Overcome Challenge And Take Control Of Your Life: Molly P.

Hi Lovelies,

This week on Dear Love the Universe,

I interviewed Molly Thomas from Clean Food Dirty Girl about her incredible journey from being an ex-smoker and ex-drinker to now owning her own 7-figure business helping people eat whole food plant-based diets.

A few of the things we discuss are overcoming challenges,

Moving past the discomfort,

And believing in yourself.

She describes what she does as helping people eat more plants while celebrating human imperfection.

Molly has been featured on Forks Over Knives,

HuffPost,

One Green Planet,

And many more.

After listening to her speak,

It's really easy to see why.

She knows what she's talking about.

I believe that after listening to this episode,

You will feel inspired and empowered to grow into the best version of yourself.

Hi Molly,

Thank you so much for being here today.

You are so welcome.

Thank you for having me.

I'm really excited to talk with you today.

Thank you.

Yeah,

I think that we're going to have a really awesome conversation for the listeners.

So let's just jump right into it.

Your biggest catch line is helping people eat more plants while celebrating human imperfection.

Can you tell me more about that?

Yes.

Oh,

Where do we even start with all of it?

So my whole jam is helping people eat more plants because it's been really amazing in my life and I've seen how it can help in people's lives,

Eating more plants and less of everything else.

But there's this other bit to that,

Where it's like,

Yes,

It's really important to fuel the body and we get really amazing benefits from fueling the body with amazing plant-based food.

And also at the same time,

We're just these really weird humans on this planet.

Then we don't know,

We don't have an instruction manual and all of us are just doing the best we can and we're all super weird and we all stink sometimes and we all get embarrassed and we all kind of fuck up and we all have moments of grace and then we have moments of stumbling and there's just so much to celebrate about being human.

And I think that so often the emphasis is on the shiny good parts that are easy for people to look at and people feeling good telling about,

But there's this whole other side of us that's just fucking weird and awkward and not sure and all just wanting to be loved and to be seen and to go through this life with this understanding that we're all going to die and everybody around us is going to die.

Life is heavy and eating plant-based is amazing,

But it's not a cure-all for everything that goes wrong or that could go wrong.

People who are plant-based,

We still get sick,

We're still going to die.

We might have a kick-ass immune system,

But that's just a little piece of it.

So I wanted to bring in and just put some light and some love on all of this human imperfection,

Which is actually perfect.

Yes,

I love that.

Wow.

I really love that that's part of your philosophy,

Human imperfection.

You're so right.

I love to say that we're perfectly imperfect.

Yeah,

Totally.

And some of my most imperfect moments have been the greatest teachers for me and I look back and I really celebrate those times.

And it's like,

We just don't arrive to this.

Everybody who is successful or who has some amount of emotional stability and is being able to get up and deal with life,

It's hard.

And I think the more struggles you go through,

That's what teaches us,

That's what shows us.

And some of the most amazing people I've ever met who are doing amazing work in the world have gone through some of the biggest,

Hardest struggles.

So it's not something that I think should be glossed over and just focus on the amazing parts now.

It's like,

But what got you there?

You know?

Exactly.

How many nights of crying and being so uncertain and not sure about anything?

What did you have to endure to get there?

And that's the part of success that I don't think is talked about enough is the kind of ugly parts of it that make you question everything.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's the hardest moments of our lives that teach us who we are.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like that tension.

You need that tension.

It's like when everything is easy and wonderful,

Okay,

It's great,

But it's easy and wonderful.

We're not learning much.

We can appreciate it,

But we really learn when that tension comes in.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You're so right.

I love that.

I always say that challenges are opportunities to learn.

And yeah,

I believe that every experience that we go through is a learning experience.

Yeah.

I love that.

I was just listening to Pema Chodron.

I love her and I read a lot of her books and I was listening to a talk that she was giving and she was explaining,

And I think this was,

I don't know if this was in the Tibetan book of the dead or where this originated from,

But she basically talked about it.

Like you have the first circle,

Which is like your comfort zone.

And then around the comfort zone,

You have your challenge zone,

Which is also the learning zone.

And then outside of that,

You have your sort of like panic zone where it's like you're not quite ready to be in that challenge learning zone.

And you kind of have to go back to that comfort zone.

And I feel like that's a really beautiful analogy for life because there's been times that I've had an issue or a problem and I can feel myself being pushed into that challenge learning zone.

And then there's been times when it's like,

Okay,

It's just like too much.

Like I can't,

Like this is like emergency.

I have to dip out of it for a second.

And like,

And that's okay too.

So I think that it allows like that analogy kind of allow a space for like all of it.

Yeah.

I love that.

