How One Mom’s Decision is Redefining Her Family’s Health Legacy (The Powers Family Series) - 252
One decision can change your entire family’s future and legacy. In this special episode, we kick off a powerful series following Nicole, a single mom of three, who has committed to transforming her health and her family’s, one day at a time.
With a long history of health struggles, including diabetes and epilepsy, Nicole felt hopeless, but everything shifted when she decided to take control of her future. Nicole shares her initial struggles, including the emotional connection to food, and her decision to bring her children along on this journey to better health.
Nine days in, Nicole is already seeing positive changes, from stabilizing her blood sugar to realizing the power of proper nutrition. Let’s follow her family’s journey as they redefine health from the inside out.
Conclusion:
Transformation is possible when we take control of our health. Nicole’s story is proof that it’s never too late to make a change for you and your family. Join us in this series for more insights on sustainable health as we follow her journey to health and healing.
In This Episode:
00:00 Introduction
02:58 Nicole’s health struggles: diabetes, epilepsy, and more
05:20 Her decision to transform her family’s health
10:31 Early wins: stabilizing blood sugar & overcoming cravings
14:48 Teaching the kids to eat the right way
17:52 The struggle with reading labels and shifting mindset
22:02 Confidence after just 9 days: Nicole’s transformation so far
We’ve Made Nutrition Simple For Kids!
To learn more about how we are working to help kids around the world get healthy, follow our children's nutritional literacy page at https://www.instagram.com/pfcpals/#
Join the waiting list for Carrie’s upcoming book, From Corset to Crown!
Sign up here: https://www.carrielupoli.com/corsettocrown
Listen to This Episode on Your Favorite Podcast Channel:
Follow and listen on Apple
Follow and listen on Spotify
Subscribe and watch on YouTube
Connect with Nicole Powers:
Connect with Carrie Lupoli:
Other Related Episodes:
Looking for more tips to optimize your health? Listen to these episodes:
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Nicole Powers: I had, um, accepted, uh, death as a fate, uh, disease, as a fate. I had accepted it, so I was beyond, beyond hopeless at that point. Blood sugar, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, cholesterol, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and I also have epilepsy. So once I started the program, and I started to eat, according to the program, every three hours, oh, that went away.
[00:00:26] Nicole Powers: Immediately. My snacking went away. My sweet cravings went away. What if
[00:00:31] Carrie Lupoli: One mom's decision could change her entire family tree? Meet Nicole, a mom of three on a mission to rewrite her story and redefine health for her family. This isn't about another diet that she's doing. This is now a legacy. In this episode, we are gonna meet Nicole, who shares why getting healthy matters so deeply and what she's already discovering along the way, just a few [00:01:00] days in, because when one person decides to do the work, everything changes.
[00:01:05] Carrie Lupoli: Tune into today's episode, which is part of a series on the Diet Disruptors podcast, where we are going to follow Nicole and her family's journey to get healthy from the inside out.
[00:01:22] Carrie Lupoli: Well, hey, diet disruptors. We are here for an incredible series that I don't even know how it's gonna play out because this is literally a live, it's like gonna be reality TV show. Here at Diet Disruptors. We have Nicole, and Nicole is a mom of three who has made the decision that it is time. She literally drew her line in the sand and said.
[00:01:48] Carrie Lupoli: It is time for me to absolutely do something different because I need to get something different. So Nicole and her three kids have made the [00:02:00] decision to not just focus on learning how to be the healthiest versions of themselves, but they are going to document their entire journey alongside us. So from a family.
[00:02:14] Carrie Lupoli: Who didn't really have a good sense of necessarily nutrition or health. Uh, and we'll hear from Nicole about where she is currently in her state of health, why she decided to get healthy with her family. And we're gonna follow them on their journey to becoming the healthiest version of themselves. And so we are on episode one.
[00:02:38] Carrie Lupoli: I literally have no idea how this is gonna go. Nicole agreed to work with us, with my team and to document it. So Nicole, welcome to the show and welcome to Thank You Truly becoming the healthiest version of you, I hope.
