Behind The Scenes with Grass-Fed Girl
by Caitlin Weeks

Caitlin Weeks grew up eating southern comfort food and battling the bulge. After college, she lost 90lbs which took her on a journey to personal training. While on the outside she looked great, behind-the-scenes she was battling with sugar cravings and insatiable hunger.

After yo-yo dieting and learning she had an autoimmune condition, Caitlin adopted a gluten-free and Paleo diet that helped her energy, blood sugar and happy moods and inspired her to become the editor of Grass Fed Girl, a blog inspiring hundreds of thousands to start their own journey into healing.

Her cookbook Mediterranean Paleo Cooking is one of my personal favorites.

From personal trainer to one of the top bloggers in the Paleo world, Caitlin shows us how success can be unforeseen and come out of your own personal journey. My favorite part of this interview is where Caitlin talks about the marketing behind the food industry…it’s something you won’t want to miss!

1. Tell us about your business – what’s your mission; your soul’s purpose and why you created your wellness business or service?

My mission is to help people be more mindful about what they are putting in or on their bodies. I created my business to be able to reach more individuals and spread the word about nutrient dense foods and non-toxic home and personal care routines.

2. Tell us about your journey and your story….what got you to this point today?

I lost a lot of weight on a conventional, low-fat diet of processed foods but then became very sick with an autoimmune thyroid disease. Becoming ill after I thought I was doing everything right by eating less and exercising more was very frustrating. It made me look deeper into nutrition and I realized almost everything I had learned from magazines and the news was wrong.

I started optimizing my diet with the foods that have the most vitamins and minerals such as pastured meats, organic vegetable and unprocessed fats and that made a huge difference in my energy and vitality.

The last step was adding essential oils to my day regimen which helped me get rid of all my toxic cleaning products. Doing a make-over of my personal care routine meant I can take care of my wellness at home without having to go to the corner store.

3. How are you changing the face of healthcare and/or the wellness industry? How do you create, innovate or break the rules in healthcare?

I feel like people are so worried about the “rules” that they can impede their own healing. I like to show people that a healthy lifestyle has flexibility and they can enjoy themselves while still improving their health outcomes. It is especially important for people to be able to travel and have adventures without worrying about if every bite they take is perfect.

I think the problem is not taking enough time for self-love and self-care I want to show people that by taking care of themselves with non-toxic food and products they are showing themselves love and it will reflect in their health.

4. What personal and professional legacy or impact do you want to leave on the world?

I want people to say they enjoyed my recipes, articles and products and that my health journey made them more conscious about their own choices.

5. In your opinion, what is the most significant factor in healing or overall wellness?
   

Working for myself and being able to wake up whenever I want, without an alarm has been very integral to my healing process. It is probably a tie with changing my diet because my blood sugar was so unstable and it made me moody and irritable because I used to have to eat every two hours when I was eating a low fat diet. The third thing was equally important was finding natural remedies to replace over the counter medications to further detox my lifestyle.

6. What do you wish people realized when it comes to their health or about the wellness industry?

I wish people would become aware of the marketing that comes from the food industry and that they can listen to their own bodies for clues rather than advertisements. While I believe in a paleo and primal template as a starting place we are all individual and need to create our own personalized plan that will change over time.

7. How long did it take you to reach important milestones in your wellness business? And, what has really helped you move the needle in making your vision a reality?

It took me two years to be able to quit my day job and since then it hasn’t really felt like work because I love what I am doing and can do it from anywhere. Sometimes you have to live below your means for a while to get it off the ground and most people are not willing to do that.

8. Tell us about the start-up scares: Was there a moment where you ever seriously contemplated giving up?

Not really because my business is virtual there was not a lot of risk but I have been burnt out many times and allowed myself to step back and take a break then I am able to come back with new energy.

9. Did you ever fail or make a substantial mistake in business or organization? Any serious challenges? How did you overcome and resolve it?

There are some opportunities I wish I had taken advantage of but hindsight is always 20/20 and I just have to believe that I am in the right place I need to be at for me. I also believe that every day is fresh start and we can create a new reality at every turn.

10. What action has the most impact that you’ve taken to reach your goal/s?

Sometimes you have to say no to fun things and just stay home and work as hard as you can for a period of time. Taking that time will change everything and be so worth the sacrifice.

11. What would you tell your younger/earlier self about following your dreams?

Just continue to think outside the box and know there are so many amazing opportunities coming your way.

12. What’s the best piece of business or personal advice YOU’VE ever received?

When your work is something you love you will never work a day in your life.

13. What’s the #1 piece of advice you would give a new Wellness professional who really wants to make an impact in healthcare and people’s lives?

Try to create passive income streams/ products in order to keep yourself healthy and have more balance.

14. What does a typical work day look like for you?

I wake up whenever I want, refill my essential oil diffuser, make a gratitude list, go for a walk, make grass fed buttery pastured eggs. Work on a newsletter for a while, make a recipe for my blog, take a picture of it, do some chores around the house, check in with my team. Coffee break to hang out with my nephew and sister. Make dinner, send a few more emails or edit a blog post while watching Netflix. Refill the diffuser.  Balance my chakras. Time for bed.  Dreaming about my next trip.

15. Stevie Wonder or The Beatles? (this, I personally must know.) 

Stevie Wonder

You can follow Caitlin at grassfedgirl.com and learn more about essential oils in her Essential Oils 101 course here. And if you’re really hungry for more, check out Caitlin’s delicious recipes in her book, Mediterranean Paleo Cooking