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348: How to Minimize Your Exposure to Toxins & Effective Detox Protocols With Dr. Sandison From Neurohacker

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348: How to Minimize Your Exposure to Toxins & Effective Detox Protocols With Dr. Sandison From Neurohacker

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com. That’s Wellnesse with an “E” on the end. It’s my new line of personal care products like hair care and toothpaste.

This episode is all about toxins and detox. I’m here with Dr. Heather Sandison, who’s the founder and the medical director of the North County Natural Medicine and the founder of Marama, which is a residential care facility for the elderly. The reason I wanted to have her on, she specializes in neurocognitive medicine and neurohacking. And she’s been trained to specifically address things that affect the brain like autism, ADD, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s, and she has a really unique system for doing that and her elderly care facility is doing this with patients and seeing incredible results. So, in this episode, we talk about how you can minimize your exposure and how to effectively detox from the three big toxins as well as how to support your natural detox systems in the body. It’s a really fascinating and far-ranging episode. Without further ado, let’s jump right in. Dr. Heather, welcome. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Heather: Thanks for having me.

Katie: I am so excited to jump in with you and talk about different types of toxins and how to effectively detox. But I also always love hearing the background, especially someone I’ve just met and can’t wait to talk to. So, to start off, can you explain a little bit about your background and how you became a naturopathic doctor that specializes in this?

Dr. Heather: Yes. So I had my own personal health issues. When I was an undergrad, I was doing pre-med and then came up against an autoimmune disease as well as TMJ. I couldn’t open my mouth even enough to brush my teeth. And so I went to the medical doctor and had a horrible experience. And then I went to anyone who would listen. I went to the dentist, multiple dentists, I went to acupuncture. I went to the psychiatrist, you know, the psychologist. I went to pretty much anyone who someone said might be able to help. And finally, I ended up seeing a DO, she was actually a doctor of osteopathic medicine. And she and I chatted, she did craniosacral work and then said, “Hey, have you ever heard of naturopathic medicine? If I could do it all over again, that’s what I would do.”

And so she turned me on to naturopathic medicine. And when I heard just the perspective of naturopathic doctors and the approach that they took to medicine, really looking at the cause of disease versus putting a band aid on it in the form of surgery or medication that had side effects, I was like, ah, this is what I’ve been imagining for so long, I didn’t realize that it already existed. I didn’t have to create it, somebody else had already created this system of medicine. And so then at that point, it just became a matter of when I would go to naturopathic school not if.

Katie: Nice. Yeah, and I think there’s…I would guess most listeners pretty well understand what a naturopathic doctor does and how that differs from other types of medicine. But can you just kind of give a little bit of an overview there as well?

Dr. Heather: Absolutely. So we do the same four years of medical school and we have step one boards after two years. Those first two years are deep dives into the biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, we have a gross lab where we have to dissect a human body. You know, a lot of it is the same. And then we take this big exam that lasts for an entire day at the end of two years. And then at the end of four years, we have, you know, multi-day exams to become licensed.

And the second set of two years and the four-year medical program for us is different from conventional medicine. And then instead of doing rotations, we are in a teaching clinic and we’re learning about modalities, things like hydrotherapy, and herbal medicine, lots of nutrition, lots of the foundations of health.

And so instead of learning about surgery and delivering babies, we are in a clinic where we’re talking to people about their diet and nutrition and lifestyle. And then we can also provide, you know, referrals to surgery. We can also write prescriptions. So we’re trained and licensed as primary care providers but our specialty is more in the lifestyle things that can help prevent people from getting on medications or potentially even help them get off.

Katie: I think that’s awesome. And that was a big part of my own puzzle piece, early on after I started having kids I had what I would eventually find out was Hashimoto’s. But it took years and I had been to many, many doctors who tested…I would guess what the standard of care tests were mainly just T3, I don’t remember what else they tested, but they wouldn’t test antibodies or TSH. And it wasn’t until I found a naturopathic doctor that I was able to actually start figuring out what was wrong and working to correct it.

And it blew me away to realize, after being in the conventional medical model for so long, and it being more just lab tests and prescriptive and even being told by doctors, you know, “Your diet doesn’t really have any impact on your health other than weight.” To work with a naturopathic doctor and be asked about lifestyle, and stress, and food, and sleep, and so many other factors. And that was when I was researching as well and learning just how intricately involved all those things are.

So I think for a lot of people, especially someone with a complex health issue, finding a practitioner who’s willing to look at all of those pieces is super important. And I know, from researching for this interview, that you have done a lot of research specifically in the area of toxins and detox and how to mitigate things like that. So let’s start broad and can you kind of explain…I feel like that word encompasses a lot of things. But explain the nature of kind of what toxins are and what’s happening when they interact with our bodies?

Dr. Heather: So for a minute, I just want to take even one more step back. So I talked about being really inspired to go into naturopathic medicine because naturopaths really value treating the cause of disease. So complex chronic disease like Hashimoto’s, or a lot of what I treat, which is like, autism, brain-related things, autism, Alzheimer’s, even depression, anxiety, these things all have…there’s a cause. If we look at the human body, it’s a complex system and these chronic complex disease states come from an imbalance…and really any complex system, right, if it’s the financial system, or if it’s agricultural systems, whatever complex system we’re talking about, if there’s a glitch in the system, it’s usually because of an imbalance.

I would even go so far as to say it’s always because of an imbalance, too much, too little, in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. And if we can help to correct that imbalance, then we can create more harmony in the system, so that it behaves better, right, you get more optimal function from it. And so the five things that I believe cause complex chronic disease, it really can be distilled down to imbalance in these five areas., toxins, structure, stress, nutrients, and then infections.

And I’ve chosen to really dive deep into the toxins. And that’s because, from the conventional perspective, like you discovered with your Hashimoto’s journey, the conventional medicine, they completely ignore this unless it’s extreme toxicity, right. Unless somebody’s like swallowed a can of paint, right, then they don’t really want to hear about any of these long-term insidious kind of low-level toxins that may be disturbing certainly endocrine function.

So I really feel like it’s almost like my responsibility to go deep into these toxins because so many of my patients have been told that conventional medicine has nothing for them. They don’t know why there’s nothing that they can do, but they have all of this fatigue or headaches or insomnia, autoimmune diseases coming up. And so what can we do about that? Well, from my perspective, there are essentially…I call them flavors like ice cream. There’s three flavors of toxins. And I look at them in these categories because it’s what’s easiest to test.

So the first flavor is heavy metals. And I tend to do that using provocation. So I do wanna get some sort of provocation agents so that we know what’s in the system over time because some of these get stored. They’re not alive so they’re not procreating, so you don’t get more and more and more in your system unless you’re consuming, excuse me. So if you’re ingesting heavy metal either through eating copious amounts of like fish, especially the predatory fish, so things like shark or tuna, swordfish, those have high levels of heavy metals in them.

And then the other way that people are exposed to metals is through their dental amalgams, and often getting them out is one of the highest sources of exposure. And so doing that with a dentist who really understands how to mitigate your risk is important. So heavy metals and then mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are like heavy metals in that they’re not alive. So myco is yeast or mold, and it’s the toxins that yeast or molds produce. So again, with that, I tend to provoke…and I’m mentioning this provocation part because there is disagreement in the field. So if you talk to different experts, some will wanna provoke and others will not. But you know, my pattern is to do it, it’s how I was trained, and it’s the way I’ve done it for so long. But when I look at a lab, I know what it means when I’ve done it my way.

So with mycotoxins, we tend to provoke with some glutathione and with some sweating, and you can do that from home. And then you collect urine and we can see how many mycotoxins are in your system or get a sense of how many mycotoxins are in your system. And potentially even which type of mold created that mycotoxin.

So, Stachybotrys, or you may have heard of this as black mold, that can produce certain types of mycotoxin. And then Chaetomium a different type of mold and that produces different types of mycotoxins, as does Aspergillus or Penicilliums. So if that has been growing in a, you know, office building or in your bedroom or bathroom, a building or a room you spend a considerable amount of time in then those mycotoxins can certainly accumulate in your system.

And then the third flavor of toxin that we look for is the chemical toxins. So I look for about 20 of these in a lab test I run and again, we use a little bit of provocation, through glutathione or sweat. And these ones… I’m sure you’ve heard there’s like 80 something thousand chemicals on the planet, at this point. We don’t test for all 80,000 but we get a sense of okay, what are the petrochemicals, or the ones that are associated with gasoline and you know, are burning fossil fuels. So what are the petrochemicals? What are the parabens or PCBs? Some of the things you might see showing up in personal care products, do you have a few?

So we measure a few of the petrochemicals, a few of the parabens, PCBs. We measure glyphosate, which is what we think of as the active ingredient in Roundup. So pesticides and herbicides, we measure a handful of those but certainly glyphosate. And then we can also look at things like styrene that comes from styrofoam and chemicals that might be associated with getting your nails done a lot.

So we look at a handful of these, about 20 of them, but from different categories. And for me, this is often very eye-opening. I have a patient who… She’s just absolutely amazing, very committed to an organic, non-toxic lifestyle in her home. And we ran this test because I couldn’t figure out why she was so fatigued. And sure enough, after doing some digging, after doing this test, I was like, “Why are your pesticides and herbicides off the charts, higher than any ones I had ever seen and you’re eating an organic diet?” And she was like, “Oh, I do Ikebana” which is Japanese flower arranging.

So this amazing woman, she like…for low-income families, she creates these beautiful flower arrangements to send to the hospital for these people who have been hospitalized but couldn’t afford to get like a beautiful flower arrangement, right. So she does that two days a week, she volunteers, and she’s up to her elbows in the pesticides and herbicides that we won’t even spray on food. So we had no idea that this was gonna pop up. I had no idea to like ask her the question, right, do you do flower arranging? But when we ran the test, it popped up. It surprised us both. But she was then able to wear gloves, you know, a very simple intervention that totally reduced her exposure and then changed her symptoms.

Katie: That’s amazing. Yeah, I think it’s important…that’s why testing is so great to realize…like, who would have thought to even test for that, you know? Like, finding those things that can make such a big difference. So understanding toxins, I think, like all of these inputs that can come in, I’ve always thought of the analogy a little bit like a bucket. Like, we all have a point at which things will overflow, and you can kind of put a lot of stuff in, and whatever you put in eventually when you reach the top, it’s gonna overflow and something’s gonna happen. And that’s kind of how I’ve always thought of sort of toxins, and for my case, autoimmune disease that probably a lot of factors went into that for me like stress and exposure to certain environmental toxins and lack of sleep, and poor diet, and a lot of things.

And then for me, it manifested in Hashimoto’s, but I think that part of the equation seems different for everybody potentially. So what are some ways that you see, clinically, this overflow of toxins manifesting in people?

Dr. Heather: You’re absolutely right, and you bring up such a great point, right. It’s not only what’s going out, but it’s what’s coming in. And I would even start with 75% of environmental illness, 75% of my job is identifying what’s coming in and turning it off. So turning…I think of it, like turning off the faucet that’s filling that bucket. It’s such a great analogy. So how I see this manifesting, you know, my… This is my bias, of course, because this is what I do. But I really think that everyone should be sort of evaluating what degree of toxins they’re exposed to.

So looking at, what is all this stuff I put on my skin, you know, what am I choosing to consume in terms of my diet? My mom came… I had a baby about 18 months ago. My mom showed up at my house for six weeks to help me. And she had been complaining about her memory loss, so she was forgetting names that she would have never forgotten before. She was having to write down grocery store lists, when usually she’s so good at that, missing appointments, little things. At this point, she was just joking about it but she was scared, I could tell she was afraid that she was losing her mind.

So she showed up at my house and I, of course, was adamant there was not one thing that wasn’t organic coming into my house. So every single thing in the house was organic. And she was not committed to that beforehand. So she showed up, we ate only really, really good food because, of course, I had a newborn, and my mom stopped complaining about her memory loss by the time she left just six weeks later. So things like anxiety, depression, of course, autoimmune disease, it’s very hard to link them directly to toxic exposure, because it manifests in so many different ways. Toxins, they’re ubiquitous in our environment, right, you cannot avoid all of them.

But there are some certain things that you can avoid, like certainly what you choose to consume in terms of food, what you choose to put on your skin, you can change that. You can educate yourself about that. So there are some things that we can change and others that we can’t. But taking control of the things that we can change is so important and can have a profoundly big impact on our disease states and our wellness state, how good we feel even.

Katie: Absolutely. Okay, so let’s go deeper on that. I’d love to kind of delve into each of the three different types a little bit more because I think they’re not super well understood yet, or at least there seems to be a lot of confusion on some of them and how we’re exposed, and then how to undo the damage if we’ve been exposed. So let’s start with heavy metals first, can you give us a little bit more detailed overview of what are considered heavy metals, and where are we most commonly interacting with these?

Dr. Heather: Yeah, absolutely. So the big ones that you wanna be kind of most afraid of are lead and mercury, and these tend to be very neurotoxic. So lead…like everyone’s heard of Flint, Michigan, and how there was lead in the water and that led to lower IQs in the children who were exposed. So this is really, really, really important that we’re not exposed to lead. Lead used to be in paint. And in the ’70s that was outlawed so that no longer happens. But if you live in an old house, it’s not that I think people are, you know, licking the walls of the house, but it’s every time you open or close a door, open or close a window, it’s the rub, that friction that’s created, that can release a little bit of paint particle into the air and then you can breathe it in.

So, lead also can come from…you know, if you’re someone who makes jewelry, or if you are somehow exposed through some industrial process, right. If you’re working on cars or welding, you know. So most people aren’t exposed at high levels unless it ends up in the water. At least not… Now, I will say that people who were raised overseas because lead came out of the fuel, out of the gasoline also in the ’70s. But it tended to stay around in Central America and India and more of the third world countries, it was in the fuel for longer. And so I have patients who are in their ’60s and ’70s and they have very high levels if they were, say, raised in another country. And some people also of that generation who were raised in the U.S.

And then Mercury, like I had mentioned before, usually fish and then also the metal amalgams in the mouth. And then, unfortunately, coal power plants they produce mercury as well, so it can be in the air. And that’s one of those things we just don’t have control over. Cadmium is another big one and that tends to come from cigarette smoking. And those are kind of the three big one’s. Aluminum, tin, those come up as well. Gadolinium is a heavy metal that’s found in….if you get a lot of MRIs it’s in the contrast dye. And so I’ll see people with really high levels of that if they’ve had a lot of orthopedic MRIs.

And then, getting rid of those…you know, really all of these in terms of getting rid of the heavy metals, what you wanna do is open up your emunctories. Emunctory is the fancy naturopathic word for organs of elimination. And there are five organs of elimination, your liver, bowels, kidneys, lungs, and then skin and lymph. And I would love to go into the details about how to support each of those.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s such an important part to understand is that the body has channels to detox this and how we can support that. And for people listening who are thinking like okay, I don’t think heavy metals are an issue for me, I like that you went into there are common sources of exposure. And I actually had an uncommon one that ended up being part of my puzzle piece, which was in high school, I worked in a stained glass shop. And I didn’t even think about the fact that the metal that we used between the pieces of stained glass, and then the stuff that we would melt to make those stick together had lead in it. So that was something I had to deal with, as part of my own health journey. But yeah, walk us through how we can support all the different organs in that detox system.

Dr. Heather: You make such a great point, I ask people about their hobbies not only because of my patient who was doing the flower arranging, but also ceramics, the glazes often had lead in them. So like stained glass, glass blowing, jewelry making, some of these really fun, creative, wonderful hobbies can lead to exposures if we’re not savvy about what’s in these things.

So the Emunctory, no matter what your flavor of toxin is, that you’ve potentially been exposed to…of course, we wanna identify it, we wanna be able to identify it and get specific about how we get it out. But opening these amantrees and supporting these organs of elimination really is something that anyone can do.

So the lungs, detox breath work, there are lots of, you know, yogic breathing, yoga breath practices, there is online support that will take you through different breathing practices that help you to detoxify, right. If a cop pulls somebody over for driving funny on a Friday night, they are going to do a breathalyzer because one of the ways that we get rid of the toxins that we produce through drinking alcohol is by breathing them out. So this is true for many toxins. And we sort of forget, I think, that we can get rid of so much through our lungs. And it is certainly a pathway to take advantage of.

Now the flip side of that is that we can certainly inhale a lot of toxins. So one of the cheapest interventions and the best interventions is open your doors and windows in your house for at least an hour a day. And if possible, open the window of your office. The indoor air quality, it’s kind of…I think of it like a pool versus the ocean, right. There’s so much more air outside that is diluted of all of these toxins. So if you can open the windows and let that fresh air come in and dilute the indoor air, you’re gonna increase the air quality.

Now, of course, if you live or work right on top of a freeway, then that’s not gonna work as well. But for most of us, if we open the doors and windows, we can really increase the indoor air quality. So what we’re breathing in, again, we can reduce the particulate count in that.

The other thing that you can do is…particularly if you’re concerned about indoor air quality is you can get an air filter. And so I’ve had lots of patients whose symptoms have improved just by adding an air filter. And they don’t pay me but my favorite one is the GC Multi by IQAir, I really think that’s a very high-end quality one. There’s a lot out there that are very expensive, and they don’t work very well. So when given the opportunity, I do like to turn people on to that one, because it works. So that’s the lungs. Some ways that we can really increase our ability to detox through the lungs is one take breaths in and then two detox breath work.

The kidneys certainly water, water, water, water, water, and minerals. So having enough electrolytes in your system. And I don’t recommend distilled water, that doesn’t have enough of those minerals in it, but good high-quality spring water. And even having your water tested. I live in San Diego and we’re at the end of the Colorado River. We don’t have fabulous water quality for what’s coming out of the tap but we do have access to great spring water. So I recommend that people drink good high-quality mineral water that is out of glass, ceramic or stainless, not out of plastic and particularly those soft plastic bottles that have been sitting in the sun. That is a recipe for ingesting a lot of plastic chemicals, so definitely avoid those.

Drinking plenty of water. And if you don’t love water, then adding a little bit of lemon or adding a bit of mint or cucumber is something that makes it more flavorful for you. And detox teas, of course, can be very, very helpful. Certainly dandelion and thistle are good for both the kidneys and livers. So adding that to your daily routine can be very, very helpful. So that’s lungs, kidneys. Liver, so great things for the liver are certainly dandelion, milk thistle, and then we need all of those good nutrients to help the liver to detoxify.

So the liver, in all of its wisdom, if we don’t have enough of the nutrients that are necessary for phase two detox, the liver will slow down phase one detox. And this is because… Alcohol, again, is a really good example. When we drink a glass of wine or something it goes to the liver and the liver converts it in phase one detox into acetyl aldehyde. That acetyl aldehyde is what makes us hang over, that’s actually more toxic than the wine that we first consumed. And so the liver just blows my mind, this divine design, it’s so incredible. The liver stops phase one detox if we don’t have all the nutrients that are necessary to get that acetyl aldehyde, that toxic intermediate, fully conjugated and eliminated from the body.

So having plenty of those nutrients, things like NAC, the B vitamins, minerals, glutathione, can be very, very helpful. All of those things help to make sure that there isn’t a glitch in the system there, that there’s nothing gumming it up. And then the liver… So getting plenty of that liver support is super helpful. And then the livers spits out a toxic sludge called bile. And that goes into the gallbladder, if you’ve got one, and then into the gut. So ways that we can help support the gut are primarily through fiber. Fiber is one of the best things that you can do, as long as you’re getting plenty of water and it doesn’t turn to concrete. Having a bowel movement every day, at least once a day… If you’re not, it’s constipation and needs to be addressed.

So that’s really where I start with most of my patients it’s, if they are not having a daily bowel movement, we do not wanna start mobilizing cellular toxins. So toxins kind of…I think of it like the snow-capped mountains is the cells and then when you have a bowel movement, that’s like releasing it into the ocean, that’s the end of the river. And so we don’t wanna create a flood in the middle. And so opening up the river mouth or having bowel movements, sweating, urinating, all of those things help us to get the toxins actually outside of you. So elimination is what’s so important.

So the bowel movement, if you can take that toxic sludge called bile and bind it with binders, things like chia, flax, psyllium, charcoal, clay, chlorella, there’s a prescription when it will use, sometimes for certain mycotoxins, called cholestyramine. All of these binders it’s…I think of it like they’re giving the toxic sludge a hug and they’re holding on to it so they can take it out of the body and you can fully eliminate it through a bowel movement.

If we don’t have enough of those binders, then a process called enterohepatic recirculation will happen. And that fancy medical term basically is just saying that your gut is meant to absorb things, your colon is meant to absorb things. So if the bile sits in there too long, then your…and it’s not bound, it’s not being hugged by one of those binders, then your body will just reabsorb it. And then guess what? It goes right back to the liver. So now your liver has to take out yesterday’s trash and today’s trash, so it’s doing all this extra work. If you can just have a bowel movement every day, then your liver has much less work to do.

So lungs, kidneys, liver, bowels, and then skin and lymph. These ones are fun because you get to get a massage, okay, for all our mamas out there, you deserve one. So skin and lymph, lots of ways that we can support this, dry skin brushing even a rebounder. A mini trampoline helps to get your lymph going. Hot and cold showers, going back and forth between hot and cold, or if you have a plunge or something like that, absolutely, that’s fantastic. Lymphatic massage. A castor oil pack over the liver can also help with the liver and skin and lymph. There are so many fun things that we can do here. Saunas. Saunas are fantastic and I like…there’s some sauna blankets and there’s little saunas you can sit in that keep your head out. That tends to help people tolerate them a little bit more and they can stay in there longer.

You only need to sweat for about 10 minutes a couple of times a week and you’re getting a ton of toxins out. It is important to wipe those toxins off. So if you start sweating, you wanna either take a quick shower afterwards or use a washcloth or something, get the toxins off of you. Because when you’re hot like that, your pores are open, we’ve got toxins out, what we don’t wanna do is have you just reabsorb them. So really important with saunas to replace your electrolytes using water and then an electrolyte powder. Coconut water is a great one. And then make sure you rinse. And I typically say with cool water because that’ll get the toxins off and then it will close your pores back up.

Katie: Great advice. And a question I’ve seen come through a few times, I wonder if you might have an answer to, is some people seem to have, especially when they first start doing sauna or things that stimulate the lymph system or even from taking certain supplements that can be detoxifying, like magnesium, or greens, or algae, they’ll notice itching on their skin. Is that like a detox reaction or have you come across anyone having that clinically?

Dr. Heather: Yeah, lots. So absolutely, probably, a detox reaction. Although…you know, certainly itching we always wonder if there’s an allergy. And if you have a known allergy to something, then, of course, avoid it. But what I notice with… And I was sort of alluding to this with the analogy of the snow-capped mountains all the way down to the riverbed, out into the ocean. The analogy here is about mobilization at the cellular level, so that’s our snow-capped mountain. And then elimination at the level of the ocean or, you know, our bowel movements, urination, sweating, anything that eliminates it. So the ocean is outside of the body and our analogy of…our river is inside of the body.

So if we start to have too much snow melts, or we’re detoxing too much, at the cellular level, we’re not able to keep up, we’re not able to get enough elimination, not enough is leaving the body and so now we have more in the bloodstream. And what we see are things like rashes, we see headaches, we see fatigue, this is like the keto flu. A ketogenic diet is very detoxifying. And so sometimes people initially will have an increase in symptoms when they start on a detox diet or a detox plan.

My interpretation of that and my professional approach to that is, that is great information that tells us we’re probably on the right track, but what we need to do is slow down. Really, really important, this is not a no pain, no gain situation. This is an opportunity for us to communicate with our body about what it needs. And so if there is an increase in rashes or fatigue or headaches or anything like that, then we take that and we say, okay, let’s take less of the detox provocation agents or even less of the support and just slow things down a bit. Do the gentler approach, so spend less time in the sauna or, you know, focus on water, focus on the detox breath, focus on the things when you don’t have to add anything to the body but you’re really just focusing on elimination.

Katie: Yeah, that’s such a great point. Like I found for me…I think probably that balance is different for everyone. But when I was in the heat of the autoimmune disease, when it was at its worst, I had to be very careful with diet and eat very low inflammation. And then I had to…anything else beyond that, I had to do very slowly and make sure I was getting extra sleep. I didn’t do any really difficult workouts during that time, it was very much a period of rest and let my body rebuild slowly. And I think that’s such an important reminder is, especially when it comes to any of these things which can be very dangerous if you mobilize them too quickly. More is not always better and it’s not always just, you know, you should push through and do more to get through it quickly.

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Obviously, one of these toxins that you mentioned a little bit and I’d love to go deep on is mold, because this one has risen a little bit more to mainstream knowledge, I think, lately. People are starting to be aware that it can be a problem. But there’s still so much confusion about how to test for it, how to find out if it’s an issue, what to do about it if you do find mold, and if it really can actually have that dramatic of an impact on the body. So what are you finding when it comes to mold exposure?

Dr. Heather: Again, you know, the conventional community has really poo-pooed this idea for a long time. And I feel so grateful to people like Dave Asprey, Ritchie Shoemaker, and Neil Nathan, who have brought this to the forefront and really shown people that this can be a big part of what’s driving your symptom picture. And I have people who, you know, we address this, we figure it out, we address it and they go back to normal. And it’s so satisfying and I feel so lucky I get to do what I do when I get to see someone show up for their families again after treating this.

And I don’t wanna say that it’s an easy road by any stretch. Often when people come in and they test for mycotoxins and there’s a significant amount of that going on, I brace them, you know, this is a months to years long journey, not a days to weeks journey. So typically, we’re looking at about two years, maybe more depending on the amount of exposure and whether somebody is currently being exposed.

A lot of it is speculative in terms of why mycotoxins have become such a problem for people. And I don’t know, you know, if it’s a new thing, or if it was going on for a long time and we’re just kind of realizing it, the science is just catching up, or if it is really that we’re being exposed more. One of the theories is that the building materials, so things like drywall, have created more food for mycotoxins. Whereas, like old homes that were made of plaster, say, or brick, that wasn’t something that the molds like to eat as much, right, so you didn’t have as much risk.

And then the other thing that has changed is there’s a lot of fungicides in paint. And what we see is just like antibiotic resistance, you know, you add a bunch of antibiotics to the system and now the biota, the bacteria, it will change and be more resilient to that antibiotic. So with the fungus, what we think may be happening is that having so much fungicide in the paint is creating…molds are making more and more toxins. One of the things that we see is that like Candida, if you use an antifungal, if you swallow some nystatin say, then the Candida when it’s under threat will make a gliotoxin, so it’ll make a toxin. When you don’t have any nystatin in the system, and you can see this in a petri dish. When you don’t add an antifungal, the yeast, the Candida doesn’t make a toxin, right.

So depending on how threatened… From an evolutionary perspective, like if you put yourself in the role of yeast or a mold who’s on a piece wood competing with other microbes for food, then if you create toxins, then you’re gonna win for that food, you’re gonna get rid of these other, whoever you’re competing against. So you can see how adding more toxins or fungicides to the paint might increase the production of toxins for that mold. So this is all very speculative. I don’t wanna, you know, sound like we know for sure that this is going on, but it certainly can be one of those factors that’s influencing the increase in incidents of mold diseases, mycotoxin-related illness.

So for this, the way I test is I tend to use…like I mentioned, I do tend to provoke these and again, the consensus, there isn’t one. So different experts in this field have differing opinions, but it is the way I was trained and what I’m used to looking at, in terms of the results. So we’ll do a provocation using glutathione and sweating. And then people will collect their urine the next morning and send that off to the lab. There’s a couple of different labs that I use. And then, based on that, we create a plan that is very specific to the type of mycotoxin that shows up. So kind of like heavy metals, for mercury, we use certain chelating agents. For lead, we use different chelating agents.

For mycotoxins we have some degree…even though this is very new, we do have some degree of specificity that we can apply to how we treat the different mycotoxins. And so we create a plan together and then, like you said, we just go at the pace the body can tolerate because what we don’t wanna do is flood the system with toxins quicker than it can get rid of them.

Katie: Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. And so, for anyone listening just to make sure, because you’ve mentioned that term a couple of times about provoking. So basically, you can use different substances to provoke different things you’re trying to test for in the body. And then you can use, essentially, those same substances to help the body like continually release those things and eventually get rid of them, but you just want to be careful about the amount?

Dr. Heather: Yeah, thank you for clarifying. So, I started looking for mycotoxins years ago, maybe four or five years ago. And what I was finding is people who we knew had mold exposure, so they knew they were in a moldy house because somebody had done the environmental testing and they found the stachybotrys in the wall. They had awful symptoms that were clearly related to mold, and they might even have allergies to that mold. Well, we test their urine for mycotoxins and there would be nothing in the urine. And we were just pulling our hair out going, “Why is this? We know that they have lots of exposure, we can see that it’s in the environment, where did it go?” And what we found is that the sickest people, the reason they’re so sick is because they’re not eliminating, right, they’re holding on to these toxins.

And mycotoxins, they tend to be fat-soluble. So this is part of why they’re so dangerous for the endocrine system is because they can get glommed up in your pituitary or hypothalamus or up in your brain, in your lymph nodes, in your glands, like your thyroid, or your ovaries. So they can wreak havoc throughout the body because of their nature of being fat-soluble.

But what we found was, if we provoked them using something like glutathione, kind of…I think of it just like shaking it up, right. So you’re releasing some toxin from the cells, like the snow-capped mountains, right? And typically, not always, but a lot of times people feel a little worse after that, unfortunately. And if somebody starts to feel worse during the provocation process, we just stop it right then and go ahead and collect. Because what you’re getting is, again, back to that analogy of the snow-capped mountains, you’re releasing the snow, the toxin that’s in those cells, and now you’ve created flood.

Especially if you’re not having regular bowel movements, like you have a dam there, and now you have a flood and you can be causing a lot of destruction. So really important to have those emunctories open. But yes, that provocation process is also important because we wanna get an accurate result on the testing.

Katie: Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. And I know that you mentioned you use a lot of this in helping people with brain-related potential issues like autism or ADHD, and that we even see links with depression and anxiety. And before we went live, you also mentioned that you do a lot of work with people with things like Alzheimer’s and dementia. So I’m curious, like, obviously, I can see the connections easily for anyone who is dealing with any of those types of issues or with autoimmune disease, but it seems like in health, anytime we find patterns that can help people heal who are in crisis, also there’s lessons we can learn to optimize, even for people who hopefully aren’t dealing with those same kind of problems. So, from your clinical work and your research, are there strategies that we can all use, even if we’re not in health crisis, to help protect and improve our brain and our body using these strategies?

Dr. Heather: Yeah, absolutely. So my work with the Neurohacker Collective we are really focused on optimizing, especially brain function, right. It’s great when we can all show up and be fully present and engaged in our work, we can be contributing. And there are a lot of people I talk to who don’t really have anything going on right now that has maybe inspired them to reach out to a doctor. Like they don’t feel like they have a pathology or nothing’s wrong on their labs, they really just wanna get the most out of their day, out of their relationships, out of their work.

And so there are things that I certainly recommend. And, like we discussed, you know, toxins are relatively ubiquitous so if we can prevent the accumulation of toxins in our body, then we can prevent disease long term. So, absolutely, you know, one of the simplest easiest things people can do, kind of like opening the doors and windows, just take your shoes off at the door. We track in so many toxins. And then if we’re wearing shoes, and then we’re barefoot later on, we can absorb those toxins through our feet. And then if you’re getting into bed, you know, it’s so gross when you start to think about it. But just taking your shoes off at the door, creating that habit, is one of the best ways to reduce the toxic burden in your home and then in your body.

But other ways to optimize, certainly brain function, is exercise, getting your circulation going. Again, it really goes back to those foundations, really good nutrients coming in, getting plenty of good circulation through exercise. Like you mentioned sleep, we do so much of our detoxifying at night when we’re sleeping, particularly in the brain. So getting really good sleep and prioritizing that, especially those hours before midnight. So if you can get to bed by 9:00 or 10:00, and get a few solid hours before midnight that’s when we get most of our deep sleep, and do a really good job detoxifying.

And then, of course, back to having regular bowel movements. You know, regardless of whether or not you’re struggling with toxic exposure, high toxic burden, having a good regular bowel movement. All of our cells eat and poop, right, so we have our basic metabolic toxicity that builds up every day. And if we’re not eliminating that, then we can get all kinds of accumulation of all the nasty stuff.

Katie: Got it. And I’d love for you to talk a little bit about the facility that you run and the results that you’re seeing there. Because that’s really astounding and incredible what you guys are doing.

Dr. Heather: Thank you. So I have had North County Natural Medicine for a handful of years now and I started seeing a lot more dementia patients. I was trained by Dr. Dale Bredesen, who wrote a book called “The End of Alzheimer’s.” And so we’re getting…really, it was surprising to me how good the results were. I had really bought it, hook line and sinker, right, this story that once you have Alzheimer’s there’s really nothing you can do, like good luck with that, right.

So I was trained by Dr. Bredesen after being very impressed by what he had to say, it was very much in alignment with the way I approach any sort of complex chronic disease. And so I brought it back into my clinic, and then sure enough, kind of created a reputation around that. And had people calling and saying, “Hey, my loved one has Alzheimer’s, and I just don’t have the capacity to take care of them any more, where can I send them? Is there a care facility where, you know, they’re incorporating this?” And what I found was that there wasn’t.

So, of course, I was like, “Well, that can’t be too hard, why don’t we just create one?” And that was how Marama was born. And so Marama, I purchased at the end of December of 2019. And we took over…it was a hospice facility so we inherited five residents. And this also completely surprised me, two of the residents did pass pretty quickly after the transition, but three residents are still there. And one of them who was bed-bound is now walking. Another got kicked off of hospice and the other is about to get kicked off of hospice.

And so, what is this? April, so it’s been five, six months. And the only things we did for those residents…because we couldn’t change anything, you know, we can’t change their meds, they have their doctor’s orders. But what we did was we changed the diet, it’s 100% organic diet, and as much as possible, kind of this keto flex or Whole30 kind of paleo diet.

So we got rid of a lot…of course, all of the candies, the Skippy peanut butter is gone, the Wonder Bread is gone. Occasionally, I get complaints about too many seeds in the bread that they do get, but it’s worth it from what we can tell. We changed the food, add lots more veggies even if we have to hide them. And we switched all of the soaps, all of the personal care products, and all of the cleaning products as well. All of that got switched to non-toxic.

And what we’ve seen is amazing transformation in these people. And I’m not suggesting that at 88 or 94 they’re gonna go back to work or anything like that, but even their families have seen how much more alert they are, how much more engaged they are in conversation with them, how much happier they are, really, day to day. So it’s been really gratifying. And especially this guy that’s up and walking, it’s neat, it’s really fun to see.

Katie: I bet that’s incredible to watch. And it makes me think of, you know, this kind of conversation that’s come about the last few years about… You know, we’ve always had studies and related things to lifespan. And now we’re starting to see more of a focus on healthspan. And the idea of not just living a long time, but living well as long as possible, and living in a way that’s healthy and happy and has quality of life as well. And I think all this work that you’re doing is gonna be things that we start understanding all of the pieces that go into that and hopefully can avoid a lot of these problems.

And for those of us who are like navigating an autoimmune disease, there’s links there that are helpful. But also, just for those of us who want to optimize our lives in the best way possible, and create solid foundations for our kids, I think these are all really important keys to that. And with such a focus on neural health and brain health, I’m curious if you have any other tips for just kind of optimizing cognitive function for moms or for those of us working that can help us to be more efficient and effective and focused at work.

Dr. Heather: So meditation and exercise, essentially, moving meditation, I get it. I have an 18-month-old and two businesses, you know, like, there’s a lot going on. And there is, for all of us, and especially right now in this COVID crisis, you know, when our wearing multiple hats all over the place. And yet, it’s never been more important for me to get in a daily meditation and to get in some exercise. I cannot…it’s the best feeling medicine by far. Like, don’t worry about a test, don’t worry about anything else. If you can just do those things get in…and, of course, good food, you know.

There’s nothing more valuable than taking that time to reduce the stress or to really shift perspective, right. The stressors are not gonna go away but what we have control over…and this goes back to toxicity as well, right. Like, toxins are a lot about what we allow in. And we can think about this as food or as media or as, you know, the arts we allow in or the relationships. It’s what we choose to allow in is that first step of making sure we’re not overburdened with toxins. And then second, are we able to digest? Are we able to break it down into the components that make sense for us? Whether it’s a news story or it’s broccoli, right? Like, are we able to break it down? Do we have the capacity to digest it?

And then third, can we absorb the parts that serve us? So can we get the sulforaphanes out of the broccoli? And can we get the really important information from that news article? And can we get the love from our mother in law? Fourth, can we eliminate the parts that don’t serve us, right? So can we let go of whatever nastiness someone said, and take the good of the critical feedback they gave us? Can we get rid of the fiber? Can we have that bowel movement, right? Can we let go of the information that makes us more anxious and crazed?

So allowing that process to take place and giving ourselves the time, so that we have the capacity to fully process is, I think, paramount to being fully optimized whether it’s in our relationships with our in-laws, or our children, or our boss, or our colleagues, or our clients. Taking that time for ourselves away from all of the needs, and all of the hats and roles that we play, is essential. I cannot understate that or overstate that, excuse me.

Katie: I love it. And you mentioned a lot of resources in this episode, I’ll make sure I link to all of them in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. But specifically, you also have a podcast as well, right?

Dr. Heather: Yes. So I host “Collective Insights,” which is it through Neurohacker Collective, and it’s so fun. I’m sure you have the same experience. I absolutely love…it’s one of my favorite parts of my job just to pick the brains of experts in different fields whether it’s exercise, or diet, or longevity. There was a guy I got to pick his brain about orgasms. It’s just so fun, the people that I have the privilege to talk to and, you know, getting to be on the show with you today. So that’s been awesome. Thank you for having me.

Katie: Oh, it’s been a pleasure. We’ve covered so much. I think, hopefully, helped a lot of people. Another question I love to ask, as we wrap up, is if there’s a book or a number of books that have really dramatically impacted your life, and if so what they are and why?

Dr. Heather: So, right now professionally, I mentioned “The End of Alzheimer’s” by Dale Bredesen and then “Toxic” a book by Dr. Neil Nathan is the other one. So my practice is almost entirely built around putting those things into practice for people. So my clinical practice really relies heavily on the insights that those guys have gleaned and the data collection and research that they’ve done. And those books, they’re designed not just for doctors, but for people who are struggling with toxins or with Alzheimer’s. And there’s some overlap as well of course, because Alzheimer’s one of the things we wanna check for is the toxic burdens. So those books, if anyone is struggling with mycotoxin and illness or with Alzheimer’s, those are great places to start, where you can really get a lot of quality information.

Katie: I love it. I’ll make sure those are linked in the show notes, as well as have links for people to find you and keep learning if they’d like to or find out more about your clinic or your facility. But thank you so much, this has been such a fun interview, and I’m really appreciative of all the work you do.

Dr. Heather: Katie, thank you so much for making this awesome information available to people.

Katie: And thank you, as always, for listening and sharing your time with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did. And I hope that you’ll join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama” podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/neurohacker/

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kendopuma74-blog · 6 years ago

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Presenting 2018's Strangest Health and Wellness Trends

CBD Oil? Goat Yoga? Presenting 2018's Strangest Health and Wellness Trends

Some health trends — like intermittent fasting, charcoal everything and infrared saunas — have been bubbling up for a few years now, but in 2018 we saw them explode beyond New York and L.A.’s healtherati circles. While some of these oddball health and fitness fads are rightfully going mainstream, others — like...umm goat yoga...appear to be more fluff than substance. To separate the strange but effective from the strange but insane, we turned to some of the country’s leading health experts.

Here’s a look at some of the most notably weird (for better or worse!) health and fitness trends of 2018.

Goat Yoga

“Including live animals in any workout routine seems a tad problematic. With goat yoga, playful goats will wander around your mat and even climb on your back while you’re mid-yoga pose. It’s meant to keep you focused, grounded, and connected with both yourself and with nature. I like time-efficient, effective and fun workouts and my gut tells me that goat yoga may only hit on one of these characteristics — no matter how adorably cute those goats really are.” — Brian Zehetner, Director of health and fitness at Planet Fitness

IV Therapy

“Even the needle-phobic are rethinking their aversion now that IV drips and shots are becoming a popular way to hydrate, boost immunity, increase energy, and cure hangovers. No doctor or prescription required.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

Drinking Mushrooms

“This year mushrooms popped up on the ingredient list of beverages in the form of powders and elixirs. The health-conscious are now relying on mushroom varieties like reishi, cordyceps, chaga, and lion's mane to solve all of their wellness issues, including focus, immunity, and relaxation.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

Face Fitness

“When you think of workouts, you think of your abs, legs, arms, even obliques, but you likely don't think of your face. Until 2018 when Face Gym, FaceLove, and other facial exercise-focused businesses came onto the scene to convince you that you should spend five minutes a day massaging your face or buy a face roller or, better yet, get a personal trainer for your face.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

Cold Workouts

“The sweat addicted have been flocking to hot workouts for years, but 2018 marks the introduction of cold temperature workouts. Benefits of working out in the cold include increased calorie and fat burn in addition to increased energy and stamina to get through a workout.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

CBD Everything

“CBD, the fully legal part of the cannabis plant, is unquestionably this year's it-ingredient. CBD oils, vapes, creams, and edibles are the number one selling product at Stretch*d. People are turning to CBD to help them sleep, relax, focus, and reduce pain. It's a miracle worker.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

Pea Protein

“For years, consumers have been trying a variety of dairy-free protein alternatives; everything from almond to oat to hemp to whey has had its day.Pea is the protein of the moment, thanks to it being high in protein, low in sugar, and nutrient-rich. It's not only easily digestible and highly bioavailable, but also aids in muscle development and recovery.” — Amanda Freeman, Founder/CEO of SLT and Stretch*d

Celery Juice

“No, drinking a bitter cocktail of pure celery in the morning will not propel you to realize your wildest health dreams nor will it ‘detox’ your organs, which are already doing so quite well, on account of your natural physiology and anatomy. Celery is indeed a nutritious vegetable and may have antispasmodic effects on the bowels, but juicing it loses the satisfaction factor of mastication and compromises fiber content. While it's probably not harmful to drink celery juice, there is no incredible benefit to juicing anything.” — Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, LD/N, nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition

Cauliflower Gnocchi

“I've seen a meme that says that when you turn 30 in 2018 (which I did), everything you love turns to cauliflower. While I am ALL about people increasing their vegetable intake, I'm a little sad for the great Italian master chefs who must be depressed seeing their gnocchi craft reduced to frozen balls of cauliflower. I think we need to stop thinking so 'black and white' and maybe indulge mindfully and occasionally in REAL gnocchi or do a half and half cauliflower/real gnocchi split, and well-portioned.” — Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, LD/N, nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition

Dousing Goods with Coconut Sugar

“Coconut sugar may be mildly more nutrient-dense and mildly less likely to spike blood sugar than plain white sugar, but nothing significant enough to impact your health. Sugar = sugar = sugar; your body recognizes coconut sugar the same. It's not a health food, it's not something to use with reckless abandon, it's just a little less refined.” — Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, LD/N, nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition

Eating Charcoal

“This still baffles me. Activated charcoal is something I used to see used when I worked in a hospital as an emergency detoxification treatment for severe alcohol/drug overdoses. Yes, it does bind to toxins in your body — but healthy, normal people eating food need to know that food is not a toxin! Eating charcoal will just cause you to mal absorb vital nutrients and it can mess heavily with medications and supplements.” — Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, LD/N, nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition

Intermittent Fasting

“Intermittent fasting is essentially timed eating: a fasting window of 12 hours is practiced for benefits such as weight loss, mental clarity and energy. While the fasted hours are flexible as long as the period is at least 12 hours, most followers generally consume their meals between noon and 8pm at night. In fact, intermittent fasting can be extremely flexible and can be adjusted to each individual’s lifestyle. However, fasting is not appropriate for everyone — particularly pregnant women and those with health conditions such as diabetes. Calorie control and quality of foods still play a large role in the success of this diet.” — May Zhu, a dietitian with Lifeway Foods

Alkaline Diet

“The Alkaline diet focuses on consuming foods that fight acidity and lead to an alkaline state in the body. The diet is based off the idea that our bodies function at the most ideal between a pH of 7.35 and 7.45, leaning towards the alkaline side. Essentially, it’s a form of the elimination diet and excludes foods such as alcohol, grains, conventional meats, eggs, processed foods, and refined sugar. Dairy is limited to yogurt and kefir, mainly for the probiotics. Followers claim that benefits include lowering inflammation, boosting immune function and enhancing metabolism. While there are definitely positive associations to regular consumption of alkalizing vegetables such as kale and brussels sprouts, there are also other benefits to consuming foods that are high on the acidic list, such as nutrient-rich eggs or certain nuts. Bottom line: eating a variety of real foods and limiting heavily processed foods can have just as much of a positive effect, without going too extreme.” — May Zhu, aa dietitian with Lifeway Foods

Appetite Suppressing Lollipops

“These low-calorie candies claim to suppress appetite and kick cravings, but upon closer inspection of the ingredient list, the first items listed are two different forms of sugar, which are nutritionally void of true nutrients. The star ingredient is a patented saffron extract meant to increase satiety and, as a result, reduce overall food intake. However, it’s currently not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and future research is necessary to provide concrete statistics. When it comes to weight loss, anything that claims to be an appetite suppressant rarely provides long-term results.” — May Zhu, a dietitian with Lifeway Foods

Shoes Off While Lifting

“The storyline of feeling more connected to the ground has been bought into leading to all the shoeless feet across gyms. I don’t disagree that over time shoe wear contributes to weakness in the arches, toes and ankles, however taking off the support to lift and wearing them for the other part of your workout and/or the rest of the day, much like dress shoes, is counterproductive and just makes a scene on the gym floor. The hard-core look and goal of ‘foot feel’ while lifting is trending upward this year and I expect to see more shoeless hard bodies in the new year.” — Joanna Stahl, founder of Go2Practice

The Sweat Stick

“Still one of my favorite Spin Class sightings: a woman applying a stick that looks like a circular deodorant across her arms, shoulders, core, and calves… pretty much everywhere she could reach that wasn’t covered in activewear. Why was she doing this? Sweat sticks create a sauna-like environment for your skin by clogging your pores with the promise to make you sweat more and quicker to enhance your workout.” — Joanna Stahl, founder of Go2Practice

Infrared Saunas

“Infrared saunas are now everywhere. Touted benefits range from detoxification, sore muscle relief, joint pain reduction, clear and tighter skin and improved circulation to weight loss and better sleep. All very similar to old-school sauna benefits, but these higher tech glowing boxes provide effects in less time with less heat and more comfort thanks to new technology.” — Joanna Stahl, founder of Go2Practice

Collagen

“Collagen is rich in amino acids and helps protect our tendons, bones and joints. Collagen also helps our nails, hair and skin grow faster and look healthier. It’s estimated that in 2018, Americans spent roughly $122 million on collagen supplements. While the research is not strong or high quality, I have seen my nails and hair grow faster and experienced less aches and pains since using it (it’s tasteless in coffee, tea, or smoothies).” — Kristin Oja, founder of STAT Wellness

Chocolate Milk for Recovery

“Chocolate milk is by no means a perfect recovery drink. Training tears down our muscle tissue and so we want to build back up with premium fuel that does the least amount of damage. Chocolate milk gives you some carbs, protein and fat (which millions of other foods can give us), but it also gives us a nasty cocktail of hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and cortisol and contains saturated fat, which clogs our arteries and slows down blood flow.” — Dotsie Bausch, Olympic cyclist and founder of Switch4Good.com

Fluid Stretching

“Unlike the stretching of the older days, where you hold the stretch for eight counts, the non-static stretching concept is to stretch, move through the stretch to the next stretch, and then repeat the stretch movement for several reps. The belief is that static stretching is too harsh on your tendons and muscles. I would equate it to a ballet-like warm-up rather than what you would consider typical stretching. The guru for this type of stretching is Miranda Esmonde-White, a Canadian fitness trainer and former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada.” — Dr. Robb Akridge, health expert and co-founder of Clarisonic

Vitamin Supplements

“The concept of taking vitamins to improve your health is not new to anyone, however, how these vitamins are derived and concentrated is a big trend. There are companies like 8 Greens that create sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free effervescent tablets, which can be dropped into your water and are packed with vitamin C, B5, B12 and more. Other companies like Olly create vitamins in the form of gummies. Creating vitamins that are more bioavailable has also become a big trend, as this looks at how quickly products or vitamins are absorbed into your system. There are so many different options these days, which makes it really easy to hop on the vitamin bandwagon.” — Dr. Robb Akridge, health expert and co-founder of Clarisonic

Supplements in Food

“Supplements are no longer restricted to that smoothie you get at the gym bar; now you can add supplements into your food and use different protein- and vitamin-rich powders in your at-home recipes. For example, Vital Proteins creates Bone Broth Collagen Powders, which you can cook with — using it in the broth of soups, as an additive to almond flour to make breaded chicken, mixed with seasoning, sprinkled on your steak…” — Dr. Robb Akridge, health expert and co-founder of Clarisonic

You Might Also Dig

Source: https://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding/strangest-health-and-fitness-trends-of-2018.html

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brokerplanet10-blog · 5 years ago

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Presenting 2018's Strangest Health and Wellness Trends

CBD Oil? Goat Yoga? Presenting 2018's Strangest Health and Wellness Trends

Here’s a look at some of the most notably weird (for better or worse!) health and fitness trends of 2018.

Goat Yoga

IV Therapy

Drinking Mushrooms

Face Fitness

Cold Workouts

CBD Everything

Pea Protein

Celery Juice

Cauliflower Gnocchi

Dousing Goods with Coconut Sugar

Eating Charcoal

Intermittent Fasting

Alkaline Diet

Appetite Suppressing Lollipops

Shoes Off While Lifting

The Sweat Stick

Infrared Saunas

Collagen

Chocolate Milk for Recovery

Fluid Stretching

Vitamin Supplements

Supplements in Food

You Might Also Dig

Source: https://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding/strangest-health-and-fitness-trends-of-2018.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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turkeyfeet8-blog · 6 years ago

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Holiday Gift Guide 2018 (with some great deals!)

