Latest / FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast / Get Healthy or Get Dead: Taking Back Responsibility for Your Health with Kristina Morros

Transcript

Get Healthy or Get Dead: Taking Back Responsibility for Your Health with Kristina Morros · FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast

• 1:09
  Turo Virta: So welcome back to the podcast, and today's episode is a really interesting one, because we are going to talk about health from very honest no nonsense angle. My guest today is Christina Moros. Christina is former critical care nurse and certified registered nurse anesthetics. Statistic, and she's the founder of get healthy, or get that. What I really appreciate about Christina is that she brings together deep clinical experience with functional medicine movement and the real world coaching. She's worked inside the medical system. She understands its strengths and its limits, and she's very clear about one thing, surface level advice is not enough if we want real health. Christina's works.
• 1:56
  Turo Virta: Work focuses on root causes, things like gut health, hormones, stress, sleep and movement and helping people take responsibility for their health without fear extremes or blind trusts in systems that don't always serve them well. In this conversation, we talk about why so many people feel stuck despite doing everything right, why passive healthcare keeps people confused, and how movement strength and nervous system regulation play much bigger role in long term health than most people realize.
• 2:27
  Turo Virta: Christina, welcome to the podcast. I'm really, really happy to have you here.
• 2:34
  Unknown: Thank you for inviting me to I'm really, really excited to be here.
• 2:37
  Turo Virta: Yeah, this was some intro what I was actually writing down before we get into this episode. But first tell me, tell a little bit about yourself, like, just who you are, where you are living, just the normal things, and then we go to the actual topic.
• 2:55
  Unknown: Yeah, sure. So my name is Christina Morris. I am a blogger on substack, get healthier get dead. And I've written a book, get healthier get dead. My background is nurse anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, as you mentioned to your audience, and I've had experience working in the United States and in the Netherlands. I lived in the Netherlands for 11 years, and I was over there during the pandemic. And basically my journey through 1919, I'm off all my dates 2019, to 2026. Actually, currently, has led me to where I am now. I kind of always knew that the health system had its flaws, but through that journey, kind of embarked on how deeply flawed the system was, and so I am a patient advocate. My primary concern is people having the best and clearest knowledge on what it means to be and stay healthy and to kind of unravel all of the mysteries from the healthcare and wellness systems.
• 4:04
  Unknown: And my book is in my blog are basically blueprints on how to navigate the landmines that are hidden in the common education and that sort of narrative that is blasted out in the world. And it's not only in the United States, it's also worldwide, as I discovered during that time period in the Netherlands. So that's a little bit about an intro of who I am. And I moved back to the United States about four years ago. I fled lockdowns and mandates to come back and resettle in my home country in Florida. And the reason why I came to Florida is because it is one of the three estates and the in the United States, there was maybe lockdowns for two weeks, and they really don't tolerate mandates and rules and regulations that limit your personal freedoms. And so I appreciated that my family is also here, so that's another reason why I moved back. But I really enjoy living here with the nature and the water it's that's right in with my my love and drive for movement, because I'm a competitive paddle boarder, and so water is a part of my life.
• 5:19
  Turo Virta: Yeah, tell me, like, tell me a little bit about your paddle boarder, how often you do your like I have no idea. I want to know
• 5:30
  Unknown: that's interesting, because it is so popular in Europe. Yeah.
• 5:33
  Turo Virta: No, it is, I know.
• 5:33
  Turo Virta: But how to compete like that? I have you are competing with it?
• 5:36
  Turo Virta: Or, yeah,
• 5:39
  Unknown: oh yes, I am. Yes. I was actually until last year, there was a race and Abu Dhabi.
• 5:43
  Unknown: I couldn't travel to compete, but I was in the top 20 in four events, sprints, technical, five and 10k. Practice is a commitment, but it's also a passion and a love of mine. And a lot of people don't know what competitive paddle boarding is, because I'm one of them. Yeah, when people think about paddle boarding, they think about getting. Out relaxing, kind of, you know, chilling out on your board and just kind of looking around. And it is part of that.
• 6:11
  Unknown: That's also we do do that as well. But I have a custom carbon race board that's 14 feet long, 22 and a half inches wide, and that's kind of the typical equipment that we race on. Have a carbon paddle. And just to mention, the brands really quick because they are so important.
• 6:29
  Unknown: The brand that designed my paddle board is from Florida, from Stewart, Florida, flying fish Board Company. The owner basically hand shapes his boards and they are custom for the client. He also has other boards as well, not just for racing and my my my paddle is also unique.
• 6:50
  Unknown: It's by quick bait, quick blade, and it's called the Stingray, and it has kind of a pizza shape to it, so it's a little different than a standard paddle. But equipment, skill, practice, your your your health of your body and your balance really matters in performance for racing, just like any sport.
