Clean Living Crusader: How Karalynne Call Founded Just Ingredients

welcome to the know your ship podcast presented by ehub I’m your
host Frank Dolce I could not be more excited I have that tingly feeling that
I imagine preout imagine you get with with your free workout that I’ll let
you describe at some some point and this of course is the one and only Carin
call just ingredients founder CEO and we could not be more excited to have
you here today thank you so much thank you absolutely we we love having you
be being here you have such a great story and I know you’ve told this story a
million times I don’t think it ever gets old this is probably a little bit of
a new audience so at some point I’m going to ask you to tell that story okay
again but just to start G give me the 30 second overview of where Justin G is
today so just ingredients is a company that makes products that nourish the
body so our whole goal is we want to make products that you eat and products
that you put on your skin like beauty products that will nourish the body and
not have any controversial toxic ingredients in it we don’t want to mess with
the endocrine system we don’t me want to mess with toxins things that could
um promote cancer anything like that we just want to give America give people
well anyone outside of America give everybody I should say products that they
can trust that will just nourish their body and do that and simply that it’s
so interesting because in our country we used like our grandparents and even
my parents nutrition was a lot different for them they just ate food they
just ate food and we’ve we’ve gotten away from that in a lot of ways and for
for someone like me and for lots of people not just me but life is busy and
you’re always looking for something quick to grab and to go and and the way
we manufacture food today they kind of make it easy to do that and
inexpensive so hopefully we can dig into some of that stuff and how I’d love
you’re trying to change that trying to change that so I would love to talk
about that F I’m a fan I did this I did the same thing I can remember growing
up you talk about when you were growing up like Frosted Flakes in the morning
baloney sandwich you know on White Bread yep probably enriched in the
afternoon and maybe I love TV dinners I mean don’t get me wrong I looked I
watched Fantasy Island and had TV dinners I mean that was our thing um and
and so I I grew up the same way I can remember be on the way to school every
day Junior High and High School School my mom was working my dad was out of
the house early working and we were all just busy so we would drive by the
doughnut shop yep I would go in and get my chocolate covered cream fil
doughnut almost every morning yeah and that was my breakfast same I know but
I no knock on our parents I feel like my mom at least she was just like well
it sold on the store shelves so it’s got to be good for us then cuz why would
they put anything on the store shelves that isn’t and so she just fed us what
was on the store shelves cuz cereal they do a great job marketing you know
it’s enriched with vitamins it’s a great start to the breakfast yeah I mean
for your day things like that and so abut she just did what she thought was
right and so now we know differently so we’ve got to do differently well I it
it’s true but it’s hard it’s hard to reverse that Trend it can be difficult
it can be difficult plus everybody says well I ate that stuff and grew up
just fine but the problem is we’re not growing up just fine we’ve got you
know ADHD and depression and anxiety and autoimmune issues and migraines and
joint pain more than ever and we this would have to I would have to teach a
lot but like our Frosted Flakes today are not the Frosted Flakes I ate in the
80s and ’90s now they use the GMO ingredients that are sprayed with
glyphosate which has a whole slew of issues so it’s not really the same food
that we ate in the 70s ‘ 80s ’90s yeah well let’s talk about how you grew up
and where you grew up and and all of that leading to where you are today did
you are you from Utah is are you a Utah na no I actually grew grew up in
Southern California in Glendale California and I have seven siblings and so
we had a big family and our home was a busy house where friends were allowed
in all the time and so we had friends in and out and people staying with us
all the time and it was a very welcoming fun home to grow up in were you your
childhood was it pretty active were you Outdoors did you have activities were
you doing all the stuff well we didn’t really have the cell phones you know
to just be stuck on I mean we didn’t have the cell phones and so yeah you
wanted to play with your friends and ride bikes in the neighborhood and jump
out on jump on the trampoline outside and be outside playing after school was
over you know it’s different than it is now now they want to come home and
just play their games on the TV and be on their phones and all that stuff
yeah absolutely it’s different today and social media I mean I I have a
LoveHate relationship with social Med even though I’m on it and our business
thrives off of it so good for for your business and for you and but the
there’s the other side of it that can be very difficult for kids and people
who are trying to figure out where they’re headed and what they’re going to
be in life and so lots of pros and cons just like anything out there yeah