This post is by blog team member, Kiran. To learn more about Kiran, check out our team page or her website!

It’s that time again, friends. Time to find gifts for loved and cherished ones, near and far. What to gift them? Have no fear—we’ve got a few great ideas for you in our holiday gift guide from some of our favorite sponsors (including some awesome deals)!

Food Sensitivity Test from EverlyWell

A unique gift for the person who either has everything or who has any type of “questionable” symptom they can’t seem to solve (think joint pain, bloating, rashes, headaches or even acne or eczema): a food sensitivity test from EverlyWell. Food sensitivities can cause reactions days after eating the foods, so pinpointing the specific foods on your own can be difficult.

Lisa and Jason both recently did the EverlyWell Food Sensitivity Test and found out about foods that could be causing them symptoms. The at-home kit is super easy to do and tests for 96 different foods, including gluten and dairy, and takes just 5 business days to get your results. In addition to the Food Sensitivity Test, EverlyWell also offers a variety of tests, including Metabolism, Thyroid, Testosterone, Heavy Metals, and Woman’s Health & Fertility.

SPECIAL DEAL: You can save 15% on any of these tests with the code 100DAYS through December 25, 2018.

100% Grass-Fed Beef Sticks from Paleovalley

Who doesn’t love a convenient, satisfying, and healthy on-the-go snack—especially this time of year?! Recognized three years in a row by Paleo Magazine as one of the top meat sticks of the year, Paleovalley offers just that, 100% Grass-Fed Beef Sticks and Pasture-Raised Turkey Sticks which provide a satisfying, clean source of natural energy and protein. Summer Sausage is Lisa’s favorite flavor!

Rest assured, their carefully sourced beef and turkey sticks are:

Non-GMO

Gluten/Soy/Dairy-free

Free of antibiotics or hormones

Free of artificial nitrates or nitrites

Made using only organic spices

100% Grass-Fed Beef (never given grain)

0g of sugar (with the exception of NEW Teriyaki, which has 2g from raw organic honey)

Preserved naturally using the old world method of fermentation—no hydrogenated oils or encapsulated citric acid—so each stick contains naturally occurring, gut-friendly probiotics!⠀

SPECIAL DEAL: Take 20% off of ANY tasty flavors like these: Original, Jalapeño, Summer Sausage, Garlic Summer Sausage, & NEW Teriyaki with code REAL20. They also offer Pasture-Raised Turkey Sticks (my personal faves) in Original or Cranberry Orange. Offer good through December 12, 2018.

Mushroom Coffee from Four Sigmatic

For that coffee fan on your list (hello!) how about a gut-friendly coffee with less caffeine (read: less jitters) than regular coffee that we can all feel better about drinking? Four Sigmatic offers organic coffees, matchas, cacaos, and elixirs all derived from mushrooms. They extract the most important nutrients and blend them with other all-natural ingredients to create a tasty concoction that will have you swapping out your morning coffee for liquid-mushrooms.

Need some assistance in picking which type of functional mushroom product to choose from? Here’s a breakdown:

Cordyceps for the energy to get through that foot-long to-do list.

Chaga as a powerful antioxidant that supports immune function.

Lion’s Mane to help with focus and productivity. It has long been used by Buddhist monks to help with focus during meditation. (This one is my personal fave.)

Reishi to combat stress and wind down after a long day.

Matcha for reducing coffee consumption, but still needing an energy boost. Matcha delivers a feeling of balanced energy for your whole body and supports the body from stress & anxiety.

Best of all, these come in cute little packets that are in boxes that make them perfect for stocking stuffers or cute little gifts. Plus, save 15% on your entire purchase with code 100DRF! Bottoms up!

Branch Basics Concentrate for Non-Toxic Cleaning

Don’t think for a second that this isn’t an exciting gift … because wouldn’t you be excited about being able to clean your house, do your laundry, scrub your veggies, and even get rid of stains with just one concentrate that’s toxin-free? Branch Basics’ multi-purpose concentrate makes cleaning simple, affordable and sustainable.

Branch Basics offers a concentrate that is diluted to various levels (they make it SUPER user-friendly with the marked bottles that come along with it), which can be used for every. single. cleaning job in your house. Given that their products are refillable, they’re significantly less expensive than similar single-use products. Simply dilute the concentrate with water and you’ll be ready to tackle any cleaning job around!

Branch Basics removes dirt, dust, grease, and grime. And let me tell you—it can remove stains. I’ve personally used it to remove everything from a wine spill to blueberries and even blood. Blech, I know—but it works! Clear out all of those other bottles and chemicals and replace them with Branch Basics.

SPECIAL DEAL: Take 15% off of their starter kits with code 100days. Offer only good through December 25, 2018. Let us know how much you love it, too!

Tea Crystals from Pique Teas

You may recall seeing a mention of Pique Teas a few months back, a promotion that was so hot (pun intended) ;) that I knew I had to include them in this list! Pique Teas are tea crystals, made from high-quality organic tea leaves. The difference with these teas are plenty—they come in crystal form, as opposed to dried leaves, and are derived from a process of brewing the tea at low temperatures for 8 hours. This gently extracts all the naturally occurring antioxidants and phytonutrients in their entirety and preserves them without any loss. I personally have enjoyed Pique Teas and feel that they provide a very clean source of energy. I love them! And Lisa’s daughters love to take them in their school lunches.

Pique goes through rigorous testing for pesticides, heavy metals, and molds. Which, thank goodness—because who wants that in their tea?! Pique teas have many other benefits and come in a variety of flavors.

SPECIAL DEAL: Receive 14% off PLUS free shipping. This offer is good through December 5, so don’t delay! Enjoy!

A High-Speed Blender (PS – could be a great gift for you!)

Yes, it’s a larger investment, but a high-speed blender is an appliance that I personally use 4+ times each week. I purchased my Vitamix—actually my husband purchased it and gave it to me for Mother’s Day—6 years ago, and I must say, this is one appliance that I am SO grateful to have. I use it to make soups, nut butters, smoothies, hemp milk, pancake batter and more.

SPECIAL DEAL: Through December 31, you can take up to $100 off of any new blender! One of the things that I love is that they have a full warranty covering parts, performance, labor, and shipping.

If you like cooking, this one’s for you!

A Subscription for Plan to Eat

Do you pin recipes and forget to come back to them? Dog-ear magazine pages with foods that you want to make? If you (or someone you know) do these things, or you simply want to get your meals and recipes organized, then you need Plan to Eat! Plan to Eat is an online meal planning service. In a nutshell, you save recipes to your recipe box from anywhere online or even type them in from books that you have. You’ll have your own little collection that you can then drag and drop into your personal meal plans; it even creates shopping lists for you! Getting organized is something that most of us strive to do, and Plan to Eat allows you to do this, and to also plan meals with your dietary preferences included. I have personally used Plan to Eat for years and am a huge fan, and right now (through Dec. 2, 2018), you can get 50% off of an annual subscription. It’s the perfect gift for you, or that loved one on your list (and P.S., no shipping costs required since it’s digital!)

Now tell me – which of these gifts would YOU like to receive this holiday season? ;)

Source: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/holiday-gift-guide-2018/

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dinakaplan · 6 years ago

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5 Stunning Health Benefits Of Medicinal Mushrooms

You’ll be amazed to find out all the medicinal mushrooms benefits. You can use them to help boost your immune system, your athletic performance, and your mental clarity — and even for helping prevent cancer.

By Ty Bollinger

Fungi, including mushrooms, are peculiar forms of life. They pop up, seemingly overnight, out of nowhere. And unlike plants, they’re not green, they don’t have leaves or roots, and they never form flowers, fruits, or seeds.

Evolutionarily speaking, fungi are more closely related to humans than plants.

This fact may be why many of the components that help mushrooms defend themselves against their enemies also support your body’s defense mechanisms and are increasingly being seen as a legitimate means to enhance your health and well-being.

The ancient Egyptians believed eating mushrooms brought long life. And mushrooms have been used for thousands of years in cultures around the world, particularly in Asian countries.

Now, modern scientists are discovering some fascinating healing properties of mushrooms. And more than a hundred species of mushrooms are currently being studied across around the world today for their potential health benefits.

Why Are Mushrooms So Powerful?

Medicinal mushrooms got their name because they were used for the prevention and treatment of diseases.

All mushrooms contain beta glucans, which have been found to help fight inflammation and aid the immune system.

Mushrooms are thought to protect against breast and other hormone-related cancers because they inhibit an enzyme called aromatase, which produces estrogen.

Mushrooms also contain a type of lectins that recognize cancer cells and prevent these cells from growing and dividing.

(Lectins, a type of carbohydrate-binding protein, have gotten a bad reputation in certain circles. But some of them, such as the ones in mushrooms, can be highly beneficial.)

The Extraordinary Health Benefits of Mushrooms

More than 2,000 species of edible mushrooms exist on the planet.

This article discusses some of the more common medicinal mushrooms:

Chaga (Inonotus obliquus)

Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor)

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)

Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus)

Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis)

But even the commonly consumed button mushrooms are medicinal mushrooms!

You can watch Ocean Robbins talk to me (the founder of Organixx) about medicinal mushrooms benefits in this video:

youtube

For more on the 7M+ mushroom supplement Ty describes in the video, click here.

Here are five health benefits of mushrooms that have been identified by extensive scientific research:

#1 – Increasing Antioxidant Activity

All available evidence indicates that, at high levels, free radicals damage various structures in your body’s cells. This cellular damage contributes to an increase in your risk for developing many health problems, including those related to aging. This is why decreasing or inactivating free radicals can lead to huge benefits for your health.

Dietary antioxidants, such as vitamin C, vitamin A, selenium, beta-carotene, and others, counter the adverse health effects of free radicals.

Promisingly, many mushrooms also contain powerful ingredients that have been found to neutralize free radicals.

For instance, extracts of the medicinal and dietary mushroom Reishi have been shown to reduce free radical activity. Known in China as the “spirit plant,” Reishi is believed to relax and fortify both mind and body.

Another medicinal mushroom, chaga, is also known for its antioxidant properties — indeed, according to a report in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, a Chaga polysaccharide has been found to possess “strong antioxidant activity for scavenging free radicals.”

Chaga Mushrooms: “The king of medicinal mushrooms”

Similarly, the journal Carbohydrate Polymers reports that polysaccharides present in the fungus Cordyceps have been shown to “improve the antioxidation activity in immunosuppressed mice (and to) significantly increase… total antioxidant capacity.”

The great news is that Cordyceps not only helps to neutralize harmful free radicals, it also enhances the activity of your body’s innate antioxidant systems.

Cordyceps Mushrooms: A rare combination of a caterpillar and a fungus

#2 – Enhancing the Immune System

Every second of every day, your immune system is working overtime to clear away debris, to fight off cancer cells, and support your body achieve vibrant, healthy functioning.

It’s an extraordinarily complex and multifaceted system. And sometimes, especially as you age, your immune system can begin to wear down and function less effectively.

Mushrooms can help. They boost both the levels and activity of many vital components of your immune system — and may even “prime” immune cells so that they become more effective in responding to future infections and attacks.

Macrophages are a type of immune white blood cell that engulfs and digests cellular debris, foreign substances, microbes, cancer cells, and anything else in your body that does not appear healthy to the immune system.

A Chaga polysaccharide has been shown to induce rapid increases in macrophages in mice.

In another study, giving Chaga extract daily for 24 days to mice with compromised immune systems increased the numbers of protective white blood cells in their bone marrow.

Another medicinal mushroom, Reishi, has been shown to boost the production of many components of the immune system, including natural killer cells, which detect and destroy cancer cells and cells infected with viruses.

Reishi Mushrooms: “The mushroom of immortality”

In one study, 34 patients with advanced stages of cancer were treated for 12 weeks with a Reishi-sourced polysaccharide. The patients who were given the treatment showed substantial improvements in the effectiveness of their immune function.

Shiitake is one of the most popular and best-studied mushrooms in the world today. These mushrooms contain a polysaccharide known as Lentinan, which Cancer Detection and Prevention Journal has described as “a unique class of immunopotentiator” that helps to improve the quality of life and extend survival.

Shiitake Mushrooms: “The elixir of life”

In a 2014 study reported in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers gave 52 healthy young adults either five or 10 grams of dried Shiitake mushrooms daily for four weeks. Consuming mushrooms was associated with a substantial increase in the number and effectiveness of both “T immune cells” and natural killer cells.

In just one month, eating the dried shiitake mushrooms was found to support both a stronger immune system and a marked drop in inflammation. The subjects who took ten grams of dried shiitake’s daily had the most positive benefits.

#3 – Managing Blood Sugar Levels

Mushrooms may also be useful in managing safe levels of blood sugar.

Compounds from the parasitic fungus Cordyceps have been shown to help support balanced blood sugar levels. For example, a study published in the journal Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin found that a Cordyceps polysaccharide showed “potent hypoglycemic (blood sugar lowering) activity in genetic diabetic mice,” while “plasma glucose level was quickly reduced in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice.”

The study also found that this same Cordyceps-sourced polysaccharide contributed to lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

One of the most common and devastating complications that can be caused by diabetes is diabetic nephropathy. Over time, the condition can cause the kidneys to malfunction and, eventually, to fail.

In one promising study, Cordyceps was shown to significantly reduce blood glucose levels, lower kidney breakdown markers, and preserve renal function in mice.

#4 – Supporting Brain Health

Lions Mane Mushrooms: The first “smart” mushrooms that may boost mood and memory

The ball-shaped mushroom with cascading icicle-like spines known as Lion’s Mane has a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. Once reserved for royal families, Lion’s Mane contains up to 20% protein and is considered to be a gourmet dish by many.

Potent compounds in Lion’s Mane have been shown to activate a very important peptide (a small protein) known as “nerve growth factor” or NGF. NGF is necessary for the growth, maintenance, and survival of the neurons in your brain.

These Lion’s Mane compounds stimulate your neurons to re-grow and trigger a process known as re-myelination, which helps to keep your neurons healthy and maintains their ability to conduct electrical signals efficiently.

In one small Japanese clinical study, elderly men and women with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were given Lion’s Mane for 16 weeks. Throughout the study period, the mushroom-eating group showed significantly increased scores on a cognitive function scale compared with the placebo group. But if they stopped consuming the mushroom, their advantage disappeared.

Short-term memory refers to your ability to hold a small amount of information in your mind in a readily available state for a short period. Visual recognition memory is a measurement of your ability to recognize previously encountered events, objects, or people, and to “remember” them.

Both of these types of memory are often lost in people with age-related health conditions. And both of them appear to be supported by eating Lion’s Mane, which has been shown to help prevent the breakdown of spatial short-term and visual recognition memory and delay the onset of cognitive dysfunction.

#5 – Improving Exercise Performance

Mushrooms growing on a log

Mushrooms don’t just help you live longer. They can also help you live better — and stronger. Especially Cordyceps.

Cordyceps extracts have been shown to dilate the aorta — the main artery in your body that supplies oxygenated blood to your entire circulatory system — by up to 40%, thereby increasing blood flow and greatly enhancing endurance.

What’s more, Cordyceps contains adenosine and can stimulate the production of ATP — one of the main sources of energy in your body’s cells. This may be one of the reasons why it has been found to improve stamina in athletic performance.

In one Japanese study, supplementation with Cordyceps improved the performance of over 70% of long-distance runners.

In a 2010 double-blind, placebo-controlled study, a Cordyceps extract known as Cs-4 was given to 20 healthy elderly subjects three times per day for 12 weeks. Supplementation with Cs-4 was found to meaningfully improve their exercise performance and overall wellness.

What Can You Do With This Knowledge?

Mushrooms are potent health-boosters, and their documented benefits are extraordinary. The mushrooms discussed in this article are considered safe and relatively non-toxic.

But unless you’re a trained mycologist (an expert who specializes in the study of fungi), it is not recommended to begin harvesting them in the wild because some wild mushrooms are poisonous. There are so many varieties, species, and subspecies that a simple mistake could result in severe consequences or even death.

You may be able to find fresh shiitake or Lion’s Mane mushrooms in a local or specialty grocery store (and they’re both delicious!). But some of the most potent medicinal mushrooms can be bitter or may be difficult to find.

Plus, many health experts recommend combining multiple medicinal mushrooms for their synergistic effect.

If you’re going to take a mushroom supplement, you want to look for a manufacturer that offers 100% organic mushroom extracts and supplements, produced, stored, and packaged under strict guidelines to preserve their nutrient content and overall effectiveness.

And what about the common “table mushrooms” like button, crimini, portobello, or oyster? There is considerable evidence that all edible mushrooms, even the most common grocery store varieties, have potent health-boosting properties. But the most powerful may be the medicinal mushrooms described in this article.

So enjoy your mushrooms! Your body will thank you for the rest of your life.

Editor’s note: If you’re looking to take advantage of the health benefits of all the medicinal mushrooms described in this article, you might be interested in 7M+. This product combines fermented, organically grown Turkey Tale, Chaga, Shiitake, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, Reishi, and Fruit Body mushrooms — all in a daily tablet that makes it easy to get all these medicinal mushrooms benefits in one place. Find out more here.

Tell us in the comments: How do you enjoy medicinal mushrooms benefits?

About Ty Bollinger

Ty Bollinger’s is the New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About Cancer. His documentary film productions about cancer have been seen by more than 10 million people worldwide. Ty is co-founder of Organixx, a company dedicated to the outstanding supplements and beneficial health insights to empower health freedom for everyone.

[Read More ...] https://foodrevolution.org/blog/medicinal-mushrooms-benefits/

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gethealthy18-blog · 4 years ago

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344: Get Your Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Yelling, or Losing Control With Amy From Positive Parenting Solutions

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/344-get-your-kids-to-listen-without-nagging-yelling-or-losing-control-with-amy-from-positive-parenting-solutions/

344: Get Your Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Yelling, or Losing Control With Amy From Positive Parenting Solutions

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic… a company I’ve loved for years for their superfood mushroom based products. They use mushrooms like lions mane, chaga, cordyceps and reishi in delicious products. Mushrooms are amazing in and of themselves. Did you know that mushrooms are more genetically similar to humans than plants are? And that they breathe oxygen and exhale CO2 just like we do but mushrooms spores can survive the vacuum and radiation of space. These amazing fungi are always a part of my daily routine in some way, usually with Lion’s Mane Coffee or Matcha in the morning, Plant protein and mushroom elixirs like chaga and cordyceps during the day and reishi at night to wind down. As a listener of this podcast, you can save on all Four Sigmatic products. Go to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and the code wellnessmama gives 15% off.

This episode is sponsored by Everlywell, at-home lab tests that you can get without a doctor’s order! I’ve used many of their tests and can recommend a couple that have been especially helpful. They have an at-home allergy test for 40 of the most common allergens using the same CLIA-certified labs used by Allergists/Doctors. The labs are reviewed by an independent physician and measure IgE levels of common allergens including pet dander, mold, trees, grasses, and more. But you can do it from your own home with a finger stick. I also really like their food sensitivity tests that test for IgG reactions. This was a big key for me in my health recovery, as there were foods that didn’t show up as an allergy that were causing inflammation. I used an elimination diet, but this food sensitivity test also filled in the missing piece of the puzzle for me. Through healing my gut, I’ve been able to remove all sensitivities except for eggs. Finding out I was highly sensitive to eggs made a huge difference for me, as I ate them often as an inexpensive protein source. I feel so much better now that I don’t eat eggs and I would never have known that without this test! I also use their at-home Vitamin D test to keep an eye on those levels. Check out all of their tests at wellnessmama.com/go/everlywell. Use code MAMA10 for 10% off orders.

Katie: Hello and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from WellnessMama.com and Wellnesse.com. That’s wellness with an E on the end. It’s our new line of personal care products that are both non-toxic and highly effective. This episode is all about how to get your kids to listen without nagging, or yelling, or losing control because I am here with Amy McCready from Positive Parenting Solutions. And I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode if you have kids. She’s the founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and the creator of the “7-Step Parenting Success System,” which is a course that I’m going through right now to prepare for this interview. She is also the author of two best selling parenting books. The first called “If I Have to Tell You One More Time” and “The Me, Me, Me Epidemic.”

She’s a regular contributor on the “Today” show and CBS, CNN, “Fox and Friends,” “Rachael Ray,” etc. And she’s helped thousands of families to have a happier home life and many parents to become calmer, happier parents. And in this episode, she gives a lot of really practical strategies for how to navigate a lot of what we’re facing right now. When your kids are home a lot more, how to navigate autonomy versus responsibility in older kids. Her “when then” system for getting things done without nagging around the house. Some tips for getting kids to want to actually do homework and schoolwork without the fight, etc. It’s a really fun and lightning episode. I think you’ll enjoy as much as I did. So without further ado, let’s jump in.

Amy, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Amy: Katie, thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to talk with you.

Katie: I am so excited about this interview because almost everybody listening is a parent. Most of my audience are moms. And I think this topic is timely and helpful all of the time. But especially, right now, with so much going on, and with summer starting, and kids home more, I feel like the information you have is just so vital for parents. So, I wanna jump right in. This is the thing I get a question about quite a bit as well, and I think you’re more qualified to speak on. So I have my kids home all the time because I homeschool. And I hear from my friends who are moms this time of year, like, “Oh gosh, the kids are gonna be home for all these weeks.” And they get stressed about it. So let’s start there. What do you say to parents who are kind of struggling to balance having the kids home for an extended period of time?

Amy: Well, I think it’s always more challenging when kids are home, whether it’s summer, or holiday breaks, or whatever it happens to be. And I think for parents, we have to just give ourselves a little bit of grace, and forgive ourselves. We may be a little bit more on edge or we may lose our temper more than we would normally. And that’s okay. But the other thing to know is that there are some concrete strategies that you can use all the time but especially, when kids are home, on break or vacation or whatever, that can make things go more smoothly, help your routines stay in check. And if they can implement some of those very basic things, then they’re gonna enjoy that time a lot more with their kids, their kids will be better behaved. Moms and dads will feel better about that time together and family life would just run a lot more smoothly.

Katie: That makes sense. And I think kind of also to start broad, like, I’d love to hear a little bit of your story because I’ve read a little bit of it and I’m going through the positive parenting solutions course right now. But have you always been this patient calm mom?

Amy: Hardly, hardly. And that’s probably the thing that parents don’t know about me unless they’ve heard my story is that I call myself a recovering yeller. Because when my kids were younger, I wanted to be a great mom. I have great kids and they’re wonderful but I found myself on a daily basis getting into this cycle of nagging and reminding my kids, and nagging and reminding, and nagging and reminding, and then I would just blow. And my yelling occurrences were not a one-off. It was a pretty much everyday thing and many times multiple times a day. And so that’s actually how I got into what I do now, is that I would find myself yelling so much, and I was feeling so defeated and frustrated, and sometimes even resentful of my kids, like these people that I love more than anything in the world. But I wasn’t being my best self. And so that’s when I started studying parenting strategies. And it was just so life-changing for our family, for me, personally, for my kids. And my business background was actually in adult training. And that’s what I did for a living. So I took that training expertise and thought, “I really feel like I could bring these strategies to parents and teach them in a way that was fun and it would be easy for them to implement.” And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. So to answer your question, no, I’m not a calm and very Zen person by nature. I’m Type A, I’m controlling, I’m all of those things that tend to bring out the worst in terms of kids’ behavior. But, again, once you know the tools and the strategies, you can definitely turn that around.

Katie: I love that. And, you know, I always hear that line that parenthood doesn’t come with an instruction manual. And I think that’s really true. But I also found out, for me, just on the household side, I wanna go deep on the parenting side with you but I had a similar experience where I was so overwhelmed and exhausted, and just constantly stressed out at home, and I was running a business, and I was running my household. And I stepped back and went, “Why is it so easy to run my business and I am so stressed all the time at home? And I realized, at work, there were defined expectations. I had systems for things, I had a plan and goals and it was clearly defined. Whereas at home, I was trying to sort of manage everyone’s lives in my head, eight people off the top of my head, plan all the meals, and just keep all of that in my head all the time. So, from a household perspective, I realized if I could put the systems in place for my house, that would take a lot of that mental stress away, and I would still get the same amount done just without the stress of it. And I would guess for parenting, you probably discovered some similar things that if you had the strategies, and the frameworks, and the methods to do this, it actually makes your life probably much easier, right?

Amy: Absolutely. And I was laughing to myself when you said, you know, that your job came so much more easily and that’s what I found as well. I felt like I was very capable in my work job, my outside of the house job, but at home I felt like I was floundering. And I think, yes, you’re absolutely right. When you put those processes in place and the routines, and you have the expectations for everyone, it goes so much more smoothly. But the one piece that tends to happen with our kids is that when we put the processes in place, and when we have the rules, and the boundaries, and all those things, that’s helpful but our taskmaster nature actually tends to undermine things with our kids. So I always talk about, you know, how much time we spend sort of ordering, correcting, and directing. That tends to invite power struggles for our kids. So the piece that we have to remember at home is that we have to make sure that we intentionally create those emotional connection opportunities. We’re filling their attention buckets because if we don’t do those things, all of the systems can be in place but if we’re not doing those emotional connection times with our kids, then we’re gonna fall into this pattern of attention-seeking behavior and power struggles, and it’s gonna feel like so much more effort than it really should.

Katie: I love that. Can you give some examples of what that would look like? Because I feel like a lot of parents or at least speaking from my own experience, I know you can get stuck in that cycle of, my kids actually do need to get these things done. They need to help around the house, we’re part of the family, and then you’re just stuck reminding them and nagging them. So give us some examples of stepping back and reinforcing the emotional connection like that.

Amy: Yeah, so that’s the funny thing is that, you know, kids have these hard-wired needs for emotional connection and attention. But they won’t come to you and say, “You know what, Mom? I feel like my attention bucket is really not being filled right now. I’m not feeling that warm and fuzzy emotional connection from you.” Unfortunately, that need that they have will present itself as being overly clingy, and needy, and whining, and more of these attention-seeking behaviors, which makes us more frustrated. And again, you get into this vicious cycle. And just like our kids have an attention bucket, they also have a power bucket, which means that they need to have an age-appropriate sense of autonomy and control over their own lives. But again, they’re not gonna come to us and say, “You know, I feel like I need more control and decision-making opportunities.” They’re gonna dig in their heels. They’re gonna push back. They’re gonna resist, backtalk, and those types of things. And I always remind parents that kid priorities are not the same as parent priorities.

So the more we want them to do the things we want them to do, if we’re not meeting their needs for that emotional connection, filling their attention bucket and filling their power bucket, they’re gonna continue to resist. So the simplest thing is just spending one-on-one time with your kids on a daily basis, and it can be as short as 10 minutes. But in our positive parenting solutions community, we call this mind, body, and soul time because it reminds us for that 10 minutes, we are fully present in mind, body and soul with that child. And nothing is more important, and you’re doing exactly what that child loves to do. So it might be reading a chapter book, or playing Legos, or jumping on a trampoline, it’s whatever that child loves. But in those few moments, you’re giving them your 100% attention. They’re getting that emotional connection with you. And parents are just blown away, Katie, by how much more cooperative kids are, they’re willing to do all of those things that are parent priorities and not really kid priorities. But the key is when we meet their hardwired emotional needs first, all the other stuff becomes so much easier.

Katie: I love that. It’s such a good reframe. And I’ve seen that quote online as well. Like, you know, we have to remember as parents, especially the adults in these relationships, that when kids act out, they’re not trying to be the problem, they’re having a problem. And if we can reframe it and, like, look at what are their needs, and how can we address this, it totally changes how you look at your child and that totally changes the relationship. And I think that’s encouraging to hear as a parent also is, you know, this doesn’t have to be four hours a day per child, which wouldn’t even be possible in my case. You know, it’s like just having that actual focused quality time goes so far. And I think I did this somewhat intuitively, one of my daughter’s, as she got older, like, I could tell she was pulling back a little bit and just a little bit more moody and reserved. And so to connect with her on her level, I literally had to start pole vaulting. But now she’s, like, opened up and we’ve connected so much more. But it took exactly what you said. It took finding the things she loves to do, and me being willing to try it, and not be good at it, which I think is another important lesson for parents. You know, like, let them see you out of your comfort zone and let them see you work through something difficult because we help them work through difficult things all the time. How does that translate then into when they do need to get stuff done, when they need to do their laundry or the dishes or whatever it may be? Do you find just by the nature of putting that time in, they’re just so much more willing or are there strategies that you use to help them also be more willing to want to do those things?

Amy: Well, just by filling their attention bucket intentionally every day, it is almost, almost like a magic bullet that they are so much more cooperative, and easygoing, and willing to do those things that they’re supposed to do. Now, we all know there’s no such thing as a parenting silver bullet so you need some backup strategies. So one of the strategies that I teach to parents is called the when-then routine. And in a when-then routine, it requires that the yucky stuff is done before the more fun parts of the day. So a when-then routine might sound like this. When you finished unloading the dishwasher, then we can have our special time before lunch. So that yucky thing that they don’t wanna do gets done before the more enjoyable thing or when you’ve completed your schoolwork or when you’ve completed your family contributions, then you can have your 30 minutes of technology time. So we’re always the positioning the yucky stuff before the more enjoyable things. It’s important to note that this is not a reward system. If you do this, then you can get that. That’s something very different. Actually, we don’t advocate that at all.

But it is these normally occurring privileges, like whatever maybe technology time you allow or going outside to play with your friends or even our special time together. When the family jobs get done with the schoolwork or whatever those things are, then you can enjoy whatever that thing is. But that when-then routine is magical. And in fact, all of your routines should be set up in a when-then format. So, in the morning, when kids are going to school, let’s say they’re going out to school, when you are dressed, your bed is made, hair is combed, backpack and lunchbox are by the door, then we’ll have breakfast and we can have some special time before we leave for the bus. In the evenings, when you’ve had your bath, teeth are brushed and flossed, and clothes picked up for the morning, then we’ll have our special time before lights out at 8:00. So sometimes you have to put a time limit at the end there, but all of your routines you can set up in a when-then fashion, and it’s fabulous for parents because they can get out of the nagging and reminding business. It really works so beautifully, Katie.

Katie: That makes sense. And in fact, it probably takes the responsibility of having to do any of that nagging or reminding pretty much off your plate because if they come ask, “Can I do screentime? Can I play outside?”, whatever, all you have to say is, “Well did you do this?” And it’s then their choice and their responsibility. The one confounding thing I’m thinking is with my older kids. What about when you get older kids who don’t want to do the one-on-one time as much or they’re pulling back or, like, you know, just aren’t engaging as much in general because they’re kind of hitting that age is? How do you emotionally connect with them?

Amy: That’s a great question. So, mind, body and soul time, I really advocate for kids of all ages. But sometimes we position it differently. So for all kids, if possible, I like to label it. So call it something, you know, Jason and mommy time, whatever you wanna call it. Now, for older kids, you may not label it. So you don’t want it turn into this big, like, you know, they roll their eyes when you say, “Okay, it’s Jeffrey and mommy time.” You just sort of make it happen without making a big pronouncement out of it. And so sometimes that is just being in their vicinity. So if they’re sitting reading a book, you sit down with your book and read it with them. And then afterwards, you can say, “I love sitting here reading with you. This is so cool.” So we don’t make a big deal about it beforehand, but you sort of just slide your way into whatever they’re doing. But then you book end it with just that little, “Aah, I love spending this time with you. This is so fun.”

And then the other thing is being interested in what they’re interested in. And so if they’re into photography or even social media, like you said before, let them teach you things. So let them teach you how to use new platforms or how to, you know, do photos properly on Instagram and all of those types of things that kids are so much better at than we are. Use that as an opportunity to emotionally connect with them. But the connection time is still really important for teens. We just do it slightly differently. The other little thing, Katie, too, even for teens, I love having some sort of a tuck-in routine with them, if you will. Again, it’s gonna look different than your littles. But just some connection time where you are just spending a few minutes with them, connecting, talking about the day, whatever it is. It’s just so powerful and kids may act like they don’t want it. They really do love it once you get into a good routine.

Katie: That makes sense. I could definitely see that. And from that to the other end of the spectrum, at least, for me, with toddlers, I feel like they’re the easy ones to connect because they’re sponges. And if you wanna read a book, or they’ll play Legos, any of that, they love it. But then you run into more of, like, the tantrum or meltdown phases where it’s like, how do you break that cycle when they’re in that kind of a phase?

Amy: That’s the classic question for the younger ones, that’s for sure. So a couple of things, you will find that when you start doing the mind, body, and soul time consistently on a daily basis, the frequency and intensity of those tantrum episodes will decrease. That is proven time and time again. So that’s the first piece. The second piece is when that tantrum happens, again, recognize that that child is having difficulty. It’s not about you, the child is having a hard time. So the most important thing is to connect, be there, get down on their level. Through trial and error, figure out what’s gonna help that child in that moment, show empathy, work on calming strategies, breathing techniques, all of those things that sort of help recenter the mind and body. We can start to teach those things at a young age. We have to recognize that these are kind of skills that kids have to learn. And it takes a little while, but we can start that process right then and there. But I think if we view it, as you said earlier, “This child is having a hard time,” rather than it being a misbehavior, it puts us in a totally different mindset in terms of how we respond to that child. And it’s gonna completely shift how quickly the child comes out of that episode.

Katie: That makes sense. Okay. So in the very beginning, we started talking a little bit about routine. And I’d love to circle back to that, especially with times like kids being home for the summer and not the normal school year type routine. Do you recommend being rigid and creating a routine to kind of keep through the summer or being more lenient in times like that? How do you navigate those?

Amy: Yeah, so I am big on routine. I don’t think we have to be militant. But I think a routine is important, one, because human beings in general, but especially kids crave a sense of order. And most kids do better when there is a sense of order to their day. And so if there can be a general routine that we follow, things happen in a certain order of events, the day will just go more smoothly. So if you are homeschooling, you know, you kind of have your block schedule in terms of the order in which we do things within those blocks and there can be a lot of flexibility. So if it’s a movement or a creativity block, what we do within that can be very flexible. But you would do less nagging and reminding, Katie, if we can have a routine that we follow, even during the summer. Now we want summers to be fun and all of that, but certain things can remain the same. So kids have family contributions, and I call them family contributions, not chores. We can talk about that later. But they have family contributions that they do every day. I highly recommend that bedtimes remain the same.

And the bedtime can be different, say, during the summer, the time can be different during the summer than during the school year if they’re going out to school, but it should be the same every night because kids internal clocks, they still need the same amount of sleep. Their internal clocks don’t recognize the difference between a Saturday night versus a Tuesday night. So keeping routines the same for bedtime can really go a long way in just easing just a lot of stress and anxiety for the parent. The other reason that’s important is that if the bedtime is 8:00 one night, 8:30 the next, and 9:00 the next, you really don’t have a bedtime routine. You don’t have a bedtime. So it becomes negotiable every night and it can turn into this power struggle. So even during summer vacations or holidays, or when we’re all home for other reasons, the more that we can keep the routine pretty consistent, it’ll just make things a lot easier for parents and a lot easier for kids.

Katie: Gotcha. Okay. And I’m glad that you brought up bedtime because I think that’s another area where parents can have a lot of difficulty and it seems to change. So the little ones, at least in my house, it’s been more of the having trouble getting them to get in bed, stay in bed, and then they need water, and they need to go to the bathroom, and then they had a bad dream or whatever, all the things maybe. With my older ones, it’s more of anything, they just wanna stay up and read longer. But any strategies for navigating bedtime and all the different ages and enforcing it without it being a fight?

Amy: Yes, so that we could talk an entire hour just on bedtime. There’s so much to cover here, but just some general guidelines. So you talked about all the requests, the drink of water, the one more hug, all of those types of requests that you get during the bedtime routine. I recommend that you with your kids revisit what that routine is gonna look like. So all the things that they asked for you build that into the routine. And so we decide that, you know, lights out is at 7:30 or 8:00 or whatever time that is, and then all of those things, that extra kiss, and the drink of water, and the back rub, all of those things happen within the routine. Once you close the door, that’s it. Now, you can prepare ahead. Like, you can keep a sippy cup in the room with just, you know, a little tiny bit of water in it. So if they get thirsty in the middle of the night, they have it there. But once the door closes, that’s it. Now there’s quite a bit of a training process that we help parents with to kind of navigate that so it doesn’t turn into a big power struggle. But what we don’t wanna be in the business of is, you know, just responding all night long with these requests because then parents never get a break. They’re exhausted. They end up dreading the bedtime routine.

And it’s a big power struggle. The other thing that I recommend is that the tuck-in time, be one parent and one child, rather than, you know, we read books with everybody together, we do prayers with everybody together, all of those things. While that’s efficient, it doesn’t really fill their attention bucket. And the other problem is when there’s, you know, two kids and one parent, sort of the pack mentality can set in and they start acting up, and that can be difficult. So the more you can do one parent, one child for the tuck-in routine, which means you’ll be staggering, that’s gonna give you better results. Then for older kids, that is just sort of working with them. You know, if they wanna have more reading time, that’s probably fine. But still having a lights out time that you respect. Certainly, we wanna have a technology lights out time, long before their actual bedtime, just so they’re not doing a lot of technology right before they go to bed. So a lot of things to consider in the whole bedtime routine, depending on the age of the child, the preferences of the parents and what kind of power struggles we’re having in general.

Katie: Gotcha. And I’m glad you brought up technology as well because certainly, this is an area that I think our generation kind of uniquely gets to figure out how to handle with kids. Because, at least, for me, that was just starting to come around when I was a teenager. So it wasn’t really… Like, there was no social media at that point. My parents didn’t really have to figure out how to navigate that. And now, we have kids with these devices and they’re connected to the world through technology, which has many advantages and certainly is not going away. And as adults, they’re going to need to know how to navigate technology. But as parents, we have a responsibility for teaching them to navigate it responsibly and also not letting it take over our family lives. And also, before we jump into any topic like this, I also wanna say I realize this is different, I’m sure in every family and there are times where kids are using technology for schoolwork or for other things. So I’m not trying to, like, poo technology at all. I just am curious, do you have any guidelines for navigating technology appropriately at all the different stages?

Amy: Yes, it is important that you really give some thought to that because you’re right, kids, whether they are doing remote schooling, you know, they’re gonna have technology that they’re using for that. And there’s not much that we can do about that as parents. But there is a lot of what I call recreational technology time that kids are spending and we do have the responsibility to put some boundaries around that. We have the responsibility to do training around that. So, it can’t be a free for all, that, you know, all day long they can have access to the technology. So, again, it’s going to depend on the age of your kids. But first I recommend that you make technology part of a when-then routine team that we talked about earlier. So when your family contributions are done, then you can have your technology time. We also want to be very clear that when technology time is over, we put it away, and then it’s over. If there’s a lot of griping, or groaning, or complaining, or, “Mom, can I just have five more minutes?” And if it turns into a power struggle every day, then that’s not working. And so that tells you that probably that child may not be mature enough to handle the privilege of that technology. And we really wanna back off of it for a while, or we might need more training or whatever it happens to be.

But it cannot turn into a situation where the parent is the technology police and that every day is a battle because that’s not working for anybody. So we’re gonna put those boundaries in place. If kids cannot follow the rules that you’ve set forth based on your wisdom and what you know is appropriate for their emotional well-being and safety, if they can’t follow those rules, then they’re not gonna have access to that technology. And working with parents, I think that’s one of the most difficult things, Katie, because parents fear the wrath of their kids when they limit technology. And so they are fearful of putting the boundaries around it and then it turns into a free for all. So we have to do that. If kids can follow the rules, then they can have access to the technology because it is a privilege. It’s not a right. The other thing is that the training piece is really important. You wouldn’t send your kid out in the car without any training. Well, the same is true for technology. So teaching them how to use it responsibly. And there’s a lot of great online resources for that, how to use social media responsibly, training on your digital footprint. All of those types of things are really important. That’s our job. And so if we’re gonna allow them to have that technology, we need to make sure that we do take care time for training as well.

Katie: Gotcha. Okay. I think those are great guidelines. Another thing that seems to be an issue with certain parent-kid dynamics is back talking or acting sassy with parents. Any strategies for that? I would guess like everything we’ve talked about, probably the one-on-one time helps and just having natural consequences and systems built-in so you’re not constantly nagging, means there’s fewer times for that, but any other strategies or ways that you navigate?

Amy: You’re right, Katie, that’s probably the number one thing that parents bring to me us, like, the problem behavior, it’s that backtalk, and sassiness, and attitude. But the thing that we have to remember and we talked about this kind of at the beginning is that that is the symptom. It’s not the real problem. So if we can think about the backtalk as the symptom and not, like, that’s not the thing that we have to fix, we want to address the root cause of the behavior. And so as you said, we can do that by filling their attention bucket one-on-one every single day. That is essential. And again, if there’s a magic bullet in parenting, that is it. We also wanna be aware of our communication, and how much ordering, correcting, and directing that we do. One of the things that I teach to parents in our program is a parent personality assessment programs so, like, to figure out how your personality brings out certain behaviors in your kids. So for me, my personality is super controlling, naturally. So if I allow my natural controlling Miss Bossypants tendencies to show too much, I’ll naturally get power struggles. So for parents, they can learn how to sort of tweak their natural responses, so they do less ordering, correcting, and directing, and then use other tools that will get better cooperation. That will help reduce the backtalk.

When that does happen, again, remember that the child is having difficulty. There’s something else going on. So to show grace and empathize with that child. “Wow, you seem really frustrated. Wow, I can tell you are really mad about this.” Empathize with whatever it is they’re being sassy about, forget the sassiness for a minute and get to, like, what the theme is that they’re really upset about and show empathy with that. We’re gonna be much more likely to get through that if, again, we connect on that emotional level. The other thing that we can do is recognize that the backtalk, the sassiness, those are power behaviors. So when kids are exerting their power behaviors, it is usually an indication that they’re not feeling enough personal control, power autonomy over their own world. So there are strategies we can use for that. A simple one is giving them more decision-making opportunities. So think about areas in your family life, where you can get kids more involved in making decisions. Maybe it’s meal planning for the week. If the family is taking a vacation several months from now, get them involved in that. The more that they can have real-world decision-making opportunity, that is gonna really help their power bucket. And then the last thing that I would say and this is the hardest, Katie, is don’t take the bait.

When kids kind of serve up that sassy remark, that backtalk remark, it is so instinctive for us to respond with power, “You will not speak to me that way.” You know, “I demand respect,” or whatever the words are that you would say. But when we do that, it totally escalates the power struggle. So instead, if we can refuse to take the bait and just say with a smile and in a calm voice, say, “Sweetie, I’d love you too much to argue about this. Let’s talk about this when we’re both feeling more calm.” But just that smile on your face in a calm voice, “I love you too much to argue about this,” it just diffuses it. It says, “I’m not gonna engage in this power struggle. I’m not accepting your invitation and we’ll talk about this later. Whatever it is that you’re upset about, that’s important to me but I’m not gonna get into a battle with you.” So, again, I keep saying this, but we could talk for just a whole hour on backtalk, and attitude, and sassiness. But just sort of remembering those core issues of why it’s happening in the first place and addressing that will be our best strategy.

Katie: Yeah, I think you’re so right. It’s important to reframe that and I really also liked that you brought up the control autonomy dynamic because I’m just in the early stages of having to navigate this. So I’m by no means an expert. But it is something I think a lot about right now, just having a teenager and soon to have another teenager, and remembering what it was like to be a teenager as well. And I’ve read enough psychology to know, kids in that age, especially once they hit the teenage years, psychologically, they actually are trying to become more independent. And that’s an important psychological stage for them, as they’re preparing for adulthood. And also, as parents, we, of course, want them to be prepared for adulthood, and to have the skills, and the foundation they need to be independent, and to live outside our homes. And I’m seeing firsthand and definitely understand how difficult that is because at the end of the day, like, I still think of my oldest as my baby even though he’s almost as tall as I am. But realizing they do need to learn to have that autonomy and to feel control over and an ability to make their own decisions. In our house, we turn this thing on its head. So most people have heard the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And we tell our kids, it actually works the other way. “With great responsibility comes great power.” When you show us that you’re responsible, we want to give you freedom, and we want to give you the power to make decisions. And so we have constant conversations around that. But just because it’s so top of mind, for me, right now, I’m curious, are there any, like, guidelines or ideas that you have for navigating with teenagers when certain levels of autonomy are appropriate or is it very much case by case based on the maturity level of the child and the relationship with the parent or how do you handle that?

Amy: First off, I just love what you just said, “With great responsibility comes great power.” That’s amazing. The other thing that I just want our listeners to remember is that this issue about needing more autonomy and control is absolutely an issue with teenagers. But it is the exact same thing with your two-years-old, three-years-old, six-years-old It doesn’t matter. Every kid at every stage has a need for autonomy and control. So I just don’t want people to think that we need to wait until the teen years to be thinking about this. But let’s talk specifically about what you asked when we want kids to be prepared to be successful in the adult world. And so we have to do our job to train them. So part of that is on an ongoing basis, always training them on tasks that they’ll need to do in the adult world, whether that’s managing their money, or changing air filters in the house, or car maintenance, or gardening, or whatever those things are, we always wanna be training them on adult tasks, so that when they leave the house, they’ll be prepared. But in terms of taking on more responsibility, one of the tools that I just love is called Convince Me. And this tool would apply when your kids wanna do something. Maybe they want to…you know, it’s a middle school or who wants to go to the mall on their own with friends, or somebody wants to go to a concert in the next town, or start driving, or whatever it happens to be, it is something that your kids wanna do that you’re a little bit, like, “I’m just not totally sure I’m ready for that.”

So you will use the tool to Convince Me. And so the way that works is you would share your concerns. So you would say, “You know, I understand that this is really important to you. Let me share my concerns about you going to the concert, or going to the mall, or riding your bike to school,” whatever that happens to be. These are my concerns. “So why don’t you take some time and think about this, and come back to me with your plan to address my concerns?” And so that’s what the kid does. They take some time, and then they come back, and they try to convince you if you will, but they do it in a way that takes all of your concerns into consideration, and then they share the plan that they’ve come up with. And so then, if you are comfortable with the plan that they’ve put forth, you can say, “Okay, I feel comfortable with that. It seems to me that you’ve thought through all of the possible things that could go wrong, you have a backup plan in place. That sounds great, let’s go ahead and, you know, do whatever you’ve asked to do.” And then you see how that goes. If they do well, then that makes you think, “Wow, yes, you know, he did a really good job by taking on this additional responsibility. And now I feel comfortable giving him more responsibility in the future.” Or if not, if it didn’t go so well, well, then that tells you, you’ve got more training to do.

We have more work to do in terms of responsibility. But the reason that I love this is because it requires the child to understand your point of view. So we’re fostering that empathy. And then they have to use their reasoning, and decision-making, and planning skills to come up with something to convince you that would address all of your concerns, but still, let them get the outcome that they want. And so it’s just a great strategy for adult life, right? We’ll be doing the same thing in our jobs or in group projects in college, or whatever, and you can start doing this really, as young as six or seven. Obviously, the problems and the issues will be different. But you can use these strategies, you know, all the way through into the teen years. And it’s great for kids and it’s great for parents.

Katie: That’s so great. I’m writing that one down to remember for sure because, you’re right, it puts the control actually in their hands. They’re getting to have a chance. And it removes all those things I used to say as teenagers, like, “You don’t understand or you don’t listen to me,” or whatever it is because you are listening as well, like you said, and then you’re having them pull from skills that will serve them their entire lives to develop, and potentially be able to get the outcome they want if they are able to do that effectively, which I love. I think there’s also crossover here when it comes to schoolwork or homework and how to navigate that. I’ve personally always taken the approach that even though I homeschool teach them, I’ll teach the concept but I’m not going to handhold, and babysit, and go through every problem with them. That’s school, that’s actually their work and I want them to learn how to kind of autonomously work through it themselves. And I feel like we have a good rhythm on this because we’ve been home homeschooling for so long, but I hear from a lot of parents who say things like, “It’s just getting to be so much. I have five hours of homework with my kid every single night after school where I spend, you know, three hours trying to get my first grader to do worksheets.” And any advice for parents who are trying to navigate that.

Amy: Yeah, so that can be a real challenge and I totally feel for parents, especially if you have multiple kids, but there are some simple sorts of things that you can put in place to avoid that. First as with all things, you will be successful with homework and schoolwork if you have filled their attention bucket first. So yeah, if your kids are coming home after school, take that time to connect emotionally first before you start being the taskmaster and start with, “Okay, we have to get the homework done and what are your assignments,” and all of that, start with connection first. It makes everything else go more smoothly. The next thing is, have some homework policies in place. So one of your policies can be, “I am happy to help you with anything that you need in your homework, as long as you’ve done as much as you can on your own. And then you can come to me and let me know what you still need help with. Now, when you come to me and let me know where you’re having trouble, I wanna know your thought process for trying to figure this out.” So basically, Katie, I don’t want them coming and saying, “I just can’t do this. This is too hard.” I wanna know, “Okay, on number seven, I see this problem, tell me your thought process for going through it and where did you struggle?” That way, I know they’ve put some time into it. And they’re not just playing the helpless card. The other thing is, have homework help hours. So that means I’m willing to help you with your homework from 5:30 to 8:30. After that, I’m too tired, you know, that’s not gonna work for me. So have homework help hours, like your office hours, if you will.

