Progress is Healthier than Perfection with Sheila Carroll

Dive into an inspiring chat with pediatrician and weight coach Sheila Carroll. Learn why progress trumps perfection, how to cultivate wealth beyond finances, and the power of mindset in health and weight management—all in a refreshingly practical approach.

• "Progress not perfection" in health

• Real wealth through sufficiency

• Thoughts influence eating habits

• Childhood weight and parental roles

• Coaching's future-focused power

Learn more about Sheila and her work on her website https://www.sheilacarrollmd.com/ and connect with her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sheilacarrollmd/

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At Wholistic Natural Health Australia, we often recommend the use of high quality essential oils.

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Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:43

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today, Sheila Carroll joins us. Sheila was born, raised and still lives in Maine in the USA. She has a master's degree in biology and an MD from UVM. She's been a paediatrician for 20 plus years, is mum to an 11 year old named Theo, and is a certified life and weight coach. In Sheila's own words, progress is healthier than perfection. Welcome Sheila.

Sheila Carroll: 1:17

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Magic Barclay: 1:19

My absolute pleasure. We were just chatting off air a little bit before we started recording today. And, you know, I love that you were saying, let me get you to say it in your own words about progress.

Sheila Carroll: 1:37

Well, you and I were talking about, not really slogans, but like, One thing I just love to tell my patients, tell my clients, you know, this is a long game, getting healthy, staying healthy, enjoying being healthy and enjoying the things you need to do to be healthy. And so what we're really going for is progress and not perfection. And sometimes Because I see so many times that when people feel like they can't do something perfectly, they can't eat perfectly, they can't exercise as many days as they want to, then they just feel like, well, it's, you know, it's no use doing anything. I'll either start tomorrow or start another time. But it's, you know, I think if you just have in your mind, you know, any little bit that I can do, progress, not perfection. So progress is healthier than perfection.

Magic Barclay: 2:35

I love that. I know when I used to own a gym way back when, like a decade or so ago, I would see people come in and they would be. You know, upset that maybe they'd gone onto a diet or some sort of routine and then they'd had a slip up. They'd had one of those, you know, in inverted commas, cheat days, and then they'd give up and they'd just start eating whatever and doing whatever. And I would often ask them why, and they said, well, I've stuffed it up, so I have to start again. I might as well wait for next week. And I said, but next week won't come, it'll become next month or next year or next decade just because of one little slip up. So I really love that you're talking about, you know, taking that in your stride and every step forward is still a step forward.

Sheila Carroll: 3:26

Yes, and if people make a quote slip up or, you know, do something they hadn't planned to do, that's not really the problem. The problem is what the person is making that slip up mean about themselves. So, if they eat something that they hadn't planned to, or don't go to the gym when they planned to, then, instead of just being like, oh, you know, I just ate a little bit extra here, or what, you know, instead they make, oh, I'm a bad person, oh, I can't follow my plan, oh, there's something wrong with me, and, that's where the problem is. And that's where you can, you know, really get some work done, and start to look at. What's actually going on? After you have the drink you didn't mean to have, or you know, after the, quote, mistake you've made. That's where there's real, money to be, or gold to be mined in what's actually happening.

Magic Barclay: 4:29

Definitely, and that leads us to our first standard question. What can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual health?

Sheila Carroll: 4:43

Well, as As you mentioned, I have expertise. I'm a medical doctor. I'm a pediatrician. I'm also board certified in obesity medicine. And I love combining that with the mindset approach of life coaching and the weight coaching to help people Um, and my specific area of, of work really is helping parents, or caregivers, grandparents, parents of kids who are struggling with extra weight. Helping the parents, create a healthy lifestyle for themselves, number one, but also for their child and also to ways to work through this challenging, time that can be because sometimes You know, kids who are struggling with extra weight are also struggling, emotionally with that as well. And, and when kids are struggling, oftentimes their parents are struggling. So that's what I help, that's what I use my expertise to help families with. We don't really focus on the actual number on the scale so much. As we focus on overall health and that includes emotional health and mental health and overall wellbeing.

Magic Barclay: 6:00

Fantastic. We also talk about wealth here. People think wealth is just the financial, but it can also be personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating any kind of wealth?

