EP 28 - The Inner Journey Behind Losing 50 Kilos (with Isadora Pirees)

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the League Club. This is Kim and I, your host and a little bit over a year and a half ago I decided to quit my job and start living a life of freedom and options. It has given me so much freedom to shape a life around what matters most to me and this month I am in Guatemala for the whole month to prepare a lot of things for my wedding, which will be in around a year. And it's also real to think that before quitting my job there was no way on earth that I could be here, taking time to do things that fill my heart and spend time with my family. So in this podcast, my purpose is to inspire you and empower you a little bit more to take that leap and build a life around what matters most to you. I also invite inspiring people to the podcast to share a lot of their journeys and stories that will also inspire you and give you a bit of an idea how you can get there. And I hope that through my stories and their stories you can feel a little bit less lonely in this journey. Today I have a beautiful soul in the podcast. She is one of the most beautiful women I've ever met in my life, not only from the outside but also from the inside. Her name is Isadora Perez. She is Brazilian and she's an Ayurvedic therapist living in Amsterdam now, but there's a whole story behind who she is today. Isa lost 50 kilos without surgery and she has lived in three different countries and went through a lot before finding her path. Today she focuses on empowering women to understand their best selves and reconnect with who they really are. Her mission is to help women stop running away from their bodies and start understanding them instead. Everything she shares comes from her own experiences, the hard ones, the messy ones, the transformative ones and all of these experiences taught her that real change always starts from the inside. So today I want to talk and dive deep into Isa's weight loss journey. I personally think that losing weight is one of the most difficult things you can do in your life because there is so many self sabotage thoughts that can come into your mind that prevent you from sticking to the plan. It prevents you from actually showing up every single day because it's very easy to look for the short-term reward. So when Isa told me that she lost 50 kilos and she walked me through a little bit, she walked me through her journey. I was super inspired and I told her I think losing weight is one of the most insane and difficult things a person can do in their life. So I want to talk about it and I invited her to the podcast so that if there is anyone listening to me and to Isa today, I want you to know that anything in life is possible but you need one thing to do that and that is to understand the why behind what you're doing. And Isa will talk a little bit more about this and a lot about how her journey was. So let's tune in with her. Hola Isa, welcome to the lip-club podcast, I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you so much, I'm so happy to be here as well. You are the perfect example of what a meeting inspiring women means and I met you at an event at a Pilates event so I want you to introduce yourself and tell us what are you doing now in the Netherlands and how you came to be part of 1% women. So I'm Isadora, I'm from Brazil, I was born in São Paulo and I moved to the Netherlands around three years ago and yeah I worked in the corporate for a while but I always had this desire of trying to find something else because I have a lot, I have been through a lot in my life and I always had this desire of sharing it with people. Then I start googling it, looking and then I found 1% women that is like a community of women that are here in Holland, people that are entrepreneurs or they want to look for their lives or lifestyle so it's like a community that brings nice people together. And then I say okay maybe I can be part of that and then I went to this event to the Pilates and then I just met him and I also met all the girls and I was like for the first time in a long time I felt like that I belonged to somewhere and then it was like a gift because since I'm enjoying this club or community a lot of nice things happened, I met wonderful people, I'm here today being able to show about my life being able to also inspire people and I think this is super powerful and I'm super happy to just be here. That's how we met a little bit. Yeah, no I wanted to say the same, I think for me building a community of women that are so hungry to build, to grow, to learn, to inspire each other has been the best thing that happened to me in the past year and I want to rewind to one of the conversations we had. We were at this pasta place here in Amsterdam, partying, eating pasta because it was Amsterdam dance event and I remember you told me something that shocked me in the most positive way and I want to talk about that today here in the podcast, I remember you told me you've been on a journey of losing weight because back in Brazil and when you lived in Ireland you had a lot of health problems until the point where you discovered or came to the realization that you were overweight till the point where it was a threat to your health. And I really believe that losing weight at that extreme, like battling obesity is one of the most inspiring things a person can do because it's one of the biggest mental challenges you can overcome, like not only in the discipline you have to build, also thinking about being every day the best version you can be without losing that motivation and also staying true to yourself even on those days where you feel like it's not worth it. So I want you to tell us a little bit about your past and how you've gotten to where you are today. Yes, and it's a beautiful journey and so but it started a long, long time ago. So when I was six, I lost my dad and my mom got depression. So it was a very hard time for her and also for me as a kid, but I couldn't understand exactly what losing someone means, like because I've never lost anyone, so yeah. And I just understood that he was not there anymore and I was, I remember that I had, I feeling, I was feeling like empty and I always try unconsciously. It was an ever conscious act because I was a kid, try to feel this whole and I used to have food to feel this whole. So when I was sad, I started to eat. When I was overly happy, I started to eat. So I started basically eating my emotions and this has been going on, was been going on for, I don't know, maybe almost 20 years of my life or so. I was eating, eating, eating, eating, eating and I started going on a circle. Like I didn't see myself that fat, like that obese, I was obese, I was 130 kilos. I didn't see myself like that, but I was like just leaving my life and then you know, like I had always a hole inside of me. And then, but I always also had a lot of light on me and I always had a lot of nice people around me and one day a good teacher of mine, I was studying theater back then, he looked to me, he said, "Issa, if you have the opportunity, go to see the world." Like there are many things that you have to do and I was like, "Okay, fine." And then, I decided to go to Ireland, it was like, "Okay, I'm going to Ireland. I want to Ireland, start studying and then I start working as a babysitter doing a lot of stuff and then one day I start having a lot of pain on my arm and I was like, "What's that? What can be that? What's going on?" Now I went to the doctor, the doctor said, "This doesn't look good." And I was like, but he say, "How it could happen?" I was like, "I don't know." And then he gave me antibiotics but didn't get better. I had to go to the hospital. I was in the hospital for eight days, I had arm infection and they could, they start doing all the research. What could happen? How? Why do you have this? Like I was just 19. And then the