Hey guys, welcome to the doctor nurse podcast.
I'm your host, dr. Sandra pajetta.
And today on the podcast, we have Cynthia, Thurlow she is the
founder and CEO of the everyday Wellness project.
And she is a masters prepared nurse practitioner from John
Hopkins. And she's the author of two
books, titled Primal, eating in the most recent book titled,
intermittent, fasting transformation, the 45 Day
program. She also hosts the everyday
Wellness podcast She has over 20 years of clinical experience in
cardiology in the emergency room, she respects conventional
medicine, but began to really dive into the root cause of
health problems and believes it stems from the food that we put
in our bodies. She believes there's a powerful
relationship between food and health and this led her to
pursue Advanced Training and nutrition and functional
testing, so that she can help others enjoy Optimal Health
before they need emergency. Care.
She's had a couple situations in her life that have led her up to
this point where she's decided she wanted to spend her life
passionately pursuing the mission of teaching, women to
focus in on changing their diets to improve the wellness of their
lives. She's had two TED talks, and one
of which went viral with over 11 million views, not opportunity
has led to such an incredible career and opportunities that
she's been able to step into as a nurse practitioner before we
jump into the podcast episode. I would like to kind of give a
little bit bit of backstory. I reached out to Cynthia because
I had a nursing student message me and asked if I would find a
functional medicine provider, I was having a really tough time
as I was struggling to find someone to come on and fill that
role. I thought I would just randomly
message Cynthia as I saw. She had a really big following.
I couldn't believe she said yes to come on to the podcast.
She's been on some of the biggest health and wellness
podcast out there and she just talks Some of the greatest and
brightest Minds on health and wellness.
I really want to talk about this topic because nurses need to
know how to take care of themselves.
And that is a huge part of us being resilient in our careers
and resilient in life. As I speak with nurses, that are
getting burned out and then having Health scares and
problems, I started thinking how can I help nurses and it's not
just about career Journeys and Yes, that is what I'm about but
I also want to help you along your career.
I don't just want to explain to you how people got to where they
are. But I think that as nurses we
can help one another may be bridged and gaps of knowledge
that we may or may not have been exposed to because of our
upbringings. I hope you enjoyed the episode
today. I tried to ask questions that
would pertain to a wide audience.
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You've always wanted. Now, let's get on today's
episode. I am so happy to have you on
today, Cynthia, I just cannot wait.
This is total goals. Thank you know, it's really an
honor to connect with your community and I was telling my
PR group that if there's interest from fellow nurses to
interview me for their podcasts or their platforms, how
important I think it is. For those of us that are further
ahead in this game, if you will, to be able to speak to people at
the beginning of their nursing careers or there, Advanced
practice nursing careers. I probably get DM almost every
day across social media. People saying, I want to do what
you're doing. How did you get to where you
are? So it's always an honor to
connect with my fellow nurses and obviously support their
podcasts and and help inspire. You know, this generation nurses
to do things differently and I think in a lot of ways, what I
chose to do was to take the path, Less Traveled on a lot of
different levels because I didn't start as a nurse.
I started as a polystyrene. Geron got into law school and
then was inspired to take pre-med classes, which is a long
story. But ultimately got me into
nursing and a nurse practitioner program.
I did a dual degree program many years ago, and I'm so grateful.
I did because I would never have been happy being an attorney.
And so, I really ended up exactly where I was meant to be.
Yeah, which is so great. I love how you said looking back
and helping those that are coming along the journey.
Because we are along a huge, Continuum of different spaces
and different. W in our lives.
And if we go back and we help others, that's exactly what you
said to me, when I messaged you and this is because I had a
nursing student reach out to me who said, find a functional
practicing nurse practitioner and I reached out to you, which
is again like home run shot in the darkness to see and then you
responded. And I was like, oh my gosh and
this is for I wrote his name down Joshua.
Stacy's who I'm doing this for and that's because he got, he
asked me to find someone so that I can have him on the podcast.
So here I am reach you back to him.
Reaching back to me. It's just awesome.
It's just incredible. So, I'm so happy to Dive Right
In. And as you were saying, kinda
what's your job role? What's your job title?
And I know you answer the question all the time.
Like how did you get here? And that's really the, the heart
of the podcast is really for people to go.
So this is how she got here. This answers that question,
right? And so, let's start first with
kind of what you do, what your day-to-day life looks like, how
you see yourself and the roles that you occupy right now.
Well, if you want to hear something funny, my husband
knows that if we are Route, socially.
I mean, it's really feels like, it's just been fairly fairly
recently been more social. But if I'm out socially, and I
want to talk about what I do, I say I'm an entrepreneur.
However, if I don't want to talk about what I do, depending on
where I am, I say I'm a nurse and a nurse practitioner because
then people, they understand what that is.
Whereas if you say entrepreneur people and so the way that I
would describe myself. Now I'm still a mom, I'm still a
wife, I'm still an MP. I'm very proud of that.
And in fact, when people introduce me another podcast and
they don't know, Send that I'm a nurse, I always forget them
because I think that's really important.
I would say like do not diminish what I am because I am no longer
in the traditional role of what people Envision and peace.
Do we're nurses. I would describe myself as a
podcast host. I'm really proud to be the host
of everyday Wellness. I'm also now the co-host of
intermittent fasting podcast and the only Avalon I'm a speaker.
I always say like that's probably one of my favorite
things I do along with podcasting and then
entrepreneurial space means that I'm a Creator.
So I am constantly eating solutions for what my given
clients now. It's client versus patient.
My clients are struggling with. So I've created multiple
programs. I've created very successful one
on one programs as well as group programs and so I always say
like being an entrepreneur is really wearing many hats all at
once and trying to navigate the ups and downs of the
unpredictability of being an entrepreneur.
But I can honestly tell you after six years, I can't imagine
doing anything else because it is so aligned with who I am.
And, you know, I think I was always one of those people that
hold and I fucked against Authority.
I was always, I was always a people pleaser.
That was part of part of my personality.
I'm always saying I'm now performed people pleaser, but I
think I was always thinking of different ways to tackle
problems. Whether it was when I was an ER
nurse whether it was when I worked in cardiology and then
pay for 16 years, I kept seeing patterns and I kept you know,
identifying to my mostly my physician peers, we're not
making people that were banned dating.
The problem. And this is what I was
struggling with. I just said, ethically, we have
to do better, and unfortunately, the kind of traditional
allopathic model is. I'm sure everyone that's
listening understands. Constraints Healthcare
Providers, to really focus on a lifestyle based medicine.
So, to answer your question, the way I would describe myself, as
I have many titles, there's always the, the ones that are
most important come first, you know, mom and wife, but I'm a
nurse practitioner entrepreneur. That's usually how I explain it.
Love when, Entrepreneurs also really focus in on the two.
