Holistic Wellness for Leaders

47:52

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, life, thinking, diabetes, medications, talk, spice, family, healthcare, overweight, growing, high blood pressure, holistic, stroke, community, eat, nurse, day, alexandria, icu

SPEAKERS

Damon Pistulka, Alexandria Rosa

Damon Pistulka  00:04

All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. With me today. I’ve got Dr. Alexandria, Rosa. And we’re going to be talking about holistic wellness for leaders. Dr. Alexandria, thanks for being here today.

Alexandria Rosa  00:23

Thank you for having me. Hello, hello. Thank you. Yes.

Damon Pistulka  00:26

Well, it’s awesome. Because let’s just start let’s, I’ll just let you start with your background, because I won’t go off into my personal opinions on the healthcare systems, United States. But I’ll let you start with your background. So you can tell us from a little bit better position of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Alexandria Rosa  00:47

Sure, sure. So I’m in Ohio, and all of my experience has been in Ohio dealing with health care and health care system. And I’ve actually been, it’s been like over two decades, over 20 years of being in this health care field. And I started off as a nurse aide, way back and then from being a nurse aide, I got my LPN degree and then I was an LPN for a while, got my RN, got my Associates, got my Bachelor’s, and then went and got my doctorate. So I have my doctorate in nursing practice now.

And I’ve worked all the difference. Over all those years, I’ve worked in every healthcare setting that there is long term, acute hospital, home, hospice, the only thing that I really haven’t done is like pediatric or OB that like labor and delivery, I never got into that area. But everything else is what I’ve done in the last nine years, when I was working at the bedside, I did all cardiac ICU. So that’s all that I did for the last nine years. And the last couple years of that I transitioned from working for one hospital system to doing travel nursing.

So then I got to see multiple hospital systems. So I was working as a travel nurse. And kind of in between doing the cardiac ICU and working full time I was going to school, obviously finishing my doctorate, but I also was teaching so I’m a nursing professor as well.

So I teach RN students and I was teaching clinicals and teaching classes during that time while I was still working at the bedside. And now I’ve kind of transitioned into teaching full time and having my own practice now full time. So it’s been I’m glad that I’ve kind of gone this direction now because I saw that kind of my time was coming to an end, and working at the bedside and doing what I was doing. And I knew there was a new phase a new a new a new beginning to be had.

Damon Pistulka  02:55

So as you were because you really have I mean, you worked in many different as in the nursing all the way from starting as an LPN to a doctor, a doctor in nursing. What were some of the things that you learned along the way about, about health care about what you saw with patients coming in, and some things that stood out in your mind?

Alexandria Rosa  03:21

Yeah, so actually, one of the biggest things and I actually just made a live stream about this the other day was, I kept thinking about all the frequent fliers that we would have that I would see in the ICU, the same patients that would come in over and over again. And I keep thinking, and I’m like, you know, when you go to the ICU, you’re in pretty bad shape. Like you’re pretty messed up if you’re coming up there. And so I kept thinking, when is like enough for these patients like when is enough?

And when are they going to learn not to stop doing what they’re doing to end up here in the ICU because so much of it was high blood pressure, hypertensive emergency, diabetes, their sugar’s too high, or their sugar got too low, like shit, like that was what I was seeing, or, or they’re massively overweight, and they had a heart attack, and they needed stents or a cardiac cath, like, all of this stuff, just again and again, over and over.

And I kept thinking, When are they going to learn when, when are they going to learn, like what’s going to have to happen to them that they learn. And finally, I figured out that it wasn’t anything that I was going to do in my 12 hours of seeing them because I was so much deeper than that. The problem goes so much into like their relationship with their own health care provider with what they’re doing at home. Like there’s so much of this other stuff that I can’t really do anything about in my 12 hours of being there.

So that really is what kind of was like the biggest lightbulb moment for me recently was just the was the When is enough gonna be enough. And it’s it had really nothing to do with me and everything to do with the patient. And I really had to separate myself from that because I was taking that to heart for a long time was seeing these patients over and over again and feeling like I wasn’t doing my job as the nurse because they kept coming back when it’s so it was going so much deeper than that. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  05:24

I’ve never heard it. Going like that before. frequent fliers in the ICU. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that should be hopefully a never occurrence for people, but multiple occurrences for people. Yeah, there is a point to when you know, the things that you’re doing, or the things are around, you’re what’s causing you to be in the ICU. Right. Right. And you talked about this a little bit with yourself, too. You said you had you had a coming to you had a talk with yourself or a decision point in your life where you decided to make some changes and help yourself?

