SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to The Model Health Show, this is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. There are few things that have a bigger impact on our health, our overall well-being, our longevity, and our overall success in life than our vocation. The things that we do for a living have a massive impact on our overall health, and today we're living at a very volatile time where rates of unemployment have skyrocketed when businesses have been forced to shut their doors and for thousands of businesses, shut their doors permanently.

Where today people are being forced out of their jobs, they may have been in for five, 10, 20, 30 years dedicating their life and their time into their vocation and suddenly being pushed out of that job because of the controversy around medical freedoms. Now the reason that I decided to put so much into this episode is because my inboxes are flooded with messages from nurses, from physicians, from educators. From coaches from high school to collegiate coaches who are saying, "I'm getting pushed out of my job right now and I don't know what to do" or folks who've lost their job, lost their business, or have just been compelled to resign because the conditions, the climate around them in that environment is no longer conducive to their success and their overall health. And so I wanted to provide a solution, and I know that there is a solution, but it's going to require us to up-level our game, to see the opportunities amidst all of the chaos, and I promise you there are an immense amount of opportunities. This is a time for us to come together and to create something better than we've had prior to all of this going down. The reality is our society has been going down a dangerous track for decades.

And we were just kind of riding it out, see what happens, even though we can see the train tracks are gone up ahead, you're headed towards a bridge, no more train tracks, we can see it. Right now, here in the United States, we have 242 million of our citizens are overweight or obese, 130 million of our citizens are diabetic or pre-diabetic, 25 to 50 million of our citizens are experiencing an auto-immune disease, 60% of our citizens have some degree of heart disease, mental health issues have skyrocketed. As of this recording, just prior to hitting the button to record this episode, I just found out that another one of my son's friends, my 21-year-old son, another one of his friends committed suicide.

These are the things that are not being talked about, they're not being addressed, but I stand here with you to do something about this, to take care of our families, to take care of our health and our well-being with things that are real, efficacious, backed by science, not just using the term science because it's trendy, but because it's real. The change is up to us, and so very passionate about this moment, because I believe in you, and I want you to believe in yourself like never before because you are remarkable. You are powerful to effect change in your life and the life of so many other people and that's what we're going to be talking about today. So before we get to our very, very special guest, let's jump to the Apple Podcast review of the week.

ITUNES REVIEW: Another five-star review titled, "Love the information and science to back it" by PRSCT Native. "I'm so thankful for this podcast, Shawn cuts to the chase on how the standard lifestyles promote disease and the science to combat the bad health typical American diet is promoting. The medical community has been focusing on disease-based care and management rather than focusing on an integrative approach to health promotion. The science is there, and Shawn lays it all out with his style of teaching and the guest on his show, loves it."

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you so much for leaving that review over on Apple Podcasts, it means so very much. And again, this is an opportunity for us to really transform our culture, and to turn the things that have been going in a wrong direction, we can start to lay down the train tracks, we can get across this bridge to a better world. I truly believe it is possible. We have the demand of ourselves and policymakers to truly create an environment where our children can thrive, where we can thrive as citizens, because if you look at the results, it has been anything but that in recent decades, and it doesn't look like things are going to be turning around unless we step up and do something about it.

And that's why I'm so excited to have on our special guest today. Our guest today is Cynthia Garcia. She's a visionary leader, modern-day life coach, media personality, and celebrity nutritionist. Cynthia is the leading expert in the field of modern-day mindset. She's the founder and CEO of the Institute of transformational nutrition, ITN, the elite modern-day Coaching School for forward-thinking coaches and those who want to become more. She's coached thousands of private clients ranging from stay-at-home moms to celebrities, to Fortune 500 CEOs on how to get unstuck so they can create a life career and relationships that are so good, they're jealous of themselves.

Her corporate clients have included Morgan Stanley, Kodak, and Fidelity Investments, she's also a fellow of the Institute of Coaching McLean Hospital. Cynthia has been featured everywhere from Vogue, to Harper's BAZAAR, to Good Morning America, The Doctors, The Dr. Phil Show, and so much more. And now she's back for her second appearance on the Model Health Show, let's jump into this conversation with the amazing Cynthia Garcia. It's not often I get to have one of my real-life best friends on this show, so I'm so happy for you to come hang out with us.

CYNTHIA GARCIA: I'm cheesing so hard.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So true story, I would not be here in this room right now, in Los Angeles, had it not been for your encouragement, and you're such a powerful manifestor, you were just saying it so matter-of-factly, like, "When you move to LA, this... When you move to LA, that... "

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And thus here I am.

Cynthia Garcia: Here you are. Do you love it?

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's been a little weird since I've been here.

Cynthia Garcia: Okay. Well, fair point. Fair point.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But I love being closer to you guys and just all of the incredible people here.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And obviously the weather is pretty awesome. Even on a complicated day, there's still palm trees and sunshine.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, you're not in St. Louis anymore.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, I know. Last time you were in St. Louis, we actually, we had Indian food in the back of a truck.

Cynthia Garcia: We tailgated Indian food at your son's football game. You know what's funny, is I still have on the weather app on my phone St. Louis. And I think about you every time I pop it up to scroll, 'cause you know I'm back and forth between LA and Portland, and so every time I scroll through St. Louis comes up.

SHAWN STEVENSON: See, we're so integrated in each other's life, even the glasses that every guest drinks out of when they come in the show, these are glasses that you gave me as a gift.

Cynthia Garcia: I know. What would you do without me?

SHAWN STEVENSON: I don't know.

Cynthia Garcia: I don't know what I would do without you and Anne. Can we just shout out to Anne?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. So we've already agreed that if something should happen to me...

Cynthia Garcia: If you're hit by a train walking across Melrose...

SHAWN STEVENSON: Or I'm in a... I don't know if you've seen Shang Chi, this Marvel movie, it's like a massive bus scene. If any of that happens, you get to have Anne.