That gets you out of the situation where they’re coming at, you know, 9:30 at night, “I can’t do this. And it’s due tomorrow.” And so really put your homework help policies in place. Again, I tell parents, “You’ve already done the fifth grade. Your job is not to sit there and you know, side by side with your child, while they complete their homework and you being involved in it.” As you said, you want them to be doing that autonomously. You’re certainly there to support but it’s not your job. I would also have a talk with the teacher and let the teacher know that you are working on training for responsibility in your home. And so you will be there to support your child in doing their homework if they need help, but you’re not gonna cook some prod and that sort of thing. And so that then allows the natural consequences to play out. So if the kid doesn’t get the homework done, then that’s a discussion they’re having with the teacher and you can stay out of it. I think, Katie, where we run into trouble is, parents feel like, “I’m gonna look like a terrible parent if my kid doesn’t get their homework done.” Let the kid experience the natural consequences at school, that’s gonna be much more effective and it’s gonna keep you out of the role of the bad guy. Obviously, if there is a learning difference or an attention difference are other interventions that are required, you can, you know, work with the teacher and the clinicians, and whoever is on your team to do that. But they should be autonomously doing their homework, just as you suggested.

Katie: Yeah, I’m a big fan of natural consequences as well. And I’ve never heard it framed as well as you did with when and then, which I think is that just the language of that is wonderful because it avoids the power struggle and it lets them easily understand it in literally two words, that this happens when you’ve done this. But you’re right, I think that there’s been a shift at least it seems like. Obviously, I’ve only parented this current generation, but it seems like there’s a shift even since I was a kid of trying to protect kids from natural consequences. We’re not wanting them to have to feel the discomfort of not getting a good grade at school or facing something that’s difficult. And it’s funny because I don’t think my parents had those same fears. I always knew I had to get my schoolwork done. And if I messed up at school, I was gonna get in trouble at school. They certainly weren’t gonna save me. And then I was gonna get in trouble when I got home too. But there does seem to be at least a little bit more protecting kids from natural consequences. What other ways can we gently and lovingly incorporate those natural consequences? Because I feel like as adults, that’s something we all deal with very much every single day, if we don’t do our jobs, if we don’t take care of our houses, if we don’t do any of the things that adults have to do. There are very, very real natural consequences. So how can we let our kids start learning that from the earliest of ages?

Amy: Yes, absolutely. In fact, Katie, you’re doing our course right now so you’ll be getting to this in step 3, where we talk about creating a consequential environment. If we don’t create a consequential environment at home, our kids are really gonna struggle when they’re out on their own and have to face consequences for the first time. So, you know, from the younger years, all the way up through the teens, we have to create that consequential environment. And some of those come from, like, natural consequences. Well, if you refuse to take your coat to school, you may be cold outside at recess. It’s the middle of winter, that’s just a natural consequence. But then there’s also consequences around personal responsibility. So you mentioned homework is one of them, that if you don’t get your homework done, then you’re gonna have to face the consequences with your teacher. One of the things that we talk about is implementing a no rescue policy. And a no rescue policy is for areas in which we’ve been through this a million times, whether it’s remembering your lunchbox and remembering the homework, or your sports equipment, or whatever it is, we’ve talked about this, we’ve trained on it, I’ve already rescued you, probably more times than I should have. But now I know that it’s time to implement the no rescue policy. And so that starts with training. And we always kind of position it in a very positive way because marketing is everything. “You know, you are really growing up and you’re becoming so responsible in so many ways. And so now this is an area where you can take responsibility.” So let’s say it’s the sports equipment. “So from now on, you’re gonna be responsible for packing your sports bag and remembering to take it, making sure you have your uniform, and your cleats, and all the equipment.

I’m not gonna get involved in that anymore. I’m not gonna remind you, that is gonna be your responsibility. And if you choose not to take that responsibility, if you don’t have your stuff ready, if you forget your stuff, I’m not gonna be driving it to the field.” So what that means, Katie, is, you know, I’ve taken time for training… Oh, and also part of this has to do with systems. So I would say since I’m not gonna be reminding you about this anymore, what systems do you need to put in place so you can remember what you need to do for soccer or for your homework or whatever it happens to be? So we’ve done the training, we’ve put the systems in place, we’ve sort of set the expectation that we’re not gonna rescue, now we have to let it play out and let the child experience the consequence. Again, bring the coach or the teacher into the loop, if that makes you feel better, so they know you’re not a slacker parent, but in fact, you’re teaching responsibility. And if he shows up without his equipment, you know, you encourage the coach to implement the consequences that he has in place. So it’s implementing that no rescue policy. It’s not for a once in a blue moon mistake, we all make those and as a family, we have each other’s back. We help each other out. But for ongoing consistent issues that we have talked about, then we know it’s time for the no rescue policy. So that’s one example and many examples of how to create a decision rich environment for your kids that are going to set them up to be accountable, responsible for their own choices and to be successful functioning in a teen and in an adult world.

Katie: Got it. And I also wanna hear the explanation because you use the word family contributions, which I love because I think chores has a negative connotation. And adults don’t do chores, we just contribute to the family as well. But I’d love to hear, like, how you first of all came up with that term and how you use that because I think it’s such a great alternative.

Amy: Yeah, it’s so funny you asked how I came up with that term, and I actually don’t have any idea. I don’t remember how I came up with it. But you’re right, the word chores just denotes drudgery. Nobody wants to do chores. That sounds awful. And when you call those things family contributions, it doesn’t make the task any more enjoyable. Nobody enjoys folding laundry or unloading the dishwasher. But it does reinforce to your kids that when you do those things, it makes a difference for our family. And again, part of that power bucket that I talked about is a feeling of significance. We all have a hard-wired need to make a difference, to be significant, to contribute to the greater good. And so for a child or a teenager, the greater good is their family. And so when they are doing those things, they are contributing. So I highly recommend that parents change the language on that. I will tell you, Katie, to this day, my kids still roll their eyes a little bit when I say family contributions. But that doesn’t stop me one bit, I still call them that because when they contribute, it makes a difference. And the other piece of that is that we need to remind our kids what a difference their efforts make. And this applies to your partner too. Even though it’s their regular job, let them know, “When you do that, that makes such a difference for me. That makes our home runs so much more smoothly. That’s a big job that I don’t have to do.” We have to remember on an ongoing basis to let our people know how much we appreciate their contributions because that makes them feel better about it. When they know that their efforts are making a difference for you, they’re gonna be more likely to want to do it in the future.

Katie: That makes sense. Yeah. And it’s a great reminder. A lot of these things, just even our language, and our reframing, and making time for one-on-one connection, those are all such important things with our partner too, not just with our kids. Yeah, I think those are such helpful things.

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I’d also love to hear because I know you’ve worked with probably now thousands of families. For people listening who are wondering like, “This all sounds great, and it makes sense. But does it actually work? And do you really see a big difference? And how long does it take?” So can you talk about kind of what is the typical path that someone’s family will see when they start implementing these things, but maybe tell us a couple of stories of families that have used these strategies and how that changed their lives?

Amy: Oh, my goodness, I could go on forever. But so there are some changes that you see immediately and some that take a little bit longer. So I’ll give you a couple of examples. The mind, body, and soul time that I mentioned, that tool about one-on-one time every single day, you will see a difference in your kid’s behavior in one or two days, promise. Like as I said, if there’s such thing as a magic bullet, that is it because it is getting to their core emotional needs. So that change you see right away. Now in the work that I do with parents, I like to make it really easy for them. So I teach it kind of in a step-by-step pattern. So you implement one tool, and then you build on it with the next and the next. And with each tool that you implement, you are getting better and better results. And that makes sense because all of the tools focus on giving kids the positive power that they have to have. But then also, the other tools are intended to sort of diffuse those power struggles, but in a way that’s more positive than we’ve done before. So the more you use the tools, in general, the behavior gets better and better. So with the mind, body, and soul time, you’ll see that right away. Now with sibling rivalry and fighting, that takes a little bit longer to implement and to see the results. You’ll see some initial results right away, but it won’t solve every single thing in the first week, of course. And the reason for that is so for you, you have a 13-year-old, your oldest is 13, Katie, what’s the age of your next child?

Katie: Eleven, almost 12.

Amy: Okay. So between those two kids, there’s 11 years of baggage or competition, rumblings, that have sort of been baked into the relationship. And so that’s an example that takes just a little bit longer to resolve because we have to teach kids the conflict resolution strategies and we kind of have to work at some of that victim competition that naturally happens because, right, the day that you bring that second baby home from the hospital, there’s some competition that is just baked in. That’s just the way it works. So those types of behaviors may take a little bit longer to turn around. But in terms of transformation, I would encourage your listeners to go and read our Google reviews, our five star Google reviews, the transformation is just amazing. And it’s parents who felt like they were failing at their most important job, they feel like they’re not even cut out for parenthood, they feel like they’re not meeting their kid’s needs like every day. It just is a cycle of frustration and guilt. And they just feel extremely discouraged. And then they start implementing the tools and things start to turn around. So we have so many success stories, whether it’s on, you know, getting your kids to sleep through the night, whether it’s the sibling thing that I talked about, whether it’s just the emotional connection with your kids, reducing the power struggles.

There are so many transformations. But, you know, as a mom of now I have young adults, like, I will tell you, that time just goes so quickly. And you wanna look back on it and think, “Yes, like, I really enjoyed that time with my kids.” You want your kids to look back on their growing up years and think, “Yes, I had a great relationship with my parents. Things weren’t always perfect, but when things came up, we dealt with in a way that was positive, and it was solution-focused, and we want them to have those good memories. So the transformation can absolutely come. The thing that I always tell parents, Katie, is that parenting is not intuitive. Like, just because you’re smart, and loving, and nurturing, and you’re a good person, that doesn’t mean that you have the tools to deal with temper tantrums in Target or, you know, the meltdowns, or the defiance, or the sassiness, or the homework hassles. Like, we don’t have that stuff intuitively. But the good news is, it’s things that you can learn, really simple strategies that parents can pick up and just make such a difference in their day in day out life with their kids.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. And so far, I’m really enjoying the course. And I know you have a couple of books as well, I’ll make sure those are all linked in the show notes. So for all of you guys listening, you can head over to wellnessmama.fm and find the show notes there. But just talk a little bit about the system you have in your course, in the books and what you recommend for parents. Like, where should they jump in?

Amy: Yeah, so our system is called the 7-Step Parenting Success System. And again, it’s kind of a very linear approach because that’s the way my brain thinks. But it teaches parents all of those tools that they need to bring out the very best in their kid’s behavior, but also to bring out the best in the parent’s behavior so they can get out of the nagging, and reminding, and yelling cycle that they have been in. So in the 7 steps, parents learn the tools in the toolbox. But then there’s also the more intensive advanced modules. So if you have a bedtime problem, if you have a mealtime problem, if you have a child, you’re struggling with schoolwork and homework for a child with ADHD, so there are all these very specific advanced modules to tackle specific problems. So parents can just progress through that and learn all of those tools and have the advanced modules. If they want to sort of test drive what that system is all about, they can take a free class that we have, it’s called “Get kids to listen without nagging, reminding or yelling.” I can give you that link too. I also have two books, “If I Have to Tell You One More Time,” and then the other one is called “The Me, Me, Me Epidemic,” which is all about unentitling our kids. So lots different places that parents can get information. I’d say definitely start with a free class because that way they can sort of dip their toe in and see if they like what I teach, and they can put those tools, you know, into place right away with their own families and see what kind of results they get.

Katie: I love it. So again, all those will be in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm so you guys can find them. This was such a fun episode. Our time flew by. And another question I selfishly love to ask at the end because I’m a very avid reader is other than your own if there’s a book or a number of books that have really changed your life, and if so what they are and why?

Amy: Oh, this is such a hard question. I’m sure everybody tells you that. But there are a couple of books that I love. So this first one has been around for a while, you may be familiar with it. It’s called “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Dr. Carol Dweck. And it is a great read. It’s an easy read, but it’s all about her groundbreaking research on a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. And that applies to everyone, whether it’s, you know, sports, academics, your work life, but so important for your parenting. And there are things that we parents do that sort of undermine a growth mindset for our kids, particularly as it relates to praise. And so her book is really a mindset shift for a lot of parents. I’ve also incorporated a lot of her concepts into what I teach. So that’s a great one. Another one that I love, and again, this is from forever ago, but it is still a classic. It’s called “How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk,” by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. And again, super easy reads, like lots of cartoons. But it’s ways to phrase things to kids so that it’s accepted with an open heart, doesn’t invite a power struggle but allows you to get things done. So, again, as I said, it’s a classic book, but it is one of my favorites and one that I always recommend to parents.

Katie: I love both of those suggestions. And like I said, this has been such a fun interview. I think it’s gonna help a lot of families. And I’m going through your course right now so I’ll make sure that link is in the show note as well. But thanks for the time and for all the research. It’s just been fun.

Amy: Well, thank you. I really appreciate the time to chat with you and thanks for all the important work that you’re doing out there for your community.

Katie: And thanks as always to all of you for joining us today and sharing one of your most valuable resources, your time with us. We’re very grateful that you did. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/positive-parenting-solutions/

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

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342: How to Use Enzymes to Help Digestion and Autoimmune Issues With Steve Wright

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342: How to Use Enzymes to Help Digestion and Autoimmune Issues With Steve Wright

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Wellnesse. That’s Wellnesse with an E on the end, which is my new personal care company that is dedicated to making safe and effective products from my family to your family. We started with toothpaste and hair care because these are the biggest offenders in most bathrooms, and we’re coming after the other personal care products as well. Did you know for instance that most shampoo contains harsh detergents that strip out the natural oils from the hair and leave it harder to manage over time and more dependent on extra products? We took a different approach, creating a nourishing hair food that gives your hair what it actually needs and doesn’t take away from its natural strength and beauty. In fact, it’s specifically designed to support your hair’s natural texture, natural color, and is safe for color-treated hair as well. Our shampoos contain herbs like nettle, which helps strengthen hair and reduce hair fall, leaving your hair and scalp healthier over time, and scented only with natural essential oils in a very delicate scent so that you don’t have to worry about the fragrance as well. Over time, your hair gets back to its stronger, healthier, shinier state without the need for parabens or silicone or SLS. You can check it out along with our whitening toothpaste and our full hair care bundles at wellnesse.com. An insider tip, grab an essentials bundle or try auto-ship and you will lock in a discount.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com. That’s wellness with an E on the end, which is my new line of personal care products like hair care, toothpaste and hand sanitizer that are made with safe and natural ingredients, but as effective as conventional alternatives. This episode was a really fascinating one for me and it’s about a topic that I think is really just in its infancy in emerging that has so much potential for a ton of aspects of health. I’m here with Steven Wright who is a medical engineer, a Kalish Functional Institute graduate, and a gut health specialist. He personally spent close to $400,000 overcoming his own health challenges using everything from Western medicine to shamans. And the reason I wanted to have him on today is to talk about enzymes. And we’re going to go deep on this, both systemic and digestive enzymes. But these were part of the puzzle for me with autoimmune disease and weight loss. We talk about it a little bit in this episode. And the really amazing formulas that are available now were not even available when I was going through that. So, I now use enzymes as part of my daily routine. I noticed a big difference from them. My husband uses them as well. And there’s a lot of potential in the studies right now linking these with help with autoimmune disease, food intolerance, digestive issues, even anti-aging, and a lot more. So, we’re going to go deep on all of that today. I think you’ll find this episode extremely helpful. So, let’s jump right in. Steve, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Steven: Thank you, Katie. I’ve been waiting for this.

Katie: Oh, I’m really excited to chat with you, one, because it’s always really fun to chat with you in person or on Zoom like this, but also because you have such a wide amount of knowledge on this topic. And I think it’s really important for a lot of people listening. So I wanna start broad and then kind of dial down to all of the different areas from there. We’re gonna go deep on enzymes like I mentioned in the intro. So, to start off broad, define for us what enzymes are.

Steven: Yes. So, at the broadest level, enzymes are a protein that is called like a catalyst. So basically it means it speeds up reactions. And so enzymes were around, like bacteria and viruses, well before us. They’ll be around forever. They’re involved in everything. Without enzyme reactions, we would die immediately. But basically, they are a protein that speeds up any reaction at the most basic level.

Katie: Got it. Okay. And so I’m guessing these are things that exist naturally in the body to some degree, right?

Steven: Correct. Yeah. So, it’s theorized that…if you’re familiar with, like, stem cell theory, that, you know, we’re born with the number of stem cells we have for our whole life or something like that, it’s theorized that we’re born with the amount of pancreatic enzymes, which is probably one of our biggest sources of enzymes that we use. Those are specifically usually used for digestion. But we also have, like, it’s theorized up to, like, 50,000, like, hyper-specific metabolic and systemic enzymes in our bodies that are constantly just doing all these really crazy reactions. So, yeah, we have enzymes almost everywhere. We’ll talk specifically, I think, here about the main systemic enzymes and then the main digestive enzymes, which is, for the most part, really all science even understands at this point and really all you should concern yourself with.

Katie: Gotcha. Okay. So to make sure I’m understanding before we go on. They think that you were born with all the enzymes…a certain enzyme you’re gonna have?

Steven: Yeah. Yeah. So, specifically pancreatic enzymes. It’s theorized that you’re sort of born with this reservoir of them, and you use them as you go through life. You know, if you’re like me and you had a while where you ate a lot of processed food or you go through a lot of stress or you have a lot of digestive conditions or other health conditions, you might use that reservoir up faster, or if you have ways in which your body gets, you know, hurt or ill, you could burn through your systemic enzymes trying to down-regulate inflammation, trying to regulate your immune system. And so there is a little bit of a debate about how many enzymes do we really get in our lifetime. And I don’t think there’s a true answer quite yet.

Katie: Got it. Okay. So then I guess the next question is if enzymes are a thing that we are born with, can you take them exogenously and accomplish the same thing? Because I know with certain things like the ones we make in our body might be different from ones we can consume. How does that work with enzymes?

Steven: Yes. So there’s all those super, hyper-special enzymes that we’re not even aware what they do, like they’re probably part of almost everything, glutathione, liver detoxification. Those, we can’t make exogenously. I don’t even know if we’ve really identified them scientifically. I’ve never seen them in any book, and I own, I think, everything on enzymes at this point. But let’s just talk about the fact that there… We have enzymes in our mouth. We have enzymes in our stomach. We have enzymes in our small intestine, and those are…where pancreatic enzymes and what’s called the brush border enzymes happen. Then we have systemic enzymes. So we’ll just classify them as those five areas. And basically, the systemic and pancreatic enzymes are the ones that could be in jeopardy. You could almost think about it as like CoQ10 for aging. You know, like as we age, there’s just unavoidable things such as our hormones begin to die out and things like that. It’s starting to become potentially clear that this is happening with enzymes as well.

And so when you start to eat a bite of food, because we’ll just talk digestion first, there’s amylase, which is a carbohydrate enzyme in your mouth. And so as you chew, one of the reasons why people tell you to chew a lot and not just swallow your food whole, which I’m totally guilty of a lot, is that amylase starts to work on your food in your mouth and then it works in your stomach. Inside your stomach, you have pepsin, which is a protein enzyme, a proteolytic enzyme, and that starts to work. And so while your food’s in your stomach beginning to basically unfold itself and make itself available for these enzymes, you have amylase and you have pepsin working. Then as the stomach process happens, the food dumps slowly into the small intestine, at which point your pancreatic enzymes basically mesh in. They kind of dump into your small intestine, and those are a fat or lipase carbohydrate. There’s more amylase in there. There’s also more protein enzymes, proteolytic enzymes.

But then also you have your brush border, and your brush border are kind of like…if you could see my hand right now, I’d be wiggling my fingers like spirit fingers. And basically, there’s these little hairs that cover your intestines, and these are called villi. They’re part of the brush border, and these villi are, like, super important for almost everything in your gut. And one of the things that’s really important is they are what secrete your brush border enzymes. And if you’ve heard of lactose intolerance, lactase is the enzyme that you lose or a lot of people lose anyways, and then they have lactose issues. Well, the brush border is where that lactase is made, and so there’s some people who think that potentially not everyone loses lactase and that there’s just some of us whose brush border is inflamed and broken.

In celiac, there’s actually pictures, and this is part of how you diagnose the celiac condition, is your brush border looks like it was chopped off by, like, a road grader or something that’s just all mangled and it’s not really working. And so those brush border enzymes are really specific enzymes. They do a lot of, like, cellulose and they do…so, fiber and vegetables. There’s all these really specific carbohydrates that they break down. And then the last group is the proteolytic enzymes, and those are mostly predominantly proteolytic enzymes inside your blood. However, amylase and lipase do go in the blood as well. They kind of are maybe more, like, 5%, but, like, 95% of the protein sort of enzymes in your blood, they’re able to be absorbed systemically when we take them exogenously, or sometimes we just absorb our own enzymes. And they run around, and they do all these cool blood cleaning and inflammation-reducing and immune-balancing things.

Katie: That is so fascinating. Okay. So there’s so many directions that I wanna go from there. I think especially based on both of our stories, I can see pieces falling in place of how these can be so helpful in a lot of different ways. And you mentioned proteolytic enzymes, which…that rings a bell for me because, in the heat of my own autoimmune disease, that was one of the many things that I took that I seemed to notice a big difference from. And, in fact, I think I actually took too much too fast and made myself feel really not good for a while. Can you go deeper on what those are? You said they’re in the blood. What are they doing specifically, and is there an autoimmune link there?

Steven: Yes. So, proteolytic enzymes basically just means a protein degrading enzyme. So I might have misspoke a little bit. And so what’s the difference between a digestive proteolytic enzyme and a systemic proteolytic enzyme? Well, one just happens to be working on your food to break it down, and one just happens to be inside your blood. And so when we take exogenous enzymes, so when we take a supplement, if you take it with food, the proteolytic enzymes inside of that capsule will be really busy working on your food. If you take it without food, you’ll actually absorb it.

And there’s plenty of studies on all different types of products that show that these types of enzymes are absorbed into the bloodstream and then they begin to go to work. So, I know based on, you know, just listening to your podcast that you’ve done a lot of different shows on a lot of different topics, and you’ve covered kind of like leaky gut and gut inflammation and autoimmunity pretty well. And where enzymes fit into this scenario is when we get leaky gut, so basically where our guts aren’t working properly, and different types of molecules are going into our bloodstream, a lot of times, these are where you get your food intolerances. You get your dairy and your corn, and you get your gluten sometimes and all these different things that impact us. That’s a protein molecule that’s running around the body now, and the immune system can’t have that. And so it tags that protein molecule as like, “Hey, we have to kill this. We have to get rid of it.” And so it basically puts an antigen on it, and it red flags it.

Now, this also happens with viruses, bacteria, anything that gets into the gut or into the blood vessels through the gut that really isn’t supposed to be there. And now almost everything is encoded in a protein casing. So, all those microorganisms. Most everything that causes a blood reaction is a protein-like molecule. So, the immune system just tags these bad guys, right, these foreign invaders, and now this is called a circulating immune complex or CIC. This whole process is pretty normal, although it’s not supposed to happen all that much. And what happens normally is your liver and your spleen are supposed to filter out these CICs, but as you know, we live in a toxic environment. Probably a lot of your listeners, you know, aren’t using a lot of the toxic chemicals anymore, but it’s really hard just to be a capable human of detoxing the life we live.

And so if the liver and the spleen are sluggish, overwhelmed, your immune system is kind of overwhelmed, or your gut’s really messed up, you’re gonna have CICs, like, everywhere. And now CICs, once they’re tagged, they kind of emit these little signals saying like, “Hey, I’m bad. Hey, I’m bad. Come kill me.” And these are called…one name for them is cytokines. That’s kind of big right now in what people are learning about. And till that CIC is killed or detoxified, it is emitting more inflammation. But when your spleen and liver are overwhelmed, your body in its infinite wisdom, because I do think it’s super wise, will grab those CICs and it’ll go store them in your soft tissues to try to make them as inert as possible, right? Because we can’t have our blood clogged up with all this stuff.

And so in the research, we see increased CICs in many autoimmune conditions. So that’s really prevalent in lupus, really prevalent in rheumatoid arthritis. I looked into it for Hashimoto’s just because I know we were having this conversation. It appears the research is less clear there. Studies show anywhere from 20% to 60% of people with Hashimoto’s have elevated CICs. You can actually run a CIC blood test to check for these things. They appear almost elevated in many chronic inflammatory conditions, AIDS, different infection-related conditions. There’s some new research online. And so my theory on what’s happening here is that we have our weak links, our genetic weak links. And you were born with them. I was born with them. You can’t escape them. And when your body’s trying to save you from all these CICs, it grabs the molecules and just kind of stores them in your genetic weak links. And so if you have rheumatoid arthritis, that’s near your joints, and then you end up with joint pain.

Now, the really, really cool thing about systemic and proteolytic enzymes is they go in and they break down the CICs. And they’re able to neutralize them, and they’re also able to even go into the soft tissues and break them down. And so that’s why we have research studies on systemic enzymes showing that after, like, working out, like after, like, really intense workouts, you have less pain if you have systemic enzymes. In other words, the enzymes are removing the inflammation from even just working out. But there’s plenty of usage of these in Germany and plenty of studies on rheumatoid arthritis and lupus where systemic enzyme therapy rivals various types of prescription, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs, not just your basic aspirins and things like that, but the much more powerful ones. And so they’re really cool. And they also help with clotting. They clean the blood like I mentioned. And so that’s kind of what can happen.

Now, you mentioned…this is really long so I’m gonna stop right after this. But just to finish the question, you mentioned that you took a lot really fast, and you might have had a reaction to them. If you had plenty of these CICs stored up because your body was trying to do its best, you can have what’s called a Herxheimer reaction to using them…you know, a lot of them really quickly. And so, yeah, that definitely could have happened. And then also if people are wondering, “Well, these sound, like, really potent and kind of crazy,” there’s actually a whole line of cancer research that uses high-dose, exogenous, systemic enzyme therapy. It’s Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez. He’s passed away, but there’s doctors who work underneath of his lineage. They use 150 to 180 capsules a day. So I don’t know how many capsules you were using, Katie. But in cancer at least when they try to use this type of therapy, they use mega doses, and I do believe they actually work up to that as well.

Katie: Wow, that is awesome to know, and I’m guessing there’s a lot of people listening putting these pieces together going, “Wow, I wonder if this could help my, you know, fill in the blank.” Because it seems like we’ve got data, at least preliminary data on it being really helpful for a lot of things. And before we go further, I think it’s also, I’d love for you to tell a little bit of your story because you also went on your own health journey and had to find your own health answers and then return to a state of health. So can you talk about the phases of your own health journey?

Steven: Yeah, sure. So I had some birth trauma. I’ve had intestinal issues basically my whole life, and then, you know, after college, I was a consultant at KPMG in Chicago. And I was living the super consultant lifestyle, really high stress, and I really at that point was having cystic acne everywhere. I was having my first panic attacks, I had just come out of my worst depressive episode. Every time I ate, I would have bloating so bad. I would tear up, and I was raised in a culture where boys don’t cry. And so it was really hard for me to be at the office. It was really hard for me to be anywhere and have basically stabbing knife pains. And this is no matter what I ate. I was also overweight. I was probably 230 at that point. My highest was about 245, and I’m only 5-11. I’m pretty athletic but that was still pretty big for me. And so I was eating lettuce and chicken, and I was working out an hour a day. And I was doing my best to suck it up and be a man. I just started having accidents where I was missing dates.

I accidentally, you know, pooed myself on a commuter bus, and then my boss called me into his office and said, “You’re stinking up the office. You have to fix this or, you know, bad things are gonna happen.” And so that’s when I had my final wake-up call that I needed to do something, and that led me down all kinds of awesome, you know, dietary changes that really started to change my world right away. That led me to, for instance, stomach acid, betaine HCl, digestive enzymes. Once I started to get my digestive pain away, I wanted to know why did I have to eat such a restricted diet and why didn’t my acne go away. You know, how come I didn’t feel great every day? And so that just led me naturally just to read a ton of scientific literature. I joined the Kalish Institute and was certified in functional medicine with them.

I just kept, you know, sort of biohacking, keep asking the questions like, “Well, why and, you know, how come?” And that’s led me to, you know, shamans across the world. That’s led me to all kinds of Western stuff, you know, so many supplements and kind of led me to where we are today. One of the weird things about why we’re talking today is even though I had been on a specific carbohydrate diet or an autoimmune Paleo diet for essentially seven years, around year seven, I started to get left big toe pain. And at the time, I was 32. I was a “digestive health expert.” You know, I was trying to be the picture of health, and I was trying to live up to this thing that I was supposed to be. And here I was having a hard time walking.

At first, I chalked it up to injuries. I tried stem cells. I tried shamanism. I tried all kinds of intense manual therapies, Eastern and Western, X-rays, all kinds of things. After I basically had done everything, even though there was something that in the back of my mind said, “Hey, that’s really common for what is seen in gout,” there’s no way I have it. I don’t fit the profile. How would I have that thing? I had a stigma around gout. And finally, one of my doctor buddies was like, “Man, we have really done everything with you.” And he’s the one that gave me the stem cells. He’s like, “I think you really need to take this, you know, high uric acid idea seriously. There’s really nothing else that would explain this.”

I did, you know, because that…I was previously a backcountry hunter, and just hunting, I’d have to be on anti-inflammatory drugs. Like, I couldn’t do my activities anymore. And so I started doing cherry juicing and all kinds of, you know, natural remedies for lowering uric acid and trying to support-gout related things. And nothing was working, and so I was back to like, “Man, I’m gonna have to take a prescription drug for the rest of my life that might have…it has decent side-effect profile. This isn’t okay with me.” And right about that time is when I was deep into enzymes because I have been just frustrated with the lack of consistency when I recommend to even you, you know, all my friends. People ask me for recommendations, and I was like, “I don’t know the right brand, but I’m gonna figure it out.”

And so in the middle of trying basically every brand on the market, I ran into a Ph.D. researcher who talked about systemic enzymes. He talked about a very specific thing about how they need to be activated, and when they’re activated, they do miraculous things. One of the case studies he rattled off was that his form of enzymes, his form of digestive systemic enzymes, actually were very successful in some pilot clinical trials supporting high uric acid and supporting gout pain. And I was like, “Okay. Now I’m sold. I’ll buy your stuff. Let me try it.” You know, that’s what I always do. Sure enough, 14 days into dosing them at a little bit higher dose than normal but not that high, just 6 pills, literally, this pain that I’d had for 3 years was gone. So it stayed gone. And it’s been amazing. I’ve been able to get back to a lot of my activities. I don’t rely on pain relievers anymore.

And so I can’t claim that, you know, our supplement does anything else. Just my experience is one-off. You know, results are not typical. There are research studies that we’ve done on this. We hope to do much bigger, you know, 60, 80, 100-person trials. They’ve only been 10-person trials, but it’s really, really encouraging. And it really opened my eyes like, “Oh, wow, maybe this is a really overlooked area of health that could help me and a lot of others.”

Katie: Yeah. It’s so fascinating. And I feel like this is just now really starting to be talked about, and I know you’ve done so much research on it. That’s why I was so excited to have you on today to talk about this. Having researched my own way through an autoimmune disease and now being in remission with Hashimoto’s, I keep always coming back to the inflammation piece because I think if anything, the last couple of years have really just emphasized for me how personalized health is and how at the end of the day, I found what works for me. And that definitely does not mean it’s gonna work even for someone else who has Hashimoto’s, I think there are pieces of that that do. But it does seem to all go back to inflammation, and I think that’s a common link with a lot of types of chronic disease. And so it sounds like when we’re talking about these enzymes, that’s one of the mechanisms that they’re acting on is to reduce inflammation in the body in various ways essentially, right?

Steven: Yeah. Correct. And I think everybody should be super skeptical, and I don’t think, you know, everything works for everybody. So I’m glad you brought that up. But there are these certain pathways that do appear to be universal almost. One of these is inflammation. And the cool thing about if you have, like, a properly working digestive tract is you’ll be breaking down your foods, right? You won’t have these big protein molecules busting through your gut lining, overwhelming your immune system, you know, antagonizing it. You won’t have dysbiosis, which is the microbiome getting dysregulated. All of these things are related to food. My analogy is, you know, like if you had given your kids, Katie, like a scoop of peanut butter, almond butter, and just throw it on the sidewalk and let them watch what happens, by the end of the day, there’s gonna be, like, all kinds of bugs. And maybe a bird will check it out, and probably a dog will find it and lick it. And like, you know, life just blooms whenever there’s food.

And so if we’re not digesting and breaking down the food that we eat, we’re literally causing a bloom of just whatever is gonna go for it in our guts. And that increases inflammation. So one of the biggest things is just properly digesting your food can help lower inflammation. And then, yes, these enzymes are amazing once you’re past that and you’re trying to get into the body anywhere from, you know, just cleaning the blood out, any sort of stored CICs balancing the immune system. There’s research on, like, plaque formation and, you know, heart disease, some of the risk factors for heart disease. It’s just really quite amazing, their capacity to help regulate the immune system and high inflammation.

Katie: Got it. Okay. That makes complete sense. And I know, like you’ve mentioned food intolerances a couple times and explained kind of that gut reaction and why these enzymes might be so helpful. And I know that’s a big buzzword for a lot of people listening. I’ve certainly been through that on my own when I first was in the thick of autoimmune disease. That was part of the key for me of figuring out how to reduce inflammation in the beginning as I had to be pretty strict with my diet and to deal with certain food intolerances.

So in the beginning, for me, I had dairy, gluten, coconut, eggs, and some others. And now I’m able to eat essentially everything except eggs without any kind of reaction. And I think for anyone who has their own food intolerances or certainly for a parent who has a child with food intolerances, that can be both really scary and really frustrating. And so I think that the fact that this can potentially offer hope for food intolerance is really exciting. I’d love to go a little bit deeper on that. Like is there a specific protocol that we’re seeing that seems to help with food intolerance? And when it comes to that, can kids do this as well, or do we know yet?

Steven: You know, food intolerances are like autoimmune diseases in that they’re just a complex topic, and so we can’t say someone’s…like, I had a dairy issue as well. I still have a gluten-type issue. I don’t seem to have any others, but there is some sort of interplay between your immune system and your immune system sort of reacting to proteins. Again, remember, most people don’t really know this, but when your immune system has a reaction, most of the time, like 99% of the time, it’s a protein that it’s reacting to.

And so while lactose intolerance is a totally real thing, and there’s a lot of people that have it, my personal belief is that a lot of people are actually reacting to the proteins whey and casein that are in dairy. And one of the reasons why and how we believe food intolerances happen is your immune system wouldn’t react to something or learn to react to something if it wasn’t getting exposed to it and think it was bad. And so how would that happen? Well, it would happen if your gut was leaky or if your gut wasn’t working properly. The belief is that we eat our foods. Let’s say it’s dairy or let’s make it even easier, like corn is a less…not as many people have that, but there’s a protein in corn that’s kind of like gluten. It’s called zein, and it’s just this hard-to-break-down protein basically.

And so if your proteolytic enzymes don’t break it down and if your gut is a little leaky, that protein or any other corn proteins could pass into the blood. And the immune system will be like, “Whoa, that’s bad guy. You know, we gotta get rid of that.” And so it has this whole reaction. And so that’s believed to be how food intolerances happen. How to get rid of them? You have those sort of several pieces, right? We need the immune system to kind of sort of relax but we need it to make sure it stops being exposed to it. In order to do that, we have to digest the food and make sure it doesn’t go into the blood. And so unraveling that is…I don’t think it’s as easy as just taking digestive enzymes.

But if we think about how that process unfolds, the number one thing we could do is make sure the food is properly digested and it’s never, you know, sort of in that bigger molecule. And so we do see a lot of people who are able to take the enzymes and then over time as long as they’re also healing their gut…remember the gut wall has to close up and the gut inflammation has to heal up. If those two things happen, that’s how I believe a lot of food intolerances are overcome. Of course, you know, there’s straight-up food allergies. Those are different. That’s usually something that’s inherent to you. Those are usually anaphylactic in nature.

So, I’m not talking about those at all. That’s a totally separate conversation, a totally different medical topic. But in this intolerance thing where it’s sort of being annoyed by these foods, it does appear that if you can heal the gut lining and break the food down better, your intolerances and your diet can really expand because they seem to go away. And so the cool thing is with enzymes, you can open them up. You know, because a lot of kids don’t like to swallow pills. I’m sure you know that. But you can open them up. You can put them on their food. There’s no issue as far as doing that kind of thing. In the various different areas where children have issues with their guts, enzymes are pretty much used universally in the various disorders. So, yeah, they’re amazing for that.

Katie: That’s so exciting to me because I know when I first was trying to figure this out on my own years ago, the story I got from mainstream medicine was that, kind of like, once an autoimmune disease, always an autoimmune disease. And we don’t even really fully understand what causes them, but we don’t think you can get rid of them. And once there’s this level of inflammation in the body, you just kind of have to mitigate. And thankfully, that’s definitely not what I found to be true in my own health journey or in my research. But that’s been very top of mind for me is like, you know, I had to get really sick as an adult before I started paying attention to these things.

So I’m very cognizant of “What can I be doing with my kids now that gives them the best, you know, digestive start, that gives them the best immune start that hopefully they never have to face the level of problems that I faced?” and that I know you’ve faced as well. I know that we’re both, probably can be grateful for that because that was part of our journey and that allows us to now help other people. But it’s really exciting to me when pieces like this fall into place, and we have what seems like extremely tangible evidence of the mechanism that these things work and especially when we’re talking about kids.

I asked you this before we started, but I wanna ask it on the record as well. I’m a big proponent of various types of fasting. So I do time-restricted eating a lot of days, and I also am currently in the middle of a water fast just because I know I feel best when I do those relatively regularly. And certainly a lot of things you wouldn’t take while fasting. A lot of supplements aren’t best taken without food. Walk us through enzymes and how they can be used differently with food and without food.

Steven: Yeah. So, you know, I actually kind of do…when I fast, I actually up my enzyme dosage because I’m kind of of this idea that…you know, I’ve already had a lot of my own health changes, right? Like the idea of me being, you know, an NFL or a NBA, like an Olympic-style health athlete is just out the door. That ship has sailed. So, I need to do a lot of proactive things throughout my life to really feel and be the best. And so when I fast, I actually take more of enzymes, more systemic enzymes because I believe they’re helping to sort of cleanse the blood as you’re…you know, when you’re fasting, you’re totally changing the state of your body, and you’re, you know, potentially dumping extra toxins or certain molecules into the blood that wouldn’t normally be there. You’re also not digesting, and so there’s no real focus on digestion. And there’s a lot of focus around immune and cellular health. And so part of that whole process of autophagy and everything is protein destruction and protein degradation and protein recycling. I actually up my enzyme usage during fasts in order to try to just basically have as much of a cleanse as I can.

Yeah. The big thing is basically like are you taking the enzymes with food or without food? Like what’s in the enzyme, and so the actual enzyme products. So, as I mentioned earlier, for a digestive enzyme, you really wanna be taking a product that includes both pancreatic enzymes and brush border enzymes. If you’re not taking one with both, and you’re experiencing any health issues or any gut upset at all, and you’re like, “Man, I don’t know if this product’s working,” like, there’s really no way…there’s no tests that I’m aware of for you to know if you’re having a brush border enzyme problem or a pancreatic enzyme problem or both. And so my belief is you should take a product that has both of them covered so that, you know, whatever your body’s, you know, hiccup is or issue, you got yourself covered. Now, you also want that product to be higher in protease, and you want it to be basically, like, 100% pH coverage, and you want it to be activated. If those things happen, then it can be used systemically as well. And so what does that mean?

So basically, pancreatic enzymes work in a very small window of pH, and pH’s, like, acid-base balance. The stomach is very acid. The intestines are actually more basic or a less higher pH. Excuse me. And so animal enzymes like pancreatin, nothing wrong with them. You have to understand their limitations. And so pancreatin only works in a very narrow pH, and so if your stomach acid is off, if it’s low, if you’re stressed, if you have, like, H. pylori or these other infections, the chances of your pH being perfect so that your enzymes turn on and that work is just kind of, again, you’re sort of leaving yourself open there for products to not really work and get you the intended benefits. And so I really like more fungal-based enzymes because they have 100% pH coverage. So they work from 2 to 11. Like, ours work from 1.7 to 11.6 or something. So it’s basically your whole body’s range. You really wanna get a product that’s activated.

Now, of course, I’m biased. You know, our product has a patented activation system. I literally tried 28 different products from almost every brand last year, trying to figure this out for myself. And I wouldn’t have settled on this and I wouldn’t have worked and licensed this from the Ph.D. guy if I didn’t fully understand enzymes now and how they work. And so basically, enzymes need energy to do their work, and so they need what’s called a cofactor. And for enzymes, that’s a mineral. And so basically, minerals donate energy to turn on enzymes. And so if you take a product that doesn’t have a mineral activation blend, you’re gonna have to steal nutrients from your food, or you’re gonna have to rely on stealing nutrients from your body to turn them on.

I finally realized that was the thing. Why did some days the enzyme work and other days the enzyme didn’t work? And why did some brands work with some people but other brands didn’t work with that same or with…like other people like them? I really believe it comes down to this thing of the quality of the enzyme and then, is it activated? Because if it’s not activated, it’s sort of, like, inert almost like, you know, you just need it to be turned on to work. Otherwise, you’re taking the chance that it might bump into something in your food and turn on. And so that’s why I’m such a big proponent of holozymes and this AES absorption system.

The Ph.D. guy had to do six pilot trials because the patent board was like, “Yeah. Okay, man, you know, this is sort of unprecedented science. Like it sounds cool, but we don’t believe you.” So he actually had to do these pilot trials to prove that this enzyme product works both for fat, carbohydrate, and protein and that it’s absorbed systemically and it begins to help with a clotting factor. That’s all been done in those pilot trials. Of course, we need much more research on it. But as far as enzyme product goes, I’m actually not aware of any other enzyme products except for Wobenzym that have done this kind of research. And so Wobenzym is kind of like the systemic enzyme of choice if you’re just gonna use a systemic enzyme, but it doesn’t have any of the digestive stuff. Ours has both your pancreatic, your brush border, and your systemic nature.

Katie: That’s super helpful to understand. And I will say just as a plug for you guys as well. I very rarely notice an immediate difference from supplements and I’ve added this to my routine, and I do notice, like my digestion, and I notice a difference from taking it, like a noticeable difference. You know, it wasn’t available when I was in the height of my autoimmune disease. Although I wish now that it had been. It’s so exciting to me that we have tools like this. Are there any risks or contraindications people need to know about when it comes to taking enzymes? And if not, what does good dosing look like, especially if we’re talking about yours specifically?

Steven: Yeah. There’s no massive risk. Of course, you know, always check with your doctor. For instance, Wobenzym has the most systemic…the most, like, research in the world on it, and it actually is even used in infertility trials. There was, like, a study of 141 people in Germany who are women who are infertile, and they used systemic enzymes to help them get pregnant and much better than the control group and stay for the whole pregnancy term. So, they’ve been studied in kids. Our brand hasn’t been, but enzymes, in general, have been studied in kids. They’ve been studied in pregnancy.

The only real big thing is there’s an enzyme called nattokinase and it’s a really cool Japanese systemic enzyme that’s specifically cardiac function. It rivals some specific, you know, cardio-related drugs as far as efficacy for blood pressure, for clotting, things like that. And so it does appear that, like, if you megadose that, there’s some concerns around if you’re already on a blood thinner. But just general usage of regular products like Wobenzym or holozymes or something like that, there shouldn’t be any, but, of course, check with your doctor.

So, dosing. Dosing is really kind of up to you. So like I said, the upper limit of dosing that I’m aware of is like…would be, like, 150 to 180 pills a day. That’s a lot, and that’s for very specific cancer-related protocols that Dr. Gonzalez does and his lineage does. What I’ve seen is that most people use two to six capsules specifically of holozymes per meal and then on an empty stomach. And they can see, like, really amazing results. Why the range? Well, it just depends, like how…do we know your pancreatic function? How long have you been sick? You know, what kind of food are you feeding yourself? How stressed are you? How’s your stomach acid? All these things make a difference in your capacity to break down food and how much digestive enzymes might you need.

And then, again, on the systemic side like before bed or in the morning, you know, what are you looking to do? Are you just taking this as an anti-aging supplement to keep your blood clean, to keep everything flowing well, to keep inflammation levels low? Then all the studies that the Ph.D. guy did were only two pills before bed. But if you’re specifically trying to get better athletic performance, if you’re specifically trying to work on some sort of health condition that you think might be helped by this, then I would recommend doing four to six on an empty stomach for at least a month just to see what happens. You can always go down, or you can go up.

We do have some people who end up going really, like, more on the 10 to 14 range per meal, but these are people with known gastro issues like gastroparesis where their stomach doesn’t actually dump very well or at all into the intestines. And so these should be really guided by somebody who knows what’s going on or if you have… Another way that it’s working is it is for people to, you know, help with their occasional heartburn or occasional acid reflux or something like that if they’re looking for an alternative, which, again, I can’t say that this is an alternative. I can just tell you that, you know, some people who buy our product are using it in those dosages for those conditions.

Katie: Gotcha. Yeah. And I think you highlighted a really important point, which is at the end of the day, like this can be used for so many different things like a lot of these tools can. It really does come down to each of us taking the initiative to experiment and try things and try them for a long enough time to see if they have an effect. And this is one that I’m really excited about right now, like you mentioned, just for the anti-aging side and for keeping any potential future autoimmune things at bay because I know, like once you’ve had any kind of inflammatory condition, your chances of having them in the future is higher. And so I’m very cognizant of that and still try to keep my inflammation low, even though I now am much more relaxed with my diet and my lifestyle than I had to be in the very beginning.

But I think the anti-aging part is also really exciting to a lot of people listening as well. And I think we’re probably gonna keep seeing more and more on this. But it’s a pretty easy thing that seems like we can add in and try without a lot of risks, which is really, really exciting.

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And real quick, I know I have a link right here. I’ll put in the show notes as well. It’s healthygut.com/wm. And I know you guys are giving a discount on any order. But just talk about the products by name and a little bit more specifically. Because, like I said, these are ones that are now part of my routine, and I wanted to make sure I could share them with the audience today.

Steven: Yeah. Yes. The enzyme product that I’ve been talking about is called HoloZyme, and it’s the world’s most activated enzyme formula. So it is patented. We also have our, you know, dual-strain, four-times concentrated active blend. Our enzymes are made in the U.S. They’re pharmaceutical grade, 100% clean, no fillers, no additives. And so, yeah, we’re giving $10 off to try it. I mean, I think whenever you’re trying something new, I think it’s always great to save a little money when you don’t know if it’s gonna work for you. But we also, you know, just being somebody who’s been sick and consumes a lot of supplements hoping for results, you know, kind of being like, “Oh, maybe this one, or, oh, maybe this one.”

We’re also offering a 180-day refund on all of our products at any point in time for any reason. And I just know that because not everything works for everybody. And if you don’t notice the difference, I mean, maybe you’ll buy into the research to use these systemically for anti-aging or just with digestion. But I would just wanna make sure that there’s no risk, and if anybody has any issues with the product, we always just, you know, go ahead and give the money back because I know that if you’re listening to this podcast, if you’re following me or Katie, you’re trying really hard to have, you know, a really healthy life, really healthy lifestyle. So, I’m super into, like, just encouraging that and encouraging great use of your money when it comes to those things. Yeah. And then we also have HCL Guard. Are you using that, Katie?

Katie: I am. But to clarify, that one is to be used only with food, correct? You wouldn’t wanna use that while fasting?

Steven: Correct. Correct. So HCL Guard is our, also a new product, never been done before. It’s a stomach acid supporting product. It’s for people with low stomach acid. And it’s correct. There’s literally acid powder in the capsule. So, you never open the capsule. Only take it with food. It’s not as universal, but for people who are over 50, you have about a 50% chance of having low stomach acid. Sadly, stomach acid’s really related to aging and hormone health. And so as we age, stomach acid declines is what the studies show. And so if you’re having any gas, burping, constipation, diarrhea are occasional, those things are all occasional. Again, HCL Guard does not treat any medical conditions. HoloZyme does not treat any medical conditions. But if you’re having struggles in those departments, they can offer support. And, yes, so it’s pretty cool.

It’s the only stomach acid formula on the market that includes organic ginger, which is a prokinetic. And many people might have drank ginger tea when they’ve been having an upset stomach. And so the ginger is anti-inflammatory. It helps support the healing of the stomach, but it also helps the food start moving through your body. And then we also include intrinsic factor, which is kind of like the bouncer for B12. It turns out B12 is a really fragile compound, and it needs support to get into the bloodstream. And intrinsic factor is part of stomach acid naturally, but if you’re not making enough, then you’re not gonna have enough to get your B12. And so we’re the first company to bring that to market. So, I’m really excited about them mostly because I’ve been using everybody else’s brands for 10 years, and I just got fed up with not getting the consistency that I wanted. And so I’m glad that you’re using them, and I hope, you know, people check them out. And I just hope it supports them, honestly.

Katie: Yeah. And I’ll say the cool thing about HCl. This was a big part of my husband’s recovery. He had his appendix rupture and then had a secondary infection and tons of antibiotics, and this was years ago. But we spent years kind of undoing that damage in his gut, and HCl was a big key for him for a long time. And he’s been able to taper down now, and I’ve also just recently ramped up my protein intake a lot because I started lifting weights again after losing a whole lot of weight. And so that’s been helpful for me is I’ve added in a lot of protein, and I know HCl can help with protein digestion as well. Can you explain the idea of an HCl challenge and how people can use that to figure out how much they need to take if they need to take it?

Steven: Yeah. Yes. So you might be asking a question like, “How would I know if I have low stomach acid?” Well, you can go and get a test if you have, like, a super-advanced doctor. There’s not many of them in the entire world left. But there’s something called a Heidelberg test. There’s also a gastro capsule test. Normally, these are like $300 to $600 out-of-pocket, and you have to find a specialty provider to do them. So, I’m just gonna go ahead and assume you don’t have time or money to spend on that because you can just spend a little bit of money and try an HCl supplement and do this HCl challenge, which is the best way to figure out if you have low stomach acid.

