Here’s our latest skinny wisdom interview as we seek to learn from those who are on their way to mastering their health.
If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics.
Ashley
“When we sit to eat, we are with our food. We stay away from watching TV and like activities during meals and give focus to eating to better support our digestion.” ~Ashley
OVERVIEW
How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you’ve been married)?
I am 33 and my husband is 34. Our first date was in September of 2013 and we married May of 2016.
Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?
My husband and I have three beautiful children. Our daughter Harlow was our first, an angel born to Heaven. Next came our now two-year old son Dax, who we labored and birthed within the peace of our home. We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of our second son, due April of this year. We feel so grateful for each of our children. They are the best teachers of life, love and curiosity. Our nest is blessed!
[Editor’s note: Since this interview was written, the family has had some big news, see below. Congratulations to the whole family!]
We are proud to announce that we welcomed a healthy baby boy April 12th, weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces and 19 3/4 inches in length. Our home birth experience was peaceful and beautiful. We are so in love!
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
Currently we live in the city however, with our expanding family, we are looking for more elbowroom. We have plans to sell our city home in the near future for a house with some acreage so that we can grow our own food and raise chickens and honey bees. Oh, and I want a goat too! I mean, who doesn’t want a goat, right?
What do you do for a living?
I am an Occupational Therapist and Lymphedema
Specialist, currently working 3 days per week within that field. I am also a
Pilates Instructor and Certified Holistic Lifestyle Coach. I love offering
education, assessments and tools to help individuals work with the divine
essence of their bodies.
My dearest friend and I also have a biweekly podcast named Zenma, which interviews pioneers within our community and shares our personal experiences over various holistic topics to include health/nutrition, relationships/marriage, parenting, alternative medicine, fitness and so much more. I am also writing a children’s book and preparing to start a new venture with an awesome company that creates play-based tools for children, parents, and educators in order to build social-emotional skills and to make connection a habit across the generations.
What is your current weight and height?
Currently I am 39 weeks pregnant and my weight is 143 pounds. My non-pregnant weight is 122 pounds. I am just shy of 5’4.
FOOD
Describe what you eat in the course of a typical day. Please be specific! How do you eat differently on the weekends or special occasions?
Our meals vary from day to day but our core nutritional values remain constant. We strive for whole foods that nourish our body. By eating foods given to us by nature, we are offered an array of tasty options, some of which I share below.
Our weekday and weekend eating habits mirror one another. We love to spend family time in the kitchen creating a meal. The majority of our meals are cooked at home.
I must admit, however, that I am a sucker for brunch. It is an experience that I love to share with my boys. As such, on some Saturdays or Sundays, we choose a local restaurant that offers conscious and sustainable ingredients to better align with our health values. Its always fun to get out and enjoy some family time, especially when I don’t have to do the dishes! Plus, it’s a great way to get fresh cuisine ideas.
Some our morning, lunch, snack and dinner eats:
Breakfast: Omelets loaded with veggies and topped with microgreens; gluten free protein pancakes with honey and fresh berries; sweet potato hash; gluten-free oatmeal with berries, nuts/seeds, coconut shavings, acai or hemp and honey; breakfast burritos with egg, sausage and veggies housed in a gluten-free tortilla.
AM Snack: Apple and almond butter; fruit (berries, orange, grapefruit, pears) paired with nuts/seeds; fermented sheep yogurt with granola; acai bowl.
Lunch: Usually leftovers from the night prior. Warmer months, I eat a lot of salads. Colder months, I lean towards warming foods such as soups and stews.
Afternoon Snack: Veggies and hummus; homemade roasted garbanzo beans with sea salt; homemade guacamole or olive tapenade with veggies. Dinner: Some of our favorites include: Macadamia nut pesto pasta with zucchini noodles, tacos, spaghetti squash pasta with grass-fed meatballs; burrito bowls with cauliflower rice; lettuce wraps; a lean protein with roasted broccoli/cauliflower/carrots/brussels sprouts/green beans or a salad.
What are your food rules, if any?
Kill it, pick it, dig it …If we can do any of those three things, then I gravitate to it. We stay away from most processed and manufactured foods. If it has a long shelf life on the grocery store shelf, imagine the shelf life as it sits inside you!
We choose foods that are local, organic, free range and wild caught in order to optimize nutritional value.
We eat with the seasons to ensure we are eating the most vibrant, live foods.
Health is not about deprivation but moderation. We eat healthy 85-90% of the time and the other 10% we practice moderation should we chose a less healthy food option.
We enjoy sharing the process with our son Dax- from choosing food at the grocery store or farmer’s market to the actual prepping and cooking of a meal. When the team shares the health values, it becomes a “we” effort instead of a “me” effort.