• 7:11
  Turo Virta: So how does it like, tell someone like me who have no idea how you are competing, like, what kind of races are you racing against time? Or how does it work? Because I have here where I do live, here in Italy, like, of course, I see people are going with the paddle board, but they are just, you go just maybe little round and, and I have never seen any competition, yeah.
• 7:37
  Unknown: Well, actually, in Italy this year is the the ICF World Championship. I believe it's in Sicily, and I believe it's in November. So anyone interested in actually going to a race, should definitely attend. It's fascinating. We compete with time and against each other. It depends on the type of race. When you're doing a sprint race, you're competing basically against your components. Usually it's 500 meters, so it's taking off, off the line, and maintaining your speed. It's high intensity, very quick. You know, type of competition. Then you have technical races, which are usually around buoy turns. And again, you're competing against time, and your fellow racers, you're trying to get ahead of them, cut them off. And I mean, not like, non sportsman like, but you are using strategy to win the race, and 5k and 10k is basically time. And against components, drafting is a huge component in longer distance races. And there are even longer races that are miles. There's actually a race in the Netherlands, gosh, I'm blanking on the name of right now, sub 11 city. That's what it's called.
• 8:47
  Unknown: It's over five days, and you have to, you have to compete a certain distance every day to advance further. You can also break it up into different days.
• 8:59
  Unknown: My first race was actually a leg of that. It was 23 kilometers.
• 9:04
  Unknown: And I've raced. The most I've raced is 32 miles in Tennessee.
• 9:07
  Unknown: But I'm not really a distance racer. I'm more of a sprinter and a technical racer. I enjoy, you know, just basically taking off, off the line and exploding with with speed, and not endurance, but speed and just basically that burst of energy to get off and perform.
• 9:28
  Turo Virta: Oh, nice. It sounds interesting. So basically, there is all kind of different kind of things where you can compete, like sprints and longer races, or some technical aspects where you have a course, if I understand correctly,
• 9:42
  Unknown: yes, it's super fun. I can't describe how much fun it is. And then to be able to travel and race and meet other racers, and just have that community is also a huge part of racing, because it's it's worldwide, but it's a small community. I wish that it was in the Olympics, because I would definitely try to compete to be in the Olympics, and my age group, because I am 50 now, so my competition is somewhat smaller, so I have a little better chance than the the 20 to 40 somethings who are extremely athletic and fast.
• 10:15
  Turo Virta: Yeah, no. Makes sense. Makes sense. Awesome. So you, like you mentioned before, so you have worked in critical care and Anastasia, right at the sharp end of medicine, what was the moment for you where you realized that system was good at emergencies but not at creating real health?
• 10:38
  Unknown: Yeah, that's been a store that's slowly been unraveling, unraveling for years, but the pandemic was definitely a big red flag for me and I, when I went to school, I was taught to always read studies and be on the top of your basically, be in the top of your clinical area, to know the cutting edge therapies and but also look at the science behind them and look at the structure of the studies. And so. So from the beginning, I was following the studies and tracking the covid virus and just wondering what the like. Was it really an issue? Was what we were learning to treat the illness? And I would, I just maintained my knowledge base on the basically, the solving the mystery behind what was causing the illness and the issues. And so when I was in the unit, and I was watching the treatment strategies for caring for individuals in the hospital, and actually also the timing and the therapies chosen, I had a lot of questions, because there were things that didn't make sense, the immediate clinical decision to intubate patients and use therapies that didn't really target the underlying issue, which was inflammation, and then watching the outcomes of the patients with the therapies chosen, They were dying. They were becoming septic and going into inflammation that was not being stopped, which was basically leading them defenseless against the the basically the the chronic inflammation that was being created by the acute disease.
• 12:22
  Unknown: And so personally, my family got sick, and I went back to the United States to help heal my parents, and through that journey, became connected with a nonprofit that I then began working for over three or four years. I stopped working for them in 2024 but learning about how certain repurposed drugs and nutraceuticals and common sense things were the treatment for the virus. It was just a virus, just like any other virus, and when I took that knowledge back to the units, I was shut down.
• 12:59
  Unknown: And that's a pattern that became more and more apparent. When you would try to post something on social media, you were censored and shut down. A lot of people who were prescribing the repurposed drugs, their medical licenses were taken away.
• 13:15
  Unknown: Families were basically denied access to their family members.
• 13:21
  Unknown: Police were called to enforce behaviors of the families when the families was just asked for treatment to help heal their family members, they were basically the members were escorted out of the hospitals by police. It was it was bizarre.
