274: How Lifestyle Medicine Supports Plant-Based Eating and Helps Heal Disease Naturally

Speaker 1: 0:58

Well, hello, sunshine. How I wish you were here with us right now, because I am experiencing some serious plant-based joy and I would love to share it with you. We've just been eating some of our famous brownie batter hummus from the Power On Plants Cookbook, and can I tell you it is so good. This is plant-based joy. Listen, if you have the Power On Plants Cookbook, I want you to make the brownie batter hummus. It is super simple to make. What we do a lot of times is we'll change up and instead of adding the peanut butter, we'll add a little almond butter and then drizzle a little bit of peanut butter over the top. Well, what if you can't eat that? What if you can eat seed butters instead? Well, you can make it with tahini or any nut butter you like, and then we usually use date syrup to make it and I really like that, but it's mostly just whole dates in it and then we'll drizzle a little bit of date syrup over the top. Can I tell you how good this is? Right now, finding your new favorites is totally where it's at.

Speaker 2: 1:56

And with the title being brownie batter hummus. Just cut the hummus off. You would never know it's hummus. Brownie batter dip Brownie batter dip Brownie batter dip.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Because I promise you, you will not know. It just tastes amazing. It tastes like brownies.

Speaker 1: 2:10

And if you don't have the Cookbook yet, you can grab a copy at PowerOnPlantscom forward slash cookbook and try it PowerOnPlantscom forward slash cookbook. You will not be sorry. I've intentionally set this up for you to succeed finding your new favorites in all these different areas. So it's not going to be just a book of mains If you're looking for that. That's not how I made it, because I know that you need to find a couple of new favorite drinks and some new favorite dips and salad dressings and you need some different main meals and you need some different side dishes and you need some desserts. You know we need desserts.

Speaker 2: 2:46

And some breakfast ideas.

Speaker 1: 2:47

And some breakfast ideas. Jared and I specialize in showing you how to eat the most nutrient, dense foods on the planet in the way that is simple and delicious and quick, so you don't spend so much time in the kitchen and you actually find plant based joy. You get those new favorites, you gain confidence in eating these foods and, before long, you're thriving in this new lifestyle. But what happens as a result of eating this way? We see it time and time again. Your blood levels start to come back to normal, your blood pressure starts to decrease, your sugar levels, if they were high, start to drop, and you need someone to help you manage those things Now. Perhaps your health care provider that you have right now is not supportive of a plant-based lifestyle. We're going to explain to you today what lifestyle medicine is. This is a specialty that many nurse practitioners, physician assistants and doctors have that train them in these different areas of healing your body naturally through lifestyle, and so maybe you're wondering what in the world is lifestyle medicine? I'd like to learn more about that. So today we're going to be sharing with you how lifestyle medicine can help you improve your health naturally. Hey sister, welcome to the Power On Plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do? Hi, we're shared in a need to resell Christ followers, health care professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food. We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers to traditional routes. So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant based living. The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods, and it's not hard. You just need the way. That's realistic and delicious, so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started. Hey, sunshine, we love helping you out, especially when it comes to learning how to heal naturally so you can feel better and live your God giving calling. What do you eat? How do you create your old favorite dishes in a new way that's going to actually love your body back? How do you save time and effort in the kitchen so that you can get out there and live your life with your body healed, feeling good and thriving? That's what Jared and I specialize in helping you learn how to do. But maybe you're thinking you know I need a local physician to follow me, and let me tell you that's a great idea, especially if you have any kind of diagnosis that you're dealing with. Because what Jared and I see all the time when we're working with our clients is you're feeling better, your blood levels are coming back to normal. You need somebody who can follow that and who knows how to support you along your plant based journey. So maybe you're wondering is there a certain type of provider that I should look for that can do these things? Who would help me lower my medications as necessary, who would support me in this journey to healing naturally? This is such an important thing for you and there is actually a specialty that does that, and the specialty is called lifestyle medicine. Jared actually happens to be specialized as a lifestyle medicine physician assistant. His actual title is lifestyle medicine professional and it's an interesting journey about how he got certified in lifestyle medicine. As many of you know, I was very sick about 12 years ago now. I always say 10 years ago, but years have passed me by. I've been about 12 years ago now that I was so sick and I just didn't know what to do. I had low energy, I didn't feel good. Go back and listen to episode one If you want to hear my story. It was such a struggle and over the course of the years we dug into research and learned what to do and tried to figure out how do we change the foods, how do we change these things in such a way that we can heal our bodies naturally and feel good. We thought we were eating healthy.

