We re-introduce Cyrilla Purnell to the show, but this time we have an announcement that she will be joining Chris at his practice to help clients reach their mental and physical health goals through nutrition. They talk about how nutrition needs to start becoming a major foundation of a patient’s journey. They look at not only how food itself impacts your body, but also how your relationship with food impacts your mental health.
Tune in to see Nutrition Therapy Through a Therapist’s Eyes.
Think about these three questions as you listen:
- What is your relationship with food?
- How can food help your therapy and Mental Health Journey?
- Ponder the thought: Treat your food as Medicine or someday you will treat your medicine like food.
Intro Music by Reid Ferguson – https://reidtferguson.com/
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Episode #228 Transcription
Chris Gazdik: [00:00:00] Hello, this is through a Therapist’s eyes on May the 11th, 2023. So we have a special episode today where we get to introduce a whole new line of products for Metrolina Psychotherapy Associates. So this is episode 2 28, which we are going to be talking about nutrition, understanding nutrition therapy, and dietetic services.
So check these three questions out, and you’ll think about this through the episode. What is your relationship with food? Very much a question that you might not really think about having a relationship with, but we will be talking about that. How can food help your therapy and mental health journey?
Right. And then this is the origination of my idea for this show in the first place. A thought that came from a therapy session, [00:01:00] treat your food as medicine, or someday you will treat your medicine like food. Have you ever heard that
John-Nelson Pope: before? No. But that’s brilliant.
Chris Gazdik: I’m sh have you ever heard that before?
I have. Yeah. Of course you have thought that you might. So again, this is through a therapist eyes where you get insights directly from a panel of therapists and maybe possibly today. And who knows what. We develop a dietician as we go in the future. Knowing is not to delivery therapy services in any way.
We have the YouTube lives out now we are on Apple iTunes. Help us out by clicking the little bells, doing the little five scribes hitting the fives. What’s the fives? Five. Five stars. This is John Pope who’s hanging out with us. Hi, nice to be here and I’m gonna introduce her more so in a bit. But this is Cyrilla Purnell.
Cyrilla Purnell: Hello. We have a thank you for having me.
Chris Gazdik: Big introduction here today for you. So what else do I say? Contact at through a therapist size.com is our [00:02:00] website or web email to get up with us the human emotional experience, which we endeavor to figure out together. So I haven’t really talked about it on the show a lot, but Metro Line of Psychotherapy is the parent company for through a therapist Eyes, basically, right?
So it’s our real practice in the Mount Holly area that we have had open since 2010. So it’s really been awesome to. See clinicians come in and grow and offer awesome therapy services to, we’re in a place called Gaston County in Charlotte, Mecklenburg Metropolitan and Lincoln County. Well, we, we serve Lincoln.
Yeah. Cleveland counties. We get a lot of, yeah. Yeah. We pull from a lot of areas. But I was explaining that to help you understand that with, through a therapist Eyes the parent company being metrolina, that Ms. Cella Pernell has joined the practice. I’m super [00:03:00] excited about this. Welcome to Metroland Psychotherapy Associates.
Miss Cella Pernell, welcome.
Cyrilla Purnell: Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here. Yeah,
Chris Gazdik: it’s, it’s a whole new line of service for us. We have not done dietetic services, and we’re gonna jump into that so that we understand what people can benefit from by working with you. And off the get go, I will say I originally met you because I received your dietary services.
I think I shared on the show last time you were here. Awesome. I learned John more about food than I thought I ever knew. I can believe that. I mean, for
John-Nelson Pope: real. Yeah. I mean, I’ve been seeing you with these, these clear bottles with cucumbers in ’em and pineapples, pineapple. And
Chris Gazdik: we’re the, we’re the one person’s like looked down at my water, like, is that pickles in your water?
Cyrilla Purnell: That was a new one even for me. Was it? I was very impressed.
Chris Gazdik: Count on [00:04:00] me. Hey, they’re good for you. Pickles in the vinegar that’s in the pickles is good for your digestion. It has micro nutrients and all this got cool stuff, right?
Cyrilla Purnell: Yes. And if you like it and it makes you wanna drink more water, then
Chris Gazdik: why not?
I’m pounding water now. It’s so awesome. But listen to this lady. Okay. So. She’s a registered dietician. You have, has had several different jobs. I, I actually went through the introduction of last time and I thought, I’m just gonna pop that on there because now we have a different introduction cuz you’re one of us.
How cool is that? So, a master’s degree in public health and nutrition from UNC Chapel Hill, although she’s a UNC person, that’s kind of a little bit of a detriment, but we won’t hold that against her. An integrated approach supporting the health and of the mind and the body to promote optimal health and wellbeing.
She uses mindfulness practices to establish a better relationship with food. Again, the question for our show, right? What is your relationship with food? That’s something I really want you to be thinking about as it relates, especially to your feelings and emotions [00:05:00] and all that kind of stuff. But I do digress.
She encourages positive body awareness and instills a balanced approach to nourishing your body in the brain. John, if you google this girl, you will find her attached to several or at least a few, right? Like. You’ve been involved in studies and like legit research. Oh, I have. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes, I have.
They just, you should see on the cameras, they just connected on this weird research
John-Nelson Pope: stuff. So you’ve, you’ve participated with writing papers
Cyrilla Purnell: and all of that? Yes, I have. Yeah. From start to finish I’ve been on several different research projects
John-Nelson Pope: and Oh my goodness. Yeah. I’m impressed. I’m impressed.
It’s
Chris Gazdik: been fun. Yeah. You turn your head so far away from the microphone sometimes it makes, it makes me giggly. Listen, I have had hate for, sorry for therapy today, and I’m losing my mind at moments, so Yeah, no, we, we bust John’s
John-Nelson Pope: chop, so all the time I, I, and I kind of drop off at the very end sometimes,
Chris Gazdik: so, [00:06:00] yeah.
How many research projects have you been a part of? Do you know, off the end? Three.
Cyrilla Purnell: Like three? Yeah. Pretty cool. I, I have been a part of but not from start to finish. And so whatever
Chris Gazdik: happened with the book you were writing? What’s the update there? Oh, well
Cyrilla Purnell: that’s in
Chris Gazdik: you were, you were involved in a writing project?
Cyrilla Purnell: Yes, I was involved in a writing project. But
Chris Gazdik: that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s done different things. Okay. Yes it has. Sorry. And lastly, her interests really are in herbal medicine, yoga and meditation. While prop promoting people’s success with dietary needs. That is really cool stuff. Honestly, I gotta tell you, it is impressive to me when I find people that really care about what they do and are passionate about what they do.
And I can tell you, as somebody who’s received your services, I am super, super, super excited about being able to offer dietetic services to Gaston County with you. It’s gonna be awesome. Well,
John-Nelson Pope: he’s a true believer now. I am. And yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, cuz you, you used her services and it was
Chris Gazdik: very effective.
