Surviving the Side Hustle

E131 - From Paralysis to Purpose: Maria's Nutrition Revolution

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 131

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What happens when a devastating stroke at age 25 leaves you completely paralyzed, conscious but unable to communicate for two weeks? For Maria Garcia, it became the first chapter in an extraordinary story of resilience, discovery, and ultimately, transformation.

Maria takes us through her harrowing experience of being "locked in" her body after a stroke, communicating initially only through blinking her eyes, and facing the overwhelming reality of relearning everything from swallowing to walking. Her brother became her unofficial physical therapist, medical professionals offered limited hope, and the simple act of trying to comb her hair became a crushing moment of realization about the mountain she faced.

For a decade, Maria threw everything she could at her recovery – stem cell treatments, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, specialized programs in Germany, and various dietary approaches. Progress was painfully slow. After ten years, she decided to stop living to recover and just live, accepting what she believed was her maximum recovery at about 70% of her pre-stroke functionality.

The breakthrough came unexpectedly. Fifteen years after her stroke, Maria enrolled in a nutrition course out of personal interest. Within just six months of implementing what she learned – particularly about proper hydration and reintroducing animal products after years as a vegetarian – she recovered an additional 20% of her functionality when she thought improvement was impossible.

This revelation transformed not just her health but her purpose. Today, Maria coaches others on nutrition, helping them understand that human bodies have specific nutritional needs that, when met, allow us to thrive. Her three-month program addresses not just what to eat but the psychology behind eating habits, particularly helping those with health challenges who are "tired of pills, lotions, and procedures."

Maria's story is a powerful reminder that sometimes our greatest challenges reveal our deepest purpose. As she quotes Mark Twain: "The two most important days of your life are the day you're born and the day you find out why." For entrepreneurs and anyone facing obstacles, her message resonates clearly – find something you truly love and can stand behind. That's where the real magic happens.

What nutritional changes could transform your health? Listen to Maria's extraordinary journey and discover how proper nutrition might be the missing piece in your own wellness puzzle.

Speaker 1:

What's going on everybody and welcome back to another episode of Surviving the Side Hustle. I'm super excited to introduce you guys and have you guys enjoy this conversation we're about to dive into, because today I'm joined by Maria Garcia Sorry, I tried to mix your name together there and we recently got connected through a mutual networking agency group, I guess I would say personal development. The CLA kind of does a little bit of everything I feel like, and what they do really well, I should say, is they connect a lot of great individuals and I had the opportunity to connect with Maria on a call and follow up afterwards and I felt like she had such a great story, very inspiring, and I feel you guys are just going to love it as well. So, maria, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I'm happy to be here and I'm doing very well.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. So before we kind of dive into the nitty gritty, would you mind kind of introducing who you are and what it is that you do best?

Speaker 2:

introducing who you are and what it is that you do best. Okay, I'm Maria, I'm in New Jersey, out of New Jersey, and I say that I'm a nutrition coach with the sexy boys, and I'll explain what that means in this podcast. What I do is basically coach people so they can unlock optimal health.

Speaker 1:

Love that, and primarily through nutrition and other health practices, or is it just purely dietary?

Speaker 2:

It's primarily nutrition, because I feel like once you have that part correct, then everything else can layer on top of that. But if you don't have that part correct, you're going to always be working against yourself.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel you on that one. That's so true because a lot of I remember back when I was in personal training and strength and conditioning everyone. A lot of guys were trying to lose weight, to get the abs and everything. They're just doing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of crunches and sit-ups all the time and I'd always tell them like hey, man, the abs are made in the kitchen. You got to pay attention to what you're eating and that's going to help fuel you so you have better workouts and better everything else in the world too. So how did you get into nutrition coaching?