Most important roles that are given to you from, for me, it's
from the Lord. Like, it's completely bestowed
upon you as mom and wife, because those are the most
important things. And then the other things follow
after that, I love that structure.
Because when you keep first things first, everything else
Falls in line solutely. So I just think that's just such
great wisdom and a great way to define yourself.
And there's so much that you're involved in that, there's so
much in that bucket and that on. Tripping or oh bucket.
That is just incredible but you didn't wake up one day and just
have all this stuff right? Like you've been grinding for
years, this has been a journey to this spot and so one of the
things that we focus in on at the doctor's podcast is the
journey and kind of that moment that you decided going back to
what you were kind of describing about when you're thinking about
going to law school and you're like wait a minute no.
Nursing like what was that decision?
What was that moment? That pivot and then walk me
through kind of how you got to this space that you are in right
now. Yeah, well, it's Yeah, I got a
dog when I graduated college so I'd already decided I wasn't
really sure I was going to law school like I got in and then I
started looking to financial investment and my parents were
very clear. We will pay for undergrad
graduate schools on your dime which is completely appropriate
and you start thinking you're going to spend a hundred
thousand dollars. It's like am I going to is that
a good decision for me to be making?
And so I got a dog I always wanted a dog.
I got this amazing will be shown fries and she changed my whole
world. I tell everyone I'm like I had
the most miserable to Experience working for a Fortune 500
company, but it was the best experience because that fueled
my desire to get the heck out. And while I was working for this
company, I was taking pre-med classes, initially, I thought I
wanted to be a physician. I have a lot of physicians in my
family. A lot of nurses, in my family
and a lot of teachers. So, I'm a I come from a very
service oriented backgrounds, and I was sitting in, I think a
pharmacology class and this professor Watson and he said,
what are you doing in here? And I was maybe a year or two
older than the undergrads. It wasn't like, I was
significantly older. He said it's evident to me,
you're coming back to do something very specific.
I said I'm going to go to med school and he said, no, I don't
think you want to do that. He's like, I think you want to
be a nurse practitioner and I was like, no, no, no, I don't
want to give it to me. It's like, I heard years of my
family members sharing, funny stories, and sharing sad
stories. And he actually encouraged me to
talk to his sister, who was a nurse practitioner and that in
the 1990s. There were not a lot of nurse
practitioners. We were really not in the, the
volume that we that we see and peas and now, so, I've had it
Conversation with her and then that got me thinking, I can have
a better quality of life and that was huge for me because I
have a mom that retired a couple years ago, but had a hugely
successful trajectory for career to the point where she wasn't
really around a whole lot. And so I was like, I don't want
that for my kid and all my physician, my female physician
family members were like the balance is a challenge, like you
have to be honest. So then I went another Direction
at around that time I became really interested.
This is back. You know 1990s.
Still when HIV and AIDS, there was no real treatment.
It was all, you know, all focused on symptom management
and I got very interested in HIV and AIDS, which led me to two
options for doing a at that time there were no, there were no dnp
programs. It was you, you had a bachelor's
to a master's program. And so I applied to some of the
big ones. But Hopkins was my first choice
because they were preeminent and HIV and AIDS management and I
was accepted and I remember just being so completely at peace
with that decision. My parents of course, completely
freaked out. You know inner-city Baltimore in
1990s was not all that safe but I loved it and so I went from
getting my second bachelor's to working as an ER nurse which I
love, I'm going to draw Nolan junkie.
I like sick people. I like the challenge of not
knowing what's coming through the door literally and so I did
that while I was doing my Jewel programs and for people that are
out there, there were a lot of nurses back then, it was very
unsupportive of younger nurses. Going straight into a van.
Degrees. And I always used to think to
myself, like you, we all have the same choices like you could
also go to an advanced degree. You're choosing not to and I can
respect that, but don't try to. This is where nurses.
Sometimes can be frustrating, they were trying to discourage
me like you're not worthy enough and I kept saying I'll show you.
And so I was an ER nurse or four years and then I became I went
into Cardiology again, another adrenaline junkie fuel
environment and I loved it. I loved cardiologist everything
about the heart but then I got married and then I had children
and my boys are only two years apart, and it's amazing how life
brings you a lot of levity. You start to see, like, I don't
want to be working full-time and just exhausted and depleted,
when I come home. And so I, when I had the option
to be able to work part-time. So from the time I became a mom
as an MP. I work part-time.
And thankfully by that point, I had enough experience as an MP
that I could do that comfortably and, you know, I kind of existed
in this. Hey, He's of exhaustion, having
two little people and how my husband did a lot of
international travel. I was working part-time, but I
was otherwise a full-time mom and a part-time then p.
And then you know my old at novels are son developed
terrible X Sima. And I kept taking the
pediatrician and I kept asking, is it something?
I'm feeding him and it was like, no, no just use these high
potency topical corticosteroids and it'll be fine.
And I kept question maybe, he has food allergies, maybe we
should get that tested. So we finally took him and I
expected something benign. I mean, honestly, The the
allergist words to me were carry an EpiPen and pray and that was
not acceptable to me. And I felt so alone as a
healthcare provider because it all of a sudden you realize you
don't want to take your kid to a restaurant, you don't want to
take your into someone's house because you're fearful that
there could be cross-contamination, he has
peanuts and tree nuts, allergies.
And so I'm sure most of your listeners, know, only 30% of
children were out there allergies.
He's not part of that 30%. He at 16 years old, still has
life. These allergies and that really
got me thinking. And then there was a book I read
called the unhealthy truth. I'm a big proponent of reading
and I have probably in any one given point.
I'm probably have five books that I'm reading at one time,
but I read Robin O'Brien's book, The unhealthy.
Sure that it made me mad life. So angry when you start to
understand the interrelationship with how food is harvested,
what? Sprayed on it.
How that impacts our health and that that book is what started
it all. And so I really started to
second-guess everything I I was doing.
I started to, I was making my kit, all my kids food which is
tedious, but at that time, I have the time to be able to do
that. But really thinking do I want to
go back into an academic center? Hopkins was always trying to
recruit me to come and do my PhD and I just was like, I don't
know how to make that work. With two little people at home,
they need my, they need my focus and so it's just, you know, from
a class and University in Washington.
DC area went there and took one class and hated it which is not
which talking to denigrate. Anyone that is gone that route I
respected enormously Wasn't the right fit for me.
Then I did a wellness coaching program and that was it.
And then I read another book called ethiop's and that changed
everything. I reached out to the author, I
was like, where did you get your training?
This is exactly what lights me up.
And so I went down the rabbit hole of a functional nutrition
certification which then led to all this functional diagnostic
interpretation and testing which again let me up and then around
2016 I said to my husband I got out of bed I'll never forget it.
I did buy one morning without a business plan, so I don't
recommend this. I said, I can't do this anymore.
He's like, what are you talking about?
