Pursuing Wellness as a High Achiever and Building Habits You Can Actually Stick to with Ali Elman

This is the transcript of an interview hosted on Ruth’s Feel Better. Live Free. podcast.

Ruth Soukup: Have you ever felt like you just don’t have time to focus on your health right now? In fact, maybe right at this very minute you are listening to this podcast while you multitask a hundred other things, hoping that somehow better health is going to magically come to you through osmosis. You keep meaning to slow down.

You keep hoping to someday have a little more breathing room. And so you keep telling yourself, it’s not that bad. Well, today’s podcast guest did the same thing for years. And then a major health crisis forced her to reevaluate. And so maybe, just maybe her story will be the wake up call you need as well.

Welcome to the feel better, live free podcast brought to you by Thinlicious. I’m your host, Ruth Soukup, and here we’ll talk about everything from the science of weight loss to practical tips for making your health a priority in the midst of a busy life. It’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit funny and a little bit revolutionary.

So buckle up friend, because it’s about to get real.

Hey there and welcome back to the Feel Better Live Free podcast. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ruth Soukup and I’m the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of seven books. And today we are gonna be chatting with the amazing Ali Elman, who is a powerhouse, our entrepreneur, a health advocate, and certified health coach with over two decades of experience in building and scaling successful businesses.

Today, she leads Alexandria’s Simple Pursuit, a wellness brand focused on simplifying holistic health. She is also the creator of the Pursuit of Health documentary series, a media project in progress, where she explores essential themes in wellness, including the benefits of nutrition, movement, mindfulness, and other perspectives.

And I got to tell you, her story and her advice is pretty compelling, especially if you happen to be one of those very driven type A kind of girls like me, who’s constantly adding more things to your plate, often at the expense of your health. And so without further ado, I am so excited to be able to introduce you to today’s interview guest, Alexandria.

Ali, thank you so much for being here today. I’m so excited to chat with you. 

Ali Elman: Hi, Ruth. I’m so happy to be here and excited to get to know you and have a fun conversation. 

Ruth Soukup: I love, I like this is the best job in the world, being able to just have conversations and talk to cool people and get to know new things.

So I love it. So why don’t we just start with like a little intro. Tell us who you are, what you do, how you got to be doing what you’re doing now. We’ll go from there. 

Ali Elman: Well, let me try to keep that high level. Yeah, I think we probably have some things in common. I’ve been an entrepreneur for a long time.

I am 44. Now I started my first business at like 29. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I went to business marketing school to, to kind of do that. Only to find out really, it doesn’t teach you a whole lot about being a business owner, but I was in the hospitality world for a while. I dove right into opening a bunch of different concepts along that path of opening concepts.

I found myself at one point with six brick and mortars I had, two sort of restaurant concepts and then four non toxic nail salons between Colorado and Los Angeles. I did have some partners in those ventures, but like kind of before I knew it I had a lot on my plate including two young kiddos 

Ruth Soukup: and, 

Ali Elman: I’ve gotten married along the way.

So although I felt like I was doing a decent job of taking care of my health, you know, in retrospect, there was a lot of things that I was ignoring and or didn’t have the time to really go deep enough to figure it out. So, I’ll rewind a little bit and let you know a little bit about my like health.

History, which was even as a young kid, I did experience a lot of Gut issues and things that were just not normal. I had my first colonoscopy at age 17, which is really young. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh my God. 

Ali Elman: Yeah. So, because I was I was bleeding. I was having a lot of like pain and discomfort. And I think back then they just, they would kind of.

I don’t know how to say this without it being what it is. They just go in there and take a look, you know, and then they’d say, we don’t see cancer, we don’t see any tumors or polyps. So send you on your way without giving me any explanation or understanding of like what in the world was going on. And so that was tough as a 17 year old.

Yeah, that’s a lot. Yeah. But life goes on. So I just went about my life and would deal with these like flare ups. And I just, Over time it got worse and I saw more doctors and no one could really put a finger on it. Like what is going on? Again, I am a type A person. I wanted to get these businesses done.

I wanted to accomplish a lot of things. So I just didn’t have time to really focus on it. Even after Seeing a few doctors and I was just like, okay, fine. I’m just going to live with this for now. And then about age 41, I just, I had a health crisis where, I mean, I couldn’t ignore it. I ended up in the hospital and I ended up with collapsing and small intestines because of the inflammation in my gut.