• 13:38
  Unknown: And this was not just isolated incidents. The nonprofit I worked for, I was actually the clinical support. I was the frontline access to people who are reaching out for help. And we had hundreds of 1000s of families reaching out for help, for not only for access to the repurposed drugs, but also access to people who would write exemptions for injections. And this was also worldwide, we actually helped change policy and countries and states about access to care, and it was an eye opening experience. And it's it's changed my life. I'm no longer practicing medicine in the hospital. I just can't I have moral and ethical issues with how patients are treated, and I just can't walk in there like unseen, what I've seen and unknowing what I've learned. And so I've taken that education and that intervention on my own to try to educate people, you know, in a sort of patient, friendly, normal language, real world knowledge, way through the book and through my blog.
• 14:46
  Turo Virta: So when your brand name, it's, it's an Instagram handle, and everything is get healthy or get dead. So it's very provocative. So, but what that? What does this, that phrase, actually mean to you?
• 15:06
  Unknown: Yeah, I didn't want to be like all the other typical wellness brands. I don't even want to actually call myself a wellness brand, because I don't like that terminology yet, because that's also, in my eyes, a lot of wellness thought leaders are also compromised and are kind of also tied into Pharma. So I chose the title because it's important for people to take control of their own bodies and their health, and we have decisions that we make every day, and so if you don't actually educate yourself and become aware of the issues, then you are leading down a path of chronic disease which leads to death and chronic illness. So it's your choice to decide to become healthy and stay healthy, or you'll end up down a maybe long or short, winding road where you end up becoming ill and not being able to make the most out of life. And it's it's such simple things. Things. It's not it doesn't cost a lot of money. It doesn't require a lot of purchasing things to help support that behavior. It's mindset, it's commitment, it's educating yourself. And the the fundamentals of my brand are basically balance, which would include activity, sleep, stress reduction, nutrition, hydration, all those things are so interrelated with each other.
• 16:34
  Unknown: And when I say nutrition, I'm not talking about over supplementing. I'm talking about making proper food choices. And even in that area, it's interesting to see how people really don't understand what what actual good nutrition is.
• 16:48
  Unknown: And even most recently, looking at the new food pyramid guidelines in the United States, it's a great step forward, but there's some hidden things in that, in those suggestions, like a cap on the fat. If you cap your daily intake of fat at 10% that that blocks out a lot of of like meat proteins and other healthy proteins, or, sorry, healthy healthy fats that you should actually incorporate in your diet, and it actually funnels people back into the behavior of eating things like seed oils and foods that aren't nutritionally sound, that might have Lots of hidden ingredients to quote, unquote, make them healthy. But in fact, they're not, and so require someone to educate themselves on again, what, what is healthy nutrition?
• 17:34
  Unknown: What should you be putting in your body for balance? So I'd like to be able to help educate people in a simple way on what they can do. And the book is the beginning. The blog is a start, and I'm here and willing to help coach people, but only the people that are committed to the change and are committed to following my suggestions and not coming to me and then going to someone else and asking and questioning, like, what? What is the right way? What is the right pattern? What is the right right way of life? I feel like my I am my brand. I'm proof that what I'm doing works based on my body composition and my balance my life. So I invite people to have a discussion with me and learn when I'm teaching.
• 18:21
  Turo Virta: So why? Why you think that so many people hand over their responsibility for their health, instead of staying actively involved.
• 18:34
  Unknown: I think there are lots of of things here that I could go down a spiral about this, and it might sound a little conspiracy, like conspiracy thinking and my beliefs about this, but the things that I've seen through working and the medical Freedom Movement have led me to no other reality, and unfortunately, people are indoctrinated into a type of thinking, and our digital age has rendered people their their their desire to learn. It's made people very lazy, for a lack of a better word, and I feel like that, the media hypnotizes people. To a certain extent. The attention span of people is less than 30 seconds when you do marketing research and you have to get your message out, literally in the first 15 seconds of your post on social media to reach people. And so it's much easier to take a pill or to take an injection, or to blindly follow advice instead of actually taking the time to do the research yourself. It's it takes a lot of time and energy to learn, and there's so much, for lack of better word misinformation out there, through research studies and through the information that is blasted out to people. And so I guess it's easy to fall into the trap of of following the wrong advice, but we have to be active learners and actually question everything and see if something makes sense. So it it helps when people can find someone that can help lead them in the right direction. And I think it's important that people not follow someone, but actually take the tools that are presented to them and actually diving in and reading or watching the information themselves.
• 20:33
  Turo Virta: Do you have some examples for those? What you mentioned like misleading tools or something? What do you see?
• 20:40
  Turo Virta: What is like? Just give me maybe one or two examples.