And what’s funny is I [00:07:00] didn’t know, did you know John? What? Dieticians do like in kind of comparison to mental health? In in, in what sort of, in there’s similar,
John-Nelson Pope: what we do. Yeah. In terms of, well, the mindfulness and the wellness and that’s sort of big in the counseling field or mental health counseling.
Yeah. I mean, even
Chris Gazdik: wellness, just on a basic level, I didn’t know that you can have weekly meetings or weekly session. No, I didn’t know
John-Nelson Pope: that. Or insurance or anything like
Chris Gazdik: that. Right. Mm-hmm. I feel like this is sort of a new thing. I know you and I have talked about it. Mm-hmm. You know, developing that, and I want people listening to this to understand like, you are really about wellness.
And that is about nutrition, but your, your, your sessions like, are we, you develop a weekly relationship with people to really help them with physical goals through nutrition. That’s, that’s kind of what I experienced. Mm-hmm. Does that sound in the ballpark? That’s
Cyrilla Purnell: exactly what we do. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And [00:08:00] it can be as often or as infrequently as whatever serves the particular person.
I have weekly sessions with some people and quarterly sessions with others. Everybody requires a different level of support. So sometimes you’ll
Chris Gazdik: meet quarterly with people. Mm-hmm. Okay. Absolutely.
Cyrilla Purnell: Mm-hmm.
John-Nelson Pope: I imagine there’s a lot of encouragement that goes in with your, your Your work to be able to help client, you call ’em patients or
Cyrilla Purnell: clients or I call ’em clients, but it depends on the setting.
If it’s more of a clinical setting than their patients.
John-Nelson Pope: So you, you, in other words, let’s say somebody gets down, they, they’ve, they’ve been I guess struggling or with their eating or disordered eating and you’re being very helpful with them and they hit a plateau or something in terms of weight loss or exercise, you’re able to encourage them.
Cyrilla Purnell: Yes. It is very much like being a coach. I mean, there’s a lot of different aspects to what we do. [00:09:00] Yes, we provide nutrition, education, uhhuh, and resources like that. And training in the area of actually science. So you help science of nutrition? Yeah. But we also have to provide encouragement, uhhuh, and support.
Emotionally and mentally as well. You know, and
John-Nelson Pope: I, and I kind of think that sometimes we get we, we get this idea in our minds that if you just provide the information, but there’s a lot more to it than that, isn’t it? In terms of saying, how are we going to do this over a period of time and how do we change one’s?
Chris Gazdik: Well, look, look, we got science on this Uhhuh, right? We’ve researched this. We know that one of the most effective components of a therapy experience is the relationship dynamics, right? Mm-hmm. That you get with your therapist, right? And that’s the same thing with a coach. I suspect that’s the same thing with a dietician [00:10:00] as I suspect, right?
So that mm-hmm. Your relationship. Re with, I think it’s very important. Yeah. It’s, it’s crucial mm-hmm. To have a good relationship with the person that you’re working with. It’s part of the art of what we do. And, and, and in, in a dietary way, it totally enables people with what your goals are. That’s what I’ve begun to experience.
Mm-hmm. Is that landing in the ballpark? Yes. I
Cyrilla Purnell: mean, the relationship is where the art form aspect of it comes in. Yeah. I mean, certainly there’s creating the plan, a personalized plan, and monitoring that plan and changing the plan as necessary. But then there is the relationship aspect as well and helping them to create thought patterns that lead to a healthy relationship with food.
John-Nelson Pope: Okay. Now, I think you’re a you like to practice yoga and so you’re into that as, as well, which I think is very healthy. So, yes. My my question for you on that is, is that is part [00:11:00] of the area of, of being a, a dietician or a nutritionist also aspect in terms of exercise and
Cyrilla Purnell: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a combination.
They have to be together to really have the optimal uhhuh wellbeing that people wellness. And so it’s really a vibrant
John-Nelson Pope: health. It’s very a wholeness
Cyrilla Purnell: oriented. Yes, it is. Mm-hmm. Well,
Chris Gazdik: you know, we did a, we did a show a couple years ago, I think I recall, where we were looking at exercises impact on mental health.
Right, exactly. And part of that conversation really taught me how around the world, right? Cause we have listeners around the world there, there are. There is an experience in the medical community that is a, what’s called a first line response. When you come into your doctor around the world and you say, oh, I have this, this issue, that issue, this complaint, this trouble.
And the [00:12:00] first thing they go to is, okay, well John, what’s your exercise plan? What are you, what are you doing? Moving your body every
John-Nelson Pope: day for me,
Chris Gazdik: you are my hero. Yeah. I will say, and, and, and in the states, our first line is pills. Mm-hmm. Right. So, and having met you Cyrilla I’ve actually added in my mind like a first line response to medical reality.
Still might very well be exercise and the second line. And I wonder, curious around the world how much they’ve realized. In the medical community, that nutrition really is definitely the second line, if you will. Possibly the first line, I’m sure I might think. And then we can get on to medical interventions with pills and medications and even herbal supplements and all the, all the whatevers and such.
Right. It is that, what do you think about that? Cyrilla? How
Cyrilla Purnell: do you experience that? Well, I think that it’s all part of a comprehensive approach. Yeah. And traditionally it has been therapy and medication, but more and more [00:13:00] nutrition services and nutrition support are being integrated into this comprehensive support for our clients our patients and in, in supporting their mental health.
So Really dieticians working with the healthcare team to ensure that that nutrition support is going to be there as part of a holistic approach toward, for a client to support them in their mental health journey. And see.
Chris Gazdik: So let’s circle back cuz I want to get to know you or have folks get to know you a little bit better and more and whatnot, but, so, we’ll, we’ll circle back, but let’s stay here for a second.
Mm-hmm. Because that integrated reality to care, I mean, people hear that, you know we’re gonna do integrated care, we have comprehensive services, we, you know, work all together and all like, I like, I just wanna pause and see like the integrative nature of dietetic services. I feel like it’s still kind of noon.
By new, I mean very Okay. You say very [00:14:00] new. Yes.
Cyrilla Purnell: In mental health, in,
Chris Gazdik: in the mental health arena for sure. But I think also in the medical arena mm-hmm. You know, 50 years ago, I don’t think that we had much. Is is, is what I suspect. Right. A hundred years. We don’t have anything. I
Cyrilla Purnell: mean, I don’t know. I, I think that nutrition has been recognized in cardiovascular disease and in management of dialysis patients and in supportive digestive problems and things like that for a long time, longer time.
But I’m just, the list goes on and on about nutrition related conditions that can be sup have been supported. I think especially when biochemical mechanisms are involved in helping someone to survive. Absolutely. But I mean, in mental health, this is cutting edge stuff. Yeah. Being able to integrate nutrition services to support a patient and.
The research is [00:15:00] really showing positive results in this area.