I also wanted to add two important guidelines we follow. When we sit to eat, we are with our food. We stay away from watching TV and like activities during meals and give focus to eating to better support our digestion. To that point, I also take smaller bites and chew slowly, which also supports digestive processes.
What food(s) will you not eat, specifically because it will derail your health or weight, and why?
I am soy-free and gluten-free. Fermented sheep’s yogurt and grass-fed Kerrygold butter are the only dairy products I utilize within our home.
What is a food you cannot resist? How do you handle this food when you encounter it?
I used to crave all things pasta. Oh my goodness, my mouth would salivate just thinking about it. Pasta, bread and butter. Throw in a cream sauce and I was in heaven. As I made the conscious decision to consume more nutritionally dense foods and heal my gut, my cravings became very minimal. My taste buds have changed. It is now rare that I crave starchy carbohydrates, especially knowing that my body doesn’t take well to them. I now enjoy and prefer the healthier versions of my old cravings.
Do you take any vitamins or supplements?
We take Juice Plus fruit
and vegetable capsules as well as their omega capsules. Additionally, we take
liposomal vitamin C and Elderberry Syrup (especially in the winter months).
Because I am pregnant, I also take Thorne’s Vit K/D2 drops, magnesium, iron and
an herbal infusion loaded with nutritive qualities for growing baby.
When it comes to supplements, the brands I trust are Thorne, Klaire Labs, Metagenics, Juice Plus and Standard Process. We also use homeopathic remedies as needed.
How do you emotionally think about food? Is it a large part of your life?
My relationship with food
has evolved over the past several years. There was a time when the food I ate
correlated with my emotional state. I found food as a safe comfort during
emotional discomfort. A glass of wine, big bowl of pasta and a chick flick helped
lick and temporary satiate my emotional wounds. There were other points in my
life, however, that I would totally forget to eat when stressed/sad/etc. This
rollercoaster took a toll on my physical and mental self.
Along the way, I realized that my emotional and nutritional habits were connected and neither process I was practicing was healthy. As I started changing my perspective about life as well becoming clear about my health values, my emotions steadied. As my emotions steadied, I had more control of my eating habits. It was a beautiful cycle.
To build a healthy relationship with myself, it took some curiosity, self-awareness and honest exploration. What was my relationship with food? Where did those thoughts and beliefs come from? Were they serving me? What lifestyle did I desire? I control my thoughts, emotions and actions. Once I became privy to that truth, I no longer needed the crutch.
Throughout my life, food has been a social experience. I grew up in an atmosphere where the heart of the home was the kitchen. We gathered, we ate and we connected. As a now adult woman, I carry those social aspects of food into my own home. The ingredients may look a bit different from those of my youth but the spirit remains the same.
Have you ever gained weight (10 lbs or more), if so what were the circumstances?
Yes, pregnancy, averaging about 23-25 pounds each pregnancy. My heaviest non-pregnancy weight was 135 pounds when college drinking and late night eats were part of my lifestyle.
Did you lose the weight and if so, how did you accomplish this? How long did it take?If you had a baby, what was the process like after childbirth to lose any baby weight?
Within a few weeks post delivery, I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight. I attribute my quick weight loss to food choices during and after my pregnancy. I also stayed active during my pregnancies with Pilates, Yoga, hiking, walking and resistance training.
How would your friends describe you and your relationship to food?
My family and friends would say that I am conscious of what I put into my body and what I choose to feed my family. They would also say that health has become a lifestyle as opposed to a fluctuating fad. They know that I link the way we eat to our health. I believe you can choose to survive or you can choose to thrive. Eating for your system will help ensure that you thrive!
FITNESS
Do you exercise or do any physical activity and why?
I love to move my body. It is a great stress reliever and an endorphin builder. I like to incorporate cardio, restorative and resistance training into my movement regime.
When exercising, how often and how consistent are you? Do you take time off?
I complete resistance training three days per week to build and balance muscle. The remaining days, I incorporate cardio and restorative practices. My cardio consists of brisk walking, hiking or short intervals. My restorative practices are Yoga, Pilates and meditation. I continue to work out during my pregnancies. The first seven months look very similar to my non-pregnancy workout regimes. The last one to two months before my due date, I ditch the heavy weights and focus on body weight exercises, walking and restorative disciplines.
How do you emotionally think about exercise? Is it a chore, a stress outlet, positive, negative, etc?
I am motivated by exercise and have been throughout most points in my life. I appreciate the expression and stress relief. I also thrive off of the hard work and results. My secret to exercise is to find movement that I enjoy. I believe the best way to stay motivated to exercise is to do what you love.