Ruth Soukup: Oh my gosh. 

Ali Elman: I was septic. I had gone too long without seeing the doctor and essentially. Had to have an emergency surgery to remove 13 inches of my small intestines. So I know this is sort of a long story, but that was really the catalyst for me at that point to really. I sold, I had already sold a lot of my businesses and I was still involved in one that I really did enjoy, but I was like, this is it.

This is not a wake up call that I can ignore. And when I woke up in the hospital bed and I was still there on this planet. And I saw the sun come up. I said, I’m changing paths and I’m diving into this deeply and trying to understand what’s going on in my body. And Along that path, try to help others.

So that’s kind of a long story short. Sorry. 

Ruth Soukup: What did you say? 

Ali Elman: I signed up to be a health coach from the hospital bed. 

Ruth Soukup: Really? That’s amazing. That’s amazing. Cause you were like, I’m going to fix this for myself. I’m going to bring others along on this journey right away. Yeah. 

Ali Elman: I just knew I was like, I’m all in, I got to do something.

So how. 

Ruth Soukup: Wow. Okay. So now I have to understand like 13 inches sounds like a lot of your small intestine. Like, does that, like, what are the after effects of taking out that much? Is it, does it still function? Does it still work? Like how did you fix it? Like

Ali Elman: It’s a great question. We have a lot of small intestines. So I was lucky. You know, I’ve got still plenty to work with, but it took a while to heal. I should mention that I do have a diagnosis now of ulcerative colitis. And so, although that’s typically in the lower colon, the lower part of your intestines I think the inflammation had just gotten so bad, and my, my, my stomach just couldn’t function anymore.

And so, that was the result of that, after many years of it going ignored, and not having any results and resolve for it. So, post surgery, I was in the hospital for about five days, on like, broths, and IVs, and got home and slowly started to heal, but really had to be very gentle on my gut.

And really, I mean, honestly, I had no choice but to really take a step back from a lot of things to focus on my health. And it wasn’t even an option for me. And I always learned that these lessons, like, The big way the hard way for whatever reason that’s just relate 

Ruth Soukup: to that. 

Ali Elman: Yeah. And so looking back now I realize how inflamed my body was.

how inflamed like my emotions were because when you’re not feeling well and you have a lot of inflammation in your body, it affects everything. You’re a lot more charged, you’re a lot more reactive. So these aren’t just like physical things. These are things that really emanate throughout your whole life and how you interact in the world.

And since shifting a lot of things kind of without, I really didn’t have a choice, things feel so much different. Day to day so much different. It’s 

Ruth Soukup: crazy when you think about that, because I think, and I think just hearing your story and hearing you talk about like being driven, being, having a business and so many women are that same.

And I was the same way too. Like I was growing my business, right. Or if you’re career driven and you’re going for your career and you just, like, I don’t have time. To think about this right now. That’s how I always was with my health and health issues too. The same thing for years and years.

I, yeah. Yeah. I’m just going to put it in the box over here. You know, like get to it at some point when I have time to focus on it, but then like, there are those moments where you go, I can’t wait any longer. So like what, like paint the picture of what it looks like for you, what it looked like for you, like day to day even, and to what it looks like now.

Ali Elman: Yeah. So, I think I mentioned I did feel like I was, you know, quote, taking care of myself enough considering being a mother of young Children and running, you know, being partners and businesses. But what that looked like back then was okay. I’ll fast and then I’ll have a salad for for lunch. Probably get up at like 4 30 in the morning.

Do a run. Or some sort of workout, you know, starved myself, not like I was like, Oh, fasting is good for me. Right. And then wolf down a salad hunched over computer. Right. Not even really paying attention to it. Just going, well, this is a salad and that’s healthy because we’re trained to think that way. And really limited my carbon take a lot.

I was like, okay, and then dinner I’ll eat like some sort of protein and vegetables didn’t allow my body to ever really rest and digest because it was like kids moving from one thing to the next very quickly. So, yeah, could you look at a list and say, she’s checked off her workout, she’s eaten, you know, the nutrients that you’re supposed to 

Ruth Soukup: type a, the type a checks.