Chris Gazdik: So tell us more about integration with that. How is this in, like, you’ve been doing this for a minute. Mm-hmm. You’ve been doing this for a little while. How have you seen the integrative reality? I guess specifically with mental health, but also to a certain extent, healthcare as well.
Like, I think we do a good job of integrating exercise into your healthcare. Yes. And now we’re really catching on to integrating more. So your, your diet and nutrition again, what is the phrase? Like, treat your food as medicine or someday you’ll treat your medicine like food. That’s a concept that is really, seems integrative to me.
So how have you seen that grow or change or developed in life
Cyrilla Purnell: over the years? Yeah. Oh yes. I mean, to the point where It’s so much more exciting to be a dietician now coming from my mindset in the way [00:16:00] that things have been bridged between the two worlds. Or I mean, not really, I guess, is that right to say the two worlds?
Probably, yeah. And now that now it’s being, now there’s a bridge and we can all communicate and there’s more There’s more networking and resources to be able to do that and communicate and nutrition is a valuable part of the team and becoming more and more so.
Chris Gazdik: I, I’ll tell you, for instance, one of the things that I learned among the many when, when I was working with you professionally, John, she, I literally did a, I was so proud of this Mr.
Academia over there, right? When I was in high school, I’ve wrote this, you remember this? I wrote this paper, I think I told you about it about America’s $1 million Unnecessary Industry or something. You remember when Yeah.
Cyrilla Purnell: The supplement industry? Yes. Yeah. Yes. [00:17:00]
Chris Gazdik: I’m like, no, this just, oh, you see, you just saw in the cameras her reaction, right?
Like, So I was so proud of this article thinking that I had just made this argument and it was so cool. And I wrote it up. I got an a on the paper, by the way. Thank you. Teacher. He was a guy. What was his name? Doesn’t matter, but I, I’m not gonna pull it up. So your
John-Nelson Pope: argument was it’s
Chris Gazdik: a waste, it’s a waste to do all these nutrients and vitamins and all this kind of stuff and whatever, or vitamins.
Vitamins, yes. So I was, I was speaking with c I was working, she was working with me trying to help me figure stuff out. Which you had a challenge. She, you had a big challenge. But she began talking about the supplements and whatever that are appropriate for, by the way, I, I did schedule my doctor’s appointment for getting the cholesterol checked.
It took me a while and Dr. Earlier is gonna help me out. I finally am going back. I was stunned is the point about how, like I was saying this and I was skeptical trying to [00:18:00] inquire. And you know what she said to me? She was like, Chris, You’re so awesome the way you did it. Right? She’s like, Chris, so when you think of metabolic changes in your body and you take like, you know, aspirin or, you know, like medications that are prescribed antibiotics where they’re like, that’s doing metabolic change in your body, right?
And, and I’m like, well, yeah, that’s what, that’s the point. And she’s like, well, what do you think all of these supplements do when they’re doing changes in your body when we combine turmeric or, you know, vitamin D or, you know different, different sub. Right, right. And I was like, maybe I’m slow up on the intake, John, but this, this, like, was amazing to me.
So,
John-Nelson Pope: so it just
Chris Gazdik: blew your mind. It did, yeah, it did. So that all of this dietetic knowledge that you have in how to use these supplements and how, like, I feel like it’s so confusing. But that’s metabolic change in what we put in our body, right. Go, I’m sorry. Go ahead, [00:19:00] John. No, I, I
John-Nelson Pope: was gonna make a comment.
There’s a, there’s a place in Florida called Lithium Springs, or Lithia Springs rather. Okay. And that’s been used to, to treat bipolar. It’s a, it’s an old lithium. Lithium has as a treatment, well, like a natural spring. Natural spring. And the people there do not have bipolar Disorder because
Chris Gazdik: low rates.
Low rates, bipolar disorder. Yeah. In Lithium Springs, which is a city or whatnot that has a high amount of lithium in their, in, in the
John-Nelson Pope: springs. What? From their water source?
Chris Gazdik: You’ve gotta be kidding me right now. No, no. And for the listening on, as we know that lithium is a medication that is prescribed for, you know, bipolar, bipolar, bipolar disorders.
And, but is li what is lithium then? It’s a salt. It’s a salt. It’s also a metal. An element. An element. An element. Yeah. It’s, I guess it’s on the table, right? Yeah.
John-Nelson Pope: It’s like it’s related. It’s very close [00:20:00] to sodium. Right. Which is salt. Okay. Sodium chloride in a, what is it? Anyway, so it’s, it’s also on the periodic chart.
It’s very closely related, but it has a different mechanism of action.
Chris Gazdik: So, so this salt could be bad for, that’s setting you up a little bit for like, how do we incorporate this? What is, it’s, it’s, it’s so confusing for people. I think this massive industry of supplements and, and how it works. I mean, I don’t know, like w
Is that part of the integration that we, we work towards?
Cyrilla Purnell: Yes. I think that certainly
I wouldn’t try to implement a supplement program without talking to a healthcare professional. Okay. I think
Chris Gazdik: that statement that’s important. Say
Cyrilla Purnell: that again and why? Taking a look at maybe lab values and seeing if there are any nutri nutritional deficiencies, taking a look at any health conditions that a person might [00:21:00] have can certainly be important.
Blood panels in planning? Yes. In planning a, a supplement program. That’s fascinating to me. I have been able to talk to clients without having information, the lab value information and help them to lead them in for a good routine. But there’s some people that where it can be very beneficial to look into those lab values and know what’s going on,
Chris Gazdik: but what kind of caution?
Do people need to have about that? Because I think people will go on Dr. Google Internet, search this stuff, figure out like what supplements might be good for me and what I want to use. And of course, it’s all over the counter. And so I’m actually hearing an introduction, a little bit of caution
Cyrilla Purnell: there.
Well, I would, I think that oftentimes supplements can possibly have interfere with medications that a person could be taking. It could, they could, they’re very powerful and some are more [00:22:00] subtly powerful and some are extremely power, have extremely powerful impact on the body and metabolism. Well, I, your
John-Nelson Pope: ta, turmeric, for example, has some anticoagulant properties.
Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So you have to be careful if you’re taking
Chris Gazdik: something like so this is a, for example, right? For
John-Nelson Pope: example. Mm-hmm. Yeah. For example, if you’re taking a blood thinner, For like Eliquis,
Chris Gazdik: you would wanna be careful about, you wanna be very careful. Yeah.
Cyrilla Purnell: Okay. Yes sir. If you have low blood blood pressure, you don’t want to take something that’s gonna thin your blood even more.
Mm-hmm. And then you might be feeling dizzy or weak and not know why you might think, well my condition’s just getting worse. And where in fact you just brought in a supplement like turmeric or any other blood lowering supplement, blood pressure lowering supplement that could make you think that you’re getting worse when you’re really just taking the wrong thing.
