EP22: Raising Your Families Mental Health Through the Power of Your Shopping Cart With Katrina Breau

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Welcome everyone to another episode of winning with wellness. I'm here with Katrina, and I cannot wait to dig into your topic. I know you are powerful and knowledge around brain health. And that is such a incredibly interesting topic and can be overwhelming at the same time. So Katrina, welcome aboard. Can't wait

to talk to you today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to passing some of my tools for my toolbox on to anyone out there that's able to utilize and just grab them and put them in place today.

I love it. So I want to share Katrina, a little bit about you before I start grilling you with some questions. So I just want to share with everybody that's listening that Katrina is a certified holistic nutritional consultant, a brain health and life coach, a guide and a mentor who specializes in the use of natural Whole Foods to promote brain health, improve cognitive function, decrease health challenges, while stimulating self confidence in in themselves and of others. Katrina's passion is helping others live the best and healthiest life possible. And it's obvious to anyone who meets her I have been blessed to have conversations with you, Katrina that I'm left feeling inspired and ready to make some amazing changes. So I was so thrilled when you agreed to be on this podcast so that I too, can hopefully inspire the listeners that are joining us today. Thanks for being here.

I'm excited to you know, touch touch anyone out there that's listening, with small little tweaks that you can make in the power of your grocery cart.

And I love that you talk about the grocery cart. And we're going to get into that in a sec. But I I really want to ask you, because we're talk a lot about redefining wellness here on the podcast, what does redefining your wellness mean

to you? Well, for me, it's it's really important because I worked in geriatrics and palliative care and being at the bedside of 1000s of people at the end of their life. And so many times people at the end of their life, we're just saying, you know, I wish I had done it different. And, and for me, it was so sad many times to see how either their body broke down and their mind was still functioning, or vice versa. And you know, and to me, wellness is really the importance of being sound in also your mind as well as your body and bringing it all together. And I was not always the best at doing that. I did not juggle those effectively and paid the price along my journey.

Well, and I appreciate that you bring that forward, because many of us is health practitioners or you know, I'm a mindset coach, we tend to step into these fields of work and mission, let's say because we were, we were there before. And we found a new way to do it. So would you share with us something that you've learned on your wellness journey that you would love to be able to turn back time? Turn back to I there's a whole song but I'm not sure? Yeah.

So for me a couple of things. Number one, I was that super busy Mum, that you know how to rush life Go go go. I'm not always grasping the importance for both me and my family, the impacts of not only the value of nutrition, and the time to sit down and really allow our family to eat, many times it was on the rush and away we go are also looking at how the stress of that all impacted our family as well. And the stress of the buisiness of you know, not only the rush but also how it affected the moods, the energy level, our health, journey, sleep and everything all together from mums rush more so than the kids rush right? And so that was pretty important to me. And if I I could make a few changes I that I could implement, I guess I I would definitely say that our society has put a lot of rush on, you know, keeping up with the Joneses in the financial gains and, you know, long hours of work and striving for success. But dollars don't, you know, always generate into wellness and happiness? And and really looking at you know, if you were on your deathbed today, is this the life you really wanted? Because many times we're walking a journey that isn't necessarily that

and you shared a little bit about the shopping cart, and you know, health and healing the mind as well as the body. Do you want to dig into what that means? Because I know there are some people that probably like a shopping cart, for one who doesn't want to go shopping? Some people do, some people don't. But you know, what? how can how does our purchasing impact our health? You know, what does that look like for people?

