Gabriella Guglielminotti Trivel shares her story of how she went from an abusive relationship, to losing her job, to freedom in Antarctica. Plus my favorite warming ingredient that you can add to your food AND put on your body, with surprising results.

Hi everybody, I'm Barbara Fernandez, the Rocking Raw Chef, here with my Clean Food, Dirty Stories: one to entertain, the other to inspire.

I help people stamp out stress, depression and fatigue over at RockingRawChef.com, and today's title is:

From Abuse and Divorce to Freedom in Antarctica

In addition to this story, at the end of this episode I'll share with you one of the best ingredients you can add to your food when it's cold outside. And you don't have to just use it for food. You can actually add it to something that has nothing to do with food and that I know will surprise you. The best part is that when you do that, nobody has to know!

OK enough hints from me, let's get on with the story.

I am very excited to be joined here today by speaker and visionary Gabriella Guglielminotti Trivel, author of the book 'Antarctic Odyssey a New Beginning'.

In her own words, Gabriella is A Woman of the 21st Century, Author, Speaker and Female Cycle Consultant and she's got a fascinating story to share with us today, complete with whales, seals and penguins as well as her own life lessons learned.

So Gabriella welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Gabriella: Hello Barbara, thank you so much for this opportunity.

Me: You're so welcome! I love your story because you overcame some really difficult situations and then you went on to do some amazing things, so I think that people will really enjoy it.

Can you tell us - I mean, I know that now you do all kinds of wonderful, beautiful things, but it wasn't always like that, right? I think at the beginning you were talking about a relationship that wasn't exactly ideal for you. Is that the best place to...

Alexandra Merisoiu shares her story of how she went from guzzling Coke and eating at all hours to lean, fit and healthy. Plus a tiny food that you'd never guess has more calcium than dairy, and a food for sport that keeps you going all day long!

The food that I'll share with you is not only an amazing source of protein, energy and healthy fats, but one tiny ounce contains 18% of the recommended daily allowance for calcium. So it's also an amazing bone food for all you people who don't eat dairy and might be worried about where you're getting your calcium. And I bet you don't know what it is! Or maybe you do...you'll find out in a bit! 

Our guest, Alexandra MerisoiuI am very excited to be joined here today by Alexandra Merisoiu, also known as The Body Engineer.

Alexandra specialises in working with runners, beginners and advanced, who want to run faster and further, with less effort and fewer injuries. She also has a 3rd Dan Black Belt in Karate Shotokan, and she is a Martial Arts British National Champion, with a host of national and international awards in the sport, including World Cup Champion. And if that weren't enough, in between helping others with their running, Alexandra still competes at an international level!

Alexandra's storySo let's get to the story. Alexandra welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Alexandra: Thank you very much for the invitation. And thank you for the introduction as well.

Me: Oh well you're welcome! I just find it astounding, everything that you manage to do. And I don't know how you do it, but I'm sure you'll share a bit about that in a moment.

I mean, I know when we talked about you coming on the podcast, you mentioned that there was a time when you were drinking like 2 liters of coke a day and definitely with a very different level of health and fitness compared to what you have today.

And I would really love for you to tell everybody how you changed your relationship with food, because there are a lot of things that you've overcome that a lot of people still struggle with, you know?

Alexandra: Yeah, well that's true. 2 liters of Coca-Cola, 2 liters of Sprite, I kind of changed from one to the other. 

Me: Variety, yeah...

Training hard in RomaniaAlexandra: I mean, back then in my family I didn't have the education that I have today. When McDonald's came to my country, I was there a few times a week. But we didn't really know what and how and why...

Me: Oh sorry, so can you remind people where you grew up, then?

Alexandra: Oh yes, in Romania. In Eastern Europe.

So I was practising...

Even after divorce you may find yourself running away with a handsome stranger to a foreign land...complete with happy endings, food and intuition and how to get yourself some more clarity in your life.

And at the end of this episode I'll share with you one of my favorite things to eat to help increase your intuition - which could really come in handy if you've got a tough decision to make like our guest Darla did. 

Our guest, Darla AntoineI am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Darla Antoine. Darla is a soul coach, and she works with the elements of what she calls Sacred Darkness, such as dreamwork, divination and deathwork (which is not as scary as it sounds, she tells me). Darla will tell you a bit more about what she does later on, but first I really want you to hear her story which I just can't wait to share with you because it's gonna be great!

So Darla welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Darla: I'm excited to be here Barbara!

Me: It's really great, I mean, I can't wait to hear your story because when you told me about it, I was like "That could have happened to me!"