• 20:46
  Unknown: I think my latest example would be ozempic and GLP one and two inhibitors. They're kind of a hype right now, and they've been approved for reimbursement by our government here in the United States. Now, it's very easy to inject and lose weight, and you do actually physically lose weight. But in the process of that, you're also putting your body at risk for chronic diseases. And it's an interesting discussion, actually, because I follow the work of Thomas Levy, MD, JD. He actually is the world's leading expert on vitamin C, and I was looking through his his blog post lately, and actually it was interesting because he presented something that I was not aware of, and I'm not supportive of doing the injections my my thought behind that is actually doing the work, changing your diet, getting out and moving, hydrating, stress reduction, all the things I named earlier in our discussion. But he and I totally can see his point. And there is, there is a study or two backing it up, and it up, and it seemed like a good study that if you have adequate levels of vitamin C and you stop your oxidation processes in your body that causes acute and chromic diseases, then the side effects of these injected drugs, for lack of a better word, actually don't have as many side effects as they would if you didn't have adequate levels of vitamin levels of vitamin C. So I found that interesting. So it's a learning process and learning about different things, and I learned from that blog post, it doesn't change how my viewpoints on whether I would recommend that or not to people. And of course, it's someone's own decision whether they choose those therapies or not. But it's interesting, because through the popularity of the GLP one and two inhibitors, peptides have become very popular. And I'm all about using peptides. I think they have wonderful benefits for people. And in fact, I'm a big proponent of BPC, 157, and TB, TB, four frag, or thymus and alpha, those are great things that help with inflammation and help heal tissues. And so there's and there's lots of other helpful peptides out there, but that's just one example of how something is hyped. And why it's hyped is because it's a way for the drug companies to make money off of people. They're they're still, they're branded, and they're, you know, the government, the government is now supporting the use of them being prescribed, and so it's a huge money making scheme for for those companies.
• 23:19
  Unknown: And people are all in for it because they they think that it's the way to get healthy, and the for allopathic medicine is also promoting them without actually addressing the underlying issues of imbalances in the body. And I could go on and on about that one example, but I think that kind of illustrates my point more or less,
• 23:47
  Turo Virta: yeah, no, no, absolutely. And it's, I think, in all this is like, GLP ones and everything. What is now, like, like you said, it's a it's a big trend. I think it's what is in my point of view. What is missing is that, you know, of course, people, if you watch only marketing, you see end results that you will lose weight, you are having less cravings, which all are true.
• 24:11
  Turo Virta: There is no no doubt, and as a result, you will have that result. But then there is also those possible side effects at I think at this point maybe you know more than me, but there is not, like, really long term studies, like because it's relatively new, so we don't know that there is risks for everything. And then it's like that if you, if you are someone who is, who is thinking about taking those like that, there is always that good side, bad side, and possible risks. And what I feel that there is missing, still like that, that would you be like the possible risks. And then, you know what is, is it worth of it? Then that you have a you might lose weight, or you will most likely, and then you have all these benefits, which is, of course, they are also benefits. If you are, you have a lot of overweight you end up losing weight, maintaining and you don't have that food noise anymore. It's, it's, those are huge benefits. But then there is also risk. So it's, it's as that in every situation, I think that everyone should have enough information to make, then decision if it's worth of it, worth of all those risks, possible side effects, what we don't know, if there is and and then if it's worth of it like, course, if you keep doing the same way, you know there are at least what I know so many people who have tried kind of everything but couldn't find anything. And now with with CLP once or they finally found something which, yeah, like change their health. So there is websites, but it's not only like that. It's either way. There is always like, in my point of view, that it only. Always depends on each person, and I think more information we have so everyone can make an well informed decision based on, yeah, you
• 26:18
  Unknown: touched on some good points there. Actually Turo, the long term outcomes. So being a study subject, because basically, when you're researching a drug, phase one and phase two trials, that's the first those are the first steps and figure out if something is dangerous or not. We don't have long term evidence for those, the GLP one and twos yet. The other thing you touched on, which I think is very important, is informed consent. That's a patient's right. And a lot of times, people are sold these therapies, which without being told these side effects and long term effects, or even if those long term effects are known. And that has become an interesting topic since 2020 I don't really want to go in to that too much, but being presented a therapy that is experimental, and being forced or mandated or suggested that you do it should not be presented to a patient as as information when they're being put into the situation to make a choice. They should know both risk and benefits and outweigh those risks and benefits and the risk benefit ratio so people are unaware that that is actually something that should be done every single time they, you know, choose to do a medical therapy or have a lab drawn or take a medication or anything.
• 27:36
  Unknown: It's it's super important. And the other thing that I think a lot of people don't know about, and it's very important is having your hormones balanced and choosing the right foods and having enough sleep do have an impact on if you retain weight or not, especially with women, thyroid imbalance, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone imbalance, cortisol imbalance, melatonin imbalance, all these things are vitally important, and whether you're you can lose weight or not. Also your gut is a huge part of whether you're healthy or not. And one of the things those that those injections do is they disrupt the normal gut flora, and that can also be a problem, and losing weight is if you don't have that, that gut flora balance. So those things are not often discussed in allopathic medicine, and you can, you more or less get a discussion when you branch out and you choose a functional medicine provider, or someone who is trained in functional medicine, because then the root cause of the issues are addressed, and then you start seeing a change in your body and in your your health parameters. And I can't stress enough how important addressing those underlying issues is for everyone.
