Remember – If you’re enjoying these podcasts, please leave us a review in iTunes. Thanks!
Topics:
1. Active rest activities [10:29]
2. Finding a likeminded partner [12:19]
3. Movies [16:00]
4. Cave babies? [18:04]
5. Diane’s romantic life [19:20]
6. How scary is homesteading? [21:30]
7. Tick update & why Diane doesn’t want to live on a farm [24:13]
8. Missed non-paleo foods & paleo versions [31:29]
9. Practical Paleo in other languages [35:52]
10. Surgeries or beauty procedures? [37:10]
11. Introvert or extrovert? [43:48]
12. Reading for fun [46:13]
13. Makeup & nail products [49:07]
14. Non-paleo interests or hobbies [50:03]
15. Favorite city [53:16]
16. Bucket list [54:23]
17. Source of daily inspiration [55:00]
18. Next life goal [58:37]
19. Boyfriend/husband 100% paleo? [1:00:02]
20. Business advice [1:02:00]
21. Music, marriage, and the military [1:04:04]
22. Celebrity crushes [1:05:55]
23. What were you afraid to do but did it anyway and then realized you were worried for nothing? [1:06:40]
24. Bedtime routine [1:08:17]
25. New season of Arrested Development [1:09:38]
26. Screw it! I’m eating this (non-paleo food)! [1:10:07]
27. Stranded island must-haves [1:10:54]
28. Last meal [1:11:30]
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Liz Wolfe: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Episode 100 of the Balanced Bites Podcast!
Diane Sanfilippo: Whoa.
Liz Wolfe: I can’t believe it. Whoa. I sent out an Email Monday asking people to help me name the goats.
Diane Sanfilippo: On Monday?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, on Monday.
Diane Sanfilippo: I voted, actually.
Liz Wolfe: You did?
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: Well, I almost put in Blossom and Six.
Diane Sanfilippo: That would’ve been good.
Liz Wolfe: So, did you totally get that Joey what’s-his-name reference.
Diane Sanfilippo: Uh, yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Whoa. I used to be able to do that really well. Which names did you vote for?
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not telling you.
Liz Wolfe: You’re not?!
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ll tell you after you decide.
Liz Wolfe: [sigh] OK. I bet it’s not, like, the Jane Austen reference ones.
Diane Sanfilippo: I bet you’re trying to figure it out right now. OK, I’m going to avoid that question.
Liz Wolfe: OK. So what’s up?
Diane Sanfilippo: Let me tell everyone about our show sponsors first.
Liz Wolfe: OK.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK. I’m really excited because it sounds like we’ve been getting some people on board trying out Pete’s Paleo and Chameleon Cold-Brew. I’ve heard a bunch of people around the Interwebs on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook just letting me know that they’re trying out and really enjoying what our sponsors have to offer, so I’m psyched about that.
Our first sponsor is Pete’s Paleo… bringing fine dining to your cave. Pete’s Paleo is a meal delivery service, meal mail-order service, and they’re based out of the Southern California area, so if you’re in the San Diego area you can get their meals at a bunch of locations locally, or you can just hop online to PetesPaleo.com and order. You can get premade meals so you just go ahead and reheat in some boiling or simmering water. Right, Liz? You’ve done this before.
Liz Wolfe: Actually you just put them in a nice warm water bath to defrost them. They’re fully cooked already.
Diane Sanfilippo: Great.
Liz Wolfe: And then you open those up and just put them right in the skillet and heat them up. It takes 10 minutes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Awesome. If you go to PetesPaleo.com, you can receive two free meals with your order when you enter the code BALANCEDBITESROCKS at checkout, and you can hop onto the podcast blog post on BalancedBites.com and you can see the ad and just click on it, and the code is on there if you’re looking for it. And people have asked when the code expires. I don’t know! I think basically it’s going to run until we give you guys a red light on it, I suppose. But they’ve just basically given us the code, and it may be what’s good for the next couple of months while they’re our sponsor, so it’s TBD on when that code will expire. I don’t know for sure, but we’ll find out.
Liz Wolfe: Quit talking about it! Maybe they’ll forget…
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s good as long as we’re talking about it.
The other sponsor is Chameleon Cold-Brew, amazing coffee. Cold-brew, I talked about what’s special about it, I think, last week or the week before on the show. And the processing of cold-brew coffee is actually something that is a little bit gentler on some of the compounds in the coffee, so you get a really mild product. It’s amazing tasting. It’s very strong, so you can either water it down a little or do like Liz has done and drink the entire bottle not realizing it’s, like, four times as strong as regular coffee. [laughter] No, but I’m just really enjoying having that on hand. I don’t have to go out to the store and get something put together for me with any kind of weird ingredients that might be in heavy cream at places like Starbucks. If you don’t know, there are weird kinds of heavy cream over there. But anyway, you can make this stuff at home. Make your own cold, iced coffee, or you can heat it up and it’ll taste really great. It won’t taste weird like your hot coffee that just got cold, which is going to have a weird taste to it. You can get 25% off of your order if you use just the code BALANCEDBITES at checkout at ChameleonColdBrew.com.
Liz Wolfe: Very good.
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s it.
Liz Wolfe: Good job. So what’s going on with The 21-Day Sugar Detox?
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m at that point where… How do I say this without sounding completely ungrateful for the position that I hold in helping people learn? I’m hating everything about my book. Thankfully, last year this happened, too, and so I can look at it with a little bit of a better, more sane approach, I guess. I hit this point last year where I hated Practical Paleo, which obviously I don’t hate that book. I love it. I mean, it’s my first baby. But you just hit this point where you’re like: I hate my book. I can’t look at it anymore. It’s very hard for me to write, and I learned this about myself, I had this huge epiphany last week that it’s difficult for me to write to teach people things because I don’t learn from reading. It’s so much easier for me to speak or to teach in front of a group and be able to reiterate myself, and that’s not weird. That’s actually really helpful. But when you’re writing, you can only repeat yourself to a certain degree before it’s like: Yeah, yeah, we already read that. And I’m like: Oh… wait a minute. I can’t do that when I write. Yeah. I’m very thankful for editors. And that’s what I learned last week. Anyway.
Liz Wolfe: Good job.
Diane Sanfilippo: Anyway, the book will go to print very soon, and then I’ll have it very soon in my hands, and other people will have it starting September 24. How about you? You’re trying to birth a book over there.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. This being my first book-book, I’ve kind of resisted talking about it until I feel like I know it’s actually going to be birthed and it’s not just going to stay in my womb with cobwebs on it forever and ever. It really does seem like this is it. I got one of the chapters back from my one-on-one editor today, and we’re going to start working on that, and it sounds like it’s going to print early September and be in people’s hands, hopefully, by October. A lot of that is still working out, but I feel like it is actually going to be birthed and I can start talking about it incessantly. Hopefully a few people will buy it since I’ve basically pretended there was no book for the last year and a half.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think some people have already purchased it, actually.
Liz Wolfe: I sure hope so.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think I pre-ordered it, like, the day it was on Amazon.
Liz Wolfe: Thanks!
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, I’m excited for your book to come out also because next year… We don’t have dates yet. We’ll announce them as soon as we do, but we have probably at least six locations nationwide that we’re going to be doing Balanced Bites workshops, and I will probably also be doing some kind of smaller events, like some 21-Day Sugar Detox book signings and possibly some Sugar Detox intro classes that are maybe two hours or so long. But we’ll have, I think, about six locations around the country that we’ll be doing our BB workshops, right?
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: If you can find a goat babysitter?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. If we can find a goat babysitter. Exactly. If we can find a kid-sitter. Haha.
