March 17, 2026

Nourishing Connections: Lisa Parda's Journey from Food as Fuel to Food as Self-Care

Nourishing Connections: Lisa Parda's Journey from Food as Fuel to Food as Self-Care

Send a text In this engaging episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome Lisa Parda, co-host of *Lisa and Robin on the Mic* and author of *My Love Language is Food*. Lisa shares her transformative journey of reframing food as an essential component of self-care, especially during midlife transitions. With her background as a real estate broker and a lifelong passion for cooking, Lisa discusses how her personal experiences, including a health scare, led her to embrace the Mediterran...

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Send a text

In this engaging episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome Lisa Parda, co-host of *Lisa and Robin on the Mic* and author of *My Love Language is Food*. Lisa shares her transformative journey of reframing food as an essential component of self-care, especially during midlife transitions. With her background as a real estate broker and a lifelong passion for cooking, Lisa discusses how her personal experiences, including a health scare, led her to embrace the Mediterranean diet and prioritize nutritious meals. She emphasizes the importance of cooking as a ritual and offers practical tips to make mealtime a joyful experience rather than a chore. Listeners will gain insight into building meaningful connections through food, the significance of shared meals, and how to incorporate cooking into busy lifestyles. Lisa also gives us a sneak peek into her upcoming cookbook, filled with unique recipes designed for every schedule. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that highlights the power of food to nourish both body and soul!
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
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00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:33.109
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. if you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a ah, show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about food as I am joined by Lisa Parda.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>She is the co host of Lisa and Robin on the Mic and the author of My Love Language is Food and she reframes food as self care and talks about how food can be important for midlife reboot. So we're going to be talking to Lisa about her show and why she feels like food is such an important midlife reboot. So Lisa, thank you for joining me.

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> Lisa Parda>Thank you for having me.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.

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> Lisa Parda>Okay. I'm a 50 something year old New Hampshire resident. I am a real estate broker by trade and profession. But books and food has always been a lovelong, lifelong love affair. although when I was a little bit younger, as many women struggle and young teenagers struggle, I did struggle with the idea of being thin, over actually healthy I will say. and three years ago I started a radio show with my best friend and we've been having a blast interviewing and meeting various people. But I think I'm a business owner, an entrepreneur at heart and I don't know, it's hard to put my labels on myself because I feel like I'm always changing my labels.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, let's talk about what inspired you to reframe food as self care instead of just simply fuel.

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> Lisa Parda>So I developed psoriasis in my mid-20s when I lost my father. My father passed away and, and I learned that, you know, there was really no cure for psoriasis. So I went to alternative medicine.

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> Lisa Parda>I looked there for a treatment to this problem and I was met with a phenomenal nutritionist who basically upended the way I thought about food and it upended the food pyramid about 25 years before it became fashionable to do that and really prioritized whole healthy food. And that's really where I got the reboot, that food is our medicine and really that's how you can care for yourself.

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> Lisa Parda>And I think we outsource so many of our, maybe the better way to say is like we think we can outsource our happiness, we can outsource, food, we can outsource all of these different things.

00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:17.819
> Lisa Parda>But I really think for our health and for self care, we have to take the reins back in and bring Cooking back to our own hands, or, at least within the household. Maybe your spouse, is doing it for you, or a child or a parent is doing it for you.

00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:21.780
> Lisa Parda>But I think it's really healthy to constantly eat out and eat healthily.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, speaking of cooking, can you share a personal story, of a midlife pivot where cooking helped you regain balance?

