Clearing the System: How Clean Eating Changed Karla Giorgio’s Life

This month, we talked with Karla Giorgio about the health benefits of veganism and managing time and social pressures while living healthy! Karla, an entrepreneur for over 15 years, stars on Netflix’s realty reality show, “Selling Tampa.” She’s also a 2INSPIRE certified keto coach.

Dennis Postema: Tell us about your journey through entrepreneurship. Karla Giorgio: I started in the car business with my dad when I was 16 years old. We ran a dealership together. I ended up loving the business so much that my dad fired me because I was making way too much money.

When he fired me, I said, “You know what? I’m going to open up my own dealership.” I was 19.

My mom and I ran it together until I got burned out. I walked away from that industry and ended up getting my real estate license at age 24.

Four or five years later, I met Sharelle Rosado and joined her brokerage company. After I joined, some producers from Netflix reached out to us and they were like, “We need to do a show with you.”

We were like, “Yeah, right, this is foolishness, this is not true.”

Before we knew it, we were filming, and now I’m on “Selling Tampa.” All of these doors started opening. It’s crazy.

Here I am at 35, with three kids and a bunch of stuff going on.

Dennis: What do you eat on a day-to-day basis? Karla: I transitioned to vegan eating about two years ago, which means I don’t consume animal products whatsoever.

My breakfast usually consists of an oatmeal shake with almond milk, peanut butter, chia seeds, bananas, things like that. Real clean.

For lunch, it could be a vegan quesadilla—which will have plantains, black beans, vegan mozzarella, and corn. I switch it up every day. Every day is a different day.

I make my own dressings and sauces, and I have fun People always say, “Oh my God, I could never be vegan, that’s so boring,” or, “What do you eat? Like, do you barely eat anything?”

I’m like, “No, I eat a lot!” I love to cook.

Dennis: What are some differences you’ve noticed in your body since you switched to a vegan diet? Karla: The clarity that comes from it has been amazing, from my skin to my mental health. It’s unbelievable how, in the first week, I saw a complete difference. My weight definitely fluctuated. I didn’t lose a lot of weight in the first week, but I could tell my system was cleaning itself out. All of the toxins were coming out, and I used the bathroom more regularly.

Everything I never thought would happen because I always had issues—that’s why I transitioned to vegan eating in the first place. Before, every time I ate, I felt this heavy ball in my system. I thought I was developing Crohn’s disease. I was looking up symptoms online.

I decided to try veganism for 30 days. By the third day, my skin was clear. It felt softer. No rashes, no allergies, nothing.

Mentally, I felt less stressed and I became a nicer person.

When I ate meat and chicken, I would feel very sluggish after a meal. It was almost like I couldn’t move for two to three hours. Eating vegan has helped me maintain energy, bigtime. It’s amazing. I don’t drink any coffee or any of that. If anything, I’ll drink a matcha tea latte, but I don’t need it.

What you put in your body is absolutely important, and you have to be careful with what you’re eating.

Dennis: When we’re busy, temptation sets in. As a hardworking entrepreneur, how do you deal with food temptations? Karla: I loved cheese. That was the hardest thing to let go. I’m Italian, and we put cheese on everything. But it definitely messed my body up to the point where three days later, my stomach would be completely tight, I couldn’t use the bathroom, and it was a horrible feeling. Because of the way my stomach feels when I do eat something that I know I’m not supposed to put in my system, there is no real temptation, you know? I’m not going to take the chance. I’m always looking for an alternative.

There are a lot of places I can eat at if I’m really, really hungry—if I have to stop at a fast-food joint and get some french fries, I can do that. It’s just something to hold me over. Or I’ll run into the supermarket and grab some fruits, bagged pickles, or a spinach wrap—you can order hummus with banana peppers, olives, spinach, and there you go.

It’s really easy. I think people just overthink it so much because they were raised with breakfast being bacon, eggs, sausage, whatever, so that’s what they’re used to.

Dennis: How often do you work out? Karla: Before my injury, I was working out four or five times a week. I was lifting and squatting 245 lbs. off a boat, because I’m very adventurous, and I broke my foot. I finally started walking again last November, and I’m still in rehabilitation, but I’m slowly getting back up. I’m now working out two to three times a week. There are a lot of things I can’t really do, but I’m getting better, and my therapist is clearing me for heavier lifting, so I should be back and good to go.

Dennis: How hard has it been for you mentally to not be able to do what you know you love? Karla: I was in a very dark place when I broke my foot. I was depressed. I lost my self-confidence, my self-esteem went down. It really messed with me. I couldn’t go to the gym like I was used to, and I can’t do a lot of the things that I was used to. Before my injury, I was an active runner on the treadmill, and to this day, I still can’t run.

But that doesn’t stop me, because I can get on the StairMaster and I can still get my cardio in somehow.

When you go through things like this, you have to make new habits, teach

yourself new things, and say, “Well, I can’t do this, but I can do this,” and alternate. That’s what helped me.

