Episode 170
Jeanine Kutil:Why Your Kitchen Holds the Key to Healing From Chronic Illness
Jeanine Kutil:
Why Your Kitchen Holds the Key to Healing From Chronic Illness
Are you struggling with chronic illness and feeling overwhelmed by complicated diet advice? In this episode, holistic health coach Jeanine Kutil shares how returning to simple, whole foods and basic cooking can be transformative for healing. After battling severe neurological and autoimmune symptoms, Jeanine discovered that the path to wellness starts in your own kitchen. She breaks down common myths about healthy eating costs, shares practical tips for making cooking therapeutic rather than stressful, and explains why single-ingredient foods are more powerful than any fancy "health" products. Whether you're dealing with autoimmunity or simply want to improve your health, this episode offers a refreshingly simple approach to using food as medicine.
First Aired on: Dec 16, 2024
Episode 170
Jeanine Kutil:Why Your Kitchen Holds the Key to Healing From Chronic Illness
Jeanine Kutil:
Why Your Kitchen Holds the Key to Healing From Chronic Illness
Are you struggling with chronic illness and feeling overwhelmed by complicated diet advice? In this episode, holistic health coach Jeanine Kutil shares how returning to simple, whole foods and basic cooking can be transformative for healing. After battling severe neurological and autoimmune symptoms, Jeanine discovered that the path to wellness starts in your own kitchen. She breaks down common myths about healthy eating costs, shares practical tips for making cooking therapeutic rather than stressful, and explains why single-ingredient foods are more powerful than any fancy "health" products. Whether you're dealing with autoimmunity or simply want to improve your health, this episode offers a refreshingly simple approach to using food as medicine.
First Aired on: Dec 16, 2024
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Jeanine Kutil is a holistic nutrition and health coach who transformed her own health journey after experiencing severe neurological and autoimmune symptoms. In this episode, she joins me to discuss how simple, whole foods and home cooking can be powerful tools for healing chronic illness.
Episode Highlights
The Journey from NYC Fast Life to Healing
Jeanine shares her transition from a high-intensity New York lifestyle to experiencing debilitating symptoms that led her to explore holistic healing approaches.
- Experienced sudden onset of neurological and autoimmune symptoms
- Consulted 15 conventional doctors without clear answers
- Found healing through multiple modalities including diet, nervous system work, and mind-body practices
The Power of Simple, Whole Foods
Understanding why single-ingredient, minimally processed foods are essential for healing.
- Focus on organic produce and high-quality proteins
- Avoid boxed and heavily processed foods
- Simple seasonings like olive oil, salt, and pepper can enhance natural flavors
- Source quality ingredients over complicated recipes
Breaking Down Barriers to Healthy Eating
Addressing common obstacles people face when transitioning to whole foods.
- Quality food doesn't have to be more expensive than processed alternatives
- Focus on buying high-quality proteins and organic dirty dozen produce
- Consider cost-effective protein alternatives like pasture-raised eggs
- Track spending on convenience foods and drinks to understand true food costs
Cooking as Therapy
Exploring how cooking can become a therapeutic practice rather than a chore.
- Use kitchen time as meditation and quiet time
- Start with simple recipes and basic techniques
- Focus on learning a few signature dishes well
- View cooking as self-care rather than a burden
The Foundation of Sleep for Healing
Understanding why sleep quality is crucial for healing and how to improve it.
- Get morning sunlight exposure without sunglasses
- Start the day with outdoor activity
- Establish proper morning routines to support evening wind-down
- Prioritize sleep before focusing on diet changes
Notable Quotes from this Episode
"My philosophy is that there's a lot of cases where someone has like one root cause. But once you sort of hit over the edge into the autoimmunity spectrum where your nervous system is really just fried, you have to hit multiple points. You have to hit the physical body. You have to bring down inflammation. You have to work on the nervous system. You have to work on your mental and emotional state in order to really get progress."
Jeanine Kutil
"We've divorced ourselves so heavily from our natural state, our natural world that we don't even know how to prepare food for ourselves anymore. That's so mind bending. If you really just think about it at that level, it's like we have to outsource our food to delivery, eating out, or buying something that's completely pre-made pre-processed because we work so much."
Jeanine Kutil
Other Resources:
Other Resources:
Connect with Jeanine Kutil
Connect with Jeanine Kutil
Watch this interview:
Watch this interview:
Episode Transcript
Jeanine Kutil:[00:00:00] It's quite simple yet. We've overcomplicated it. Just eat actual food, real food, single ingredient, organic, whole food.