Cynthia Garcia: I'm taking Anne, got dibs.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So obviously, like I said, it's been complicated since I've been here, and I think that people's experiences over the past year and a half plus have largely been a result of their pre-existing experiences, their pre-existing stories about themselves and about life in general. So this is one of the things I wanted to talk with you about because you're able to really take a meta-perspective, 'cause I know a lot of folks are going through a lot of different turbulent changes. And can you speak to that, how our experiences, even at times like these have a lot to do with our pre-existing stories about ourselves and about the world?

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, for sure. So it's definitely been a volatile time, and a lot of people were thrown out of their comfort zone, and that resulted in a lot of things. As you know, we saw issues with mental health skyrocket, suicide rates sky-rocketed, people were at home with nothing but their thoughts and their feelings and their emotions. And it's funny, I had a friend of mine call me up, she's also a coaching client, and she was like, "I just see something to do," and I was busy at the time, and I said, "Oh, just watch something on Netflix." And she said, "I finished it."

SHAWN STEVENSON: What?

Cynthia Garcia: I was like, "Like all of Netflix, you just finished it?" And we did that, right? We Netflix, we did all the things. But then at some point, that gets old and it's just us and our thoughts and our feelings about ourselves, about our past, about where we're going, or what we're doing, or where we're not going, or what we're not doing, right? And so I think what's happening now is we've had a bit of time to get some perspective and to really look at our lives and to re-evaluate what are we doing and what is this one precious life going to be for us? But you're right, not to get off track, because we do have stories that we've created and been telling since we were children.

And we know through narrative psychology, which is the study of how we tell ourselves these stories, that we make up stories to explain things that happen to us, and then we just decide that they're true, and then those stories become rooted as beliefs. People like to think, oh, your thoughts create your reality. Spoiler alert, they don't. It's your beliefs that actually create your actions, your thoughts, your responses to things. And so when we look at changing our lives, we try to do that through just changing our thoughts, it's not sustainable long-term, because that's not where the real action is coming from, it's coming from these deep-seated beliefs that we have.

And again, no one has decided that they're true, except for us. So just yesterday, I was coaching our students at ITN, I go live and I coach them on building their business, they bring their questions. And we have one student who popped on and she's new to the course, and a big fan of yours by the way, and she said, I'm just getting started, and she had a question about pricing, and she said, "I don't know what to price my services or my coaching packages at, because what you've priced yours at, I can't price mine that high. I'm not as smart as you, I don't know enough as you, I'm not an expert yet like you." And she got the yet in, so very proud of her growth mindset, right?

But I was like, "Oh, wait a minute, let's just... " That's a story, right? You've told yourself this story that you're not as much of an expert, and maybe not as much of an expert in transformational nutrition, I created it, I've been doing it for 20 years, but this woman comes from the construction industry and she has been through some stuff in her life, like we all have, right? And so she's learned so much through her experience, she's made it through 100% of her hardest wallow on the floor life can't go on moments, and she has some stuff to share, she is absolutely an expert.

But she told herself this story that she wasn't, that she couldn't charge rates that she wanted to charge, and then she just believed it. It's not like the pricing police came in and was like, "No, you're right. Yeah, not yet, right? You can't charge that." She was the only one who decided it was true and we do that, and unfortunately, our success, our happiness, our health is all determined by those stories, and until we learn how to rewrite them for good, we're stuck, we're stuck in these perpetual cycles, right? Starting, stopping, starting, stopping. And so here we are.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So true, so true, because if we really look at it for ourselves and also in the lives of other people, during this time, especially when we're under pressure, and I remember it was Wayne Dyer who made the analogy when you squeeze an orange, what comes out of it? It's going to be orange juice, what's going to come out is what's in it. What happens when life squeezes you, what's going to come out of it, it's what's already in you. So during this time, I believe that worriers worried, fighters fought, people who were empathed they felt, and it's because of our pre-existing experiences and what we bring forward.

Cynthia Garcia: That's true.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I do believe that some of this is in our DNA, but I also believe that humans are not just a product of our environment, we're creators of our environment, we're creators of our experience. We can choose to be more of a fighter, we can choose to be more of a warrior, we can choose to be more empathetic. These are all things that we can cultivate. And so with that being said, how do the stories that we tell ourselves out picture themselves into the world around us?

Cynthia Garcia: That's such a great question. And before we dive into that, I also want to say like, what you said is so true, when we were alone, we did these things, empathed... We all kind of did our default response. The other really interesting thing that was happening is that we found ourselves again, coming face-to-face with ourselves, and when we are out and about when we're all hanging out, we have mirror neurons, right? And you know this, it's just brain science. So if I show up to your house and you're kind of in a crummy mood, I'm going to feel that and my neurons want to mirror that, it's why they say you are an average of the five people you spend the most time with because it's true.

And so what we do in groups oftentimes is we'll say, "What do you think?" Or we'll go along with the group consensus, or even if we want to do something different and somebody says, "Let's go to a movie," we go to a movie 'cause we don't want to upset the applecart, so to speak. And so we weren't able to do that and so a lot of people were left wondering like, "Well, what do I want? What do I want to eat? What do I want to do? Do I like this podcast or do I actually like this movie that I'm watching on Netflix?"

SHAWN STEVENSON: Do I like this person I'm with?

Cynthia Garcia: Do I like this person I'm with? Right? And so we had to really have those hard conversations, and for a lot of us, that was almost too hard at times, that's where the mental health concerns came in. But you're right, our stories, the things that make them so powerful is we're not always aware of them, the majority of the time, we're not aware of them. So it's kind of like an iceberg, like 10% of it is above water, but those 90% just kind of run and we don't always notice them, but they are having a huge impact on our decision. So here's what people don't always think about, and again, it's just neuroscience, when you're given an opportunity, you'll just make a decision immediately and that's done unconsciously through your stories.