[00:02:54] Nicole Powers: Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you so
[00:02:57] Carrie Lupoli: much. Well, all right. We need to actually [00:03:00] tell everybody a little bit about what brought you here.
[00:03:03] Carrie Lupoli: You came to me feeling pretty lost and, um, should I say like hopeless? I dunno if I wanna
[00:03:12] Nicole Powers: use hopeless, but you, I was very, I, I was, I was very hopeless. I was, I mean. Pass past that, like, uh, I had, um, accepted, uh, death is a fate, uh, disease as a fate. I had accepted it. So I was beyond, beyond hopeless at that point.
[00:03:31] Carrie Lupoli: Oh. But yeah, I thought that was gonna be a little bit of a dramatic word, but I guess it really wasn't, was it?
[00:03:36] Nicole Powers: No, it was, it's, it wasn't, it wasn't, I had been suffering from, um, a lot of illnesses for quite some time, unfortunately. So I just thought it was my cross to, to carry.
[00:03:48] Carrie Lupoli: And, and when we talk about illnesses, it's like we're talking about metabolic disease.
[00:03:54] Carrie Lupoli: Can you tell us a little bit about what you have been diagnosed with?
[00:03:58] Nicole Powers: Blood sugar, [00:04:00] type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, um, bad cholesterol, cholesterol, uh, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And I also have epilepsy. I have two types. I have catamenial, epi, uh, seizures, and I have, um. Nonconvulsive seizures.
[00:04:18] Nicole Powers: They are, uh, called Petite MA seizures. And
[00:04:22] Carrie Lupoli: you are raising by yourself. Three kids. Three children. Tell us a little, tell, tell us about your, your. Amazing,
[00:04:32] Nicole Powers: amazing kids. My oldest, he is Tommy. He's, uh, playing on the football team. He's a senior this year. Great mannerable, um, respectful young man. Um, he's awesome.
[00:04:42] Nicole Powers: He has a 3.1 GPA. He's good at school, does his work. Um, my daughter, she is, uh, in speech. She goes around and does a lot of speech competitions. She's in the beta. She's an ab honor roll student. Awesome girl. Um, and my youngest, my baby [00:05:00] boy, Trenton, you know, he's just my baby. He's in second grade now. And, um.
[00:05:06] Nicole Powers: That's what I could say about him. He does what second graders do. Yeah. So you know, you have,
[00:05:12] Carrie Lupoli: so you have so much to live for seven, 12, and 18. Am I right? Yes. The ages of the kids. Yes. Yes. Okay. And so the fact that you came to us and said, I have literally. Ascribe to the fact that I am on a path to death, and that was, you have these three legacies that you were worried about.
[00:05:38] Carrie Lupoli: And so you said, I know I need to do this. I know I need to figure this out. I have to prioritize my health. And you also knew that. If you didn't bring your kids along on this journey to learn alongside you, that they would have learned from you. As in what caused a lot of [00:06:00] the illness. So tell us a little bit about your decision to not just include yourself on this journey, but all three of your kids.
[00:06:08] Carrie Lupoli: Because we haven't had a lot of people that have said we're doing this together as a family.
[00:06:12] Nicole Powers: Right, right. I think too, um, with any diet, that is something that kind of hindered me, uh, starting with my kids, 'cause I was like, Hey, you know, I can't afford it. And, you know, and I think that was something that really kind of kept me back.
[00:06:26] Nicole Powers: But, uh, when I found your program and talked to some of the coaches, I learned that. I didn't have proper knowledge of nutrition, how to eat. It wasn't, I was never taught, you know, my plate consisted of carbs. I didn't know anything about the macronutrients and how to pair my foods. So I didn't wanna pass that down to my children.
[00:06:45] Nicole Powers: I am noticing already, um, a lot of them are eating badly. You know, my son, he'll come home from football, and he's eating the first thing he could see. My daughter, she, she eats, but I'm noticing now she's getting a little more [00:07:00] self-conscious. She wants to participate in cheerleading, and she's the bigger one.