Speaker 2:

That's a long story and I'll try to convince it. So when I was 25, I ended up at the hospital and I thought I had food poisoning because I'd eaten shrimp that day and whatever. So I ended up at the hospital and they tell me, miss, after some testing we think you're having a stroke. And I'm like what, so much food poisoning? But then my second thought was what's a stroke? I had never even heard the word. I didn't know what that was. Anyway, within 24 hours I was paralyzed from the nose down, which means I wasn't able to speak and move nothing. I had a surgery, which is a surgery that goes in through the groin to bust the clot in your brain, and that at the time was probably 20 years ago was not that successful, that often. So I actually lived through that, which was a miracle. And then everybody was celebrating and I'm thinking no, I'm not celebrating, I'm locked in my body. They don't even realize I'm here. It was two weeks before anybody noticed that I was actually conscious wow.

Speaker 1:

So you're just kind of laying there and waiting for somebody to realize that you're there, you're conscious. Could you move your eyes, because you said you couldn't move anything, essentially from the nose down right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a good question. So it was a friend of mine who came in with pictures from a trip we took. I realized I was tracking with my eyes, so she went and alerted the professionals and they came back to her and said no, that's involuntary eye movements.

Speaker 1:

So all right. So you're there, you've kind of made this signal that you are conscious, you are aware your friend notices this, goes to get help, and then they kind of shut that down. What happened next? Shut that down, what happened next?

Speaker 2:

I think she must have told my family also, and they somebody else say blink once for yes, twice for no. And that was when I first started communicating.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's crazy because I feel like I've always like heard like blink once for yes or blink no or for no, but I never really have, I've never really met somebody where that actually happened and and that was really like a crazy situation because I would imagine that essentially saved your life, right, because then you were able to. What happened after that kind of get? How did you go from only being able to move your eyes to now back to what you're doing?

Speaker 2:

that started really slowly with a movement of my index finger like this right. So I started moving index finger. Then we devised a way for me to communicate using the alphabet and fingertips and then, little by little, I started to regain some function, which I credit my brother with, because he would go to the hospital daily and he would move my limbs up and down all around when I was able to do it and I was also getting zero physical therapy.

Speaker 1:

Wow, so you essentially were communicating with Morse code, wow. And then your brother came in, helped you kind of move a little bit, hopefully getting some kind of blood flow and circulation. And how long did this whole process really start to take until you were, I guess, more like independent?

Speaker 2:

I guess that took a while. It took a while. I was at the first hospital, I think it was something like 43 days. Then I went to a rehab hospital and I was so relieved because I thought, oh my God, I'm not going to have to look at the ceiling anymore and I thought to myself, you know, they're going to patch me right up and I'm going to go find, I'm going to go walking, because I had no reference for what a stroke was.

Speaker 1:

So you're sitting there, you're thinking all right, right, I'm gonna go get right back out there and move in again. And the doctors and family. They weren't really explaining the severity of the whole situation no, and I'm actually thankful for that yeah, yeah, that's, that's wild and um so okay. So that's like you were there. You moved to another hospital, oh my, and you were just like, essentially just staring at the ceiling for 40 days. That's got to be insanely difficult.

Speaker 2:

You know what was the worst part? The worst, they would leave the TV on right. So I was watching the TV, or the ceiling, and I would see commercials for food and at the time I couldn't eat and I was like it was like torture, such torture.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, yeah, I imagine that and like, yeah, I remember when I was in high school and just going to lunch during wrestling season and watching all my friends eating like the cookies and everything, and I just remember sitting there and just watching it and like, oh, I wish I could just smell it at least. Like that's all, that's all I want to do is just smell it. And then that was pretty much it. But that's the cruel punishment and I'm guessing where does nutrition come into this whole story, besides just watching and being tortured by food?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that comes in way later. That comes in 15 years after I had the stroke.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's bridge the gap a little bit there. So you've got the stroke. You're starting to make some progress. You're now into the rehab center. How are things going from there?

