Ep. 3 Heal from Chronic Illness with local food and sunlight with Casey Barbles

In this Episode Carli is joined by Casey Barbles, a nutritionist and owner of multiple farmers markets in Houston Texas. Casey healed herself from chronic illness with natural methods focusing on local foods and the power of the sun. She was told she would die in childbirth. She shares her incredible journey towards healing and motherhood here.

Carli IG: WellnessByCarli
Casey IG: the_informal_grub

Markets on IG:
@feelgoodgroup
@ricevillagefarmersmarket
@hmfarmersmarket

App for tracking the sun: Dminder

Books: The biology of Belief

Acupuncture: Dr. Brian McKenna Acupuncture medical

Carli's Info:

Website: www.wellnessbycarli.com

IG: @wellnessbycarli

Transcript

Carli (00:01.752)
Welcome to the Wellness Frequency Podcast. I'm here today with my dear friend, Casey Barbels. And this is just gonna be really fun for me because we're working, but I get to talk to my friend. So Casey, thank you for being here today.

Casey Barbles (00:15.63)
Absolutely, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to see what all we talk about today.

Carli (00:20.772)
Oh, it's, who knows? Cause our conversations are always just very fun and always take turns. Oh, sorry. We will cut that. Oh, that's what I forgot to say. If you're saying something and I am laughing, I'm gonna try to laugh quietly because if I laugh while you're talking, your words will not be heard very well. So it's not that we can't laugh, but I'm gonna like laugh silently. So I forgot to tell you.

Casey Barbles (00:25.886)
Yeah, they're fantastic.

Casey Barbles (00:44.342)
Good to know, I will laugh silently as well.

Carli (00:46.48)
Okay. He's like, little laughs are okay, but I don't want to lose your words. And that's a weird thing that I didn't realize. And I think it's because it's recording like two separately. You can't edit out just one person. Okay. So from the top. Okay. So Casey is a nutritionist and founder of Multiple Markets in Houston, which we're going to talk about. She is a lover of all things local.

Casey Barbles (00:56.044)
Yeah.

Makes sense.

Ready.

Carli (01:13.316)
a mom of two French bulldogs, and we've got a new little chickadoo baby, which we're also going to talk about. So you wear lots of hats, and we are going to get into it today. So I just want to set the scene of how I met Casey, and then I'm going to ask her questions that I'm going to be quiet. But so my husband, you're friends with my husband, Jeffrey, middle school, elementary, when did it start?

Casey Barbles (01:22.702)
Yeah.

Casey Barbles (01:34.998)
Since like five years old, that's when I, so Russell, his younger brother, and I were in first grade together. So I've known the Kilgore family since I was five years old. So 30, how old am I, 30? So almost 32 years of my life, I have known that crew.

Carli (01:51.652)
Oh my gosh.

So Jeffrey knew her and when Jeffrey and I were engaged, we had a French Bulldog and he's like, my friend Casey has a French Bulldog, maybe we could get them together. And I was like, cool, let me see, you know, who is this? And I looked at her Instagram and this is what I tell people. I looked at her Instagram and I realized you talk about all things wellness, food for healing. And I was like, oh no, she's my friend now. Thank you so much. Thank you, honey. And the dogs, I don't remember if they got along well, but.

Casey Barbles (02:17.086)
Thanks so much. The dogs can wait.

Carli (02:22.908)
We did get them together, we attempted. So.

Casey Barbles (02:24.78)
Yeah.

Carli (02:36.712)
I have so many notes I'm trying to find my spot. Um. Okay.

Casey Barbles (02:41.162)
I felt like Hayes was walking in.

Carli (02:48.444)
Okay, ready? So I was like, yep, I'm stealing her. And so I kind of want to start there. You started your Instagram because you were on a healing journey, right?

Casey Barbles (02:58.342)
Yes, gosh, and I'm better at explaining now my journey because it could take up literally the entire podcast of just how I got here. But yeah, so I, um, you know, grew up with oddities, I would call them or I guess my normal, which was not normal. Um, so I was diagnosed, uh, gosh, how old was I? 25, 27. I try not to like live in that world if that makes sense.

you know, it's easy to be a forever patient. That's a whole other conversation as well. But so I was diagnosed with what I call the trifecta at 27, let's just say 27, I can't remember. And the trifecta is Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type three, which is hypermobility, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome. And so...

Carli (03:38.568)
So good night.

Casey Barbles (03:52.03)
In this appointment with my geneticist, she diagnosed me with all of these things. Holy moly. She essentially was like, who you are can't be that person anymore. And you need to find a completely new identity, really, in order to heal yourself from what's going on. Almost every single body system is just shutting down. And so I left that appointment and sadly, and no, not to discredit this doctor, but kind of how

Most appointments go, they're like, here is life changing news, see you in a year. And like no handouts, no nothing, no next tips. And really kind of the tip that she gave long term ended up not being the best solution, but it was like, okay, be vegan plus fish and that's how you should eat. Like literally see you in one year. And so I left that appointment.

very confused, very overwhelmed, excited to have answers finally of what was going on. And so I'm a visual learner. In college, I loved buying like the Martha Stewart living and Cooking Light Magazine. And I just already really loved the pictures inside of the recipes and all of that. And so I decided, okay, I have a whole new way of eating now. I need to start an Instagram account.

really to figure out what the heck to eat now. And so it was around the time when blogs and things were new. Instagram had really honestly only been around for a few years. And so the name had to be, you know, catchy and whatever. So I came up with the informal grub because I knew that I wanted to inform you.

on food, grub. And so hence the name, the informal grub. And I honestly didn't tell anyone it was me. You know, how many times do we hear like, stop taking pictures of your food? No one wants to see that. And I'm like, you're right. People might not wanna see that on my personal page and they'll probably make fun of me behind my back. So I'm gonna have this like secret alias account where what I'm doing is I'm taking pictures of food and I'm giving a little tidbit, nutritional tidbit.

Casey Barbles (06:14.346)
within the meal. So say it was a salad that had some carrots in it, I would highlight vitamin A and all of the benefits of vitamin A. And then if you also had certain conditions, what conditions are more conducive to having vitamin A in the body? So hence the name, the informal grub. And that is how that account started. It was really just a self-help account for me, help me accountable, help me learn. And it really grew from there.