Alexandria Rosa  06:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, I, I, you know, and it was just some, like real hard facts that I had to like, come to grips with myself, because I kept thinking as I was going along, and this was like, on multiple fronts. And that’s why I talk about things holistically is because it wasn’t just one part, it was so many other parts that were affecting my decision, and my life.

And one of them was, as I kept going on and on in my career, and then on and on, in my education, I kept thinking, like, Who the fuck is going to take me serious if I’m like this overweight nurse, you know, on all these medications, trying to counsel people in the cardiac ICU about their own health, like, who’s going to take me seriously, like, that was one of the things I had to tell myself. And then, another part was that, you know, we were just kind of talking off screen now. But you know, I have three children, 1715, and five.

And when I got pregnant with my youngest, with my five year old, I was 34 going to be 35. And so I was considered, you know, advanced maternal age. So I was considered an old man. And so there was all these other precautions. And I wasn’t, I was kind of in decent shape, like when I first started the pregnancy, but as a pregnancy went on, I mean, I have a huge family history of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes. So like, I had all the cards stacked against me. And I was really trying to stay as healthy as I could. But towards the end of my pregnancy, I mean, I got preeclampsia, I ended up going into heart failure.

After I had my son. And I was on multiple blood, blood pressure medications, I was on medications for anxiety for depression, like, just and then they were wanting to add more and more medications on, I had gained the most weight I had ever gained in my life had weighed the most I ever weighed in my life. And I was just not in a good, I was not in a good place like, like, after that. I just I had a real reckoning with myself. And I thought about that, and how are people going to perceive me?

How are people going to, you know, take me seriously as a health care provider, like, I gotta get my shit together. And so I was able to make a lot of changes, but again, in a holistic way, like it was on so many fronts, I had to get very real with myself.

And this is kind of how the whole spice thing came about was I had to do all of that work. And I was able to lose 70 plus pounds and get off of all my blood pressure medications off all of my anxiety and depression medications. You know, I reverse my heart failure. I mean, I got literally I got into the best shape of my life while I was finishing my doctorate. And most people, it’s the entire opposite. But for me, it changed my entire life. And I changed the whole trajectory of my life during that time. So

Damon Pistulka  09:06

awesome. I will just say first of all, congratulations, awesome on doing that, because that is it is a life changing event. When you decide to do that, and I will I speak from experience. I was 60 pounds heavier two years ago, and I was on my way to more of the wrong kinds of medicine to have to take and you know, I can I can say my wife was well they thought she was type two diabetic but there’s other things that cause Latta late onset type one diabetes, so there’s nothing we could do but we both went in and decided to eat differently.

And when we started to do this, I also had started to read more about the importance of exercise and mental and I don’t even know what I read and write say it’s holistic, like me Meditation reading, you know, affirmations, whatever you want to call these kinds of things that people talk about. But when you look at the entire person, it is it. It is life changing. There’s no other way to say it, what it does for you. So as you’ve gone through this process, and we’re gonna talk about spice in a minute, because I love it. So what were the some of the things that you realize?

Alexandria Rosa  10:28

Huh, some of the things I realized, oh, goodness, that, that I was really putting myself on the backburner for way too long. And I really was, I had really become an I mean, I’m very blunt about all of this, like, I had really become brainwashed by the whole healthcare, system, organization, philosophy, whatever you want to call it, of, like, you gotta give, give, give, give, give, and if you’re not coming in, even if you’re fucking dying, like, then you’re not a real nurse, you’re not you don’t care about your job, you don’t care about anybody.

And I had been pushing myself for so hard for so long for so hard, or, you know, doing that, like just, and I was just in that mentality of just give, give, give, give, give. And I had done another interview with another nurse actually, just the other day, and sorry, my son, I was just doing an interview just the other day with another nurse. And we were talking about that just, you know, that you just gotta give and give and give. And it’s like, who, sorry, who is going to take care of you who’s going to take care of the nurse, nobody, nobody’s gonna take care of you, you got to take care of yourself.

