Summary:
In this episode, Megan Lyons interviews Ali Elman, an entrepreneur who turned to health and wellness after a health crisis. All shares her story of struggling with gut issues for years, which eventually led to a severe health scare and emergency surgery. This experience prompted her to prioritize her health and become a health coach. All emphasizes the importance of small, consistent changes over drastic, unsustainable ones. She discusses how she began incorporating simple, yet impactful habits into her daily routine, such as starting her day with water and lemon instead of coffee. Ali believes that these small simple health habits, when practiced consistently, can lead to significant improvements in overall health and well-being.
Full Episode:
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Transcription:
Megan Lyons: Thank you so much, Ali Elman, for coming on Wellness you way. I am super excited to have you here today.
Ali Elman: Thank you so much, Megan. I am excited as well. This is a real treat for me.
Megan Lyons: As is it for me. And I’ve read your very impressive bio to the audience, but I’d love to hear, just in your words, a little bit about you and how you got into this line of work.
Ali Elman: All right, well, I’ll try to keep it high level. So as many of us have long stories. But so essentially, I’ve been a businesswoman, an entrepreneur for since my 20s. I’m 44 now, and I have two children. You know, along the path of growing businesses and having a relationship, getting married, having children, I, you know, kind of, I’d say, put my health a little bit on the back burner. I certainly thought that I was leading what I would consider a healthy life while balancing everything, which is nearly impossible, as most of us know. But I had struggled for a long time with gut issues. And really, it got to a point about two years ago where those issues I couldn’t ignore anymore and unfortunately ended up in the hospital. Hospital. I had collapsing intestines, which we think was probably from a lot of scar tissue and inflammation. Turns out I have ulcerative colitis, and that was undiagnosed for many years. So, you know, to make a very long story short, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it out of the hospital. By the time I got in there, it was an emergency surgery. And I really prayed. I was just like, I have a lot more to do in my life, so I really got to make it through this. And I was lucky enough to. To do that and to leave the hospital. And when I left the hospital, I knew that I was going to change career paths. I had wanted to do this for a long time. My father was a doctor at one point. I was a bio major before switching to business. And I knew this was just the sign it was time for me to focus on being more in the health and wellness space. And I signed up to be a health coach literally that week after I got out of the hospital. So, yeah, and I graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, as did you. And I’ve been on this path of growing this business sort of in the background over the last two years.
Megan Lyons: Amazing. It is so common, unfortunately, and fortunately, that those of us health practitioners have been through some kind of health journey on our own. And even though I certainly wish you didn’t have to go through that I know it makes you stronger as a practitioner. You’ve been in a place where your health felt out of reach and you have taken control of your health. You are a walking model of health. No one is perfect at health, but the way that you prioritize yourself and your health is truly impressive. And some of that we’ll dive into today.
Ali Elman: Well, thank you, Meghan. It is, I think that it was just a perspective shift, which was that it is a gift to be able to do that every day. And I just made it a non negotiable priority that now just feels integrated with my life.
Megan Lyons: Yes. That’s incredible. And a great segue into some of the strategies that I know you can help our audience with. Hopefully they’re not dealing with a crisis where they’re in the hospital wondering if they’re going to get out, but it can still feel overwhelming. It’s like, where in the world do I start? They probably have some idea of what perfection is way down the road, but it just doesn’t really feel in their reach. And you do such a great job of promoting these small, intentional habits. Why do you think small shifts are so important?
