Dr Krystyna Shepetiuk Of BioX Unlimited: 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Positive thinking. Research shows that our brain performs better when we are happy. We become more successful at work, at home, in our community.
As part of our series about 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Krystyna Shepetiuk.
Dr. Krystyna Shepetiuk aka Dr Kryss is a Certified Functional Medicine Specialist, diabetes coach, biohacker, firewalker and best-selling author. Dr. Krystyna is a busy mother of three and the founder and CEO of BioX Unlimited.
While building her online functional medicine practice, she works as a Clinical Pharmacist with a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM). As an overwhelmed and overworked mother of three, Dr Krystyna worked hard to transform her own life and mindset through Tony Robbins’ programs and made the decision to help others create their way to an extraordinary life through functional medicine, biohacking, and nutrigenomics.
Dr. Krystyna believes that managing your health is a life-long journey and soulful project. She believes that you can elevate your health to the next level through the quality of small everyday decisions, life “hacks”, and altering your own biology. Through consistency, diligence, and discipline, anyone can change their lives. Dr Krystyna is an expert in mindset coaching, habit and productivity building. Her specialties are focused around sleep, intermittent fasting, longevity, and nutrigenomics.
Dr. Krystyna is on a mission to create blue zone communities, and she believes that it all starts at home. Together with her husband, they have created a unique wellness home philosophy and teach their kids and clients about food as medicine, exercise, meditation, sleep and the power of gratitude. She believes that human potential is unlimited, and she wants others to fine-tune their life in the most important areas in order to achieve optimal health and lives altogether.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the US at the age of 11 with my parents. In Ukraine, I grew up in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains. I spent my days playing in the dirt, hiking, skiing, picking berries and mushrooms in the forest as well as helping my parents with harvesting and managing our small flock of farm animals. I attended family gatherings filled with singing and laughter. My childhood was simple and yet very healthy.
Upon arriving in the US, I had to quickly grow up, assimilate to the new country and become a second mother to my younger sister. That first year was very challenging. With the recommendation of the school administration,
I was placed in a Polish-English bilingual class to help with the assimilation process. However, this created another challenge for me, as Ukrainian and Polish are two different languages. I did not question it because I knew my parents had other things to worry about and continued to work hard to become the best student. Upon graduating from elementary school, I was recommended into an advanced high school curriculum, the International Baccalaureate program, helping me excel further in my studies.
Looking back, I understand now more than ever that mindset is everything. Tony Robbins calls this phenomenon “where focus goes, energy flows.”
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It is a story that brings hope and inspiration. It is a simple story about creating your own freedom and realizing that your ability to create the life you wish for has unlimited potential. This story is ageless, and I look forward to passing it to my children and others. I think it’s a great book to read when you are going through a challenging time.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius
As I was going through my personal transformation, this quote by Marcus Aurelius resonated with me. Our birth is a miracle. In addition, after listening to a TED Talk by Mel Robbins where she said, “You are one in a trillion,” I knew I was meant to do more. I was given an opportunity to have a life, to have a mission so that I can change my life, and ultimately, the world. I decided to prioritize my health because I wanted to feel “enough.” I wanted to be enough for myself, and my family. What I wanted for them is what I wanted for myself, and thus, I started walking the walk, and setting an example for my family first.
Practicing exercises such as gratitude and meditation helped with finding my way in the dark towards internal peace, and entering the state of consciousness, all while understanding the fact that life is not a random occurrence. Life is not a destiny written by someone above, instead, it is a series of consequences of our own decisions. The law of cause and effect is a universal law. I started practicing appreciation by journaling every morning and night. I included a gratitude ritual in daily dinner conversations with my family. This practice helped me feel good about myself, about my life, and more importantly, I started seeing positive changes happening around me. I started getting more opportunities at work, I connected with other like-minded health care professionals that care about my passion. I started noticing that this mindset was helping me to eliminate my stress and anxiety around “having it all.” What you appreciate, appreciates. When you are fully giving it all every day, it comes back to you. Crafting your ideal life is a life-long project because life is not a sprint but a marathon.
Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher who left behind his journal with Meditations. He also said, “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” I believe that the philosophy of Stoicism can help many of us with current events of the pandemic, politics, mental distress and much more. It can help us stay on track with our mission and appreciate every moment that is in our control.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is being the best version of you with the task at hand. If you search for top leadership skills, you will come up with communication, motivation, positivity, feedback, creativity and many more. We are not born with these, and there is no way we can learn all of these in one day. We can, however, strive to be better each day and learn these skills through our life experiences. Leadership can look many ways. I look at my three kids and often see my older daughter teach her younger siblings about healthy eating or sharing. As parents, we are leaders for our kids. We are leaders as teachers, as community members, as teammates. We are leading and influencing others in every moment of life, whether we know it or not. Therefore, it is important to be conscious of our actions, become leaders to ourselves and strive to be the best version each day for others.