I love how you mentioned kind of like going at your own pace and going up what feels right to you.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Totally.

And I mean,

That's one thing that we,

That I talk a lot about in our business of like eating more plants,

Like everybody is on their own journey and like we all start somewhere and regardless of where you're at,

Like that's the perfect place for you and you shouldn't be doing any other thing than like what you're doing right now.

Cause that's where you're at.

And that's the truth.

It's like,

What is,

And so that whatever place you're at in your life,

Regardless of like your health or your diet or your career,

Your friendships or your relationship,

Like that's,

I really encourage people just to stop and like wherever you are,

That's perfect for you right now.

Like just enjoy that moment right now.

And cause the truth is like,

We always think that the grass is greener over there.

We always think,

Well,

When I reached that,

Then it's going to be better.

Like when I reached this milestone or this goal or when I'm married or when I'm,

When my business is making this amount of money or when I weighed this amount or when I moved to this place,

Then it's going to be okay.

But what happens is like,

You reach that and then you're like,

Oh,

But I'm,

I'm still feeling like there's something missing.

And it's that like present moment awareness that we often are missing when we're thinking something else is going to be better.

Oh my gosh.

So spot on.

Yeah.

So we like to chase things that are external,

But it's really internal.

The piece is totally internal.

It's amazing.

Right.

And it's the best news.

It's the best news because if it's internal,

Then we have so much more power than we think we do.

Like we have this power that we like,

We get to be happy like,

And it doesn't,

I don't have to like,

If my wife is in a really shitty mood,

Which she just was yesterday,

Like I can still be happy.

And that's like the best news that I don't have to go down the rabbit hole of dread with her.

Like I can,

I can be happy because it's coming from in here.

I'm not,

I'm not dependent on what she's thinking or feeling or for that matter,

What she's eating.

Like I eat a whole food plant-based diet and I love it.

She is an omnivore and eats a little bit of everything.

And that's perfect.

Like my happiness and what I'm choosing to do,

Isn't dependent on what anybody else has to do.

And I think that's so important to remind people.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That's really awesome.

I'm a pescatarian and I often go on dates and then they're eating whatever they want to eat.

And I'm just like,

You know what?

That's,

That's you.

I'm not going to put my views on anybody unless they want to learn,

You know,

But along the same lines of what you were just saying,

It's so true that exactly where you are is exactly where you meant to be.

Like,

Or else it would be something different.

It's like the most basic simple thing when you really peel it back,

Like look at it.

And I think,

I think the human brain just likes to overcomplicate shit.

It's like,

It can't be that easy.

There has to be more to it.

Cause we're always like,

We have that,

That primitive brain.

That's always like watching out for us and needing to protect us.

And that's why I think like,

We just overcomplicate shit all the time.

But if we can really get that concept of like,

Just like be in this moment and enjoy this moment and know that this moment is perfect and exactly where you're supposed to be,

Or else it would be something different.

Like that's really it.

Isn't it entirely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like those same lines.

I really feel like our physical bodies and everything that we were born into was also perfect for our learning experiences as well.

Totally.

I think so too.

And I think the parents that we were born to like,

Whatever we have externally facilitates,

Like our growth as a human and facilitates like exactly what we need to kind of like become a sort of I don't know if enlightened is the best word,

But you know,

Become the version of ourselves.

Like that's the most true for us.

Absolutely.

And maybe that is enlightenment.

I don't know.

Yeah.

There's a lot of different words we could use to describe that.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good way to put it.

I,

I saw that you had mentioned embracing life when it's hard instead of running from the pain.

Tell me more about what that means to you.

Yeah.

So I really learned this,

Like I did a lot of this when I quit drinking.

I abused alcohol for many,

Many years and I was like a chain smoker and heavy,

Heavy drinker for decades.

And when I,

Like,

I knew that I,

I knew that I had,

I knew that if I didn't quit,

That my life,

That the trajectory of my life was going in a way that I knew,

Like I didn't want.

And I knew that I was capable of so much more,

But in order to have that be present in my life,

Like I had to be present for my life.

And so I,

I had a choice,

Right?

I could keep drinking and keep going down this path and have a life that I wasn't too thrilled about and not like myself so much,

Or I could quit drinking and like open myself up to the possibilities of what I am capable of and what I can create for myself and how I can help other people.

And so I did quit.

I tried to quit a few times and it was really difficult.

And so when I finally quit a lot for like the final time,

I've been sober now for going on six years.

And I was thinking about like all of the stuff there is out there,

Like,

You know,

There's AA and that's kind of like a path that people take.

And there's like other kind of more spiritual things.

And I was like,

You know,

For me,

None of that really resonated with me.

