Stephanie Aguilar:

<Silence>

Ella Magers:

Hey, hey everyone. Oh my gosh. We are here. I am here with a very special guest, but not really guest, a co-host and her name Oh, yes, is Stephanie. And I’m gonna say Aguilar, but it could be Hamilton,

Stephanie Aguilar:

Either one. I answered to both.

Ella Magers:

Okay. <laugh>. Oh my gosh. We’re doing this. This is so exciting. We’re

Stephanie Aguilar:

Doing this <laugh>. I know. It’s kinda like coming home. It’s so weird. It

Ella Magers:

Does, it does feel like that. And I was trying to think of the last time we recorded together, and it was, and I was actually gonna go back and listen just to see, you know, how, see how we wrapped up the Vegan Life Coach podcast episode 100, which was a big celebration. I can’t remember how we wrapped it up, ’cause I didn’t ever get to go re-listen to it, but that was the last time we recorded together.

Stephanie Aguilar:

I know. It’s been over a year. It’s been more almost two, hasn’t it?

Ella Magers:

I have no idea.

Stephanie Aguilar:

It’s been a long time. I don’t know either, but it’s been a long time.

Ella Magers:

It has. And I’m so excited to do this because I love doing the interviews on this podcast, and I really miss our time just kind of shooting the shit together, <laugh>.

Stephanie Aguilar:

But it’s what we do best.

Ella Magers:

It really is. It is. And I think, you know, a lot of people who listen to the Vegan Life Coach podcast are now listening to the Rise and Thrive podcast, and those who are new to the Rise and Thrive podcast who haven’t listened to the Vegan Life Coach podcast, you know, either way, I think it’s just gonna be such a, a valuable, fun, entertaining addition to what we’re doing here.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, rise and Thrive has, I mean, what a, it’s, it’s a beautiful broadcast. I love it. Every week. I love listening. I love the interviews. And of course, you know, as I always say, you’re a revolutionary and what a great evolution in the podcast world. So yeah. I hope people will check out the other one too.

Ella Magers:

Yeah, yeah. I always link to our sister podcast, which is the Vegan Life Coach podcast, but now we get to kind of combine them moving forward. So <laugh> Yeah. Thank you for doing this. When you, when you said yes, I was like, updo my happy dance <laugh>.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Well, I appreciate you asking me. This is, I mean, it’s an honor of course, but, and it’s also a ton of fun.

Ella Magers:

It is. Do you wanna just give people kind of a little background about you, those who maybe aren’t unfamiliar, who haven’t listened to the other show?

Stephanie Aguilar:

Sure, sure. So I am a, well, I, I can’t even say I’m a new vegan anymore, can I? Like, it’s been years now. Yep. Yeah, it’s been five years. So I you know, I came to the vegan life a little bit later in my life. I had kind of some stops and starts, but kind of my story begins. I was, when I was young, and I dealt with an eating disorder that was pretty out of control until I was about 28. And then from 28 to and until I was in my forties, you know, I, I maybe had dealt with the disordered the, the eating disorder, but I was still dealing with a lot of body image stuff. And, and it wasn’t until I became vegan that stopped putting all that junk and suffering in my body that that I really began healing.

And then, of course, connecting with you, Ella really set me on a, a path of, of true healing and true, you know, empowerment. Kind of going beyond the, the healing into the thriving, the world of thriving. So now that’s something I’m really passionate about is helping others to do the same. And, and, you know, just finding themselves again and finding how they are want to operate in the world and writing that new story for their lives. And so that’s a little nutshell, I guess I’m a mom, I’m a mom of three, and I’m, yeah. All of those good things in, in life. That’s my daily life is being a mom. And I, and I work for the Department of Justice and my day job, and Yeah,

Ella Magers:

I know. I like how you just throw that in. Is that now? Yeah, no, I wanna know what I, I, oh, by the way, know what else I, but I love how you just throw in your day job as some like side gig, but <laugh>, it’s like a big deal, what you do. You’re so humble about it. You’re such a badass though. And Oh,

Stephanie Aguilar:

Thank you.

Ella Magers:

Can you share just a little more about what you do and, and your background in terms of addictions?

