Episode 43 A Second Chance at Life: Unpacking Simone's Stroke, Recovery and Lessons

Picture this - you're fit as a fiddle, at the peak of your health, and then you experience a stroke at the age of 35. This isn't a hypothetical scenario, but the life-altering reality of my guest on today's episode, Simone Gisondi. Simone's stroke, coupled with a failing marriage, pushed her to her limits. 

Simone takes us through her journey (wait til you hear the motorbike story, I nearly fell off my chair)! Being a type A personality and coming from background where weakness is not acceptable; has been both a negative and a positive in this story as you will hear. It's all about getting the balance right. Simone's story is a testament to the power of mindset and self-perception in our journey to well-being.

Ultimately, Simone empowered herself and learned to be self-aware, tuning into to herself and her environment. Tune in to hear about the warning sign that she got before the stroke, her two near death experiences and her important re frame in her approach to nutrition and fitness.


Links for Simone:

 Book: AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simone.gisondi/

LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/simonelg

Website - https://www.simonegisondi.com/

Email - Simone@SimoneGisondi.com

Learn more about Fiona's speaking, radio and consultation services at Informed Health: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Sign up to receive our newsletter by clicking here.

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Transcript

Fiona Kane: 0:32

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection podcast with Fiona Kane. I'm your host, Fiona Kane, and today I have a special guest. Her name is Simone Gisondi. Hi, Simone, hello, Fiona. For those who don't know you, can you please give us an introduction into who you are?

Simone Gisondi: 0:52

Of course, I'm a health practitioner holistic health practitioner. I'm an author. I wrote a book a memoir to be exact about my health journey. I had a stroke back in 2011 and I chronicle what happened and how I built my life back and, as it so happens, when I had the stroke, I was also going through the divorce. So it's quite a bit of work that I chronicle in the book. I work with people now to empower them and teach them and educate them about what it takes to really have phenomenal health, Because I know I learned from the other side and coming to this side of real, real good health and what journey to take, how to get there, what it takes, the mindset, the physical aspect of it, all the aspects of things, especially nutrition, what to eat, lifestyle, how to sleep, how much to sleep, what the best conditions for sleep are and everything in between.

Fiona Kane: 1:52

Great. Well, that's exactly why I wanted you here today, because I really did want to hear about that story. People who listened to this podcast will know that I had a couple of small strokes in 1996, so a long, long time ago and they were quite devastating for me and they were relatively small. So I really love to hear your story and hear how you have overcome these hurdles.

Simone Gisondi: 2:19

Oh, absolutely yeah. So back in 2011,. But just to preface it, I wanted to say that back before the stroke itself, I was actually at the top of my game, my health game. I was a runner. My blood pressure was actually quite low. It was on the low side, not so much on the high side, so I didn't have absolutely any kind of risk factors or anything that would put me in that bracket that people would look at. That is like oh, eventually she's probably going to. No, I was actually exemplary in my doctor's office and those are the words verbatim that she used to actually use whenever I would do blood work. She'll tell you're the healthiest patient I have. My blood work was amazing. I was a runner, I was in the gym, had a beautiful family, like I had a really great life, beautiful family and great job. I loved. I was working for the government. It was really cushy. My co-workers were amazing. We were friends. So I had community. I was really. Everything was just great.

Simone Gisondi: 3:28

However, my marriage was sort of breaking down. So I and I'm a type A personality, so I'm very driven, very ambitious, hardworking, a bit of a perfectionist, and so when my marriage kind of hit the rocks, I started to stress and I kind of diverted my attention, much like a lot of people and I don't know if, in your practice, when, if you work with people, a lot of people this is what I found with my clients a lot of people go towards escapism, and I did that too, and oftentimes people go towards very destructive escapisms, such as alcohol, drugs, I don't know sex addictions, gambling, things of that nature. What I did is I diverted all my attention to really perfecting my gym, really perfecting my health. I thought you know I could do better. Let's just go little by little, like, let's tweak it a little bit to get to that better, better stage. I was running this much. I'm like I'm just going to run another 15 minutes. If I was running a an eight mile, I'm just going to run an eight and a half mile. So, whatever the case, maybe I was just trying to tweak. So I was just kind of stacking on top of that I actually was doing.

Simone Gisondi: 4:46

I started looking into supplementation, but I continued to go to the doctor and every time I would do my regular visits. My blood works to look amazing. However, my mindset started to sort of decimate as I was going through the hardship in my marriage with my husband, and the more that happened, the more I tried to up my game at the gym. So I became increasingly hard on myself, putting more stress on myself about you know. Okay, well, I look great, but I don't have a six pack. Well, I want to get the six pack or I'm not.

Fiona Kane: 5:21

I think it's a controlling thing too, isn't it? It's like when we're losing control somewhere else, we try and gain more control. That's something we can't control, and you could control the gym stuff at that point in time.