Speaker 2: 7:17

Well, and the first step was actually figuring out. It was the food. Now we thought we were doing better, we did make some changes and we thought that was the key, but then we later found out that we still weren't doing quite enough.

Speaker 1: 7:29

Yeah, you find that out real quick when you feel so bad you can't even go up one flight of stairs to take your kids into bed at night. That's a bad place to be. When you're in your early 40s that's not good at all. So we're so thankful we got through that. We figured these things out, but in the process Jared got so frustrated because the original reason that Jared went to become a physician assistant and I became a nurse was to actually help our patients feel better because their health struggles were going away. We wanted to help them, get rid of them, not manage them long term. That's not our idea of healthcare. That's sick care and that's not what we want to do. We knew from the very beginning we wanted to help people feel better. That's why we went into our fields of medicine and nursing. It just makes sense, right? You? definitely went to manage symptoms. That just wasn't the dream.

Speaker 2: 8:22

No, definitely was not the dream and you know, looking back at when we first started our training, it just was what it was. I mean, we went through, we learned what we learned because that's what the authorities told us, our professors, the body of medicine, the body of nursing and they said this is how you treat high blood pressure, this is how you treat diabetes. We went into it wanting to make our patients' lives better and we thought this is how you do it. But then once you go into it and you realize I'm not really making a difference as far as the trajectory of this disease. They still have this disease process but, like you said, we're just managing it. We're hoping that we manage it well enough to improve their longevity, improve the quality of their life, but still you're not really curing it, you're not reversing it. And I don't even remember being frustrated. Sometime in my career, maybe about 10 years into it, I'd gone to a conference and I think we've shared this story before where I remember sitting in on a lecture at a conference where this gentleman, very intelligent, talking about high blood pressure and the different medications you would use to manage that, given the level of the disease, and I really felt like we're looking at okay, if the fire is this size, we use this type of fire extinguisher, but if it's bigger, then we use these two fire extinguishers combined, and one is red and one is green and we're managing all these fires by just putting them out. But all the while I had that mental imagery that, even though you're putting out the fires, that field is still getting burned. There's still damage going on. We don't have a vibrant field of foliage and plants and whatever else is growing there, it's still burning down even though the field is there. And I really feel like that was one of the turning points where I thought we've got to be able to do better than this. It's got to be something else other than just managing and putting out fires.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Yeah, I remember you came home from the conference and you said to me we've got to stop flicking the matches. People have got to understand.

Speaker 2: 10:27

If they could just stop flicking the matches, but they don't know If we stop the fire in the first place, not just keep putting them out, not just trying to find a better fire extinguisher.

Speaker 1: 10:38

And it's not your fault. You don't know what you don't know, but if you've been around here any time and you're listening to all these episodes, you know steps you can take and you know it's making a huge difference. We have testimony after testimony all the time, and this is why nutrition is the first pillar in lifestyle medicine. We're going to go over these pillars with you today. It makes such a huge difference when you have a provider who can support you in all of these areas of healing, with lifestyle at the center of it all.

Speaker 2: 11:08

And I think the next big turning point was discovering lifestyle medicine. Looking at my own situation, it's interesting because I feel like I accidentally stumbled upon my life's passion here. I talk about this with my patients all the time. We talk about different issues, but when I start talking about lifestyle medicine the foods we eat and some of the other pillars of lifestyle medicine I get very animated and I talk a little bit more at length and then I kind of joke with them. Can you tell them passionate about this? And they laugh and say, oh yeah, I can definitely tell.

