✨ Magical Mindset Podcast: Holistic Success

[00:00:00] Introduction to Holistic Success

Macarena: How do you measure success? In this episode, we'll discuss holistic success and the keys to having real balance and accessing your wonder, wellness, and wisdom. We dive into wellness and the metabolic reset that changed my life.

We discuss detoxing and the benefits to your whole person, your mind, body, and spirit.

Intro: Welcome to Magical Mindset with Macarena Luz Bianchi, where we explore the magic of mindset, gratitude, and purposeful living. I'm your host, Macarena, and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey of wonder, wellness, and wisdom. You can find the episode show notes, your free Magical Mindset Blueprint, and more at xpres.me/podcast and here's the show.

[00:00:55] Meet Natalie Hennet: Life Coach and Expert

Macarena: Natalie Hennet joins me from the Canary Islands. She's a life coach and she's an expert in protocol and institutional events. Natalie, welcome. I'm so happy you're here.

Natalie: Thank you, Macarena.

Macarena: I'm excited to speak with you about holistic success. First of all, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:01:19] Defining Holistic Success

Natalie: You've already introduced the terminology, holistic success. That might come a bit of a, what can that mean? Because when you think about holistic success, it has these two terms. success, which is something pretty much tangible. You either have success or you don't have success, right?

And then on the other hand, you also have this word, holistic. Which is so much more ethereal. It could also be pretty much like a pseudoscience. So when you combine both things, holistic success, what does this mean? And most especially, what has this meant to me in my life? And what has that life changing experience meant so that today would really moves me and inspires me is to help people live their lives with great fulfillment.

And that's what I call holistic success.

Macarena: Fantastic.

[00:02:12] Macarena's Journey to Holistic Success

Macarena: I resonate a lot with this because my whole lighthearted living formula is wonder wellness wisdom, which is the next level or the full expression of mind, body, and spirit. Some people say, you 2. 0. It's mind, body, and spirit 2. 0. It's the full expression of those things.

So, I love the idea of not just paying attention to one side. And we have something in common where we left our corporate jobs. For me, it was 10 years ago, actually. It's interesting how life happens. But my mom passed away and I needed stability during that time. Before that I was doing copywriting. And I got writer's block at the beginning of her illness and they only gave her like six months to live. She ended up living for two. And it took me about four years after that to be normal again. The grieving process was pretty intense and long. So, when after I felt like I woke up from all of that, I was like, wait a second, there are things I wanted to do and all these books I wanted to write.

And I do have ambition. What am I doing? And then I realized I, got to the pinnacle of success where I was and I had to make a change. And you know what they say? It takes 10 years to be an overnight success. So I'm glad I made that transition when I did. What inspired you to make yours?

Natalie: So, what inspired me to make my change?

[00:03:39] Natalie's Global Journey

Natalie: I think I'm going to go back to probably when I was 15 years old. That was a time when I left home, which is my little island where I was born. That's in Tenerife. Canary Islands, Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa, small little place, but lovely little place, great quality of life.

So being born here and being raised here was an amazing experience, but ever since I was little, I knew I just needed to be a global citizen. I needed to go out and experience the world. So, I left when I was 15 to study abroad. And I actually spent 15 years of my life studying and working abroad. I was lucky enough to have great job opportunities that led me to live. First of all, in Thailand, then in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur.

Then I left over to Macau and Hong Kong. From there, that led me to the Middle East. I lived in Yemen for a year. From there over to Venezuela. That was back in the year 2000. And from Venezuela back to Europe, where I was lucky enough to live in Greece, in Italy, and in the UK.

Macarena: Wow.

Natalie: Yes. It was very stressful and yet so challenging. And as I said, it was a great life experience. It was a big multinational company. I was a sales director and my job was to accompany a team of journalists. We had to arrive at those countries representing great international media. Sometimes I was working for Le Monde, French newspaper. Sometimes it was working for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which is a German newspaper.

Sometimes it was working for at The Sunday Telegraph, which is a UK newspaper. So all these newspapers were actually doing economic reports on those countries to attract foreign investment. And my job as a sales director was to sell publicity, spaces, in those economic supplements. So, we landed in those countries.

Imagine I was 23 years old when I landed in Bangkok with my team of journalists. So, very young and yet wanting to eat the world. And we landed on our first interviews. We're always with the ambassadors in the country and with the ministers of the country, because they wanted to display, of course, all the opportunities for foreign investment in the country.

And from then on, we were led to meetings with the top companies in the country, public companies, private companies. So over those years, I've landed with an album of great personalities. I've been lucky enough to interview and then also to sell publicity spaces for them.

As I said, a great life experience.

[00:06:31] Career Transition and Personal Challenges

Natalie: So, there I was very young, traveling the world earning very good money and feeling that I was living a very successful life. Because back then I was measuring my success in terms of how much money I was earning and basically my social status, right? That was it. What happened then was something similar to your case.

My mom actually became ill with breast cancer. And so that made me stop and think, It's time for me to go back home and spend some time close to my parents. So this led me back to my little island in Tenerife. And I thought it's just going to be a very brief stop because obviously what am I going to do back here?

I think opportunities always come when they have to come. And the few months that I spent on the island I was offered an opportunity working for the government, actually for the president of the island as institutional events manager and expert in protocol. So, I decided to accept this new challenge, learn my new role, study as I worked, because I had really nothing about, governments in my homeland.