Ali Elman: So I feel like over the many, many years, and many of us have done this, we make these big promises to ourselves, especially, you know, we’re coming off of New Year’s and a lot of these big New Year’s resolutions, those have never worked for me in the past. And it took a big realization to just go, okay, well, like these, whatever it was, I, okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna work out, you know, seven days a week, I’m going to eat only vegan or I’m going to, you know, go on a 10 day cleanse. Whatever these things are, they’re, they’re fine to have these big goals, but what really matters is these little changes every single day. Yes. I was given the gift of sort of like this clean slate in some weird way. When I had my intestines removed, I really had to take a good look at the things I could do to remove inflammation in my body as naturally as possible. So I just kind of started slowly. I, I thought, okay, it’s saying, you know, get rid of coffee if you can. Right. Because it, it’s, it can be really harsh on the gut. I, I realized that of course, you know, stress is something that we’re never going to get rid of. We have to just be resilient to it.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: But I really had to start removing certain things in my life that were unnecessarily. Causing stress. I had to look at that. When I say that, that means, like, saying yes to everything. So those are little. Little things. Like, I started realizing I really had to lubricate my gut in the morning. So the first thing I’m doing, instead of drinking any. Any caffeinated beverage, which I really don’t do a lot of anymore anyway, just water and then, you know, lemon water. These are little things over time that really add up, because what I realized was that first hour when you wake up, can determine how you sleep at night. And, you know, before, I was just thinking about big goals and big things instead of, how can I change these little habits even in the morning, to set myself up to feel better throughout the day and to sleep better. It was just a mindset shift, and it took time. And for somebody who is struggles with perfectionism. Okay, so I. There is.
Megan Lyons: I hear you.
Ali Elman: Yeah. I’m gonna say right now to anyone listening, like, I am not perfect. I. It ebbs and flows. And do I have an espresso every once in a while? Absolutely. And that should be okay if your body isn’t screaming at you. If you’ve gotten it to a good point, like, by all means, don’t stress about the little things that you do here and there. Yeah. Maybe don’t fit into that perfectionism idea. But little habits that have added up massively. I just started to think, why am I telling myself I need. I need to hit the gym hard seven days a week? Why am I not just saying, move your body. Move, move every day? So I. When I just started thinking about, what does the movement look like? Okay, what does my day look like? How can I move? Is it a yoga class? Is it a walk? Whatever it is, I. I just. Everything, really. It was a perspective shift. It wasn’t just, okay, I’m. Now, today I’m gonna make these small habits. It was that I realized after researching what I needed to do to reduce the inflammation, it wasn’t gonna be some fad that happened. Like, you know, it wasn’t gonna be some quick fix. It was really gonna come over time. And so I dedicated myself to making those small shifts over time.
Megan Lyons: That’s incredible. I’d love to dive into two of those things that you said. We’ll go in reverse order. So we’ll start with the exercise. I know there are people listening who, they’ve seen ads for whatever fitness studio, and it’s like, super intense, super hardcore, and they tell you to go seven days a week, 365 days a year. And they have really fit people. Or maybe they know a friend who goes 365 days a year and, and that person is really fit. Their mind is now saying, okay, rationally, I hear Allie and she says, just go for a walk and that’s gonna be better than nothing. But I’m still in this all or nothing mentality. I still feel like I can’t get myself to just go for that walk if I’m not doing seven days a week of crazy intense exercise. Even if I know Ally’s right. How do you suggest they actually get started with just adding movement into their day?
Ali Elman: That’s a great question. I think that we, as our culture, it just, it’s embedded in our culture that it’s all or nothing. We go hard or we don’t go at all.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: I lived that way for so long and I can just say from experience that it’s going to head you right down the path of burnout.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: Right. So when you’re thinking I gotta hit it hard or nothing, it’s, it’s not it again. It’s a mindset shift of how can my body move today? Like a 20 minute walk is really powerful. Yeah. Just start with 10 minutes, start with 20 minutes. Start with jumping jacks in your house. It doesn’t matter. Anything that gets your blood pumping or gets your body moving, it can be anything. It doesn’t have to be all out. If that feels good to you, sometimes awesome, like, great. But everybody’s at different points and everybody needs a different set of resistance or, you know, a different stress level. Exercise is a form of stress on the body. Right. And if you’re already, you’re, you’re already up here with your stress and you feel like you can barely manage, if you’re adding on all of these really intense workouts, cortisol levels are going to shoot up, you’re going to be even more stressed and your body may not recover. So just take it one step at a time. If you’re going from sedentary to just moving, that’s a, that’s a step in the right direction. Like literally it is. Yes. Um, it doesn’t have to be all of this, you know, intense stuff and it’s really hard because it’s all we see in our feed. It’s, it’s in, it’s extreme diets or it’s extreme movement all the time.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: And I, I will tell you right now that I was that person.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: And since shifting things just naturally, my weight came off that I had been Trying for years to like, oh, I just got to lose, you know, whatever. In my head, I felt like I had to. I’ve lost way more weight than I ever even planned on without thinking about it. Just by thinking, I have to move today or I want to move today. I get to move today. I get to move today. Yeah. So just, just start where you’re at. Little, little tiny things.
