SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Maybe I'm not doomed to be like this for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Right. Yes. Yeah. And you know, that was the scary part before you realize you have options, especially if you have a medical condition that runs in your family, and then you begin having those symptoms and you don't know that there's any other way.

SPEAKER_00: 0:21

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 Jared and Eatery Sale Christfollowers, healthcare 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 route, 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. Hello and welcome to Power on Plants, where we help Christian leaders and kingdom entrepreneurs to fuel your body optimally with whole plant foods so you can fully live your God-given calling. If you've been praying to finally feel as strong as your calling, so you can completely live God's purpose for your life with maximum energy, focus, and productivity, take a deep breath. You're home now. Today's guest, Terry Edwards, is here to stir your faith and remind you of all that's possible with God's wisdom leading the way. Terry and I were introduced by our dear friend Sid Notter. And from the very first conversation, Terry felt like family. You know that kind of instant connection you get that only God can cause to happen. That's what happened here. Terry knows what it's like to face health challenges that make you wonder if living your full potential is even possible. But instead of giving up, she started seeking God's wisdom. And that search led her to discover simple, powerful truth of his original plan for nourishing our bodies. Her story is one of incredible transformation. Today she shares that message of hope through her platform, Eat Plant-Based, helping others experience lasting freedom and restoration of health. Terry's certified in plant-based nutrition through eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and is a licensed food for life instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Get ready to be encouraged and equipped as Terry shares what's possible when faith actually meets action, when we align our lives with God's beautiful original design for help. Terry, we are so happy to have you here with us today. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for asking me to participate. Yes, we have just loved this connection through Sid and getting to know you more. And we can't wait for everyone to hear your story. Now, many of our listeners are purpose-driven leaders and they keep showing up even when they're exhausted or hurting because they care deeply about serving others. Bring us into that season in your mid-40s when you had a lot on your plate and you were facing health struggles and looking for answers. What did a typical day feel like for you at that time?

SPEAKER_01: 3:49

That was back in 2012. Actually, my problem started 10 years before that in my 30s. I started having some um joint pain, mostly in my hands. Um, that's it's so funny because you know, a lot of folks have joint pain and weight-bearing joints, but mine started in my hands and then progressively worsened over, you know, the next 10 years. 35 years old is really young to start with joint problems. But a little backup for that is that my mom has rheumatoid arthritis, and so I knew about joint problems and uh how debilitating that can be because my mother has been, she's uh almost 80 now, but she has been disabled since she was 53. Oh wow. And yeah, and I have a sister that's only 16 months older than me, and she developed RA uh as well in her 50s. So mine started, I mean, and I had not been diagnosed with RA. I've been tested twice and came back negative, but both my mom and my sister had multiple tests that came back negative before it came back positive. So um I just had that fear, you know, that fear of I can see where I am headed and it's scary. So, but in addition to the joint problems, um I had other things going on. Um I had sleeping problems that required me to take, at first it was just melatonin. And then, you know, when you take something like that, you have to keep upping uh the milligrams on it for it to be effective. And then I switched to, or sometimes alternated between that and one of the um nighttime like Tylenol or ibuprofen nighttime things, and I had to have something to help me sleep every night. Um, as well as I had adult acne, I was prescribed and was taking doxycycline for years, guys. For years for adult acne. And I knew that that wasn't great long-term either. But, you know, um I had acne when I was younger and it just did not go away and it progressed. It's it's tough when you're in your 40s and you've got acne. Yes. But that's what you know, I was dealing with. And I was working um almost a full-time job. I was an office manager at that time for a local company in our area, and just day to day, you know, having to work and just the duties at home, you know, even house cleaning and things when your joints are hurting. I remember leaning over the bathtub, and you know how you you get on your knees and you scrub and just thinking, you know, um, at that point, maybe around 40 years old, that I wasn't going to be able to do it in 10 years or beyond. And, you know, 55 is not that old because I'm I am 58 now.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