Carli (06:43.468)
I love that. That's so good because it's pushing through fear, but it's authentic, serving a purpose for you, but also helping others just understand as you went along and learned. And so obviously it's taken off because you have a very fruitful account where people are just engaged with this core connection of food being so important and what makes up that food that makes, you know, that really shines. So

I don't, I keep losing my mind. I don't know why this keeps happening. I must be having serious brain fog today. Okay, okay. And we're gonna start at about five, four. So with that, your diagnosis is a mouthful and what kind of symptoms were you having that led you to that doctor's appointment? Because I think there might be people out there.

who aren't feeling good, they don't really have those diagnoses, which for better or for worse, right? We don't wanna associate with them, but we also want to understand what is going on. What were you going through where your body was just showing you these signs of kind of immunological breakdown as you kind of referred to?

Casey Barbles (07:52.598)
Yeah, so it started honestly in elementary school with a presyncope. So it was what I always called my normal and I did not realize until I was going in for an exploratory surgery, a laparoscopy when I was in my mid-20s, when the anesthesiologist was like, oh, I see here that like, you have mitral valve and you, do you experience like fainting spells? I'm like, yeah, all the time. She's all, huh.

that's not normal, I cannot clear you for the surgery, like you need a stress test, cause I'm concerned. And I was like, no, like it's fine. It's been going on my whole life. She was like, yeah, it's not fine. So for me, elementary school, really it reared its ugly head. And high school when hormones started kind of going. And then, you know, what's wild is in high school, they diagnosed it as, which later is very obviously POTS, but they...

diagnosed it as exercise-induced asthma. But what's wild is that the medication was fluorine F, which is your intro to POTS and salt tabs, which is exactly first round of what clinicians like to prescribe for POTS. But for me, it was exercise-induced asthma, wild. And so I ignored that diagnosis, probably didn't take the medication, maybe took some salt.

which was disgusting. You know, I was how old, like 13? You know, so it started there with just these blackout spells, if I would stand up too fast. And then started getting migraines, and then I found out about the mitral valve prolapse. Then a few years later, the prolapse turns into regurgitation, and you know, I'm having major valve issues and tachycardia. So that was kind of its own thing that had started from elementary school. And you know, so then...

in college is when the valve started getting worse. And then shortly after getting married, I was then diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which obviously my structure or frame is not really the most aligned with that diagnosis. So surprise, I was kind of just told like, you're fine. You look great. You're active. You're young. Just have a couple like milkshakes. And

Casey Barbles (10:16.554)
I mean, they're still the worst advice ever. You probably, you know, you're an anxious woman. So like, you just need like a sliver of Lexapro. Like that's it. And I was like, no, there's something, there's something more here. And so it really wasn't until I was working in pharma, LOL. I was in a doctor's office that I had been calling on for years and my valve was getting worse and my syncope was getting worse.

Carli (10:34.772)
I'm sorry.

Casey Barbles (10:45.742)
And one doctor just looked at me and he was like, can you bend your thumb on the back of your hand? I was like, yeah, that's my party trick, man. I've been doing that forever. And he was like, do you have an umbilical hernia? I was like, I do. He was like, and you have mitral valve prolapse? I'm like, I do. He was like, can you touch the ground without bending your legs? And we were just asking all these questions where I'm like, this is really freaky. And so he was essentially like, don't get on the internet.

but collagenesis ASAP, I think you have something called Ehlers Danlos. And so for me, it was essentially these very common symptoms, and it wasn't until the symptoms just got more and more and more. I kind of always compared it to like a scatter plot where you're getting all of these things and finally in one little area, you're getting multiple dots that then can kind of tell a story, which is essentially what a syndrome is.

of just multiple conditions and diagnoses all under one umbrella. And so it took me, it was 14 years from onset to diagnosis, which sadly for those in the autoimmune and complex chronic illness world, that's on average how long it takes for a diagnosis and sadly to be heard. I was just, this is hereditary, your mom has this, or you're young, you're fine, you're active, you eat well.

which I did not eat well. And so, yeah, it took a long time. It took a long time and my symptoms were super, once again, common, but I would say for me, the most obvious recurring issue was kind of like the more electrophysiology of my heart, arrhythmias, you know, tachycardia, that thing.

Carli (12:29.432)
so wild, 14 years is so extreme. I really didn't know that diagnosis often took that long. And I think that it's a testament to kind of this concept of when you know better, you do better because your mom was probably just normalizing it like you would, because these don't sound extreme, right? Bending your thumb, the passing out, sure, that could be people, there are people who are more prone to passing out, whether that's blood sugar or blood pressure.

Casey Barbles (12:35.778)
Mm-hmm.

Carli (12:58.252)
So it's wild how these all just kind of accumulated and then showed themselves more drastically. But now you have a different lens. And I would imagine with yourself or with anyone else in your family, you'd probably look at these symptoms and say, and this is what I really believe, every symptom is telling a story. It's just your body trying to communicate. It's not always bad. It's not always scary, but.

We should always listen to these things, right? And again, no blame, this is no shame towards mama or anyone else, but it can partially be generational. It's partially just what you've walked through, right? If your parents were healthy and you don't have any signals to say, look out for this, and then you are this perfect story of how it can just change pretty quickly. So do you feel like there was one year specifically where everything just kind of got really difficult? Is that the year they told you to become vegan?

Casey Barbles (13:26.228)
Yeah

Casey Barbles (13:37.678)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (13:51.67)
So, you know, I grew up, I was an athlete. I played all the sports and I loved them and I was very good at them. You know, my recovery time was a lot longer, you know, which now makes a lot of sense. So I'm such an, I was such an idiot. I was just such a classic American where my geneticist was like, okay, all the things, the way you've lived your life, no more, you know, like.

Because I used to do triathlons as well. Like that was kind of my sport after college, you know, when you can't really sign up for sports anymore. And so did a triathlon, you know, and I was also getting like sick all the time, sinus infections all the time. And...

Carli (14:38.26)
It's kind of amazing that you were able to make it through a triathlon based on everything you just said.