And I ended up working for 15 years as the head of protocol of the president of the island. Again, very stressful job, but an amazingly interesting job, political environment, institutional environment, again, working long hours. But again, I didn't mind at the time because of course I was leading a successful life, good salary, great social status.

But as time went by, and then of course I married and I became a mother with a young child, I suddenly started to realize if this was really the kind of life that I wanted to carry on leading. No time for nothing outside of work. And of course my health was also taking its toll because you can only take your body physically and mentally so far before things start happening and low energy levels.

And in my case, chronic fatigue and terrible migraines, actually.

Macarena: Wow.

Natalie: This leads us now to 2020, Which going back to your original question, what made you stop and think about making this transition?

[00:08:56] The Impact of COVID-19

Natalie: What made me stop is probably what made the whole world stop. That was COVID. To me came as a blessing, really. Because it was a time that allowed me to really Stop on my feet and be home and share time with my family, which was, quality time. And really, stop to think what do I need in my life and what don't I need in my life anymore? And is it really worth, investing so much of my energy and effort in a job, which is okay, but maybe now really want to focus on other areas of my life, which until then I was not really focusing any energy or time on.

Macarena: Imagine your health. And I think of myself as a global citizen and that's one of the things I have in common with my husband. So, by the time I was eight, I'd lived in three countries, he's also very international, you've met him and I find that interesting.

So, like on paper, this sounds like a dream come true - working, having a good reason to be at all these places. I went to Thailand by myself in grad school. It was amazing. I love Hong Kong. I've been to a bunch of these places. So, this sounds great. And it sounds like you did two 15 year stints of things of intense, hard work.

And it reminds me of movie production. I talk about this in Directing Your Life using movie making mindset for personal development. In life, there's pre-production, what I call production, and post production. And you know when you're in production, it's like you have to answer the phone.

It's 24/7. It's really intense. And thank God we don't run at that most of the time. So, yeah, your life sounds wonderful and fun. And I also relate to with the pandemic. Before the pandemic, we traveled at least twice a month, which was fantastic. I loved it. But boy, did it take a toll. Especially with family or trying to write novels or long things that take a lot of focus. It's Oh, there's a new thing. This fun adventure is going on. So, I also relate to that. I call it the great reset I realized how much time I wasted running around. Whether on business trips or just errands. Like even when I was home, I spent so much time running around.

It was not the best use of time for me. So, that was a big awakening. So, during COVID, we got COVID twice at the very beginning. So my husband was in flowers. So we knew this was going to be a big disaster when the Chinese customers started cancelling the Chinese New Year.

Because you know this. Chinese New Year. It's a two week celebration. I try to explain it to people here in the U. S. Imagine, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, and like Valentine's Day all in one holiday. Like in a two week period. It's like that. And the Chinese are open for business.

Like it's amazing. So, for them to cancel that holiday, we were like, Oh no, this is a big deal, right? And then we had a Italian customer who visited Ecuador to look at his flowers. And I we're pretty sure his airplane was like patient zero spreading that to Ecuador.

So, my husband and I got COVID. In the end of February, like really early on. And it was terrible for him. Like he couldn't function. Yeah, so that was pretty crazy. And then we went under lockdown here and then we opened back up in Florida in June and we got it again. So there we thought we were immuned.

We're like, ah, inoculated. We're fine. We already went through this. And then for my husband, it was even worse the second time around. So, that was a big shock. Because I was like, Oh, I can go back to the barn. I can go ride a horse again. I can get outside. But then when I realized, no, we're going to be locked down again.

Something inside of me broke and I went through a depression. I gained weight. And I'm 5'3". People know what weight feels right for them. So, 19 pounds. I call it COVID 19 pounds, 19 pounds on a five foot three frame is a lot. So that was terrible.

I really felt like I had lost control of my body. And then how we met is pretty cool because we have some mutual friends. I have some wonderful friends that I grew up here in Miami. We used to go clubbing. I was like 16 years old and they were like a few years older than me. And there's about three of them and they're fabulous.

And it started with one of these fabulous ladies posting pictures about a reset she was doing and then she's posting pictures of her like before and after and her at the gym. And then I'm like, how does she look like she did in her twenties? Like when we knew each other. How is this possible? And I remember reaching out to her and being like, okay, what is it?

Was it surgery? What did you do? Because whatever it is, I want in. And then that's when she said, you have to meet my friend Natalie and she'll tell you all about it. So, that's how we met. I think that the pandemic really altered things. Okay, so we're at the beginning of the pandemic.

You realized your focus, your quality of time, was maybe not what it should be. And then what happened?

Natalie: So, COVID for us. We lived it in a very kind of a different way. We didn't actually catch COVID or if we did, it was like totally asymptomatic. But what happened in our case, on the one hand, we did face a sudden health threat. That was on my husband's side because, he was also working like crazy right up until COVID.

He's a chef. He's a restaurant owner. He also owns a catering business and he works just 24 hours straight, many times. So, of course, when COVID came, he suddenly was like, okay, I have time now to just have a medical checkup, which he did. And they suddenly find that there are some cancer cells round about his abdomen.