Diane Sanfilippo: Haha.
Liz Wolfe: Oh, my gosh.
Diane Sanfilippo: So funny.
Liz Wolfe: But hopefully I’ll have books in tow and be able to sign some books at the workshops. I think the scheduling is going to be good where I will have a couple of months to just recover because like you always used to say about Practical Paleo, there was a point where you really felt like you were going to…
Diane Sanfilippo: Keel over? That’s where I am right now.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. And I’m experiencing that now with trying to start this homestead and keep multiple birds and goats alive and trying to learn new things while still doing all of the old things.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yep.
Liz Wolfe: I’m going to have a little bit of time to, hopefully, relax and recover and maybe be able to bring a little bit of that wisdom of overcoming total, not just adrenal fatigue, but I’m pretty sure my kidneys, my liver, my pancreas, my gallbladder, my appendix, my tonsils, my wisdom teeth –
Diane Sanfilippo: Your fingernails.
Liz Wolfe: – I’m pretty sure they’re all just done. Yeah. So I’ll get back up to snuff and go on tour.
Diane Sanfilippo: Woohoo!
Liz Wolfe: Yay!
Diane Sanfilippo: All right, so questions. We posed this as a “listeners ask us almost anything” podcast, so of course, there are going to be topics that we think maybe are a little too personal for the thousands of listeners – which I don’t understand why so many people listen to us.
Liz Wolfe: Stop it, everyone.
Diane Sanfilippo: What?
Liz Wolfe: Stop listening!
Diane Sanfilippo: No. I don’t know. Evidently they find you entertaining. Definitely not me.
Liz Wolfe: I find me entertaining. What else do you need?!
Diane Sanfilippo: I think we should do this as a quick-fire format. I mean, usually we have some notes, obviously, because we have some pretty complex questions, and I started to type some answers to some of else, and then I realized it would just be more fun if we just kind of went through them quickly, maybe read the questions, I’ll answer, you answer, and then we just kind of keep going. Your thoughts?
Liz Wolfe: That sounds good.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK. Liz, roll.
1. Active rest activities [10:29]
Liz Wolfe: OK. All right, this first question: “What type of active rest activities do you personally do to lower stress and cortisol levels?” Diane?
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, I shop. [laughter]
Liz Wolfe: Stupid.
Diane Sanfilippo: I shop for groceries, and I shop for Lululemon. You know, I was thinking about this, because working on the books, it’s like I’ll go to the grocery store and I’m somebody who can actually sort of window shop in a grocery store, like, I just browse. But I’ll buy groceries. Both of those things make me really happy. I also watch Bravo, any show on there. Million Dollar Listing happens to be on lately… Interior Therapy, all of these horrible shows. I love them.
Liz Wolfe: Hmm. Interior Therapy.
Diane Sanfilippo: What do you do?
Liz Wolfe: So what I do – you know what’s bad is that we always tell people that watching something on a screen is not technically resting and relaxing because it’s probably stressing your brain out a little bit –
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, I beg to differ.
Liz Wolfe: – but I have a couple vampire fiction shows I’ll watch here and there, and my husband and I will have one series that we watch one episode every couple of days, and right now I’m trying to get him interested in Game of Thrones. I used to read a lot more for pleasure than I read right now, which makes me so sad. I feel like all I’m ever doing is working. This is something I need to work on, actually, more active rest activities. I think my number-one favorite thing to do is walk with my dog. I really, really think walking is one of the most important things that we can do for ourselves.
Diane Sanfilippo: I like that one. I’ve definitely been enjoying having a dog to walk sometimes when I’m not camping out alone. Next!
2. Finding a likeminded partner [12:19]
Liz Wolfe: Next. “How hard was it to find a likeminded partner? Between CrossFit and paleo, it’s hard to find.” Diane, say some cute things about your boyfriend.
Diane Sanfilippo: It was pretty hard for me. It took me a couple of years, I think. It was a couple of years into eating paleo, doing CrossFit. I’d say about two and a half, maybe three years into this whole thing. And I had dated some guys who maybe did one or the other, but just because they eat paleo or just because they do CrossFit doesn’t actually mean you’re going to really connect on all different levels. So for me, yeah, it was pretty tough. And I know this is going to sound kind of strange, but I hit a point where long ago I did the Match.com thing and all that kind of stuff, I mean, like, back before you could even tell someone you were doing that. I was just was not somebody who could meet people at bars or anything like that. This was before CrossFit and everything, but I hit a point where I was like: I don’t think I can be on Match anymore because someone will Google me and then be like: Oh, she’s a New York Times Best-Selling Author of this book. Actually it was long before that ever happened that I realized it probably wouldn’t make sense to be on Match anymore. Not that there’s anything wrong with Match. I think it’s great, OkCupid, all these crazy… whatever other ones that people are on. Anyway, long story short, I was introduced to my boyfriend through friends. For those of you who listen with very keen ears, the Food Lovers, Bill and Hayley, actually introduced me to my boyfriend, and I’m very thankful for that! I don’t know. It is hard. I think he and I are likeminded just in the way we approach life and health in general, and that lays a really good foundation for sort of everything because to both of us, holistic health and having that certain mindset is integral to what we do as careers. He’s a chiropractor. Because our careers are also a lot of our identity and what we believe, I think that was just super, super important. I don’t know. I think it was kind of tricky. But you had a different situation, right?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: You were not paleo when you met Spence.
Liz Wolfe: No. Not really. We were talking about this on a different podcast, I think, so I won’t ramble on too much, but I basically just married my bestie. He’s just a really open, willing soul, and I try and be open and willing, too. He introduced me to CrossFit, and then I think it just kind of went from there. Basically we just kind of are game for anything together, so it’s worked out well for me, I feel. I feel like I’m very, very blessed in that way. In my experience, the woman always wins when it’s important to her, so I feel like if you get together with somebody, you don’t have to both have the same interests at that point if there is a connection or if you’re interested in knowing that person better and being that person’s friend forever and ever, which is a really fun and difficult and awesome task. You know, you can evolve together.
Diane Sanfilippo: Haha. Pun intended?
Liz Wolfe: Pun intended. Yeah. Good on that one?
Diane Sanfilippo: Good.
3. Favorite movies [16:00]
Liz Wolfe: All right, next up: “What kinds of movies do you like?” Speaking of Match profiles…
Diane Sanfilippo: I have no idea.
Liz Wolfe: You don’t know?
Diane Sanfilippo: No, I know. Well, I mean, to be honest, I like dorky chick flicks, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Mean Girls and Clueless and all those silly movies, but I really like –
Liz Wolfe: Clueless is not silly.
Diane Sanfilippo: What?
Liz Wolfe: Clueless is not silly. Don’t you ever say that. Paul Rudd.
Diane Sanfilippo: I can’t… I can’t even. But I really also love independent films, Little Miss Sunshine, that kind of film. I went to Sundance Film Festibal – Festival. I don’t even have my Invisalign in, and I’m stumbling over my tongue and teeth. Yeah, I love independent films, and I also love documentaries. If I open up Netflix, I’ll watch documentaries over anything else, really. That’s kind of what I like.
Liz Wolfe: Well, I like old classics. Blazing Saddles, The Jerk, The Princess Bride.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, yeah.
Liz Wolfe: A Christmas Story, all those good ones. Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I also like documentaries, but the really random ones. I watched The Wild and Wonderful Whites on Netflix, and I probably burned through two-thirds of my brain just watching that, but it was kind of funny.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know what that is.
Liz Wolfe: Well, look it up.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK.
