Health from the Inside Out with Madiha Saeed

Welcome to the Wellness Sherpa Podcast where we engage with passionate leaders, holistic thinkers and disruptors who courageously share their personal journey, mission and wisdom with you. Together we create a safe space to empower you to live your best, most vital life. Thanks for being here. Well, I am so excited to be here today. We are with Meda Saeed who is a doctor, traditionally trained and functional medicine. And we'll hear more about what all it is that you evolved into, mother of five, author and publisher. And we'll talk about your latest book here today. And just so happy to have you here. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you so much for enjoying, for having me. I. This is such a huge honor. Thank you again.

Yeah. And I love your plant picture. I have an obsession with plants, so love the little picture there. So why don't you start with what brought you to where you are today?

So I, like most Americans, was sick and I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I went through residency with my husband. We were both working 80 hour work weeks. And at that time my body really fell apart. I was a new mom, a new wife, a new resident, all at the same time. And my body was just like, I've had enough. I think that was just like the straw that broke the camel's back. And then what happened was lupus, hashimoto, severe digestive issues, acne, eczema, seborrheic dermatitis, mood disorders. Like, I was just not well. Like I knew that my body was falling apart. I've had even issues with shingles. Like old people get shingles. Like, what is a 20 something year old doing shingles, right? Like, this is ridiculous.

That's the immune system saying, whoa, oh.

I'm telling you, like the immune system was like, stop you, I don't know what you're doing, whether you're going crazy. So, so with that then I, you know, I continued on the hamster wheel like everybody else does, right? Just trying to keep my head above water. I was just, I was a first year intern, but then I started looking. You know, my husband had this gut inclination, he says, can you go check up on our baby in daycare? And I, at this time, I had this beautiful 10 month old and he was in the daycare that was associated with the hospital. So I just could walk across anytime, which is really nice. And I walked into every mother's worst nightmare. The lights were dim. The daycare provider was rocking back and forth and back and forth in her chair. The eerie silence was broken by My child's in the back. When I went back there, I saw that my gift from the universe, God was being. Was in a bouncer seat. Arms and legs were tied down with a receiving blanket. His pacifier was in his mouth. His Winnie the Pooh blanket was wrapped so tightly around his face. His eyes are bloodshot. His face was swollen. I immediately picked him up. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And I looked at her. I mean, you could have killed my child. And I ran out on that day. The God universe saved my child. And I made the solemn promise. Like, as I'm holding him, you know, close to my heart, I'm like, God, I thank you so much for this. I promise I'm going to take care of these kids the best that I know how. But then I had to take a step back. I'm a family physician. I'm supposed to be preventative. How am I supposed to help my children if I myself am completely falling apart? And that is where it really blew my mind, because of the fact that if us as primary care practitioners don't even know how to take care of ourselves, how are we going to help anybody else? How are we going to help, like, our patients truly live and survive and thrive? Right, right. And so therefore, I went on the search for answers. I'm like, I need to take care of myself. I need to be here for these children. I need to be there like no one else has. You know, I'm. I feel like, you know, mother, my. My mother, my mother bear instincts kicked in and I was like, I need to protect. I need to take care of myself. Right. Like, why am I falling apart? So I went to. With that one question in mind, I went to one doctor. It's a doctor in residency. Despite being a physician, I was taught like, sorry, there's nothing you can do. This is like, oh, it's probably stress. And I'm like, why is this happening to me? What is going on? I'm so young. Why am I getting shingles? Like, what. Why. Why isn't anybody questioning this?

Right.

And that is when I realized they didn't really have the answers.

So you had this big question, why? Why is this going on in my system? You went to see somebody and they didn't give you answers?

Not even. Because at this time, I'm rotating with all of the biggest names in my health care. And like, the. In the hospital, and I'm asking everyone. I took, like a couple of years. I'm like, why is this happening? Why is this happening? And no one was able to give me the answer. Cancer.

Okay, so then where did you go from there?

