WHY to Fitness
The WHY to Fitness podcast is dedicated to supporting Christians in achieving peace of mind and heart in all areas of life because every aspect of life affects our health and fitness.
Hosted by Aaron O'Connell, an IFBB Professional athlete actively pursuing a Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychological Studies, the podcast's goal is to assist Christians in discovering their divine purpose while triumphing over spiritual, mental, and physical challenges related to their well-being.
At the core of this journey is the belief that God serves as the ultimate WHY, i.e., the ultimate driving force behind existence.
In this context, fitness is our ability to overcome the obstacles standing before the goal. It extends beyond exercise and nutrition to encompass relationships, mental health, finances, spiritual growth, and life experiences.
Tune in on a biweekly/weekly to access valuable insights, mindset strategies, theological discussions, interviews, and more to achieve success, which translates into attaining peace of mind and heart across every facet of life.
WHY to Fitness
The Divine Gift of Food: Honoring Your Body with Dara Hedrick
How often do we think of food as more than just sustenance or a tool for weight loss? Embrace the opportunity to reimagine your relationship with food as we converse with the brilliant Dara Hedrick. Unravel her intriguing journey from a public school teacher to running a successful meal prep business - Dish Bliss Kitchen. Explore the power of food as a means to serve others, and how it plays a pivotal role in nurturing not just our physical but also our spiritual health.
Imagine a scenario where your diet choices aren't driven by fear-based weight loss goals but are about honoring your body as a divine gift. We gear towards this holistic approach as we dive into the long-term effects of diet choices, particularly the perils of fad diets. Dara shares her wisdom on the importance of consistency and discipline, the significance of variety in meals, and the difference between choosing merely "healthy" foods over truly nutritious ones. We also address the delicate connection between food and emotions and the indispensability of addressing underlying emotional and psychological issues.
As we proceed, we highlight the importance of body and spiritual alignment. We delve into how being physically out of shape or struggling with health issues may mirror a spiritual imbalance. We weigh in on the root causes of disordered eating and the need for self-control through emotions. The conversation wraps up with encouragement for those struggling to start their healthy eating journey and a fresh perspective on viewing food as a crucial aspect of overall well-being. So gear up for an enlightening discussion that promises to redefine your approach to food and well-being. Don't forget to tune in!
I feel like your physical can kind of show what your spiritual is, so they should be in line with each other. There's just so much fad diet that just oh like it makes me sick. You know what I always tell my clients consistency is the best diet, discipline is the best diet. It's such a beautiful place to have freedom with food.
Aaron O'Connell:Welcome back to the WHY to Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, aaron O'Connell, and today I am joined with Dara Hedrick. How are you doing today, dara?
Dara Hedrick:Great.
Aaron O'Connell:Excellent, excellent. And you are the owner and creator of Dish Bliss Kitchen, which is a food prep business, correct? Yes, and this whole entire podcast is about the importance of meal prepping and cultivating the healthy mindset towards food, with an emphasis on understanding the purpose of food beyond weight loss, which, when we were talking, when I first met you, you just wowed me with your, with just your insight on food, your whole theory behind everything, and that is why I have you on your pat on this podcast. So thank you so much for joining with us, absolutely, I'm excited.
Aaron O'Connell:So let's just first just dive into just a little bit about you and Dish Bliss Kitchen. I understand you said you're going to be rebranding it in the future, so I don't know how long you'll stay Dish Bliss Kitchen. But how did this all start? What was the inspiration behind all of it?
Dara Hedrick:Well, it wasn't planned literally. It was literally God. I wanted to be a principal. I got my master's degree. I was on this path of wanting to be a principal. I wanted to lead something, own something I always knew. I wanted to be some type of leader that made an impact.
Dara Hedrick:I've always loved children. I've always loved just establishing God's love somewhere, and I really felt like at the time it was in the school system. However, I graduated with a master's degree and then COVID hit and I was a full-time teacher and we were remote teaching. And then, all of a sudden, my family was like, hey, well, at the time, I was meal prepping for my friends because they couldn't go out to eat and they wanted healthy food. And then I did it for my family as well, and they were like, hey, you should do a business out of this. I was like, no, it'll never work. I just started doing it actually with my friends and they started posting me and telling people about me, and I just never stopped meal prepping ever since June of 2020. It just never stopped and I got to a point where I quit my full-time teaching position one year later and I became a full-time business owner.
Aaron O'Connell:Wow.
Dara Hedrick:And that's funny because my dad, when I was about seven years old, was like you should go culinary school and I was like no dad, you don't know what you're talking about, I know what I want to do. So I thought that was really funny. They always know best. So here I am, a chef, not a principal, but I don't regret going to Graspgut.
Dara Hedrick:Oh, I love learning, so, if anything, it made me a better leader. So I don't take it as a regret or anything, but this is the best thing I've ever fell into my hands and have the responsibility to do, and it just brings out joy to serve people with health, because health is so important. It's kind of funny because I actually had my own struggles with health a long time ago. Well, whatever High school, you're an athlete, you're a girl, you're going through puberty and you just try to figure out your body and you have peer pressure around you. You want to be like other girls and they're telling you don't eat, eat. And then you get stuck in this cycle, and so it's kind of funny how God uses your greatest fear to become this whole business.
Aaron O'Connell:I love it. I love it, so that all started in North Carolina.
Dara Hedrick:Yes.
Aaron O'Connell:Okay, and then it started to expand and I understand you were serving the community and you had people underneath you, all that stuff.
Dara Hedrick:And so I started out as a public meal prep business and I was serving all of Charlotte, north Carolina.
Dara Hedrick:It was fun.
Dara Hedrick:I mean, I'm on pause right now in North Carolina just because I transitioned to a private meal prep business, and their reason is because I didn't want to lose the focus on quality and I really love the one-on-one work.