Chris Gazdik: Interesting. Yeah. [00:23:00] So
John-Nelson Pope: there’s a, a need for medicine allopathic medicine to, to sort of interact with, let’s say or dieticians to interact or nutritionist interact with, with physicians,
Chris Gazdik: for example. So I told you he has cool words. What is allopathic or what, what did you say? Well, Can you, can you dumb that down for me, bud?
John-Nelson Pope: Allopathic is, is that they’re mainly medic medicine based. In other words, there’s a medical model that, that goes with it as opposed to, let’s say, a model that that Cilla and that we practice and not medicine, but it’s, it’s a sense of wholeness and wellness instead of just applying a, a, a medical fix.
Okay. I gonna, I’m
Chris Gazdik: sure you had understood him cirillo, but I I was sure that several, our audience didn’t, and I was like, lost for a minute. I’m gonna
John-Nelson Pope: get in so much trouble.
Cyrilla Purnell: So. Well, I mean, dieticians are trained a little bit in herbal [00:24:00] with about herbal supplements and Nutritional supplements, and I don’t think that doctors have very much training, but I notice that when I go to the doctor now, he’ll talk about certain herbs. It has increased. So yes, it has increased in the bridge that we’ve been talking about.
Great. But but it’s not really either one of our areas of expertise as like an herbalist or something. But I do think that in general, For when a person is starting a supplement program that is good to check with one, a registered dietician or with their doctor to make sure that they’re proceeding with caution.
Chris Gazdik: Gotcha. It’s, it’s a service. It’s a medical intervention when you’re talking about dietetic services. So let’s circle back a little bit and let’s introduce you a little bit more to Gaston County and you can contact her and help you. And you are registered in North Carolina, so if you’re outside of North Carolina, people can’t contact you, but you’re learning from the show.
It’s helpful to [00:25:00] contact a registered dietician in your area and really around the world, truly. So, but for those of us in Gaston County particularly what got you into the dietician world and, you know, got, you started on all this, like why did you do this?
Cyrilla Purnell: Well, I definitely have a natural passion for helping people to.
Attain a higher level of health. And so I love to help people create a plan and execute their plan and work with them to, so that they’re feeling a better level of wellness and more just a more vibrant health. And I have a strong confidence in the impact of food to be able to do that. So that’s the reason why I became a dietician.
Chris Gazdik: That is super cool. When did you kind of catch wind of it?
Cyrilla Purnell: High school? I started to really okay. Become aware [00:26:00] that. I wanted to know what was going on with people. In fact, I learned how to look into people’s irises and see what was going on with the constitution of their body. That was one of the first things that I learned.
And then I learned in high school. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was called I radiology and that led me into the fascination with how nutrition actually affects our health. So it was a progressive journey from there. Okay.
Chris Gazdik: I, I, John, I gotta know more, right? Like, Oh boy. Well, I, I, you got me,
John-Nelson Pope: I dunno anything about,
Chris Gazdik: you’re not gonna answer this question.
Okay. John, what do you get when, what can you figure out or look at? When you look in somebody irises, you’re not gonna be able to answer that. You’re selling me n no.
John-Nelson Pope: Whether you’re alive or dead, I guess you could do that. That’s about all I can
Chris Gazdik: say. That’s about the limits I have. So I gotta hear more.
Sure. What can you, what what,
Cyrilla Purnell: so it’s, it’s, some people would consider I radiology a pseudoscience. Okay. So it’s [00:27:00] not something that I practice now in conjunction with being a registered dietician. Okay. Even though, good. Fair point. Important point. Yes. I have practiced it in the past and I am certified as an I radiologist because I just really felt like it was something that I wanted to explore.
And I don’t think I would be the same dietician without having that really deep knowledge of the biochemical processes of the body and how all the systems work together. And that’s what I gained from radiology. But you can gain insight into all the biochemical, some biochemical pro, some it’s okay.
So I, radiology is basically like a window into the body. It’s like if you were trying to look into a window of a house, You can see a certain portion of the house through looking in through that particular window. Oh, that makes total sense. Yeah.
Chris Gazdik: I love metaphors.
Cyrilla Purnell: Yeah. And there’s certain things that you can tell about the body by looking into the iris, maybe certain way that the, the fibers are [00:28:00] arranged.
You can tell things about the structure and function of tissues that are reflexively related to those areas of the, of the
John-Nelson Pope: iris. So in a way, is it like an acupuncture in terms of it, it’s not that obviously, but there’s, there’s a sense that’s where I went, John System, it’s
Chris Gazdik: systems. It’s
Cyrilla Purnell: a, it’s a reflexive relationship.
Uhhuh that I think that that’s what you’re referring to is is, is the parallel Okay. Between i radiology and acupuncture in that. But. You can see a lot about the digestion and the nervous system and different some things about the biochemistry of what’s going on in the body with blood sugar and things like that.
Now it’s
Chris Gazdik: interesting. So when you say some would consider it to be a pseudoscience, you know, I, I’ve, you know, we listen to a, a podcast, John and I do skeptics guide. Right. And they, yeah, they, they really dig into some of these types of things and they’ve, they’ve like basically all but [00:29:00] debunked the effects of, of acupuncture and whatnot.
Right. It’s, for instance,
Cyrilla Purnell: I’ve heard those debunkings and I don’t believe it. It
Chris Gazdik: really? Okay. Well, yeah,
Cyrilla Purnell: if you’ve had acupuncture
Chris Gazdik: yourself, I would not want to let people stick a bunch of needles in me all over my body. Probably not gonna have ’em like, no. But has anyone else had, have you done? Oh, I, no, I haven’t.
Neil, you, you wife has your, his wife has, oh, it’s very, did she, did she like that? I think it helped her. You think it helped her? Yeah. Okay. It’s profoundly powerful, profoundly powerful if she says, okay. Mm-hmm.
John-Nelson Pope: So it’s interesting. It’s not just a placebo effect.
Cyrilla Purnell: Well, placebo effects are real, but definitely.
Right. So whatever creates the change, I’m all for it. Right.
Chris Gazdik: Right. Well, let’s laser in a little bit more in the integration, right? So in mental health practice, which is what Metro Anti Psychotherapy does in therapists around our country and world, [00:30:00] having dietetics being embedded specifically with like, you know, mental health per se, how,
how does that integrate with anxiety issues and depression issues and, you know, issues with, I won’t even go to personality disorder.
That’s a whole different kind of thing, right? But yeah, she’s shaking her head like, no, no, no, we’re not going there. But, but you see what I’m saying? Like, you know, bipolar, bipolar and schizophrenia, even maybe like real struggles that people have with, with, with diagnostic condition syndrome related realities in mental health, dietetics coming alongside that.
How does that, how does that work?
Cyrilla Purnell: Okay. Well, first of all, research. The latest research is consistently supporting the correlation between the strong correlation between nutrition and optimal mental health [00:31:00] treatment and results and support. So that’s the first thing. And I think that with, with that in mind, that certainly incorporating nutrients that are known to support perhaps like for example, the the making of certain levels of neurotransmitters in the body that affect mood and thinking and our ability to learn.
