Bridging Body & Spirit in Health

In this conversation, Sherisse Alexander and Caren Carnegie explore the intersection of fitness and spirituality, emphasizing the importance of intuitive health coaching. Karen shares her journey from personal trainer to intuitive fitness coach, highlighting the need for individuals to reconnect with their bodies and redefine what fitness means to them. They discuss the impact of COVID-19 as a catalyst for personal transformation and the significance of empowering clients to take charge of their health and well-being. In this conversation, Sherisse Alexander and Caren Carnegie explore the themes of intuitive eating, body awareness, and the importance of compassion in nutrition and fitness. They discuss how to listen to one's body, the significance of emotional health, and the journey of personal growth in wellness. The dialogue emphasizes the need for self-awareness and the power of making changes without waiting for ideal conditions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Intuitive Fitness Coaching
• 4:56 The Journey to Fitness and Spirituality
• 11:52 Understanding Personal Fitness Goals
• 17:02 The Role of Spirituality in Fitness
• 22:34 COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Change
• 28:14 Empowering Clients Through Connection
• 29:13 Embracing Intuitive Eating
• 32:12 The Importance of Compassion in Nutrition
• 33:31 Listening to Your Body's Needs
• 36:57 The Mind-Body Connection in Fitness
• 40:17 Stripping Away Confusion in Wellness
• 44:50 Understanding Body Signals and Emotions
• 50:48 Creating Change Without Waiting

Transcript

Sherisse Alexander (00:00)
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Wherever you are when you are joining us. My name is Sherisse Alexander, your host of your collective on today's episode. We have Caren Carnegie from Transform Fitness Coaching. We literally just did like a five minute thing where it was like, is that like the right title? And we'll put a pin in that if it comes up great. But anyways, she is a Transform.

Caren is from Transform Fitness Coaching and she is a fitness coach. Caren and I met, what is it, maybe two or three weeks ago? And we had a fabulous conversation about all things related to intuitive health, somatic health. And if you've been watching or listening to these episodes, you would know that I'm all about connecting the trifecta of mind, body, and spiritual health.

Caren Carnegie (00:34)
Yeah.

Sherisse Alexander (00:51)
and how much our body is really talking to us on a daily basis. without further delay, Caren, please share with us a little bit about yourself, how you came to be a, I'm gonna call you an intuitive health coach. And a little bit about yourself.

Caren Carnegie (01:05)
you

Thank you. So I am a personal trainer and spiritual life coach and I'm adjusting to the term intuitive fitness coach as well as I learn to accept and work with the tools that I've been given for this purpose that I'm in right now.

So I work with people doing personal training and connecting, bridging the gap between physical and metaphysical. So usually when people come to see me, it's because their body might be speaking to them. And then I look at decoding things with their body, decoding things spiritually that their spirit might be saying to create harmony for them. So, and that really transforms, you know, the way that they speak to themselves and the

know, showing them what they're capable of, not just inside the gym, but outside of the gym as well. So it just kind of trickles out into the rest of their life.

Sherisse Alexander (02:06)
I'm curious. when you started, guess I'm assuming that when you started on this journey that you started as a personal fitness coach or a personal trainer and then it evolved or did you always know that you wanted to kind of meld these two worlds together?

Caren Carnegie (02:22)
You know where I started was as somebody whose body was crying and I didn't know where I belonged. That's where I started. And then as I listened to my body and something inside of me asking for change, I was given these little kind of puzzle pieces that I put together myself. And it started with hiring my own personal trainer.

And then COVID hit, we were outside of the gym. And then I self-taught myself and a lot of, I still worked with my trainer as well, kind of virtually, but then I kept on moving my body in however way that I knew how, kind of teaching myself along the way. And then we were able to get back inside of the gym. wasn't, my reasons for starting.

into fitness were very different than what they are right now. So as things evolved, know, and spirituality came into my life and things like that, things have really kind of blown up. But I started as somebody who didn't know where they fit into the fitness world, the fitness space, the fitness industry, which I don't like calling it that. And not knowing, you know, where to start.

not feeling welcome in a gym space, worried that I was going to get judged. I, you know, when I thought of, I knew that I should get fit at the time, my thought of fitness was beyond me. You know, it was something that I thought I had to pay for. It was something that I thought I had to, you know, go to extremes or change my diet or do this and that. And what I realize now is that it was in here the entire time.

and that's what I help people to discover, is what does being fit mean to them? And I think fitness is doing really well for advocating for itself. It's a huge space. It's one of the many shoulds that keep people up at night. They lay there thinking, I should do this and I should do that. And they imagine a body that's not even theirs, which makes me wanna cry. So what I'm here to do is advocate people back to fitness.

Sherisse Alexander (04:24)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (04:30)
because I was there, I get it. my spiritual, yeah, I'm spiritually too. And so I know and I represent all the other people out there who feel left behind by the fitness industry, who don't know where to start. They don't know where they belong. So I'm here to hold space for those people, welcome them in as I would my home and hope that we can trickle change throughout.

Sherisse Alexander (04:41)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (04:56)
I'm one person in this very big space, but I won't ever stop. I will not ever stop. I am always here to hold space and to listen and help those people who just don't know where to start or where to belong so they can show themselves what they're capable of. And maybe it'll bridge that gap so that they have the courage to go off and join whatever it is that they want to do to take care of themselves. But just really...

Sherisse Alexander (05:05)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (05:20)
important that we recognize that there's this group of people out there and it's heavy and it's big that just haven't had their story yet. You know?

Sherisse Alexander (05:27)
Yeah.

Have you always?

No, you already said that. Sorry. I wrote down this question and I'm like, I can't even read my own writing. you talk, I just want to go back to something that you said, and it was about not knowing where you fit. And I want to clarify what you mean by that. Do you mean in terms of the fact that you have sure the, we'll say a little bit of the traditional type of, personal or fitness trainer piece in it. And then.