absolutely would what did your what did your parents do did your did both
your parents work or how how was that situation so my dad was actually a um
opthalmologist and so he was just always busy doing work stuff but also a
great dad that was very involved in you know the kids lives and things like
that but involved in a lot of church responsibilities as well and then uh my
mom was busy with the eight kids but always volunteering in kids’ classrooms
and being PTA president and you know doing all those community type things uh
I actually grew up in Southern California as well I grew up in Culver City
which is a little little ways away uh so so we have that we have that in
common we do we probably have lots of other things in common we’ll discover
as we go along so was there any would you consider your childhood normal were
there any traumatic events that you had to overcome or did you just kind of
go on your way and things just unfolded um there were some traumatic events
in high school but probably stuff I don’t want to air wait a second you told
me you were an open an open book but I didn’t know we were going to discuss
that part B past this High School experience yeah well I don’t think my
parents end scho yeah well my parents ended up in a nasty divorce let’s just
say that and that was hard so super hard a lot of things involved that took
place for that divorce to happen gotcha you mentioned earlier but it didn’t
sound like nutrition was really a big topic around your house growing up well
crazy enough my dad was a type 1 diabetic oh and had multiple heart surgeries
growing up but back then it was um oh he has heart issues so don’t have any
salt get rid of the salt so we had no salt shakers at home we never put salt
in anything cuz that’s what we thought was causing his heart issues and um
the diabetes we knew about sugar and stuff but it was always like oh he’ll
take some more insulin if he needs if he needs to if we have dessert that’s
what you do is just take some more insulin so there was that background but
that was about it there wasn’t anything else like you said I would have
Donuts in the morning for breakfast or Frosted Flakes in high school we go to
Burger King every day that was the hangout spot you know at lunchtime oh it’s
release time let’s just all go to Burger King and come home and maybe I don’t
know have something that sometimes my mom made sometimes she didn’t but I
look back and I’m like I don’t know if I had maybe one vegetable an entire
week you know I didn’t have the foods that nourish your body yeah I I was
pretty lucky because my mom I consider my mom a great cook so we almost
always had at least for dinner a home-cooked meal breakfast and lunch more
optional but but dinner time was was a little bit a little bit different and
and you didn’t have any at that point growing up I think people know a little
bit of the background of your story but you didn’t have any or you didn’t
recognize any kind of depressive events in your childhood or or would you say
with family siblings parents anything like that nope we just you know grew up
just going to school and coming home from school and playing outside and
playing with friends and you know practicing the piano every once in a while
even though we were supposed to do it daily and like going to dance class or
whatever and just enjoyed the childhood for the most part and just went on
with life and it wasn’t until I after college that I started realizing a few
things and now looking back I’m like oh maybe some of those like Outburst
that some of the kids had was maybe due to what we were eating or maybe
because this person always had headaches maybe that was due to what we were
eating but at the time it was just you know an easy childhood that seemed
like a normal childhood sure do you remember what you wanted to be when you
grew up yes a doctor but I went and became a math teacher crazy enough I know
I know that doesn’t seem it’s one of my biggest regrets in life but really
yeah it is because my mom crazy enough this is how I mean this is old school
right I mean I grew up 70s ‘ 80s yeah um she would tell me you can’t be a
doctor and be a mom at the same time so you need to choose one or the other
and so I legit listened to her because she was my mom and I thought she knew
everything and so I became I gradu or I majored in math at BYU and became a
math teacher so that’s how you got to Utah you went to BYU yeah and became a
math teacher yep at Murray High School in Utah oh is that right yeah so I
know I’m going to ask you some random qu random questions later but you just
brought something up you grew up in the 70s and ‘ 80s and this I just had
this thought about a random question which is the better musical era the 70s
or you’re wrong I’m an 80s girl I know my husband and I fight over this all
the time he’s a8s yes I love all the 80s stuff I know give me the neon colors
and the Cindy loer and the Mandana and I know my husb would die right now
he’s a 70s hardcore yes and he’s right I I have a theory about music and and
one of my theories about music is that some people have their 15 minutes and
then that should be it it should be cut off completely like no more ever I
don’t want to go into some of those 80s people you are thinking that well you
mentioned one of them Cindy Lopper I know but back in the day you know she
was she was fun uh but it’s like you said Looking Back Now can you say yes no
70s is my thing and now Have you listened to yach rock radio which is a bunch