So right. That was a huge part of my story as well. I mean, I can totally identify with that. And I think a lot of people can to where you're just hurting, and then you're told it's old age or it's your genes, you know, you're just getting older. That's just what happens. We're told so many things that I feel like just aren't true, and we live into and start believing those things, and then we get afraid because some things start happening and then fear takes over, you know, and it's just it's this vicious cycle. I mean, I was washing my hair in the shower. I tell the story about it and share this a lot where I was washing my hair and I was just crying, tears rolling down my face, thinking people are washing their hair right now and they're not even thinking about it. Like there's so many things we take for granted when we're not having the struggles. So I love what you're sharing because when you understand what Jared says a lot of times, is when you know better, that's when you can do better. And that's why we're so passionate, like you are, about sharing. Because we don't want people to even end up in that place. But if they do to realize there's hope.

SPEAKER_03: 7:52

And we want them to know that there is a possibility of getting better, that you don't have to stay like this because that's their truth, but only because they don't know the full picture. Yes. And then when you have light shed on the entire picture, then it you can have that aha moment. Maybe I'm not doomed to be like this for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_01: 8:12

Right. Yes, yeah. And you know, that was the scary part before you realize you have options, especially if you have a medical condition that runs uh in your family, and then you begin having those symptoms and you don't know that there's any other way, it's scary. It really is scary because you're looking at your family members and going, oh no. And you know, we know 40s is young, guys, 50s is young. Yes. And if we live to be, you know, in our 90s, what you know, who knows? Or you don't even at that point for me, I was thinking I'm gonna be lucky to for the next 10 years to be still mobile. Yes, but my aha moment was uh the forks over knives um documentary. And I hear that from so many people, yes, because I think that thing was uh was created in, I might be wrong, but I think around 2011, something like that. And so it was fairly new because um for me, you know, it was uh 2012 and it just had not, it didn't take off. I mean, I didn't know anything about it. I would still, well, I probably hopefully would by now, but at that point it was my daughter who was vegan for ethical reasons, right? And um, she was young, but she had seen that documentary somehow at college and suggested that I watch it, but I didn't right away because I didn't know what it was about. I truly had no idea. I thought it was one of those videos where it was just about the animals and you know, sadness and that, you know, and I was like, I'm not watching that. And forever. And she kept saying, Mom, have you watched that video yet? Because I think I didn't like, I don't think I complained. I hope I didn't complain, but I would tell her, you know, oh, something hurt or whatever. And then she would say, Did you watch it? And you say, So I finally did. And that is when that was my first introduction ever to plant-based nutrition. Before that, I had been going to the doctor, um, trying to find ways to deal with the joint pain, you know, the medicines and everything. And um nothing was just working. And uh, so I I did try some other diet plans during that time. I did that Suzanne Summers, um, you know, where she was like high protein. It was like, and I did do Adkins too. I did. And at one point, you guys will laugh at this because you're medical uh trained, but I even read the book Um How to Eat Right for Your Blood Type.

SPEAKER_00: 10:47

Yes, and we've heard many people ask about that. Yes, we've had many clients ask about that.

SPEAKER_03: 10:53

When you're searching for answers, I mean that search will take you well, desperate, but it's gonna take you to a lot of different things. And if you don't know, you don't know. And so So you're willing to try whatever.

SPEAKER_01: 11:08

Right. Yeah, it you know, now that I look back on it, I think, oh my goodness, you know, but you know, you truly are searching and uh willing to try about anything, and that's the great thing spaces.

SPEAKER_00: 11:21

Yeah, you're at that place where you're willing to try whatever, but we don't want people to get in that place, right? Well, but we were, and so we can take that knowledge and then be able to share it with people so that when you're listening to this, realize and have hope. I don't have to end up in the place where Terry was or Anita and Jared were hurting all the time, struggling through the day, feeling like this is just how it's gonna be, because there are answers and there are things that we know that from the Bible, and just looking at Genesis 129, I mean, there's so much more. Look at Sid's book where she talks about all the different scriptures that point to a whole feed plant-based diet. But then we look at the science that backs it up. And we always say, where you find the place where the Bible lines up with science, you have the gold. Because you shouldn't need the science necessarily to prove it. But when it does, I mean, why wouldn't we try it? Why wouldn't we try it?