Jeanine Kutil: Get the food the single ingredients and make something in your kitchen. It's nourishing your mental and emotional health to enjoy something that's delicious or cook with your family.
Jeanine Kutil: Like support myself at the most foundational level by preparing food for myself, but I'm also gonna like lose the weight, get healthier, feel better. It's almost like a meditative therapeutic time.
Julie Michelson:[00:01:00] Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson. Today, I'm joined by Janine Cutel, holistic nutritionist, amateur chef, Qigong instructor, and health coach. Janine's method is rooted in the principles of ancestral living, and she takes a whole mind body approach with her clients.
Julie Michelson: Her coaching programs focus on six pillars of wellness that encompass physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Janine struggled with her own health challenges and found her way to vibrant health, resiliency, and balanced lifestyle. In today's conversation, we're talking about using whole, real food as a major step toward healing.
Julie Michelson: Janine gives us tips and pointers on how to get started changing our relationship with food so that we can nourish and treat [00:02:00] ourselves at the same time.
Jeanine Kutil: Janine, welcome to the podcast.
Julie Michelson: Thank you so much. It's great to be here. I really appreciate you having me on. It is my pleasure. And I know listeners are excited to hear what you have to say. I would love for the audience just to get to know you a little bit by hearing a portion of your story. I'm sure, I'm sure there, we could talk a lot about story, but.
Julie Michelson: How did you get into holistic nutrition and health coaching and all of the healthy, wonderful things you focus on?
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, definitely. Um, so I was certainly not living this way a few years ago. Um, I was living in New York, um, up until 2021. Um, before that I lived in Boston. I grew up in Massachusetts. Um, and I was living like your typical fast paced, New York lifestyle.
Jeanine Kutil: I was working a lot. I was going out a lot. I was drinking a lot, partying a lot, [00:03:00] um, working out, just like not getting good sleep. Um, and just, I thrived, really. I felt off of kind of a high intensity lifestyle and like a more high pressure job. Um, And I just, like, had always sort of been in that headspace where I was constantly going, going, going.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, and I suddenly, out of nowhere, got, like, a bunch of symptoms. Um, I had always been healthy. Um, I'd never had any, like, chronic disease or diagnosis. I wasn't taking any medication. So it was really out of nowhere. Um, I started experiencing like a whole plethora of symptoms like neurological symptoms, mostly I would call like neurological autoimmune symptoms, um, things like chronic fatigue syndrome, um, chronic dizziness, vertigo, um, headaches, like really bad migraines every few days.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, [00:04:00] ringing in my ears, like numbness in different parts of my body. It was brutal. Um, it was like very intense, um, you know, gut issues. Um, so yeah, I didn't know what's wrong. So of course I went to every doctor that I could find. Um, and I ended up going to like 15 conventional medicine doctors. Wow. Wow.
Jeanine Kutil: Between, you know, general practitioners and then like specialists, um, and I really didn't get any concrete answers. Um, I got some diagnoses along the lines of like long COVID, maybe of chronic Lyme disease, you know, but never anything firm, like maybe this, maybe that, right? Right. Um, And so I actually, I moved, I, I came and stayed with my mom because I needed to get out of New York and I just, I couldn't maintain like the lifestyle that I was living there by any means.
Jeanine Kutil: And I just didn't feel like it was conducive to my healing to try and be like, Getting on the subway to go to a [00:05:00] doctor's appointment. And I'm like, kind of the isolation that you feel in New York and you want to be with family, you know, when you're sick. Um, so then I, I moved to Charleston and I started, um, seeing more like functional medicine practitioners.
Jeanine Kutil: My, I've been blessed in the sense that Um, well, I always saw, you know, conventional doctors and always believed in, you know, that, that sort of allopathic form of medicine, um, that my upbringing, my mom was like pretty into alternative medicine. She's a lifelong yoga teacher, meditator. So I kind of grew up around my community to, um, So like one of her best friends is a Chinese medicine doctor, acupuncturist, craniosacral therapy.
Jeanine Kutil: Like I did Reiki when I was like a teenager. So I kind of already knew a little bit about that world. Um, so just started exploring that space. Um, and I had also always been really into food, like. [00:06:00] I could always eat anything I wanted to, but I love to cook. Um, and so I did use, you know, diet on my own experiment and with different types of diet, um, and just kind of.
Jeanine Kutil: I felt like when I was in the kitchen and I was making something that like, it's always been very therapeutic for me. And when I was really sick, it continued to be sort of like a safe space where I could turn my mind off a little bit, um, and focus on, on what I was, you know, making. So, um, I ended up doing like a ton of modalities.
