Introduction to the Heal Nourish Grow Podcast: 1

Hey everyone, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Feel Nourish Grow, and I'm coming to you from my little studio under the stairs, which is kind of a funny story. Um, we bought this house and this is actually a gun safe, which we have no use for, so it became over the pandemic the perfect little podcast studio because my office is actually right next to my husband's upstairs and he's on the phone all day talking and I do a lot of writing, and so I had to figure out different places in the house to go to do the things that I needed to do. Um, but anyway, that is not why you came here today, right? You're like, Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast, the description intrigued me. How can I learn? What can I do? What is this all about? So anyway, I'll just give you a little bit of background about me so you know why I'm doing this podcast, and I hope you'll stick around to hear all of the wonderful guests that I have planned. I already have multiple episodes recorded because I've been podcasting actually over the years for a while, and so I know how it is, and I'm a avid podcast listener myself, so I know how it is when you find a new podcast, you like it, and you kind of want to binge it a little. And that's what we're all used to now, right, with the Netflix and Amazon Prime and all that stuff. We're used to being able to kind of just have a lot of episodes on demand. And so I wanted to start with a few so that you get a sense of what we're going to do here. And it might change a little over time because honestly, I had— I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and I was trying to talk myself out of it, quite honestly, um, because because I, you know, there's always a challenge. Like, hey, when you go into a new space for podcasting, there, there are a lot of, uh, different— what's the word I'm looking for— there are a lot of competition, if that's the word. It's not even competition because everybody's got a slightly different voice and everybody's got a slightly different reason for doing what they do and a slightly different angle. But I was easily able to talk myself out of it because I was like, there's already so many podcasts about health and wellness and in the low-carb and keto space, there's tons of, um, you know, podcasts. And so I just wasn't sure, but I decided that first of all, I didn't want to attach the podcast to keto or low carb necessarily exclusively. And that's for a couple reasons, because I have been in the health and wellness space for over 25 years now, and that has encompassed a lot of different types of modalities. I made certified yoga instructor. I have over 4,000 hours of teaching, over 1,000 hours of training and meditation, and my background's in psychology. And I've been coaching or helping people in some way with their health and wellness now for, like I said, over 25 years. So I feel like there is a lot that I can cover on this podcast. And at the end of the day, whether it's how you eat or if you're trying to lose weight— and that's the things that I work with people on the most these days— but it encompasses a lot of different things. Losing weight or getting your health back or finding ultimate wellnesses, which is what I like to call it, uh, is a challenge. And it's not just about what you eat, it's not just about your diet. There's lots of things that are a factor involved when you are trying to make these changes. So creating new habits, you have to be able to sleep well, you have to be able to manage your stress. All of those things can really affect your overall wellness and weight loss if that's your goal. So what I thought I would do is allow myself the freedom to really talk to a lot of different people in the health space, a lot about fitness. Of course, we're going to talk about nutrition because that's what I'm super passionate about. But if you didn't know me before, in the past I've basically done it all as far as diet. And I, I grew up on a farm, so I've always been very whole foods based. But over the years, it's, it's looked very different. I grew up when the low-fat craze was exactly what everybody thought was the healthiest thing. And so didn't eat fat for many, many years. And then I was a vegetarian for 7 years. And then I've had in and outs with— I would never call probably what I ate the standard American diet totally, but I've definitely had times in my life where I've eaten more junk food or not been totally focused on, you know, really nourishing myself in the best way. And most recently, the last 6 years. So about— it'll be 6 years in January 2022. That's when I first started going lower carb. And then it'll be 5 years in January 2022 that I've been keto. But that does not mean that I think everybody has to go to that extreme or that level. And I— that's why I didn't want to make this podcast all about that, because I think we can discuss nutrition and what's the best way to nourish your body without necessarily putting a big name on it. Because what I do now, uh, 5 years into keto, 6 years into low carb, is definitely very different than what I did in the beginning. And it kind of looks different depending on how I'm feeling and what my goals at the time are. And that's what I am a big proponent of every time I work with somebody, every time I'm talking to people about whether it's fasting, whether it's keto, whether it's, uh, meditation, whether it's, uh, getting a handle on stress, on sleep. What are your goals? Your goals are the biggest thing that will determine what you should be doing on a day-to-day basis. And so that answer is not the same for everybody. Um, so I might be keto 99% of the time, but if my goal— for example, I'm going to a wedding this weekend, and I personally, I don't really go like off-plan or have cheat meals or anything like that. That's just me. It's not that I think it's wrong or bad. Again, it's depending on your goals, right? Um, but for me, my goals are to stay very healthy. I have a lot of cancer in