Speaker 2:

They're going better because now I'm getting three hours of therapy a day. So that was nice. I was moving my arm, my right arm and my leg. And I remember one of the times I went to therapy they were evaluating me and they handed me a hair comb. My right hand said, here, now just comb your hair. And I was like that's so easy. So I go to comb my hair. I get the first about here, if you're watching here, if you're not watching, about six inches away or four inches.

Speaker 1:

and I couldn't get the first near my head and I started wailing because that's when I realized, holy smoke, the mountain that lays ahead yeah, that's gotta be insane, because you're thinking something simple is just brushing your hair and then you go to actually perform it and you're not even close, like that's gotta be gut wrenching. And how did you stay motivated to kind of keep moving forward, cause that's gotta be a hard pill to swallow at that moment.

Speaker 2:

I think it was my family. It was my family. They kept the whole ball. I, when I had zero hope because I was in a wheelchair, when I went home I was wearing diapers at 25. Couldn't swallow, had to learn to be right, just basically going through a second childhood but conscious that I used to be able to do that. Now I can't, can't. And it wasn't until I finally was able to walk well enough to go to the gym that I joined the yoga class because I figured it's going to be adaptable. That was when the black cloud first started lifting, because it's such a powerful emotional or mental exercise and I did not know that. I did not know that that's what was going to happen.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I'm guessing you're out of the rehab hospital now. You're joined gyms, You're taking these classes. Are you still living with family? Or where are we at now, timeline away from when the stroke happened?

Speaker 2:

After I had my stroke, I didn't live alone until 13 years later. All that time between I was living with my parents.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So what I'm curious to hear is you were at the rehab hospital and then you left, and now you're starting to take these yoga classes. So how far since the stroke did you first have your first yoga class? I should say, was it within a year or was it over a year?

Speaker 2:

No, it was over a year, probably two or three years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, okay. And then what kind of mobility did you have Full arms, legs and balance and everything at that moment?

Speaker 2:

Balance? Definitely not. The left side was weaker than the right side and probably not as strong as your average person. Definitely not.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So this was a crazy recovery journey. And you said that the nutrition comes into play about 13 years after the stroke, right after the stroke. Right? So moving along, just, you're getting mobile again. And where do you begin to start eating and swallowing again?

Speaker 2:

That was well. The hospital had a trach, so they were feeding me via tube.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

When I went home they had already removed that, but I was still choking very often on food. So that's when relearn to swallow the liquids were the hardest and everything was just really slow. And in that time frame when I was living at home, I was throwing everything I could at the illness right, because I was 25 and if I had to live another 50 years or whatever it was, I needed some quality of life. That was not how I envisioned my life for the rest of my life. So I did stem cell injections, I did hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I went to Germany for therapy for two months almost and I was just doing everything under the books macrobiotic, vegetarian, vegetarian and nothing was ever. I mean, everything had a level of it working, but I didn't know what exactly was working. I figured everything was in combination and it was just so slow it was painfully slow. I figured everything was in combination and it was just so slow it was painfully slow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's got to be extremely frustrating. So you're trying all these different modalities and therapies and you're seeing some movement, but you're not really sure if it's actually progress, and so you're bouncing back and forth between a lot of different things. And then how did you find? What did you find that really ended up working the best for you?

Speaker 2:

So, funny enough, at 10 years I was just like I'm sick of this, I'm tired of just living to try to recover, I want to just live. And I had plateaued for about two years. So finally, at 10 years, I said that's it, I'm done, I'm just going to not do all these crazy workouts, I'm not going to research therapies, I'm just going to live. So I went back to school, was working with a friend to get out of the house, really, and I was just plodding along at about 70% of what my function was before the stroke.

Speaker 2:

And one day I saw an ad for a nutrition course and I thought to myself you know what this sounds really interesting. I already am pretty passionate about nutrition. I already tried all kinds of modalities and maybe I'll learn something new about a topic. I've already tried all kinds of modalities and maybe I'll learn something new about a topic I already enjoy. So I moved forward and I joined Within probably something like six months I had recovered another 20% and I got my life back. And I got my life back 15 years after stroke.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So what were the main things you're doing? So now you've developed this new knowledge of nutrition, and what was it that was working well for you in terms of nutrition?