And in our, just our general feeling of overall wellbeing nutrients can, and the quality of a person’s diet can really affect the making and the levels of those neurotransmitters in the brain.
Chris Gazdik: So you’re kind of really the, the, the simple way that I’m hearing that. Funneling it down a little bit, sort of relates to like brain health and, and how we know a lot of the science behind mental health, at least I’m [00:32:00] experienced with that, that limbic systems.
Mm-hmm. Serotonin, dopamine, like, you know, the body’s process of what we feel and what those chemicals do and how that works. So you’re embedding sort of like brain health into this process through nutrition input or
Cyrilla Purnell: brain? Yes. Brain function, gut function and yes. Right. Brain, brain function. Just your, in your general neurotransmitters and feel good hormones.
And also, yes, your gut health and that gut brain access and the the quality of the population of your your natural bi, your biome. And I think
John-Nelson Pope: that’s been connected for some time now with the idea of developing dementia is, is not having healthy gut biomes.
Chris Gazdik: So dementia’s been studied to see as one of the big areas where this Yeah.
Impacts Yeah. Yeah. Impacts it. Yeah.
John-Nelson Pope: Negatively. [00:33:00]
Chris Gazdik: Interesting. Is that, not that I’m discrediting you, John, but that’s okay. I’m curious what does that sound, so in your, in your experience, Cyrilla?
Cyrilla Purnell: Oh, absolutely. Of course you’re right John. You’re, he always is. Micro flora definitely directly affects. What, I’m sorry.
Our micro fluoride directly affects our brain and they communicate through the body with each other, our brain and our and our entire GI tract. But there’s also some evidence that shows that there’s, there’s a correlation or there’s a connection between our cardiovascular system mm-hmm.
And our ability to have a very healthy and plentiful flow of blood to the brain and, mm-hmm. So there’s a diet called the Mind Diet. M I N D D?
Chris Gazdik: Yes. Okay. And what
Cyrilla Purnell: is that? And it stands, it’s an acronym actually, that stands for Mediterranean Intervention for [00:34:00] Neurodegenerative delay.
Chris Gazdik: See, way over my head, John.
No, no.
John-Nelson Pope: Yeah, this actually, there’s been There’s been a lot of studies for the Mediterranean diet. Yeah. And so they’ve kind of, they’ve gone in and, and a little bit applied a, a bit of rocket science into it as well. And so they’re rocket medicine, so to speak, but, so they have, this is very preventative and it’s also a, a lifestyle and that people have to, they basically follow this for the rest of their lives, this diet.
Chris Gazdik: Okay. So, so let’s, let’s frame this around again, the, the idea of the statement, right? Treat your food as your medicine, or someday you will treat your medicine like your food and, and correlate that around, like, you know, this i, this idea, like how, how do these things, how do these things relate? I don’t know.
My head just got blowing a little bit to, and, and I’m, I’m trying to track it back with, cause this is depthy [00:35:00] stuff. I feel like, so, so the confusing nature of diets around the world, you, you’re mentioning Mediterranean diet, right? And then we have the the low carbs thing, you know, the, what’s it called?
You know, everyone knows Atkins, the Atkins diet or everyone, or the keto, you know, keto and, and people do these all, all these. It is so much to try to incorporate this in. I’m curious to, to to, to look at what you would say from an ar registered dietician’s perspective with, you know, all the diets we try and all the specifics that we get into this and all the confusion that people have and the stress that people get into with that.
What, what is your take on that whole world of, of diets? Per se.
Cyrilla Purnell: Oh boy. That’s a very big question. Yeah. But I, I would say that the first thing that comes to mind is to really rely on what the evidence is saying that comes out of scientific research. Yeah. But they all seem to
Chris Gazdik: contradict. Contradict or I don’t know it, but I think it’s a lot out there that just goes,
Cyrilla Purnell: [00:36:00] yes.
But overall, there’s going to be a, most of the time, there’s going to be an overall impression that you can get to help, to lead your clients, to be able to understand what the evidence is saying and to kind of weed through different nutrition claims.
Chris Gazdik: Oh, no, no, no, no. I’m not doing that as way outta my scope.
I’m referring them to you. You we’re not doing this in my sessions. Seriously, because it is over my head. I, I would not feel comfortable. I’m, you know, I, I need to learn a lot more. So, yes.
Cyrilla Purnell: Yeah. But as far as fad diets go I think that as long as you’re not there’s many different diets that can fit, and it really has to, we have to explore and individualize for each client what makes them feel the best, because certain people just don’t handle carbs as good and they, it, it really makes them feel bad to [00:37:00] eat them.
Right. Even if they’re not processed and refined carbs. Maybe even eating unrefined carbs in ancient grains still makes them feel really tired. So the gluten
and, yeah, and gluten. But a lot of, I mean, there’s a lot of misconceptions around gluten where people, well, we all know
Chris Gazdik: somebody had trouble with chicken.
Right? Yes, we do. Okay. Chicken, like who would’ve thought that would do something in your body? So the cool thing that I’m, I’m really tapping in very or red meat, excited about, for example,
John-Nelson Pope: you get bitten by a tick and you Lyme disease and or better cough also can cause you to have problems with absolutely
Chris Gazdik: red meat.
Absolutely terrifying. So, so the thing that I really enjoyed working about with you was like, I didn’t get a sense, and maybe you picked up just on my personality because, you know, I, I, I think I told you like, don’t get me weighing foods, don’t get me measuring cups and ounces. I’m not that guy. I’m not that guy.
Right. And, but, but I feel like that was your perspective on [00:38:00] food and wellness anyway in really this individualized approach. Like what is going on with your body Again, one of the questions, guys listening, what is your relationship with food? And I look at the emotional aspects in my work with people in therapy, but there’s a physical.
Aspect of this that you’re dialed into as well. Right.
Cyrilla Purnell: The emotional and the physical. Certainly, I think I’m tapping into what you’re trying to ask about. Many people are following rules and restrictions and regulations around their food that are really limiting them in their experience and in, in their relationship with food.
And it’s creating a stress in their lives. Mm-hmm. Whereas if they allow themselves to know what foods are beneficial for them as individuals and learn how to incorporate those foods into their lives, then In a balanced, [00:39:00] in a balanced way, and eating a variety of foods in the way that all foods fit, as long as certain foods are only in moderation.
And so not having these strict rules around food.
Chris Gazdik: See, I love that. Mm-hmm. Because those strict rules, I think, have an emotional impact. Oh,
John-Nelson Pope: right. Great deal of anxiety and anxiety, self anxiety, self esteem issues, and mm-hmm. One gets very upset about, let’s say, well, I didn’t lose this mo amount of weight.
And then they, they get depressed.