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> Lisa Parda>Yes. So, about five years ago, I was diagnosed with afib atrial fibrillation where my heart was out of rhythm with itself. And while I was waiting from the emergency room with the diagnosis to a cardiologist, a specialist to speak with me about my heart, there was about eight months and I was so panicked that I was going to wind up in the emergency room. So I started researching what's the best thing you could do for your heart. And it's a Mediterranean diet. so I really focused on eating, a Mediterranean, which is, omnivore. You eat fish, you do eat some meat, you do eat chicken, you do eat all animal protein. And you're heavy into the vegetables and you're really prioritizing healthy food and not necessarily low fat. And I, by the time I saw the cardiologist, basically, I had no, very few symptoms, very few episodes of afib. And when I told, I stopped alcohol, which was a huge self care reboot for me because although I didn't have a problem with alcohol, you know, I could drink, you know, I didn't have to send apologetic texts the next day for my behavior or I didn't overindulge in that way. But, but alcohol really never sat well with me. So I would always be missing a step the next day or two after drinking. So even though I didn't drink often, it didn't sit well with me. So one of the things I did was stop drinking altogether. I figured it's, if it's not going to be healthy, I shouldn't do it. I incorporated the Mediterranean diet, on the like, pest of someone in the emergency room. Because when you say, like, which diet should I follow for health? There's 25 answers. And when you say that to a cardiologist in the hospital, they say, no, there's one and it's the Mediterranean diet. So that was the real, influence of where food was directly affecting my health. And I think that's probably like a pivot of when you, when you start getting older, you realize I can't misuse my body, I can't mistreat my body, I can't ride it hard and put it away wet.

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> Lisa Parda>I have to really care for this to be able for it to have any kind of longevity.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>We'll talk about what it means to treat meals as rituals and give listeners some best practice tips on how they can start doing, doing so.

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> Lisa Parda>Yeah. So if you in, if you have a very busy lifestyle and you're not cooking very often at your house, I think picking one meal a week or two meals a week, where it becomes ritualistic. Say you're going to meet your friend at your house or my house and you say okay, this week we go to your house, next week we'll come to my house and every Thursday we're going to try a new recipe or we're going to eat. I think eating together is a huge component. I think we miss a lot of community nowadays. We're all sort of living in our own world on our own phones. And I think one of the rituals of eating in the presence of other people with your phones down and the TV off and just connecting over food is a huge ritual that would in, really improve people's life and I think they would see a benefit from it. Another ritual that I like is like certain holidays, like Thanksgiving's my holiday, but I love, you know, the Christmas cookie making holiday. I love, you know, very, you know, the fourth of July barbecue. I love a cup of tea in the morning. That's very real ritualistic of, you know, starting the water to boil, letting the water seep. So you can make anything ritualistic. And I, think the more we bring rituals back into our hyper productive, super efficient life hack lifestyle, I think we all be a little bit better off, at least spiritually.

00:07:32.170 --> 00:07:36.649
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Can you break down the trust, ease and small routine framework for the listeners?

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> Lisa Parda>Yes. So, I think you have to figure out what would fit into your lifestyle and where you would benefit the most. Do not make a morning ritual or routine if you're haggard in the morning or if you suffer from insomnia or if you just have a lot to do in the morning. I think sometimes just before bed routines might be a little bit more helpful.

00:07:58.529 --> 00:08:29.069
> Lisa Parda>and I think that you won't know the routine that makes you comforted until you experiment with a few of them. And so life, I consider it an experiment and the more you can experiment to find what works well for you in your life in a specific season. Talking about midlife, my routines are different midlife than they were when I was in my 30s. They are different than they were when I was 15. I'm sure at 65, they'll be different than 53.

00:08:30.189 --> 00:08:41.929
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, can you, talk about, you know, like you talked about these days? people are really busy, so talk about, some good ways to balance a busy career, with. With making cooking something joy.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Joyful instead of something stressful.