[00:07:04] Nicole Powers: So, and I, I don't know how to address that and help her as a mom with that, because I'm battling some of the same issues myself that I, I don't, I don't, I wasn't taught how to come out of it, so how can I help her? You know? So when I came across this program, I, it, it was a godsend, it, it, it came to me and again, um, I just thought, Hey, why not?
[00:07:26] Nicole Powers: What do I have to lose, you know? I have everything to gain from
[00:07:30] Carrie Lupoli: what is something that really stood out to you about the message that I teach around nutrition, because there's so many people out there, but something that I said actually made you really stop and listen. Do you remember what it was?
[00:07:47] Nicole Powers: I do, I do remember what it was.
[00:07:50] Nicole Powers: Um, but I don't know the word. I thought when I first heard you, I said, oh, she really knows what she's talking about. You were talking about your certifications. Um, I [00:08:00] remember you telling me that you, you held a certificate that no one in the world holds. And I remember, um, what really made me take pauses when you started talking about the brain and you said, Hey, you can Google it and I wanna say, you said it.
[00:08:13] Nicole Powers: Googler or something like that. You said there's a part in the brain and you can Google it. And that's what really made me take pause. And I said, okay, you let me know that it, he wasn't just a teacher, but it was behavior, it was mindset, and there's a reason why you're doing this. So I thought to myself, well, maybe it's not my fault.
[00:08:32] Nicole Powers: You know, maybe she, she's somebody different. I, I've never quite heard it this way. And so that's what made me really. Focus in and listen. Yeah,
[00:08:42] Carrie Lupoli: I, I love it. And so hearing your story, knowing how much you want to be able to be there for your kids, but also not just for when you're with your kids, but to literally change your family tree so your kids aren't raising kids in the same.
[00:08:57] Carrie Lupoli: Kind of mindset and lack of knowledge that [00:09:00] you are so, exactly. We are in our very first episode. I have not even gotten an update from you. You are working with one of my coaches. You are also in a small group with a few other women that are learning this. You have been introducing this to your kids. I can't wait to hear what happens.
[00:09:19] Carrie Lupoli: You, you're, I think like nine days into this new lifestyle. Am I right? Yes. Now,
[00:09:23] Nicole Powers: yes. Yes, yes. Okay. So,
[00:09:25] Carrie Lupoli: so my question for you first is, how did you tell your kids? Did you tell them like, Hey, we're all going on a diet?
[00:09:32] Nicole Powers: Um, you didn't say that? No, I told them that, um, I came across a program, a wonderful opportunity and I wanted to bring them into it, and I wanted them to learn how to eat.
[00:09:44] Nicole Powers: I explained to them that, look, mom is dealing with a lot of things and they know, you know, because a lot of times I'm not wearing when they'll have to come to me. And I told 'em, I said, you know, by you guys joining me this, you're gonna save my life too. And so I asked them if this is something they wanted to do and [00:10:00] they agreed and they say, yeah, let's do it.
[00:10:02] Nicole Powers: My son initially couldn't. My son initially, he couldn't believe it. He, he feels like, mom, you're getting scammed. You know? I'm like, no, I'm not. I said, they're real. So Is that the 18, the 18-year-old said that? Yeah. He's the 18-year-old. Yeah. He, I said, he said, mom, you're, I said, no, they're real. And so he said, okay, well let's do it.
[00:10:26] Nicole Powers: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Carrie Lupoli: Oh, well, Tommy, I'm glad you're doing it and I'm glad you're trusting us. Yeah. Okay. So you came in not really knowing very much. I remember a message that you sent to me and you were like, okay, before you had gotten started, you sent me a video message and you were like, I am hungry at night, but I'm gonna just push myself not to eat.
[00:10:46] Carrie Lupoli: And I was like, girl, wait till you start learning because I want you to eat. So can you just share a little bit of the new knowledge that you've been kind of, I mean, it's only been nine days, but what are the [00:11:00] ahas that you've had over these nine days? Because just a few days ago, or just what, 12 days ago, you were like, I gotta push through hunger, right?
[00:11:09] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. So I think that there's some new wording going on, so let's teach people some of the things that you're learning about just nine days in.