Ali Elman: 100%. That’s how it was for sure. And then I would, you know, collapse and wake up and do it all over again. And all the checklists. All the checklist and always, you know, feeling like I could do more. And so my nervous system was also just like completely ramped up all the time. I really didn’t have a lot of true relaxation to allow for the healing that your body needs.

So now my days, like It’s infused throughout my day, those relaxation times, which that has taken a lot of like rewiring of some of my beliefs. I have a lot of confidence about myself. And where I bring value. Like it’s really interesting when you’re that type of person, if you feel like you’re not checking everything off the box, it can be really hard to feel like you are valued.

That’s how you value yourself often. Right. So, And now I have my days are a lot slower, yet not any less productive. My workouts. are a lot more slow. I love like bar and like walking and yoga and things that are really a lot less I’m not beating myself up anymore. I’m just, I get to move my body. That feels a lot different than it did before.

I also, funny enough, like I eat a lot more. I don’t restrict the things like that I used to before. Like I eat fruit. I eat all kinds of whole foods. I’m very intentional about what I eat. . But when I eat, I also sit down and pay attention to what I’m eating and slowly eat. And like, I’m not rushing from place to place or hunched over my computer.

I use it as the time in my day to like take a pause. Never did that before. And owning like restaurants too, like that isn’t even really that. Relaxing. Like if you’re in a space that you own, you’re watching everything and you’re like, well, that’s not right. I should get up and clear that table. 

Ruth Soukup: I can totally relate to that.

I was a spa director for several years, and I would have to have spa treatments all the time because I had 50 providers and I would have to like go in and it was never relaxing like I couldn’t even go to a spa. Even now, I have to like stop myself from wanting to critique everything that they do. 

It’s like ruined spas for me.

It’s so hilarious. 

Ali Elman: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, I mean, there’s so many things I’ve shifted. But a lot of it is funny enough slowing down. And instead of me looking at my. health in terms of that checklist of like, do I hit, did I hit a certain goal or am I at a certain weight or how do I look or what’s the size of jeans that I’m wearing?

I really just. look at how I feel every day. And ironically, I, at 44 I think I weigh less than I did in my twenties. I’ve reduced the inflammation in my body, which was, that was the goal. It wasn’t weight loss. It was to reduce the inflammation in my body. Because of that, I’ve reduced a lot of the inflammation in my life.

Yeah. Yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. It is amazing. It’s amazing. What a shift that is, especially. I think for driven high achievers where you’re like, I got to check the box. I got to have the certain body. I got to be a certain size. I got to do with the certain things, right? Like to ship completely shift into, I just want to nourish my body and take care of it and focus on health and what that actually looks like.

And it’s. It’s, it is an, it’s an amazing shift. Right. And cause I feel the same way. Like when I stopped worrying about the number on the scale and started just worrying about like, how do I nourish my body every single day? Yes. And I same thing. I like I actually am less than I’ve ever been in my adult life on the, of the number on the scale, but not necessarily because I’m focused on that or fixated on that.

And it’s. It, and I think we get, it’s so hard for that personality, knowing what being that personality to give up on the, if I’m just do all the things I’m going to get there, like, like white knuckle it. And oh 

Ali Elman: yes. The white knuckling. Yeah. How do 

Ruth Soukup: you like, how do you step out of that? Like what actually, do you have a process for that?

Right. Because type A people need a checklist. So what’s the checklist for getting rid of checklists? 

Ali Elman: Well, I’m not going to lie. I still have my checklist, but they’re different. They’re different. So there’s a couple things. First of all, I really hope anyone listening doesn’t have to wake up in a hospital bed to realize like it’s time for a shift.

So please, if there’s something going on in your body or you really feel you need help, like listen before you, you end up in a situation that requires that kind of intervention. But I, so Now, I, what it is it was a complete mindset shift of, oh, I want to get to this goal just to get you another goal.

Now it is, I want to live a very long and healthy life to be there for my children and hopefully my grandchildren. That is key because if you don’t really identify the why and the why isn’t strong enough and the why doesn’t, I, Also align with your values, your true values. It’s not going to work. 

Ruth Soukup: Cause 

Ali Elman: like, that’s why like resolutions don’t work.

That’s why a lot of these crash diets and fads, like that doesn’t work long term. It’s great to do some resets here and there, but the what’s the why behind it? Like, what truly are you trying to accomplish? That is going to give you the foundation to, to make these small shifts that actually become just part of your day.