doctor said, "Well, you are pre-diabetic, you were pre-hypertense and you have 19 years old." And this is all caused by obesity because your body cannot fight against a small infection. And then can you imagine myself sitting in the hospital with like eight women sitting there alone and I was like, "Jesus, what I'm going to do now." And then this was my wake-up call, if I can say, like this, "For now I'm so grateful that I've been through it. You have no idea because, literally, I've saved my life." And I went home and I, as I told you, I was working as an Annie, the woman said to me, "Well, you cannot work." So you have to leave." And I was like, "How I'm going to leave? Like I don't have a place to go, I should, you know, like." And then I understand, like a lot of difficult things start happening to me but I didn't give up. I, how did I start losing weight? It was just like the basic, the basic. I didn't have money for the gym at this moment. So instead of like taking the bus, I was walking, instead of like eating what the family gave to me, I started cooking my own meals. And this took me, I don't know, a few weeks. And then when I realized, because I was really overweight, I lost 10 kilos, like, out of nowhere. And for the first time, I felt like, "Oh my God, I felt lighter, I felt like a maze." And then I want to ask you something before we continue. Like before the wake-up call, do you think you were ever self-conscious or you ever thought about that or you were completely unaware of the life you were living? This was the life I knew. I didn't know that could be better. Like for me, I had a good life, but deep inside, we all know. But it's difficult to face that, because it's hard to go out of your comfort zone. It's hard to take action. Because when you are on that situation, you already know what to expect. But when you leave the situation and you have to take an action, then you can really have to do something, it hurts, it's comfortable. Because I knew that I had to go through here and understand that my dad was not going to come. I could eat everything, but my dad would never come back. And it's a pain that takes time for you to accept you, understand? But yeah, then after that, then I started losing weight, lost like 10 kilos and was like a maze. I was able to go to the gym, get some help. I still had my ups and downs because for you, if you are struggling, if you are listening to that, and you are struggling with losing weight, no worries, it's not going to be a straight line. There are going to be ups and downs. And for me, my downs were very funny, because my gym was here and I had a burrito in front of my gym. And sometimes, instead of going to the gym, I just decided to go to the burrito because you know, it's always going to be like that, it's not going to be a straight line. I love what you're saying, because I think this has a very strong connection with the concept of healing, you know, like I've been taking anti-depressants already for more than a year. And we always think like, okay, you know, I'm going to work on it and I'm going to get better and it's going to be all, you know, a mountain going on. But it's messy, you know, like as you said, you give two steps forward, you go one step back and then three steps forward and then two steps back. And I think it requires a lot of self-love and a lot of compassion for yourself, because you cannot expect to heal in, you know, perfect conditions. So I want to dig deeper into what you're saying, because I think the mindset and the willpower that you built in this journey is insane. And I want to move, like I want to go back to when you decided to change your life and you started bit by bit, like what, what was your internal dialogue and what were the things you were telling yourself in order to show up in that way and to change it, to actually change it. Well, first, what moved me was the fear, right? Like when they told me that I was overweight and then I really had to lose weight because my health was in, yeah, it's something could happen. If I didn't change, I was like really afraid. And then first was the fear, but after that, it was, I always loved my life. I always love myself. I find myself a very nice and genuine person. And I wanted to take care of me the same way I took care of a lot of people my whole life. And this time I decide to give me a hug and to say, okay, let's come here as well. You know, like, I'm going to take care of you. So I did with love, so basically I decided to be more conscious about the things I was doing. I decided to as well say no to myself because I had a very permissive childhood. Since my father died, my mom, she didn't want to prohibit anything from me because she felt sorry that I lost my dad, so she always said yes. But it's never good to just say yes, because sometimes you need to listen to a no, so I gave no to myself. I decided to be a little bit more restricted, and inside of me, it was just like one more day. Okay. Let's do one more time. Fine. If I fail, okay. Next, me, I start again. I don't have time today. I'm super busy. Okay. You can go for a 15 minutes walk. It's that by step, you know, like I didn't push myself to the maximum, I didn't do crazy diets. I just decided to do something, and something could be just a 15 minutes walk, could be just change like white bread for brown bread, could be just say no for alcohol in the weekends and trying to go for a, I don't know, for a theater, for a movie, trying to understand other things and also therapy. Because I could, I could try everything myself, but back then, I did some help, so I started therapy as well, and I started digging into deep inside what caused me, so it was basically baby steps plus therapy. Wow. You are giving such a good advice, because I think a lot of the time, so when we think we need to change something in our life, we go from zero to 100, like I remember in my therapy, you know, like this was not recently, but long time ago, I also wanted to work on my willpower, and my psychologist would tell me, yeah, but you're doing it wrong. Because if you expect to eat a whole bar of chocolate on Friday, and then by Saturday, to not eat any chocolate at all, that's not gonna work. So she was like, you first start with the bar, you binge eat a bar, so then the next time you eat four blocks instead of the bar, and then next time you eat three blocks instead of the bar, and then two blocks, and then one block, and then before you know it, you've trained your willpower enough to be able to say no to the whole bar, instead of taking it from zero to 100, and what you said now is so important, because I think losing weight is a journey that if you want to take a short cut, there is a short cut. It's a long process, and it's a patient process, so as you said, like every little step of going out for a 15 minute walk counts. But I think it's as with any goal in life, but I think especially this one, there are so many sabotage and internal limiting beliefs that can take away the motivation, and I wanna pick your brain on that. Like for example, I can imagine that when you go for a walk, or when you say no to a drink, your internal voice can be like, "Oh, but it's just one drink," or "Oh, but it's just one cookie." How do you battle that? Like how did you, yeah, because it's a battle between yourself and yourself. So how did you manage that? I still do it, like I believe there is always gonna be there, this voice, and also the place that you are, like the people that you hang out, so like there's always gonna be that, but I think it's also understanding that sometimes you're gonna fail, you know, like you cannot win all the time, there are times that you indeed gonna go for it, but I had, you know, like I understood my why. Like I think the thing that made me fight against this voice was understanding my why, and my why was much bigger than the pleasure that I was going to get by that drink, or