Or you'll take an action unconsciously, and then you'll logically back it up with what you just did, which was driven by these old stories, these old beliefs that you had, right? So we like to think we're making decisions when we're not. What's happening is we made a decision when we were seven or eight years old and that's running the show now, and you're just thinking that you're actually in the driver's seat and you back it up with logic and reason and you do those things, but it's so important and that's why it's important to know how to go back and re-write these old stories, because if you don't, you're forever trapped with an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, a 12-year-old, stories running your life. And I don't know about you, you were probably super involved at that age, I was not. I was not at that level. So it's not a good idea, you know, we have limiting beliefs that keep us stuck, but again, the good news is we can rewrite them.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, you were just telling me a story about you guys being in a situation where you didn't have a lot of money at all.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, no.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you cooked a frozen pizza on a kerosene heater, right?

Cynthia Garcia: I can't believe you brought that up.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So you're coming from these conditions, and I'm sure that there were some stories that took place in your life that you had no idea it was affecting you later and out-picturing itself and seemingly maybe even sabotaging things in your life.

Cynthia Garcia: Oh my gosh, over and over and over. To this day I still struggle with stories. So I'll tell you a story that really set the course of my life. I didn't know it at the time, but I'll share it with you. I don't know if I've told you this story or not. So I woke up on the morning on my eighth birthday, and I was as excited as a girl on her eighth birthday, it was my birthday and I'm a kid. And so I got so excited and I thought, "It's my day, it's my time."

Now, you mentioned we were really poor, and it's funny sometimes I hear people say, "Oh, we were so poor, but I didn't realize it 'cause we had love." I realized I knew. And we didn't have that kind of love. There was a lot of domestic abuse in my family, my dad actually shot my mother in front of me, he tried to murder her multiple times and fortunately, never quite succeeded, but we went through a lot when I was young, a lot of abuse. I was abused physically, emotionally, sexually, starting at just the age of five, I didn't have running water in my house.

We had an outhouse, rain, snow, or shine, but I was dirt poor but ready for more just... So anyway, I didn't expect much waking up that morning, right? But it was my birthday, so I thought if I don't get a present, maybe I'll get a cake or somebody will say something at least even if that doesn't happen. So I'm like all groggy-eyed and I crawl out of my a little bed and I walk into the living room, and I can feel my feet on just this red bare, like black carpet that we had gotten from somewhere, and my mom is sitting in there and she's having her morning cigarette and cup of coffee and doing her thing and there's smoke in the air and I can smell it when I walk in. And she doesn't say anything and I don't have a gift and there's no cake or... And I thought, you know, that's alright, they're going to surprise me later, right? And so, the day goes on and I read, I read a lot at that time, I played outside in the woods behind my house, I'm sure I fought with my sister, but no one said anything, and I thought, "Okay, well, any minute now they're going to come down and maybe we'll take a ride down the Old River Road and play in the creek, that'll be a nice treat."

Nothing happened. And so, the day starts turning into the night, and I know it's going to be time to go to bed soon and I'm starting to get a little freaked out, right? I'm like, "Yo, it's my birthday." And so, I'm nervous now, I'm anxious and I go up to my mom in this living room again and I just blurted out. I say, "Do I have a present?" And she looks at me and she says, "Why would you get a present?" And I said, "Oh well, because it's my birthday." And I'll never forget this, she just looked at me with this dead look in her eye and her lip crawled a little, and she said, "So?" And in that moment, my story was written and it simply read, "You're not special and you don't deserve anything even on your birthday." So I thought, okay, well, if my mother doesn't remember my birthday, it's a pretty good indication that I'm not special and clearly I don't deserve anything. So that was the explanation that I gave for this event that happened, and I carried that through my entire life and I still... Even though I've rewritten that story and I'm conscious of it, there are still times when I'm like, "Oh gosh, am I special enough to do this?"

And I've done some pretty remarkable things in my career that I'm super proud of, but every time the phone would rings, do you want to be on this TV? I'm like, "Oh, me? Am I going to... You know? Do I deserve this?" And so, it's something that we constantly have to focus on rewriting, because if we don't, these stories will rule our lives. And then the other thing that happens is once we write these stories, we need for them to be true, and especially when we're children, because if they're not, then we are not safe. If we can't understand the world and we can't fit things into these perfectly formed shapes and cubes and frames, then it's uncertainty, and uncertainty is very scary for a child. So we want these things to be true. We need them to be true. It's why our parents will never be wrong. So whatever my mother says, I'm not important, I'm not. I just have... Because if she isn't correct, she doesn't know what's going on, I'm just this little thing, that's a very scary place. So, just again, psychology would... We need these things to be true.

So what we do is this thing called looping, and we do this for the rest of our lives, which is where we seek out evidence that that story we wrote is true. So I get stood up on a date, I'm not special, right? I get called on a TV show and then they have to cancel, well, it's just me, they called someone else, I'm not special, right? Even later, in later years, my mom actually would call but on the wrong day, like it wouldn't be my birthday, but she would call on the wrong day, and again, that's evidence. I'm like, "See, I knew it." But I know consciously now, I have the tools to rewrite it, but it's still a trigger. So think about it, if you haven't re-written it, how much of it, you don't even see it coming. Again, you make decisions that determine your life just on autopilot. Does that make sense?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Of course, yeah, yeah.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But it makes sense but I know, and you know this as well, most folks, we don't have any idea that this is happening.

Cynthia Garcia: No. No.

SHAWN STEVENSON: We're just existing within this construct that we create. I love the fact that you brought up, this sense of certainty that it gives us, no matter how dysfunctional it might be, it still helps us to modulate and manage in the environment that we're in.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so, trying to pull yourself from that environment, this is why it can be so sticky and so difficult to grow past it, is because we are constantly seeking out evidence to affirm that story that we are, in your case, are not special. And like you said, you've done some amazing things, but you did so much work on yourself to get to those places where for one of your birthdays it was us We were together...

Cynthia Garcia: We did it, right.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Hanging out at St. Louis and doing all the things, and it was actually my birthday two days before yours.