• 29:01
  Turo Virta: So What? What? What are some underlying, underlying issues? Because I know there are so many people who feel that they are doing like all the things, right, but they still feel tired, inflamed or unwell.
• 29:13
  Turo Virta: What is from your experience?
• 29:20
  Turo Virta: What are the most common root causes that get missed?
• 29:24
  Unknown: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think the most basic thing, the most important thing in my in my suggestions for getting on the right path is getting enough sleep is so important, and not having the TV on or being on your phone because the blue light and like interrupts your sleep cycles, it's important to get out in the morning to get early sunlight, or get out in the evening before the sun sets, to get the appropriate rays of light to help set your melatonin and cortisol cycles. It's important to use red light therapy as an adjunct, which helps support the cellular processes and autophagy and also helps set your circadian rhythms, just like natural light. And I'm not saying substitute near infrared light for natural light. It's it's a good idea to use both.
• 30:13
  Unknown: It's important to have regular patterns in your daily life, so not staying up too late, not sleeping in too late. Unless there's different types of people, and they have different cycles through their activities.
• 30:25
  Unknown: There are some people that are late morning people, but it's really important to maintain a rhythm and choosing the right foods to put in your body. So limit your processed foods, limit your sugar intake, and that includes fruits. You don't want to overly eat fruits that have a lot of sugar. And I don't want to go into the glycemic index here, because that's also something was based on a very small study. But everyone responds differently to foods, and so it's really important to have a variety of foods in your diet, and getting enough fats, getting enough proteins, and also addressing this on an individual basis, because not everyone responds. Two foods in the same way, having your gut checked, so having a GI map, it's a it's a little bit of a pricey investment at first, but it's it gives you so much information about your body and how to correct those basic imbalances. You could have a parasite infection, you could have a yeast overgrowth. Those things are easily corrected, and it's not something you have to worry about long term, but it's just a simple thing that you can address. And hydration, it's so important to drink enough water and to I like to add salt into my water every day. It helps keep the salt in your your bloodstream longer, so it allows the flu is not to pool into the periphery. And so that's really important for staying hydrated throughout the day and be careful with hydration formulas that you use, a lot of them have hidden ingredients and processed ingredients, and I don't really think that it's a great idea to use fake sweeteners. I think there are some side effects with those as well. So getting in the habit of drinking purely water is a really good, healthy choice and movement. Find something that you love to do, whatever it is, it doesn't matter, and just starting small and taking baby steps. I was listening, actually, to your a couple of your podcasts yesterday, and you had mentioned something about having goals in January, and how even a small setback is not a fail. It's just, you know, kind of like a small step in the right direction. I also feel like it's important not to work with goals, but to set intentions so that you can manifest what you want. So goals are part of setting the intention, but the an outcome is the mindset and programming yourself to reach the outcome that you want. With having intention phrases that you practice every day, maybe before you go to bed at night and when you get up in the morning, and practicing gratitude and putting some priority into mindfulness and breath work would also be something that I would recommend for people, but it takes discipline.
• 33:03
  Turo Virta: So, yeah, yeah, it's, I totally agree. And this is it's, it's a funny thing like those. There is, like, all those things you mentioned, they are probably they are nothing new, like that. There is, like this one hidden past, but nobody tells it. It's a basic, basic things. It's movement, sleep, nutrition and getting those things right. And it's often like we have, we all know those things, and it's we probably have even intention to do those things, but then something happens and and we often, at least I find, always, we are very good at finding excuses.
• 33:41
  Turo Virta: Why not today? And like you said, it takes some discipline and and it's, it's, it's a way of practicing, like, how to actually get that consistency of doing those things, and discipline a little bit higher.
• 33:59
  Turo Virta: And it's, it's, there are so many I episodes, what I have talked about it, I talk with my my clients every single day like that. Just it all starts keeping your promises. What you make to yourself, it doesn't matter how big or small, but you have to learn to keep promises you make to yourself. If it's, if it's a workout, it's, it's just getting started. We are very good, like, at least I'm I'm trying to talk myself out of doing my strength training. What I naturally don't enjoy that much. But I know that it's I need to be doing it, because otherwise, if I start to skip it, it's I skip it for one week, then next week it's I missed already last week. So what is the point? I take it another week off and then starting over, as we know, it's so hard, so yeah, lot better, in my opinion, to keep that routine, keep that habit up, and keep promises. If you can't, if you are like, I'm also like, kind of all or nothing. Mindset.