Absolutely. So when I think back to the days of you know, that busy mom and the roles that I was playing in that rush of life, many times you would get to the grocery store, grab your shopping cart, and away you go, breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks, fill up whatever's on sale today and away, you go on off to the cash register, and quick, quick, quick, I only got so much time because I gotta pick the kids up. Wait, anyway you go. You know, but instead, I challenge you all to step back away from that, and really look at, you know, really looking at who is actually using, you know, who's in the house? And what health journey are they uniquely on, when you think of your car, if all of a sudden you decided tomorrow to put diesel in your gasoline engine, your car's not gonna like that. And many times, you know, or vice versa. Many times when we think of the the food that we grab in that grocery cart, many times it's quick, it's fast, it doesn't necessarily have the best fuel for us. Or even if we think it does have great stuff in it isn't necessarily the actual fuel that our body and biochemistry is really needing for the specific issues that ourselves or our families are dealing with. So when you think of for example, maybe you really love your, your spinach salad, and you're at a stage where you're like eating your spinach salad, you think that's just wonderful. And you're like doing the super nutrition thing. Well, that also depends on where you are in your life. If you're, you know, an older lady in, you know, your 50s and up and you're heading towards menopause, fresh spinach is one of the worst things that you can eat in us, because it interferes with the hormones and it's better to lightly steam it. So it's not that it's a bad thing, but it's bad for you at this point. And, and then when you think of, you know, your kids, you know, I mean, everyone has, you know, whether you're in the lineup at the grocery store, or even in your own life, you know, what it's like, when you put, you know, your kids full of sugar and how they react. I mean, I don't need to explain that we've all been there and done that. Or if they don't have the energy, because we filled them up on the, you know, let's say he banned noodles, or whatever it was, that didn't necessarily give them the nutrition that they need to have that cognitive folk focus for school and to ability to do things, or just or fizzled out and spent because they don't have the energy to really do what they need to. And that's the same for us as well, whether we're working, and we just feel that, you know, I need to spend more time in bed because I just spent by the workload of the day and many times it's not necessarily that it's what fuel did you put in because many times the quality of that fuel is contributing to a lot of the impacts. And when we look at all levels of that, you know, for me when you're looking at your, uh, you know, your your physical or physiologically, you know, on your body, whether you're looking at your emotional well being and psychological well being, when you're looking at, you know, the impacts of social life, you know, who are you hanging out with? And, you know, if your friends that you're all hanging out with they're all swirling the drain of depression, guess what, you're going to be swirling the drain of depression to and and it's and it's really looking at, you know, how we can embrace all of these things for not only together improving our health journey, but also discovering our own purpose in life, and what do we really want to do with our life. Because many of us, it's just, you know, work, go home pay bills that are that Check, check, check, check. And is this really the the message that you want for your kids as well as yourself and one of the amazing transitions for really lifting that energy lifting, you know, the whole area of your mood, the clarity, to improve and protect your brain from deterioration as well as the developing mind for your children, and improve the overall performance of all of us as well as the mood and relationships within the family is the amazing ability of nutrition through into the brain

and it's so Powerful when we think about, you know, we've all heard the saying, and I've shared this on multiple episodes, actually, you know, we've all heard the saying you are what you eat. really forget the reality, we literally are what we consume in all areas of our lives,

you know, quality input, quality output, garbage in garbage out, high quality restriction gives you up Optimum Nutrition as well as delicious. You got to look at all those things eat the rainbow. Yeah, it can be delicious. Right? And it doesn't have to be out of your price range.

I was gonna say, Can we talk a lot into you know, for for people that maybe are overwhelmed by this idea of changing? Or? Or, you know, it's very commonly thought that and some of it's true, of course, that to be healthy is expensive? Like, do you have some ideas around what people can do to just make some subtle shifts in the right direction, so they can see results and maybe inspire more action?

Yeah, so number one thing people can do to really drastically change their cognitive abilities and, and overall wellness, is start drinking more water. I mean, it's that simple, right. And so many of us, myself included back on the days when I was just rush, rush, rush, you know, and sometimes even today, my husband works busy in the oil field and and I'll catch him with a whole day where he didn't even pick up a single glass of water. And and it's something as simple as that. Making sure we are not only drinking the water our body needs or making a commitment to make a substitution. Maybe you are, you know, filling your kids up with juice, like I mean, I did when I was young, and my kids, I had them drink in like, you know, apple juice all the time. And all this, which is all just liquid sugar, really. And I'm really taking a look at ways that I can make a substitution between you know, the coffee that I'm drinking high levels of coffee that can be a dehydrate for me, if I substitute in for each time, I'm going to have a coffee. Oh, am I drinking water?

Right? Right. And so water is a big one. If when we look at diet overall, yep. When you What do you think is the hardest shift for people?

