short period of time, but long periods of time of Quito can really do a number on your liver and your blood.

So. Yeah, we do Quito variations is what I say. You know, like, people got really, um, against Kita last night or last year, especially for women and I, my, my big plea is like, this is why we never become a zealot for one diet. We gotta keep varying it. So juicing, I think, cleans up the system. It feels like it does, you know, it helps.

Yeah. Nutrients at a cellular level. Yeah. Do you think, so on the topic of juicing, do you think you have to do it on an empty stomach? Like I know the celery juice is supposed to be done first thing in the morning. What if I don’t want to do it first thing in the morning? You know, that is, that’s the million dollar question.

Actually. I think that as long as you have a couple hours of food digested. You know, I think that it just goes into the bloodstream faster when it’s on an empty stomach, but I don’t, you know, I think you still get some results if it’s not too well. I think I’m on, I don’t know what camp I really lie on in that regard.

I, I try to do the empty stomach as intellectually. It just feels like, Ooh, it’s going right into the bloodstream. And antique my cells and my digestive track isn’t like busy working on digesting protein or fats or any of that stuff. So I like the idea. What I tell my patients is break your fast with it.

Cause we do a lot of intermittent fasting and some, some of my patients do 24 hour fast and then they want to know where to fit the celery juice in. And I’m like, why don’t you just break your fast with it? Even if it’s at. Two o’clock in the afternoon, you’re still, it’s on an empty stomach. So no, I think it’s brilliant.

The dandelion and I did that one time. I came home and I bought all the dandelion and the chard. Okay. When I juiced it, it looked like blood red chard. And I think I probably pretty much turned by children off from juicy and for the rest of her life. That stuff is totally, see that? I know it is potent. It is so bitter.

It’s like, like sludge. So do you just shoot it? Do you just get it down right. I just, I have acquired a taste for it. I just crazy. Um, cause I also eat dandelion green salad. There’s Erewhon here. The natural food market makes this salad with Daniel agrees it’s to die for. So I do use and do, I just think that, um, you know, I can’t get enough.

I crave, I also crave a rugal and radicchio and watercraft. So I, I actually take, uh, like some of that right before I eat animal protein, because what it does, it helps wake up the enzymes. So it helps the liver put bile into the digestive system to break down that saturated fat. So, yeah, so like, you know, instead of the Apple cider vinegar, it sounds very weird, but I’ll take a handful of a rugala.

Yeah. I love it. So you don’t always juice it. You, you also will eat it. Yeah. Have you found, have you found that juicing works well for people who have like CBO, you know, where they can’t do the fiber, but they still want that? The nutrient. I think it works beautifully because CBO, I think personally, it’s a viral infection in the intestines, so it got to lower the viral loads and the intestines and juicing, you know, lemon and the celery, and that can do that.

Lemon water does that, you know? So it’s a beautiful thing for CBO. Yeah. And do you, do you have an opinion on like, do you juice at home now you have a juicer at home. Okay, so this is another like, like learning curve moment. Which juice or do you pick? I know, I mean, it’s, you know, there’s a lot of juicers out there and the medical medium has one that’s Omega and it’s like a slow kind of process.

I’m not into the slow, I’m into just this Breville. It’s a cold fountain, plus I think about 170 $80 on Amazon and it’s fast and there’s all these camps on. Once the nutrients hit the blade and the heat source, they dissipate. But. I haven’t seen that, so I juice and drink it right away. I do do that. I don’t say my juices.

That’s a bummer for a lot of people who are busy now. It’s been beautiful because I haven’t had to, you know, I haven’t had to run out of the house, but I think that, you know, if you juice it and drink, you’re right away. It’s, it’s the ultimate. Yeah, so that you don’t lose the nutrients don’t evaporate.

Yeah. I actually have a hurry on is the Heran is the one I have in it. It’s a massive Cape masticating one and I love it, but it’s slower than molasses. It’s like those. Those are probably better than mine, but it’s just too slow for me. Yeah. I know. I have to like, okay, I’ve got two, two free hours. Choose for us all when fly for someone who’s, you know, realistic Rubin, a million miles an hour, right?

Yeah. I think you know, he, he’s onto something. He has celery juice. A couple of years ago when I started taking, going viral on social media. What we’re also, we have an epidemic of dehydration. We don’t have enough minerals in our soil and our food, or we’re not absorbing the minerals because minerals are what help the water go into the cells.

So we’re drinking all this water and we’re just peeing out the water. So we’re basically not, we’re dehydrated. We’re just drink as much, you know, half our body weight and water, but we’re still dehydrated. The celery juice is helping us. Stay hydrated and be hydrated. So that’s why I think a lot of incredible results is are happening because it’s hydrating us like crazy.

