No More Sad Salads: Wellness That Actually Works with Sarah Wragge

0:00The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

0:14Sarah, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Very excited to talk to you. Nice to be here. I just want to say we were talking about it offline, but your last name being Siciliano is Your maiden last name. For this podcast, I'm just Serra Siciliano, okay? Did your family speak Italian growing up? No. Also, my uncle Olindo Siciliano and my Aunt Mary Del, he used to come to our house from New Jersey with pots of sauce and cannelloni and cannolis. You're so lucky you had East Coast American Italian lifestyle. growing up because it's the best of the best. It was, there was five of us. It was like spaghetti and meatballs and rolls and chaos and lots of love.

1:07And like the world was revolved around food. Like we used to joke that we would go to, like, we would go on a trip. We'd be like, okay, what are we doing for lunch? And then at lunch, we're like, what should we do for dinner? Yeah. That's talking about when we're going to eat next. when my husband talks to his friends it's like yeah and by the way I saw the pope did it when he called there's like there was like one catholic priest in palestine and they recorded their phone conversation and he was like would you eat today that's like how this and they talk about it like it's like love they're like there was these olives And then he did prosciutto and he touched the olive and he was like, this marriage.

1:49You're just like, wow. They love, I love that they love enjoying meals because we do not do that in America. No. I grew up with that with my family and you're obviously you did too. So I feel very lucky and fulfilled by that. Like food was really big in our house and we sat down and we ate. But same as you, I was eating a lot of processed stuff. You know, my poor mom now, she looks back and she's like, I had no clue that what I was feeding, you know, the cereal you were having for breakfast was giving you a blood trigger spike and like helping feed my undiagnosed PCOS that started at like 14 years old, which like by two o 'clock at school, I'm nodding out at my desk, you know?

2:33Yeah. It's like, you don't think that what you're eating is hurting you. Well, I think like, so are you an 80s child? Yeah. So it was like the era of packaged foods and convenience. 100 calorie snack packs, right? Like roasted diamond brand almonds. I think now it's like probably worse than it's ever been with just all these like protein supplements and things like that. We don't make time to really like sit down and like manja anymore. Yep. We do here, thank God. And we're big on teaching our kids that because I think also people need to understand how much like food is a privilege and, and you need to like sit down and eat.

3:20I think it's an important part of being a human. That was like a really big issue. My mom lives with us and she was always eating on the go and taking like little bites of things to survive. And my husband used to get really upset with her. We like, yeah, you sit down and you eat and you enjoy. Yeah. This is how we talk. You know, it was a really huge control issue for him. My sister, when my sister comes, she's like, I can't believe that this is your life. Like I'm eating a salad, standing up. Like I'm, you know, we're all like, she's like, are we going to like have dinner? I'm like, well, Christian has a game and you know, Wynn has this and Chris is coaching.

3:55So, and I've got a call. So she's like, this is so sad. And it really, like when you do kind of like take a step back, it is really sad that we don't take time to really nourish and fuel and celebrate everybody's, you know, and this is something I'm really personally working on right now is carving out time to like wake up in the morning, have enough time to have breakfast, have a proper lunch, even if it's at my desk, which it mostly is, at least I've got something on a plate and I'm not, you know, eating packages, but it's, it's really, it's wild. It's, it's something that I've been working really hard on and I feel really good about it, but also, you know, we are, you know, you're building a business, you have young children.

4:44I think it's okay to have moments of your life where you know that you're building and working towards something. Italians are not as busy as we are. This is true. Nor do they want to be. They don't want to be. That's totally fine. Right. They don't have the, by the way, a lot of people don't have the, I think this is like very real. Don't have the like financial goals that we have either in America. A hundred percent. Yeah. They don't care about all the extra stuff. No, no. My sister, you know, threw an incredible, incredible wedding in Sicily, in Favignana. Oh, beautiful. And it was in like the low six figures.