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah. So I have a degree in psychology, and I work in the field of criminal justice with our returning, our returning individuals coming from incarceration into the into the community. And currently, this is what I’m doing is I I partner with community treatment providers so that individuals coming to the community from incarceration can get good treatment, sex offender substance use mental health treatment. And then our new, kind of our new branches, our medication assisted treatment, which is something that I am fully immersed in and truly, truly believe in. It’s, it’s a really exciting time to be in corrections. I’ve waited my entire career for this time, and now I getting close to the end, which I’m not sad about. But, you know, this is, we’ve, we’ve seen the benefits of reentry and helping individuals and, and really it comes down to not throwing away indi individual lives.

You know, not be being very cognizant that every single citizen deserves a chance. And that includes those who have broken the law. So it’s an exciting time to be in corrections. And, and the career has offered me all kinds of variety. I’ve gotten to do negotiations in crisis situations, and I’ve, you know, gotten to do kitchen duty. I mean, you know, you name it, and I’ve done it. So it’s it’s been kind of exciting. I worked in a penitentiary for a really long time. And so just, you know, all three of my pregnancies were when I was, you know, in the penitentiary, I always say my children did a dime <laugh>, all three of them <laugh>.

Ella Magers:

I didn’t actually realize that. Yeah. It’s so interesting. Yeah. That is so interesting. I actually didn’t realize how many connections I had to the prison system. You and then my dad, who still does volunteer work within the prison system, mostly with, with individuals who are soon to be released and they get their first kind of outings, he takes them on those. He also has done a lot of meditation teaching on actually death row. And my stepmother is now doing some of the psychological evaluations for people that are up for parole, so,

Stephanie Aguilar:

Wow. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

Ella Magers:

Interesting stuff.

Stephanie Aguilar:

It’s, it’s an amazing field. So

Ella Magers:

On a random note that I just thought of before we hopped on today. So when I started Rise and Thrive, I started to just use air or ear buds instead of headphones. Yeah. And when we were about to hop on today, I was like, you know what, it’s time to get out my big old headphones what are these called? Headphones.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Headphones? Yeah, I think so,

Ella Magers:

Because I knew ’cause we used to used to headphones. Yeah, headphones. ’cause We used to always record with our big old headphones on. And I always kind of ed. Yeah, right. I was like, are these really necessary? And <laugh>, apparently they’re not. But I thought for old time sake, let’s use our headphones. So if you’re watching on YouTube, we

Stephanie Aguilar:

Should put our headphones on.

Ella Magers:

Yes.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if I know how to, I don’t know if I know how to podcast without the, you know, is this retro now? I don’t like our <laugh> We didn’t start our podcast till, what, 2020 or 19? One of those around that era. And that’s only been three years ago. Are these now retro? Are these now vintage?

Ella Magers:

I, I see it done both ways. And I, I did kind of study that up before, and I don’t know, I don’t, I mean, it’s nice to, I feel more connected to you with these on, because they kind of block out all other sounds. So I do feel more in it. Yeah.

Stephanie Aguilar:

So, no, I would, I would, I would say the same, although I haven’t tried it, which is the earbuds either. Wow. Earbuds hurt my ears. Mm.

Ella Magers:

Do you have some of one of those ears that are a little weirdly shaped? Because my mom’s like, they always fall outta my mom’s ears. <Laugh>, I don’t know. Her ears are weirdly shaped. <Laugh>.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yes. And they hurt. I don’t, I don’t, I’ve never found any that I like to put in, like actually put in my ears.

Ella Magers:

Well, we might just go with, with the headphones then, for old time’s

Stephanie Aguilar:

Sake. The, the headphones for old time’s sake and for comfort,

Ella Magers:

They are comfortable actually, you know, and in the winter they keep your ears warm. <Laugh>,

Stephanie Aguilar:

I feel like one of those old ladies, you know, <laugh> that remember when we were kids and you know, the sunglasses for any individual who had glasses, but I remember them particularly for the older generation, and they’d have those huge ones that would, they would put on, on top of their sunglasses. <Laugh>. I feel like that only now with your, with ear wear. <Laugh>. I’m the old lady with the big ear wear <laugh>. Oh,

Ella Magers:

I love it. I love it. All right. So maybe we should do a vegan topic. I, you know, I, I really wanted this podcast to reach everyone, reach anybody who’s wanting to uplevel their health holistically. So we don’t really talk about, you know, vegan in the description and all of that, but, and I’m vegan, like, that’s part of my identity. And even though all the work I’m doing right now is separating myself, like my inner work of separating myself from my ego and from my identity and heart, veganism, to me simply means it’s kind of synonymous with compassion. And so I’m proud. Yeah. I’m a proud vegan and I, anybody who’s open to opening their heart and their mind and embodying compassion for themselves, and then expanding that compassion to people, all people and animals all over the world, for me, that’s what veganism means. So I, I talk about it a lot, <laugh>. I have it tattooed on multiple places in my body, so that’s just not going anywhere. But speaking of vegan related topics we were just, I was just doing an Instagram live and I mentioned nutritional yeast. So can we, can we touch on nutritional yeast?

