Teen Health Revolution: How The Holistic Kids Are Empowering a Generation | Jenn Payeur

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. First of all, this is my first podcast doing standing up. So I'm doing my standing desk today, and I'm doing that because I'm jumping because I'm so excited to have you here. My dear friend Maria, these are her beautiful, amazing boys, and you're going to find out just how amazing they are. So I'm going to try to remember to go in order here, and if you could just kind of raise your hand, that would be awesome. So we've got Zayn in the blue shirt right here. Hi, Zane. And we have Ahmad in the middle here. I got it right. And Abdullah to the right.

Yep.

All right. And we're missing Quasm Ansari. Is that right? Okay. So these four young gentlemen are ripping up the world by helping teens become more healthy. And they just wrote a book called the Holistic Kids the Teen Revolution, and. Oh, my gosh. Wow. So how did you get into this? What? Like, what happened? I know your mother focuses on health, but I do, too, and my kids don't always listen to me, so I want to know what your secret is.

I think.

I think us understanding how ultra processed foods or fake foods are so detrimental for our health is a big reason why we. We like to stay away from it. Because it's one thing for our mom to know about and try to tell us about it, but it's another for us to actually understand why we're not eating it and to actually not want to eat it.

And also, we saw in our schools and everything like that our generation is suffering. I mean, I saw people in my high school with all kinds of conditions. I saw that we're poisoning ourselves. And most kids in school, they don't even know. It's like, it's normalized now to a point where apparently having asthma and eczema and allergies and ADHD and all kinds of issues is normal. So we definitely were like, there's something wrong here. And so, you know, Zen, you want to take it from there a little bit? So then basically, Zen and I, we started at first when we were younger. We started the Holistic Kids show podcast during the pandemic.

And that we saw. That we saw especially, everyone was just stuck at home, either, like, binge eating or binge Watching, we were not really moving. We were really disconnected from nature and society that we. That we saw how we needed to empower other kids too. So that's why we started our podcast, and that kind of really created the start of it.

I heard you just had your 200th episode of your podcast. Amazing. So what were you going to say, Abdullah?

I was gonna say, over the past five years now, like you just mentioned the 200 podcast episodes, we've really started to see the difference in, the change in, you know, the people that listen. Also, with teens that we talk to as well, you can see the changes, the scene, the change in their mindset and how much it's really helping them. Because a lot of these people out there, a lot of teens that they feel like there's no hope, and that's why we definitely want to come and give the them. Give them hope. That's one of our Ms. That's our mission.

And like, I had sinus issues at like a very young age, and I didn't want anybody else to feel that way because then I'll just continue on in generations, right?

It'll just get worse, right? So how the heck do you motivate kids your age? So, you know, kids are really into fast food often, and parents are in a hurry, and so everything is about convenience and quickness. How do you motivate your peers to think differently, to want to do something different? When a, you know, a packaged brownie or a Coke tastes so good, how do you do that?

I think. And what we can do to help these teens is to look at what they like. Let's say if you really like sports or if you really like something like arts or you really want to become a doctor, stuff like that. But there's really no point in anything. It's no, there's no point in that if you don't have health. And especially because the world is so. It's so destroyed when it comes to health. Like, we're not focusing on it as much, and we kind of just throw our lives away to these companies that we can definitely see in many statistics that it's like the world is really getting. Getting destroyed.

Your. Your generation is the first generation predicted to not live as long as the parents, right? So this is like urgent, urgent warning. Warning that you've got to. You've got to help, you know, get the message out and change the. The narrative.

Exactly. That's like, ridiculous that parents are going to outlive their children. And that's why this needs to be heard. In every single school, every around the world. Because this. If we don't stop it now, then what's the next. What's the next generation going to be like? What's the next governors, the next politicians, the next teachers, the next doctors? Like Zan was saying, how are we going to function as a society if our brains aren't working properly?

Right?