Darla: I know, right? 

Me: Because we've both had kind of like crazy pasts. And I know that it starts with a husband and kind of moves on from there with the mysterious stranger. So do you want to tell us what happened?

Darla: Sure, OK.

Darla's storySo I got married young, I was about 22 years old which was in 2004 and I loved my first husband, obviously. We're both from Washington State and we moved to Iowa.

He started going to grad school to become a chiropractor, I started to go to grad school in New Mexico for intercultural communication. The last year of his chiropractic school, he had to work under a chiropractor, so we moved to Spain.

Learning Spanish from very youngEver since I was a little girl, I always knew that I'd be moving to a Spanish-speaking country. At 6 years old I was trying to teach myself Spanish, I just knew I needed to learn Spanish.

Me: Oh that's so cute!

Darla: Yeah, and so this was it. We were moving to Spain and he knew he was gonna work under a doctor in Spain and we were gonna stay in Spain for as long as we wanted, and that whole thing. And I was like "Yes! It's finally happening!" I was about 26 years old at this point.

But the long distance...I was living in New Mexico, he was living in Iowa and Spain. And we were only seeing each other every few months, which started to weigh on the relationship and there were other issues...

Me: Oh, so you didn't go to Spain with him then?

Darla: I did, but I also was going to grad school so in summer breaks or on vacation I'd take time off to go and work on our relationship.

Whose dream will come true: mine or yours?But anyway we had a great time in Spain, but the distance was wearing on us and there were other issues about...Have you seen the movie LaLa Land?

Me: No, but I know lots of people have.

Darla: Yes, lots of people have. And the movie ends not the way you think it's going to end. It's very obvious that if the couple had ended up together, that only one of their dreams would come true. Not both of their dreams would come true.

So that's how it was with my ex-husband. If I'd stayed with him, his dreams would have come true but my dreams wouldn't. I would just be the supporting role, and blah blah blah.

So I was in a very tough position of walking away from our life in Spain in our relationship and going...

From the arms of a martial arts instructor to a Russian yoga teacher, all while mourning the loss of her mom and renewing herself, Francesca shares her journey which has led her to teaching and coaching others worldwide.

And at the end of this episode I'll share with you a tiny food that is a big powerhouse for helping fight depression as well as balancing hormones.

Our guest, Francesca Gentillé

I am very excited to be joined here today by Francesca Gentillé, who is an initiated shaman in 4 traditions, a clinical sexologist, she's an empowered aging specialist, and a relationship counselor. She has published, appeared on television and also teaches all over the world.

Francesca has an incredible story to share with us today as well as a really generous gift just for listeners of Clean Food, Dirty Stories, which we'll share with you later.

First though, let's get to the story. So Francesca welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Francesca: I am so delighted to be here Barbara. Barbara is also one of my favorite people in the world; creative, talented, big hearted.

Me: Well we've had a lot of adventures together. We have enough stories to fill up an entire season of a podcasts all by ourselves. But for today's story I know that like me you grew up with depression. Also, you had some quite heavy food intolerances where you may have felt like you were almost in the wrong kind of family. So can you tell us a bit about that?

Francesca's story

Francesca: Yes absolutely. I was raised in a very loud, periodically, emotionally volatile, creative, dynamic, great cook Italian family, an Italian American family. And my mother was bipolar: it was the worst of times and the best of times, and of course they were cooking Italian. So there were lots of pastas and wonderful homemade pizzas and canola.

Me: Sounds like heaven.

Francesca: It was on the one hand beautiful and so tasty but I would always feel tired and I would feel depressed and they would say in the family that I was always sleeping. They'd say "Why is she so sensitive?"

Enter the food intolerances

I think some of our sensitivities are signs of being a shaman and but on the other hand I think some of the sensitivity was exacerbated by the food intolerances. And I didn't know this until many years later when a friend of mine was reading The Body Ecology Diet for candida yeast infection that wouldn't go away. She said that when she started doing the diet her yeast infection not only went away, but within two weeks her body pain went away and within a year she lost thirty pounds. And it was the body pain that I that I kind of tuned into and I decided to try it and as I tried it I realized that my body wasn't hurting. Suddenly I felt like I had more energy and I also felt like my mood was stabilized. Yes, a huge difference.

Me: So what food did you cut out for that? What were you intolerant to?

Francesca: I was intolerant to gluten.

How author and artist Catherine Holland made a conscious decision not to die, and food that helps you focus 5 hours later.