And then you might be wondering like, “Well, what are my chances?” So, Dr. Jonathan Wright is one of the physicians who does stomach acid testing. In his clinic, he said there’s probably 90% of people he tests with IBS-like symptoms have low stomach acid. The other 10%, they have all the same symptoms, but 10% have regular acid or high acid. Dr. Steven Sandberg-Lewis, he’s a professor of naturopathic gastroenterology. He’s written some books. He’s out of Portland. He does the same tests, and he says it’s about 80/20.

And so your chances if you have digestive upset are kind of high for this. The fastest and cheapest way is to buy an HCl product, ours or somebody else’s, and you basically do this HCl challenge. So you have a meal that has some protein. It could be vegetable protein. It could be animal protein. It doesn’t matter. It’s better if it’s not, like, just a protein shake, right. Because a protein shake or a smoothie is essentially already pre-broken-down food for you. So you don’t need much acid or enzymes or anything to do much with that, but just a normal meal. You take one capsule. Most people don’t notice anything. And if you don’t notice anything, that’s pretty much a sign that you have low stomach acid, right? Because you just took a pill that had acid in it, and you didn’t notice anything.

And so how the HCl challenge works is you just keep adding one pill per relatively normal meal for you, and at some point, you’re gonna feel some sort of hotness, maybe some sort of burning in your mid-chest. Maybe you’re gonna notice a change in your stools, like maybe your stools get better, but then they go more loose or diarrhea-like, anything like that. And I would pay attention more to your gas, bloating, your stools, the toilet, what’s going on there than I would the heat sensation because getting to a heat sensation is not really always needed.

What we’re trying to do is just get you a perfect poop. And if you’ve never heard of the Bristol Stool Chart, you can google that. You’re trying to get to a four or five on the Bristol Stool Chart every single day. And so HCL Guard is…and other HCl products are a great way to make sure that happens. So, anyways, with the HCl challenge, you’ll reach a number. Like, I don’t know about you, Katie, but I actually was part of the people who don’t get the burn. So, I one time did, like, 15 pills back when I was really sick, and I was like, “I don’t notice anything.” And then I had, like, a lot of loose stools, and I was like, “Oh, okay, I think that was too much.”

So, anyways, I took about eight or nine capsules once I realized that you could just do this based on how you’re feeling and you didn’t have to find the “burn.” Yeah. I took around eight or nine, and then I was slowly, like your husband Seth, I was slowly able to back down as I healed until I was off HCl for three years, and then I’m back on it now just because of the stress in the world and just everything that’s happening in my life. Stress is crazy high, and so I just realized, “Yeah. I’m not making stomach acid anymore.”

Katie: That’s another key point, I think, that you just brought up is not only is health very personalized and individualized and we each need to take ownership for our own health and figuring out what’s gonna work best for us through experimentation, but it’s also constantly changing. I feel like figuring out what works for my health right now is great for right now, and then by next month, it’s often totally…you know, like where it’s always an evolving concept. Like we talked about earlier, I think, in general, there are some things that seem almost universally beneficial, and that’s why I’m excited about enzymes is it seems there’s so many different uses, and I think we’re, like you said, just gonna keep finding out more and more. So I’m really excited that you’re pioneering this and making these available right now. Like I said, I’m a big fan. So, I appreciate you being here to educate today and explain. And to switch gears a little bit, a couple things I love to ask at the end of interviews, just first being, are there any books or podcasts or sources of inspiration that you’re loving right now?

Steven: Right now. You know, my favorite book and something that I always return to is “Man’s Search for Meaning.” You know, if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a first-hand account of a psychiatrist going through the concentration camps in the Holocaust. And it’s just so humbling. I try to read it twice a year every year to realize that, you know, what we’re going through right now as a society is unprecedented in our lifetimes. It’s intense. It’s scary. It’s so many things. And yet there was lots of other times in human history where, like, much worse happened. And then also, like, how did those humans deal with that intensity? And how can I apply that till now?

Katie: I’m also a huge fan of that book, and I think, like you said, it’s very timely right now. People have been through much worse, but it’s a great opportunity if we look at it this way to find that deeper meaning and to go reflect and to pause. So, I love that. I think that’s perfect for right now. And what are you excited about in the future? Obviously, enzymes but anything else that’s exciting to you right now?

Steven: I’m really excited about where the field of gut health is going. You know, in general, I think we’re gonna learn so much in the coming years about the gut-brain access. I’m really excited about, like, gut trauma, gut trauma brain, those types of things. I think there’s just so much that’s gonna come out around how potentially even the pharmaceuticals that we use for the brain are actually working in the gut. And I think we’re gonna learn so much more about leaky gut syndrome, zonulin. There’s a bunch of new papers that just came out in the last two weeks about this, about substances called short-chain fatty acids. These are super cool. They come from a lot of your fibers and your prebiotics, but you can also supplement with butyrate. And it’s got some really cool upcoming research. So, you know me. I’m super into the brain stuff right now. I’m very into, like, the gut, you know, meets all these other conditions and how is that happening.

Katie: Very cool. I have a feeling we’ll have to do another round, you know, at some point in the future as things continue to develop, but for any of you guys who want to try all the stuff we talked about, again, check out the show notes at wellnessmama.fm or healthygut.com/wm to get the discount. Yeah. Steve, it’s always a pleasure to chat with you. I love the work that you’re doing, and I’m very grateful for these products and happy to share them today. So thanks for being here.

Steven: Yeah. Thanks, Katie. Thanks for letting me educate people about enzymes. I’m very excited about them. I’m glad they’re helping you, and thanks for all the hard work you do.

Katie: And as always, thanks to all of you for listening and sharing your time with us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/steve-wright/

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

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338: From Autoimmune Disease to Thriving Health With Ryan Lee

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/338-from-autoimmune-disease-to-thriving-health-with-ryan-lee/

338: From Autoimmune Disease to Thriving Health With Ryan Lee

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to the “Wellness Mama” podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com. That’s wellness with an E on the end, which is my new personal care line that I would love for you to check out. And today in this episode, I talk to someone who has become a personal friend and who also has a really cool and somewhat similar story to mine of recovering from autoimmune disease, losing weight, and the process that made that possible. And we go deep on some tactics that we both used that led to that. And also, one of the things he does, which is create bars that meet all of the criteria of every dietary plan, but also that are highly nutritious and a repeatable habit. That was part of his story. And we also will have some fun references to the ’80s and some lifestyle, just in general, time management tips that we share in this episode as well. So, I know you’re going to enjoy this fun and lighthearted interview with Ryan Lee, who is the founder of REWIND. Without further ado, let’s join Ryan.

Ryan, welcome to the podcast.

Ryan: I’m excited to be here, Katie. I am ready to get this Wellness Mama thing rocking.

Katie: Well, there’s so much we can talk about today both in current events and also about your story, but that is where I would love to start. I always love to hear someone’s story and their origin. Think there’s so much power in that. So, to start off, will you walk us through your story and how you got to be where you currently are?

Ryan: Sure. I don’t know how far back. I’m not gonna go to when I was born. Let me go to my first job out of school. I graduated college and I spent the first six years of my career working in a children’s rehab hospital as a recreational therapist, and that’s what my degree was in, recreational therapy and play therapy and adapted aquatics, and I worked with kids who had every type of disability you could imagine, things from spinal bifida, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, gunshot wounds, you name it. And we did play therapy and it was amazing. I’d loved working with kids. I’ve always loved working with kids. But on the side, I was a trainer. So, I would train young athletes. That was… I loved staying fit. I was captain of my track team all through, you know, in college and good career there and I wanted to keep staying athletic and I trained athletes. I trained hockey players, although it was ironic because I still can’t skate. Elite tennis players, gymnasts. And I wanted to build a website for my sports training company, my part-time business, and this was at the end of ’98, so it was really early on. And I just started writing articles about sports training and running faster and jumping higher and all that stuff and things just kind of started to take off. I mean, that was the genesis of me getting into this health world and trying to have more impact and reaching more people.

Fast forward a little bit, sold my site and then that kind of fell apart, then I became a gym teacher in the South Bronx, which is this really rough part of the area called Hunts Point. And so it was an alternative high school. Lot of kids, they’d all pretty much been arrested at one point or another. Lot of former gang members. And I started the whole health and phys ed program. So, this was 2000 and 2001. And I was still building my part-time business to the point where my part-time income was making more than my full-time. And that’s where I took the leap and I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur ever since. Most of my companies and business has been in the health space. And my wife and I have been married now. This year, it’ll be our 20-year anniversary. And we have four beautiful, happy, healthy kitties. And now I’m running Rewind. And I know we’re going to talk about that too. And there you go. There’s a little two-minute version of my journey and lots and lots of ups and downs during those 20 years.

Katie: Absolutely. Well, I’ve heard it said that, you know, sometimes people go into psychiatry to kind of be able to self-diagnose or to work through their own struggles. And I know for me that was very much the reason I got into health was, like, having health problems that doctors couldn’t figure out the answers to and wanting to find my own health answers. And I think we actually have some overlapping parts of our story here when it comes to like health declining and autoimmune disease from what I’m remembering. Is that part of your story as well?

Ryan: Yes, yes. So, that’s… So, I think about 10… So, during one of the downtimes, so 10 years ago, my wife and I we just had our fourth kid and right about that time, my mom passed away from cancer. Really it was like a two-month battle. She was only 63 at the time. One of my businesses fell apart. I tried to launch a print magazine, so I went to all this debt, so I had all this stress. And when you have so many kids, I know I think you have like 14, 15 kids, but I only have 4, but what happened was, you know, we started eating off their plate a little more, start gaining weight and combined with the stress, I started getting joint pain. And I would ignore it. I’m a guy. I try to toughen up and just play through it and run through it or do whatever to the point where, though, it kept getting worse and I woke up one day and I could barely walk. It was… I couldn’t step because it hurt that much and I couldn’t bend my fingers. And it took months and months of going to every kind of doctor and healthcare professional. I started with my general practitioner. I went to physical therapists. I went to chiropractors. I went to podiatrists because my feet hurt. I went to my good friend who’s an orthopedic surgeon. And no one could figure it out ’till finally I went to a rheumatologist. And he looked at me and then saw my fingers were swollen, my feet were swollen, I gave him all the history and in about 10 seconds, he looked at me he said, “Oh, you have an autoimmune disorder, it’s called psoriatic arthritis.” And I’m like, “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

So, that was the beginning of this journey back to health. I mean, I gained 40 pounds. Everything was just falling apart physically. And it took me a lot of starts and stops. I tried a complete inflammation free diet. I went all in. Went to a naturopath. They said, “Okay. No more sugar. No more dairy. No more gluten ever.” I’m like, “What?” And I tried that for two weeks. Couldn’t do it. It was just too hard, to be honest with you. I know people can do it. I just couldn’t. So, lots of ups and downs ’till about two years ago, I said, “You know what? That’s it. My symptoms are starting to come back. I don’t wanna go on methotrexate,” which is the drugs they recommended. “So, how do I figure this out?” And I said, “Let me just win the morning. Let me start off something in the morning that’s good for me on the go. I got the four kids. I’ve run businesses. I don’t have time to do a lot of stuff. Let me… Is there a good bar?” And I just had a bar every morning. And the problem was I couldn’t find a bar, though, that didn’t have dairy, gluten, added sugar, sugar alcohol and all that stuff. And that gave me the big, “Well, maybe I can create one for myself and maybe there’d be some other people that would like it.” And that became this journey back to health and really focusing on simplification and that’s become this business now called Rewind where it’s about rewinding the years and having things that make you feel good physically, emotionally, mentally, non-inflammatory. And now at the pinnacle, Katie, I’m talking with “The Wellness Mama.” Look at this. It’s amazing how far I’ve come.

Katie: Oh, I love that. And I think your story and my story, like I said, they overlap a little bit and they illustrate that we do have to become, like, partners in our own health and that there is such a personalized and individualized aspect to it, but at the same time there are some commonalities like those whole real foods and avoiding certain common inflammatory triggers in those spaces that can be kind of universally helpful across the board. How long did that process look for you? I know I also recovered from Hashimoto’s and I’m now in remission and all my numbers are great. But how long did that journey take for you?

Ryan: I think from the first time I was diagnosed it was about two years of me trying different things, you know, being good and saying, “Okay. I’m starting to get some symptoms. Let me go strict. No sugar, no dairy, no gluten.” And then I would last a couple weeks and then I’d kind of slowly fall off the wagon and then I’d go back. So, it was two years of that ’till the breaking point I’ll never forget. My wife and I took our kids on vacation, went down to Florida, and, you know, I wore a pair of jeans going down because the northeast, Connecticut. And I was putting the same jeans back on after the vacation coming home and they didn’t fit. And I asked my wife at the hotel, I said, “Did you dry clean my jeans? What’s going on? Why can’t they fi…” And she said, “I didn’t touch your jeans. What are you talking about?” And I gained weight. And I got home and I was so sick and I went I had a double ear infection and went to the doctor and then they said, “You have high blood pressure. You got some serious things starting to happen here.”

And that was, like, the scary point. So, it took two years of up and down, starts and stops ’till I said, “You know what? I need something that…” You’re right. “That has the universal principles of anti-inflammation that’s gonna make me feel good, but something that’s not so restrictive for me that I feel like I can never do it and I’m gonna fall off the wagon again.” So, I needed something that had a little built-in flexibility, which is how I came up with my kind of thing about the ’80s which we can go into in a few minutes, but that was… And I think it’s important for everyone to kind of know themselves and know their own body and see what makes them feel good and what doesn’t make them feel good. Right? What’s against it? So, it was two years of start and stop and then now I’ve been 100%…well, I won’t say 100%, 99% symptom-free for these past two years. So it’s been like four years since I’ve been diagnosed.

Katie: Got it. And do you maintain that same level of, like, dietary restriction now or… I found that once I was able to heal the underlying issues, I actually have a lot more leeway now.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah. And that’s exactly what happened. Now, I have this theory, live like the ’80s. And you know Rewind, we kind of have a fun retro thing, we talk about the ’80s because that was the best decade ever. But my idea was with the ’80s if I can do that Pareto’s principle of 80% of the time I’m gonna eat real good, clean whole foods, as many vegetables as I want, like, unlimited veggies, unlimited fruits and veggies, all good stuff and 80% really good stuff, but yet, you know what, give myself a little bit of leeway with that 20%. So, if there’s a salad and it has all this good stuff, so I love… Luckily, I like a lot of healthy foods now. I love sardines and olive oil. That’s one of my favorite things in the world. That in a bowl of greens. So, I’ll have maybe Swiss chard or arugula or kale. So, that’s, like, the 80% really good, but it’s missing a little something. So, maybe I’ll throw in some croutons, which I shouldn’t have, but that’s my little 20%. And because it has that little crunch and that little extra flavor, it makes me really look forward to the salad instead of just saying, “Oh, it’s good.” I really look forward to it. So, that is my way to kind of play with the 80/20 and give myself some of that flexibility. So, I’m definitely not 100% strict, but I try to eat really well 80% of the time. And if I’m not feeling good, what I find is I’ll kind of move up to the 90s and tighten it up even more and go 90%. And it’s worked. It’s worked well for me and for people that I’ve helped that feels like it gives them a little bit of that leeway.

Katie: Yeah. Well, I love the tie in with the ’80s. I’m a huge fan of the Pareto principle as well and I use that in a lot of areas of life both, like, dietary and fitness, but also just time and organization and house management. I feel like it’s kind of almost universally applicable. But I think it also speaks to another really important point which is… Because I did the exact same thing. I had that cycle for years of… All my symptoms would flare and I would feel bad and then I would tighten everything up to probably a neurotic level and be 100% compliant, which is not sustainable, and then eventually fall off the wagon. And I think that a big key of it, for many people, we all have ideas of what we probably should be doing or we know that we should be eating less sugar or we know we need to avoid certain inflammatory things, but it’s keeping that consistent motivation and focus on being able to do it and I think that’s where that 80/20 comes into play because it makes it sustainable.

Ryan: Yeah. And you know what? It just gives us a little bit of a break. And we put so much stress and pressure on ourselves. And I know obviously, a large majority of people listening to this are moms. There are some that don’t have kids, but we’re under so much pressure, anyway, you know, so much stress caring for not just ourselves, but our family that, you know, you see…and you see it all the time, Katie. You see the diet books. And what’s one of the first pages they have? It’s always within the first 10 pages. It’ll say something like, “Forbidden foods. Ten foods you can never eat again for the rest of your life.” And you look at it and you’re like, “Are you telling me I could never have a chocolate chip cookie forever?” We’re gonna have a problem. So, I think giving people a little bit of a break and saying, “It’s okay. You don’t have to be perfect. Let’s stop worrying about perfection and let’s get really good and dialed in. And I know everyone is different. Everyone is motivated by different things. But I think when you start to do this, knowing that you know what? I could have that cookie, but I choose not to. You don’t have to eat stuff that’s not the greatest for you 20% of time, but you can if you want. I’ll give an example, how this works. So, when I was at my height of just disgusting, like, falling off the wagon, my go-to junk food was plain M&Ms. That was a crack for me. What’s yours, Katie? What’s your “This is like the greatest thing in the world.”? Everyone has something.

Katie: Yeah. I mean, much less anymore. I don’t really crave anything, but it would be… For me, it’s salty stuff, not sweet stuff. So, it would be like chips or french fries probably.

Ryan: Okay. So, for me, it was M&Ms, plain M&Ms. Every night, I would have like a bowl of plain M&Ms, just watching TV and trying to eat away like my stress. And I still… I rarely have M&Ms, but I will have them once in a while, maybe, like, when I go to the movies, like, once a month or something. But the other night I got my kids a little treat and I bought myself a little bag of plain M&Ms, like, a little tiny bag. And it’s been sitting in my house for five days. I just didn’t want it. I don’t want it. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna eat it. But the fact that it’s not like I have this pressure and I feel like, “Oh my God, I’m resisting because I could never have it again,” knowing that if I want to I could, but I just choose not to. Giving yourself that power is… Sounds redundant. Giving yourself that power is powerful. And you’re right. You’re to the point now where you don’t even crave it. And I’m kind of getting there too. Again, I just don’t feel like having it anymore. But I think if it was a diet or “diet,” a restrictive thing where it says, “You can never have sugar. You can never have an M&M. You can never have a cookie. You can never have this. You can never have a slice of pizza the rest of your life,” then I feel that pressure and resistance. Again, this is me personally, and everyone is different. But you do that enough over time and you start feeling good, you don’t want to feel bad again, like, you don’t want to have the M&Ms or the pizza because you know how it makes you feel.

Katie: Exactly. And I think that’s the mindset shift that was pivotal for me and I think everybody’s tipping point of getting here is a little bit different, but it was that shifting focus from foods being good or bad and needing to deprive myself and being angry at my body for what it wasn’t to switching to a point of view of “I want to nourish my body with things that are good because I love my body and I’m trying…and I wanna support it and nourish it,” versus deprive and just taking away that deprivation mindset made all the difference because I think we do have that thing as humans too, like, or at least I maybe I’m projecting, I have that thing where if I’m told I can’t do something, even if I didn’t wanna do it in the first place, now I’m like, “Well, now I do.” It’s kind of like right now we’re all stuck at home. I don’t usually wanna go anywhere anyway, but now that I can’t go anywhere, of course I want to go somewhere.

Ryan: You’re like, “I wanna walk into Target and just hug strangers.” That’s all you wanna do now.

Katie: Exactly.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah. With no gloves, just feeling everyone’s faces. Look, everyone… I think most people feel that. When you’re told you can’t do something, you want it even more. It’s like the restaurant. You can walk by and there could be an empty restaurant and then the restaurant next door has a line at the door, but you want that because you can’t get in. So, yeah, it is pretty powerful that when you just say…you make that shift to, “I just wanna feed myself, my body with really, really good stuff.” But knowing that if I wanna have a little bit of flex time, if I wanna have something that I know isn’t the greatest for me, but maybe it’s a celebratory thing and maybe you don’t like drinking alcohol, like, I think I maybe have one beer every like three or four months. That’s my alcohol. You could maybe say, “Okay. I’m gonna have a glass of alcohol, I’m gonna have a glass of wine,” and not beat yourself up over it or feel guilty or not go out with your friends or your family or go to any holidays anymore because they’re gonna have wine and you feel bad and you’re sitting there the whole night staring at it and just miserable. That’s not fun either.

So, it’s kind of this, this flexibility of giving yourself a little bit of a break and just filling up with the good stuff. When I discovered…when I really, really started to discover, like, how good vegetables are a couple of years ago because I didn’t…I ate a little bit but not a lot, man, it’s life-changing. And you look now and it’s really sad, Katie. You look at the typical American diet and what they eat and there’s just, like, no vegetables. Everything is brown and fried and sandwiches and fried food and pizza. It’s just… It has no nutritional value. Their idea of vegetables is, “Oh, well, I had some lettuce on a hamburger,” or, “I ate ketchup with my fries.” And that’s it. It’s really sad. And people have this misconception that vegetables are just…they taste bad. It couldn’t be further from the truth. My oldest daughter who’s 16 she loves making vegetables. Every day she’s experimenting. She’s like, “Oh, I’m gonna do some Brussel sprouts and I’m gonna try to add this and add these little spices and…” My kids all love eating vegetables, and I think it’s pretty cool.

Katie: Yeah, I love it. Mine too. And me too. And that was something I had to learn as an adult as well because I didn’t grow up loving vegetables and now I can’t imagine not eating as many as I do because I love them. But I think another part of this that was a key for me and I’m guessing for you as well is to simplify and automate as much as possible the things that need to be repeatable to make something a habit versus I feel like the more decisions are built into something, the less likely it is to succeed over time because you hit decision fatigue. And so for me, I eat many of the same meals, like, at least lunches, I’ll eat the same thing over and over the same three meals because it’s simple, I don’t have to think about it. One of them has definitely sardines, but it takes away the decision fatigue and it takes away the choice of it and then I can just stick with it because it’s there, it’s easy and I know what I’m doing. And the same thing with, like, I eat usually a six to eight-hour window every day which is just an easy change that I made that works for me, it won’t work for everyone. But that was a huge key for me. And so I think that’s where things like the bars come into play as well because it’s a simple, repeatable habit that is always there, there’s no decision involved and that tastes great. So, talk about the bars and the formulation. What went into that and why did you decide on bars?

Ryan: And you’re 100% right. The less decisions you have to make, the less willpower and fatigue you start getting. And I’m the exact same way. Every morning it’s a bar with supplements and every lunch it’s either sardines with greens or rice cauliflower with sardines or a piece of salmon or something like that. And that’s 99% of time. That’s my breakfast and lunch. The reason with bars is just for me, it’s really about convenience and something that I’m gonna stick with. And I’ve always loved bars. I love the convenience of them. But I said, “Well, if I’m going to create a bar, if I wanna…” If in a perfect world, because all the bars I always having, the protein bars, and I’m sure you’ve seen this a lot, most protein bars, the protein source is whey protein, which is dairy, which is not great for inflammation. I don’t react well to dairy. And a lot of them, all of the, you know, cookie-flavored ones or anything like that they all had gluten as well. And now the big trend was everyone is like, “Oh, we’re keto this. We’re keto that.” So, what they do is they say we only have one gram of sugar, but they’ll jam it with all this sugar alcohol, which tends not to be the greatest.

So, I’m like, why can’t there be a really good, clean, healthy bar that even has some greens, so we snuck in some spinach and kale, but tastes really, really good? That was the thing because you can have a bar… And there were some bars that are healthier, but they just didn’t taste good and I didn’t wanna have it every morning. I still want something that tastes good. And that was the original idea behind it. Can I create a bar? Can I have one that tastes really, really good that doesn’t have the added sugar, the gluten or the dairy? And it’s only made with good stuff. So, it’s non-GMO, no artificial flavors, no artificial sweeteners, no corn, no rice, no nothing like that. And that’s what we set out to do. And it took probably seven months of, like, playing and back and forth and tasting and then, you know, people don’t realize when you make a bar you can have the best ingredients in the world, the best nutritional facts, and maybe even you get the flavor profile, but then there’s the texture. And maybe you have too many of one thing and it’s way too chewy and sticky or it’s too crumbly, or it’s too wet, or it’s too dry. So, nailing all those, the flavor and the texture and the nutritional profile, and then the actual ingredients, it’s a lot easier said than done. And it drives me a little crazy when, you know, we put all this effort into the bar and someone on Facebook will be like, “Oh, why don’t you…how come you didn’t just make it with blah, blah, blah?” I’m like, “You have no idea how hard it is to make a bar like this.” I wish I could just say, “Oh, yeah, we’ll just add that. Cool. No problem.”

So, it took a while. But that was the idea, just something convenient. My wife calls it grab and go. And as a really, really nice side benefit, which I didn’t know originally, my kids and kids in general love it. All my kids have the bars every day. My daughter who’s on the tennis team in high school, her tennis team they always have the bars. My little three-year-old nephew, Luke, loves the bars everyday. Rewind bar. So, it’s pretty cool to see families now enjoying it and having something that’s good. And because we have nine grams of fiber, they fill you up. So, I have the bar in the morning and that’s it. I’m good. I have the bar in the morning. I work out a couple of hours later, and then I have lunch. So, it holds me over for a few hours.

I did try like you…I know you do…if you eat in that six to eight-hour window, a lot of people call intermittent fasting. I tried that. I couldn’t do it. All I did was think about food. I was nasty, Katie. I was not a good person. So, for me, the bar worked for me. It took the edge off and it gave me a little bit of fuel for those first few hours in the morning.

Katie: Yeah. I think fasting is very much an individualized thing. And like I said, it works for some people. I’m definitely not recommending it for everyone. And certainly, a lot of women actually should not intermittent fast if there’s any kind of hormone issue and so it’s not something I would recommend everyone do. I think it just speaks to, we all have to find kind of our thing that works. And I know in your case from what I remember of your story, you lost a pretty substantial amount of weight and you have now reversed your autoimmune disease. That had to be an amazing journey. What do you do? What is your routine and your day look like now both nutritionally, exercise and just lifestyle to maintain that?

Ryan: Yeah. And it was a really, really nice byproduct because just by doing this, I automatically ate less calories because the bar is about 160 calories. So, rather than having crappy food or a doughnut or whatever, just that alone was saving me calories and losing all the weight. Yeah. So, I’m down the 40 something pounds. I’m the exact same weight and pant size I was in high school, which is still mind-blowing considering I’m gonna be 48. So, I’ve never felt so good and my symptoms are gone and I never needed to get on the drugs. So, in terms of my routine. So, nutritionally, my routine is pretty much always the same just like you, very structured, bar in the morning, lunch is usually some kind of salad with a protein, usually sardines. And often I’ll have a bar in between lunch and dinner too because I eat lunch really early. I’ll have lunch at, like, 11:00, 11:30 in the morning because I’m up so early, and then we’ll eat dinner as a family at like 5:00, 5:30. So, I’ll usually have another bar around 3:00, 2:30. And dinner, it’s just different things. Whatever my wife makes, we bring in, and… There’s oftentimes, because I love it so much, I’ll have another salad with a different protein. And I’m not… I guess I’m probably more pescetarian-ish, but I don’t subscribe to any specific diet. I just tend not to eat a lot of meat, especially red meat. It just doesn’t make me feel good, but for some people, they love it and they eat all red meat. Again, I don’t judge. So, that’s nutritionally and it’s that 80/20 rule, 80% really, really good, clean, healthy veggies and greens and 20% go crazy.

Exercise wise, this was interesting because I was a trainer and even my master’s degree is exercise physiology, I always believed exercise and fitness was 90% of your results. And that’s what we were told as a trainer. Ninety percent is fitness and exercise and you got to know your progressions and your upper body, lower body, your splits, your… And I was obsessed with that. And then I started getting older, I’m like, “You know what? Let me just feel good. And what can I do that more importantly than the workout, what am I gonna do consistently that I enjoy and I know is not gonna take up a lot of time?” That’s the thing with me. It’s gotta be efficient. It’s gotta be simple. Like you, you said with your lunch, you eat pretty much the same thing every day so you know what to do, it’s one less decision you have to make. My workouts are almost identical every single day, but I add a little bit of progression. So, I’ll take you through it. You ready for it, Katie? You’re ready for the workout?

Katie: Let’s go.

Ryan: Here we go. It’s in my bedroom. I have a treadmill and a couple little free weights and kettlebells there and a pull-up bar over the door. So, I go on the treadmill, I go at the highest incline. Our treadmill I think is about 10%. And I walk at about 4.1 miles an hour, so it’s like a fast walk. And I’ll do that for about two and a half minutes. So, it’s 200 meters on the thing. I ran track, so I always think in terms of meters. So, the equivalent is two, two and a half minutes, so it’s about half a lap on a track. I jump off. Obviously, stop the treadmill first. I’m not a lunatic. Stop the treadmill, jump off, and I’ll usually do like pull-ups, like 8 to 10 pull-ups, 15 to 20 push-ups and 15 to 20 abdominal core exercises. Then I go back on the treadmill, I do another two, two and a half minutes, stop the treadmill, get off and do another exercise, sometimes like kettlebell swings. And that’s it. So, each of those little two minutes, so the two minutes on the treadmill, and then the strength exercise, that’s one, like, little mini circuit and I do eight of those. So, with the exercise and the treadmill, it takes maybe 20, 25 minutes tops, and I’m done. And I’ve got some good cardiovascular benefit, I’ve got the strength in, which I think is really important. Cardio is great, but especially as we start getting older, we need strength exercise. It doesn’t have to be hardcore weights, but we need at least resistance training, could be bodyweight training, old school push-ups and bodyweight squats. That stuff still works. And it’s all done at my house. I don’t have to go to the gym. I don’t have to spend time driving back and forth and showering there. And it’s easy. I just did the workout right before we started this call.

So, that’s my nutrition. That’s my fitness. I do that five to six times a week. Pretty much the same workout except I might switch up the strength exercise and maybe I’ll have one day it’s all kettlebell swings or something else in there instead. And just simplifying. I’ll tell you that the biggest thing I did when I was going through this, I knew that autoimmune is definitely worsened with stress. And I was traveling a lot. I was speaking at all these marketing events and selling and doing all this stuff, just wasn’t making me feel good. And I was missing stuff in my kid’s life. And about six years ago, one of the biggest decisions I made was…well, actually, this was eight years ago now that we’re looking back. For six years, I’m not traveling at all. I said no to every single speaking gig, every one. And I turned away hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe a million over the course of those years by not speaking. But I just wanted to focus on my wife, my kids, my family, and I made them the center of my universe and I said, “I’m gonna build everything. I’m gonna build my business, my life, everything around my family.”

So, every decision is run through that filter of, “Is this bringing me closer to my goals of spending more time with them and building a business of soul or is this taking me further apart?” And if it was taking me further away from it, I said no. And just that simplification, it made my relationship with my wife stronger with my kids. I don’t miss any…I don’t miss a play or a sporting event and I still coach all their sports. I’m done with my day by 3:30, 4:00. So, I carpool all night, which isn’t always the best, but I get to spend time with them. I’ve coached every sport from football, to baseball, to soccer, to lacrosse. You name it, I’ve coached it. And it just… And I’m…look, I know I’m blessed to be able to do it. I don’t have a typical 9:00 to 5:00 job, but the simplifying of the nutrition, the simplifying of my workouts and the simplifying of just my life, it just changed everything and I just feel so much happier and more content with the way things have gone and I feel better.

Katie: And I love that you brought that up about exercise because I think that’s also a source of guilt for a lot of people is the idea that we should be doing more harder exercise. And you’re right, especially with certain conditions like autoimmune disease, very often we need to give the body a break and rest becomes more important or at least restorative, regenerative movement, not just high intensity as hard as possible which is…or like extended cardio which is what society kind of, at least a lot of times, presents as the option. And I know in my own journey, I’ve now lost over 60 pounds as well in the last couple of years. And I didn’t exercise at all during the really intense part of that weight loss because I’m a data nerd and a math person and in general, if you’re doing hard workouts, you’re going to make yourself more hungry. And if you’re trying to heal, you need to let those calories and that energy go to healing. And I’m not saying not move, but I didn’t focus at all on exercise during that time and I found the things that were the most important like that rest and the calm and being with the family, the things that really do help you rebuild. And I think that point can’t be stated enough is, you know, it’s easy to try to focus on all of these silver bullets and exercising more, “I need to take more supplements,” or whatever it is, but you’ve got to find those core things, and sometimes that means doing less, not doing more.

Ryan: Hundred percent. I can’t agree with you more on that one. And believe me, I was drinking the Kool-Aid 25 years ago. I was all about the high intensity. Actually, I taught high-intensity exercise classes, then I remember when CrossFit came out and everyone’s thinking like, “You got to work harder and play hard, work hard.” And they’re showning, you know, 60-year-olds flipping tires. And I was totally into that stuff, but I’m like, “You know what? It’s not necessarily best for everyone.” You should… And I tried. And again, I’m not putting down CrossFit. There are people that love it. If it works for you, great. I tried it at two different places. I’m like… I try everything. And both times I ended up getting hurt. And it didn’t make me feel good. It actually broke my body down too much and I was not getting enough rest. Sleep is just as important as the exercise. And you know, where I used to believe it was 80% exercise or 90% exercise, 10%, 20% nutrition, it’s flipped. If you’re eating well and filling yourself with the good stuff and getting the rest and recovery, great.

And I’m all about now, like, the lower impact stuff. Again, I was in…so, I ran track competitively all through college and I was a sprinter, so as hard and as fast as you can. But now I enjoy the walking part. I like that part. And another thing I do is I try every day to just walk 20 minutes outside, usually with my wife. If she’s not around, just by myself just thinking and just taking that time. That’s almost like my spiritual meditative time, just getting out. There’s about 60 acres of nature preserve in our backyard, so I just walk the trails and it’s like one of the greatest things that we can do. And it’s more important to find stuff that you like and it makes you feel good verse it’s the hottest trend or get this, you know, stupid ab wheel thing and all your fat’s gonna melt off, which is the most ridiculous thing in the world because it doesn’t work like that. The weight loss and the abs it’s made in the kitchen, not in the gym. So, I’m glad you’re bringing that stuff up, Katie, and showing people and showing them it doesn’t have to be high crazy intensity exercise.

Katie: Yeah. It’s amazing to me how many…how much our stories overlap and I love that you’re spreading this message and giving people a practical, repeatable habit that they can implement to help get there faster.

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic… a company I’ve loved for years for their superfood mushroom based products. They use mushrooms like lions mane, chaga, cordyceps and reishi in delicious products. Did you know that mushrooms are more genetically similar to humans than plants are? And that they breathe oxygen and exhale CO2 just like we do but mushrooms spores can survive the vacuum and radiation of space. These amazing fungi are always a part of my daily routine in some way, usually with Lion’s Mane Coffee or Matcha in the morning, I’ll turn to their plant protein and mushroom elixirs like chaga and cordyceps during the day and reishi at night to wind down. As a listener of this podcast, you can save on all Four Sigmatic products. Go to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and the code wellnessmama gives 15% off.

This episode is sponsored by Joovv, a natural red light therapy in your very own home. We many not think of light when we think of essential nutrients that our body needs, but it absolutely is! This is the reason I go outside as soon as possible after waking up each morning and the reason I spend time in front of Joovv. Light is energy and our bodies need light in certain forms to sustain healthy cellular function. Red light in particular, especially in certain wavelengths, has certain benefits for hair, skin, and cellular energy. I like Joovv because they are third-party tested for safety and performance and use a Patented modular design which allows you easily treat your whole body in under 20 mins. Joovv uses clinically proven wavelengths of light that provide energy to the body and help with things like skin elasticity or to help avoid wrinkles. You can get bundle pricing discounts which allow you to save more money when purchasing larger setups. Check it out at joovv.com/wellnessmama and use code WELLNESSMAMA for a free gift.

A few questions I’d love to ask toward the end of interviews and I look forward to hearing your answer is, what are some things that are less known or not well understood about your area of expertise that you like to talk about?

Ryan: Well, we definitely covered a few of them today. I think number one is that ’80s rule. I think a lot of people are all about strict diets and what you can and can never eat again. So, I think giving yourself that flexibility is definitely my nutritional philosophy. And the workout stuff too. I mean, that’s the second thing. It’s the more about the consistent, repeatable, lower impact, but also getting bang for your buck and adding in strength exercise.

And I’ll give you a third thing. With Rewind, we definitely have fun with some of the retro ’70s, ’80s, ’90s pop culture. And I love it. It’s fun. But there actually have been scientific studies showing the mental, the psychological, physiological benefits of nostalgia. And I’m not talking about sitting around and thinking about when you were a kid and just crying and getting depressed and living in the past. I’m not talking about that at all. But it does feel good to kind of go back a little bit and watch a movie from your childhood or listen to an album. You should see. If you saw my space here it’s filled with hundreds and hundreds of records, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, arcade machines, movie posters here. I’m looking at “Back to the Future” and “The Goonies” and “Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” stuff from my youth. And it does feel good. It really does. And obviously, whatever decade you guys were born in, if you were more ’60s or ’70s or ’90s person, but just going back and having a little bit that nostalgia is good for you. And I’m trying to spread that too. Just go back and feel good. Live in the present, but it’s good for you to go back a little bit sometimes.

Katie: I agree. And that’s one thing we’ve been doing lately to pass the time is we have a playlist my kids have made for cleaning or just for, like, dance parties around the house and it’s a lot of ’80s music and it’s fun and it does take you back.

And I love having those kind of touchpoints. I think that’s awesome. Also, I know we’ve mentioned the bars multiple times and, of course, there’ll be a link in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. But also for any of you listening, the website is rewindbars.com if I make sure I got that right, Ryan. And then there is a discount code MAMA, M-A-M-A. That’s for 30% off, which is awesome. That’s a huge discount. So I just wanna make sure we said that out loud. And, of course, it’ll also be in the show notes as well. What kind of flavors do you guys have?

Ryan: Right now with the bars… Well, when people are listening to this, we’re gonna have a new flavor come out. We have a new mint brownie coming out, which is…and that was, by the way, my 14-year-old daughter came up with that one because she’s obsessed with mint and I’m like, “All right, let’s try it,” and it’s incredible. So, we have mint brownie. We have cinnamon coffee cake, which is my personal favorite. We have chocolate coconut. And then we have almond butter and jelly. And they’re all gluten-free, vegan, no artificial flavors, no GMOs, no inflammatory ingredients, not added sugar. So, those are the flavors. And then we have new green drinks that just came out. We have orange, we have berry, and we have pineapple. And they are, by far, the best-tasting green drinks ever created. I could say that because I’ve tried every green drink and every one of our customers say the exact same thing. So, they’re the best tasting anti-inflammatory green drinks in the world. I don’t talk about them as much because they’re brand new, but I’m really excited about those. And we’re creating lots of new smoothie flavors and fun stuff with that.

Katie: Awesome. And of course, those will be linked in the show notes, you guys can find them. Just head over to rewindbars.com. And then another question I love to wrap up with is, is there a book or a number of books that have had a really dramatic impact on your life? And if so, what are they and why?

Ryan: I think the initial book that changed the way I thought about things and really got me kind of into the personal development world, read a long time ago, it was “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I read that in, I think, like, early ’90s and mid-’90s and it was just life-changing. I was like, “This is…” It was amazing to see and to start learning about personal development from this thing that I never even realized. I remember my dad had tapes when I was younger and he had tapes by like Denis Waitley and I listened to those. I thought those were kind of cool and interesting, but “The 7 Habits” was the one where I was old enough to really get it and understand and got me into this whole different mindset of priorities and that he had the whole chart and all this kind of stuff. And I just thought that was really cool. That was definitely, like, a life-changing impactful book. I haven’t read it in a long time. I should reread it because that was the one I remember as kind of started me off on this journey.

Katie: Awesome. Well, Ryan, this has been such a fun conversation as it always is when talking to you. And I really appreciate you being here and sharing your story today.

Ryan: Well, I appreciate you having me on. And you’re right, we’re so similar. I think I’m gonna start a new site called Wellness Daddy because I am ready to rock this. No. But I appreciate you and I always love talking to you and to Seth and so I am always here to help anytime, any way you need me, Katie. Thanks for having me.

Katie: Oh, thank you for the time. And thanks to all of you as always for listening and for sharing one of your most valuable assets, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama” podcast.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/ryan-lee/

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329: How to Slow Aging, Fight Inflammation, & Improve Cellular Signaling With Brian Dixon

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329: How to Slow Aging, Fight Inflammation, & Improve Cellular Signaling With Brian Dixon

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic… a company I’ve loved for years for their superfood mushroom based products. They use mushrooms like lions mane, chaga, cordyceps and reishi in delicious products. Did you know that mushrooms are more genetically similar to humans than plants are? And that they breathe oxygen and exhale CO2 just like we do but mushrooms spores can survive the vacuum and radiation of space. These amazing fungi are always a part of my daily routine in some way, usually with Lion’s Mane Coffee or Matcha in the morning, Plant protein and mushroom elixirs like chaga and cordyceps during the day and reishi at night to wind down. As a listener of this podcast, you can save on all Four Sigmatic products. Go to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and the code wellnessmama gives 15% off

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Katie: Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and this episode is all about how we can slow the aging process, fight inflammation and improve cellular signaling. I’m here with Brian Dixon who is a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Oregon State University and is affiliated with the Linus Pauling Institute where his research focused on the underlying biochemical and cellular mechanisms of aging. And this is an area I’ve been fascinated with since I had to do a final project on some of these things and work with the Linus Pauling Institute when I was younger as well. He and his work have been featured on, among others, “The Dr. Oz Show”. And he’s authored a number of scientific peer-reviewed manuscripts on topics such as cancer, antioxidants, cellular signaling, gene regulation, stress coping mechanisms, Nrf2, weight management, sports nutrition and recovery.

Dr. Dixon has also published research in the role of nutrition in recovery from surgery, how we can facilitate a healthy inflammation response, ways to support the immune system, the aging process and how various nutrients come into play with all of those. He has worked in the nutritional industry for over 10 years, and he has seven patents related to different supplements and things within the industry. And in this episode, we go deep on the science of aging, ways we can mitigate it and things like sulforaphane, Nrf2 sirtuins, and many others. If those are new to you, stay tuned and buckle up. This is a fascinating episode.

Brian, welcome. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Dixon: Thank you so much for having me.

Katie: Well, I know you’ve done a lot of research in a lot of different areas, including one that is of increasing importance to me every year that goes by, which is aging. And, unfortunately, it’s something I don’t think we can fully escape, but I know it is something that we can mitigate and do very gracefully in a lot of cases. And there are things that we can do on a cellular level as we age to help protect our bodies. So I’d love to start with aging as a broad topic and then go deeper on some tangents from there. So let’s talk about aging, in general. What factors come into play when we think about aging, both on a cellular level and then also, aesthetically?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, well, you’re absolutely right. You know, we can’t stop time. That’s that thing that’s just constantly ticking along. It’d be nice if we could stop time or even turn it back, but yeah, it’s kind of our destiny. You know, maybe to take a step back and maybe we’ll start with the bad news first, and then we’ll get into the good news of what people can do. There are currently over 300 different theories of aging. I mean, if you can believe that. So, people, you know, literally, since the beginning of time, have been interested in what we could do to stop the aging process.

I mean, that’s that whole sort of folklore around the fountain of youth. And Ponce de León coming to North America, heading to Florida, and looking for a physical fountain of youth with the notion that you could drink this water and basically, live forever. When we come into scientific circles, scientists have been studying this, you know, for hundreds of years. But it really caught a lot of attention in 1954 when an individual named Denham Harman first proposed the oxidative stress theory of aging. That’s really where a lot of aging research is focused. But I like to kind of lump those 300 theories of aging into just about five general categories.

And I think it’s interesting that we can get people thinking about these different categories, because I don’t doubt for a second that they’re all contributing. And so if we can think about these five individually, and what we can do to kind of check the boxes, you’re really gonna set yourself up for optimal health, and then possibly even extending more years to your lives. So those five general categories, I like to lump those 300 theories of aging in are, you know, very technically, we can talk about biochemical molecular and cellular theories of aging. So basically our biochemistry, our metabolism is just changing on that cellular level, and no one really knows why.

There’s also some really depressing theories of aging out there that’s called the programmed theories of aging. And that notion is, is that in our genes, right, in our DNA, we are literally programmed to die. So you think to yourself, “Well, gosh, why would we be programmed to die?” But if we look at other organisms around us out in nature, you know, it’s really every organism’s job on this planet to reproduce. And so once we’ve passed on our DNA to that next generation, there really is no true biological reason to keep us around. In fact, an organism gets past its reproductive years, all that individual or organism is doing is just consuming resources.

That doesn’t apply so much to humans. You know, we have that knowledge base that comes with age. And in fact, there’s a few higher mammals on this planet where it is evolutionarily beneficial to keep the elderly around. So obviously, humans is one great example. So think about all those things that we learned from our grandma and our grandpa. Whales, they keep the elderly around. In fact, it’s usually the grandmother orca whale that’s raising the young. The elephants are also one long-lived species where the oldest elephants are playing a huge role in their family circles. So programmed theories of aging, that’s number two. Then we can get into number three, the cycle social theories of aging. So basically, what that means is we just need to keep our minds sharp as we age.

A lot of individuals as we get older, we tend to isolate ourselves. We tend not to spend as much time with family and friends, and it really leads to that kind of rotting away of our brains. Number four, I put in a loss of cellular communication, and I throw that into the mix. So what does that mean? Well, basically, our cells, organs, and tissues just aren’t talking to each other as well as they used to. So think about hormonal changes occurring as we get older. So, you know, in men, testosterone levels can decline. Women when they hit menopause, I mean, their hormones are going all over the place until they can find that new normal … so hormonal signaling isn’t working as well as we age. And then just our ability to adapt and respond to our environment.

So if we’re exposed to, let’s say, environmental toxins or oxidative stress, we have these built-in systems to be able to deal with those stresses. But they’re just not sensing the signal and then communicating the potential trouble to the rest of the cell or even the other tissues and organs in our bodies. And then lastly is the damaged theories of aging. So just the different biological structures inside of our bodies and inside of our cells just start to accumulate this damage as we get older. So DNA becomes damaged, the proteins or enzymes inside of our cells get damaged. Even the cellular membrane, the integrity of that membrane gets damaged, and it doesn’t work as well to keep the outside world out and the inside world in.

Katie: Got it. So definitely, like, lots of different approaches, and you mentioned that there’s probably something to be learned from all of them. What view do you take personally when it comes the aging, and which of these are the most important to understand then and start to mitigate?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, it comes back to that research that I referenced by Professor Harman back in 1954. He postulated probably the most sound theory of aging, and that being the free radical or oxidative stress theory of aging. And in a lot of ways, many of these other theories of aging really kind of playoff of that oxidative stress theory of aging. So you can think about the damaged theories of aging, the loss of cellular communication and, especially those biochemical molecular and cellular theories of aging and really where that research is centered and what we can best do to protect ourselves and set ourselves up for optimal health in the long term is just really making sure that we’re eating a healthy diet. And then luckily, there’s been some great scientific advances in about the last 10 years that have shown us that there is even some pretty fun things that we can do around nutritional supplements to support, especially our body’s own inherent anti-oxidant detoxification defenses.

Katie: Got you. Okay. So I think that’s a perfect place to start diving in and going deeper, because there’s … When you start reading the research and, especially just reading sources online, there’s a lot of theories about different ways that we can do that. Of course, when you talk about free radicals, antioxidants come to mind. That’s a big buzzword with oxidative damage and free radicals. But I also know that there’s a lot of discrepancy in, like, the potential measurements and research related to antioxidants. And some people say, “Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” So what’s your take on ways that we can reduce that cellular damage, and are antioxidants the answer?

Dr. Dixon: It’s a great question. And, you know, you’re absolutely right. The scientific literature is very muddy when it comes to taking, especially high doses of antioxidants. And can we really extend healthspan and even, lifespan. If you go on and read some of the research on the National Institutes of Health, specifically from the centers for complementary and alternative medicine, they talk about … There’s a line in one of their statements that just says, “In research studies that have been done in thousands and thousands of people, there is no scientific evidence that … especially high dose antioxidants supplementation is actually going to have a beneficial effect on human health and disease.”

My view, as I read the scientific literature and things I’ve incorporated into my life is that, you know, we absolutely have to get the basics, whether it’s from our diet or from our nutritional supplement, and that does include some antioxidants, and it’s what we call the vitamin antioxidant. So these antioxidants that are absolutely essential for life, right? They’re actually working as a vitamin. And then they have this sort of side effect, if you will, of actually being an antioxidant. So if we take vitamin C, for example, vitamin C is an essential nutrient because it’s playing a role, a direct role as a cofactor which means it’s absolutely required for the activity of an enzyme to work. And it’s required in at least 15 different mammalian enzymes.

So if we stop taking vitamin C, those enzymes stop working and that ultimately compromises cellular function. But when we’re thinking about antioxidant protection and really, what is the best strategy, you know, a strategy that I love to incorporate personally, things that I’ve researched in the laboratory for many, many years is really trying to unlock the power that our cells inherently have. So what do I mean by that? It turns out that in our DNA and, specifically in our genes, we have antioxidant enzymes, and we also have detoxification enzymes. If you set the clock back to about 2007, just kind of as the Human Genome Project was kind of wrapping up and people started to really dive into, “Okay. What are all of these genes now that we can map, what are they actually doing?”

Well, they came to discover about that same time, 2006, 2007, that actually there’s this massive interaction between the nutrients that we eat and our genetics. So basically nutrients can turn on genes, and then those genes are also affecting how we were metabolizing nutrients. And when you actually put these things in test tubes, whether it’s these enzymes that are encoded in our DNA or whether we just put these straight antioxidants into test tubes, it turns out that this enzymatic activity, these enzymes that are found in our DNA are significantly more effective at detoxifying antioxidants, free radicals, and those other toxins that may be entering our bodies.