Liz Wolfe: I love the movie The Bird Cage. I could watch that a million times. I think Nathan Lane is hilarious.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Sixteen Candles.
Diane Sanfilippo: Of course.
Liz Wolfe: All that good stuff.
Diane Sanfilippo: Of course.
Liz Wolfe: Of course. I like a little of everything.
Diane Sanfilippo: I would lump the Sixteen Candles, Princess Bride, I mean, those aren’t silly new chick flicks, but I think they’re, like, cult comedy classics.
Liz Wolfe: Those are all-time classics. Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: History of the World, good stuff like that.
Diane Sanfilippo: Good stuff.
4. Cave babies? [18:04]
Liz Wolfe: Cool. All right, next up: “Liz, do you and the Cave Husband –” Oh, God, I didn’t see this before I started reading it. “Do you and the Cave Husband plan on having kids? Not a pressure question, just curious. I would absolutely love to read your take on various parenthood shenanigans.”
Well, I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I would be really, really happy if it was just me and this man for the rest of our lives with a constant brood of farm animals and our dog. But I think at this point it’s definitely an experience I’m interested in… maybe kind of more as an observer, I’m not really sure, but it’s something that’s sounding more interesting over time, but I honestly couldn’t say. You know, when people are like: Yeah, I think we’re gonna start trying for kids in 7.2 months… on a Thursday – No. We haven’t really thought of it that way.
Yeah. Good enough?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Cool. I promise to tell everybody all about parenthood shenanigans should that ever happen.
5. Diane’s romantic life [19:20]
OK, next up. This one I like. “I want to know about Diane’s dating and romantic life.”
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, I already sort of talked about it, so I guess –
Liz Wolfe: Do you hold hands?
Diane Sanfilippo: What?
Liz Wolfe: Do you hold hands and butterfly kiss?
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, my goodness.
Liz Wolfe: All the time.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think I already talked about dating sort of before, I mean, before I met Scott. Yeah, it was definitely tough. I don’t know what else to say about it. I mean, it’s just, like, sort of normal, but I’m not dating. I mean, I have a boyfriend, and that’s really it. He’ll probably be living here soon.
Liz Wolfe: I think this question was probably submitted when you were being a little coy about it or maybe people were starting to wonder but they didn’t have official confirmation.
Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe.
Liz Wolfe: Diane has a boyfriend!
Diane Sanfilippo: I was really quiet about it for a long time just because I think it’s really tough to be dating or in a new relationship and then public about it with fans and followers who kind of know your every step. And at some point I was posting a lot of Instagram pictures and all of that with, like, two plates and breakfast and things like that, so I think it became pretty obvious, but I didn’t really want to blow things up or anything like that, and I also didn’t want to put Scott out there so much when it was still really new because I think that would be really hard for someone, like, realizing all of a sudden 40,000 people or 50,000 people know what you just ate for breakfast. Seriously! But now he’s kind of out there a little bit more, and he’s totally fine with it, and he’s probably going to be teaching a little bit with us, so I think it’ll be fun for people to get to know what he’s all about and teaching everyone about this whole fun, nerdy thing we do.
Liz Wolfe: He’s good people.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. He’s my favorite.
Liz Wolfe: Aww.
Diane Sanfilippo: Aww.
Liz Wolfe: All right, enough of that.
Diane Sanfilippo: Enough of that. Back to you.
6. How scary is homesteading? [21:30]
Liz Wolfe: This one’s for me. “Liz, how scary is homesteading? I’m fascinated by the entire process, and I think that if we had more land we would have at least a couple chickens.”
Well, homesteading is very scary. There have been a lot of things that I didn’t think about. One of those things is how far we are away from help. If we were to have some kind of medical emergency, I would need to know how to deal with that myself. No neighbors to hear you yelling. But there are other things that are really amazing about it: the freedom that we have out here and just kind of getting to know ourselves and getting to do some hard work together. It’s pretty cool.
And a lot of this scariness is kind of the way I was perceiving things, and I could just as easily have considered everything to be an adventure, just kind of change my thoughts, you know, redefine “scary” as an adventure. And it’s been an adventure. Like, I always say, everyone should be blogging. If you start homesteading or you start to do that a little bit more, start putting it out there because I did write a blog post a little while ago about homesteading and about what I’ve kind of learned in the short time we’ve been doing this, and I’ve gotten so, so much support from other people. One person said exactly what I needed to hear at the time, and that was everything is going to take longer than you think it’s going to take. I was being really hard on myself because we hadn’t gotten the garden finished and all of these different things that kept popping up that had to be dealt with before I could actually do what I thought I wanted to do before we even bought this place, you know, when I had kind of a rosy view of how this was going to go, but it’s scary and I’ve had moments of regret, and I’ve had moments where I felt like this is the absolute perfect place for me.
I think what’s been the coolest about it is that as an adult I really could’ve just continued on that same path of least resistance and of extreme comfort in my living conditions and as we moved around the country with the Air Force doing kind of the same thing in each different spot, going from suburbia to suburbia or base housing to base housing, and I’ve literally, I think, exercised my brain and gotten really, really uncomfortable in a lot of different ways, and I think that’s actually made me mentally stronger, if that makes sense. You can see that I’m still kind of processing all of it, but in the end, I’m feeling really good about the whole situation right now.
7. Tick update & why Diane doesn’t want to live on a farm [24:13]
Liz Wolfe: All right. Oh, this one’s for me, too. This is from Tracy: “How are the ticks?”
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: “Do you own two tons of diatomaceous earth, and why aren’t the chickens eating them all?”
Well, the ticks are the ticks. I found a couple things that seem to work. First up – I’ll write about these eventually, but galoshes. I always wear galoshes when I go outside. I’ve been using a cedar spray from CedarCide.com, which is a pretty good holistic deterrent. I also spray that. I also use their livestock dip on my dog and on the goats. I do own two tons of diatomaceous earth. I was using that a ton at the beginning, but I’ve also done a couple of other things, and this isn’t so much rapid fire as we wanted it to be, but I will say that I have used some chemicals. I haven’t used chemicals all over the yard or all over my house. Within the house, I’ll use the diatomaceous earth every once in a while, and I’ll use the cedar stuff. But one thing I have done is found a spray that is chemical based, but you actually spray it on fabric. So what I did to avoid actually having this on my body or spraying something like DEET on my skin is that I’ve used this Sawyer Permethrin spray and I’ve gotten this tape, like the type of tape that you would tape a convertible top of some kind of cloth with. It’s basically fabric tape, and I’ve put it around places where the ticks were actually hanging out looking to hitch a ride, which sounds crazy, but they actually do this. They stand at kind of arm level in doorways that they know organisms pass through.
Diane Sanfilippo: That is so disgusting.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it is. It’s disgusting, and they’ll do it the same place every single day, and their arms are outstretched. They’re looking to hitch a ride. So I took this fabric tape and sprayed it down. I put it all around the door frames and around a couple of other places that I know they were crossing regularly and basically sprayed down the fabric with this Permethrin. It lasts for a little while, and basically when it dries, something about the chemical structure will mess with the ticks’ central nervous system and kill them, so it either repels or kills them. I figure that’s kind of a better compromise, using chemicals, because it was so bad. It was so bad, and I literally was not leaving the house for, like, two weeks because I was just trying to process what was going on.