And I got to the point where I was like,

Well,

I just really need to get uncomfortable.

I just really need to become comfortable with being comfortable.

That's what I needed to do.

Like I needed to face the cravings.

I need to face my feelings.

I needed to face like where my life was at.

I needed to really stand in the truth.

I needed to,

To feel responsible for where my life was.

And all of this was like,

Not good feelings.

It would have been so much easier to A,

Keep drinking or B,

Turn to something else to like buffer away from those feelings and like swap addictions.

Right.

And I didn't want to do that.

I just wanted to get really honest and I wanted to become,

I wanted to find some comfort in my discomfort.

And in order to do that,

I had to face my pain and I had to sit with my pain and I had to feel all of those feelings that I ran from for so long.

I didn't realize that I was running from them when I was like drinking.

I didn't realize,

I thought that I'm not running from anything.

I just like to drink,

You know?

But only when I stopped,

Could I see,

Oh yeah,

Like I wasn't feeling my feelings.

How could I,

I was drinking them.

And so I did this thing.

I wrote a blog post about this or an email about it,

But I,

At the time I was living in this tiny little house in Tucson,

Arizona,

And I didn't have like hardly any money and I was working on my business and I would go out for a walk in the morning and there was like a dumpster by my house and there was this big,

Beautiful chair and it was really nice.

It was like a futon chair.

It would hold like two people.

It was like gorgeous.

And somebody was throwing it out and I was like,

I want that chair.

Like I couldn't afford even like a couch in my house.

And so I brought it inside and I like washed it off and I dried it and I brought it inside and I called it like my embrace the suck chair.

And every time I wanted to drink or had a craving to drink or was starting to get like anxiety,

Like I would sit in that chair and I would just like open.

I would just open,

Open.

And like every,

Like I could feel myself trying to close and close and close and I would just keep myself open and I would just sit there in that chair and just feel it with no distractions,

No TV,

No music,

No phone,

No podcasts,

Nothing,

And just get really familiar with my discomfort.

And that changed my life.

That changed my life.

And so I am a big,

To this day I do that,

You know,

Cause it doesn't like,

I thought when I quit drinking,

Like all of a sudden my life would be so much better and so much easier.

And I was in certain ways,

Like I'm still human.

There's still shit that comes up,

But that really embracing that pain instead of running from it was a game changer for me.

Yeah.

Wow.

I really love that.

It really resonated with so much that you said and that example about your chair and just really sitting in it.

That's so,

That's so awesome.

That's definitely.

It was like a physical thing,

A physical place I could go.

And that to me was like,

I kind of needed that like grounding,

I guess,

As like a reminder,

Like it was a visual thing.

I could actually physically sit in it.

I could feel it around me.

So it was almost like this container for me to just like marinate and like,

Ah,

My feelings that were like,

You know,

Not comfortable.

And then after I was done,

Like I saw that those were temporary and then it doesn't last like if there's impermanence and it changes.

And then,

You know,

As long as I can get through that without shutting down,

Then the,

The kind of relief comes.

But the tricky part is like,

It,

It doesn't work as well if you're doing it for the relief.

It's like,

I got to feel bad so I can feel better.

How about just feeling bad?

Cause we're best part of being human.

Right?

Yeah,

Totally,

Totally,

Totally feeling your emotions is so important.

I in our modern day society,

We're constantly going so fast and we have so many,

So many different distractions.

Yeah.

It's so important to just sit down and actually take the time to feel them.

Yeah.

Well,

We have emotions.

Yeah.

We have them.

They're built in like,

It's not for,

For nothing,

You know?

I mean,

We have this,

We have such a wide spectrum of emotions and feelings and what a beautiful gift to have that,

You know,

And what a beautiful gift to have the ones that are hard because like you were saying in the beginning,

Like it does create kind of that tension and there's where that learning lies.

And so,

Um,

I think that you're right though,

There's a lot of distractions and people aren't used to just sitting down and just doing nothing.

And even for myself,

Like there's times I'm like,

Okay,

I just want to sit here and just be really quiet and just observe what's around me.

And when I first started doing that,

It felt really awkward and I felt really antsy,

You know,

But when you practice it,

It starts to feel like,

Oh,

This is what it's about.

I'm just curious how along your journey,

How has the inner dialogue,

Um,

Might've been transformed?

Um,

Yeah,

Gosh,

There's so much inner dialogue all the time.

Right.

Um,

I think that at this point in my life,

I am more deliberate with the inner dialogue and I don't,

I know better than to believe everything that I'm telling myself.

And so I think that what's happened is like,

I question my inner dialogue more.

Like I hear stuff coming up.

I'm more aware of it.

And so,

Because I have awareness of it,

I can kind of be the watcher.

