Bucking the Trends + Natural Approaches to Health

I guess I’ve always been a bit of a rebel. A healthy disdain for authority. Bucking the trends. Being on ‘the bleeding edge’ as they called it in my corporate Six Sigma days when that program was completely new to our company and forced some people into the ‘new’ world of making decisions based on data . I always liked the bleeding edge analogy because it conveyed how painful it can sometimes be when you are out on the frontier and trying new things that have not become the norm yet.

I don’t even know where this love of everything new & novel and thumbing my nose at the establishment came from. If I had to guess… maybe the influence of my hippie parents who came of age in the 60s & 70s. A Mom who was in the local newspaper protesting the Vietnam War and took me to National Organization for Women (NOW) meetings as a very young girl. They were crusading for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Protesting the patriarchy establishment. I am glad I grew up with an activist Mom.

My Dad thumbed his nose at ‘The Man’ in his own way by harvesting rogue dope plants in farmers fields in Arkansas, kids in tow. My brother and I just thought it was a fun late night adventure looking for certain types of bushes and then packing them all into big trash bags and hauling them home for ‘preservation’. We had no clue! We were about 10 and I wouldn’t learn until later when high school friends were rolling up the Mary Jane and smoking it around me. “OOOOOHHHHH… THAT is what those little cigarettes that my Dad always passed around in a circle with his friends and held with a tiny little clamp were!

My Mom was also ahead of her time in the world of alternative health. She was always on some health food kick and put us kids on it too. Vitamins & health supplements. Shopping at the Health Hut, our local little health store full of bulk grains, kelp, and odd smells. Reading every natural diet & health book in existence. She still does to this day.

I think I brought this rebel energy into my own relationship with health and healing. For me, it’s a combination of rebelling against the established ways and being eager to dive into scientific studies of what is on the frontiers of health and healing. The common traditional meaning of ‘health care’ that most people think of is doctors, hospitals, and Big Pharma prescription drugs. A world where everyone is happy as a lark with the pill that solves it all and has you dancing at the party with your silver fox gentleman friend and splashing into the ocean with your weird-made-up-name Skyrizzzi Abuminotab coursing through your veins.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that there ARE life saving medications that many people need and benefit from. I also know that there is so much we can do with diet & lifestyle, especially with chronic disease processes. I believe we really can heal many, many things this way. All of the plant based doctors that I know, love and have learned from, along with naturopathic doctors, those studying fasting, herbalists, and all sorts of non-traditional healers are proving it more and more every day. Studying it all scientifically and publishing in respected journals. It’s an exciting world to be steeped in. It is my passion and I LOVE it!

This topic was on my mind this week as a good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She was learning more and more about natural ways to approach healing. And then… she watched this THIS VIDEO about Dr. Sam Gartland who reversed his MS with diet & lifestyle. As in, no more lesions, no signs of the disease, completely in remission.

The cool thing that he shares in this interview is how he learned all he could to help himself, without the drugs, that had huge side effects and only slowed the progression. Then he went on to learn from top researchers in the field of Lifestyle Medicine. He even switched his own practice to lifestyle medicine. He helps patients with MS and a host of other chronic conditions approach their diseases in a new way.

He inspired my friend to talk to her doctors about backing off on drugs and embracing natural healing. She is on the path and it is so exciting for me to see! I help her with tons of resources for using fasting and a plant based diet for health. I share those in the Health section this week. It just lights me up to see people embrace big shifts in diet & lifestyle that lead to BIG improvements in health.

This Week’s Shot of MINDSET

This famous quote comes to mind this week when I think about using the power of the mind for health, healing, or any other goal you are trying to achieve in your life.

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right”
–Henry Ford

Interesting that the straight-up Google AI Overview of this quote included this:

Explanation: This quote emphasizes the power of mindset and how believing in your ability to achieve something can significantly impact your success. Couldn’t have said it better myself Mr. Google AI Bot!

I have another friend from college who was diagnosed with MS in his late 30s. Bouts of awful symptoms like temporary blindness. He went the traditional route for treatment and did get a lot of relief. But debilitating clusters of symptoms would often come on for him. He visited us in Memphis a few years ago when we were all in our late 40s. He was excited when new meds came out that he only needed 2X per year.

I gently asked him if he had ever considered diet for treating MS as I knew all of the research from the likes of Dr. Swank, Dr. McDougall, and Dr. Jelinek. He said, “What, do you mean like Whole 30? Yeah, we tried that.” I sent him links to what I really meant about using the power of diet & lifestyle to stop the disease in its tracks and even reverse it or put it into remission. I never heard more. I don’t push. I share information, plant seeds, and give tons of info if people ask or are excited to learn more. I don’t know if he thinks he can reverse MS like Dr. Gartland or not. I hope so. Mindset is powerful.

Another awesome friend who I have mentioned in this newsletter ABSOLUTELY believes she can cure disease with diet & lifestyle. She said No Thank You to chemo & radiation and went on to put Brain Cancer into remission! She does it with the Protective Diet that she teaches as she helps others overcome all sorts of illnesses. This link is to the Free Resources page where you can find recipes and lessons that detail exactly how she did it. And its not with any sort of deprivation. All of the ‘side effects’ are positive and the food is delicious!

Simon and I eat this way and have for over a decade now. We use it for prevention and are healthy as horses. Bucking the trends horses.

This Week’s Shot of HEALTH

This week’s entire newsletter is pretty much about health. I’m sneaky like that. Sharing my passion for health & healing all over the place. Just a few more free resources for y’all before I go this week.

Dr. Gartland’s interview about defeating MS was from an excellent podcast called The Exam Room from The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) led by another of my favorite plant based doctors, Dr. Neal Barnard. He has written an awesome book Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes Without Drugs that I use in my own teaching and health coaching.

Finally, I will share THIS GUIDE that I put together has tons of links and free resources if this way of approaching health & healing is intriguing to you. It has info on books, websites, recipes, meal plans, videos, education, and entire free programs to get started. Let me know if you or someone you love are struggling with a particular health condition and wonder if this path could help. The list of diseases that can be helped with this approach is growing all the time, the research is pretty phenomenal!

If you are interested in using the power of the mind to uplevel your life, I share mindset expertise every week, along with fun & insightful stories from my own life path from 80s hair band superfan to chemical engineer to health & mindset coach (what a journey!).

You will also see plenty of health promoting tips and recipes because I am blown away by the power of intermittent fasting + a healthy diet to prevent & reverse just about any health concern Mindset plays a big part in health and healing too, the power of the Mind Body connection is pretty mind blowing.