Dara Hedrick:I think it becomes really special that way in transforming other people's lives. I can see them, I can talk to them, I can have a relationship with them, compared to as I'm just stuck in the kitchen and then everyone else does the work for me and I don't really see or meet anybody, or I just kind of. I mean, I talked to my chefs but I don't know, it just wasn't like I wanted more. So I kind of shifted perspective, not that I closed or ended anything, it just was a re-evaluate my business and I wanted to go a little deeper in my business and make it really intentional, and so helping people one-on-one with their health became truly a passion for me. It's not just about meal prep. I felt like the public was more like here's meal prep, stay healthy and wealthy, but here, I don't know, it's just I love it.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, it's that next level where we can actually start taking a biblical foundation of nourishing our body. Because in 1 Corinthians 619, we are that temple and when you are, like you said, stuck in the kitchen not seeing the people, you can't necessarily get that message out. And, yes, you're producing great food, but you're not really educating behind that. It seems like you're here's, your great meals, but for all you know, they eat one of them, or two of them, or they end up in the back of the refrigerator and then they get thrown out because they kept on, you know, forgetting that they were there, or eating the XYZ. That was not as well. So you weren't really helping them. Because that's one thing that I realized within personal training I was changing people but I wasn't really helping them, and it almost sounds like that's what you were almost going through of. You were serving people but you didn't necessarily know if you were truly helping them to that level that made a difference.
Dara Hedrick:It was like became surface level help.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes.
Dara Hedrick:I was just surfacing and, yeah, I have social media and stuff, but there's something about being in someone else's kitchen and they can smell the health, you know. They become excited and then they want to watch you cook and then they learn how to cook and it's just like I don't know it's just there's a lot of cool things that can happen.
Aaron O'Connell:So you go to people's kitchens and you do it.
Dara Hedrick:I do a few A few. A lot of them. I just they just want something quick, like they they're super busy. They need someone to do all their food, deliver all that. So I have the best of both worlds, you know?
Aaron O'Connell:but yeah, no, that's fantastic Every client's different.
Dara Hedrick:So you know, of course, we all, we all need different needs. We need everything.
Aaron O'Connell:But I also love first Corinthians 10, 31. That says whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And so many people lose that.
Dara Hedrick:So many people.
Aaron O'Connell:It's more of like I eat and drink to be social. I eat and drink to for comfort. You know, not many people are looking as from the glory of God and you going into somebody's home seems like that's what it does.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, I think people miss out or they don't believe or they don't know about the Holy Spirit. It dwells within us and it's more than just putting foods in our body, like the Lord, just you know, tells us that we should take care of our temple, and that's part of it. Is not just about meal prepping. My meal preps are more than just a food service. It's a health service, mentally, physically, spiritually.
Dara Hedrick:You know, I want, I want people to not have to stress about like there's just so much fad diets. I just, oh, like it makes me sick and it's like everything has to be so like confusing, like it's annoying. I just want people to go back to the basics of this is food and it's meant to fuel you and it's meant to help you with your day. Like God provides all that stuff for us and we're meant to have responsibility over it and we take everything to granted, like for granted nowadays, like even the food and the drinks that we have, we just there's gluttony. It's just like we abuse everything, like our bodies, the food, the drinks. You know, everything is just abused and I just want to bring peace to people honestly.
Aaron O'Connell:And peace. You know, because, with Y2 Fitness, my main ability and desire is to help Christians find inner peace over their health and their physical appearance. That's what Y2 Fitness is all about, because the opposite of peace is stress.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly, and that's the number one cause of disease, by the way.
Aaron O'Connell:You took the words right out of my mouth. Number one thing of disease and stress is more than just the mental stress that people talk about. They're like oh, I'm so stressed out, my boss. You know that, yes, that's mental anguish correct. But there's also other types of stresses, like eating two little calories and working out is a stress that can cause damage, unreparable damage, and I think we're starting to see a lot of that just starting to form now, because body building really took off in the 1970s.
Aaron O'Connell:You know, let's just say maybe it was the 90s 80s that people really started like possibly going to the gym. You know like around there.
Aaron O'Connell:And now then the 2000s, especially the 2010s, and now it's like, if you're not lifting, what are you doing? You know, like it's the only way to go, and it's like you got. You got mothers that are doing CrossFit. You got you got personal trainings making personal trainers, making 300 pound people jump on these boxes like they're these athletes and they're not sitting here going. Well, wait a minute. What is the long term effects of this? Yes, can it. It may that be a little quicker in the short run? Yeah, like these fad diets, like you were saying.
Aaron O'Connell:But what is the long run? That's actually happening? How is it affecting our bodies, our endocrine system, our hormone production, everything? In the long run, because we have these beautiful bodies made in God's image, with God breath in us, it's going to adapt and it's going to give us every opportunity to have a quality life, to be able to serve God, to give us every chance to glorify God with our bodies, because we're meant to be stewards of our bodies we're supposed to like I said, do it all for the glory of God, and that that extends into what we put into our bodies.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly, if we can get our minds off of ourselves and say this is for the glory of God, then our perspective can change and shift off of self and then literally a lot of things can change when you. It takes practice. It doesn't come over time, like I mean, it doesn't come overnight. It takes discipline, it takes consistency and I always tell my clients consistency is the best diet, discipline is the best diet. I don't, I don't suggest anything unless there's some type of major health issue going on. Yes, I do believe that there are some necessary actions you should take, but when it comes to just overall health, consistency and discipline and the weight will eventually come off. The goal should not be weight loss. That's a fear based goal. People Like come on.
Aaron O'Connell:Did you listen to my podcast before this?
Dara Hedrick:No, You've never said that before. This is why I have you on the podcast.
Aaron O'Connell:You, literally you wowed my socks off. You keep wowing my socks off every single time we talk. That's why you are here, because I had one of the first podcasts I have is the number one reason why you are not reaching your weight loss goals, and it was all about your bed. You have backwards facing, fear based goals. That's hilarious, that's exactly what is Weight loss? Is the fear of being fat?
Dara Hedrick:It is. It's the fear of being fat, and it actually is a lie. It's a complete lie to make you go spinning in cycles of diets that aren't ever meant to heal you. Like that's an issue. There's a deeper root issue going on that you have to deal with and bring to the Lord and surrender, and once you surrender that, then you're going to be able to see things differently. It takes practice.