And that’s, that was one of the hardest things that I had to come to grips with was, was finally taking care of myself. And not feeling guilty, not feeling bad about, you know, doing that at all, because I had knew I had to do that. So that was one of the biggest things. And I think one of the other things was really going back to my childhood and how I grew up, and the things that I was told about myself, and how I needed to act, and what was considered healthy, and what I should look like, and bringing up a lot of these, like generational like growing up, traumas, I guess you could call it growing up, I had to really face a lot of those and see how those were impacting my life in my current state.

And how I was very much a people pleaser, and how I very much was, you know, still going with those stories of like, oh, well, you’re big boned. And, you know, all of that, like all of those stories that were told growing up, and I had to really just rework all of those in my brain and get away from get away from a lot of that. So being just very, getting very honest and very real with myself, was really, really hard. It was really, really hard. But once I started doing that, and not letting anybody out and not blaming anybody else, because anybody else’s fault, you know, it was mine. So that was the other part.

Damon Pistulka  13:21

Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Because the thing that the thing that I think that we forget, when we feel guilty about taking care of ourselves, is that if we don’t had you not chosen to change the direction, you could have been here 10 years from now, very sick, very, with a lot, taking a lot of medicine and 20 years, even worse than 30 years, even worse, and your kids wouldn’t have you around, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy your grandkids, you wouldn’t be able to take it, you know, you’re just it’s your family, the whole nine yards, you’re not there for everyone else, either.

So it’s really not selfish at all. To take care of yourself, because then you can show up for other people, because you talk about giving and wanting to give more work and you know, and sometimes being expected to if you’re not healthy, you can’t give everything you could, right. Yeah, and there’s just go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry, sir.

Alexandria Rosa  14:26

Oh, no, no, no. And, you know, and that’s, that’s the thing that I’ve been saying more and more is, you know, you only have to look at your family tree to know what’s gonna happen to you. If you continue to do what you do. You there’s you that’s all you have to do. And that will show you exactly where you’re going to end up.

So that’s what I that’s the point that I got to and I started looking at who and my mom and my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, my cousins like I started looking at everybody and I knew if I didn’t make any Ah, I have no I have no doubt, I have no doubt Damon, I would be diabetic, I would be on I probably would have had a cardiac cath by now.

And all this stuff because of my blood pressure, and my knees would be all jacked up, because I was having like joint problems before, like, my knees would be all jacked up, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do all the things that I do. Now, if I would have kept going like that, who even knows who even knows if I would have been able to finish my doctorate, because of what the demanding schedule that I had, if I would have even been able to finish like, because I did get I did get COVID I got COVID While I was getting my doctorate. So who knows? What that would have been like for me, if I wouldn’t have been taking care of myself. So, so many variables, you know,

Damon Pistulka  15:49

yeah. And then as you said, to just being able to be there, and be active with your kids, and do the things with your kids and your, the rest of your family that you want to do. And then like you said to that just the it, there’s so many preventable diseases. And I just it just hurts me to see when we when people have to get to a point or not have to get to a point or don’t get to the point to where they can make the changes they need to prevent it.

Because I’m sure like you said, with the frequent fliers in the ICU. I love that term. A lot of people were there because they weren’t making the changes and continue to go down the path and just let medicine try to keep them as healthy as they probably could be correct.

Alexandria Rosa  16:44

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s what people expect the medications to solve their problems. And that’s so much of what is happening now. And that’s like what I talk a lot about with diabetes, like the pills and the insulin, they only like mask the symptoms, they don’t do anything to get rid of the diabetes in the first place. And it’s just we’re just giving more and more medication to lower the blood pressure. Well, what’s driving the high blood pressure?

Oh, well, you’re overweight, you eat a bunch of sodium, you eat a bunch of processed foods, like, those are the things that are driving your blood pressure.