So right from there, then, right, there was one doctor that did something a little bit different. And he was treating pelvic pain and, you know, infertility and PCOS that really didn't have great options, unconventional care. So he's. He was the one doctor that talked about diet and lifestyle. And I became intrigued. I was like, wait. So I sort of started asking him these questions, even though he was very busy. But right out of residency, then he actually grandfathered me into his medical practice, where under one roof there was me and ob GYN and internist, an exercise physiologist, nutritious counseling, chiropractor, massage therapy, all brought together for the complete healing of the whole person. And physicians Holistic health Alliance. And I was like, this is where I'm meant to be. This is where my heart has been calling me all along. And I started seeing patients with autoimmune diseases, people with. I have had one patient, like one of my first patients with nine autoimmune diseases. She's like, myasthenia gravis, psoriasis, lycospinus hashimoto, severe digestive issues, you know, psoriasis, all of these chronic health conditions. And she's like, I just don't want to be. I know myasthenia gravis can eventually kill me. I don't want to be on these really hardcore medications. She was on the highest dose of Mestanon and then was going to be put on Imuron and she worked at the Family Dollar store. And she, you know, didn't have a lot of money. But what was powerful was simple changes with her lifestyle. Simple changes in her lifestyle. She was able to heal from the inside out. She, like, no longer dealt with those chronic health conditions that really took most of their life. Yeah. So let's talk about that.

Let's talk about.

Yeah. These simple things. Yes, these simple things. And so we had to understand that the root of these underlining chronic health conditions was her body off balance. And we needed to understand, like, what was actually going on with her body. And just like a car, Right. Well, we have this car and we love the way that it looks. Right. And it, like, it gives us the freedom to go anywhere but the car, AKA our body also needs, like, you know, either electricity or gas to work. Right. And so, but what happens if one day, you know, soda was. Soda was as cheap, cheaper. So, like, we start putting soda in the car. The car is not going to work the way it should. The same with our bodies, right? We need to give our bodies exactly what it needs to work. Our, our bodies can't grow, they can't bloom if they don't have an appropriate environment. And how can we give ourselves. Our bodies are made out of cells. And how can we give ourselves what they need? Through food, through sleep, our nervous system, nature, our environment, our lifestyles. And unfortunately, in today's world, our lifestyles are not giving our bodies and cells what they need to function. Yeah.

So let's talk a little bit about this patient in particular, because I have a feeling it all applied to everybody, right? It's where does somebody start? So I see also a lot of chronically ill people. And you're right, so many factors that can be at play. Lifestyle diet are two huge, huge factors if you get those aligned. But we're all different, right? So some people can eat certain things and other people can't. And so where, where would somebody start if they know they have an issue and they're out of balance? So how did you start to address, you know, what this one was going through? And I find it fascinating that we, we often will draw people to us, people that are similar to the issues that we're facing in our own lives, because it's a great mirror. Sometimes we, we have blind spots for ourselves, but we see it clearly for others. So it sound, young woman, brought to you a lot of the things that you had addressed in yourself.

Absolutely. And that's where I was like, and when I saw improvement in her and that, and this is what really important lesson at first taught me that is anybody can do this. You don't need like an endless supply of wealth. You don't need all of these resources. Anybody can start where they are today. It is the simple cost effective strategies that make the most bang for your buck. Right. And that is what I need to really emphasize, and that's what I've been so passionate about educating the world about, is that it's simple, it's easy, it's cost effective, it's time effective, and you can start this today. And so the one place that I start, every one of my patients, no matter what they're dealing with, is the power of positivity and gratitude. Because the fact that that is where I really believe it all starts. And you can have the best diet in the world and you can have the best, you know, like you could be playing sports, you can be outside, but if you're like a pessimist and always negative and that doesn't matter what you do. Our brains will immediately want to push us in that direction, right? Like in that sickness direction. Mind over body. And so we unfortunately as, as physicians we were, that was like a taboo topic that nobody is allowed to touch that topic, nobody talk about it. It's not something that we address with the kids, with the, with our students and our families and our patients. So remember, we are mind, body, soul. And so we are spiritual creatures. But unfortunately we are never, as physicians, we're never taught this. But spiritual health has a significant impact in our ability to even bounce back and be resilient and increases our faith even further. Right. And these imbalances then lead to consequences.

And so the body's always listening, right?