Caren Carnegie (05:36)
Thank

Okay.

Sherisse Alexander (05:57)
blended with the spirituality piece? that really what you're talking about there?

Caren Carnegie (06:01)
And not

even necessarily, maybe they're just not seeing themselves in what's being portrayed out there in fitness, you know? That's kind of more and sometimes people don't, you know, and it's they don't understand and when people come to talk to me initially, it's because their body is speaking to them. So and it isn't even to them, you know, any metaphysical factors aren't even really necessarily on their radar. But, you know, that can kind of

Sherisse Alexander (06:08)
Yeah, yep, and that makes sense.

Hmm.

Caren Carnegie (06:30)
about as we go along, as they discover themselves. And so it's just kind of, you know, people who don't see themselves in what's being portrayed or offered or, you know, if they're like, I don't see myself here because I did the same thing and I still do the same thing. When I started and I wanted to exercise, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do or where to go. So my thought was, you what spoke to me was hiring a personal trainer. But

you know, there's, you know, there's this, all this knowledge out there and all these layers that can just get a little bit confusing for people. So it makes people not even want to start. Why would they want to, right? So.

Sherisse Alexander (07:05)
100%. Yeah, for sure. The

gym and the fitness environment can be a very overwhelming place and space. If you've never even set foot in a gym, like I've been going to the gym now for, okay, I don't go to the gym anymore. I'm just a yogi.

but I remember when I was going to the gym, think, and it just that feeling when you would walk in, you'd like, my gosh, there's like so many people and so many machines and I have no idea where to start. And how do I, or you go and you think you gotta do everything all at once. So I guess how do you take somebody through, like, where do you start? Pretend it's me. I've never been to the gym. My body's talking to me. What I see is not, I can't even conceptualize my body being

Caren Carnegie (07:44)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sherisse Alexander (07:52)
in whatever I see out there. How do you take me through that process?

Caren Carnegie (07:54)
Yeah.

Right. People become so disconnected, you know, with their with their body and sometimes scared to start to scare that their body is going to maybe let them down or that they're going to get hurt. And what I want people to understand, too, is when we're visualizing fitness and maybe we're thinking of that gym setting or we're thinking about all this equipment, we don't need all that. You know, we didn't evolve with leg presses and stair climbers and all this crap.

Sherisse Alexander (08:06)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (08:23)
that, you know, if you've got stairs at home, fantastic. Grab a box like, you know, there we did it, we moved rocks. It's about moving the body in a way that feels good for you with, you know, and I'll go along with how I kind of plan things for them. So initially, people contact me. And it always starts with a conversation. So like this virtually one on one, if you're not local to where I live in Ontario.

So virtually like this or in person if you are local. So we talk, we have a conversation and we talk about physical health and goals and things like that, things that you would kind of expect, but then there's transform fitness coaching questions. This is where I bridge the gap between the two. So I ask questions to get to know that person, to really get to know that person and listen.

to how they're responding with their words and with their body. And it's like their why, and I think everybody can relate to that in different industries, but I've broken it down. So the W being what has brought you to this moment right now? And people really kind of have to sometimes think and like hum on ha over that one. And sometimes it says, of surface answer, like, my doctor suggested that I do this or whatever.

So interesting, so that's something that we write down and we take note of. H, what is the thing that makes you the most happy or excited? I'm not talking about in the gym. I'm not talking about when you're exercising. I'm talking in your life. What makes you the most happy or excited? Okay. What is something that you want more of in your life? Okay. And then the Y, I want to know more about you.

Sherisse Alexander (09:52)
Mmm.

Hmm.

Caren Carnegie (10:07)
Tell me about you. Tell me about what makes you unique. I want to hear about their strengths. And what do they see their future self doing? This is a tricky one. You know, in the beginning, a lot of people don't have an answer for me on this one because they forgot. They forgot who they are. Somewhere along the way, we've forgotten about ourselves and what makes us special.

Sherisse Alexander (10:14)
Huh.

It is. Yeah.

They probably don't. I didn't.

Caren Carnegie (10:36)
And we haven't thought about what we actually wanna see our future self doing. So their future self might be out hiking in the woods on an anniversary trip with their husband. Okay, interesting. So when I'm planning their workouts, I'm gonna be really keeping that in mind because when they do that, I want it to feel good.

When they're doing those things that make them the happiest in their life, I want it to feel good. And I want them to be able to do those things for as long as possible. Yes, in that other questionnaire, you may have told me that you'd like to do five unassisted pull-ups, but you know what? When you're doing those five unassisted pull-ups, you're not going to be thinking, I am so glad I did this. When you're going to be thinking about that is when you're hiking with your husband on that anniversary trip.

Sherisse Alexander (11:31)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (11:31)
We'll get

them to the pull-ups. It's important to them, so we'll do it. But I've also listened to these other things that this beautiful person has told me that is really important. So their workouts and their recommendations that I make outside of the gym are all sprinkled with these things that they talked about because then they're going to want to do it.

Sherisse Alexander (11:53)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (11:57)
You know, they're going to want to do it for a long time. I don't want anyone's fitness to be a short season. These physical bodies house our spirit. They represent who we are and they are beautiful. Every single one. Why should we think it should look like somebody else's? You know, it's so it's just reminding what does fitness mean? And you see it in a lot of my stuff where I hyphenate it.

Sherisse Alexander (12:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (12:26)
I made my own definition for it because I didn't like any of other ones. That's just who I am. I didn't like them. So to me, fitness is feeling sound and happy within your body and your environment. When you feel sound in your body and in your environment, that is fitness.