Jeanine Kutil: I won't go into details, but the things that helped me the most were like a nervous system based work, mind body connection, uh, like trauma based therapy, uh, talk therapy, and then diet for sure. Um, anti inflammatory diets. Uh, removing gluten, dairy, refined sugars, things like that. Um, and then herbs, herbalism, [00:07:00] which I did with a Tibetan medicine doctor.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, so yeah, kind of a little bit of like each thing because my, my philosophy is that, I mean, you can certainly, there's a lot of cases, right? Where like, Someone has like one root cause. And if you kind of just like can tweak that one thing are there, but right, exactly. But, and I think it's that people want that, right.
Jeanine Kutil: They want there to be like that one thing, that one magic pill, that one dietary change you need to make, whatever. But the truth is that like, and this was in my experience, like once you sort of hit over the edge, right. Into the autoimmunity spectrum where your nervous system is really just like. Pride.
Jeanine Kutil: You have to hit multiple points. You have to hit the physical body. You have to bring down inflammation. You have to work on the nervous system. You have to work on your mental and emotional state. In order to really get, get progress. So, yeah,
Julie Michelson: yeah.
Jeanine Kutil: Amen.
Julie Michelson: I know. I was looking for the root cause. I used to say root [00:08:00] cause like singular.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. We are complex beings. And like you said, maybe if someone is really in tune with their body and they're listening in the very beginning, they can address the thing.
Jeanine Kutil: Right.
Julie Michelson: And get results. It's like an
Jeanine Kutil: obvious, like, you know, this happened and then I became ill. Right.
Julie Michelson: Sure. But,
Jeanine Kutil: but,
Julie Michelson: but that's a rare, and like you said, even once you're in it, I'm thinking of like, you know, there's a lot of people triggered by moldy dorm rooms in college.
Julie Michelson: They were fine until they lived in their moldy, but even then, like. To heal from that, you still have to do that mind, body work and, and regal tone and all of it. So absolutely. Yeah. I love that. Um, and I, I think it's, Um, you know, I'm excited for you that you were already familiar with, you know, additional healing [00:09:00] modalities.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Um,
Jeanine Kutil: I, I think like my, my feeling is that if I hadn't been exposed to that or that like I didn't have family who was supportive of taking a more alternative route, that it would have taken me a lot longer to get to where I am. Um, it took me, like, like I said, this started about three years ago and the first year I was like, Incredibly sick.
Jeanine Kutil: Like I just couldn't function. Um, the second year was like, A lot of healing and a lot of setbacks. Um, and then the third year I was like seeing more, much more significant progress. Um, but all that is to say that like, if I had rejected any of those options and, and just gone with the, The strict route and not mess with the way.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, exactly. But like, I would just, I would still be in bed, you know, I believe that that's the case because I was, I felt like stuck. Like my body felt like I was just stuck in this. You know, state of illness that came out of nowhere and I had [00:10:00] no way to kind of get out of it.
Julie Michelson: Yeah Yeah,
Jeanine Kutil: and I
Julie Michelson: love that. I wanted to highlight Because this is everybody's healing journey.
Julie Michelson: It's never a straight line, you know we'll find the things that are starting to work and will start improving and there's always going to be a backslide or an obstacle or something new comes in. Um, and, and it is, it's a lifelong journey. I joke, people will say to me, well, were you misdiagnosed? Did you ever, you know, and I'm like, I just know if I was living how I was living 20 years ago, I would be diagnosable again, period.
Julie Michelson: Like it's constantly. our bodies are constantly healing, but we're also constantly getting barraged with different things. Right. So, yeah. Um,
Jeanine Kutil: new challenges. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: I love, I love that you shared that part of, we tend to make light. And so thank you for sharing that with listeners that, you know, yeah, it's, it's not a straight path for sure.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah. And this, this is actually, it [00:11:00] really hits home for me because when I, it was just like my mentality before about work, about life in general, that was like, There's a problem, find solution, fix it, move on to the next thing, right? And that's even how conventional medicine is mostly practiced now. It's like, find the problem, diagnose the problem, get the treatment, surgery, pill, whatever, move on to the next thing.
Jeanine Kutil: And so I was just like hardwired to be like, that's how this is going to be. I have to find the solution, find the solution. And it took me like, like over, over a year to like, just even let that go. Yeah. And like letting that go is so integral and healing me healing at all. Just like on a mental, like so simple, it seems like such a simple concept, but it's really not because you're like this fear center in your brain is like, no, I must find the, I must get a diagnosis on paper.