Katie: That’s fascinating. Okay. So you mentioned that basically what we eat has the ability to turn on genes. And I’d love for you to explain this a little bit deeper. Basically I’m assuming that you’re talking about the idea of epigenetics essentially, but for anyone who’s not familiar with that concept, can you explain how that process works?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, maybe I’m hung up on my scientific circles. But yeah, epigenetics is definitely influenced by the diets that we eat. But another complicated science word that maybe better describes what we’re talking about here is nutrigenomics. So if you break that big word down into its two parts, nutri and genomics, it’s really how nutrition and your genes are interacting. Maybe I’ll take a step back. I mean, maybe scientists and medical professions in their arrogance, they love to break things down into as simple of pieces or parts as possible. A lot of this research really came out of the research that showed that high levels of fruit and vegetable consumption are actually incredibly beneficial for our health.

So in that scientific arrogance, scientists went into fruit and vegetables, and they tried to tease out and find the compound or compounds that might be responsible for that increase in health that we’re seeing in the highest fruits and vegetable consumers. So they pulled out things like vitamin C. They pulled out things like fiber. And definitely, you can supplement with vitamin C, and you see some health benefits. You can supplement with fiber, you see great health benefits. But when you look at the research, it never really equated to the full effect that we were seeing with this fruit and vegetable consumption. So scientists were scratching their heads, thinking to themselves, “Well, there must be something else in these fruits and vegetables that are also providing health benefits.”

So then instead of looking at the things that were present in the largest quantities in fruits and vegetables, they started to focus on compounds that were really present in really very small concentrations. If you think about what gives fruits and vegetables their bright vibrant colors, it turns out it’s a lot of those same compounds that we’re providing these health benefits. So in some studies that were conducted, they teased out these compounds from fruits and vegetables that give them their color. They start to test them in the test tube and yeah, in a test tube, they’re working as very potent antioxidants. But what happened when they gave these compounds to people is they found that they were incredibly poorly bioavailable.

That means they weren’t absorbed by our bodies or if they were absorbed, they were absorbed at a very low rate. More than that, when these compounds were actually getting into our bodies, our bodies were metabolizing them incredibly quickly and then excreting them incredibly quickly as well. So then how could these compounds that are one, present in incredibly low concentrations that we don’t absorb very well and then are metabolized and excreted very quickly, how could they possibly be having any sort of health benefit? Well, it turns out what researchers found is that a lot of these compounds are actually binding to what we call receptors that are either sitting on the outside of the cell membrane or are floating around inside of the cell.

An easy way to think about receptors is just being little sensor molecules. And so when you get the right compound that’s gonna bind to the sensor molecule, what ends up happening is we start a chain of events. A lot like knocking over, let’s say, like, a line of dominoes. So you push over the first domino, you get this chain of events that happens, and then at the end of that chain, something happens. So when we’re talking about what’s happening in our body, a lot of times, that’s actually a protein, right, going into the nucleus and actually flipping these switches on these genes that have been shown to have great health benefits. In fact, they’re known as either anti-stress genes or maybe even more aptly named survival genes.

Katie: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And it seems like a lot of this also goes back to inflammation which is a big buzzword right now as well. Is that part of this equation and if so, like, what are some things on either side of that equation?

Dr. Dixon: Yep. That inflammatory axis absolutely can be influenced by the foods that we’re eating. Absolutely. So we can target them nutrigenomically. So maybe a lot of your audience might have heard of a protein called NF-kappa B. NF-kappa B really is the master regulator of our immune response. And it’s determining whether or not we have an up-regulated or even hyperinflammatory response, but then it’s also responsible for shutting down that immune response as well. And so when we’re talking about inflammation, what we’re really talking about is a balance. You know, think of a teeter-totter just kind of balancing there. If your immune system is completely shut off, then, you know, that’s gonna compromise us to this outside world that’s constantly trying to get in and invade our cells.

But then again, on the flip side, if you have too much inflammation going on, the scientific literature is incredibly solid on what hyperinflammation can do in its roles as it directly relates to health and then, especially, disease. You know, a few years back, there was a cover of “Time” magazine that just simply said, “The Silent Killer.” And it was really just this kind of furnace that is inflammation getting carried away in our bodies and so left unchecked, inflammation can go on and have just massive consequences to literally every system that’s inside of our bodies. So again, reaching for these compounds that can help regulate that protein NF-kappa B. And then there are some other things that we can do. We wanna make sure that we’re getting plenty of omega-3 fatty acids.

When you look at the biochemical pathway, the different fats that we consume in our diet are going down inside of the cell. They tend to either be pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. And so with our modern diets and most of us tending to eat pretty unhealthy, we tend to reach for foods in a box. We’ve really skewed the balance of our fatty acids to saturated fats and then omega-6s and omega-9s. So when we look at, again, all that scientific literature about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, what’s most likely happening is that we’re bringing the balance of those pro and anti-inflammatory fats back into the balance that our bodies prefer to keep them at.

Katie: That’s a great point. What are your preferred sources of omega-3s? Because I know this is also a controversial topic in… People saying, “A lot of them can go rancid if they’re not carefully controlled, and some are not as potent as they claim to be.” Is this better to get from food, or what do you look at for omega-3?

Dr. Dixon: Well, the best and maybe most convenient source of omega-3s would be those traditional fish oil supplements, I think, that we’ve all heard so much about. But exactly, the points that you raised are very valid. And unfortunately, and the nutritional industry, I hate to say it, but it really is buyer beware. And you’re absolutely right that omega-3s are particularly prone to oxidation. So if they’re not handled correctly, you’ve basically changed the structure of those fatty acids, and you’re no longer getting what you think you’re getting. So, you know, I encourage people that you have to spend a little bit of money. Just buying the cheapest thing that might be on a supermarket shelf isn’t the best option.

Spend a little bit of money, make sure you’re buying your products from a reputable high-quality manufacturer to ensure that you’re getting those fatty acids. That’s the simplest way. And maybe a simple check if people want to, maybe go into their pantries and see if their fish oil might be appropriate or not. But simply break open the capsule and smell it because they go rancid so quickly. And I think we’re probably all familiar with what rotten fish smells like. So if you break open your fish oil capsule and it smells like rotten fish, then you’ve got a bad product on your hands. You know, there’s great sources of omega-3s. I know, you know, a lot of people are choosing to be plant-based these days. If not, straight vegetarian or even vegan.

And there are some great vegetarian and vegan sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Things like flaxseeds, walnuts, they’re fantastic sources of omega-3s. So we can get these from our diets as well if we wanna eat a lot of fatty fish. So it’s not just eating fish two to three times per week, but it specifically has to be fatty fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines are a couple of examples. And then just making sure you’re getting as well a lot of … mostly, nuts tend to be very rich in, you know, omega-3 fatty acids.

Katie: I think those are all such great suggestions, and I love the fatty fish idea. That’s something I’ve adopted that I think is really inexpensive, easy way to get omega-3s is a few times a week, I will eat sardines, and I’ll just make lunch out of a bowl of sardines and veggies and nuts and hemp parts and all kinds of stuff and then just kind of put olive oil on it. And you mentioned fat sources and how the American diet definitely skews towards, not just saturated fats, but even just, like, really unhealthy forms of saturated fats and also, omega-6 oils. A lot of guests on this podcast and a lot of resources I’m seeing are recommending the monounsaturated fats in much higher amounts. Things like olive oil and avocado oil. Is that your take on it as well? Are those the kind of fats we should be prioritizing?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, it comes back to really what we were talking about initially with antioxidants. I think everything has to be in balance. So what I’m not a fan of is going to an extreme one-way or another. I mean, you can even make the argument that we need saturated fat as well. I mean, most of the fat that makes up our cell membrane is actually saturated fatty acids. But it’s very clear that we’ve just become over-consumers of, especially unhealthy saturated fatty acids. So my best recommendation is just to eat a variety of foods. You know, don’t really be afraid of anything but just eat things in moderation.

And then whenever possible, whenever time and convenience allows, reach for whole foods, so the actual original sources. You know, with our busy lives, that’s not always possible. And I think that’s a good time to start to consider nutritional supplements as the word suggests, right? The word supplement is supposed to be supplementing our diets, and if our diets aren’t healthy and well-balanced, then any nutritional supplement in the world is not going to fix those core problems.

Katie: I agree, and I wanna get to specifics on supplements in just a minute. But first, I wanna pick your brain on a couple of other things. So a few years ago, when I had nodules on my thyroid and had Hashimoto’s before I was able to get it in remission, one of the things my doctor suggested was to consume broccoli sprouts regularly which are a source of sulforaphane which, from what I’ve researched, is known to activate something called Nrf2. And I know this comes into play with this inflammation equation. And I’d love to really explain this, because I’ve never kind of teased this out on the podcast before. And I know this is something that you’ve done research in. So can you explain to us … first of all, is my understanding of this correct? And explain to us what Nrf2 is, and why it’s important?

Dr. Dixon: Absolutely. So Nrf2 is a protein. So it’s a protein that lives in our cell, and it’s an interesting protein, and how it behaves in that. It’s both…One of those center molecules or receptors that we were talking about. It’s also really the signaling molecule itself, and then it’s also the protein that can go into the nucleus, and it actually flips the switches of somewhere between 200 to 300 different survival genes or anti-stress genes. A lot of these tend to be antioxidant enzymes or detoxification enzymes. I’m impressed with your knowledge of sulforaphane, and, especially impressed with the source that you’re going to. So broccoli sprouts have been shown to be the highest sources of sulforaphane.

You know, my recommendation if that’s what some of your listeners are doing, you know, make sure you’re chewing them up. Sulforaphane itself actually comes with another little molecule stuck to it. So it turns out you actually have to really chew any source of cruciferous vegetable that you’re eating to release an enzyme that will remove that other molecule that’s stuck to it so that you can actually get the healthy compound. What’s so interesting and how this protein Nrf2 is working is normally it’s found anchored to the cell membrane. And it’s anchored by a very interesting set of chemical bonds. And the way that sulforaphane is working is that it’s actually interacting with that chemical bond, and it’s releasing Nrf2 from the cell wall, and it floats through the cell, gets into the nucleus, and turns on a bunch of genes like we’re talking about.

A compound that I’m even more familiar with dates back to, gosh, many years ago now. But back when I was doing my graduate work, I studied lipoic acid, if you’re familiar with that compound. That’s just an absolutely … another amazing inducer of Nrf2. We can look at things like Coricidin, green tea, ashwagandha, Bacopa. There are a whole host of compounds that actually are activating Nrf2. And so if activating Nrf2 and turning on these antioxidant and detoxification gene is the strategy you want to employ, then my recommendation would be to look for a mix of healthy compounds that are known to activate Nrf2.

Katie: Got it. Yeah. I love it that you brought that up about having to chew the broccoli sprouts to activate the sulforaphane correctly. You can verify this for me. But to my understanding, you’ve got glucoraphanin and myrosinase in that equation, and it does have to be broken up in certain … and temperature can come into play, and there are things that can help with that. So I don’t recommend it based on taste, but what I do to get enough of this is I will blend up a bunch of broccoli sprouts with some mustard seed powder which has some of those things that you need, and that help break down. And then the blending, I let it sit for a minute, and then drink it. From what I’ve read, that’s supposed to make the sulforaphane more readily available.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, Katie, I’m incredibly impressed. You are exactly right on all that biochemistry.

Katie: Awesome. Well, I’ll put links, I’ve got posts on how to grow broccoli sprouts. I think that’s one of those easy things we can all do in our own kitchen, and it cost literally, like, 50 cents to grow if you do it yourself versus buying them in a store, so that’s an easy step.

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic… a company I’ve loved for years for their superfood mushroom based products. They use mushrooms like lions mane, chaga, cordyceps and reishi in delicious products. Did you know that mushrooms are more genetically similar to humans than plants are? And that they breathe oxygen and exhale CO2 just like we do but mushrooms spores can survive the vacuum and radiation of space. These amazing fungi are always a part of my daily routine in some way, usually with Lion’s Mane Coffee or Matcha in the morning, Plant protein and mushroom elixirs like chaga and cordyceps during the day and reishi at night to wind down. As a listener of this podcast, you can save on all Four Sigmatic products. Go to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and the code wellnessmama gives 15% off

I’d love to now go a little deeper on the science of actually, like, slowing aging and fixing these processes, both in two ways. So I want to start practical and then move onto optimal. But when it comes to the practical side, I’m a big fan of 80/20 and doing the most effective important things that provide the biggest payoff. And I know that there are definitely some of these when it comes to the aging equation, both in supplements and other factors that come into play. So based on your research, if we were going to look at aging in kind of an 80/20 equation, what are those 20% of variables that we should focus on that have kind of 80% of the effects that we’re trying to achieve?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, the three things that are really at top of mind for me right now are still that free radical theory of aging like we were talking about. For me, it’s also the mitochondrial theory of aging. And if your listeners aren’t familiar with what the mitochondria are, it’s really where the vast majority of our energy production is happening inside of our cells. They’re literally these little nuclear powerhouses that are generating about 95% of all the energy that our body needs every second of every day.

And just to put in the context how important that energy production is, we basically make our body weight every single day in the energy currency, ATP that we need every single day. So think about how much energy is flowing through the mitochondria and all the work they’re doing. And then something else that’s caught a lot of attention for me lately is the molecule, NAD. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that or if your listeners are familiar with that. But some very interesting research around the health benefits of NAD and then, especially what’s happening to NAD as we get older.

Katie: Yeah, let’s talk about that. So I have some experience with NAD, and I know that there’s a lot of research and kind of some controversy about NAD versus NAD precursors. I have done NAD IVs, which for anyone who is not familiar with that, it’s an IV that contains NAD. And it’s somewhat uncomfortable going in, depending on how quickly you do it. I also, one time and will never again, did a push IV of NAD and wished I was dying for a short amount of time. But then I’ve also done research into NAD precursors, which from my understanding, are various forms of vitamin B3, if I’m remembering that correctly. But let’s talk about that. Explain what NAD is and also, what those precursors are in the body.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, NAD, it’s an incredibly interesting molecule, and it’s absolutely essential for life. So you’re right. We do make NAD from various precursors and like you said, vitamin B3 or niacin is one of those precursors. NAD’s normal role inside of the cell turns out to be inside of the mitochondria, and it is intimately involved in all of that energy production that we need every second of every day. So normally what’s happening is as we’re eating food, our digestive system chops it up into its small little bits. It gets into circulation. Our cells ultimately end up absorbing these compounds.

And then the food tends to make it into the mitochondrial where most of our energy production is happening. It goes through something that’s called the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle if maybe you’re as old as I am. And then basically the role of this Krebs or TCA cycle is to break the bonds of that food, and as you’re breaking those bonds, effectively you’re releasing the electrons from that chemical bond. One place those electrons end up is attached to NAD, and NAD acts as the shuttle molecule to get the electron into something known as the electron transport chain which is really trying to harness the power or the energy that’s in that electron so that we could ultimately make ATP, which is the energy currency for the cell.

So it’s vitally important if we were to shut off NAD synthesis, I mean, we would be dead in a matter of seconds. But some interesting research that has centered around what’s known as caloric restriction. So we’re talking about a diet, but we’re talking about maybe the most severe diet that anybody has ever been on. We’re talking about a restriction of 40% to 60% of the calories that we would consume every single day. So for me, at about 160 pounds, that would equate to eating right around about 800 calories per day. So I mean, incredibly calorically restricted. The research that has led to this kind of notion of caloric restriction initially started in yeast. Yeast is a fantastic experimental model, especially for geneticists.

So some geneticists embarked on these studies where they were calorically restricting yeast, and then they moved the studies into looking at worms or fruit flies, right, to more experimental models, mice, rats, even some primates. And then some people have even played with caloric restriction themselves. What’s so interesting is when they found that we restricted calories by this huge amount, you got about the same lengthening of lifespan, so around the same 40% to 60% actual increase in lifespan. And it’s really the only known non-pharmacological or nongenetic way that’s been shown to increase lifespan. So, of course, scientists in their inquisitive nature wanted to know, “Well, how is caloric restriction actually eliciting these effects?”

These geneticists went in, and they did a bunch of studies. And then a long scientific story short, they found that there was this family of proteins known as the sirtuins. And when they genetically manipulated or even pharmacologically inhibited this family of proteins or enzymes and then they still calorically restricted these experimental models, they completely lost that extension in lifespan. So scientists then went on to study what’s going on with these sirtuins and exactly how are they working. Well, it turns out the way that these sirtuin molecules are activated is by this molecule called NAD, so NAD is absolutely required for their function to occur. So if we kind of lumped together everything that’s been shown as we’re calorically restricting and you don’t have a lot of those electrons around, your relative levels of NAD actually increase.

And NAD is no longer working to generate energy but actually becomes a signaling molecule to activate this family of proteins called the sirtuins. And then downstream, right, or a better way to say it is that these sirtuin proteins are actually controlling a number of different pathways and factors and enzymes that have been shown to have all sorts of different health benefits, and that’s really why NAD has caught a lot of people’s minds. You throw on top of that that NAD levels declined significantly as we age, probably starting sometime in our late 20s or early 30s and then by the time we’re 60 or 70 years old, our levels can decline by as much as 60%.

Katie: Wow, yeah, that’s really drastic. So there are things … I’m so glad you brought up sirtuin as well. That was one of my questions that I was gonna ask, because I knew that was a factor in this. But so basically there are things that we can do, supplements that help increase the body’s NAD capacity essentially.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, and you kind of alluded to one, and that’s the precursor approach. And there’s not just vitamin B3, but there are other related molecules that are out there that people are using as substrates. There are also intermediates. So when your cells are building NAD from scratch, it kind of has to go through this process. So people are also trying to incorporate, trying to kind of cheat the biochemical regulation that’s going on by feeding the so-called kind of intermediates which can still be considered precursors. And then some things that’s really caught our attention lately is leveraging also, a Nutrigenomix approach to look at the enzymes that are actually making NAD in our body. And are there ways that we can use nutrients to actually turn on those enzymes to ultimately increase the biosynthetic capacity of our NAD generating pathways.

Katie: That’s fascinating. And I know one concern I’ve heard with certain NAD precursors and taking them in too large of a dose is that some people speculate that it can use methyl groups for, like, that conversion to happen. So that if we take them in too large of amounts, we can deplete methylation factors which can, especially be an issue if people who have MTHFR. Are you seeing that, are you concerned about that, or do you think that’s only an issue with really big doses?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah. Again, it kind of comes back to the gist of most of the conversation we had. And that’s just that everything needs to be in balance, right? Too little of something is bad, right? Let’s use a simple analogy with water, right? Dehydration is terrible, but you can actually drink too much water and kill yourself. So we need to be within this sweet spot of the bell curve, and the bell curve lives everywhere in biology. When it comes to the precursor notion specifically, right, I’m just trying to make sure that I’m getting somewhere slightly elevated over kind of either the RDA or the recommended daily allowance or daily recommended intakes, however, you wanna say it. I’m not a fan or supporter of mega-dosing in any way.

But if we come back and look at the biochemistry with how a lot of these pathways are working, a pathway can only work as fast as its slowest enzyme. I hope that makes sense. So any biochemical pathway in our bodies can only work as fast as the slowest enzyme. So you can kind of think almost like you create a traffic jam in this biochemical pathway or maybe another way if you can think about it in your mind’s eye is think about a funnel. And if I were to pour water into the top of a funnel, water can only move to that funnel as quickly as its narrowest point.

So at some point, we’re gonna overload the system and those compounds that we’re thinking or we’re taking that we think is gonna have an effect on one end isn’t gonna make it into that biochemical pathway, and it’s gonna float around on our bodies, and who knows have what type of effect. So, you know, our approach is to look at it both ways, so providing precursors to some extent, not in massive megadoses. But then what are nutrients that we can utilize to leverage that genetic machinery, turn on that genetic machinery to increase really the biosynthetic capacity of the NAD so that the precursor that’s around will ultimately get consumed in the way that we want it to be consumed.

Katie: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. So then from there, we talked about the practical. What if you could create an optimal scenario for someone to slow aging and to improve all of the things that we’ve talked about, both with supplements, with diet, and with lifestyle, what would that look like?

Dr. Dixon: I think if we want to really increase, not just longevity, but the thing that I’m most focused on right now is healthspan. I think if we can keep ourselves healthier for longer, I think, the side effect is gonna be added years to the end of our lives. You know, the scientific literature is just incredibly discouraging. Every American especially, if not every individual living in a modern society tends to lead their last 10 years of life suffering from some sort of disease or disability. And I just think my best advice is not to accept that as our norm. So the things that we can do in our lives to shorten that length of morbidity or disease or disability, just think of the quality of life.

I mean, if we can take that 10 years and shorten it to 5 years or 5 years down to 1 year and not to get too morbid, but I love to take just a big nose dive into my grave, right? I don’t wanna scratch and claw my way there. But when we wanna look at what are the things that we know in humans that are having the best effects for our healthspan and our lifespan, there’s a lot of different names floating around for the concept. I’ve heard it referred to as Blue Zones. But really, what these Blue Zones are longevity hotspots. And it turns out that there is just a very small handful of them around the world. There’s one in Japan. There’s one in Greece. There’s one in Italy. I throw one in there in France as well. There’s one in Costa Rica, and there’s one in Southern California.

So researchers have gone in and they’ve looked at all of these different populations and ironically, they tend to be very isolated populations. So they don’t seem to be as affected by a lot of our kind of new-age cultural norms. But when they kind of look at the aspects of each of these populations, there’s definitely unique aspects to each and every one of them. In fact, a lot of the diet fads that we’ve seen in probably the last 10 or 20 years are because of these longevity hotspots. So if you take the one in Japan, for example, that’s where really, sushi got really popular and eating the fatty fish. If you look at the populations around Italy and Greece, that’s really where the Mediterranean diet came into play. We can talk about the French paradox also, coming out of France as well.

But some of those newer longevity hotspots that have been found in Costa Rica and California, what they’ve really focused on is really movement and also, decreasing stress. So when we lump all of this research together from these longevity hotspots, the things that they all do share is that they obviously don’t smoke. They tend to eat a very plant-heavy diet, if not, exclusively plant-based. They have constant moderate physical activity. So what does that mean? It means, they’re just constantly moving. They’re not doing extreme workouts but just moving their bodies, and it could be nothing more than just walking around town or walking to their friend’s house. This is a little bit different, but they also tend to eat a lot of beans or legumes.

So they’re, you know, great sources of protein but also, great sources of fiber. Coming back to one of those psychosocial theories of aging, they also make family and friends a huge priority. I don’t know if you or any of your listeners maybe have been to France or Italy. But goodness, it’s tough to get out of a restaurant in two hours for lunch, and you’re probably sitting down for dinner for three or four hours, right? They make a big ceremony around food, getting everyone around the table, and just having fun, laughing, joking.

Something else these populations have in common is they slow down, and they try to minimize the stress that they have in their lives. So when we really look at those basically, all six, seven, eight things, right, so family, no smoking, plant-heavy diet. They eat a lot of beans. They’re socially engaged in their environment. They’re constantly moving, and they just try to decrease the amount of stress and slow their lives down. So that’s my advice for your listeners.

Katie: I love that. And I love that it always comes back to community in some form. That’s something that I’ve talked about so much in the last couple of years, especially that when we look at the data, it really is astounding. How important having those really solid relationships and spending time with people. That really is a dramatic indicator of health like you mentioned, and so I think you’re right. I think it’s important to have all those dietary strategies in place. And in today’s world where our food system is so depleted, it’s also important to take supplements in certain cases. But also, we can’t minimize those lifestyle factors like just being outside and moving like we’re supposed to move and spending time with people and having great relationships. So I love that you tie those in as well. Where can people keep learning more about these topics and keep learning more about you?

Dr. Dixon: We have a wonderful blog on our website where we’re talking about all aspects of health. We talk a bunch about theories of aging and the different things that people can do to help set themselves up. You know, all those lifestyle, things that we’re talking about. When supplementation makes sense. What supplements you should be reaching for. So you can find that blog on our main website at LifeVantage, so L-I-F-E and then Vantage, V-A-N-T-A-G-E.com. Look for the blog link there and, you know, we encourage everyone to also, subscribe to really all of our social media channels where we’re literally everywhere, so Facebook, Instagram. You can just search LifeVantage, and you’ll be able to find us there. We’re constantly trickling out all sorts of content around healthy lifestyles and nutritional supplementation.

Katie: I will make sure that is linked in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm for any of you if you’re listening while you are driving or running or doing any other activities, you can find those there and also, link to my post on a lot of these topics that we have talked about. Another question I’d love to ask at the end, somewhat unrelated or it might be related is if there’s a book or a number of books that have had a really dramatic impact on your life. And if so, what they are and why?

Dr. Dixon: Gosh, mine tends to go back and forth to what I’m currently reading. But if I had to choose one book to recommend, I would have to go with “Influencer.” I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that book. But it’s actually “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.” It’s such a fascinating book, and it really kind of breaks down really kind of the psychology of where people are at. If people aren’t familiar with that book, it really looks at a couple of just seemingly impossible life circumstances that humans have found themselves in and then really just trying to break down the human behavior that’s responsible for those behaviors, and then ultimately how people could intervene to completely reverse those behaviors.

And I think the lessons in that book are just so incredibly powerful for literally every aspect of our lives, so whether it’s eating healthy, exercising, if we want to maybe lose a couple of pounds, just thinking about those key decisions that we’re making, and how we can really set ourselves up to overcome really our own human psychology, I found that book to be incredibly powerful.

Katie: I love it. And that’s a new recommendation. I will make sure that that is linked in the show notes as well. But Brian, this has been a fascinating episode. I loved getting to deep dive with you into some of these topics, especially ones like Nrf2 and sirtuins that I haven’t talked about here before. And I’m really grateful for all the work you’re doing on spreading the word about how we can stay healthy as we age gracefully.

Dr. Dixon: Well, Katie, I appreciate that very much, and I’d like to applaud you as well for all that you’re doing to help get, you know, useful and practical information out to your listeners and really on the simple things that people can do to improve their lives in every sense of the word. So thanks for all you’re doing.

Katie: Thank you. And thanks as always to all of you for listening, for sharing one of your most valuable assets, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did and that you were here, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/brian-dixon/

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

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325: Hashimoto’s Update: How I Got to Remission & What I Do to Maintain

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/news/325-hashimotos-update-how-i-got-to-remission-what-i-do-to-maintain/

325: Hashimoto’s Update: How I Got to Remission & What I Do to Maintain

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to the ”Wellness Mama” podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com, my new personal care line that you can check out. And today I’m gonna give an update on my journey with Hashimoto’s and from beginning to end all of the steps I tried, what worked and what didn’t work, and where I currently am with that because I get quite a few questions about this, especially when I mentioned being in remission and it was very much a decade-long journey for me.

I’m hopeful that some of you can benefit from maybe some of the things I’ve tried. I will say before we jump in that if I’ve learned anything through this whole process, it is just how personalized and individualized health is and especially when you’re dealing with something as intricate as autoimmune disease. I do think a lot of these things, in general, can be helpful in some way to people with lots of different autoimmune disease, but I don’t mean them to be diagnostic or prescriptive. What worked for me, ultimately, was trying a lot of different things and finding the things that worked for me by tracking.

So as I go through all of these different things that worked, I will also say that I have kept a relatively detailed health journal that’s now in digital form actually through… It’s been at some points notes on my phone in Evernote and now lives in Google docs so that I always have it with me and I track things very carefully, including my labs using Heads Up Health, which is a health dashboard.

Anytime I’m trying something new, I’m definitely looking at the empirical data of what’s happening in my body. And I also keep notes on any changes in exercise, in general and dietary stuff, and also sleep and use my Oura Ring as well so that I can see what’s actually working and what’s not. I think that that’s a really important step for all of us, whatever we’re trying to work through in a health perspective, not that we need to be obsessive about it, but just to be able to see trends over time. It’s really helpful to have all of the data in one place.

So starting from the beginning or as much as in the beginning as possible without being too long-winded, years ago about, gosh, almost 14 years, more than 14 years ago now, I was pregnant with my first child. And I had recently finished college and had been in an extremely stressful academic environment. I loved it, but I was pushing myself incredibly hard. I wasn’t sleeping very much. I took 28 hours my final semester while I was pregnant and while I was working on a lot of other projects, so I was extremely stressed. I was not eating much food. And then when I did eat I was not eating very well and I was pregnant. So lots of potential factors all hitting at one time.

And I’ve joked before that if you want to create autoimmune disease, my recipe seems to be don’t sleep, eat really bad food, and be stressed all the time. And that’s enough too, if you’ve got a genetic predisposition, to kind of trigger something. And I think, based on my research at least, a lot of factors can go into it. It can be toxicity from certain things. It can be deficiencies of certain nutrients. It can be stress. Like, stress alone can trigger autoimmune disease from many of the stories I’ve heard from you guys and from my research.

So I think there’s a lot of factors that go in. I’ve explained this almost as like a bathtub concept that if you have a bathtub you can put a lot of different things in it. You could put rocks. You could put kids’ toys, which are usually what are in my bathtub. You could put sand. You could put golf balls. You could put water, Kool-Aid, whatever. You can put a lot of stuff in. But when it reaches the top, no matter what you put in, something is going to overflow. And that’s kind of how I think of health problems and autoimmune disease. And I think some of us maybe have genetically bigger bathtubs and more leeway than others based on genetics. But everybody has that point at which health problems will start.

And so I think there’s a lot of different factors that can go into this. And I think there’s also a lot of different factors that can help clean out the bathtub and reset things. So this was my journey of finding what those things were. At this time in my life, that was where I was health-wise. I was very young. I wasn’t thinking about health problems. I was certainly not thinking about what I ate or what impact it might have on my health. I wish I had thought more about what impact it would have on my child and I wish I had known now all of the things I know to take and to do when pregnant. But at that point, I was pregnant with my first, extremely busy, extremely stressed, and had a tough birth with him, and then was adjusting to life as a mom, which is a relatively large life adjustment to begin with, as well as adjusting to a move and to still being a newlywed. And a lot, and it was just a lot of things that happened at once.

And so, in the beginning, I didn’t fully realize that I was in a health crisis until it got pretty bad because I wrote off a lot of the things that were happening as, “Oh, that’s just because of the pregnancy,” or, “That’s just because of having a new baby,” or, “That’s just because I’m not sleeping,” or all of those different things. But when my oldest son was six weeks old, I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for the doctor for my followup appointment. And he was running late because he was delivering another baby. And I read through pretty much every magazine in that waiting room. And one of the last ones I picked up, I believe it was “Time” magazine. And it said that for the first time in two centuries, the current generation of American children would have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

And that just…it was such a stark contrast. You might’ve heard that part of the story before because it was so, so pivotal for me that day. But to hear that and to think about and read through all these statistics in that article about how they were gonna face such high rates of cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disease, and heart disease and how everything was drastically on the rise, and looking back mathematically, it didn’t even make sense that in such a short period of time, in such few generations, we could see such drastic changes. And reading that while holding this tiny baby who I was just overwhelmed with love for, it made me so mad that I wasn’t just not okay with that as a new mom with so many hormones. I was not okay with the idea that that was the future for my child or for all of our children.

So something, a ball started rolling that day. Something clicked in my head and I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to or how, but I was determined that I wanted to help change that statistic. I wanted to help change it, certainly for my own children, but hopefully also, for lots of other children because I wanted better than that for our kids. And around the same time, I started just, like I said, noticing some symptoms but largely writing them off as, “Oh, maybe that’s just post-pregnancy,” or, “Maybe it just is harder to lose weight after having a baby,” or, “Maybe it’s normal to be cold when you’re nursing,” or, “Of course, your hair’s supposed to fall out after pregnancy,” and, “Of course, I’m tired because I’m not sleeping.”

And so I just kind of kept writing those things off. But I did have like all of those symptoms. I had trouble losing the weight after my son and then got pregnant with my daughter less than a year later. And so the whole process kind of started again. And in hindsight, I can see almost kind of a snowball effect, having now had six kids within a nine-year period, just how difficult that was on my body, but also how I was able to ignore so many of the symptoms that would line up with Hashimoto’s because they also line up with things like pregnancy and breastfeeding and lack of sleep with being a new mom.

But over the course of having my next couple of children, there were these persistent symptoms and I wasn’t able to lose weight. And I kept thinking, “I wonder if something else is going on.” I would read things in my research about thyroid disease and I kept wondering if that’s what it was. And through my self-research, I think I probably actually made the problem worse in the beginning because at first, I would ask my doctor when I was pregnant to test me for any thyroid issues.

And they do some routine thyroid tests, typically, most doctors during pregnancy, but they were just testing a couple of the hormones. Usually, it was just T3 or sometimes TSH, but nothing else. They were just testing a couple of things. And then if those were normal, they wouldn’t go any deeper. So I was asking for tests and I was being told everything was fine. And increasingly, I kept thinking like, “I don’t think everything is fine,” but I couldn’t get a doctor to help me figure out why. And so then I started taking different supplements that were labeled for thyroid. In hindsight, this probably made things worse because a lot of those supplements are iodine-based. And if you have certain thyroid issues, iodine can be a little bit complicated, to say the least. And so I was taking iodine that probably actually, now understanding my version, made things worse.

And I’ll try to explain a little bit of why. I definitely, again, I’m not trying to give medical advice on this. I think if you even suspect that you have a thyroid issue or any kind of autoimmune disease, it is very, very important to work with a doctor who knows about that condition and who can know your full medical history. I’m just sharing what worked for me. If you do need to find a functional medicine doctor, I use a company called SteadyMD and I will link to them in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. They have been phenomenal. I worked with Dr. Lauren Jefferis who is highly experienced in this, but I’m back to the iodine note.

So iodine is often recommended if you have thyroid problems because there’s this idea that an iodine deficiency can lead to hypothyroidism or there’s a correlation between low iodine and hypothyroidism. And so a lot of people end up taking iodine, but in some cases it can do more harm than good. And I didn’t learn this for a lot of years. I’ll explain how I learned it in a little while. But basically it depends whether or not… Like, iodine can be both good or bad for the thyroid. And there’s a lot of factors that come into play.

So when the term thyroid problems is a pretty broad category and there’s a lot of actual medical conditions that can fall into that and they all need to be handled differently. So like I said, I found this out the hard way. And after all my initial research and a chiropractor said I needed to start taking iodine. So I did. I took these supplements with iodine and I started feeling a lot worse. And I kind of wrote it off thinking, “Oh, maybe it’s an adjustment reaction.” And I continued taking it, but I eventually had to stop taking it because I didn’t feel any better.

And now I’m seeing research and my own experience that really verify that. So there’s data from a lot of countries that can really kind of speak to the whole iodine thing because a lot of countries started adding iodine to salt to combat hypothyroidism. But then on the flip side of that, they would see rising rates of autoimmune thyroid problems. And so Chris Kresser talks about this. He has a great post. You can Google Chris Kresser in pretty much anything and great articles will come up.

But there’s countries like Sri Lanka, Brazil, Greece, China, and I think others that saw an increase in autoimmune thyroid issues after increasing iodine. And this is because increased intake of iodine, especially in supplement form, they think can increase the potential of an autoimmune attack on the thyroid. And one reason from what I understand might be that iodine reduces the activity of an enzyme called thyroid peroxidase or TPO, which is something that is required for proper hormone production and something that they measure. I’ll talk more about that soon.

But there’s also a confounding factor. So my own treatment plan, I now avoid any supplemental iodine whatsoever. And there is evidence that shows that those with autoimmune thyroid disease can see a benefit from just from avoiding iodine. But on the other hand, those with the iodine deficiency-induced hypothyroidism can benefit from very careful supplementation. But again, it’s that very careful balance and why you’d wanna work with a doctor who knows what they’re doing.

Another researcher I really admire is Dr. Paul J M Annette [SP]. And he talks about another factor that might come into play with the iodine autoimmune relationship. And that’s selenium. So he says that excess intake like of iodine can cause autoimmune thyroid problems that bears all the characteristics of Hashimoto’s but might not actually clinically the Hashimoto’s. And he found that an animal studies this occurs only if the animal is deficient or has an excess of selenium, which is another one we need to get in very careful amounts.

And also in animal studies, very high intake can make a preexisting autoimmune condition worse. But again, only if selenium isn’t too high or too low. So he found that if you’re selenium levels are correct, then your thyroid follicles are healthy, people don’t have goiter in those scenarios, and autoimmune markers go into normal levels. So it seems that there is a really important and very carefully-balanced thing that comes into play with optimizing selenium. And I’ll talk more about that when I talk about supplements I now take. But the bottom line is I think actually made my own thyroid problems worse in the beginning by taking way too much iodine.

So for the next several years, I went through a variety of different doctors that I would try to find locally and asked them to test different thyroid markers or help me try to figure out what was wrong and largely with no beneficial results because they would test the same things. They would tell me everything was normal and that all of the symptoms, the fatigue, the hair loss, the cold, the tired, etc, those were all just normal with being a mom and they’re not. And so if you’re listening, no matter what you think you might be dealing with, I would say don’t settle for being told those things are normal. And unfortunately, sometimes we do have to be very strong advocates in our own health. That is a lesson I’ve learned over and over and all of this that when it comes to actually finding our own health answers, we can find incredible doctors and practitioners who can be amazing partners, but we can never outsource the responsibility because health is so personalized.

And at the end of the day, our best-case scenario is going to require us being patients and n equals, one, and experimenting on ourselves. I went through many, many doctors. I think it was eight by the time I finally started to get answers. And when my fourth child was young, I actually traveled to a health conference with her and had my mom there to help babysit. I was still tired. I still couldn’t lose weight. I was feeling all the emotions of feeling like a fraud at a health conference because I couldn’t figure out how to get the weight off and not being able to get a diagnosis. And I was talking to someone there who said she had had a diagnosis of thyroid problems and it had taken her a long time. And I was like, “Who did you finally see? How did you finally get answers?” And she recommended her doctor, who is now a doctor I’ve worked with and a very close friend, Dr. Alan Christianson. And I will link to his website also in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. He has incredible resources that you can read and find for free. And he has books on this topic.

But she told me, “I worked with Dr. Alan Christianson. He was able to diagnose me immediately and my entire life changed. I felt so much better.” And for the first time and a really long time, I had this glimmer of hope and it was like, ”Can you please send me his info? I’m willing to work with him. I’ll go anywhere.” And she’s like, ”Oh no, he’s here at the conference.” And I ran into him later that day and I started barely just talking about my symptoms. And before I could even finish explaining all this stuff, he looked at me, he reached out, he actually felt my thyroid, and he said that he would…he wanted to run some labs. But he was pretty sure just based on that that I had Hashimoto’s and that like he could tell that my thyroid was a little bit enlarged. There were likely nodules and based on symptoms he said, “They probably aren’t testing the correct labs. They probably haven’t tested your antibodies,” which was true and, “They probably haven’t identified, but I would…” He said, “I would be willing to bet that you likely have Hashimoto’s.”

And while for some people hearing that might be a bad thing, I was so overwhelmingly excited to just have potentially a glimmer of hope of knowing what it might be and then having a way to try to research and figure out how to get over it that I actually hugged him. I didn’t just want to hug him. I did. And over the next year, he worked with me through lab testing, through all kinds of different methods that I’ll talk about. And I started to see improvement in my symptoms and also in my labs. And he’s now become a very close friend. I absolutely love him.

Like I said, I recommend his books very highly. I recommend his website and his work and he’s also just one of the most fascinating people I have ever met just as a person to hang out with. He’s incredibly smart. He read the encyclopedias before he was five and he now is…he competitively unicycles up mountains. So an incredibly interesting human being, and incredibly smart, and I am forever grateful to him for starting me on this journey to recovery.

So at that point through lab testing, it showed elevated TSH, elevated antibodies, and an ultrasound of my thyroid revealed nodules. So all of those things lined up and led to an official diagnosis of Hashimoto’s. At that point, I started to really wanna understand for the first time autoimmune disease in general, what was going on within my body. I’ll link to a lot of the resources I used to start understanding it in the show notes. I read all of Dr. Christianson’s work. I read a lot from Dr. Tom O’Bryan, some from Dr. Sarah Valentine, Dr. Isabella Wentz. There are so many incredible researchers who have written and shared incredible information about this. And there are differences based on the different types of autoimmune disease, but there’s a lot great resources as a starting point.

In the beginning of treatment, the things that Dr. Christianson and I did together were basically developed a plan based on diet, lifestyle, and careful supplementation and medication for a while. I think that’s an important part to talk about in this story to be able to let my body come back to baseline and recover. In general, I typically try to avoid medication when I can, but I also think that there is a time and a place for certain things. And I don’t ever want to like exclude traditional medical treatment, as I do think there’s a time and a place for that. And I talk about cases, just like for instance, the birth of my third child. I would be dead and so would he without a C-section and without medical care because I had placenta previa.

I think there’s absolutely time and place for conventional medicine. And for me, this meant that I took in the very beginning something called WP Thyroid, which is a natural thyroid supplement. Now, it’s very difficult to get. So I take Nature Throid. And the logic here was that taking that would help give my body a break because my TSH was high. And when your TSH is high, which is a stimulating hormone, those nodules were more likely to grow as well. So in order to hopefully shrink the nodules, I wanted to keep TSH low for awhile. And so I was taking WP Thyroid and now Nature Throid at the end to give my body a break to keep TSH low so that I’d be able to shrink the nodules. And I was using a lot of things like in conjunction with this with a focus on reducing inflammation and trying to figure out the root causes.

Dr. Isabella Wentz has multiple books on this and her website is full of great information on finding your own root causes. I think this part is extremely individualized. So I’m not even going to go deep on what ended up working for me other than the dietary side because I think there are some commonalities there. But things that can potentially be root causes or at least root triggers of these kinds of things are chemicals or toxicities in the body from any variety of different factors, things like an underlying undiagnosed virus. Epstein-Barr is apparently very common and in conjunction, people may not even know they have it and they might have a latent version of some virus in the body that is keeping the body from being able to come back to homeostasis and to recover from something like this.

And so I started really researching and experimenting and delving into all of the things I could do to lower inflammation, to give my body a break, and to let it recover. And I tried a lot of things over the last 10 years to finally get this to happen. And I think that it would be very difficult to say even a number of things that were the actual causes that let me fully recover. But I think there were some contributing factors that were really helpful. I think the common factor is inflammation. So for people who are struggling with this, again, I think it’s very important to find a doctor who you can work with to figure out what are your own root causes and then what do you need to do to address them.

So for me, there was a combination of diet and lifestyle factors. And I’ll talk about some that I mentioned a little bit in past podcast episodes. But it was also really important to note that for me, I had to address all of these factors and be very patient with my body and let all of these things come back into normal, get my hormones in normal range, support my body nutritionally, keep inflammation low, and I was not able to lose weight easily during that entire process. It was not until my body recovered and really came back to baseline that I was able to lose weight. And at that point it was incredibly easy. And I’ve also shared in a recent podcast episode the emotional side of that and how I think really dealing with our stress and emotions is a huge key.

So I’m not gonna go back through that, but listen to episode 309 of this podcast if you want to understand that whole side. In this one, I’m just gonna focus on the medical and nutritional and lifestyle things I did. So one thing Dr. Christianson recommended right away, he said that you know, hormones all work together almost like a symphony and you won’t just have one out of place. They all depend on each other.

So when you end up with something like a thyroid issue or hormones that are not where they should be, you want to make sure you’re supporting it across the board. And one thing he is a big fan of is getting sunlight in the morning. It doesn’t have to be on your skin. You don’t have to get a suntan or a sunburn. In fact, you won’t early in the morning typically anyway. But being outside in natural light as soon as possible after waking up, and I’ve mentioned this before, but I wanna reiterate because it really does make a difference. It’s easy to ignore because you think it won’t make a very big difference just getting outside. But there’s a cascade of hormones in our body that depends on light.

And light has a very important signaling purpose in things like melatonin production, cortisol production, and keeping those things in proper ranges. And if your cortisol is messed up or you’re not making melatonin or you’re not sleeping well because you’re not making melatonin, you are going to have a difficult time getting inflammation down in the body and letting your body recover from something like, for me, Hashimoto’s. So his advice was to spend 30 minutes in the sun. For me, it’s on my porch in the morning as soon as possible after waking up and I often do this sipping tea or having coffee some days.

And so sitting outside with my family in the sun every morning, that is an easy, super simple free thing that we can all do that has, I noticed, measurable changes in my hormone levels from doing. So my cortisol was…actually, when he first tested me, it was the exact opposite of what it was supposed to be. So cortisol is supposed to spike at certain times and fall at others and that signals that your stress levels are in the correct ranges. And mine was doing the exact opposite. And getting sunlight in the morning along with some of these other methods, helped correct that for me.

Another thing that he recommended for me was broccoli sprouts, eating broccoli sprouts every day. And some of these things, at first I doubted like, “Is this actually gonna be beneficial? Like the sunlight, is that actually gonna be helpful?” And I will say I still do these things to this day because I do feel like they make a difference. But he also recommended broccoli sprouts regularly. And the reason for this is broccoli sprouts are high in a substance called sulforaphane. If you have never heard of this, I have a couple of posts on it that I will link to in the show notes. Dr. Rhonda Patrick also has some great posts and podcasts about this. But it’s found in cruciferous vegetables, especially in broccoli sprouts.

There are studies that show that sulforaphane can be anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, which is why I was using it. And there are even studies looking at it to help fight aging and diabetes. And the great thing is this is something inexpensive that you can make at home. I have a tutorial on wellnessmama.com that’ll be linked in the show notes on wellnessmama.fm. But if you haven’t heard of this compound before, I’ll try not to keep this or I’ll try to keep this from being too boring. But so sulforaphane is the name for this cancer-fighting compound that’s found in cruciferous vegetables and especially sprouts.

If you care about the science, sulforaphane is created when the enzyme myrosinase transforms the glucoraphanin into sulforaphane. Hopefully, I pronounced all that correctly. Since myrosinase and glucoraphanin are found in different parts of the plants, this change actually happens when the plant is damaged. So when you chew it or blend it up, then these two compounds mixed together and react and young sprouts or broccoli or particularly good sources of glucoraphanin. And more specifically, sulforaphane is part of a group of plant-based compounds, phytochemicals called isothiocyanates, which in the body, this stimulates the production of important enzymes that fight free radicals. You’ve probably heard of those for their effect on aging in the body.

So inflammation and free radicals are also, they get the blame for a lot of types of cancer. So this is a big deal and there’s a lot of cool research right now happening about these particular phytochemicals and protection against cancer. And since I had nodules on my thyroid, I was very cautious to make sure that those weren’t gonna turn cancerous. And so like I said, sulforaphane is found in all cruciferous vegetables, but much higher in broccoli sprouts and other sprouts.

And these are things you can grow easily at home. There’re studies, like I said, showing that this can boost brain health. It can help with detoxification, which is another factor that’s often present with autoimmune disease. Taking sulforaphane can help increase gludethyon as an NRF-2 activator and also slowing aging. There’s a lot of studies about this, so, and again, it’s an easy thing that he recommended adding in. You can grow them in your own kitchen. I’ve got tutorials in the show notes.

But I also think before I move on, it’s important to talk about cruciferous vegetables because just like the iodine thing, there’s, you know, the conception that you should take iodine if you have thyroid problems. There is also some advice if you start reading into the research on thyroid issues, in general, that you should not eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc. if you have thyroid problems. And again, the answer to this is a little bit more complicated and nuanced than just whether you should or shouldn’t.

As I started really digging into this, I found that some sources claim that all cruciferous vegetables should be avoided if you have thyroid issues while others say it’s fine to eat them if they’re cooked. You just don’t want to eat them raw. And then I also read, some sources that said, if you’re gonna eat cruciferous vegetables, you need to take iodine. Again, that didn’t work for me, but there was a lot of conflicting information about this. So I asked Dr. Christianson when I first started this and he explained that it’s perfectly safe to consume cruciferous vegetables regularly if you have Hashimoto’s. And here’s why.

He said cruciferous vegetables are, they basically belong to the mustard family and cruciferous vegetables is a broad term for this whole group of things that everything could include bok choy, arugula, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, watercress, etc. And, in general, there’s a lot of benefits to these kinds of vegetables. They contain a lot of phytochemicals and important things. But a lot of people with thyroid issues are hesitant to consume them, especially in large amounts because of some conflicting opinions online.

So in my opinion, like I said, they can be extremely healthy. They contain folate, Vitamin C, E, K, and a lot of phytochemicals that can reduce inflammation. So there’s potential reasons to consume them. The reason people say you might not wanna eat them if you have thyroid issues is that they also contain goitrogens, which are substances that affect the thyroid in certain ways. And goitrogens can interfere with the thyroid’s ability to take in iodine. So that’s also why people say you might wanna take iodine if you’re consuming a lot of those because your body needs that to produce thyroid hormone.

So people are worried about the goitrogenic activity of these. So they say if you have thyroid issues, you should not consume cruciferous vegetables. Before we move on, it’s also important to note that the cruciferous vegetables are not the only foods that contain goitrogens. So if you’re considering avoiding cruciferous vegetables, you also wanna avoid things like peaches, peanuts, red wine, soy, strawberries, sweet potatoes, teas, etc. But for people with Hashimoto’s, goitrogens aren’t exactly necessarily where we should be looking at for problems.

I think that personally, and based on what Dr. Christianson said, I find that the benefits of eating cruciferous vegetables, especially things like broccoli sprouts, outweigh the negatives, even for those with Hashimoto’s. Again, work with a doctor. But from what Dr, Christianson explained to me, you would have to eat an enormous amount of cruciferous vegetables to affect the thyroid negatively. And not too many of us have the problem of overeating vegetables. That’s statistically not what is happening in the U.S.

In fact, there’s only been one case study where someone actually harmed their thyroid by eating too many cruciferous vegetables. And that was an 88-year-old woman from what I remember who developed hypothyroidism, but she was eating several pounds of raw bok choy every day for several months. She probably would have avoided the problem had she just cooked that. Unless you were eating pounds and pounds of raw cruciferous vegetables every day, probably not an issue if you have Hashimoto’s.