of 70s stuff no but I’m sure my husband has feels like I’ve gone home oh
that’s funny it’s amazing I’ll have to see if he listens to that yeah tune in
it’s we need something like that for the ‘ 80s there’s not anything like that
for the 80s well you know actually my car has choose the’80s favorites all
the time my kids actually hate it do you know this is they hate it so bad
that listen to this cope for your kids when we’re in the car we all have to
take turns playing our song because they can’t stand my music I don’t like
their music so we all get a turn I feel like I try to give my kids a musical
education when they’re in the car and the 70s on all the stuff so I have a
wide range of music that I enjoy and uh 70 is certainly part of that but as
we’re going through this and I think I’m doing them such a favor I turn
around and they have like headphones in oh that’s and they’re listening to
their they’re listening to their good stuff yeah yeah you know it’s
interesting that we’re talking about music I totally got off track we’ll get
back we’ll get back to just ingredients uh a former coach for the Utah Jazz
named Gordon cha it’s actually kesa but everybody says cha okay says that the
way that he connects because he’s older the way that he connects with younger
people is through the music that they listen to interesting and and so he’ll
go out and he’ll study and determine all the stuff that they listen to and
then he’ll become familiar with it and that’s how he connects with people I
just mentioned that because one of the things that you said about your
popularity on Instagram is your ability to connect with people and your story
people want to people have either experienced that or have known people who
have gone through something like that and so that’s your connection which has
led to over a million followers correct it has yeah unbelievable that’s the
key I think to social media is if you can connect to your audience and
everybody’s going to connect in different ways right there’s funny people on
Instagram and there’s educational people there’s emotional people you just
sort of find those that you connect with and that’s who you follow well let’s
let’s start getting into this the Instagram and how that all got started so
you went through BYU you became a math teacher at Murray High School and at
that point did you get married were you married or on your way to getting
married yeah so the week after I graduated I got married from BYU from BYU
because I I didn’t want to be married in college that was just one of my
things so I was like I will get married after I’m done with college so the
week after I graduated we got married um worked at muray high for 5 years and
during that time had two kids and then took off to California um for my
husband’s job and had a third kid and then that’s when all the depression and
everything started that’s like the that’s like the event yeah so I know that
you you’re not calling it postpartum because your youngest was a year old
yeah was over a year old but you started to experience significant depressive
events yeah is that accurate yeah so today though I might say it was part
postpartum now people can say you can have postpartum for years it can be
three some say five things like that um but yeah once I had a one-year-old I
found myself with really bad depression and depression looks different for
everybody and so and every day can be different so people think oh depression
just means that you’re in bed and can’t get out of bed and there are some
days like that but some days it’s just pure frustration some days it’s comes
out as anger sometimes it’s you aren’t motivated to do anything and can’t do
anything sometimes it’s crippling um like indecisiveness not being able to
make decisions um and so I had experienced everything from the frustration
and anger and not wanting to get out of bed and not wanting to do anything
and couldn’t be couldn’t make decisions um for quite a long time and I
actually was going to doctor after doctor trying to get help but um well I
should back up do you want me to just tell the whole story you’re absolutely
okay I’m just going to I’m just going to tell you the whole story so yeah so
found this depression couldn’t deal with it I went to doctor after doctors
they kept saying like there’s nothing we can do for you we don’t know how to
heal from depression and I always tell people if you have a doctor like that
now they’re a dinosaur run because we do know how to help people with
depression and we need to get that word out that we can help people but I was
getting so frustrated that I thought I was doomed with this for life and so
people kept saying to me like you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel
and I was like there literally is no light at the end of the tunnel I am so miserable
I am frustrated mad angry sad all those feelings every day day after day
after day after day and so finally one day I just had had it I was like I
can’t live my life this way like my kids will be better off without me
everybody will be better off without me and so I actually attempted suicide
and thankfully by the grace of God the attempt failed and at that point then
I realized okay I have hit rock bottom I’ve have got to find some help and so
back to the doctors again this time of of course I let them put I did
anti-depressants because I’m like I need something that’s going to help me so