my family. I've had some previous health issues myself. And so for me, it is just— it doesn't really serve me to do those types of things. And I've strongly identified my why, which is one of the things that I will be talking about in this podcast and teaching you how you find what your why is. Because once you find a strong why, making these changes in your life, whether it's your diet, whether it's your sleep, whatever it is, once you identify a strong why, it is so much easier to hit those goals and to make those changes. And so that's what we'll be talking about a lot. Of course, we're going to talk about nutrition, like I said, um, but to get back to the wedding example, so this weekend when I go to the wedding, I will eat low carb the whole time, keto, meat and vegetable, like I always do, because that's what makes me feel the best. But if the wedding cake comes and it's chocolate, I will probably have a bite. And if it's really delicious, I might have more than one bite, and that doesn't bother me. But again, I'm in a different place in my journey than others. If you're just starting low carb or just starting keto, I highly recommend that you stick to it pretty strongly for the first 12 weeks because that will make your transition so much easier. And then you'll be metabolically flexible and you can do some of these things sometimes that might be a little outside of your goals. And all that is to say as well is that it's just very different for everybody. If you know yourself and you know if you go down that slippery slope and you have one piece of cake that you're not going to be able to stop, and then the next day you're going to eat garbage all day, and then the next day you're like, I screwed it up, I might as well start again Monday, and, and then, you know, next thing you know it's January of next year and you're making a new resolution, um, that's maybe the type of person that you want to stick to it pretty closely all the time and not take those little derailments. Uh, but that's— that doesn't mean like if you do take a red enrollment, it's no big deal. You just start again the next day. So those are the kinds of things that we'll be talking about on this podcast. I will be interviewing a lot of experts in the field. I'm also have interviewed multiple just kind of like everyday people. I don't want to call them everyday— I mean, they're people, right? But I mean like not scientists, not experts, not, uh, you know, thought leaders in the space, but just people that have been doing low carb or keto for a while or have changed their diet in some other significant and they're going to share their stories and tell you tips and tricks about how they made the changes, how it's affected their life, you know, how they make it sustainable for themselves. Because one of the things I wanted to do when I started this podcast was to talk to people that have been doing low carb or keto for quite a long time. So not people that have just tried it and said it wasn't for them. And by the way, if that's you, that's totally fine, but I would, I would like to argue that with you because I think most people don't give it enough of a chance to really determine if it's gonna give them benefits, if it's gonna help them fit their goals. And plus the way that people approach things sometimes, or the way that they do it, might not make them feel good. But if they made some slight adjustments, it could really make all the difference. And that's where sometimes it's helpful to work with a coach or have somebody holding you accountable so that you, uh, can try different things and make tweaks and really find a version of ultimate wellness and of eating well that truly makes you feel good and actually works for you and helps heal your body. So I hope that's not too broad of a topic, but it will be all different kinds of things, like how to make changes, focusing on habits. That's one thing I really have been focused on for myself and with people that I work with over the years. It's a topic that I've written about a lot, and I have videos on my YouTube channel about, you know, habits and creating habits and how to make those changes. And we'll also talk about fasting. Is another thing that I am a big proponent of and I'm very passionate about. And I won't go into too much of it here, but again, I mentioned how I had had some previous health issues and that there's a lot of cancer in my family. And so based on the research that I've done, based on the fact that the Nobel Prize for autophagy in 2016, um, autophagy is basically your body's cellular cleanup process, and it happens most strongly when you're not eating. And so not to scare you away, but I will share with you some ways that Like, fasting is not scary. I think we're finally to a place where people have heard enough about it that they don't automatically, you know, think that something's wrong with you if you choose to fast on occasion or choose to fast on a daily basis. I'm a big fan of intermittent fasting. Every day that you don't eat for several hours, it actually gives your body a chance to have some autophagy. It's, it's on a continuum, so it's happening all the time, but it happens most strongly when you're not eating. So if you cannot eat for 12 hours or 14 hours or 16 hours, without any food, that gives your body— it gives your digestive system a chance to rest and heal. It gives autophagy a chance to kick in more strongly. And it also, if weight loss is a goal, it can potentially reduce your calories. If, if you don't need to lose weight, you can still fast. The key is you just need to meet your energy needs during the time that you are actually eating. So that's another topic that we'll definitely be approaching quite a bit in this podcast. I have a couple of really interesting people for the first few episodes, some people that I really respect in the low-carb keto space, health space, some people like I mentioned that are just kind of everyday people that have just made some significant changes in their lives. One person that I spoke to