Stephanie Aguilar:

Let’s do, because I feel like we’ve touched on this before in one of the very first topics, and I remember saying one of my confessions Yes. Vegan confessions, is that I don’t get nutritional use. Like, I don’t, I know people like rave over this stuff, and I can’t, I, and I understand all the health benefits, blah, blah, blah, all those great things that it does for your body. But I can’t, I don’t, I don’t like it very much.

Ella Magers:

Is this still the case?

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah,

Ella Magers:

Yeah, yeah. Well, I, okay, well, I have to send you Okay. A bag of, a particular type of nutritional use. And I was, I felt like a bad vegan too for the longest time up until, I don’t know, maybe six months ago. And I a, an email from somebody at N Nucci is the company

Stephanie Aguilar:

Said, oh, I love the name. Right. I love that name. Yeah, it’s a great name.

Ella Magers:

It’s a great name. It’s a great

Stephanie Aguilar:

Name.

Ella Magers:

And they said, let, let me send you some nutritional yeast, a sample. And I was like, all right, sure. Sure. I’m open. I I will try it. Oh, my freaking God did not understand that nutritional yeast could taste so different from one nutritional yeast brand to another. Honey. Yes. I’m telling you, this is, and since then, and I, full transparency here, I have become an affiliate because I buy this stuff. I mean, even if I’m the only one who buys it, <laugh>.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s

Ella Magers:

Worth being an affiliate because I buy it in bulk and I eat it every single day in my, what I call my nucci dishes. My famous, my infamous Nucci Delicious white bean and kale salad. And I have a YouTube video that I and I’ll put that in the show notes. I just gotta remember to put this in the show notes because it is the best salad ever. And it contains this nutritional yeast. And what I learned was that, you know, I, when I see nutritional yeast, I think of that very yellow color, right? Yes. Yeah. And that’s what you get at most supermarkets is a kind that’s fortified, right? It’s because it’s got fortification with B vitamins in it, mostly B vitamins and, and some other things. But this is not fortified. It is unfortified. And the flavor is completely different. And what I would love to do is send you a bag, gift you a bag. Have you try my, try my nuc delicious wiping and kale salad and give an honest, honest reveal, honest feedback. Okay. On this podcast,

Stephanie Aguilar:

I’ll do it. I, I work, I, you know, after I saw your live, I went and made your bean kale salad. ’cause I do love it. I just don’t put the Yeah, no, I, it just, no,

Ella Magers:

It’s not the same.

Stephanie Aguilar:

It ruin, it ruins it for me. I understand. So if, if Noochylicious is I, yes. I’m all game. I’m all game. Because I wanna love it. I want to love nutritional use. I do <laugh>. Well, I just, I just haven’t found the right one.

Ella Magers:

Yes. Well count on me. Like, but no, but don’t, don’t count on me open mind. I just need an open mind. That’s all I need my mind. And if you hate it, you hate it my mind. That’s okay.

Stephanie Aguilar:

No, my mind is nothing if not open.

Ella Magers:

I know it is. You’re good at that. You’re so good at that <laugh>, by the way. Okay. What has happened in the last couple years be since, since we recorded that episode, we should maybe we should maybe have a little update on our own lives.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah, you

Ella Magers:

Go first. ’cause I know you’ve got me. You go first. Oh my gosh. Well, my life changes so much. I’m, my life is forever in my, what’s going on in my, my life and my business and my inner dialogue and my personal growth. And what’s the opposite of growth? <Laugh>? What is the opposite of growth? There’s no such thing. There isn’t No, exactly. Not for you. You’re brilliant for you. Yeah. All of that. So I guess one thing I’ll mention here is about hitting total burnout. So, oh no, this is, even, this is even more interesting. So I have been on a spiritual path right? For the last few years, pretty intensely. And it got to a place where I felt ready finally to rid my life of antidepressant medications, which I had been on since I was 16. And this is something I’ve wanted to write about, which is why I’m one of the reasons I’m so glad we’re doing this, because I just haven’t felt like sitting down and really writing about it.