Sherisse Alexander (12:47)
Yeah. You know, all of that reminds me of, I did have this personal trainer, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago. And, pardon me. There was something that she'd said that what you're saying is kind of reminding me of. Now she was traditional in the sense of like all the types of exercises you, personal trainer might make you do, but

A lot of her movements were what she would call functional movement. And she was doing functional movement long before functional movement became a thing. And I think really what you're trying to get people to have an awareness of or, yeah, individuals have an awareness of is like, you know, are you, if you're talking about how you feel in your body, it goes so much with, you know, some people say things like, I want to play with my kids. You know, I want to go to the park and be able to do this thing or that thing or climb a flight of stairs without feeling winded.

And then really what you're trying to do is to get them to marry that. The fitness is not so much about, not necessarily so much about having a six pack or being a size four or whatever the case may be, but really more about how you are feeling in your body and the longevity of that, right? It's it's fantastic that health advancements or medicinal advancements now allow us to live longer.

But what's the point of that if you feel like crap in your body?

Caren Carnegie (14:02)
You know, and why should we, you know, throw, you know, you just, you know, we think we should do something, so we're gonna do it to the extreme, all or nothing. You know, what kind of life is that? You know, what kind of life is that? And, you know, and what I say isn't gonna resonate with everyone, and it's not meant to. It's not meant to, but there's people out there who understand what I'm saying, and this will resonate with. But, it goes a step beyond, and it's just not just functional.

Sherisse Alexander (14:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (14:28)
but it goes beyond that even another layer is honoring their spirit with their exercise too. So they can remember who they are. And all of this turns into, know, the exercise part of it is actually a really small part of what I do. So then when they remember who they are and what they're able to do and aren't scared of their body anymore, aren't, you know,

or they have confidence in their body and what it's capable of, they're going to go on along their journey because we're all here for a reason. We're all here for a reason in this earthly existence right now in these bodies. It's because we have a job to do. So then those things that maybe they were holding back on, they can go off and do with more confidence and more clarity, you know, and more energy, which is really important. So it's kind of just

Sherisse Alexander (15:09)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Caren Carnegie (15:24)
that all together. So yeah, it's really beautiful.

Sherisse Alexander (15:28)
I love that. You talked a little bit about well, not a little bit. You've definitely talked about marrying the spirituality piece into it. Have you always had a fully conscious piece of spirituality in your life? Mm hmm. Do you want to share a little bit? Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (15:40)
not at all. Not at all. In hindsight now, looking back

as we do, it's been, it's been evident for many, for a really long time, but it wasn't really, I didn't answer the call until 2022. And I really avoided it for a long time. And I think I was meant to, you know, there's no, I really struggled with a reliance on alcohol. And now looking back,

as shitty as that was, there was a reason for it. There was a reason for it, no excuses for anything and I wish I could change it. But I wasn't meant to discover what I'm supposed to do until now. So taking that piece away, I was able to go to the darkest depths to heal, to rediscover what I'm capable of so I can help.

other people do the same, whether, you know, in whatever things that are making them stuck in this life. And it's so different from everybody. It could be an unhealed relationship. It could be stuck in the past, reliving belief traps. It could be, you know, their body showing them signs, you know, of physical signs of chronic inflammation when it's a matter of moving through life with ease. There's all these different things that have come up.

And I'm now ready and here and open to help them kind of discover these things for their own journey. I wasn't, was very much my feet firmly planted on the ground that would never even was a thing. It wasn't even in my awareness until all of a sudden it cracked right open. And my first experience was seeing someone

Sherisse Alexander (17:19)
Wow.

Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (17:29)
giving me a message to quit drinking, that it was my time now. It's your time. And I say this on a lot of my stuff, party's over, literally, yeah. exactly. And it's so, you know, so that's why I don't use the term alcoholic or addicted to alcohol. I was reliant on it and I was for a reason. And...

Sherisse Alexander (17:35)
Party's over. Come on, Caren, party's done. Last call.

Caren Carnegie (17:51)
And then now here we are and I just, and I was very much of the notion and condition. I mean, we were talking about that before, condition to thinking certain things. Like, you know, I work in healthcare, you know, I work in the dental field. So, you know, I was always gonna work for someone that credentials and things like that are very, very important for what we do and for what we're supposed to do. that's...

you know, this is what it was going to be and that I couldn't make a change at this point in my life. And then again, I was offered a glimpse of hope that, know what, if you can have something different for yourself, but I couldn't wait for things to change, things weren't going to change. I was the one that needed to do that. So then my environment would be better.

and more suited to what was in my future.

Sherisse Alexander (18:48)
You know, I'm just gonna go back to something you said here for a moment, because I think it's a really important point. And you didn't use this word, but I'm gonna use the word, the word's contrast. And the reason why I bring it up is because you talked about an over-reliance on alcohol. let's be honest, a good portion of the world is over-relying on some coping mechanism, be it...

Caren Carnegie (18:50)
Okay.

Sherisse Alexander (19:12)
drugs, alcohol, sex, work, gambling, working out, any of those things. And I was having a conversation with somebody the other day. you know, I was saying to this person, said, you know, at the end of the day, we all have something. And the key is, is how do you, when you find you're doing this thing, whatever your coping mechanism is, and you're still not happy,

then that obviously means that there's something else that we're supposed to do. And I always think that those situations are often a catalyst in order for you to make a very conscious choice, right? And the point that I was making in this conversation is, because there was a lot of judgment going on about this person that was over relying on substances. And I'd said, you you don't know what this person is supposed to do. You don't know what this person's journey is. You don't know what their mission is.

And so when I say, let's not judge, what I'm saying is, is you can't, it's very, very difficult to help people if you lack empathy in a situation. And the easiest way to have empathy is obviously to have had the experience yourself. So I guess I would offer to you, as you also said, which is you had to go through the experience.

because now it allows you to witness it in other people and to come from a place of understanding and empathy so that because you sometimes where people are like, how do you know? Well, I know, because I've been there. And I can and there's almost like sometimes maybe disbelief, like, really? Like, yes. So if I can do it, overcome this over reliance, then as you can as well. So and then the last point about contrast is that sometimes you have to experience what you don't like in order to know

what you do want and what you do want to call into your experience. I just wanted to maybe put a very fine point on what you were saying there.