is a type 1 diabetic and she uses low carb to manage that, and that's how before insulin, that was the only option, right? But it can actually make some profound changes in the way that you manage your health. And so that was a very interesting conversation as well. I talked to another lady who's started on low carb because her son has, I believe, autism or ADHD. It's been so long since I recorded it, but basically her son has had significant improvement in his condition from them going low carb. So there's, there's a lot of reasons why you might do it. And again, I didn't want to call the podcast that exclusively because I wanted the chance to share it with people in a way that's not scary and share it with people that aren't already doing it so that you know about it and so that you can choose if it might be right for you. And if not, I think you'll still get plenty of good tips, tricks, information from people about how they've changed their lives, how they've implemented new habits, other things that they've done in their life to lose weight or feel better that does not include what they're eating, right, or a specific type of diet. So that is my goal. So let me go back a little bit. I gave you like some of my background briefly during this little diatribe, and I did not— I didn't make an outline because I just wanted to introduce the show give you a sense of who I am, how I speak, what I'm about, what I'm passionate about, and not make it too regimented or structured for this first initial one because there will be probably plenty of that down the road when I approach a specific topic. I'll obviously have an outline so that I actually cover all the points that I want to cover without getting on a tangent too much. But so basically, like I said, grew up on a farm. So, um, we are very whole foods based. We did not have a lot of money, so everything that we ate we kind of grew on our farm or got very locally. And it was a different time, right? So this is in the '70s. I'm about to, you know, obviously blow how old I am right here. But, um, anyway, uh, so I was used to whole foods, and so that was not foreign to me. Unfortunately, I, um, you know, my dad grew up during the running boom, and he got really into health and fitness himself as a young man. He had me when I— I think he was 25 when he had me, and he was already— I remember all the time when I was like 5, my earliest memories, like I would be taking water down to my dad at the end of the road because he's out running back and forth on this rural route that was by our farm. And so, you know, there was a lot of garbage in the house. You know, there were the first health food stores then, and like a treat was to get a kind of a chewy, like, fruit bar or something like that. It wasn't even candy, but no cereals, no sugar drinks, nothing like that. So I feel very fortunate in that regard. But then when I became a teenager, unlike most teenagers, and had a car and had a job and had some money, I ate a bunch of garbage because I'd never been exposed to it. And so it was all very new to me. And, uh, luckily I was very active and played sports and stuff, so I could get away with that for a while. When I got out of my house and was a young adult, I think because of the exposure of my dad from running, I started running and I was a runner for 17 years until basically my knees told me I had to quit. So I got away with a lot of bad, what I'm calling quote unquote bad, 'cause I mean, should we really call any specific food bad? That's a topic for another day. I think there are foods that you probably shouldn't eat, but calling something bad is probably not the best idea mentally. So would have desserts, would have a lot of carbs, have a lot of pasta and stuff. That was what was known to be the right thing at the time if you're an endurance athlete. Um, but fortunately, because I was very active, I didn't have to worry too much. But there were definitely times in my life where I put on some weight and it was generally around stress for sure. Uh, I'd had, I mentioned that I had a surgery. I had fibroids and, uh, had a partial hysterectomy. And then years later had a lot of pain. And I'm making a very long story pretty short, hopefully, here. But I had like 3 subsequent surgeries because what happened was the fibroids implanted all over my abdomen. I had like 16 tumors. They thought I had cancer for a while. And that was a pretty big wake-up call. And like I said, I would have considered myself a very healthy person up to that point, a runner. And you know, like I said, ate mostly whole foods, definitely definitely ate some garbage in there, definitely ate a lot of carbs, but I would have considered myself a pretty healthy person up to that point. And so once that happened, a lot of things shifted in my life. And like I mentioned, I had started doing yoga when I was in college and had done that on and off over the years, mostly at home. But then during this time when I had the surgeries and then when I subsequently had to quit running, got a lot more into yoga and ended up going to yoga teacher training and teaching for many years publicly. I I do some private stuff now, but I don't really teach publicly anymore. So you can see how all my whole life has kind of been about this health journey for me and figuring things out and learning what works and what doesn't— didn't work. And along the way, partially in relation to yoga and partially in relation to a book that I read that was introduced to me by Dad, because he was always— he was pretty much similarly in pursuit of all kinds of health stuff through his whole life. Uh, which is why it was particularly painful when he got cancer. But not to go into that too much right now, but read the book The China Study, which is basically based on a lot of epidemiological data. And the more that you're around this podcast, you'll learn that epidemiology is not very good research, uh, which I had the opportunity to learn more about what good research is when I went to grad School for Clinical Psychology, and