[00:11:17] Nicole Powers: Let me say, first off, when I first started the program, that went away almost immediately. I was surprised because I thought, Hey, I'm hungry. I need to eat. I used to wait all day until I ate, but once I got on the program, because initially when I talked to you and sent the video, I hadn't started.
[00:11:35] Nicole Powers: So once I started the program and I started to eat, according to the program, every three hours, oh, that went away. Immediately. My snacking went away. My sweet cravings went away, and I was like, wow. And actually, my, my problem became making the time to get the meals in because it, there wasn't a need to snack.
[00:11:56] Nicole Powers: By the time it was, I wanted a snack. Well, it was time for a [00:12:00] PFC three, you know? So I was like, okay, well this can work. So, yeah, that, that went away and I'm learning. Um, it's not the food, it is the mindset. I started learning, well, why am I parent it? Why am I doing this? And my emotional connection to food, it just started to bring out something different in me because I said, well.
[00:12:22] Nicole Powers: I'm eating my food this way because this is how, how I was raised eating it. And that's not necessarily, so it's a lot of emotion that came out, um, when I began to learn how to pair food and everything like that. And also, again, we're only on day nine, but I, I really was serious about the jumpstart week, you know, 'cause I wanted to keep the, found, the foundational plates, the spinning plates in my mind.
[00:12:46] Nicole Powers: So. The first week everything started moving. I mean, I could tell the difference right away in my body. So when I say every start, everything started moving. I started clearing out, I started going to the bathroom more often and I was like, what is [00:13:00] this? And um, because I'm on Ozzy, that's something that, you know, constipates you, it'll make you not go, make you slow, but.
[00:13:08] Nicole Powers: Since I've been doing this, it's been moving on the inside, so I definitely feel changed.
[00:13:12] Carrie Lupoli: Be careful because we're working to get you off that.
[00:13:15] Nicole Powers: Yeah, well, I haven't been taking it. I haven't been taking it because I have the six spinning plates in my mind and I'm thinking, you know, one of the things you said in the beginning is blood stabilization.
[00:13:27] Nicole Powers: So with this, my sugars have been good. And I'm surprised about that too. I'm like, okay, and this is okay.
[00:13:35] Carrie Lupoli: This is, this is amazing because nine days in you are type two diabetic and you've been put on Ozempic, and I've been saying this all day long. I think that there are two big things that, I'm gonna say, three things that happen when people are ozempic, if they don't feel like complete and total garbage.
[00:13:51] Carrie Lupoli: One is that their blood sugar becomes regulated. Two is that they are not hungry all the time. And three is [00:14:00] that the food noise seems to go away, like the constant desire to eat. Right? Right, right. So if those things happen with ozempic, that's when people think, okay, it's working. But what I keep saying is, when you actually fuel your body with PF C3 and you're giving your body what it needs, you're, you're speaking its love language, but yet eating carbs, eating all day.
[00:14:22] Carrie Lupoli: Balancing it and using your macronutrients to work for you, not against you. Right. Those same things happen. Yeah. The food noise goes away. Yeah. You're, you're not hungry all the time. You don't have the cravings and your blood sugar's balanced. Yeah. Yeah. That and that
[00:14:37] Nicole Powers: happened.
[00:14:37] Carrie Lupoli: That happened. So I'm like, okay, food.
[00:14:40] Nicole Powers: Yeah. With literal, yeah.
[00:14:43] Carrie Lupoli: Eating right. So. With actually eating. So to tell me how the kids are doing, like now, I always say like, especially for someone like you, let, let's be honest, you're sick and we gotta get you, well yes. So we gotta get you to a place [00:15:00] of really, like, I want you to take it as seriously as you can.
[00:15:03] Carrie Lupoli: Right. And, but for kids, we don't. Necessarily, we know they're in school. We know we don't want them to be like quite like legalistic, but we want them to be learning at at the level they're ready for. Your 7-year-old might be at a different level of learning than your 12-year-old and your 18-year-old.
[00:15:22] Carrie Lupoli: Right? Right. So tell us a little bit about the kids, what they're doing, what they're learning, what they're saying to you.