5:25But what they accomplished for the low six figures was incredible. It's like a million dollar wedding in America. It would be a million dollar wedding at least here. And they're way more about minimalism and just they're good with the basics. whereas we you know like the people to roll out the red carpet when we go on vacation and you know 12 lattes and 20 avocado toast like it's so it's actually like super silly like when you really like peel it back you're like what are we doing you know my sister will be like that's so american of you what are you guys into over there now collagen oh well oh bone broth oh cool that's been like rare since the 1800s i'm like oh she's like oh great fruit oh oh collagen comes to the top of the bone broth and that's what you're skimming off like great new idea sarah she's like that's called ragu you fucking loser yeah exactly she's like i do that in my sleep so yeah it's really wild it is so well we also have to remember that italy is the size California.

6:32So we're talking about two different systems. I always remind myself of that. I'm like, we have a lot more people to feed here. This is true. Your story started as a classic working gal who started feeling awful. But I really love, I want you to tell this story to everybody about how you, you know, of course we can start from the beginning about how you ended up seeing like a functional nutritionist or whatever, but I'm obsessed with the fact that you were taking meetings at SoulCycle? Yeah. Well, I, that was my way out of entertaining. So, you know, moved to New York and got a job in, in, at Young and Rubicam advertising agency.

7:15I wanted to be a copywriter. That was my dream. I went over to, I started working in production and then eventually went over to the production side of things in a sales and marketing job and learned that I was heading up a department that they didn't have before. So I was allowed to be very entrepreneurial. And I was out there and I was meeting and pitching and flying all over the place. And so it was so fun. And I was living in Soho. I was in my early 20s. I'm at like Kane and guest house on the weekend.

7:48Sarah Wragge:I'm doing it. I'm living it. I'm having a blast. And I'm flying all over the place and I'm entertaining with how people entertain, right? Which is drinks, dinners, happy hours, boozy brunches, and being in your 20s in New York, like that's just what you did. And it was just par for the course. You just went out, you know, you had drinks and then drinks and then dinner, and then you'd after dinner drinks, you went to the bar and then you woke up feeling terrible. You just rinse, repeat. And it was just, that was the standard. And so as I was getting deeper to my health journey, I had met a holistic nutritionist.

8:24I had worked with an acupuncturist. I was understanding that I had candida, which was like an overproduction of yeast, really causing inflammation in my body, acid reflux, chronic constipation. I was like probably about 25 pounds heavier than I am now. And it was just my normal PL. It was like my baseline. I was bloated. I didn't go to the bathroom a lot. I had asked reflux, rinse, repeat. Right. And so, so as I was getting into this advertising job and entertaining, I had hired a holistic nutritionist. I was working with an acupuncturist and you know, those that know me, I just, I go in, I go in 110%.

9:05So I was reading and I was going to weekend lectures and I was back at the integrative Institute for nutrition, just thinking, Oh, wow, this information is so cool. And I was taking, listening to lectures and reading books and, you know, peeling through like the body ecology diet on the weekends and I was getting colonics and I was doing. Cause that was all like a big deal at the time. So this is, so this is 2000 and we'll call this like seven. Oh, I was there. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Were you friends with Robin Berkeley? Yes. Robin was my boss at people's revolution. And And that's all Rob was getting like clothed.

9:46Yeah. And we were like smoking at our desks and coming in hungover. And she was like, you're disgusting. Yeah. Blueprint cleanses and bar classes. Blueprint. Exhale. Like this was the era of blueprint. And so every time I wasn't entertaining, I was running to work out to try to sweat out what I had not felt good about doing or I was doing a cleanse. and I lived on 13th and 8th across from Organic Avenue. And remember that place? Like the orange and the beautiful like glass bottles. So I would go to the counter of this juice shop and I would just like chew the ear off of the sales consultant. I'm like, what does ginger do?

10:30What does turmeric do? What is this golden milk stuff about? What is raw coconut meat? What is aloe? How can I get rid of reflux? I just got really kind of obsessive about all these things because I would take something or I do something and I feel better. And so alongside with that was the drinks weren't cutting anymore. I didn't want to go to have martinis. I didn't want to be hungover. I was starting to feel better. I was having less acid reflux. So, you know, here I am with a corporate card and a car and I'm like, well, I'm going to take people to SoulCycle because I'm going to go there anyways.