Jeanine Kutil: I must have, you know, the proper medication, whatever. I must find a treatment method. And it wasn't until I let go of this idea [00:12:00] about getting diagnosed and You know, that I needed to know all these specifics about what was going wrong with me, that I felt better at all, which is counterintuitive. Most of my, most of my friends were like, You still haven't gotten a diagnosis like I need to go see this doctor this doctor.
Jeanine Kutil: I'm like, no, I'm not doing that anymore
Julie Michelson: One last thing for you to work on is you know, you don't identify with a diagnosis So nobody has to change that you don't have to change. Yeah
Jeanine Kutil: Yes.
Julie Michelson: That's amazing. Let's talk about food. I love that you said, you know, you've always, you've always loved cooking. Um, and, and even that is a perspective shift, I think for a lot of people when they enter into a healing journey, if people didn't always love cooking and they, and, you know, our relationship with food can be so complicated.
Julie Michelson: Um, so I want to talk a little bit about, [00:13:00] you know, Maybe even you can share some tips on how people can change their relationship with cooking. Yeah, totally. No, you know, some people think like, well, that means I have, you know, I'm already in pain and exhausted, so how am I gonna spend all day in the kitchen?
Julie Michelson: Or, so let, let's wherever you wanna go with food. But let, let's start, I guess, high level. And you know, what, what is your perspective on what people should be eating?
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah. Um, I think it's quite simple yet. We've overcomplicated it to the nth degree with all of the like hardcore food influencers on social media and like the million different diets and all the studies about all these different diets.
Jeanine Kutil: It's like, Just eat actual food, real food, single ingredient, organic, whole food, like that is the answer. So whether that, if you want to be a vegetarian, that's [00:14:00] going to be, you know, like whole grains, single ingredient, unprocessed foods, rice, beans, vegetables, produce, fruits, and vegetables. And if that's if you want to lean more on like the animal based side, it's you're going to be including a lot of like high quality animal proteins, grass fed beef, pasture raised chicken, pasture raised eggs, wild caught fish, etc.
Jeanine Kutil: It's like, My approach is avoid things in boxes, things in, you know, jars that have, have multiple ingredients, things in bags. I know that's like jarring for a lot of people to hear because they're like, Oh, well, what about my, you know, healthy, um, seed oil free chips? And like, sure, that's a, still a better option than like your standard, you know, canola oil potato chip.
Jeanine Kutil: But it's still like a. Processed food and even this is a bit what the you know, like there's even like the energetics of food It's like get the food the single [00:15:00] ingredients and make something in your kitchen like and you were talking about how you know, some folks Obviously have like a resistance to cooking or they don't have any experience with it or they just don't enjoy it or whatever but I I think it's essential that we know how to cook for ourselves and this, this sort of like in our society, we've divorced ourselves so heavily from our natural state, our natural world that we don't even know how to prepare food for ourselves anymore.
Jeanine Kutil: That's like. That's so mind bending. If you really just think about it at the level, it's like we have to outsource, you know, our food to delivery eating out or, you know, buying something that's completely kind of pre made pre processed because we work so much or, or whatever the case may be. But it's like a fundamental thing.
Jeanine Kutil: You don't have to, you know, be a gourmet chef. It's. Again, cooking very simple things like [00:16:00] using olive oil, salt and pepper to season your food. Sounds bland, sounds boring, but if you have a really good, high quality piece of produce from like a local farmer's market, the taste is like going to blow your mind in comparison to some like old tomato.
Jeanine Kutil: From the grocery store that's going from really far away and cold inside. Um, and your taste buds
Julie Michelson: adjust when you shift to a whole real food diet. I remember as my like favorite, um, client quote, I remember I was working with a, a woman who Was probably about two weeks in to eating real, you know, only real whole foods or really minimally processed, if at all.
Julie Michelson: She was like, Have strawberries always been this sweet? Like she couldn't believe it. She said, I used to put sugar on strawberries, you know, [00:17:00] because so really like stick with it and, and simple always wins. Like I grew up. You know, we had a restaurant, like I love in, in New Jersey, I went to the best restaurants in New York growing up.
Julie Michelson: Like I love great food. Same. I mean, listen to Janine, like, you know, olive oil, salt and pepper will make and will bring out the flavors. I'm not saying you can't use other things, but right. Start simple. Um, you know, like, uh, it doesn't have to be hours in the kitchen every day. Right.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, mostly about sourcing and again, the single ingredient concept.