Casey Barbles (14:43.646)
So yeah, so I was, so as geneticists told me, you know, if you need, if you want to stay active, which is important, you know, this fine line for your joints due to the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is a genetic mutation in my collagen. So essentially the, the tissue and tendons and muscles and things around the joints to support them are looser, causing a lot of extra added stress on the body because it's working harder to essentially stay upright.

keeping my skeleton together. So she's telling me, look, if you want to work out, you can walk in a pool, you can do a recumbent bike. What else? Like no yoga, no running, you know, essentially just bare bones and I was all, recumbent bike? I hear you. I'm going to sign up for the MS 150. Naturally, naturally, because I was like, I'm going to be the poster child of like, I'm going to kick this.

Carli (15:36.077)
Genius.

Casey Barbles (15:42.134)
syndrome's ass and I'm gonna show you how I don't need to change my life to fit into these this new world of mine like I'm gonna show you well I did the MS-150 trained you know did a hundred miles in one day which I'm not sure who was gonna hand me an award for that and lol I ended up in a fib and by

Casey Barbles (16:11.374)
I literally almost literally killed myself because I was holding on so desperately to my old life and I didn't want to make a change and I was scared. So ridiculous, just ridiculous. And so literally I ignored my symptoms. I ignored the new diagnoses. I kind of refused to accept. I wanted to just be the poster child of this disease. Say I got this.

No, I don't got this. I don't got this. So I got to a point where I was at 29 trying to file for disability. I was in what's called by Gemini, which is every other heartbeat is irregular. I started showing early signs of early term heart failure. Surgery found out to be off the table because where the issues were in my heart would have killed me on the spot, on the table.

And so that is where radical transformation came. And it's really sad how, and I've heard this time and time again of, you really don't make a change until your body is screaming at you and you were dealt with some life-changing issues or diagnoses that then finally force a change and that's sadly what happened. And finally at 29, when I'm, you know, in a really bad shape that I made a...

radical change and I it was radical. I literally fired all my doctors. I you know went to a chalet in Val d'Azur, France for like a few weeks. Made fires, read books on mindfulness and meditation and I haven't had a flare-up since that trip because I finally learned I was in control and I literally have a note in my phone. It's January 6th.

It reminds me every single year that I am in control because I learned how much environments, the environment and also my mind were affecting my heart rate. And so, you know, now my saying is I am the tortoise, not the hare. That is how I live my life now.

Carli (18:21.336)
I love that. And it's so, so true that being in this industry, you learn very quickly that people exactly as you said, do not want to change. Well, listen, I think it's natural. It's scary. It's comfortable to stay on our little brown couch, right? Our broken in couch. It's comfortable to stay there. Your ego is fighting you. There's denial. I think this is all very natural process, but in the holistic world, oftentimes people will not.

Casey Barbles (18:41.845)
Yeah.

Carli (18:50.052)
be open-minded to more natural methods unless everything that they know has failed. So when we can take a step back, and this is what I think you said, and I love that you give yourself the reminder, but this put you on your path. Your problem became your passion. And it's so empowering and exciting, but you had to walk through the dark stuff, right? We've had enough conversations for me to know.

Casey Barbles (19:16.141)
Oh yeah.

Carli (19:18.888)
how dark it was and it sounds like your friendship circle changed and I think some relationships change with inevitably changes when your energy shifts people either shift with you and align or there's now this different frequency and this discrepancy and it's a gift. I don't know if you would agree. I think at the end of the day, but.

Casey Barbles (19:39.918)
Absolutely, without a doubt. I wouldn't change any part of this process at all.

Carli (19:44.12)
it makes it probably so much harder of you going through that dark place, but then also shedding what you know the people around you shedding that and that's hard.

Casey Barbles (19:52.298)
Yeah. And you know, it does create a lot of empathy as well with, with friends, family, clients, because it's like, I've been there. And I too was digging in my heels, like sweet Brian McKenna. I was given his contact by my cardiologist who threw his hands in the air. It was like, we've failed every medication and every protocol. Like, I don't know how to help you. Here's this contact. That was in April. I didn't touch it. I ignored it. I scoffed at it until August.

And that one is one of my bigger regrets because Dr. Brian was one of my most pivotable, pivotal, what's the word? Pivotal?

Carli (20:30.632)
Good luck.

Carli (20:34.364)
Welcome to my dance studio. Good luck.

Casey Barbles (20:35.278)
I got stuck there it seems. Parts of my healing, you know, so that I'm like that delayed my healing just by simply being like how can acupuncture really help me like Chinese medicine like okay you know and egg on my face because holy moly that has been one of my largest foundations to getting me to where I am today and continuing. Yeah.

Carli (20:59.492)
Dr. McKenna is just for reference, a acupuncturist. What is his clinic called, Casey?

Casey Barbles (21:05.442)
Acupuncture Medical Services.

Carli (21:07.088)
He is wonderful. I coordinate care a lot with clients and him. And it's, traditional Chinese medicine is not what I do, but I've always said, I think it's so synergistic to functional nutrition and functional holistic wellness. And it's people usually need a team. And I bet you needed a team, but he was probably the quarterback, right?

Casey Barbles (21:19.362)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (21:25.386)
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's, we look at kind of how medicine is shaped today. And it's like, we have a cardiologist, we have an endocrinologist, we have a gastroenterologist, we have a geneticist, we have all these separate departments, but hello, we are whole, we are one and they all talk to each other. Um, so yeah, I fired them all and enter Brian and just my noggin pair those together and healed myself substantially better than

what any of those doctors were trained to do, you know, and no poo on them by any means, that's just how they're trained. And so their methods weren't working for me, it wasn't conducive to how my body was taking in information, you know, and yeah, see you later. Haven't talked to them since, it's been a while.

Carli (22:15.032)
And the mindset piece is massively huge. And I hope to get into that more in future episodes, just about the biology of belief. That's a great place to start if anyone's.

Casey Barbles (22:25.398)
Yeah, holy moly, spot on, yeah. Because people ask often, like, okay, well, what'd you do? And I'm like, you're not gonna like this. It was mind over matter. Simple, simple, but you know.

Carli (22:33.1)
It's so powerful. So mindset and traditional Chinese medicine, you had a practitioner. We know you were working on food and using nutrition to drive biochemical healing processes. What other, in looking back, if you could kind of cherry pick some of the bigger things that helped you heal, is there anything that stands out that you feel like was really impactful for you being where you are today?