• 35:08
  Turo Virta: Be person a little bit and, but I, I'm from my athletic background, I I learned what is still the one of the best, that I have to keep promises, what I make to myself,
• 35:20
  Unknown: yeah, even, even you and I fall into that pattern there, right? I guess that's the important thing. Like, maybe people look at you and I'm like, Oh, they're like, they're perfect, like they never do anything wrong. But I mean, like, what you were saying, like, it's January, it's cold, like I haven't been on the water practicing, and I don't know, three months, but like, it's not that. I don't I'm not beating myself up over it, though, because my body is telling me I need a break from paddling so I can come back with a force when season starts. What have I been doing? I've been hiking instead.
• 35:50
  Unknown: Have I been going to the gym as regularly as I normally do? No, I haven't felt like it like I just want to get outside and move. But it's important to realize, well, first of all, gratitude is really important.
• 36:00
  Unknown: Like you have to be thankful for what you have, because that sort of sets the tone for. For achieving what you want, if you realize what you have, and you can be grateful for it, and you set your intentions to manifest certain things that you want and but you start with a gratitude, it really brings you a step further. So I just, I think it's important that people realize that even being a coach doesn't mean you're a perfect person.
• 36:24
  Unknown: You know what I mean?
• 36:26
  Turo Virta: No, no, absolutely.
• 36:26
  Turo Virta: And I'm far from perfect, and it's, it's a great point, what you what you said, like kind of being grateful and gratitude, what you already have. Because we are, most of us, we are very good at telling if something, what is going wrong, what is missing. But if you look, if you learn to be, to practice like gratitude, it's, it's really looking around what is well and, and that is very, very important thing to do. And it's, it's this, it's, it's the same thing with the workouts or or even nutrition habits, because we we think that there is those eight things what you should be doing, you are doing let's say that you have eight things you what you should be doing. You are doing seven, but missing one. You are not happy about those seven good things, but you are you are not happy with yourself because you missed that one thing, what you should be doing instead of being actually happy doing of those seven things. And it's just a good example, like with the workouts, for example. Like, if you can't keep promises, what you make to yourself, I think then it's time to lower your own expectations and practice that you first to keep your promises, and then if it starts to feel easy, then it's time to add things that what you could be doing. But as a fitness coach, I It's a when I started 10 years ago, coaching people, and you can imagine people, when they contact me, they are highly motivated. They say that now I I, I start working with the coach. You know, I want to get all out of my money. I even pay money for that code. So let's work out five times a week, because I want to get results fast, and more I do faster those results are coming and better results I will get. But and in the beginning of my career, I was really, really happy people, oh, wow, this is now we have a really motivated one who want to work out five times a week. And in my beginning of my career, I was even programming five times a week workout. And then I realized that, oh, it took usually two weeks, if even two weeks, and then, you know, you were so sore. People were sore.
• 38:52
  Turo Virta: They I didn't hear any anything anymore from them. They were just quitting. And then I was thinking, Oh, in the beginning, I was thinking that, Oh, this is it. Was just motivation. Was not there you they were not doing what I asked them to do, and then I realized that, no, that's that's my mistake. I should never let someone who is starting after a long break or or without experience work about five times in a week. We start, yeah, two, maybe three times a week, but not more, because it's first that when you start to feel good, you are doing something. You keep promises, what you make yourself. And then if, after first month, even doing a bit less what you originally think, you are still thinking that, Oh, now I would actually do more, then you can start adding things, but not from the beginning, like aiming for what is the ideal amount of exercise or nutrition things, what you should be doing.
• 39:49
  Unknown: Yeah, for new for people who aren't used to, you know, having choosing a healthy lifestyle, I think it's overwhelming and beginning to sort of pick something, one thing to work on at first, but balance is so important in movement. And I see with a lot of the people that I race with, there's a lot of people who are out with injuries, and a lot of them do CrossFit, or they're just like, very like, all or nothing, like, I'm all or nothing, too honestly. But with my yoga background and with my I have a daily yoga practice, daily breath work, gratitude, all that. That kind of keeps me more realistic about my goals.
• 40:21
  Unknown: So, you know, like, probably I'm not. I mean, just for an example, someone who is all or nothing would be forcing themselves in my situation to get out in the water, even I don't feel like it. And you know, there's a reason why you need to take breaks and why you need to stretch, and why you need to have days where you're where you're maybe not where you might eat chocolate, or there might be a day when you're out at a party, drinking some alcohol. You it's really important to have that balance.