At the end of this episode I'll share with you a magical yet easily available food that helps you focus 5 hours later! But first, let's get to our story.

Our guest, Catherine Holland

I'll let Catherine tell you her story, but what I will tell you now is that she's an author, a breath coach and an artist whose most recent book is called Indestructible Soul: How I decided not to die. She's got quite a story, and I'm really looking forward to her sharing it with us.

So Catherine, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Now you've got quite a story which I believe starts with something pretty dramatic, right?

I mean, people are going to hear 'I decided not to die' and they're going to think 'oh my goodness!' They're going to want to hear what happened, right?

Catherine: Yes, well what happened is that I learned that it's a choice.

Me: Wow!

Catherine's story

Catherine: So this is quite an exciting thing when you're dealing with the population. People I know, people I don't know, people in Facebook land and whatever. This idea that it really is a conscious and deliberate choice, and that the part of us that's doing the choosing is not the human part of us.

So this has all been very practical for me, because of my breathwork. I've been practising breathwork for a very long time.

To put it in perspective, I've ridden a bicycle all my life, I still ride a bicycle many miles a week. And at some point I decided I wanted to ride a motorbike. My brother rode a motorbike, I used to go on the back.

And I never dared to ask because I suppose in a way because I'm a girl, I knew that my parents or at least my mother wasn't going to allow it to happen. So I wasn't going to face the fight. I did ride horses which is just as safe or dangerous as riding motorbikes, but let's not go there.

It started with a motorcycle (motorbike)

Fast forward quite a long time, I was in a job with a nice team in a print department. I said to them, I fancy learning to ride. And then I saw one for sale in the paper. Unlike a car, and because it was a 125, it was a learner bike and the owner was getting rid of it because they'd passed the test and they wanted a bigger bike. It all made sense, so I bought it.

I rode it up and down the back alley, trying desperately to work out how to use the gears. Riding a motorbike when you've never ridden one is quite difficult. I had learned to drive a car so I understood the theory, but when you're trying to balance this wretched thing that falls over as soon as you stop...It has no reverse gear, so if you get into a pickle you can't get out again.

The crash...and the decision

I was tootling up and down. It wasn't very heavy so I could push it to turn it around. I took my CBT and I was out on the road practising and I got...

This story is about travelling the world, interviewing lots of men (everyone from porn stars to famous author John Grey), and going on a magical Ayahuasca journey.

And at the end of this episode I'll share with you the best mushroom you can use to make your own magical brew in your home in case you don't happen to have Ayahuasca growing on your doorstep.

What you will learn

•an easy way to start travelling the world and working from anywhere

•three things about men that not everyone may realize

•how to make a tasty brew at home that isn't Ayahuasca, but is pretty darn magical all the same At the end of this episode I'll share with you the best mushroom you can use to make your own magical brew in your home in case you don't happen to have Ayahuasca growing on your doorstep.

Our guest, Anna Rova

I am very excited to be joined here today by Anna Rova, who is a fellow podcaster, writer and entrepreneur. And among other cool things, Anna has some very interesting insights on relationships. She has interviewed all kinds of people about this topic, from porn stars to John Gray who is the author of the bestseller Men Are from Mars, Women Are From Venus. Anna has also done lots of other magical things, including Ayahuasca which she'll talk about a bit later.

So Anna welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! I'm really excited to have you here today!

Anna: Thanks for having me! I'm so excited too!

Beginning to travel the world with a one-way ticket

Me: Now I know that you basically travel the world writing and doing other amazing things, and I would really love for us to start by having you tell everybody how you came to become a digital nomad.

Anna: OK, well that's an easy subject to start with. I became a digital nomad about 2 years ago. Last year around May I started travelling full time, and I was in Malaysia working for a company called MindValley who make personal growth products. I did online marketing there and I got exposed to the digital nomads out there and one day I was like "Oh my God, I don't need to be in an office, I can be anywhere and do my work". So I was over my Malaysia chapter and I booked a one-way ticket to Bangkok. I had a friend there, I went to a wedding there. And then after a week in Bangkok I booked a ticket to an island, got an apartment, taught myself how to ride a scooter and that was it! And the rest is history!

It's such a journey, I've travelled all over the world, I've lived in more than 15 countries in the last 2 years. Just ask me what you want to know more about!

When in doubt, teach yourself

Me: I love how you taught yourself how to ride a scooter, I mean, was that just trial and error? Did you just fall off and then get back on?