It was actually a lymphoma. And that came as a big shock because after that positive in cancer cells, he was immediately going over to chemotherapy. And he went through very harsh nine-month chemotherapy treatment. So that was our COVID experience suddenly facing a health threat. And then also because we're living in an island, Tenerife, that lives off tourism. Of course, no tourists, right? We were suddenly facing a great economic challenge also. Up until then we were living a very comfortable life. But suddenly our income had been reduced to less than by half. So this sudden health threat, together with financial threat at the same time, really brought me to this standstill and to rethink. Because it's when you're lacking these things, when you think, ah I now have to reassess.

And at the time when I'm 45 years old, when I was back then, I really knew what I wanted to focus on.

[00:16:10] Building a Balanced Life

Natalie: And that's when I took this step and said, okay, the first thing that we need to do is just start looking after our health and our wellness. And that's the thing. I've always thought that what we need in life is to fuel our bodies correctly.

So, let me start fueling my body correctly. Let me start helping my body to be clean and to be alkaline and just, recover its wellness. So we really focused on that. And basically slowly by slowly, I've just started out this personal concept. Call it a lifestyle concept that started growing and we just started sharing and we're talking about wellness, physical health, emotional health, mental health, but also financial health.

And I'm not going to go into too much detail right now, because that would be another Zoom call. But basically we are building a community of people who really want to live a balanced life in all areas. You're talking physical health, mental health, emotional health, be it economic health, right? Because it's that balance in all areas of our lives, which is what's going to allow us to live,

fulfilled happy lives. And I've been working with this concept now for the last five years and I've accompanied people from over nine countries. We must be doing something well because we are growing so much and it inspires me to carry on, just sharing this opportunity and accompanying people. Because so much of us are caught in this hamster wheel.

We just can't see further away. And yet, it is really possible to just stop and think I have such great potential and believe in yourself that things are possible to just dream again. And I ask many of my clients nowadays, what do you want out of life? And the answer in most cases is people just want to be happy.

And what is happiness? What makes you happy? Does money make you happy? Does spending time with your family make you happy? Does feeling healthy make you happy? Now I would say the lack of these definitely will make you feel unhappy. And yet we have to see things again as a whole.

And before I was considering myself a happy person just because I was being financially successful and I had a great job. I definitely was not leading a balanced life because I had no time for my friends. I have no time for my family. My daughter said that she missed me because she hardly had any quality time with her mother.

And my health was really suffering, which brought down the quality of my life. So, now that I can lead a balanced life, I've learned about the wheel. Now I'd like to show you what the wheel is.

If I may.

Macarena: Of course.

Natalie: So I'm going to bring out my paper and my pen.

Macarena: What's interesting is that because I've had close family to me go through cancer crisis, "terminal illness", and these things, I've always been really into health. Especially living in Los Angeles in California and going through veganism, through raw foods, through all those cycles as they happened.

And it's interesting because I love it when I'm somewhere and there's like the cutest little holistic or organic store. And I was like, okay, so who in your family had the challenge? And they're like, how did you know? And it's because sadly, most people come to a holistic lifestyle out of necessity.

And one of the common themes I've been seeing lately in my public speaking and with my clients and everybody is that no one's spared the human experience. And I believe that's about expanding. And everybody has to do the inner work and you either do it consciously or you're going to be forced to.

So, it's interesting hearing how you got here. But it sounds like you were already into it before the pandemic. Because if you've been at it for five years, that was like right before the pandemic, how did you get into?

Natalie: I was basically finishing my job at the government when I was already really feeling so stressed out and so fatigued. That was when I decided to, start paying more attention to my health. And I decided to take a break from my job. And for a whole year, I was really focusing into detoxing my body and regaining its balance, So, I had a whole year before COVID hit of experiencing which really meant starting to treat myself better. And that was a great learning experience. Sometimes we just feel so detached from our bodies. Learn to stop and to listen to our body and what we really need. Which is basic things. It's just treating ourselves kindly. It's just learning how to choose the right kind of foods and the right kind of supplements and just keeping your body clean and alkaline and nourished. It's amazing what simple but good things can do to improve your well being.

Macarena: Yeah, and also it sounds like you created space. So, I've also was a raging workaholic. I burnt out. So the reason I'm all about gratitude and lighthearted living is because I've crashed and burned. And I've noticed that the reason people suffer is because one of the areas of life, wonder, wonders, or wisdom are being ignored or under acknowledged and what it sounds like that year gave you, which I think is so important is space just to be. Because all of these things are much harder if you're not present. If you're stressed about what's going to happen or caught in the past. And it sounds you had the space that you gave yourself the grace to be and feel. So I find it quite interesting.

Natalie: There's a saying in Spanish, it's called Ser, para hacer, para tener means being, doing, and having. Normally, we start off by the end. Having. Tener.

Macarena: We say, be, do, have. Yeah, we got the order wrong. It's be, then you do, and then you have.

Natalie: So many cases, we find that was my life experience, when we're young, we start out by just wanting to have.

And we forget that before having, we really have to focus on doing, but before doing, we just have to focus on being. when you grant yourself that space to be and to connect you with yourself, that's what can lead you to the right doing, then eventually to the having.

Macarena: So, there's a saying, What is mastery? What's true mastery? And it's you eat when you're hungry and you sleep when you're tired, just being in tune with yourself and allowing what is, which is amazing. Yeah. So fascinating.