And you know, I love the word that you use, the word movement. So this is more than just changing the belief system, the narrative. This is creating a movement so that others can jump on board. And have you seen that? Have your friends said, whoa, I want to be part of this, this is really amazing, or I feel better. What. What do you notice after you speak or do a pod?

I think especially with many people just outside, they all. Once you see these statistics, you can see that the world wasn't always like this. And now it kind of feels like I don't want to be part of that statistic. So many people, they want to join the movement because they have this hope for the world and they're joining us in this revolution.

Share some of the statistics. So what are some of the statistics that you keep talking about that we all need to know so that we can say, oh my gosh, yeah, right now?

I mean, even though we, we see it all the time. If you look at the statistics, one in three kids, teens, have prediabetes, right? It was one in two kids have at least one persistent health condition. Three fourths of adolescents are experiencing depression and anxiety. And there's a steady increase in suicides amongst US Teens over the past two years. And that's just not right. There's something definitely going wrong here that needs to be addressed. And, you know, there's even a bigger problem when 1 in 8 kids have actually tried to commit suicide and every 11 minutes someone actually dies of suicide. And so this doesn't just randomly occur. There's something that has to happen before all of these, like Zan was mentioning, statistics happen. And we definitely dived into this. We asked experts, we had on our podcast, we asked them what is going on in the world right now, now? And they all single that down to our lifestyle. And I think just reflecting on, like, our lives back then as well, we could see how our lifestyle was in other teens. Lifestyle was starting to contribute to all of these problems. I mean, when 1 in 10 US children have ADHD or behavioral problems, like, that's not just physical, that's mental. Like, that's mental. Like those problems are going past, you know, just the Skin, they're going to the brain. And nobody wants to live in a society where kids brains and people's brains are not working properly.

And so what else? So we know our air, food, our water compromised, right? With toxins, with, you know, all kinds of things. What else is going on with kids? What else is affecting, you know, kids your age that is contributing to, I mean, that those are shocking statistics, especially the depression, the suicide, and all of that.

Like us in this new generation, we're like not getting, we're not being mindful. And mindfulness means, like being fully present in the world. Like, when you're mindful, you can unlock your true potential. But like when you're not mindful, like when teens are scrolling, eating whatever, staying up late and just like doing nothing, just bragging, then it makes us. And we just blindfold, like, we just put toxins in our body and that just makes us worse.

We've got mindfulness, We've got the toxins in our, in our food. What else? What about stress? Is your generation stressed? And how do, how do cell phones and computers affect you?

And so before we go into stress, I just, like, I want to mention cell phones as well, because as a teenager in high school, I definitely have seen how it's affecting everybody. And I think I know adults. It's also affecting adults a lot. But 96% of Gen Zers say that they can't go to the bathroom without their phones. Like, that's how you know that we're definitely like, we're stuck on our phones. And I know there's also a problem with, with adults as well. And you see it in high school. The kids are on their phones, they don't know how to communicate. We can't look each other in the eye, any eyes anymore and talk like it's, it's, it's terrible what's going on.

Yeah, I remember about 10 years ago when my daughter was, she was 17 and she and her friends were sitting on the couch and they were all on their phones. And I'm like, what are you doing? You know, you're all sitting here to hang out and you're all on your phones and they were texting each other while they were sitting next to each other. So we, we got to make some big changes in our family as well. So what, you know, what are you helping kids do? So these are all like, these are all the problems, right? And we've got a lot of them in society. So what are some ways. So, you know, I heard you, Ahmad, talk about Mindfulness. What else are ways that we can address this to kind of come back to our core for your generation?

Gratitude.

Gratitude, yeah.

Yeah.

Tell me more about that gratitude. I hear a lot about it. What does that mean exactly? How do you do it at your age? What is it? What does it look like.

When, when us teens, we're surrounded by screens, we have tick tock the news, like all these different types of social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat. And what this does is that.

Tells.

Us a lot of things that's going around the world. And bad stuff has always been going around in the world for, yeah forever. But now as teens we get, we're. It's very easy for us to get to all of these and we're over simulated. Right?