SPEAKER_03: 12:11

And having read all those different diets, that's part of your story. And you can tell people, I read all these different diet plans, and I know that the one that I have settled on is the correct one, the one where it lines up with scripture, but you're you're getting the results, and then you're living proof of it.

SPEAKER_00: 12:28

And then you share it with other people, like you share it with your sister, and you see it working in her life, and you share it and you start sharing with other people with clients now, and you see lives changing, and you think, you know, this is undeniable now. There's the proof you've seen it with your own eyes, and it just it makes a difference in everything.

SPEAKER_01: 12:46

Yeah, it's our story now.

SPEAKER_00: 12:48

It's our story, absolutely. Well, if you could go back to yourself when you were 45 years old and you could whisper one truth to yourself at that point when you were struggling with pain and the acne and extra pounds as well, you shared with me. I mean, you were exhausted, but still pushing through the days, just trying to get things done. What would be one truth that you would share with yourself back then?

SPEAKER_01: 13:14

Um that there's hope and that God wants me well. Yes, really. Because, you know, I tell people that uh so often in the Christian community, where, you know, for me, I'm just now kind of breaking into the Christian community with the plant-based message. And um, I remember, I don't know, maybe three years ago, we had just started going to a new church. And there was a gentleman who is probably about my age, maybe a little bit older. And they called, he actually went up, I think, at the end because he needed prayer. He had had a stroke, uh, he had diabetes, he had all these things. And I was new there. I did not really know anybody, but I felt called after because he went up for everybody to pray over him, which they did. Um and shortly after as soon as church let out, I whispered to my husband, I will be right back, because I had some information in the car um from the physician's committee about diabetes. So I ran out there and I got it, and I went to him and he was sitting in the pew, and you know, people were kind of going around and everything. But I just knelt down and I said, God doesn't want you to be sick. So good. This this is some information that may be able to help you. And I am here, I don't know you, but uh, I am here if you have questions. So I, you know, I just feel like I don't, I'm so excited with the just this last year and meeting you guys and knowing Sid and others in the plant-based community who are believers. It feels like we are finally, at least for me personally, but I just see the whole movement really um coming out with our faith and how it is so important with the way that we eat, our health. Um I'm really excited for what is going on right now and to see where it ends up going. I feel like uh God is on the move. You know, I think about um the Chronicles of Narnia, and they say Aslan is on the move, um, and he represents Jesus in those stories. And I just feel like God is on the move uh in the plant-based community reaching out because I remember Sid telling me when I first met her how um I don't know, maybe a little disheartened that she was that Christians weren't, even in her church, uh in the Christian communities were not open uh to plant-based uh nutrition. And it's early in the game for me anyway, as far as to see where it's gonna go, but I'm seeing inklings of it where I think God's running after his people.

SPEAKER_00: 16:17

Absolutely. Amen to that.

SPEAKER_03: 16:18

And the revelation of that God wants us well is huge, huge. And I feel like the father has really opened our eyes about that the last couple of years. Not that we ever thought that God wanted us sick, but sometimes we have that idea and it's perpetuated in our culture that, well, this sickness is just to keep you humble or God's teaching you something. Yes. I mean, what father would not want his children to be alive and healthy and vibrant?

SPEAKER_00: 16:42

And he even says that in the word. Yes. Like even you, as parents, you know, as a father, you want to give good gifts to your children. How much more do I want to do that for my children? So that's his heart as wellness. We look at Yeshua, Jesus, who's the pattern of everything that father stands for, just lived it out completely and beautifully for us, and he healed them all. It says it over and over and over again. He healed them all.

SPEAKER_03: 17:09

And we're not denying that sickness happens, of course, because we live in a fallen world.

SPEAKER_00: 17:14

Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_03: 17:14

So sin is still in effect on this earth. Yes, but that's part of the message of salvation. God made a way to restore us back, and we want people to know God wants you well. He doesn't delight in you being sick. And I think if you can really take hold of that truth, then it gives you hope. And then you realize there is something I can do. It's not just bad luck or bad genes. It's not just I'm being smited or whatever. Right. Yeah, it's this is where I am, but that's not where I have to stay.