I already talked about the iodine side. I also wouldn’t consider taking supplemental iodine without very specific testing and working with a doctor who understands that. But I personally do consume cruciferous vegetables including broccoli sprouts relatively regularly. If you are worried, some ways you can reduce the goitrogen activity while still consuming these, ferment your veggies, cook them, those both deactivate a lot of them ahead of time.

If you’re putting things like kale or spinach into a smoothie, you can blanch them ahead of time and freeze them. The heat will kill most of the goitrogens and then they’re ready to go when you wanna blend them. Again, selenium comes into play. So for me, finding the right amount of selenium and taking it made a big difference and I minimize the iodine as well. So a little bit of a tangent there into cruciferous vegetables and broccoli sprouts. But that did make a big difference for me and I still consume broccoli sprouts regularly. There’s also now a sulforaphane supplement you can take. Historically, it’s extremely hard to isolate sulforaphane into a supplement form. And I have finally found a supplement that does that, so I’ll link to that in the show notes as well.

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I also found that I needed to do very specific exercise. So for me, that meant I only stick to now high-intensity exercise and things like lifting weights. I don’t do any long-form cardio, so I’m not just running miles or on the elliptical. My body and hormones personally respond best to high-intensity training. I use the CAR.O.L bike, which I will link in the show notes, and I’ve done a podcast with the founder of CAR.O.L. And then I do very heavy weight lifting and I’m lifting above my body weight now in most categories. And I feel the best on that.

Sleep was also a huge component of this for me. So I know in early motherhood this was something that probably made it worse, but it was unavoidable, which was not getting enough sleep. If it’s possible to get enough sleep for anyone with autoimmune disease or any kind of health condition, I think that’s a definite place to start. And I’ve written a lot about this before, so I’m not gonna go deep on the sleep issue today, but I will make sure some of the posts are linked in the show notes if you feel like that’s an issue for you.

And then also the dietary side. So without going too, too deep on this, I’ll link in the show notes to a more detailed description of what I did. But for a while after my diagnosis, I went on a very strict autoimmune protocol diet that removed… Basically, the theory is removing a lot of the foods that can be inflammatory and giving the body time to rest and then introducing carefully so you can kind of gauge if you’re responding to different kinds of foods.

It is important to note, like I said in the beginning, based on lab results and lack of nodules on my thyroid, I am considered fully in remission for Hashimoto’s and I do not follow this diet anymore. In fact, I will say this past year, now having worked through the emotional stuff and really found homeostasis, I eat more food than I’ve ever eaten as an adult. I am less restrictive. I still eat very clean at home, but I’m able to eat occasionally things like gluten, sugar. I do eat dairy and none of those both me. I do still have to avoid eggs based on some IgG testing and based on how I feel. But that’s really the only food that I’m not eating at all right now. I think there’s…this is very personalized as well. I’ll link to the test I used to figure out and to constantly monitor that. But in the two years after my diagnosis, I did eat an extremely regimented, very clean diet to give my body time to rest and recover. And I focused on really nourishing it, supporting it with certain supplements based on testing, and just making sure I was flooding my body with nutrients. And it took years for my body to fully recover from that. And like I said, I was not able to lose weight during that time.

Once my body reached balance and once I dealt with everything else and then I dealt with the emotions, the weight loss part became extremely easy. And so I think it’s important to address all of these factors and not expect change to happen overnight. That said, from a broad level, kind of what the diet I did that I think let my body rest, was considered the autoimmune protocol and I’ll link to my post on that topic and also to some books that are really helpful. But basically from my understanding, if the body has an autoimmune reaction, it can sometimes be necessary to removal certain inflammatory foods and inputs for a while so that you can then reintroduce and test the response.

This idea is similar to the theory behind the gaps protocol, which we also did with my son to help with his dairy allergy, but it’s geared towards autoimmunity instead. And basically, from what I understand of this with autoimmune disease, the body’s in a state of increased immune response. So removing these foods can help it not have to fight for a little while and can kind of reduce the autoimmune reaction. I should also say that technically, clinically, an autoimmune disease cannot be cured, which is why I use the word remission instead.

At this point, after my diagnosis, I switched to an autoimmune protocol. And I was pretty amazed at how quickly it helped. So within the first week, I saw my bloating go away, my thyroid felt less swollen, and I had more energy even after the first couple of days. And then I saw skin improvements and energy improvements, and then eventually my hair improved. And this helped me realize which foods were problematic. And like I said, I’ve now been able to reintroduce almost all of these foods, everything but eggs.

So I think it’s…I wanna say that before I tell you just how restricted this protocol is. It’s not usually forever or at least not all parts of it are forever. The general idea is that you’re, like I said, you’re removing any inflammatory foods. If this is new for you, some things that I find helpful, I’ll link in the show notes. The Paleo Mom has a website and also a book, ”The Paleo Approach.” There’s an autoimmune cookbook by Mickey Trescott and her website is Autoimmune Paleo. Those are both really good. I’ll link to those in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. Basically, a very broad description. On an AIP protocol, you’re avoiding grains, legumes, eggs, dairy, seeds, even seed-based spices and oils, nightshades, so things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc., nuts, alcohol, and then any other reactive foods.

So for me that included coconut even though that’s not typically on the list. Instead, you’re eating very clean sources of proteins like meats, organ meats, broth, vegetables, except for nightshades, fresh or dried herbs that are not nuts or seeds, certain fruits, nonseed-based spices, lots of healthy fats. I focused on olive oil and then dairy-free fermented foods like sauerkraut. So I have a food list in my post. You can find that in the show notes. It does seem very overwhelming. It is extremely restrictive, but I knew that it was aimed at healing and so I was able to stick to it.

For me, a typical day would be, breakfast would be a scramble of vegetables, some kind of protein, and a cup of bone broth and then supplements. Lunch was almost always a salad with some kind of protein, a little bit of fruit and then bone broth. And dinner, the same thing, some kind of stir fry with protein and a lot of vegetables and then some kind of healthy starch like winter squash, pumpkin, etc.

Another tip from Dr. Christianson is if you’re going to consume carbs to consume them at night because that also…food is another big signaling mechanism in circadian rhythm. So consuming the carbs at night helps signal the body when all the right hormones are supposed to kick in. It also seems to help my sleep. When I first started this I felt like I couldn’t eat anything and I felt constantly deprived. And so it took me about 30 days to really get in the swing of this. I also focused on what I could eat versus what I couldn’t and I consumed a ton of vegetables, especially in that first six months.

And this was also based on the research of Dr. Terry Wahls, who I also really respect. She has a book called ”The Wahls Protocol.” Her focus was on MS, which was what she recovered from. But she talks about the importance of consuming at least nine cups of vegetables a day, which is a ton, three of brightly-colored vegetables, three of leafy greens and three of onions and garlic. And I did that. I actually followed that for about probably four months and I had noticed a difference in my nutrient levels and, and my energy levels as I did that. Like I said, I also think sleep and stress really come into play here and I was taking a very specific group of supplements. This is extremely individualized so I will you what I took over. It is not prescriptive. Please don’t just go take this. Work with someone like SteadyMD to find out what you specifically need.

But for me at this point I was taking, like I said, WP Thyroid medication. I ended up needing to take HCL, betaine HCL with any meals that contain protein because I found I had low stomach acid during that time. So I took HCL anytime and I still take it in smaller amounts. I have weaned down as my stomach acid has naturally improved. I took probiotics. The one I take is Just Thrive. I’ll link to that in the show notes along with the discount. That’s the one I now take. It’s spore-based. So it’s dairy-free, it’s vegan, it’s autoimmune safe, and it reaches the small intestine. It has a higher survivability and you can also open the capsules and even bake with them, put them in a smoothie, etc. to give them to kids because they can survive at temperature.

I make sure to get enough Omega-3s through things like salmon. And then Vitamin D is a big one here as well. There’s a lot of research and Dr. Christianson tested me for this almost immediately, my Vitamin D levels because there’s a strong correlation with low Vitamin D and a lot of health problems including autoimmune disease. So it’s something I test and I also tested my family and my kids and make sure that our Vitamin D levels are not just in safe ranges but optimized. So I actually keep mine about 80. When I first tested it was 17, so it was well below even the conventional low-level Vitamin D. And I think that probably also made a huge difference because while we call it a vitamin, Vitamin D is actually a pre-hormone. So if you don’t have enough Vitamin D, all of your hormones can be off.

Magnesium was also big for me and I used both transdermal magnesium oil and took magnesium supplements and I still do. MagSRT is the supplement I take and I use magnesium oil. I have a recipe for that. On the blog, I’ll make sure those are linked as well. I also took…I made sure to get enough protein and amino acids from things like bone broth and I took a lot of Vitamin C. Zinc and selenium were also important. And like I said, those are ones you want to consume only the right amount, so you don’t wanna just take a ton. More is not better. But I will link to the ones that I take. Again, I would recommend working with someone like SteadyMD or a functional medicine doctor from SteadyMD to really know what you’re doing before you just start taking those and certainly before taking Vitamin D because you can get too much Vitamin D.

I also took a supplement called L tyrosine. Again, not one you want to just start taking just because, but those were all things that were helpful to me. Again, I will link to more detail about all of those things, but these were all factors that for me seemed to make a difference over time. I also avoid very carefully fluoride and chlorine. I have found that both of those are triggers for me and that it’s very hard to get my levels better if I’m exposed to those. I don’t think that’s necessarily the same for everyone, but we have a whole house filter on our house that makes sure that I’m not exposed to those and there’s not fluoride in our water where I live anyway, but I have to be careful about avoiding both of those.

So long roundabout way of saying I used a whole lot of different factors and had to consistently stick with them for a period of years to start seeing changes. I felt an immediate difference in my energy levels and my sleep when I started implementing these things. And that was really encouraging. And also it felt so good just to not feel so bad, but really seeing the full recovery and now being in remission and having my labs reflect that took a very long time.

So I will say like, based on my experience, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and I don’t recommend long-term cardio, but it’s a marathon. So stick with it. Build the habits that let you stick with it and track so that you can see if what you’re doing is having a positive effect. I don’t know that it would be the same for everyone, but for me, I had to get all of these things right before I was able to see the weight loss, before my hair came back normally, before I had all the unlimited energy. And it was a slow process and it also required shifting my mindset, like I talked about in episode 309, from fighting my body to supporting my body because I had reached a point… I was so mad at my body. I felt like it had betrayed me and I realized it had protected me and it was keeping me safe and it was keeping my baby safe while I was pregnant with them. But I needed to be more supportive of my body.

So those are the things that I did. I am now clinically in remission. All of my thyroid levels test normal. I don’t need to take medication. I do still take supplements and I do still follow a lot of these things that I talked about. And at home, I eat probably still very close to that autoimmune diet when we’re home. But if we’re out somewhere or we’re at an event, I’m much, much less strict than I ever, than I used to be. And I’m able to get away with eating a wide variety of foods and not being as restrictive as long as I support my body, make sure I have my sleep and my stress and all of those factors in order.

There’s probably questions I’m not thinking to answer. If you have any, please leave them in the comments at wellnessmama.fm under this podcast and I will try to respond to you directly. And all of the things I’ve mentioned. I have blog posts about all of these, so head over to wellnessmama.fm. If you want to read more about any of these or check out the episodes with Dr. Christianson, Dr. Isabella Wentz, Dr. Terry Wahls, or with my SteadyMD doctor, those all have really helpful resources for autoimmune disease, but I wanted to just share you with you guys an update since I can now officially say that I am in remission and share with how I got there.

I do think it’s a very personalized thing. I hope that some of these will be helpful if you’re in the same place to you and finding the things that are gonna work for you, but I don’t think it’s prescriptive, so I hope that you’re able to pull some beneficial things from that.

And, of course, as always, I am so grateful to you for being here today, for listening to this podcast, and for being part of that change that I talked about at the beginning of hopefully shifting those statistics so that our kids are not living a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for listening. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the ”Wellness Mama” podcast.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/hashimotos-update/

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316: 17 Practical Time-Saving Systems for Parents (& How I “Get It All Done”)

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316: 17 Practical Time-Saving Systems for Parents (& How I “Get It All Done”)

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is sponsored by Four Sigmatic… the reason I’m on shrooms (the legal kind) every day. They make a wide variety of superfood mushroom infused products from coffees and teas to elixirs and even chocolate that is infused with ten mushrooms! I have a shelf in my pantry just for four sigmatic products and keep pretty much off of them on hand. Some current favorites… my kids love the reishi infused cocoa, and I love that it helps them sleep! I also really enjoy their 10-mushroom blend which contains all of my favorites like chaga, cordyceps, reishi and even meshima. I add this to coffee, tea, or smoothies to get a daily dose of shrooms. As a listener of this podcast, you can save 15% by going to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and using the code “wellnessmama”

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Hello, and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and this episode is just me. And I’m answering one of the questions I get asked most often online, which is, “How do I get it all done and balance work and family and self-care and all of the demands that we face in modern life?” So, today, I’m gonna walk you through my systems and how I do it. But there’s a few things I wanna make sure I mention and that you guys understand before we jump in.

First, and most importantly, I don’t do it all, not every day and not even close. So, I’ve written about so many things on the blog. There’s 1,300 blog posts, and there is no way that I get all of that done every single day. That’s a combined 10 years of knowledge and experiments, and I don’t even do all of those things all the time.

So, full disclosure, some days my house is a complete disaster. There have been days where we eat Magic Spoon cereal for dinner. And I’ve tried about a lot of experiments over the years. I’ve written about a lot of them, but I definitely don’t maintain all of them every single day. I found the 80/20 rule that works for me, and I maintain based on that. I’m gonna talk more about that later in the episode. But I just wanted to start by saying I don’t do it all, and I don’t ever wanna be some standard that someone sees on social media and then feels bad because of comparing to.

Number two, in modern life, we as moms especially but parents in general, we face a lot more demands than parents have in the past, and it does take more effort to manage everything. And it’s important to remember, we are not failing because it seems harder than it did for our parents. It actually is harder. I think there are some things we can do to make it less so, but it actually is harder than it used to be for our parents.

So, I think we can use a lot of advantages of technology and use systems to make things easier if we’re intentional about that, and I’m gonna share a lot of my tips for that today. But acknowledging and understanding that there’s just more to manage in modern life than previous generations had had to deal with.

Number three, before we jump in, you should understand that I am absolutely a nerd, and I use math to solve problems in most of my life, including a lot of the stuff I’m gonna talk about in this podcast. I apologize in advance if you aren’t a math person, but the ideas still work even if you don’t care about the math side. So bear with me through that part.

And lastly, these systems are what work for me and my family, and I’m sharing practical examples and trying to go into as much detail as possible in hopes that this will be helpful to you as well. It’s a no way meant to be like a black and white standard for any other family, and it is certainly not meant to be a judgment of anyone else’s systems or how they manage their life. You may end up with something completely drastically different than what I’ve created, and that’s not just okay. That’s awesome.

I think that one of the things that we as parents need the most right now that our children need to see is an example of how people can have different views or ways of doing things and still get along and treat each other with respect and kindness. So imagine how much all of our stress levels would change if we all did that in our interactions in person and especially online. So, none of this is meant to be a judgment of anyone who does anything differently. I’m just sharing my systems and hopes that they will be parts of this that can be helpful to you.

I think there are some commonalities that can be helpful in staying on top of the demands of modern life and all the things we do face. And so I’m gonna base these next 17 tips on that and hopes that they will be helpful to you as well.

So, with that said, tip number one, start with the 80/20 principle or the idea of kind of a minimum effective dose, and this is the Pareto principle if you’ve heard of that. It’s also known as the 80/20 rule, or I think it’s also called the law of the vital few or in math, the principle of factor sparsity.

And boiled down, it basically means that in a lot of different areas, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, or 80% of the results come from 20% of the inputs or the activities. And this is used in sports, and there are examples of it in economics. It’s used in computing. But I found it extremely helpful in managing modern life as well, especially in motherhood. Of all the people in the world who I feel like need to be more efficient, moms are for sure at the top of the list. I’ve always said that moms are the busiest and most effective people on the planet and that if you can give moms more bandwidth and reduce overwhelm, moms can absolutely change the world. So I figured if top performers in business are using this and economists and mathematicians and even sports teams that they were things that were valuable that moms could use as well.

You know, there’s that joke that evolution must not work because moms still only have two hands, and I think we actually really need clones or at least two brains to manage it all. But I feel like keeping this rule in mind helps me to focus on the things that are most important in all of those areas that I’m responsible for managing and still feel like I’m getting most of it done without dropping plates or feeling like I’m letting things fall through the cracks. So I find myself constantly applying this rule to various aspects of life, and it’s made me much more efficient. Even just starting to think in the terms of 80/20 and like what are the 20% of things that I need to do and focus on the most, that has taken the stress off of the other 80%. This will be woven in throughout the podcast, and I’ll give practical examples of how you can use that in various aspects of your life.

So, tip number two would be to simplify food in your home. And just as I mentioned in the last tip, we tend to eat the same 20% of meals about 80% of the time. And so realizing this, I was able to start planning for that, and I realized I could automate a lot of our eating by understanding that. So, this reduces the need to meal plan as much. It also simplifies shopping because I know ahead of time, I can streamline food preparation, and it really kind of just takes the mental guesswork out of planning food in general. And this also helps things like keeping the pantry stocked, and it also means that when I travel or things get really busy, someone else can fill in parts of that system as well.

So on a practical level, here are some of the ways that I implement this. I keep a list, and I stock my most common pantry staples as we…80% of our pantry staples come from things like Primal Kitchen, Paleovalley beef sticks, tuna and sardines from Thrive Market, other condiments, bulk items, nuts, rice, quinoa, etc. I can actually put a list of those in the show notes so that you can see kind of my constant reorder list. But rather than trying to reinvent the wheel every time, I know roughly what those things are and how often and how quickly we go through them. So I can actually either set up auto-orders for some of those things or at least just have a list in my phone. I use the Notes app constantly so that when it’s time to order, I know where everything is in one place.

I also create an 80/20 meal plan, and I can share more detail about this in a future podcast as well. But the short version is that for each of the seasons, I focus on the things that are in season and least expensive. So basically, the vegetables that are in season in spring, summer, fall, and winter, and I plan around those because, in general, then I know those are less expensive when they’re in season and also more nutrient-dense. And I focus only on meals that I know the whole family likes that are easy to prepare, that are inexpensive, and that are nutrient-dense. And with those criteria, I find our top 14 meals for each season, and I only had to do this once because, once it’s done, it’s repeatable.

So then once I have the 14 meals for each season, I separate those into two weekly menus and create shopping lists for each one. I use the Real Plans app, and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes because it’s extremely helpful. And you can input your own recipes into it, and it will auto-generate a shopping list that you can then if you already have ingredients check them off. You can adapt it for your family size or for all kinds of things. And then I print out the two-week meal plans together and the shopping list, and I put them in little sleeves and kind of put them in a notebook, so they are in the kitchen. So in other words, if that was confusing for a second, I make two one week meal plans for each season.

So for winter, it might focus on veggies like cabbage and greens and sweet potatoes and root veggies and cruciferous vegetables, and for each season, there’s different vegetables. And then we alternate those weeks. We go back and forth between those two one week meal plans. So we’re not eating anything more than once every 14 days. So there’s plenty of variety built in, and also because it’s pre-planned, anyone can handle the shopping and anyone can handle the cooking. So if things are busy, my husband could handle the shopping if he needed to, or I could just order the groceries online. I know what I need with everything in one place. And because the recipes are already printed, the kids are able to jump in and prepare meals sometimes, or I already have it there, or if grandparents are staying while we’re traveling, it’s just easy for someone else to jump in and handle the system.

I also spend 20% of time making 80% of the food with bulk cooking. And I don’t do this every single week, but especially on busy weeks, I do try to prioritize this. So often I will double recipes to have leftovers for breakfast or lunches or just block out some time on the weekend and pre-prep as much as possible for the week. And my kids usually make breakfast and lunches on their own, and I really just focus on family dinners. But if when I can, I’ll double recipes, and that way they have that for breakfast or lunch without them having to make something else. And I know that there’s always nutrient-dense options available. So that’s kind of the food system. Again, I’ll do a whole podcast on this in the future that breaks down and then share all the specifics of what that actually looks like because it’s been a huge time and money saver. But it’s really as simple as starting with that kind of system, and then you only have to create those four meal plans with the alternating two weeks, and you’ve got a repeatable meal plan for the year.

Tip number three would be to establish systems for clothing in the house. This is another area where you really can apply the 80/20 principle. If you think about it, a lot of us wear the same 20% of our clothing about 80% of the time. I don’t know about you, but this is especially true with my kids. The younger ones especially have like these kinds of four or five favorite outfits that they just wear over and over and over, and everything else in their drawer was just pretty much ignored. So, knowing that, I realized that paring down reduces mental and physical clutter, and it was an area that I could easily simplify.

So if we do this for everybody in the house, there’s less in the house that we have to manage. There’s less laundry, and less things end up on the floor. I have blog posts about capsule wardrobes for kids, and I’ve been implementing this with myself as well. But you can find those blog posts online. Just google Wellness Mama capsule wardrobes or check out the show notes for really like specific examples of what that looks like for my kids.

But it’s really as simple as having smaller amounts of clothing that are all relatively easy to combine and that go with each other and that all fit in a drawer easily and that the kids are capable of pairing. But for me, this is something I’ve been…especially as I’ve like changed sizes so much, and I had to get rid of most of my clothes, anyway I try to simplify as I had to buy new clothes. So I just have two pairs of jeans that I absolutely love, and that beats having a lot more pairs of jeans that mostly kind of fit or they aren’t quite as comfortable and I usually don’t wear anyway. And so I’ve just tried to simplify that for myself as well.

I think this is different for each family, and certainly, depending on climate, you may need a lot more clothing or different kinds of clothing or if you travel a lot or your climate changes a lot. But in general, I kind of try to stick to that same type of system of having…by season, those simple clothing that all kind of goes together and just minimizing because I…I mean, we all have so many more clothes typically than we actually need.

Tip number four. I wanted to make this one early on in the podcast because I think it’s one that moms tend to ignore a lot, which is to work in self-care regularly. And this is another area that is completely different for every single person. But most parents, and especially moms, statistically, we don’t get enough sleep, and we don’t have enough time for self-care. And I actually kind of hate that word because I think it’s become kind of…it’s just ambiguous and applies to a lot of different things that maybe brings up ideas of taking bubble baths, which I just personally don’t ever have time to do.

But I think for moms, a lot of times, this seems like an impossible item on the to-do list because everybody else gets priority before us, and we’ve got so much to manage. Hopefully, all the systems in this podcast help create time to make this easier. But I also know that during the younger years of our kids’ life, it can be really tough to find time for self-care at all.

But like other areas, if we can identify the 20% of things that are most important for us in self-care, so those 20% of things that reduce stress the most or that seem to replenish us the most, then we could focus on those things when we actually do have the time. So for me personally, just as examples, this is things like getting in the sauna almost daily whenever I can, moving around even for a short period of time. I’m not saying exercise. I don’t think I’ll ever be the type to exercise for an hour a day. This is things just like walking or like running outside for a minute or handstands, that kind of thing. Just working in movement regularly makes a big difference for my mindset.

Also, spending quality time with my husband and close friends makes a big difference in my mindset. And, of course, community and so many other beneficial things are built into that as well. So it’s self-care, but it’s also beneficial in other aspects of life. Taking certain supplements has been really helpful for me just in making sure that I had the physical and mental resiliency that I needed to manage everything.

And I’ve mentioned this before several times in the podcast about morning sunlight. So, this was the advice of my doctor years and years ago when I first got diagnosed with Hashimoto’s to spend some time outside as soon as possible after waking up. This is really important for circadian rhythm. I see a difference in my sleep and then my stress levels, and it’s time outside usually with my husband or kids. So it’s also community time as well. So those are my things that I tend to prioritize and that I notice effects in other areas from. They are gonna be different for each person, but if you can identify the things that kind of replenish you and fill you up the most, and you can even just work in tiny bits of them during the day, you may see a big difference in your mindset.

So tip number five, realistic minimalism in our households. So, just like I mentioned in food and in clothing and even in self-care, we tend to use the same 20% of stuff in our house most of the time too. And, for instance, kids will use the same 20-ish percent of toys most of the time. Over time, I’ve used a whole lot of systems to minimize and reduce stuff, and I think there’s a lot of different approaches that work. There’s Marie Kondo systems. There’s all kinds of organizing systems.

For the kids’ toys, when I implemented this, I actually just put most of their toys in the attic, and then I didn’t get them back out unless they asked for a specific one. I try to pare down two types of toys that could all go together and be easily stored like Legos and avoid buying single-purpose toys. And when we first started making that switch, I literally just put most of the toys in the attic one day. And if they were like, “Hey, mom, have you seen whatever?” I would go find that specific toy, but most of the things they never even missed. And keeping the things in the attic for a few months gave me that time to find those things if there was something that was really important to them without just getting rid of something and them missing it. We were able to get rid of so much that way.

But some specific tips, because I think if you minimize too quickly or drastically, you can kind of upset the applecart in a home. So I think it’s important to lead by example in this. So don’t start by just throwing away all of the kids’ stuff or getting rid of it instantly. That’s why I used the attic thing. But also I think it’s important to set the example and us do it first. So, before we start throwing away all the things they love, we need to do that for ourselves and show the example and also reduce our own mental clutter by doing that. So, for me, I started with our own closets and with my bedroom, and that felt manageable. And I didn’t have to involve the kids, but I would talk to them about the process and let them see the difference it made before I started tackling their stuff. And then I let them be involved when we actually started getting rid of their stuff.

Also, we found it helpful to have like a little donation station in our house. So this is basically just a large box, a tote in a closet, that is a place where the kids know and we know that they can put stuff. So this is where people can put anything they no longer want or need, and it’s also a judgment-free zone. I think I tried not to do this, but it’s like when something was a gift to a child or something that we would want them to have, it’s hard not to be like, “Oh, you’re getting rid of that.” But the donation station is a judgment-free zone. Anyone can put anything in there to donate even if it was a gift without judgment.

So also grouping by categories was really helpful for me. This is one thing that I do think the “life-changing magic of tidying up” I got absolutely right because you can’t really see how much of something you own if you don’t see it all in one place. And so my advice is to gather all of the same things, so, for instance, all of my clothing or all of the kids’ toys, whatever it would be. I don’t do the whole thing where I see if it sparks joy, but seeing everything in one place helps me think of like 80/20. So I keep 20% of these things and get rid of most of the others.

Like as a practical example of this. The categories I kind of used when we did this whole master minimizing thing. Clothing and closets were each their own category. Our bedroom was a category. Each of the kids’ bedrooms was its own category. The kitchen obviously its own category. Like outdoor stuff in the garage was its own category. And then like linens kind of were their own category and paperwork, which was the bane of my existence, was its own category as well.

For me, things like the schoolroom and personal items like sentimental items are not on this list because I can’t pare down school stuff to 20% when we actually only buy the stuff that we actually need for that. So now we just use clothes storage to keep the school stuff and try to minimize everything else. Also, for kids, I found it really helpful with trying to keep things minimized is to define physical boundaries because they are often very concrete and visual, especially at young ages. And so this helps them understand limits on their belongings in a positive way that isn’t stressful. I actually first learned this tip from a friend who they sold their house and moved into a camper and traveled, and they had five kids. And so each kid got a very specific size box where they had to keep all of their toys, and they could bring whatever they wanted as long as it fit in that box. And so just having that kind of idea, I applied that to our house even though we don’t, you know, live in an RV.

We were able to kind of apply that, “You can pick all the toys that you want and whatever you wanna keep. It just needs to fit within these boundaries.” So, for instance, it could be that all toys need to fit in a toy box or that if they have a collection of something, it all needs to fit in a specific shelf or display or if it’s stuffed animals, my youngest loves stuffed animals, she can have them all, but they have to fit within her little bed so that they’re not everywhere all the time. This is also important and has been really helpful with kids sharing rooms. That way they each have their own specific area where they can have their personal possessions. You can also then enforce like, “This is private space. You need to ask your sibling before you touch anything that’s in this area.” It might be the side of the bed or on the dresser or underneath the bed or whatever it may be, but that way they have their own space that they feel like is theirs. And this also makes it much more manageable.

Tip number six. Use the same idea to create time management systems. And in my mind, time is actually the most important area to 80/20 because, just like in the other areas, I feel like 80% of our stress can sometimes come from 20% of the inputs. And I think like this is where we should absolutely start with time management. So identify the activities that are causing the most stress for you and then figure out how to simplify, automate, or get rid of the stress from them at least.

You may not be able to get rid of the activity, but you can get rid of the stress from it. And I’m gonna talk more about that later on when I get to the mindset tips, but this is actually I think one of the more important things. And if you’re gonna start with something, I would start with time management system. Conversely, I think it’s important to identify the 20% of what we need to do in our time that brings the most happiness, so kind of like a little bit touching on that self-care idea.

To do this, look at your calendar and write out all of the activities that you have to do in a given week or month, whatever time period you wanna tackle, especially if things are repeating week after week. Like in my life, just write them out once. So identify those. And then it’s important to find the areas where you can improve in both directions. So, basically, like write this out and prioritize the things that are causing the most stress and the things that are causing the most good and then 80/20, all of those areas, and prioritize.

So for me, this was things like for time management, meal planning and food saved a lot of time, batching and everything. So whether it’s checking email or cleaning, etc., those are all in very specific times. I figured out the things that I absolutely had to do, the 20% that I couldn’t let go of, and then I scheduled those things. So they were not negotiable. They had a time that they were gonna get done, but then I didn’t have to worry about them when they weren’t getting done. And then also create systems and get others involved when it doesn’t need to be something that entirely falls on you.

And I wish I could give a lot more specifics to this, but I think my day to day life is probably not at all typical. And so my system may not be really specifically helpful just to hand off to you, but if you can work through your own calendar and find what are the activities and the systems, things you need, starting there and giving everything a time and a place and a defined area will really help with the mental stress. Also, in time management, so a tip on this. I take this 80/20 rule to mean that we should focus on the 20% that’s most important before doing anything else in the 80%. So, I use this to tackle the most important and effective things each day. And I said I use my Notes app on my phone quite a bit, but in there, I’ll put the top three activities I need to do in any given day, or it might be a couple more than that to get the top 20% done. And when I have time to work through things, those are what I prioritize first. So before I start doing the things that aren’t important, I will tackle those things.

Tip number seven, and caveat, before I even say this, I know this is not always possible in certain stages of pregnancy and newborn life. But tip number seven, ruthlessly prioritize sleep because this is an area you can’t actually 80/20. It’s just directly based on time. You will not get 80% of your results from sleeping 20% of the time. That does not work. However, I think you can use the idea of this to improve sleep quality, especially if you’re tracking your sleep. It took me years of experimentation to figure this out for me. I think there are some universal human commonalities when it comes to sleep. So I’ll share those, but I also think there’s value in tracking your own sleep.

Personally, I do this with an Oura ring, and you can check out the show notes, I have a discount code you can find there if you wanna get one. Basically, it’s a ring that you wear, and it does have airplane mode, so if you’re worried about the EMF. I always wear it in airplane mode. It doesn’t have any EMF while I’m wearing it. And then when I put on the charger to charge, it goes into Bluetooth mode, it syncs to my phone and then goes back into airplane mode. The Oura ring tracks things like your sleep quality, which has been really amazing to see because I started to notice the things that improve sleep and the things that really messed it up.

It also can track your activity. It tracks your heart rate variability, which is something I’ve talked about on here before. I think it’s a really important metric as it kind of indicates your overall just adaptability and long-term potential like for longevity and all kinds of things. And it tracks a lot of other things as well, body temperature to heart rate, resting heart rate, etc. So that’s been really helpful to me to actually dial all of these things down. This will vary somewhat by person like I said, but I think the 20% of things that make the biggest difference for me and it probably have universal application to some degree are things like being in bed by 10:00 p.m.

And full disclosure, I am not good at this. It does not happen every single night. In fact, it doesn’t happen nearly as often as I would like to. But when I am in bed and asleep by 10:00 p.m., I see noticeable and immediate drastic changes in sleep and heart rate variability. And I know that’s not always possible with kids but whenever it is… And I know as a mom too, it’s that constant battle of, you know, “The kids are in bed. I’m tired and I wanna sleep, but I also just I’m enjoying this quiet time.” And I often fall into that. I’d rather stay up and enjoy the quiet too. But there are measurable differences in my sleep when I prioritize the sleep at night.

Also, two things that have helped with my sleep quality that I drink almost every night unless I’m fasting are the Reishi Elixir from Four Sigmatic, which I’ll probably link in the show notes to that, and Gold drink from Organifi. They’re both actually reishi based and have other herbs that help improve sleep quality. And I will see about like 10% to 15% improvement in most of my sleep metrics when I use those. Just like I mentioned before, I don’t use them every single day because I don’t use anything every single day. But I do most nights drink one or the other of those, and I also take magnesium to help with sleep and see change from that. But I’m one of the weird small percent of the population, I can’t actually take magnesium at night. So I take magnesium during the day and then notice a difference in my sleep at night.

Another thing that is drastic and I notice it every time I’m away from home, I use a Chilipad or an Ooler on my bed, and again, discount codes for those in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. But these are basically devices that have…the part that’s on your bed is not EMFs at all, and I have tested this. But it’s basically a thin pad that goes underneath your sheet but on top of your mattress and that a machine runs cooled water through, or it can actually be any temperature water between 55 degrees and 110 degrees. There’s a lot of data showing that the optimal sleep temperature is somewhere in between 60 and 70 degrees, and it takes a lot of energy to heat or cool our house to get within that range, and so just cooling our bed is much more energy-efficient.

The device itself is far enough away from the bed that it does not have measurable EMF readings when I’m in the bed. And I noticed just…I mean, noticeable without even tracking huge difference in my sleep when I use one of those devices. The Chilipad is the original. It’s less expensive. The Ooler is more expensive but slightly more effective. But again, check out the show notes at wellnessmama.fm for discount on both of those. I wish so much that I had known about those when I was pregnant because that whole pregnancy sweat and like postpartum sweat, I think it would have made a drastic difference. But I noticed a huge difference in sleep from those, and I’ve given those as Christmas presents to many people because I love them so much.

Another thing that makes a noticeable difference, especially over time, this is more cumulative but is sauna use during the day. And I know I’ve talked about sauna use in a couple recent podcasts, so I won’t go deep on all the benefits of that other than to say that the statistics are pretty incredible for a reduction of all-cause mortality, reduction of cardiovascular events, for weight loss, for all kinds of things. And when I sauna during the day, not too close to bedtime, I see sleep improvements, especially over time. Also movement during the day.

I’m not saying exercise. I know that it’s hard often as moms to fit an exercise. Like what’s gonna work for each person is such different here. But when I move in certain ways, I do notice improvements in my sleep. And so the things I typically tend to prioritize are things like just walking, not like intense walking. Just walking for fun makes a big difference. I’ve been doing high-intensity training only a couple times a week. I use the CAR.O.L. bike, but this can be done with sprinting or any kind of like cardio-based device. And that’s really just like a 10-minute thing. So it’s not a long program at all.

And then I just started integrating lifting weights a couple times a week, and that will temporarily reduce my HRV right after it because of the muscle pull or the muscle burn, but then over time, it gets much better. So, those are all kinds of the movements that have worked for me. Again, I think this is very individualized, and so those are the ones that work for me.

And then lastly, one tip for falling asleep more quickly and that I see about like for me usually about an 8-point improvement in my HRV when I do is using 4-7-8 breathing as I fall asleep. This is something I have written about, and I have a post about four sleep tips that actually work and also Dr. Andrew Weil mentioned on this podcast. But the idea is basically that you breathe in for a count of four and hold for a count of seven and then slowly breathe out for a count of eight. And the idea is you are using your breath to remove excess carbon dioxide from the body to calm and get into parasympathetic versus sympathetic nervous system. And it just overall helps.

I also find that when I prioritize sleep logically, I notice the effects in other aspects of life as reduced stress or being more efficient. So this is an area I try as much as possible not to compromise on and to prioritize. And I know that we probably all have that experience of when you don’t get enough sleep how everything seems so much worse and how when you have a great night sleep, you feel almost unstoppable. So, I get it. It’s easier said than done, especially as parents, but when we prioritize sleep, we get much more effective in other aspects of life.

Tip number eight, use the concept of minimum effective dose to fight perfectionism. So, I touched on this a little teeny bit in the 80/20 in the first tip. But to go back to this idea, minimum effective dose basically means identifying the minimum input needed to create the result you want. Often as parents, I think we do a lot more than is needed to get a result because we want our house to look perfect or we feel the pressure to entertain the kids all the time or cook fancy meals or whatever it may be. But minimum effective dose is the idea of doing the smallest amount possible to accomplish what you will need to do.

So as an example, water boils at 212 degrees. Tim Ferriss use this example in his books as he talks about this. Boiling at a higher temperature or longer does not make the water more boiled. It boils at 212, and it boils at any temperature above that. And I use this idea in areas like nutrition and fitness and house management and organization because it helps me battle perfectionism. I think I have a natural tendency towards perfectionism, and it’s not possible as a mom to maintain perfectionism in every area of life. So I try to, when I start falling in that mindset, go back to the idea of minimum effective dose and manage from there.

So, for instance, more working out is not necessarily better. I find that my body does better with less working out but very specific kinds. So I don’t do any type of long cardio whatsoever. I focus on high-intensity interval training or otherwise known as HIIT. And you can look for HIIT studies to see all of the studies about this, but basically, from a VO2 perspective and a cardiovascular perspective, that’s actually more effective than long-term cardio, and it doesn’t have the potential downsides. So there’s a lot of evidence that long-term cardio, especially running, can be really harmful for joints and also just for oxidative damage in the body.

So I do high-intensity interval training instead, minimum effective dose, more is not necessarily better, same thing with resistance and weights. I don’t need to lift weights for an hour a day. Just doing specific ones for a certain amount of time makes a big difference. And then I work in fun stuff, not for exercise, but just for fun. That’s like walking or swimming or paddleboarding and then the occasional intense stuff like pole vaulting just for fun.

I think there’s also an important minimum effective dose when it comes to stress relief or meditation or whatever you do in this area. For me, this means if I can focus on my breath for just 10 minutes a day, that’s my minimum effective dose. More meditating doesn’t actually make me more calm or happy. I’ve learned that from experimentation so that I don’t need to spend an hour a day meditating. I can accomplish that in 10 minutes a day.

So I’ll often use, for instance, tapping apps like The Tapping Solution or specific breathing exercises, or some days, I will use the cold. So I’ll sit in the cold tub for up to 10 minutes usually on 2, 5-minute increments, and that refocuses my mind, and I find my calm. So, this is again gonna be different for every single person, but if you start to analyze and pay attention in your life to what is the smallest amount that I can do to get the same result and stop doing extra stuff, that helps battle that perfectionism.

So, tip number nine, solve for the variable of reduced stress. I told you there’ll be math involved. I apologize in advance if math is not your thing. But what I realized years ago and what I would postulate to you is that it isn’t actually everything we have to get done that causes the stress. It’s knowing all of the stuff that we need to get done and having all of those mental loops open all the time. This is different for each of us, but I’ll share some examples of mine.

In figuring out systems for how to get stuff done, I think this is the variable that you start with because it isn’t always that we actually need to do less. In fact, a lot of times, we need to be able to get more done, although sometimes there may be a need to do less, and that’s something to analyze in each person’s life. But we need to solve…identify for and solve for the variables that are stressing us out the most. So in your life, what does this look like? What are the X and Ys of your stress equation?

Examples. I was trying to manage my whole family of eight in my head and then carrying the emotional and mental responsibility of everything that came with that family and all of those things rather than using the strategies that I had already used in business. So, using a lot of the things I’ve already talked about in this podcast and a few more that I’m still gonna cover, I started focusing on, “How can I reduce stress in this area and whatever it was, whether it was meal planning, whether it was work, whether it was kids?” And I solved for that variable. Now I’m able to actually do the same amount of stuff and actually probably get more done without the stress.

And, of course, 80/20 kind of plays into this as well being more efficient, more effective, the minimum effective dose, doing just what’s required and not overachieving in every single area. But to start to solve for this if this is a new concept for you, I would suggest making a list of all of the things that stress you out the most and then detail specifically under each one what makes things more stressful. And you may find like I did that it isn’t, for instance, cooking that causes the stress, is the constant need to figure out what to cook. It’s that 4 p.m. like, “Oh, my gosh, everything’s frozen. What am I gonna cook for dinner? I need to defrost something or finding the ingredients or cooking something and then family members not like it or complaining about it.” Those are all variables we can solve for.

I actually realized I liked the cooking a lot, and if I could solve for those other variables by planning ahead, knowing what was gonna be cooked, batch cooking and then cooking only meals that were nutrient-dense and that we all liked, I could pretty much solve for all of those variables. I’ll put some more specifics of that in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. Another example, it may not be the actual laundry that causes the stress but the constant clutter related to the laundry or remembering to do it or forgetting the clothes in the washer and then smelling like mildew, or not having certain clothing when it’s needed and it’s sports time and a kid doesn’t have a jersey. We can solve for those variables as well.

Like I mentioned, you as a mom don’t necessarily need to do all the laundry, especially when your kids reach a certain age. For my kids, that’s about four to five. They’re able to handle their own laundry. Then it’s the conscious effort of stopping carrying the emotional responsibility. In fact letting them carry it because truly if they make it…if they show up at soccer practice in a dirty jersey that smells like sweat because they didn’t clean it, maybe they will learn that lesson. Whatever it may be, it’s finding what’s causing you the friction point, what’s causing you the stress and then solving for that.

So it might not be our kids causing stress but the constant questions from them not knowing the schedule or for them being bored. And we can solve for those two. We can create a family culture that avoids boredom. We can have a schedule that they know so they know when things are gonna happen and be prepared. There’s ways to actually take into account a lot of these variables. So make this list for yourself.

And then also I found it helpful to write out what a perfect scenario looks like in each of those areas when I wouldn’t be stressed. So, when the food was handled, what does that look like? When the laundry was handled, what did that look like? When the kids were all happy and not bored and integrated, what did that look like? And in some cases, solving for these variables could mean reducing. So for instance, if here kids are doing a ton of activities each week, and your stress is caused by the constant go-go-go-go and being a chauffeur and running them around, then maybe part of the answer is to reduce activities or to just focus on the 20% that they enjoy the most. If it comes from clutter around the house, it may be important to de-clutter, but often a lot of the stress can be solved with just systems. And so again, it’ll be different for each of us. I hope that my examples were somewhat helpful.

But also from a scheduling perspective, if you can define a time and a place for each activity and item, then you can take away its mental stress. So, for me, this meant when laundry was gonna happen at a certain time each day or each week, then I didn’t have to worry about it when it wasn’t going to happen. When I knew the meal plan for the next three months, I don’t have to spend any energy thinking about that. So find those things that are causing you the most stress and then solve for those first. The variables are different for each people…for each person, but the systems can be kind of universally applicable, and once you find yours, it gets a lot easier.

Tip number 10, get the family involved. So if you have kids, chances are they are probably part of the reason you have so much on your plate. With the goal of raising functioning adult humans and not perpetual children, it is I feel not just important but like actually vital to get the kids involved in the day-to-day operations of the house and the family, so they can learn life skills. And when we send them off into the world, they have those life skills. This has the benefit if we do it the right way of reducing stress for us as parents. And I touched on this in a couple of the other points about how natural consequences and kids being able to handle a lot of stuff.

But a few specifics just related to this, getting the family involved in creating this team mentality and culture. First rule…I’ve mentioned this a little bit before, but I’m gonna go deeper here. Stop doing what they can do for themselves. And, yes, there will always be exceptions to this, and, yes, I know that there may be times when I wanna spend time with my kids, I do something that they can do. But in general, universally, I have a rule that I won’t do something for my kids that they can do themselves. I know that as parents, we can do it right, or we can do it better, and it’s easier especially when they’re young. But this is part of the reason we are so stressed is because we do. We do it because we can do it right or better.

I know as a new mom, I used to think about this. I did a lot more for my children because it was easier. It was objectively easier for me to load the dishwasher than teach them how to load the dishwasher. With my first child and even with the second arrived, I still actually could do everything for everyone, so I did. And in some ways, it was easier just to do it all. It was easier to get them dressed than let them take forever and end up in a mismatched outfit.

But as I had more kids and as more was added to my plate, I realized this wasn’t a sustainable model. And I say this quite a bit and people are like, “Oh, my gosh, six kids. How do you get it all done?” I’m like, “Actually, I think having more kids has protected me and kind of saved me from a lot of the pitfalls I would have fallen into.” Because it came to a point where it was not possible to do everything for everyone anymore, and so I had to get them involved. And I can’t spend too much time with any one kid or spoil them or do everything for them because it’s just there aren’t enough hours in the day.

But more importantly than that, I’m glad that I had that realization because, as I mentioned, the goal is to raise adults, not adult-sized children. So, while it wasn’t a big deal objectively for me to do the dishes and the laundry for them at a young age, it would be at some point. And so I had to figure out when would be the best time to teach them these skills and get them involved, and I realized there’s only actually one logical answer to this question that makes sense across the board. And that is we should get them involved and require this of them as soon as they’re capable of doing these things on their own if the goal is to raise responsible adults.

So I realized for me that I was doing a lot of things for my kids that they could be doing on their own, and not only was this extra stress and burden for me, it wasn’t helping them in the long run anymore either. So I decided to give my kids more freedom by giving them the opportunity to learn these skills that they needed to function on their own and to feel the consequences of them when they didn’t. And I think that, of course, every child is different, every family is different, and ability and maturity vary from child to child. Even within my own kids, I see that. Some of my kids have taken on certain jobs much earlier than others. But often, they have surprised me in how quickly and easily they could take on these things and how well they could execute even at a younger age than I expected. So, I will link in the show notes just some general guidelines I’ve used of at what age they take over which activities.

But for instance, one of my daughters learned to do her own laundry when she was four. She’s been doing it ever since. So I think we often underestimate just how amazing and capable they are. But also just to reiterate when people ask how I get it all done and what the secret is, the secret is that I don’t. We do it together. We’re all part of a team. And they are involved and they very much contribute to the family. So actually, that’s tip number 11 too is to foster a team mentality and family culture. As I started changing that with my kids and started letting go of tasks that my children were capable of, another amazing thing happened. It fostered a team mentality in our family, and they now feel great about really contributing to our family because they actually do. Their contributions are important. The things they do around the house actually matter, and they are very much part of this team.

And certainly, in that transition, I had some moments of weakness where I try to just take things back over. But now this is part of our culture, and they get to really feel like they’re important to the family, and they actually are very important to the family. I realized at this point when I was making this switch, that there are many correlations between business teams and family. And I had mastered one in business, but until that point, I had not transferred those skills to the other. So, people think I have it all together and like I just get it all done. I talk about how years ago when I was really stressed and before I kind of put all of these things I’m talking about today in place, I think I realistically came very close to a nervous breakdown.

I had an amazing team at Wellness Mama to rely on, and things were running great. We had goals and systems that helped the business run really smoothly, and I didn’t usually feel very stressed in my work life. But at home, I was trying to manage everything, like I mentioned, on my own in my head. And unlike my business systems, I was flying by the seat of my pants, and I felt the stress as a result. So, this shift of everyone in our house being able to do the task they were capable of and to build that team culture was life-changing.

On the other hand, when I was handling everything myself and I was problem-solving for my kids, I was essentially sending my kids the message that they weren’t capable of doing those things on their own. So I was worried that I was gonna burden them if I required them to do these things, but really, I was treating them like long-term incapable guests in my home and not as an essential part of our family team. And now that they know that they’re involved and they feel like their contributions really matter because they do, this has strengthened our family bond and culture and led to less stress and more time together and things like you might have heard me mentioned before, our motto, you were made to do hard things, or our focus on constantly improving and learning and moving things forward. So, that team mentality has been really amazing for us.

Tip number 12. Rely on natural consequences versus nagging. And I mentioned this earlier in passing, but I think it deserves actually its own point because the other great part of this approach to handing off skills is the built-in use of natural consequences. Like I said, for me, when my kids handled their own laundry, they run out of clean clothes, guess what? They learn the importance of doing their laundry. I don’t hold on to the stress and the emotional responsibility anymore or worry about what will happen if they don’t get it done because it’s not my responsibility.

And other examples, my kids are homeschooled, but when we travel or whatever it may be, they are capable of making their own school lunches. They’re capable of doing most of their school work on their own. If they forget either of those things, rather than me rescuing them, kids get to learn from temporary hunger or a bad grade to remember these things in the future. And I know as parents, we wanna protect them from those hardships, but long-term, there’s not gonna be someone in their life to protect them from those hardships. So, I figure it’s much better to let them learn on a smaller scale in these relatively inconsequential things like being hungry for one meal than when they’re adults. And don’t get me wrong. I get the desire to protect our kids from discomfort, but the discomfort of natural consequences can have that long-term benefit. So these are things that we hold on to the stress and responsibility of and try to protect them from but we don’t need to. And in fact, it might actually be hurting our kids.

So, here’s what I realized. When I started looking at the data on this, it was really staggering. And the statistics are that one in four college-aged students and college graduates still live at home, one in four. Psychologists talk about there’s an increasing number of adults who have trouble actually making this shift into adult life outside of their parents. And it turns out, when we look at long-term data, our kids are happier, in the long run, the earlier they learn independence. The research shows that children who have really involved parents actually can have more anxiety and less satisfaction with life than children who are allowed to learn from natural consequences and play unsupervised and build things like social skills and emotional maturity and executive function in real-life situations versus being managed by adults.