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> Lisa Parda>Sure. I think we think we have less time than we do because we've. Our phone takes up a lot of our time. and the technology which was promised to give us our time back actually has sort of seeped in, taking more and more of our time. So I think if we, If you're really busy, I'm. I'm a real estate broker. I often have open houses on some Sundays. I. I have very odd schedules where one week I may have three days a week that I'm working 12 hours a day, and then I have two days off in the middle of the week. I will try to make meals that are, better the next day. That might take maybe an hour or two. Not because they need an hour or two from my hands cooking them, but they might need an hour in the stove or an hour and a half in the oven that I make those meals. And then I have leftovers. You can do some food prep where maybe you grill up a handful of chicken breasts, then you make two or three different quicker meals because you already have one component of the meal prepped or cooked. Like, I really like a, a salad that includes avocado and blue cheese and grilled chicken breast over, like, a bed of lettuce with some olives and tomatoes. And then maybe a Caesar salad another day. And then the next day I throw that grilled chicken with artichokes and tomatoes and garlic with some pasta. So there's a way that I've cooked something that might take a long time, say, the grilling up the chicken breast. But I've now incorporated it over a couple of days to make each meal not feel so overwhelming and so time consuming.

00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:34.279
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Talk to the listeners about your show. You know, tell us, why you decided to start it, what we can expect when we listen to it, and where we can hear it.

00:10:35.330 --> 00:10:47.809
> Lisa Parda>So I asked AI to say, tell me what Lisa and Robin on the mic is about. And it says, well, it could be about anything. And that is because we really scratch our itch and we have a lot of curiosity.

00:10:48.049 --> 00:11:57.340
> Lisa Parda>So we often talk to business owners. We often talk about energy and mindset, and health and relationships and occasionally pop culture. We try to stay away from really divisive things because we feel like There's a lot of fear out in the media, and we want to be an antidote to that. So if you tune in, you'll hear a lot of laughter. One week you might hear a preacher. On the next week, you might hear a chiropractor. The next week after that, you might hear a woman who opened a flower boutique. Like, there's no rhyme or reason to who we have on. but we always try to have a really good time together. So we, we felt. We, record for two hours a week. It's Thursdays from 10 to noon every week. But you could always find us on SP, Spotify and YouTube. And I got into it because the owner of the radio station banks at the bank that I bake at for my business. And he was complaining a few years ago that in the news cycle, we were just divided. And the talk shows were one group saying one thing, the other group saying another thing, and no one having anything in the middle.

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> Lisa Parda>And he really needed a show that would bring people together because people were tuning out.

00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:30.200
> Lisa Parda>People didn't need another channel to listen to to get them riled up. So he thought he should have a cooking show. And the woman, the branch manager said, hey, you know, she's a realtor, but she's in the process of creating a cookbook because they handle my banking for my cookbook as well. And so he invited me on and then said, well, you're pretty well read and you can talk about just about anything. So you talk about whatever you want on the show. It doesn't have to be cooking, but we do talk about food a lot on the show.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah.

00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:40.980
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Speaking of, books, tell, us about that book, coming up here. What can we expect, when we read it?

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> Lisa Parda>Okay, so it's 128 recipes, and I've really curated them. So you probably don't have these recipes already in your cookbook. So I'm a cookbook fan. I probably have about 35 cookbooks on my shelves.

00:12:53.379 --> 00:13:13.139
> Lisa Parda>And you see a lot of the same food over and over again because it photographs beautifully for one, like the caprese salad. Everybody and their brother probably has a caprese salad in their cookbook. But I tried to pick recipes that were always well received or recipes that, when I made them for other people, people wanted the recipe.

00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:33.049
> Lisa Parda>And then I try to curate, something that would be really quick to make, a little bit longer to make, and then something that might take a longer time to make. For example, like I think of my stuffed cabbage rolls, which, if you're Polish, you'll know them as gumpy. Every nationality and culture.

00:13:33.049 --> 00:14:38.409
> Lisa Parda>Rolls, meat and vegetables. I think the Greeks have the dolomaids. Everybody has something. but this is cabbage rolls. And it probably takes about a good hour to make about 30 rolls. But then the oven, maybe two and a half, three hours in the oven. So that seems like a really long time. But it only requires an hour of your input. But each the recipes are sort of breaking up to like if you have a little bit more time you can make these handful of recipes. If you have, you know, a little less time, you have these ones and then if you are short on time you have these ones. So that it meets all of the your needs. Like a real cook in a real family. You know my sister in law has two boys who have basketball practice and they have this and that and she's in a season, she's not able to cook every night. So she likes the recipes she can make on one day that they eat as leftovers but they're always better the next day that those type of recipes. but you know sometimes when I have a long day at work I just want something quick to cook because I got home at 7

00:14:38.409 --> 00:15:06.440
30. So it's delicious recipes that I've tried to make as easy as possible that with ingredients that you have in your kitchen. And if you don't have them in your kitchen, I try to use them enough so that you're not just buying one ingredient for one recipe. And I do have drink recipes in there as well. So I have breakfast appetizers, snacks and then meals and drinks and non alcoholic drinks in the back.

