18: Karalynne Call - Food’s Role in Anxiety & Depression

In this episode, I’m chatting with Karalynne Call, the owner of Just Ingredients, a top-charting podcast host, certified nutritionist, mental health advocate, and mom of 6. She started her health journey over 15 years ago while battling severe depression. She turned her pain into her passion that she now shares on her social media platforms @just.ingredients and website justingredients.us to help other people make small changes for long-term benefits in their own health. In today’s episode, we talk about what role food can play in anxiety & depression and how to heal your body one step at a time.   [2:41] How Karalynne found herself with severe depression 16 years ago & how it started her mission with Just Ingredients [3:39] Why doctors couldn’t help Karalynne’s body HEAL from her depression, only give her antidepressants to treat the symptoms (which she mentions were life-saving at the time, just not a long-term solution) [4:44] How being “seat-belted in your emotions” meant Karalynne didn’t feel the extreme sadness but she also didn’t feel the joy, happiness, or laughter [5:00] How a doctor FINALLY helped Karalynne’s body truly HEAL from the depression over a two-year journey [6:27] How Karalynne took one simple step to make one small change at a time in order to TRULY heal her body and mind [7:33] The importance of recognizing the BODY as having depression, and it not just being a mental/emotional symptom [8:29] How the brain and body interact with each other every day & why finding YOUR root causes is the key to healing YOUR specific case of anxiety or depression [9:41] Why functional medicine doctors or integrative doctors are your best place to start in finding YOUR root causes & getting ALL the tests you need to be done to find them [11:25] How Karalynne can look back and recognize little symptoms that eventually added up to the onset of her severe onset of depression that hit once her third son became one year old [12:45] What is COMMON in NOT NORMAL - terrible PMS, exhaustion all the time, etc. [13:15] Learning how to LISTEN to your body will enable you to see the signs and symptoms before they become debilitating  [14:41] Why HEALING takes TIME & how to find motivation during this process [15:30] Why taking your prescriptions while finding the root causes are HELPFUL, but you may not start FEELING the improvements of healing until you wean off your prescriptions (because of their “seat-belting your emotions” effect) [16:14] The moment Karalynne felt JOY again and how this MOTIVATED her to keep living this healthy lifestyle [17:30] How to shift the mindset of us versus our body, TO our bodies fighting FOR us and not against us [19:01] Why it’s hard to change & take the needed personal responsibility for your own health (the time it takes to eat healthy, the overwhelming factor of how many changes are needed, the confusion of loud, competing voices in the health field & needing to recognize how to simply nourish YOUR body) [22:00] How looking at the ingredients in packaged food MATTERS & why simply seeing if the ingredients on the label are things you could have in your pantry can make the options healthier [24:55] Why looking at what you CAN control (like the food you eat every day) can become the POSITIVE factor your need to heal  [26:33] EDUCATING yourself in healthy lifestyle choices is EMPOWERING yourself [27:22] Why we don’t need to link healthy eating & FUELING our bodies to diet culture and needing to lose weight [29:02] Why nourishing our bodies enables our body to better DETOX all the toxins we live with every day (whether it’s chemicals, foods, or toxic thoughts) [31:00] How we can bring functional medicine AND western medicine together to better serve our overall health [32:50] Why treating your health struggle (anxiety, depression, autoimmune diseases, cancer) as if it’s a “house on fire” enables you to better utilize the resources you need to FULLY HEAL & tap into the multiple different “hoses” you need to put the fire out (western medicine, functional medicine, food, mindset, counseling, etc) [34:14] WHERE you can start with a new healthy lifestyle journey (hint: don’t start with everything at once) & how to CHOOSE what will work for YOU and your personality [36:00] Why looking at ingredient labels and the TYPE of ingredients matters more to the health of your body than the number of macronutrients, carb count, or sugars in the food [38:15] How artificial sweeteners can impact your body negatively for up to 12 WEEKS [41:19] Why viewing food as a CHOICE is empowering. [42:39] We need to value our health MORE than we value the immediate satisfaction of an unhealthy treat more times than not [43:20] How things change for people when they REALIZE how it actually feels to FEEL WELL [45:10] Why it’s the too-much on a daily basis that leads to unhealthy outcomes, not the once-in-a-while treats like birthday cake or Halloween candy [47:50] Experimenting with food for YOUR body is important & being proactive about working with your body as it grows and changes [49:25] How to look at depression on a scale of 1 to 10 & recognize we ALL feel sadness on a 1-4 scale throughout life BUT how true depression would be an 8-10 (not wanting to get out of bed, suicidal thoughts, etc) & how to dial into this scale for your body and seek help when you need it (finding the ROOT cause is easier when you catch it on this scale before it becomes debilitating) [53:32] Why an ongoing process of monitoring your health is a NORMAL part of your health journey - there will be ups & downs and this is okay [1:03:19] How to get over wanting to HIDE your battle with depression or suicidal thoughts & live FREELY   “You are not what happens to you, you are who you choose to become” -Ashleigh Di Lello JOIN MY FREE MONTHLY COACHING CALL “Ask Ashleigh” → https://ashleighdilello.com/askashleigh/