Simone Gisondi: 5:32

And I'll tell you, actually in the gym a lot of the people were sort of feeding that because I kept getting oh my God, you look amazing, you're ready for a show. So it was like, oh see, what I'm doing actually works. It was the confirmation and validation of what I was doing was actually it had a positive outcome. So I'm like, okay, good, I'm on a good path here and but eventually. So I was 35 at the time, so very young and about a few days shy of my 36th birthday, about six days to be exact. I actually I had the stroke. I collapsed. My kitchen, I got up. It was a regular Saturday morning. Saturday mornings I had. I was very ritualistic. That was another thing which speaks to what you said about control. So Saturday mornings were my heaviest workout of the week. I would wake up, I would make myself a really big, really healthy breakfast. I mean, I was so in tune with all the calories and the macronutrients I knew I needed carbohydrates to be able to fuel the workout. I had everything weight. I woke up, I made, I started making myself the breakfast and I had that same day and this is all my book that same day I had actually scheduled a party because it was Canadian Thanksgiving living in Canada, of course, canadian Thanksgiving and I thought you know what Thanksgiving and my birthday are so close together. Let's just have a party. I'm going to have all my friends come and we're going to just have a big bash, celebrate my birthday plus Thanksgiving. But because I was so obsessed with the gym, I thought, you know, I'm not missing the gym. So I got up right and early, which was my usual, and I started making my breakfast. At this point my husband and I were already physically separated, so I stayed at the house with the kids because they were going to school nearby. And so I woke up, started making my breakfast and I heard him come in because he was sort of trying to get, you know, started on getting things done in the house for the party. Later on we had about 20 people, so we had to put extra tables and chairs and so on and so forth, and I thought, okay, I'm just going to make my breakfast, I'm going to eat, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to pick up a couple of things on the way back home, like alcohol, a few bottles of wine, and then I'm going to, you know, do the rest. I'm going to get the house ready, get myself ready and we're going to party and and I collapsed in the kitchen and it was just the most phenomenal thing.

Simone Gisondi: 8:06

Because I don't want to lament about it, I don't want people to think, because I know oftentimes these what are near catastrophic events, medical events people look at them as such negative things. But I cannot say that about that. I mean sure it was If you step away from it and you look at it through the lens of what society teaches you that stroke is, which is not a good thing by any stretch of anybody's imagination or by any definition. I Actually became sort of suspended in time and space. It was actually the most extraordinary feeling and extraordinary experience that I've ever had up until that point. But, as an aside, I actually had another near-death experience when I was about 16. I nearly drowned, so I had sort of the same kind of thing.

Simone Gisondi: 8:58

So of course I I was suspended in time and space.

Simone Gisondi: 9:02

I was in this Light, if that's what I can call it, and I just felt like this voice was sort of. I Was absorbing this voice through everything that I was. It was just very difficult to explain, but it was. I felt comfortable and safe and warm and happy, and in that moment I kept thinking about how grotesque the other, where I, where I had just come from, was, because it was heavy and dense and and full of hardships. And you know, my marriage was breaking up and we were fighting and there was so much competition at work and you know, you'd run into people on the road who would flip you the finger because you cut them off, and it was just such an ugly world that I had come from and I was suspended in this extraordinary, amazing space and place that I had no idea and I don't know how long I was there. And Then I kind of came to because I felt this pulling because, even though I was there, I kept thinking of my kids and I knew that they were sort of, and my kids were young at the time and I knew that I had to come back. I just felt this pulling that I had to come back for them. So I kind of came back to in the kitchen. So I was in the kitchen, on the floor.

Simone Gisondi: 10:24

That's how I realized, though, that I had the stroke, because I don't remember the actual falling, I just remember waking up, coming to and I had my kids. I had two boys, my kids and you know my husband he was someone husband at the time. They were all sort of crouched on top of me. I was sort of on the floor and I was looking at them and they were. They had this, these looks of confusion on their faces. They were looking at me and they kept asking me something that and I Could not understand. The language they were speaking was incomprehensible to me.

Simone Gisondi: 10:59

So, fast forward, when I realized what had actually happened, it was because I actually lost my speech, so my ability to understand and communicate was actually the area of the brain that got damaged. So, but I was very lucid inside my mind, like I was very aware of where I was. I sort of scanned the environment, I recognized them, but I couldn't understand what they were saying and my mind was kind of racing, thinking are they speaking Russian, polish, you know what language is that? Because it was just not something I understood. And and then I kind of got up and I had I remember I had the world's Worst headache, and I don't even do justice to the word when I say headache, I mean it was the most Painful pain that anybody could think of, and I had given birth twice and if I could, if I could do a comparison, I would say that birth had been a walk in the park in Comparison to this thing that I was feeling.

Fiona Kane: 12:01

I haven't done birth, but I can relate to the pain. I can relate to the head pain.

Simone Gisondi: 12:05

Yes, it was just this, and in the book I affectionately call it like this Monster of sorts that was inside my, my head, and I kind of gave it a personality because I felt like it was just out to punish me. But I kind of got up, I I kind of shook it off and I I Started making my breakfast. The kids kind of scattered because they started, you know, putting stuff together for the house. And I have my motorcycle license. I've always been fascinated with cars. I always say that in my next life I want to be a race car driver. I absolutely love to drive, I love airplanes and cars. So both my husband and I had our motorcycles and motorcycle licenses.

Simone Gisondi: 12:53

So I jumped on my motorcycle, which was like I remember, I put the helmet on and I felt like I just put my head in a vice, jumped on the motorcycle, went to the gym and I was shaky, like I could not even function, like my entire body, I mean your, your central nervous system, just took a huge blow. And but because I did not know and this is what I want people to understand and this is the story that I tell even my client it's not good to attach yourself to a diagnosis, because that's when fear kicks in. So I did not know that that was a stroke. So to me it was just like, oh, I kind of just fainted and I got up and I need to work out and Like, okay, I have a headache.

