162. The Power of 3: How Holistic Health Transforms Mind, Body & Spirit with Desiree Barlett

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Natalie 

Desi, all the way from Hawaii. Thank you for joining me. It looks so beautiful there.

Desi 

Aloha, it is gorgeous here. We feel so blessed to live in paradise.

Natalie 

Well, I want to talk about, you know, your audience is women, my audience is primarily women, and we're always looking to get healthier. It's a huge part of my platform, but it's not about just feeling or looking, I should say. It's not about just getting into the skinny jeans, looking good. It's about energy. It's about feeling. It's about everything about our health and our wellness.

Desi 

Absolutely, and I'm so excited to connect with you. I've heard so many of your shows and I've listened to so many amazing experts talk about health. And I love how deep you go and how again, it's not just about the skinny jeans or how we look on the outside. So what I see more often than not is I see a lot of women who are trying to lose the same 5, 10, 15, 20 pounds year after year. They are quite literally killing themselves, pushing so hard.

with every new fad diet, every new fad workout, and they might lose it, and then it just comes back on, and because they may or may not have lost it the correct way, they actually wind up putting on more fat. So I don't even go to like, okay, what are the measurements, how much do you weigh? I don't go there to begin with. What I go to first is, how do you feel about yourself? How do you feel in your own skin? And most importantly, what is the dream of your life?

because I'm a yoga teacher and I believe that the physical body is a vessel to help us move through our daily lives in a way that we can feel strong and inspired and be of service. So if I can understand what is it you want to do in this life, you know, then I can help you. But I'm not just going to like, oh, how big are your hips?

Natalie 

Yeah. But you know, I never thought it was about that. And growing up, you know, kind of ate what I wanted, but I've always been pretty healthy. But then you hit, like, my kids are in college, I turned 50 and it gets harder to do the regular things. And so I never thought it was fitting into the jeans. But now when I can't fit into the jeans, I'm really depressed.

Desi 

I totally hear you and what worked before doesn't work now. Yeah. So we used to be able. Yes.

Natalie 

Yes. And that mentally, that turns into something. We don't want it to. And we try to tell ourselves, oh, it doesn't really matter. But mentally, we feel guilty. And I know women out there listening going, that's me. We feel guilty. We feel ashamed. We feel like, why can't I do this?

Desi

Yes, and you're not alone. I'm there too. I'm 52 years old and I noticed as I started to go through perimenopause and there was the hormonal shift, my body started to change and it is completely common to put on more belly fat. You don't even necessarily need to see a change in the scale. The fat pattern redistributes and then all of a sudden the genes are a little bit tight and you're like, goodness gracious, what's happening? So where I go is,

Desi 

You know, what's happening in your heart? What's happening in the dream of your life today? Is the dream of your life to go out into the world and to be of service and to share your voice? Yes. Do you want to appear in the way that allows you to feel good in your body? Yes. Okay. Well, let's go within. Let's set the intention clearly for that voice and let's celebrate your body until today. Where it's gotten you. Have you had a baby?

Oh my goodness, can you thank your abdomen for being a home and a sanctuary for the baby that came through your body? I truly believe we cannot shame ourselves or hate ourselves into the body of our dreams.

Natalie

Yeah, well, and that's, it's one thing to say it, it's another to really believe it and to really do it and appreciate what our bodies have given us to date. I mean, you and I both with, I have three kids, I know you have two and we, I mean, that means more than getting into the skinny jeans any day. However, I still want to feel confident when I go out, not having to buy new clothes. So now let's talk about other things. Let's talk about ways to get there through.

Desi 

Yes. Of course.

Natalie

I know you concentrate on things like yoga, meditation, mindset. Get us to a place where we can feel inspired by that. Give us some tips.

Desi 

So I've been in fitness and yoga my entire adult life 30 years and I really know what works and what doesn't work and I've had the pleasure of working with thousands of women. And what I've seen work is let's begin with a clear intention. What is your why? We know that in business, let's bring it into the business of your body. Begin with what is your why? Every morning I want you to connect to that clear intention. Before you turn on the phone, before you reach for caffeine, drop deep into stillness in your breath.

and connect to it. So that becomes the guiding light, not what's on Netflix, what's on the news. Don't let the day just kind of pull you away. Next, I would love for you to get adequate protein. We want to see one gram per pound of body weight. Abs are cooked in the kitchen. If you want to see more lean muscle mass and striation, the little cuts, I need you to up the protein.

Natalie

Give me some ideas here. I struggle with that. I think I'm good at protein, but give me an example. So for, you know, a typical woman at 150, 60, 140 to 160 pounds maybe, what does protein look like for a day?