Aaron O'Connell:And, like you said, it's consistency. And what I always say is, in order to be consistent, in order to find the program that's best for you, it needs to be fun. Exactly, it needs to be easy.
Dara Hedrick:Yes.
Aaron O'Connell:Because fun and easy is consistent. Yes, that's what everyone is doing. That's why they have the pizza, that's why they have all these things is because they get to have the fun, the comforts, the sociality, whatever it is. But it's also easy. But that's why I love that you have this meal prepping thing, because it takes the easy part and gives it to them.
Dara Hedrick:Yes.
Aaron O'Connell:And really meal prepping becomes that deliberate act of choosing foods that honor God and foster well-being.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly, exactly. I don't do no quick fixes. Over here. I have all sorts of clients, all the clients who just need me to keep their fridges stocked because they don't have time Literally, if they did it, then they would be super stressed. So if I can just relieve that stress for them, then I feel like I'm serving them. And then I have the other client that wants me to be in their home and teach them all the things, and that relieves their stress. And it's just really cool. I just love health.
Aaron O'Connell:No, I can see that so much. How do you come up with the?
Dara Hedrick:menus.
Aaron O'Connell:I understand that you do it for individual clients, but there has to be. You don't just. Do you have a rotational menus? Do you have a book of 100 recipes that you throw darts at? Is it what you're kind of hungry for that week? So therefore, you're going to cook them that.
Dara Hedrick:It's really based on how my public meal prep in Charlotte. It was more rotational. It was kind of rotational. I had the popular foods rotate often, but then I would always do new ones as well. But when I did, I sent out. I called emails to clients to see what they wanted like would you prefer a monthly menu or weekly, or just new every single week? And they love the whole variety thing. They want something new every week and that's why I sold out the most with other meal prep businesses. So I only did like eight to 10 items a week and everyone would choose off of those items and it was new every single week. And I do that with my clients here too. They just seems to work and they enjoy the exciting. The most exciting part is them not choosing. They just allow me to choose and I make it and they tend to always like it, so I just have fun with it. I'm having fun doing this and just kind of creating things out of my own creativity.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, because it makes me want to, Because I follow your Instagram. I follow all that stuff and it's like oh, she's making those tacos.
Dara Hedrick:Oh, like you just had that blueberry parfait I like to make turn kind of like naughty foods to nice In a way like Clients, like the familiar, but they want it to be healthy. So lasagna, whatever, tacos I mean whatever you know like none of those are bad but they can be healthy, you know well, I don't like the word healthy, I like nutritious. Nutritious.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, because you know, Nate, what's an unhealthy food.
Dara Hedrick:Right.
Aaron O'Connell:Okay, alcohol, I could give you that one. It's about the only thing, because, even though that's not a food that I would say is Unhealthy unless you're straight up eating like poison, clearly that's unhealthy like unhealthy, as in processed foods but even still that if you have 95% of the most amazing things, and you have 5% Unprocessed foods and it relieves your stress and it makes you have joy.
Aaron O'Connell:Okay, so you're a big picture I would say you didn't eat an unhealthy food. You ate everything you needed to that. Just that 5% was very low nutritious. You know, like if you have the right amount of fiber, if you're drinking amount the right amount of water which we know most people don't, you know the stat is 70% of people live in a constant state of dehydration. 95% of people don't get the recommended amount of fiber.
Aaron O'Connell:So if you just follow those two stats right there, things aren't moving through you. If things aren't moving through, you don't have your purification of your water, you don't have the movement of your bowels. A Simple grape can turn into alcohol inside inside your body. You know, I could first start fermenting, cause mass damage. And that's a grape, let alone you name it. You know whatever processed foods.
Aaron O'Connell:So that's where I kind of look at it, because you know, it's not what you put into your mouth that defiles you. What comes from your heart, that's what hate mouse all those things are and it's also that's where gluttony comes from. That's where selfishness comes from. If you were putting into your mouth out of selfishness, out of gluttony, then it can have that damage too much of a good thing, isn't a good thing exactly?
Aaron O'Connell:But if I go eat any, any food whatsoever there is, I can do it with pure joy because I have freedom, knowing that I am paying attention and pro actively choosing what needs to be done.
Dara Hedrick:Isn't that such a amazing place to be? Yes because I've been in that cycle of just like not eating for several weeks and then eating again, and then eating everything and then not eating again, and Then coming to a state of like oh, I have self-control. Yes you know, and actually it's like it doesn't come overnight, but it takes practice and discipline and the right people in your life, like you got to have community and you got to talk about it. Oh yeah you know, but it's such a beautiful place. I have freedom with food.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, I always said back when I didn't have the freedom and because I've been through every single diet. There is, you know, ex professional bodybuilder, all that other type of stuff. Well, technically I'm still a professional builder can't lose the status, but Through all that you know going through bulimia, going through mass binge eating- disorder going through all of it I always said I just wish I could be somewhere like imagine a population of 300. Everyone is over 300 pounds, All right and we all we there's no Superficial looking around of you.
Dara Hedrick:look bad, you look good, we're all just fat and you're like the fatter you are.
Aaron O'Connell:It's almost like medieval times, like if you're fat, your royalty, you know. Imagine just a group of 300 people just eating what they want, zero cares in the world whatsoever, and they are just the joy fat person from the Midwest type of thing. Like that's where I always wanted to get Mentally is what I said, and I would say that I'm getting pretty darn close. Yes, I, I think I care more than that population would have, but it's almost like I care so much that I no longer care. Yeah, it's, it's like it became so much second nature of I'm going to get the right amount of protein calories nutrients, fiber, vegetables, fruits.
Aaron O'Connell:I'm gonna focus on that so much. That's what I enjoy that the moment, all of a sudden, a food does come up, mm-hmm, I can eat it with the most joy that I ever have, exactly even though, that being said, I've I've lost desires for many foods like I. If you're like oh, there's pizza. I'm not like. Yes, I'm like.