Caren Carnegie (21:01)
Mm-hmm.

It's so true. And that's why I think I was meant to see and experience the imperfections in fitness as well. So then I could truly, truly, you know, be immersed in what I'm doing now to help kind of inspire change and a whole space for people. I get it. You know, I get, get avoidance when it comes to looking within. I get it. I understand.

Sherisse Alexander (21:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I don't even think most people even know what those saboteurs are. I certainly didn't. knew there were like, I knew four. And then I was talking to somebody and they were like, well, no, there's actually nine.

and I had done the assessment and I was like, and as soon as I done the assessment and I saw what my top two saboteurs were, I'm like, yeah, that's me 100%. And so I sent this thing off to like everybody I know, I'm like, you should do this, you should do this, this is very helpful. You see these behaviors coming, you can recognize it and be like, okay, I'm sabotaging, let me do something different here. So I thought.

It was really curious because the last few guests that I've had, everybody has made these massive changes in their life around COVID. And it's just such a theme. Like I swear, the last five or six guests are like, yeah, I just totally decided to like change my life. It happens either right before COVID or in COVID. I just decided to like quit my job and do something totally different. And so clearly COVID has been a major turning point.

Caren Carnegie (22:29)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sherisse Alexander (22:34)
where there's more talk about maybe metaphysical, intuitive eating, intuitive fitness, intuitive business, like just so much. Do you agree? Like I just literally wrote this down.

Caren Carnegie (22:46)
I agree.

No, I totally agree and it's for a variety of reasons. And I think that COVID also instilled a lot of fear in people. And when something traumatic happens like that, it is kind of a catalyst sometimes for these big life changes. We can choose to go one way with it or we can choose to go with kind of another way with it. But no, I agree. That was a really, it was a pivotal moment for a lot of people and people realized too they were home more.

needed to spend more time with myself, which I was really uncomfortable doing at that point. Did you love it? Yeah, no, that was like my worst, that was rock bottom for me. I didn't like the person that I was then. And I realized that when I had to spend more time with myself and I wasn't doing these other things that were keeping me distracted.

Sherisse Alexander (23:17)
I really loved it. I really did.

Caren Carnegie (23:39)
So that's kind of what inspired my pivotal change. But yeah, I think it was a meaningful time for many, many people in their own journeys. I don't hate it. I don't hate it for that. Mm-mm. Nope.

Sherisse Alexander (23:47)
Yep. If people could look at it that way, me neither. Not at all. I

really enjoyed it. Okay. It sounds terrible when you say it like that, but I, I have learned to be very comfortable with myself. So being by myself and you know, in the early days of when the global shutdown happened, it was like nothing was happening.

So it forced you to like do things that you wouldn't normally do or as you rightfully pointed out, like you just slow right down because it's just what are the other options? So I personally found it to be a gift. I know there were.

Caren Carnegie (24:24)
Now, I wasn't

spiritually attuned yet then, so I really got sucked into the conditioning of fear and how to navigate this stuff. And had I been more spiritually attuned then, I don't think I know I would have looked at it differently. I would have felt safer and more protected, and I would have had a different perception on all of this, but I wasn't yet.

That wasn't in my awareness yet. So I was among those who were just crippled with fear about the whole thing.

Sherisse Alexander (24:54)
Yeah, I never was. I remember calling some of my friends. I'm like, literally scratching my head. And I feel like I don't actually understand what's going on right now. I'm very confused. I like and I was really honestly, genuinely confused. No, we're not going down a COVID rabbit hole. I'm just I was just I remember that the it wasn't fear. It was really, really for me, just confused about.

Caren Carnegie (24:56)
Mm-hmm.

I wouldn't have

Sherisse Alexander (25:19)
what the heck was going on in the world at that moment because none of what I was seeing was making any sense. I'm just like, I'm just going to stay right here. I'm just going to mind my own business.

Caren Carnegie (25:29)
Good for you. wish I had known you. I feel like I've known you for years, but I wish at that point in my life I would have had a Cherise in my life to tell me that everything was gonna be okay. But I was there too, watching the news, just waiting for Trudeau to speak and what's happening today. I gave my power to everybody else.

Sherisse Alexander (25:52)
And I'm so glad you just said that because one of the things I wanted to ask you about was, know, a lot of the people that I've been talking to that are, you know, I'm going to call it alternative healing modalities. And, and that is a large umbrella that covers a lot. And I would probably put you in there because of the intuitive piece and probably the way that you approach it. And a lot of the folks that I've been talking to all come from the same kind of premise, which is like, it's really about empowering people.

to empower themselves. It's your health potential. It's your body. You know it better than anyone else. So imagine that when your clients come to you, is there an awareness of their body? Well, I guess there is no awareness or not as much awareness because they're kind of scared of their body. Is that correct? Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (26:35)
Yeah, yeah,

exactly. It starts that way, but it's amazing how quickly I've seen that shift. So it starts with people maybe not even wanting to look in the mirror because they don't, that person that they're looking at had like, they've been bullying each other for years and I don't blame them one bit. So it's understanding they're meeting them where they're at, but connecting to their body. And this is how I use strength training now too, is how I use it now is different.

from when I started, I think when I started, I was replacing one addiction with another one. But I mean, it was what it was, right? So, and it kept me going and motivated and distracted from some other stuff that was going on. But now it's different. And I connect, I drop into my body. I've met a lot of people who just, they've got a lot of energy up there, up here. We throw the term mindful out a lot, but the mind is full. There's like,

Sherisse Alexander (27:03)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (27:25)
overthinking, happening, worry, all this stuff. So it gives them a chance to drop that energy down into the body, connecting to each muscle as they work out, modifying the reps so they can do it nice and slow and frequent. And it becomes like this meditation. They're engaged in something. It's a nice flow. So they become connected to their body. They see what their body is capable of.