The body is always listening no matter what. And our subconscious governs about 90% of our thoughts and actions. And if our subconscious is always negative, then we're not going to heal, period. And if our subconscious is positive, there's more hope. And so starting with that positivity and gratitude and then there's two main pieces of decision making. There's your prefrontal cortex and your amygdala. And you need your, these, both of these pieces to work, Simon, like in conjunction with each other in order for your brain to make a logical, rational decision. And so the prefrontal cortex is like the adult in the room while the amygdala is the child in the room. And so the amygdala is the more like the primitive fight and flight type of decision. Again, you need both of these pieces to work together to make a rational, thought out decision. But unfortunately we're living in a world today where our lifestyles are completely out of balance and we're negative. So it makes the amygdala kick the adults out of the room. And when that does happens, we know that we're not going to make good decision decisions where us versus you mentality. There's problems with, you know, unable to control your emotions, unable to control your like anger. You're not focusing on the decisions that you're making. You're just making irrational decisions. So it's not good. So this is where the gratitude is one of the most powerful things that we can do to help put both of these pieces back into balance. And it's the easiest. I have my. And it's free, free and free. So I have my patients immediately when they wake up in the morning, say 10 things that they're thankful for every day. So powerful, easy. And so immediately when they wake up in the morning, say 10 things that you're thankful for that will help to change our subconscious from instead of thinking negative all the time to thinking positive, focusing on all the things that are going right in our lives, not the things that are going wrong. Long term.

I love it. And you know, it's interesting because I work with a lot of moms and I think you do too. Is, is, you know, a family clinic. Ask, I ask a single question when I work with them is what brings you joy and it's right. It's in that same energetic of gratitude is, you know, what really lights you up. And I would say 90% of, of women that I work with don't have an answer. They say I have no idea or it's all about their family. And so then I asked the question, what did you like to do as a child? Right? What like skip thing, hum something. Right. So I think bringing people back to that positivity, what lights you up? What, what are you thankful for and grateful for? Just that alone can bring mass amount of healing to somebody.

Mass amount of healing. And so that is where I start every one of my patients with the power of gratitude. And then I move on to stress, sleep, social health, you know, like incorporating some sort of stress management technique, teaching them deep breathing, taking at least a deep breath breath a couple times a day, tying into an activity that they're doing every single solitary day. So then they know it becomes like a habit. Like for example, if they're driving their kids to school, they're doing that every single solitary day, take deep breaths during that time, go out in nature ground, you know, play. I don't, I think a lot of us adults don't play as, as much anymore. So these are the kinds of things that we really need to emphasize on to bring back. Because remember, stress leads to 80% of the complaints that come to primary care physicians are due to stress. And so if we don't stress manage, we're just going to get sick. So the next thing is social health. Keep people around you that are going to lift you up, not drag you down. And then social and spiritual we talked about and then sleep, making sure that we're sleeping because while we're sleeping we're not doing much anything else besides for healing our body, getting rid of the trash from our body, making hormones, lowering inflammation, optimizing our immune system, it really resets and rebalances us.

So for somebody who's struggling to sleep, what do you recommend?