But now I, I get to talk about it. And so I felt really ready. I feel very con, I felt confident. I felt like I had the tools. I mean the, all the mental and emotional tools that we teach in our programs, you know, all of that. I was just feeling like I was so in flow and in such a great place that I felt ready. And so I got off antidepressant medications really since, for the first time since I was 16. And in about a month and a half, I spiraled, I spiraled down. I was so burnt out. I think it got complicated by, by total burnout, from just not giving myself a break for so many years from my own business. I founded the brand Sexy Fit Vegan in 2013, and really haven’t, hadn’t taken a break since found founding that brand.

And being a solopreneur is no joke. You know, it’s, it’s hard work. Yeah. And a, you never, you know, the way I was doing it, there was no time off, you know, and home and office were the same. If I wasn’t working then I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I just worked, worked, worked, and, and really went into the spirals deep down burnout, depression, to the point where I, for the first time in life said I need to do ayahuasca. Hmm. That was, and I had never wanted to do Ayahuasca before because I, I had done, you know, other psychedelics and mushrooms, but ayahuasca, I mean, that’s a whole nother level of vomiting and diarrhea that I wasn’t, didn’t ever feel called to do. But all of a sudden I was more than called, it was like, I knew that that’s what needed to happen. And the way I operate is, if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it. Right. Right. And so I went to, I booked a trip and went to the jungles of Peru to the temple of the Way of Light, which is the spot that Gabor Mate recommends. And you’re familiar with Gabor Mate?

Stephanie Aguilar:

I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From you. I mean.

Ella Magers:

Oh, you, yeah. He’s, he is tremendous. And he basically went down to be a facilitator at this place and got kicked out by the shaman who said, you still got a lot of dark energy to work through. We need to work with you separately, which is, he’s the world’s leading trauma expert. So I thought that that was pretty significant. And he came back and so he got what he needed from it. And so, yeah. So that, I think that’s one of my biggest, I mean, there’s so many things and I, I don’t wanna take all our time today going over it, but that is one thing I’ll talk about today and then maybe we can continue on next time. But that was a year and about five months ago. And yeah, the biggest takeaway is a declaration, and I call them declarations now as opposed to affirmations or mantras because it’s like this statement that we’re choosing to believe and affirmation is affirming something we already believe when a lot of times these are things that we don’t already believe. We are saying them because we want to believe them. We are choosing to believe them, even though they’re not actually beliefs we currently contain, or what’s the right word, we, beliefs we currently embody. And so I really like this word declaration. So the biggest declaration and the takeaway from that trip was, the goal is not to feel better. It’s to get better at feeling,

Stephanie Aguilar:

Oh,

Ella Magers:

Oh, I’ll say it one more time. The goal is not to feel better. It’s to get better at feeling.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Mm.

Ella Magers:

And that declaration is something that I tell myself every single day, remind myself every single day. And over the last year and five months, I have gotten pretty damn good at embodying it. Yeah. Let just tell you.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Wow. That gives me chills.

Ella Magers:

Yeah, it’s pretty

Stephanie Aguilar:

Big. That’s amazing. It’s huge.

Ella Magers:

Yeah. So next time I will make notes to tell you about some other things, but that, that’s my one big thing that has transpired since episode 100 of the Vegan Life Coach podcast.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Nice.

Ella Magers:

And your turn.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Oh my gosh. So much has changed and so much is still exactly the same. You know what I mean? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So I, I think probably the biggest change, the biggest visible change is that I’ve lost 135 pounds since our last episode. I don’t really like to talk about it in terms of pounds. ’cause I, I really, truly think the scale still the most stupid measure of, of anything. And that number is still kind of, I don’t know. I mean, it’s, it’s, I embrace it because it’s something that I’ve achieved, but it’s also, you know, it’s kind of like that number is the least interesting thing about me. So, but it’s been a, it’s been a really difficult and heartbreaking and life-affirming journey that I’ve been on to just really optimize my health and you know, shed what wasn’t serving me. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So, and it happened to come off in the form of weight loss. So yeah. That’s been a big thing. Yeah. And then, you know, my son, my oldest graduated from high school. My middle is about to graduate from high school, and they’re going to one’s co in college. One’s we’re going tomorrow to the University of Nebraska to visit college for her. And, and then there’s Eva, and you know, Eva’s just Eva, Alicia still. So that’s kind of my world, you know,

Ella Magers:

These are huge, these are huge changes in your life and

Stephanie Aguilar:

Huge changes. Yeah.