So I'm designing these workouts and progressing it for them based on what I see. Because maybe if they did that on their own, they would limit themselves a little bit perhaps. I know I certainly did in the beginning. So they're like, my goodness, I didn't realize I could do that. like, I knew you could because I've been seeing what you've been doing, right? So we progress things safely for them. And so connecting into their body and...

Sherisse Alexander (27:59)
Sure. Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (28:14)
is a huge one and that when people realize that then they have a new found respect and appreciation for the body and what it's capable of and how it makes them feel after this workout, after they've, you know, connected and moved that energy about, they leave better than what I found them because that energy has shifted. You know, after a good meditation, just a good, they get some more clear and just, they are just feel so accomplished that they're like, wow, like that's, you know,

Sherisse Alexander (28:35)
Yep.

Caren Carnegie (28:43)
They just understand the power that that is. And to go back to what you were just saying, want people to realize that you are your own personal trainer. You are your own spiritual guru. That's you. It's you. You're the coach, right? It's just having somebody to kind of point you in those directions or shine a flashlight for you. You're doing the walking. That's what I say. I'm like with my members.

Sherisse Alexander (29:05)
Yep.

Caren Carnegie (29:08)
You know, they're driving. I'm just setting the vibe. I'm picking the tunes. You know, I'm just setting the vibe. I'm just setting the vibe. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They're the ones doing all the work. But just understanding how powerful they are and how little they need. Again, let's, you know, we don't need all this fancy equipment. We don't need powders. You don't need to count macros. You don't need to be doing this or that or anything else. You know, as long as you've got a, you know,

Sherisse Alexander (29:10)
Yep.

I'm here to be your cheerleader.

Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (29:35)
Work smarter, not harder. You don't need to live at a gym. You don't need to go beyond yourself.

Sherisse Alexander (29:41)
Thank you for actually bringing up the food piece because I wrote it down here as well. Have you ever come across like, you know, I'm sure everybody who's listening or watching has, I was saying to another guest, I'm like, what the heck happened with the food industry? Like when did eating become so blooming, complicated? it's, you've, sometimes I think you really, at one point I definitely felt like I needed a darn degree in order to figure out how to eat from my body.

And I think I'd read somewhere and I've definitely adopted this lately where it's like, I'm an intuitive eater. That is how I eat. I eat when I feel like it. I do intermittent fasting as well. So I don't eat outside of obviously specific hours, but I really just eat what feels good. And if I eat something that doesn't feel good, then I'm like, what did I eat that is not, you know, there are certain things that create inflammation in the body.

Caren Carnegie (30:26)
Thank you.

Sherisse Alexander (30:35)
And I was saying to my daughter, like, remember there was this one night I was like laying on my couch and I was eating a granola bar. And once you figure out how to really drop into your body, you can feel the inflammation pretty darn quickly. And so was sitting there after eating this granola bar, my feet are on the couch and I could feel like my feet swelling. And I was like, my gosh, I'm having a re- no, it wasn't major. And if I wasn't paying attention, I went to felt it.

But those are the kinds of things that I'm talking about when I say intuitive eating, like being gassy or swelling. I'll always check how are rings fitting on my fingers, am I retaining water, things like that. And so the question I wrote here was like, have you ever met an intuitive dietician?

Caren Carnegie (31:22)
I don't know, that's a great one. And

I'm sensitive around the subject of nutrition because people really, it's actually a sensitive topic for a lot of people and nobody likes to be told how to eat and I don't blame them. I wouldn't want somebody to tell me how much to eat of anything either. I, you know, and I have cookbooks that I'll, you know, depending on what physically their goals are, just to kind of get them with like well-balanced, well-rounded meals, kind of get them on the right path, but.

Other than that, I just kind of, I encourage people not to change too much, especially at the beginning, so they can see these little steps and how their body's responding. And that's the biggest thing. And again, having compassion for yourself and forgiveness for yourself. There's so much, we use all of our senses when it comes to eating. Maybe we're around people that we love, or the smell of this stew reminds me of your grandmother.

really eating is very, very important. It's a beautiful experience. But I feel like with everything these industries have kind of made it again, we've kind of we've lost touch with how beautiful and basic eating is in nourishing our body and we nourish our body through food, exercise, the things that we consume, but we also nourish our body with thoughts, people, the environment.

Sherisse Alexander (32:35)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Absolutely.

Caren Carnegie (32:37)
as well. it also

have forgiveness for yourself. So if you're experiencing something and people will take these really these haphazard approaches to dieting and some of them are very extreme, you know, people I don't want to bring up too much but people will do some extreme stuff just to avoid, you know, listening to their body when it comes to food. There is no rush either. Everyone is in a rush, you know, and part of that is again these

you know, these kind of these sabotaging things that we have that everything happens so fast and things that they appear on these devices just seem to happen like that for people. I assure you they do not. Nobody is in any rush to go anywhere. We're on this earthly existence for as long as we're meant to be. And that might be a really long time. So slow down, you know, listen to your body when it comes to all of these things, exercise and food.

Sherisse Alexander (33:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Caren Carnegie (33:31)
and enjoy the process of it all because you are gonna really learn and uncover a lot of things about your body and you know things when it comes to food and exercise too. just really you know and I hope that there is an intuitive you know somebody that can help people with this and when it comes to the nutrition aspect because we feel like it would be really kind of a nice compliment to it all but

Sherisse Alexander (33:39)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (33:58)
Yeah, have forgiveness for yourself. And there's other things too that can, you know, that cause our bodies to respond. So these metaphysical things, things in our environment, outside of the planet too, you know, when it's a full moon, sometimes we retain a bit more water. You know, things like this, it's okay. It's not maybe because you ate anything that you shouldn't have. And you know what? Tomorrow's a new day. Even if you did, you had that bag of candy, tomorrow's a new day. It's not this all or nothing thing. Like you didn't just...