Jeanine Kutil: So if you want a sauce on your vegetables, don't buy the sauce that from the bottle that has 40 ingredients on it. Make a simple sauce with olive oil, tomato, salt, garlic. Right. [00:18:00] I think the other thing, like my advantage was I grew up, my family's Italian. And I could tell a lot of, a lot of cooks in the kitchen,
Jeanine Kutil: um, and yeah, we ate a lot of pasta and maybe, you know, for some people gluten is, is not going to be a good fit, but. It was, it went back to that focus on single ingredient, simple recipe, whole foods. And the food was always phenomenal. Like my grandmother is the best cook I know. Her food is better than any like Michelin star restaurant I've been to because it's simple.
Jeanine Kutil: And these are like, it's like peasant style, Italian cooking, like Italian. It's just the best. It's
Julie Michelson: funny, that was what I was picturing when you were talking was, you know, somebody in Italy making, you know, this delicious, simple meal. And I always say, you know, if you can't have the pasta, we can re, everybody, everybody has.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. [00:19:00] Emotions tied to food, memories tied to food, different, you know, family recipes. Um, I mean, you know, I make a grain free, dairy free noodle kugel that people wouldn't know what I mean. Like, you can always find, um, you know. Yeah, the ingredients are a lot different than they were 30 years ago. Cause I won't, I, you know, uh, even aside from the, just even the amount of sugar and whatever that was in some of those recipes, but you can recreate dishes and it's always the flavor profile or sometimes it's a texture, but find out what it is about that dish that makes you feel warm and fuzzy and recreate it differently.
Julie Michelson: In a way that supports your body. I think also we've lost this food as nourishment concept.
Jeanine Kutil: Yes.
Julie Michelson: Right. Like, you know, and, and so getting back to that really will, [00:20:00] A, help change our relationship with food, but also really help us heal.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, 100%. I think, I mean, we're sort of in this food as like entertainment, almost world slash.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, it's like a trigger, right? It's like a, yeah, it's, or it's, it's, you know, like a point of anxiety for people. But, you know, traditional cultures, they don't have any of that. It's, it's nourishment, whether it's. nourishing, you know, the, on the cellular level, or it's nourishing your mental and emotional health to enjoy something that's delicious or cook with your family.
Jeanine Kutil: I think too, like I find that a lot of clients, they don't want to, they don't have time to cook or they, they don't really know how to cook and therefore they don't enjoy it. I really like encourage them to, to start. Do their best to turn that around and be like, okay, I'm going to learn a new skill. I'm going to learn how to basically.
Jeanine Kutil: Like support myself at the most [00:21:00] foundational level by preparing food for myself, but I'm also gonna like lose the weight, get healthier, feel better, have more energy to tackle all these other things that are challenging me. And like I said, for me, cooking, being in the kitchen is like quiet time. It's therapeutic.
Jeanine Kutil: I can kind of shut off the racing mind. And I think that's probably the like second biggest issue that people have is the constantly racing mind, the anxiety. So I try and get them to, uh, Like carve out some time, maybe do meal prep if that's what, you know, is going to work with your schedule, but that's like, And it's almost like a meditative therapeutic time.
Jeanine Kutil: For them versus like, oh, I have to do this thing. And I don't want to do. I just, yeah, it's like, It's always been, we're like hardwired to be able to do this.
Julie Michelson: You
Jeanine Kutil: know?
Julie Michelson: Sure. And it's such a way of showing our, our body. Love. Right. If we can get in, you know, like. Get past that resistance of it's a chore. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: It's like, no, I get to [00:22:00] nourish myself. I think that that's really, and then there's so many different resistances, um, and what I would call, let's myth bust a little bit about cooking, you know, for, for listeners that don't love cooking or don't know how, or, you know, didn't grow up with the Italian grandma, the amazing, simple food.
Julie Michelson: One of the things I hear all the time, you know, you mentioned organic produce, you mentioned, um, you know, high quality protein, grass fed. Mm-Hmm. , wild caught. Um, Mm-Hmm. , because these things are really important. Um, the first resistance I hear all the time is money. Well, that's expensive. Yeah. So I want to just tell me what you see and I'll share what I see in practice as far as it can be.
Julie Michelson: Um, [00:23:00] for sure. Sometimes, you know, the actually, sometimes the organic produce is less expensive. So always check. Yeah. But, um, I think we have this idea in our heads, you know, that if we're not tallying. Are you going to the Starbucks drive thru? Are you, are you ordering? You know, people don't seem to recognize how much money they're spending on the stuff that's making them sick.