Oh, like you said, it is hard when people say well, I only have you know this much funds, right? How do I do that drastic change? Well, for me, I look at you know, what are you able to accomplish with those funds. So if you picked a number, let's say you know it was going to be $100 or 150 or $200, whatever your grocery budget number is, don't think about that as a hindrance. Look at what you are able to do it and many times you don't have to buy 100% of your grocery income at the full retail store. And there are many other things that you can do from the local farmers markets or also there are many different programs where we have like in in I live in the Edmonton and surrounding area we have the food for good program where we have shopping programs where different farmers like when you think about if I was a farmer and going to the farmers market and I picked this beat today and it didn't sell I can't go put it back in the ground. Right for a lot of stuff. When you think of leaving the farmers market at the end of the day. A lot of this stuff then is able to go down to other opportunities for people to get quality food at pennies on the dollar. And so there are many different opportunities like that for not only getting quality foods one is the food for good program here in the Edmonton and surrounding area where you can actually come and shop with foods that are there that have been donated by not only retailers are also farmers in the area that are there for you to have quality foods that many times people don't think of and you know and and other areas too is looking at the the nutrients of the foods that you are doing, you know and what is actually happening with your family right now. For example, maybe you yourself as as as a mom of the family or what have you are looking at how the moods are changing with you know, COVID back to school, all of these issues and how our emotions are going up or down or you know the the impacts of the family being cooped up all the time. What kinds of things can you do that doesn't necessarily have to break the bank but can really lift the mood. And one of the lovely tools that I love to implement with people is the power of something as simple as saffron. saffron is a it's quite an expensive spice but you don't use a lot of it you only use a little I like to say like the six to eight little pieces of the saffron and you put it into water like you would a tea and let it infuse in the water and then put that into your sauce or add it to your rice cooker and let it infuse to the rice that you're going to be making. And this is a Suffern is one of the areas that really lifts the mood. It's like a natural anti depression. Crescent, and really boosts overall mood and energy levels. And it's great things that you can do. And, you know, there's so many little tricks that don't have to cost lots of money. But you know, and then you don't have to put everybody on that, you know, antidepressants in the house, but it's a way of just lifting moods.

I love the fact that, you know, foods powerful, it's so mad, it is powerful.

And yes, you can lift moods with sugar. But when you're lifting moods with sugar, you're gonna have that high crash, right, and also the after effects. And then there are many different foods where you can lift the mood and energy and the impacts that are going to be staying stable. So there's lots of different things that you can do in

front. Okay, so curious, Saffron is a good mood lifter, what would be like to other things to other foods that you would recommend as a mood lifter?

Oh, um, so there's there's many different things. So saffronart, you know, it really helps with the depression and lifting the mood. Rosemary, time and sage, when you're adding that in helps boost any memory or cognitive levels, not only when we're aging, but also for helping with a kids as well. Cinnamon, cinnamon is great for not only energy, but also absorbing our blood sugar. I'm leveling that out a bit for us new full time speeds. It's what I love to do. Exactly, I love to just take chia seed, you know, like four tablespoons of chia seed into a bowl of water and add cinnamon, let it all just absorb that. And it has so many wonderful benefits, you know, when you see it going into that gelatinous stage, and as you're eating it, it's absorbing the toxins in there, but also providing a large amount of protein for us. And the cinnamon also helps for you know, helping those blood sugar levels calm down as well. And it's also an amazing antioxidant as well, for us with cinnamon, and garlic and oregano, we all can use that I mean, kids love having spaghetti and you know, putting stuff in place. And that boosts or blood flow to our brain. And I'm just allows more oxygenation to come into the brain, which is real simple for us to add in, you know, and just sort of tweak in there. And same with, you know, ginger and black pepper, they boost our metabolism, and also allow that energy level to just have a boost as well. And those are just your spices.

If I was just gonna say what I love is you shared, what you shared is probably in every single person's cupboard. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, you don't

have to go and spend a small fortune because so many of us have things in there that have been sitting, but we just don't use it. You know, and it's, it's understanding what you can use it for. You know, like, when you think about, you know, if you're dealing with a loved one who's gone down the geriatric direction of Alzheimer's and dementia, many times you're not only dealing with a stressful that, but you're also saying, Oh my gosh, this happened to my mom or dad, I hope it's not going to be happening to me, and what can I do to offset myself great things to incorporate in there is a tumor trick. tumeric, you know, in the curry end of things, has been found to really slow the process of that. So sometimes we're diagnosed with something that doesn't necessarily mean we're in the geriatric Ward the next day. There's a whole process of that and slowing that down. So we're staying more in the stage one rather than the stage four end of it.