Sherisse Alexander (34:08)
Mm hmm. Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (34:27)
throw years of progress away by having whatever. It's okay, you know?

Sherisse Alexander (34:30)
Yeah,

to have some grace.

Caren Carnegie (34:34)
And different seasons

too, that's why things grow in different seasons because that's what grows in the environment. So it only makes sense that our bodies that we kind of eat to the seasons too, right? So maybe in the summer having more cold, fresh, raw things and then the winter more of those comfort foods as we're kind of in hibernation. So just looking at that stuff too, there's no eating chicken or broccoli every day. Do you think your spirit wants that? I guarantee you no.

Sherisse Alexander (34:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a great reminder to have grace with the process and recognize that like it's a journey. It's not a race. It's such a cliche, but it's like so true. That it will life is actually meant for joy. You know, this this energy. Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (35:10)
And have fun. Have fun, you know?

Exactly! And this is one of my questions that I ask.

What brings them joy? Probably not weighing their food.

Sherisse Alexander (35:24)
yeah, hang on, I can't eat that yet. Let me just grab my scale. When you're working with clients, I think one of the really beautiful approaches about what you do, I do this with, I mean, this is obviously part of a yoga practice, but you know how you talk about really dropping down into your body and like really

Caren Carnegie (35:28)
Yeah, no, this is what I eat on Tuesdays. No!

Sherisse Alexander (35:48)
feeling the muscle, right? I that it sounds it's you when you say that to someone I'm like, well, it sounds easy. But the truth is, is like you're actually really asking them to like feel the muscle as it extends feel like feel every fiber of that muscle so you can feel it like working together, right?

Caren Carnegie (36:06)
Yeah,

so they can connect. So their mind can connect, like we talk about mind-muscle connection. So they can connect that movement to that muscle that's being worked. And they, by doing so, understand their body a little bit more and then can kind of get away from all that other stuff that may be causing some distraction up here. So it's just giving them something else to focus on and connect to. And that's how I, you know, again, when COVID hit and I was kind of...

Sherisse Alexander (36:20)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (36:33)
self-learning my fitness stuff downstairs. That's what I did so then I could understand the muscle groups and the reps and all of that stuff and the different movement patterns and how my body felt. there's some, and we're not robots. We talk in personal training about programming. We can't be programmed. So what feels good for me like last season, last full round?

it's not going to feel good for me right now because part of my journey right now I might crave more stability stuff than lifting heavy weight. I might be you know based on what's going on in my environment my body might be craving you know not lifting such heavy weight and maybe just stretching more moving my body in a different way so recognizing all of that too which is why really when people

Sherisse Alexander (37:04)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Very true.

Caren Carnegie (37:25)
are signing on to work with me, they're not just, they're not subscribing to a package, a template or a, you know, it's very specific and there's a lot of human connection. We have ways to make it more accessible for people. Like we, you I use an app and things like that, but at the end of the day, I am there with them, working with them to make sure that it is tailored to how they love to live and how their body wants to move.

Sherisse Alexander (37:30)
It's very, very specific and unique.

Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (37:55)
because that'll change.

Sherisse Alexander (37:55)
You know,

I just want to, and one thing that I really loved about what you said there is the peace around, because I remember when I was going to the, and sometimes this stuff can get so overwhelming. You're like, go to the gym. got to do strength training and then you got to do like cardio and then you got to do like this, you know, to do that. And it was just like, my gosh, like I just, I don't want to do all that stuff. Like it just sounds like so much. And again, about having grace for like where you are at this point in your life. So maybe.

This phase is, want to do strength training. And another phase is, no, really, so whatever it is, and I love that you're really allowing or holding space for people to say, give yourself a, hold space for yourself in whatever it is you need in that moment. And I think that part of that challenge is, is, you know, even as I speak to people about anything mundane and there's, let's say confusion about,

how I find this answer and often my answer is the same. Ask yourself. Ask yourself. It's literally as simple as what physical activity do I feel like doing today? And the first thing that comes to your mind is what you do. That is yourself knowing what it means in that moment. It is literally that simple. And some days I'll do that. I'll be like, okay, what do you need today, body? Okay, salad, awesome. Okay, what do you need today? I need steak, awesome. Like whatever it is that I might feel.

or whatever comes to me is, and it can be that simple. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Caren Carnegie (39:16)
Thanks.

It doesn't, it shouldn't be complicated. You know, you have the power, you don't need these fancy powders and equipment and all these, but it's just, and I don't blame people and how it's gotten so confusing. So I really want people to realize that there's somebody out there who understands and I don't blame you for not wanting to start. And I think we need to remember in every space that we're in, because even the spiritual space is getting confusing too, as more people are coming.

Sherisse Alexander (39:32)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (39:48)
online with certain things and nutrition and exercise, everything. It's one thing after another that we need to remember as coaches and we all have the same thing in common. We wanna help. We're helpers and it's a beautiful thing. We all wanna help. So yes, I am an ally of the fitness industry, but I'm not an advocate for one. I'm an advocate for people to the fitness industry. I'm not advocating fitness to people. People know.

Sherisse Alexander (40:02)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (40:18)
They know the benefits. I'm not gonna be the one to keep them up at night. but I just, again, it's just stripping those layers away and just trusting and listening to yourself. That's the biggest takeaway here. Like you just said, Sherisse, just listen to your body when it comes to and your own intuition. if something is kind of leaning, you feel a fire inside and maybe it's related to joining a yoga class or something, lean into it.

lean into it. Maybe that's what's there for you. it's just, you know, don't just, and again, talking to coaches and anybody, just remember who you're talking to. Remember who you're talking to. you know, are you talking to the coach that you are now or are you talking to the coach that you were before you started? That's where you need to be.