I did not finish, unfortunately. But the training that I did have while I was there— I did counseling, I did a lot of work in the lab, my minor is in addiction studies— so I've worked with people that have these kinds of issues, and we're finally starting to see some overeating kind of behaviors as really more of a true addiction than we originally thought. So I'm just trying to pull this all together for you so you have some idea of how I ended up where I am now. So, uh, the vegetarian thing eventually went by the wayside. Unfortunately, I did it for 7 years, but I did not feel very good on that. And quite often you will hear that people will do it for a long time and they quit feeling good, they're no longer thriving. I think a lot of people, when they first change to being a vegan or being vegetarian, they might be eating a lot more healthful foods than they were before. So they might be eating a lot more fruits and vegetables, and, and that's a debate whether that's even a quote-unquote healthful food, right? But that's a topic for another day. Um, but they change their diet. And so initially, say they're eating a bunch of garbage before, a lot of McDonald's, a lot of junk food, some Fritos, some chips, all that kind of stuff, and they give that up and they start eating more whole foods, fruit and vegetables. They're going to feel really good probably for a while, and a lot of people do. But then as As the years go on, your body starts to get depleted in B12, which is only available in animal foods, and maybe they don't pay as much attention to protein as they should. And pretty soon they're not feeling well, and they're looking very gaunt and maybe thin but not healthy, not muscular, not vibrant, uh, hairs falling out, all that kind of stuff. So that's what can happen when you don't pay attention to really fueling your body in a way that is consistent with the way that we evolved and the way that we should be eating. Now, that's not to say— I realize that some people have ethical reasons why they don't want to eat animals, or they just love animals and they feel so bad about it. But you've really just got to be extra careful with your nutrition if that's the case. So eventually I wasn't feeling that great, and I had started a new very demanding job and was traveling a lot, and so it definitely was easier for me to eat meat on occasion is how it started. And then pretty soon I was like feeling so much better that I was off to the races eating meat again fully. And I was lucky because it did not really— I did not really have any issues with that. I've always had a very strong digestion, and so when I started eating meat again, I think my body was ready for it, and I didn't have a lot of issues bringing that back in. However, what did happen during that time— I mentioned I was traveling a lot and I was a very demanding job where I was under a lot of stress, and so I put on a bunch of weight. And that's really when I started looking around more. And as I mentioned, that my dad had gotten cancer, and so that's when I started poking around more and really trying to take a deep dive into what is the proper way to eat and what might make me feel better and what can possibly help me avoid cancer in the future? And it's not an easy answer because we really don't know all of that yet, and I don't know if we ever will. But what I found along the way was, as I mentioned before, the, uh, the Nobel Prize for autophagy. And that's us again, a cellular cleanup process. So it goes around your body, you get rid of misfolded proteins, you might get rid of cells that have mutated that could possibly cause cancer. And so I thought, well, that's pretty simple because I had done it before Through my years and years in yoga, that's a very common thing in yoga is to do faster. And also, you know, for religious purposes, there's actually quite a lot of research on fasting due to Ramadan. So during Ramadan, people don't eat from dawn until dusk. And so there's quite a lot of research on that. It shows wonderful health improvements. And I'd always been one of those people that I, you know, we always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, which is wrong. That was brought to us by the food and cereal industry, uh,. And I had never really been that hungry in the morning, but I'd always kind of forced myself because we had that pounded into our heads, right? But once I got onto this idea that no, it's actually okay and even healthy for your body to go periods without food, um, that was one of the things I found at that time. And then the other thing that I found when I was poking around about cancer and, uh, you know, eating meat again and all that was I ran into keto and at this time there was still— there was a lot of information out there, but it wasn't nearly as trendy or well-known as it is now. And now it's more like even just demonized more than anything else because people don't understand it, or people have this view of it that is just really incorrect. Um, and let's— why don't we chat about that since I got onto that subject? So if you're still listening to this and you're thinking, okay, well, I don't really want to go keto, I like bread too much, I'm never going to do that, that's totally fine. But I do just want to throw this out there to you. So people will— it's often on the list of the worst diets. It's been on that list. I think it's like US News and World Report or something like that. And yet here we are on the list. Mediterranean is purported as one of the best diets. And so I think what it is, and I heard this phrase lately and I completely agree with this, and I've said it before, but I heard it again lately, I'm like, I gotta keep using that because it's so true. And that is that keto has a marketing problem. And as a marketer, I can totally appreciate that because the marketing problem is this: people think that we're just sitting around eating bacon and butter and drinking extra oil all day and all this. And not to say that some people don't do that, because maybe they do, but, um, but