So I used to get up like I mentioned and immediately start doing something. I didn’t pay attention to my body at all. I would grab coffee. Without, it’s just like up, coffee, work out, right? Thinking, okay, that’s, I’m doing something for my body. I wasn’t, I was kind of actually punishing my body. So now, I wake up and I drink a ton of water right away.

I dry brush my body to start moving my lymphatic system and I do think this, how you wake up, how you spend that first hour sets a really strong intention for how you’re going to treat your body the rest of the day. So it’s like, Hey, I’m paying attention to you. I’m giving you some love. I’m giving you some nourishment and I’m hydrating you.

I’m dry brushing, whatever your practices, like I have started to do this every day so that I’m acknowledging all the things that body has to do for me throughout the day. And I tried to just take that time to, to like build that foundation for moving forward throughout the day. And I don’t drink coffee right away.

In fact, I don’t drink really coffee at all anymore. I’ve switched off of that for many reasons. And I’m tuning in now to more of my natural rhythms and I’m not ignoring them. Like most of us know about circadian rhythms, of course, like sudden comes up, it goes down and rhythms of your day go like that and your hormones.

If they’re working properly should match that, but we do a lot of things to disrupt our hormones. We don’t get any sunlight in the morning or in the evening. And we also reach for caffeine immediately without letting our bodies wake up naturally. These are small things that anybody can do is to just start to pay more attention to the rhythms, pay more attention to the body, how it’s feeling.

In addition to circadian rhythms, you’ve got a rhythm that goes. Up and down. It’s called ultradian rhythms, so it’s going to come up and then it kind of flattens out and that’s kind of when you like hit that wall and learn. A lot of people are like, I need another cup of coffee. I need like a, I don’t know, a candy bar or whatever or food.

What you actually need to do. Oftentimes it’s just sit down for like five minutes, just like that. And again, that’s like in five minutes I could shoot off one email. Yeah. I get it. I get it. But that creates burnout and actually your body can’t heal. It can’t rest and digest. It can’t do. And it also becomes more and more inflamed.

It’s kind of like the way I look at it as like driving a vehicle. If you’re like driving a manual vehicle and you’re like in third gear and you know, you should shift. down one or like if you should shift into fourth or like, Hey, maybe go down a notch to second or whatever. And you just keep it in that gear.

It’s like rubbing higher and higher. You’re like going to burn out your engine. So really thinking about it in that way, but the why has to be there first. So it’s always the mindset around it. First, and what is that for you? For me? Like I said, I want to be around for my kids, but I also like wellness for me now means that I get to move through the world in a way that’s positive.

Versus destructive because I’ve been in that place of destruction in different phases of my life and unconsciously. I just wasn’t really well, wasn’t feeling well. And so my actions were pretty destructive. And there’s a lot of that going on in the world, right? There’s a lot of very inflamed people. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh, yes.

Ali Elman: For good reason, right? We’ve got lots of inflammatory foods. We’ve got a lot of stresses, a lot of environmental factors. So I’m like, how can I move through the world in a non destructive way? And that also is what drives me to just take care of myself. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love that. So how do you find that consistency then?

Like did it start slowly over time or did, you know, like how did you get yourself to a place where you’re. Actually able to not wake up and grab your phone first thing in the morning and the cup of coffee in one hand and the phone in the other hand and like get into all the things and actually just sit and be and dry brush your butt.

I love that idea. By the way, yeah, I’m like, I think I’ll add that one in. But it like, right? Like it’s hard to, and then especially I think the type a you get so like, well, I’m going to change my habits. So I’m going to change all of my habits all at once. And then you can’t stick to it because it’s like doing all the things and I can’t remember it.

I have my check boxes and I can’t get it off. So how do you actually make it stick? 

Ali Elman: It sticks because I mean, habits become habits because they are, it’s repetition and it becomes second nature. You don’t even think about it. It’s just like brushing your teeth. But no, the all or nothing thing doesn’t work very well, which again, I had to teach myself.

So I started slow. I started by saying, researching, okay, what are things that are inflaming my body? What can I eliminate and what can I add? And I just started to do that step by step and it took time and it will take time. You don’t need to eliminate everything at once. What is huge is to be able to have that feedback of something that you go, actually, this feels good.