Desi 

So in the morning, if you like a smoothie, I would add some protein powder, whatever kind you want to use. If you eat everything, perhaps you're using whey protein because it's really high. If you are vegan or vegetarian, it might be pea based or some other form of protein. Then when we get to breakfast, if you are an omnivore, you're probably going to have some kind of lean protein, whether it's eggs, if you do eggs, cheese, not a lot of cheese, though. And I prefer it to be really low in fat if possible. And then also any kind of meat. It might be chicken breast, it might be, it might be sausage, you know. We're so scared of like eating these foods that are really satiating and they're so good for us because they're going to keep us full and they're going to keep us away from like grabbing those little carby snacks and running for the coffee and the pastry. So.

Desi 

Lunch and dinner are going to be really similar. You're going to have a green leafy vegetable, some sort of protein. Again, if you're omnivore, it's probably going to be fish, chicken, red meat. And you just do that again at dinner. But I really highly suggest that you set yourself up for success with meal planning. So what that looks like is on Sunday, you just write it out and you can repeat it week after week. If you're like, wait, I don't really have a lot of time for this.

But if it's not planned, what's going to happen? You're going to go to the drive -through. You're going to run into that place on the corner and you're just going to want a little lift. The next tip is commit to movement. We got to move. Our bodies are designed to move. Our joints move through a specific range of motion. And if we are sitting all day long, they're not right. We need the shoulders. We need the hips. We need the lower back. We need it all to move with breath.

And that's what keeps us healthy and vital. So that that's the combination for me. It's clear intention.

deep breath into that intention and commitment to it. Lots of water, lean protein and move, move, get moving. It's so much fun and it will move emotion through you. If you're like, but wait, I'm stressed, I'm anxious, I've got all the things going on. Movement is medicine and it will help.

Natalie 

I think that is so important. And you mentioned Sundays, plan out your meals. I try, I'm not always successful. I always tell people like, I am on this journey with you, I'm doing it. But plan out your schedule and when you're going to move, when you're going to exercise, when you're going to go on that walk. If we wait and we say, I'll take the walk later when I get everything done. And then you wonder why you don't go on the walk. Like the walk, let the walk be first. Let the food planning be first, then you're less likely to fail.

Desi

Yes, absolutely. And if you go for that walk, what's going to happen now you've got endorphins going, now you've got that little bit of kick. Now when you go to do the work that you feel like, Oh, I have to get this done. You have more inspiration, more energy.

Natalie

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes I know it's hard. I've been there where you think, I don't feel like going on a walk. It's cold outside. I like to just say, I'm just going to walk to the street. I can just get a walk down there. I'm just going to put the clothes on. I'm just going to walk to the street. And then usually it's, okay, I'm already here. I may as well do the whole thing.

Desi 

Exactly. There's a whole psychology behind that, Natalie. If you move for 10 minutes, what I do is I give people the permission, move with me for 10 minutes. If you don't feel like it after 10 minutes, it's okay, go home. I've never had anyone, never.

Natalie 

Whatever does. You just got to get your feet on the ground. Okay. Give us more tips. Other things that we can do.

Desi 

Yes. Having an appointment with someone. So a friend, someone in your family, we're going to go for a walk at four o 'clock. If, if you know that someone is waiting for you, especially as women, we, we don't want to let anyone down most of the time, but we will let ourselves down. So let, let's stay committed to someone else to begin. And then let's get to the point where we can put our own name down. You know, 4 PM, I have an appointment with myself to do this. So there's a commitment.

Desi

I would also highly suggest that you get in different forms of movement. I like the combination of yoga and fitness. I speak two languages, hablo espanol también. And so I feel like it's combining two languages of movement. A squat and chair pose are essentially the same thing, but depending on the energy that you bring to it, it has a different expression.

Natalie 

Yeah, yeah, I love that idea. So when we're strengthening from the inside out, right? That's kind of the theme here. So we're talking about what we put in our body, two different kinds of exercise. What else? What are the things that you find people are most successful with that inspires them to do all of this?

Desi 

I bring people into a deep place of meditation, whether I'm working with them individually or on my website. I go deep into meditation and visualization so that we can commit in our minds and when we can see it, then we can create it. The other way I find is just a little too hard, but if I can take you even for 30 seconds into the dream of your life, then that workout takes on new meaning.

Again, it's not just can I fit in my jeans? It's can I feel strong and confident from the inside out so that I can go out and share my message, whatever that is, with joy and not feel like, oh, I'm just tired and I want to nap?