Dara Hedrick:You stop depriving yourself of stuff.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, I yeah, but once it's not a deprivation More of just you just know what makes you feel good. Like I'm not gonna have pizza unless it's like something new or I'm in New York. Yeah or you know, it's gonna get a real Chicago style deep dish. You know, whatever it may be, I'm not just gonna have because you had it again in its free pizza like no, I don't care for that. But but also with sweets, I don't care for sweets, I don't. They don't bring me joy or anything.
Dara Hedrick:But if you made something, I'm sure of it, that I've never seen before.
Aaron O'Connell:Never tasted before. You're gonna peak my interest and it's gonna be delicious and I'm gonna maybe want a second bit, but I'm, there's gonna be zero guilt in it right, mississippi, my goodness. Oh yeah.
Dara Hedrick:Like food, great again like oh it's just make eating great again. Yes, and healthy, yes for sure.
Aaron O'Connell:I would love for you to speak on just a little bit further mm-hmm on the purpose behind food and and just your, your overall thoughts on how people should view food and Really anything to that nature.
Dara Hedrick:Like I said before, when we can't get our minds and on, you know, our thoughts off of ourself, I think that we can see food and then more clear perspective. If you are a Christian or not, you know we should see food, that it was here on earth and it's given to us to Basically rule over right. Everything given to us, I see, is a responsibility. Our bodies, food, people, friendships, you steward it just like anything else in your lives. So once I Started seeing things in a different perspective, you know also getting in my word and like Just not so obsessed about food, like thinking about it all the time like oh my gosh, I eat this and I can't eat tomorrow and just stupid stuff, you know. And so especially having the right relationships in your life, because that was a game changer for me, you know people go through trauma, terrible relationships, like myself.
Dara Hedrick:You, you eat emotionally and then you, then it becomes a habit right and then it becomes like you're killing yourself literally because you hate yourself, and Then it's like you don't realize that food isn't the issue.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah there's actually things you got to work on in your life that you may have never worked on before, and so I did the work. It took me a long time. I started in 2018, when I started doing the work and I went to therapy thinking because I had an anorexia and bulimia problem, but that wasn't the problem at all. I had a lot of issues. I'm childhood, you know, you know, adulthood, preteen, whatever that I just never dealt with before. So when you can kind of Find that like the root, of your issue.
Dara Hedrick:I think that's where you can begin to start healing, and so this is my experience, so that's how I needed to start and Then kind of seeing food again, kind of like starting all over again. Like with the love of food, it takes work. You know, at first you may need to track your mac macros. At first you may need to do things that just kind of alleviate the stress and just maybe Going to a Daniel diet or, you know, daniel fast, like just do it, but you're doing it for the Lord is different when you're doing it for yourself, like okay, god, I surrender my thoughts About this negative perspective on food.
Dara Hedrick:I know food is good for me. Food is Like. You know, I don't want to look at food as bad, like I used to, and so you have to go back to If you did have issues with food, like you got to go back to connect the dots there, and then if you don't have any issues with food I don't know, maybe a lot of people do- I don't think there's many people that don't know it's sad, and if it's not, even with their food, it's it's their body image.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, it's body image, it's which they go hand in hand. And you, you said something that's just so important that you're like hey, you're anorexic and, believe me, you know you didn't have a problem with that. There was much dea rooted Issues and that's also why I I'm doing what I'm doing, why I have my masters and pastoral counseling. I'm getting my PhD and counseling and in psychology. Right and the whole theory behind why? To fitness, like I said, is bring peace over their physical health and image.
Dara Hedrick:Right.
Aaron O'Connell:I do that from a counseling basis. First. I guess I'm a health coach. Yes, I give diet information.
Dara Hedrick:Yes, I did.
Aaron O'Connell:But it's like the first thing I do is I turn a mirror on you. I you need to be aware of what's going on Exactly. So I usually do about like two different sessions within a week. One is mostly focusing on the physical, the eating, the what are you doing? Just focus on the activity, whatever it is self awareness yes. Then the second one is more of like that counseling kind of kind of looking into your past, rich, trying to figure out that root cause right.
Aaron O'Connell:And I marry them together and I found that's the most effective way, because that's why it's called why to fitness? What is your why to fitness? And most people have that faulty why it's to be enough to not be fat for your yeah, exactly. All of these negative things.
Dara Hedrick:instead, it's like look at athletes, you don't see let's just say literally, we can talk about this 300.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, we can get a 340 pound lineman needs to lose weight. Okay, because he's fat and he's not moving. His goal isn't to lose weight. His goal is to move around efficiently for his knees to stop hurting to perform. A byproduct of that is to lose weight.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly that's weight loss always comes.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes.
Dara Hedrick:If you, I mean there's, there's science to food too. You know, like I also have my sports nutrition certification, so I do help a lot of athletes. You know weight loss and or you know weight gain, or, but it's not about again, those aren't our goals, though it's it's. What is your goals? Okay, I need to win this championship.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah.
Dara Hedrick:Okay, so that's the goal. So we're going to get you there and we're going to work on like feeding you consistently so you're fueled and so then your weight can drop off so easily when it's, you know, go time. But again, every person is different and has different goals, if we are an athlete or not. But I absolutely agree.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah.
Dara Hedrick:And athletes don't look at it. Athletes don't look at food. Like to lose weight. No, they it's like they have the freedom to tool. It's a tool. Yeah they understand that they need for the fuel.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, michael felt, yeah, eating what 11,000, 11,000 calories, whatever was, because he was swimming six seven, eight hours a day. Go try to swim eight hours a day without eating that much. He was still a string bean.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah you know, powerful People just don't want to do the work.
Aaron O'Connell:They don't.
Dara Hedrick:They want quality without paying for it.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, they don't want to do the work and they also, from what I've seen, is they like to play the blame game.
Dara Hedrick:Yes, absolutely.
Aaron O'Connell:Saying like oh, it's just my genetics.
Dara Hedrick:I hate that.
Aaron O'Connell:It's the worst thing. It's like no, your mom ate the same foods that you're eating, and you're still eating those same foods. You'll see it, You'll see fat dad, fat mom, fat sister skinny brother.