Simone Gisondi: 13:34

Headaches happen all the time. It wasn't the first time I had a headache, but I thought I'm just, I have to get on with the day, being the type a personality that I am. So I got started, got on the bike, got on the motorcycle, which was probably. When I look back on it now, I'm like what was? I think it's a miracle from God that I did not kill myself or kill somebody else.

Simone Gisondi: 13:57

I'll tell you that, never mind the stroke killing me, but the motorcycle and I ended up at the gym, got to the gym and and I really want people to understand when, when the body goes through something of that significance, the entire, like your entire body, all the systems sort of Adjust to accommodate what just happened. I mean, your brain chemistry changes, your blood chemistry changes, your entire body's chemistry changes your, your hormones, everything has to now accommodate what just happened. Of course, I did not know this at the time, but I got into the gym and I was so used to being able to. I mean I was moving real heavyweight. I was People who work out. I was like pressing about 500 pounds. I was lifting like I was lifting super heavy. I was like curling for my 120 pounds. I was curling, you know, 25, 30 pounds each arm, like I was really serious about it and I could not even do a fraction of that like I remember I picked up a five pound dumbbell to do a.

Simone Gisondi: 15:01

I mean, initially I picked up dumbbells that were sort of in line with what I was used to lifting and I kept like kind of scaling back because I'm like, oh my god, I can't do this, I can't, I can't, I can't do the 10, I can't do the 15, I can't. So I kind of scaled back the weight and I remember I picked up five pounds and I could not curl it. I nearly broke my legs when I got on the leg press machine and I tried to warm up and the whole thing came crashing down towards me because I Literally had no strength whatsoever. So it defies logic that I was able to balance a 450 pound machine between my legs riding it. But the beauty of it is that it's very self propelling when you, when you start it, once it starts to go and it's all just you kind of switch the you know flick of a wrist and it goes. But at lights I had to sort of stand and balance it between my legs and it was a Huge miracle that nothing happened. So I got back.

Simone Gisondi: 15:59

I just abandoned the gym very disappointed in myself. Very I thought, oh my god, I cannot even eat tonight because I'm not even like expending any calories and I'm gonna be eating such a rich dinner and I'm gonna be drinking calories from the alcohol. I was used to understanding how calories work and how you can, like you know, assign them to certain days, like I always say, even to this day I say I got to earn my meals, so I kind of work out in line with being able to not, you know, go into caloric, like not to say that I want to stay in caloric deficit but I don't want to go in excess either. It has to be balanced. But yeah, I went back home, I started cleaning up and I was battling through this headache that like I felt like I had 15 screwdrivers like jammed in my head and people were turning them slow. It was so painful. In fact I don't have much of a recollection of that day, I just have like fragments of it that I recall, you know, when you said that you didn't recognize language.

Fiona Kane: 17:06

Yes, you did it, like straight away, but did you later on, like when you went to the gym or when you came back home, did?

Simone Gisondi: 17:14

you hear people. I didn't speak to anybody at the gym because I was just used to sort of I would scan my thing, get in. I had my music on and that was the case even when I was writing and that oftentimes when I was writing the motorcycle I would have music in my ears. Yeah, the music I would recognize because it was melodic. But I remember I did make a pit stop at my local coffee shop and I had my typical coffee and all of that I did not. I wasn't able to string the sentence together to place my order. I kept like praying inside myself. I kept saying, okay, mind, like I'll talk to myself, to my higher self.

Simone Gisondi: 17:57

I would say, okay, give me the proper words to make sure that it makes sense. Because, like when I placed this order for my coffee, the lady kind of looked at me and said pardon me, excuse me, and I'm like, oh my God, I am not. Like I intuitively knew that the sentence I would put together did not make any sense because the words were not sequentially where they needed to be. So if I was to say how are you? I would say are you how? Like the sentence just didn't make sense in proper speaking.

Fiona Kane: 18:32

It's really interesting actually, as you're saying that you're a Taipei personality, that you have this massive thing happening in your body, and your response to the deficits that are happening are I've got to try harder, I've got to do harder, or what's wrong with me, or but they're very judgmental kind of. You know. It's just surprising to me that you didn't have like different kind of alarm bells going off. You know you had the alarm bells for all. I'm not good enough or I should try harder or whatever but you didn't have the alarm bells for this isn't right. I need to get attention. It's just interesting.

Simone Gisondi: 19:16

I should say so. I come from a totally communist country. I was born and raised Eastern Bloc, Russian communism. There was no like we did not have the idea of showing love or sympathy or empathy or any of those things just did not exist in our world. Any type of church or spirituality non existent, you were. We had to recite things for the dictator that we had at the helm of the country. It was sort of like Hunger Games style, like we had rationed food, rationed electricity, rationed water, so it was basically do or die. So I had that mentality. I grew up with that mentality that you just got to do what it takes and you just get up and keep going, that's right, you don't attach feelings to it.

Simone Gisondi: 20:09

Nobody cries. You just get up and you keep going.

Fiona Kane: 20:12

You do what it takes no weakness, that's right.