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[00:23:18] The Wheel of Life: A Tool for Balance

Natalie: So let's go back to the wheel, right? So you have to imagine a bicycle wheel. Now, this is my great artistic virtue, which is not great. But I just hope it's clear enough, right? A bicycle wheel has these what do you call them, spokes?

Macarena: Spokes. Yeah.

Natalie: Spokes, so here we go. Each one of these spokes represents something in your life, an aspect of your life.

So let's say, for example, physical health, okay? What else would we want in our life? We can mention emotional health.

Also call it stress.

Macarena: Stress relief.

Natalie: Stress relief. Okay, what more could we mention? Spare time.

Macarena: Yes.

Space.

Natalie: Money. Okay. What more would we need here? Let's say friendship.

Okay we could place up here job, for example,

Macarena: or vocation or calling, purpose,

Natalie: calling purpose.

Macarena: Contribution,

Natalie: community, for example. Support.

Macarena: Very important.

It's just recently that I realized how important that is for me, like the community piece. That's what I love about having readers, having the memberships, like having the community is my top joy, we can call it.

Natalie: It's actually so important. Now that I'm moving into wellness aspect so much, community and support is, has actually been proven to change your microbiome.

Macarena: Yeah.

Natalie: Equilibrium in your gut bacteria. So that's how important feeling supported by loving community is.

Macarena: Belonging.

Natalie: Belonging. That's right. So, anyway, let's just mention these areas here.

So, if we were in the middle, this would be zero. And if we were touching the wheel, that would be a grade 10. So the test here is the following. You have to think about each of these areas in your life and grade it from zero to 10. What number would you give to your physical health, right? So maybe you would say it's what?

Macarena: Me? I'm pretty good. I'm like a nine, so I'm doing great.

Natalie: Macarena's at 9.

Macarena: I'm stellar there. Thank God.

Natalie: How would you grade your emotional health or stress relief?

Macarena: Pretty good. I'm pretty good. I do a lot of internal work. So, I might not be the best person for this example. But I've been doing a lot of like conscious work on myself since like ever since I was like probably six years old. So, I'm doing pretty good in a lot of these. Of course, there's to always room expand.

Natalie: I know you're doing great here, but I would say most people are doing pretty bad, actually.

Macarena: So, to do well there, I think it's important to give yourself space, to use the tools. Meditation, however that is. Whatever that looks like for you, journaling, exercise, all of that, all those necessary components.

Natalie: Sports. Very important also. So, basically you just look at each area in your life and you grade it. After, by the end, you'll see, which areas require the most improvement. Because it's until you reach total balance. But the wheel can't turn, right? The wheel will break.

Macarena: I love that analogy.

Natalie: This is what we call holistic success or a fulfilled life. It's paying attention to all these other areas. I used to be the kind of person who let's say, my job, my calling, the money, that was great. But it's pretty low in all other areas. So I've learned how to really extend my arrows to cover all the rest and really live, this fulfillment or holistic success.

Macarena: Fantastic.

Natalie: That's the analogy

Macarena: I love the simple and clear point. And it's so important to do the self reflection and auditing. So you understand, what requires attention.

Natalie: And it's never too late to really achieve this kind of success. There's no age to this. It's really down to just mindset.

Macarena: I love it. Magical mindset. That's fantastic. I love it. So, I'm curious. We're going through the timeline. You started this journey before COVID, of self reflection and wellness. COVID hits, you realize you guys have a crisis, a family crisis. How's he doing now? I'm just curious. I want to close that loop.

Natalie: He's actually doing fine. Thank you very much. Now sometimes these kinds of health threats come as just they are learning experiences. They come for a reason and you have to listen to them. What is your body and your mind telling you? It's just asking you for a change. And it's an opportunity to make that change. It's when people go back to their old selves when they just keep stepping over the same stone and expect a different answer. But it's again, the same stone. When these things happen and you listen and you pay attention and you decide to make those amendments, that's when you can actually progress and carry on.

So, we learned the lesson, we made those amendments and happily enough, we can say he's feeling actually much better now than he was several years ago.

Macarena: Oh, that's so lovely. This reminds me, cause I've had a lot of experience with Cancer and terminal illness, there's a great book called The Gerson Therapy. So my mom passed of lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain. And then my father in law went through a similar thing.

My mom was affected only by the brain cancer. It's never fun. But he was affected by the lung cancer and it was spreading. And he didn't want to do anything. And of course it allowed everybody in the family to deal with their fears of death, which apparently I'm very good at handling.

Some people call it morbid, but I love being conscious that no one's getting out alive. So, make the best of the time we have. Was it the Greeks or the Romans that called it? Memento mori, like having that awareness that people die every day is actually a way to get the most out of life.

So, I'm definitely there. I remember he didn't want to do anything. He had half a lung out. He was like, if I'm going to die, I want to live whatever little time I have. And I said, great, I support you, whatever you choose to do. And while you're waiting to die, how about check out this book?

It's called the Gerson therapy and he did it. And he thrived for five more years. He had three months or something like that. So, I've seen miracles happen with this. And one of the things you spoke to, what we saw with him was a complete rebirth. Because yes, you have to change your diet, but that's one thing.

You also have to be willing to change everything because everything about you created this.

[00:30:32] Metaphysical Stress and Health

Macarena: And it's usually those metaphysical things like thought patterns, beliefs, limiting beliefs, all this kind of stuff that's hard to measure but it's there. Because those are the stress causers and your worldview and all these things.