I said, I cannot write another prescription so Cardiology,
right. A lot of scripts, a lot whether
it's in clinic, or the hospital. So I feel so disconnected from
what I'm doing and it's I told the party line, when I was at
work, I did the evidence-based medicine, you know, the statins
for this, but that I did all of it.
And I started kind of getting in trouble at work because I would
start tinkering with Stanton doses because I was like, well,
we do Your total cholesterol to be 100 like that's a predictor
of morbidity and mortality. Like this is a problem, but I
walked into work that morning and I said this is not about
you, this is about me, I'm no longer growing intellectually
and this practice have been really good to me.
So I always want to be clear about that.
They when I tell you, they did everything they could to keep
me. And then some they were really
very generous but I just said this isn't right.
So on April 1st 2016, I left clinical medicine within out
without a business plan without any idea how I was going to
recreate. At the income I was no longer.
I no longer would have and the blessing of my husband, which is
pretty incredible. And within a year, I was
profitable and I made way more than I did as an NPC for anyone
that's listening thinking, you know, you can't replace that
income. I don't even, I think so
differently about where I was before and where I am now and my
relationship with money is very different and you know, I value
and respect people's time enormously, but, you know, the
kind of current Model at least where I was when I was having as
an example. When I went every year, we'd
have a review. I'm sure like most a year
review, sit down, everyone loves you.
They love everything about your work.
You're an exceptional, exceptional and P and there and
then you look at like what your power Leeper hours and I'm like,
this is not acceptable since I was like, wait a minute.
I know when I was an agency nurse in the ER I made more
money than this and I have more responsibilities now.
So, you know, for me, it was really the right decision.
It may not be the right decision for everyone else.
But I can tell you that becoming an entrepreneur allowed me to
grow and really powerful and profound ways that I would not
have been able to do. I'm an introvert and it's very
easy in medicine to hide as an introvert.
You control. When you walk in the patient's
room, you control when you walk into the patient exam room, you
control, you know how you interact with your patients all
based on your introverted self and then all of a sudden as
someone who is not why would not describe as an extrovert and you
have to completely grow some new skills because you can't get
your business. Out there and think that you're
going to be able to do that behind closed doors.
You really do have to change the trajectory of what you're doing
but that's like basically where it started from.
But I can tell you because a lot of the questions get you know,
so 2016 you left clinical medicine, 2017, you were growing
a business, you started attracting a very specific type
of woman. It was women, just like me who
felt really lost in the medical system, and you're done having
babies, you're not really dealing with contraception.
My husband's had a vasectomy, we're done, having kids, I'm not
an apostle, but there's this gray nebulous area and there's
no Focus. Yeah, Madison and women that are
north of 35, the really isn't the options are as follows, you
have heavy periods because your estrogen dominant.
So we're going to give you synthetic hormones.
We're going to give you an IED. We're going to ablate your
uterus or we'll just take it entirely, you know, it's like
time out. Not these are not options, but
so as I was kind of navigating things in 2016 and 2017. 2018, I
decided, I'm an introvert. I should do something that will
challenge me in a safe way. So I was like, I'm gonna do it.
Talk on my husband was like what I was like, yes, I'm gonna do it
at all and so that blows my mind that you did a TED talk in your
interview. Totally, I just terrible.
And you did a great job, like you just seem so comfortable at
their. Well, the great.
I mean, the irony is, I tend to I now have fixed this.
You know, I am work was speaking coaches who were like, you're
great, you just have to stop moving but for me and like the
nervous energy. So my first talk was on
perimenopause as embarrassing, is that is and then my second
was on a subject. I knew a lot about, but during
the actual First, Ted Talk. I remember, looking out in the
crowd saying this is exactly what I want to do because I was
connecting with so many more people.
That was the big thing for me was that I have the ability to
impact more people doing this than I ever did with, you know
my 15, 16 patients in cardiology, which that many on a
clinic schedules, a lot. Because Cardiology patients are
you don't generally get the I need to check your blood
pressure person, I would get that complicated.
I've been in the hospital for six weeks so the path that was
like mine or yeah. It's my bread and butter but now
I get to impact people in a different Level and I actually
genuinely love Jing and so what a nurses do better than anybody,
we take years. Yeah, that was really empowering
to be up there. And in between the oh my God, I
can't believe I'm doing this because I'm an introvert.
It was like, this is kind of cool and so that's that's
initially where that kind of, that was the direction.
Things went in and then, obviously, in 2019 things
changed. It's like, you know, it's like
what happened in 2019? Well, before I did my second Ted
Talk, I went on a vacation with my husband, came back, got home,
when I know, is I got it. I thought I picked up a stomach
bug, you know, it's like I guess trying to write it.
Oh, no. By the next afternoon.
I was like something's seriously wrong.
I had really really significant substantial worse than labor,
abdominal pain. And so I called my primary care
provider and she's like, you realize, you need to go to the
ER, and I was like, no, no. What I want to go to the
governor's. Princess.
Exactly. I'm like, I don't want to go, I
don't know. This is going to pass.
She's like, no, it's not. You've been, you know, you've
been at you've had pain for over 12 hours.
So I got to the ER, I could not sit still and so all of us as
clinicians when a Shane has this impending sense of Doom.
You take it seriously and I looked at the nurse who was not
taking me seriously because my vitals weren't all that bad.
I just couldn't, I was so uncomfortable.
I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand, I was walking the halls.
I didn't look all that bad and so I said to her, if you don't
figure out what's wrong with me, I'm going to die.
And then all of a sudden, you know, they do labs and then my
white count was almost 20,000 and then it was like an
emergency CAT scan and then it was an emergency surgical
consult. And so it turned out that I had
a ruptured appendix and I have pan colitis a whole length of My
colon was inflamed and the surgeon looked at me and I
remember this very clear at like, 11:00 p.m. so it had taken
like forever. I mean, it seemed like it took
forever. She said, if I take you to
surgery tonight, I have to take your call.
When I said time out, you're not taking my colon.
She's like, you don't need your phone.
I was like, oh no. I need my:.
I need my colon. So I begged them to let me write
it out to be able to get to a point where I could be in a
better position surgically but then it was like a Cascade of
complications. And for anyone listening there's
nothing worse than A healthcare provider knowing you're sick, as
you are and then you have one complication and I've never
other than hypothyroidism. I don't have any health issues
then I developed a small bowel obstruction.
So being a tiny person. I went from being a tiny person
to looking six months pregnant and then it was like, I had peer
retroperitoneal abscesses and I had official, I mean it was like
every side effect were untoward expectation related to this
shirt appendix. And even my surgeon like I had
five Specialists, Amy, I was sick a stink.
And I remember the whole first week, all I did was vomit which
eroded all the enamel on my teeth, which a little suffering.
Yeah. Like a whole separate thing, but
I remember when they're putting the NG tube down, I was like, I
didn't care, I am so sick, I do not even care.