SPEAKER_00: 17:45

And then just huge. It is huge. And spirit, soul, and body, he wants us well. So we teach plant-based to eat your body well, but we also teach about getting your thoughts and feelings and desires right and in alignment with the kingdom of God, because that's when you start to see real healing on top of feeding and stewarding your body with these beautiful foods he's given us that taste better than anything we ever ate before. You know, people are worried about, I mean, this is a real concern. How am I gonna just eat grass? But when you learn and your taste buds get cleansed and you no longer have those addictive chemicals drawing you back into these foods that really weren't meant to fuel our body. Food-like products, food-like products, right? Exactly. Then, and we were talking this morning about how you know you go out and you go for a bike ride or you go for a walk and you don't see Cheez-Its hanging off a tree or even oil. Like there are no bottles of oil hanging off a tree. Right.

SPEAKER_03: 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:41

Yeah, it's amazing. But like you were talking about though, I love how you're talking about how this person, you know, your heart went out to them because they were there in the church, really seeking for God to heal them. We all have that ability. He can powerfully step in and he wants to powerfully step in. But think about if he comes in, if he chooses and comes in right at that moment because you're ready, your faith is aligned, you understand that he wants you well, boom, you're healed. But then if you keep living and stewarding your body in the same way, I mean, he does say go and sin no more. And I'm not saying that how we're eating is a sin. I mean, I'm not gonna address all the different things that people are doing because I don't know, you know, what you've done up until this point. And we love people, and our heart is just for you to be well. But we have to look at what got us there. Like, how did we get to the place we were in our health? And I know for us, we thought we were clean eating, Terry. Like when we were the sickest, and I told Jared, I think I'm dying. We were eating, like we were going to the farms and buying, yeah, we were buying organic and fresh milk and pasture raised and cage-free and hormone for added, no added hormones, not knowing stuff was.

SPEAKER_03: 19:49

I have an example to what I think you were explaining about. If if we get healed, if we continue those same habits, what's going to happen? Those things are gonna come back. So let's say you live in a house and you have questionable habits to where maybe you leave your gas stove on all the time. You know, something that's an obvious fire hazard, you burn your house down. Now you get put into a brand new home, it's completely restored. If you keep those same habits, you're going to potentially burn that house down again. Yeah, you're going to keep that cycle perpetuated. So there's a balance that where God has set up the world with specific principles in place, physical principles. And part of that is all the foods he's given us to enjoy to optimize our health and to optimize our lifespan so that we can bring his kingdom here and do what he's called us to do and do it effectively.

SPEAKER_01: 20:42

Yeah, absolutely. I remember seeing an illustration a long time ago. You guys have probably seen it. I'm not sure. Seems like one of the plant-based physicians maybe put it on social media or something, but it's a picture of a kitchen. It's and you know, a drawing with um an older man and woman in there with a big farm sink.

SPEAKER_02: 21:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 21:05

And the water is running in the sink and it's overflowing into the floor, and they have mops and they're mopping, but they don't turn the water off. That's a big one is that I guess along with what you were saying, Jared. Um, if you if you don't turn the water off, what's causing the problem, right? And you're just you're just cleaning constantly and not resolving the problem. That is yeah, that's powerful.

SPEAKER_03: 21:28

Yeah, we're told that oh, that water in the sink, that didn't matter. That's normal, it's just part of aging. You know, the sink's going to eventually fill up and overflow. Like, no, turn the sink off.