So why are we not fixing that instead of just upping your medication, because that’s all that we end up doing is more and more medication, upping the dose, flush shirtless, add something new, let’s add another thing. Like that’s all that ends up happening when we got to be thinking the reverse way. And so many people are not. And that’s like, so so much of that is it’s lifestyle based, it’s preventable, it’s reversible. But people just need to be aware that it’s an option for them. Because healthcare, you know, they’re in for disease treatment, not for disease prevention. That’s what that’s what so much of it is. Yeah, that’s,

Damon Pistulka  17:57

that’s, that’s great to hear that from you. And so one of the things you said, I saw written about you said, you’re on a mission to transform healthcare. And I love that, let’s explain that a little bit of what you would like to see healthcare look like?

Alexandria Rosa  18:12

Yeah, well, all the things we’ve been talking about right now. And it’s just so much of bringing awareness. And really what I like to do is using video as the platform to do it, because you can reach so many more people. And I know for myself, you know, I’m Hispanic background. And, you know, for me growing up, I never heard of the terms like holistic, and I never heard of a lot of the different things for your health and for diabetes and blood pressure, I only knew what was in my little bubble of my family and my community.

So now with technology, we are, we’re wide open to learn and receive all kinds of new information. So I feel like I have like, it’s my duty, like I have to share this information so that people can learn about it so that they can learn about diabetes, so they can learn about high blood pressure, so they can learn about natural alternative ways to care for themselves so that they can break the odds, you know, do you know or defy the odds break the cycle around all of that, because so much of that is generational, and it’s within families for this because they’re really stuck in their little bubble. They got to be exposed to other things.

And so really, I just leveraged technology and I leverage connections and being connected to all kinds of different health care people all over to bring access to people who want to improve their lives in a more holistic way in a more natural way.

Damon Pistulka  19:36

Awesome. So you, you Okay, so I’ve got a whole bunch of questions here. So first of all, I’m going to I’m going to what do you think as ABS you seen people and seeing them make a transition and say they’re gonna do this? What do you think the hardest thing is for someone to do this to

Alexandria Rosa  20:02

The hardest thing is, I think the hardest thing is staying consistent. And is like finding support finding a community around it. Because if you because like, this is another thing that I’ve been thinking about lately, like, people talk a lot about willpower, willpower or like motivation. And it’s like people today do not have more willpower, they’re not more motivated than people back in the day, like it’s the same.

But what we have access to now is so much more of a community aspect, especially with being online, you can connect with people from all over the world. So I think if you can connect with those people and find that and find good support, find people that vibe with you, then that’s what’s really going to lead to your success. That’s what’s really going to make you successful in doing this, because anybody can get started and you can get going into it. But you really need that support, you really need that community around you so that you’re gonna stay on track and stay successful with it. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things.

Damon Pistulka  21:12

And it’s just, I think we just sat and listened about that, just think about that for a minute that was very good. Because it is it is, is finding the right support finding the right community to keep you consistent on these things. It is the hardest thing I was reading a few weeks ago or a month ago or so about it said we don’t we don’t fall off the wagon, so to speak with exercise and things like that, we just kind of start slowly drifting off course.

So if we, if we had, if we had a thing, you know, we were going to eat 1000 calories a day and get instead of 4000. You know, we might eat 20 501 Day goal, that’s okay, it’s just one day, next day then is 2700, or whatever, you know, and we’re not watching it, or we we’re going to exercise so many days a week, and then we don’t exercise one day.

And you know, we just fall of course, but that that support that you’re talking about is what keeps people motivated. And I think like you’re saying that the the access after these different communities, online communities, in person, communities, whatever they are, to stay motivated and help each other stay consistent, I think is really a powerful, cool.

Alexandria Rosa  22:26

Yeah, I Yeah. And the other way you can think about it too, is if you think about communicable diseases, right, you can even compare this to COVID. You can see different communicable diseases, right? They spread, they stay within certain communities, you can track them. Same thing happens with obesity, and a lot of those other diseases, they are on track, you can see whole communities whole clusters that are like that, that’s because it’s community based, it’s all in that same, that same group of people, so you can track that.

And that’s all it’s all comes down to, who are you hanging around? Who are you around, you’re gonna catch whatever they got. And if these people got bad habits and bad things that they’re doing, you’re gonna catch that and more than likely, you’re going to end up like that. And you can totally see that it’s totally with who you are around again, going back to the community. It’s the same thing.