Like we’ve never been hydrated before. Yeah, that’s interesting. So it’s more from the hydration. Everybody goes crazy on the celery juice, but there’s a big pieces. They’re just getting water for the first time. They’re their organs. Are getting like cellular hydration. Oh, that’s that. I hadn’t, I hadn’t thought it’s that level.

That makes perfect sense. One thing that I’ve noticed from just fasting so many people, hundreds of thousands of people, and then having them report back their, their results is that we are incredibly mineral deficient. That as a, our soils are mineral deficient and it shows up as the body starts to heal.

And I. I love this idea. I’m always telling people, take a mineral supplement. Um, I know that some people and I, I would fall into this camp, believe in like good quality sea salt can actually be really beneficial. So there are some things we need to get ways, so we need to get our minerals back. But I like this idea of looking at salary juice as one of those, one of those ways.

Or even, you know, when we get those minerals into our bloodstream and like we’re. They just, I mean, there’s all these camps on fiber smoothies and you know, juicing. But what I love about the juicing is that it does bypass the digestive system and just goes right to where it needs to be. Whereas if you have the fiber in there, which is fiber is good, we do need fiber, absolutely slows it down.

So I just think, you know, it’s exceptional in terms of how fast we can get hydrated. And you know, I know my resetter is going to ask this because we’ve, again, we’ve gotten all their questions, uh, over the years. How often should you juice? What’s the, what’s the magic protocol everybody’s going to want to know?

I know that’s, that’s a good question because I think it’s up to the person in there how they can fit it into their lifestyle. But of course, I, I mean, I would say seven days a week, um, 60 minutes a day. 16 ounces. Yeah. Seven days a week, um, you’re going to be in pretty good shape, like rather quickly, I think.

Um, but a lot of people have a hard time, you know, doing something consistently. So a lot of times I just tell my clients, if you can get five days in, that’s exceptional. Give yourself a break for two. But. Yeah. So it’s, I mean, it’s hard for people to stay on track with this stuff. Yeah. That’s the, that’s the heart, right?

It’s our focus is like, we go all in and then we stop and then we go all in. Yeah. We don’t see results. Right. We, we stopped. So a lot of people don’t see results that they want to, and then like, Oh, this is a hassle. Yeah. Well, so I think the problem with that is that, and I said this to so many different people, is that when people come to the alternative healthcare world, they bring with them an allopathic mindset.

And the allopathic mindset says, I have one problem, one diagnosis, one solution. So it’s one pill, one problem. Right? Well, when you come to alternative medicine and, and if I, if I find the right pill for the problem, it goes away like that. But when you come to alternative medicine, it doesn’t work like that.

You’ve got to find about 10 2030 different things that are going to tap into your body’s own internal healing power. And then it’s going to take some time for that healing power to kick in. So we have to use a different mindset over there. Yeah. And that’s where we come back to like, do we really honor ourselves enough to feel like we can heal?

You know, like you can get past this issue and that you, you know, are worthy of getting past this issue. I think that’s the mindset. The mindset is like, okay. I don’t, I’m not going to feel like this. I don’t need you. I’m not going to take this drug for the rest of my life. This drug might cause other issues down the road, and I’m going to get to the bottom of, you know, and I deserve a better life.

I want that. I want a life. I want to say to someone, I feel great. Not be, I feel okay. Yeah. No. Most like, yeah, I’m okay. Right. Totally unacceptable in my book. Yeah, I agree. So now in all of your journey, you also started doing like a business where you would go and help companies with their food, right? Is that what I had heard?

Yeah. I mean, when I graduated my program, I had a friend who brought cafe gratitude, the restaurant down, for example, love cafe gratitude. Every time they break me by cup with my affirmation, I just love it. So she brought it down and she said, Hey, when you put a cleanse together for us, and it was, and my background is marketing advertising.

So it was super easy. Their food was clean. You know, it was, I did a five day program for them. I did it for about four and a half years. I just ran it and I handheld the cleansers, so I got to learn all their ailments and issues and what worked for them and what didn’t. And a year into cafe gratitude, there was another restaurant, it’s called M cafe.

It’s a macrobiotic restaurant in LA. And they asked me to do a macrobiotic cleanse for them. And I ran that for six and a half years, and I did a little program for earth bar. Um, I did food at the, um, at the airport for them, healthy food, and then I did something for Erewhon for about six months. Um, I have a juice at Erewhon still at the moment that they sell.

And it’s called Alyssa’s thyroid juice. But it’s what? Dandelion greens, of course. Awesome. So I did that for quite a while, loved it, learned so much about health and wellness, and I investigated all these health issues. And then I started seeing clients and the clients were like, will you cook for me because I love food?