Speaker 2:

Well, for one hydration, proper hydration, because we all say, oh, we should drink so much, and we never do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So proper hydration was one of the things. Also, I stopped being a vegetarian because I thought I was doing my health good. But then I realized or I learned through the course that, yes, some people choose to be vegetarians because of humanitarian reasons, but it's not helping your health, it's hurting your health.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So then you started introducing animal products and more water, and that seemed to just really jumpstart and exponentially speed up your recovery, because you jumped 20% in six months and 15 years after stroke, when I thought I had plateaued and there was no more, I thought I was going to live like that. That is crazy. So is that what you now, what you do for nutrition? You essentially teaching, I guess, bringing like carnivore diet, or is it like? What does it look like when you're teaching?

Speaker 2:

it like? What does it look like with what you're teaching? So I do a three-month program and first we talk about your food psychology, why you're eating what you're eating, why you don't like certain things, and that's where all other diets really fail. I tend this is not a diet, but this is where all other diets fail, because if I just hand you a list and say, rob, I have this great thing, do it for a couple of months. You're going to go.

Speaker 1:

That's a mountain.

Speaker 2:

So we address that first and then we move very slowly throughout the three months and then you start to see things happening in your body and it's more than about just hydration and processing. There are a lot of pieces.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you're really kind of looking at what each person like, where they start, from the mindset to what they've been consuming, and then kind of making small, manageable changes over the course of like three months or so.

Speaker 2:

Yes, changes over the course of like three months or so. Yes, but the thing is, when people join, it's not as nuanced, as everybody's going through different things. It's more like we're all going to do this at the same time because there is a diet whereby humans function optimally, because we are. Let's put it this way, every species has a diet. Cows eat grass, horses eat hay and dumb beetles eat poop. But who am I to go to the dumb beetle and say don't eat poop, that's gross. That's what makes them thrive. If they eat something else, they're not gonna. They're going to live, but they're not going to function as well. Right, and humans? We're a species, we're a home of sapiens species.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so what do you say to people who swear by vegan diets and no animal products at all? Well, that's a charged question. Well, I'm just curious on what your opinion is on it.

Speaker 2:

If you're doing it for your health, you might want to look into other things, and if you're doing it for the animal welfare, you better be really careful how you supplement, because otherwise it will take a toll on your health eventually.

Speaker 1:

So what are the major things that, like a vegetarian or a vegan diet, are missing, that they need to supplement with?

Speaker 2:

Iron is one, b12 is another. And for everybody thinking well, I'll just eat more beans because there's iron in those. No, the iron that humans need, the bioavailable heme iron, is only available through animal products. The one in beans is not heme.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. See, I didn't know that about the iron and such. I do understand, though, like the B12, and I know, creatine is also a major thing that you get from animal products and such, and I know that a lot of vegetarians tend to be low in some of that too. Especially if they're working out or at their athletes, it's much more harder for them to kind of get their creatine and a bunch of other vitamins and stuff. So it's good to just kind of remember and remind that and share that there. And then, so majorly, you're teaching people to have like a well-balanced diet that's meant specifically for humans. And then you also place a pretty good emphasis on hydration too, which I absolutely love because, like we were saying earlier, everybody's always like, yeah, I drink enough, I drink enough, or yeah, I should drink more, but then nobody ever does.

Speaker 2:

Myself included, by the way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you know it's tough too, because I was in the same boat where, when I was younger and teaching nutrition, I would always say the same thing Like just it's not that hard, Just drink a little bit more, drink a little bit more. But it is difficult, especially now, running around all day long different readings, conversations and such. It is pretty difficult to kind of find ways to squeeze that in, but you got to figure out ways. You got to figure it out, whether you analyze it or look at yourself and look at your own schedule, or you hire a coach to hold you accountable. You got to get it done, though, because it's your health and what fuels you is what's really going to move you forward. But I would love to kind of dive in a little bit more. So you said that a bunch of people kind of sign up with you when you do these groups. Right, or do you do one-on-one or is it mostly just group coaching?