• 40:50
  Unknown: And for athletes, it's really important to take breaks, and stretching is so important, and hydration is so important. And especially for athletes who are mid middle age, it's really important to have your hormones check, because you are more prone to injury. When your hormones are out of balance. And for men who are doing testosterone injections, they are a higher risk of Achilles tendon rupture, which is interesting. I read a study about that. And a lot of middle aged people who are all or nothing, they do CrossFit, and a lot of CrossFit trainers don't practice stretching or force an off day. So it's really important that people, new and seasoned athletes, do realize how important balance is, and a true athlete and a true winner does know what balance is and why it's important. And it's also important when going into a competition, to not go in with the end goal of being on the podium. I think it's more important to go into an event with the purpose of having fun and being social, and if the end result is being on the podium, that's great, but if it's not, it's no reason to beat yourself up, and it's not a fail. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's it's especially because being healthy is not a sprint, is not a sprint. It's like an endurance race, like it's a commitment for long term, all the choices you make and all the food you put in your body, every time you choose a soft drink over water or an energy drink over water, it's that those little bitty things are what puts you in on down the road further to having a better quality of life. And that's what we want. We want to have a high quality life where we're not impeded by movements, where we're not crippled, where we're not obese, that we can't so we can't move, that we can't breathe because our lungs are shot like there's there's so many reasons why you want to maintain a healthy life, and it doesn't mean giving up things you love either it just means making 75% good choices out of 100 I would say
• 42:55
  Turo Virta: that's pretty good ratio, if you are able to do that, and in the end, you are some of your decisions like but there's one thing, what I wanted to touch still before we're going to wrap up, and it's about stress and nervous system in a modern life, like because stress and nervous system regulation come up a lot in your work. So IRT still so underestimated in health conversations.
• 43:26
  Unknown: I think because everything is dominated by digital like, like, AI is, you know, gaining speed, and people are constantly stimulated. Like, there's in America, we have TVs on all the time, like, and pharma commercials, all that stuff. That's a whole other conversation. But like, I noticed, even in living in Europe, you would go out to a to a bar restaurant, and there would be no TVs. You'd sit on a terrace, you would actually talk to people. There's a lack of human connection nowadays, and I think that the overstimulation, the lack of human connection and the the need to because of economics or whatever, people are forced to go, go, go all the time. So it is very important to unplug, and it's very important to prioritize things that would reduce your stress. And I don't mean everyone needs to sit down and do yoga or do breath work or whatever, go to a singing bowl session or whatever, but there are ways to de stress, and one of one example, a couple.
• 44:27
  Unknown: Actually, golfing is a great way to de stress, or hiking or, you know, just getting out and being away from digital for a little while, because it'll, it really will change your circadian rhythm, and it's important to to regulate the nervous system, because it allows you to handle the daily trials and tribulations with more success.
• 44:52
  Unknown: And it's just kind of like going to the gym too, like you just have to again with discipline, prioritize your time and plug in these unplugged moments. And they don't have to be forever.
• 45:05
  Unknown: It could be. I mean, you could do breath work for maybe five minutes out of your day, a 30 minute hike. I mean, my daily yoga routine is literally 10 minutes. It's not, not something involved where I have to, like, set aside two hours of my day to devote my time to it. It's literally my startup is 30 minutes of devoting to breath work, gratitude and yoga to keep my body flexible. Flexibility, by the way, is a priority for survival. If you're not flexible, you end up injuring yourself, and so mental flexibility is also practicing mindfulness, which goes back to stress reduction and vagus regulation. So that would be what I have to say on that topic.
• 45:57
  Turo Virta: Yeah, no, it's, it's interesting what you say, like, for me, like, I'm not a yoga person, but I do. I go for walks. Like, I try to or I'm going without my phone, with my wife actually walking, talking, or maybe we can little bit longer hike, but always outside.
• 46:14
  Turo Virta: And those are like, if I, if I skip those things, I start to feel like, right away that okay, my sleep suffers, my mental health suffers. So it's that whole cycle starting over. And it, it might, it sounds always that, but I don't have time. But I I know that if I don't take time to take care of my physical and mental health, then I won't be here with the 40 others. I won't be able to work with the same quality than I would be I, if I so, I might be instead of working working 12 hours, I might work seven, but I take care of my body, and then I I'm getting done within those seven hours, probably same than somebody else in 12 hours,
• 47:07
  Unknown: yeah, it's important to maintain yourself first that it's not being selfish, like you have to prioritize your own health so you can be there for your loved ones and for your kids and for your colleagues and for your projects. You know like it helps the creativity too. If you you have to unplug to maintain that for content creation and for just work in general, I agree, like and being outside is so therapeutic, just with fresh air and just being out in nature and seeing green.
• 47:39
  Unknown: Green's Heart Chakra. It's, you know, it's a foundation for love, like it's connecting with animals even. And, you know, I don't know, there's just something about being in the woods that's so therapeutic. And I am a beach girl, but like and being on the water too, my gosh, like being out there and seeing all the types of wildlife that you see when you're on a paddle board. It's amazing. Sharks, dolphins, turtles, Jelly rich, stingrays, everything. Where I live, I live in the most beautiful place ever, and I'm so grateful for the times that I do have when I have those moments on the water. And surfing is great too. Catching a wave and actually riding away for a moment, even doing that for 30 minutes, is the most therapeutic thing in the world.