Megan Lyons: That’s incredible. And you said our feeds are all full of that stuff. Well, they don’t have to be, because your Instagram page is full of really beautifully simple. How about that? They’re. They’re appealing ideas. They are well photographed and alluring ideas, but they’re not super complex. And that is exactly what people need. So I highly recommend people follow you. We’ll put your Instagram link in the show notes. One of those things that you feature is healthy cooking fodder or material. I’d love to start diving into this cooking at home thing. What are some of the simplest strategies you have if someone is just starting to cook a little more at home?
Ali Elman: Yeah. So I, I want to say too quickly that probably the thing that has been the most impactful for me and my health is getting back to the kitchen.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: Even though before I was like, oh, I’m. I’m eating a salad for lunch, I’m ordering a salad, you know, changing that around and making, I. I really make, I’d say 85 to 90% of what I eat. And that has been huge for my health. I would say the first thing is to just take a deep breath and know, again, it doesn’t have to be perfect. So you start with what you know you like to cook and look at the ingredients and think, are these simple, healthy ingredients that I. That are whole. So if, if you’re just even starting from, from never really cooking and looking at your pantry, you just want to strip back the junk, strip back anything that you know really is processed. Right. So you want to have good, healthy fats, high quality olive oil, good salts. Himalayan sea salt is one of my favorites. Or Celtic sea salt. Sea salt, a good pepper. Like, keep it simple. Get a couple herbs, like dried or fresh, it doesn’t really matter. Just start there. And if you know that you like something, I think people should start with what they like because they’re more likely to then get excited about it instead of telling someone, all right, you’ve got to cook something that you just don’t even know.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: You know, what do you like? And how does your body respond to that? If you Know that there’s something that maybe your mom made as a kid that you find comforting and you can make it at home. It’s going to be fairly healthy if you strip it back.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: For me, I’m a big fan of soups because it’s really hard to mess up a soup.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: Everything in a pot. Right. You season it to your taste. If you use good quality salt and olive oil and you don’t even really need broth, you can just add water and the seasoning, you’re going to be okay. Like.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: It’s. You’re going to make a lot of food at once that you can have in your fridge. And that’s also key is just having something available so you’re not, when you’re starving, reaching for something that is maybe a little less healthy for you. And snacks are fine. Who cares? But you know, filling your fridge with whole foods, just apples and, and fruits and things that are just real food. Just start there.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: You don’t. You don’t have to create some vegan chocolate cake. Like, that’s wonderful.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: But just strip it back like. Yes. Just fill your fridge with whole foods and you’re. That’s a good start to cooking. And then play with them and have fun.
Megan Lyons: Yes, have fun. That’s amazing. So I heard some staples, good quality. Salt, pepper, olive oil, some soups with whatever vegetables you have, water or broth, olive oil, salt, maybe some herbs. Amazing. And then keeping some apples or fresh fruit on hand. What are a couple other things that you always have stocked in your kitchen?
Ali Elman: Sure. So I love to cook. So I have. Over time, again, I have built these things up that I know I are. Go to staples for me. I love ghee. I use ghee a lot. It’s really soothing for my gut.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: So you’ll always find ghee. I like to cook with it. It’s a great. It’s a great, like oil alternative because it can withstand high heat. So cooking with ghee, I personally really like. I. You’ll find I have avocado oil as another staple in. In. And coconut oil. You’re always going to find some fresh herbs. I love fresh herbs and I don’t even at this point. I just. If I’m making a salad, I just take fresh herbs and I just throw them right on top.