Like I know I remember in high school there was like this one kid that's like this happening in the world. Is this happening in the world? Like how am I supposed. And then they worry so much about what's happening outside the world. They don't focus on what they're doing, what, what they're doing. And so then they just get like with school and then apparently there's a war going on. This person got killed. They just, the news and social media, you know, social media giving people false realities of what life is actually supposed to be like. Like some people, like, I know teens, they're like, I saw this one person on social media, so happy he's doing this. Look at me like I have like my friend, my friends aren't like the people I see on social media. My house isn't like that. You know, my family isn't like that. I'm like, there must be a problem with me. And so that self image and everything we think that, you know, social media, it's not gonna affect us that much, but internally it just, it destroys our like self, our self image of ourselves and our just the way that we see ourselves. And that's why, that's where gratitude comes in. Because when gratitude, you, you are your best self. You tell yourself, I'm grateful for, you know, what's around me. I'm grateful for my family. I don't care what everyone else has in the world. But as long as I am happy, you know, I have that, I'm content, I'm p. I'm in a state of peace. I'm calm. Then no matter what storms are happening around me, I can center myself and be in control of my own life.

Yeah. Gradual change, our heart rhythm in like a healthy way. Heart rate variability.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Do you meditate?

Yes.

All three of you?

We meditate in our. In our prayers as well.

Amazing. And that helps you as well, right?

It helps us center ourselves and be with someone who is much higher than us. Our creator.

Yes, absolutely. So what inspired you to write the book and tell me what that process was like? I mean, pretty amazing to be published authors.

Well, first of all, as teens, you got to. First, like, the psychological hurdle of, oh, my God, we're writing a book. But after. Once we got past that, then I think we just started to be. We just. We realized we needed a revolution.

Mm. Right. Especially what I did, like, when writing the book, like, just breaking it up into different, like, sections so we can easily write different things. And then we would come together and, you know, discuss ideas, and we would.

Go over the book.

So all these are, like, easy ways to, like, manage the stress of making a book and getting it done faster, easier.

But also, we had a mission.

Yeah.

We had a goal. And our goal was that every single teen that reads this book is gonna be. Is going to start and changing their lifestyle, start to living the life that they actually are in control of, that they can feel like good in their own bodies. Because nowadays, with what's happening in the world, most teens, they're insecure, they're unhealthy. They just. They want to be, and they don't want to be unhealthy, but they're like, we don't know what else to do with our lives. Like, what else?

Yeah.

And. And so we realize that teens are mostly eating this way and living this way because they don't know how else to live, because this is what every. What this. That's what they see on the Internet. And to get information all into one place for teens is so important. And with this age of misinformation, we needed something like a manual, like a handbook. And as I meet Zan and Madly and Gossame start to work on the teen health revolution, do you have a.

Favorite part of the book or a favorite chapter?

That's. It's really hard to say that because each chapter talks about something that is really unique and really powerful. So personally, like, I don't have a favorite.

It's powerful because, like, we got expert advice, and we put that into the book. So it makes me more powerful.

Yeah.

And especially because of all the podcasts that we did, we gathered many of those key points, those tips from all these experts to make this book really credible. Because a lot of people, they're really worried that oh my gosh. Kids wrote this book, right? Like, this is not a reliable source. So that's why adding all these touches of reliable sources into creates this more educational book for everyone.

Or you added the science in, right?

Yeah, that's lots of science statistics. Yeah.

And what also is really fun about it is that like each chapter is like a, a letter of revolution.

Ah, so we have R, right?

Yeah. Tell me about what those letters hallucinogt.

We have E. Eat real food.

Vanquish toxins.

Oh.

Optimized stress management. L love nature.

And so then we just keep on going on and we add a few more. We have mindfulness, we have gratitude in there. And really it's all about the entire body. It's about the entire self internally and externally, even at a spiritual aspect as well. Because right now most teens, I mean on the spiritual aspect, we were living without a purpose.

Right.

Walking around, doing whatever we're doing, putting whatever we want into our mouths, not focusing on what our mission on this earth is supposed to be. And so we, and we want to empower people so that they're able to actually figure out that purpose and move forward in their life.