It was amazing to see him thrive. So I've seen incredible things.

[00:30:49] Pandemic Challenges and Discoveries

Macarena: And then also during the pandemic, we also had something similar. My stepson had ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease. And we didn't know. It took a lot of work and a lot of doctors. Finally an integrative medicine doctor, we figured out that he had Lyme disease.

Natalie: Oh.

Macarena: And had not we figured that out, the treatments for the other would have probably killed him. So, that was crazy. And that happened during the pandemic. Because all his meals had to follow the autoimmune protocol diet, you can't eat anything that causes inflammation and every meal, everything had to be made from scratch.

Couldn't handle medication, couldn't handle anything processed or packaged. It was amazing. And Luckily, it happened during this time where we could do what was needed. So, I'm happy to say that he is healthy and thriving and incredible. If you see him now, he looks amazing. And this brings up something.

[00:31:45] Invisible Illnesses and Lyme Disease

Macarena: I have a good friend and she's writing a book about invisible illness. Because there's some illness that you can't see. So, then people are like, but you look fine, but they have no energy, which is a terrible thing. People with fibromyalgia . And with Lyme disease, all kinds of things happen.

This disease is so crazy because it's so intelligent. It will mask. It looks like a lot of other things. He had like really hard arthritis, but it would travel. Which is really strange. It's not supposed to do that. Like people who have tennis elbow, it hurts in the elbow. So that's one of the things how we started to realize it. There's all these people facing horrible illnesses. But what's great about living long enough, to see people experience these things and see the gifts that going through these horrible experience have provided for the individual and the family together has been remarkable. So, I'm so glad that he's on the other side of that. My son and your husband, so hooray for that. And yeah, here's to thriving, and overcoming these health things.

[00:32:51] Lessons from Adversity

Macarena: So, I do think they happen not just for the individual, but for the community to, expand and to experience and to be more present and get your priorities in check and all those wonderful things.

Natalie: Absolutely. As you say, it's also looking at these challenges from the positive side. What have we learned from this? What can I learn from this? Because we do definitely just learn from these bad experiences. We learn from bad experiences. They've come to our lives to teach us lessons.

And that's what then permits us to grow. So, we celebrate the good things, we learn from the bad things. And if the result is also to allow us to stick together and be supportive with each other and to create those stronger connections, I think that's really the way forward. Because at the end of the day we are social beings.

We do need to feel that love and that support.

[00:33:45] The Loneliness Epidemic

Natalie: And I think the COVID really did bring this together. It was just, bringing people again together and learning how that time is so important because, I don't know how it was in the States, but here in Spain, we had a lot of the elderly dying alone because nobody was able to just go and visit them.

And this loneliness was actually probably at times even worse than actual COVID itself.

Macarena: Yeah, same thing here. There was a lot of restrictions. You couldn't go visit your loved ones. A lot of people suffered and died alone and it was really hard for everybody to deal with that. Yeah, that was terrible. And now, I was just at a conference and people were talking about there's a loneliness epidemic happening. Which is why I think now that a lot of people's lives are going back to normal, a lot of people hate zoom. Some people want to go back to work.

So, right now we're in the new adjustment that we hopefully will implement what we've learned and have a more balanced life. But I think that's still happening now where a lot of people feel alone and isolated.

Natalie: So, definitely, part of this concept that I'm wanting to spread out and share is really a lot about connecting people together, creating community, and talking about holistic wellness concept. Because it's health, but it's also social connections and just really learning how to live this fulfilled life, but always this community aspect. Because it's so important, just to feel the support.

We can't live isolated.

Macarena: Absolutely. So, yes.

[00:35:14] Metabolic Reset Journey

Macarena: I did the metabolic reset for the first time, a year or two ago. Don't ask me to do math or dates in my head. I remember that it was after the holidays and I had a fantastic experience. I remember I saw my friend's glow up. I was like, what did you do? And then she was like, talk to Natalie.

I was like, okay. I remember reaching out to you and then you're like, okay, just get these supplements and here's the protocol. And you do this and this, and we have a community. Great. So, I started it before the holidays just to play around with it. But then it was the holiday. So it was like, no, that's not going to happen.

So, I remember the first week of January is when I started for real. I personally love detoxing, but I've done a lot of weird ones. I've done master cleanses while making movies. So, I did a whole thing on as a reporter living on light where you don't eat for 21 days.

It was crazy. So, I have dealt with my food kind of addictions and stuff like that. For me, I know I'm not common in this where I have no problem. I actually like the restrictions because I think sometimes it's just easier. You don't have to think too much. But my husband is on the opposite spectrum of that and I'm happy to report he was finally able to do this.

This is the first detox he's been able to do and succeed at. Which is amazing. Ozempic didn't work for him. So, he's tried a lot of things to manage his weight because he's got back pain. So, a lot of things get resolved with him losing 20 pounds, for example. He's a big, strong, muscular dude.

So, for him, the idea of dieting and being smaller is terrible, right? So any kind of restriction he can't handle. So, let's go back to a couple of years ago when I did the metabolic reset. I loved it. I was like, what? I can eat as much veggies and protein as I want. Okay, fantastic. I actually learned that I was under eating and that was stressing my body.

And so I did it for the 21 days. I might've done it for a week or two longer of the strict phase and then the stabilizing phase. I did it for the 21 days. So, basically it was like a two month period. And what was fantastic about this was it was right before spring break, right?