Megan Lyons: It’s simple.
Ali Elman: You don’t have to make this complex, you know, vinaigrette. If you want to, that’s great. But.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: Take a handful of herbs, put them on top of a salad. A good balsamic and good quality olive oil. And you’re good. Like, I’ve over time replaced my cooking tools with things that are less toxic. So I’m, yeah, I’m a big fan of non toxic cookware. Good non toxic bakeware. I use them all the time because you’re just throwing things in the oven. Another amazing simple tool is to have a crock pot. Throw everything in the crock pot. It’s really hard to mess that up.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: You know, do it at night, press press 10 hours and you’re going to wake up to like a pretty decent smell and probably something really delicious.
Megan Lyons: I totally agree. I’m, I’ve, I’m not a fancy chef for sure. I’ve made hundreds of things in my crock pot and I’ve only made one that was like really not good. But that’s okay. Honestly, I hate wasting food and so it’s my least favorite thing ever. But the truth is that most people listening are fortunate enough that if one meal out of 500 goes awry, well, either you can just eat it and it’s not your favorite and that’s okay, or that’s still less food waste than most people are consuming or producing if they’re eating at restaurants, etc. So it’s still net positive.
Ali Elman: Absolutely. It really is. You’re gonna save money doing this. It sounds overwhelming. And I still love eating out and I still go and eat out. But here’s what I would say. Fall in love with your kitchen.
Megan Lyons: Love that.
Ali Elman: Fall in love with that space again. Get to know it. Open up, open up all the covers. That’s like, really? That’s like the true. It’s like when you go into your closet and you’re like, oh my gosh, I got to do a purge.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: It’s the same thing in your kitchen. There’s stuff that’s been hiding in the back there and you really just go, am I going to use this? Because if, if you have less, but you have better quality, those are the things you’re going to reach for. Those are the things that are front and center instead of stuff that just kind of been sitting in the back that you, you, you know, you probably never eat. There’s something about really falling in love with your kitchen and paying attention to when did I get this spice? Is this like five years old? You know, just. I did a big purge and I felt like I was giving my kitchen like this love and it was giving the love back. It sounds kind of silly, but like, that’s really where I find so much joy is this. Is this idea of nourishing myself and my family in this space. So giving it that attention is a really good start, too.
Megan Lyons: Okay, so let’s dive in there a little more. You say falling in love with your kitchen. What about the person listening who’s like, I hate my kitchen?
Ali Elman: Sure.
Megan Lyons: So they can do the purge, you said. And then the other great tip I heard you say was, think about how you’re nourishing your family and what a gift that is. What are some other things people can do? Maybe it’s like, turn on music or. I don’t know what. What would you say to help them?
Ali Elman: Absolutely. So I understand what it’s like to feel like your kitchen is, like, out of control and unorganized, and it can be a hard step to face it. If you really don’t like your kitchen, then it’s a task. It is like a. All right, I’m gonna. I’m gonna turn this around, and I’m gonna make it a space. Space that I do like. And some tips that I would give are absolutely. I. I like to light a candle in my kitchen. I do put on music, and it’s become more of a meditative place for me. Now, listen, I have kids and dogs and a crazy, busy schedule. So I understand people like, rolling their eyes, like, yeah, right. That can’t be my space. But there will be times in the day you can find for that and even just zoning out. Okay. Let the noise happen around you, but know you’re in your. Your little space, and over time, and it doesn’t have to happen overnight. Most things don’t. You just kind of go, okay, I’m going to think about how I’m going to organize this space to make it easy to be, you know, functional and want. Want to be in lighting candle. Having some. I. I have my orchids in there. I have made it a space that I feel is, you know, pleasant to be in. And here’s the other thing. You will save money over time.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: So when you’re grocery shopping, I never buy anything in a can anymore. If I buy anything that’s preserved, it’s always in a glass jar. Remember, you keep those glass jars, and you can fill. Fill them up with anything that you want. So I. A lot of times will rinse off my veggies and stick them in these glass jars, and you really can kind of make it like an. An art project. And I encourage people to start thinking about it like that. Like, we’re so busy in our lives that We’ve forgotten that the kitchen is like the heart of. Of the, of the home and our health. And, you know, if you look at really what’s going on, most of our health issues are from what we’re putting in our body day to day. Right. And that starts in the kitchen. And so if you can turn that into a sanctuary that you really. You appreciate and respect, it does do wonders mentally, physically, all of it. So that’s really like a big thing that I. That I believe in. Just. I just know from my own experience.