[00:15:29] Nicole Powers: Well, they are, um, they're all on board. My son, you know, he'll call me or he'll text and he'll say, well, this is what we're having for lunch today. And I'll say, well, this is part of the PFC.
[00:15:39] Nicole Powers: You can turn around and make that your PFC. Take the gravy off the meat. You have the vegetable. And eat the fruit, you know? So, and he's like, oh, okay. So he gets up in the morning, he makes a protein shake for him, his sister, and even my 7-year-old, I'm like, okay, wait a minute.
[00:15:58] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. I mean, I have my 4-year-old [00:16:00] loves her
[00:16:00] Nicole Powers: smoothies.
[00:16:01] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. And so
[00:16:03] Nicole Powers: I, it's great. Yeah. So he gets up, he does that for them. Now, my daughter, um, she has a tendency still not to eat. She doesn't wanna eat at school. Um. She's just like, no, mom, I don't wanna eat. Do you think that, do you think that's emotional? I'm not sure quite yet. Um, yeah, I'm not sure. She's at that preview lesson age now.
[00:16:27] Nicole Powers: You know, she's gonna be 13 and, um, she's, yeah. So. I wanna kind of help her in that area. Well, I'm
[00:16:34] Carrie Lupoli: carry you to help, like ask some questions, right? Go in with curiosity. And I have a lot of moms that will say to me like, how do I deal with my daughters at this age, at 12, 13, 14 years old, that are very conscious about their bodies?
[00:16:45] Carrie Lupoli: They're self-conscious about food. And I say there's two pieces around this. One is education. Helping them understand how their body works and what food actually is. And the second is being curious and asking. You don't need to have all the answers, but it's like, tell [00:17:00] me why you decide. You don't want to eat right?
[00:17:03] Carrie Lupoli: Or tell me how are you feeling right now? And then there is a third piece of the puzzle that I think was a big part of my. Ability to reach my daughters was I told them what I was struggling with and where I felt vulnerable, what I felt like was a connection, and when I told them my story about my feelings around my body, like it just opened up the communication.
[00:17:27] Carrie Lupoli: I think especially at 12, 13 years old, you are their model. You're their model more than you're their teacher. You're 7-year-old, you're teaching. Your 18-year-old, you're more of a mentor. Yes. And your 12, 13-year-old girl, you're gonna be a little bit more of a model because they're still, they're trying to figure out themselves and land in who they are.
[00:17:49] Carrie Lupoli: So I think that those are gonna be some, some important pieces. So what has been a struggle so far?
[00:17:57] Nicole Powers: You know what, Carrie? I haven't. If I [00:18:00] had to pick a struggle, I would say for me it's gonna be reading the labels, but so far so good. This is the, the program is almost unbelievable. I mean, it's almost too good to be true.
[00:18:14] Nicole Powers: It's not. Bad. It's not hard. I'm not used to reading labels. I had talked to my coach and I said, oh, I'm gonna have to do math every time I go into the kitchen. And you know, I'm just not used to that. And she said, well, I'll teach you, you know, I'll show you how to do it. Take a picture of the label, we can go through this together.
[00:18:32] Nicole Powers: So the support is there. So there's really not, yeah, I can't say there's a struggle. Not yet.
[00:18:38] Carrie Lupoli: And I think one of the pieces is around the fact that all of like, because you're bouncing your blood sugar, there's no like bigger meals or smaller meals, all of your meals are about the same, even. Yeah. So once you get it, you're gonna get it and you're gonna start to feel that level of like, I'm ready to eat and then satisfied, ready to eat.
[00:18:57] Carrie Lupoli: Satisfied. Never too hungry, never [00:19:00] too full, just ready to eat in about three hours, so, right. I, I also wanna ask you a little bit about, you said mindset stuff, right? Yeah. And as you're going through your lessons and as you go, you go through this approach, you're tapping into your beliefs about yourself.
[00:19:18] Carrie Lupoli: Your behaviors, right? So what is something that's kind of coming to the surface? You don't have to have it figured out yet, but what is something that's coming to the surface around where your, where might be the, the, the, the struggles in. Your mindset and your behaviors, because this right now is new.