for two years I did the anti-depressants while I went to doctor after doctor
asking how to heal and they every single one we don’t know how to heal from
depression but in that whole two years no one took my blood work no one did
any type of testing they just kept saying the anti-depressants the only thing
that we know and don’t get me wrong I have nothing against anti-depressants
but I wanted the body to heal CU I kept thinking like you break a bone put a
cast on it put the proper tools on it it will heal you cut your finger the
body heals and I’m like I haven’t always been like this so something had to
have happened MH so personally I didn’t love being on the anti-depressants um
a great description of it is I felt seat beled in my emotions meaning I
didn’t feel that terrible depression but I also couldn’t feel happiness and
so it just sort of kept me numbed in my emotions and that was life-saving for
me at the time but I would go to doctors trying to get that adjusted too like
how can I feel happy or feel some laughter or joy in my life and so they
change the dose or they would add on a second one or you know try different
things and anyways two years of being on this I finally found a doctor who
was like yes I can help you but there’s no overnight pill there’s like no
magic pill are you willing and ready to do the work and I was like I am so
desperate like I have been looking for years I will do whatever you ask of me
and so she’s like your body um depression is just your body screaming for
help your body can’t verbalize to you what’s wrong so it’s going to show you
with simp symptoms and so she’s like we just need to figure out what’s wrong
in your body so we did uh blood work saliva testing urine testing did all
this different testing and found out that my body had a whole slew of issues
everything from little things to bigger things meaning like low in magnesium
um low in vitamin D couldn’t absorb my B vitamins but then a little bit
bigger things like um my progesterone estrogen was off my cortisol was off my
liver was having issues with different things found out I had a gluten
intolerance like the list was just huge of all these different things and so
of course my body was feeling like crap and feeling miserable because I W I
wasn’t taking care of it like how I needed to and so I went on an 18-month
Journey with her of her teaching me the basics of how to fuel my body
properly and after a year of working with her um and a lot of testing then I
was able to slowly wean off the medication and I’ve never gone back on
medication for depression I’ve never had to deal with the depression again
because she taught me how to fuel my body properly so that my body could do
its best in return for me and so um that’s my health story and then about 7
years ago so ever since that time so back up ever since that time I have just
been an avid like reader on nutrition I would go to conferences classes took classes
went and got my nutrition certificate just I loved soaking in all that
information just to learn for myself and how I can help my kids and so about
7 years ago I felt like everybody around me was dealing with either
depression anxiety autoimmune issues ADHD you know migraines chronic fatigue
you name it someone my neighbors my extended family members community members
and I was like ah I just want to help them so bad if I could just go in their
house and like redo their groceries and cook for them for a month I know they
would feel so much better but of course you can’t do that so I was like you
know I’ll just start a little Instagram account as a little Hobby and try to
give little tips to people on how to live a healthier lifestyle it’s so great
and at this point I had six kids still at home and so um it was a busy time
but I was like you know it’ll just be a fun little Hobby and my goal was to
get 2,000 followers and if I got 2,000 followers then I done my job well it
just kept growing and growing and Word of Mouth people just were sharing my
post and it kept growing and so then once it got to like 100,000 followers I
was like Hey I’ve actually got an audience I’ve educated up to this point but
now why don’t I provide products that talk that are the things that I’m
talking about you know products made with real ingredients that fuel the body
and so we started making products and just ingredients took off I have a lot
of questions okay on that on that whole story yeah that was a long story it’s
a great story let me see if I can fill in some of the pieces that I have
questions about so you have six kids but you started getting depression or
feeling depression or recognizing it after your third kid mhm are you going
through this depression and you’re still having children so yes my fourth is
my like little miracle baby for me because I did get pregnant with her during
all of this depression and she was a baby during my healing of the depression
and so those days I didn’t want to get out of bed I had to get out of bed to
take care of her and so I always look back as like she was meant to come
because honestly I think I would have just stayed in bed and not have had the
determination to heal because healing is hard work you don’t feel great day
two of this like you got to get up exercise and go get some vitamin D and eat
healthy and you know mentally be strong and so those days that I wanted to
stay in bed or be sad I had to get up for her so sometimes I think she was