So what I, I mean we work definitely, you know, fixing deficiencies, right? Is something that's really simple and easy to do. Like vitamin D, magnesium, fish oil, probiotics will help to really optimize their sleep. Help them with their sleep, you know, their routines and their sleep hygiene. Right. And to really help them like create a really dark room. Making sure. Obviously the first and foremost thing is to get rid of these things. Yes. And I am like, don't worry. I'm like after the kids go to bed, I'm like, yes, now I can finally finish that rule I was working on. I can finally. I'm like, I'm. I'm falling to that too. And then checking in the morning, you know, whatever. It's bad. It's like the worst thing that we can do. And I'm slowly trying to like you know, read books during that time. Spending in like the last hour away from our devices, reading a book, connecting with your family, anything like that. That. And that really does. Doing an Epsom salt bath even before you go to bed really helps to. That's also something that you can do. So then we can get rid of some of the electronics is like doing Epsom salt bath, doing like a massage, like yoga, whatever it is to help really relax yourself and then sleep the best we possibly can. And then remember that there are like supplements like homeopathics that are really great too. I like Quietude by Boy Run. That's really great. But I find that the way that you live your life during the day really optimizes your health and well being and how you sleep. So that comes to my next piece like your digestive health and detoxification. Because our the stuff that we're eating during the day are even drinking like especially caffeine or sugar or inflammatory foods can actually disrupt our circadian rhythms. And that is where you know, and especially teaching this to our kids also that what you do during the day determines what happens at night, determines your overall health and well being. It basically determines everything about how your body is going to function, how your body brain is going to function, how you show up in the world. And so having real food, getting rid of all the fake food. And that's where I wrote had to write this book, you know, Fake love versus real food to show kids that there is we can just become food label detectives. Because unfortunately in today's world we are getting sicker and sicker. This ultra processed food is like anywhere between 60 to 90% of the standard American diet. And for our children the statistics are even higher. Where 67% of the daily calories are derived from these empty ultra processed foods. And these are just formulations of ingredients, mostly like industrial use that's typically created by like a series of industrial processes and techniques. So we need to teach ourselves. And going through, we need to educate ourselves because there's so many harms of ultra processed foods. They're packed with preservatives, additives, artificial colors and sweeteners. These companies spend billions of dollars on trying to create a food like substance in a laboratory that keeps us hooked. It draws on our cravings for sweetness that are largely devoid of nutritional value and like are super calorie dense. They increase the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. And it's all that white stuff and the cookies and the cakes and the list goes on and on. But the problem is that you can't even make that stuff at home. So it's like an science experiment. And they're experimenting on us. You know, I just want to. That can cause chronic inflammation, that can really destroy our sleep. It can destroy our hormone balance, wrecking our blood sugar balance and even leaving serious issues. Sorry, I got.

No, I was just going to say I was recently in France and I kept seeing these beautiful yellow flowers and finally I asked the tour guide what they were and it was the rapeseed. It canola oil. Right. Which is heavily consumed in our country as an oil to use for cooking. And you know, I was guilty years ago when I saw organic canola oil I bought into. Oh, that's healthy. Well, it turns out that in France they use it for their machinery, their farm equipment. So it is a lubricant for their farm equipment. It is not meant to be consumed by humans. And here we are on the other side of the pond, you know, being told it's healthy, you should use it, it's good for your heart. And come to find out it's highly inflammatory in the body. Right. So in many ways what we're all learning is a, we've got to educate ourselves and we've got to really read labels, understand what's real and what's fake, but also getting to know our bodies and how our bodies respond to some of these fake substances as well. So I know for myself when I stopped using that a lot of my inflammatory markers went down. Right. So just get eliminating one food substance, not to mention many other ones. But, you know, so how do you. I know you're educating children, but I'm assuming you're also educating parents along.

Oh, absolutely.

And so, you know, how do you teach them what is healthy, what's Real and what's not?