00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.639
Oh, desserts too. I have lots of desserts.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And what's the name of it?

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> Lisa Parda>My love language is food.

00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:16.519
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Perfect. So listeners, y' all go pick that up.

00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:24.179
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Talk about one simple, simple repeatable food routine that listeners can try immediately to feel grounded.

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> Lisa Parda>Stirring. I know this seems strange but sitting at the stove stirring can be a very therapeutic. It doesn't take a lot of brain energy. Like foods like oatmeal and risotto. stuff that you just throw some stuff in a pan and you're just simply stirring it. Tomato sauce is another one that you do a little bit of chopping in the, you're just stirring. Doesn't you can teach children by that method too. another grounding, I think another grounding technique is to make like soups. because I think soup is a very grounding food. I was actually talking to an acupuncturist on the show and he was saying we most always should cook our vegetables, that salads aren't that great for you, especially in the winter. And that warm, warm nutrients, warm vegetables, all of that stuff is really good for your digestion. So I think stirring is underrated recipes like I think of risotto, just standing around stirring, you have a delicious meal at the end.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, talk about how people can use cooking to connect to others, especially during a midlife transition.

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> Lisa Parda>Yes. So I, I have a couple of really great examples. So, midlife can bring, empty nest hood.

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> Lisa Parda>so children going off to college for example, people used to having a full house and then the house gets a little quiet. sometimes during that time there's divorce. so you might have someone who's normally cooking and eating with other people that all of a, suddenly is eating by themselves. So, so if you can connect and make sure that you and, and a little bit older, as people get older, they lose more people in their life, through death and sickness and illness. So anytime you can connect with another person. Like I have a, a friend, she went through a divorce, and so anytime I can connect with her in a meal, sometimes if it's just like come over for a quick breakfast before I start the work day. Another friend I have, her husband passed away. I make sure we, we try to eat together and I'll send her home with a meal too because I know she's only cooking for one so she might not be cooking as much. And I think there's something so satisfying to the soul to be able to share food and sort of connect through that very comforting feeling of being your needs being met, like your basic needs being fed

00:18:12.259 --> 00:18:23.109
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>or talk about, what you want listeners to take away from. reading your cookbook and how has podcasting influenced your perspective on health and wellness since you know, you started doing it?

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> Lisa Parda>I would love for them to take away that you can really please yourself. And there's something so satisfying about being self sufficient that you're not requiring someone else to make something to make you happy or a restaurant to have a specific dish to make you happy, but for you to take care of your own happiness and have the self sufficiency to make your favorite cheesecake or one of the things I always do for people is whatever their favorite meal is. I always try to find the best version of that through trial and error and make it for their birthday. but I also make myself My favorite food. So like, one of the things that I think is the most self care you can do is take care of yourself through feeding yourself, but also make something exactly the way you want to make it. So what I want people to be inspired to and to take away is you have that power within yourself. It just requires you to do it. And I hope some of these recipes, you know, inspire you to do that.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, how has podcasting influencer perspective on health and wellness?

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> Lisa Parda>It has opened my mind. It makes, it continues. I'm a curious person and it continues to make me more and more curious, because I meet so many people and I come up with, I interview and talk to people about ideas I didn't know anything about. And it also allows me to be more educated and have a perspective of changing my mind. And I think, what more beautiful thing than to not be rigid at this age, but to be flexible, you know, even in my mind. So I think that's something that I've really enjoyed with the podcast is, you know, learning things but also changing my mind too.