And when things come up that,

That are like,

Well,

Is that true?

Like first of all,

Is that true?

If that's not true,

Then I want to explore like why that's coming up and possibly change my mind about that.

Like,

Is that an old story?

Like that needs some,

Like a little bit of a makeover or is there.

So I think that,

So I think that there's like,

There's always been inner dialogue,

But now I just have more of awareness of it and I can question it and be more deliberate with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so important to question our own thoughts and ideas.

Yeah.

Cause things can just go in patterns.

Yeah.

Our brain will offer us many unhelpful thoughts and ideas and beliefs that really are not serving us.

And if we can't,

If we can see this as like sort of,

Okay,

Well this is optional and like,

What's the upside of this.

And then what's the downside of this.

We can see how those thoughts are kind of like affecting our life and creating these results in our life.

Whereas if you're just on autopilot,

We oftentimes think that like what's happening in our life is a result of like our outside circumstances,

But when we can step back and really notice and be aware of our thoughts,

We can have a better understanding that like,

We're,

We're much more in charge than we think we are oftentimes.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yes.

A lot of people actually have a belief that they're victim to their life and their circumstances,

But we do have so much more control than we realize and potential as you were mentioning earlier.

Yeah,

Totally.

And there's some things look like there's some things that we don't have control over.

And then at that point,

We do have control over how we think about those things though.

You know,

It's like,

You can think of it like,

Um,

Like a diagnosis or something,

Or like,

If,

If your spouse left you,

If,

Or if you had like a breakup and somebody left,

Like we can't control other people,

Like we just can't,

But we can definitely reduce our suffering by how we're thinking about that.

Right.

Like we can't,

You know,

It's always going to be this whole wide range of emotions,

But a lot of times people are like,

You know,

It's where that pain turns to optional suffering.

Right.

That gets us in trouble.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love how you said optional because although it can be really tricky to kind of get out of that mental space of suffering,

It is kind of like,

You do kind of keep yourself there and you do have a choice to rise above that.

Yeah.

I mean,

I think that like the pain there's the pain of life is always going to be there.

But if you think of like an example,

Like,

Okay.

Um,

Anything right.

Like anything that's painful or hard in your life.

Like if you are looking at that,

Like,

Okay,

This is the reality and it's happening versus this shouldn't be happening,

Man,

That like this shouldn't be happening is going to cause suffering.

And then if,

And if that's the way that you're thinking about it,

Then yeah,

That suffering is absolutely optional.

The pain might not be,

You know,

But then there's this layer that is like that residual,

Right?

Yeah,

Totally.

It's just the way that you look at things can have such a big impact.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's like everything.

It's so big.

Yeah.

When I was,

As I was looking at your website,

I saw there,

There was a lot of stories on the patients or clients or stuff like that.

And I was just wondering,

What is one of your favorite stories about resilience that you've seen so far?

Um,

Let's see.

Well,

Yeah,

I do.

I do talk to a lot of people in our community who have,

Um,

You know,

I do talk to a lot of people in our community who have,

Um,

You know,

I think everybody I talk to,

There's some component of that because I think every human has resilience and has stories.

Um,

And I think that's one of the,

You know,

One way that we can really tap into like compassion is to know that like everybody has a story and everybody is resilient and everybody has struggles that they've overcome.

And so everybody that I talked to really has had that resilience,

But anytime,

You know,

People have,

Um,

Had really severe health problems and they didn't know that what they were eating had an effect on that.

And then it's like that time when they heard about it and then they took that leap of faith to try it.

And then they changed their lives and kind of totally changed the course and the direction of their health.

Like every time I talk to somebody about that,

Which is often like,

It just inspires me so,

So much.

Um,

Because they are literally like,

I mean,

I've had people who were like type two diabetic and had on like on 10 different medications and who just wanted their life to be like over cause they weren't,

They didn't feel like they had much of a life to then be empowered to make different choices for themselves and overcome those things.

And oftentimes reverse a lot of their health conditions and now they're,

They're healthy and they're full of joy and yes,

They have pain still in certain aspects cause we're human,

But they see life so differently and it's like,

They're a totally different version of themselves.

So anytime I talk to people who have that story,

Um,

I'm just really,

Really inspired that the transformation and where that journey has taken them.

Totally,

Totally.

What do you say that just about anyone is capable of making that transformation if they truly want it?

If you're alive then yeah.

Yeah,

Totally.

Like when we're dead then,

Then in this lifetime we don't have that chance.

But if we're,

If we're alive,

Like,

I mean,

I've seen,

There's a woman in our community who is paraplegic.