Damon Pistulka  23:25

Yeah, I never thought of it like that. But you’re right, if you’re in a community that that is eating poorly, any other bad habits you want to think about, and it’s all around you every day, there’s likely going to affect you, too. So. So you created what you call spice. And I love it. Let’s talk about a little bit. So let’s explain that to us.

Alexandria Rosa  23:49

Sure, yeah. So spice is like, so in nursing, we have a head to toe assessment. And so I really consider spice my head to soul assessment. It’s what it’s like my holistic, like, triage little thing that I created. And it really is based on my experiences and my life growing up and the process that I had to go through to kind of come out on the other side to where I am now as a totally, you know, different woman, totally different person now. And so all of the letters stand for something. Yes, it’s spell spice. Yes, it’s nice. It works in all kinds of great phrases and sayings. But it does stand for something. And so the S stands for spirit.

The P stands for physical, the eye stands for insight, the C stands for career and the E stands for emotion. And these are all the different like dimensions of health or wellness that we need to be really aware of if we want to care for ourselves in a holistic way. And it’s the areas of my life that identified that I did so much work in and that I also noticed and other people that are areas that we can really tap into and make improvements on it when you can kind of bring all those, you know, into balance, I always talk about a lot of balance, you know, never not everything’s always perfect, but there’s ways to create balance in your life. And that’s how that’s how I look at it.

And that’s how I address it. And anytime I’m teaching or thinking about things, I’m always keeping that in mind when I do it. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s kind of how I came up with it. So,

Damon Pistulka  25:22

yeah, because you, you talk about it, and you mentioned the, the words for the acronym, spice. And when I saw it written, you said, spirituality, it’s our search for purpose and meaning. And, you know, and it is really, I mean, we all desire that, and then the physical how vital, energetic and strong we are. And then insight, how we learn and grow our self awareness and intuition. Then in career, how we create a professional life that reflects our calling, and bring satisfaction, and emotion, how we feel inside and how broadly we can express experience and accept, I mean, you really have covered like you said, head to soul, of the things that we should do.

So as you went through these things, and you go Docker, let Alexandria before Docker, Alexandria, after what are some of the things that that you learned about yourself in these areas that you had to, you had to come to terms with or you, you thought, I want to change that?

Alexandria Rosa  26:29

Ah, yeah, so many. So in the, in the spirit part, I really had to, I really had to become okay with what my, what my purpose was, what I felt like my calling was, and not what other people expected me to do the job what other people expected that Alex was going to do or should do. And once I really allowed myself to, like, be free in that and say, you know, once I get my doctorate, you know, I want to have my own practice. And this is how I want to take care of patients, this is how I see it. And this is what I want to do, and I want to do it my way, that was so freeing for me.

And so that was that was a huge part of that spirituality part. And then the physical part, obvious with all the physical changes, you know, that I went through. And I think also too, with the eye, the eye always ties into that. And I think the eye the inner work, right, the insight, the inner work, being real with myself, and not laying blame on other people taking accountability. That was, that was I think, where I, I first started doing the work was right there was where it really, really first started doing the work. And if I look at the see, and I think about my career, I have always been very passionate about my career.

And I’ve been very vocal, like, all throughout my working years about, you know, empowering myself but also empowering people around me to like, live out their careers and not be afraid to ask for what they want. And to go and not be afraid to, you know, be a mom who does work, who does go to school, you know, who wants to do things with their life. Like don’t shy away from that. I’ve always been very vocal about all of that. So that part came very easily and naturally to me. And the E the emotional part, I think, the emotional part, it’s always a work in progress. Always, always because, you know, we’re always facing new challenges in our lives.

And, you know, I had a lot of hard things to go through. In my life, like my, my, my dad passing away was a very pivotal part of my life. And my trajectory definitely was that. And he passed away almost 15 years ago, because my daughter had just turned one. And she just turned 15. So it’s been about 15 years that he passed away. And I was right in the middle of I had just started my LPN program. And so you know, there I am a 20, some year old young man with a one year old and a three year old, going to school full time working, my dad had had a stroke. And because he had uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled blood pressure, he was overweight, not taking care of himself.