Speaker 1: 11:43

Because we know it brings healing. I mean, when you work in this area and you want people to get well and it's your heart's desire and you see them just getting sicker and struggling and you have side effects and more side effects from other medications, that you've got to take new medications for those side effects and then all of a sudden you realize, hey, instead of taking pills for this, I could just eat these certain types of food, and my big thing is learning how to eat those foods in a way that make you well. You mean, there's something I can actually do based upon the lifestyle I'm living. The way I live can actually affect the outcome of my life, absolutely. It is huge. This can change everything for you.

Speaker 2: 12:22

And if you're listening to this and you feel like, okay, I've not discovered the principles of lifestyle medicine, but I feel like I'm kind of in that vortex where I have something going on. I'm being managed with medications, but maybe I have a side effect and it's causing problems, and then I have that managed with the medication. You almost feel like a managed train wreck, right, right, so it's managed, but it's still a train, right?

Speaker 1: 12:45

right. But you're in the right place because you're already looking into eating plant based. We're so proud of you for that. Maybe you're all different yeah, and you're all different parts of your journey. Maybe you've been here with us for a while and you've heard all the episodes, started putting things in the practice. You've come into the membership, you're into the course, you're doing this stuff and you're seeing your life change. You reverse diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. You've gotten the usage of your fingers back in. Your rheumatoid is not flaring up anymore your reflex that you have for 14 years and you had to take next in, for you thought you'd be on it for life it's gone. This is how important what you put on your plate can be. So there are six areas that lifestyle medicine focuses on and, jaren, I want you to be aware of what those six different pillars are. The first one, of course, is nutrition, because it's the most important in our mind, and the reason jaren I focus on this first tenant of lifestyle medicine is first pillar is because it is the foundational pillar. When you get your nutrition right, it affects the other five pillars of lifestyle medicine. These are the things that the doctors, the nurse practitioners, the physician assistants in lifestyle medicine will help you with and support you in. So we're here to help you get all those little pieces of how do I eat right? What do I need to have on my plate? How do I take this cauliflower and broccoli and grain and how do I make it into something that actually tastes good? So I'm not just throwing a bunch of stuff together and I don't really like how it tastes because that's not how I'm used to eating.

Speaker 2: 14:21

And let's just be honest, we focus on this because this is your superpower, because it can improve your energy. It can reverse disease where you feel like getting out and being with people or you feel like getting out and actually moving. We know it's foundational because it can have the biggest impact to then lead into those other pillars of lifestyle medicine.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Yes, so we're going to quickly describe what these other pillars are, and I'm going to let them lifestyle med pro do that.

Speaker 2: 14:53

The other five pillars of lifestyle medicine are physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, social connection and avoidance of risky substances, and I think that the title of each of those really says it all but stuff like physical activity.

Speaker 1: 15:10

Move more.

Speaker 2: 15:11

I just say move.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Just get to move in like you don't want to be thinking about. I've got to get to the gym and I hate working out. Just get your body moving more. Park farther away, take the stairs, walk faster up the stairs, find an activity that you love and a new friend or an old friend to enjoy it with.

Speaker 2: 15:31

Maybe do some active dance.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Turn on some music exactly love and dance. I've been doing more that lately and I will tell you it is quite the workout.

Speaker 2: 15:39

Do some different things you've never tried before. Maybe go skipping rope, use a hula hoop, I mean anything. Get creative and try new things, because if you can make it fun, you can make it different. It adds to the excitement of that and you'll be more likely to keep doing it and you may find something new that you just absolutely love. Like we've tried pickleball. We love pickleball, it's a lot of fun, so it's something new and different. Explore. Don't just get stuck on one or two dishes, so to speak, like we do with food. Branch out, try new things. Next would be stress management. Why is this important? Because you can eat all the broccoli in the world, you can have the absolute best diet, but if you live your life in a way that is stressed to the absolute maximum, it's going to kill you.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Right.

Speaker 2: 16:27

It's going to harm your health. It's eventually going to sabotage your efforts to lead that long, prosperous, vibrant life that you want to live.

Speaker 1: 16:35

And there's so many things you can do to decrease stress that are just not hard to do, but you have to be intentional about doing that, like slowing down, taking some things off your plate that somebody else could help you with, breathing deeply, having grace with yourself If you're a new mom, that's big. Right, have some grace with yourself. If you're a new mom or you're going through a life change or something like that, you know, don't be so hard on yourself and expect yourself as a type A person I don't know if there are any other ones out there. If you're type A, you can run yourself into a hole. Who's going to take care of you if you don't take care of you?