Anna: I think that was the scariest shit ever in my life because overall I think I had that summer 3 accidents on the motorbike and that's unavoidable. When I was renting an apartment, I had to get around. And for anyone who's been to Thailand, besides Bangkok, the only way to get around is by...

This story is about how to avoid mind control, and what food is best for someone who is in urgent need of nutrition. There's even a touch of divine intervention.

What you will learn

•what kinds of people can be drawn into religious sects

•the subtle language that can hide mind control and other sinister aims behind what a course promises to teach you

•the biggest principle behind food that helps shape your body At the end of this episode I'll share with you a food that you can use not only to gain weight, but to lose weight too. How bizarre is that? But for now...

On with the story

Living in Paris, France

In the previous episode I shared with you what happened after a bomb literally went off (see Episode 8). I also mentioned that because of the Scientologists, I almost didn't get my resident card, which I was desperate to have so that I could continue to live and work in Paris.

Which brings me to today's story, which will close the chapter of my life with Scientologists. I moved on to other exciting things after that, such as a famous French hard rock guitarist and his vampire mom, but that's another story.

So let me explain how the Scientologists messed with me getting my resident card. The main reason is that they had brainwashed Dave and he started acting crazy. But I think I need to explain how that can happen, so I'll do that briefly.

Living in Montmartre

Before Dave and I got married, so before the crazy Italian (which I talk about in Episode 3), we were living together for a while in a gorgeous apartment in the center of Paris, near Montmartre. In addition to going to restaurants and all that other romantic stuff you can do in Paris, Dave and I had been reading about the principles of Scientology, because we found some of them can be quite useful. One of them is how you can help people get over a past trauma, which I've already talked about in Episode 7. Even if in my case it led to a bunch of pumpkin heads.

But - and this is a big but - the problem with Scientology is that you don't see the scary stuff until you're already pretty deeply embedded in their world. I'll get to an example of what I mean by scary stuff in a minute, but how do people get caught? And why do they stay? Here's what happened to me and Dave, anyway.

We'll take care of everything!

The Scientologists told us from the beginning that they could help us with just about anything. And over time, if you're a bit vulnerable like Dave was, you get sucked into their world. They tell you that you're part of their community, that you don't have to face the world alone, that you'll be able to handle anything that life throws at you...as long as you're with them.

You start to become totally drawn in by the feeling of being protected, being looked after and cared for, in a safe world that won't chan...

Not giving up when a bomb throws you a curveball, and a food for anxiety you can actually eat raw (if you want to)

What you will learn

•how sometimes it's crucial not to take no for an answer, even from the police

•a great food for anxiety relief At the end of this episode I'll share with you one of the best foods you can eat for anxiety relief. It's a food that I bet you don't know that you can eat raw!

On with the story

Living in Paris, France

So as with some of my previous episodes, this story takes place in Paris, France. In Paris I naively thought at the age of 24 that I could just move there and find work. I figured working wouldn't be a problem, despite the fact that at that time I couldn't speak the language and I didn't have a permit. My father and I had been to Paris before when I was 16, and I loved it so much that I'd vowed that one day I'd go back and be able to speak to the people there in their language.

And I did wind up doing just that, including getting my resident card and eventually French nationality, but both involved a long hard road, to say the least. Becoming fluent in French was really easy compared to getting my resident card.

Which brings me to today's story.

Falling in love with a Frenchman

After a year or two in Paris, I fell in love with a Frenchman (as you do). And if you've listened to previous episodes you'll know that he was also a) a hypnotist and b) a little crazy. Or at least a little vulnerable to religious sects. Not religious sex. I mean, I wish. Religious sex would have been better than nothing. Hmmm, that's definitely another story!

Anyway, I was living with my ex-French husband whom I call Dave. (I keep forgetting, yes he is still French, but he's definitely not my husband any more. Actually I don't even know if he's still alive...but I certainly hope so). I don't use his real name to protect him in case he listens to these one day and he's like "How dare she plaster our life together all over the internet!" Which I doubt because I don't even know if he was left with a phone after the Scientologists got a hold of him. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Dave and I were happily living together until a) we got married so that I could get my resident card and b) we found the Scientologists. I talk about how we wandered into the Scientology trap in Episode 7 so I won't repeat that here.

Married!

Once we got married I was really relieved because I figured it was just a matter of time until I'd get my resident card and finally be able to go after any job I wanted. Up to that point I'd had to do all kinds of crazy jobs where people didn't ask about things like permits. Cash in hand type jobs are somehow not so sexy, or so well paid...except for the oldest profession in the world. And there was no way I was doing that! Although the transvestite prostitutes who lived near my apartment across from the Eiffel Tower always seemed happy enough...but that's another story.