Simone Gisondi: 20:14

No, weakness, exactly. I'm glad you said that, Fiona, because that's what I don't. I actually dislike weakness in people for the most part and I would never, ever accept it from myself, ever. And I still have remnants of that. I'm actually that. That's so deeply ingrained in me because of how I grew up and that was through my formative years back in my country, and I was born in Romania, born and raised in Romania.

Simone Gisondi: 20:44

So, yeah, so that day I was just like OK, we got to get this party done. Like I mean, I knew, despite the fact, and I had, like my mind kept saying like cancel the party, cancel the party. And I was like shut up, we're doing this. Like I had these conversations within myself. Like we are doing this, I committed to people, I cannot let them down. Yeah, how do I go and call people and cancel this party at the eleventh hour? It's unheard of. No, I would never do that.

Simone Gisondi: 21:13

So I kind of pushed through, I got myself ready and I wanted to look really good because I knew that my ex husband well, he wasn't really my ex yet, but he was there and we were sort of in the process of breaking up I'm like, oh yeah, let me show him what he's going to miss out on. So I wanted to look really good and I remember, yes, like my, my friends were there, so I have fragments. I just remember I drank a lot and I had this one friend. When she walked in through the door she stands out, her name's Anita and she said she walked in and she's like you, look like shit. I mean, we had very open like. Our relationship was such that we could say anything to each other yeah.

Simone Gisondi: 21:58

And I'm thinking to myself. I'm like, don't say that to me, would you do much work. I wouldn't do anything like this. I mean, I went out of my way to go you know the extra mile, and then she said you probably need and I couldn't even think of what it was and it was the word massage, which was not come to me. And that sort of happened, you know, later on too, because even in the hospital I ended up with, the doctors were always trying to get me to say words, so I had speech aphasia, that's what it's called. So I did the party, the party happened and the next day, because it was like Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, I had another like I had more parties to go to. I had to go to my brother's house. I got back on the motorcycle after I drank the night before I slept in, got up in the morning, attempted to go back to the gym.

Fiona Kane: 22:53

I'm wondering what's the language thing? Less noticeable, because English isn't your first language, and so it's not that unusual to hear someone structure a sentence a little bit differently if that's not their first language.

Simone Gisondi: 23:08

I'll tell you. Actually I was like numbers were never my thing. I always like to write. Even when I was in high school I had teachers that were saying hey, you should write, you're really good. So I'm really like I don't want to use any derogatory terms, but unlike anal about language, about grammar, about punctuation, all of those things. So I was like there was no. If the sentence wasn't right, I was like that's not right and it had to be right. So I did not accept that for myself and I knew when I would like mess up, like I intuitively knew I'm like oh, that's not good, that does not sound right.

Simone Gisondi: 23:48

But I went to my brother's house on my motorcycle again. I went and I picked up a bottle of wine to get to his house, so that you know I would not walk in empty handed, did our thing there, came home just absolutely obliterated with the pain, then had another party and then the following day my friend, one of my friends came. We had agreed excuse me that she would help me clean up after the big party that I had had. She had been at the party and this was now. You know, the kids were at school, it was Tuesday morning, we had had a long weekend and I was like I mean, and so much my head was pounding. And I kept thinking I'm like, oh, of course it's gonna pound, like I mean, I drank, I didn't go to the gym, I'm totally off my game, of course I'm gonna have a headache. And I hadn't hydrated properly, did not drink water to the same level that I drank alcohol. So I'm like I'm totally dehydrated. This is so normal to have a headache. And so, yeah, my friend came to help me clean up the house. I mean, because I was alone in the house now my husband was not living with me anymore, so I had to, I needed help.

Simone Gisondi: 25:12

And I remember she came that morning and I was so out of it that I could not eat. Like I couldn't even stand at this point anymore. I was like I kept sitting down. She walked in and I'm like, why are you here? And she was so bubbly and blonde girl, bouncy, blonde hair. She was she kind of she's like, yeah, we agree that I'm gonna help you clean up, like what's up, what's going on.

Simone Gisondi: 25:35

And then she had to go because she had forgotten her cell phone and the car. And I remember I'm like, okay, she's in the car I'm gonna get started on cleaning because we agree that we're gonna blast this away and all that stuff. And then everything went black, so like I collapsed. And then I woke up I was in the resuscitation room in the hospital and I remember they had cut my clothes and they had the male doctor had this light shining in my light and I remember him saying it's a stroke, get her to CT stat so they could see, hopefully, what had happened. So I don't know if that was a second stroke. I don't know if the stroke happened like I'm assuming that it happened initially and then this was a secondary one. I don't know.

Fiona Kane: 26:25

Yeah, or if it was the other one evolving solely, or like, yeah, and then you know, they admitted me.

Simone Gisondi: 26:33

I was in the hospital for a whole bunch of time. Obviously, I spent my birthday there. They ran so many tests, I mean because I had no risk factors, I mean I was young, very fit. They ran my blood I don't know how many times. They had some IVs, of course. And then they did Doppler. They did it like a whole MRI, ct scans unit, pet scans, unit name it. I did it, but they still couldn't tell me why I had had the stroke. Like even to this day, like the medical industry never told me why I had the stroke. Of course, through my own research I kind of came to see why it happened and I understood it from a physiological perspective as well as a spiritual perspective, that you know this was meant to be and so it is. That's why I don't believe that the pursuit of physical health is going to give you overall perfect health and you really have to have your mind straight.

