Violaine: Good evening everyone, and welcome to this recorded interview.
Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Michelle, a Level 3 personal trainer, sports massage therapist, nutrition consultant, sports injury and rehabilitation specialist.
Michelle brings over 20 years of experience in empowering individuals to achieve optimal fitness, health, and performance, as well as overcoming stress and recovering from injuries and illnesses. Her experience spans multiple disciplines including human physiology, exercise physiology, biomechanics, holistic nutrition, and mind-body well-being.
I'm sure she will have more to say! In today's interview as we explore and discuss the optimal diet for the human species.
Michelle, Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm very much looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
So, please, to get right into it, would you please introduce yourself, tell us where you're from, your background, what you do, your areas of expertise, and your passion?
Michelle X: Thank you so much for that lovely introduction, and thank you for having me on your beautiful show. Yes, I hope to bring some knowledge and insight into the lovely world of holistic health and well-being. I am Michelle, as you mentioned, and I'm from the UK. It’s sunny at the moment, but who knows how long that will last!
Over the years, I have run holistic fitness centers, classes, and retreats for people on a journey of health, happiness, and healing. I’ve now taken that online to be a holistic health and well-being coach, covering all aspects of interlinking the mind, body, and self for optimal health, performance, and well-being.
Needless to say, we can live in joy, happiness, and abundance, free from any anxieties, regrets, and fears that may arise.
Today, we hope to give you some tools to help along the way, as well as answer any questions that may come up regarding holistic health and well-being. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I love anything to do with health and well-being.
Even in my free time, you’ll find me exercising and discussing food and the mind with other beings. The mind plays a huge role in the stresses we face, and we’ll touch on those aspects today as well, especially in terms of how to handle stress as it arises.
That’s a broad overview of what I do as a coach, and also what I enjoy doing in my spare time.
Violaine: Thank you, Michelle, for such a detailed introduction. I’d love to hear what you have to say about the mind and its role in maintaining a healthy body and diet.
One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is all the popular diets we hear about nowadays like the Paleo diet, Keto diet, Carnivore diet, Vegetarian, Vegan, and fasting. Despite the trends, it’s easy for people to get misled. With your experience, what do you believe is the optimal diet for a healthy life?
Michelle X: First, let’s address the initial part of your question, which was about trends in the industry. Like any other industry, trends and fashions come and go.
For example, the fashion at the moment is "this" and all the top influencers jump on it because that's where the money is. Followed by media influence and advertising, as these big corporations cash in on what’s popular. Advertising is a multi-million dollar industry that captures people’s minds, making them think, “This must be good if everyone’s talking about it.”
It’s a form of mind control, in a way. Advertisers research the best times to promote their products to capture audiences, whether it’s during lunchtime for food ads or snack ads in the evening. These trends quickly capture attention, but there’s no right or wrong in trying these diets. It’s about your personal experience and finding out what’s best for you.
If you’re interested in fasting or another diet, do your research and see if it resonates with you. But you can only truly know if it’s right for you once you try it for yourself. Every other aspects is just a belief in what others are doing. There is no right or wrong for that either as every beings as such an individual journey.
With any diet transition, remember that there will be a detox period. For instance, switching to a new diet might cause Candida die-off, gut bacteria shifts, and physical symptoms like headaches or skin breakouts as your body adjusts. It doesn’t mean the diet isn’t working; it’s just part of the detox process. The initial weeks can be tough, especially if you’re cutting out caffeine or sugar, as the body experiences withdrawals.
This is not to say, it's not working, it's just a part of the transition that the boday has to go through for detox. And those things absolutly happen with any diets, we have to remember that these deficiencies that may happen are very crucial to be looked out.
Particularly, if you’re cutting out heavily fortified foods from the Western diet, it’s important to monitor your blood work to ensure you’re meeting your vitamin and mineral needs.
Violaine: There’s a lot to unpack here! First, you mentioned the influence of big industries on diets, but I want to point out how this also impacts small-scale nutritionists and influencers.
For example, I know a nutritionist who markets belly fat loss techniques. She’s trying to make a living just marketing that. I know sometimes it may even start in school or educational programs and how we are being taugh, but there’s so much misinformation out there, even among smaller influencers. I am assuming she is very well intented in what she is doing, and believe in it all. When it comes to little businesses and youtube channels, there is just so much information.