SPEAKER_01: 21:39

Yeah, it just seems so simple. You know, and I think about I think about creation. And we know in the beginning, God gave from everything that we know from the Bible, he gave the seeds and the plants to Adam and Eve as food. And for the animals, everything was plant-based. Yes. Um and as you know, as far as we know, the first death was of the animal or animals that had to die to clothe Adam and Eve. So we can assume and I believe that the you know, God had us plant-based in the beginning, and when heaven comes down in the end, we will go back to that perfection. So in the middle, I think of those as two bookends creation on one end and the end of times on the other. Yes. And in between, we can eat and do. We, you know, it's I'm not saying you know, people are sinful for what the way that they eat or anything. He gives us permission to eat whatever that we want to, but if we know perfection on either end and what he designed us for, um I don't know. I I I just feel like that, and we know just from our own experiences, going plant-based, that's where health was found. So um it just seems intuitive to me that that's what we would want to um aim for because God knows best. Yes, and he knows the ultimate creator, he knows what he created our bodies for. So um yes, we have freedom, but we also suffer the conf consequences of um some of that freedom sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:28

I don't think he ever meant. I mean, we can read the Bible and see he never really meant for or wanted animals to have to die to feed us. Like that was a part, beautiful part of his creation. He didn't mean for them to have to die to feed us, but like you were saying, because of how things happen, they had to die to clothe people. That was the first thing that happened as a result of sin, the death of the animals. And we don't do this for for the animals' sake, so to speak, but we do love and care for his creation and we want what's best for it. But he allows us, Jared and I have talked about this a lot. God allows us to do a lot of things that weren't his original design. Like he allowed his people to have kings, but he wants to be the king of our life, you know. So people asked for that and they wanted it. So that's what he allowed them to have. But we know that him being the king of our life is for our ultimate best and for our good. So yeah, I think that's so important to realize that. And Jared, what the thing that you and Jared were both talking about a minute ago, too, is the sink overflowing and all that. Jared had come home, he was at a uh conference for physician assistance.

SPEAKER_03: 24:35

Continuing education conference.

SPEAKER_00: 24:37

Yeah, and he came home and he looked at me and said, I cannot do this anymore. He said, Seriously, I just sat in a conference for hours where the doctor that was presenting, and he was very knowledgeable. I'm not saying he wasn't knowledgeable, but he talked about if your blood pressure is this, that if their blood pressure is this, talking about your patients. If it's this number, you're give them this medicine. And if it's this number, you get this medicine.

SPEAKER_03: 25:03

Depending on how high the blood pressure was, the right type of medication, the right combinations. And it just hit me we're not really addressing the root issue.

SPEAKER_02: 25:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 25:13

We keep talking about management, but never once did we talk about the pathology of what's going on underneath the surface that's causing that. Why don't we address that? And at the time we weren't plant-based, but I just knew that in my heart something was just off and then stumbled upon plant-based, and right around that same time, kind of stumbled upon lifestyle medicine. I thought, what is this? And this is what I had been looking for, and wanted even in my original education 25 years ago, but they don't teach that. I feel like maybe schools are starting to make a little bit of headway, but not nearly enough. And then now we realize what, at least for a large majority of people, the root cause is, and it's what we're doing, those lifestyle choices that we're making.

SPEAKER_00: 25:55

And we didn't go into medicine and nursing to help people manage their diseases. We wouldn't help it.

SPEAKER_03: 26:02

I mean, we know that some diseases require that. Right. We live in an imperfect world, fallen, you know, imperfect bodies and all that. So there is some of that, but not near as much as people think.

SPEAKER_00: 26:12

Yeah, we want to help people get set free where they're off of their medications or at least on the lowest dose possible. And we see it happen time and again. Like that is what's normal when you get to the root cause of these things. Are you seeing the same thing with your clients?