Megan Lyons: Absolutely agree. So you mentioned you’re a busy mom with kids and dogs and a business and all the things.
Ali Elman: Yeah.
Megan Lyons: Do you do a weekly meal plan or do you just make whatever feels good in the moment? How do you tackle it? And then how do you advise people who are not you to tackle it?
Ali Elman: Yeah, so I. I am such. I am a somewhat recovered perfectionist. So a meal plan is actually really not good for. For me because I would then, you know, be spending hours, like, perfecting what the meal plan is. Yeah, I don’t do that. I have about two days a week that I know I’m going to make probably a pretty big mess in my kitchen. One of those days is Sunday, and so I kind of see what we have, what my family is actually feeling like. Sometimes it’ll be like a roasted chicken. So I think, okay, I’m going to roast a chicken tonight, and then I know that on Tuesday I’m going to turn it into a soup, whatever’s left over. So I kind of just do that. So Sundays are like the big mess day, and I make a lot of things. I chop up a lot of stuff, depending on what we’re feeling like, also what’s in season. And then throughout the week, I kind of use those things in other stuff. So I might make a soup or I might throw stuff in salads or, you know, get creative, make out of the chicken that I roast. So it really can stretch. But I. I personally think if you. If you’re a meal plan person, wonderful. But it can sometimes take the creativity and the fun and the flow out of cooking. So I say for me, just. Just have fun. Like, block out the time that you want and need to have fun and just get playful and experiment, and then it’ll kind of dictate the rest of the week. It doesn’t have to be so structured.
Megan Lyons: I love that you said that. I thought you would say that, which is why I asked you. I’m a total meal plan.
Ali Elman: Oops.
Megan Lyons: I’m a Total meal plan person. And I love that. But I for sure don’t think that’s right for everyone. In fact, I bet more people would thrive under the creative approach than the meal plan approach. It really just depends on the person. So thank you for saying that. And so what if someone is like, okay, great, now I totally vibe with that I can make one thing on Sunday and then use that through the rest of the week. You mentioned a roasted chicken. What’s one or two other things you might make on Sunday that you can repurpose?
Ali Elman: Yeah, absolutely. So my family and myself, I’m, I’m a true omnivore, so I do eat everything. Um, so let’s say on Sunday we decide to make like a chili or, or, or a bunch of ground meat. We might take a ground meat and then we use high quality ground meat. We’re really lucky to have access to that from a local, a local ranch. But just do your best. If you like meat, just go with something that’s high quality and I, and I will make a bunch of it at once and I’ll know. Some of it might go into tacos, like beef tacos, and then some of it might go into a stew or a chili. So there’s multipurpose there. You can just throw it on top of a salad as well. So that’s one example. Same thing. If I’m going to make my kids love halibut, I’m lucky that they like fish. So if I’m going to do a seared halibut on Sunday, then I know I can turn that into tacos. I can turn it into multiple things. I throw stuff on salads a lot as well. So it’s just thinking like, how can I multi use anything? And it does save a lot of time. I do work from home, so I have a lot of meals that are just ready to go for me. And I just open, open the fridge and they’re there. And so it’s important for, for me to have that. Otherwise, like, I don’t have the time to stop on most days to cook. And I, again, it’s. If you like to. Some people are like, I don’t want to be creative, but it can be super simple. It’s like, okay, I’m gonna make a roasted chicken, so I can turn that into a couple other things too, right?