But there was a point of which, and I say this to people that my
patients would tell me that sometimes they felt a degree of
spiritual awareness. Something change something
shifted for them, and I do feel around a 5 when I was depressed
because I was like, I knew I was really sick.
And my surgeon was seeing me three times a day, which is Lat,
I was take something has to give, but everything felt like
this virtual. You know, whether you believe in
God or you don't, I was given a choice.
And I was like, I have two young boys.
I am not willing, this is not it for me, but if I'm going to
choose to live, I'm going to look big.
And so, I left the hospital, after 13 days, I went home with
a ruptured appendix, a drain a central line and I prepared for
that second, Ted Talk. I went home for the first week.
I did nothing but sleep and I lost 15 pounds.
I look disgusting like Like I tell people all the time, the
camera really does add 15 pounds because I look at that second
chance off. I'm like I look fairly normal
but I was so skinny and so 27 days after I left the hospital I
did that second Ted Talk and honest to God when I stepped off
the stage I said to my coach because they had a coach is
assigned to I said that's the worst talk I've ever done
because they were very specific about keeping us to our time,
not allowing us to go over and so I skipped over a whole chunk
of stuff, I was going to talk about but it's amazing to me
that my brain despite having been so sad.
Adnan process. The trauma of being in the
hospital and allowed me to remember and commit to memory
that entire talk it up there and execute it.
And I went home and said this is great.
I did this talk. Check the box.
I told my kids were going to have this great summer.
I'm going to disconnect. And what happened was, exactly,
one of your three years ago yesterday, the talk went viral
and then it changed everything. And then there was no like
laid-back summer for my kids, it changed everything.
I mean, it changed. Absolutely positively
everything. So, When we talk about Journeys
and we talk about people see, it's almost like the iceberg
mean if you see that people see just the bright shiny to
Chinatown, they don't see all the hard work behind the scenes.
And so I always tell people like, I have worked very hard to
get where I am, but people just see the bright shiny and I
always say there's so much more to it, but I do think through
great adversity comes great opportunity and this is
something really worth emphasizing to your listeners.
That we all have stuff that happens like every single one of
us had But what do you do when it gets hard?
Like for me I am stubborn like I am still going to do that talk.
I am still going to motor through that and I'm so glad I
did because I really think had I not done that, I wouldn't be
worried. So it's like all these dots kind
of aligned now and now it all makes sense to me, and then it
was like, I made a series of very calculated decisions
throughout 2019 and 2020. And we have a pandemic.
There's a lot of things that shifted in my business and I'm
so grateful that I was all online already because I can, I
Like the last two years have been phenomenal, tell everyone
that sometimes the universe kind of guide you in a certain
direction but I think for a lot of us like I'm a very much an
intuitive person. Like whatever makes me feel
energetically very aligned and makes me feel good.
I generally will kind of lean in that direction and is definitely
certain so much to unpack right there.
But the bottom line and I think the takeaway is that you
decided. At one point you had this moment
where you were just like, I am going to go big or go home.
And it's just this, I think this is so huge and I want more
nurses to see this and to feel this in to embrace this,
whatever it is, that's bringing you Joy.
Whatever it is that you think this is what I'm supposed to be
doing. Go do it now.
Don't wait, don't delay because you don't know, like, you were
healthy. You were thin.
You had. Why did this happen?
How did this happen? You're living this lifestyle
you're involved in what you're eating and yet, it can still
happen to you. You can still be on the brink of
this. Is it?
Like, oh my gosh, like how was I here in Hawaii?
Now, I'm fighting for my life and it's a scary place.
I have a couple questions, one of which they didn't take your
appendix. So did they eventually take it?
Did you eventually have surgery or no, you know so I had my
appendix I did my second a talk with a ruptured appendix.
So I always say like I probably am the only person that's ever
done a TED talk with a ruptured appendix.
The irony is four days before they finally pulled my drain out
like I had to think about what was I going to do?
If I had to go do this talk? Talk with a drainage like, was I
going to tape it to the inside of my leg so people couldn't
see. I mean, it was like, we'd all
these crazy thoughts that, like, by some miracle official had
fixed itself. I think, on a lot of levels that
for me, it was like, reassuring. I was like, okay, I did the Ted
Talk and then ten days later and my appendix out, and, and my
surgeon who was amazing, said to me, my body had totally walled,
it all off. Like it had protected me and
not, and she had said, it's not a question of if, but when it
would have created, like she was concerned, I was gonna have a
even greater problem, but she and I had like ice In her office
postoperatively, because in the other thing was that, I guess
she had seen a lot of appendix Cancers.
And so my parents obviously I wouldn't have my appendix
percentile for biopsy. So I was thrilled to know that
there was no evidence of any cancers but she said, had you
not been as healthy as you were. I'm not sure you would have had
the same outcome, which to this day gives me chills because I
kept saying, I'm just so grateful.
Like she was such a good surgeon, she never gave up and
she tried to owner because I said, please do not.
I don't want, I don't want to Elect me.
I don't want to cost me back. Can you imagine to?
I mean if that would have been the case, I would have accepted
it. But with that being said, I was
so grateful that I had such good care and that I had such a
talented team. I mean, it was like the irony
was when they had to call Interventional Radiology and in
the middle of the night, like, it just so happened.
The one guy who knew how to put this particular type of drainage
just happened to be who's on call and I was like there's no
quinces so so I think for people if we said that are listening,
our health is wealth. Had I not been Is healthy and
sometimes nurses do such a, we do herself, such a disservice of
not take it, we take care of everyone else and then we don't
take care of ourselves and so this is really like Health as
well. It is a currency, it is zoned
for especially metabolic health and and I'm sure that will
probably touch on this that it distresses me when I look at
statistic over what's changed since 1997, when I started in
health care versus now, I mean, it's a whole new world that is
very different and so much to your point.
Oh yes. Yes, the appendix came out and I
very happy showed all of my all of my photos on Instagram.
But the one thing that was interesting for me was, you
know, when patients and patients would tell me, that's over the
years. But now I understand it.
The trauma of being in a hospital like the, you do get
some degree of PTSD. When they told me, when I needed
to have surgery, I had to go back and back to the meno are
not that the Outpatient Center. I just saw my poor surgeon was
like, what's wrong? That's what we want you to be.
I'm like, no, no, no, she was like well, Wanted to anticipate.
If there is a problem, we can just set it that you.
And I was like, no, no. There will be no problems.
I'm going to, I'm going home. I'm going home, I'm not staying
another night in the hospital, but it provides a lot of empathy
for things that patient shared with me over the years, when
people would wake up and they're like, what happened to me the
last two weeks, what, you know, and just the degree of
gratitude. I have for had a lot of good
nursing care, and I had some not-so-good nursing care, but
the really good nursing care. I had.
They were my lifeline. Yeah.