the pleasure that I was going to get by not going to the gym, and I still, it has passed a long time. I already lost 45 kilos like six years ago, you know, like, and I still really, really, really understood my why, you know, like my why is having, even a better life, my why is having longevity, my why is being able to be a mom, you know, like so this is much bigger than this, the, the fast pleasure. So I think you need to understand why are you doing that, you have to have a purpose, you have to have something that motivates you, no matter what, you know, like because if there is no reason, like if you just wanna lose weight because you wanna look nicer, I'm not sure if you can just keep doing it because I don't, you know, like has to be strong enough to make you wake up and go out even if it's raining, you know, like you have to understand it, and these I have very clear inside of my head, but just a little note, my why came with time after therapy, after a lot of personal development, a lot. Like I didn't have my why when I was 19, I just wanted to lose weight because yes, I was desperate for that, but now it's much more stable because I know the why, so by the time that you know your why, I think you can fight against that voice, if it makes sense. That should be a book, because, you know, but honestly, you just, you just set it in such a strong way because I know so many people that have tried quitting smoking. They wanna quit vaping, they wanna quit or they wanna lose weight and they quit for a month and then they're back again and worse, you know, you see a lot of people that do all this extreme diets, like the pineapple diet and this diet and then they lose the weight, but then they gain twice as much as they lost. So I think what you said is so inspiring because your why is gonna give you a long term like stability in that without fluctuating, you know, and I think what you said is so beautiful, like you're doing it for your future, for yourself, to be a mom, to, you know, be healthy, to wake up every day and be able to do life without any, you know, like constraints or whatever, pain, health issues. Be able to, when I get older, because sometimes we, we are super young, right? We don't think when we are 80, but I wanna be able to go to the toilet by myself, I wanna be able to do my groceries, I wanna be able to just like leave a normal life, you know? So that's how I think, like that's how, what motivates me and I think now I have this knowledge, I, it's my obligation to share it with people, because, you know, like as soon as you realize that, as soon as you're gonna have a better life, you know, like because there is nobody, nobody's gonna knock your door and push you and say, "Let's go, come on, no, people don't do that. You have to be the one to see it, you have to be the one to fight to understand your why, because by the time that you get your why, you're gonna live a better life, you're gonna live a stable life, you're gonna have much, I tell you, because I'm a walking proof, you know, like I felt this on my own skin and today I feel good, and I think everybody deserves to feel good." And the saddest thing is, a lot of people live a life without ever knowing how, how good is it to feel like that, because some people they just never reach that point, and you know, like, "Yeah, and I just wanted to add to this that I think a lot of people need a very big scare in their life to make a change, you know, and that applies to many things. Like, if you didn't forgive your father and all of the sudden he gets diagnosed with something then you call and forgive, like why do we have to wait for that wake-up call? And I love that, in order to change, and I love that you are being like an active reminder that you don't have to wait for that wake-up call, or you don't have to wait before it's too late to change your life. And it all starts by becoming aware of what you want, your why, why are you doing it, and loving yourself, you know, I think it all comes down to self-love, and I think, you know, you told me this in the pasta place, and I just went home super inspired, because you said to me, like, you know, now I know when to ask for a cocktail, I know when to eat this, when to, like, you know exactly what you need, and you give yourself what you, yeah, like you treat yourself with love, with care, you're not just putting in that hamburger in and that, like, without thinking, you know, you're acting from an intentional place, and I think you have built enough awareness to understand what that intention for you means. Yes, that's true, that's true, and I'm very proud of that, because if I see, like, if I go back 10 years ago, I would never imagine to be here. I would never imagine to have this talk to you, I would never imagine to become the woman I became. So, and today I see, like, I also, like, I choose for my body, I take care of myself, I make the right choice, you know, like, because I believe if we are not just what we eat, but we are the people that we hang out with, that we are the, you know, like, our thoughts. We are everything that's around us, like, so today I try to, to fill my body with good people, I try to fill my body with good food, I try to fill my body with movement, with things that are going to expand me and make me look, not just look what I look like, but here inside of me, you know, so this is something that I learned, and I think, like, if I learn, like, if I look to my past, I had all the notes, I shouldn't be here, you know, like, a lot of things happen that that would never make me become the person that I became. So, I always think, like, if I made it, if I could do it, I believe honestly, deep inside that people can really do it, you just need to work on yourself and to want to change, you know, like, the same as I did, I'm not a special person, oh my god, I have super power, you know, but I just wanted to change, and I think you also like that, because you also changed a lot in your life, and then now you are in a place that you also give advice to people, and I also know that you probably went through other things as well, that made you so such an amazing, warm person, but also for you, you had to go through a lot, you were not born like that, you know, like, you have to adapt yourself and also work in yourself every single day, trying to find your best version, and that's part of the job, you know? Yeah, no, and I think, you know, I read yesterday a quote, someone wrote on Substack, like, a random person, I don't know, but he said, what I learned from depression is that he said it's data, depression is data, it's life telling you what is wrong. So it was like, it's the positive circumstance that you get for bad circumstances. So it was saying, he said, don't just medicate it, investigate it. Why are you depressed? Where is it coming from? Is it a job? Is it a relationship? Is it your environment? And I think that is so true, because it relates to what you said about your why. If you know you have a problem, if you're dealing with depression, your solution can be like, okay, I'm going to start taking the pill, and it's going to fix my life. But 30% of the problem will be fixed by the pill, but 70% needs to be fixed by you. You need to change what needs to change. And I think I want to go back to the point where you said that when you don't accept that you have to change something, I think it's your brain protecting you from the efforts that actually requires to accept that you need to change a lot of things in your life. For you was the weight situation, you had to, you know, change your mindset, change your routine, change what you eat, change how you live your life, like everything. For me, it was to change my job, my environment, what I was doing on a daily basis. And I think sometimes we protect ourselves by not willing to accept there's a problem so that we don't have to change something, until we reach a low point, you