Dennis: In real estate, you have the glamour that comes with showing off houses, meetings and all of that. How do you maintain your vegan diet in those work situations? How do you tackle alcohol? Karla: I don’t really drink alcohol that much, and I don’t want to drink, because my system is so clean that when I do drink, I get very sick, and it’s not worth it. When we have work events, of course, they never have anything for your girl here. They never do. I mean, they probably have a piece of carrot or something, but I don’t like carrots, so I’m not eating them. They could be in my soup, but they have to be cut up really small, because they have so much sugar—not a lot of people know that. I’m very picky about what I put in my system, to the point where I won’t eat carrots because of the amount of sugar they contain.

I’ll see what’s available at an event, but I make sure to eat at home beforehand. I drink a lot of water before and during the event. Water is all I like to drink.

Dennis: How did you adapt to a vegan lifestyle? How did it change how you care for your body? Karla: Seeing the positive changes it’s had on my skin, my stomach, my bowel system, and everything that comes with all of that has been the best. Because I feel so good, I adapted to it well. It’s just that simple. I don’t have those health issues anymore.

After breaking her foot, Karla was depressed and frequently made excuses for herself. Here, she tells us how she overcame those feelings and pushed onward to a healthier lifestyle: We are humans, and at the end of the day, we like to make excuses. For a while, I was like, “Oh, I’m not going to the gym because I can’t do this,” and I had to stop that, because I was gaining a lot of weight. I hit 190 lbs., and that was the second reason why I said, “I’m going to go vegan, clean my system out and try to see what I’m allergic to.”

I took a sensitivity test that helped me to see what I’m allergic to, and the biggest things were cow, chicken, eggs, cheese—everything that I was eating. So I realized that was why my stomach was having issues.

We tend to make excuses and downgrade ourselves because internally, we feel like we can’t do something, and that’s it. We start believing that. I think that’s the biggest issue we fight with on a daily basis, because you can’t believe what you’re telling yourself—unless it’s positive, then we’re all in—but if you’re constantly saying negative things about yourself, then that’s not going to work. That’s not good for you.

My mood and mental clarity improved. Everything has changed to the point where this is my lifestyle, this is me. I’m always in the kitchen coming up with new recipes. When my kids are with me, they eat vegan, because everything I cook is vegan, and they don’t notice the difference. They love my cooking.

When they go to their dad’s house, they eat all sorts of different foods, so they get the best of both worlds, and they can make that choice for themselves later.

Dennis: Eating healthy and staying active helps prevent and cure different diseases, but most people don’t realize that and they don’t choose a healthy path. How did you do your research? Karla: Food is medicine. That’s how I look at it. You can either mess yourself up with what you eat, or you can heal yourself with what you eat. It’s really up to you.

I’ve heard stories of a cow having a cancerous tumor, and they cut and take the meat around the tumor to sell. Cancer ran through the blood of this poor cow, and now they’re selling it to people as food.

I do my research by reading a lot and taking my time. I love this stuff. Every chance that I get to teach myself something new or learn something new, I will read. I think reading is fundamental. It’s a lot of things that we don’t see, but we look for them and we read about them, and that’s how we’re able to know what we’re missing out on. It’s very important.

Dennis: How early do you wake up, and how long have you been in the habit of waking up so early? Karla: I’ve been waking up at five o’clock in the morning for about a year. It’s made a significant difference in my entire life. I get about two and a half hours to myself with no one bothering me. I keep my phones silent. I’m able to focus and cook everything for the day. I plan meals out the night before.

It’s all about organization.

When people see that they’re able to do so much more by waking up early, it’s a no-brainer, and they’ll keep doing it. I’ve gained so many hours.

At first, I was like, “Five o’clock? Are you kidding me? Who does that?”

And now, 7:30 a.m. is late to me. If I wake up at 7:30, I’ve messed up the day and I start going crazy with anxiety.

Dennis: How do you juggle your kids, workout regimen, and your job? Karla: Let’s say it’s a week where I have my kids and let’s say that this is a school week.

I wake up, get myself together, put together the kids’ breakfast, get everything done, and drive them to school. The drive is about an hour long, because the school we picked is the one that they need to be at and we love it, so I make that sacrifice. I picked my gym in that area so I can work out and be there to pick them up from school.

I bring them home and serve dinner. I cook the entire day’s meals in the morning if I’m able to, so

that when we get home, dinner is ready and then I can sit at my laptop and get to work.

Throughout the day, I make sure I haven’t missed anything at work. I’ll sit on my phone for about an hour, going through emails, calling everyone I need to call, and checking up on everything. It’s the only way I can juggle everything, because otherwise, I’d be all over the place.

To learn more about Karla Giorgio, visit her on Instagram at @ karlagiorgio_ and watch for her upcoming cooking show on 2Inspire TV!

Karla goes into further detail on how she manages pressure to drink alcohol in social settings: In the past, I was a very big social drinker. I loved drinking and meeting new people and making conversation, but then I drank more, and it always felt like I was in motion until I was home the next day. I’d get headaches, and I felt sluggish. Was it really worth doing all of that? Just the other day, I was at an event and I had all the liquor in the world right next to me, and everyone was like, “What are you going to drink?” I responded, “Just lemon and water.” And they were like, “Really? You’re so boring.” I said, “I have a long drive home,” because then they’d understand, you know? If I try to say that I’m vegan and I can’t drink, or if I try to explain that I don’t like drinking, it becomes a whole conversation, and sometimes I don’t want to go into all of that. People don’t understand. So I keep it moving.