Ella Magers:

I’m curious how life feels differently for you. 135 pounds lighter.

Stephanie Aguilar:

You know, I, it, it’s been a real

Head game more so than anything else. You know, I, I exercise the same. I don’t really, I, I mean, I do eat somewhat differently, but not, you know, it was, it was all about just getting my, getting everything in balance, honestly. The actual that. But that was the easy part. You know, like we always say the food and the exercise is the easy part and, and really that the head games were what was, what was difficult. And so, you know, I came out of all of that just very I, I went through kind of a depression for a while, you know? ’cause It’s, it, it’s one thing to coach people through it, it’s quite another thing to go through it yourself. And and to have that, you know, when you’re, when you’re overweight and you’re operating in the world, and, you know, for me it was, I feel like I didn’t have a lot of prejudice or, you know, it just, I just didn’t experience it like other people.

 But then when I had people start complimenting me and being so focused on what I look like, I don’t, I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the attention. I didn’t like the, you know, and I had to really go to some pretty deep places within myself to really consider what is it about a compliment? What is it about these people telling me what they seem to think is like the highest praise that they could give me? What is it about that that always throws me into this really dark space? And I think, I mean, there was a lot that came up for me for, with, with that and talk about feeling your feelings. Some of it was that some of it was just, I had to feel my way through, you know, those feelings of being inadequate. I was never inadequate. I mean, and that’s what I had to come to was I was never inadequate.

I was never incompetent. I was never tho those things were never a part of it. But I always felt that way. I always felt I was a phony because I couldn’t, you know, I couldn’t get this part of my life. Right. What was really disappointing was that I lost 135 pounds and I still feel felt like a phony. Hmm. And I still felt like a fraud. And to have to come to that and say, oh my gosh, it wasn’t about the weight. What is it about me? And having that, having that just constantly in my face because of the, the physical changes are so apparent. And having that just constantly in my face and having to confront that feeling of, yes, I’ve worked really hard and I’ve lost all this weight, but there is nothing inside that’s different. And that’s exactly what I was afraid of, you know?

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so I think that was a, that was a big part of it, was just coming to terms with what’s reality and what is, what are those thoughts that aren’t true. Not everything we think is think is true. I mean, coming back to that phrase and I had a lot of thoughts that were not true and having to confront those. So I think that’s part of it. I I think another part of it, and, and you know, our listeners who have dealt with with overweight will understand this, is that when you hear those things, it reinforces that feeling in you. ’cause It’s like you’re being, you’re afraid that you’re not valued because you’re overweight. And then when people tell you how wonderful you look and how great things are, then it’s like, oh, you just affirmed that my value was, and oh, and by the way, I’m the same person I was, so I must, so I really am a fraud.

You know? And so that just all of that head stuff is very, was surprising to me because I really thought I was in an incredibly healthy place. And I do that. I was, I think that this was just this next evolution of me, you know? And and I had talked openly before about that feeling like a fraud, you know, that imposter syndrome thing that, you know, ultimately what I mean, how dumb imposter syndrome doesn’t exist. It just doesn’t because we’re, we’re the ones who have to decide that we’re not the fraud. I’m not a fraud. I don’t, I mean, I will put my credentials up against anyone’s, you know, and, but that wasn’t the point. It’s not putting my credentials up against anyone else’s is putting my credentials up against my own. And do they stand up and looking at them and saying, oh, well, I must have just, you know, faked my way through all of that. Fuck, no, I didn’t fake my way through any of that. You know, I am the person that I am, and there’s nothing there’s nothing that fraudulent about me. So, wow. I don’t know that I took that in a weird direction. But anyway.

Ella Magers:

No, this is so, so fantastic. So, so valuable. And, you know, it’s interesting because the last few years, I mean, I’m 43 now, and my relationship with food has just continued to improve over, over the years. And I have very little stress about food. I don’t think about food much. I use it as fuel. I use it as enjoyment at times. I eat what feels good. I eat the amount that feels good for the most part. I mean, I have, I have my days, but, you know, my body feels like, I feel like I’m in some of the best shape of my life, and people do comment. And I’ve never been overweight. Right. I’ve never, I’ve never had that experience. And when people comment, it’s like this, it still feels like an affront to, to who I am. In that I’m gonna comment on how great you look, meaning that if that changes, you know, your value changes.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah.