Sheila Carroll: 6:15

Well, one thing that I do, personally, that makes me feel wealthy, and I'm not talking financially wealthy here, um, I practice wanting what I already have, and then, instead of wanting things I don't have, When I can focus on, oh, I've, you know, I've always wanted to have a child, and I have a child. or whatever it is for you, I've wanted to be able to, go for a walk today, and I'm walking today, and I find like that just gives me gives me a sense of, of sufficiency and of abundance and of having what I need. And that's a wealthy feeling for me. and I think everybody could do that. I say that to my son, sometimes he comes home and he's like, Oh, you know, so and so, or I saw, Has this new hockey stick or this new bicycle or, you know, and I said, let's, let's look at what you already have and practice wanting what you already have. And then you can really enjoy what you have. And it's just so good. That wasn't three tips, but that was one tip.

Magic Barclay: 7:29

That was one. So give us two more.

Sheila Carroll: 7:32

Okay. Other things. Well, I, I agree that wealth, you know, being healthy is a form of wealth, for sure. Because if you're not healthy, you're not really able to enjoy, very much. If you're in pain or you're not feeling well or you're emotionally unwell, you're not really able to enjoy your life. So, I agree that focusing, or I would recommend focusing on a healthy lifestyle, getting good sleep, getting some movement in, focusing on your nutrition, and emotional management skills, that will lead to a wealthy life as well. and then the last thing I guess would be, for me, one thing that makes me feel super wealthy is my relationships, my relationship with my son, my relationship with my parents, with my friends, and, in our coaching world, we say that a relationship is the thoughts you have about the other person or the other thing. So if you're having good thoughts about something or positive thoughts about something, then you're having a good relationship. and so I think that that is working on your relationships and working on your thoughts about people are, is another way to, uh, really boost the quality of your life.

Magic Barclay: 8:49

Terrific. And the final standard question is around weight. Many people find their weight go up and down, often due to stress related instances. So have you ever battled your weight? If so, how did you win the war? And what can you offer the listeners who might be in this journey right now?

Sheila Carroll: 9:10

Yes, I would say yes, I have struggled with my weight my whole life. I was an overweight child about by the time I was nine or 10 years old. And just like you said, you know, kind of up and down my whole life, there were periods, you know, for me, when I when I was feeling really happy, and things were going well, and easy for whatever reason. I tended to not be hungry. And so I wouldn't eat so I would naturally lose a little bit of weight And then if things got tough or stressful or something, you know things going on real life I would gain so I just went up and down up and down and honestly I was able to Really get a handle on two things. I was able to get a handle on You The food choices I was making when I understood, I learned some science actually about weight loss that they don't teach us in medical school. you know, most in medical school, the real, talk is about calories in calories out. It's an energy balance model. you know, 3, 500 calories is one pound. So you need to burn 3, 500 calories to lose one pound. Okay. Well, it turns out that, to me, and my belief, and not all physicians believe this, and this is what I know is so confusing it was confusing to me for so long, and I know it's still confusing to people. But there's another theory of weight gain and weight loss called the, the carbohydrate insulin model. And what it really speaks to is how insulin and insulin resistance is what's driving weight gain. weight gain in today's world. and so food choices, if you make food choices that will keep your insulin level low, insulin is a hormone made by your body in response to, uh, foods with carbohydrates or sugars. But if you choose foods that keep your insulin level low, when your insulin level is low, your body is able to burn The stored energy, or the stored fat it already has, and that's how you lose weight. So it's not really a calories in, calories out, it's basically trying to keep your insulin level low. So, when I learned There's a really great book. Um, if anyone's interested in that theory, it's by a kidney specialist named Dr. Jason Fung. F U N G. He's a nephrologist. He's lives in Toronto. I believe his, the name of his book is the obesity code. He's also written a book called the diabetes code. great book, life changing book for me, I lost 45 pounds when I started and it wasn't really a diet because It's not a start date and an end date. There's no rules to it. Basically what you're doing, and what I did, is I learned to choose foods, number one, that I like to eat, and number two, that were going to serve my body in a way that Helped me achieve the results I wanted so that was that was one thing that helped me achieve my goal and the other thing that helped me achieve my goal was coaching and learning about coaching and and Becoming a coach number one, but also learning how to coach myself. And what I really mean by that is Understanding, behavior, through a framework of the fact that our thoughts, we all have thoughts racing through our minds all day long. Experts say we have about 60, 000 thoughts a day. so we have this superhighway of thoughts and our thoughts create our feelings and our feelings drive our actions. So this is super important when you start to think about why you're eating what you're eating, you know, why you're doing what you're doing, why you're not doing what you want to be doing. It all comes back to understanding your thoughts that you're having. and because our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings drive our actions. so that was the second, that was like a missing link for me that I had never understood. Like, why am I eating this when I know I really don't want to be? Like, I'm telling myself I don't want to be eating this, but yet I find myself eating it. I could go back, using this framework, and unravel. what I was really thinking and feeling before I chose to eat that. So both of those things were powerful life changers for me.