know, I hit the rock bottom when I was like, I don't recognize myself anymore. And my psychologist was like, no, wonder, you are going through a deep depression, like you need to start changing something. And I think for you was the health scare. So I want to ask you what has been the most difficult part for you in this journey, very long journey, in battling obesity. What has been like the biggest challenge for you? I think was the time that I really had to sit with my own shadows and understand why I became obese, you know, because it hurt me so much, as I told you, it was much more related with my dad, like it was a trauma from me as a kid. And I never wanted to understand that. So it was the moment that I had to sit with myself, with my thoughts and really accept that he would never come back, you know, when this was painful, it was very painful, you know, but it was very important because after that I could start changing. But also like when you are obese and especially like when you are a kid or you are in a high school, you suffer quite a lot because kids can be quite tough towards the others. So I suffered a lot of like bullying when I was a kid. You know, like I had it at kind of a tough childhood because of that as well, you know. And yeah, this was a very hard moment for me if I have to say to you. Wow. Yeah, I can imagine as a kid you don't really know what is driving your life and, you know, the patterns that you are developing. And I think as an adult, it is so important to take a breather and go back to your childhood and try to figure out where those patterns come from, you know. And I think, you know, losing your dad must have been very tough and I think every person and every child finds coping mechanisms that work for each one of them, you know. Some people turn to drugs, some people turn to alcohol, some people turn to food, some other people. There's so many ways you can do that. But I think it's so inspiring that you really have confronted your demons, you know. I think a lot of people never do that because it's tough. It's very hard. Yeah, it's very, very hard. So I want to ask you, how did you build this relationship with Aruveda? Because that's something you also are now very involved in. So when we say that, basically, like when we say about trying to find the why, Aruveda is like, for who doesn't know what Aruveda is, Aruveda is a system, a holistic system from India that tries to understand the roof of the problem, the why, exactly the why. So for example, if you go to the doctor and then you have a flu and the doctor is going to say, oh, take a parasitamo and then you're going to treat the symptom. But what it calls that. Aruveda comes with this approach, you know, like this approach of looking to yourself for the whole, like your body, your mind, your soul, everything that you are because every disease, everything that happened on your life, doesn't happen like from one moment to another. Normally, our habits is the things that you are doing on the daily basis that can build up something. So when I lost, like, I lost like 45 kilos, but I lost it, but I was like, you know, when you lose something without really knowing what you're doing or just listening to your body, but you're just like doing it. And I felt a little bit empty and I wanted to understand how can I make it more stable for myself? How can I just keep doing like that, knowing what I'm doing? And then I found, and I never liked much just the regular medicine, I always wanted something more connected with my, my soul, my energy, you know, like some more holistic thing that I could do by myself because I believe it's a process. And then I found Ayurveda, and then I found true Instagram, and then I was like, oh, this is cool. And then I did a short course, and I fell in love because I could do it by myself, you know, by my habits, waking up earlier, doing a lot of rituals. And I felt power again on me. And then I said, oh, my God, I want to be specialized on that. So I took a course for more than, I don't know, one year and a half. It was based in San Paulo, but my teachers were all from India. So I got a deep, deep, deep, intensive course. And I learned so much, but I used to just do it for myself. And yeah, today I, I follow Ayurveda almost every day, like this is part of myself as well. And Ayurveda also helped me healing a lot of things inside of me, helped me also understanding my needs, helped me also looking to myself, not just like as an easy, like, as an Ayurveda, like having this basic necessities, but understanding also what inside of me needed. So yeah, that's so beautiful. And how would you say, like, how has this impacted your habits, like, what are things you do on a daily basis for you to support your health or are you Vedic knowledge? Okay. So basically Ayurveda invites you to look to yourself, like in the life that we leave, everything is in a rush. We are always doing something. So Ayurveda invites you always to stop a little bit. So basically in the morning, imagine when you are sleeping, your body is doing the, the cleansing, right? Like you, you regenerate your cells, it's a very important moment. So right when you wake up, we always say, don't use your phone when you wake up, because you know, like you are sleeping, you are connected to yourself, imagine if you just wake up and look to your phone, this is something that I never do. I try to put my alarm, like a little bit far away from me. So I wake up, I breathe, like I remember, okay, I'm here, I breathe, I take, I, I clean my tongue because during the, the night, we have like a little bit of a substance in our tongue, especially on the, on this part here. And then I clean my tongue to let the toxins go away. And then I take a little bit of warm water, because I want to wake up my body in a nice way. I don't want to throw a big glass of cold water in my body and he's like, oh my God, what's going on? So I took, I take it a little bit slow. And then I just have, I just try to have a moment with myself in the morning, you know, like there's no specific thing. It's just like it takes, I don't know, 20 minutes of my morning. And then I just try to calm down. I love reading a little bit, you know, and then I just follow my life. And then this is something that I do every morning. And also Ayurveda, in Ayurveda, you have something called Dasha. And we are all different. So people, we all have different Dasha's inside of us. We have Vata, we have Pita, when you have Kafa. And I know that I'm my mainly Dasha, my dominant Dasha is Vata. So for example, I tend to be very creative, I tend to have a lot of ideas, I tend to be extremely communicative. But my downside is I can be anxious, I can have my mind all the time on the clouds. So I, they have, they have, they have some tricks to calm my mind down a little bit. So for example, I try to always eat warm food, not just salads or those kind of things. I try to do oil on my joints because sometimes when I'm going through a hard moment, I just like to, this helps me to just calm myself down to ground. All those little tricks that I use in a daily basis, and also understanding my life, you know, like understanding and looking to me, there are days that I'm going to be happier, there are days that I'm not going to be so happy. And though, you know, so Ayurveda also helps me a lot to understand myself. It's so interesting. One of my friends once told me, like, you have, I don't remember, she said to me, like, what Dasha are you and I was like, no idea. And she said to me, like, you have X energy, you know, like, I don't know which one she said, I think, Pita or something, I'm not sure. Yes. Yeah, I think you are Pita because people, actually, we all have the three of them because basically the Dasha's are components that like water, air, fire, grounding, you know, like we all have those kind of things, but we always have one that's the dominant. And I know