He had a stroke and his wife at that time. And my parents got divorced. So the woman that he was married to once he ended up having that stroke and went into rehab, she decided that she was going to divorce him and didn’t want to take care of him anymore. So when he got out of rehab, he didn’t have any place to go. So he ended up coming living with me. So like I said, there I was 20 some years old, trying to figure out my own life, and then having to become a caretaker to my dad and he needed a lot of care.

He was poststroke a lot of care and then with a one year old and a three year old going to school full time working. So that was a huge thing and he ended up passing single way, shortly after that, because he had another stroke, he was just not in good shape. He had another stroke, he ended up passing away. Well, he ended up having a clot went to his brain went to the ICU, and we ended up having to take him off of life support.

Which another thing, you should not have to make that decision when you’re 20 Some years old. There I was having to go through that. So as so much of that emotional turmoil going through that and it’s like, you know, life doesn’t stop shit doesn’t stop happening in your life, you have to figure out how to deal with it and being emotionally strong and having the resources coping mechanisms. That’s you got to do you have to have those in place. So the E is always evolving all the time. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  30:44

And your dad had to be pretty young. If you’re only in your 20s.

Alexandria Rosa  30:47

Yeah, he was in his, like, mid 50s. He was very young. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  30:53

Yeah. Because, yeah, yeah. Wow. I can see how coming through this is helped you decide to take a different path. Yeah. And it because it is a decision is a decision. So and I’m gonna go back through a couple of things here that you said, because I think a lot of people in the spiritual spirit, the spirituality piece on this, you said one thing I think it’s worth mentioning, again, is people need to become okay with their calling, not what others expect them to do.

And a lot of people get stuck in this because everyone around them expects them to do this or that need, it could even be their spouse, when it’s not something when it’s something that they absolutely, positively hate, and it’s not something that they can ever be happy with, or ever really feel fulfilled. I think that’s something that a lot of people, the sooner you can feel alright with it and move down that path. It helps a lot of other things.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I can see I could see that in you now from talking with you again. And that, when you get that, that helps a lot. The second thing you said about insight is being real with ourselves and, and taking accountability for how things are. It’s not easy.

Alexandria Rosa  32:41

Now it sucks.

Damon Pistulka  32:42

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You’re really it just truly sucks. It truly is. Because you can you can look in the mirror and you go, I’m this way, because a lot of the stuff I do you take the world can do whatever it can. But at the end of the day, we control how we react and how we really are. Yeah, that that was awesome that you said that. Then he’s talking about career. And I really what I got from it is don’t limit yourself. Right? There’s no reason to. And I think that that’s another thing that people go, Oh, I can’t do that we’ll find out. And I think you’ve broken down the why not? And just gone and doing it and that’s awesome.

Yeah. And, and the emotional part, when you talk about the, the, the, you know, you talked about Express experience, and, and accept and you said several times during our conversation today, it’s likely going to happen. You’re just you’re gonna have to experience it, you’re gonna have to accept it and move on. And sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. And that’s, that’s great. So as you’re as you’re helping people do this, what are some of the things that you love seeing when you’re helping clients, you know, learn the new way to live.

Alexandria Rosa  34:11

I, I really like it when Well, obviously, when they have wins when they’re successful at what they’re doing. But I think it’s just them seeing that it is possible for them. Like, it’s not just, you know, it’s for her, it’s for him. It’s, it’s for you, like you can do it. You can you can do this. And I don’t know if it’s just if it’s like jealousy that people have or if it’s like that FOMO or I don’t know what the term would be for it. But you know, it just we look at other people’s lives and we just and that’s another thing to work on.

Also right is looking at other people comparing yourself judgment, assuming things like yeah, you know, and it’s so not the case. You don’t know what anybody’s going through, you have no clue. And so just to just release all that, and take the responsibility, be accountable for yourself, don’t worry about anybody else that, you know, that is so just huge for people to get over. And once they start to be successful, and they start to see things happening for themselves, you know, it’s, it’s incredible. And it’s also making sure that they know that there is support out there for them, like long term support. And a lot of clients I have are like, Well, what’s next?