Cynthia Garcia: I know.

SHAWN STEVENSON: We got so much stuff in common, it's so weird.

Cynthia Garcia: It was so good. We share them all.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But you know, every time when we talk offline about this stuff and about your dad trying to kill your mom, it sounds like a cartoon, it sounds like...

Cynthia Garcia: I know, I know.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Spy versus spy. Like, she keeps getting away, but this is so abnormal, you know?

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And the thing is, I have very similar stories as well and it just becomes kind of just the tapestry or the background of our lives, until we can move away from it some or create some separation, we can start to see like, oh, that's not normal.

Cynthia Garcia: That's not normal. Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So, I want to ask you about how do we actually... What are some steps that we can take to begin to change the story that may be disempowering us? Is there anything that folks can start to look to even today, starting now, to start to change those stories?

Cynthia Garcia: Oh yeah, there's so much we can do. And you're right, it's funny. I think a lot of us think our stories are normal. Just like in health, people will eat something that they have a food intolerance for, eggs, you know, all the common things. And...

SHAWN STEVENSON: 7-Eleven nachos with chili and cheese...

Cynthia Garcia: Well, I mean, you went there.

SHAWN STEVENSON: For example.

Cynthia Garcia: For example, yes. And then they'll be like, "Well, my stomach hurts." But that's normal for me, that's just normal. Do you hear anyone say... Like, I've had so many clients be like, "That's just what happens every time I eat beans", or whatever, and you're like, but that's actually not normal. And so, I think a lot of us do the same thing with our stories. I'm writing my memoir now, which is where a lot of this research came into play because people... If you looked at where I came from and you looked at the life I have, and people do, they'll say, "Well, how did you... How? Like, how, how did you get from there to here?" From this little girl who went to school in dirty clothes and smelled in the Appalachian mountains to living a pretty cool life now and hanging out with cool folks like you.

And it really is through rewriting my stories, and as I went back and I was... In writing my memoir, it's funny, I turned in this story because... I don't know if I've told you this either. So at one time when I first moved to LA, I was homeless and there was this whole story behind it, but I wrote this for my editor and I sent it to her and she was like, "This is so crazy", and I'm like, "Is it?" I don't... We just become accustomed to our normal, but you can change those things. So, your question was, how, how do we change that? So, I created this method because my head is kind of all over the place and I need things in systems and frameworks and boxes and checklists, that's how I live my life. And so, there's an acronym and it's a S.T.O.R.Y., it's called the stuck story coaching method, it helps you get unstuck from your stories, rewrite a new one, create a life so good you're only jealous of yourself, right?

So I'm going to give you an example. So S.T.O.R.Y. is an acronym because again, that's the way my mind makes sense of things, and the S is for Stuck. So, what that means is, what are you stuck around right now? What is something that you want in your life that you don't have? And that could be anything, it could be a better relationship, it could be a relationship in general, any kind of relationship. It could be, I want more money, I want to be healthier, I want to lose weight. It could be anything. What is that thing that you want? And then T is the belief. So why do you believe that you can't have it, right? So let's say you're stuck around money, let's say you want to make more money, you know you're worth more, you're just not getting it and you're stuck. So, the belief, which is the T might be like, money is for other people, not for me. So I'll use myself as an example. When I grew up, when I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. And my parents would often say things like, "Money doesn't grow on trees, that's for other people, not for us.

So my belief around money might be that, well, that's for other people. That's for other people. Right. So now that we have that, what we want to do is the O, and that's the original event. So, where did this belief come from? We're going to time travel a little bit because a belief is nothing more than an equation, it's made up of three Es. It's made up of the event that happened, the explanation, the meaning that you gave it, and the emotion that you felt when you did. Okay? So let's say, I remember back in time where I had this dress that I wanted, and I had this little dress that I wanted to wear to this little school dance, and I go to my mom and I say, "Gosh, I really, really, really want this dress, I'll do anything. Can I just get this dress?" And she says, "No, we're not the kind of people that have money for that, you know? That's not for you." Let's just say she says that or let's just say she wasn't even that clear. Let's just say she was like, "No. What, money doesn't grow on trees, we can't afford that."

"No, you can't have that dress." The event that happened was I asked for the dress and she said no, but the explanation I gave it was, "Oh, that's not for me. That's for other people." That's where that like, I don't deserve it. I don't... It's not for me, it's for other people. So that's the original event, and then the explanation I gave was, again it's for other people, the emotion that I felt was probably disappointment, probably hurt, pain. And so, I said earlier, we say that our thoughts create our reality and they don't. The beliefs do, and the difference is, thought with heavy emotion tied to it, that becomes a belief and that emotion is what anchors it into your subconscious. That's where we decide that this is true for me and I'll spend the rest of my life proving it. I mean, thoughts, we have 60,000 thoughts a day. If they really did determine our lives, we'll all be a little loopy right now. It's our beliefs that do that.

So, I know where I'm stuck, I know the thought that, oh, money is for other people, not for me. I know the event that happened and where that came from now, and now we get to the R, which is rewriting. It really is simple, because all we have to do, Shawn, is we just have to be able to give a different explanation to the event that happened and then we'll feel different, so the emotions are different. So let's say I went back in time and I said, gosh, that explanation that I gave, my mom saying, no, you can't get this dress, wasn't true, and it was that she wanted to get it for me as a gift later and surprise me with it. Now, that may or may not be true, but here's the cool thing, it doesn't matter. You know this, your brain doesn't know the difference between something happening straight in front of you and something that you're just making up, right?

So for example, do you ever get into an argument with someone... You probably haven't 'cause you're just a better person than I am. [laughter] Did you ever get into an argument with someone and then, I mean, 12 hours later, you're still replaying it and you're thinking of the things you should have said? And if given the opportunity, you will say those things. It's like, with this loop going on, you're like planning your attack. What happens in your body?

SHAWN STEVENSON: You feel the feelings.