I think it was like January, February. And then in March, I went to Europe and I ate my way through Spain and Italy. And I did not gain weight. So, I lost the COVID 19 pounds I needed to lose to get back to my normal. So, that was huge because I really felt I got my body back. And this is one of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation with you is because I find women suffer.

I'm perimenopause. It's starting. But I have a lot of friends who went through menopause even in their thirties. So, it's not just women in their forties. I felt like I wasn't the only one who felt something's going on with my hormones, things I can't control, what used to work doesn't work.

And then I also learned there's a fantastic book called Fast Like a Girl . Intermittent fasting is really popular. In Fast Like a Girl, she talks about how we have to time any kind of food restriction to our menstrual cycle, whether or not you have a cycle. If you don't have a cycle, because of birth control or whatever, you have to do the moon cycle. But unlike men who have a hormone cycle of 24 hours, we don't. So, that's why some women do intermittent fasting and thrive and others, their hair falls out.

So, you have to time it. And what I like about the metabolic reset is you actually don't have to restrict. In fact, you have to eat more than you think. And that was really cool. For me, I really felt like it was such a gift for myself, each birthday, I think since the pandemic. So, I have a book on birthdays, happy birthday but I also have a program on how to reclaim birthdays.

Each birthday, I think we need to give a significant gift to ourselves. And I'm not talking about material things. So, one year it was, publish X amount of books. That's how I started. And then that year was get my body back. And I had no idea how I was going to do it. And then the metabolic reset came to my attention and I did it and I got my body back, which was so amazing, empowering, freeing.

It just really helped me. I could fit into my clothes. And after going through the pandemic, I call it the poopy fashion. Everybody's taking pajamas. That's great for a day or two. And if that's your thing, bravo. , it was great to be like, Wow I have my body back. I can actually enjoy my clothes again so it was incredibly liberating. And then of course going on vacation and not gaining weight because I've done a lot of things where you just yo back. I'm a big fan of the Prolon, the fasting mimicking diet, Dr. Longo, that's fantastic. It costs the same, but it's only a week. And that was really made for people with cancer or terrible illnesses to be able to detox while still having a lot of nutrition. That's what that was designed for. And I found that every time I did it, I just yo-yoed back. It wasn't enough.

So, I'm a big fan of our community of resetters. And I was happy that finally, just now, we did it again with my husband. He was able to do it. He was able to thrive. He was able to exercise. He had some back pain, but that was due to skiing. So, that was not related. But that's the beauty about this program is that you can actually exercise while doing it.

You don't feel hungry. The restrictions are temporary and then we thrive. So, I'm a huge fan. He and I understand. We do this twice a year for maintenance. And then it gives us the liberty to really enjoy things like the holidays or traveling and everything in between.

Natalie: So, most people must be wondering. Okay, Macarena is talking about a metabolic reset. What is that? And for me, this is part of the key of how I'm feeling today and how I'm living my life today and how I can say I'm really thriving. I love that word that you use as a fulfilled life because part of the key to success is how good do you feel about yourself.

If you feel okay with yourself, you're just projecting out this energy and you're just just projecting out your reality, which is going to mirror back to you, right? So, the foundation is feeling good about yourself. And the metabolic reset is really going to give you that back. It works amazingly.

And the beauty of it is the simplicity of it. It's just going to help your body reach your point of balance. That's it. It's that simple. And most of our problems today, most of our physical health, mental, emotional problems, arise because we're out of balance and being out of balance is just intoxicated.

We're intoxicated with chemicals. We're intoxicated with thoughts. We're intoxicated with medication. We're intoxicated with pollution. And we're also out of balance because how hard is it to make great choices about our food nowadays, right? So, this metabolic reset, which is a very simple self-care program, it's going to help our bodies balance out detoxing and just fill it, filling up our deposits with great nutrients.

And when you help your body reach that balance, your body is beautifully designed as a perfect machine. Just help it be in equilibrium so you're ensuring that everything works like it should be working.

I like this other simile. Think about a fish in a small fish tank. And this fish is out of balance in terms of its health. So, you can do either one of two things. To help it recover its health, you can either vaccinate the fish or you can make sure that you clean the water and you're ensuring a great clean environment to the fish. So, the metabolic reset is all about cleaning the water and ensuring a correct environment to our cells in this case.

So, keeping a clean and alkaline environment so that our cells can thrive. Because we're just too acidic inside. And this acidity is causing inflammation. And this is the first step then to all kinds of these invisible illnesses that you were talking about earlier. So, if we ensure that our bodies have low inflammation and they are kept clean and alkaline and well nourished, you're in a much better position to fight back whatever threats might arise.

And we are living longer lives. The key to these longer lives is to live them with great quality of life and feel great.

Macarena: My husband and I are the same age and he's always like, I don't want to live forever. I'm like, it's not about living forever, but I find like creative people don't retire. And so, as a creative person, I've got a million things I want to do and I want to create.

So, to me, I want to thrive as long as possible because I love to create. So, he's really funny. He's eventually we can't outlive the money, we cannot leave this bodies, something's going to give. And I'm like, speak for yourself, honey. I'm so happy that with the technology now it is possible to thrive and live a beautifully healthy life.