Fiona Kane: 27:38

And you go together, don't they? You can't really do one without the other.

Simone Gisondi: 27:41

That's right, they are so in like they're. They're all Intermoving together and if one is out of balance, you are your weakest link. So if one is weak, then, he'll take down the rest.

Simone Gisondi: 27:51

That's just that Much like how it was for me, because they kept saying like, oh my god, we don't know, she's a young, fifth, 36 year old woman and but so I was actually pretty okay at that point. If I look back it, I I started really declining when they put me on medications like mean Significantly. I spiraled out. They put me, of course, on the typical protocol that they give to everybody and At that time, for the most part, people who had strokes were typically Hypertensive, so they had high blood pressure, older, heavier, so they had risk factors like obesity and Things of that nature, hypertension, which I didn't have. In fact, my, even to this day, my blood pressure still on the low side.

Fiona Kane: 28:41

I'm never like usually it's that whole metabolic disease profile, but it doesn't sound like you fit that in any way no, so I yeah, I've never actually hit a perfect 120 over 80.

Simone Gisondi: 28:53

I'm still hovering at like 107 Over 70 to like I'd still on the low end.

Fiona Kane: 29:00

Yeah, same here. I've always been on the low end with my blood pressure as well.

Simone Gisondi: 29:04

Yeah, so, and then of course I, you know, I I kind of started wondering well, so why are you guys putting me on the same stuff that you're putting all these other people who have all of these risk factors? Like they check every, every box and I don't? So I Started questioning, and of course that I don't know how it is in in Australia, where you are, but here in Canada you do not question the medical community, you do not question doctors, even though I do question, and they did not provide me with any answers. So one day in the hospital I had, like my family was coming to visit me, my friends and I was terrified because my husband's mother had died of a stroke and.

Simone Gisondi: 29:49

I was there once she died. I mean, like we both were, obviously and and so I was like I mean my mind was taunting me, my mind can tell me like ho-ho, hospital is where people died. There's a mark here, you're dead people here and, truthfully, because I had so much time in the hospital, I'm like you know what's actually kind of true, cuz, like I mean, look at this environment. I could not sleep Because there's lights were always on, constant beeping machines. They were calling cold, red, pink, blue, black and every other color in between over the PA system. I had. The nurses got less than my brother's girlfriend is a nurse and she's wonderful. So I really don't want to, you know, be Saying anything that's negative about them, because they do most of the work. Like the doctors do a fraction of the work. But as this nurse, she kept coming to check in on me every you know, half hour or so she would change my IV bag and and with mine as well.

Fiona Kane: 30:51

Like they could say they check your INR levels every four hours, so they come in and do your bloods every four hours to check your iNR, just check your clotting factors. So they're possibly we're doing that as well, so they're just constantly checking to see what level of clotting is going on, and so even if you the other vitals to blood pressure, heart rate, all of that good stuff, yeah.

Fiona Kane: 31:14

Yeah, yeah, so they're really poking and prodding at you pretty much constantly. Yeah, like I understand, like, like you were saying, I get why they're doing that and I get that. That's part part of it, and you know, I really glad that we've got the option of going in and, and you know, if an emergency situation, getting help and getting diagnosis and stuff.

Fiona Kane: 31:35

I personally found, though, that, ultimately, my experience Longer term, especially with the medical profession, was just quite disempowering, as, like this has happened and there's nothing you can do about it and we don't know why, and take all these medications and we'll see how we go, but no explanation for why I should take the medication. Or, like you said, like is it Not just is this the medication that we just give to everybody, but is this the medication that's right for you, and Is the side effects worse? And you know all that kind of stuff? There was none of that, and when I tried to explore other options for myself, I was kind of like, oh, you know you can't do that that's, you know that can't do that natural stuff, whatever. So I actually just found it.

Fiona Kane: 32:21

Long term, I found the medical profession quite disempowering and and to empower myself, I had to sort of go and learn some other things so that they have their place. But it can be really challenging when something like that happens, because they do really keep you, in my experience, in quite a negative and disempowered place.

Simone Gisondi: 32:43

Ultimately, I Think that in events like these it acute events I think it's very important that I highly and I tell my clients this too, it's I highly advise go to a hospital as soon as you can so that they can take care of you, but then take your power back and and Sort of forge your own path on how you're gonna feel, because you yourself know your body best. Yes, you intuitively feel what you need, like more than anything. I remember I, just when I was in the hospital, I wanted sunshine and fresh air so badly and I was in this room with no windows and I had no fresh air, was obviously this recycled air that was coming through the vents and and they just wouldn't let me leave. And one day I one night, I should say, because it was at night I Yanked out my IV. They told me do not, you're not clear to leave you, like it's against medical advice, and I said no problem and I called my ex-husband. They called my husband and I said can you please come get me? And he came and he got me around midnight and I ran away from the hospital like I mean, I literally they probably Announced that cold white for me because I was like it was a patient and they probably realized at the end because my room was towards the elevator, so I kind of snuck out. Nobody really saw me, I wasn't in a high traffic area and then I Really got on this path of I really wanted to see exactly what it takes to heal. I started doing research I was obviously on on disability at home because I was not well and I did. I had like the luxury of time to do research. And when I researched and I saw just how much there is out there and I was looking at people that had healed from Horrible things like way worse than when I had gone through cancer stage 4 cancers and I'm like, oh my god, if those people can do it and to this day I believe this is my health model if somebody, even if there's one person let's say there's a million people and 999,999 of them die but one person survived, I will look to that person as the example and I'm like, okay, if that person did it, I could do it. So there were so many examples of people that had cured and, you know, gotten themselves back from death's door and I thought, well, you know what, if those people could do it, I could do it.