Speaker 2: 17:13

And reframing your thoughts, getting a better handle on what the situation is, because sometimes we may think a situation is worse than it actually is. So our bodies have responded to that physiologically, as though it were the way we thought. Even if it wasn't, we thought oh my goodness, I'm going to get fired, I'm going to lose my job, I'm going to be homeless. And then, lo and behold, your boss never says anything, right, they maybe didn't notice this little mistake that you thought was catastrophic, and now the company's going to go broke. So if we can get a better handle and reframe some of these things, that will help too.

Speaker 1: 17:46

I just think about how we do blow so many things out of proportion. I mean, we think worst case scenario and then we just go with it. Like, even when it comes to adopting whole food, plant-based eating, if you come at it with the attitude of I can't or it's not going to work for me, it's like we talk about changing your I can't thoughts to how can I? That is going to greatly reduce your stress because you're going to be looking for different things. You're going to see the positive instead of the negative.

Speaker 2: 18:15

Start flexing those creative muscles in your mind.

Speaker 1: 18:18

These things can make all the difference for you. And the fourth pillar is restorative sleep. We all know how important sleep is. Sleep can affect your hunger. Did you know that sleep can affect how hungry you feel? If you have lack of sleep, you're going to be more hungry.

Speaker 2: 19:08

It can also affect your cardiovascular health People that don't sleep well. It can make your blood pressure go up. It can change how your EKG even looks. So it's very important to place a priority. So first you have to understand the importance, you have to make the effort, but you also want to make sure it's good sleep, that you're getting that good, deep, restorative sleep, proper sleep helps you to incorporate things in your memory better. If you're trying to learn but you're robbing yourself of the sleep, those things that you've learned that day won't get incorporated into your long-term memory. It also affects your brain health. Getting good sleep allows for your brain to clear out some of those metabolic waste products that build up during the day that they know can lead to things like Alzheimer's. Even so, it's extremely important. You cannot overlook that.

Speaker 1: 19:54

And the fifth pillar is social connections, that is, relationships. That's why Jared and I constantly talk about the importance of getting into the right community, especially if you're eating whole food plant-based and you don't have the people around you who support you on a regular basis, in that they either don't get it, they don't see the value in it, they don't understand it. You need somebody who's on the same path with you. Get into our free group. If you don't have a community, get the course. If you're listening to this, in the future, I'm working on a course right now. It's going to have a mastermind component where you come together and share these ideas and get group coaching and you develop those relationships. This is super important, but absolutely there's no excuse for not being inside the free community. This is just going to help you to heal naturally, and you can do that right now by going to powrongplantscom forward slash pi. That's powrongplantscom forward slash pi.

Speaker 2: 20:50

And we cannot underscore the impact of positive social connections, because you can have a lot of social connections that are negative, but those are only going to tear you down, they're going to lead to stress and then you'll affect some of the other areas, like the restore to sleep, because you're stressed out and things just aren't where you want to be. But positive social connections can have strong beneficial effects on your physical, mental and emotional health.