You know, what happens next? And it’s like, okay, hold on, like, we got to get through this part first, and then we’ll get to the next part. But it’s, it’s that long term support that people really, really need. And they need to be okay with asking for help with continuing to be, you know, we’re never going to get to be, we’re never going to be perfect. We’re never going to have all the answers. We’re, I need help. I know, I reach out to people I know, I need support in parts of my life. So there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s you have to be okay with asking for that. And receiving it is a whole nother thing.

Damon Pistulka  36:12

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And it’s, it comes back again, to what you said is having that support that community, those people around you, both when you’re making the changes, but then just sustaining the change and living the life that you that you really, honestly that you dream up. Yes. So when you when you are, so someone’s listening today, what would you tell them? What would you tell them? They’re sitting there thinking what this is, this is wonderful, but it doesn’t apply to me or this is? This is something for somebody else? Or maybe they’re maybe they’re looking for this kind of help? I don’t know what would you tell them?

Alexandria Rosa  37:03

I would say that, if you’re if you’re listening, first thing I would say is if you’re listening to this, there’s a reason you’re listening to this, because I never believe in coincidence. Right? I never believe in coincidence. So if you are watching this, there is a reason. Maybe it’s not today that this applies to but there is going to be a time where something that we have talked about applies to you. Yeah, and I’m here, you’re here. We’re all here. You know, there is there are resources available for you. And you don’t have to go it alone. You don’t have to be confused. And I think that’s the be the biggest thing that I would say.

Damon Pistulka  37:46

Yeah, yeah. Doesn’t happen by chance. I love that. I love that. So as you’re moving along now what are some of the things that you’re trying to continue to develop with your clients yourself that you’re going to take this to the next level.

Alexandria Rosa  38:11

I’m really wanting to make an impact with my practice on diabetes and high blood pressure. Like that’s really where I’m wanting to make a market. Especially in like women of color, that’s really kind of like my focus, and really where I’m wanting to make a huge difference in. Because I know how it, it I know, for my family, it’s, it’s obviously it’s killed my dad, you know it, my mom has diabetes, my younger sister has diabetes, like pretty everybody in my family has diabetes. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

And I hate I have hated seeing my own family suffer with this. And I want to be able to change that for other people, for their families, for young children that are growing up in these environments, I want to change all of that for them. And I know it can only happen if I just continue to put myself out there and share my message and teach more about this, and about what we can do for it. And it’s not anything that’s out of reach for people, you know, we can all eat better, we can all be more active. It’s very simple things. But it’s the community aspect of it. And it’s the awareness. And it’s all of that. So that’s really where I want to make my mark is in that area for sure.

Damon Pistulka  39:31

Yeah, yeah. Because two things is diabetes and high blood pressure are our silent killers. Oftentimes, people don’t even know until it’s too late and they’re in the hospital. And for the most part, they’re very preventable, or at least the effects or the problems from them are preventable. So yeah, that’s awesome. Just thinking about this for a second because you got, It’s great talking to you, because you when you talk with people that have that have made a transformation in their lives and taking it to heart, and now you’re helping other people, it’s so inspiring to listen to you speak, and, and just learn from me.

So yeah, I was gonna ask a couple more questions, but I think that you’ve done, you’ve done an awesome job because I look at cost. One of the things that I was, I was thinking about it, and you said this a couple of times, it starts when you’re really little, and you look at yourself and what you how you start, and because yeah, it does, it does. And once people can realize that, the way I look at myself can change the way I act and the things I do can change. And it’s not going to, it’s going to take me doing those things, obviously, but doing that, so have you seen are just gonna ask you this, have you seen entire families make trance changes like this.

Alexandria Rosa  41:18

So this, so my family and my, my family with my husband, my husband’s lost over 100 pounds. And both of both of my children are not overweight, because for me, I was an overweight child. And I, I said my kids are not going to be overweight and deal with all those problems. So I my own family is an example. And that’s how we live every day. And like there are there are rules in our house. And that’s the thing, that’s the thing that kills me too is, you know, women, especially use the excuse moms use the excuse, well, I got my kids and my kids want to eat this. And my kids want to do this.