Chris Gazdik: It’s crushing to your soul. Yeah. Yeah. When you, when you feel these struggles, and I’ll tell you, I think that gets, as I’m getting a little older, you know, we haven’t made an age joke yet, John, but as your body really changes, right? Yeah. As you get a little older and as that begins to develop, and, but even, you know what, as teenagers, your body’s massively changing and whatnot, and I bet there’s [00:40:00] stuff that you would be able to speak to about all of that.
So again, the idea here is, is. I’ve been thinking about for many years in my practice with people when we’re working on body image issues and, you know, obesity and we’re gonna talk about compulsive behavior here in a little bit. I think you know, the, the, the relationship that you have with food emotionally, but there’s the whole other side physically that is all individualized.
And the more and more I think we researched we’ll find that that’s the,
John-Nelson Pope: and it’s, and it’s centered. So much of our eating is centered around what we do as, as families or individuals. And so we’re just cultural culturally. And so it’s very tough, I think.
Chris Gazdik: And so as a registered dietician, you really work with people to weed through all of this, right?
Yes.
Cyrilla Purnell: We take it all into consideration. Yeah. A person’s entire lifestyle and just. Really come up with solutions [00:41:00] and help them to reach where they’re trying
Chris Gazdik: to go. And I could tell you, you know, from, from working with you, you know, it, it really did. And maybe it’s just your style you know, But, but I, but I suspect in a relationship with dieticians, period, it helps you to deal with the emotional, calm down about what you’re trying to do.
Like, I’m not bad. I’m not doing something wrong. I’m, I’m not, you know, my, give you a simple idea. I, I oftentimes feel guilty if I don’t finish my plate. Like my kids are really helping
syndrome, right? And I’m, and I’m working hard to like, get that out of my system, get that out of my emotional tapes to, to, to play.
And it helps when you’re having a relationship with a registered dietician of sor. To work through that. That’s part of what you do, right? Good.
Cyrilla Purnell: Good.
John-Nelson Pope: Yes. So is there’s no judgment and I [00:42:00] I what I’m hearing from you is, is that your approach would be non-judgmental and would be Yeah, just taking people where they are as a and accepting them.
And so if a person has some, let’s say a hundred pounds overweight, for example, you would take them without judgment and, and sort of coach them. Yes, but in a, a very positive way too that they could and provide education and, and, and that type of counseling, that, that in terms of portion control and eating
Cyrilla Purnell: and Yes.
And helping them to accept themselves. So is
Chris Gazdik: one of the biggest, let, before you go on, I just want to interject real quick, right? Like, we have a comment on YouTube that says like, I hate the word obesity. That’s what somebody just commented, right? And it’s like, yeah. What you were saying. So go, go ahead.
Yeah.
Cyrilla Purnell: Self-acceptance and so that trying to get rid of those feelings of guilt and shame that can lead to [00:43:00] punishment and self punishment and cravings and all of these emotions that can go into Into the eating process. Whereas when a person gains an un better understanding of themselves and begins to accept themselves, then we can begin the journey of.
Right. Of building a better relationship with food. Right. I have a
John-Nelson Pope: client that has a couple of ’em actually, that have some very mixed feelings, obviously, about their relationship with food. They a lot of times, for example, if they grew up in a a rural area or they had a grandparent and that there was a lot of food that was on the table, and it was basically for somebody living on a farm, doing manual labor all the time, and then you come there’s that cooking and the meals, [00:44:00] and then there’s, at the same time,
well, you’ve put on some weight and yet at the same time, they give you the extra food and shame.
So you get the shame, shame, shame, shame.
Chris Gazdik: Yeah. I’m, I’m curious, Cilla, right? Like, so, and we’ll be learning more of this working closely with you here in our practice, which I’m excited about. But like, I’m curious along these lines of like the diagnostic that we deal with John which goes into a little segment here of talking about compulsive behavior in a moment, but like, how do you work with anorexia or bulimia?
What, what does. What would be your plan when I refer to you somebody who has eating disorders, is what we call in mental health to, to work with them. How, how, how would you go about
Cyrilla Purnell: that? Well, certainly an indivi individualized approach, okay, I’d swap is going to be super important, right? And so everyone’s going to be different.
But some of the components that we will tie in is education and giving them some training [00:45:00] around food. Often we can even eat with our clients to coach them in mealtime and can be very transformative. Mindfulness techniques that they can build. So help them build their relationship with food.
There’s a lot of different tools and strategies that we can use.
Chris Gazdik: So this really kind of comes, it is, for instance, an area where, I mean, you do psychotherapy, which is different, and you do dietetics, which is different, but there’s a, with anorexia, they’re congruent. There’s a lot of parallel congruence, is that,
Cyrilla Purnell: that’s what I’m hearing.
And I think that that comprehensive approach where they’re a person is getting support from multiple levels. Could be a great part of the why this combination is being is more successful that [00:46:00] with incorporating a dietician in too, because it’s added support.
John-Nelson Pope: Yeah, I was just thinking there’s a rewiring of one’s brain.
Oh yeah. And so you still have the original tracks though that that, let’s say the compulsive eating or the emotional eating or those patterns, those are terms
Chris Gazdik: that are in the therapy world. Right? Right.
John-Nelson Pope: But. That it reduces gradually as you retrain, you strengthen new, new pathways in the brain and new ways of thinking and, and having a relationship with food, for example.
Cyrilla Purnell: Yes, I see what you’re
Chris Gazdik: saying. And there’s a higher correlation to to to what we do because I’m, I’m just thinking about that like, you know, I’ve worked with anorexia and bulimia through the years as clinical diagnoses that I’m qualified to diagnose. Right. And, and then so, and, and then we deal with all the emotional realities.
And it’s amazing to me, like I, I’ve, I’ve always been privately, I guess now publicly around the world, [00:47:00] amazed with like anorexia where people can be so rail thin, like bad, bad, thin. This is a terrible syndrome condition that people have where their perceptions are actually of being fat. Yeah, and it just gets into this compulsive eating disorder world.
It is a tough, tough deal. And so I’m, I was curious, like I said, like how you work with, you know, with that as a dietician, right?
John-Nelson Pope: I, I, I’m starting to see more men that are having developing bulimia. Really? Yeah.
Chris Gazdik: Yeah. So, Say more about that. I’m, I’m curious. I, I haven’t, I’m not dialed into that very much.
Not at all. No.
John-Nelson Pope: Well, I, I don’t know. It’s the as much as the, that we’d had when you get into therapy and you do a little bit of digging, and then the person actually starts to talk about, or he talks about his eating and his eating [00:48:00] patterns and how he would cause himself to not just he, but they, the number of people that they could cause themselves to throw up,
Chris Gazdik: which is the primary symptom of bulimia, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And so it’s not
John-Nelson Pope: just disordered eating, it’s in, in itself a selective eating. Withdrawing how much they’re eating of a certain thing. It’s where they actually
gag themselves and, or they’ll take some sort of medication that would cause themselves to, to purge themselves.