Cynthia Garcia: Right? Your adrenaline is going and you're like, "Let's go. Let's go, Angie." And so, that's an example of your mind not knowing that Angie is not there and you're not about to throw it out, right? Like, in your head, you're ready to go and so your body responds appropriately. Your mind is like, yeah, this is really happening, let's respond to that. So the same is true for these stories. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, it just has to be different. So I'm just going to go with, my mom was a great mama and she was going to surprise me with this dress late and that's why she said no. Well now, what emotions do I feel? Well, happiness, love, I feel cared for. So the belief as it existed before that this isn't for me, this is for other people, it can exist, because again, a belief is an equation, an event that happened, the explanation, and the emotion. So if the explanation is changed and the emotion is different, all that's left is an event where my mom said no to me wanting a new dress. You see how that works?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

Cynthia Garcia: So now there's no more story.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And also, if I can throw this in here as well, this is so powerful by the way, but even within an explanation, I'm thinking about a similar scenario and then maybe you change the explanation to being, and this being based on factual occurrence, that happened to me, I was told that this isn't for me so that I can grow myself and have this transformation and to create the opportunity to have those things that I always wanted, that I wouldn't have had that kind of fire had I not had a life of not enough or I'm not enough.

Cynthia Garcia: Right? You're good at this game.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you. Yatzy. I've never played Yatzy before.

Cynthia Garcia: You know.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Oh, no.

Cynthia Garcia: Poor man's Yatzy. Yeah, it's true though. You can give any explanation that you want because remember, it's your story. You're the only one that's decided that it's true, right? And here's another great explanation, and heaven knows, I've used this one from time to time, Maya Angelou used to say, she would say, "Maybe you ain't even in it", you ain't even in it. And this really comes in handy when we go back and we find stories that are really tough to rewrite, Shawn. Like when I go back and I try to rewrite stories around being abused as a child, man, I don't know, how do I explain that? What's the explanation I give for that? And here's what I give, I'm not even in it. It has nothing to do with me, I just happen to be the one that was there. It was all that person and that person had some stuff going on and I can't even begin to know what that was, and it doesn't matter, right? I could dive into psychoanalyzing them and being like, "Well, they were abused when they... " It doesn't matter, that's none of my business. That's nothing, I'm not even in it and that's the explanation and that's enough to set me free from that story so that I can go write a new one. Does that make sense?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah. So it's all in how we decide, it's the meaning that we give to things. I'm telling you, as you go home today, somebody pulls out in front of you, you can lose your mind and you can be like, "You son of a feather", whatever you want to do. Or you can be like, "Wow, I hope that guy's family is okay and there's not an emergency going on." You get to choose in every moment. Once you rewrite your story, that brings us to the why in the story, which is your new identity. Your identity. Identities are so powerful and they really do run our lives. So, as I said earlier, we make up these stories, like I made up a story, I'm not special. That becomes my identity. And my identity for a long time was this poor girl, again, from the Appalachian mountains who wasn't very educated, whose own family didn't like her, which means, how could anyone else? That was my identity for a long time. It's not anymore and you get to choose.

So, when you go back to where you're stuck, meaning, and we said we want more money, who would the person that has the money that you want, how would they act? How would they show up every day? Would they sleep in? Would they get up and eat some Cheerios? Would they Netflix for a couple of hours? Would they be on Instagram or another app? Probably not. They're probably up and they're probably about their business. So you create a new identity, and again, the beauty is you get to choose, no one tells you "No, you can't be that." Some examples of identities like Kobe Bryant, Black Mamba, Muhammad Ali, when he was in the ring, he was the king of the world. That was his identity. Remember when Beyonce created Sasha Fierce? Eminem created Slim Shady, I'm on a music kick right now, but we do this, we create these identities, and then what did all of these people do? They acted as if that's who they were. You know, I'm sure when Kobe went home, he wasn't like, mama to this little baby.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right.

Cynthia Garcia: He was Kobe, he was dad, he was... You know? But on the court, he was very much that identity, and so you get to choose, choose your new identity and then act as if, feel as if. You have to show up, like surround yourself as if you already have the money that you say you want or the relationship or whatever it is, because that will, of course, bring that in. And the other thing that people get caught up on is, how? How do I get the money? How do I get healthy, Shawn? I've tried this thing, how? When you shift your identity and you just become the person that has the money that you want or has the body or the health, it's amazing, your mind will open to new thoughts, ideas, programs, products that you wouldn't have even thought about before because that wasn't the identity. Maybe you weren't resourceful before in your identity and now you are. So all these new options about the how, all of a sudden, appear before you, and then you get to choose.

SHAWN STEVENSON: This is straight facts. I don't... This is so right to the point, I'm so grateful that you created this in the story, this acronym is freaking amazing.

Cynthia Garcia: Thanks.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And just as an affirmative point, literally, when I was at the lowest point of my life, health is just a total mess, the so-called incurable condition. I chose, after being told that this is not possible multiple times, I made a decision to get well, and when I made the decision, it was with so much emotion because I was just done. And what happened within the next couple of weeks is nothing short of what would seem like a miracle. But what really happened was I started to see all the opportunities and all the things that were already around me and available that I simply was not tuned into, so it wasn't a matter of me forcing myself to do something new at that point, my identity shifted to somebody who's going to do whatever it takes to be as healthy as possible. My goal, which I didn't put... Articulate it clearly, but I really felt like I want to be one of the healthiest people on earth, that my story is going to... The pendulum is going to swing to the other direction. And so this is so real, it's so simple, but I think that that simplicity is why folks might overlook how powerful it is.

Cynthia Garcia: It's simple, it's not always easy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: There you go.