In life we come across many people, some who inspire us, some who change us and some who make us better people. Is there a person or people who have helped you get to where you are today? Can you share a story?
In the Spring of 2019, I attended a Tony Robbins event, which taught me that the best investment you could make is to invest in yourself. The most valuable lesson that I took away from this, was learning to adjust my mindset. I learned to understand that the power of mindset can help you overcome some of the most challenging times.
Looking back, that weekend also helped me to embrace my gratitude practice, improving my psychological health and reducing toxic emotions such as envy and regret. Simple acts of gratitude opened up my mind and body to feel its best.
During the Unleash the Power Within (UPW), Tony Robbins event, I also got to walk across 20 feet of hot coal to overcome my fears. It was unreal. Once my mindset was set, I said “Yes” to myself, I said, I am strong, I am enough, I am the master of my life. I was able to overcome my fears and insecurities. I knew that by replacing negative emotions with positive ones, I could get through anything. The exercise taught me to understand Tony’s favorite line, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” My limiting beliefs were transformed into beliefs that eventually changed my thinking.
Tony Robbins really helped transform and shift my life into a positive direction and now I can continue to help myself, my family and others around me. Tony Robbins has inspired me to search for my Ikigai. There is still a lot to learn about the way our mind can impact the body but it is evident that when people are surrounded by positive encouragement to reach health goals, they will be more likely to heal. They can overcome their limiting beliefs, fears, and insecurities resulting with confidence, creativity and set up for success.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. The United States is currently facing a series of unprecedented crises. So many of us see the news and ask how we can help. We’d love to talk about the steps that each of us can take to help heal our county, in our own way. Which particular crisis would you like to discuss with us today? Why does that resonate with you so much?
Unfortunately, our country is not healthy, and I believe this is a massive crisis. We are overworked, overwhelmed, over stressed, obese and physically inactive.
I remember signing up my daughter for summer camp, and being disappointed with the lunch menu which included pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and other low nutritional value foods. I was extremely disappointed that my kids will be exposed to all these impostor foods, with no benefits except to fill up their bellies.
With this new awakening, I knew that I wanted my kids to be exposed to real foods, to eat the kinds of foods I ate as a child, until age 11, as I grew up in Ukraine. My favorite sweet treats consisted of berries we picked in the forest, homegrown strawberries, gooseberries, red and black currant, cherries, apples, pears, plums. We had a homemade cake a few times a year during major holidays, as our budget allowed. We had our chickens, ducks, goats, and a cow. Likewise, we even had our orchard. Furthermore, we did not have processed foods and practiced regenerative farming. Thinking back, every family had a full abundance of true organic products, however, with modernization and progress worldwide, most people became addicted to processed foods and sugar.
Currently, at home, healing from within became my go-to therapy, instead of my medicine cabinet. I started using food as medicine, incorporating the rainbow of foods on each plate, adding prebiotic foods like asparagus, chicory root, and probiotic foods like sauerkraut. We eat 5–7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, anti-inflammatory herbs. The language in my house changed. My 3 and 5-year-old started distinguishing junk foods with low nutritional value, from healthy foods with high nutritional value. They would discuss it in school, at their grandparent’s house, and among other kids of the same age. Our thinking changed. I stopped thinking about what others around me want and do, and instead, focused on what I want.
I started to become obsessed with functional medicine, holistic wellness approaches, and biohacking your biology. This inspired me to enroll into a functional medicine program. I started educating myself on nutrition, became certified in diabetes care, and became an education specialist. I also enrolled into a nutrigenomics certificate program, to understand interactions between genes and diet.
With the help of functional medicine and biohacking, my husband was the first person I helped to achieve the massive health transformation he had always been searching for. We started with mindset setting, then changing our food choices, and picked up intermittent fasting (eating during an 8-hour window). We also began doing a biohacking exercise through HIIT, tracking sleep, morning cold therapy exposure, and breath work. If you think about our body, it is all interconnected, our organs, cells, neurons are communicating and collaborating constantly. Therefore, our body needs to be looked at holistically.
Our personal health is the foundation for our entire life. Our nation will be weak when its citizens are not healthy. With poor health, many health markers will be weakened, people become depressed, stop being creative, stop caring for their health and cumulatively for their country. We often try not to spend money on our health because we feel good at the moment; however, if we consciously take care of our body from a young age, we can build a strong nation of citizens.
This is likely a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on how this crisis evolved to the boiling point that it’s at now?
Now, more than ever, I understand that we are living in a world of food products that are impostors. With different flavors, such as bacon, cheese, and chili, that are full of carbohydrates and unnatural fats for the human body. Once this processed food touches our tongue receptors, it tricks our body, and in the midst of the sedentary lifestyle, this leads to increased fat production. This leaves us hungry, causing overeating, slow metabolism, inflammation and increased chances for chronic diseases, such as diabetes.