Chris Gazdik: That’s fascinating.
I I, I’m so appreciative, John, of this moment because part of what’s awesome about this show, right? Yeah. We figure this out together. I am going to come clean right now and own the fact that as we have issues like that I think we as professionals can be blind to certain issues. Yeah. And I, that has just not crossed over my radar screen, and I’m sure that, as you say [00:49:00] that I’m thinking, well, I haven’t asked.
Mm-hmm. I haven’t explored, I don’t know what eating behaviors, a particular particularly male. Client would have in relation to that. I don’t, you know. Yeah. Now I won’t be as much anymore, so
John-Nelson Pope: Thank you. My, my super buff clients, a couple of that
Chris Gazdik: have, they have to, I’m not surprised at all. I’m disappointed with myself that I haven’t picked up on that, but Yeah, absolutely.
Because this is a behavior, guys, I mean, like when this compulsivity issue in therapy that we deal with, let alone, we talked about addiction a lot lately with, with our, with our shows. You know, eating addictions are real mm-hmm. In which is severe compulsive behavior. Mm-hmm. Not just emotional eating and whatnot.
Yeah. I need to ask. Hmm. You need to explore that more. So That’s awesome. So, so as it relates to addiction, let me kinda do the same thing with bulimia and anorexia. You know, how will us clinicians refer to and interact with you [00:50:00] on something like addiction? And you may not have come across that much at all.
I know a lot of professionals don’t, but do you work with addiction, much eating addictions per se?
Cyrilla Purnell: I have yeah. Yeah. I wouldn’t say much. But I have had several clients that we’ve worked together for a very long span of time. Yeah. And I think that dietetic services can be extremely helpful to help these people navigate through their their food addiction.
And it’s a different kind of addiction because we have to eat. And so it’s not it’s really helping them to build a, a different type of relationship with food and to restore their ability to be a natural eater.
Chris Gazdik: Ooh. That’s a big statement there at the end, helping, how did you just put that, helping people to return to becoming a natural eater.
Mm-hmm. Say more
Cyrilla Purnell: about that. Restore their ability. [00:51:00] Restore their, become a natural eater. Mm-hmm. Say, say more about that. So being able to tune into our hunger and fullness cues is, oh one of the fullness things that
John-Nelson Pope: I’m hungry right now. Okay.
Chris Gazdik: I’m hungry too. You, you might hear my stomach right? I shoot right through.
Still Cella. I’m sorry. I do, I’m working on it, man. I shoot right through the hunger cues. Mm-hmm. I’m like, matter of fact, my wife looked at me up until long ago. She’s like, Chris, I think you think you need to eat more food than you need to eat. And I’m like, oh.
So, but I, I think we interrupted you.
Cyrilla Purnell: Keep going. Helping them to let go of the emotions of guilt and shame. Yeah. Stop following to help them to adopt strategies where they’re not. Adhering as tightly to rules and restrictions and regulations and all of these aspects that take away from us to [00:52:00] being a natural eater.
That’s liberating. It is to me. I mean, just even feeling it inside when you compare the two ways of feeling and approaching your, nourishing your body on a daily basis, it just feels totally different. It’s a healthy profession, isn’t it? It really
Chris Gazdik: is. Definitely. Mm-hmm. Well, what do you mean, John, go a little further with your reaction there.
I’m just curious if you’re, if you’re willing. Well, it’s liberating. It’s
John-Nelson Pope: liberating to know that you don’t have to eat and you don’t that you don’t have to be tied. You, you’re aware of your emotions, but you don’t
have to be driven by them or in a sense that some, some folks are emotional eaters. I think a lot of us, I think most
Chris Gazdik: all of us
John-Nelson Pope: are well, and
Chris Gazdik: I think the pandemic.
Can we say that emotions Yeah. Are a part of our relationship with therefore Yeah. Were emotional
John-Nelson Pope: tears. I, I think there was a lot of anxiety during the pandemic. Yeah. And people were so it wasn’t just, well
Chris Gazdik: just give somebody a box of [00:53:00] donuts and look at their face and you’ll see the emotion. Right? Oh yeah.
And you know, like, oh, should I eat all these? Should I say no? I’m going to eat one. I don’t wanna be, well, we had a, we had a big box. I know. It just happened in our
John-Nelson Pope: office. It just, somebody, we had a, we had the donut. Do
Chris Gazdik: you know who you are? Yeah. We, not to make you feel guilty. No, we, they were great. Yeah.
But it is, isn’t it? And then we just had a, a lot of fun emotion with that. So, but can we restore fun by the way, with food? Mm-hmm. And how do we, again, what is your relationship with food? The emotional part? I’m used to really thinking a lot about the medical part. I’m not as much, but we’ve known for a long time that there’s a lot of emotions in this experience of eating.
Yeah. Like, for instance, you said, you know, sometimes we’ll eat with our, our clients Cella. Mm-hmm. Which is super cool. I could tell you, I, I learned early on in, in my career, we were doing some in-home family work and I was pretty young at the time, new in the field, [00:54:00] and he was our supervisor. And so we were doing in-home family therapy with, you know, kind of troubled teens and whatnot.
And so we would have meetings that we would have, and then it was a lot of learning and they were helping us and we would go do the in-home services. So one of the times that we were meeting the supervisor guy, whatever his name
was, I don’t remember I’ll, I’ll call him Mark. Mark taught us, he’s like, Hey, I tried something.
I’m like, oh, cool, what’d you do? He’s like, I just went to the store and I bought some ingredients and I brought them to the family as an activity, and we made home gr homemade pizzas together. And he made a point that I will never forget in my life. He’s like, when you break bread with somebody, the emotional dynamics.
Yeah. And the, and the, the, the rapport that you get and the, the vulnerability that’s there almost on a, you know, biological level or a human level, that it changes the relationship. You can, you can become much more[00:55:00] joined together. You become work.
John-Nelson Pope: Well, I, and I saw that in my bridge barriers down my early years as a minister.
And I was up in rural West Virginia up on great state. Great state, yes. Wild and wonderful West Virginia. But I was, I was in the Allegheny Mountains and it was, it was very old area. I mean,
Chris Gazdik: it was, oh, lemme tell you something. The Allegheny Mountains in the West Virginia Valley’s brother, you, yeah, they’re great people, but people very distrusting of outsiders is where I think you’re going.
Right? They’re going and the
John-Nelson Pope: boot and all that. I mean, they even pronounced about differently
Chris Gazdik: sort things. Oh boy. But
John-Nelson Pope: the, the, the thing was they were distrustful, but you break bread changes, the dynamic changes it because you become one of them. Right. You integrate and hospitality’s very important. And we’ve gotten away from that.
We do everything by drive-throughs now. Oh boy. Yeah. So we don’t break bread [00:56:00] together. And so you could, your friend, your colleague elicited change by doing something that was ultimately creative and that is making a pizza pie together. Yes. And that powerful. And so you, they were affirm affirming that family and they come together and they build something together, make something
Chris Gazdik: right.