11:03Which if you're listening to this, you don't understand. I'm sure you've heard of soul cycle, but yeah, that's a good thing. This time was building. And like, I would come to LA, you know, I, I live between both, like both locations. It was, it was like going to church. It was the hardest. Were you taking Stacey classes? I had a podcast with Stacey for a year and a half. Stacey was a god. My husband used to dress for Brunello Cuccinelli. That was the, Oh yeah. She loves Bruno. And he got, I remember we started dating. He was like, I'm going to one of Stacey's classes. I was like, how the fuck did you get into one of Stacey's classes?

11:43And he couldn't walk for like two weeks. I mean, these are like the hardest, but they were so fun. So fun. And so what was happening is I was taking, so I'm the sales person, right? So no one wants to talk to me. So I'm going after people's business. And all of a sudden, I'm getting phone calls from them like, hey, can I get a bike? Hey, can I get a bike? Hey, so all of a sudden, 5, 10, 15, 20. I'm in these SoulCycle classes with all of my clients at 6.30, 7.30 in the morning. And now they're all like, losing weight, feeling good, feeling empowered. My business has taken an uptick because they're like, well, we're going to thank you.

12:26we're going to give you our commercials to shoot. I'm like, thank you. I'm going to get you a bike. And my soul was happy. I was, you know, business was good. And I was connecting with people in a way that was not a hangover. It was not an order of fries to start. Like it was, it was just empowerment, sweat, endorphins. And then we would all start off our day on such a high, we'd go to work and we'd kill it. And it was just, it was the first like iteration of what I'm doing now is just empowering people, educating them. And then I would write them a food plan because I was already back in school and I had, I could just do this in my sleep.

13:05I'm like, all right, well, what time are you eating lunch? And what time, when are you the hungriest? And what do you have tonight? Okay. You've got happy hour. You got to eat something before. And I just started, this is now probably 2011. And then the New York times called me and it's like, Hey, Gabby Cohen from soul cycle, the PR, their PR person just pitched you as the sweat worker. and so we're gonna do a full sunday styles page on you as the sweat worker and i'm like great so it was my first sort of media stint they came and shot the class and interviewed me and it was such a fun yeah it was such a fun time really yeah i think yeah just to really drive that point home i i can't tell you guys how hard it was to get.

13:51It really was. It was, it was like, you got to know somebody. So it's really incredible to leverage that and that relationship. Right. Right. I mean, it's completely like the same way that, you know, I get up in the morning and I work out and you just start the day with such a different intention. And those endorphins are so good. And like, kudos to you for leveraging that with work and being able to like bond with people and get that, you know, client. Cause I have so many friends who are constantly trying to get the client, get the client, get the client. And it's like, is it baseball games?

14:23Is it tickets to the Knicks? Is it this? Is it that? But like doing it with SoulCycle is awesome. And just peel it back and connect. I really, I was so not interested in going out and drinking and eating anymore that I did it for myself. And then it really ended up serving everybody because it was an empowering experience. And they, I mean, I remember one of my clients, her name was Joyce. Like I just started to watch her entire body change. And I'm like, this is amazing. And she then she got up and she was dating someone. And then I just watched her life unfold with just movement and, and a community to support her.

15:00And then I was like, well, here's what you eat. And it was just so, it was just so fun for me to do. So at what point did you decide to leave your corporate job and do this full time? Yeah. So I met Chris. I met Chris in 2012, like right around this time. We ended up dating about a year later, 2013. We got married in 2015 and I very quickly got pregnant. I had left at this point and started another production company, always been an entrepreneur. So I started another business. And I was really traveling. I was like in Germany and Asia and I was in Dubai a lot and I was in London a lot. And so I was traveling all over and I was learning a lot and I loved it, but I was like, how is this sustainable for a family?

15:53And, and again, into my health journey, really into my health journey now. And now, you know, I'm pregnant. And so the voices got really loud. And I'm like, what am I, what am I doing here? And so kind of on a whim, I was up really late with Christian breastfeeding. And I just started like posting stuff on Instagram. My friend, what my friend was like, you, I put her on a cleanse and she lost a ton of weight. You're giving everybody, you're like advising everyone around. I'm just like, I'm writing plans for my family. I'm writing plans for my friends. And I'm just, I'm really just truly having fun.