And so she's in a wheelchair and she wanted to get healthier and she wanted to lose some weight and she,

I interviewed her,

Um,

And it was like one of the most inspiring talks.

She it's funny cause you think like you're sitting in a wheelchair,

Um,

That you're like resting,

Right?

But you don't realize that when you're sitting in a wheelchair,

Like you can only sit for so many hours or else you get really sore and you get literally sores on your body.

And so,

Um,

She was batch cooking and she was,

Um,

Following our meal plans and she would,

She could only be in her wheelchair for so many hours and this woman would get in her bed and she like created this or made this little device that she could put on her stomach that kind of came up that was a cutting board.

And she was chopping like broccoli and veggies in bed,

Like on a cutting board so that she could,

And she had a little table next to her bed.

And so she could prep like while she was lying down because she could only spend so many times,

So many hours in the wheelchair.

And to me,

I'm like,

Holy shit.

Like that to me was such a powerful talk because I thought,

And she did,

I mean,

She lost weight.

She felt amazing.

She was able to be in her chair more.

She went on like the walks on her chairs got longer.

Um,

And she did it and I just thought,

Okay,

If she can do it,

Like anybody can do it.

Anybody can do it.

If this woman can do it,

She's such an inspiration.

Yeah.

That's such a great story.

Wow.

Wow.

It really goes to show you that if you want something,

You you'll make it happen.

Yeah,

Totally,

Totally.

And I think that's so important to remember is like,

We just need to tell the truth though.

Like,

I hear a lot of people saying like,

Okay,

Wanting to get healthier,

But I don't have the time or I want to get healthier,

But it's just too complicated.

Or I want it.

And it's like,

Well,

If you really,

Really,

Really want it to,

There's a way to make it work.

Like,

But maybe it's more about like getting honest with yourself and saying,

Maybe I'm not ready yet.

Maybe I'm just not there yet.

And like,

That's okay too.

But just being honest with yourself can really empower you to like,

Just be authentic,

Right?

Instead of saying something that you think sounds better rather than like just embracing where you are right now.

Yeah,

Totally.

I love that.

I love that.

Being authentic to yourself,

Even if it's an uncomfortable truth.

Totally.

I mean,

When you're authentic with yourself,

I mean,

When you're true,

When you're true with your,

When you're true to yourself,

When you're speaking your truth,

It's like,

That's unconditional love.

And that's when we stop people pleasing.

And that's when we stop saying the things that we think sound okay.

That's when we drop the excuses.

Cause we don't need excuses.

Like we just speak our truth and we love ourselves and we love the people around us regardless of how they react.

And we just,

You know,

Stay,

Stay true in our,

In our truth and like what a beautiful gift to give ourselves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You mentioned self-love.

Even like everything that we've talked about,

Tell me more about what,

What does that mean to you?

So let's see if I had to boil it down,

I think it would mean like two things.

One is making myself a priority and always putting myself first and to like just always telling the truth,

My truth,

Whatever that may be.

And standing in that.

I think that when those two work together for me,

That has been like the most powerful thing that has changed my relationship to myself.

Right.

Cause there was times I definitely didn't love myself.

Like I knew that there was the potential there,

But I definitely didn't love myself.

And if I think about those times,

I think for sure I wasn't putting myself first.

I wasn't making myself a priority.

I was making like my addiction a priority,

But different than myself because my addiction isn't who I am.

Right.

And I definitely wasn't standing in my truth and being super truthful.

So that's kind of,

You know,

One way to look at it is like,

What am I doing now that I wasn't doing then?

Because I really,

I really love myself now.

I do.

I think that I'm awesome.

I love myself.

And when I didn't,

It's like,

Well,

What's different.

And those are like two big things that are different.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would really have to agree on that for sure.

For sure.

I was also addicted to drugs and alcohol for a long time.

And I remember in those moments in my life,

I wasn't,

I didn't love myself at all.

And I've,

I was really empty.

So I really resonate like a lot with the things that you're saying and like not running from pain and feeling your emotions and how you're not,

You're not your addiction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So true.

So true.

Yeah.

What would you say,

Like for someone who might be going through a lot of trauma right now and a lot of pain or who might be,

You know,

Addicted to something right now,

What kind of message would you want to get to them?

Well,

You know,

I think I kind of go back to like the thing that helped me.

And I guess it was that moment of getting really,

Really truthful with myself and like,

Hey,

I,

I had the option to keep drinking and keep going how I was going like that was totally an option and I could totally do that.

And if I continue to do that,

It didn't mean that like I was a bad person or that I was a horrible human or that I was a failure or that I wasn't worthy.

Cause like,

I've always been worthy regardless.

Like we're all worthy.

And we don't have to earn that worthiness.