Natalie 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's another thing maybe we can, we can hit on here is when people get to, you mentioned you're 53 and 50, I'm about to turn 53. Um, things change though, hormonally. So obviously we're hungry in a different way. The fat distributes in a different way. Our energy levels change. Can you touch on that in ways that when, when you just feel different, you don't feel energized and the caffeine doesn't work anymore.

Desi 

Yes. So Natalie, after 25 years of being out of school, I went back to school and I'm getting my PhD right now and my doctoral thesis is all about this. And what I found is that as we have a decline in the sex hormones, progesterone, think of pro is for, gesterone is gestation, that hormone is higher when we're having babies, that declines, estrogen declines.

Natalie 

How do you turn that around?

Desi

Now we start to feel tired and our bodies change. Perhaps the hair thins out. There might be hot flashes, sleep disturbances, waist thickening. The list goes on. What the heck can we do? Move again, movement is medicine. And what's so fascinating is that there can be a 25 % increase in how you feel, just feeling better and more wellbeing. If you understand what's happening in your body.

not movement yet, but just education. So educate yourself, learn about the changes in your body. We don't have a class for this in school. There's no like perimenopause class 101. And if we educate ourselves, 25 % increase in how we feel. If we move, yoga and strength training have both been shown to improve how we look and feel by about 50%. So now we've got the 25 % in education, 50 % here.

other 25 % we can cover with mindset. So let's get all of this together so that we feel energetic again. Breathe into nature, go outside, get some sunshine, let go of all the processed foods. Be aware of the media that you're consuming. It isn't just what goes in our mouth, it's what goes into our eyes and our ears. Set yourself up for success and listen to things that are inspirational as you're moving.

Natalie 

Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie 

Yeah, listen to podcasts. That's how I got turned on to podcasts, was I needed something to feel. If I went on that walk just to get the fresh air and to get moving, I got in my own mind. I would go, okay, I have a million things to do. I need to get back. I should only take this one block because I need to get back. But if I could get into something that fed my mind and made me feel inspired, that the movement then, I kind of forgot that I was even moving.

Desi 

Exactly, it becomes like a moving meditation and that can be through your podcasts. I was listening to you this morning and enjoying your voice so much. It can be through a guided workout with me on my website, whatever it is, having someone there to sort of emotionally hold your hand or connect with so that you can learn something. It's so important. Once we hit 50, we're not done learning. There's always something new to learn.

Natalie 

Thank you.

Natalie

Yeah. Tell me more about your website. I know you've created a new membership now where people can get all of this that we're talking about.

Desi 

Yes, so I've had the pleasure of working, I lived in LA for 20 years. I worked with a lot of celebrities, a lot of high profile folks, and it was really, really, really fun. And what I learned from them is that they take the time for self care. And I'm like, okay, how can I bring all of this self care that I share with these amazing people to everyone? And how can I do it in an affordable way? All right, let's go through the website. I've created this platform that has yoga, fitness, meditation,

all together as one. We are not just our body and our mind separately. They are interconnected. And so the workouts are focused on weaving those three elements together like a braid so that you feel nourished and inspired and not just like, oh, that was a good workout.

Natalie

Yeah. Are they all home -based? Because for me, I have a membership at a gym. I try to get there, but that's a whole other thing, right? It's, I got to get out, I got to change, I got to drive, and I'm in Colorado, it's going to be cold. So do you think having the simplicity of workouts you can do at home, you find more success for people?

Desi 

I do, absolutely. And especially, you know, we have to recognize that we, we all live through a pandemic and our habits have changed. And so we're more accustomed to doing things at home. So I've created this so that you can do it in your living room and the comfort of your home. You don't have to deal with the time of transportation. And additionally, some of the workouts, not all of them, but some of them are filmed in the beautiful outdoors of Hawaii.

So I will share Mother Nature with you and the power and the mana of this land.

Natalie 

It's beautiful. Oh, okay, I'm inspired. So we gotta weave all these things together from the inside out, for sure. Anything else you wanna add before we wrap up? I just appreciate your time and what you're teaching us.

Desi 

Oh, I so appreciate you. And I just wanted to share that this is not just what I do, it's who I am. And it is my joy and my honor to help each person on their path. So I would love it if you would come take my hand, join me and let me walk with you. I don't even have enough words to explain all that's in my heart. Just come be with me. Let's go.

Natalie 

I will link your website to the show notes for anyone who's interested. Desi, thank you so much. It's a joy to meet you.

Desi 

Likewise, thank you and thank you for all that you're doing. You are an inspiration to me.

Natalie 

Thank you so much. Take care.

Desi 

You too.