From...

How you can end up licking stamps for Scientologists, pumpkin heads (I kid you not), and why you might want to feed pumpkin to the men in your life

What you will learn

•how you can change your feelings about a scary event in your past

•why you might want to feed pumpkin to the men in your life At the end of this episode I'll share with you three things that you probably don't know about pumpkin, including why you might want to feed some to the men in your life. Oh - and the story also features a brief appearance of three pumpkin heads...

On with the story

Living in Paris, France

This story takes place in Paris, France, where I discovered in my twenties that there are all kinds of weird and wonderful (sometimes not so wonderful) ways to make money.

If you've listened to my previous episodes, you'll know that for a while I was living with a kind of crazy French guy (whom I call Dave) who used hypnosis to teach people English (more about that in Episode 1). Unfortunately for us both, Dave wound up getting totally sucked into the world of Scientologists. This is how one day I found myself licking stamps for them and getting more than a glimpse into their inner world, which had some good things about it but also some pretty creepy things. It's also how I came to see the pumpkin heads, which turned out to be a very good thing.

But first I need to start by telling you how Dave and I got involved with the Scientologists in the first place.

My first encounter with Scientologists

Dave and I were walking along the Paris streets at night - as you do because it's just so beautiful - and we saw this poster outside a beautiful building that advertised a talk given by the Scientologists on past lives. The talk was happening in like 10 minutes, so we thought, "Great! Perfect timing!" Plus it was a free talk, so we figured we had nothing to lose.

In our defence, we didn't know anything about Scientologists at that time. Dave wound up losing his apartment which he'd bought himself as well as his health, but that's another story.

We attended the talk, and while the content was pretty interesting, it basically turned out to be a big pitch to sign up for one of their courses. The courses were pretty expensive, but they said that you could attend the courses for free in exchange for volunteering. So Dave and I were curious and we thought, "Why not?"

How to get free food

You also could get free food if you helped them with some extra stuff, which is where the licking stamps comes in. I was desperate for an income at that time, and I figured that if licking stamps for Scientologists for a couple of hours was what it took to at least get food, I'd do that.

It was pretty easy work. I was basically in a basement office with this other girl, and she stuffed envelopes while I licked stamps. Then they'd feed me and I'd go back home. That part was easy.

As for the pumpkin heads, well t...

How teenage gangsters not knowing geography can be life-saving, and a common food that could have helped calm everybody down.

What you will learn

•what to do when faced with foreign (teenage) gangsters

•the best food to calm down (both for you and for everyone else) At the end of this episode I'll share with you one of the best, cheapest and most easily available items to make food to calm down, as well as help with stress and anger management. And believe me, the main character in our story could have really used something to chill him out.

This food is very common and I bet you eat it all the time without thinking about it. It isn't red, in case you're thinking about a food that I discuss in a previous episode that is also very common.

OK so it's easy to find and it isn't red. I think that's enough hinting from me, so let's get on with the story.

On with the story

Waitressing in France

This story takes place in France, while I was living in Paris. I lived there for 14 years, and one of my many different kinds of jobs when I was willing to do just about anything for money (as long as it was legal), was waitressing. What a surprise, right?

I had lots of other jobs too. I sang at parties and in restaurants, I taught people English (or I tried to) using hypnosis (I talk about that in Episode 1), and I even cleaned people's houses at one point who didn't believe I was a housecleaner (but that's another story).

This waitressing job was in a restaurant in a village way outside of Paris, in the middle of the countryside. It was in a big shopping center which was closed at night except for the restaurant, so it was OK during the day but was kind of spooky at night. However, I'd learned I could handle just about anything (including dangerous Italians, see Episode 4). And I needed the money.

The hardest part

The job itself was fine. I liked waitressing because it kept me busy and the time would fly by because I was running around all the time. There was one girl who worked there whom I just couldn't understand. She was from a small town in Scotland, and I was still getting used to hearing different kinds of accents when people were speaking. I mean, I grew up on Long Island New York where everyone talked with a New York accent. So strong foreign accents were hard for me to understand because I just wasn't used to it. But eventually I could understand her as well as the French customers. After a while, my French was fluent. This last bit is important to our story, as you'll see later.

The hardest bit of that waitressing job was getting back home. I had to get the last train going back to Paris, to then get the last metro train going from the mainline station to the metro stop near my house. So I was always racing to get the train.

My rebellion against late night train strategy

I was always told that if you were a woman on your own taking the...