Julie Michelson: And that's usually the first argument I hear is financial. How about you? And, and do you agree with me that it doesn't have to be actually more expensive?
Jeanine Kutil: I agree. I don't, I don't think it's more expensive. I think once you start to get like that sort of department. cleaned up, then a lot of other things fall into place too, and you might stop spending money on I don't know, going out a lot, buying a lot of drinks, like other things like that.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, I think just in terms of like your time at the actual grocery [00:24:00] store, like I would prioritize buying like your proteins, the highest quality you can, because an un, let's call it a My dirty like animal based protein is not, not what you want. You want to skip it. If that's yeah, exactly.
Julie Michelson: Why, why just the fact that they use the word industrial in front of any of our food, like that should be a clue.
Julie Michelson: It's an industrial
Jeanine Kutil: chicken. Um, yeah, totally. Um, like you can't afford a grass fed steak. Like totally get that. Don't get the steak, you know, opt for. Um, pasture raised eggs for protein and maybe some like beans, legumes and soak them, right? There's, there's cheaper, you know, protein sources certainly. Um, and being a little bit more vegetarian can be beneficial in that way.
Jeanine Kutil: I think also if you don't want to buy like all [00:25:00] organic, just stick with, you know, the dirty dozen, like buy those organic and leave everything else on your list, just a conventional. Produce wise. Um, but I totally agree like people are, you know, going out or they're buying like a sweet treat or they're stopping by Starbucks and they're spending like an enormous amount of money.
Jeanine Kutil: I went the other day to Starbucks and I got like a venti iced coffee and it was like eight something and I was like, what is happening? Like
Julie Michelson: I, I, um, there's a few employees at the clinic that always, you know, that always have. Whether it's Starbucks or a different coffee shop, you know, some kind of big coffee on their desk and it's like, how can they afford that?
Julie Michelson: Like, I run payroll. I don't know how they can afford that, you know, and they would be the same people who would say, I can't afford, you know, to eat whole real food. [00:26:00] And it's like, well, actually. Let's sit down and crunch some numbers,
Jeanine Kutil: you know, I actually like talked about this in the Instagram posts the other day.
Jeanine Kutil: I think people are like, I need to treat myself. Right. I want to.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Jeanine Kutil: It's much more of like, just the mental, like, no, this is my special treat that I have every morning is my sugary coffee. I start my day with sugar. Yeah. This is what I need because I have a very high intensity job and a stressful life and I need to be able to treat myself.
Jeanine Kutil: Right. I And like, I totally get that mentality. I respect that. But maybe treating yourself is again, like, how can we reframe treating yourself from buying something that's actually making you sick to treating yourself as getting something that's going to be nourishing for your body? So instead, is it like an herbal tea or homemade coffee?
Jeanine Kutil: I just got really into this because I can't do like a full, you Caffeine coffee. So I do a half calf and it has like a functional mushroom blend in [00:27:00] it. And it just, it's the best and it's expensive. It's 20 for a bag of this coffee, but like it lasts me forever. I don't drink it every day. And it's better than It's a treat
Julie Michelson: that supports your body.
Julie Michelson: Exactly. It's a nourishing treat instead of, but, and it doesn't have to be an either or it can hit the pleasure center and be good for you.
Jeanine Kutil: Yes, it really absolutely. Yeah, I know it totally can and I think like kind of back to what you were saying before after a period of time of eating more of a clean like Whole Foods diet Those ultra processed foods, fast foods.
Jeanine Kutil: They don't taste good. No, they, they immediately make you feel bad, but they also just like, they don't taste good. Your brain recognizes like, this isn't food. This is something else. And
Julie Michelson: I would say there's a little, there's an adjustment period. I was, I was thinking of, of coffee and coffee is one of those for, for people that [00:28:00] do drink coffee.
Julie Michelson: It's a, it's just a funny. Like don't, people don't like when I mess with their coffee and pretty much if you're not already drinking it black or bulletproof or, you know, I'm going to mess with your coffee for a little while. Um, but, but so it's, it's just a, it's a funny thing. Like we have this thing about our coffee and, and I'll, I'll say whenever you make any change, I used to like my coffee literally to taste like melted ice cream.
Julie Michelson: Like sweet and light was how I grew up. You know, on Sundays, I would put whipped cream in it as a kid. Like, um, not that I'm saying kids should drink coffee, but it was different.