Simone Gisondi: 35:10

Then I went back to school shortly thereafter. I went, I went and I studied nutrition, holistic nutrition, because I really wanted to see. And then it was a very eye-opening thing because it taught me how food interfaces with your body. The biochemistry, the macronutrients, what raw material the body uses to you know, put together what it needs to strengthen the systems immune system, the brain chemistry, hormones and such. And Then I went to the United States and I studied Regenerative detoxification and I really wanted to do that because I wanted to regenerate my brain. I really wanted to regenerate my brain. I really wanted to get my speech back to 100%. So I went in, I studied in the in the US and I came back.

Simone Gisondi: 35:57

My dad actually got diagnosed with cancer. So then I saw it. I'm like okay, perfect, I mean I had already had the foundation. Then I went and I studied holistic cancer so that I could help him. I had already seen Just how tremendous of a change it was for me once I changed my diet and of course I mean I don't have to not say anything about the lifestyle I scaled way back from the craziness of what I was doing at the gym.

Simone Gisondi: 36:22

And then, once I got myself back on track.

Simone Gisondi: 36:24

I said you know what, now I can actually go back With a, like a smarter me would go back, and I actually entered two fitness competitions and one and then I settled into what.

Simone Gisondi: 36:41

I now know exactly what it takes. I mean, I understand so much more about blood sugar and how important that is, what really causes what like ailments people are afflicted with cancer, what it takes to get to that level, and also because I was sort of in that realm already, even from a spiritual perspective and from an emotional perspective, like being at peace and having community and having good relationships, is actually conducive to health. So people who are angry or people who hold grudges, or people who are constantly in a negative state of mind where they see the negative aspect of things but, like I said, for me, whenever if there's one small tiny minute thing of positivity out in the world and the rest is negative, I will zone in on that to the exclusion of everything else. And I remember I told myself like I'm going to get back to 100%, like I am. There wasn't like I'm gonna try or I'm gonna see if I. You know what. It was not like that, it was like the only outcome, the only possible.

Fiona Kane: 37:53

That's what you were going to do.

Simone Gisondi: 37:54

The one that I want and there's nothing else that can even happen Like it wasn't even remotely a possibility.

Fiona Kane: 38:00

So you know, like also what you're telling me, besides that absolutely laser focus that you had and that absolutely belief that you had, which probably tells us a lot about your personality as well but the other thing that you were saying is, really it sounds like you just started to tune in and you just started to listen to your body a lot more and kind of just tune into your body, your environment, everything, because you were talking about their relationships or whether it be their attitude or the voice in your head, or whether it be the people around you, or whether it be what you're eating or going to the gym or whatever it was. It just sounds like you developed that sort of you started listening and paying attention and supporting yourself and nourishing yourself, rather than kind of just punishing yourself and you know, and not like full steam ahead, not listening, not paying attention, which is what you were doing before. It sounds like. So does that make sense too? Does that? Can you relate?

Simone Gisondi: 39:04

to that Absolutely. And even just, for example, the energy and frequency of foods. How do they interface with your body? And I mean, I know that even in the fitness and bodybuilding industry and the health industry out there you know we're the gym demographic they believe that a calorie is a calorie. So if you're going to eat some you know, a donut, it's okay.

Simone Gisondi: 39:30

But if you look at the frequency of the foods that you eat and what they provide your body with, is it like a debit or a credit? Does it take away from your health or does it add to your health? But oftentimes people think that, like, if you meet your calories, but if you're going to get, let's say, a thousand calories from a meal from McDonald's versus a thousand calories from a home cooked meal, you have to look at the factors, you know. Is it a meal that's put together by an underpaid, disgruntled individual who is a stranger to you? Or is it a home cooked meal that's made by your mom that loves you and wants nothing but the best for you and puts all of her love and work into it? Those are the interact with your body drastically different.

Simone Gisondi: 40:20

And your body extracts from that in accordance.

Fiona Kane: 40:24

Definitely. There was just two aspects to that One. It makes me think of that film like I think it was like Water for Chocolate. I don't know if you ever saw that film I think it was a Spanish film or something but essentially I've got this bug flying around in my face. But it's where she, when she cried into the food. Everyone cried when they ate the food and when she was putting love into the food.

Fiona Kane: 40:45

So one side of it is the energy that you were just talking about. The other side you were talking about there as well is there was a cardiologist once at a seminar I went to and he described heart disease as a post-prandial event, and what he meant by that is the assault happens to your body post-eating. So after you eat a meal, depending on what you've eaten, either you've got sort of you know you're absorbing lovely nutrients and it's, you know, reducing inflammation and adding to function, or your body's gone into some sort of you know, inflammation, immune cascade where it's sort of battling to deal with whatever and your poor livers trying to recognize what these chemicals are or whatever. So it really is. It's not just about the calories, it's actually about the how much it puts the body through when you eat that meal and if you're constantly putting your body through. And you know, before my stroke I most of my life I had been very addicted to sugar and very high carb, high sugar, junk foodie kind of diet. That had been a lot of my life and I'm quite sure that that was part of the part of what led to me ending up having that stroke.