• 48:23
  Turo Virta: But then about nervous system delay? Because I know there are so many people asking some often, like, it's a good question, like, how you would explain nervous system health to someone who thinks that health is only about food and exercise? Yeah, that's
• 48:38
  Unknown: a good question, because it's kind of an abstract thought, if you're not medical.
• 48:40
  Unknown: But basically, you know, our body is made up of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves, and they're all over the body, and you have when someone is stressed, then your brain is firing off lots of signals to your body, and it's not just movement signals, it's also emotions. And so when your body is not in balance, and your brain fires those off and doesn't like decompensate those firing off frequencies, so you're in this constant state of of over stimulation, which also triggers your your hormones and your neurotransmitters. And so when you can't decrease the level of those and get them back in balance with a negative like feedback loop to put everything back in balance, and everything's tied. All the systems are tied together, which I'll talk about next. But if you don't have the proper adjunctive therapies and mindset in place, and your brain and your nervous system fire off without a break, and so you're you're just it starts triggering disease. It triggers imbalance in the bodies. We actually make the most serotonin, which is a nerve, a transmitter, which causes you to be calm and happy.
• 50:00
  Unknown: We make the most in the gut. So all these nerve nervous system regulation, deregulation is actually tied in the gut. The gut controls everything so and it all goes back again to making the proper food choices, hydration, sleep and nutrition, because not taking in proper foods and taking in processed foods and sugars actually also causes that nervous system, that sort of overstimulation from the firings of the sugars in the body. So it's an interesting it's an interesting idea, and it's one that actually requires a like in depth discussion with people who are interested in becoming healthier, and that is why it's so important to make sure that you make time in your schedule to address that issue, because if you don't, you're just basically going to continue to your body will continue in those processes without stopping the. Cause of the problem?
• 51:10
  Unknown: Awesome.
• 51:10
  Turo Virta: There was so much information. So I want to end this with some practical takeaways. So if someone is listening and feeling overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start, what are like?
• 51:23
  Turo Virta: Because there were many things we touched. What would be your two to three foundational things you would focus on? First?
• 51:31
  Turo Virta: That's such a
• 51:33
  Unknown: hard question always, because I want to just say, focus on everything. But I think the most important thing to get in line first is your sleep.
• 51:39
  Unknown: Your sleep, wake cycle. Because I think once you do that, you start clearing up some emotional issues when you when you have good, rested sleep. And when I say sleep, I mean without all the electronics, like literally making yourself go to bed on time and there's you can do, um, breath work or sound therapy to help, you, know, stop you getting like, to stop the nervous system stimulation to prepare yourself for bread, for bread for bed. You want to start doing that within 30 minutes of going to sleep, and you want to not eat close to when you go to bed. So I would say that would be number one, and number two would be hydration, focusing on taking in water and hydrating elements that actually support the cells, so not choosing energy drinks and sodas, it's like the one of like the second most important thing to start the movement and everything else will come later. I feel like your body needs to be in a state of rest before you can even seriously address the other things, although movement does help with sleep as well. So that would be like, That would definitely be my third tip. And it doesn't have to be anything extreme. It can just be starting with walking, just walking, anyone can walk. Well, my I shouldn't say anyone can walk.
• 53:04
  Unknown: Some people can't walk, but starting with a basic movement, even if it's just, if you can't walk, maybe doing some arm exercises every day, you know, just to get something going even, wrist or finger movements or something like that, head rolls, even, and breath work would would factor into that as well. I think that's more than two tips, but I feel like they all tie in together. So it's really hard
• 53:31
  Turo Virta: to say, I know, I know, but it's, it's, that's, that's the task that it goes even they are, like we talked earlier, like, you know there, you know that there is so many things you should be doing, but it's better to start with the two, not more than three things, and then once these become habits, then it's time to add things, but not trying to get because then you are what you are. You are overwhelmed again and end up most of people end up doing nothing. So thank you so much. Christina, is there where people can find you. Feel free to share everything. How to connect with you. Where to find you in social media, anything you want.
• 54:15
  Unknown: Yeah, I can be found on most social media networks at get healthy or get dead, including sub stock on x. I believe I'm healthy or dead. At healthier dead and if you're interested in having a personalized coaching session, session, you can book a consultation, a free consultation, 15 minute consultation on Christina Morris, calm, awesome.
• 54:41
  Turo Virta: I will put all these Christina's links on the show notes, including her website and where you can find her the book and sub stack. So as always, if you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who needs to hear it and leave a review. Those five star reviews, they really help the podcast to reach more people. So thank you so much for listening and talk to you soon again, you.