I’ll write about this eventually, but the reason why the chickens and the guinea fowl aren’t eating them all is because they have to be old enough to free range and we got them as chicks. Any time you Google “natural tick control,” the first thing that pops up is guinea fowl. However, we tried bringing in some adult eat-tick-ready guinea fowl, and you just cannot train an adult guinea fowl to come back to your place to roost because they’re pretty wild, so within a couple of days even after having tried to keep them confined and learn their home, after a couple days they were just gone. You have to raise them from the time they’re babies, so we have some adolescent guineas and some adolescent chicks that hopefully soon will be taking care of that a little bit on our property, but it does take a while. Womp womp.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK. I’m officially never coming to visit.
Liz Wolfe: I know! I’m painting a bad picture.
Diane Sanfilippo: Picturing ticks with outstretched arms just waiting to jump on me… never. No.
Liz Wolfe: Diane –
Diane Sanfilippo: Uh-uh.
Liz Wolfe: The first time I saw that, I took the dog into the bathroom, shut the door, sat on the floor and cried, and apologized to my dog for bringing him to this horrible place.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think there was a question in here somewhere that was like: Diane, why don’t you want to live on a farm or a homestead… Yeah, there is. Like, I’m done. This is exactly why. I mean, I think it’s great that people are growing their own food and doing all this stuff, but I just don’t think I’m cut out for it. I like camping in the woods during the day and then I want to shower and have nothing gross at night. I don’t want to be worried about ticks. I’m freaked out enough by mosquitos. Seriously.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I understand. I do. It’s no joke. And I have to say, like, a long time ago I knew that this was something I wanted to learn about and think about doing, so last year or the year before, I went out to Polyface to do an audition to be an intern. But I went out there and worked for three days in January when there are no ticks and there are no bugs.
Diane Sanfilippo: Hmm.
Liz Wolfe: So I’m thinking I love this work, this is the most amazing experience, and then we come out here during the summer when everything is exploding and there are bugs and beetles and spiders everywhere.
Diane Sanfilippo: Will it get better? Do you have seasons there? Like, does it get cold in the middle of nowhere?
Liz Wolfe: Well, it has to get pretty dang cold to kill off the ticks. Oh, and I forgot to say that I spread some beneficial nematodes from ARBICO Organics, which you never know if what you’re doing is actually working. I see a lot fewer ticks now than I did before, but I’m going to be honest, too: I’ve gotten a little bit lazy about it. And this is going to horrify a lot of people, but the biggest vehicle for bringing in ticks is the pets. So we made the decision because all of our natural stuff, all the essential oil drops and the lemongrass and the citrus and the blah blah blah and the neem oil even, which stinks all to hell was not working, and so we did decide to go ahead and use Flea and Tick for the next couple months on the dog just to give us a little bit of time to figure this out.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: The cedar stuff seems to be working, but we have to spray it on the dog every single time he goes outside, and this is a huge dog and he’s not happy about it. We never did Flea and Tick when we were in New Jersey. It didn’t seem like we needed to. But out here, we had to give our dog a break, and we had to give our house a break. Generally, if we find ticks in here now, they’re dead ticks because that’s what the Flea and Tick does. It’s not my favorite choice, and it’s one I hope that we can stop doing eventually, but it’s the choice that we had to make for right now. But I’m seeing a lot fewer ticks just around, which is crazy because it’s been, like, monsoon weather and really warm up here, so it’s possible that the nematodes are working. I’m using a multipronged approach to try and figure out what works out.
Diane Sanfilippo: It sounds like we’re going to need to dedicate an entire episode to Liz’s homesteading adventures.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And everyone who just wanted to find out what color nail polish we were wearing is now like: What?! I’m out.
Liz Wolfe: So over it. That said, I think that’s actually a good idea.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m scared of all of it. And I’ll just mention, Paleo Kitty would starve to death if he didn’t come walking around my feet meowing at me when he’s hungry late at night. I think I would kill anything that can’t walk up to me and remind me that it needs to be fed.
Liz Wolfe: Shall I do this next one from Stephanie?
Diane Sanfilippo: I think there’s one from Amy. Yeah, we just did the one from Stephanie. Amy.
8. Missed non-paleo foods & paleo versions [31:29]
Liz Wolfe: All right, on to Amy: “What non-paleo food do you miss most, and have you tried to make a paleo version?”
Diane Sanfilippo: Hmm. Uh, I think probably pizza and donuts, like, the most disgusting types of things that are out there. I don’t know. I don’t mean disgusting in a derogatory way. I know that sounds terrible, but I just mean it’s not, like, a French baguette. It’s real-deal Jersey pizza, maybe bagels, and donuts. I’ve thought really long and hard about just going down the street to my pizza place that I grew up eating pizza at and getting a slice and just kind of seeing, you know, is it as good as I remember? Do I feel disgusting and bloated? Am I living in the bathroom for two days after I eat it? I’ve not tried to recreate pizza myself. I’m not good at baking, so the idea of me trying to create a crust sounds like the worst idea I’ve heard in a long time. I have made some grain-free donuts. They’re fine. They taste good, they have a fun shape, but I haven’t made them super sweetened. I’ve made basically 21-Day Sugar Detox ones, so they’re nothing decadent or that you want to eat 12 of. So, like, a good Krispy Kreme and pizza from Frank’s or Ray’s in my town. That’s kind of, I think, what I miss the most, and I guess I’ve not really tried hard to sort of recreate them. I don’t know. I just don’t think I would do it justice. And I actually haven’t had something you look at and know that it’s gluten in probably over three years now. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It feels really strange.
Liz Wolfe: It might be time for you to remind yourself why you don’t eat that stuff.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah! I keep thinking about that because I haven’t been able to pinpoint, like: Oh, I had a gluten exposure last night and this is what happened today. I’ve definitely been able to pinpoint lately that tomatoes, I think I react to tomatoes with some digestive upset, maybe bell peppers, too. I’m pretty sure definitely tomatoes.
Liz Wolfe: You’re pretty sure definitely.
Diane Sanfilippo: Anyway, that’s boring. I’m pretty sure definitely, like 80%.
Liz Wolfe: I miss barbeque chicken pizza from Minsky’s.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ooo.
Liz Wolfe: That’s what I miss, big time.
Diane Sanfilippo: Barbecue chicken pizza. I used to get this pizza from Extreme Pizza that when I first got it I was convinced I wouldn’t like it because I didn’t think I liked any pizza that didn’t have red sauce on it, but it was this four-cheese pizza that had chicken and ranch dressing and sage on it, and I was like: That’s not going to be good. That sounds too frou-frou, and I was obsessed with it. I think it’s probably some of the last gluten I had. Anyway.
Liz Wolfe: Interesting.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ahh, sigh.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. My treats, generally I’m happy with… We’ll do organic corn tortilla chip nachos, like that type of thing. And you know what I do miss sometimes is, like, a really good hamburger bun, like an onion bun on a really good hamburger.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I just haven’t had it in so long that now I’m just so used to not having it, but yeah, I’ve made sweet potato pancakes into buns with the burger and been like: Wow! This is cool. It actually absorbs all the juice. It doesn’t run down my hand like in a lettuce wrap.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, yeah. I don’t know. It’s not that I’m really that much of a zealot. I almost just feel like… I don’t know. I think about doing it, and then I just don’t. I’m like: Meh.
Liz Wolfe: A lot of these paleo versions of things, they’re just so hard, so many things you have to do to make it work. I’m too lazy for that.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m so bad at baking to begin with that then trying to actually make it seem like the original sounds like a recipe for complete disaster for me, right? I mean, c’mon. I know you wouldn’t want to eat something I’m trying to make, like, recreate some kind of baked good.
Liz Wolfe: Meh.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oy. OK. What’s this one?