Casey Barbles (23:00.366)
Absolutely. When I was at what I call my lowest, my social life was nothing. I couldn't stand longer than 10 seconds without fainting. My heart rate would get up to 180 just upon standing. My body was really under a lot of stress. I really kiboshed any form of social interaction because I just didn't have the energy. Finally, one of my sweet friends was like,

Casey Barbles (23:29.218)
get out of the house. And so when I met her there, I obviously fell in love with it, started buying all of my food from there. I'd go every single Saturday. That was like the one thing I did. And slowly but surely after a few months of doing that, I'm healing. Slowly but surely I am healing far better than what my medication is doing for me. And it was one of those aha moments of like, oh wow, it really does matter what you put in your body. And especially when it is local, it's in season.

and the animal is well cared for, and what they're grazing on, just all those things. It matters. Knowing where your food comes from matters. It was in that moment when I was healing that I realized I should go to school to get my masters to learn more. I can only rely on Dr. Google for so much. I needed true access to clinical data when it comes on a nutritional level, clinically and functionally. That was really my biggest...

healer was getting food locally and in season. You know, people use the term food as medicine all the time. That is fine. I like the term food as information because to me, I've been on medication. Food never treated me that way. Good or bad, you know, there's no bad food saying, but for me, the term food as medicine is almost kind of triggering for me and maybe that's.

some more work I need to do from past chapters of my life. But food is information and it tells your body what to do based on what you're putting in your mouth. And that could be, it'll tell you something if it's McDonald's and it will tell you something if it's a grass-fed delicious ribeye. So for me, the most pivotal change, aha moment, like wow, I need to shout this from the mountaintops is eating seasonally and locally. Absolutely.

Carli (25:22.736)
And fast forward, Casey runs the markets in Houston. Like all the markets.

Casey Barbles (25:27.422)
Uh oh.

out I have a whole lot of farmers market.

Carli (25:33.3)
So, I mean, this, I just love this. Isn't that so naturally like the best story ever? It healed you and now you are giving that medicine, you're passing it forward. So how did it start? Which markets started? And just tell us about these markets because they are so lovely and it's been so nice to have more than one than just one on Saturday morning. There's location options, there's time options, right? There's...

Casey Barbles (25:37.587)
I know.

Casey Barbles (25:43.159)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (25:47.069)
Yeah, absolutely. Right.

Carli (26:01.516)
There's so much going on. There's entertainment. You take your family. It's just let's start with where it started and

Casey Barbles (26:07.206)
Yeah, so, you know, I had the Informal Grub account. I was always highlighting through stories like when I'd go to the markets and what I was buying. And then I got invited by Sweet Laura Lemon of Lemon Lane, which you know, used to have a brick and mortar here in town.

the Heights Mercantile property. So I did a cooking demo there highlighting local farms. It was a quick, um, workshop that was very successful. And so after that class, um, the property management team at Redom reached out and they're like, Hey, you know, this class was really great. Would you like to start a farmer's market on our property? You know, and at the time I'm working full time, I'm in school full time. You know, I have this little blog that is.

giving me some little side jobs and something from my past self. I'm a yes person. I said yes to everything. Even if there was no room on my plate. Absolutely. You know, I'll figure it out. This just sounds like a great opportunity. Well, old me was kind of like, Casey, what are you doing? Like you're in school, like you're working multiple jobs. You know, is this the right fit? Well, hell yeah, it is. Hell yeah. It was, you know, I was like, I will figure it out.

And it was only once a month, it was boutique, I had space for maybe 20 vendors. And so my very first farmers market baby was Heights Mercantile Farmers Market. So we started the Royal We. I had, it was just me for about 18 months doing it all. It took me six months to persuade 14 vendors to join me. I was told Sundays don't work, no one works on Sundays, they want the day off, farmers especially, like good luck.

You know, but I had such respect for Urban Harvest Farmers Market, which was the one that I went to religiously. Um, that the last thing I wanted to do is, is create competition between the two. And so Sunday was the only option you could not persuade me to do a Saturday, regardless of what I was being told. I was not going to do that. So Sunday was the answer once a month, 14 vendors, like we can do it. Well.

Casey Barbles (28:20.234)
Eric Sandler does best. You write an article about something and the people show up and did they. So after that first market, I mean it gave me such anxiety. It was very evident that this was gonna be successful and I gotta really tighten this thing up and figure out how the heck to run farmers markets because there is no blueprint. You know, hopefully one day I'll create it.

But that was how it started. I was just highlighting local farms, doing cooking demos. The people liked it. And a development group took a leap of faith and let me start a farmer's market on their property.

Carli (29:01.276)
So fun. So that's the Heights location was the number one, which is now how many vendors do you know? Hiya. And then you did open Rice Village, which is it's hard to imagine rice without that now because they all have their little spot and it's wonderful. So those two are the main farmers markets and then the feel good group was born. Do you wanna talk on that?

Casey Barbles (29:06.55)
65. Yeah.

Casey Barbles (29:18.854)
Yeah.

Casey Barbles (29:25.45)
Yeah, yeah. So, so, you know, it was a shock to us all the pandemic hit. So we had had, again, the Royal we, um, about five months of markets before the pandemic hit and it became an essential business and outdoor, you know, open air, all those buzzwords. Um, it then went to twice a month because we were seeing.

the need for this. People felt safe outdoors. They had to get their food. You know, a lot of brick and mortars were shutting down. They then came to the market to be able to stay in a business. You know, a lot of chefs, that's how a lot of the chefs are now part, still part of the market is their brick and mortars were shut down and so they had to pivot, make money. And so due to the success of that market, then more and more developers started reaching out. So Rice Village reached out and vendors were wanting more

frequency, but I knew that I had already taken over the parking lot at Heights. I knew that the tenants on the property probably would not love us there every single Sunday. And, um, so rice, I was like, okay, we'll make rice the sister market. So they will just flip-flop Sundays like they do. And this has been going on now almost five years, which is wild. Five years this September. And so, um, then MKT, you know, Triton development, they reached out. And so it was very evident.