Speaker 1: 21:13

And then avoiding risky substances is about tobacco use, alcohol use, things like that that we know that are linked with chronic disease. Over time. They're just not healthy for your body. And so these are the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and Jared and I know that nutrition, and this is why we focus on eating a whole food, plant based diet, because when you can get the food right, the foods that your body was created to be fueled on by the maker who knows best, according to Genesis 129, these were the things our body was originally created to thrive on, and what we found is, in any area of your life, when you get back to the garden, you are going to start thriving in ways you didn't even dream were possible for you anymore. And so you start eating these foods and all of a sudden you feel more like exercising and eating more. You feel less stressed physically, physically eating these foods, getting the right nutrients into your body that your body's been craving. It affects your gut. Now you're getting fiber from all the whole plant foods. Your gut bacteria the good ones are thriving because they eat the fiber and through that they put off substances that affect your mental ability. These foods help to reduce stress. They also help you sleep better. We know this from the studies. It helps you to sleep better, to have the right nutrients right, and then it can help you with social connections. You're gonna meet people that you would have never met before. Why? Because you're gonna feel like getting out there and meeting people. You're not gonna be stuck at home because I just don't feel like going anywhere tonight. I'm so tired. I've worked all day and it was all I could do to work. I mean, this was my story. Listen, if this is you, do not feel bad, I get it. I understand because I felt the exact same way. The foods that I was eating unintentionally, without me really knowing it, were robbing me of the future and the present that I was meant to have, and this does not have to be your story. I laugh about this. I'm smiling about this right now because I know that. I know that. I know that things can get better for you, because I've been there and we see it time and again with our patients and our clients, when they take the advice that we give and they start putting these simple principles into practice, finding their new favorites, getting inside pie, inside our free group, and then start taking the courses, learn step by step what to do, get the coaching, get the instruction, meeting new friends inside the mastermind, where you can all get together and compound your ideas. Put them all together. How much farther, how much faster can you go? It's just what naturally happens when you learn to live this lifestyle. You'll find yourself moving more, being less stressed, getting better sleep, getting in those places where you meet the people that you would have never met before because you just didn't feel like getting out there to do it and avoiding risky substances. You're not gonna feel like you need those things to help you cope with life. You're just not going to because your body is all of a sudden gonna start functioning well and you're gonna be going the places that you wanted to go, having the experiences that you were meant to have, planting the seeds that you were created to plant and living a full and fruitful life. This is lifestyle medicine. These are the six pillars that can make all the difference for you. We've explained to you why Jared and I are so very passionate about helping you to get the nutrition part right Pillar number one because it's going to affect the five other pillars, but we want you to know the reality of the situation. When you start eating this way, you start implementing the things that we're teaching you on a regular basis. Your blood levels are gonna get better, your blood pressure is gonna start to drop and if you're already on medication, for that you need to be monitored. You need to have a medical professional there in your area who can do lab work for you to see, hey, this is getting better, hey, you're on the right track and you can follow those things. It's really important, especially if you're already on medication. So how do you find a lifestyle medicine professional? The two simplest ways are number one go to lifestylemedicineorg and there in the upper right-hand corner you'll see it says find a clinician, click that and you can search by specialty. And then the other thing that's very simple to do is Google your city and lifestyle medicine, and a lot of times you'll find that. Or Google your city and plant-based physician, or plant-based doctor or plant-based physician assistant, or just a lifestyle medicine physician assistant, lifestyle medicine doctor. All those things are gonna pull up if there's a clinic near you or a specific doctor or provider near you that specializes in lifestyle medicine, and this can be very big for you because having somebody who can follow those lab values and support you locally as you're implementing these things that we're teaching you how to eat the food the doctors don't have time to sit there and go. I'm gonna show you how to make tacos and lasagna and burgers and all these different foods that you love. The bowls how do you put those together, how do you make a salad, stick to your ribs and walk you step by step through mindset and environment, getting that right and how to make the food taste great and how to make it quick and simple so you don't waste your time in the kitchen. They don't have time to walk you through all that, but they do have time to support you and what you're already doing with what we're teaching you and nutrition, and then help you have some ideas about physical activity and stress management, restorative sleep, social connection and avoiding risky substances, while at the same time and this is the most important being able to lay eyes on you and do a physical exam, listen to your heart, look at your joints, see and document the changes that are happening. It can be a really encouraging experience for you. Plus, they're watching your blood levels, they make sure and they can wean you off of some of these medications that you thought you'd have to be on for life, as they're following you locally. That's why this is so important for you. Friend, we hope you found great value in this podcast episode. Go right now and find your lifestyle medicine provider and, before you do that, take just a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It'll literally take you under a minute to click five star and write a review. If you find value in this podcast, we're here for you week after week, and you know what. Sometimes it feels quiet on this side of the mic. We would love to know more about you, hear how this is affecting you. This is gonna help other people to find us. It would mean more to us than you know. Please take a moment to do that right now, because it's also gonna help bring more episodes your way, and we are looking forward to hearing from you and how the podcast is changing your life, and we wish you all the best sunshine. You are prayed for, you are loved and we will see you next time on the Power On Plants Podcast. You.