9. Practical Paleo in other languages [35:52]
Liz Wolfe: Next one: “Will Practical Paleo be in other languages?” Such as for the Czech Republic?
Diane Sanfilippo: I forget what language it’s already been translated to. That’s really good of me. It’s been translated to at least one other language so far. I’ll see if I can find out and post it, but the way that that works, and this might be interesting for you to hear, too, Liz, is actually we don’t control that process from our publisher. What happens is that international publishers will have to ask for the rights to publish in another language and sort of in their country. So it’s a distribution/publishing thing more so than just translate the book and have our publisher publish it.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because the way that it gets distributed in other countries is different than the way that we would do it here. It’s not up to me, it’s not up to my publisher, really, but anytime they get an offer from an international publisher, we entertain it and it’s up to me whether or not I want to go ahead with it. So if you are someone who speaks another language or you know some people in another country who know a publisher, have them contact Victory Belt.
Liz Wolfe: Bueno.
Diane Sanfilippo: And there you go.
10. Surgeries or beauty procedures? [37:10]
Liz Wolfe: OK, this is a fun question. “Have you had any surgeries or beauty procedures that are not natural? I don’t mean to judge. Just wanting to know if one can achieve beauty like yours 100% naturally.” Uh…
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m pretty sure… This is Erica, and I’m pretty sure she’s looking at heavily Photoshopped photos.
Liz Wolfe: If she could see what I look like right now… [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t think anyone who’s met us in person would ask this question!
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think if you’re looking at pictures of either of us online that we use for a lot of promotional stuff, it’s mostly just Photoshop, and to be honest with you –
Liz Wolfe: But not mostly Photoshopped. They’re professionally taken pictures, like angles, colors…
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s what I was going to say. It’s a few things. It’s, one, professional makeup. You and I have both had our makeup done professionally by our friend Hayley Mason, who is actually… I mean, she is phenomenal at high-definition makeup. The photographer who I was working with this week who you and I have both worked with, she’s like: Her makeup is flawless, the way that she does makeup. It’s almost a shame that she has this whole other amazing set of talents around food and cooking because she’s really, really talented with makeup. So part of it’s that. Part of it’s professional hair. Our friend Sam Geiser does our hair when we’re down in Pittsburgh. You and I have the same sort of glam squad. So part of it’s that. It’s hair and makeup that is not what you would do yourself. It’s just like when you go to make a recipe from any cookbook and you’re like: This didn’t come out looking like the cookbook and I used all the same ingredients! You could give me the same makeup and the same brushes and it will not look like what Hayley does. Part of it’s that.
Part of it is a professional photographer and lighting that’s appropriate and whatever adjustments they make in Photoshop. And it’s not like they change your entire face around, but I’m pretty sure when we get pictures back they’ve done things to kind of make our skin look a little more perfect and just make things look better. And that’s not to say that every picture is so unreal. Like, if you were to look at a lot of those crazy before-and-after’s of celebrities, our pictures aren’t reworked in those ways. It’s not like a magazine cover where you won’t recognize us. And when you meet us in person, you’ll recognize us. We look pretty much the same. But when you polish things up for a photo, you know, if I had a pimple that day on my cheek, it’s going to get retouched out because it just doesn’t look nice on a book cover. Actually I broke out because I ate cheese this week. My whole forehead broke out. I’ll be blogging about this soon. But you know, when it comes to a picture, that’s what’s going to happen to it. And it’s not that we’re making ourselves lose 40 pounds by Photoshop or changing everything around so much, but it’s just those little things that make a picture look kind of more perfect, I guess. I don’t know. What do you think about that?
Liz Wolfe: We have normal pictures, I think, of us up on our Facebook pages, too.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, Instagram.
Liz Wolfe: You know what, though? I will admit to this: I have had laser hair removal. And part of that is because – this kind of ties back in to the Purely Primal Skincare Guide stuff, like, a lot of people know I’m kind of obsessed with natural skincare and all that, and back when I was dealing with really bad acne, especially around my jawline and under my chin, it was a problem of excess androgens, which I go through a little bit in the guide and I will in a hormonal update here pretty soon, but basically what that can do to some of our hair follicles is basically masculinize them. I had some dark… This is so… I still don’t even like to admit to this, but I had whiskers, like, some dark whiskers under my chin, so I’ve had laser hair removal for that. But she’s probably not talking about the underside of my chin looking so beautiful.
Diane Sanfilippo: And also for anyone who hasn’t seen my nose from every angle, I’m quite Jewish! And the other thing, too, being in front of people a lot and having a lot of pictures taken, it’s made me a little bit more sensitive to kind of what’s happening. And I’m not trying to look perfect or trying to be something that’s unattainable because I just don’t believe in that kind of situation, but I had noticed my teeth were just not looking super white. And I noticed in my family, like, my mom and my grandma both have teeth that are pretty dark. My wife drinks a lot of tea. My grandma really never drank a lot of dark things. So I think for what it’s worth, the hereditary aspect of just maybe not super strong enamel on my teeth and not just hereditary, obviously, but from having been formula fed as a baby and maybe not growing up on the best food and not having the best foot forward in that sense, so I had some teeth whitening done. I feel like it didn’t really last. I spent a whole bunch of money to get my teeth whitened and then I feel like two weeks later they did not really look that white anymore anyway. And then the Invisalign now. I never had braces as a teenager, so I have just a couple of crowded teeth and the whole jawline being too small. So it’s stuff that I’m doing that I don’t really think it’s anything so different, and actually once I started posting about the Invisalign, a ton of my readers were like: I had it too! Or, I have it now! So, just little things.
Liz Wolfe: Cool.
Diane Sanfilippo: Am I still there?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, you’re still there.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK, cool.
Liz Wolfe: There’s a lot an eyelash curler and some laser hair removal can do, but these B cups are mine, baby.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, me too.
Liz Wolfe: [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and lashes. At photo shoots, we get some lashes. And anytime you’re watching television –
Liz Wolfe: Actually, I didn’t get lashes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, your lashes are like…
Liz Wolfe: Freakishly long.
Diane Sanfilippo: You didn’t? I thought you did. Whenever you see any kind of actress on TV that looks like she has any kind of lashes, you can recognize –
Liz Wolfe: Zooey Deschanel.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: She’s just one big walking eyelash and hair extension.
Diane Sanfilippo: Totally.
Liz Wolfe: Love her, though. Love her. All right, I think that’s enough of that.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK. Who’s next?
11. Introvert or extrovert? [43:48]
Liz Wolfe: Next up: “Do you guys consider yourselves introverts or extroverts? Do you ever want to unplug from your Balanced Bites/Cave Girl personalities and hide out for a while? – written by an introvert”
I’m an introvert. I’ve been an extrovert, I think, or I’ve probably thought I was an extrovert before in my life, but I definitely have the characteristics of an introvert. I was talking to our friend Lee from Paleo Treats about this, that she and I both are more energized by introspection. I do better with one-on-one or small group interactions, and I don’t like for them to be too long because I like to go home and just reflect on everything that just happened. So, yes, I absolutely want to just unplug and hide out for a while, and honestly that’s something that I struggle with quite a bit.
Diane, what do you think?
Diane Sanfilippo: Hmm… I’m pretty sure I’m extroverted in some scenarios and as I’ve gotten older, more introverted in a lot of other scenarios. I think part of that’s pretty well evidenced by what happens when we teach groups. I think it’s natural for extroverts to feel comfortable speaking in front of large groups, and it’s pretty natural for introverts not to feel that comfortable doing that.