Megan Lyons: Yes, absolutely. Okay, so I want to know about some kitchen tools. You mentioned crock pot. I think most people, that’s a great investment because it’s so easy and saves so much time and Helps you develop flavors. You also mentioned some non toxic cookware. Do you like cast iron or ceramic or what’s your non toxic cookware of choice? And then last part of this question is, are there one or two other kitchen tools that you think people would love?
Ali Elman: Yeah, absolutely. I’m just going to mention, just go with a standard crock pot. If you don’t have one already. They’re super affordable. Yeah, the, the insta pot thing, if you like it, great. But I, I think it’s too complicated. So anything for me that’s too complicated, forget it. Like it’s not sustainable. So yeah, go with just a standard simple crock pot for like. Yeah, for cookware. I, I like the caraway line. That’s, that’s the line that I use. I also do have a cast iron that was passed on from my dad and a couple other of those like cast iron cookware that are really kind of family heirlooms at this point. So I use those for certain things in terms of kitchen tools. So a few that I, that I love. Hand, it’s a hand blender and.
Megan Lyons: Oh yeah.
Ali Elman: So you can take any soup quickly in one pot and turn it into a puree. And I love that because it’s less mess. And I want to mention I am by no means a chef either, but I do just like to be in the kitchen. It’s helped me immensely. So just know that I’m not like a professional trained chef. I just have fun. But that’s a really great tool and again it’s, it’s affordable. So you can find them on Amazon. And I think I have a KitchenAid version of it and it was not expensive. So highly recommend that for soups and purees. Another tool that I love that is just, I mean everybody has these. Just a, A shredder. Yeah, I, it’s funny but for me with salads in particular, if you have a hard time breaking down, you know, anything that’s too fibrous, which for me I do. And I, but I love salads. So I had to pivot and think how can I enjoy a salad without it being really tough on my gut? So I shred pretty much all of my, like I’ll shred carrots and cabbage and things like that. So it’s a lot easier for my stomach to break down. Really easy. Just, you just got it. Or a Cuisinart you can use as well for those things. And all those things are affordable, they’re not fancy and it doesn’t take any like training to use them. So I love it.
Megan Lyons: Yeah. Speaking of not fancy, one thing that I love that’s on your blog and on your Instagram is when you highlight some simple foods, like single ingredient foods. You did beets, you did potatoes, you did dates. And so often it’s the fancy, complicated stuff that gets highlighted. I love that you’re going back to the basics. Why do you think we skip over something like beets?
Ali Elman: I think that the humans like to be creative. We’re create, we’re creators, Right?
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: And we like to make food sort of this show. Right. We want to make it sing and dance for us, and it’s become part of our culture. And don’t get me wrong, I love gastronomy. And I think that watching, like, some of these chefs make insane things. Right. That I could never imagine. It’s really fun and entertaining. But when it comes to day to day life. Yeah. I really have to keep it simple. And there’s no reason not to. There’s no reason that you need to take a perfect thing like a date that is already wonderful as it is and turn it into something else just to eat it.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: That is something huge that I really want to get across is like an apple can just be an apple and a date can just be a date. And these are wonderful things on their own. If you want to get creative with it, great. But don’t put the pressure because you’ve seen someone turn it into like some crazy tart. Like. Yes. You don’t need to do that. I. I literally eat dates as they are, and I might add in like a couple Brazil nuts with them. And that’s kind of my morning snack. And that’s perfect as it is. Same thing with dates or with beets. Like, you can buy really great pickled beets and just put some olive oil on them, maybe add some fresh herbs, a little balsamic. You’re good. Like, it doesn’t have to be overly complicated and it’s really nourishing and cleansing for you. So don’t. I mean, my whole thing is just strip back the layers, keep it simple. Because if it’s not simple, you’re not going to be able to do it day after day. It’s going to be overwhelming and too much. And we already have a lot of that in our day to day lives.