I needed help, I needed a team, and I needed to start a secondary company that then also could accompany artisans because the farmer's market is strictly a farmer's market. I also have the certification from the state which has very specific guidelines. And so enter the feel good group. The feel good group is a for hire event group that developers hire to activate their properties but also...

I knew I needed to help these artisans, not only food vendors. And so Feel Good Group is a hybrid of this one. So the informal grub owns Rice and Heights. It's also my little nutritionist wellness world. Then the Feel Good Group is its separate entity, which developers hire to activate their properties. And it's kind of what we call Market Plus. You have, we have some farmers markets, but then we also have these events that are, you know.

Casey Barbles (31:43.95)
Kid-friendly, adult-friendly, that have activations, things to do, and artisans, not just farmers market-esque categories. So yeah, so with the success of the first, and paired with the pandemic, it really just snowballed into something that I just did not see coming. No.

Carli (32:05.936)
Organic growth is the best. And when I think of those markets, I just think of it's like the heart of the city because any family wants something to do with their kids, right? Something that everyone can enjoy. So there's food and there's very kid friendly. There's always entertainment, which is so nice. And then you also, if you're like us, you want to support small business and you want to understand who in this has a company.

Casey Barbles (32:31.019)
Oh yeah.

Carli (32:33.32)
that I can support what's out there that I don't even know about. So it's this curated, wonderful way to nourish the city, support small business, entertain your family. It's like boom, boom. And I think it's a great compliment and just enriches Houston. So is that something that these feel-good groups have regular times or is that just, those are more pop-ups?

Casey Barbles (32:58.806)
Yeah, you know, so it's more contract based and it is what the development is looking for. So our very first feel good market was at MKT and it's still going. It's once a month. So that one's been like our longest feel good contract. We then also have the downtown farmers markets with Brookfield. Those are each just once a month and really do a great job at highlighting or activating the space for tenants, like people that work downtown.

Whereas, Heights is really supporting that Heights community. Rice Village is really supporting everyone that lives over there in Rice. Then Downtown caters to those that work downtown. A lot of the other ones are kind of ad hoc. Our newest one, Autry Park, we've signed a contract to do four markets this month, or this year. Marquee, we've signed a contract to do three events this year.

Feel Good Group is on a contract by contract basis with a developer. What are their goals? And most of the time it is a brand new development. You know, sometimes the contract works a year. Sometimes it's a few years, like Rice and Heights are just an open ended contract. They love us. We love them. They're great to work with and it works. And so, you know, Feel Good Group is definitely more, um, what I've noticed is more short-term contract based just based on the developer's goals.

Carli (34:26.597)
it. I love it. And how do people find out where the latest and greatest markets are?

Casey Barbles (34:31.022)
Absolutely Instagram and our website. What would we do without those? We have a newsletter because we work really unique ways on how, you know, cause our heart bleeds for local. So how can we do all that we can to support these small businesses and give them an outlet because we have a strong following on all the accounts. And so we just really want to know how can we be there for them? So feel good group has its own Instagram account and that's at feel good. GRP group is abbreviated.

And then Heights Mercantile Farmers Market has its own page. Rice Village has its own page. And Informal Grub, there's a lot. Thank you.

Carli (35:12.224)
I will link them all in the show notes. There's two more things that I wanted to touch on before we wrap up. And the first is when you were talking about your story of chronic illness, which I like to celebrate and say you've overcome. I don't, I don't associate you with that anymore at all. A doctor, I believe it was your cardiologist, told you could never have a child. Is that true?

Casey Barbles (35:26.539)
Absolutely.

Casey Barbles (35:36.758)
That was, yes, my electrophysiologist. And it wasn't so much that I could never have a child. I always had the, I guess, makeup to get pregnant. It was a very strong warning of, at 27? Yeah, 27. It was, pregnancy will kill you. It will kill you. Your heart is so weak and has just the...

the electrical output of just, you know, something terrible that pregnancy will be too great on your heart and it will kill you in your third trimester, very specifically the third trimester. Because as we know, our blood volume doubles. And so it already naturally can cause some PVC's in some pregnant women, just naturally. And so my electrical output was already so high, I was, you know, at 50% of, what's the word?

just poor electrical output that and you really should only be at 11% is the max that they're typically comfortable with. And I was at 50 so he was a little hard no woman, don't get pregnant, I'm so sorry. So then I was there three years later for a checkup, you know, did all the tests again and he was just like, you know, I'm seeing some improvements but now it will be too hard on the child.

the risk of the PVCs then hindering blood flow to the baby will be too great and we would be forced to have a C-section anywhere from 12 weeks to, you know, the third trimester and we can't guarantee that the baby would survive. And so then I'm like, okay, well.

that would be extremely cruel of me to want a child so bad that I'm willing to put their life at risk. That was just an obvious no for me. So I really just kind of embrace and accepted that a child was not in my future because also, you know, A, I didn't wanna die, B, I did not want sweet babies to die, and, you know, at my hand, and then it was just like.

Casey Barbles (37:53.762)
That just is so obviously not my path. I am loving, you know, putting all of my energy into work, into healing, into community, because that's something I also was lacking when I was so sick, was a community. And here I have just the most phenomenal community. These vendors, they all have these unique stories and they were wonderful and I was fine with it. I honestly was fine having a life.

that of no children. I was at peace with it. I really, really was. Because also that's just terrifying information to carry. And so it wasn't literally until, so this news probably came early 30s, let's just say 33. Well then fast forward three more years and I'm on the Lake McQueenie where we've been going with my family forever.

I was helping my nephew water ski and out of nowhere, I just had this thought of, oh shoot, I want a kid. And then no joke, 10 seconds later, my husband looks at me and he was like, should we have a kid? And I was like, oh my gosh, I just had this thought. He was like, no way. I'm like, yes way. And he was like, are we gonna have a kid? I was like, I think we're gonna have a kid. And so obviously I can't just make this.

Carli (39:00.821)
Surprise!

Casey Barbles (39:18.094)
twice on my own independently. So I reached out to my OB-GYN, who's been with me for 10 years. I reached out to Brian, they did all their tests, and both were like, I think you have literally completely healed yourself from all of these issues that you have had in the past. I give you the green light, but I need to refer you to a high-risk doctor for him to go over your entire medical case to really give you the green light. And so...