Another thing that I love about the reset is a bunch of my friends have done it too, and not everybody needs to lose weight. So, what I found was really cool. I have two friends who did it for aches. They had aches and pains. They knew they needed to detox because everybody needs to detox, no matter where you live, because of the water, the air. Because of everything.

So, they did it to detox and they had some skin issues and things like this and they loved it too. So, I thought that was really awesome. Regardless, I do it twice a year, no matter what the scale says, because I want to detox so that I can enjoy life and not be paranoid about the toxicity.

One of my bachelors is environmental studies. Whoa. I understand the situation and it was scary. I love this tool so that I can be present and not fearful of being in the world. So, I know that I have a protocol that allows me to detox and slow down. And what I love about it too is nothing is just the thing.

So, I always talk about nothing is as it seems. There's always more to it. Yes, detoxing and it starts with the nutrition. But I have found that it's a wonderful opportunity to let go of limiting beliefs, work on your self worth, upgrade your self-esteem. All of these wonderful things are happening.

So, I love it when it's detox time. It's okay, great. What will I let go of? What limiting things that are in my body can be released just by this very pristine fish tank? Do you know what I'm saying? I love that analogy.

[00:45:39] Detoxing and Emotional Healing

Natalie: When we go through this healing crisis of detoxing, it can sound a very physical thing, but it's definitely also very emotional thing. I have a very close friend, he's a personal trainer. So very sporty, super healthy, and he did this metabolic reset because he wanted to feel it.

And his detoxing, his healing crisis was an emotional one. And that was quite a learning experience. Cause he went through a couple of days where he was letting go of anger, letting go of sadness because we're really working at a very cellular level, right? We're detoxing ourselves and it's letting go of a lot of tucked emotions.

So, it just feels so liberating at the end. You will definitely feel lighter, not just physically, but it's letting go of thoughts and emotions. It's a total clean out.

Macarena: I love it. This reminds me of that book, The Body Keeps the Score. The body records everything that's ever happened including neonatal stuff. I have neonatal trauma. I'm from Chile and the coup happened in September of 1973. And my dad worked at like the white house, La Moneda there.

He was in prison and tortured. The president was murdered. It was a disaster. So, my parents' life changed drastically, overnight. And then I was born premature. A lot of my healing journey, it's hard to address some of these things because we don't know.

So, I'm all for doing these things consciously. I think the first day of the thing, I was like, what I'm supposed to do what? But then I got it. And then it was so easy. I almost didn't have to think. I loved it. And then because the food is taken care of, you don't have to think about that too much and you're Letting go.

So, I think journaling if you see a therapist, it's a really good time to talk things out during that process. But that allowing is beautiful because then you can address some of these things that are hard to pinpoint. Yes, if you fall and break your leg, that's very clear.

I've noticed, especially in my private practice, most people are suffering from invisible things or things they're not even aware of. So, having a protocol like this, each year you do it once or twice, really allows for some beautiful gentle transformations. Cause I found that in my life. If I'm an autopilot, something will stop me. I've been in car accidents. I've had horrible, terrible things happen. So, that's why let's be proactive about the human experience. And I don't believe we're here to learn lessons in a bad way of like there's something wrong with us and there's things we don't know. I think it's really more about expansion and becoming fully expressed.

Natalie: Yeah. Again, here we have a very simple tool, easy to follow, very clear instructions. Everything is just written out for you. You just need to follow the guidelines. And as you say, accompany your body and allow those feelings and, observe them. Let them go. And it's something that we can just jump back into once or twice a year just to bring that balance back to our bodies.

The reset is meant to heal. It's meant to detox. It's meant to bring equilibrium

and to gain an overall health. So, I've never thought of this as a weight loss program. But when you're thinking about balancing your body, of course, if there is any excess weight or fat, it's just going to melt away because it's bringing your body to your right balance.

Macarena: It's a fabulous consequence. That's what I love about it. It's a fabulous consequence. And the other part I love is the ongoing supplements. The proanthenols, the omegas and the biobasics,

 I'm in between resets now. My husband and I are taking those. And the reason one of our friends, our mutual friend, she told me she had like just aches and pains that went away, which was pretty interesting. And I also suffer from dandruff and I know it's just stress. It's stress because I eat very clean anyway.

Although I do enjoy my sugar from time to time, but thanks to the Glucose Goddess, I know how to do that in a good way. But It healed my dandruff. So, every time I do the reset, the two months, no more dandruff. That's remarkable because I know for me, it's total stress induced.

Natalie: It surprises me, but it doesn't surprise me when people come back and say, I had this issue or this other issue. And after the reset, it's just gone. It just works so well at all kinds of levels. You just can't imagine. And you had just mentioned those three basic products.

There's multivitamins, which is the daily bio basics, which is also providing probiotics and great fiber, which is what your gut bacteria thrive on. You also need your Omega-3 because again, that's your brain food and it's great for your heart health and your circulatory system.

And then your antioxidants, which are the little micronutrients that make everything work. They help in chemical reactions and it's also a cell protector. All these little soldiers are so necessary to ensure that you're body is kept working every single day like it should be working. And as long as we're providing these every single day, your body will be happy and thriving. And your little soldiers in your gut, which are your little gut bacteria will also be happy and thriving. And that's really going to be the key to leading the long and healthy life.