The creative experience, the shared experience, the, the communal experience, the, the boundary setting of we’re together. I mean it Oh my God, we could just go on. I mean, there’s so many dynamics that kind of go in into this and, and a dietician’s right in the middle of that. Right. So it’s, it’s cool that you use that.
I mean, I’m, I’m not, I’m not surprised at all in that regard. So where do we go? I mean, I’m aware of the time and we wanna. Wrap up here, but I don’t know what we wanna miss. I mean, Cilla, let me kind of give you with time to go here, like an you know, an open-ended kind of component of is, you know, is there anything we didn’t add or [00:57:00] things that you think are important, you know, to let people know, especially those of Gas County that could come help get, receive your services about, about this, right?
Like, you know, well, you’re gonna help them make a pizza. Yeah, Ette is good enough to turn into a pizza shop. I don’t know. That’s so awesome.
Cyrilla Purnell: I do love to share quick and easy recipes. I think that’s really helpful. And I do grocery store tours and just really whatever is necessary to help someone. What
Chris Gazdik: do you mean grocery store tours?
I don’t know if people know that’s integrative. I, I That’s wonderful. Go further with that. Like Yeah, cuz I don’t know if people I’ve taken that client realize that they can receive that
Cyrilla Purnell: service. Right. Yes. I’ve taken my clients through the grocery store and trained them on how to shop and read labels and that is so confusing, the whole process of, of how to choose their foods to anywhere from that to doing meal planning and meal preparations and[00:58:00] That’s all fun
Chris Gazdik: stuff.
That’s a part of these sessions. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Cyrilla Purnell: Yeah. It can be if that’s what they need. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Gazdik: I, and
John-Nelson Pope: I get the feeling that she’s not a drill sergeant.
Chris Gazdik: Yeah, totally not. That’s what’s, listen again, that’s what’s so cool. And I suppose that in your trainings, dieticians, like I know that’s part of what makes you awesome at what you do.
And I mean that to say that I can say that cuz I experienced it and I mean that as a compliment. But, but that’s gotta be part of your training. I mean, that, is that part of what dietetics, dieticians learn? Or is that, is that actually part of your training?
Cyrilla Purnell: No, it’s, I mean, I think everyone, that’s what you were talking about with the art E everyone has their own different style of practice and so I just really enjoy working with people and helping to meet them where they’re at.
Mm-hmm. And making small changes. And that are very manageable instead of doing giant overhauls, that can be very confusing and overwhelming.
Chris Gazdik: Yes. So when [00:59:00] New Year’s Eve resolutions fail because there’s like, well, I’m gonna lose 50 pounds in three months and then I’m gonna starve myself. And hmm.
Cyrilla Purnell: Sustainability is definitely the
Chris Gazdik: key. Yeah. Because you
John-Nelson Pope: wanna be in the long run, you wanna be able to maintain that weight mm-hmm. For the rest of your life. And so if it’s so honors, so difficult for you that then there’s no joy. There’s no hope. There’s no hope.
Chris Gazdik: You’re right. It’s frustration and irritation and downright anger or rage.
Again maybe we focused the most on this particular question that we started out, but what is your relationship with food? I mean, it, can we say that food actually can begin to make you grateful and frustrated and. Overwhelmed and confused, right? Like there’s, you can get this way, you know, particularly when you get all these messages from the world and commercialism and eat my product, do my diet, that my supplement, like, holy cow.
Very confusing. Right.
John-Nelson Pope: [01:00:00] And I guess I have one last thought, and that is, is that, that we’ve, we’ve got Bo you, you have here and your credentials about body positivity, but is there a point where let’s say, well, I’m, I, I weigh 500
pounds and I’m okay with that. Is that okay or not, or is that something I’m putting you on the
Chris Gazdik: spot?
Cyrilla Purnell: I don’t think, well, I think it would depend on, it’s not healthy. I think it would depend on what their level of health is, Uhhuh and possibly are they exercising where in their lives any, everyone can improve in their lives in certain areas to create a better health and better wellbeing and a better, even more positive relationship with food.
And so I don’t think that as someone that usually if someone is 500 pounds, there are gonna be multiple genetic factors that are going to be playing into
Chris Gazdik: and with the
John-Nelson Pope: T and or [01:01:00] whatever, because they’re gonna get these messages. Why can’t I be like, This other image? Well,
Cyrilla Purnell: I think that they’re also probably gonna be out of breath when they try to walk.
Yeah. Yeah. Upstairs and things like that. And they’re gonna, people are gonna want to have healthy aging and to, and to feel their very best. So that would probably be why someone that’s 500 pounds motivat would be seeking my services. So it’s a
John-Nelson Pope: positive change to achieve positive, not, not at, not as a result of shame, but also of, of acceptance of one’s self, where one is, and then.
Adapting and, and adopting more healthy lifestyle. Mm-hmm.
Cyrilla Purnell: Gradually and over time, more and more into long-term changes.
Chris Gazdik: Okay. Long-term. Which is why and how a registered dietician can be super helpful. You know, again, I’m, let’s begin to wind down, taxi us in for a [01:02:00] landing unless there’s anything else you wanna cover, Cella to.
To get out. You think we did a, a good job? I mean, we talked for hours about this break.
Cyrilla Purnell: Got to talk about my favorite thing. It with my, some of my favorite people. Sounds
Chris Gazdik: really do have a passion about it, which is awesome. So, I mean, I’m
John-Nelson Pope: just blown away that she goes to supermarkets and With
Chris Gazdik: people. With people, yeah, with her clients.
Yeah. That’s the, it’s the coolness of pro preventative medicine that we’re beginning to learn as valuable. And, and I, and I predict that this is going to grow and which is why I’m excited about a whole new line of service that I’ve never been a part of. So that you know, I don’t have to ask you how they can contact you cuz I could tell ’em Metro Line Psychotherapy Associates, we are 7 0 4 4 6 1 8 2 5 3.
I don’t talk about our own practice very often on the show because I just don’t it’s not the point of the show, but I am today because it is a point of, of something new that’s out there that I don’t know that there are many people to. [01:03:00] Go to outside of, you said some medical groups get these types of services and such.
So I’m super excited that we’re gonna be able to do this stuff. Me too. Together at meina. Thank you. Right. So let’s get outta here today. Listen, your relationship with food, the experiences that you’ve had with your diet and your nutrition can be a huge integrated part. I hope you’ve heard and learned today with your mental healthcare as well as your medical healthcare.
So find a registered dietician near you. They’ll help you. Do you find wellness, to sort through the confusing nature of everything that’s out there in the research and in disinformation and information out about nutrients and supplements and diets and all the things like don’t be overwhelmed with this.
Reestablish a connection, a positive image with your body. Work with a dietician to get healthy and well, as we all say, stay well. We’ll see you next week. Take care.[01:04:00]