Fiona Kane: 42:14

I had a couple of them, but I wasn't aware until I had the second one that I'd had the first one. So I sometimes do miss things as well, so I get it. So there's no judgment in me saying what is she? You weren't really missing things, it was more that you were. Just your personality says you're just gonna keep on going. But yeah, so, and what I found too is I don't know that there's not necessarily one diet or one right way, but I think that, in my opinion anyway, there's the way that works for you and I feel like if you approach it from a place where you're nourishing yourself and you're tuning in and paying attention, I think, if we start from that place, that like starting, start there and then, yes, adding the right nutrition and the exercise or whatever, but I feel like, if you start there, then you're more likely to do the right thing for you, which might not be what works for somebody else, but it is what works for you.

Simone Gisondi: 43:14

A lot of people, I mean even the medical industry at the time, when I was obviously in the hospital. The intent was for them to take the power, so basically external power outside of me and onto them to heal me. That's not how it works. The power is always with you, which is why it's important that what you put inside of you is going to express either health or illness. And I tell people another important thing from a mental aspect or an emotional aspect, do not identify with that disease. And a lot of times people are like, oh, you're a stroke survivor. I'm like, no, no, no, that is something that happened to me. It's not me and I did not survive it. It's just an event. Just like I gave birth. I can't say I survived giving birth. I mean it's a huge event, it's.

Simone Gisondi: 44:12

I mean body goes through so much, but yeah, so it's important how you look at it, and even how you look at the foods that you eat and what they do and how they interface with your body, and these are the type of things that I discuss with my clients just to give them a different aspect of looking at things, rather than accepting the status quo, which oftentimes is obsolete.

Fiona Kane: 44:36

I think it's very important too, because I know that we can get caught up in the victim place and I know I certainly was in that for far too long and I think, and it's okay, you know, it's okay to feel like you know, it's okay to have your poor me moment. We all, you know that's fine, you can have it. But if you stay in that, then that's really problematic for you. But the other thing is too that just in today's society and it's a whole other topic, there's all the podcasts, but today's society we're very rewarded for being in the victim mode and staying in that poor me mode and identifying with the thing, rather than saying, yes, I'm a person who's had a stroke, I'm a stroke survivor, or you know, I'm a person who sometimes has anxiety, you know, or deals with anxiety. It's like, oh, I'm an anxious person or what you know.

Simone Gisondi: 45:29

We use a lot of the language in our society, now that we're where we are, labeling ourselves of the conditions or the issues, or whatever People say I'm anxious, I'm a smoker Like do not say I am, do not, I do not tie to your identity, because then your mind thinks like, well, this is what you are, and why would you change? You don't want to change who you are.

Fiona Kane: 45:52

Exactly, if it's who you are, then it's not human, it's impossible to change it, whereas if it's an experience or a behavior or an event or you know, there are things that you can do something about but you can't do it really necessarily do anything about who you are. So yeah, I think it's just really important to emphasize that.

Simone Gisondi: 46:11

Yeah, what happens outside of you is something that happens and it's like something. It's an event outside. The stroke was an event outside, but the identity stays with you for life. So, because it's who you are, it's who you've always been. So you don't want to put that onto your identity, because in your mind, your mind says, well, this is who you are, this is who you will always be. So you'll stay tied to that disease. You'll stay tied to that habit of or addiction. Like I'm an alcoholic, I'm a smoker, I'm a drug addict. Like do not say I am and then put something negative. I mean say I'm amazing, I'm really beautiful, I'm really smart. If you put something that has a positive next to it, then fantastic, you're winning, but never, ever something that's a negative nature.

Fiona Kane: 47:02

I'm aware of time, but there's a couple more questions I do want to sneak in if you've got time. So the first question would be often, when I'm talking to people about the health experience that they've had, did you, if you think back now to that time before it happened, is there something where because I know I can tell I can describe things that were happening beforehand, where I felt like my body was telling me to do something about it? Like I felt, like my body was you know, I think that sometimes you need a body whispers and it gets a bit louder and gets a bit louder and that screams at you and ultimately, for me, the stroke. Was it screaming at me? But I can now see back to times where it was talking to me. Did you recognize any of that in you know that 2020 vision, looking back signs or symptoms that your body was trying to tell you that something wasn't right?

Simone Gisondi: 47:57

So it was not my body because, like I said, I was in phenomenal shape. I mean, if people could see pictures, even me. I look back sometimes I'm like, oh my God, and I was so self-critical at the time, but I had this feeling of doom that was coming towards me. So it was like intuition a feeling, and I kept thinking to myself I'm like, oh my God, because I had so much stress from work and, you know, my marriage was falling apart and I had no idea what was going to happen and how I was going to manage. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm probably going to have a heart attack, like that's what I thought was going to happen.

Simone Gisondi: 48:30

I knew that something was coming towards me. I just did not know what it was, but in my head I'm like I'm probably like if I was solid, because typically that's what people said, you know like, oh my God, she's so high strong she's going to have a heart attack.