Reading the labels. Look through the labels. What are you actually putting in your mouth? Educate yourself of what is actually what we're putting in our mouths and what, like, what does it actually do to our bodies? And so that is where it becomes so critical from somebody just following it just because someone's saying it or actually doing it because they're taking care of their bodies and educated, so they're making more educated decisions about the foods that they're consuming. And so going through and becoming them become in adults too, food label detectives. And so figure out, okay, what does red number 40 actually do to our body? What is a sodium benzoate? What is, what is this, you know, this calcium propionate? What is carrageenan? What is, you know, sodium nitrate? What are all these T, what is tbhq? What is bht? What is calcium, sodium edta? Like, what are all these things that are in our foods that we're consuming? And so if you can, like, then go. I mean, we are so blessed. We're living in a day and age today that we have the Internet. We can go and like, research this. It's at our fingers. We don't have to spend hours in the library looking at microfiches like we used to do a long time ago, like this. This is easy. So kids can do this. Why? I mean, we give kids such complicate, complicated things to do. I mean, how. And then most of us, we don't even ever use. So, for example, how much, how many of us are actually using long term, long division, like very. And the kids are learning this at such a long, young age. Right? Right. They can learn complex things. So why can't they learn and read a label and then figure out what it does to your body and then, then make a logical, rational decision to see if they truly want to consume that product or not. And then also work with parents to find healthier alternatives. Right? So, for example, the kids are going to want chocolate chip cookies. They're going to want. Because their friends are having it. And then, you know, that's like part of the experience. They want chocolate chip cookies, they want pancakes, they want brownies, they want cookies, they want cakes because everybody else is having it. So you don't want them to feel completely left out. But the thing is they, they can still make logical decisions. Even like, for example, in my house, we make cassava flour pancakes with Himalayan tartary buckwheat, and which you have now a delicious pancake with blueberries in it, chocolate chips in it, whatever you want to do with it. And guess what? Now you have this nutrient dense alternative packed with phytochemicals and phytonutrients that's going to help heal the body, not hurt it. That's going to satiate, and that's good because remember, food is power, food is information. Food dictates trillions and trillions of biological processes that are occurring in our body every second. So that is what is super important for us to understand that we can find these healthier alternatives and still have fun. And I think specifically for parents, this is a big piece of the puzzle. So especially when we're coming, when we bring things home, a lot of us practitioners, even functional medicine practitioners, we fall into this at home we're worried about the ingredients, and at home we're worried about the oils. And we're home, we're worried about what our, what we're actually consuming. But when we're at amusement park, we're like, don't worry about the ingredients, don't worry about the oils. We're having fun today. When we're at our birthday party. Don't worry about the oils, don't worry about the ingredients. We're having fun today when we're at a party. Don't worry about the ingredients, don't worry about the oils. We're having fun today when we're on vacation. Don't worry about the ingredients, don't worry about the oils, don't worry about what's in the food. We're having fun today. So now we have directly equated fun food with fake food. Interesting. So why would anybody at home, why would kids at home want to have those boring foods? Right? Because at home is the only time that we're worried about the ingredients and it's the only time we're worried about what we're actually consuming. But all kids want fun food all the time. To do adults, actually, we want fun food too, right? Yeah. But the thing is now we've subconsciously equated fun food with fake food. And so that's where they're like, oh, you know, it's not that important. Mom and dad don't really care about it outside, so why can't we have it all the time? Right? And so that is, I think, one of the key basic. And it gets, it gets tricky about when to, when to allow it and when to not to allow it. But the thing is, if you can educate your child to make those rational decisions for themselves, tell them what's going on, their food Help them be mindful, role model this yourself, right? Showing them, you know, when I had this, this is how I felt. I felt miserable. My digestion was off. You know, my stomach hurt, my brain fogged up. But how does this make you feel? And so help them be mindful, but also role model those behaviors and then focus on gratitude, right? Look at all of these things we can have. So in my house, whenever we go out, we take the food with us. And then if we want to have fun food, we find healthier alternatives. Like, for example, we'll go to, like, we went to Milwaukee one day. We're in the Chicagoland area. We went to Milwaukee. The kids are like, we really want donuts. I'm like, let's make a project, right? Let's find. It's like a scavenger hunt. They were like, looking on their computers. They look for all the healthy restaurants. They're like, oh, mama. This one doesn't use seed oils. This one is like, may use almond flour. This doesn't use any gums. This one really is like, delicious. And they have donuts. Can we go check them out? And I was like, yes, let's go. So we made it like a fun scavenger hunt. And then we tasted like every donut they had, right? Like, and it was delicious. And now the kids are like, can we go back there? This is so much fun, right? And I'm like, yes, let's go. Like, they didn't use sugar, they used honey. And it was like decadent. And same with, like, if we wanted pizza, we would find those pizzas. We would find those restaurants that are organic, non gmo, that concentrate on the ingredients. You know, true food kitchen is everywhere. Even Chipotle is a little bit cleaner because it's non gmo, but there are other options out there. And taking our food with us and then like, whatever the kids love to eat, I would take that with us. So even, for example, we went to even Saudi Arabia. I took two weeks worth of food with us, but only what the kids absolutely love. Like, I took pizza like, where there was like grain free pizza. Like, I knew we don't, we don't do dairy all the time. But again, this is for like a special treat. And so we got the raw dairy. We like. I made these pizzas on like grain free crusts. And then I packed them up, I froze them in like parchment paper and Ziploc and put them in Ziploc bags, froze them all. And then guess what? Now I can pull this out. Everybody want pizza night. Yeah. Like, let's do this right? With vegetables, clean protein, healthy fats. But guess what? Now we just also had a pizza night and that was fun, but we're still worrying about what we're, what the ingredients are. They're making it with us. They're reading the ingredients, they're, they're like looking for the restaurants themselves. So what I'm trying to say is get them involved in the process.