You know, that was in June, so now we're in October, and I'm meeting with sweet Dr. J, he's a high-risk maternal fetal medicine doctor. He went through all of my stuff for about three months, and he too was like, I see no reason why you should not have a flawless pregnancy, you know, and if it's not super flawless, I'll be with you every step of the way. But he was like, you have essentially healed yourself of everything that you've ever been given. And...

Lo and behold, just a few months later, I was able to get pregnant and I had the most stellar pregnancy and I miss it. My sweet baby girl will be four months in a couple days and I just would like 10 more of her because I just, I loved all of it. And so it's just so wild to think here I was okay with not having a child and terrified of my own body and how it would do. And it turns out like I crushed it.

My body loved growing my sweet baby.

Carli (40:47.396)
It's amazing. And I had to have that be part of the story because how many people are struggling with fertility out there and it's the hopelessness. So if you could just take a moment and share what I really want to understand is like how your mindset shifted when you got the green light and you're like, okay, but you still have this part of you that was told this would not end well. What shifted in your mind to not let yourself go there? Because pregnancy, when you have a healthy pregnancy,

If anyone's been pregnant, I think can probably attest to this. There's just this fear, because you're so out of control of this amazing, awe-inspiring process. There's just this innate fear of, oh gosh, here we go. Every day you wonder.

Casey Barbles (41:24.174)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (41:31.426)
Yeah, first trimester, yeah, first trimester, not fun. Not fun, I mean, obviously the nausea was there, but it's terrifying. Like, you know, this might be too much information, but it's like, you know, hopefully most women are watching, but it's like every time you go to the bathroom, you're waiting to see blood that you've miscarried. You're just waiting for it every single time you go to the bathroom and it is not fun. And you just have to let go.

Carli (41:35.76)
Yes, for sure.

Casey Barbles (42:01.342)
and you have to just accept that whatever will be will be. Yeah, yeah, you know, and so I really did expect to have some previous medical trauma sneak its ugly head in, but you know, previous to all of this, I did the work. I met with a therapist for weekly for years, to really address

Carli (42:05.264)
Let go. That's exactly like the whole lesson in pregnancy, right? And becoming a mother.

Casey Barbles (42:30.674)
a lot of this long-term trauma that I had, and I didn't even realize it until one of my doctor's appointments, because like I said, I fired all my doctors many years ago, had never seen them, literally since I was at my worst in by Gemini, and they were trying to operate on my heart and all these things. I fired them all on the spot and hadn't been back to that building in six, seven years.

and I had to go back for a stress test to see if my body was okay for pregnancy. And I was just like, scheduled it, okay, everything's fine. Pull into the parking garage and my heart starts racing. I get into the hallway, I'm getting flushed. I get into the doctor's office just to sign in and I'm holding back tears. I did not realize how much.

I had held on to because it was like, okay done with y'all onto my new life. Well, I went back and It was extremely overwhelming and I was like, okay, I have work to do So basically I did the work. I unpeeled that damn onion and did I? uncover some things, you know that I had been either had forgotten, you know protected my body from and And I did the damn work and it was hard and it was a lot but it

created a really beautiful foundation for me to be able to have a very calm and enjoyable pregnancy.

Carli (43:56.308)
That's so amazing. So you healed your mind along the way, it sounds like, and that's the support you got. But you also, and this is what I've learned in so many aspects, but also in your story is things that you healed, that you went through helped your physical healing as well. That's the mind-body connection, right? That was very powerful for you.

Casey Barbles (44:15.802)
Oh yeah, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really, you know, I did a lot of meditation, mindfulness, you know, abdominal breathing, focused on the vagus nerve. You know, and mind you, the wellness world that I lived in or still live in was the perfect remedy to then become pregnant. So it wasn't like I'm living my life.

I decided to get pregnant and I've miraculously healed myself. No, it's like I, that was my life, was focusing on my wellness and working on slowing down and eating. I called myself a flexitarian. I was always changing what I was eating and how I was eating based on what my body was telling me. How I eat now is completely different than how I was eating while I was pregnant because I'm now trying to continue to have breast milk.

You know, and so while I was getting my body ready to get pregnant, you know, from that mental decision of like, oh shoot, I want a child, I started really addressing my PCOS. It was, uh, you know, eating more proteins, lifting light weights, staying, you know, doing some mild cardio and, and really focusing on, on proteins and fats and reducing glycemic spikes, you know, focusing on blood sugar and, and timing my meals appropriately. Like, uh.

you know, something I learned from you was that first hour of waking is crucial to get appropriate fats and proteins into your body so that your cortisol is just not spiking high which causes all sorts of hormonal issues. And so, you know, I essentially built this really strong foundation far before getting pregnant, nine months, you know, of just true focus. And mind you, the way that I was eating already was great, you know, but there was a form

a focus that needed to change to then, essentially I was focusing on my mitochondria and blood sugar and getting the body ready. Because also, what did I read recently? Like, pregnancy doesn't like abs. You know, like, you need fat on your body. Your hormones like fat and like a little bit of cushion. And so I got to my...

Casey Barbles (46:34.518)
preferred now, it was a higher weight, but it's now my preferred and I loved it. I went up multiple gene sizes, but you can't, your hormones, you need fat. You need to be at a good weight, probably a weight that some women are not comfortable with in order to have a stellar system to grow a sweet little baby in.

Carli (46:47.38)
Yeah.

Carli (47:00.252)
Yeah, and I think something you said is worth repeating. You called it flexitarian, but being flexible with the season that you're in. And I don't just mean summer, fall, winter. The season of life. And that's exactly what you're speaking to. You were in preparation, and then you were in feeding a baby. Now you're in creating milk and healing. And this goes for women. We're cyclical in nature every month.

Casey Barbles (47:14.456)
Mm-hmm.

Carli (47:27.484)
There are four different cycles specifically that we could eat two, and it could change within a month four times. So within a year, within a decade, we have to just be open to shifting. And I think as humans, we like the black and white. We like the keto and we like the paleo. We like the whole 30. And listen, I'm a huge fan of keto, but if you've ever taken my class or learned from me, it is wildly flexible within that lens.