How incredibly right? Full, I was, and I'm still in
touch with almost all of them like we all stayed connected,
which was really, really, really cool.
So special. So, one of the things that I
wanted to talk to you about, and again, this is kind of
intersecting in between, are some of the other questions?
I typically, ask my, guess you talked about right then.
And there just a couple slides ago about the metabolic syndrome
that's been affecting nurses. And, and for me, I know a lot of
my listeners are African-American Hispanic and I
know that there's not a lot of options.
I feel like I'm watching My fellow African American and
Puerto Rican. Hispanic women just getting
larger and larger every year and it breaks my heart as I see this
and they're walking around with all this extra weight.
And you wrote this book about intermittent fasting.
I've read it, it's fantastic, the teen walk-in my baby.
I'm like listening, you know, and all the literature because I
had a pretty pretty serious complication with the birth of
my son, I had gestational diabetes and then he was born,
macro soumik just large. And I was, and I've never been a
big girl. I've always been quote unquote
skinny in a size, four to six, you know, I was always fine but
when he was born and he was in the ICU for four days dropping
his blood sugar hypoglycemia, they're talking about me going
home and leaving him in the hospital because he can't
regulate his blood sugars. I began, I had this aha moment I
had this the same moment that you have, as I'm laying there,
cut open and they pulled him out because I couldn't get him out.
I had the same moment of I'm sick, like, even though I know
I'm, well, it actually makes me emotional.
Think about it, but I just remember laying in the hospital
and just being, like, I'm sick. Like, even though I'm not fat,
there's something inside of my cells inside my body.
That's not well, and I began to dive into a similar, you know,
story that you're sharing or read a book that talked about
diet and exercise. And I was and it's by a guy
named Mike Adams, and it's kind of, whoo.
Whoo. Whoo and people are like, oh,
whatever. Hey guys, thanks for listening
to the podcast. I hope you're enjoying the
conversation. I want to take a second to
remind you guys to join the doctor nurse podcast, email
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get back to the conversation but I was like I had no idea that
these were thoughts. That people felt about food and
nutrition. I just went deep and I love your
book because it touches on every single thing that I've spent the
last three years of his life, trying to get a handle on, I've
lost 20 pounds pre-pregnancy. So I was I'm skinnier than I've
ever been and it's because I've been implementing the things
you've been talking about in your book.
And so I want to touch on a little bit about what
intermittent fasting is and really what the benefits are for
anyone black white asian, whatever your race.
His background is, this can change your life and so if you
would kind of touch on that a little bit for my listeners, I
would be happy to. But I also want to acknowledge
what you have been through. I think our children can be our
most powerful motivator to really reflect on.
Are we doing the best for us? You know, that's, that's always
the thing. So I and I can see, you know,
the emotion in your face as you're sharing that story.
And I'm so, so grateful that you are in a position now where you
can help, educate others about taking better care of
themselves. So when I'm thinking, Being
about intermittent fasting and especially for women and this is
really the first book that is written specifically for our
unique needs. I would say we are not many men,
we should not apologize for our physiology and I do agree with
you that there is a not enough being done to talk about
metabolic Health. But when we're speaking about
what intermittent fasting is it's just as easy as eating less
often, and it's really strategically aligned with our
menstrual cycles. There are times in our cycle, we
should fast. There are times when we should
not. I think That for every woman
that's listening that is curious about intermittent fasting.
It's sometimes easiest to incorporate it in the philic,
Euler phase of our menstrual cycles.
Through from the day, we start bleeding up until ovulation.
And for those of you that don't have regular Cycles, if it makes
it easier to align, with the lunar calendar.
But I do encourage women and I'm just going to be my caveat.
I know more about the menstrual cycle.
Now, as a 50 year old woman, then I ever did, when I was
younger, when I had Cycles regularly, Etc.
So, I think it's important on all of us, understand like
what's happening with our bodies during her menstrual cycles and
to understand for a lot of people that have a regular
Cycles, it's often times related to an imbalance between the two
big players, estrogen and progesterone.
And if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS and 25%
of those women are thin. So, it is not just an issue with
women that are overweight or obese.
It's really important, understand what you can do to
support your body and I want to make sure I also talked about
the fact like Really. Look at the statistic.
We know that there is a neglected in terms of our Focus
as Healthcare Providers on or underserved population.
So I'm thinking about people, that might be in the inner city
or they could be in rural areas. But your respective, we look at
the data if we're looking at different like racial breakdowns
of a piece of those that are becoming increasingly overweight
and obese, it is disproportionately impacted by
Hispanic and African-American women.
And we can't have a conversation without speaking to this fact.
That we need to be doing better for all of our female patients.
We need to be having conversations earlier.
Meaning, you know, we don't wait till someone's diabetic way
before them. We look at a fasting insulin.
Now, this is something I probably ten times a day.
Tell people, I don't care if your A1C is okay.
And you're fasting, glucose isn't too bad.
What's your fasting insulin? What's your fasting leptin?
Because more often the first biomarker that Des regulates is
insulin, okay? So intermittent fasting amazing
strategy for women that are still getting their And so
cycle. 35, and under you really do have to be careful because
your body is primed for procreation, if you're choosing
not to have children right now or ever north of 35 up to 50
perimenopause, this is a time of it's like reverse puberty.
There's no other way to describe it.
They have to fast differently because they have you know,
their adrenals are helping to buffer.
The progesterone that is not being secreted by the ovaries
and so I remind women at this time.
Sleep counts type of exercise counts.
Lament or nutrition Etc. And then menopausal women 12
months of the menstrual cycle, your their little bit more like,
then in that they don't have as much flux day-to-day
week-to-week. However, the lifestyle piece is
still critically important but in terms of benefits, so
obviously people come to intermittent fasting because
they're curious about changing body composition, weight loss
Etc. But there's so many amazing
benefits. So, first and foremost, the
thing that stood out to me first, the end of one was I so
much more energy because when insulin levels are low in the
body, guess what? And you free up stored fat, that
helps fuel your brain and our brain loves fat.
And there's a particular one called beta-hydroxybutyrate the
that kind of diffuses across the blood-brain barrier which we all
know about. So energy is number one mental
Clarity, what woman doesn't want, more mental Clarity or man
for that matter. More mental Clarity or, you
know, more energy. I think about something called
at often gee. You know, we're at the Crux of
two years of a pandemic etapa G. Is this process we're learning
unfed state where our body goes in.
And recycles and gets rid of disordered organelles
mitochondria Etc. It is like taking out the trash
but this doesn't happen when you're eating all day long and
what have we been telling our patients for years snacks?
Many meals. Stoke your metabolism exactly
we're just making our patients fat so that's completely that's
completely an error. So it's Hoffa gee, I think about
reducing our risk of certain types of neurocognitive
disorders Alzheimer's Parkinson's Etc.
Now I want to just speak about Alzheimer's.