Like we're born worthy and that never changes.

And so really looking at it and giving myself that freedom to know,

Hey,

You have this choice.

And it it's not like a loaded choice.

Like let's just look at it for like the facts.

You can totally go down this path,

No judgment,

No shame.

Like you can keep drinking and let's just get really honest with like the consequences of that choice.

Like what will your life look like in five years?

If this is the path you keep taking now,

We don't,

None of us really know the future,

But like we can have a pretty good idea of,

I had a good idea with based on how I was feeling at that point.

If you keep doing this,

How are you going to feel five,

You know,

Five more years of this?

How are you going to feel?

And just getting really truthful and getting really honest without judgment and with,

And knowing that you have that choice,

That choice is available.

Okay.

So on that,

So it was kind of like this fork in the road and look at that.

I see that.

Okay.

There's that.

I see that.

I acknowledge that now let's look and see if I quit drinking.

Like what,

How does that feel like?

What could that look like?

Like no judgment.

Not,

Not saying that that's the right thing to do like but,

But how does that feel?

And is that an option you want to explore?

And for me,

Like when I just took the drama out of it and the emotional bit out of it and the fear out of it,

You know,

Like,

You know,

Like quitting is scary and quitting is hard.

Okay.

Yeah,

True.

But living is also scary and hard sometimes regardless of whether or not you're drinking.

So taking all of that out and just looking at the facts and knowing that you have a choice and knowing that you have freedom to do whatever you want to do,

Helped me see that,

Yeah,

I kind of want to explore this other option.

Like I kind of want to see where my potential leads me,

What I can create in my life,

How many people can I help in my life?

And this kind of seems,

And how do I want to feel while I'm doing it?

And so that allowed me to look at it just objectively.

And so,

You know,

That was really helpful for me when I was going through this decision to really,

Really quit.

So if that resonates with anybody.

Yeah,

I'm sure it will.

And it definitely resonates with me.

When I got clean,

Actually two of my friends overdosed and died.

And that was the moment when I realized like,

If I kept going down the path that I was at,

That was not a good trajectory.

And so,

Yeah,

I had to make that choice for myself that I had some change something for sure.

Yeah.

So yeah.

And I told myself,

I'm like,

You know,

If I continue to go down this path,

I can never complain about being hung over again,

Because I know exactly what I'm doing.

Like,

I can't complain about it because I'm literally making that choice.

And I didn't ever want to feel powerless.

And I think that's,

For me,

That's why I didn't join AA.

I wanted to be in my power.

I didn't want to ever hand over my power.

And so knowing that,

Yeah,

I can't complain about hangovers if I'm making that choice.

I just can't.

It was empowering to look at it through that lens.

It was different than other,

It was different than everything I had heard about addictions,

Actually.

I just kind of forged my own path.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

I did too.

I didn't do any of those things.

Some people really,

Really might need that help,

But I think when you just have a really strong will to change your life,

You really can.

Yeah,

I think so too.

Yeah.

And definitely not knocking AA or NA or any of that stuff or any other sobriety program out there.

I think they've helped many people and hey,

Whatever gets the job done.

But for me,

It needed to kind of come from within me and I needed to kind of guide the process.

Yeah,

Totally,

Totally.

So for someone who is interested in transforming their diet and their lifestyle and stuff like that,

But isn't really sure where to begin,

What would you recommend for them?

I would just say start with where you're at.

And it depends,

Some people like to go all in and like,

Okay,

I'm going to cut out meat,

Dairy,

And junk food and oil and give up sugar and do all that all at once.

Hey,

If that works for you,

That's awesome.

If that feels like too much,

Then just start with where you're at and add in a big,

Beautiful,

Vibrant salad for lunch or add in some fruit for breakfast in the morning or before you eat your breakfast.

Add some fruit first thing when you kind of get hungry or maybe like before you start your day,

Have a nice big class of warm water before you do anything else or maybe make a green smoothie and just have that during the day sometimes for a snack.

You can incorporate these little things that'll start getting you used to the tastes of real food and see how that feels.

So I would just say incorporate little things in,

That would be a great place to start.

The other thing is if you wanted to take them to the next level,

Just know that you had to be prepared and that specifically a whole food plant-based diet,

You have to spend some time in the kitchen cooking.

And so getting used to that idea of preparing your own food and doing the grocery shopping and doing the cooking,

That is definitely part of it.

So getting,

Playing with that and mentally kind of preparing for that because that is what it takes.

Because I can't go to the drive-through and eat this way.

I can't go to the freezer section of the grocery store and find this food.

It's like I have to chop the onions and dice the carrots and shred the lettuce and make the dressing and all of that yummy stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That sounds like a really good way to set yourself up for success.