Sherisse Alexander (41:08)
Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (41:09)
Okay, so right now I feel like fitness coaches are speaking to who they are now and that's going to resonate with the people like really already well underway in fitness. No, we need to talk to the people that we were before we started. Does that make sense? Okay, we need to talk to those exactly who we need to talk to so they know that it's okay. We got you. I want people to feel welcome.

Sherisse Alexander (41:23)
Mm, yeah, 100%. Meeting people where they were. Yeah, meeting people where they are,

Caren Carnegie (41:38)
Like I would welcome them into my home.

but we're throwing all this stuff at you. I don't blame you one bit. I was there too. I still am there as a personal trainer. I don't train inside of a gym. I train at home because of how I use trance training for my own, just being present and clear. But even as a personal trainer, I don't know where I belong, which is why I am exactly where I am today.

Sherisse Alexander (42:03)
You keep saying that and I, I you're, I, so I would offer you're exactly where you're supposed to be. Right. There is no label for it and it doesn't require a label. so I'm curious if you, are you familiar with Louise Hay and the work that the author Louise Hay?

Caren Carnegie (42:05)
I know.

Exactly.

Fairly, fairly. I've taken, I was really into literature at the beginning of my stages, then took a bit of a pause in between, but now it's really funny what I'm actually getting called to read about. And I'll talk to you about that a little bit later, but it's, no, I don't think I've read anything from her.

Sherisse Alexander (42:25)
You are.

Okay, so the reason why I asked is because I think when we were chatting previously, it was just in the conversation, you were like, yeah, know, if somebody has like a pain in their hip or in their knee or this or that, or whatever the case may be, I can help them figure out like, really, what is your body saying to you? And, you know, for the audience, I talk about Louise Hayes, it's heal your body. And it's basically, so if you've never read her stuff,

Really what she's talking about is exactly what we're talking about is how the body is always speaking to us. And she has almost like this encyclopedia in the book where it's like, okay, if your shoulders are bothering you, then it means this or the probable root cause is this thing. If you are a really common one is that one, right? Your throat is sore. You need to clear your throat. In fact, I was talking to somebody the other day.

Caren Carnegie (43:32)
I think you gotta say.

Sherisse Alexander (43:33)
Yeah, something you got to say. And this person

Caren Carnegie (43:35)
Yes.

Sherisse Alexander (43:35)
was telling me about how their throat was killing them. And I said, what are you angry about that you're not saying? Because I just whip out my book. According to Louise Hay, you are really angry about something that you're not that you don't want to say. And if you don't want to say it to me, it's fine, but at least speak it because if you speak it, you're acknowledging it. It doesn't mean you have to own it. It just means that it's like if you think about it, it's like when a kid is having a temper tantrum.

Caren Carnegie (43:44)
Love it.

Sherisse Alexander (44:02)
and they're doing their thing and they're freaking out and they're crying and they just want to be acknowledged. I see you, I hear you, I understand. No, you can't have the candy bar or whatever the case may be. But you know, when we, and I think that our bodies respond much in the very same way when we finally see dis-ease in our body or illness or a physical manifestation of some sort, that it is because we have tuned it out for a really, really long time or become disconnected.

And we, yeah, were overwhelmed, distracted, so on and so forth. So the only reason I brought that up is because when you were talking about, you know, having members that might have a physical manifestation in their body and kind of going down this intuitive piece, I thought, I actually thought that you would be very familiar with Louise Hayes. So how did that all come about?

Caren Carnegie (44:50)
You know what? That is really

funny that you said that. And I've got two things here that I wanted that you just said. And when do we ever stop being those children whose emotions are exploding? Those children, they're still in here. It's just our body is bigger. And we've learned through conditioning and other things to suppress and repress those emotions which are showing up in our body when we were kids.

Sherisse Alexander (45:04)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (45:15)
it was more acceptable to just explode in Costco. Like, you know, but it's worth it.

Sherisse Alexander (45:18)
100%, absolutely. Look at a kid play, they're out there, they're running around, they're being, I can't, I don't actually know that

kids do that anymore, to be honest with you. I don't know that kids do that.

Caren Carnegie (45:27)
Well, mine do, because we live out in yeah, anyway. But it's,

you know, it's, but when do we ever stop being those kids? We're still these energetic beings full of emotion, but we suppress it and repress it, and then it shows up in our body because it gets trapped. It's gotta get dealt with, right? So it's funny, so when you mentioned about, so I actually was guided by my own higher guides to take a bit of a literature break, because when I went,

Sherisse Alexander (45:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Caren Carnegie (45:54)
When I really was, when spirituality came calling, like I did with fitness, I really obsessed over it at the beginning and I was reading like I couldn't get my hands on enough literature. and I learned a lot, it was fabulous. But then I was guided to stop for a minute and just instead of, cause I felt like I was just kind of, again, giving my power away to these other sources, but I learned a lot from it.

Sherisse Alexander (46:04)
Mm-hmm.

enough content, yeah.

Caren Carnegie (46:22)
but I was guided to just take a little pause for a minute and just trust in what I was receiving for myself when it came to the body and members and stuff. So that's really when I started learning the most was through actual experience and my own intuition about the body. And that was fabulous. And I felt so powerful when I was on this literature break.

Sherisse Alexander (46:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That is amazing.

Caren Carnegie (46:51)
of all this stuff that I was receiving and that I was channeling through my writing. I channel a lot through, I get downloads and then I write a lot. Like all the content on my website is all stuff that I wrote, social media, it's all stuff that I write. And then what I was receiving for members and then applying to their programming was all from consciousness. And it was just a reminder of how vast

Sherisse Alexander (47:18)
Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (47:21)
consciousness is and how connected we are, that I would receive this information from someone else's spiritual team, higher guides, whoever it might be, to help them in their own journey. So that's when I took a little break. And then now lately I've been inspired towards the literature regarding Akashic record keeping, which is very interesting. So I've just started, so I'm still learning quite a bit, but then I'm like,

Sherisse Alexander (47:45)
Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Caren Carnegie (47:51)
Huh.