you are a little bit, I would say that you were more Pita, like, you have this fire, this energy, you are a good leader, you know, like, you have this, this capacity of changing things. Wow. I love that. And she literally said to me, like, you are Pita energy and I was like, what is that? And then she said, you should look it up. But I find all of these things so fascinating and so interesting because it really gives you a little bit more context and meaning to your life, you know, and like what you're doing every day. And, you know, like, I think what you're saying now gives me like a broader understanding of the concept of your why. Yeah. I understand your, your dosha are like, you know, your, I've done like a lot of many things like you, you know, like, I've been working a lot on myself and personal development. And something I love the most about Amsterdam is that you meet so many interesting people that know so much about different fields. I have a friend who did a course in human design and she literally did mine and I went to her house and everything she said, I was like, wow, and she said to me, if you literally leave your life aligned to all these things, you're going to see that you're going to flow way better. And she described the type of people I love working with, like the way I work, what I value in my life, you know, like the type of people I like to have close, the type of environment I like to position myself in. And the moment she started saying all that, everything was so accurate. And what you're saying about, you know, knowing yourself to the core is so important. So how, if there's someone listening to us here who wants to start this journey of getting to know themselves better, what would you recommend? Have, first of all, just start, you know, like don't think too much, don't wait for the perfect moment to change, don't wait for the Monday to change because usually we say, oh, Monday, I'm going to start, don't wait for that. Take the moment that you have now, sit with yourself and just start. If you, for example, when I lose weight, I would advise you start now, like just like reduce your portions, reduce alcohol, drink more water, be more active, go for walks. If you don't have money, don't wait like, oh, my God, next month, I'm going to get the next salary and I'm going to go to the best thing ever. No, start now, just start now. For example, if you want to quit your job, if you are not happy and then you can't anymore build your emergency, emergency funds, you know, like try to connect with other people, do network, you know, you have now because sometimes we wait for the future, you wait for the best opportunities, but we don't even know if we are going to be here in the future. We don't even know if tomorrow is going to come. So what you have, it's now, we have your opportunities now, so just start, you know, start, go, make new friends, you know, like I don't know everything, so I always try to connect with people on the same field as I am, for example, 1%, because I say, okay, maybe these girls, you can teach me something, maybe I can teach something for these girls, you know, like use the things that you have because sometimes we wait too much, but life is so short and life just passed like this, you know, and if I had imagined, if me, back then, in Ireland, I would have to wait and say, yeah, I'm like that now, but maybe it's not, nothing is going to happen, I would never be sitting here, I would never be talking to you about this, I would never be able to just leave the amazing life that I built. So I just think like act now, don't wait the, the, the, the, the perfect circumstance because this actually doesn't exist, you are the one that's going to create your own perfect if we can call it circumstance, you know, like, yeah, I love that. And there is a saying that I, yeah, you reminded me of this now with what you were saying that says success means doing what you can with what you have. And I think when we start, when we want to start a change, like for example, last week I recorded an episode with a girl that I really love so much, she's such a wholesome person. And she said to me at the end of the podcast we were chatting and she goes, something I love about you is that you just do things, like you don't overthink it, like you have this podcast in your living room and she's like, I've been wanting to start a podcast, but I always think like, I need a camera, I need the microphone, I need the setup, I need the lighting. And I was like, yeah, but if you would wait for all these things to be there, you would never start the podcast, you know? And of course, in the future, I would love to have like a super huge budget to do this in person, you know, and have the setup and everything, but I think it relates to what you said that you have to start somewhere, you have to start now and it doesn't matter how you start. Like, if it's a five minute walk or a 15 minute walk or, you know, if it's buying a cheap course online to start getting into this new field that you want to start, you know, getting to know more about, you can always make an action today that will get you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. Yeah. That's true. I believe that too. And I think like, just start, you know, because otherwise, how are you going to see any change if you, if you keep doing the same thing? Like, something has to change, you know, like, we can keep sitting complaining because I see a lot of people sitting complaining, like, oh my god, they don't like my life. I don't like my job. I don't like my relationship. I don't like how I look like, but they keep like doing the same thing all the time, you know, like, and also people tend to, when they have a problem, they always like to go for things that give them a fast pleasure, like the dopamine, you know, like they look for the dopamine because they forget about the pain and then they just go through something. Like, if you, if you go out and I'm so done on Friday, full of people on the bars, you know, like people are all the time looking for craving for these things, but actually, in my opinion, just my opinion, the actual help and the actual happiness comes when you are by yourself, when you have your own goal settle and then when you promise something for yourself and then you really do it, there is, I have never experienced a better, a better pleasure. Like when I commit to myself and I really do it, I feel like I'm an amazing person, I feel so powerful, you know, like it's, it's amazing. So yes, but to have this feeling, you have to make a choice, you have to decide, they didn't you have to say no for other things, you know, but it can be hard. I love what you're saying because I think a lot of the times with, we, we, I think society has a little bit, has missed the point on what value means, you know, like, for example, when we do things for ourselves, we're doing it for us, we're not doing it for others. And I think a lot of the times people are looking for validation externally, you know, so oh, that person doesn't think I'm pretty or that person doesn't think blah, blah, blah. But I think what you just said now is the key to build self-esteem. If you make promises to yourself and it can be small promises, if you tell yourself, I am going to go to the gym this morning or I am going to say no to the pasta to eat the salad or I will say no to the cocktail whenever someone offers it to me and you actually say no and you stick to that, your self-worth and your self-esteem grows and grows and grows. And I think a lot of the time people that are insecure and people that don't really have that self-worth self-esteem are those people that do not keep those promises for themselves. That's true. That's very true. Unfortunately, that's true, you know, like, but this, this is something that you can build. Like I've been on the other side. I was the one that always going out, enjoying