The Role Model In You – Shannon Lagasse, Body Image Coach

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Role Model
Shannon Lagasse

As part of the new web series, The Role Model In You — here is the most recent interview. The Role Model In You series discusses how individuals were influenced as a child to lead a healthy lifestyle. It covers who influenced these individuals, the changes they made in their life to be healthy, and the message they would like to convey to the youth of today. Our guests include doctors, soccer stars, Super Bowl champions, NBA players, Olympic gold medalist, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and just regular people looking to share their story. We hope you enjoy it!

1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?

Shannon Lagasse, Body Image Coach, 20. I help women create a healthier relationship with food, with themselves, and with their body.

2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?

My stepmom was my biggest role model. She was the first person to say “hydrogenated oils are bad for you”. When I started learning more about nutrition, it was Dr. Doug Graham, of The 80/10/10 Diet. His philosophy about food and the foods we’re designed to eat, the lifestyle we’re designed to live, just made so much sense. I can’t say that I follow it to a T today, but I keep his principles in mind.

3. What did they do to inspire you?

My stepmom was always educating herself and finding resources outside the public news media, which are often biased and paid by companies who make money off of disease. Dr. Graham taught me to take a look at the way we’re designed: Is this something I’d eat in nature? Is this something I’d do in nature? It was my first opportunity to really question the way I living and the way I was eating.

4. How did their lesson change your life?

For one thing, it’s made me healthier. Once I decided to take a look at my health, I started eating foods that gave me energy. I experimented to see which foods were negatively affecting my health, which is what led me to a high-raw, alkaline, vegan diet. Do I stick to it 100% of the time? Nope. But I’m grateful that even when I’m only doing it 80% or 90% of the time, I still get the benefits.

5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?

When I worked as a nanny, I made sure that the kid was always eating his fruits and vegetables. That’s what I would offer as a snack. Now, my rule of thumb when going to gatherings is: Don’t feed anyone else something that I wouldn’t eat myself.

6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?

Educate yourself. Listen to your own body. You can read and read and read, but none of it is going to do you any good if you’re going against the signals from your own body. One source might tell you, for instance, that “milk does a body good”, but you may be lactose intolerant. If you’ve got bad recurrent acne, mucus, or digestive problems, it could be dairy. It’s taking a look at what works for YOU. Kids are so smart because they naturally gravitate towards foods that they feel good eating.

7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?

www.BreakthroughtoBodyLove.com