if you really compare keto to the Mediterranean diet, it is pretty darn similar with the exception of grains. In keto, you're really not eating a lot of grains, but grains are not good for most people anyway. So if you ever decide to read, there's a book called Big Fat Surprise, and it basically describes all of the ways that we got in the place that we are now with our food system, with the food pyramid, how saturated fat got demonized and sugar became okay to eat. And actually, we ended up having a lot of products— remember I mentioned back in the '90s with the low-fat craze? They basically took all the fat out of products and replaced it with sugar. And so we've gone from a place where people— I believe it's something like 200 years ago, uh, the average American was eating 2 pounds of sugar a year. Now we're like at 153, which is absolutely insane. So, uh, my— what happened with this video, actually, it froze in the middle, and so the audio I think kept going, but there was no video left. So anyway, I decided to re-record this part a little bit, and to kind of go back into that. But I think we're probably at the point right now, like, I covered a whole bunch of stuff that probably can be unpacked in more detail a later date. But I hope this was enough to give you a sense of the type of things that we'll be talking about. I am always open to suggestions. Basically anything that fits in the buckets heal, nourish, or grow is stuff that we can talk about here. And that's the reason that I chose that name, or that's, that's my passion. That's what I'm all about. Like I said, you know, I've been helping people for years in some regard or other in with their health and wellness journey and with coaching and all that kind of stuff. So it's just a way— was a way for me to be able to, you know, when I started the website, to be able to cover the kind of topics that I'm passionate about without pigeonholing it into just being keto or just being low carb or just being about yoga or any of those things. It's really about everything that is your whole wellness journey. And like I said before, it's not just what you put in your mouth. You've got to have, you know, all your ducks in a row, sort of, and like working on your stress, working on your sleep. And so those are all the topics that we will cover here, and they're all the topics that are on my website now. So please be sure to subscribe to this podcast. I can't wait for you to hear the guests that I have. I would also absolutely love it and adore you forever if you would pop over to iTunes and leave a review about the podcast. What happens when you have a new podcast podcast is that the more reviews that you get really quickly, the higher your show moves up on the list and the more chance you have of being found by others. And I just want to help as much people as I can. And so the more people that can find me, the more we'll be able to talk about and the more really cool guests that I'll be able to have on. And, um, I would just really love it if you could do that for me and I will actually be giving away some kind of prize. I haven't decided yet. It'll be at least somewhat compelling, like it won't be nothing. So, uh, if you leave a review, please take a screenshot, email it to me at podcast@healnourishgrow.com, and once we're a month into the podcast, I'll give away the first gift. And then I probably will continue to do that throughout the podcast because I think if you take the time out of your day to show Heal, Nourish, Grow a little love, to support the work that I do. And I just want to be able to, you know, give a little something back at some point beyond just, you know, all the content that I put out for free. It's nice that when people take time out of their day to be kind and leave a review, to give you a chance at something that's a little fun. And plus, you know, who doesn't need a little extra kindness in their life right now, right? We're all, we're all having— we're all struggling in our own way during this crazy time with the pandemic. And I don't know, I just want to— that's why I decided to just push forward with this, even though, like I said before, I kind of tried to talk myself out of it. But I feel like I have a different voice, I have information that I can share that would possibly help people, and I just might as well put it out there. We could all use it right now, right? So anyway, again, if you could subscribe, leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. And I will talk to you again soon. The plan right now is a new episode every Wednesday. Oh, also, if you could let me know— one of my ideas when I couldn't sleep last night, which I hate that. Normally I sleep pretty well, but I think I've had all these deadlines lately and I'm excited about putting out this podcast and finally launching it. But one of the ideas that I had, I used to do guided meditations in my class and people really enjoyed them. And so one of the things I thought about was, you know, in addition to having a regular episode each week, that maybe once a week or once every 2 weeks I would do a separate smaller episode where it's like a 5-minute guided meditation. Also, at some point I have taught people about meditation a lot in the past and people overcomplicate it. I think I have a really easy way to explain it to you and to help you understand why you should do it every day. And so if that sounds like something I should add to the podcast, please let me know and then I will do it because I've done it in the past. And my only concern with that is I personally, you know, it's weird when you hear your own voice. Sometimes you're not a fan, right? But my students in the past always loved it, and they always told me that they enjoyed it. So if that's something that you would like, let me know, and I will add that to the podcast. So anyway, again, this has been Cheryl McColgan, the founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and I'm so happy that you joined me for this first episode, and I will talk to you again soon.