life, forgetting about my problems. I used to go out a lot, drink a lot, eat a lot, whatever. But in the day after I always felt so empty and I was like, because I knew that I was not where I supposed to be, you know, like I knew deep inside, deep that this was not the thing that I needed you to have a better life, you know. So I think this is something that you can also build. Like everybody can do it. It just takes time. And also you have to be strong for that, you know, like that's why going back to the Y, when you know your Y, it's important, you know. Yeah. And let's talk a little bit about your life in Brazil versus your life in Europe. I think when we talked about that, you mentioned that in Brazil, it's very easy to eat unhealthy because of the culture. And because of how society is maybe not wired, but set up, you know, I think in Amsterdam, for example, when I compare Guatemala to Amsterdam, here people are super aware of their health. Like I have a lot of friends that are vegetarians or they are vegans or they don't eat gluten because not because they're allergic, but just because it's a decision, you know, there's so much people really do pay a lot of attention to their, to their well-being. And I think in Latin America, sometimes that is not really like a relevant pillar in our lives, you know. I think we eat healthy, but maybe we're not aware of what we're eating, you know, we just eat for the sake of it being delicious and yes, it's homemade and maybe it's not processed whatever. But I think in Europe or at least in Amsterdam, I've seen people really track macros, microbes like protein, this and that. And you know, like they know how much omega three and the flexi and I think it's insane. Like a lot of my friends really, really, really know everything in terms of supplements and vitamins and whatever, they know everything they're putting into their bodies. So I want to talk about this. Can you give us a little bit of a breakdown on how this changed for you as a Brazilian when you move to Europe? Yeah, this impacted a lot, but I also like in my case, it was just me and my mom and then she also didn't understand much, right? My mom comes from a different background, like the life that she provided to me was completely different than the life that she had, you know, and then she didn't, she had no idea. So of course, in Brazil, you wake up like, culturally saying people wake up and they have like a breakfast with coffee and milk and then bread with butter, like no protein, there is no protein there. And then you go for like a big lunch, rice, beans, meat, you know, like a heavy lunch and then after you get a snack. And then in the dinner, you also have a big dinner, you know, like this is like the main structure. In Brazil, as I saw now, a lot of things are changing, like my friends are also much more aware. And I believe like the generation that is coming now is much more aware of their life, you know, like we also have a lot of information. Of course, social media helps a lot. People are much more aware of that, but indeed, like still I can't compare the lifestyle there through here. People here are really aware, you know, like first of all, they are super active because they cycle everywhere. There is no cars, you know, like basically people don't, we don't need the car here in Holland. So you just can cycle, you know, my mom always tells me like, you never gain weight and like, I'm not like always on a diet or something, but I tell my mom like, yeah, but literally we bike everywhere. Like my friends were in shock that I would go out to a club and sometimes we bike for like 25 minutes to get to the club. Exactly, and go back like 3 a.m. biking as well. Yeah, you know, and this is awesome. And also like the way that food, you know, like I think what I see here, I might be wrong, but food is just part of life. Imagine life is like a pizza, right? We have these slices. And food is part of life. It's not the main pizza. And I know like in Brazil, everything is related to food. So if you are going to see some money, you're going to go for a food. If you're going to, you know, like everything's food, food, food here. It's like, oh, let's have a coffee. Let's have a walk. Let's have, I don't know, whatever, because there are other types of pleasure. But I also believe this has to do a different future, you know, like the size of Brazil, for example, is insanely big. You cannot compare things. But for me, like, I feel very blessed to be able to live here. I know that this is a privilege. I know that I know how, how, how better my life is here, because I have a better work life balance. So I still work. I work nine to five. I have a good job. You know, I can go back home in a safety. You know, I can just come, life is much more relaxed here. And then I think this affects a lot by what you eat, because, you know, like otherwise imagine a lot of people in Brazil, they take two, three hours to get to the work. They, you know, like, they don't want to go home and they don't want to cook. They want to eat a slice of bread or something fast. So I think, like the way that we live here also impacts a lot of the way in the way it laws also impacts a lot on the mental health, because here we have much more time. We have much more possibilities. And I know that a lot in Brazil, for example, is not a super safe country to live. So you don't live here. I don't live like I'm on the fear, you know, like, I just live my life there is all the time like this. And then imagine if you are all the time tensed, your cortisol level goes high, you know, like it's a whole circle. So I think as well, the lifestyle impacts a lot. This is so true, because I think in Guatemala, first of all, the traffic is getting so out of hand. Every time I go back to my parents home and I spend there a couple of weeks and I take Jim, my fiance with me, he already tells me like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I cannot sit more than an hour in a car. And when he looks at the distances that we have to do, it's like a short distance and we are sometimes two and a half hours in the car. And he tells me, I cannot, like, this is for me the opposite of quality of life. And I cannot agree more with him because I think as a Latin American, I grew up in a place where I was used to drive everywhere. And it was normal. But the fact that we can bike 15 minutes in Amsterdam and be wherever we need to be without traffic, you know, we get to move a little bit, that is such an underrated luxury. And of course, it's healthy, you know, you get to bike and stuff like that. And I also think, I don't know, like here, there's not, of course, we are far away from the U.S. But Guatemala is next to the U.S. So there's a lot of U.S. like United States influence. And you can find in the supermarket like a lot of deep freeze things like waffles and all these sweet things. And I remember like when I was a kid, it was paradise. But you know, when I moved to Europe and you see what the kids eat here, they eat like carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumber. It's so healthy and so cute because I'm like, wow, as a kid in Latin America, I would reject the cucumber 100% and go for the M&M or whatever. But here parents are so conscious like, okay, our kids will grow eating veggies and that's the lifestyle they learned since their babies, you know. And this is amazing, you know, like I learned a lot. I was a babysitter when I was younger. And it was like the best class I had, you know, because like the only reference I had from family was my mom. And I thought it was normal to eat that much, to do that much things. But when I start seeing the other families, like Dutch families, for example, I was amazed because I was like, oh my God, this is how I want to be, I want to raise my kids. This is how I want to do because I find it fascinating. The way that the kids are raised here, you know, like, and