Megan Lyons: So that is such an important message. And I know your services really help people implement all of that. So that’s wonderful. I will give you an opportunity to chant, to talk about your services. But before we do that, I want to touch on a couple other aspects. You mentioned your kids like halibut. I bet there are people listening who are like, oh, my gosh, my kids would never eat halibut. So I’m wondering if you had any pushback from your family, your kids, your friends, any of this as you were going on your health journey? Did you experience any kind of rub there?
Ali Elman: You know, Yes, a little. But that’s mostly. We always have to remember it’s never about us. So whatever journey you’re on, if you’re, you know, going without alcohol or you’re cutting certain foods out and anyone’s pushing you in that direction or doesn’t support you, it’s always something going on with them that it’s. It’s triggering to them. So we always have to remember that, which is difficult.
Megan Lyons: But, yeah, it’s.
Ali Elman: It’s. You can start to take that element of feeling like, why are they, you know, not supporting me? And realize it just has nothing to do with you anyway.
Megan Lyons: Right.
Ali Elman: And in terms of pushback, you know, anyone that. That hasn’t been supportive, like, I mean, I almost didn’t make it out of the hospital, so most of the people in my life are just happy that I hear all my true friends and family. So I. I have a lot of good support. And. And the people that might think that I. My lifestyle just doesn’t align with them, that’s okay. We, you know, we’re all on our own path. So, yes, it’s all good. And I’m by no means like the perfect walking.
Megan Lyons: No one is health.
Ali Elman: So I want everyone to realize, like, give yourself some grace.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: Yeah. Just know that the little shifts that you make today, you’re going to be noticing in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. Even though it might seem like, oh, how can this matter? It. It really is a huge difference if you make these little tiny changes now.
Megan Lyons: Yes, absolutely. That’s so inspiring. And I think people. I mean, trust me, I wish I could press a magic button and help everyone else feel so great and help them change their health habits, but people have to be on their own journey. The best that we can do is take care of ourselves and our family and be there to support them if they ask for help, but we really can’t push. And like you said, if we do get pushback from them, it’s not about us. We got to do our own thing.
Ali Elman: Yeah, Absolutely. Yeah.
Megan Lyons: Great. Well, just in the couple minutes that we have left, I would love to hit on your documentary in process, which is Pursuit of Health. I find this project so fascinating and I’d love for you just to tell the audience a little bit about what’s coming up.
Ali Elman: Yeah. So one of the things that I was inspired to do after getting out of the hospital was to really dive into health from a bunch of different perspectives. I know that so many of us are struggling right now with our health. Our healthcare system isn’t in the best spot. It can feel like we’re swimming upstream. So with. What I wanted to do with this documentary was to show that you’re not alone. A lot of us are on that path and. And through my own exploration of trying to figure out what works for me, maybe you’ll find something that works for you. So that’s why I decided to film this process. So really it’s a journey that I’m on. I’ve gone to India and filmed, you know, some different perspectives on health. They are the birthplace of Ayurvedic medicine, which I find really fascinating. So I went and looked at ayurvedic practices and how they view the body and got to go to an Auric Hospital hospital and really see different ways of day to day life. And it really is a lifestyle and we filmed all of that. So it’s part of what you’ll see in the. It may be a docu full length documentary or maybe a docu series. We’re figuring that out right now. But it’s. It’ll be something that comes out in the next year one way or another. And yeah, so the idea is to show to different perspectives around health and me as the person who’s experiencing it from a total beginner’s mindset so that it’s up to the viewer to. To take away what they want. Because I’m also doing that on this journey and I’m not there to tell anybody how to think or feel about what it is I’m discovering. They get to kind of discover it with me. So India was the first stop and then there’s other locations here in the United States that we’re going to be going to, both from modern medicine perspective to how we’re treating the land here and some other cool places around the world. So yeah.