Yes.

And role modeling this yourself. And it's so, so much fun. I feed a family a nine on a daily basis. So if I can do this, anybody can. And it is so much fun.

Yeah. And you've got kids spanning multiple age categories and it sounds like they're all involved in one way, shape or form, which is amazing. And then they start to talk to their friends, right?

Yes.

Probably one of the biggest challenges I had as a mother. So I've got four kiddos when I found out they were trading their organic foods for non organic at school lunches. And that's when I realized, like, I had it up here, but I hadn't instilled it in them. And so then I started educating them, like, here's why, you know, I make it this way. Why buy this? And it's organic and there are, you know, no nitrates, no nitrites, you know, all of that. And so I realized I had to start educating my kids so that they were empowered.

Absolutely. I mean, teach them what happens in the gut microbiome. Absolutely. And how they feel. And teach them what happens with what. What is insulin resistance? What happens when the blood sugar hits our bodies? What is glycation? What is, what are these things that are leading to chronic inflammation? What is our mitochondria? What is, what was our, what do I, what does our mitochondria need for energy to create that energy? Otherwise you're going to feel in a slump because you're not giving your mitochondria what it needs to. What is, what is, what is metabolic insufficiency? Like, these are things, have these conversations over time. You don't have to like sit down and have them all at once. But these are small little tidbits that you can incorporate into. Like when you go grocery shopping with them. Right. When you go, when you cook with them, when you sit and have like dinner and lunch, you're like, you know what, look at, look at this, look how delicious this is. This is what it was in here. You know, just make it fun and, you know, have fun with it. Or we would just go shopping together. Like, even if we're on vacation, we would go shopping and their kids are like, oh, let's look at ingredients. Like, oh, I want this, mama. Oh, let's, let's read it. Well, let's find out what's actually in that. So really incorporating your entire family is really important.

So gratitude, reading labels, including everyone in the education, decision making, creation play. What else helped you heal and helps the families that you work with heal?

Detoxification and detoxing.

So talk about that for a few minutes.

Our bodies are bombarded with tons and tons and tons, thousands and thousands of different chemicals every second. And what is crazy is that we do have a system that, that gets rid of that. It's called our liver. I like, you know, when it goes, these toxins go into our bloodstream. I clean. Our bloodstream is cleaned out with the liver. The liver ships it out in different ways of trying to get it out through our poop, our perspiration, our, you know, lymphatics, peeing it out. But unfortunately, today, because we're so bombarded in every which direction with these toxins, our liver sort of gets stuck and like slow and sluggish. Like it's like a drain that's clogged. Right? And when that happens, you increase the. When we, especially when we increase the toxic load, our liver doesn't work. It increases the toxic load further inside of our body. That then leads to all of these chronic health conditions. Because technically these are this, this toxins the body was supposed to get rid of, but now it's stuck in your body. So obviously that's just going to lead. Your body's going to be like, hey, I'm very uncomfortable here. This is so uncomfortable. And so really empowering our human children to figure out what, what, what is actually, what are they putting in their bodies? In their mouths. Yes. But then also what's they're putting on their skins. And when their skin and they realize that, wow, you should put on your skin exactly what you could even eat, right? Because if they start reading with all the labels what's what they're putting on their skin, they're like, why would I want to put this in my skin? Because remember, our skin absorbs everything. Everything. Yes, everything. And so swapping out those, the fake stuff for the real cleaner stuff first, recognizing where the toxins could be located, swapping it out and then, and then helping your body detoxify by doing Epsom salt baths. Then it raises glutathione. Then we have is, you know, making sure you're sweating on a daily basis, making sure you're eating real food to help you build that glutathione that is a super antioxidant of the liver. Making sure you're having those foods with, you know, packed with sulforaphane, which are those, you know, Brussels sprouts and the broccoli sprouts and the broccoli and the cauliflower and those greens and incorporate that. So for me and at my house, I love broccoli sprouts. You can like. So it's really difficult for me to keep plants alive. I don't know why I'm trying to just barely keep kids alive. It's really difficult. So, like, it's hard. I'm like, I buy these, like, house plants. I could barely keep them. But guess what? I can like, keep two things alive. One, broccoli sprouts. Like, I can grow them and keep them alive. Why? Because it needs, like, little to no effort. You just take like a couple tablespoons of seeds and you put them in your water, leave them overnight, they're like eight hours. And then rinse them out, stick them in like this mason jar with a little mesh and a 45 degree angle. And then that's it. Like, you rinse it out, rinse it out twice a day. And then it doesn't need, like, you don't need to change the soil. You don't need a water a little watery. But like in like a week now you have like an entire mason. Mason jar full of broccoli sprouts that you can put into everything. You can put it into your soups, you can put them in, into your stews, you can put them into your. Like, I put it into my ground beef, I put it into. On sandwiches, like wherever it can just go in everything that you're cooking, right? And different types of sprouts. You can. It's like easy. It's like the simplest, funnest way to grow stuff that's really packed with phytonutrients. And the other thing that I can't kill as fast is like snake plants or like different types of. Yeah, like, you can't. Like, you can just stick one. You don't have to water. It doesn't need that much sun. I even have them in my bathroom, which doesn't even have a window. And like, and it doesn't even need. So like, it doesn't even need like watering, right?