Liz Wolfe: Hey-oh! That’s me.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and it doesn’t mean that they don’t love doing it. I think Scott’s pretty much an introvert, too. He loves to teach, though. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love to do it. I don’t know. I think I’m a little bit of both, and as I get older, I just kind of think about what happens with how much quiet time I want and how much I used to want to be around people all the time and socializing and all that, but I think as I get older, I don’t know if I’m just getting older or if I’m becoming more introverting or what. Yeah, I don’t know. I think a little bit of both but probably more extroverted.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it’s definitely something that I struggle with more now because I am kind of out there and it makes me feel pretty depleted a lot of the time, so that’s something I’m working on figuring out. It’s a good question.
12. Reading for fun [46:13]
All right, next up: “What books do you like to read for fun? I’m a true crime junkie,” says Rachel, the person who asked the question.
Diane, what do you read for fun?
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, now or in general? I don’t really read for fun.
Liz Wolfe: [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t.
Liz Wolfe: I had a boyfriend once who… ugh, never mind because he might be paleo. Who knows? He might be listening to this.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t read for fun because I feel like if I’m reading usually I want to learn something… even though I don’t learn that well by reading, which sounds really random, but if you were to look at my bookshelves, they’re cookbooks and nutrition books. I can probably count on one hand the number of fiction books I’ve read in the last 10 years. I guess that doesn’t mean it’s not for fun, right?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. They can be fun.
Diane Sanfilippo: I did read Water for Elephants. What is that book? Something like that.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was combining Like Water for Chocolate and some kind of elephant book.
Liz Wolfe: Some kind of elephant book. Dumbo? I don’t know. Was that a book?
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s called Water for Elephants. It was, like, a circus story and when I was training on trapeze for a year and a half, I was really excited to read that because I would picture what their lives were like. And then I learned where “let’s get this show on the road” came from as an expression, like, literally the circus show was on the road, and they’d be like: Let’s get this show on the road! Get everybody together and leave town.
Liz Wolfe: Well, look at you!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I know, right? I don’t know. A terrible, boring answer. What about you? You read vampire fiction?
Liz Wolfe: I don’t, actually, surprisingly. I’ve been trying to get through Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon for, like, 10 years. I liked Underworld by Don DeLillo. I’ve read a little bit of fiction but nothing that really stood out to me too much. I’m trying to remember… I’m reading a book about yoga right now because lately I do kind of feel like I want to learn when I’m reading rather than escape, but eventually I’m going to read some fiction again because I used to like it. I like a lot of the classics. I was an English major a million years ago, so I like a lot of British literature, too. Cool?
Diane Sanfilippo: Whoa. I’m sleeping. I don’t even know what you just said.
Liz Wolfe: You just fell asleep.
13. Makeup & nail products [49:07]
OK, next up: “What are your favorite makeup and nail products?”
I like Caron Minerals, 100% Pure, and Scotch Naturals for nail polish, or Acquarella.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have toxic things on my nails, I’m sure. Glitter mostly. I use… what’s this brand of makeup?
Liz Wolfe: Jane Iredale, maybe?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, it’s Jane Iredale. And then sometimes I use Bare Minerals mascara. But yeah, it’s Jane Iredale. It’s mineral makeup. Most days of the week I don’t wear makeup just because I’m home alone. Nobody’s going to see me… with fermented cod liver oil cream on my face.
Liz Wolfe: With fish butt cream on your face.
14. Non-paleo interests or hobbies [50:03]
“Diane, what’s your favorite thing or hobby unrelated to the paleo lifestyle?”
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t really know what that means. You answer this.
Liz Wolfe: This is why you’re such a good spokesperson because you just embody this whole lifestyle.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, stop.
Liz Wolfe: No, you do! And I respect that a lot, but honestly I think that that’s not something that everybody feels and lives the way it’s just so… it’s just kind of built into your cells, I think.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, but… here we go, like, something I really love that’s not really related, like kind of my former life, is design and graphic design, interior design. I want to do things to my condo that are really cool and different paint colors and different wall textures and things like that, and I just never have the time to put into it because I feel like I’m always more career, food, whatever focused, and part of the fun of this being my career is that it’s like I get to eat all of it, whatever it is! But I’m definitely really into that. I’ll watch a lot of Food Network, but I’ll also watch a ton of HGTV and home remodeling and all of that, so I think that would probably be it – design, graphic design, home design. All of those things are things are kind of a favorite thing of mine.
Liz Wolfe: I like to sit on screened-in porches. I love playing golf. I guess we could relate that to the lifestyle in some way or another. And I really love writing, too, which I’ve been able to integrate into this whole thing through the blogging and through the writing of a book.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: I like sports. I like field hockey, basketball, soccer. I like watching field hockey, basketball, and soccer. I like traveling to really random places. I like being at home. I really do like being at home, being a homebody, hanging out with my husband and my dog. It’s funny. My interests and my hobbies have changed a lot as I’ve gotten older. As I’ve gotten to be almost 30.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was going to say, are you even 30 yet? You’re not even 30 yet.
Liz Wolfe: So close.
Diane Sanfilippo: When I think of this question, unrelated to the paleo lifestyle, I think of it more as unrelated to my career that’s related to the paleo lifestyle.
Liz Wolfe: Hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: But the truth of the matter is cooking is one of my favorite things, and also cooking for someone or cooking with someone. Scott and I actually… I’ve never been able to work in a kitchen with somebody so easily. I think Hayley and I probably do pretty well sharing a kitchen, but it’s definitely different when it’s your significant other versus a friend. But cooking together, that’s a really fun thing for me, whether or not it was related to paleo even kind of in my non-paleo days back when.
15. Favorite city [53:16]
Liz Wolfe: All right, so what’s your favorite city, Diane?
Diane Sanfilippo: I kind of have to say San Francisco. You?
Liz Wolfe: I don’t know what my favorite city is.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do love Portland, though.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, San Francisco, I lived there for seven years. How could I not say it? But I do love Portland. We had a really good time there, right?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah! Portland is the bomb.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love Austin, too! What am I saying?!
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I would say Austin’s one of my favorite cities.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: I like experiencing things with my BFF, my husband, so some of my best memories are from Wichita Falls, Texas, because that’s where he was for pilot training, and I would come down and visit him, and it was just a lot of fun to go down to the… What was it called? Double A Lounge or Triple A Lounge or something, just this disgusting bar with shag carpet.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was going to say, as long as it wasn’t a triple X lounge somewhere.
Liz Wolfe: No! No. And Kansas City, of course.
16. Bucket list [54:23]
All right, so what’s on your bucket list, Diane?
Diane Sanfilippo: I really just want to travel. I kind of want to travel around the world, and I kind of want to do it on a boat.
Liz Wolfe: I want to go back to Greece. That’s where we went for our honeymoon.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m going next summer!
Liz Wolfe: It’s the trip of a lifetime, and I want to go back there. We went to Sifnos and Milos. And I want to go all over the islands, the Cyclades. I probably said that wrong and Tony’s going to make fun of me.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m sure.
Liz Wolfe: Whatevs.
17. Source of daily inspiration [55:00]
All right, next one: “Where do you get your daily inspiration from?”
Diane Sanfilippo: I think every day, honestly, with work stuff my inspiration really just comes from the people who are coming to the Facebook page primarily and asking questions and seeing where their pain points are, what are they struggling with, what do they love about the work that I’m doing, what do they still have a lot of questions about. Really just being a problem solver is sort of in my nature. I’m the girl who other girls – you can’t call me about boy problems and expect me to just listen. I’m like a guy in that way. I want to solve your problems. I’m the one who tells you to take the nail out of your head if there’s a nail going through your head and it’s hurting and you just want me to listen about the pain that you’re in, and I’m like: Just remove the nail from your head. What are you talking about? Have you seen this video?