00:20:20.859 --> 00:20:25.179
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

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> Lisa Parda>I'm going to do, speaking of community, I'm going to do a cook along series where I do a live, and I'm trying to do one with my radio show host where we cook something together, live and have the community be able to come on and either pop on or pop off or eat with us one day a week. and then we hope to put that up so that if the timing doesn't work, you can go and, and visualize it afterwards.

00:20:54.029 --> 00:21:20.179
> Lisa Parda>But I think being in like when, when I'm cooking at a party, you know, everybody's in the kitchen with me. So I want it to feel like even if you're alone in your apartment, you know, in Seattle, you can go online with a friend and you know, make whatever they're making or make something different and then sit down and eat someone and you don't feel so alone. That's, that's the, the 2026 project that I'm working on.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, so people can keep up with everything that you're up to. Throw out your contact info.

00:21:27.059 --> 00:21:29.189
> Lisa Parda>I, can be reached at Lisa and Robin on the mic.

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> Lisa Parda>And Robin is spelled Robyn and it's on the mic M I C. So that's our handle for Facebook, Instagram as well as YouTube and Spotify. if you want to connect we can be reached at, ah, info at Lisa and Robin on the mic. No, I'm sorry, Lisa and Robin on the Mic, gmail.com. so that's lisannrobin on the mic, gmail.com. you can contact us directly there.

00:21:53.490 --> 00:22:16.449
> Lisa Parda>And then my cookbook can be found on Amazon at Barnes and Noble and everywhere where you get your books. Independent bookshops as well will be able to order it. And you can also order it from my website at Stars at, night publishing@uh.com. and then if you want to reach me there, you can reach me at stars@night publishingmail.com

00:22:18.689 --> 00:22:18.959
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>all, right.

00:22:18.959 --> 00:22:27.480
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to, you know, cover or any thought, final thoughts you have for the listeners.

00:22:30.439 --> 00:22:57.459
> Lisa Parda>I know it's difficult and daunting to have to come up with what's for dinner every single night. So continue to try to find people to inspire you to do that. Try to find people to talk about. And then when you have throw up your hands, if you have a good enough community, maybe someone will invite you over for dinner. And then you can do the same for somebody else. You can. Don't be afraid to invite people over your house for dinner. Don't be afraid to send out an invitation.

00:22:57.459 --> 00:23:33.439
> Lisa Parda>And if someone says no because they're busy this week, don't be afraid to send up that invitation again. The more you can, the more we can come back into a community where we're face to face, looking in each other's eyes, spending time in each other's company and sharing laughter and stories and sadness too. It's the sharing that makes it really important. And I think we, since the pandemic, I think we've all been a little bit more isolated than we, we would like. And if I could leave people with something, it would be to try to reconnect yourself, even if it feels really awkward at first.

00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:38.159
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, and throw out that website for the listeners one more time.

00:23:39.259 --> 00:23:44.990
> Lisa Parda>starsightpublishing.com all right, ladies and gentlemen,

00:23:44.990 --> 00:24:18.009
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>go there, check out Lisa's book and check out Lisa and Robin on the mic. Connect with them and, you know, can't wait to see when they, when they come with that live event. You know, definitely, love to, learn, different recipes and different ways of cooking. Might have to check out those cabbage rolls. So please follow rate Review share this episode to as many people as possible. Also visit www.craveball337.com Share that website and the show to everybody. You know, if you haven't done.

00:24:18.009 --> 00:24:32.789
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So sign up for the newsletter. Drop, us a comment, any suggestions that you have, and leave us a review. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Lisa, thank you for all that you're doing to, you know, make the world a better place.

00:24:32.869 --> 00:24:34.389
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And thank you for joining me.

00:24:35.029 --> 00:24:37.349
> Lisa Parda>Thank you for having me. It's been an honor. Thank you.

00:24:37.829 --> 00:24:59.509
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.crave.com curveball337.com until next time, keep living the dream.