So as much as some days I wish I could just freeze time and keep my kids little and like baby age forever, they are insistent on growing up, and they need to be prepared for adult life. And as adults, we face natural consequences all the time. That’s when I really realized I had to make a switch here. No one’s protecting me from these adult…from natural consequences as an adult. And I’ve explained this to my kids. If I drive too fast, I can get a ticket. If I forget to pay a bill, the electricity can get shut down. There’s no one who’s gonna like leap in and rescue me. That’s not how life works. And they needed to be able to learn this on a small scale before the stakes were quite so high.

Like I said, natural consequences are a very much a fact of life, and in my opinion, we need to give our kids the gift of being able to learn these baby steps from a young age. So this is not a thing you’ve done, which wasn’t for me in the beginning. I kind of tried to develop a system for implementing this without creating mutiny, because if your kids aren’t used to doing all this stuff on their own and then one day you just decide they’re gonna do everything on their own, you might have mutiny in your house.

So, when I decided to stop doing things they could do on their own, I realized it wasn’t gonna happen overnight and there was probably going to be some resistance. I thought about like…during this phase, there’s a quote I saw on Pinterest that said “Some moms run a tight ship. I run a pirate ship. There’s some swearing, some drinking and a touch of mutiny from the crew I created.” And I was trying to minimize the mutiny, but I needed a process for making the transition easier. And I created a system for this. I’ll put a link to a post with more detail in the show notes. But it was a four check handoff that was really helpful in handing things off to them, making sure they were prepared to actually do it. So in order for this method to work, I had to give them the skills to be able to actually be effective at the thing I was requiring them to do, so I wasn’t just giving them failure right off the bat.

So the four steps were, first was do it for them, and I had already done that. I was pretty good at it. But I let them watch, and I had them do…like watch me do it at first, and I explained the process. Second, I would do it with them. So, we would work on it together, and they could learn and they could ask questions. Third, I would oversee them. So the first couple of times, they unloaded the dishwasher, or they vacuumed. I would stay close and watch them, and they could ask questions, and I would give them constructive feedback. And then once they had been through those steps, I let it go. So they had a plan, they knew what the task was, and it became their responsibility. And I would still check in occasionally to make sure they were doing it well, but through that, I was able to hand off a lot of household tasks and let go of the guilt of feeling like I was solely responsible for managing the house and let them really actually become part of that process as well.

Number 13. Let go of perfection. Again, easier said than done. But one of the main reasons I was holding on to doing everything is I thought I was better at it, and I didn’t want it to be done the wrong way. And it took some self-reflection and realizing that it was better to have things get done even imperfectly through shared responsibility and through teaching my kids valuable life skills than to do it myself and be stressed all the time and be a resentful mom or a stressed-out mom or a tired mom but with kids who were dressed perfectly and like didn’t have to do anything.

I learned this in business years ago actually the hard way because I was a control freak, and I say that I’m a recovering control freak and recovering perfectionist. But I went through a phase of hiring people and not letting them do anything because I thought I could do it better, and I had to learn the hard way in business that everything got much more amazing and less stressful when I started actually integrating my team for what I hired them. So when I realized I could do each of these tasks better on my own, I certainly couldn’t do all of them better if I was doing everything. That’s the case in business, and that’s certainly the case in…at home as well.

The same was true at home. I could definitely do each task better than my child could, at least at first, but at the expense of them having a calm and happy mom and at the expense of them learning independence. So, yes, a few pieces of clothing were ruined in the making of this process with some stains, but long term, this was so worth it. And I now have extremely capable kids who are extremely self-sufficient. And a lot of people who I know in real life mention this all the time, how incredibly self-sufficient my kids are, which was my goal. And that way, things around the house are getting done.

And when I spend time with my kids, I am much more calm and present. They’re much more calm and present and we get to actually nurture that relationship versus me constantly running around my head chopped off doing everything. But this also meant learning to give practical feedback on the process and telling them I was proud of them for working hard, always praising the effort, and then giving constructive feedback so they could get better and better over time.

I’ve read a lot of business books about this, kind of the idea of growth mindset and so some just practical tips that helped with this for me for getting them to want to be motivated and actually to do these things and to give feedback without hurting their feelings is to focus on a long-term positive mindset. I didn’t expect or want them to get it all right all right away. The point is to get better step-by-step. So finding the things that they did good, finding and complimenting the effort and what that was and then giving baby steps to get better each time. And that was built into our team culture and our family of constant improvement. And that way, they wouldn’t take it personally or feel like I was nagging them when I gave feedback. And also we add the word “yet.”

So when they are learning something and they’re not good at it, or I do this too when I’m learning a new skill and I’m not good at it, any time we say we’re not good at something, we always add the word “yet” at the end of the sentence, leaving the thing open that we’re going to get better at it. And also reminding my kids that when something is hard, that is the feeling of a skill…of growing, of getting better, that that resistance is often the friction leading to a positive change, so not avoiding things when things get hard, and just always like phrasing these things as areas of growth versus things that they had to do.

Tip number 14. Cultivate unstructured play and stop entertaining. And this is another area that I had to learn to make some major changes in. I think modern moms, we feel the pressure to structure and oversee every moment of our kids’ lives, and I know I did. When my kids were younger, it was a big source of stress for a long time. I didn’t actually even know where this feeling was coming from, but I felt like I should be entertaining them, playing with them, and making sure they were interacted with every moment of every day.

Everything I’ve talked about over the years, this is now one of the topics that I feel the most strongly about because I think the way we are protecting our kids is actually doing them a severe disservice in life. And the stress of that is really hard on us parents as well. So, I would kind of posit these points that are important to remember because I think unstructured play outside is one of the best things we can do for the kids. And I’ve had guests on this podcast who talked about that from a vestibular and limbic system perspective, how they need it to develop risk tolerance and to know their boundaries and also even just that outdoor like movement and running and climbing and how that develops the brain. And a lot of parents still have resistance to that. So there’s a few important points to know about this.

Statistically and drastically, the world is safer than when we were kids. We had this idea because of the news cycle and constant negativity everywhere that the world is not that safe, but the world is statistically safer than when we were kids. Secondly, supervising kids at all times does not necessarily keep them safe either. Kids can have bad things happen even when we’re watching them. Number three, there are long-term negative consequences to over structuring and overprotecting, and we are starting to see the results of this in the generation that’s now reaching adulthood. And psychiatrists are worried about this. And four, these over structured, hectic schedules are actually damaging. It can be damaging to families and create more problems. And I’ve talked about the stress of those for moms in other parts of this podcast.

So when I talk about the world being safer, I’m not just talking about that kids are less likely to die of childhood illness from previous centuries because I think that’s the default. People try to think, “Well, yeah, the world is safer because medicine’s gotten better so kids are less likely to die from all-cause mortality.” And that is somewhat true, but it is statistically also safer for kids today than it ever has been in recorded history. Kids are less likely to die or be kidnapped by…die in an accident or be kidnapped than they ever have before. So despite the fear-mongering in the media, children are less likely to be abducted, harmed, or murdered than ever before. Not only that but kids need unstructured, free play outside for vital aspects of their development.

As I mentioned earlier in this podcast, we won’t always be there to protect our kids nor should we be. And I’ve talked to a lot of friends who are teachers, all the way from grade school through college professors, and they’re saying kids are increasingly unable to solve simple problems on their own because parents intervene for everything from grades to discipline problems in school because the stakes feel so high now. And parents are even intervening in like small children having just disputes outside when they’re playing, but the result psychologically is a generation of children who still basically need their parents to decorate their dorm room or manage their life or pay their bills. And personally, I don’t want six grown-ups who’s needing me to do all that for their entire lives.

I totally get that we wanna keep our kids safe and protected, but there’s a point when we have to start letting go of some of these things for their health. So thinking about this, there’s extremely tiny chance that something bad’s gonna happen to our children if they’re playing outside. In fact, statistically, if I’m remembering off the top of my head, I think that the number was like kids would have to play outside by themselves in our front yard for 750,000 years on average to actually get kidnapped. That’s how rare it is. But on the converse of that, there’s a 0% chance of children developing any street smarts by sitting on the couch watching TV. Kids aren’t learning problem-solving or creativity by being protected from uncomfortable situations or having their conflicts solved for them.

And so like I look at this, again, a little bit mathematically of like…the pros and the cons and also mathematically, which is the risk-benefit? Where do the numbers fall? We know that kids are on technology more and more, much more so than make sure they’re playing on screens more than they ever have, and they’re spending more time inside than they ever have. In fact, even in one generation, statistically, kids today spend less than half the time outside than I did as kids, and we spent more time…less time outside than our parents did. Kids also spend over 50% of their time more looking at screens than they do playing outside.

So, strictly logically, I think this is important because sitting and watching a screen is a sedentary activity. We know childhood obesity is on the rise. But eye doctors, I’ve interviewed a couple, are seeing vision problems in children at very young ages because of staring at screens for too long. And the blue light of screens are affecting our kids’ brains and circadian rhythms, but yet a lot of parents feel it’s safer to let our kids watch TV or be on their iPad than to climb a tree or ride a bike, even though climbing a tree, riding a bike, those actually both are important things for developing their right-brain, left-brain for their vestibular system. I did a podcast with Carol of Brain Harmony actually a couple if you wanna check those out of why those things are so important.

Also, I often hear the thing about what about kids and sex trafficking. Just statistically, kids are actually way more likely to be targeted on social media and then later abducted than they are to be grabbed by a random stranger on the street. So this is our area of concern. We actually should be keeping them safe online or keeping them off of technology and not worrying about them playing in the backyard. Kids being outside actually serves also a much more important purpose than just them running around and reducing the risk of obesity, which is huge, but they’re getting fresh air.

So, I’ve talked about before how indoor air is often hundreds of times more polluted than the outdoor air. So being outside is a great way for them to get some clean air. Also, just a few minutes outside every day, kids can get the vitamin D they need for many aspects of help that is statistically tied to reduced cancer risk, to decreased mental health problems, to absorption of other vitamins, to better sleep. It’s really super important. Also, them being outside, they’re exposed to natural light. Outdoor light is so much brighter than inner light. I mentioned this with why I go outside in the morning every morning, but daytime light exposure, especially in the morning, helps regulate hormones, cortisol, and circadian rhythm. And there are studies especially on children that this can really improve sleep. So our kids need to be outside for the light.

Also, for the sensory input. So I mentioned Carol from Brain Harmony. She’s an occupational therapist, who is helping correct a lot of these problems in kids. And she mentions how important like all the normal outside activities are for babies in a lot of ways. So we keep babies upright from the very beginning in high chairs, cribs, playpens. They’re not rolling around, moving around. They’re not developing their vestibular system like they should be. They’re not outside playing in the dirt, so they’re not getting the microbial or the sensory input from the grass or from crawling or from falling down, which is actually a very important part of brain development. And what they’re seeing over time is that when kids don’t get these inputs, they get more anxiety, they’re less creative, and they have more problems as older kids when they don’t do these things.

So, the lack of vestibular system development is also leading kids to be clumsier, not have as much balance and maybe tied to sensory issues. So, all that to say kids need unstructured play, and they need it outside. And I also think it needs to be unsupervised when it can be. Here’s why. So, like I said, we’re not letting kids have control of their own lives and figure out how to navigate these things psychologically. Think about when you were a kid, the things that pushed you just beyond your comfort zone, when you were super scared of taking that job or you were climbing a tree and it got scarier. You didn’t think you could do it, and then you did, or the first time you rode a bike or climbed a rope or whatever it was. That’s an important feeling of accomplishment for kids, and it teaches them to tackle bigger goals. But we’re protecting kids from having these experiences, which makes them more afraid to tackle bigger things later in life.

And another benefit of that unstructured play is that we’re not there to rescue them every time they get their feelings hurt. And I know this is hard. As a parent, it’s so hard to see your kids get their feelings hurt. None of them like to see them feel bad but they learn so much from these experiences. And in having their feelings hurt or having rough interactions with other kids their age, they learn important lessons like, “Not everyone in the world has the same opinion as me, but I can still get along with people who have a different opinion than I do.” And we’ve probably all met adults who might need to learn that lesson too. They learn things like, “If I’m mean to other kids, they won’t wanna play with me. And also they don’t have to play with me.” And that’s an important thing that kids need to understand when the stakes are small, kids, before they’re in a job setting, and they’re not getting along with coworkers or their boss, they learn things like, “I don’t always get to play what I want or choose the activity all the time,” that group activities require compromise. Again, another huge life skill as an adult and they learn things like that.

Relationships require the ability to work through conflict and to find compromise and that it’s worth it. But when we jump in and we facilitate this kind of intensive mediation for every minor infraction, like talk about our feelings and work them through it, they don’t get to figure out how to work those things through on their own. So, I think our overabundance of extracurricular activities and our over-involvement with our kids take away these important things that are needed for childhood development. So that’s why I’m a huge fan of unstructured outdoor playtime for kids, and I know that it can be hard.

This is one of the things I prioritize the most in life, and like we actually ended up not building a house we really wanted to build because we had an environment where our kids had this. And that was so important to us. And having this leads to healthier and happier kids, and like I’ve mentioned all these psychological benefits of doing that. It’s also great for moms because then we are free of feeling like we need to entertain them at all times. We’re not being bad moms by letting them play outside on their own. That’s actually very, very important for them, and they will learn. Like, my kids build forts. They’ve worked through things with friends. They’ve created all these games. They play outside constantly. They’re getting exercise. They’re getting all the benefits of outdoor play, and they’re getting the social benefits of working through those things. It’s a little bit of a rant on the soapbox there.

Tip number 15. Master your work life. Again, this is another tough area, and it’s so different for each of us. So I’m just gonna share some kind of broad, general strategies from my own experience. My work life is extremely probably abnormal. I don’t think anything’s gonna be directly applicable, so I’m just gonna share some generalities. As a mom, though, I’ve never liked this idea of work-life balance because there’s often no separation. Even at work, we’re still thinking about our kids. Even when we’re home, we know that there’s stuff we need to do at work. We are inherent multitaskers. So, balance is not just a moving target. It’s more of a complete myth for moms.

I prefer to think of it work-life integration because we have to operate so many systems at once, all the gears need to turn in the same direction at the same time to keep things moving forward. So, I analyze work in the same type of way that I analyze home stuff, and I make sure that they all integrate well. Me personally, I work from home most days, but I also homeschool and run the household. And though I’m grateful to have grandparents close by who help with school and have an assistant who helps with some business stuff, a lot of it is still up to me. And I realized that as humans, we will fill whatever time slot we give ourselves. So since I had the freedom to largely set my schedule, I had to keep this in mind and plan as such.

I realized that I realistically only had about two to three hours a day of real work time and that I was more effective, much more effective when that time was uninterrupted in a block together. So I started scheduling this when I knew that my kids could be occupied with other tasks like school or when they’re outside playing, and I only tackle the most important work stuff during that time. So in other words, when I only have two hours to get stuff done, I can get the same amount that I used to get done in eight hours done because I’m not checking email. I’m not on social media. I’m doing the most effective things that I have to do first.

I also batch whenever possible. So there are things on my list, like, again, my work schedule’s not normal, but like podcast recording and writing, I will often stick to one type of activity like that per day and then batch it. So I will record several podcasts in a row or do a writing day. That way my brain can stay on task and tackle those tasks better. I have employed a lot of the strategies above that I talked about in this podcast to make time for work by systematizing stuff I had to get done at home, by making sure my kids had time to play outside or stuff to work on so that I could be uninterrupted the rest of the time.

But like I said, my work is pretty unusual. I don’t have a normal job with set hours. So, I’m not sure my specific system would be helpful, but a couple things that I think are universally applicable would be only check email at certain times. Don’t even have it notify you the rest of the time and handling all of them at once. So I have short 20 minutes segments when I check email and Slack, and I don’t check it the rest of the time. I also think it’s really beneficial to have systems and standard operating procedures for everything, both at home and at work. This way I can delegate when needed, and it takes all the memory and stress out of it.

And then tip number 16 is to master your mind. And this may be the toughest step, but for me, this has been…it’s made the biggest difference. It took the longest and I’m still very much a work in progress. But you might have heard that joking quote online, “It’s like no one even appreciates that I stayed up all night worrying about them.” But the mom guilt is real, and the worry is real. And I think this is something that all of us face to some degree. This was also the last one I was able to tackle effectively. My house was managed, we had systems, we had minimized, I had systems for my kitchen, for work, but cleaning out my mind was the toughest step in it. Like I said, it’s still a work in progress.

To me, it goes back to the quote from Seneca, “There’s only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of our will.” And there’s a lot in that one sentence. It’s easy to say, it’s incredibly tough to do, but it’s also so freeing if you can do it. And it’s definitely not a change you can make overnight. In this one I had like over time, it took me probably a year before I actually noticed a really drastic change in this.

It’s actually easier to think of the things that are in our control than to list the things that are not in our control. And if we boil it down, the only thing we really have control over is our own character and our own response to things that happen. We can’t control anything else. There’s another quote from Epictetus, who I think this also really applies to moms, is that man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.

And this idea that we only are in charge of our own reactions and our own will is wonderful because it gives us control. But it’s also a big responsibility when we realize that all emotions and all stress comes from within because it’s so easy to wanna look for an outside source to blame. But outside forces don’t and can’t control our feelings. So knowing this releases us from a lot of stress when we pay attention to it and manage it. We can’t control how others feel about us. So we have to learn how to let that go. We can’t control the actions of others, even our kids. So we have to let that go. We can’t control or change the past. So we have to let that go.

We can’t control or change the weather or the possibility of some horrific event or any other outside factor. All we can control are our own thoughts and emotions, and we can gain incredible freedom when we really focus on that. Again, I get it, easier said than done. Like I said, this took the longest, but some practical things that really helped me.

Every single day, focusing on gratitude. So I love to start each day thinking of things I am grateful for, and I think, in general, gratitude is the antidote to a lot of worry and stress. And so I actually make a list of these things either in my phone or in a journal, just jotting down a few things over time that’s helped my brain switch into looking for the good versus looking for the negative. And once your brain makes that switch, all of this gets so much easier.

I think it’s also important to find the things that reduce stress physically because when we’re under physical stress, mentally, we stress much more as well. Like the things I’ve talked about earlier in this podcast, when I was able to optimize exercise and sleep and supplements, that made a difference for my mindset as well.

Also, learning to distinguish the difference between problem-solving and worrying. So I started paying attention and asking myself if a certain thought pattern was productive and was gonna lead to a good outcome which is problem-solving or if I was just worrying. And if I was just worrying and this thought process was not gonna actually lead to solving the problem, then I would interrupt it. I would do something that I needed to do to change it to stop that train of thought. I would either read something else to change my thoughts, go move, go outside, and come back with a fresh perspective. That way I wasn’t wasting mental energy if I wasn’t gonna solve a problem and it was just gonna make me stressed.

And then I also learned to do something called fear-setting, which Tim Ferriss talks about, and then let go. So rather than worry about all the bad things that could happen, I would actually think them through to their worst-case scenario and then think about what would happen if I had to face that. So, in many cases, the worst-case scenario wasn’t actually that bad, and I would be able to manage it just fine. And certainly, there are things that would be like much more difficult and seem unsurmountable like the loss of a loved one or some kind of huge disaster. But I knew I couldn’t control those things and that worrying about them wasn’t going to stop them from happening.

So I went back to focusing on gratitude and being present with the people I loved in the moment. Like I said, this is still a daily work in progress for me, but over time, my mindset has so much shifted from focusing on the negative to trying to focus on the positive. And I’m able to let go of the things that are not in my control, and I’m so much less mentally stressed.

And then lastly, tip number 17. All of this points toward finding your own way and taking baby steps. And if I’ve learned one thing in the last 13 years of motherhood and in this process, it’s that what works for one person won’t always work the same for another. It took me years to find my own versions of all of these things. And I’ve shared specifics in the hopes that they will help you. But at the end of the day, we each have to create our own systems based on our own schedules, our own lives, and things that would work.

So I would say based on my experience, start with small, little baby steps that are manageable and that you know you can integrate over time and integrate them before you add more things on. So rather than try to overhaul your entire life in one day, start with you find those 80/20, find the 20% most effective and start there. Make sure that you’re getting enough sleep. If meals and food is a big stress, start with that. If it’s laundry, figure out the thing that’s gonna take away the most stress from you and start there.

I also think, and you hear me say this all the time, but that community is a huge aspect of any change. So find a group of friends or support and have that. That’ll help your mental state, that’ll help your stress level, and that will also help you stick to this if you have accountability. I’ve heard it said that we are the sum of the five people we spend the most time with. So I think we need to choose these people wisely and then nurture relationships that help us become better and that we can help them become better as well. So I hope that some of the things in that were helpful.

As always, thank you for listening. If you have any follow-up questions, please post them in the show notes. That’s always at wellnessmama.fm. I will try to answer them. And this is a topic I’m going to be writing about more and more and talking about more on this podcast. So if you enjoyed, just leave questions there, and I will try to address any follow up ones in future episodes. Also, if you enjoyed this episode or any episode, I would be very grateful if you would leave an honest rating or review in whatever app you use to listen, whether that’s iTunes, Spotify, etc. This helps others to find the podcast and it helps with rankings. But as always, thank you so much for listening, for sharing your time with me today, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/time-saving-systems/

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

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310: Can Our Soils Heal Us? How Regenerative Agriculture and Home Gardens Can Improve Our Health

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/310-can-our-soils-heal-us-how-regenerative-agriculture-and-home-gardens-can-improve-our-health/

310: Can Our Soils Heal Us? How Regenerative Agriculture and Home Gardens Can Improve Our Health

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this episode is all about regenerative agriculture and actually how that translates even to a home garden, and how by using certain principles, you can make your home garden easier, less upkeep, and create more nutrient-dense food in your own yard.

I’m here with Leah Webb who has worked in nutrition and gardening since 2009 with a focus on engaging children in healthy eating habits, their experiential learning and discovery. She lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband and two children. And her son has severe food allergies, and her daughter has cystic fibrosis which is a genetic disease impacting the lungs and the pancreas.

And she’s used diet and homegrown organic foods as part of her integrative approach to caring for her children. She’s the author of the grain-free, sugar-free, dairy-free family cookbook which is a comprehensive guide for families interested in gracefully implementing a whole foods diet.

And in this episode, we go deep about how you can implement some of these principles easily in your own home garden, even if you’re limited on space. I know that you’re gonna enjoy this episode as much as I did. So without further ado, let’s join Leah. Leah, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Leah: Hey, thanks for having me, Katie.

Katie: I’m so excited for this conversation because I think it’s a really timely and important one and one that’s really beneficial to us especially as moms. So, to start with, can you talk a little bit about why you started placing such a high emphasis on cooking from scratch and growing as much of your own food as possible?

Leah: Yeah. So, like you mentioned, as moms, food can be a really important piece of raising healthy kids. And for me, that took on this whole new meaning after becoming mom. I have a Master’s of Public Health and I’ve worked in health for a long time. But then, when I had my two kids, my son was born with severe food allergies and asthma, and then my daughter was born with cystic fibrosis, which is a genetic disease that impacts the lungs and pancreas. And so, here I was this healthy individual who’d spent a lot of time focusing on my own health and the health of others, I mean, doing workshops, and reaching out to different groups, and then here I was, all of a sudden, facing these medical challenges in my own household.

And so, I turned to food as a way I that could help support my kids in a better way. So this isn’t the only way that I support them, but food is just one piece of their integrative care. And so, in order to best support them, what I found is that I really needed to be cooking more foods from scratch. I really needed to be in control of the ingredient list that was going into their bodies. And then when I got more into this and developed a deeper understanding of food and our food systems, what I started to realize was that there’s also a lot behind how those foods are actually grown and the quality of the product as a result of those growing methods.

So, I have always gardened. My mom was a gardener, her mother was a gardener. So this is something that’s been passed down for generations in my household. But it started to take on a new meaning as it wasn’t just a hobby, and it wasn’t just something to do outside, it wasn’t just a way to offset our food budget, but it was also this way to take control of the quality of the foods that I was feeding to my kids. And so, now I have…I’m not exactly sure of how many square feet of growing space that I have, but it’s somewhere around 2,000 square feet. And I do a lot of perennials, fruit trees, and then I also have a lot of annuals that I grow as well. We’ve got 12 laying hens. So, being able to supply my family with these foods is just another piece that I’m using to help support their health.

Katie: That makes perfect sense. And I think that’s something that I think people are finally starting to really understand and there’s been more information that’s come out about this. But to highlight what you just said about kind of not all food being created equal. In other words, like a zucchini we grow at home could be vastly different from a zucchini from the store, for instance. And I know you’ve read some of those stats. But we’re talking about pretty dramatic differences, right, in like nutrient depletion with a lot of commercial farming?

Leah: Yes. And that’s a really interesting topic because I think that one of the things that we’re absolutely sure of is that meats have a very different nutritional profile. When you’re looking at meats that were conventionally raised on this confined animal feeding operations, they are fed grain, compared to animals that have access to pasture. And so, the nutritional profile for this meat, it’s very clear that pasture-raised meats have a better nutritional profile. What’s not quite as clear is whether or not vegetables that are grown using these different methods whether or not that does have an impact. And the reason that I say that is because…so, the USCA did release a report saying that 43 different fruits and vegetables had been shown to have lower nutritional value over the past few decades compared to the way that they used to be grown.

The exact reason for this isn’t widely agreed upon. So, some people say it’s because of depletion of soils, the way that we’re farming, we are losing topsoil, we’re using this heavy synthetic chemical fertilizers. But then, some of the arguments as well is that we’re choosing varieties based on production and yield, and their ability to be transported rather than choosing varieties that are chosen for taste. So, for example, if you’re talking about the zucchinis, zucchinis are actually a really tender vegetable. So, in order to transport these foods for thousands of miles to reach your plate to be transported, and then be bumped around in the grocery store, and then make it back to your house, they have to choose a variety that’s gonna have a thicker skin. And so, some of our variety selection has really only focused on yield and our ability to transport rather than focusing on these other points.

But I do think that some of our need to understand this isn’t even quite necessary. So, if you look at nutritionism, this is basically how we break foods down into their parts. So, when we think about the nutritional value of foods, we’re thinking about the fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. But we also know that plants have phytonutrients and phytochemicals that can do things like they’re antioxidants and they can be anti-carcinogens. And we don’t understand what all of those compounds do. I think this is really a newer area of study. We also can’t even identify what a lot of these compounds are. I mean, plants are manufacturing thousands of compounds and we’ve only identified a fraction of them.

So, one thing that is possible, this is one of the theories, is that plants that are grown in healthy soils are in contact with this healthy microbial population that is enabling them to produce this diversity of phytochemicals and phytonutrients. And so, when you have healthier soils, you likely have a healthier plant. So, I think that we do have this tendency to break our foods down into these parts that we understand. Yet there is this bigger picture point that whole foods have a holistic impact on the body that might not necessarily be understood.

Katie: Yeah. I think that’s such an important point, and that makes so much sense. I’m so glad that we are talking about things like the soil microbiome now. And where we used to live in a farming area, I saw firsthand in our community how a lot of conventional farming happened. Especially the rotation of corn, wheat, and soybeans and how they literally kept spraying and depleting and spraying and depleting. And that soil was completely dead.

The difference between that soil and the soil in our garden, it was just really, really dramatic. And I think that’s a missing piece that I’m so glad it’s coming more to the mainstream and that we’re talking about. And when we are looking at these different methods of farming or even just gardening, I know the term regenerative agriculture has become really like a buzz phrase right now. And so, I wanna go deep a little bit on regenerative agriculture and what that means, and what’s involved, and if there are differences between that, for instance, and just organic farming. Why are we hearing more about regenerative agriculture right now?

Leah: I think the regenerative agriculture movement is just the coolest thing. Because I think for so long, we were focusing on sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture. And the principle behind sustainable is that it sustains itself. That this is a way we can farm and preserve the quality of our soils for decades to come. But the problem is that we have depleted the majority of our soils so badly that we actually need to regenerate the health of the soil. And that’s where regenerative farming comes in.

And so, there are five principles in regenerative farming. These are that you are minimizing the soil disturbance, you’re maximizing your crop diversity, you keep the soil covered and that means year-round, which is number four, maintaining your living roots year-round, and then integrating livestock. And if you think about it from an ecological perspective, basically, what regenerative agriculture is doing is they are taking these existing functions of the soil and ecosystems and using them to our benefit. So, what you’re talking about is, when you see these conventional fields that are generally they are using monocrops, so they’re planting the same things again, and again, and again. And what happens with that is that these crops are only utilizing a small range of nutrients that are available in that soil. And so, over time, that small range gets depleted.

But if you’re using regenerative agriculture, you’re going to be maximizing that crop diversity. You’re gonna be using more than one species of crop when you use your cover crops. So, instead of just using like soybeans or alfalfa, maybe you’re using a mix of 12 different things. By not tilling those soils and disturbing those soils, you’re allowing the natural population of microbes of those nematodes and fungi, all of these below-ground organisms that give soil its structure and its health, you’re leaving those systems undisturbed which means that the soil becomes healthier over time. You’re using the natural processes that already exist in order to improve the quality of that soil.

So, regenerative is a form of agriculture or is a form of organic agriculture. But I think it’s taking it one step further. So, with organic, you’re only using organic-certified pesticides, and then you are trying to minimally disturb the soil. But regenerative is going one step further and saying, you know, “Let’s not just sustain this over time, but let’s actually improve these soils and improve our methods of organic farming so that we can have even better soil down the road.”

Katie: That makes sense and that’s an interesting point about tilling. I wanna talk about that a little bit more because that’s something that even home gardeners just do as part of the process. And I think even for home gardeners which, in general, I think home gardens fulfill a lot more of those ideas than conventional farming. But something that maybe even a lot of home gardeners still do. So for people who are, like, hearing that wondering is it possible to maintain good soil quality and also not to have tons of weeds if you don’t till?

Leah: Yes. This is a point of a lot of confusion, and I have been running my own garden and then managing some gardens as well. I managed a learning garden when I was getting my Master’s of Public Health at Georgia Southern University. And so, I have been doing gardening for like two decades. And I took my first class discussing no-till in the home garden probably 10 years ago. And the concept seemed so foreign and so inefficient that I kind of ignored it for a while and then finally committed at some point and realized that when you stop tilling, the benefits are just tremendous.

And when I’m saying no-till, I don’t do anything to my soils anymore other than I have a tool called a broadfork which is a large digging spade where you can insert it into the soil and you just barely crack the surface. You are not trying to actually turn the soil, but you’re just cracking the surface to aerate it. And so, this is the only disturbance that I’m doing to my soils. And what ends up happening is that as long as you’re not compacting it, so I am careful to create walkways and those are my only walkways, I’m not stepping into my beds because I do want to let that soil stay fluffy.

I’m only using this broadfork to aerate the soil and not actually disturb it. And then what happens is those fungal communities remain intact, all of the nematodes that are underneath the soil, their housing structures remain intact. And the other amazing thing that happened is I have very few weeds as a result. A lot of weed seeds will kind of work their way into the soil, and then when you turn your soil you’re actually turning those weed seeds up. And this was the most surprising benefit to not tilling my soils anymore, was that I have drastically reduced the amount of weeding that I’m doing.

And some of the way that I’m cutting back on that as well, is I’m using different types of mulches. So, you can use compost as a mulch, you can use different types of straw or hay. You just wanna guarantee that those things are not sprayed with an herbicide. If you do, those herbicides can live in your soil for up to three years and they can make it to where you actually can’t grow certain things in that area anymore.

I also use living mulches, things like I’ll plant clover underneath taller plants like tomatoes. You don’t want your tomato plants, you don’t want those lower leaves touching the ground. And so, I stake them and then I use the space below the tomatoes where I can put in a cover crop that I can keep trimmed. And so, that’s a way to protect the soil too. Yeah. These regenerative practices, they seem counterintuitive simply because we’ve been tilling for thousands of years. But what we’re seeing is that there are ways to work with the soil that can encourage equally as productive soil.

The other thing that I think is worth mentioning is a lot of people talk about clay and how you really need to break the clay up. And I live in an area where we have pretty old soils. I live in Western North Carolina, we have some of the oldest mountains in the United States and we have a lot of clay as a result. And so, what I do with my soils in order to improve the quality of them is that, you know, I’m sheet mulching with things like cardboard, and dried leaves, dead sticks, compost, all of these things are building this layer of topsoil on top of the existing clay.

But then I’m using cover crops like daikon radishes that will grow really deep into the soil and they’ll grow through that clay. And as that dies, it creates this hole where you now have room for water infiltration and then you have this organic matter from the dying root of the plant that’s now starting to make its way deeper into the soil. So, I think that there are interesting solutions to amending whatever type of soil you have using these regenerative practices.

Katie: That’s so fascinating. And I love that you brought up the fungal communities as well in the soil because this has been a research topic for me recently, just different types of fungus in general and how we interact with those, and how they’re so much more a part of our environment in our lives than we would ever really realize without researching it. And I love your tip about using compost as a mulch. So, in other words, you’re still adding nutrients to the soil, you’re just not having to till them in essentially. Is that right?

Leah: Yeah, that’s exactly correct. So, I add compost every single year. And I think this is a place where people get a little bit messed up with their gardens is that you have to remember you’re growing something there, and you’re harvesting it, and you’re eating it. And then our waste management system is one that that waste, the human waste is then going out of the system. It’s not going back into your garden for a variety of reasons. That would have to be managed very differently, obviously.

And so, you’re pulling these nutrients out that aren’t being replenished. And so, it’s really important that as a gardener that you replenish those nutrients every single year. I know some people do it twice a year. I really just do it once a year. And yeah, it doesn’t seem like it would work, but you just put a couple of inches of that compost directly on top of the soil and you can actually seed directly into that. And so, that can either act as your mulch. I mean, I do use compost as a mulch, or I use some of those other things that I mentioned. But adding those nutrients every single year is an important piece of having successful gardening.

The other thing, these cover crops are really important as well. Because you do have nutrients that lie pretty deep within the soil layers, and in order to access them really the best way to do it is by using these different groups. So borage, and comfrey, and daikon radishes, these are all plants that do have deeper root systems that are good at harvesting these minerals, so they can pull those nutrients up. And then the plants themselves are using the sun and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to assimilate plant tissue. So, that’s where you’re getting your sources of carbon.

If you think about the function of carbon in the soil, carbon is a structure that holds onto things really well. And so, without the addition of carbon, you have nothing to hold on to these vitamins and minerals that are existing within your soil. So, by using these cover crops, for one what you’re doing is, you’re adding a source of carbon. The other thing that you’re doing is you’re using cover crops that can harvest those nutrients from deep within the soil layers. And then if you use cover crops that are nitrogen-fixers like clover, they will make these microbial associations, they’ll make these mycorrhiza associations with fungi, and these fungi are capable of fixing the nitrogen that’s available in the atmosphere and turning it into a readily available form that can be then used by your plants.

Katie: That makes sense and that’s so fascinating. And I would guess also a whole lot less work to be able to use those cover crops versus constantly weeding. You don’t have to water as much either, right, if you have this cover crops to hold in the moisture as well?

Leah: Yeah, that’s exactly correct. I mean, they serve all of these different benefits. The one thing that I have learned that is a little bit challenging for home gardens when you are using cover crops and you’re not tilling, is that it is a better idea to stay away from the grasses. If you’re looking for a beginner cover crop to just try out in your garden, I would say try buckwheat. And the reason for that is that it’s a really quick grower, and it’s about six weeks it’ll be ready for harvest. And the way that you harvest it or the way that I’m harvesting it is I wait till it’s in full bloom. I don’t want it to go to seed. If I let it go to seed then I’m putting weed seeds into my soil. But I do wait till it’s in full bloom, and then I’m just going to weed it down and all of that plant matter is just gonna fall onto the surface and this can, A, either be used as a form of mulch because it basically dries into a hay-like substance, or yeah, you can just leave it and then eventually it’s just gonna decompose and add more carbon to the soil.

But I leave those roots under the ground. So, they will help to keep the soil in place even when something might not necessarily be growing there. And so, yeah, when you leave the soil alone it has better water storage capacity as well because you have a lot of air pockets that exist throughout your soil and that’s where that water is going to be held tightly and is going to be held in a way that’s available for plant uptake. I mean, there’s differences in the way that water can be stored in the ground. I mean, for example, clay stores water so tightly, it’s not necessarily available for plant uptake. But when you use these cover crops and you leave your soils undisturbed, those porous areas where water can be stored, they seem to create themselves and have a better result long-term in the water-storing capacity of your soils.

Katie: Got it. And to circle back on the regenerative side a little bit more, so I feel like there’s been conversation about this related to climate change, and certainly, that’s a controversial topic right now in general whether we should eat animals, should we not eat animals, do they hurt or help the environment? And I think that could be debated in many podcasts all on its own. But I love your approach to this because you take a more holistic position and talk about it from the practical side that we can we actually, I feel like, all implement in that the change in agriculture could also help address things like environmental health issues and also our own health issues. And I think that’s the part that actually puts us in control for our own families. So, let’s talk about why scientists are interested in the regenerative agriculture side as a solution not just to climate change, but for some of the other benefits that aren’t really at the forefront of the conversation.

Leah: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, when you look at climate change, there are a number of sources that have been identified as most problematic and greatest contributors to greenhouse gases. And agriculture is one of the sectors that is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gases. But the interesting thing is that it has also been identified as one of the best solutions to reversing climate change and actually drawing some of these gases out of the atmosphere, so not just carbon but nitrogen as well.

So when plants are photosynthesizing, when they are taking the energy from the sun and turning it into usable forms of energy and turning it into plant tissues, we think that, you know, you look at this plant and you see, “Okay. Well, this is all carbon, this plant is made of carbon so this is all the carbon that this plant is pulling out of the atmosphere.” But the reality is that plants are also pumping photosynthate in the form of carbon molecules into the soil. So, depending on the plant, they can pump anywhere from 40% to 80% of their photosynthate directly into the soil because they are trying to feed that microbial population below the ground.

And so, when you just think of the above-ground biomass as the carbon source from these plants, we are kind of discrediting the incredible potential for plants to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. And so, that’s why people are talking about regenerative farming as a way to not just stop and halt climate change, but to actually reverse it by drawing these gases out of the atmosphere and storing them back in the soil where they’re supposed to be. So, there is a book written by or edited by Paul Hawken called “Drawdown,” and he has identified the top 100 solutions for climate change and 8 of those top 20 are related to agriculture. And so, there’s immense potential for the way that we grow food to not just stop climate change, but to also even try to mitigate some of those problems.

But the way that I see this is that we have a tendency to break these issues down into their parts. But if you look at, like you mentioned, I mean, we have all of these different issues, so we have…you know, we’re facing a public health crisis right now. We have 6 in 10 adults that have a chronic disease, 4 in 10 adults have 2 or more chronic diseases. 46% of children have a chronic disease. And if you look at the risk factors that influence the development of preventable disease, you find that it boils down to four risk factors. And the number one risk factor is now diet, it has ‘s now surpassed smoking. Those other two are gonna be excessive alcohol consumption and lack of exercise.

So, these are largely preventable diseases that we’re talking about that the majority of people are suffering from, and diet is the key. So, when you’re thinking about the way we can grow foods, we can also address these health issues. We can get people healthier foods that will improve their health and not just improve the health of the environment. Some of the benefits that I’ve seen as a mother to having a garden at my home is that it also encourages healthy eating in my kids. I mean, this is such a prevalent issue in today’s society is that we have such a hard time with eating and trying to get our kids interested in eating some of these healthier foods. But I found that when you maintain a vegetable garden, it’s kind of this mind-blowing really interesting thing to have kids watch the seed turn into an edible product. And they automatically are more interested in it.

And that’s what I saw when I managed the learning garden in Georgia is that we had groups of kids who were arguing over who got to eat the raw brussels sprouts, which this isn’t an argument that most people are having their homes. But it’s because those kids were involved in that process and they got to see the process of seed to table and they were actually invested and involved in it.

The other thing that happens, I mean, I don’t know how much you know about the nature deficit, I mean, but they estimate that kids on average are only spending about 7 minutes a day outside engaged in unstructured play. And one of the benefits to having a garden is that it forces us outside more often than we would be normally. So, for example, we just had a lot of rain the last few days but I needed to get outside and see what was underneath my row covers so that I could pull some ingredients for the soup that we were having. And I made my kids come out with me. So, then everyone’s outside doing something for a little while.

So I think that there are all of these diverse benefits to growing healthy foods, and especially doing that in our own homes to be able to experience this kind of diversity of benefits and not just the health benefits and the benefits for the environment, but what that can do for us a socially as well, and what it can do in our communities.

Katie: Yeah, you’re so right. I think this is gonna be an increasing area of focus and should be for a lot of us as families, just realizing the far-reaching effects of making these decisions. And when it comes to that, like, certainly, like, we have a garden as well. And I think having a garden is one of the best things we can do, like you mentioned, for health in so many ways, not just because of the food, but because we’re outside, and vitamin D, and interacting with the soil microbiome, but also I know it’s not possible for everyone to do. So, what are some of the ways that we as consumers can start making positive changes when it comes to even just purchasing better quality foods and products that are better for us and for the environment?

Leah: Yeah. So, the first thing, the first step I think is people learning to cook more. And there is historical significance in the availability of packaged foods in the ’40s, and women joining the workforce in the ’60s and what that did to the structure of our society and our available time in order to be able to cook more from scratch. But I think that in order to utilize these foods that are going to becoming more and more available to us if we do start growing our own foods or do start going to the farmers’ markets more, that we need to know what to do with these foods. So, that’s one of the things that I try to address in my cookbook is helping people simplify the process of food in order to make it more achievable.

Because we both know it takes a lot of time to cook from scratch. And so, if you don’t have that basic skill, it’s hard to even make some of these other choices when it comes to where to buy some of these better quality products. But I think that first and foremost, if you don’t have space for growing, you know, don’t underestimate the value of a patio garden. So, if you do even have like a balcony and some space where you could throw some lettuce in a pot, it’s fun. It’s really fun and interesting to throw something in a pot and see what happens. So, that could be one small thing that you do.

Other things if there is a farmer’s market available in your area, going to the farmer’s market, talking to the farmer’s, asking questions. A lot of people feel intimidated to talk to their farmers about their growing practices. But what I found is that these farmers are really proud of the work that they’re doing. And they’re actually extremely interested in talking to you about that process and telling you about what it is they do. And so, that’s one way that you can figure out the quality of the produce and the meats that you are going to be buying.

And then, I know that that some of these mail order products are also another solution. If these things are not available in your area, I think that locally grown agriculture is the best thing that you can do for your environment, and for the health of your community, and for the health of your family. But I do know that this isn’t accessible for everyone. And so, I know that there are things like Misfits, which is this organic…and I’m not affiliated with these organizations in any way, but I know that you can order organic foods online and that they can be shipped to your door. I know that there are different meat services where you can get grass-fed meats. And so, really trying to find those places to access better quality foods.

One thing that I also think is important to think about is, you mentioned us eating meat and what that does for the environment. And yes, this is a huge debate right now. But I do think that one thing that most people can agree upon is that conventionally raised meats are not good for the health of the environment or for human health. And so, if pasture-raised meats, and eggs, and dairy products, and things like that, if those things are not accessible to you, I think that even considering eliminating them from your diet, it is something to think about just because of the environmental and health impact that these foods do have on your body.

Katie: I definitely agree with that. I think that’s something that no matter what perspective you’re coming at this equation from, I think we can all agree on whether it’s the health perspective, the environmental perspective, whatever it may be, is that none of us I don’t think want to see animals treated like that, nor do any of us want to consume animal products that are contaminated with all those things and where the animals have been treated so poorly. And I’ve thought that for years that if we could unite around the things we agree on, whether, you know, those who follow a vegan diet or those who eat meat, if we could unite on the things we agree on, we could actually make so much positive change within that realm by focusing on that together.

And I also love your advice about just growing something small. I know even when I’ve lived in apartments, you can grow like microgreens and sprouts on your kitchen counter, and those are really low work and you’re getting such a fresh food that you can add into your diet. And I think your farmers’ market advice is also great. And I know a lot of people listening already do shop at farmers’ markets and can probably implement a lot of those tips right off the bat.

And I’d love to circle back more about gardening as well because we are about to be in gardening season depending on where you live. And I think so much of what we’ve talked about in this episode are things that we can start implementing in home gardens. So, I’d love to get really practical for a little while and talk about from a home gardener’s perspective, kind of, how can we 80/20 of this, where’s the starting point, if either we are just starting to garden for the first time or we have an existing garden but wanna get more regenerative with how we maintain it?

Leah: Yeah. So, I like that concept of 80/20 too because I think that we have this all or nothing approach and then we oftentimes fail. And I’ve seen that gardening is no different. When you are learning any new skill, it doesn’t matter what it is, you simply can’t expect to become an expert right out of the gate. And so, if you are doing this for the very first time, or you’ve had a garden multiple years and you’ve had failure after failure after failure, my suggestion would be to downsize and not expand until you feel comfortable managing the amount of space that you have. So if you do just have a patio, you know, starting with a few of these pots, doing some lettuce, greens are generally a pretty easy thing to grow.

Another thing that’s pretty easy to grow are green beans. And I found that kids seem to really enjoy these yellow wax beans, are some of my favorite things to grow. These are also a nitrogen-fixer, so they’re great for your soil. But I would start with something as small as a 4X8 plot. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a raised bed unless you have poor drainage. If you have extremely poor drainage, you really have to build that soil up so that your plant roots are staying above the area that stays saturated. I have some raised beds at my house and some of my plants are just planted directly into the ground. Drainage is only an issue for me in certain parts of my yard.

And then the other thing that I would focus on is your soil. Because you’re not actually growing plants, you are nurturing healthy soil. And when you can change your outlook and approach to gardening, that’s when you’re gonna start to have success is when you nurture that soil. Because if you have good soil, that good soil is automatically going to be nurturing your plants. So you can buy bags of organic compost from Lowe’s Hardware, all of these different hardware stores.

You can make your own. I mean, this is something that I tend to do more often simply because I do have such a large area and the expense of buying these bags of compost, it’s not practical for me. So I have just some pallets, some wooden pallets that I’ve built up and I’ve put leaves, and compost, straw, chicken waste, I mean, I put all sorts of things in there and then let those things decompose and that turns into my compost that I can then add to my garden.

The way that I have started my raised beds is by, I put down cardboard first. And you wanna make sure that your cardboard is totally overlapping so that whatever plants that you’re trying to kill beneath the surface of that, they’re not going to kind of make their way up through those cracks, because then you have roots that are really low in the ground and it could be really hard to get rid of them. But put down this cardboard, and then I’ll actually fill it with wood chips and then just like 4 inches of compost on top of that.

Now, the problem with this is that year one, the wood chips are not going to be very productive because you really don’t have a lot of soil there. So, I plant cover crop on top of that, I usually start with buckwheat. When the buckwheat is ready, I weed it down, let it fall to the surface, and then I plant another round of cover crops. So, this last raised bed, I started with the buckwheat and then I did a mix of clover, dye cons, and some type of grass. I can’t remember which it was, but I wish I hadn’t done the grass. Again, don’t do the grasses if you’re not tilling because they are a little bit harder to get rid of.

And so, I kind of just let that bed sit and work on it, let it build that system on its own. I’m not really working that hard. I’m really just kind of enabling that system to do what it needs to do to build a healthy soil. And then year two, that bed is then extremely productive. So, by using those wood chips, you can often get wood chips for free from different tree falling services. I mean, this does depend on where you live. Obviously, if you live in the middle of a city, this isn’t going to be an accessible thing. But I live in a more rural area and I just see these trucks on the side of the road when they’re near my house, and they’re falling trees, and chipping the waste, and I’ll ask them, “Can you deliver that load of chips to my house?” And oftentimes they’ll do it if they don’t already have a place to go.

Katie: I have heard that advice recently from a local gardener where we are as well. And that’s on my list to find this week, actually, is to do that combination of wood chips and then compost. And this guy actually, he teaches my kids pole vaulting as well. And I’ve seen his gardens every week when we go for pole vaulting and I’m just amazed at how fast everything grows. He’s been doing that for several years, and even he’ll do beds like that and then eventually plant fruit trees there as well. And just seeing how these trees even take off when you prepare the soil like that, it’s really astounding how much of a difference that makes.

Leah: Yeah, the wood chips act…they’re a great source of carbon. And like I said before, you have to have carbon in your soil to store those nutrients. But when the wood chips are breaking down, there’s not a lot of nutrition available to your plants. So, what happens is, in the decomposition process you have…it involves carbon and nitrogen. And so, these microbes require nitrogen and other minerals and nutrients in order to grow, survive, and eat this decaying material. And so, they kind of use up those minerals and those other nutrients that are in the soil temporarily. But it’s always as turnover, you know, you have your primary decomposers, your secondary decomposers, your tertiary decomposers, you know, it’s the successional process of different species that come in to do this decomposition work.

And so, as you have that succession, you have the die-off of certain bacteria and fungi, and things that then become food for this next round of decomposers that come in. And so, after about a year, this wood has mostly decomposed. That’s the other reason I bury it. If you keep the wood on the surface, you’re using it more like a mulch and it’s not going to decompose as easily. But if you bury wood chips underneath a few inches of compost, it’s going to stay wet under there and it’s gonna keep decomposing. And then in about a year, you’ve had enough die-off of those decomposers that those things have now become fertile soil that can start to grow the plants that you’re trying to produce.

Katie: That’s so fascinating. And I love your approach to this and how it is so much less work overtime, because I think that’s one reason people don’t maybe jump into gardening is that it seems like a lot of work and a lot of upkeep. And I think when you learn these principles like what you’re talking about, not only is it so much less work, but you’re gonna end up with more nutrient-dense final product, and you’re gonna create this whole ecosystem that’s fascinating to watch. And like you mentioned, so cool for our kids to get to see and to learn. And I do think you’re right too, and it makes them more likely to eat the food. That’s been my experience as well. When the kids help in the garden, they’re so much more invested in the process that they’re then willing to try the foods and much less willing to waste those foods because they’ve worked so hard for them.