Speaker 2:

I also do one-on-one. If somebody prefers to do one-on-one, I group into both.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would imagine the groups are pretty popular just because there tends to be that social component. There's the camaraderie, there's additional layers of accountability. So I find that to be pretty interesting and probably pretty good for a lot of people. I think that's why CrossFit was so popular when it first came out, because it created the sense of community that a lot of people were looking for.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and helping people learn from each other's circumstances yeah, you learn and share and bond through the different experiences and circumstances, exactly like you said there. So I love that, but I'm I'm also interested too. So where are you at now in the recovery window for yourself? You said you jump back up and you're in like the 90s there. So you're pushing back forward through that and you're saying that nutrition is kind of the catalyst that really escalated. That I'm interested to hear a little bit more on like the physical side of things. Are you like, what are you doing to continue to keep yourself active? I have a hard time believing. Your brother still comes over and moves your arms and legs around for you. So what do you? What else do you do to keep yourself active and strong?

Speaker 2:

So I go to the gym about three times a week. I started doing that in December. I used to walk a lot, and now I don't walk that much just because I have an ankle injury and so it's not that fun to walk.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's definitely not fun to kind of keep walking through that, working through that, and I wanted to. I also wanted to ask you a question here a little bit on identity, because you had mentioned how when you first had the stroke and you went to comb your hair, you were saying like, oh, this is easy, I can definitely do this. How has your identity or concept of self kind of changed and evolved over the years? Because I know for a lot of listeners like paying attention now, there are certain identity shifts that do need to change when you do get into the entrepreneurial world or the business realm of things, because you have to wear multiple hats and some people are better at certain hats, whether it's marketing, sales, etc. How did you handle that identity shift and have you learned from the identity shift over the years?

Speaker 2:

I think for me it was much more gradual, so it's hard to say. This is how my identity changed. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know what entrepreneurship was. I was working for a company in finance and I was doing very good, I was doing great, and so it was never a thought in my mind to even do this. Once I saw the impact on me and the impact on all the other participants in my group, I thought I can't not do this. I cannot do this. So I joined to become a coach and, yeah, I found new clients. I had to call people. Obviously that wasn't always comfortable. I remember the first time I held a live class. Before the live class I had like a total breakdown. I was crying, I couldn't breathe, it was like an anxiety attack, basically, and I had two friends talk me down. One was a mentor, and they're just far from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's got to be pretty scary and moving through that, but I can tell that you're a very strong individual. You've got an incredible amount of resilience handling a lot of the different things. So I imagine a lot of your clients coming to you and connecting with you. I would imagine a lot of what you've learned and grown sheds off onto them, helping them become stronger and individuals and overcoming different things. But I'm interested. So who are the best fit people for working with you? Is it do you help people specifically losing weight, or is it like targeting just to have a healthier lifestyle? Or let me rephrase that how does somebody listening know that they're the right fit for you?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question. First of all, I like working with people who are open. That just makes the whole process easier. I like working with people who have health challenges, that want to overcome those health challenges and get it through the cost. They're tired of pills, lotions and procedures and they know there's a better way. And then just anybody who wants to experience optimal health, because those aches and pains after 40, that's actually not a normal part of aging.

Speaker 1:

So essentially, you're helping a lot of different people with a lot of different problems and you're teaching them nutrition and different strategies. And why do you feel that so many people nowadays, I guess, lack the knowledge and understanding of nutrition? You think we're just just not teaching enough basics to the kids in schools, or do you think it's just like getting caught up in social media? Like, don't you feel like eating well and eating proper should kind of be like almost like second nature to us? That's a very deep rabbit hole.