The goals of my workouts have changed over the years from that of “getting skinny” to that of “being healthy.” When getting skinny was my focus, I worked out one to two times a day and then ran outside 5-7 miles. I enjoyed the movement but it wasn’t the healthiest relationship. I now view movement much as I do food; moderation is healthy. Overworking my body tore it down. Lack of sleep and nutrition kept it from repairing. I now focus on the structural balance of my body and the connection of the body with the mind. By exercising my mental and physical muscles collectively, I feel better than ever!
YOUTH
Growing up, how did you think about food and what if any changed over time?
My eating habits have drastically changed over the course of my life.
As a child, I ate what was presented to me. I remember pasta and breads, chicken and rice, cereal, sugary drinks and so forth.
As a teenager, fast food and carbs were my favorite go-to staples.
As I approached my 20’s, I chased many fad diets in the hopes of “getting skinny,” which usually left me depleted. My weight yo-yoed between 125-135 pounds. If I found myself able to shed a few pounds, I was unable to sustain it.
Around the age of 27, I decided to ditch the scale. Let me tell ya’ll, so liberating. Ditch the scale ladies! It was then that I also decided to shed the mindset of “getting skinny” and planted the new seed of “getting healthy.” As my mindset shifted, my body transformed.
I began with small sustainable changes. My goal was not to deprive myself but to rewire myself. So I began by adding more fruits and vegetables as well as lean protein. I added more water and removed soda and other sugary drinks. I limited processed foods.
As I became more comfortable with these changes, I felt eager to learn more about nutrition from a holistic standpoint. I attended the CHEK Institute and it was life altering. I went home and started a food log to better pinpoint the foods agreeable to my body as well as the foods my body had trouble digesting. I focused on restoring the health of my gut in order to balance hormones, emotional states and organ rhythms.
The more I learned, the more I practiced, the better I felt. I noticed systemic changes. Fast forward to current day. I have a steady weight of 122 pounds (when not pregnant). I feel vibrant. My hormones are more balanced. I am digesting foods better. My thoughts are conscious. What started as small changes has become a lifestyle in which I am living my highest potential!
Was there a specific event in your childhood, either positive or negative, that you remember even to this day?
My brother Kyle was 20 years of age when a car accident with a semi truck took his life. My entire world shattered. Kyle was my brother, but also my best friend. I spent time after his death in a lost and dark space.
Somewhere far down the road of my grieving process, I had a shift. I made a vow to live my life in respect of his. Living was a gift and I intended to become my highest potential for myself and for my brother. That moment was the catalyst to lifelong change.
What were meals like in your family growing up?
My mama was the best at bringing us together around a dinner table. No matter what we were doing in the day, we would come together for dinner. It was our time to share and connect as a family.
I remember cereal and Poptarts with butter for breakfast during the week. Pancakes or omelets on the weekends. Cinnamon toast at grandmas.
Dinners were chicken and rice, pasta, pork or roast, BBQ, pizza and so forth. Vegetables consisted of green beans and corn from what I remember. I always thought of my mama as a good cook. Her meals were always delicious (just not always health conscious).
How did your family or those around you influence you about food when you were young?
I ate what I knew. I watched the women in my family and I replicated. Now, they enjoy replicating me and trying healthier options to the foods we grew up loving to eat.
Who influences or teaches you about food today, if anyone? Or….”I never think about it”?
Becoming a CHEK Institute graduate as a Certified Holistic Lifestyle Coach opened my eyes to nutrition from a holistic standpoint. It was life changing and served as a comprehensive foundation for me to move from. I now listen to my own body. We are our own best guides if we pause to listen to what our body is conveying.
PHILOSOPHY
What would you teach your children (or others) about food for them to have a healthy slender body?
I would like to teach my sons about the healing properties of food, to respect food and to know the difference between foods that nourish their body and non-foods that serve as empty calories. As we obtain more land, I want to teach them how to reap what they sow, taking part in the processes of planting and growing their food. Lastly, I hope to teach my sons that eating healthy can be a delicious, sustainable lifestyle.
What is your best piece of advice to the readers of this blog about how to live a healthy life?
I would encourage readers to ditch fad diets. They are rarely sustainable. Rather, I invite readers to slow down and hear their body. It is always speaking to us. Unfortunately, most of us don’t pay attention until it is screaming at us. When we learn to read the signs of our body, we can better discern which foods fuel our system and those that are wreaking havoc. You deserve to feel vibrant and live your bliss!
~Ashley Patek
To hear more about Ashley, follow her Podcast here:
Main: Zenma Podcast
Link: iTunes
Link: Stitcher
Link: Spotify
Link: SoundCloud
Leave a Reply