meant to be yeah absolutely well I think that’s interesting because it sounds
like it was over well clearly it was overwhelming in your life but you still
had this desire to have children and I think that is overwhelming there’s a
there’s a good 5year gap between okay the because I knew mentally I couldn’t
do it I needed to work on my own health and then um I was ready to have
another one and those two have a whole different upbringing than my older
four because my older four they know Fruity Pebbles they know Twinkies they
know all that stuff all good stuff and now your oldest two are like no listen
to this fact like two weeks ago they were talking about twinkies and zingers
at the at the table and my youngest two who are 13 and N both were like what
are those and my older kids were like you’ve never heard of like Twinkies and
zingers and they’re like no and they’re like oh we got to bring them over
just for you to try I was like uhuh no no no they haven’t tried them it’s
great really fun do they have to yeah so funny but can’t they try them I’m
well they try them because okay let me tell you last Saturday after soccer
uhhuh the parent passed out ding-dongs you know and my daughter’s like what a
dingdong well and my daughter’s like oh what’s this and I’m like it’s called
a ding-dong And she’s like are they good I’m like I think they taste terrible
and she’s like but I did let her try it and she tried it and she’s like yeah
yeah it’s not that good because I think if you’re raised on homemade food and
like real food then you try something fake like a ding-dong she was like yeah
it’s not that good that’s probably true but for for me cuz I had Ting Tong
and singers and all those things and do you remember the pink one that had
like the coconut I don’t even know it was real coconut on it yeah I’m sure it
wasn’t those were my favorite it’s so nostalgic yeah even that terrible
flavor if you have it if I have that today which I rarely do it’s so there’s
so much Nostalgia associated with like a happy childhood so yeah so I kind
feel what it did to me well I want to ask you about that too okay I’m lining
up all these question question okay go for it um you got to a point where you
just thought no there was no hope yep and you took some action you were going
to try to alleviate that yep how how did your family and how did Jeff respond
to all of that well Jeff is a hero and he is a saint like sometimes I get
emotional talking about his role in all of it because you have to have a
really supportive spouse to go through this and he honestly though didn’t
realize the severity of it until I had attempted suicide and then at that
point he was like okay we’ve got to find you help we will pay whatever I mean
we were not rich by any means at that point we actually were struggling quite
a bit financially having three little kids you know you don’t you’re not
making much you know as a he’d only been in the work field for a few years
years you know and so um he was like we’ll pay whatever we’ll even put on
credit cards if that what we need to do like we’re going to find you help and
um after IID attempted though there were a lot of hard days during that two
years of trying to find a doctor and there would be days that I’d be like you
have to come home now because if you don’t like I won’t be here come home
from work like middle of day you got to come home yeah so there he was trying
to juggle work and three kids and a wife that wasn’t well to take care of him
and I had no other family support it was him and that was it because back 17
years ago if you try to tell people like oh my gosh I’m dealing with this
mental issue they were like come on get over it buck up get over it and if
you try to tell like church people in my culture they were like you need to
pray more you need to read your scriptures more you need a better spiritual
connection but yeah I was doing all that that’s like telling someone who
broke their arm to go pray about it rather than get a cast on it you know
what I mean so I didn’t have a ton of support and so when people say like oh
if you’re dealing with depression you need a big Community rally around you
I’m like yeah that’s great if you have that but if you don’t at least find
one person and so Jeff was my rock through that all wow yeah that’s amazing
and he’s a saint for sticking around and cuz he dealt with an angry kin a
frustrated Carn a sad Carn not wanting to do anything Carn uh crying Carin
you know what I mean like he dealt with at all what was his what was his
family background you know kind of growing up experience um his mom worked a
lot and so did his dad and so he um and he’s the youngest in his family and
so he really raised himself is what I say like they were busy at work he came
home to no one at home usually every day and played with friends and you know
after school but really took care of himself a lot we’re going to have to do
I’m going to have to do a podcast we’ll call it the other side and I I want
to get Jeff in here and talk to him about his experience because he is also
listed as a co-founder he is yes of just ingredients but I would love to hear
and I think people would be interested in hearing his story as well going
through all of that and Landing where you are today yeah they like heing his
side yeah it’s got to be interesting okay so you have this prompting that you
want to educate and help people based on all of your experience like you’ve