Liz Wolfe: No.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ll have to link to it. It’s called “It’s not about the nail” on YouTube for anyone who wants to go look that up. But I do get really inspired and motivated from the reviews that people leave on places like Amazon, where they say: I bought this book three months ago, and I’m just now coming on here to write this review. And they talk about how their life has turned around. And granted, not everyone has the same kind of gigantic turnaround as somebody else, and that’s not to say that your smaller turnaround isn’t as valuable to me, but I literally cry when I read some of these reviews. How could I not be inspired and motivated to keep doing what I’m doing by reading that stuff? So thank you to everyone who shares those stories.
Liz Wolfe: That’s good. I’m in a place in my life right now where I’m kind of… quite honestly I’m just kind of going through the motions right now. I have a wonderful, really happy life, but there’s just so much going on and so much, I think, that’s required of me right now that what’s really kind of motivating me daily – and I probably need to seek out some added inspiration and make an effort to do that, but right now I think it’s totally acceptable that most of my motivation is just based on my sense of duty, you know? I want to take care of my family and take care of my dog and the people that I love, and that’s kind of where I’m getting that chug-along from right now. That’s not how it always is for me. Some days you bounce out of bed and you’re just so excited, but for me, it’s kind of like there’s such a long list of things that I need to get done that sometimes it’s kind of hard to see outside of that. If you have a message that you feel like is important and even one person is listening, you feel that. That’s an important thing. Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. It’s good stuff.
Liz Wolfe: I’m learning how to process things, and it’s hard because sometimes when you do work for yourself for a large proportion of your income – I know you’re 100% self-employed, and I’m partially, semi-self-employed doing probably too many things at once – I think you have to figure out where you want your time to be spent because I think while it’s important to perform for others and fulfill expectations and all that stuff, you also do have to kind of turn inward and ask what are you doing for yourself, you know?
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
18. Next life goal [58:37]
Liz Wolfe: This is the next question: “What’s the next life goal for you?”
Diane Sanfilippo: For me?
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Me?
Liz Wolfe: You!
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s back to that travel thing. Like, Mira and Jayson Calton, I consider them to be modern-day versions of the Howells from Gilligan’s Island.
Liz Wolfe: [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: The way that they operate is they work hard for months and months and then play hard, go travel and do things like that. And I would love to do that. I really love traveling to teach. I realize when I’m not on the road doing that I miss that. I miss connecting with people who are out there, and I love even traveling just within the country, seeing a bunch of our friends in other states, whether it’s California or Texas or whatever. So I’m hoping that I’ll be able to just get a little bit more scheduled out with some things that are business side maintaining themselves so that I can do some more traveling. I don’t really have another huge life goal other than that. I’m just hoping to continue to do the work that I love and find different ways to evolve that. I don’t have the idea of like… Some examples she had were mastering a new language or bungee jumping. Nope. Neither of those is in the cards for me, I don’t think.
Liz Wolfe: My next life goal is to grow a successful garden, which sounds really silly and small –
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s a good one.
Liz Wolfe: – but that would probably be a monumental accomplishment for me if I can get that figured out.
Gosh, should we just get through these? Rapid fire? We kind of lost rapid fire.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, let’s just do a bunch more, as much as we can. It’s been probably just about an hour or a little over.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it’s been about an hour.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s OK if we run a little bit longer. People can pause and retune in.
Liz Wolfe: Come back to it. All right, we’ll get back to rapid fire for these last ones.
Diane Sanfilippo: We’re too chatty.
19. Boyfriend/husband 100% paleo? [1:00:02]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, next question: “Do your husbands eat junk food or things you don’t approve of?”
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t have a husband, but my boyfriend sometimes eats organic corn chips. That’s pretty much it. He’s pretty paleo.
Liz Wolfe: My husband is pretty paleo, but yeah, he eats stuff that’s not “paleo.” However, I don’t have any disapproving feelings about that. He’s a grownup. He can eat what he wants.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: When we’re home we eat paleo, but he’ll go out to eat. One time I found a Sonic bag in the trashcan.
Diane Sanfilippo: [laughter] That’s epic!
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. It’s all good.
Diane Sanfilippo: Actually, just the other day, Scott was like – I know we were supposed to rapid fire these – but he was like: I eat rice. And I was like: You mean you, like, cook it here in the house? And he’s like: Well, no, but sometimes if I’m out. And I’m like: Well, I know that. I don’t know if your husband’s like this, but Scott’s pretty lean and needs to eat a lot of carbs, and so I’m like: I don’t know. If you feel good eating it, eat it. I don’t disapprove. No.
Liz Wolfe: No.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s whatever. But gluten’s probably a bigger one for me that I’m like: Please don’t eat that and then kiss me or anything.
Liz Wolfe: [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: OK.
20. Business advice [1:02:00]
Liz Wolfe: All right, next one: “What is the best piece of business advice you can give?”
This one’s for you. I don’t know.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m still trying to figure it out.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think I have two pieces. One is you have to do something that you wake up with a burning passion for every day. And even if you don’t do it now, you have to make a plan, I think, to wake up and feel like there’s nothing else you could do. Like, this is what you have to do. Because as hard as it is to work for yourself or whatever the job is, as hard as it might be, if you feel like this is your passion, it’s not hard. It doesn’t feel like work. It’s just the thing you have to do.
But the other thing that I tell a lot of people who work for themselves primarily, not for people who get a paycheck regardless, I guess, is that you cannot expect to grow wealth by being paid hourly for what you do and only getting paid for hours that you can work because there is a finite number of hours in the day, a finite number of clients you can work with, and absolutely anyone, especially who’s getting into health and coaching and all of that, you just can’t expect to grow any sort of income simply by seeing more people or even by necessarily just raising your prices per hour. You have to find a way to earn money that doesn’t involve actual hands-on work.
Liz Wolfe: My best piece of advice is listen to Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: [laughter]
Liz Wolfe: You never steer me wrong.
Diane Sanfilippo: I keep trying to give some of my friends advice. I’ve learned this now. I generally have stopped providing unsolicited advice because people don’t really take it, but I’m like: I’m just trying to save you the hassle of the last, like, three years of my life. But yeah, I think that’s kind of important. Yeah.
21. Music, marriage, and the military [1:04:04]
Liz Wolfe: OK, so for this next question I’m going to read and answer the questions for me and then you go through and read and answer the questions for you.
Diane Sanfilippo: Go!
Liz Wolfe: All right. “What kind of music do you ladies like?”
I don’t know. If I hear it and I like it, then I like it. I like James Taylor, Tom Petty. My first concert was Ruff Ryders, so figure that out! Oh, I love Eric Church, too.
“Liz, how long have you been married?”
Umm… three, four years.
“Is your husband out of the military now?”
No.
“If not, will you have to leave your homestead at some point if he is stationed somewhere?”
There is a small possibility, but we do plan on keeping it. He’s in a position now where this is the only place that he can really do this particular job, so chances are good that we will be able to make a home here for a very long time.
Diane Sanfilippo: How much more time does he have?
Liz Wolfe: In the Air Force, I think, like, six years.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK.
Liz Wolfe: Something like that. Yeah. He’s a trained assassin. Actually, I’m really proud of him. More people have been in outer space than have actually done the job that he’s doing now.
Diane Sanfilippo: Special.
Liz Wolfe: He does a good job. I’m very proud of him. OK, now you.