And I’m like, Well, you’re the mom, like what are you doing like, like you’re the one buying the stuff and doing the things you are the rule maker like you got to set you got to set the tone. And so you know, our houses, we don’t I don’t buy soda, I don’t drink soda, I haven’t drink soda, and years and years and years. And so there’s no soda in my house, but I got kids. So what like that I don’t buy soda, they drink water. They’re, they’re fine. They can go to school, and every now and then drink soda if that’s what they want.

But it’s at home at the house. No. And we cook food and they helped me cook and they all my kids know how to cook. So it’s I’ve set the tone for my family and how I want things to be. And unfortunately, like, I have to say, you know, my, my sister, for example, like her family, I don’t think she’s ever going to watch this video. But she, she, you know, her and her family, you know, it’s a very different situation. They’re very different, very different, very different. And so it’s, you know, we were both raised the same way, right?

We both grew up in the same household, but our the way that our lives are in the way that our families are totally night and day. So it’s possible, it’s just you have to decide you have to decide. And so my family is an example. I unfortunately, and that’s why I’m out here trying to do this is I have not really seen other families take that type of control and do that, when it has gotten severe like that. I have not seen that. So that’s what I want to make my mark doing that because it’s possible.

Damon Pistulka  43:35

Yeah, yeah, it is. And it’s one of the things that as you as you just walk around town, this we talked about the obesity problem, and we talk and it seems like it’s gets younger and younger now. And it’s, I understand that one of one of the welcome everyone and be nice to everyone and not you know, body shaming, you don’t want any of that because that’s just worthless, right? It’s just wrong and worthless. The health problems caused by it when you’re 50 to 100 pounds overweight when you’re 16 years old. I can’t even imagine what that’s like when you’re 45

Alexandria Rosa  44:23

No, you can’t you can’t. You can’t ignore that fact. And you can’t ignore the fact that there’s like 10 year old kids with atherosclerosis, right like hardening of their arteries and calcium and plaque building up like, like I remember being in nursing school, and then specifically telling us they said why when we’re learning about stroke and high blood pressure Why don’t we have a pediatric chapter on this? Why do we only have adults because literally for like everything else, there’s like a pediatric section. And then there’s another last section, why don’t we have that for kids?

Because this is a lifestyle disease, you get this over time only you would only see this in adults because it’s that type of plaque and high cholesterol triglycerides building up over time. So that’s why we would only see that in adults. But now, we’re seeing that in children, kids, 10 years old, hardening arteries, plaque, cholesterol, high triglycerides, all the shit that adults are dealing with, but kids are dealing with it now. And I mean, who I don’t I don’t want to think about any kids. With that. I don’t want to think about kids. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  45:42

yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s awesome. Alex, that you’re out here helping people learn about this. And you’re teaching people. Thank you. They can change. Yes. Be showing them, showing them how? Yes, it’s making the difference. I just wanna thank you for stopping by today and talking with us here and sharing your message. People want to get a hold of you talk to you about space, what’s the bay West way to get ahold of

Alexandria Rosa  46:10

you? Sure. Best thing is, just send me a message. If you’re connected with me on LinkedIn, send me a direct message, say, Hey, I saw you on Daymond show. I’d love to talk to you more. That’s as easy as it can be. I’m on all I’m on all the social media platforms. So you can find me anywhere. But like I said, just send me a direct message. And if you want to check out my website, it’s get your spice that net is what it is. And you can get your spice dotnet. And you can check me out there. But yeah, that’s always I’m always down for making new connections and saying hello and meeting people. So

Damon Pistulka  46:47

awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks. I want to say thanks, Dr. Alexandria, Rosa, for being here today. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing about spice your journey to finding holistic wellness and how you’re sharing and helping other women experience that and teaching them how to do it. I want to say thanks to Samantha and Samson and Mohammed and Karen, for stopping by today and drop in the comments and everyone else listening.

If you’re if you’ve been if you’re listening today, and you didn’t hear at all go back. Dr. Alex dropped some real nuggets at the beginning of this and throughout. These are things you can change. We don’t have to deal with health because of our habits and there’s things we can change. We can change our lifestyles, we can change these things. Reach out to Dr. Alex if you want to talk about that some more. Thanks, everyone for being here on the faces of Business. Dr. Alex, if you can hang out just for a minute. We’ll talk soon on here.