What should people consider and key factors to consider before embarking on a diet journey?
Michelle X: When it comes to influencers, even smaller channels on YouTube or Instagram, promoting certain lifestyle, they’re usually sharing from their personal experience. But everyone is different, and that’s why I never use a one-size-fits-all approach. I am looking at: their diet, their lifestyle, their well being, their mental health, their physical health, emotional health, energy. It is such a holistics package.
It’s not as simple as following a fast or a diet and expecting everything to work out. Pre- and post-fasting care, for example, is critical to ensuring the body re-adjusts properly.
Trying to copy someone else’s journey online can sometimes cause harm instead of good, as people don’t realize the importance of individual needs. We need guidance and support, espacially when embarking on anything new, to make informed choices, especially with food. It’s part of a bigger picture that includes managing stress and mental health. And what we are talking about later is the scale of acidity that is really important to keep the body in alignment in a holistic health approach. It's not just looking at diet, or looking at training, or mental health, it's a all emcompassing holistic approach and this is what we do throught our engagement with our community.
Violaine: That’s been my personal experience as well. About four years ago, I transitioned to a vegan diet with your help. Some people don’t always understand why, my grandmother even said I wasn’t eating “normally.” But for me, it’s been about finding what’s optimal for my body.
In my experience, everything becomes interlinked if you go deep in doing your research. And what still motivates me to this day is that the vegan foods are the easiest to process and digest for our bodies. I avoid processed foods and focus on whole foods.
As you mentioned earlier about the acidity part, in my understanding there are more acidic foods that are more damaging to the body vs alkaline foods. Can you speak a bit more about alkaline vs. acidic foods now?
Michelle X: Yes, absolutely. First, I wouldn’t label what you eat as a "vegan diet," but rather a whole foods, living foods approach. You avoid processed foods and focus on fruits, vegetables, and water-rich foods, which your body can easily digest. Your lifestyle would be more refered as a plant based whole foods diet.
Highly processed foods, with preservatives and additives, cause more friction in digestion. Preservatives like sodium benzoate or sodium metabisulfite, and added sugars and salts, create challenges for the body. These chemicals are added to prolong shelf life, but they’re not meant to be in our systems.
When we ingest these preservatives, our body struggles to break down food, which affects nutrient absorption. In contrast, whole foods are easier for the body to process, allowing us to function optimally without added stress on our systems.
This touches on the belly fat discussion. When the body can’t process these chemicals, it stores them as fat, leading to weight gain and health issues.
Whole foods help control weight and overall body function, as they don’t interfere with the body’s natural processes.
We can dive deeper into the meat and dairy industries later, but for now, I want to emphasize how essential it is to say that easily assimilated foods is fruit. It passes through the system very quickly helps to release a lot of things that aren't needed to be there gives us the vital vitamins and mineral content is full of water.
Our bodies are 72% water so why would we want not want to hydrate them? Many beings feel that they're hungry but they're not they're actually thirsty. The hydration level is super important. Then we add sugar and salt to the mix with both of those preservatives and that does even more damage.
When you look at a child that gets given a sweet for instance, hyperactivity goes on for half an hour to an hour and then they get huge mood crash. It's a roller coaster of emotions with highs and lows. They're addicted to sugar because they get given it as a treat.
Our eight and a half year old boy has never had a sweet in his life. He has been on a whole food plant-based diet since I was pregnant with him. How many times has he been to the doctors? Not once! His friends, it's almost every other week, for a ear achee, an infection, a cold, a cough.
This just does not happen in the in the world of whole food.
Do you know that saying of "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food"? 100%!!
Violaine: I agree. If you can clarify, I would be interested to hear about the meat because in my mind the meats are among the most acidic food you can eat along with the processed foods and the dairies. All causing a lot of inflammation in the body.
Would you say the misconception about diets is that people don’t understand how different foods affect their bodies?
Michelle X: Yes, in my personal opinion if it's sourced correctly and ethically, 100%.
If there's no health issues that you need healing from, it's not a problem. When we look at the acidity and how the body breaks things down, is that our body likes to be right in the middle, like we spoke of the balance of every system no matter what system.