Yeah.

Yeah,

It works.

It works.

It works.

And some people are more like all or nothing and whatever works.

But I mean,

I've never eaten meat in my life actually.

And I transitioned to a whole food plant-based diet in 2014.

And for me,

It was just really fun to like,

Okay,

Well,

How am I going to,

Instead of using vegan butter,

What would I use instead of that?

I guess I could try avocados or instead of this vegan junk food,

What can I eat instead of?

So for me,

I just looked at it as sort of like this fun experiment that was playful and it was like,

I just had fun with it.

And so I think that not taking it super seriously helps too.

That's really cool.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

Seeing things as kind of like a fun game can definitely lighten the mood.

Yeah.

You're just like gathering information,

Trying things on.

It's no big deal.

It's just,

I mean,

Life is all just one experiment anyways,

Right?

Yeah.

So I had seen on your website as well,

That you mentioned that you had to believe in yourself to create your vision of clean girl,

Dirty food.

Tell me more about like just believing in yourself and those kinds of things.

Yeah.

I have just always been very stubborn in my belief that I could do what I set out to do.

And that was,

I mean,

I've had that belief from when I was very small and I don't know if that was something that I was born with or if I just had really awesome parents or maybe a combination of both,

But my parents were always like,

You can do whatever you want,

Whatever you want to do,

You can do it.

And so I always just believe that,

Okay,

Whatever I really want,

I can have,

Like it's,

It might not always be easy.

I might not know how I'm going to do it,

But as long as I wake up every morning and work towards that goal,

Then I'm going to make forward progress and I can get there.

And I even believe this while I was heavy and drinking.

I always believe that even throughout all of that,

I always believed it.

And so I don't know,

It's just the stubborn belief that I have.

And I can't say that I ever wavered from that.

There were times that I was like,

Oh shit,

How am I going to pay my rent?

How's this going to work?

I don't know.

And there were times that I definitely like kind of got a little bit freaked out by it,

But it was always very,

That belief in myself is always very strong that like,

You just keep going.

It's okay not to know all the results,

All the details.

You just keep going,

Just keep believing.

So I was just stubborn with it.

That's awesome.

That's really awesome to hear it.

It kind of sounds like this was something that was just like in your heart and you just felt,

It felt like the right thing.

And you just kind of knew that this is the path that was for you and you just stuck with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

I definitely knew that I didn't want to work for anybody else.

I knew that I wanted to do my own thing.

I knew that for a lot of different reasons,

But I was very adamant about that.

And I knew that I never wanted to look for another job.

Yeah.

I'm like,

I have no interest in that.

And that was my truth.

And I didn't care like how that sounded.

I don't,

I didn't care what anybody thought of that.

I was like,

I'm going to create my own job and I'm going to help people and I'm going to like be very successful.

And that's just what I'm going to do.

And so,

Yeah,

Just going forward with that.

Yeah.

And it wasn't,

I didn't have evidence that that was possible.

That's the other thing,

Because a lot of people would think,

Okay,

Well,

Maybe,

You know,

I didn't come from a lot of money.

I don't,

I have an AA,

An associate's degree.

I don't even have a bachelor's degree.

I,

You know,

I didn't have success.

I didn't know people like,

You know,

I think that to my advantage,

I have white skin and I have white privilege.

And that is,

You know,

That is,

That's always been just how society is set up.

I've always had that to my advantage.

And I'm very aware of that.

But I didn't have a ton of evidence to show me like that I was possible of creating and running like a seven figure business.

And nobody had done that in my family,

But I just thought that'd be so cool to do that.

Like I just think I can do that,

You know?

So yeah,

I went with it and just kept going and just didn't,

Didn't give up.

Even when like all the arrows were pointing to like,

This isn't working.

There was plenty of times it was like,

Maybe you should do something else.

I still was like,

No,

I'm going to go ahead and just keep doing this.

So yeah,

I think being stubborn is really important.

Being stubborn in that belief that you can.

Yeah,

I love that.

I love that a lot.

But as you were saying that it kind of reminds me of this kind of seems like something that is aligned with kind of like your purpose,

Like something that you kind of feel like maybe it's just something there's a draw that really pulls you to like this,

Cause you mentioned like helping people.

And it just seems like this is something that it,

It really aligns with who you are as a person and what you want to bring to the world.

Yeah,

I guess I,

You know,

I've always kind of been freaked out by the,

By like finding my purpose.

I feel like that's really big.

And I always felt like,

Oh my God,

My purpose on life.

What is that?

Oh shit.

That feels really big to me.

And so I don't know if I've ever like put it in that context.

I know that it feels good.