Dara Hedrick:What's the?
Aaron O'Connell:skinny brother doing. He's doing sports.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, he's, he's drinking protein shakes.
Aaron O'Connell:He's doing all these other things. It's like your genetics may load the gun, but your habits pull the trigger.
Dara Hedrick:I always ask my clients like are you active, like I have a little questionnaire before. I think we're a great fit and I ask them to kind of track their food. You know the first day or two, and then I want to make sure how active they are so that I know what to feed them. Yes so if you're not active. I'm not going to give you a high carb diet you know like, but I do try to encourage them to be active because that's the number one thing to maintain A body emotions stays emotional.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, exactly yeah. And and activity isn't going from crawling to sprinting. So many people go from desk job doing nothing. Last time, like you go, ask them to walk around their block and they go. You know heart rates in the 130s 40s just from this low paced walk and they think they need to go to the gym or join, join orange theory or CrossFit, or get a personal trainer, which all they're going to do is try to beat the crap out of you because they're. They're all about speed. They're not thinking about it.
Dara Hedrick:But that's why.
Aaron O'Connell:I love about Romans 12. One is offer your body as a living sacrifice, and that's where you even said something you're like hey, maybe you do need to track your macros, or your food at least. And that's what that's what I have, because so many people.
Dara Hedrick:I first thing.
Aaron O'Connell:I asked I'm like, so how do you eat? And most people, when they want to work with me, care that's why they're trying to work with me. So they're like oh, I eat relatively healthy. I eat healthy. I'm like, okay, and they, they, they like to label off one day. Well, normally for breakfast I have this and this. It's like it's like this picture perfect day.
Dara Hedrick:And usually.
Aaron O'Connell:I'm like that sounds like you're only 8900 calories, but even still they picked this. They paint this perfect picture, but that's only on the perfect day. There's so many days they wake up late, there's so many days that they ate this because they the coworker brought donuts. And there's so many times where they're not talking about the weekends, when they struggle because no one wants to admit that. And the first thing that I always have them do is log that food and get used to it and I'm like hey, it's you offering your body as a living sacrifice. Look at is when you're praying to God. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this food. Bless it to my needs. Well, what is it that you are blessing and what are your needs? You know, let's pay attention to that, but before that, tell me what you're doing. And everyone that starts logging it usually goes. I had no idea what I'm actually eating. This was so convicting.
Dara Hedrick:People need a visual. I think, like I don't. Really, they aren't aware of themselves, yep.
Aaron O'Connell:And they look at themselves in the mirror, like James says, and they instantly forget what they look like when they walk away. Yeah, yeah, that's, and unfortunately they're glancing into that law. They think they're doing it, but then they walk away. That's and that's where you know. They hire the personal trainer, like, oh well, I did my one good thing, check, and then they go do everything wrong.
Dara Hedrick:But they want to hire because they don't want to do it themselves. So they think like Okay, I'm gonna get a personal trainer and I'm gonna get a private chef to do it for them. But I'm sorry, I'm not gonna.
Dara Hedrick:I don't really like to work with people like that. One, two or I can teach them and see you know how it goes, but like you gotta work for yourself, it's not gonna be my fault if you messed up Exactly, I will accept those type of people will do that, and then they keep buying the food.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, they're eating something completely different, because they know that if they cancel it, that's them emitting defeat.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly.
Aaron O'Connell:Have you ever fired a client?
Dara Hedrick:Yes, well, it was. It was. I've, like I said, you know, business is like trial and error, so you learn how to fire nicely. I mean, I fired I don't really fire clients. They just kind of I never had. Actually, you know, my biggest thing is to have great relationship with my clients. Like that is my big, that's like my number one thing, okay, relationship with clients. I've actually never had like to fire a client. I have had clients though like just not know anything about food and they don't understand that like a difference between a steak and a pizza tuna, and they think they get tuna when it's really like medium rare steak, and then they just stop working with me because they don't think I know what I'm doing.
Dara Hedrick:I've I literally had a client like that, but I've never had.
Aaron O'Connell:Okay.
Dara Hedrick:I've never had a terrible time with that's good Client.
Aaron O'Connell:I guess that really does come down to choosing beforehand Exactly.
Dara Hedrick:I do care about who I work with. You know I want to serve everybody, but I can't.
Aaron O'Connell:But so do you have plans to go and back to serving the public?
Dara Hedrick:Maybe, Maybe, I don't know yet, like, like. Like you said, I am rebranding. I am still figuring out what to do with Charlotte location, but I, like I said, I really love the private and if people like, if I have a nice community, they're like, dare I, you need to get a storefront by the sea, then sure, if this is like a blessing, it's like I know it's the right time to do it. I don't think right time.
Dara Hedrick:right now is not the right time to do it, but if later on I've always kind of envisioned myself with like a dish was by the sea or something, type yeah like we'll see, but I also just really love being in people's homes and not having a storefront? I don't know.
Aaron O'Connell:So so I would. What would you say? The you said it would be cool to have that storefront, but if you are always being so personal with clients clearly that affects scalability.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, that's why I call Charlotte.
Aaron O'Connell:But it's like, is the goal really to be scalable or what? What is you know? Because clearly it's not just to make money. So it's make true impact on people's lives.
Dara Hedrick:I do like see, maybe I don't think I would be running it like I would manage it, of course, but I wouldn't be the one there every single day. I would have to have a trustee group of a lovely team to help me but. I don't know. I honestly I don't know yet.
Aaron O'Connell:So like have, so have maybe, like, have you be doing the still educational side, the the meeting with clients that do a little bit more and pay you that little bit more for the additional services that you're obviously providing? But then have that storefront, have that.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah.
Aaron O'Connell:That quick serve thing and be that's the fuel to be able to, then, you know, because then you can take those profits and pour it into your church pour it into this.
Dara Hedrick:Exactly X Y Z oh yeah, I could see that I have vision for both. I still would. I will always keep private Um. It'll always be an option.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah.
Dara Hedrick:But the public. I mean we'll see Excellent. Yeah, we'll see. I'd like to shift gears.