And I think that's such a huge point that I wanted to repeat because our needs are always changing. Our bodies are always changing. Every seven years we've shifted, we've upgraded. And letting go, there we go again, that theme of strictness of rules. And I'm not so much like an intuitive eating kind of advocate, but there's difference. You're talking about strategy. You're talking about listening, focus. And I think that's different.

Casey Barbles (48:15.746)
Mm.

Casey Barbles (48:23.854)
Absolutely, and that doesn't mean like I didn't I still you know You food is to be enjoyed. I love food and I don't ever want to go somewhere and be so miserable in the rules that I've set myself that I can't enjoy my meal and Also, you know like I tell my clients you can control the food that enters your home You cannot control anything else outside of that

Carli (48:40.242)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (48:47.106)
But that doesn't mean that those foods cannot be enjoyed when you're in those places. So if you're at a friend's birthday party or they invite you over for dinner or you're at a restaurant and say, you know, I, it's very hard. I work very hard to be gluten-free. It's so hard because also I enjoy food. And so, you know, what I always tell myself every single day is I try to make more frequent, better decisions than not.

Am I so strict to the point where I'm miserable? Absolutely not. Like I crushed a pint of ice cream in the last two days. Mind you, it was Jenny's and I am more mindful of like what's in there. But if someone invites me to like Van Lewin's, which, you know, they use seed oils in their ice cream. So sorry. I'm still gonna eat it. I'm not gonna buy it myself from the store. But food is to be enjoyed. Like it is one of my most favorite pastimes. Like I'll never forget.

I got norovirus from a burger I got at a hotel. And mind you, hey, it was grass fed. It was a gluten-free bun. Did all the right things. Got sick with norovirus, thanks to, I guess, whoever prepped it. And I had to be put on a bland diet to heal up my stomach from getting so sick. And I was truly really down during that process because not only was all of my food like the color of potatoes.

Everything was bland, had no color, and also I was having to eat all my meals by myself. And I was really, really down. I didn't realize how much true enjoyment I was getting from the vibrant colors in my foods and also the social side of eating. And so to me, while I obviously know the exact way I should eat for vibrant longevity, I like to call it, but also there are such a social side to eating. And so it's nice to be forgiving to yourself when it-

comes to just this journey in general, but also eating is food should be enjoyed, you should be educated, but you should not be so stringent with yourself that you're miserable.

Carli (50:53.116)
I totally agree. And also while you're talking, I'm thinking, but to play devil's advocate, 100% agree with you. But during your healing journey, there was freedom and peace knowing how strict you were. Right? And yet, goodness.

Casey Barbles (51:05.27)
strict. Yeah, I was really, really strict. But also because I was seeing there was like this detox effect. I was seeing if I would reintroduce these older foods, how my, oh, how my body would respond. And so yes, in the early days for years, I was gluten free for years. And I also would react cross contamination, I would react strongly. And then it wasn't until we ordered a gluten free pizza. That was like the best.

I still think about it. It was the best pizza of my life. And then, you know, like a few weeks later, my husband's like, hey, we should get that pizza again. That was like some stellar gluten-free pizza. Well, the pizza arrives. It's a very obvious gluten-free pizza. The pie that we had previously was not gluten-free at all, but I didn't react. And so I don't know if there was that psychosomatic effect where I thought it was this amazing gluten-free za.

and I crushed it and I had no reaction, I'm curious that if I knew it wasn't gluten-free in the moment, would I have reacted? Possibly.

Carli (52:11.056)
Well, I love that you said that because it's multifactorial. That is definitely part of it. Also, the goal is sometimes strictness leads to freedom and you reached resilience. That's where you are. So you have this flexibility and we should celebrate that and let me just share, that's the goal. But don't forget the Casey that earned that with the strictness.

Casey Barbles (52:28.96)
Yes.

Casey Barbles (52:32.782)
True. Yeah. And I did forget that, you know, because like I said earlier, I try not to live in that world. It's so easy to be this victim, this patient forever where you just get this, you know, seek this comfort of like, you know, what was me and I lived there, lived there. And yeah, there's a lot of things that I forget from my journey, really, I think to protect myself, but also, yeah, free from all of who I was a rough chapter. And so, but yeah, no, it was, I was strict.

You know, my social life, like you said earlier, it suffered temporarily, you know? But yeah, no, I did the work. I did the work for years and it paid off, yeah. And now I can be more lax, but you know, there are moments, especially post-pregnancy, because wow, weird, wow changes after having a baby. Uh-huh, yeah, but I, you know, my body is reminding me, hey girl, gluten's not great.

Carli (53:13.802)
You earned it.

Carli (53:24.368)
Lots of calories needed, right?

Casey Barbles (53:32.69)
up, you know, because it does present itself differently. I started getting little bumps on my arms, you know, I started getting the abdominal pain again, which I hadn't for years, and so there was little subtle cues my body was giving me, where I finally was like, oh, alright, alright!

Carli (53:49.084)
You're just fishtailing into the next season and this shall pass as well. And so on that note, I wanted to say that, you know, Casey's a perfect example of this. If anybody's walked through this journey, you learn as you find that resiliency when you off-road a little bit and your buddy tells you what's up, you learn walls to bounce back and to feel better and you know what to do and that's amazing. And one thing we were talking about before that I just want to give you an opportunity to touch on how it's helped you is how

Casey Barbles (53:53.029)
Yes, it will.

Casey Barbles (54:07.15)
I'm gonna go to bed.

Casey Barbles (54:16.779)
Hmm.

Carli (54:18.484)
impactful circadian health can be. It's free. It's in the sky. I just kind of want you to share what that is and how that can help people. Like this end note of how people can help themselves for free.

Casey Barbles (54:21.378)
Hmm.

Casey Barbles (54:33.99)
Yes. So, circadian hormone health, I am obsessed. I am just, I love it so much. So, we are so unique as individuals. We are also so complex hormonally to the point where it overwhelms me. Like, I want to avoid a Dutch test at all costs because I don't want to have to review it and learn it and understand it because it's like

Carli (55:00.972)
I can help with that.