I love it. And you know, coming from somebody and I haven't shared this, with many people, which now of course, I'm sharing it with the world, whoever's listening, I, you know, my I lost my mother to frontal lobe dementia. And so brain health is something that I went through those exact same fears. Like, is this gonna be me? How do I fix my mom? Okay, I can't fix my mom, or how do I make sure that you know, all of those things start questioning and surfacing and an interesting enough part of her health journey was an her decline was a big catalyst for my upswing in my wellness, and of course, leading me to doing this podcast and on all of those things. And I've become very aware from my own personal journey, that food is a vital tool to wellness. But again, depending the food you eat, can be an absolute crutch or Achilles heel or Roadblock, or all the things because, you know, it's habits we've got to build the habits around trying something new. So let's just say we've got someone listening right now that super inspired, kind of overwhelmed by the idea, what is one thing that you would recommend anybody that you work with Coach support? What's one thing to get them started?

There's many one things

but I'm only putting you on the hook for one.

So I would think about something as simple as you know, when you think about your meals itself, you know, these are fuel You want to use for for your body? And what is it you need that fuel for? You know, are you dealing with young babies and kids? Or are you in your seniors wanting, there's a whole different spectrum there. Right. And you know, even when you think about, you know, when you're dealing with kids that have the cupboard of all the, you know, colorful cereal, if you like, majority of that is all sugar as well, when you know, a great opportunity that you can do is ahead of time, make a big batch a huge saucepan full of like, you know, oatmeal and throw a whack of different stuff into it, and then have that in the fridge so that it's ready to go and then just have that instead, just to substitute out the sugar levels for still having good quality foods. And that could be something there, if you're also looking at losing weight, if that's the big focus for you, then you know, you can look at, again getting rid of that cereal that you would normally have in the morning. And then substituting maybe the chia seeds with water in a cereal bowl, we'll take you know, three or four tablespoons of chia seed and add that to a cereal bowl of water, let it all infuse, add your cinnamon in and put that in for not only some energy, but also to help with that weight loss as well. And that's, you know, something simple that you can do as well. Another thing I love to do is, you know, look at things that you can put in place just for small changes, you know, like, what types of things are you sending to the, for the kids for snacks, and I have a you know, this kid, that kids are all going to be looking at supposedly going back to school, if everything stays open, but what types of food? are you providing them for fuel while they're going to be absorbing that information at school? You know, and really look at, you know, as am I just grabbing all of these different things at the store that are just a whole whack of sugar and putting it in there and hoping that you know, their day goes great. Yes, yeah, they will. But that's not necessarily the best for them for absorbing that cognitive ability. You know, and look at when you're doing taking your grocery cart, one of the things I love to say to people is when you go to the grocery store, and I learned this because my husband and I were in the military, and we were posted overseas, where we were in small towns, we didn't have the big grocery store, you went to the bakery, you went to the butcher un little thing with a little shopping basket. And we also didn't have big fridges either. When you think about going into a grocery store, it was a culture shock for my husband and I when we came back, just sort of watching everybody going up and down every little food and pop and chip aisle and everything and just taking stuff in. But maybe what you don't need to step away from that a programmed route of going up and down the aisles. Walk on the outsides pick the things that you want to have. And then ask yourself, what is it I really need, maybe you need some laundry, so Okay, go and do that. Maybe you need this, rather than always going up and down every aisle, especially if you're hungry, where you're adding things that you didn't need anyways, impulse. My I've had times where I've said my husband to the store for a specific thing. And he's come back with like a whole, you know, $500 later with all kinds of things that are like, you know, why did you buy this stuff while I was hungry?

Right, it's so true.

And also, you can go on to my website and download also a shopping list for yourself as well, that's there just to take a look at things that you can you can use to really make some small change this and differences. I love knowing in the end, even something as simple as eggs, right? Eggs aren't super expensive, or they don't have to be, yeah. And then and then looking at, you know, whether you're looking at protein levels for you know, when was the last time you and your family sat down and ate together? You know, just but with all the rush that we are so tired so many times and even with the COVID issues, many families are sort of divided and got into their own little bubble in the house and doing their own little activities. And let's bring everybody together and see this as a blessing of way we can really connect to have that meal at the table. Because many people today actually are no longer eating together as a family. And we want to maybe bring that back in place as well. Not only for the socialization, the love between yourselves, but also you know, to slow the process of eating down and allow that digestion to take place rather than just stuffing something in and running to the next activity. been there done that?