[00:19:38] Carrie Lupoli: You're like in a honeymoon period right now. It's exciting, it's new and I wanna get in front of the fact that this is gonna be new soon. Yeah. Right. And that's often where our mindsets, that's where often where the behaviors and the beliefs and, and the self-sabotage can come in. Right. So what is, is anything coming to the surface right now about your mindsets or beliefs?
[00:19:58] Nicole Powers: Well, in the [00:20:00] beginning, initially, like I said, from, I would say from about day one to three, um, I, I saw my mindset completely shift. Just in your coaching and listening to you, I decided to, I started seeing myself differently instead of seeing me as me. It was more like, okay, let me see my body as something outside of maybe my mind, just like I spend time with my children.
[00:20:25] Nicole Powers: Let me take time and spend time with me, Nicole's body. And so that's where I think the beginning of my change began. 'cause it's so, it was, I'm a natural nurturer and I put everybody in front of me and I know i's so easy for us to do that. But now I could say, okay, well, did I drink my water today? Did I, did Nicole, did I go on a walk today?
[00:20:44] Nicole Powers: Let me do that for my body. So it's like I'm learning how to love myself properly instead of guessing, you know, not having the knowledge making salad and pouring salad, dressing on in, and eating in it, and really not knowing what I'm doing. Now I'm learning, okay, let me take the [00:21:00] time and give my body what it needs because it loves me.
[00:21:02] Nicole Powers: And you said that in one of your coaching. Hey, it loves me, and here I am. I'm just being neglectful, you know this. Ah. Walking in front of cars and it, you didn't know something and you know, you didn't know. Coach. I'm learning in the coaching that I'm learning that that's stress. That's a lot of, you know, the, the back and forth, the up and down is really, really hard on my body and I didn't know that either.
[00:21:24] Nicole Powers: So Yes. You know, almost from day, I would even say from day two to three, I mean, that was revealed. It's just. So it's so much information. I mean, immediately, immediately, I, I began to see a difference in how I thought about myself even on, um, in learning about the in uh, inflammatory food list. When I went through that, I said my whole diet.
[00:21:49] Nicole Powers: I was inflammatory.
[00:21:52] Carrie Lupoli: I didn't know that. No wonder you're where you Right. No wonder you are where you are right now. Exactly. And like already in just a [00:22:00] few days, you're already seeing a difference. I would say when you know what you can do, but so often we know and we still don't do, which is why we need to go through this entire journey of self-discovery.
[00:22:10] Carrie Lupoli: But you proved my point where I say all the time, confidence does not come because you've met a goal. You have not met your goals yet. Right. You still have a long way to go, but you, Nicole, from the first time I met you to right now, are confident. I can see it in you. Yeah, I am. You know what you're doing is right.
[00:22:30] Carrie Lupoli: Right. And that is what confident is. You do not have to weigh a certain amount in order to be confident. You get to be confident now because you know what you're doing is right and that is what I want. Everybody to feel, and I am so excited that you are going down this journey and I am so humbled and ex like just ecstatic that you are gonna share this journey with everyone because they can see little bits and pieces of what.
[00:22:58] Carrie Lupoli: What's possible for them and their [00:23:00] family. So Nicole, next time we talk, we are gonna get another update from you. You're gonna be another week in. We're gonna get a sense of like, there's gonna be moments where you're just like, I'm on the struggle bus because none, this is not going to be solely, any journey is not just up, up, up, up, up.
[00:23:20] Carrie Lupoli: Any journey is ups and downs and twists and. Turns and life is gonna throw some curve balls at you. And we wanna be there to hear how you manage them and how not if you fall down, but how consistently you get back up, right? So I am. So honored and excited that you are here with us and you'll be back.
[00:23:43] Carrie Lupoli: You'll be back with us for episode two to, to, to fill us in. Am I right? Oh, yes, most definitely. So good. And we can't wait to hear how the kids are doing. Keep us posted on all of that, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Nicole. Thank [00:24:00] you.