Speaker 2:

Very deep. One of the things is yes, they're not getting educated. But number two, we've lost total touch with nature and what our bodies actually need. Marketing is a big, big, huge problem as well. And one more thing I'll say is what we have been taught is healthy Might not actually be as healthy as we think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. I love that last piece there too, because I'm kind of in the bucket of always like questioning a lot of different things, and what one person says, I'm like, okay, I'm trying to figure out why, and so on, and I love playing devil's advocate too. So it's always like, okay, well, let me see it from a different perspective and kind of see what are the other options and other reasons behind this and that. But I want to bring it back to individuals that you connect with. So I know, typically people are signing on and working with you for about three months and if they do go in and they don't renew with you, they can renew with you again multiple times, right?

Speaker 2:

Oh yes, as many times as they want. And after the three-month program I have a different program for graduates and they could always do the three-month program again for a graduate price, graduate pricing. So the options are limitless. But I will say that within the three months they get everything, everything. But some people like more hand-holding and others just okay, I'm gonna run with this yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that's awesome how you're flexible with your support for others and depending on how they're going with it. Um, and I'm curious for long-term performance and success with just overall healthy living, what do you feel is the key to sustaining that long-term success with nutrition?

Speaker 2:

Let me think about that one for a second. Number one I think I feel, but I also have a very biased view. I want to just always feel good, right, because I felt not good. I know what that's like and I'm never going back there again. I'm never wearing diapers again, I'm never doing an ass up. So for me, I have a big why. I have a big why and I don't need to stray because, yeah, sure, something might be tasty for five or ten minutes, but how's that going to impact me, you know?

Speaker 1:

so it's just yeah, I love that. So essentially, what you're saying is is kind of like being more conscious and aware of what you're eating and how it's affecting you and and checking in and making sure that you're constantly hey, how am I feeling, how is eating this and that also making me feel You're not necessarily just saying you got to eat just this for the rest of your life, but checking in with yourself and how certain foods make you feel and really paying attention to that and adjusting and moving forward from there. I love that. That's awesome. We talked a lot about your background. We talked about a lot of tips and tricks that you're kind of using for helping individuals and we talked a little bit about your coaching and interested to hear what else is on the horizon for you. I know you've got your coaching groups coming up. You've got one-on-one coaching. You're part of the CLA group.

Speaker 2:

You got any other projects that you're really excited about for the rest of this year I have a group class coming up, and I also would like to do a little bit more public speaking, because I think my story may help many other people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would definitely agree with it.

Speaker 1:

You've got a crazy inspiring story, and I think more people need to hear it.

Speaker 1:

So I'm excited to follow along with your journey and where you're going and to see where bigger and broader stages that you're getting out and sharing everything with and I know that we're kind of getting close on time here, but I want to be courteous and I want to just thank you for taking the time to come out and sharing today and sharing your experience and the knowledge that you've learned through nutrition and everything else with the people and mentors and everything that you've kind of grown through over the years. So, thank you, I appreciate it and it's been awesome going through this. And before I let you go, though, I want to ask you, boiling it all down all the tragedy, the lessons and the knowledge that you've learned and the people that you've connected with and communicated with. If you were to boil all the lessons down into one piece of advice that you could share with somebody in the entrepreneurial world who's kicking started and they're looking to build some momentum with their business, what would be your piece of advice for them to help them moving forward?

Speaker 2:

I think the biggest thing I would say right now is to find something that you love. Find something that does not work, because many people are doing the grind and it's not really working. Why? Because it's not something they could stand behind.

Speaker 1:

I love that, finding some passion into it. What's that saying? It's like do something you love and you never work a day in your life, or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and there's another Mark Twain quote that goes something like the two most important days of your life are the day you're born and the day you find out why.

Speaker 1:

Boom. I love that man. What a great way to end things off. So, maria, again, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a pleasure to dive into your story and loving to follow along with your journey, so thank you again.

Speaker 2:

so much, you're welcome. This is a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Until next time, guys, peace, peace, peace, peace.