especially with food, you know, that also they are super active. They have hockey, they have swimming, they have this and they have that. And this is so nice. Oh my God. And have you seen the mini babies biking on the lane? Like, I've seen like tiny human beings next to the moms with a helmet hiking. Like it's the cutest thing ever. Yeah, this is amazing, you know, like, and it's very good that we also see these kind of things because for me, at least, I want to, I want to enjoy, I want to have the fully, the fully life that I have here, you know, like, so I start appreciating also these small things. It starts seeing like, oh my God, like, I really want to introduce this habit in my life, you know, because I see like the, the, the, the quality of life is better here. And we cannot take it from granted, like, especially coming from where I am from, I see it as such a gift for myself as well to be able to enjoy this lifestyle and to be able to just be here. And sometimes I do still complain about the touch weather. Oh my God, I had the weather. But in other hand, I just found my place, you know, like I don't see it actually myself living anywhere else. And it's also so nice when you get into a point in your life that you feel like you belong somewhere and better. You can stay on that place. I don't know if you feel the same, but I believe. Yeah, yeah. I think for me, you know, I've lived a little bit everywhere. And I think now that I turned 30, I really realized that the Netherlands is such an amazing place to actually build a life. Like, as you said, you can, I can bike at 4 a.m. and I would never feel unsafe. The government works for you and not against you. And you know, as an entrepreneur that I now have my company, my clients, it feels like the system has my back, you know, like they want me to build a business. Of course, the taxes are super high, but I think you see the taxes invested in hospitals, in lanes. And in Latin America, you pay taxes and you just see the holes on the streets. That's where they're 10 years ago, you know. Yeah, I think in that sense, I love it. And, you know, I think for me, I think we, like the two of us, have so much income on in that sense, like we come from Latin America. And of course, it's such a different world living here and, you know, like building a life in a different language, in a different weather, in a different culture. But I love the gratitude ingredient that you inject into your life every day. And I think I share that now before I must admit, I had a love hate relationship with the Netherlands for a very long time. I was always like, this is not it, you know, like I was always trying to like, yeah, there was always something in me that didn't fully adapt even though I speak perfect Dutch, like it's crazy. So something in me didn't really click until this year that I put my job. And I, as you said, I found my wife and I started to live fully aligned with it. I am in love with the Netherlands. And I feel like, again, as you said, I found my people. I love meeting up with women that inspire me, you know, like you guys. I have this new group of friends that I met, you know, through events, communities, SoHo House, Fosbury. Women that are just like so, you know, like aware and curious and inspiring. And you want to build things you want to learn, like, you know, and I think it's gasoline for me. Or rounding myself with you guys has been the biggest blessing, you know, like as we said, as you said before, like people that have their own company, their hosting events, they're doing this and we all help each other. I find fascinating that the girls stay, we all try to, you know, like to empower each other. Like it's not like a competition who is better. I do it better than you. I have more followers. No, like how can I help you? Like doing masterclass, taking time, going for a coffees, you know, like bringing the best version that you can have, you know. And at least for me, like I was not really close to my family, but I always had good friends. And I believe like I am who I am because I always had people in my back to support me, to be with me. And also like here is very good as well to have the sense of belonging, to have people that has the same interests that I have to, you know, like thank you so much for having me here, like for being also making this like opportunity for me, because it's also very important for me to talk about it, because we can also impact more people and also let people, you know, like, and then I just believe this is very important to have those people around you because then you can reach your goals faster, you can find yourself in a way. Yeah, and you know what something like I've received quite a lot of feedback lately about the lip club and like the community and the podcast and something I really love that someone said, I don't remember who it was, they said, what I love is that you've created a space and a platform for, um, relatable people to share their stories. Your podcast is not about this CEO or CFO that has, you know, made it already in life. Like these are people we can relate to and if they have taken lips, if you have lost 45 kilos, if this girl has started a business at 21, if Katerina moved to Bali to start a business, like why can't I do that too, you know? Yeah, and that's what I would love to, you know, in the long term, keep present and alive in this space is to empower people to do things they are afraid of or things that they think are not attainable by listening to other people stories that are inspiring, just like you. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And I think you can do that because you are also this person, you know, like you have everything that you say about the others inside of you, you know, and I'm so happy to have met you because you are such a, you are such a connector. You see the people, you see people and you want to bring them together, you want to listen to them, you want to empower them. So I think, yeah, I think we need also more people like you in this world, you know, and I'm very happy that you are also able to find your why. I'm very happy that you also took the chance to look to yourself, to treat your depression, you know, like to take this step and say, okay, if I need to get medicine now, it's fine because I'm going to take care of myself and look how far you have become, like I don't know how to explain, but since the moment I saw you, I felt connection. I'm going to save them. The data I was giving you past, I was sitting past and I was giving her past and we are like eating, and I was like, oh my god, we just met. And this is what you bring to the world. This is how people feel around you. You are such a, I don't know, an open person that I'm and I'm sure like this is going to grow so much because people need you as well. And yeah, you are on your purpose, you are on your, I think you are where you should be. Thank you, Lisa. You're such a beautiful person and everything you just said right back to you, like I think you have been one of the best people I've met and crossed paths with this year. You have such a beautiful heart and I think you're such a beautiful person. You know what? I really, I love when I meet someone and I say she's such a beautiful person, not from the outside but from the inside. And I think it's very easy to be, you know, beautiful on the outside. Like that's what people strive for. But being beautiful on the inside is something that only your energy can radiate, you know, and you have that really warm aura. And I think you've been able to transform your pain and your obstacles in life to so much beauty and so much inspiration and I want you to wrap up the conversation by telling us three different things. The first one is if there's someone out there who wants to lose weight but they feel they don't have it in them to go to the gym to be consistent to change their habits. What would you