Ella Magers:

And I know I’m very conscientious about not commenting on people one way or the other, just not commenting on how people’s bodies look.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah.

Ella Magers:

Either way. You know what I mean?

Stephanie Aguilar:

Absolutely.

Ella Magers:

It’s, it’s, it’s just really interesting.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Yeah. And

Ella Magers:

Something people don’t think about. They, they wanna give a compliment thinking that’s gonna make you feel good about yourself, but if you really think about what that’s doing, it’s never helpful.

Stephanie Aguilar:

No, no. I think the things that we compliment, I, I think they show us what our values are. Mm-Hmm.

Ella Magers:

<Affirmative> mm-hmm.

Stephanie Aguilar:

<Affirmative>. And I think that, and through, no, I mean, I think society has shaped so much of this, and we’ve talked ad nauseum about that. But I think that for, for us in the society, we have put place such a high value on outward appearance and not, and not just our bodies. I mean, we’re talking, you know, what kind of car do you drive? How big is your bank account? You know, what kind of, what kind of school did you go to? I mean, you know, it just, it, it’s those things that just don’t really matter in the end. So when we compliment others, you know, and I think some of, sometimes we’re just lazy, you know, I like your tie, but sometimes it’s more, it, it really does kind of shine a light on what, what is our value system? What do, what is it that we are focused on as people?

And so, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. I do think it’s interesting that you say that you don’t think about food, because that was, I feel like that was part, I mean, I know that you think about food, but that was part of, I think one of, one of the cornerstones of my healing was accepting that I love food. Mm-Hmm. And that I, that I have now found this brand new enjoyment in the kitchen. And I love cooking and I love trying new things. And I, I love just, you know, putting new things together. And even if they are crappy and I have to throw ’em down the sink, you know, that I, that was something that I was always afraid to accept about myself mm-hmm. Was that I, I loved food and that I’m interested in it. I’m interested in the way things taste. I’m interested in combinations. I’m interested in the way it makes my body feel. I’m interested in, you know, how the healing properties. And I was always afraid to admit that because I thought that meant that I don’t know that I was a glutton, which was never the case. So,

Ella Magers:

No, I, and I love this. This is one of the reasons we make such a great, I always wanna call us a couple right. Yeah. We, yeah, we we’re yeah, we’re <laugh>. You’ve got, you know, three kids, some of them leaving the house unbelievably at this point. I know you live in Kansas City. I am, have been perpetually single a lot until recently, which is another, another topic. But and living in Miami, doing the Miami thing, no kids, just my chihuahua. And I love that we can explore these things. ’cause Yeah, no, I just, I, I’m just not a quote foodie. I just don’t care that much. That’s not to say I don’t love, I mean, I love my kale, my new delicious kale salad. I really enjoy going to, we’ve got this phenomenal restaurant in Miami called Plana, and they have this udan noodle dish that’s made with truffles and cashew Alfredo sauce.

And it’s so delicious. And, and I love all those things. And it’s not really something that if I have, don’t have somebody to go with, it’s not like I’m thinking about, oh, I need to go have those udan noodles, or I like to spend 10 minutes in the kitchen, not an hour. I will just throw in a pot of peas and cook the peas and put some toasted walnuts on top. And there’s my dinner. Like, I just don’t, I, I don’t care that much about spending time and energy preparing or eating or whatever when it comes to food. And I know probably it’s 50 50 with people listening, you know, some people are Oh yeah. More tend towards my direction and some towards yours. And it’s so fun to be able to talk about that and be able to enjoy a meal together, which we are gonna be doing here in just two weeks.

Stephanie Aguilar:

I know. I know. Can you believe it? You are coming to Nebraska?

Ella Magers:

I am coming to Nebraska. When this comes out, I think we will have just, I think it’s the Tuesday we, we are leaving Nebraska. Oh, okay. So our next episode, we’ll be able to talk, tell all about that. And speaking of body, before we move, move past the body image thing, just wanna bring this up. And I think we talked about this on the Vegan Life Coach podcast, but I’m wearing a a, a shirt today. So when I do interviews, I, I always wear black. I wear kind of the same. I have a uniform. I wear black. ’cause I want the focus to not be on clothing. I want it to be on the interview guest. So today I’m wearing kind of like this bright, pinkish red color, and I’m wearing my mala beads, which we’re not gonna have time to talk about today, I don’t think.