It is in our body to work for us to get us back in alignment.
If we eat something that's highly acidic, highly processed and our body has to work so hard for a lot of hours to break it down, where our blood is going straight to the stomach because the digestive system comes first and on a such heavy meal, our body just want to rest.
On the contrary, if we've had a fruit juice or a quick source of glycogen, glucose which our body thrives on, what do you want to do? Get up, maybe a little dance?
If we look at terms of the processing the body has to do, when we have foods that are easily assimilated the blood will do its job, process the food and then be freed up straight away to work on other things.
This is why I say to beings to have a light meal in the evening, if at all.
Around 6:00pm and if you're going to bed at 10pm, your body can process it easily, ready for a night of interrupted sleep.
If their body is still digesting food and they've given a highly processed or a lot of energy to the body at the time when they need to rest so what we're doing is we're actually keeping the body and the mind active when we should be calming down.
Violaine: Yes this is the whole idea that I'm living a by is to get most easly digested food for my body to process. That way my body can then regenerate in others area that may need help. This is how I explain it to people.
For everybody listening, would you say there is a principal misconception that most people would would hear about about diets or different types of diet? What would you say to my grandmother, who believes I’m not eating “normally”?
Michelle X: I always approach it with logic. When people hear a logical explanation, it’s hard to disagree. I tell them I want my body to perform at its best, and I’ve learned from my own experience that eating “normal” foods doesn’t help me achieve that.
I haven’t had to visit the doctor in years, and my son, who’s been on a whole food, plant-based diet since birth, has never needed a doctor’s visit. He excels in all his activities and is in excellent health, which is rare among his peers.
That’s how I approach it with family members. I explain that what we put into our bodies directly impacts our health and that I’ve seen the results firsthand.
I love my body to be at its optimal performance, 100%, of the time and if I went to have those normal foods that my grandmother would say are normal, I wouldn't get optimal performance out of this vessel.
I've been there and I've done that. I've had to pick up the pieces from that and now 12 years down the line, for these 12 years I've been the same I've not had to have any interactions with my GP, I've not had to sit there and have the common cold every three or four times a year.
What you put in, you get out, and what you give out gets reciprocated back to you as you had mentioned.
When sourced in an ethical way in which the animal is not in suffering, we look at what happens to anyone's body. When in fight or flight mode adrenaline and cortisol rises very highly into the muscles. The animal is scared which it would be in situations of horrific conditions at the time of death, all of those hormones will go to the muscles. What we eat out of those animals are the muscles, therefore it gets transferred into our food, we have to then deal with the added cortisol and adrenaline.
If the animal is in nature and is running around unaware that it's going to be hunted... then all of a sudden it's a quick death a painless death. No one is containing it in horrific circumstances there's no pain or suffering to the animal. The animal was free happy well and healthy that meat absolutely will be fine for you to ingest because it's a whole food .
Similar thing to the dairy, I want to just touch on breastfeeding. If we link it to humans first, and then look at the animal kingdom is exactly the same but we're more conscious.
The cow is supposed to be feeding a baby but it's removed from its baby therefore there's pain and suffering there. The baby cow is crying the mother is wanting to produce milk for the baby and yet it's being forced to give the milk to this industry. All the stress hormones of the animal is getting transferred into the milk. Our babies have the milk with the stress hormones and then we wonder why there's a lot of illnesses within children?
Violaine: Yes it was my next question to you: the dairy part because the example I gave my grandma when she asked me the question, and that goes back when I was 18 years old. Even my mom told me back then; do you ever see a baby cat go have milk from a lion mother or do you see a baby goat go to a cow for milk. Humans are not designed to have milk I think past the childhood ever.
All of this has another huge part to play in the balance the body.
This has been a fantastic conversation so far. Thank you for sharing your insights. Let’s continue discussing how diet, mind, and body work together for optimal health.
...stay tuned for part 2!
Important links to reach out to Michelle:
Website: xfamunity.com
Instagram: @xfamilyunity
YouTube: Josh X
email address for the transformation: the6weektransformation@gmail.com
FOR ONE ON ONE TRANSFORMATIVE TIME WITH JOSH OR MICHELLE VIA ZOOM CONSULTATION
xfamunityconsultations@gmail.com