SPEAKER_01: 26:28

Yeah, I actually don't uh I actually don't have clients or anything. I uh don't coach or anything like that. But when I was teaching regularly at the hospitals, um the physicians committee's food for life program. Yes. Yeah, we saw it all the time because we taught the I taught those classes, all the instructors do, like four in a series. So you did once a week, and we would have the first session. I remember one time in Asheville, North Carolina, I was teaching at a uh doctor's office, and uh we had the first class, which involved, you know, preparing the food and they got to eat the dinner and everything, as well as the nutrition education. And uh I was new at teaching and so I just went by the curriculum, which was great, and everything. But when we came back to a week later to the class, one of the participants was a lady, probably at that time in her 60s, maybe late 60s. And she said that um she had had an episode because uh she had decided everybody in the class is gonna do something different. We don't require that you go 100%. We encourage it, um, at least for a trial period, because that's how you're gonna see the results. But you don't know what each person is gonna do. You know, you do the class and you send them home. Uh, but she came back and she had been so convinced by the first class that she was gonna do it 100%, which I was all for and encouraged, but she was on medication, she was on uh heart medication and diabetes medication. And when she went 100% for those seven days, it was so powerful that she had an episode with the hyp hypoglycemic episode because her medicine was too powerful at that point. The food was working as medicine, yes, and so it, you know, to in my mind it was like double double medicating herself. Yes, and so she had to go to her doctor and have her medication reduced because the food was working uh in her favor for her health, and uh she saw it immediately. So after that class, I was warned, uh, I knew at the first session, uh the first class of every session, tell people who were on medications you may need to have adjustments during this time while you're doing this, because this is you know, it's it works like medicine. So that was the first um, and that was early in my teaching career, the first time where I realized because when I was uh I wasn't when I when I did it myself, I wasn't on all the different uh medications like she was. So that was the most powerful lesson that I learned and uh was able to share with people about the power of food as working as medicine. Yes, and think about what a great problem that is to have.

SPEAKER_00: 29:31

I mean, don't you love offering people that problem? So it's yeah, you know, when you start eating plants and you go all in, here's the thing you want to be followed by your personal health care fit provider in your local area. That's what Jared and I tell people. We're not gonna be drawing your blood. You need to have that happening because you can get results so quickly. That's how powerful these God given foods are, right? It's like you said. It's your medicine. See it like your medicine. So if you are adding a new medication, the other ones will probably need to be adjusted somewhat. And we see people come off of them high blood pressure medications, high cholesterol. IBS medications, rheumatoid medications. And Jared says, if I'm doing my job right, what do you tell him? If I'm doing my job right.

SPEAKER_03: 30:23

Well, if I if I'm doing my job well, you're you're not going to need me anymore, at least for the majority. Again, not everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 30:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 30:30

And I tell them that. It's like, I realize I'm working myself out of a job, but nothing makes me more excited than taking somebody off a medication. And am I really working myself out of a job? No, because if they don't really need to see me other than you know, an occasional whatever, but not a regularly, hey, how are you doing this month? There's somebody else that needs this message.

SPEAKER_02: 30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:48

So then I can spread this even farther, even wider. So I love it. I absolutely love it.

unknown: 30:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:55

It is wonderful.

SPEAKER_00: 30:56

Yeah. And I know Jared and I have experienced that we have gotten a lot of energy now. I mean, I have as much energy as I did in my 20s and not so in my 40s. I was pulling up the stool to cook my meals to the stove and just making a lot of um adjustments to my life. So basically sitting on the couch or homeschooling my children from bed, like that, that's how bad my energy got. It was hard for me to go up one flight of stairs to tuck my kids into bed at night. It was so bad. And no one could tell me what was going on. And I seem to recall you saying you had the same thing with your energy where you got a lot of your energy back. What so what became possible for you, Terry, in your life, um, just regarding your God-given calling that you never could have imagined when you were dealing with the pain and all the other health struggles that you were dealing with back then?