And I love with my girlfriends nowadays, because we we're saying we're going to live a hundred years plus. Some of us are even saying 110. But of course living as well as we're living now, right? I'm about to be turn 50. I'm feeling better now than in my twenties.

Macarena: Me too.

Natalie: We want to live another 50 years, Macarena, because we have many projects. We want to do many things in our lives and that's our goal.

Macarena: You bet. Another thing I've noticed because I'm been in out of necessity in the health space for a long time, I noticed that. The bioavailability of these supplements are really good. I've noticed they're tablets. And a lot of stuff comes available in powder or tablets. So, can you speak to the bioavailability? Because I know that's something unique to this.

Natalie: Yes. This is really important to understand. And that's the fact that bioavailability means the capacity of your body to absorb. Because it's not just about what you're eating. It's about what your gut is able to absorb. That's the bioavailability. Supplements are a great idea because our food is no longer nourishing us enough.

So, taking supplements is always a good idea, but most supplements have very low bioavailability. Basically, maximum 30 percent of what you take actually be absorbed. That means that a lot goes out the other way. And why is that? That's most of the times down to what they use as a binding agent.

The binding agent in a supplement is the glue that binds the nutrients together. Okay. And these binding agents, they're usually either things like cellulose or they're using chemical or synthetic binding agents. It's a bit like, imagine yourself eating a salad inside a plastic bag.

Okay. So, your body will have to tear open the plastic bag in order to absorb the content and then has to work in order to discharge the plastic bag. And this takes a lot of energy. So, when we have a binding agent, which is also coming from natural origin, as this is the case, we're bringing up the bioavailability to 100%. This comes down to thinking my body is absorbing everything. It's taking the nutrients to wherever it needs them and discharging them if it doesn't need them. So, there's nothing accumulating in the tissues. It's the wisdom of your body just absorbing, carrying, using, and discharging, which is the beauty behind this.

Macarena: I love that. So, I know for the listeners and YouTube watchers that want to hear more. I know you do regular zoom calls, introducing people to the metabolic reset. How can people get in touch with you?

Natalie: We have Zoom calls in English. We have them in Spanish. We have them in German. We have them in French because our community is a big international community. Anybody interested I think Macarena, they can just get in contact with you and we can invite them to our regular weekly Zoom calls and they are purely informative and introductory, and we provide all the information through these calls.

Macarena: Perfect. Yes. So, I love the WhatsApp group. There's a WhatsApp group for resetters, which is really cool. Like every season or so which I like because I love the sharing of the recipes and the ideas and all that wonderful stuff. So cool.

Natalie: I think also a great thing here to consider is that anybody interested and wanting to learn more about this, never feel alone. They're going to have great support, right? They're going to be joining a community where we're sharing and we're learning and we're supporting each other and everybody is welcome.

Feeling that you're belonging to something, you're not going to be left alone, but we're just accompanying you through the process. And it's a beautiful process. Something that I do recommend all my people to live through because there is a before and an after.

And I think part of the success of this is the fact that more and more people are coming in and it's just a spreading of the word by mouth because they're just feeling great about it.

Macarena: I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.

 I love this idea of holistic success. It really ties in well with the lighthearted living formula, which is wonder, wellness, wisdom. I think it's so important to take care of ourselves emotionally, mentally, of course, physically to really honor that.

And I think once those things are in place, it's easier. The financial just feels like a natural flow, another fabulous consequence of really taking care of ourselves. So, today, what are some tips for holistic success

[00:55:27] Holistic Success and Self-Love

Natalie: First of all, try to be true to yourself. And something I tell my daughter is, you should fall in love with yourself, be the love of your life.

And you have to start having a radical love affair with yourself because when you start with that kind of basics and treating yourself, then others will treat you as you deserve. And from then on, everything is just going to fall into place. So, being this kind of role model for her as in how I lead my life nowadays-

being true to myself, treating myself nicely, feeling healthy, being economically stable, having time for my family, as I said, just covering all my areas. Setting that example for her and being a present mom is something which I think is so important for our future generations so that she can then lead the life that she wants to lead and believe in herself and believe that she can dream and work towards the kind of life that she really wants to live and just leaving it for our future generations to become better and better.

Macarena: Fantastic. I love that. This is something that comes up, especially with my private clients, this whole idea of loving yourself unconditionally. Sometimes people think how we do it is-how we take care of ourselves. The supplements we take, how we feed ourselves, how we brush our teeth.

It's these little things that allow us to fill that self unconditional love, which is so important to living a fulfilled life. So, thank you. This has been a lovely conversation. And I appreciate you and your wisdom. And every time we get to get together, it's so much fun. I love my metabolic community of these fabulous ladies.

I love this community and how we're all living the best versions of ourselves right now. So, thank you for that. And thank you for being part of my community.

Natalie: Thank you soo much, Macarena. It's been a pleasure sharing this little space with you and hope to see you soon. Physically, I'll probably be flying over to Miami soon. So look forward to that time again with you.

Macarena: Wonderful. Thank you.

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Outro: Wow. What a journey we've been on together. I hope this episode has left you feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to embrace the magic in your life. I'd love to hear about your experiences and insights. Please tag me on social media using the hashtag magical mindset podcast, or leave me a DM to share your wins, challenges, and aha moments.

Let's keep the conversation and the magic flowing beyond this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in and for being a. Until next time, keep shining your light and embracing the wonder of each day. You've got this!