And they help air and everything else, right?

Your environment, like, it, like cleans the air, it detoxifies Like, I have like two or one, like a couple in each room of the house to try to detoxify the air around you. Like, these are cost effective, simple things that somebody can do. Making sure they're pooping, peeing, perspiring, getting a massage. All of these things can really help to improve your detoxification system and get rid of these toxins.

Amazing. Well, you are vibrant and healthy. And how long did it take for you to get to where you are today from where you started when you were working?

So once I found the underlining root cause, right. For me, I had to deal with some underlining trauma, too.

Okay.

So, like, doing some trauma work is like. Because I was doing everything right, and I'm like, why am I still elevated? And then I realized, oh, I probably. I know my body's like. My body is still dealing with some trauma. I like, you know, you feel it. You know, when you're in certain situations, your body clamps up and you're like, okay, no. And then, you know, you're subconsciously doing that. And then I was like, okay, I need to figure that out. So actually, once I was able to do that, it, like, my body was able to fall back into balance. Now I know that if I have stress, I can like, my. I know. So I'm working not. It's never. Nobody's perfect. But I know, for example, for me, my stress causes me to be off balance. I'm trying to incorporate that. So things like that, that you just need to, you know, healing is just not one size fits all. Right. Healing is not a smooth journey, has lots of ups and downs. And the more that we go through those ups and downs and those roller coasters, the more we learn more about our bodies and what is actually going on and how we can take care of it better. Because these symptoms are your body talking to you.

Right.

And if we try to shut them up with medications, that's gonna, like. It's just. It's still gonna, like, you know, this is going to get angrier. Right. Like here your body's trying to talk to you, and you're like, shutting it up with the medication and you're like. Like, it's just going to get angry. Yeah.

And I think that's so important because we're not taught to really be connected to our bodies and to listen.

Right.

When I go back to my childhood, I was a, you know, pretty rough and tough athlete and that saying, no pain, no gain, you know, So I just learned to override anything my body was telling me, and that was a big part of me shifting. The healing crisis that I was in was, wow, my lymph nodes are swollen. Something's going on here. Maybe I should pay attention. And I think that's so important. And I think the trauma and the emotional, you know, things that happen, even if we don't perceive them from our adult eyes as being a big deal at some point when we were younger, those could be traumas that got kind of locked into the body. Right. Body's always keeping score and talking and listening.

Absolutely. So we have to start listening to our bodies.

Listening to our bodies.

Yeah. So. And then really start with your perspective. If you're going to start anywhere, change your perspective. Because your perspective can either be your power or your perspective can be your pain. And so starting there, listening to your body, you know, it's like the most powerful thing that you can actually do.

Well, that is a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much, Maria, for being here and everything that you said. What I love about it more than anything is most of this is readily available to us. It's free. It's just committing, you know, it's committing to the practice, like you said, of getting up and saying 10 things you're grateful for in the morning. It's just a commitment to our health and our well being as, as humans. That's so incredibly important.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. It was such a incredible honor.

Yeah. Thank you.