Diane Sanfilippo: “Music?”
I like most things. I don’t really know. I went to see Guster twice this summer. I like all kinds of different music, but if I had to pick just one type of music to listen to exclusively for the rest of my life, it would be ’60s music. And now a little fun fact: ’60s on 6 XM radio. That was my favorite station for a really long time.
Liz Wolfe: That was a fun fact.
Diane Sanfilippo: The Beatles, all that good stuff. Yeah.
22. Celebrity crushes [1:05:55]
Liz Wolfe: So, let’s do this next one, then. We’ll skip the first part, but who’s your celebrity crush? Mine is… who’s that guy? Ryan Reynolds and Real Food Ryan Gosling. Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling. And Matt Damon.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ryan Gosling or Real Food Ryan Gosling?
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have to say my celebrity crushes are TV chefs. Shocking!
Liz Wolfe: Oh, my God.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have had a crush on Tyler Florence for forever. And getting a picture of him at his book release, whatever, signing at William Sonoma a couple of months ago was definitely a highlight of my life.
23. What were you afraid to do but did it anyway and then realized you were worried for nothing? [1:06:40]
Liz Wolfe: All right, next one: “What is one thing you were afraid to do in life but did it anyway and then realized after the fact that you were worried for nothing?”
This is an easy one for me. Mine was definitely fall in love and commit myself to a good man.
Diane Sanfilippo: Aww.
Liz Wolfe: Best thing I ever did, for sure.
Diane Sanfilippo: Hmm. I think I was definitely a little bit afraid in the beginning just starting out teaching. That was definitely scary. I was afraid that that would just be a total bomb. I can’t say I was worried for nothing because it could have really been a bomb! I don’t know. I’m not really that afraid of things in general. I don’t usually do things that I’m super afraid of, like swimming where there might be sharks or something like that. I don’t know. I have more physical fears, I think, than psychological fears, if that makes sense.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I’m not really afraid of many things.
Liz Wolfe: Next question. This file is going to be too big for me to upload to Dropbox.
Diane Sanfilippo: We might have to split it into, like, a special episode. Should we try and end it now?
Liz Wolfe: Episode 100.1?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, a little secret episode. Maybe we’ll have to record the ending and then splice it in and then have them listen to this part after.
Liz Wolfe: So what do you want to do, keep going or not keep going?
Diane Sanfilippo: I think we should just get through them. There are only, like, two or three more.
24. Bedtime routine [1:08:17]
Liz Wolfe: All right. “What’s your bedtime routine?”
Diane Sanfilippo: I brush my teeth and oil cleanse my face. I take out my contacts and try and fall asleep if I’m by myself. Sometimes I listen to a TV show.
Liz Wolfe: Well, what do you do when you’re not by yourself?!
Diane Sanfilippo: He falls asleep, like, immediately, so I’m lying there like: OK, I’m gonna fall asleep. And it’s way earlier if I’m not by myself.
Liz Wolfe: My husband does that, too. He just falls straight asleep.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, 5 seconds.
Liz Wolfe: Literally 5 seconds. I don’t know how he does it. We’ll be talking, and he just kind of twitches, and I’m like: Oh, OK. You’re sleeping. That’s cool.
So I oil cleanse. I do a little dry brushing. I brush my teeth with OraWellness.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And actually now I’ve had to shower almost every night because it’s just dirty and grimy out in the barn. But that’s generally what I do, and then I lie down and I try and sleep on my back so I don’t wake up with my face having been smooshed in every which way, but usually I wake up that way anyway.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m kind of a side sleeper mostly.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, my body likes that better, too.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And then we snuggle. That’s the bedtime routine.
25. New season of Arrested Development [1:09:38]
OK, I think this next one is for me. “What do you think of the new season of Arrested Development on Netflix?” I don’t think you watched that, Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have watched Arrested Development, but I have not seen the new season on Netflix.
Liz Wolfe: Here’s what I thought of the new season of Arrested Development on Netflix: THBPBPTHPT… PFFTBH.
Diane Sanfilippo: I knew you were going to make that raspberry sound. I knew it. I was like: She’s just going to go: PTHBTH.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: NG. No good.
Liz Wolfe: Terrible.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK.
26. Screw it! I’m eating this (non-paleo food)! [1:10:07]
Liz Wolfe: “Are there times when you say: Screw it. I’m eating this (non-paleo food)?”
For me, yeah. I’ve done that a couple times. Not very often, but I’ve had a donut in the last five years. No big deal.
Diane Sanfilippo: I ate some gluten-free desert thing at Hayley’s shower. She didn’t make it.
Liz Wolfe: That doesn’t count. That does not count.
Diane Sanfilippo: If it’s gluten free?
Liz Wolfe: No. That’s one step healthier. It doesn’t count.
Diane Sanfilippo: It was such a sugar bomb, though, that we were all in sugar insulin comas two hours later… or an hour later. Everyone was like: I can’t believe how rocked I felt from that. I actually was, like, Grumpy Cat after eating that. Well, I had two.
27. Stranded island must-haves [1:10:54]
Liz Wolfe: “If you were stranded on an island, what three things would you bring?”
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, goodness. They have to be things, not people?
Liz Wolfe: They can be people. You can bring people.
Diane Sanfilippo: I would bring Scott.
Liz Wolfe: Aww.
Diane Sanfilippo: I would not bring my cat. You can’t bring a cat to an island.
Liz Wolfe: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you could. They would bring you so many small… complete proteins.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think he would walk backwards if there were sand because cats get, like, weirded out by things and just start to walk backwards very slowly. Anyway.
28. Last meal [1:11:30]
Liz Wolfe: OK, so this is the very last question. I think it’s a good one. “If it was your last meal ever –”
Diane Sanfilippo: Ahh!
Liz Wolfe: “– what would you eat?”
Diane Sanfilippo: You go first.
Liz Wolfe: I think – without thinking too hard – it would be Thanksgiving. It would be turkey, mashed potatoes with butter, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole. So stupid.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m pretty sure if it were my last meal ever I would eat all kinds of gluten because then I would die before I feel any of the ill effects.
Liz Wolfe: [laughter]
Diane Sanfilippo: I would eat an entire pizza, a dozen donuts, a whole bunch of Jeni’s Ice Cream.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t get it. I don’t understand what’s so special about it.
Diane Sanfilippo: You haven’t tasted it, obviously.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I just read the label.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, well…
Liz Wolfe: And I was all: Xanthan gum?! I’ll go to Sheridan’s and get myself a custard.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, you just have to taste it. Otherwise, I eat amazing meals every day. Ha!
Liz Wolfe: Oh, your life is so…
Diane Sanfilippo: No, I mean, we made, like, amazing lamb chops yesterday, and I like my regular food, but if I was like: OK, this is it, and there won’t be any effects of these foods, I would probably eat a bunch of garbage stuff just because it’s fun.
Liz Wolfe: It is fun. Maybe do some LaMar’s Donuts, some cupcakes…
Diane Sanfilippo: Ahh…
Liz Wolfe: Some pie.
Diane Sanfilippo: I like pie.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Wow. This episode has gone…
Liz Wolfe: It’s taken a turn. An hour and a half later, everyone’s like: Why do they think we want to hear them talk about themselves?!
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s it!
Liz Wolfe: All right. Well, before this gets too big for Dropbox uploads from country Internet, we’ll close it out! We’ll be back next week with more questions, not this kind of questions, but questions. Until then, you can find Diane at BalancedBites.com, and you can find me, Liz, and realfoodliz.com. Thanks for listening!
Thanks for listening!
Liz & Diane