There's a lot of good research coming out.
That's talking about Equally to women in middle age, that it's
the loss of estradiol signaling in the brain along with some
progesterone and testosterone. They can fuel the degree of
insulin resistance that drives type 3 diabetes, which is all
timer. So you want to take this very
seriously. It also reduces your risk of
developing certain types of cancers.
We know that it improves your biophysical markers.
We know that hypertension is a direct relationship with insulin
resistance. It is not just too much salt in
your diet. You know, you really look at the
research, that's not what it shows.
Shows so high, blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL.
You know, when we look at LDL, looking at particle size, just
looking at those biomarkers, they can all fasting glucose.
Can all be improved upon by eating less frequently.
I think about reduction in inflammation.
Now people you know, this is unfortunate because a catch-all
phrase inflammation, oxidative stress.
The lot of is the byproduct of our lifestyles and so again,
eating less often removing inflammatory foods which I know
can be very triggering. So I'm gonna try to skate by
that issue but those are like the big I think about, but for a
lot of women in particular, the focus is on the weight loss and
the changes in body composition but I've had many women who all
of a sudden struggle with infertility that when they lose
weight, they aren't struggling with Avila ovulatory disorders
people that have PCOS that if you know cured themselves from
PCOS because they ask you know this ovulatory disorder is or
luteal phase defect is is better supported in the body.
So I think there's a lot of benefits but I would say women
have to do it differently. Post.
An apostle women and men can generally do most days.
Otherwise women, if they're still cycling have to really
focus in on the follicular phase and really backing off of it on
the luteal phase. Yeah.
So one of the things that I love about your book and the reason
why it's something that I really want to start pushing more to,
I'm going to just give it to my mom.
I'm giving it to everybody because I really feel like women
aren't encouraged. Like, there's all this
literature out there. A lot of people like, talking
about intermittent fasting with women and how we shouldn't.
We need a certain level of fat in our body because, you know,
we've got all these hormones and I love how you touch on these
things. You actually kind of tailor make
where people are on their journey of life and you're like,
this is the kind of intermittent fasting, you should be doing.
This is when you should, this is when you shouldn't and it's so
helpful and you give up, you have a PDF that's like so big
and so large. But full of like recipes and
meal plans and it's you can just follow it for 45 days.
It's incredible. I walked away from your book
feeling like this is so doable. This is something that would
help every single person, every single The woman and man, who
was looking for how to do intermittent fasting safely and
to really be able to clear out some of the junk, in their
Pantry, get in there and figure out what to eat, what's the
right Foods. What should I be choosing?
What should I all the questions? That people ask around it?
I feel like you just you touch on every single subject.
Like I wish I would have read this 15 years ago, I really do
because it would have where would I be?
Now I would be in such a different place and since I've
implemented a lot of the things that you talk about in the book,
Don't have joint pain. I have endometriosis and that I
wasn't supposed to get pregnant and so I'm able to change
things. My periods are regular now and
they weren't before like, these are things that I struggle with.
I was taking birth control and ended up getting a rare super
rare side, effect from birth control.
And so nobody wants did the work that you're doing, which is what
are you eating? I mean, mac and cheese and hot
dogs and all the other things that were just easy.
Every kid ate them. I poured milk over my cereal
that then I poured sugar on like That's what I did growing up
because that's what we all did. And I know again, we weren't
very wealthy, but I also feel like that was just when I talked
to my husband and they're kind of the same economics, you know,
status of family life. You were like, yeah, I did that
too. And I'm like, cat, poor
Kool-Aid, and poured, three cups of sugar in the cool.
I like it was just what we did and it's a changing of your
mindset. And again, once you see the
information you stare at it you can't look at the world the same
way that changes you. And I think I agree with you.
So wholeheartedly Thank you for all the wonderful accolades and
this is the book. I wish I had before I went on a
pause. In fact, I tell people all gone
because I have, you know, the book is now being translated
into Chinese and German and Spanish and there's a check,
there's a check dialect, it's being translated into which is
really cool. But it also speaks to the fact
that we are missing opportunities with our patients.
And if you were teaching the same Dogma to your patients that
you learn 20 years ago, it is time to wake up because most of
what I was taught and I went To arguably a top five, if not top
one or two, in the country program, where you know, they do
some Cutting Edge stuff and I tell people all the time, like I
had to unlearn you know, that sounds bad and then if you go
down the rabbit hole of looking at the seven, you know, the
seven countries study. You look at ancel keys and how
the the focus was made was chosen to focus on vilifying
fats over vilifying sugar. They knew back in the 1950s that
sugar was the culprit and so we have a nation.
It has, unfortunately, gotten addicted to highly processed
hyper. Palatable Foods, we have serious
issues with metabolic health and the last big study that I looked
at from 2018, which is pre-pandemic.
You know, this is from UNC Chapel Hill, it's probably
worse. Now is eighty eight, eighty
percent of Americans are metabolically inflexible and so
for every person that's listed listening, you have a
responsibility to you and your patients to get yourself healthy
because we will serve as an example.
Like that is one thing that Witter is really the manosphere
but it's a really kind of great place to get a pulse pulse sense
of what's going on in the world. And it's amazing how a lot of
these guys it. Because again, it's the
manosphere they'll talk about the fact that you know, they'll
do in to see their healthcare provider in there.
Like my healthcare provider isn't healthy and how can they
give me advice about lifestyle changes when they themselves
aren't listening to what they're doing?
And so I've I'm a take some heat for that, but we really do have
a responsibility to be talking to not only ourselves in In real
about like what are we not doing in our diets?
Or what are we doing in our lifestyle?
It no longer serves. That's why I prioritize sleep.
IE I would say, carnivore wish I plenty of non-starchy
vegetables. I had a lot of animal-based
protein. It is.
So the antithesis of what I used to teach my patients, snacks
mini-meals heart, healthy grains, Dairy is benign, no, no
dear. He's okay if you tolerate it,
but it should be full fat, it should only draw.
If you tolerate raw cheese, you know, give her this garbage of
like heart healthy grains. You need more.
Or animal-based protein. You need to don't buy and what
Bill Gates is trying to push in his agenda.
I'm sorry, make me I know it's all the time.
Like he should be an example of why you don't want to eat fake
meat because he has man boobs. He has some guy domestic.
Yeah, I was like yes gynecomastia people which is man
boobs. I moved boobs.
And so I think that it's really important.
Like, like, let's be honest. Like the things that I teach my
patients and clients to do or things I do myself, is it sexy
to go to bed earlier? No.
Is it sexy that I meal prep? Is it sexy that see that?
I look at the back of everything for seed oil.
Like sunflower oil, this has soybean oil and like, people are
like, can you just eat it? I'm like, no, that's in it.
I'm not eating this. Like that's that is not-it's,
not fun. Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with
you. I've now the person in my
family. People are like, okay, we're
going to go get organic. Meet Cassandra won't eat.