And I know that my instinct is to keep going forward.

Like I know that I,

I can listen to my,

I have good instincts.

When I quit drinking,

When I started eating really well,

When I quit smoking,

When I started sleeping really well,

When I started putting myself first,

When I started hydrating,

When I started moving my body,

My instincts like were even more present and it re I was really able to tune into like little feelings.

I was just so much more aware of like my body and my mind and my surroundings.

It was incredible.

Um,

It was like all of this stuff had kind of been doled or like faded out in the past,

Like before I kind of did all these things for myself.

Um,

And so I will say that I was able to then follow what felt good.

And not to say that that is what felt always easy.

Cause I think,

Yeah,

You know,

Good to me means it's kind of scary.

It's kind of challenging.

This feels like I'm kind of nervous about that.

Those are kind of the things that I felt and that I leaned into and I went towards.

And so if that's like my purpose and I guess that it is because it's coming from that place of being very authentic and in line with like my mind and my body and my soul probably and where I'm at.

So I guess,

You know,

But,

But I don't know that I've ever thought about it as like,

My purpose is to do this.

I think my purpose is like to listen,

To get in line with that little instinct and to listen to it.

I love that.

I love that a lot.

And then let whatever happens happens.

Like that's the fun of it,

Right?

Like I don't,

I don't control it.

I just do like my part and then I see what happens and what's happened has been amazing.

Like incredible,

You know,

This community of people that we have and the employees that we have and just the stories that we get to hear and the life that,

The life that I have,

Like all of that is just incredible.

And I couldn't ever have planned that.

Like I had no idea.

I knew something was possible,

But this is even better than I could have imagined.

That's so great.

I'm so happy to hear that.

And I'm so happy for you.

Do you have any final messages that you want to share with listeners?

I would,

You know,

I just want to encourage anybody out there who is feeling like,

I don't know,

Like they aren't quite where they want to be just to like stop and appreciate where you are and know that like wherever you are,

And we kind of were talking about this at the beginning,

But like wherever you are,

It's like the perfect place for you right now.

And anything is possible.

Really anything is possible.

And just,

I would just say,

Like never,

Never question what's possible and just know that you might not know how to get there.

You might not have all the details.

You might not have a blueprint or you might,

You know,

Even if you read all of the books on how to do it,

Or you went to school,

Like it doesn't like all of that.

It might not even turn out that way.

Like it's going to be your own journey and it's going to work how it's going to work for you.

And that might look,

That's going to be different than everybody else.

Like my journey with sobriety and with success and with my business and with my marriage,

Nobody else has that story.

And we're all so uniquely,

Beautifully different that I would say wherever you are is perfect.

And you know,

Just stay true to who you are and never,

Ever,

Ever like question that it's possible.

Thank you.

That's such an amazing message.

I really love it.

I'm sure it's going to help tons of people.

Sweet.

Well,

Thank you so much for having me on.

It's been so nice to talk to you.

Yeah,

Of course.

Of course.

Where can listeners find you or again,

Contacts?

Okay.

So our website is called cleanfooddirtygirl.

Com is our website.

And so if you go to cleanfooddirtygirl.

Com,

You'll see a link to,

I send out a Swery Saturday email every single week.

So you can sign up for those.

You can sign up for our trial meal plan for free to see how our classroom works.

We give you like grocery lists and menus every week,

And you can change the portions and we give you step-by-step instructions.

So you can sign up for like a free trial of that.

You can find like our private Facebook group that we have,

Which is really an amazing group of people.

I'm on Instagram as well,

But all those links are on our website.

And also I have a blog with lots of articles and free recipes and lots of content there.

That's kind of,

You know,

Some more of this messaging.

You know,

It's funny cause I talk,

It's like when you sign up for my emails,

You get a lot of like what we just talked about.

And then on the blog,

There's more,

It's more about food.

So that's kind of how I balance those things.

So yeah,

Clean food,

Dirty girl,

If you want to find out more,

Read more about me or what I do.

Awesome.

I'll definitely be sure to include those in the description as well.

Well,

Thank you Molly so much.

I really had a wonderful time.

Thank you so much.

I really enjoyed this talk and thanks again for having me and for sharing your space.

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast episode,

Please like subscribe and share it with your friends and family.

To find Molly,

All of her social links are in the description below.

Next week,

I'm going to upload a solo episode about sex,

Dating and intimacy after trauma.

You can listen to podcast episodes on insight timer now as well by searching my name,

Kaylin Vu.

Lastly,

Thank you so much for tuning in.

And if you haven't yet,

You can follow me on Instagram at DearLoveTheUniverse.

Cheers to bigger and better things and have a wonderful rest of your day.