And I’m like, I’m not a chef. And then a friend said, well, you’ve run all these other cleanses. Why don’t you do your own? So six years ago, I created my own cleanse and people can find that cleanse on your website. It’s only sadly in LA, it’s only an LA confide. It added. I cook and deliver five days of soup, salads, tonics, lattes, all made supersede bar.

Vegan broth, fermented veggies. It’s like this whole beautiful thing for five days, and it’s just showing people that they can reset their body in five days with a lot of healthy, vibrant food. Okay, well that, that almost makes me want to move back to LA. Do you have any plans to move?

Do you have any plans to make it? I would love to take it to the next level. I’m a little worried because I really want it to be nourishing and nurturing. Put a lot of good energy into it too. Um, and the food has to taste great because we’ll. Like it’s been great to be able to nourish and nurture people during this time as well.

Are you getting more orders right now? During this week, we actually have always sold out. We, we only can service 52 to 55 people. The weeks we do it. So we sell out. It’s very underground. Um, it’s all organic. You know, they get 45 different vegetables in one week and five days. That’s crazy. So I, I interviewed Terry Walls.

Do you know Dr. Terry Walls? So she is, not only is she a really lovely woman, um, but she taught me something about how it’s so important. We get different plants into our diet. And her recommendation is, and this gives you some perspective that people get over. 200 different types of plants. She says, I tell people within a month period, but honestly, if they get 200 different ones over a year period, they’re doing well and you’re giving 47 different ones in one week and one week.

Yeah. That’s incredible. I love her. I love her philosophy. I mean, yep. Different plants give you different things, right. Different vitamins, minerals, you know? Yeah. Different antioxidants. So yeah, it’s all about fruit and vegetables are our lifeline, really. You know, I mean, yes, we need some healthy fat and protein and you know, complex carbs, but the light forces in the fruits and veggies, and we just don’t.

You got enough of them? No, we are, the more I study the microbiome, the more we are so symbiotically connected to nature, and if we’re not getting our hands in dirt, we’re not getting outside. We’re not eating the food that nature provided for us. We’re missing out on a whole level of healthcare that people don’t even know exists that that nature provided for us.

So yeah. I love that with the microbiome, it’s, it was fascinating. Years ago, I learned when I was part of the medical medium’s practitioner group, he talks about how the white film outside of plants, like the kale or you know, the Apple or you know, there’s a filmy substance that’s all microbiome, that’s bacteria, and that’s beneficial bacteria that we could absorb, and that’s real bacteria.

That is what we need, you know, instead of capsules. And even though I do believe in the capsules and stuff like that, but the real stuff is, if you can get it from food that’s, that’s the best right now. So, so give us like a, if somebody is listening to this, they’re maybe have an auto immune condition, or maybe they just got a cancer diagnosis, right?

Like five musts that you’re like, Hey, right now these five things you need to do. The first thing is you really have to get in touch. Like you really have to get in touch with loving yourself, like asking your question, do I love myself? Do I honor who I am? That your heart has a lot of vibration and when you go there, you have a much better chance of finding the solution when you are more in the heartfelt place.

Like, I love myself, I want to heal. You know, secondly, stress, you know, just on a scale of one to 10, what’s your stress level like most days? Um, finding some type of simple, even five minute meditation to bring your stress level back, you know, to below a 10 or whatever. So the heart felt love, the stress.

The third thing is, I would say, you know, get more plants into your diet. Fruits and vegetables, like really whole real foods, um, is super crucial and as natural I get off the process, you know, limit your sugar and your dairy and your gluten and your process stuff. Um, those are killing you basically. I would say that’s three.

Four would be sleep. Our body resets between 10 and 2:00 AM so get, get your hours of sleep, try to go to bed at 10. I know it’s so hard for people, but at least 11. And get eight hours of sleep. It’s really, really important. You know, five is just really is fine, be out in nature, you know, connect to the earth again, like nature and walk and hike or just.

You know, we’re so insolent. We’re just not in nature a lot. Most of us were, so I especially meet you. I live in a city, right? Hollywood. It’s very city. Yes. Yes. There’s not a lot of natures, not a lot of nature in West Hollywood. So, so what I find brilliant about your five is, so you’re a nutritionist at, or I don’t know if that’s what you would label yourself, but that’s your background.

And only two of them were actual nutrition, which is beautiful. And that’s really what my, I love that you started with the mindset and the heart. Um, you know, when I work with a client, one of the things I do, I always ask is like. W do you love your life? And it’s hard to, to, if you hate your life and you hate your body, no juice cleanse on the planet is going to save you.

Oh, you’re absolutely right. You know? Powerful. No. Right? No supplement, no special diet, nothing like, I love that you started with that. If, if you could go back to 31 year old you, I would mom too, but I’m not sure I would. Yeah. What would you tell, Oh, let’s go back to 30 year old. Cause you were diagnosed at 32 right?