Leah: Yeah. And another important part that I wanna tell people about is that failure is an expected part of the gardening process. So, I’ll hear people say that something got messed up, or, you know, they can’t grow tomatoes, or they have a brown thumb. But gardening is like any other thing you do and you’re not going to get it 100% right. You’re also working against nature which is completely unpredictable and out of your control. I mean, I think that one of the biggest lessons that I get from gardening is this sense of humility. And even though I have all of this knowledge and all of this experience that I have something that fails every single year, and I have a bug infestation, or I have moles that dig underneath, I have a hailstorm, all of these different things, you’re kind of at the mercy of the system.

And so, I think when people come into gardening, they automatically think that they’re going to have 100% success. And that doesn’t happen for anybody. It doesn’t happen for the people who are even the most experienced. This is another fun thing about going to the farmers’ market and getting to know your farmers is that you can start talking to them about their failures too. Because even though you see this gorgeous bountiful produce that they’re selling at the farmers’ market, they have had failure that year as well. But this is one of the life lessons that I feel like you get from gardening. I mean, the life lessons are just so bountiful. I mean, like you’re saying with the kids and having them out in the garden.

I let my kids have their own 4×4 area this year. And they got to plant whatever they wanted. And my daughter mostly planted flowers, and she planted them way too close together. And, you know, I just have to ignore that. I think that when people are talking about getting their kids involved in these different processes, whether it’s cooking or in the garden, we tend to want things done a certain way. And kids will never be able to do it that certain way unless we let them learn the process that comes along with it.

And so, what I have found for me is that sometimes… My kids are younger than yours, my daughter is 4.5 and my son is 7. And so, they’re not particularly helpful in the garden at times. I mean, my son is getting to where he’s more helpful. But by giving them their own task that’s separate from the actual work that I’m trying to get done, it makes things go a lot smoother. So, that’s why I let them each have their own 4×4 and basically just told them, “You can do whatever you want.” And so then, I’m not irritated by the fact that everything’s planted too closely together or they didn’t plant the right things. You know, they can experiment on their own and figure those things out.

I do the same thing in the kitchen with involving my kids. I mean, especially my 7-year-old, again, he’s much more helpful and he actually can help, but, you know, my 4-year-old, she’s not quite as helpful yet. And so, sometimes when I’m chopping and she wants a job, I just give her a cucumber to chop or a red pepper, or a banana. And usually what happens is she sits there and chops it and she eats it while she does it. So, I think that what I have noticed is that getting kids involved in the process is probably the most powerful thing you can do to improve the eating habits of your family.

Katie: I definitely second that. And I think the other important thing that you mentioned is letting kids try things and fail, and like us trying things and failing and letting them see that. Because that’s something I definitely feel like I didn’t get a ton of examples of in childhood was that failure was okay and that it’s actually a very important part of learning. I think you’re right, gardening is a great place to learn that very much hands-on, and to develop a tolerance for failure and an ability to learn from failure versus a fear of it. And I think that’s another really important lesson we can pass on to our kids and gardening is such a great way to do it.

Katie: And as we get near the end of our time, there’s a couple of questions I love to ask. The first being if there’s any advice that you would really wanna give to anyone who maybe is just starting out or wants to start out but is still a little bit hesitant?

Leah: Yeah. So, I would say start small and know that when you’re referencing these experts who appear to have it all together, that it took them years to get to the point where they’re at. So if you’re interested in having a garden, but you’re not quite sure yet what to do with kale or how to wash lettuce, I mean, these are really great starting points. I think learning what to do with vegetables can be one of the most powerful things that you can do for your health. And doing this in a small step-wise progression is going to be the most successful way to approach it.

So, I have developed this system of meal planning and prep that I write about in my cookbook, but it took me years to develop this. And I did it under the stress of having two kids with medical disadvantages. I mean, especially for my daughter having genetic disease, there is no curing her disease. There is no eating our way out of this. But I wanted to support her in the best way that I possibly could. So, it’s really coming at this from a pretty…I would say in those early years of her diagnosis, I mean, a pretty desperate position, feeling like I was out of control of her health and I wanted to control whatever aspects of her health I possibly could.

And so, it took me years to get it right. And now it feels like second nature being able to cook from scratch. But it didn’t happen like that in the beginning, and my garden is the exact same way. It started much smaller than it is now. And, I mean, I wish I could show you the photos of the garden I started like 15 years ago. I mean, it was like this super dinky, ugly, unproductive thing. And it was basically a failure. And now I have a lot of success. And it wasn’t because I did anything magical, but it was that I just kept trying. And over the years, I got better at it.

Katie: I love that. And I’ll make sure I link to your book. And I know you talk about a lot of this in your book, and also to your website in the show notes. So, if you guys are listening while you’re doing something else, it’s wellnessmama.fm, all the links will be there. But speaking of books, are there any books that have had, besides your own, of course, really dramatic impact on your life and that you would recommend?

Leah: Yeah. So, I am an avid reader and it’s hard for me to choose just a couple. I really love books. And so, it’s exciting for me that I actually get to become an author. It wasn’t quite what I was ever expecting to do but it was an opportunity that sort of fell into my lap and I ran with it because I do love to read. But the two, if I had to just choose two, one would be “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” by Natasha Campbell-McBride. And this was a book that I read early on in my daughter’s diagnosis that I wanted to understand more about this gut immunity connection. And this book does a fabulous job of breaking that down. And this book helped me understand more about the value of food in the way that it impacts your microbes, and how those microbes affect your immunity.

And so, with two kids with these different medical problems, and me with my son with asthma and allergies, this is an overactive immune response. And by restricting our diet and really focusing on the quality of our foods, his condition has drastically improved. I mean, it’s so hard for me to tell whether or not that’s a result of what we’ve done as far as work for lifestyle changes and diet, or if it’s just him growing out of these things. I mean, these are things that I’m never gonna know. But I feel pretty confident that the dietary choices that we’ve made have really helped support him. So this is a great book for anybody who’s interested, “Gut and Psychology Syndrome.” This is a good book for anyone interested in learning more about food, and microbes, and your digestion.

And then another one is actually one that I read recently that’s a memoir by Pam Houston, “Deep Creek”. And I sometimes get bogged down by all of the issues that I hear about with environmental problems and agriculture. And her memoir was such a beautiful contribution to the environment that she loves so much. And so, I think for anyone who is an environmentalist and who does feel this real sense of passion for the natural world around you, it’s just such a relatable book. And so, I really enjoyed that one as of recent.

Katie: I love both of those. And I’ll make sure they’re linked in the show notes. And for anyone who wants to continue learning from you, where can they find you online?

Leah: So, I am at deeprootedwellness.com. I’m in the process of kind of switching my website over. But for now, that should keep working for years to come as well, that can at least redirect you to whatever my new website is gonna be. And then, I’m on Facebook as Leah M Webb, or on Instagram as Leah_m_webb. And I am doing a lot of public speaking these days, I’m traveling to promote my book, and then also just to do more work talking to families about the topics that we’ve talked about today. And so, if they get on my website, they can find my events page. And I have events all over the country coming up this year, and I imagine it will be the same. And so, hopefully, they can come and see me speak somewhere.

Katie: Awesome, Leah. Thank you so much for being here and for all that you do to educate about this topic. I think it’s an increasingly important one. And I’m so grateful that there are people like you out there making it practical.

Leah: Yeah, and same to you. I mean, your website is such a wealth of information, especially for recipes and DIY stuff and just all of this general information. There’s a group of us moms, actually, that meets a few times a year and we do a lot of the recipes that are on your website. So we’ve used your beeswax stuff and some of your soaps, and yeah, so it’s a great resource as well. So, I appreciate the work you do too.

Katie: Oh, thank you. And thanks to all of you for listening and sharing your time with us today. We’re so grateful that you did. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/leah-webb/

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298: Getting Back to Happy With Marc and Angel Chernoff

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298: Getting Back to Happy With Marc and Angel Chernoff

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and I’m here today with Marc and Angel Chernoff who are “The New York Times” bestselling authors of the book, “Getting Back to Happy” and the creators of Marc and Angel Hack Life which was recognized by Forbes as one of the most popular personal development blogs. They also authored “1000 Little Things That Happy Successful People Do Differently.” Through their writing, coaching, and event, they have helped thousands of people over the last decade with proven strategies for getting unstuck in order to find lasting happiness and success.

And they especially work with people who are going through tough phases and transitions of life including relationship changes, the loss of a loved one, job changes, or just depression or having trouble working through some of those phases of life. So I hope that you will enjoy this episode as much as I do.

Marc and Angel, welcome. Thank you guys so much for being here. And I don’t feel I can start with an intro like that without jumping into the questions by asking to hear your story. I know firsthand that you have a pretty amazing one. So let’s start off with some background. What is your story and how did you become what you are today?

Marc: So our story actually started when we were in our late 20s. At this point in our lives, we had no investment in personal development, self-improvement, looking into the mindset tools that were necessary to live a healthy life. And half the reason that was is simply because up until that point, we had had pretty good lives, right? We didn’t have anything major happen to us that was tragic. You know, people had passed, certainly, but they were grandparents. And then we ran into this very difficult season in our lives. It started when Angel’s older brother, Todd, died by suicide.

Just a few short weeks after that event, we lost our mutual best friend, Josh, to a heart attack at the age of 27. It was driven by an asthma attack and up to that point, he had never had a difficult asthma attack, never had it like a big asthma attack. It was always just small things and so we didn’t even realize that was a challenge for him. And this was a downturn in the economy. So, you know, we’re talking, this is the ’07-’08 timeframe. Both of us lost our jobs. We were struggling financially, we were struggling emotionally, we didn’t know how to cope with the loss that we were dealing with, the grief that surrounded it.

It slowly spiraled into mild to moderate depression for both of us and we started arguing as a couple. We were a newly married couple, married a few years at that point, and started basically lashing out at each other rather than having the loving and supportive conversations that we needed to have. We were leveraging alcohol and distractions like binge watching television to escape and bypass everything that we were dealing with, the emotions that were unsettling. And so luckily enough, we were both willing to see therapists. Through that therapy, we were basically urged to do some self-study as well. And so we started reading both Eastern philosophy and Christian philosophy.

So the Byron Katie’s and the Wayne Dyer’s of the world as an example. And we started really dialing into the tools that were necessary. We realized that we were at this point in our lives where the things that we were doing on a daily basis were not serving us. And so we started listening to the therapists, we started listening to what we were reading, and we started practicing. We actually started our website as a public accountability channel to hold ourselves accountable to what we were learning. And the communication opened up from there and it’s a big black box between then and now, but we basically dedicated ourselves to overcoming this and to sharing the struggle that we were going through to get to a better place.

Every single step, everything that we did was difficult and we put it out there very vulnerably and honestly and said like, “This is what we’re going through and here’s what we’re doing,” on our blog, marcandangel.com. Like, here’s what we’re doing to step through this. And we weren’t really writing for anyone but ourselves, but it was a tool that helped us move forward. So you fast-forward many years and that journey ultimately led us to write books about our story and the tools that we had leveraged to step through it and we moved into coaching and here we are today, which truly is a blessing to be here.

Katie: I feel like that’s such a great illustration though, because maybe that’s one of the misconceptions in today’s world, I think. In my own life as well, I know that some of my greatest life transitions and greatest accomplishments have come from some of the hardest times and I think so often like you guys in the beginning, it’s easy to try to escape those or should try to get away. So what was the mindset or what shifted? Like was there a pivotal time or lightning bolt moment or something that really made you guys make that shift from like we’re just gonna binge watch Netflix and drink to let’s change our lives?

Angel: I think we were just at a point where it was like, you know, is it always gonna be like this? Like, is it always gonna be where I’m just feeling sad and I can’t get out of bed. We got to a point where it’s like, “Okay, we have to change.” Like we have to make the change. We have to start doing things differently if we want to feel differently. And so I think it was just we got to a point where we had to take control over how we were feeling and how we were reacting.

Marc: Yeah. It wasn’t a one big, catastrophic moment. I think sometimes that’s a misconception in our lives. We get into that depressed state or we fail because of one catastrophic moment. And oftentimes, it’s all the little things that we’re doing or not doing. And so we sort of caught ourselves, and with help, of course. Again, I mean we weren’t doing it by ourselves but we caught ourselves and we realized like the things that we are doing on a daily basis, yes, there are these big things that happened to us, but all the little things that we’ve done since those moments have not been serving us. In fact, they’ve been taking us further away from where we wanna be.

And it was just sitting down long enough to realize that and realize that if we, you know, we can’t change the big things that happen but we can change all these little things we’re doing on a daily basis and if we do so, maybe there’s hope, right? And that was the journey we started on, like the daily ritual of like let’s make these small shifts. And they’re hard. I mean it’s easy to say like, “Yeah, I’m gonna make this change,” but to actually be consistent about it daily, especially when you’re struggling emotionally, when you’re dealing with depression, even the small shifts are very hard.

Angel: Yeah, I mean I think when you’re in a season of pain and struggle, I think it’s really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But down the road, you’re able to look back and see how much growth came from that and how…if you’re living an easy, comfortable life, you’re not able to see the opportunities and the growth possible but it really does take those seasons and those periods of struggle to help you grow and to help you see opportunities.

Katie: So how long of a process was that for you guys? Once you started that transition, was it, I’m guessing not an overnight success. How long did it take before you really started seeing the tangible changes in your own life?

Marc: It’s been years. So you’re talking about the early 2007 timeframe where we started struggling and that period of time lasted a couple of years of like truly struggling, truly dealing with depression, truly being at odds with each other as a married couple living under one roof. And again, speaking to each other in a way that was very defensive as opposed to supportive. So we started doing the coaching at the end of 2012. So you’re talking about a five-year timeframe where we started stepping more into ourselves and realizing that us continuing to share our story. And the coaching initially was completely free.

We were basically running like an online support group where we were saying, “Hey, rather than this blog just being about us, let’s share your story as well. Because people were just…they were writing us and saying, “Hey, like what you’re sharing here, I know you’re still stepping through this but it’s really helping me. And let me tell you about something that’s going on in my life. What do you think of this?” So it was really like five years later that we started writing about others more consistently and what they were going through and kind of wrapping our experiences around their experiences. So yeah, I mean I would say that it was probably roughly five years of a transition between being at rock bottom to being at a place where we felt we could serve others with what we have learned from going through it.

Katie: Wow, yeah, that makes sense, that it would take a while for those things to really like take hold in your own life and then now that you are able to pass those on to other people. You touched on something I think that’s really key to not just this but to whether it be nutrition changes, any change in life, which is that consistency and sticking with it, especially when you don’t want to. And I deal with that more from the side of nutrition and sticking with dietary changes in my background. It sounds like you guys deal with that with people now in coaching. So I’m curious if you have any strategies or practical ways that people can learn to be more consistent because I find, even in my own life, that is perhaps the biggest struggle. We all often have an idea of what we should be doing but that daily consistency is often the biggest battle.

Angel: I completely agree. I mean making it a ritual to where it’s a part of your life and not just something, hey, I’m gonna hold on to for a week or a couple of weeks or do this diet. But yeah, making it a ritual and making it a part of who you are and what you do. And I think one of the keys that’s really helped us is making the activity so small initially that it’s silly not to do. So like, for example, if you wanted to run every day and running a mile is tough, well, maybe just run around the block. It doesn’t have to be…

Marc: Or even walk.

Angel: Yeah, or even walk. It doesn’t have to be this big goal that we have to do initially, but start small. And start so small that it seems silly, that this is what you’re doing but you wanna stay consistent with it. So do it for a month and then add on to it and then do it, so then it’s just part of who you are, just like brushing your teeth, right? You brush your teeth in the morning when you wake up. You don’t have to think about that, you just do it. So breaking down these habits and these rituals so you can do them consistently and it seems silly that you wanna do it.

Marc: Yeah. And another… I mean, again, that’s great advice that we so often, we hear and we don’t do it. I mean, like Angel said, it can be something small, like if you’re waking up earlier in the morning and 10 minutes earlier is too much, do 2 minutes earlier. And do that consistently for a few weeks before you shift it. I mean, it sounds silly, like what’s two minutes gonna do, but two minutes is gonna get you to four minutes and four minutes is gonna get you to six minutes. I mean it’s just that philosophy. It’s something that we intellectually understand but emotionally in the morning when that alarm goes off, we don’t wanna wake up, even so, right?

So we’ve gotta ease ourselves into any change that we’re gonna make. I mean that philosophy is obviously universally applicable in our lives, whether you’re dealing with nutrition, whether you’re dealing with sleep, whether you’re dealing with habits that are gonna help you think better and ultimately live better.

Angel: Yeah. And I think it’s important to know, especially with personal growth, is like you’re never at a point where you’re above this or like you don’t have to work on yourself and you don’t have to practice techniques and mindset tricks. I mean, I think we’re constantly growing and we’re a working progress. So I don’t think it ever gets to a point where you’re like, “Oh, I got this. I’ve mastered this.” It’s always challenging. It’s always hard, but it’s sticking with it and doing the work.

Marc: Right. I mean, we’re multifaceted human beings. I mean, we could have the health thing really down but the relationship thing is falling apart. And even though the same kind of rituals and consistency that you would apply to like your own personal health would be very applicable to nurturing another human being in another relationship and yet somehow, that goes over our head. So yeah, we’re never above it and we have to address it in little chunks. I think another way to address it in little chunks, too, is something as simple as kind of you don’t break the chain calendar where you have like a visual wall calendar where you can see the whole year in one shot or at least a full month in one shot, but a whole year is what we have here.

And we tend to just check off our rituals. So if like one of my rituals is like every day, I’m like, “Marc, have I spent one hour of uninterrupted time with your son?” I mean, that’s something that no matter what’s going on, and a lot of days, it’s more than that but I wanna make sure that the very least is that. And so I have a wall calendar, I literally every day write a check through it when I’ve completed that. I make sure that that’s done in my life. And again, many times, it’s more time than that but I think visually, I’ll run into that busy day where I feel like I’ve got business things, I’ve got client things, I’ve got all these things and I’ll look at that calendar and I’m like, “You know what, I have gone three months without breaking that chain. I’m not gonna start today.” So it’s just a visual reminder of like I’m gonna continue my ritual. And I think that can be applied to any ritual that we want to address in our lives.

Katie: That makes sense. And I love that of starting so small that even seems silly. I feel like that’s kind of the antidote to maybe like New Year’s syndrome where we all make these huge, lofty goals and then we’re trying to like run a marathon, and eat super clean, and do all these things all at once and then it lasts for five days and then you just can’t sustain that because you’re trying to completely overhaul your entire life in one week whereas like small changes probably actually have you yearning to add more on in like I can run a little bit more, I can wake up a little bit earlier because you’re not trying to make such a drastic change all at once.

And I love that you brought up relationships because I think, at least from my audience, from hearing about it and from friends, this seems to be a really big topic right now. I think a lot of people’s relationships are in kind of tough transitioning times right now. And I know that you said at the beginning that you guys had a rough patch in your marriage early on as well. So I’m curious, from your own experience and then now from working with all these thousands of people, if you have some strategies that couples can use, and that we could even potentially use with our children, but especially couples, to make relationship stronger.

Angel: Yeah. I mean, communication is key. We’ve all heard that time and time again but I think where I was falling short was I was keeping my feelings inside or expecting him to know how I was feeling and not explaining how I was feeling, what I was going through, and how I was interpreting things like, “Hey, when you do this or say this, I feel this way.” The same thing is true, you know, we have a five-year-old son named Matt and it’s like explaining to him rather than just saying, “Hey, don’t do that,” but communicating like, hey, this is why you can’t do that or you can’t eat that because we have to do this first or, you know, I’m trying to help keep your mind and your body healthy and this is how I can help.

And so I think communication is huge. And so it’s just evaluating how you’re communicating and how…are you assuming they know what you’re thinking, you know, where are you falling short on that spectrum in terms of communication in relationships?

Marc: Yeah. And not taking things personally especially when there’s stress and there’s grief and there’s loss and you’re dealing with big things, but even the small things. I mean, we all see things, like Angel just said, differently. We can all go through a similar experience and interpret it differently and have different understandings of it and even be able to cope with it in different ways. And so a lot of times, especially in family dynamics, it’s tough when you have somebody in your life who is naysaying the thing that you’re trying to accomplish and kind of talking down to you about your dreams or about…even about a tough situation. They make it sound like it’s no big deal.

You’ve gotta keep things in perspective, which is tough to do. And so, for instance, if you’re trying to…if you got some lofty goal that you’re going after and you have, let’s say, your mom or dad or sister or brother naysaying this goal of yours like that’s not worth it, it’s too risky, you can’t do it, there’s two questions you have to ask yourself. One is, “Has this person walked the path before me? Do they really understand what I’m doing?” If the answer is yes, then maybe it’s worth opening your ears and listening.

But oftentimes, the answer is no. Oftentimes, the answer is they’re just naysaying you because they’re scared for you. They’re fearful that you’re gonna hurt yourself. They’re fearful that you’re gonna fail. They themselves wouldn’t do the thing that you’re doing. They can’t put themselves in that situation. So you’ve gotta give yourself that perspective and realize that oftentimes, the reason they’re naysaying you is because they don’t believe in themselves. They don’t understand it the way you understand it. And so that’s an important thing.

And then you really have to ask yourself how important it is to you, like do you need everyone’s validation? And that’s tough because we’re social creatures, but there’s a lot of things that we do in our lives where again, we take things personally. We lean on others for the answers and a lot of times, we need to lean more on ourselves for those answers. We don’t need to be arguing with a spouse, we don’t need to be arguing with mom or dad or whoever. We need to look a little bit more to ourselves for the support that we need to take the next step. So it’s definitely a combination of both, and I agree with Angel that the communication once you’re ready to engage is important. You’ve gotta be patient, you’ve gotta be open, but you can’t be hanging on every word and taking everything so personally.

Katie: Do you guys have any rituals specifically related to your own marriage and to your relationship there?

Marc: We have tons of rituals.

Angel: I mean, one main one that just comes to mind is we definitely try not to go to bed angry. We talk whatever we need to get off our chest before we go to bed so that when we go to bed, when we wake up in the morning, we don’t have that resentment boiling in us. So we definitely try to communicate any unresolved issues before we go to bed.

Marc: Yeah, yeah. And we make the time to do that. So Angel and I have this ritual of taking a long walk on the beach and it’s only once every two weeks, but that’s enough. It’s like an hour and a half walk and it’s time that is not business. It’s not even personal. It’s time that’s just sort of there if there’s anything to say, and there to just enjoy each other’s company if there’s not. And so it’s a great time once every two weeks, like clockwork, to give us the opportunity to get anything that’s been unresolved, anything that…like any ideas. And it can be positive or negative, right?

Any ideas that we’ve had, like just extra stuff. And I think a lot of couples, and we were just like that, we didn’t have that extra time. We’d try to do date night and we’d force that or we’d be doing business. Angel and I are unique in that we do a lot of business and work together, client work together. But we didn’t have that kind of just time that was there for whatever, just kind of like space that was allowed to be whatever it was where new ideas and interesting conversations could arise. And I think that’s where a lot of communication, that’s where we resolve a lot through that ritual.

Angel: Yeah. I think it’s important to create that space where you can be in each other’s presence. It doesn’t have to be date night or something, but it’s also not talking about the kids or talking about work or shuffling things around and hashing out who’s responsible for what but just providing that space where you can be with each other to have the conversation about whatever needs to happen. I mean we’re very fortunate that after we drop our son off at school in the morning, we go to the gym and we work out together. So it’s like while we’re working out, if things come up, we’ll talk about them. That’s just time where we’re not forced to talk about anything, we don’t have a to-do list. We’re working out but we’re there together, so if things come up, we can talk about it right then and there.

Marc: Yeah, you’re right. That’s very similar to the walk. The workouts in the gym, we’re not always right next to each other but you’re right, same kind of situation for sure. So it’s a long way of saying create space for each other. Create space with each other without an agenda where great ideas and important conversations can surface.

Katie: I love that, like creating those small times makes probably such a huge difference. You guys have a New York Times bestseller, “Getting Back to Happy,” your first book, and that’s what you guys are kind of known for. I know I’ve seen you in the media for that many, many times and I hear from a lot of people who are working through anxiety and depression right now and it seems like either it’s on the rise or I’m hearing from a lot more people who have it. And so I’m curious for people who are in that phase, I know you’ve touched on it a little bit, but what are some of the specific things that people can do if they are there, whether it be lifestyle adjustments or mental shifts, to start those baby steps of moving out of that?

Marc: Yeah. We have touched on a little bit. I tell you one thing without a doubt, you know, the mind and the body are intrinsically connected and just getting your body moving if you’re not, getting yourself out of the house, but generally getting some level of exercise every single day is so vitally important when you’re in that phase. When the anxiety is high, when the depression is kind of bringing that dark cloud over your head, when you don’t see a way out and you just kind of feel like you’re on that treadmill, changing your environment is so important. I would highly recommend if you’re exercising, like the walk is a great way of doing it.

In fact, the first ritual we ever started was a walk down a boardwalk in San Diego in a neighborhood called Pacific Beach. That’s where we were living at the time when this season really hit heavy for us. And the first ritual, and it was through therapy that we came up with this idea is, we said, we need to break our cycle and that was literally the routine of our day. And so we made a pact to start leaving the house together. And again, we were not on speaking terms at this point. So we were very much at odds with each other, but we were living under the same roof and so that was the positive. And we decided we’ll leave every single day at noon for a walk down the boardwalk. It’ll be about a 35-minute walk down and back.

And when we get to the end, we’ll sit on this little grassy space and just share space with each other. Like that’s it. We don’t have to force conversation. We’ll just be in each other’s presence. And so we did that. And it was about a month of doing that. Now we’re getting exercise, we’re breaking up the routine, we’re out of the house, we’re not next to the alcohol, not next to the distractions that were unhealthy and we’re doing this thing where like we’re out there. And naturally, what did that do, is it gave us the space to have the conversations we needed to have. Not immediately, but about a month down the road is where the conversations came from.

And ultimately, a lot of the books that we read that we started writing about on marcandangel.com were done on that little green space at the end, which is a little green space off of Sail Bay in San Diego. So it’s a little bit of our story but that’s something like just breaking your cycle, getting outside, like combining the exercise with changing your environment when you’re in the thick of things can be so powerful.

Angel: And I mean change is extremely difficult as we all know, whether it’s a lifestyle change, a relationship change. When you are changing what your normal is, it can be extremely difficult. And so I think it’s important to accept what is, like to have that clarity of like controlling what you can control but also accepting the circumstances that you can’t control and just being present and letting go of being able to control things and manipulate things and just saying, “Okay, what is it that I can control? What can I not control?” And providing that space to be present and to accept where you are in this moment.

Katie: I think that’s huge. And that’s something I’ve recently in the last couple of years really gotten into reading a lot of stoicism back from Marcus Aurelius meditations all the way to some of the modern ones. And I think that’s, for me, been one of the most pivotal shifts in my own life is letting go of the things we can’t control because I’m self-admitted, very type A and probably a little bit OCD. And for a lot of years, I would try to control all the variables in my life and make sure everyone was happy and juggle everything. And making that shift into realizing what are the things we can actually control and the main one I read, in high school, I read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” and I love so much his idea that even when everything else is taken away, we still have control over our own attitude and how we respond to situations.

And I think that’s actually, for me, at least the perfect place to start because that’s the one thing we are always perfectly in control over and can have ripple effects into the rest of our lives and our relationships if we learn to master our own attitude and our own response to things. So I’m curious, have you guys read any stoicism as part of your journey or has that been part of something you’ve come across?

Marc: No. “Man’s Search for Meaning” is a book I read many years ago and loved it. It’s definitely on the top of my list. Yeah. I think a lot of the principles of Eastern philosophy which Angel and I resonate with deeply, I mean we’re Christians, you know, our son goes to a Catholic school and yet we resonate deeply with Eastern philosophy as well. And I think it’s great to leverage all of that for your benefit and for the benefit of those around you. But I think a lot of that ties into stoicism, ties into this idea of letting go, of being very present, realizing that you can only control the battles of today. It’s when you are obsessing over the battles of yesterday and tomorrow that life gets overly complicated, and in some cases, impossible to deal with.

And so, dialing that back and bringing yourself back to this idea that life isn’t easy, right? I mean it can be a very difficult thing and we must accept that and embrace that in the present. That is the only way we’re gonna be able to take the next step, holding on to the idea that it should be different, holding on the idea that we need something other than what we have, is not gonna put us in a position to step forward.

Angel: And I’m very much like you, you know, type A personality. I like control. I like to control. I like to control everything. I like to plan things, I like to have an itinerary, and I like to, you know, even as far as relationships go and people, I think they should act a certain way or I should tell them when they should do things differently. And so that’s been a struggle for me too. Just to give you an example, a couple of years ago, we were recording the audio version of our book, “Getting Back to Happy” and we’re in the studio and there’s a director and a producer. So there’s someone listening in telling you when you need to articulate a word differently or change your tone. And I thought it was my job to tell Marc when I thought he needed to read something again or if he could have done it better and yeah, we had someone that was hired to tell us…

Marc: From Penguin.

Angel: …from Penguin, to tell us when we should reread it or change it or do this. In my head, I thought, “Oh, I need to tell Marc he should read that over. He could do that better.” And it’s like I really had to tell myself, it is not my job. And in that specific situation, it really wasn’t my job. There was a whole another person that was being paid to tell Marc when he should do it differently or if it was fine. And so that was eye-opening for me to realize that I think it’s my job to point things out to other people or if I think they should be doing it my way. And so it was a real eye-opener and that mantra, I keep in my head, like it is not my job. It is not my job to tell other people this or to point this out. It is not my…

Marc: Or to hold on to control, right? Because…

Angel: Yeah. I just need to control myself and worry about myself and worry about my abilities and not be so quick to point it out in other people or to think they should do things differently because I don’t have control over them and it’s not my job. It is not my job to worry about others and what they’re doing.

Marc: And that’s made you more supportive, which is interesting. The interesting part of that is by letting go of the need to control a situation, or the need to be right. In turn, you become more compassionate and you become in more service of this other person. So it doesn’t mean you’re no longer helping the people around you or not making great suggestions but you’re doing so in a way that doesn’t seem like an attack. It’s just fascinating, like it’s those little shifts that we make that make all the difference in the world.

Angel: But again, it’s constant learning. Like this just happened recently where I was like, it is not my job. Like repeat that to myself, it is not my job.

Katie: I love that. I’m right there with you. That’s a good one for me to keep in mind as well. You mentioned your son and you’ve mentioned a couple of times. And so I’d love to kind of go down the road a little bit of how can we foster these healthy mindsets in our kids from a young age because I think, for me, my story, it was a health journey where I got really sick with autoimmune disease and then researched my way out of it and eventually got better but as a mom, it’s very important to me to give my kids a really solid health foundation so that hopefully, they never have to face the things I faced.

Even though I’m so glad that I did have those challenges and I overcame them and they’ve been a huge part of my own journey, I don’t want my kids to have to go through that unless they really should have something in their life that happens that causes it like I did. So I’m curious, from the work that you guys do and now with your own son, how do you put things in place to give him a really healthy mindset from an early age?

Marc: I think presence is everything. I think Angel would agree with that. I mentioned that hour literally being on my wall calendar. It’s like a ritual that’s non-negotiable. And like oftentimes, it’s at least three hours a day. Angel and I spend a lot of time with him. We read with him, we do a lot of healthy things, but more importantly, we try to set the example. So it’s like when we talk about health, we wanna be out there on the playground with him. I think that’s a noticeable…something noticeable that we do differently. So we live in a little neighborhood in Jupiter, Florida. It’s a suburban neighborhood. Angel and I are often the only parents out on that playground actively playing with our children.

And I’m not saying anything bad about anyone else, but I’m saying it’s noticeable. We’re out there throwing the ball, running around, playing tag, we’re there, we’re in it. And it’s a small example of how we see our role as parents. You have to be there and you have to be in it, not just in your business but you have to be in the things that they’re interested in too. Because when you’re there and you’re a parent and yet you’re there to play and you’re there to engage, if you’re there for the fun times, when it gets more serious and the topics get more serious, they’re gonna notice, hey, they’ve sort of been here with me, listening to me, explaining things to me during all these other times that were great, it’s time for me to listen to my parents too.

You can’t only show up when it’s instruction time, I guess is what I’m trying to say. You’ve gotta be more present, you’ve gotta be more engaged, you’ve gotta be a parent and a friend. You’ve gotta have that relationship with your child. And that’s something that Angel and I practice daily and relentlessly and it’s a blessing.

Angel: Yeah. And I mean mental and emotional, helping him in that way, that’s tough because as a child, they’re learning how to react to their emotions, how to control their emotions. And so I think it’s good for Matt to see us have a disagreement and then we talk about it. Like we all get frustrated. Sometimes we get frustrated with each other and it’s okay to get frustrated and this is how to work through it and here’s how to talk about it. One thing I’m constantly repeating to him, and if he was here right now, he would tell you too, but whenever I see him getting frustrated and getting angry, I’m like, “Okay, repeat after me. Peace begins with me.” And we repeat that. And he gets frustrated and he’s like, “I’m not saying that. I don’t need to say it.” Because I tell it to him so often but I’m like, “When you get frustrated, it’s hard to control your emotions.”

Take a deep breath, say, peace begins with me, and let’s talk about it and see what you’re going through. And so we acknowledge that when you get mad and you get angry and you get frustrated, that all of these emotions are going on inside. So I don’t wanna ignore those and I tell him, we’re right there with you. We try to lead by example and say, “Hey, sometimes we get frustrated and this is how we feel and this is what we need to do and it’s okay to have a disagreement but you just need to talk it out and explain the situation.” So I think, yeah, when it comes to emotional and mental health with your children, I think it’s important to lead by example and to not think that everything is happy-go-lucky all the time, but that you have bad days too and it’s okay and to talk about it and not make it a secret.

Marc: I think we do a good job at that as well as like is being honest and open about the things that aren’t working for us, whether it’s something he’s doing or something that has nothing to do with him. If he asks, “Hey, like, what’s wrong?” Rather than just brush it off, we often explain. And again, he’s only five. So he’s young, but we bring it as much as we can to his level and we try to be honest and have those conversations. And through that honesty and that presence, he definitely takes lessons away and he understands things because we’ll hear it come back at us, which is always the greatest thing.

Angel: Yeah. When you hear your own words coming back at you through their mouth, it’s always…it makes me smile.

Marc: Yeah. We have a family motto that you were made to do hard things, just remind our kids, you know, push through in challenges. And they’ve heard me say that for a really long time and I’ve had it come back on me a couple of times. We were traveling a couple of years ago and we were at a Blue Hole in New Mexico and there was about I think like a 25-30 foot jump into the water and the water was like 50 degrees so it was cold anyway. And the kids all did it and I was like, “Good job, guys.” They were like, “Your turn, mom.” And I was like, “No, no, I’m good.” They were like, “Mom, you were made to do hard things.” And they would not let me not jump and I loved it but I was also a little terrified.

But I resonate so much with what you guys said. I think leading by example is one of the most powerful things, most powerful gifts we can give to our children truly. And especially, like you mentioned, let them see us fail at things, let them see that we don’t have perfect days so that they don’t have an expectation that that’s what they’re supposed to be when they grow up. And I realized that was a tough lesson for me a few years ago because one of my own childhood wounds that I struggled from and had to work through was the feeling of not being good enough. And I had really driven parents who held me to a really high standard and I’m grateful for that but I internalized very young that I wasn’t good enough at a lot of things or if I didn’t do things perfectly, that it wasn’t good enough.

And so because of that, my whole life, I was hesitant to do anything that I wasn’t already good at which is paradoxical, of course. And I started seeing that pattern in my kids and realized this is definitely not something I can talk them out of, but I need to be an example of overcoming that. And so the last few years, I’ve done things like take a voice lesson which was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done, or learn to do handstands, things that I was naturally very not good at at the beginning, so that they could see me fail and work through that. And I think being the example of that is so much more powerful than just saying that to them, whether it’s in any aspect of life, whether you’re teaching good nutrition habits, whether you’re teaching good mindset, habits, or activity, anything. I know that old clichés but it’s so true. They see what we do so much more than what we say.

Angel: I love that. Absolutely.

Marc: Yeah, no question. And doing the hard things, that’s a motto of ours as well. I mean, yeah, it’s such a misconception, like we want things to be easy and yet, you know, in fact, one of my favorite books, “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck starts with a line and it’s on one line. It just says, “Life is not easy.” That’s it. That’s the first line of the whole book. And I love that because the expectation we have oftentimes as parents, as human beings, as children at every walk in life is that this is gonna be easy. I should come out of this smiling. And that’s not the case. We have to do the hard things to be happy, the things nobody else can do for us, the things that make us question just how much harder and longer we can push forward.

Because at the end of the day, those are the things that ultimately define us. They’re the things that make the difference between existing and being in the space that we’re in and struggling and ultimately living and stepping forward. It’s the difference between empty promises to ourselves and a life that’s filled with more happiness and more possibility and more success. So the hard things, I mean you gotta do the hard things to be happy in life and it is such a lesson that we often forget and we overlook. And as children especially, I think we miss it entirely. So I love that that’s a motto in your family. That’s fantastic.

Angel: Yeah. The growth comes from the discomfort. A silly example was just this past weekend, we were in Connecticut staying close to the coast. We were like three houses down from the beach and we were on vacation celebrating Marc’s birthday and I wanted to go see the sunrise. And the first two mornings, I’m like, “Oh, no. This bed is so comfortable. I’m just gonna sleep in. And then on the last morning, I was like, “No, I’m gonna see the sunrise.” So I set the alarm. I got up, but did I wanna get up? No. I was enjoying the comfort of my bed but I knew I wanted to see the sunrise but I had to force myself. I had to do the discomfort and get out there and do it.

And oh my gosh, it was magnificent. Seeing the sunrise right there, it felt as though it was a show just for me and I loved it and it just made the rest of my day so wonderful. But it’s like that mantra of doing the hard things, doing the things that are uncomfortable, they can apply to the big things and to the little things. What are the things that you’re pushing off that you don’t wanna do but that’s what’s gonna give you the most reward.

Katie: I love that.

Katie: And from what I know of you guys, people often find you guys and come to you when they are going through big life transitions, like some of the ones we’ve talked about, when they have lost a loved one, or maybe you’re going through a relationship change or end of a relationship, or a job change, or any of those major stressors that we all face at different times in our life. So I’m curious for someone who is just finding you guys or any new listeners who aren’t familiar with you yet, where do you have them start? Where is a good springboard into the world of what you teach?

Marc: It depends on what the person is coming to us with. You’re definitely right, Katie, in saying that people come to us when they’re struggling, when they feel stuck. So the question is, is what is holding them up? Some of our clients, it’s relationship problems with family members. Some of them, it’s deep loss with the loss of a loved one. Sometimes, it’s just like the quarter life or midlife crisis, like I’m just at a point where I feel like I’m on that hamster wheel and I’m feeling terrible about it. So we definitely have to evaluate where they are. I don’t know if there’s a universal answer but I think we’ve discussed some of them already and it is making small shifts in a positive direction.

So it’s figuring out what are the current rituals. One thing we’ve mentioned, rituals and habits, but one of the things we take a quick look at is, what is it that you wanna change in your life? That’s a typical question you want. What isn’t working? What’s the thing in your life right now that you believe is not working? And what are the rituals that are leading to that situation? What are you doing? And yes, I understand that the loss of a loved one, major tragedy just happened in an instant, but once they happen, you know, yes, there’s an incredible amount of pain and suffering that comes from that, but a year later, two years later, if you’re feeling the same pain, it is not because that thing is happening again and again.

It is because you are doing things, you’re holding on to things, you are behaving in a way that is perpetuating it. And it’s a harsh thing to say. We’ve been there ourselves. And that’s a big example but the point is, is that the things we do daily once one of those big events happen, it’s those little things we do daily that either service it or take us further back. And so we say, you know, like what is this thing that you wanna change? How are you feeling? What is wrong? And what are the rituals that are supporting this feeling, this terrible feeling in you? And then, what does your ideal situation look like right now and what are the rituals that can get you from where you are to where you wanna be?

And so that’s kind of like a little framework, like a couple of questions of like what is it that you wanna change, what are the rituals that are supporting this problem that you’re in, what does the ideal situation look like and what are the rituals that can help you get from point A to point B? Of course, applying that to different people’s life situations takes you in completely different directions but it is a small framework I think that’s universally applicable.

Angel: Yeah. And then in addition to asking them what their rituals are that are supporting this change or keeping them stuck, is also having them question the thoughts that are surrounding this change and this lifestyle and this period in their life. So often, we are resisting what is and so if some of the thoughts going through our mind is it shouldn’t be like this, this is not how I planned it and it’s working…

Marc: And Katie mentioned one earlier, I’m not good enough.

Angel: Yeah, I’m not good enough.

Marc: I’m not good enough to take whatever this next step is.

Angel: But it’s like questioning the thoughts that are surrounded because so often, I mean 99% of the time, the majority of what we see first begins in our head. It’s how we’re thinking about it. So we have our clients question their thoughts, like asking the questions, is this all that is true? What you’re thinking about this situation that I’m not good enough or it shouldn’t be like this, it shouldn’t be this way, questioning that, is that all that is true, and then digging further into that, when I think this thought, how does that make me feel? And then…

Marc: Like who am I with that thought in my head going into any situation? How do I hold myself with a thought of I’m not good enough? Or how do I hold myself no matter what’s happening in front of me, if I feel like my life shouldn’t be this way? What does that do to my demeanor and my attitude? Who am I with that thought in my head?

Angel: And then even the question, you know, if I could never think this thought again, if I could completely remove this thought from my mind, what else would I see? If I could remove the thought that I’m not good enough, what else would you see if you can never think that thought again? Or if I could remove the thought, it shouldn’t be this way and I could never think that again, what else would you see? And so we definitely have people question their own thoughts because so often, we get this tunnel vision and we’re just seeing… I mean we’ve all been in those situations where there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. This is how it’s gonna be, it’s never gonna change. I can’t get out of this. And so we get stuck in that mentality, not realizing that there’s a bigger picture and there’s other perspectives that we’re overlooking because we’re so caught into that tunnel on that dark side.

And then also, what is the opposite of the thought and can you think of any examples that then support that thought? Like if you go back to your example, I’m not good enough, the opposite would be, I am good enough. I deserve to be here. And what are some examples that support that? And one that we always talk about is you’re a mother to your children. You are good enough because you are the only one that could be a mother to your children. Nobody else could fill your shoes and do a better job. And so it’s definitely having you question the thoughts that are going through your own mind because what we think we see, we ultimately become. So we need to challenge those thoughts.

Katie: That is so important. And I love that, asking better questions, because that’s something I’ve read in several books and heard about from therapists over the years is if you ask terrible questions, your brain will give you terrible answers. And if the questions you’re asking are like, “Oh, why can’t I lose weight or why can’t I do this or why is this so bad,” your brain is gonna find ways to explain to you why those things are and reinforce them. Whereas, I love your question, what is your ideal scenario? What is your ideal in the situation? Because then the brain starts working on that. Our brain is designed to answer questions and to connect dots and to find patterns.

So if you give it good, positive things to focus on, it’s amazing at that. That’s what we’re wired for. But so often, I think you’re right, we get stuck in those terrible questions and then we perpetuate that cycle. And I’ve also heard it explained almost like a filter of sorts. I know that’s an overused word with social media but like a mental filter where I know for me, at least, if I was in that place still where I didn’t feel like I was good enough, I would see examples that prove that everywhere I looked or like I would feel like someone was judging me or that I wasn’t performing well enough in someone’s facial expression, which truly like that might not have been… You know, they could have been having a bad day or could have had absolutely nothing to do with me, which is often the case. But when we’re in that mindset or we’re in that filter, we see examples that reinforce that everywhere even if they don’t exist. So I love that, like asking the opposite of the question and starting to make those shifts towards more positive questions. That’s beautiful.

Angel: Yeah. I mean one thought that I caught myself that I was constantly thinking and not even realizing it is that, you know, my sister is the most selfish person in the entire world. I was having all of this tension against my sister and I realized I was going into every situation with that thought at the forefront of my mind. And like you said, if that’s what you’re thinking, you’re gonna find it. You’re gonna point it out. So I was like, “There it is. Yep, there it is. Oh, I knew it. Gosh, she drives me nuts. Look at this. She’s always talking about herself. She’s always doing this.” But because I had that thought in my mind, I was able to point it out immediately in the entire time I was with her.

And so realizing that I was having that thought was eye-opening. It was like a slap in the face. And once I was able to recognize that and then say, “Okay, if I can never think this thought again, if I could remove that thought, what else do I see when I see my sister?” And all of a sudden, I saw a completely different person. She’s not the person of always being selfish. She is so much more than that. But I was just going into every single interaction with her with that thought. So that’s all I was seeing even though she has all these lovely characteristics that I love and care about. I mean she’s a part of me, she makes me laugh. And so it’s definitely challenging those thoughts and realizing if you’re constantly seeing something and it may first be beginning in your mind.

Marc: You were defining her entire character by one quality that she has, that she’s sometimes selfish. Sometimes we all are, right?

Angel: Yeah. And it’s not to say she’s not selfish but that’s not all that she is.

Marc: Well, it’s giving it a perspective you need, like having that perspective even with your sister. It doesn’t mean that your sister doesn’t sometimes do selfish things. It means, “Hey, you know what, let me give myself the perspective that I need to realize she does more than just the selfish things and that I can treat her like a whole human being that she is who has positives and negatives like we all do,” which ultimately increased your ability to communicate with her and improved your relationship. I think that’s what this…self-questioning is so important in the sense that as human beings, that’s what we have.

Katie, I mean you said it too. It’s like we sort of have this tunnel vision and we focus on the thing that drives us nuts and we look for evidence. We’re just narrowly focused on that one thing and we miss everything in the periphery. So when we start like questioning our thoughts, when we start saying like, is this the whole truth about this situation, how do I feel with this thought in my head? I mean who would I be without this thought? If this wasn’t my primary focus, what else would I see about this situation? What’s the opposite of this and can I find any truth in that? By doing that, we broaden our focus.

We get out of that tunnel vision and we start looking at everything in the periphery and we have all the data now and it takes time to get used to doing that. You have to do this as a ritual, like constantly kind of capturing your thoughts, maybe even writing them down and then going back later when you’re feeling calm and collected and saying, taking a look at these thoughts, like let’s take a look at what’s really going on in our head and heart during some of these high anxiety moments. We do this consistently and over time.

A few weeks, a few months down the road, you start having a better understanding of how you’re thinking, about how you’re reacting to these situations instead of more mindfully responding to them. And you get a better handle on yourself and that allows you to have better relationships, it allows you to feel better because you’re thinking better. You’re living better. But it doesn’t happen instantaneously. Like doing this once, saying, “Okay, I’m just gonna focus on my sister for a second,” doing this once, you can have a couple of ahas, but if you can really get into the habit of saying, okay, when I feel anxiety, if I have a thought, if I can catch myself and feel like oh my God, the anxiety is high, I’m feeling that way, that tension again, and just take 60 seconds to write down the thought, like do a raw brain dump, like what is in my mind at this moment, just get it down on a piece of paper in a safe place, then don’t self-evaluate in that moment.

Of course, the anxiety is high, the emotion is high, you can’t self-evaluate then. But tomorrow, next Sunday, when you have some time to dedicate to yourself, when you have some downtime and you’re feeling calm and collected, go back and look at some of those thoughts that you wrote down throughout the week during those high tension moments and put a more collective mindset on it. And that’s where you can kind of pick one of those thoughts out, read it to yourself, maybe chuckle, it probably won’t be rational. Oftentimes, when we’re high emotion and stressed, it’s not rational.

Tell yourself, “That’s totally okay.” But read it and apply some of these questions. Give yourself the logic, give yourself the perspective when your mind is calm and collected. And you do that again and again and that ultimately arms you to deal with it more in real time but it takes time to get there. And when you’ve seen it again and again and again, you’ll see the patterns and you’ll be able to better address those situations going forward. But it is a ritual like anything else. The more you practice it, the better you’ll get and it can be a blessing over time.

Katie: Yeah, I love it. It keeps going back to rituals and those small daily changes. And as we’re getting toward the end of our time, there’s a couple of questions I love to ask. The first being besides your own, and for those who aren’t familiar, you guys wrote “Getting Back to Happy” and “1000 Little Things.” Both of those are linked in the show notes but they’re available anywhere books are sold. But other than your own books, is there a book or a number of books that have really had a dramatic impact on your life? And if so, what are they and why?

Angel: I think, for me, one of the main ones that jumps out is “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel. That book was just extremely eye-opening to personal development and self-improvement and controlling the things that we can control and being present. It’s very simple but straightforward and I think it should be required reading. It’s a great…

Marc: It’s a great intro. It’s kind of a good quick inspiration intro to personal development. It was one of those first ones right at the beginning that we had picked up and both read. That’s a great one. We talked a lot about presence. I think “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle is a fantastic read. It’s not the most exciting read, but it kind of brings a lot of spiritual teachings down to how it relates to the present moment and how our true power to control our lives happens from one moment to the next. I think that also should be required reading. I think it’s universally applicable to any walk of life.

Katie: I love that. And where can people find you to learn more and stay in touch?

Angel: Yeah. They can find us on our blog, marcandangel.com and that’s Marc with a C. Also, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, just search Marc and Angel and you’ll find us.

Katie: Awesome. I love it. Thank you, guys, so much for being here, for being vulnerable, and for sharing today. This was such a fun episode.

Angel: Yeah. Thank you.

Marc: Thank you, Katie. We’re truly blessed to be here. Thank you.

Katie: And thanks to all of you for listening and for sharing your most valuable asset, your time, with all of us today. We’re so grateful that you did and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/marc-angel-chernoff/

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