Due to lack of consciousness, our country is facing many problems such as increasing cases of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in kids and adults, fast-moving Alzheimer’s disease and many more making our nation weaker. Looking back through history to World War II, we experienced a food and farming crisis, forcing the country to add chemicals and process our food quickly to avoid famine. Companies started focusing on quantity versus quality, and regenerative agriculture became scarce. The current food industry has been successful in mastering the minds of millions of consumers with their clever and sexy marketing schemes. And the boiling point of it all is that our lack of consciousness coupled with marketing schemes has resulted in an unhealthy society.
Having an unhealthy society can lead to a domino effect of degradation of our lifestyle, happiness, ecosystems and all of humanity.
Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience either working on this cause or your experience being impacted by it? Can you share a story with us?
I am confident that we are all healthy to some extent. Our health is not defined as one single marker, instead, it comprises all of our genetics, metabolic pathways, emotional state, social state and more. While we may have lower quality markers in one area, others may have higher quality. Each of us has a unique health map. Through my company BioX Unlimited™, I can now help clients maximize their good markers, and improve their weaker ones, all within six months. I work with clients through an individualized approach, by combining functional medicine, biohacking, and your genetics. Once a client decides to work with me, I start with a nutrigenomics test, which is a blueprint to help understand how individual genetics can help each one of us, individually. Based on the individual DNA, you have a unique opportunity to have immediate recommendations and actions to work on, to elevate your health. To further enhance your health, I would dive deeper into other functional tests, such as a food sensitivity test, hormone test, metal toxicity test, and overall nutritional evaluation.
Connecting functional medicine, along with biohacking and analysis of your genetic code, creates miracle solutions. You can gain more energy and maximize your body’s full potential. Most people go to traditional doctors when they already have a problem to fix. However, if we start taking care of your body holistically, from a young age, it can help prevent many of the future concerns, and most importantly, create an extraordinary lifestyle.
One in three Americans has prediabetes and 34 million Americans have diabetes. These statistics can become worse in the coming years but if we change our beliefs, then we can influence our behaviors, behaviors of others and ultimately help our country heal from within.
Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country”. Kindly share a story or example for each.
Step 1. Right Mindset. It is important to change how you think about change, build the right mindset and create the right focus.
Step 2. Positive thinking. Research shows that our brain performs better when we are happy. We become more successful at work, at home, in our community.
Step 3. Create purpose. Each of us needs to have a purpose or vision of where we are going. Japanese people of Okinawa call it, your Ikigai. It will be the reason to get up every morning and therefore contribute positively to society.
Step 4. Manage your health. Our health is a life-long project. To be great leaders as caregivers, parents or role models, we need to first be health managers for our own health. For our country to be strong, we need to be strong physically, emotionally and spiritually. That starts with you, at your home, modeling healthy behaviors so that the future generations can follow.
Step 5. Gratitude. Our birth is a miracle. It is important to appreciate that you are one in a trillion and were given an opportunity to change someone’s life.
It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but what can we do to make these ideas a reality? What specific steps can you suggest to make these ideas actually happen? Are there things that the community can do to help you promote these ideas?
1. Surround yourself with people you admire and who you want to become.
2. Walk away from negative vibes, think about what you have to attract positivity and joy. Create a list of limiting beliefs or fears and then change them into empowering beliefs. This will help you to be in control of your own life.
3. To help with finding your purpose, I like a mobile application called IKIGAI. You can use it to reflect on what you love to do, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for.
4. Move your body when you can or 30 minutes per day. Create a sleep schedule. Eat simple food. Improve each day with a small action and create massive transformation.
5. Take time to journal every day and write 5 things you are grateful for. It will create fullness to your life and set daily intentions.
We are going through a rough period now. Are you optimistic that this issue can eventually be resolved? Can you explain?
I am optimistic, but we need to work together and start modeling healthy behaviors at home so that our kids and future generations can follow. Among American adults, 23% say they never wonder about finding more meaning and purpose. Without purpose, I truly believe that we are just existing in the societal rat race. There is no success without effort, but through conscious actions we can have an extraordinary life!
We often look for a quick fix to live longer and healthier but even from all the studies that have emerged thus far, the main recommendations lead to simple things that each of us is capable of doing. Our mindset is a major component which can be changed if we start at home helping ourselves and the younger generation because our beliefs influence our behaviors.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
To achieve extraordinary life, we need to be conscious of our thoughts and get into action. We need to get off our butt, roll up our sleeves and figure out what is it that I want, what is making me smile in the morning. If you put in the work, you will start attracting positivity and things that you like and enjoy doing. You will create a ripple effect of positivity around you.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to meet Tony Robbins. He helped with my personal transformation after attending his event Unleash the Power Within, and I would love to hear his opinion on the current world situation.
How can our readers follow you online?
To connect with me, visit my website www.drkryss.com and follow me here:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Dr Krystyna Shepetiuk Of BioX Unlimited: 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