Aaron O'Connell:No, I'm sorry, I'd like to shift gears just a little bit and really talk about how to stay in tune with your body. Can you speak to that just a little? Bit of like how to stay in tune with your body, because our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made and they have telltale signs of when something's off, when you are needing something, and I know you've talked about this before so. I'd love to have our listeners here.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah. So, again, getting in tune with your body takes work. It takes you again, like I mentioned, um figuring out the root causes of maybe some type of disordered eating. Um, you're learning to have self control through your emotions. You're um physically, mentally, spiritually balanced? Um, because I believe they all work together and if you're, I feel like you're physical, can kind of show what your spiritual is. So they should be in line with each other. Yes, so if you're maybe out of shape or you're struggling, and maybe you may not look out of shape, but maybe, um, I don't know, you're struggling with something physically, it kind of is because your spiritual is lacking, something, typically, and your mental you know, so we're gonna get mad at that.
Dara Hedrick:I know Whatever, but it's the truth.
Aaron O'Connell:It really is.
Dara Hedrick:Once you. If you don't believe it, fine, try it, if you're just not gonna hurt you, you know.
Dara Hedrick:Yes, but you have to be in tune with your body, but also be in tune with your spirit. Also be in tune. The temple I mean we are the temple. We carry the Holy Spirit. That's what I believe and we were tuned with the Holy Spirit. You're gonna realize you're not thinking about all the the thing the world is wanting us to believe about ourselves, and so when my mind is focused on what God has called me to do with my life, not like Like the stupid worldly things, like, oh, my goal in life is to be skinny. The goal in life is to you know, these, just these goals that don't make it.
Aaron O'Connell:It's just God has the results and the goals figured out.
Dara Hedrick:We just need to be obedient.
Aaron O'Connell:He's gonna have us reach goals that we never, never fathomed it's discipline, obedience, it's consistency, and then leaving everything else to the Lord and I love it, I'll even say it I'll be the first one to say, like, if you're overweight and you know clearly when I say overweight, completely unhealthy, you and it's not even the weight, it's, it's it's the unactive. It's the unhealthy, it's the you know. You know when you're being unhealthy Like I'm, the first one to say it.
Dara Hedrick:Mm-hmm.
Aaron O'Connell:You are lacking something spiritually, because we need to do, like we said, all things for the glory of God, and you need to be ready and capable for anything he's gonna throw your way exactly I mean.
Dara Hedrick:I always say health is wealth because if you can't, you know if you'll say you're an entrepreneur and athlete. There is no way you're gonna be successful if you're an unhealthy human.
Aaron O'Connell:Even your food dictate your mind or a professional athlete and you do.
Dara Hedrick:I mean you made it whatever financially, but as I mean you made it like spiritually, I mean you're lacking. Still, that's not really the true goal here. Like, what are you gonna do? Bring all that stuff to heaven? I don't think so like. None of that goes to heaven.
Dara Hedrick:The only things that come to heaven are people. Yes, it's a stewarding your relationships and your life, stewarding yourself. You go to have, like you know you, you can help yourself this lifetime, like stay healthy, be there for your children, be there for your family, like those are the things that matter.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, you know, yes, for sure. Also, I what I love about food prepping as well and just Logging food, just everything that you're doing is.
Aaron O'Connell:It allows you to really get in tune with your body, because so many people have no clue what they're eating, don't know what they're getting, and when something bad happens they need to find someone to blame. If they are, if they get sick, they instantly find little Johnny that have the cold and they point at little Johnny and say it's your fault. Or they're like I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure I don't get around anyone, don't, don't let my baby around anyone, because I can't let them be sick.
Dara Hedrick:It's like living out of fear, living completely out of fear. But it's.
Aaron O'Connell:That's what God wants us to look at. The first sin in the garden, satan creeps up and has a serpent. Okay, eve eats the fruit. Adam eats the fruit. God then does the first counseling session when are you? He already knew where they were, already knew what they did, and he goes but wanted to get down to their level and say I'm looking out for you. I already know you failed. I'm still gonna ask out to you and say where are you and allow you to answer.
Aaron O'Connell:And what did they do? They said they started blame gaming. Eve was like it was the snake's fault, yeah, adam's, like it was Eve's fault. No one wanted to take responsibility and Because of that we then fall. All in all, we just keep moving forward, but everyone's not wind of take responsibilities. So I so many people are just like oh, you know, I'm just gonna Blame my. I had somebody on the podcast that they were like they had autoimmune disorder and these things, and they wanted to be like oh, cut out all gluten, cut out all this, all these things, start playing them. That's what the doctor told her to do, and so she started doing that. It just was miserable, but she knew that it was just from the stress.
Aaron O'Connell:It was just a major amounts of stress, all the crappy up and down, yo-yo diets, all those things. And that's what stress can do, that's what over you know, immunization, constantly desanitizing to, constantly getting vaccines, can play around with all that stuff. But then they need to find something to blame because it's not what I've already done. I need to find some other culprit. But when you start food prepping and you start understanding your food, understanding what you're putting in your mouth and Knowing it, you then are gonna have a control. Let's go back to science. We need to have the control group. Mm-hmm, if you can't have a control group, if you have no clue what amount of calories you're eating, what your foods are, chipotle on this day, this on that day, eating a little bit of that, little bit of that oh, got sad. Eat this, do this. But if you can just have enough self-control, get a menu of foods and eat those foods exactly and then from there you go. Well, now I feel better. Now I feel worse.
Dara Hedrick:It's okay to take one step at a time. It's okay, like I said, it's okay to track your macros. I believe in all I believe Calorie macros like do the do what you gotta do, but you don't stick in that you know forever. Don't think it's gonna heal you, because it's not.
Aaron O'Connell:Well, I like to look at it as like it's your education. Once you've logged your food for six months, you already know that that piece of chicken breast is around and even weighing food for sure.