Magic Barclay: 13:57

Thank you for sharing that now we've covered a fair bit already, but I want to open the floor to you now, Sheila, what's something that you do or that you want to discuss that you feel the listeners need to hear today?

Sheila Carroll: 14:12

Well, sometimes there's so much I want to be a hopeful message for people. I know weight is such a struggle. I struggled for decades, uh, literally. And, people feel bad. I felt bad about myself. I didn't understand what was going on. I felt different. but I, I want people to know that they can make changes. It's not too late. It's never too late, for adults and it's easier than you think. And when you start to do it, it's so freeing. And. You just feel so empowered and Like, free, that you're finally living the life you want. and then for parents who I, I have this drive to help kids, you know, as, as I always have as a pediatrician, and today in the U. S. we have, you know, a fair number, we, we think somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of children are considered overweight or obese. So, somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3. And I just would like to speak to the parents of those kids, if your child's struggling with that, they need your help. Because kids can't make the choices. You know how we, I just mentioned the whole coaching thing of thoughts. Create your feelings, create your actions. Well, kids brains are not mature enough to go through that process, that thinking process, to understand why they're doing what they're doing. And so the parents of the kids need to do that for all aspects of their health. For nutrition, For their sleep, for their screen time, for their, you know, movement, and, and teaching the kids emotional, regulation skills, so that when they, as they age, and they get older and older on this long 18 year runway until they're, you know, an adult, um, That when they get to the end of that runway, they will have absorbed the skills that the parents can teach them and the parents have helped them with so that so the child won't have to struggle for so long on their own, trying to figure out, you know, if parents don't help their kids now, that is essentially just kicking that can. down the road a little bit. so it's not as hard as it might seem. It's not as overwhelming. and I just want, I want to hopefully inspire people to take some action and try to feel better and help themselves and help their children.

Magic Barclay: 16:58

Wonderful. Now, you mentioned coaching and we've had a lot of coaches on this podcast. I wanted to ask you, why is it important that people seek coaching?

Sheila Carroll: 17:12

Well, coaching very future focused. And that's one thing that makes it very different than therapy. Therapy Therapy is wonderful and, you know, I am not saying anything against therapy. I have had a lot of amazing therapy myself. But therapy can be kind of looking back and trying to understand what's happened. Coaching is so powerful because it is very future focused. It can be very present focused. How do I want to be thinking right now? How do I want to be feeling right now? Or for example, oh, I have a big meeting coming up on Friday. How do I want to be feeling going into that meeting? And through coaching, and using that framework I described, you can kind of design on purpose the thoughts you want to have that are going to create the feeling you want to have. So you are going to show up in a certain way. Um, and that coaching is just so powerful because it helps you show up how you, you yourself, not how I think you should show up or anybody else, but how you decide how you want to show up. That's what a coach does. A coach kind of reflects to you the thoughts that are affecting your life that you might not be aware of. Because sometimes we have, you know, we get confused and we think that our thoughts are facts. But there's a big difference between, if you have a thought and a true fact. And coaching is just so powerful because it helps sort that out and it's very empowering and And it helps you create the experience of your life that you want to have on purpose.

Magic Barclay: 19:07

Brilliant. We've covered a lot, and I really do thank you for your in depth honesty here. And I just want to let listeners know you can find Sheila on Instagram and on Facebook at SheilaCarrollMD. We love freebies here. What can you offer the listeners and where can they find it?

Sheila Carroll: 19:29

I have created a freebie called, 10 simple steps to help your child achieve a healthy weight. and this is not a, not a step by step thing that you need to do, you know, one and then two and then three, it's just general principles that, you know, kind of would help a family get an idea of what would create a healthy lifestyle for them. And they're very simple things to do. So that is easily accessed at, uh, well, you through my, through my Instagram or through my website, which is just my name, shelacarolmd. com.

Magic Barclay: 20:06

Fantastic. Shiela, thanks for your time today. It's been such an enjoyable conversation.

Sheila Carroll: 20:13

Thank you so much. Thanks, Magic, for having me.

Magic Barclay: 20:15

My pleasure. Listeners, thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.