16:33So someone said you should post on Instagram. And I said, isn't that so narcissistic? Why does anybody care? That's so weird. Yeah, I was like, this is so embarrassing to post something on Instagram. And so one day, a woman named Jean, she DMs me and she said, Are you taking new clients? And I just was like this. Wow. Yep. like yep no idea I think I charged her a hundred dollars and she lost 40 pounds she worked on the desk she worked on the IT desk at Bloomberg in Midtown and I got her whole desk and then probably my fifth or sixth client was Bridget Moynihan well she was on the set of Blue Bloods and so then I worked with Vanessa Ray and then my and then it just it just kind of spread and then And all of a sudden, I'm on maternity leave with a new baby.

17:26I'm up at like two o 'clock in the morning, breastfeeding and writing health plans. And I just said to Chris one day, I said, so I kind of started this like thing that I'm doing, like when I'm feeding Christian and I have like 10 clients.

17:41Sarah Wragge:And he was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, so I think I want to do this instead of my advertising job. And he was just awesome. He was like, okay, go. Like just jump. Yeah. So that's what we did. So we ended up moving to the Burbs. I quit my job from the container store parking lot. I was 17 in New Jersey because I was like fully, my boss had come to me, one of the head guys investing in the business I had started and was like, listen, you can't do this whole like health thing that you're doing and actually like work here, which was so sexist because there were so many guys at my company who were like doing comic books.

18:23But for me, it wasn't okay. It was like, you got to get back in the sea. You got to travel more. I don't know what you're doing on Instagram. Let's just like minimize that a little bit. And I was like, cool, I'm out. And it was really like, Pia, that is not me. I'm like a safety girl. That was a big, that was a big leap for me. But I did it because I really, I was having so much fun. And I believed in myself and my husband was like, give it a shot. So I, so I did. And then it really like turned into something real. Amazing. Yeah. What was the biggest change for you in terms of like our own sense of self during this time?

19:08Oh, I mean, it was, I took on so much. We moved, I started a business. Such a woman thing. You have a new baby. yeah I was like let's pile it on you know why not I moved I didn't realize it at the time but I was having like secondary infertility I was trying to get pregnant with with win and I couldn't get it took me three years to get pregnant with her and I you know I look at this always like universe like there's always a plan yeah divine timing and I'm really happy that I didn't get pregnant with her when I wanted to because it would have been just too much to handle the business needed to sort of take off and get to a certain place.

19:49And then, and then I got pregnant with her. So I say, I always say like Christian brought me the business and when brought like it to a whole new level is when she was born, it was just like, it was during COVID. So we, we kind of went quiet for two weeks and then it was like an explosion. We tripled our business. It was wild what happened during COVID. Who's running all this with you at this time? Me. Just me. Yeah. I, it was me. And I think at this point I might have, I might've had like an assistant who was helping me with like invoices and stuff like that virtually. But it was, my sense of self was just, I really just didn't know what way was up.

20:29It was, you know, massive over-exercising for stress management. It was definitely drinking a lot to kind of just like, I couldn't turn off. So I was like, oh, if I have like three tequilas, I could turn off. Absolutely. You know, and then like I get kind of a deep sleep, but then I don't feel great. I'll just work out again. You know, so it was it was really hard. And then eventually Chris came to me and was like, honey, like we miss you. And you get it. We got it. This is great. Like you're bringing in income, but we need we want you back. Yeah. And so that's, I brought in some business advisors and they helped me figure out how to scale it.

21:13And they helped point out the blind spots. Like, what are you doing? What is your method? How are you helping this many people? Because it was all my first marketing dollar that we ever spent was last December. Like 10 years, like nine years of referrals. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Congratulations. That's an unbelievable thing to say out loud. Thank you. So what is, can you tell everybody like, what is your method? Yeah. So after about seven years of, of working with private clients, I took a step back and I just said, okay, what am I doing here with everybody that it's working? and anytime you know I would have those moments of imposter syndrome where I'm like what am I doing like who you know Chris would always say to me like is it working and I'm like oh it's it's working it's not only working it's transforming their lives the lives all around them and everything just got better and he's like okay so what are you doing and so I realized that I had a fascination with regimen and routine and structure because without those things nothing happens.