The Ramdas Legacy retreat I went to recently at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, where I got to listen to Krishna Dass. And I came back more of a weirdo I like I, I don’t know. I’m just, I’m just expanding the parts of me. And now I’m finding myself as one of my new tools, chanting Krishna das kind of Hindu chants and being more of a, a vegan weirdo. And then embracing that and saying, I can have, I can be all of these things. Anyhow proud nipple days. This is what I wanna just mention. Proud nipple days. Yes. I just want to mention this, but kind of maybe one of our last topics to leave our, leave our audience with. It was something that my mother taught me way back in the day. I think I was in high school, I think I was wearing a shirt and I was like, eh, I should, maybe I should, you know, shoulding on myself should wear a bra because you can kind of see my nipples throughout through this shirt. And my mom, who I think didn’t like wearing bras herself said, you know what, you’re allowed to have a proud nipple day. And that has stuck with me ever since. And I have many proud nipple days. And I know that you may have something to say about that too.

Stephanie Aguilar:

Well, yes, when we first talked about this, I thought it was the best story in the whole world. And so we have carried on Susan’s legacy in our home as well as a tribute to the most amazing mother that you have. And we have proud nipple days in our home as well. I love, and there’s lots of nipples here. So, you know, there are three of us girls. So we enjoy, we enjoy a proud nipple day.

Ella Magers:

And you can call, start calling Susan now. She is a, a great grandmother now. She’s a great grandmother. My mother is a great grandmother. Oh, that’s amazing. So, and, and the grandkids call her Suzu. So we’ve got Suzu now. Susu. Yes. It’s so cute. Love it. She is the best mother. Love it. She really is the best mother. And she came with me to this rom Doss legacy retreat. And she’s, she’s, yeah, 70. Oh gosh. I sh I will not say how old she is ’cause she might, I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if she’s she minds or not, but all I can say is she still does yoga every single day. She journals, she meditates, she walks for an hour ever. She’s got her her morning routine, which is something that we worked on with our coaching clients. Right. To develop that morning. Yeah. This morning and evening rituals. And she does it all. She is a prime example. So yeah, between you and her, two of the best mothers I know in

Stephanie Aguilar:

Oh, well, it is an honor to be in the same category. That is amazing.

Ella Magers:

Anything else we should leave people with today?

Stephanie Aguilar:

I, I can’t think of a thing. I’m so excited to be back with you.

Ella Magers:

Me too. Oh my gosh. And I hope you guys listening. Reach out to us find us on Instagram. We’re gonna, yeah, we’re, we’re looking at bringing back a coaching program here in, in a little while. I’m still doing some one-on-one coaching here and there. And we’ll keep you posted on all of that. Make sure to look in the, the links in the show notes. I’ll always put things. And then the way to support this show please leave a rating and review for us. That’s so super helpful. And then also in the show notes, I put links to other ways you can support the production of the show. It does take time, it takes energy, it takes money to produce and put these things out every week. And so your support is, is needed and very much appreciated. We’ve got some great programs. Some even just buying Nucci, that’s a way to support the show. So we will put the link to NCI Nucci just in there. I get the bulk, there’s such a huge discount on the bulk. I think it’s, it’s either five or eight bags, I can’t remember. But you get them for half price. And I’m telling you, you will use them. You will use them. Yeah. Telling you. So Stephanie, thank you so much for being Mm,

Stephanie Aguilar:

Thanks for having me. So good to be back.

Ella Magers:

Yes. And we’ll be back <laugh> in a few more episodes and get to share about our time together, which is in this, I, I am embarrassed to say I, I am embarrassed to tell people, and yet I’m gonna tell people anyway that we, we, we have not met in person <laugh>

Stephanie Aguilar:

Ever. We have not met in person. We are a couple and we have never met in person <laugh>.

Ella Magers:

That’s so, that’s so modern of us. It’s, it’s

Stephanie Aguilar:

Like we’re, yeah, it’s like we’re an online. I hope. Are you

Ella Magers:

Guess we’ll find out. We’ll find out a week from Friday, I

Stephanie Aguilar:

Guess. So <laugh>,

Ella Magers:

I love you.

Stephanie Aguilar:

I love you too.

Ella Magers:

Thanks everyone. All right. We’ll see you soon. Bye.