If something feels good, you’re probably going to continue to do it. So I always encourage that too. Like it’s one thing to be super restrictive, but that doesn’t always feel good. So it’s like, what could I add instead? So taking away coffee sounds really tough for a lot of people, for instance. Okay, what can I add instead?

I could add a tea. That’s maybe a little less inflammatory and I could have that instead over time, like those things start to be exactly what your body craves instead. Or, I mean, I drink hot water and lemon and I don’t do caffeine for like a good 90 minutes in the morning. It takes time. So pick like one or two things and work on those things until they become such habits.

repetition and they feel good then you move on and you do the next thing because we all want to like Okay, I’m going to get rid of sugar, dairy, gluten. I’m going to not drink coffee. I’m not going to drink alcohol. And by the way, I still have coffee on occasion. I still drink wine on occasion, but my body has readjusted to the levels at which it even wants.

Like, I’m very sensitive now to coffee. And I, one glass of wine, I’m like pretty good. Like I don’t here and there. So it takes some time, but You have to give yourself time and a lot of us don’t want to do that. Everything is so instantaneous, 

Gratification. And the other thing I will say is like, this is not going to come from a supplement.

This is not going to come from a quick fix, like a, okay, I saw that all I have to do is drink this. I don’t know, green drink at the morning. It’s great to add certain things in and supplements. Like I’m all about the right supplements, but this is lifestyle and how you live your life every day now is going to affect how you feel and how you live your life in later years.

So it’s, that’s like all it’s lifestyle. It’s really lifestyle. It’s not a, I’m going to do this and then I’m good. It’s 

Ruth Soukup: like, yeah. Yeah. And it’s, I mean, and I think that we don’t always connect that because of the instant gratification component of like, I’m going to make these changes. If I’m doing all the boxes, if I’m checking all the things that I should be able to see the results.

I, I see that in my program all the time with new people who come into my program and they’re like, I’ve been doing this for three weeks and I haven’t cheated at all. And I’ve done all the things that I’m supposed to do. And I just don’t, I don’t understand why I haven’t lost more weight. Right. Like I, So like, well, this is a lifestyle.

You got to change everything. You can’t change everything all at once. Like your body is adjusting all the things that you say. Right. And it doesn’t matter because we think that any amount of action, especially if we’re doing all the actions all at once, that it should instantly result in the change that we want to see.

And I just, it doesn’t work that like you, when you also take into account, like, I mean, how many years, 20 plus years were you abusing your body? And then you have, it doesn’t turning that around doesn’t. doesn’t happen all at once. 

Ali Elman: It doesn’t. It doesn’t happen all at once. And you have to be patient.

And again, that’s a practice. I have a tattoo reminding myself to be patient. I get it. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh, that’s funny. That’s probably better than all of my tattoos that I got in my early twenties that I now sincerely regret. 

Ali Elman: I’m sure we can share war stories. 

Ruth Soukup: That’s hilarious. 

Ali Elman: Yes. 

Ruth Soukup: But I think it’s so true.

Like I’ve really had to work on that in my own life too, because I, Was that person, right? I was, I can relate to every single client that I have that gets impatient. Cause I, I don’t, I hate waiting. I hate waiting. And yet some of those things is just, it’s repetition. It’s repetition. It’s repetition and reminding like one of the things that’s really had to help.

That’s really helped me is the, of the mindset shift is everything counts. Cause when you were talking about exercise, right. I’m just doing like easy stuff. And in my mind, the way that I’ve always been easy, doesn’t count. If you’re not sweating and miserable and hating every minute of it, then you’re not really exercising because then that doesn’t really count.

And now I’m like today, I’m going to just. Put my hunter boots on and wander around the property, drinking my cup of coffee. And that counts. I still drink coffee. 

Ali Elman: And that counts as my walk, 

Ruth Soukup: right? 

Ali Elman: It does count. Like I have a Peloton actually in my office, it’s right here. And I used to be like, oh, I did, you know, I got to do 45 minutes.

And now I’m like, you know what, if I have a packed day and I get to hop on that thing for 20 minutes, I’ve moved my body for 20 minutes. Sometimes I’ll just do some squats. Like it doesn’t have to be this crazy all or nothing thing. And another thing to mention is although I’m all about whatever workout your body’s craving and it feels good to you go after it.