22:31And I also had a fascination with blood sugar balance because I started to understand that when you don't spike your blood sugar, you feel good. You lose, you accidentally lose weight. You sleep better. Your digestion improves. Like everything gets better when you have blood sugar balance. And so I combined looking at the behaviors of the people that I had worked with. And at this point it was like thousands, you know, it was a lot. So much evidence to, I mean, it's just incredible. Just a lot of evidence. And then really looking at, okay, we're all sort of the same in the way that we want to wake up and feel good and not be bloated.

23:10We all go and have a cup of coffee before water. Most of us are either under exercising or massively over-exercising. We all want a snack at four o 'clock. Everybody wants to enjoy themselves and have some drinks. Weekends are really bad. Yeah.

23:26Sarah Wragge:Weekends are really bad for everybody. They need to get back on the wagon on Monday morning. There's just like so many things pointing towards the direction of, okay, this needs a solution. This needs a solution. This needs a solution. And so alkalize our product was my solution for people need more vegetables, people need easy to access organic third party tested veggies that are washed properly, that ideally have all the fiber in them. A green juice is like$12. So during COVID, I was like, we need a powder. So alkalize was that solution. And then the minerals, the restore minerals that we have at night is really inspired by like my massive burnout.

24:12I realized along the fertility journey that I was so burnt out and the workouts made me temporarily feel better. But then ultimately I would crash and I was just in this massive cortisol stress response all the time. And my body was so hungry and thirsty for minerals, magnesium, potassium. So that was the inspiration behind Restore. And then Optimize, which is our protein powder we just launched, is just because I don't have time a lot of days to sit down and eat a beautiful salad with chicken or steak on it. And so the method has basically become a five-step process that you go through from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep.

24:58And it starts with Alkalize and it ends with Restore. And so what we're working on doing is assigning a product to each, but you could also take none of the products and still accomplish the five steps. What are some tips that you have for people, especially women to balance blood sugar? Sure. So just start your day off, right? So, you know, I think a lot of us will grab a protein bar or like a yogurt with some flavoring in it or something that, or, you know, a gluten-free muffin or something like that. And you're not fueling, you're not eating protein and you're spiking your blood sugar. And one of the first things that we do when we work with a client is we put a glucose monitor on you.

25:42And so we can see what we often see is, is once you spike in the morning, it's really hard to rebound throughout the day. So once you spike, it's hard to, it's hard to really hard to get back, normalize again. Yeah. So if you just don't spike, which causes ultimately a crash and you stay on this steady state, it's food freedom. You're not hungry all day. You're not thinking. I mean, how awful is it when you think about food all day long? I mean, I was a victim to that for so long. And I would also, I would have, I didn't realize what they were, but I would have crazy crashes because I would have like oatmeal for angry.

26:22And I would be like, I need to eat something. I'm going to pass that. I'm going to pass that. where now I wake up and I have bone broth first thing. Yeah. So good. I've been doing that for years and I crave it. I need it. Right. I don't want to eat a lot because I work out in the mornings. Right. And I take my workouts. You just have that before you work out? First thing every morning. Oh, nice. I know. And I put lemon juice in it. It feels really good. And what kind of workouts do you do? Twice a week I weight train and twice a week I do Pilates. okay and on saturdays i do a hot just restorative yoga class oh i love it that's really similar to my schedule i spent many years skipping breakfast doing like a blueprint not eating till three doing hit workouts i had moon face so funny everybody keeps being like you have a moon face I had the roundest cortisol.

27:19It's called moon face. I had like the roundest cortisol face for so long. And I got that term from TikTok because everyone on TikTok is like, how I got rid of my moon face. And it's all like cortisol tips and tricks because I have really bad PCOS. And so I was just making it so much worse. I couldn't get pregnant. It took me a long time to get pregnant with my daughter. And I had Elisa Vitti on my podcast who invented cycle thinking. and he was like, you're killing yourself. You wake up, have a coffee on an empty stomach, do a HIIT class. Don't eat until like 12. The idea of eating breakfast was like so dirty.