Aaron O'Connell:I may. If you look at it, you do. You know what a cup is. Go look at it. You know what about a cup is. Now you don't need to ever do it again, just eyeball it. If you're always under doing it, then you're. That's a new status quo control group all over again. But you know the foods you're eating. Eventually, six months later, you know that, oh, banana, 115, 120 calories or so you know it's gonna have right around. You know about 23 carbs. You're gonna know these things.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, but just just.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes because you said off our bodies living such holy employees got their spiritual. I don't copy patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you can test and approve what God's will is for your life. It's perfect will and what that's our transforming of our mind. Time, Don't get like latched on to it. You can get free from it but, it's just Understanding those things.
Aaron O'Connell:And when you can have hire somebody like yourself that gives you that menu of food, that knows the macros behind it, that's what you're eating, you then can say, wow, I'm feeling good, I'm feeling bad. Whoa, my sinuses are clearing up.
Dara Hedrick:Whoa, I no longer have brain fog crazy people are shocked like, oh wow, this is healthy. Yeah like I feel great and I'm like and.
Aaron O'Connell:But you can go back and track it, know what it's all about and then, from there, make your little adjustments. Well, what happens now that I have my control, if I start eating this piece of candy every single day? You start doing it. You're like nothing happened. Whoa, okay, maybe this isn't that bad. Yeah, now you found a diet that you can have a Kit Kat every single day.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, I mean, it's like with me is spiritual to you know. It's like, once we can Be disciplined in something, let's say reading your Bible every single day you want to find it naturally easier to be consistent in what you put in your body as well, and then you're gonna not want certain things anymore.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, you know, yep, and when you have that basis of control, you'll be able to interpret those signs, just like we can interpret God's guidance in our lives. When you start diving deeper and deeper Into the Bible. You can interpret the signals of our bodies because when, all of a sudden, when I know I'm feeling fatigued, it's like, oh, it's because I know I haven't been eating as many carbs. I know I've been working out just that little bit harder.
Dara Hedrick:You know those little things like in choosing what to feel yourself with instead of like a candy bar.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes, like.
Dara Hedrick:Knowing. Okay, I should probably have oatmeal or you know something that's nutritious.
Aaron O'Connell:Yes.
Dara Hedrick:So that's powerful, it's empowering. Knowing like nutrition, yes yes, most people do not want that.
Aaron O'Connell:They don't want to take.
Dara Hedrick:They don't want to, they don't care too much. They should care, yeah, because it's sweet food every single day.
Aaron O'Connell:Mm-hmm, and, and we become what we eat. We literally do our cells turn over every single seven years. That's why most people's life cycles are in a like seven year type of type of things how, when it gets really bad, really bad, you know, or even better, because every cell turns over every seven years, other than the ones in your cerebral cortex. Yeah, because if those did, you change personalities every seven years.
Dara Hedrick:You want to regret paying for everything in the future with all of your health issues.
Aaron O'Connell:Then investing yourself now with all the healthy, quality foods trust me, mm-hmm, trust me, but most people those people don't believe it.
Dara Hedrick:Where?
Aaron O'Connell:would you? Where would you recommend Mm-hmm? If someone, let's just say they can't afford you, they, they, or they live in Washington or Brazil, or they don't have access to you.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah.
Aaron O'Connell:They and they don't have a meal delivery service either accessible to them, maybe, which I would argue that there's a lot internet. Yeah, you know domestic, you know, in the USA at least but let's just say somebody's starting to want to embark on a journey of meal prepping their own food. Yeah, where would you recommend that they start? How would you? How would you get that journey? How would you guide them?
Dara Hedrick:Well, first, I do have, if they want to talk to me, I do have appointments on my website where we can have a conversation about your goals. I just kind of want to get an idea of what your goals are like.
Dara Hedrick:I want to hear you speak, I want to hear where your mind is at why you feel the way that you do and then if I can help you, like I want to help everybody, I really do, like it's even if it's just I do offer Like nutrition counseling as well on my website if they need help with that, that's you know. I obviously can't Send food to them, like I would love to maybe one day again, but I would probably look up certain Places in their area, depending where they live, and help them find maybe a chef that they can afford and.
Dara Hedrick:I just want to. I would help them that way, like you know, help them mentally, emotionally. I think that's, and then the physical comes. You know, really, its first step is emotional and what if?
Aaron O'Connell:what if somebody was like you know what? I just want to start cooking.
Dara Hedrick:I don't know Great answer.
Aaron O'Connell:But I want to start cooking. I want to start meal prepping my own foods. I want to go to the grocery store. I want to learn it myself. You know, where would you what would? What would your advice be to them if they were listening right now. They're not gonna contact you too scared. They're not. They're not action people they're. They're not gonna read, they don't they're. They're very introverted. They, you know, they don't want to talk to anyone. Admit they have a problem. They're living in fear, whatever it is, but they want to start okay.
Aaron O'Connell:Where, where would you guide them? What would, what would you your advice? Be?
Dara Hedrick:so, because I have my advice, but people hear me all the time. I would love to hear what you say so they want to meal prep their own right? Yeah, they're just starting out.
Aaron O'Connell:They don't know what to buy to end the groceries they're eating. They're eating out like every single day.
Dara Hedrick:They don't know like healthy.
Aaron O'Connell:Nothing, they, yeah, they don't.
Dara Hedrick:They really don't.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah, where would you have them start? I?
Dara Hedrick:think that's one of my downfalls is that I think people should know certain things and I'm like wait, I need to be more detailed.
Aaron O'Connell:People really don't understand. They're like wait a minute. Yeah, wait, fruits, a carb.
Dara Hedrick:I didn't ask you to buy dried fruit in the adult day. I meant like real fruit.
Aaron O'Connell:Like fresh, but but people don't even understand.
Dara Hedrick:Like wait, fruits are carbs. Oh well, yeah vegetables are carbs.
Aaron O'Connell:I thought carbs were bad. How can fruits and vegetables be Carbs? There are, carbs are bad. You're talking to that person, so where would you just guide them to start?
Dara Hedrick:Um, get your mind off of food at the moment. Okay, like, let's not focus on the food right now. Like I would rather you like sit with yourself and I Would like for you to pray about it Honestly, just pray about it and see what the Lord says. Okay just sit in silence like shut up your mind.