Cynthia Garcia: Right?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

Cynthia Garcia: When you said "Decide," that's such a key term. We act like we decide, but we don't. To decide literally means to cut off any other option. So when you decided, you actually decided. You said, "I'm going to shift my identity from this person who has no hope, can't get better, to the healthiest person in the world, one of the healthiest persons in, or people, in the world." And you did that, you completely shifted the way you saw yourself, only because you cut off every other option, you changed the way... And then you showed up and acted as if you were already that person. And what happened? You've now become that person. Now, I say it's simple because it is. I just gave you the work, anyone can do it. But it's not always easy because we have to go back to these places where we made these beliefs, where we first formed these beliefs, and sometimes, that can be painful. And here's the key to that, and I've had to learn this for myself, is you don't have to get down in it and wallow in the transformation to experience change. Oftentimes, we think that we have to go on these big journeys and have these down-and-out moments, and that's just not true.

A lot of us do hit rock bottom. You did with your health, I did with my health, and everything changes, but it really doesn't have to be that way. We don't have to get caught up in the story. I like to say that we bring along the twins, oftentimes, during transformation, drama, and trauma, and we don't have to. We can find a babysitter, we can leave those fellas at home. You don't have to get all in it, you really can just be logical.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, and speaking of logical, this is a big reason I wanted to have you here, is that logically there's a lot of turbulence happening in the world today, and my inbox is flooded with individuals reaching out who are not, on their own accord, necessarily feeling like the career that they chose for their lives, that they might have invested 10, 20, 30 years into, being an educator, being a coach of high school or football or college football team or a nurse or physicians, are all in my inbox right now because they're being forced to make a decision about their own bodies and what they want to do with themselves medically, and they find themselves in a very difficult situation where they're just like, "I don't know what else to do." And so you were the number one person that I thought about because you know what it's like to be in a similar situation, but also, you've helped so many people who've been in positions like that to not only understand that this is not the end of the story, but there's a much better chapter ahead, and this is opening up the possibility. So this goes back to that principle of every challenge, in essence, being pregnant with opportunity. And so let's talk a little bit about that now, especially for folks who are, right now, experiencing... Can you talk about the great resignation, for example? Let's talk a little bit about that first.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, I'd love to. And even before that, I just want to say that, look, none of us can control the cards we're dealt, we just can't. In any given moment, things happen, but we can always choose how to play the hand, and I think that's the opportunity right now, is we all get to choose. And yes, there's this thing right now called The Great Resignation, and what's happening is millions of people, not just in the US, but across the globe, are resigning. They're leaving careers that don't fulfill them, they're leaving careers that don't give them meaning. When we went on lockdown and the whole world changed and people were at home, we talked about earlier how they had that chance to be alone with themselves, to really question, "Who am I? What am I doing with my life? And furthermore, what do I want to do with this one life?" At the end of the day, look, life is too short to do work you don't love with people you don't like for less than your worth and that is just the truth, you deserve better than that. And people all over the globe are waking up to that. The other interesting thing that happened is millions of people have become entrepreneurs, they're starting their own business, they're doing it on their own terms, they're taking back control, because they're saying, "Look, no one is going to regulate how I can or can't show up for work."

Never again will my income and my family's well-being be in the hands of someone else where I could lose that job at any given moment. And so people really are taking a stand for themselves and rising up. You hear about it all the time, restaurants are closing not necessarily because of COVID, but because they can't find workers to show up and do the job. 'Cause people are like, "No, I'm not doing that." Lyft is doing the same thing. If you look at their prices, it's like surge pricing all day because they can't find drivers to do the work, 'cause people are like, "No, I want to do something that actually matters in the world." So it's a super exciting time.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, yeah, to say the least. And it's just, again, changing the channel on our perspective about those things. And a big part of my mission, and I know yours is as well, and why we're here, collaborative, in this moment, is that, obviously, our world has shifted so much as a result of something that appears to be a health issue, that's what the foundation is supposed to be. Of course, it's kind of mutated into something other than, but at the end of the day, it is our health as a society that has just been this gaping wound this entire time that hasn't been getting addressed prior to any of this happening, and it won't get addressed unless we do something about it. And so I've really been galvanized the past year-plus to create that army of change, of change agents, who are the ones who are going to transform the health of our community. And to do that, we need to tap into our passion, our education around these things, and also how can we create a sustainable livelihood doing the thing that we're passionate about?

Cynthia Garcia: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you know more about this than anybody that I know and creating... Putting so much into creating an entity so magnificent, and also, so... It has so much... It's addressing the number one thing, which is we can learn about... We can get on Dr. Google and learn some things about nutrition. You could pick up some amazing books Eat Smarter,  to learn about nutrition, but how do you turn that into a sustainable livelihood when we're educated for years on things that are largely superficial, 99... For most of us, 99% of it, we never use, and we're not taught how to be successful, even if we pick up skills in this particular thing. I had collegiate nutritional science classes, I wasn't taught, how do you actually sustain your livelihood by teaching and helping people with this thing? And that's what you've created.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, look, I'm right there with you. I was trained in Clinical Nutrition, and I thought, "Well, if I just put up a sign, they'll come" and I did, and they didn't. I was like, "Oh, I'm still broke. I don't... How am I going to deal with this now?" So I hear you. And the other thing, just to touch on what you said about physical, like our physical health being at the core of this, I think a lot of people saw, it's not just our physical health, it's our mental health. We've talked about that a little bit today, but it's not even just physical and mental, it is our spiritual health. How are you feeding yourself mentally, how are you feeding yourself spiritually, with your relationships, the purpose, the meaning of your existence? Why are you here? What are you doing with your life? And I think a lot of us, again, realized that "Oh, we need more than food. Food alone won't fix this." Food and exercise and diet, it's great. You should eat smarter, you should sleep smarter, you should do all of those things. And yet, I kind of think of it, Shawn, like a three-legged stool.