SPEAKER_01: 31:46

Yeah, back then it was all that I could do to do my job and just get through the day. Because, you know, as women, we have, if you work outside the home, you have your regular job and then you come home, and then there's house cleaning and clothes washing and dinner and all of those things. I just remember being in a perpetual state of exhaustedness. Yes. Feeling like I needed a nap, you know, during the day, which I didn't get to do, but just being so tired. And um it's funny because once I I went plant-based, and for me, after watching that documentary, you know, I'd been through those other things that I had tried. So I was still a little skeptical. Right. Because when I did the other programs, Atkins and everything else, I would lose a little bit of weight, 10, 15 pounds, something like that. Um, which was great, but nothing ever addressed the acne or the joint problems or the sleeping problems or anything. A little bit of weight was all the results that I saw. So when I watched uh Fork Soften Knives, I was like, okay, you know, I'll give it a try. Skeptical, but willing to do it 100% because with the other things I did 100% as well, at least for a short period of time. Uh, I figure you can do anything for a short period of time. And that was the only way I was really gonna see what changing my diet to a plant-based diet would be capable of doing for me. So I said four weeks. I told my husband I was gonna do it for four weeks, and um, I started seeing results. Two and a half weeks in, I was feeling so much better. Yes. Uh, and just excitement is what it did. I was feeling better, had more energy, uh, was able to come off of the uh doxycyclean and the nighttime medicines and and everything. The one of the first things I saw was, well, joints for sure, but that uh I was sleeping better. So all of that got me so excited, it just made me want to spread the message. You know, it's like becoming a Christian, you want to spread the message so that others can know your joy. And so that is it sure is a great analogy. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I actually was gonna go educate my physicians. I, you know, I gave it some time, I can't remember now, a couple months or so. And I wanted to go back, let them do my blood work again and see. And I was just gonna say, you've got to tell your patients about this because I've found the holy grail.

SPEAKER_00: 34:21

You wanted them to have the same revelation that you had had, but I remember that there was a surprise there when you shared that with them.

SPEAKER_01: 34:27

For sure. Yeah, I thought that they were gonna be just so shocked and you know, everything. But it was it was a uh it was a practice that uh had a lot of physicians that were Seventh day Adventists. So when I when they saw the results and they said, What are you doing? And I said I went plant-based and I was so excited and I wanted them to know, and they were like, Oh yeah, you know, a number of the physicians here in this office are vegetarians, and instead of me trying to educate them, all of a sudden I actually got a little miffed because I was thinking, why did you, if that's the case and you saw me suffering, why did you not offer that as a suggestion? And um they said because at that time there weren't a lot of plant-based resources. Forks over knives was the first thing that I knew had been out. And they said they felt like even if they, and they believed in the power of eating plants, but even if they recommended it, they didn't think the patients would do it. Uh, they didn't have any resources to help them do it as often. So they just didn't even try.

SPEAKER_03: 35:41

The person that created the DASH diet knew that plant-based was best, but he introduced some mean, some dairy, and all that in there because he felt like people wouldn't do it. They needed some meat to satisfy their palate. I mean, that just is so intellectually dishonest.

SPEAKER_02: 35:57

It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 35:58

I mean, if you know this, then at least help people so they have the option. Yeah. If they think that's the best way, then that's what they're gonna stick with. Some of them, I mean, some of them aren't gonna do anything. But some people like ourselves, if we knew, we would have jumped in with that completely. Right. Completely.