Megan Lyons: Wow. Count me as one of the first viewers. I am so excited to see it and have loved seeing the previews here and there. So as we wrap up, I’d love for you to cover just one or two other health habits that you do for yourself, knowing that it might not be perfect for every single person. But we’ve touched on a Little bit of all kinds of things. So what are one or two things we’ve missed?
Ali Elman: Well, I want to go back to. I kind of touched on the morning, and I want to go back to that because I feel like how you start your morning, how you start that first hour of your day, really makes a huge difference in how you feel throughout the rest of the day. It sets the tone.
Megan Lyons: Yeah.
Ali Elman: So waking up at the same time every day has been a huge help. It’s. It’s all about that pattern and consistency, and the body adjusts to that. The body loves a rhythm. So getting back into a rhythm and being consistent with it, it signals your body to do certain things at certain times.
Megan Lyons: Yes.
Ali Elman: So when I wake up in the morning, this is just an example of some things you can. You could try if anyone finds them interesting. I wake up, and the first thing I do is I drink a cup of water out of a copper carafe that I keep. It’s pretty. It reminds me to drink water. And some people think that copper has benefits. Either way, it’s not gonna hurt you. And it’s something that reminds me. Okay. First thing I’m doing is I’m waking up my body by adding water immediately and kind of flushing and waking up my digestive tract.
Megan Lyons: Awesome.
Ali Elman: After I brush my teeth, I dry brush my whole body. And I do this to do a coup. A couple of things to wake up the lymphatic system to wake up my body. And by doing this, I believe, you know, you’re sort of signaling that I’m nurturing my body. The first thing I’m doing, instead of getting up and kind of like, this was what I used to do. Crawl into the kitchen and, like, drink coffee. The first thing I’m doing is signaling that I’m taking care of myself. I’m acknowledging my body in that way, that it’s important that I’m not just putting it on the back burner and immediately doing scrolling or drinking coffee. So I dry brush my whole body, and then I’ll put like a sort of a grounding oil all over, and I. And I’m. Then I go and I drink my hot water and lemon. And I know everybody’s heard of hot water and lemon. It seems sort of silly, but really, like, you put a little pinch of sea salt in it, and you’re hydrating and you’re delaying that caffeine that you want to grab right away. You delay that a bit longer before you reach for it. It really does make a difference. Yeah. So I’ve been able to reset what my body needs for waking up for elimination. You know, instead of drinking caffeine and going, okay, now, now I can go to the bathroom. My body has reset. And I really think that if you have that first hour to set yourself up for success, like you’ve already done a lot of big things that make a difference later in the day, taking time for the bathroom. I know it sounds like not a topic that people want to talk about.
Megan Lyons: But we need to. Yes.
Ali Elman: If you have that done and checked off of your. Yes. Change your body to do that first thing in the morning. You’re going to have such a better day, digestive wise. You’re going to move through your day better, whatever that looks like. So I. My big thing is how you spend that first hour for yourself, with yourself is huge. And keeping it consistent that that alone will, I promise, make a difference.
Megan Lyons: I would absolutely corroborate that. I agree completely and those are actionable strategies that I know everyone listening can grasp onto at least one or two of the things you shared. I also know people will want more of Ally. So tell us about all the ways they can interact with you.
Ali Elman: Yeah, sure. So you can follow me on Instagram, which is Alexandria’s Pursuit. It’s Alexandria’s Underscore Pursuit. I also have my website up, which is alexandria pursuit.com. you can go there. Our website is in progress. There will be products that are coming on soon that are all very simple that we’re developing and I also have a YouTube channel, Alexandria’s Pursuit, Pursuit of Health series. You can go there. But yeah, you’ll be able to find most anything if you’re interested, through my Instagram. Alexandria’s Underscore Pursuit.
Megan Lyons: That’s incredible. We will link to that for sure as well as the website and I highly encourage people to follow along. Ally is going places and doing a lot of things for the health world, so you will not regret giving her a follow. And I do not regret at all having you on the podcast. This has been such a joy and such a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing today, Allie.
Ali Elman: Oh, thank you so much for having me. It’s been a real pleasure.
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