Fiona Kane: 48:44

So I guess I actually knew, I felt intuitively something big was coming and it was going to happen to me and it was such an overwhelming time if you were dealing with divorce and things like that as well. It's so much going on that sometimes we park things because there's a lot. I don't know what that is, it doesn't feel good, but oh well, I've got to get on with it. We do that anyway, but in particular that's something that you did, that you would do.

Simone Gisondi: 49:11

Yeah, and, to be honest, it actually defied logic at the time because, just like I said in the beginning, when we first started beautiful family, have amazing kids, they're well balanced, they're healthy. We had this huge, gorgeous house, we had cars, motorcycles, really great jobs, we made amazing money. I mean, I had it made. I had everything that people dreamed, I had the dream life, and then that happened. So, of course, like where you are up here, if you're not going to have gratitude for everything you have and you look at things that you're like, well, this, just like I was, I'm like, well, let's get the six pack, let's run faster, let's run more. It was never enough. So you really have to check yourself. I mean, you have to be in such a state of self-awareness to kind of really see your blindspots to be like I need to stop.

Fiona Kane: 50:03

I'm good. Yeah, I think gratitude is a really big part of that.

Fiona Kane: 50:06

I think, that if we're not living in gratitude, I think it helps you stay a bit more, really, stick a bit more in balance and just have a bit more perspective. I think when we move out of that, when we're not living in gratitude, it really does. It's not good for us emotional or physical health. So my last question then would be and obviously it's a big question, but if for those people who are listening or watching, you know what's kind of. I know there's lots of things, but what's the one piece of advice you would give people to the things that they could maybe do to hopefully avoid experiencing what you have or to recover if they have had an experience like that?

Simone Gisondi: 50:58

As far as the first part of your question is, I highly recommend to people if you see that you have certain ailments or, like you said, if your body is trying to tell you something, and if you go and you have your blood work done and you see that there are things that are off, it's important that you invest in yourself. I mean, you are your biggest investment. I see a lot of people invest in things like bigger cars, nicer purses, better shoes, bigger houses, invest in working with someone to educate you and how to really take care of yourself. But the first step would be to be in a perfect sense of self-awareness, to be able to know what your body is telling you. Don't ignore these things. Just shut down your body just because you're looking outside of yourself to get cues for what the world says.

Simone Gisondi: 51:59

I mean, dr X does not know your unique biochemistry and what makes you feel good as a person. Are you one of those people who meets to sleep eight hours a day, or do you need maybe eight and a half hours, because that extra half hour is probably going to let you wake up refreshed. So that's important. And the second thing is what you eat interfaces with every part of your body, I mean your blood, carries the nutrients, so it goes to your brain, it goes to all the body systems, it goes to every organ, to every tissue. And remember, if you want to build a good house or a nice car that runs efficiently and is sound and can withstand, you really have to invest in really good quality material.

Simone Gisondi: 52:46

So, you've got to have good bricks and good wood and really good concrete for your foundation or really good quality metal for the car and good parts to make sure the car runs efficiently and that everything is screwed in properly so that the cabinets don't fall down or your tires don't fall while you're driving and then you're going to get into an accident and die. So really invest in putting the best things in your body. Your body is the temple. That's where you live for the rest of your life and I think a lot of people don't understand how you are an example to your children.

Simone Gisondi: 53:21

I mean, my kids are healthy, because they always saw me investing in house. They always ate, while we've never had any kind of like. None of us have ever been overweight, none of us have ever been hypertensive, none of us have ever had any health issues of that nature and ultimately, I think even the doctors will enter and said you know, I think your stroke was because you were just super stressed. Why didn't you tell me this from the beginning? You put me on meds that really took me down the wrong path. Yes, so really invest in good quality things that you put in your body and respect yourself enough to actually feed yourself only the good stuff.

Fiona Kane: 53:58

Yes, great advice. Thank you so much, Simone, for coming on today. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story.

Simone Gisondi: 54:07

Thank you. Thank you so much, Fiona. It's a pleasure and an honor to share and I really appreciate. I actually would love to have you on my show because I would love to hear your story about the stroke, since we have this incredible synchronistic commonality.

Fiona Kane: 54:22

Yes, that would be great. A lot of it I can relate to, we're very different personalities at the same time. A lot of your story I can absolutely relate to say I would love to do that. And what's the name of your book? Because you did refer to your book that where you talk about your story. So people who are interested in that, what's the book called?

Simone Gisondi: 54:38

So my book is very aptly called Against Medical Advice and it's available on Amazon and all marketplaces and all various online. I've made it available everywhere. So yeah, against medical advice.

Fiona Kane: 54:55

And if people are looking to connect with you, what's the best way to do that?

Simone Gisondi: 54:59

Yes, absolutely. So. I'm very active on Instagram. My handle is at Simone Gisondi or on my website at Simone Gisondi dot com.

Fiona Kane: 55:11

Okay, and I will put those links in the show notes as well. So thank you again, Simone, thank you Fiona, and, for those of you listening or watching, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you got value out of this episode. I know that I did. I always find it interesting hearing people's stories and hearing their strategies and things that they've used to overcome these issues. So thank you for joining us today. Please don't forget to like, subscribe and share and rate these episodes and give us any feedback as well. I always appreciate that. So thank you so much and I'll see you all next week. Thanks, bye, guys.