Sherisse Alexander (47:53)
I had to take a break.

Caren Carnegie (47:54)
Yeah,

but it's interesting. you know, and from what I very little right now that I understand about a cache of record keeping is kind of tapping into people's blueprints when it comes to their journey, their, you know, their existence here. So which is kind of what I do. And I was like, huh, interesting. So I'm really curious to see where that goes.

Sherisse Alexander (48:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yeah, that's actually true.

Caren Carnegie (48:15)
But yeah, I did take a bit of a break and just trusted in what the information that I was receiving from the outside and then going back and then how it aligned with some of the stuff that I did come across and read and how it just aligned so well. So it was just really, it was a really reassuring, you know.

Sherisse Alexander (48:34)
That's,

you know, and thank you for sharing that, you know, and, and I think what I would probably add to that is because, you know, I, like you, it's like you find something, you get really excited. And I did the same thing on Akashic records. And then it was just like, okay, I got to put a pin in this because this is a lot of information. And

And I think that maybe part of it is maybe possibly a little bit of a distraction from actually doing, cause there's the theory and then there's the application of it, right? At least for myself, it's like, I don't want to get it wrong. Like it almost like it's a test, right? And it's like, well, no. Yeah.

Caren Carnegie (49:09)
Yeah. Yeah, that's our human nature. We

doubt ourselves a little bit on it. And that's what I was doing too. And I was like, is this so and so's like, you know, way of teaching or is this Caren Carnegie? So I was kind of confusing the two is becoming a little bit gray.

Sherisse Alexander (49:28)
Yeah. And I mean, in some things, and you know, even with like, I have this sciatic nerve issue on my right side. And I've been in and that really resonates with me what you're saying, because it was like, I use this book and I and I've been going through all the things and I'm like, okay, it's not that I thought I dealt with that. No, it's not that. And so finally, I just sat down. I'm like, okay, what is that? Like, just tell me because I don't know. Like, I've been I've been trying to figure this out. And, you know, I don't

I I quite have the answer yet, but I probably haven't slowed down enough to listen to it. But thank you for the gentle reminder that I am my own guru. So if I quiet and slow myself down enough, the answer will actually come to me.

Caren Carnegie (50:06)
Yeah,

exactly. You're your own healer.

Sherisse Alexander (50:10)
I am actually my own healer. do know that I am my own healer. In closing, what would be the number one tip that you would like to leave the audience with today?

Caren Carnegie (50:22)
You know, a big one is just not waiting for your conditions to change. Right, to kind of learn that the hard way. So just, you know, you're never, you know, whatever it is, you know, there's, wait for more money to come. Don't wait for, you know, more time in your schedule because chances are it's not going to happen. So you're the creator of this, you know.

Sherisse Alexander (50:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (50:49)
creator, co-creator of this life that you want. again, circling back, you have that power to make that change. And it is the most selfless thing you can do. I really struggled with feeling selfish when I started prioritizing my physical wellness. But now knowing what I know and how it's transpired in my life.

Sherisse Alexander (51:06)
Yeah, yourself.

Caren Carnegie (51:13)
It was the most selfless thing I could do because I showed up better for myself. I was able to show up better for my kids. I was able to show up better for Jeff. And now I'm showing up in the world to help others. If I didn't take those first steps as, they were imperfect. I'm not telling you like they, was just, that I was this perfect person that did everything right. Absolutely not. We are human, have forgiveness, have compassion. I'm still not, I'm not, you know.

Am I the most perfect mom? No, not a perfect wife. I'm not a perfect person, not a perfect personal trainer. I'm none of those things. But I do the best that I can with my best intentions every single day. Exactly. So just don't wait for your conditions to change because when you decide you're ready for something different, watch what happens around you. Take your time. Be an observer. Observe your

Sherisse Alexander (51:54)
So we can ask for.

Mm-hmm.

Caren Carnegie (52:10)
yourself, be self aware, aware of your body, aware of your reactions, aware of your emotions, aware of the things that make you feel good, aware of the things that make you not feel good, you know, just less focus on being mindful, I think, and more focus on being self aware. And remembering the things that make you happy that give you joy in this life. Because that is

really a part of our true essence and don't ever stop doing those things. So yeah, the biggest takeaway is just not waiting for things to change.

Sherisse Alexander (52:41)
Yes.

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining me here today and sharing, you know, a little bit about you. And I know that you and I will figure out what we're going to call you. I don't even think it really matters. I don't think it really, really matters. I called you an intuitive health coach.

Caren Carnegie (52:47)
Mm-hmm.

No, right? I know. Just kidding.

I like

that one. really struggled though with it with the I'm very I'm becoming very open and accepting to The word intuitive now, but I did struggle with that one there for a bit You know as I was coming to terms with everything but It sounds pretty good to me I like it

Sherisse Alexander (53:26)
Yeah, you know, one of my other guests, here's what I would do if I were you. As we are wrapping up here, he is a neuro-linguistic somatic experience practitioner. That is a lot, right? But anyways, write down a bunch of different things, ways that you can call yourself for your members and say it out loud. Take a breath.

Hold it, let it go, see how it feels in your body and you will figure out what you should call yourself or how you feel you should call yourself. So anyways, that's just a suggestion. Yes, thank you again so much for joining me here today and to the audience. As always, thank you so much. I will ensure to include all of Caren's contact details, socials, et cetera with this particular publishing of the podcast.

Caren Carnegie (53:54)
Love it.

Yeah, I love it.

Sherisse Alexander (54:15)
And as always, if you have any questions, you can always reach out via email. Thank you.