So three legs, physical nutrition, mental nutrition, spiritual nutrition. If one of those is short, you're going to be a little wobbly. And for most of us, a lot of us, that leg is just missing altogether. So we're not balanced, is what I'm trying to say. And so I think that's important just to mention, that it's not just the physical health, it's the mental and the spiritual as well. And you're right, when it comes down to being able to do what you're passionate about, I think that's great. And for you and for me, it's health, it's nutrition, it's life, it's living life. But how do you make a successful career out of it? And I think that's where a lot of people get lost and they get hung up, 'cause they're like, "Gosh, I want to do what you do, Shawn, that's like the coolest. I want to help people, I want to make my life matter, I want to leave a legacy, I just want to have meaning every day, I want to feel like I'm here for a reason, but I don't know how to make money. I don't know how to run a podcast and I don't know how to start a... I've never started a business.

I don't even know any entrepreneurs, and so... And then we stop because we tell ourselves these stories because I don't know anyone, I can't. And that's just not true.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Especially at a time like this, we have the opportunity to surround ourselves with people who have that knowledge base. Literally, you don't have to go through our combined 40 years in this field.

Cynthia Garcia: Stop talking.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Its nuts. But also from people who are altruistic but also have the results at the end of the day. There's a lot of talking heads that people see on the media who are posing as people who have this ultimate guide to what health is going to be, how to get us there. And just for me, I'm a big proponent of looking at the track record. How many people are we actually helping to get healthy, how many people are we actually helping to not need, fill in the blank, medication? How many people are we actually helping to tap into their greatness and start to collectively pour into our society? Because as we've shared bits of our stories, hurt people hurt people, and it's a big part of the reason I do what I'm doing this work today, and I'm doing what I'm doing, is that I know the best way to transform our society is to start raising better humans.

Cynthia Garcia: Say it again, just seriously, say it again. And transforming the ones that are already here. Because if hurt people hurt people, then healed people heal people, and that's what we need. Listen, we have seen a lot in the last, what, year and a half, two years, I don't know, I've lost track, we've seen things like gender identity issues, we've seen racial concern, we've seen a lot of people hurting. There's a lot of pain out there, and there's a lot of healing that needs to be done. And I believe this is the way you do it, you heal physically, you heal mentally, you heal spiritually, and then you help other people do the same. And so what we do at the Institute of Transformational Nutrition is just that, we teach physical nutrition, mental nutrition, and spiritual nutrition. And better than that, we teach it into a system that anyone can sit down and deliver to someone else. A coach can deliver this to a client and see a real transformation in that person physically, mentally, and spiritually. Like I told you, I love frameworks, so that's all... The only way I can get my crazy head around things.

I just shared with you, the story, the Stuck Story coaching method. It's really simple, and you just go through it step by step. Now, you can take that, you can teach Anne, you can teach your children and then they can do it. And we do the same thing at ITN for our coaches. Because what I see, and stop me if I go on a tangent here, but I get turned up about this, what I see a lot of people doing in the field of coaching is not coaching, it's cheerleading, or it's consulting. Most people want to show up and help other people, especially with health, but they think, "Well, I don't know everything. What if they ask me a question and I don't know? Shawn, he knows, he's the expert, but I don't know everything." They're afraid that they won't be able to help people. And so what we did... And that's the worst. Think about as passionate as you are about health and you thought you couldn't help someone, that's just knife to the heart stuff. So what we did was we created a system where there's no guesswork. We have a form on the front end, we understand what's going on on the back end, we have what we call a decoder, and it creates protocols that are automatically done for you. Our coaches give it to them, the clients get results and that's why our coaches are the highest paid, the most respected with the most accredited school because we get people the results that they've been longing for so long with no guesswork.

The other thing is building a business. Again, I didn't come from a background of entrepreneurs or business... I didn't know anything about anything, and I had to figure it out. And you did too. When we were coming up, there was no courses that you could take on Teachable. Like Skillshare, that was just not a thing, the internet didn't even exist the way we have it, and so we've had to figure it out. And so again, what we do at ITN, because of my system head, we put into a six-step business-building blueprint that you go through step by step by step, and the first step is your mindset, it's the stories you tell, because if you don't get those out of the way... I can tell you how to write best-selling books, you can too, we've done it. I can tell you how to get on TV, you can too, we've done it.

I can tell you all of those things, but if you still have this underlying story running, it's not going to matter, you're going to self-sabotage every single time. So anyway, I'm going on and on here, 'cause I get so excited about this, because, yes, people have these big dreams, they want to make their life matter, they want to have a career where they get paid what they're worth and do work that they love, but it seems impossible. And I'm here to tell you that it isn't and that you absolutely can do it. And you're right, I've trained tens of thousands of coaches on this same method, so... Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, I believe that this time and I shared this with you, everything that we've done thus far in our careers have led to this moment right now and being able to uplift and support this next generation of coaches, of healers, of game-changers, to write the books, to do the speeches, to do the... To change Media. And this is offering us such a great opportunity, but we've got to step into it. And so another really remarkable thing, and this is a true story, just being around you and ITN, this is where we've collected some of the people who are closest in our lives, for me personally, and Craig on our team right now...

Cynthia Garcia: I was just thinking of him.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Who's listening to this review, and he's like, "He's talking about me." ITN. Craig's a student from ITN. And my wife's best friend, Jelisa.

Cynthia Garcia: Jelisa, yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: We met her at ITN's event when I came out there, and it's just... You just are a magnet for amazing people. And the teachers themselves...

Cynthia Garcia: Oh my gosh.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. There's nothing else like it. So whether it's in the domain of nutrition, whether it's in the domain of somebody is wanting to write a best-selling book or to create a top podcast, you get to hear, "Hello" from those voices who can actually tell you how these things are done because truly, it is a formula. And the great thing about it at the end of the day... Because you might think, "Well, I don't have whatever it takes." I promise you do, I promise you do.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And that's the great thing about this time today, is that there is no one else like you who's ever existed before in human history, that's your unique gift already, and we talk about how to bring that out, bring that forward. And so we're actually, again, being that we want to help to... Truly, transformation right now of our society, we can't keep outsourcing this to other people to fix this thing, it's up to us.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, we tried, it's not working. I don't know if you all have noticed.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right, just look at the results. And so this is why we're going to be doing a meet-up coming up here soon. And I want everybody to run, don't walk, run right now, reserve your spot for this very special meet-up. I'll give you the URL, it's themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol, themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol. You get to hang out with Cynthia and I live. Can you tell them a little bit about what we're going to be doing?