Casey Barbles (55:02.246)
you work here and then this one goes up and then you tackle this one and this one. You know, it's just overwhelming where then though, where nature comes in is how simply beautiful it is. And that is where sunlight comes into play. Um, when it comes to healing, you know, cause you learn, especially, you know, when, when I was in school and reading all the things of just how like nutrients and vitamins. So let's take vitamin D for example, how important it is for

so many different mechanisms in the body, from down to muscle growth and muscle healing, but also just sleep, hormone health. So let's just take that one for example. Why I love circadian hormone health so much. So when we wake up, our cortisol just immediately starts rising and then your melatonin goes down. And...

like we spoke, if you're not eating within that proper window, your cortisol is going to continue to go up and if your cortisol is out of whack, especially chronically, you are going to go through a lot of issues, especially when it comes to storing weight in the middle and it's just this huge cascading effect. It will help, your sleep will suffer, your skin will suffer, your mental health will suffer, how your body creates muscle will suffer, you know, and then your hormones and your period and just everything and headaches and just everything.

everything will spiral out of control if you do not control cortisol and your stress and all the things. So I really love the simplicity of the sun because all you do is sit outside in the sun and you just bask in its glow and it's like it's a form of meditation in itself and so I love it very much because of how well it can regulate your hormones and your sleep and your stress and your digestion just all of it. And so

You know, I tell the world, essentially, especially after having a poor night's sleep, where you go outside barefoot, you sit in the direction of the sun, please don't stare at the sun, that will hurt, in the sun's direction. So like say a sunbeam is this way, I can face this way, and the sun can still just, you know, glisten across my face and get into your eyeballs because what's wild.

Carli (57:10.181)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (57:22.118)
is that you absorb, your melatonin is controlled through your eyeballs. And so if you're wearing sunglasses all the time, you are really going to interfere with your body's internal clock of what time it is. And so super important, you go outside first thing in the morning, 10 minutes unprotected. That's no hat. That's no sunscreen, no sunglasses. Unprotected 10 minutes of vitamin D.

through the sunlight, depending on your skin tone and methylation and certain things, you can absorb up to 50,000 IUs of vitamin D just in that dose of sun for 10 minutes. But not only that, it's important to go out in the afternoon, get your eyeballs in there, and at sunset as well, because this is essentially telling your body what time it is. And we live in the world of screens and blue light and sitting at a desk inside under fluorescent lighting.

It tricks your body. Your body has no idea what time it is. And so therefore you're gonna have a hard time falling asleep, your sleep's gonna be disrupted because what's happening is, you know, your cortisol may just stay up and your melatonin will have a really hard time because what you want in the day is it to do this. You know, melatonin, cortisol, awakening response, you know, and then when your melatonin's high, it's nighttime, your body knows it's time to go to bed, time to wind down. And that controls it all. Like, and to me, it's just so...

deliciously simple and it's free, you know, to really be able to control your health so meticulously by simply getting sun at the right time and so, you know, the UVA's and UVB's they hit it a separate time so you want to get the sunlight before 11 a.m. because the afternoon sun she is a sassy girl and strong and so that's kind of like my biggest thing and I could go on and on and on about it, but really it's just Don't be afraid of the sun

Carli (58:53.989)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (59:14.654)
You know, cities that are closer to the equator have a lower cancer rate. You know, I worry that we are just so obsessed with not getting sunburn and keeping our skin porcelain and covering up. You know, obviously repeated long-term exposure. Yes, you want to have sunscreen on. You want to have your hats. You want to protect your eyeballs if you're snow skiing or water skiing and you're going to, you know, get blinded. But...

you know, or you're in your car because when light hits glass, it disperses all of the, that's what a rainbow is. It's color or light being dispersed and seeing all of the blue light, the red light, you know, all of these things. And so it's super important to be more educated on when is the right time to be outside raw, nae nae, you know, um, embracing all of the sun or covering up, but also the perfect time to touch your cell phone because that blue light is so disruptive.

And like you're wearing your cutie, you know, blue light blocking glasses, VIP, you know, especially if you're working in front of a computer all day long, you know, so it's just being and practicing discipline too of not reaching towards your phone or scrolling in the morning or at night because of just how disruptive this manmade light is. My gosh.

Carli (01:00:25.586)
Yep.

Well said, so much research to back all this up. What I've learned too is that, you know, we have these receptors, not just in our eyes, that's a huge one and not wearing sunglasses, absolutely. But Casey also said don't wear sunscreen all the time. And the reason is the receptors on our skin and it communicates directly to the mitochondria, which beautifully naturally know where the sun is in the sky. And that's what...

the cascade that you were talking about of telling the body what time it is, it's all, it's how we were made. And so you can take the science, you can leave it. If you can just remember to get outside more skin, more of your body exposed more often, of course, exactly how you said. There's an app called D-Minder that can, depending on your location, kind of coach you as to how long to stay outside, at what points in the day. Very helpful, because I know it's not straightforward for everyone, everyone's all over the place, but.

Casey Barbles (01:01:09.003)
Mm-hmm.

Casey Barbles (01:01:18.678)
Ooh, my name's.

Carli (01:01:24.54)
that natural vitamin D level is huge. I mean, I would say that's one of the lab results I get back nine times out of 10 is of 30. And it's supposed to be 50 to 70, 70 is really ideal. And it drives so many immunological processes, immunological processes. Anyway, you said it right. I wanna end on that note. You don't have to remember the science, but just remember your skin, your eyes, your whole body receives the sun's codes. And there's free healing there. And I think...

Casey Barbles (01:01:35.433)
Mm-hmm.

Carli (01:01:51.192)
If we can say anything else, it's sunshine and local food, right?

Casey Barbles (01:01:54.914)
Absolutely, my goodness. Yes, yes, yes.

Carli (01:01:57.82)
Amen. Well, I knew this was gonna be fun. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and your story. I just pray that people hear this, that can understand where you've been and where you are, because there's no better encouragement than seeing it with our own eyes. And so if you can do it, then you know it, whoever's listening, you can do it too. And your sweet little chickadoo is a perfect prize at the end of the rainbow.

Casey Barbles (01:02:23.914)
Yes, absolutely, yeah. We are in control, you know, and no one can tell us otherwise.

Carli (01:02:30.188)
Amen. We're going to end on that. And I'm going to link all of Casey's ways of finding her below in the show notes. Thank you for being here. And I will see you guys all next time on the Wellness Frequency.

Casey Barbles (01:02:43.234)
Mm-hmm.