Yeah. What would you tell her? What? What advice would you give her? That’s so heavy. Oh, I would, first of all, I’d tell her that you’re good enough. No, you’re absolutely good enough as you are. Absolutely. You’re perfect as you are. Yeah. Um, I would tell her that I would say that you, you know, anything’s possible for you when life has endless possibilities and you don’t have to work so hard.

At making them happen. So if you want them to happen, they’ll happen. Yeah. Let it unfold. Would you change her diet? I would totally, yeah. Totally. Totally changed your diet. Yes. Yeah, definitely. If you could have done something different with your husband, I’m sure you’ve thought about that, what would there have been a different path you would have taken with him.

Yeah, I definitely would have probably taken them maybe to a holistic clinic. You know, there’s so many these days. I mean, I would have tried to go a more holistic route with him, um, and along with that, the Western so, and, and hopefully he would have been on board to do it. I think potentially we still could have had him here.

So, um. And probably just had gotten more emotional support in those days for him, you know? And that same thing that, you know, I was just would have told my 30 year old just somehow how to ingrain in him that he was enough and good enough, and he was exceptional. He was exceptional. So, but I don’t eat in, and most of us don’t.

Really realize it in our early years until we get older, right? So we’ve got imposter syndrome or we’re comparing ourselves to everybody or everybody’s thing. So yeah, that’s powerful. If you had one message for the world, like if you could stand on the top of the tallest building in the world or the tallest mountain and scream a message, what would you, what message would you want to get out there to the world?

I would say to them that they can heal from anything you, you absolutely can heal from anything. I’d love, you know, to not be afraid to try to like why or embrace the fear, but this will pass. Yeah. Yeah. I always say to people, you were born in a flippant miracle. You just never been taught that. Yeah.

That’s so beautiful. We just don’t know. Like we have been given like the greatest sports car in the world and when nobody gave us the user manual. Right. So we don’t even know how to use it. How to drive it. Yeah. So true. That’s so beautifully said. It’s true. This body is miraculous. It’s capable of so much, and yeah, it’s sad to not have people, right.

Utilize it to the degree that. It needs to or wants. The body wants to be utilized. So yeah, it’s powerful. It’s powerful. Life is pretty miraculous, and we’re healing all the time. And I just think we just have, we have no, we only, we’re like this. We have no, like, we have no vision for what we’re able to do.

So I love that you say you can heal from anything. I feel the same way. So, yeah. That’s amazing. Okay, so where do people find you? Cause I know my audience is going to be in love with your message now or now I could keep talking, but I appreciate your time. So it’s, it’s a, L E, L. I. S. S. A. It’s Alyssa goodman.com.

That’s it. I’m on Instagram and social media and I have a website. Yeah. I have a book also out that’s called cancer hacks, and it’s a nice story of how I healed the things we did, right. The things we did wrong with both of our stories. Oh, I love that. Getting ready to write the second one about the autoimmune, you know about the possibility of going into remission, brought him to that.

That’s possible. Yeah. And you have an auto immune hack PDF that people go to your website and then tell us a little bit about that. Cause you guys go check out her website and we’ll link it in the notes. It’s all about like how I healed from autoimmune. I had Hashimoto’s for 25 plus years and in four years I’m not, haven’t been on meds for my hypothyroidism.

Everything is good. Everything’s on line. Um, it does kind of, the antibodies do raise their ugly head every once in a while when I’m really stressed and don’t sleep and all of that. But. For the most part, I’m super healthy and thriving, and like I said, at 60 I’ve never felt better in my life. You’re 60 I just, I was really stressed out about the 60 but after it came and went, it was, it was okay.

Like I guess I can change the numbers, but the human body is actually built to live to 120 Oh, so you’re only halfway there. Halfway there, right. Yeah, so it’s all about that. It’s all about lowering my toxin loads and my viral loads because I was a kid, I was so sick with bacteria and viruses and all kinds of stuff, so heavy metals and I had mercury poisoning, and.

Yeah. Wow. All that stuff was, could be taken care of. Yeah. Amazing. Well, this has been an incredible conversation. I just, I really love people’s pain to purpose stories because I think we’re here to really serve others. I mean, that’s a big value of mine. That we’re here to, to go through our own lessons and then to turn around and help others and to serve others.

So when I find someone like you that’s doing that, it just makes my heart sing. And I just so grateful for you putting your message out there. Cause this is how we change the world. We don’t need to keep small. We don’t need to see, keep quiet. We need to go within ourselves and figure out how we can best serve each other.

Oh thank you so much. Thank you. It was such a pleasure and an honor to meet you and sending you now. I mean, yes, exactly. All about, it’s like a get to add another beautiful human in my tribe. I love it. I agree. I totally feel the same and I hope that we see each other face to face some day, you know? Okay.