If you have a lot of inflammation in your body already someone like me with the. Autoimmune thing and all sort of colitis. I didn’t realize like I was doing these hardcore like CrossFit workouts for a while and my body was just getting so inflamed and like I was hurting like my whole body hurt in a way that wasn’t normal.

It wasn’t just soreness. It was like inflammation and it would cause flare ups. So you just have to also really pay attention to your body, your own body. Yeah. That’s this whole mindfulness word that, I mean, I love the word. It gets thrown around a lot. So it’s maybe it’s lost what its true meaning is.

It means paying attention to. That’s all it means. So pay attention to. How your body feels. Don’t give up, maybe make shifts and your body’s going to feel different at different stages in your life to like my body reacts differently to certain workouts now than it did in my twenties. And I’m also post this whole thing through me in a menopause so I know how that feels.

And the things I crave now in terms of movement are different. So it’s really learning to be more in flow to adjust. Pay attention to and know it’s a lifelong journey. It’s not a week. It’s not three weeks. Yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. That like never being done part is very difficult. If you 

Ali Elman: put it this way, if you check off that final box, like you’re not here anymore.

That’s the final box. that you’re getting to. So let’s, we don’t mind that 

Ruth Soukup: one. 

Ali Elman: Oh, it’s the rush. I love that. That’s 

Ruth Soukup: a really good point. So do you have any mindfulness practices that you do or anything like that you do to like really like check in and be kind of aware of what’s happening with your body?

Do you keep a journal or anything like that? 

Ali Elman: I do a lot of different things. I, I’ve, so it’s For me, the idea of like Pavlov’s dogs. Like, if I go to light a candle, I know that it’s my time to just like. Just tune in and check in for a moment. And I’ve taught myself like over time and repetition, like lighting a candle, just chilling out for a minute and like tuning in and getting focused.

I have a monkey mind that will take over if I don’t really like. stop for a moment and be like, what are you doing? Okay. Cut it out. Like I don’t, you, my crazy thoughts are not me. And I have to remind myself of that. So my daily practices, yes, I will journal. A lot of times, like I have a sauna.

I’m really lucky. I have a barrel sauna here at our house. It’s been really helpful. I go in there. I try to not on my phone. I just zone out, and I just like sit. The silence is huge for me, like, I work from home, so when everybody’s out of the house, sitting in silence just is like, such a gift. For me, that is part of my practice, is just being able to sit in silence, even for five minutes.

It’s huge because a lot of us don’t have that. Even if we’re, you know, we go to work and we’re like in the car, maybe on a phone and like listening to a podcast and you’re feeding yourself all this stuff instead of just like. Sit in silence for a minute. And that has been very 

Ruth Soukup: hard and in our in today’s culture and world and because your phone is right there all the time, like instant distraction for everything.

It’s very hard. And it’s interesting going back to what you were saying at the beginning, just about the inflammation of How it impacts, not just your body and like was contributing to your illness and all the things. I mean, and there’s so much research, right. That shows how inflammation is so devastating.

And it’s basically the root cause of everything that’s happening for people. And you can talk about the root causes of what causes all the inflammation. I need to do a whole other 

Ali Elman: podcast, a 

Ruth Soukup: whole other podcast, but I’ve never really heard it described the way that you did with that. The inflammation isn’t just physically impacting your body, that it’s also impacting your emotions and inflame, inflaming your like kind of psyche and that kind of thing too.

And I just, I’m just curious in your opinion why did, why does this not get talked about more? You know, because it’s not that the research isn’t. There, right? Like this is not controversial science that inflammation is the root is causing all, like basically everything that’s wrong with society right now from a health perspective.

And yet we don’t talk about this. We don’t talk about the mindfulness. We don’t talk about the wellness. We don’t talk about natural ways to reduce inflammation in your life. We just keep medicating. And what is like, what is, what, why what? Wow. Yeah. 

Ali Elman: Oh, gosh. That’s a loaded question for me. Yes, it is.

Well, we do talk about it. We just don’t talk about it that much in Western cultures. So if you go to like, India, which I was lucky enough to go there to understand a little more about, are you Veda and are you Vedic practices? Or if you’re in places in Asia that, you know, they look at the body and they look at the organs and they say, okay, if the liver’s inflamed you’re going to have a lot of anger.