Jeanine Kutil: A lot of kids are drinking coffee now because they're so tired all the time. Well,
Julie Michelson: which is a whole nother, but what I, what I will offer is this for listeners. When you make a good change, understand it is going to take a little [00:29:00] time. You know, you're not going to go from putting cream and sugar in your coffee to a healthier version of coffee and, and love it the first time.
Julie Michelson: It's really unlikely until you, you, like you said, you know, are on that whole food diet and, and you're not getting hit with all these artificial sweeteners or just tons of sugar. Um, so, so, If you go into it with realistic expectations, I think that's important to give yourself like, okay, I know I may not love this in the beginning.
Julie Michelson: I'm going to stick with it and see.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah. And it's, you usually, you know, you have some kind of greater why, like you're dealing with a lot of fatigue or you've got some new diagnosis, like, or PCOS, something with your hormones is off, whatever the case may be. That's why you're going down this journey in the first place.
Jeanine Kutil: So just, I always, you know, recommend to clients, like, come back to your, why do your best to stick with something for. You know, the period [00:30:00] of time that you've sort of committed to, right? Like commit to yourself and don't break your promise to yourself. I think that's like such a difficult thing in coaching in general.
Jeanine Kutil: That's like, you can give them all the info. You can tell them about the food, you can give them a meal plan. But at the end of the day, like what's the big thing that's holding people back is like, they're breaking those kind of commitments to themselves because. Whatever their stress load is out of control.
Jeanine Kutil: They're not happy with some personal life aspect, you know outside of you know, sticking with the diet like They're
Julie Michelson: not used to prioritizing themselves either, right?
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, they're used to prioritizing work
Julie Michelson: Work family others like all all the things Yeah Yeah. I love that. Do you have any tips for people who are interested in like, they're like, yeah, I know I shouldn't be eating all this other junk and I don't know how to [00:31:00] cook.
Julie Michelson: Um, Do you have any tips for easy, enjoyable ways for people to cook or enjoy vegetables? If they're not already, you know, like people will say to me, you know, I, I, Oh, I have a plant based diet. And I'm like, well, I do too. I just also eat meat with it. Like we should all have a plant based
Jeanine Kutil: diet, but
Julie Michelson: a lot of people just either didn't grow up with veggies or they were canned and not, you know, so I have a.
Julie Michelson: Is there a simple way we can enjoy vegetables to learn to form a new relationship?
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, there's a couple things that just like come top of mind one, and it's actually really good for kids to, um, like to bring your kids in to this process and kind of get them more into vegetables is like the colors.
Jeanine Kutil: Simple, like eat the rainbow of vegetables, right? When you go to the store, pick like one of each color, [00:32:00] um, whether it's be like fruits or vegetables and get them into like the whole rainbow of foods, right? Because what are these like big food companies do? They. Put a ton of dye in the foods to make them colored.
Jeanine Kutil: We already have it, right?
Jeanine Kutil: But not
Julie Michelson: skittles, you know,
Jeanine Kutil: it's already there. We just like manufactured this fake version for whatever reason. Um, but anyways Um, so I think that's that's one thing. Um, the second thing is like bringing in fermented foods, like fermented vegetables. There's all different kinds of like krauts out there. I recently got this great, um, like a fermented seaweed, uh, dish with like sesame.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, I forget the name of the brand offhand, but it was like a fresh market. Um, so bringing in some kind of like fermented vegetable and then, um, I was talking before about like sauce. So just like amping it up. [00:33:00] Um, with us with some kind of sauce. One thing I do a lot with like Kale's, Like, um, collard greens, sort of like a leafy green, almost like a creamed spinach.
Jeanine Kutil: I use coconut milk instead. And like, I use olive oil and butter and it, you like cook it down really slow and kind of like reduce it. And it really is like a Creamed spinach dish. It's yeah, delicious.
Julie Michelson: I can you're making my mouth water one of my favorite things I'll probably do it for Thanksgiving, too
Jeanine Kutil: Exactly.
Jeanine Kutil: It's like, uh, you know collard greens with the cream, but like it's coconut and you really can't tell Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Danielle Walker has a recipe for a spinach artichoke dip that I'll make. It takes a little work. I wouldn't start there listeners. Um, I usually I'll make it when there's a family gathering, you know, Thanksgiving or something like that, but people have no idea it has, it has no [00:34:00] dairy in it.
Julie Michelson: It's that good. So I think opening your mind. So like, I think that's a really good point. To experimenting with some of these alternatives. Um, and a lot of the stuff that, that people will make out of a box. Like isn't hard to make from scratch. Like, we're just. One step
Jeanine Kutil: more. Basically. Yeah. Yeah. And
Julie Michelson: we're training, like, we have this idea.