Well, yeah, you know, and I think that this is a beautiful place to to end our conversation is reminding us all coming together around the table can inspire so much different levels of wellness in our whole lives. It's not just about what we're we're putting in our mouths it's about fueling our mind, our body and our soul. Yeah, and it happens around the table.

Yeah, and even if you put, like some good quality snacks on the center of the table, that you're okay with the kids, or, or yourself or your whole family members just picking out throughout the day, that's okay. And as long as you know that you've put something there that that is the good quality than and that's good. And it doesn't have to be again, super expensive. It can be you know, something small, even just some fruit that's there on the table, it can be something as simple as apples or it could be something, you know, like a bowl of nuts, if you don't have allergies in the house, with some trail mix or whatever, it doesn't have to be something super expensive, but just to have something, they don't have to go in the cupboard or open the fridge and write and look staring at it that so many times you know, and also looking at how it can, it can allow us to have that freedom to grab something and not feel bad about it.

Yeah, you know, and I love that you bring that forward, in my home, I kind of think of the people that live with me, oh my gosh, I adore them. And people that know me know that my family is everything to me. But when it comes to food, they're predators, they're looking for an easy meal. So if I, if I'd cut up food, or it's washed and prepped and ready, and they just have to pull in grab, they'll always make the good choice. If that's not there, they're immediately going for the snacks that are usually reserved for a weekend.

And it's true, it's so true. And like for me, you know, I live with brain health issues, I have epilepsy, frontal lobe division, scarring, as well as a brain tumor on my brainstem. And with all of these issues, I can choose the you know, to to look at every day, when we get up, we, you know, can make a positive pivot to either choose to go healthy or not, and stay on the journey that we're on, and go where the way we are with our habits or make one positive change to a whole different direction. And you know, and that's what we want to do is look at really resetting that point of change. You know, and and whether you're looking at your moods, your energy level, if you have any certain diagnosis. And many times we're looking at, you know, when we have a diagnosis, you go to a specialist, and you got a big waiting period. Well, what do you do in the meantime? Well, there are things that we can do that are in our grasp. And one of the amazing ways to really impact your health is through nutrition. And just make one small, little change at a time. And, you know, I would love to, you know, help you do that. And one of the great ways is, you know, just taking a look at your shopping list and look down at your cart. What is what's all in there?

Right? Oh my gosh, my husband? No, I shouldn't say this. I'm calling him out. He is the like, the the shopping cart judge. He's always like, oh, they're eating snacks today. They're

Okay, okay, but

don't do you got to look at our cart before you jump stairs.

And also step back from that. And because I've also lived in life where we literally had no money. Absolutely. Yeah, and even when I was a kid, you know, my parents were both, you know, through multiple divorces, and many times where we just didn't have, you know, two dimes to rub together, we'd be cutting out a million coupons trying to get every little thing that we could, and you know, really taking a look at how can we get the amount and quality of foods that we can on you know, small amounts of output. And it doesn't have to be like, even when you think back to Days of, you know, having a big bag of potatoes or carrots or what have you. Nowadays, people aren't really taking that time to really prep food. And they're just wanting that instant fix, you throw it in the microwave, and it's done. But sometimes we need to step back and say, you know, prepping food, um, can also save you a lot of money.

Well, and it keeps you connected to what you're consuming, which is super powerful. Katrina, thank you so much for being on the show today. such valuable information and inspiring information. Just want to remind you what Katrina said, Everybody just step in one small shift at a time, pick one area, maybe it's breakfast, maybe it's dinner, but pick one area to really start focusing on that wellness. And an ounce of prep will save you a lot when it comes to eating healthy foods and makes it easier. And also Katrina mentioned this during our conversation, we're going to put it in the show notes you can find on her website, which will be in the show notes. She's giving you guys access to her free shopping lists so that you can revamp your shopping experience so that you can be a little more focused on the healthy and leaning into healing the body and supporting the mind. So thank you so much, Katrina for for being here. It's a thrill to have you I appreciate your wisdom and your passion.

Yeah, thank you so much. And it's not like we have to all move from hamburgers to kale. One small, one small, little attainable step, you know, anything that we can do pick up a water bottle.

Right? I love that like worst case scenario. If you do nothing else from listening to this drink water.

There's so many things we can do just you know, and feel free to get in contact and I can put some tools in your toolbox as well. I