gone through this torturous time you’ve found help you found a pathway out
and now you want to figure out how to help other people one quick question
before that do you think all of the stuff nutritionally leading up to this
point accumulated and okay I do because I also think back like uh late 9s
early 2000s it was all like The lowfat Craze and so it was like the cool
thing if you only got like 10 gram of fat per day and that’s what I was
always striving for because you thought oh that’s how you stay thin and stuff
and so um girls though need actually healthy fats for their hormones
especially that is what builds the hormones and so my hormones were a mess
and that was part of it and also just not having any of the nutrients I mean
I was low in vitamin D and the B vitamins and magnesium and so many things
well a lot of that comes from food I wasn’t eating fruits and veggies and all
those things that have the nutrients and my gut was a mess and fiber feeds
the good bacteria in the gut I wasn’t having any fiber maybe some Fiber from
the donuts you know or the Burger King buns do they make whole whe Donuts
right I mean so I there were so many things contributing to my body not
feeling well but those nutritional deficiencies for sure finally just your
body’s like enough is enough I can’t function on nothing yeah and so you
which amazes me because I watch teenagers do that all the time all the time
but so many of them like now having a teenage daughter myself these girls
have like terrible PMS they can’t even go to school during certain times of
the month they’re Moody like dealing with depression anxiety and I’m like
it’s the food we’re eating the things we’re putting on our body all the
beauty products that are full of endocrine disruptors things like that it’s
all of that gotcha fascinating yeah okay so you have gotten to this point
where you have found a solution and and you want to help teach others you
start the inst Instagram account and you just start doing education yeah
simple stuff like it was literally like hey you guys this ketchup has high
fructose corn syrup this one doesn’t just buy the one without high fructose
corn syrup and so it was just simple little swaps and I think that’s what
appealed to people because people think like oh to live healthy I’ve got to
live like this kale and sardine diet you know but I think they were like oh
this lady has six kids who still like waffles and pizza and hamburgers and
things that we all like but she’s somehow doing it in a healthier way how in
the world and so I think that was part of the appeal that it was just simple
and still the foods that we all eat except the Twinkies and the zingers Okay
so there are things I mean obviously you can go into a grocery store and
there’s lots of things that you can purchase to consume it’s not like you
walk in and everything’s off limits I think that’s where I I get lost a
little bit is that you want to be real food whole food that’s should be your
basis or Foundation by the way you can correct meong and then like there’s a
lot of the processed man manufactured stuff that you want to stay away from
although like a guy like me I have I used to call it my terrible Sweet Tooth
but now I call it my amazing Sweet Tooth oh that’s funny because I have an
amazing Sweet Tooth oh that’s funny and I don’t know how to get over it and I
only try to limit what I intake on the sweet tooth side but well and it’s
okay to enjoy a suite right but the problem is these kids especially today
like the average child gets over 80 grams of sugar a day when of added sugar
when they’re only supposed to get 24 grams of added sugar and it’s just
because it’s in they’re Capri Suns that they’re drinking you know and then
all of these the cookies that they’re having at lunch and it’s just so much
sugar all day long and so much not real food all day long and so mine’s like
hey if we want pancakes in the morning for breakfast let’s make pancakes with
real ingredients like how your grandma would have made them back in the day
with the eggs and the and the real stuff but instead a lot of those like
pre-made pancakes got like mono and diglycerides in them or high fructose
corn syrup in them or inflammatory oils all these things that the body
doesn’t know what to do just add water and yeah it makes life really simple
but there are some companies coming coming along I mean what we have on the
market now compared to 10 15 years ago is incredible we do have companies
that are waking up to this they’re like yeah let’s feed the body real
ingredients real food so we’re seeing more and more better options but we
still have the bisqui you know that have got the ingredients that aren’t
great for us man I grew up I did too I did too it was like eating cake for
breakfast every morning before you went to school with some Golden Griddle
syrup full that’s why I was falling asleep in first period all the time right
cuz we had this big huge high sugar crash and or Spike and then we just
crashed yeah well did you did you have a thought as you started your
Instagram and started educating people did you think well I’m going to Parlay
this into a big Product Company and be really successful at some point I
didn’t until I started selling these digital downloads they were just little
cheat sheets because um I was getting so many DMS on social media so like
direct messages of like hey I’m at the store and what peanut butter should I
buy and