Julie Michelson: We've been brainwashed to think like, Oh, it's going to take us three hours. To do this thing, you know, and it, like you said, it's usually just one additional step. Right.
Jeanine Kutil: And I mean, Cooking is like anything else. There's some practice involved. So maybe the first time, like, if you really have never cooked, like, anything, like, let's say you've never made, like, a full dish.
Jeanine Kutil: Like, you'll make, like, little snacks or whatever, but you've never really cooked. It might take you three hours to make something, like, a little more complex the first time, but You might also like really enjoy the experience and then the next time you make it, you only need to get like a few dishes that you're like, okay, I'm [00:35:00] really good at making these things.
Jeanine Kutil: I can bring them to dinners like events, whatever. And then if I need like a go to, I don't know, date night dinner at home, you have these like great, impressive, healthy dishes. Um, so yeah, not complicated. I, I do, um, like share recipes with my newsletter. Every other week. And I try, I do a lot of like plant based how to make vegetables sexier.
Jeanine Kutil: I like that. That's awesome. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. That's so much fun. So we're at the point of the podcast where listeners know to expect this question. What is one step that listeners can take starting today to improve their health? And it could be anything. It's always a tough question.
Jeanine Kutil: Yeah, um, I'm gonna go off the topic of food and jump into something else.
Jeanine Kutil: So in my own coaching program, I, I have like a six pillar sort of approach. And the first thing I do is [00:36:00] actually not food, it's sleep. Um, I think that dialing in fixing your sleep is the most important thing that you can do to reset your health. It was integral for me in my own healing process. So I'd say one of the easiest ways that you can start to reset your circadian rhythm.
Jeanine Kutil: This is, this is simple and I'm sure a lot of people have seen this already, but it's get outside, get sun in your eyes first thing. So don't scroll the phone. Don't check the news. Don't check your emails. Don't have coffee. Go outside. Look at the sun. I mean, no, you know, not directly, but um, but getting at don't put the sunglasses on.
Jeanine Kutil: Like, so I, the first thing I do when I get up is I brush my teeth, go to the bathroom. And then I walk my dog like within five minutes of getting out of bed. Um, it just helps to set you up. Properly your circadian rhythm for the rest of the day, the proper wake up, um, helps to [00:37:00] support a proper wind down at the end of the day.
Jeanine Kutil: Yes. And if your sleep is wrecked, doesn't matter what you eat. Truly, like, It's true. Get those things, they work together, but I, that's the first thing I focus on.
Julie Michelson: Sleep. Love that. Love it. And I think we can never say it too often either. And yes, good sleep starts first thing in the morning.
Jeanine Kutil: It starts in the morning.
Jeanine Kutil: Exactly. And I think because, and I, I mean, this might It's definitely like my issue with, you know, when my sleep does get a little off, it's like if I try and fix it by starting with the, okay, I'll go to bed early tonight things that didn't work. I have to do it the opposite way by getting up early, going with the sun, waiting to have my coffee, all the proper steps in the morning are the really the only way to reset it.
Jeanine Kutil: So.
Julie Michelson: Amen. I love it. Janine, for people listening on the go that aren't going to check the show notes, where's the best place to find you?
Jeanine Kutil:[00:38:00] Yeah, definitely. Um, so my Instagram is well space it's well underscore space. Um, and then I actually recently have been working on a second Instagram. Um, it's called feel your chi because I also teach chi gong, which is like a whole side thing.
Jeanine Kutil: Um, yeah. And then my website is wellspace. coach.
Julie Michelson: Awesome. Love it. Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom and sharing your journey with us.
Jeanine Kutil: Oh, of course. It was really nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me on
Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get those show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living dot shell.
Julie Michelson: Hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
​[00:39:00]
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My Guest For This Episode
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Connect with Jeanine Kutil
Jeanine Kutil
Jeanine Kutil is a holistic nutritionist, amateur chef, qigong instructor and health coach. Jeanine’s method is rooted in the principles of ancestral living and she takes a whole mind-body approach. While she loves cooking and finding the right nutrition for every client, she knows there is much more to good health than what’s on the plate. Her coaching programs focus on six pillars of wellness that encompass physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. Every coaching program is customized to the individual client’s needs and importantly, wants!
Jeanine is certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition as a health and wellness coach and is a certified qigong instructor, where she learned the fundamental principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Jeanine struggled with her own health challenges, and found her way to vibrant health, resiliency, and a balanced lifestyle. She is here to help you do the same.
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