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, so first of all, take control.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes.

Cynthia Garcia: Wow, take control, I love it. Yeah, pull over if you're driving, whatever you need to do. Grab your seat. Yeah, so we're going to be walking people through, how do you take back control after what we've been through? And not just now, but for your future, for your family's future, for your loved one's future, how do you become that change that you're tired of complaining about, wishing someone would do something about it? Well, I had a coach one time tell me this, and I'll say it here, she said to me, "You're as much as somebody as anybody." So if you're looking for that change, be the change that you want to see, right? So we're going to be talking about all of that, we're going to be talking about physical, mental, spiritual nutrition, we're going to be walking people through how they can create the life of their dreams, the career of their dreams. It's this really cool exercise, we time travel in it. You can hop in a DeLorean, it's super fun. And then we're going to be talking about, what are the keys to success in this field in a way that's simple, where you're not burning out or spending all day on Instagram or losing all your relationships in the process.

So it's just a real value-packed conversation that we just want to get some people together and talk about the change in the world and how they can be a part of that.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, and we're going to be sharing something special with you, and I've decided I'm not going to tell them what it is.

Cynthia Garcia: You did? Okay.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, and you're not going to hear about it anywhere else. This is exclusive for the Model Health Show audience. So again, go to themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol. It's coming up super soon. You've only got a few days to get registered, so do that today. This is our time to actually make change happen. And just have an opportunity to have you as a friend and an inspiration, when you're talking about the wobbly stool of life, but you got to address all these things, physical, mental, spiritual health, it made me think about the tables at the Dodgers game we just went to.

Cynthia Garcia: Oh my gosh, stop talking.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They were literally like sideways.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, one of us had to hold the table while the rest of us were eating. We had to take turns.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It was an adventure, to say the least, we had a great time. First time we ever saw, I know me first hand, and I've watched countless hours of baseball, but three people ran onto the field...

Cynthia Garcia: That was crazy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They had a coordinated thing...

Cynthia Garcia: They did.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They were red... But the security guards...

Cynthia Garcia: They weren't playing.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They prepared their entire life for that moment, they were going to beat the crap out of these people, so it was an adventure, to say the least, and we got to hang out and connect and also talk about what we're going to be doing for all of our amazing audience here at the Model Health Show, so really, really excited about what's coming up.

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah. You know it's interesting, I feel like right now, you said now is the time. Even talking about these three people who were all on three different parts of the field and they had signs that they were holding up and they were just... I've never seen that either. But here's the thing, we're just at a point now where people are like, "Why not? Why not? I have something to say. And if I have to run onto the field at Dodger Stadium and just get body-slammed for saying it, I'm going to say it, I'm going to do it." I think that so many of us have this passion right now, and we see just how short and how precious and fragile life is, and there's a lot of us who see things in the world that are like, "That ain't right, and I'm going to use my voice and my life to make it right, or at least, try. I'm going to be showing up, they'll know I was there." And that's what's so cool about, again, this time that we live in, is we have those opportunities. And your audience is lucky because they have people like you who've been that leader and continue to be that leader for them. And I know we're not going to spoil any surprises, but if they just knew how much of a leader and how you're about to come through for them and really show up, like, wow, it's next level. I'm going to get a little teary-eyed 'cause it's so powerful.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Let's go, let's go. Again, themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol. You are truly... Again, you're one of my favorite humans.

Cynthia Garcia: Thanks.

SHAWN STEVENSON: We have debated many times, trying to figure out, do we actually have the same parents?

Cynthia Garcia: I know.

SHAWN STEVENSON: We've never seen each other's parents, so who knows? But...

Cynthia Garcia: I'm a little... I'm the light version of you. You took all the melanin.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I've got the melanin from... And again, two days apart, come on, it's like it's a little spooky, but...

Cynthia Garcia: Yeah, DNA test.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know what's so funny? At the game, when we were talking about what we're going to be doing coming up, literally, someone hit a home run.

Cynthia Garcia: That's right.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Do you remember that? It was like, "What? Sign."

Cynthia Garcia: Man, the universe was talking to us that night.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And when we were talking about the negative force, some other stuff, that's when the nuts ran on the field. And just everything went crazy, just like, "What sign." So doubling down on giving, doubling down on service, doubling down on compassion, doubling down on education and integrity, all the things. And you represent that, and I appreciate you so much.

Cynthia Garcia: Thank you for saying that, and thank you for being my friend and for seeing that I do matter. I appreciate you so much. And really, truly, Shawn, for you, it's not like you came from a silver spoon in your mouth and you have quite the story. And for someone to come from where you came from and to be this leader, you have changed so many lives and will continue. You don't even know the people's lives that you've impacted, there are stories you'll never hear, there are people's lives you've saved that you'll never know, just because you decided, this is my time, and it was worth it to you and you just cast the fear and you showed up for yourself. So I just think it's great that you're such... It's not just you showing up and saying the words, you're living this life, and it's just so, so special. So it's a pleasure to be your friend.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Aww, I feel 10x the same about you. And we've got some awesome stuff coming up, everybody. Again, go to themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol, a hangout with Cynthia and I, coming up super soon. So go and do that right now. I appreciate you so much, Cynthia.

Cynthia Garcia: Thank you, Shawn.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Awesome. Cynthia Garcia, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I hope you got a lot of value out of this. This is the time to take control, there's so much at stake, and the power is in our hands. Again, this special meet-up is coming up on October 18th, alright, so it's just a few days away from when this is getting released. October 18th, 2021, you do not want to miss it. Go to themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol. We got some powerful epic episodes coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please, make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much. And take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.