SPEAKER_01: 36:16

And it should be an option. It should have been an option. But they didn't have the resources. That was the light bulb moment for me that changed my career. I think. Because at that time I was the office manager and uh just for regular business. But when they said they did not have uh any resources to help patients, I decided then that I was gonna attempt to be that resource. So I started that's when I started taking, you know, the classes uh through the uh Center for Nutrition Studies and uh then applying to the physicians committee and everything because I felt like um I could just learn to teach it. And then uh I would go to the uh medical offices around, including my own personal physicians, and drop, and this is what I did. I dropped off batches of plant-based cookies. It's just so awesome, Terry. I mean, it's so awesome. I had I gave them cookies, I gave them the recipe so that they could see what was in them. I gave them uh my cards and I gave them information about the classes that were coming up and uh where they were gonna be and all of that kind of stuff. And so that's where it started. And that I didn't just do it for my own physician's office, I went around town and just all of the I I had a heart for the medical community because I felt like that's where it needed, that was going to be the tip of the sphere. And so that's I could, you know, I I did teach at other facilities too, but not much. It was usually always hospitals, cancer centers, and then GI uh doctor's offices. So yeah, because I felt like that's where we were, if we could convince the physicians and be the resource for their patients, then that was going to make all the difference. And uh, and it did. That was how I got started, and in the meantime, started the the website, and that was the beginning for me is wanting to break in, get my foot in the door. I really didn't, I knew it would be hard because the medical community really is a hard um thing to break into and be convinced. But you know, I it was all God. It truly was all God because after even before I went for my training in DC for the physicians committee, I contacted uh our local hospital's oncology. Uh, it was Gibbs Cancer Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I'm in North Carolina, but we live on the state line. It was the a large cancer center. And I thought, what if I could get in to the cancer center to teach? Um, but I didn't have high hopes. We have uh the physics physicians committee does have a cancer series, so that's what I did. I shot out the email, found out who I needed to talk to, shot out the email, um, and they responded. I could not believe it. I didn't have a side, it was a cold call. Yeah. Um, and uh, but they responded, and like I said, I had not gone to training yet, but I knew I was going to be going for training. And the person who was over their community um program said, Go do your training in DC, come back and let's talk. And so we went through multiple meetings because um they had to review all of the lectures, which were from Dr. Neil Barnard, that's part of the program and the curriculum and everything, and approve it. And they did, and they got me in there and they paid for it all. They paid for their patients. That's incredible. That's incredible. Yeah, it was through um grant money, their grant money uh paid for those classes for years uh uh for me teaching those classes. So it was amazing. Yes, uh, but that was getting the foot in the door. And once I could say I had I was teaching at Gibbs Cancer Center, then other medical offices opened up to me and it was uh it was a big deal. It was huge, and it's you know, it's part of my story. And um yeah, and so and then the website took off. So when when COVID hit in 2020, we were in the middle, uh, because those uh sessions at the cancer center were everywhere that I taught were four classes. So you went once a week for a month, and uh it was March 2020, and we finished our second class at the cancer center. We had two more, and everything shut down. Um, of course, for the cancer patients as well.

SPEAKER_00: 40:41

Oh, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 40:42

And I concentrated, you know, because that was a little bit scary when you teach and you can't teach anymore. Uh and so I already had my website going and I really concentrated on that, and God blessed it. People were worried about their health and what they could do to help uh them fight their immune systems to fight off sickness. Yes, and um God just did his thing and the website took off. And so now I don't teach regularly. I'm still licensed, I can teach, but um yeah, it's a full-time job doing the yes it is.

SPEAKER_00: 41:18

It's helping what I do, and I know the leaders and entrepreneurs that are listening totally get that. And one thing I want to just point out is that you just shared leadership goals. So for everybody listening as a Christian leader, I want you to understand what Terry has just told you because instead of being discouraged when she found out this revelation about her doctors already knowing that plant-based work and could have helped her, she found she saw a massive gap in the market and she filled it. Opportunity. An opportunity that she had to share what was placed on her heart or in her lap because God showed her what she needed to do when the doctors didn't.

SPEAKER_03: 42:03

Friend, this brings us to the end of part one of our conversation with the wonderful Terry Edwards. She shared so much wisdom today, and we're grateful you were here with us to take it in.

SPEAKER_00: 42:13

Yes. And before we wrap it up, you need to know this. Part two of this conversation is filled with even more practical, hope-filled insights to help your body move toward the level of health that allows it to start fully showing up for every God-given opportunity with steady energy and real joy.

SPEAKER_03: 42:30

So be sure to tune in the moment part two drops. You don't want to miss a single bit of the additional life-giving wisdom Terry shares.

SPEAKER_00: 42:38

And in the meantime, if you've been hoping for ongoing encouragement, simple whole food plant-based guidance, and the community that truly cheers you on, you're invited to join us inside Peak Performance Network at poweronplants.com forward slash PPN. This is the special place for those who want to feel good again so you can fully live your purpose. There's just so much gold for you there, like our one of a kind podcast search function, which will search every word we've said inside every single podcast episode to help you find the answers you really need. We've set this up to bring you exciting momentum and big plant-based wins. Join today at poweronplants.com forward slash PPN.

SPEAKER_03: 43:19

We're here for you every step of the way.

SPEAKER_00: 43:21

And remember, you are loved, you are prayed for, and we will see you again very soon.