Dara Hedrick:Let the Lord speak to you. Whether you're a prayer or not, try it. Just sit there and try to think about what would how could I take care of my body better? Like think about what am I going through? Is there anything that I need to work on outside of the food prop?
Dara Hedrick:like food is just a byproduct of something right. So think about that and then make a list. Make a. Make a list of foods you want to eat, foods that you do eat. What do you already know about nutritious food? Keep it simple, don't overwhelm yourself. If you only know about broccoli and fish and rice, start there and then, every week maybe take a day to to look up new nutritious foods you know, and then that's the next step. Yes, I always say to start with your protein intake.
Dara Hedrick:Don't worry about the carbs and the fats at the moment. Just at least have your protein every single meal. Yes, and make sure that's there.
Dara Hedrick:And then just just work on not stressing about it. I don't overwhelm your, your mind with it. So just take time before you eat, give you know, say you're you know, be grateful for the food and be grateful that you can go and get the food and buy it. Because we're blessed in America and people don't realize it. We have all this food. We have all this food around us. Yes, we should be thankful. There's no stress in that.
Aaron O'Connell:I'm over here laughing because your voice right now. I'm just like imagining this guided meditation right now. That is exactly how it was. I'm like I'm getting relaxed right now just by her voice and what she's saying. I just like yes, yes, I want her to say start with protein, but she's saying all the right things beforehand, because it's true, if you search Google before you search God's word, your, your priorities, are backwards.
Dara Hedrick:It's so bad it shouldn't start with. Okay, what's like best diet to lose weight? No, don't start there. I love it. You take your, take times yourself, go for a walk.
Aaron O'Connell:I say go for a walk and pray like literally I love it and then, and then figure out trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding or Google's yeah, all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your path straight. He will show you what to, because just that simple act of praying- yes, yes that simple act of praying, searching the Bible will turn you from Google search.
Aaron O'Connell:Can you please give me a diet to lose weight quick? And? And? If you search the word and pray, it will then turn into Google search. You know how can I be more healthy? Because, because God will lay you into that different way of searching things, looking for a different answer. That is actually the true answer. You know, like you were saying, don't start, don't start with just protein. Don't get me wrong. That was. What my question was waiting for was start with protein. If you surround every meal with protein, you're so much more is gonna happen.
Dara Hedrick:It keeps you, are you know it, keeps it, keeps you balanced it keeps you fueled, it keeps you full all those things.
Aaron O'Connell:That's what I was looking for, but the way you even said it, and the things beforehand are so important because how you do what you're doing is better than what you are doing exactly like you can go find.
Aaron O'Connell:You can always find a better Way to do something. Trust me, there's a million ways to skin the cat, and there's a new technique out there that might make your body get confused a little bit and show Some signs of benefit, but then, if it's causing stress in your mind, it's gonna then actually be worse off. But then you try another way. We're constantly testing things out but, how you currently are doing.
Dara Hedrick:What you're doing makes so much more of a difference right and focus on the present, like, yes, don't think about the future right now in your Way to lost goals. You know it's all gonna come if you're consistent and have the discipline. I thought it was kind of interesting how Eve was tempted with food, the fruit, and you know, as you know, satan loves quick fixes. He wants to Make you believe that there's something better than it was the long term. Was pleasing to the eye exactly.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, and so that's exactly what happened in the garden exactly it looks like it was.
Aaron O'Connell:It was pleasing to that and was good.
Dara Hedrick:Satisfying.
Aaron O'Connell:Instantaneous is always the enemy of what exactly?
Dara Hedrick:what God wants for us.
Aaron O'Connell:That's because God has that upside down kingdom. Yeah, you know, the world says, get it, and it's all yours, get it now. Yeah and it's like. No, the things that truly matter are the things that you can Invest in small little bits at a time, so then you can make that big withdrawal because it had compound interest at the end. Exactly, exactly, yeah, excellent so what type of advice, because this is we can wrap up now. I usually like keeping these things around.
Aaron O'Connell:This time for our listeners, because listeners lose Focus after about an hour, especially if they're not eating correctly yeah, which most people don't. Just last words for our listeners. What would you love for them to just be departing with? I?
Dara Hedrick:Hope you see food in a different light. It's More than just physical, it's spiritual and it's mental and they're all connected and I would just hope you see it in a different way. You know just it. Maybe you don't understand why I think this way, but I hope it's a seed planted and you start to become more aware of your own life, like you're meant to thrive, and food will help you thrive, survive, like all these great things.
Dara Hedrick:Think about food in a different way. Yeah, I just, I just really believe that you need to work on your mental and emotional and physical. They're all intertwined and and once you have that, you know we're never gonna be perfect, you know, but once you can have a consistent living on making sure your spiritual, mental and your emotional and physical are all like filled, that means not just eating, but like doing hobbies that you love, being around people that you love being around, being around your family, play your sports, whatever make, have things fulfill you that give you life, because Nobody wants a poor virgin of you, honestly. So let's be the best version of ourselves, and one way is to feed your body properly.
Aaron O'Connell:Excellent. Where can people find you? How can people get in contact with you?
Dara Hedrick:Instagram my website dish bliss kitchen comm. Again I'm rebranding, but right now it's still dish bliss kitchen comm.
Aaron O'Connell:Yeah.
Dara Hedrick:This was kitchen for Instagram.
Aaron O'Connell:This was kitchen comm.
Dara Hedrick:Yeah, I'm very personable, so if you want to reach out, I'm, I'm, I will always respond. I Love to help, I truly love to help. I'm not just a food service on my health service. Love it, yeah.
Aaron O'Connell:Well, thank you so much for being on this podcast. It was. It was a pleasure, and I really do hope that people reach out and just take, just take what you said and what we were talking about to heart to be able to live Life to the fullest, because that's what God wants. So they can have more peace. So they can then, in turn, be the best versions of themselves, to be able to Carry out the purpose that God designed them for. So we're here for yeah, well, again, thank you so much.
Dara Hedrick:Thank you, of course, I sure.