I'm like, I won't like, I just won't anymore.
Yes, once you see it, like you're describing you just
start. Like, I can't I can't do this
anymore and I will be that person.
That's like I'll just eat before and come.
Yeah, how about that? You know, and here's something
like super easy if people are listening and they're like this
is blowing my mind. If you do nothing else, read
food labels and don't consume seed or vegetable oils it'll get
that is little get rid of most if not all what's in the grocery
store. We know the number one fat
consumed. The United States right now is
soybean isn't that sad? Ya know when you see what it
does like the Omega you talk about this in your book, The
omega-3, and omega-6 ratio, and how it is dramatically changed
throughout history from like a one-to-one ratio.
I think you said to like, 62 water.
You had some funny, it's unbelievable 20, that's what you
said 1220. I was like, whoa, like we are so
out of balance and so we can't blame just one thing.
But what's the one thing that we do every day?
Hopefully, if you're the following a fasting diet, 2
times David for not passing, you're eating it three to six
times a day, we're doing it six times a day.
What are we doing? Were eating and one of the
questions I wanted to ask in this is just for me, personally,
I wear glucose monitor because of what happened with my son,
and I know the now I'm at risk for type 2 diabetes.
On top of the fact that I have a family history of type 2,
diabetes. And I know a lot of
African-Americans, they're in the same boat.
I know, I'm not the only African-American female who has
a grandmother and a grandfather with diabetes, have a father
with diabetes. And now I just had gestational
diabetes, despite thinking I was okay with my weight standpoint.
Now that your doctor my life, I'm looking, and I'm thinking
type 2 diabetes, he's coming for me.
And so I wear glucose monitor and I pay for it out of pocket,
like I literally told my husband I'm like we're budgeting this
glucose monitor because I need to know what's going on every
single second of the day and when I'm finding and I wanted to
ask you, I will find spikes after eating what I think is a
pretty low carb meal. I'll have vegetables and you
know the chicken and I'll have that and I'll spite my blood
sugar will Spike especially if it's from a restaurant which I'm
very interesting and I think it's cooked and seed oil, it's
exactly what it is. So first and foremost I applaud
you for wanting to try and girl down that rabbit hole I would
say once you see you can't unsee.
So glucometer continuous glucose.
A if you are insulin resistant diabetic you should demand like
without question. And generally, they are covered
for the rest of us. We may have had a pocket, but I
tell everyone, if you don't go out to dinner at a restaurant
for a month or two that will more than pay for your CGM, and
I bet you that information will be valuable.
So yes, I do Trend information. Like, when I go out to
restaurants, I'm always curious to see something that seems
fairly benign. Like, I had a piece of fish and
some vegetables and if my CGM goes up I'm like so I always am.
Like, when I go to restaurants now, what do you cook your food
in? What is the dressing made with?
I mean, I am that person that occasion will bring pre-made
dressing with me, or I ask my kids, they just, you know,
they're teenagers. So, I'm totally.
Yeah, I'm totally embarrassing. However, I will be the first
person to say that this is one of many reasons why we try to
really be careful about where we eat out.
There's no judgment. If people want to, I'll be the
first person to say when I became an entrepreneur.
My husband took over meal prep because I just don't have the
same time and he does it works out.
Beautifully. But I think when we're talking
about metabolic Health, we're talking about, you know, knowing
what those numbers. Like, I was saying earlier,
everyone should have their fasting insulin, everyone should
have a fasting glucose. Everyone, that is listening, can
grab a tape measure and measure their, we circumference, you can
find out what your blood pressure is your triglycerides,
your ETL, all of, which are real and, you know, all of which are
really important. We talk about big metabolic
Health markers. I probably add in, like, things
like uric acid, and if you've read David perlmutter's book,
drop acid, so good. He was such an amazing and Such
an amazing interview like just blows my mind, he's brilliant
but for people to start, you know, demanding of your
healthcare provider like we are in a partnership and I
understand that this information is really important for me to
know, like, why are we waiting for people to develop diabetes,
people don't diabetes. It's a lifestyle mediated
process and if we aren't talking to our patients about sleep and
Stress Management and exercise and nutrition, then we shouldn't
be putting them on more medications because we are
failing them. Like, yeah, it is such an
important. Hortense caveat and for people
that you have family members that have had diabetes or you
yourself as I just a tional. Diabetes.
Does that mean that? There's some epigenetic pieces
at play. Possibly, does that mean that's
your destiny? Absolutely no, no.
I refuse to believe that. I don't know much the same
point. Like I'm a middle-aged woman and
there's this kind of conventional mindset of.
Oh, you're going to gain 5 10, 20 30 pounds in middle age and I
always say BS. Yeah, we know that as we are
transitioning from perimenopause and menopause, we become less
insulin. That loss of estrogen, estrogen
drives insulin, sensitivity, amongst other things.
And so, I remind people that's even more why you need to have
that CGM or a commoner. So, you understand, it could be
that you have a low carb lifestyle like I do.
But things like plantains. My body doesn't like I could eat
tropical fruits, till the cows come home but I need to plant a
my blood sugar spikes. So it's that by individuality
which is another thing we don't teach our nurses for advanced
practice nurses about like the whole concept of you could have
Ten patients and line them all up and they might all be able to
confirm necklace and might need different, you know,
distributions of protein, fat and carbs.
So you know dig deep and demand more of your Healthcare team.
Like I mean, I fired the GYN who said to me when I was early 40s
and I was in the throes of perimenopause?
Well, I pounds isn't a big deal. I said five pounds is a big
deal. If you're 5 foot 3, you know it,
because then if I chose becomes 10 pounds becomes 20 pounds,
becomes 30 pounds. And so that do me down this big
rabbit hole so that people could benefit.
From not making the mistakes that I was making in my early
40s. I will say this, what I could
talk to you all day about this stuff because I have dope so far
down. I'm likin it right?
And so it's something that I'm so passionate about but what
you're describing is it takes a really small Rudder to move.
A really big ship, those little five pounds even though it might
seem really small, it's taking you in a direction that if
you're not paying attention and I think a lot of women are feel
the same way. They're just not paying
attention. You're a busy mom.
You're struggling to get calories and you're just glad
that you Add something in your mouth because you just you've
been moving all day. And so I think bringing
awareness to that bringing awareness to wait a minute.
Hold on a second. Like I am heavier than I have
been. Like I had noticed that the time
when I had my son closer a little tighter, I did notice
these little things but I was so busy getting my doctoral degree
and doing all the other things that I didn't have time to
really focus and check in with myself.
And I think that's what you're encouraging people is.
So like check-in and the glucose monitor does that.
It makes you check in with yourself and see how you're
doing. And the only other, the one
question that we From a listener was she's been doing
intermittent fasting skipping breakfast and she still feels
like she's gaining weight. So could you maybe touch on that
real quick? Before we finish up the episode.