say to them? I would say, I would first say about like, why do you want to lose weight? I would first ask this question, why you want to lose weight? What's bothering you? And I think if this why is bigger than the fact that they don't want to take the effort, they just have to do it. Like first, I don't know how to give an advice without telling them to find the why because otherwise it would be my opinion to vague, you know, like they need to understand why they want to do it. I would say take time to yourself and understand the why because when you know the why, I'm telling you there's not going to be a day that you don't want to do something for yourself, you know, like the everything starts to seem so small, like the fact that it's not I effort to go to the gym because I think you have to switch on mindset and understand, wow, I am able to go to the gym. I am able to take this step. I can do it. I have health, you know, like I still can do it. So switch the mindset and check it from another perspective, oh, it's so boring to go to the gym to, oh, I can go to the gym. I have legs, I have arms, I am healthy, I'm here, you know, I have possibilities. So that's what I would say. I love that. Okay, number two, I know you're someone that loves personal development and I can imagine you read, you listen to podcasts, you do all these things. What are the tools or if you have any recommendations of things you can give to people listening on the podcast that will help them gain that inner strength? Yes, there is a woman called Mel Robbins. I don't know if you know about her. She's an amazing, like she was a lawyer and then she became like someone that hosts a podcast called Let them and I listen to it a lot because I understood like that sometimes I can do things that are on my control and start letting things that I can't control because sometimes we don't do things because we are afraid of what other people are going to think or what, you know, like you block yourself because thinking of the others, but at the moment that you start to look to yourself and understanding that you have to do it anyways, no matter what people think, it also helps you to move into life. So I would recommend you to listen to Mel Robbins and she also has an awesome move called Let Them. Yeah, The Let Them Theory. I always tell my boyfriend, my fiance, he's always like, why didn't you? And I'm like, let them, let me. Let them, let me, yeah. Exactly. So I told him one day I said to him, I'm going to send you this podcast and you need to listen to it because you need to let me be, you know, it's such a, you can apply it to anything. Let yourself let them, you know, like, you know, like I love, I love all the podcasts she releases because it can be applicable to many areas of your life. Many is very useful and also about for people that start to have their own business, I would recommend Emma great. She's also awesome. Like she, Emma, Emma what? Emma great. Yeah, with G. Okay. Perfect. G R E D A. Okay. She's awesome as well and then she also starts from a very difficult background and then she became like someone that's just awesome. I love that. Okay. And the last one is for someone that feels they haven't found their place or they haven't found that community where they feel like they belong. What would you tell them or what could you tell them they could do in order to find it? Just, just look for it. Like don't, don't be shy. Like don't because how I start was Facebook, I start on Facebook and I start to reaching out to people messaging and then I went to Instagram and then I was like, Hey, do you want to have a coffee with me? Hey, like I put myself in a very vulnerable position because it also like a lot of people don't do it out of ego. Like I'm not going to do it. You know, like no, just do it. You know, like because if someone answers you, nice, like what's the worst thing that can happen if you try, you know? I love you to keep alone, like being in a situation that you feel alone or you can choose to try and then I'm sure that you're going to find someone that's going to be there for you. You know that I wrote a LinkedIn post about this today because I think two weeks ago, a girl sent me a message on LinkedIn saying like, Hey, I just wanted to say you keep popping up on my feet because I started posting on LinkedIn again after abandoning it for so long. And she said, I just wanted to say you keep popping up on my feet. And by the way, I'm enjoying your podcast a lot. I'm also based in Amsterdam. So I thought I'd reach out. So I was working. So I just answered super nice. Like, Oh, thank you for reaching out. And I'm super happy you're enjoying the podcast. Thank you for for connecting something like that. And then, you know, I like I started thinking and at some point, like I think half an hour later or something, I go, I go back to my thoughts and I'm like, it's such a nice act of her to reach out. Like why won't I follow up? You know, like she did the first step. And I thought she could be a really nice girl. Like why why not meet up? So I sent her like, Hey, do you want to meet up for a coffee? Maybe we can see if we can work together or if we can do something together. And we had the most amazing wholesome conversation. She's coming to the dinner actually. She was like, yeah, I told her and she was like, Oh my God, I'm actually about to take my leave and I would love to connect with other women. And it was sold out by then. But then a week ago, a spot came free and I sent her a message and she was so grateful. She was super happy. And I reflected on that this morning and I felt like reaching out to someone on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on TikTok, wherever it is, can build a new friendship, a new opportunity, a new job, a new whatever. And sometimes people don't dare to do that because they are afraid of what if they say no or what if they think I'm ridiculous, you know? And what you said is so true. Like why overthink the interaction? Just do it. Just send the message. What can happen? You know, like what's the worst that can happen? Yeah. No. And I wanted to thank you so much for sharing this extremely vulnerable story. Like I think it's so beautiful that you look back to this face of your life with so much love and with, you know, you're proud of it. You're proud of the before and the after and I think a lot of people, you know, they they are ashamed to talk about their shadows and their their deepest points. And I do that with my depression and you do that with your obesity and that's why I thought it would be amazing to have you on the podcast and hopefully your story can empower other people to either lose weight or just do something in their life that might seem impossible at the moment. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me here. Thank you so much for opening this place to share my stories. And yes, I think that's why I'm here after that, you know, like I'm very happy that I can be used to empower people and to maybe help people and I always say like if I can help one person, it's already a lot. Can imagine if we all think like that like one person, you can impact and then you can change it and you can help that person. It's just like it's amazing. And I think, yeah, thank you so much. No, thank you. And one last thing, where can people follow you? Do you have an Arduveda page or your personal page? Give us a bit of information on that. I have my personal page on my Instagram, it's Isadora Pirees. So I as a D-O-R-A and Pirees is with W-A. And just feel free, my Instagram is open to you. So if you are looking for a new friend, if you are feeling alone, if you are in Amsterdam, I'm super happy to have a coffee with you, to listen to you and to be your friend. Love it. And yes, I agree you should not miss an opportunity to connect with Isadora because she's such an inspiration and such an amazing friend. So thank you for being here.