Like they’ve looked at the body like that for a really long time. And it’s funny, cause I think we just like. We look at that like it’s rudimentary, like, Oh, that’s not science back. But what’s interesting now is that science is actually now just confirming a lot of these beliefs that we had in the past or that, you know, past cultures had.

So the two can absolutely blend and support one another. Maybe we didn’t have the scientific terms or the same kind of testing to show those inflammatory markers. But they just intuitively knew, okay, well, and that’s why they say too much alcohol inflames the liver and that’s going to cause anger. We’ve met plenty of people that abuse alcohol, myself included in the past, in my twenties.

I was not like a pleasant person all the time. You you can drink and it brings out anger. Well, this is just observational, but it’s not rocket science. And Again, we’re now showing, I mean, if you’re a Huberman podcast listener and a nerd, you’ll know all the stuff he talks about. And stuff he talks about is literally like the science of going for a walk or something like that after dinner.

It’s like, well, in our Vedic practices and their Vedic texts, they talked about this forever. And we’re like, wow, there’s a science to show that it brings down. You know, your levels of insulin or whatever, it helps with regulate blood sugar. Okay. Yes. These are lifestyle practices that have been around for a really long time, but we’re so, a lot of us are closed down to just looking at it that way.

Like, well, of course, but I think we’re right on the precipice now of us understanding that science and wisdom are kind of coming together because I think. Our issue is not a lack of information. We’ve got a lot of information coming at us all the time. And a lot of that conflicts each other. It’s like carnivore diet versus vegan diet, whatever you want to, you know, fasting versus maybe not fasting all the time.

So that’s fine, but where’s the wisdom. So I’m more drawn to understanding things that have been around thousands of years that they were talking about in terms of how to support a whole person who’s well. And then I look at the science of it too and go, okay, those two things actually collaborate and they’re supporting one another, not conflicting.

And I think. I think we’re getting there. I think I’m very, I’m an optimist. I think we’re going to get there because I think, look, I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have access to a wonderful surgeon at a hospital and that’s all Western medicine, but that’s just a really good mechanic. Who’s going to fix.

The engine as needed. They’re not gonna make sure the car is running every day. You know what I mean? So that’s those are the things we need to work on. 

Ruth Soukup: So interesting, but such a good way to wrap up. So I feel like we could talk about this for a lot longer. But for the sake of time, we will wrap up and Allie, why don’t you just tell us a little bit more about where we can find you.

I know you have a new YouTube channel coming out and got a bunch of other stuff going on. That’s really exciting. So tell us about that. And then of course we will make sure that we linked to all of it in the show notes as well. 

Ali Elman: Yeah. So yes I’m doing a lot of different things. You can find most of those things on my website, which is alexandreaspursuit.com

I am shooting a pilot that’s almost done for a docuseries called Pursuit of Health. That’s the working title. I did go to India for that. So I’ll be bringing that hopefully out into the world in the next year.

And I’m working on some products and things that are very simple to help support people in a, in a. really functional way. All food based products. And lastly yeah, I am doing coaching. I’m limited in my space because of all the other things I’m doing, but I love working with people that.

Especially women that are entrepreneurs that really need to just talk to someone who’s listening fully. And then we have an actionable plan that we put together and say, okay, this is a step by step way for you to get to work. You say you want to be in your life because that’s the first step is identifying what that is.

And then putting together a very simple actionable plan. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love it. Sounds amazing.

Well, Allie, it was so nice to talk to you today. Thank you so much for everything you shared. It was awesome. And I’m excited for this docu series. What do you know? What network or streaming platform 

Ali Elman: it’s going to be on? What’s exciting is I own all of the content myself. I am also the executive producer of this.

And so we may go the route again, cause I kind of want to like not be told what to do. We might go the route of completely finishing it out ourselves. And then I own it. I own the content myself. And at that point I get to choose where it gets syndicated. So, 

Whether that’s on Amazon prime or Netflix, or I decide to just do YouTube.

We’ll see, but it’s an actual production with a wonderful crew and a great director. So I’m really excited to get it out into the world. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh, exciting. Very 

Ali Elman: exciting. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Ruth. You’ve been a pleasure.