Oh this is this is definitely a rabbit hole.
There can be a lot of reasons why we're weight loss her
assistant. I remind women like what are you
consuming during your fasted State?
You know, I'm not a fan of dirty fasting.
So I tell people if you want to get the best results, you have
to be honest, like if you're having creamer, which is insulin
Enoch, if you are adding protein to your coffee like collagen,
Tides. I mean, these are the questions
I get every day. Copious amounts of, you know,
butter and MCT oil. Well guess what?
You might be doing something as innocuous as jury founding and
that could be driving it. But I think it also speaks to
what your Sleep Quality. How do you manage your stress
and especially if you are North as 35?
I hate to harp on this. There's nothing that prepares
you for how differently you have to live your life in middle age
and it's not bad. Like I don't, I'm not
complaining about it. I'm just saying, like, what?
I got away with the 20 and 30 is very different than what I do
now. So when someone is complaining
way, Resistance. The first things I think about
our are you clean fasting? Very, probably likely not number
two. How was your sleep?
Because your sleep is terrible and you wake up three times at
night and you're having hot flashes or just not sleeping.
Well, that's a problem Stress Management because we know we
have 40 times 40 times more cortisol receptors in our
abdomen. So if you're stressed out that
could be doing it. I think about like where are you
age-wise you know, are you on synthetic hormones?
Are you, you know, low estrogen low progesterone and so there's
a hormonal dysregulation. Remember I talked about labs Get
your lab checks, what's your gut health?
Like toxins your exposure? So there's a lot to unpack with
that but I would start with the clean fasting piece for that
young woman or a woman. Yes, it was young woman.
Yeah, I would start there. And then also like, how do you
structure your Macros during your feeding window?
If you're eating, like a car dense, diet, guess what?
Cute. You need protein.
You need protein for multiple things.
We are a nation of chronic under Eaters of animal-based protein.
So pushing those protein markers that have satiety help, the
muscle protein synthesis, really critically important.
And chain muscle mass especially as we're getting older.
So protein first facet they aren't part of that of that
protein and then non starchy carbs.
And I hate to say this for a lot of women, a lot of what gets
them into trouble as alcohol. It's not good for you.
And it's one of those things I was recently listening to, and
reading about how they're literally saying no alcohol is
the best way to consume alcohol and that they're finding even
one. Drink can increase your risk of
breast cancer and especially for one specially for women guys.
I got hammered on Instagram over the weekend by team decided to
release a real that we have talked about and the amount of
hate and people who were triggered by me saying, this is
what work doesn't work for me and most middle-aged women.
We have changes in liver detoxification.
We have changed jobs and hormonal just, you know,
regulation. Besides that's inflammatory.
And I mean that hate came out in the more from Healthcare
professionals which I will add no nurses, they didn't identify
themselves as a nurse, but there were a couple others and I was
just like, wow, this is very true.
For people I don't jack I don't pass judgment on those who do
but for me, it's the only thing I gave me hot flashes and
destructive my sleep and that tells you like in my world sleep
is absolutely critical. Yeah, and so that's a
non-negotiable but yeah, alcohol is one of those things we live
in a toxic like Diet culture and a toxic mommy culture, where
women are sloppy drunk. Yeah exactly.
They're sloppy drunk and I'm like, you know, there's no,
there's no judgment. I'm just saying observational,
you can see the culture habits. It's like, is it serving you?
Well, and Really examining your relationship with inflammatory
food, definitely. Yeah.
And if it's triggering, you is probably because there's
something deeper inside your soul that you need to look at.
And so, for the last question that I have on the podcast, I
ask all my interviewers. If you could go back and tell
Cynthia something at the start of her career for a new nurse
that starting off in her career Journey that she's like where do
I start? Where do I get going?
What would you go back and tell yourself oh gosh you know I feel
like being a people pleaser. That I was I stress myself out
so much wanting to like always be like the best nurse that SNP
and realizing we have training as nurses and then peas but you
do a lot of that training as a new NP and a new nurse.
And so I thought honest to God, I didn't sleep.
Well, the first six months, I was a new nurse or a new one
because I was so worried. I was going to make a mistake.
Hmm, so I would tell myself to relax because I was in, you
know, in each instance I was surrounded by people who wanted
me to see it and wanted to train me.
Me and all those things that the feeling stupid, the Imposter
syndrome, that we all experience.
That's very normal that will go away with time.
I probably would have told myself to stress a little less
because I was so conscientious which is not a bad thing, we
should all be conscientious, right?
I was always that person was like, you know, I couldn't stay
out late if I was working the next day because I want to make
sure I get a good night's sleep, but obviously I think it's fine
resources because I'm sure this probably hasn't changed.
I know, nurses can be hard on one another but flying resources
like I always had a friendly face.
Working in the ER, as a new nurse.
Like I was always made sure that I had a couple resources people
that I could go to whether it was a physician or another nurse
same thing as an MP. Stay connected to your, your
classmates. I can, honestly tell you that my
favorite, some of my favorite people in the world, are the
women that I did my nursing program with.
And then the women that I did my mp / when I mean, these are
women. Like, I talked to, we text
almost every day still to this day and I just think the world
of them. So stay connected to your peers
and then don't feel. They're like some of us choose
an area of medicine that we don't enjoy.
Come on, have to stay. I mean, do something else.
Like that's the one thing about nursing that doctors can't do
doctors. Can't just pick up and go to
another specialty. If you're in the ICU, hate it.
Try something else. Don't feel like you have to stay
in something that you don't like.
I mean, obviously I'm certainly an example of that.
But depending on where you are life stages, you may want more
excitement. You may want less and that's
totally okay. Yeah, no I think that's great
advice guys. Thank you so much for tuning.
To the podcast today. Cynthia, thank you for your
time. You're welcome, you're welcome.
Yeah, this was awesome. I hope that everyone got
something out of it and guys, check out her book, intermittent
fasting transformation, it is fantastic, I have read it.
I'm telling you for someone who has spent the time, everything
she's saying I have done and it has caused my joint pain to go
away and it's caused my blood sugar's to be normal and I look
wake up in a fasting blood sugar in the 80s and that's, that's
perfect. That's where I need to be, but
you can't, you can't make changes if you You don't see
where you are and you don't look at the reality because I've
actually had people message me and say you're wearing a glucose
monitor. I'm so scared.
I don't want to know and it's like, don't be afraid.
No, I can't more afraid of what you don't know.
Yeah, then what you see then, you can change it well and it's
all about reframing. If you know, what do you find?
It's going to empower you to make better decisions.
Yeah it does it changes you right?
When you go to eat that cupcake you're like I don't want to see
that Spike. Yeah, thank you Cindy.
I hope you're welcome to fill rest of your day.
Thanks you too. Mom and Dad.
I love you Mama. Bye.
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