Amazing. So what are some name, like two or three things that kids and teenagers can do to change things now that are not longer term? So some quick things that somebody can do that that isn't too difficult to get them started.

Every single day, think of 10 things that you're grateful for.

Gratitude.

That's, that's what actually we used to do. Yeah, Leah, we used every single day we, when we were kids, especially every single day we used to wake up and we used to say 10 things we're thankful for.

We're thinking, yeah, you can make it.

Fun because we were kids back then. So our mom made into a song.

Okay, amazing. So doing a gratitude ten things every day. What else?

Also like eating with fun. Like, like instead of just having the same over food, like over and over again, like you can include color into it, like apples. Like different colors because it can help you with so much benefits.

Yeah. They, they now say that your microbiome, the more diverse you make it, the better your gut is. Right. So you, you mix it up and you eat different colors. And all of that really helps.

And also just a general thing for anybody that wants to try to eat better, you just ask yourself, is this nature made or is this man made? Because if you just do that one thing and you look at the ingredients and you figure out for yourself, you're, you're, your health is Going to completely change in, in the positive way. Because now in a day of ultra processed foods and people don't know the difference between real food and fake food. Just educating yourself and getting the right information, I think. And that's the best thing you can do for yourself.

And like, as a tip, like don't just eat like just straight up, don't eat just non GMO like this. Today I'm just gonna have all this and then just tomorrow just have full on everything. Because that's not gonna really work. You want to take steps. Like tomorrow I'm gonna get rid of like, like GMOs. And then I'm gonna. Tomorrow I'm gonna get. Then the day after that I can get rid of gluten. And there's that. That can help.

And just like constantly expanding and like social. And also many teens these days, ex and also adults. Basically everyone, whenever they're hungry, they just go and start eat whatever they want. Maybe it's like a bag of chips or some dessert, like they don't really care. So a nice tip that'll keep everything more organized and healthy is whenever you're hungry, go down the list. Vegetables, clean protein and healthy fat. And then after that you can have a little treat like some fruit or dark chocolate.

And it's just so simple. Like that sounds like the most simple thing ever. And so many people though are missing that from their lives.

Well, and sometimes it requires a little bit of planning, right. So that you have things like carrots, for example, or you know, things like that. Or have, have some apples was for some fruit. I love that. Where can people find your book? I think everybody needs to get a copy of this book. It's amazing. And can you read the title for me?

The Teen Health Revolution. Unlocking Lifestyle Secrets for the Mind, Body and Soul.

Love it. And so where can people find the book? So Amazon.

Yeah, you can pre order on Amazon like now. It's coming out November 13th.

Yeah, Amazon bookstores, if you still go to books.

And then Bloomsburg Publishing. So yeah, anywhere. Especially Amazon. Everyone really has access to Amazon. And then Barnes and Nobles is basically everywhere. So those two are really big sources that if you want to go pre order the book. Definitely, definitely preorder the book. Yeah.

Preorder the book. Yes.

The world.

Yes. And so what's next for you? You're young, you've, you're, you've got this movement going. You've written this book. What's next?

Just continuing our mission, Sharing the message, creating the movement.

And every year we can constantly get to way more people every single year. Yeah. And we can expand the message. We can create this revolution. We can create this movement.

Also, in a few months, we're going to be speaking at Mindshare and afm.

A for M, A for M. So.

Definitely go check that. If you're there, go check us out because.

Yeah, so that's huge. It's really hard to get on the mindshare stage and a 4M stage. So congratulations. That's huge.

We were so honored.

Yeah, that's such a great place too. I hope that was in your gratitude. Such a great place to. To share your message and you're with all the right people to help continue the movement and carry it out.

Yes.

Any last messages or words of wisdom that you'd like to share with the audience?

I think start small because when you start small, you can keep on building up. And when you build up, especially when you focus on yourself and you focus on healing yourself self, one step at a time, it'll create this ripple effect that. And we can never create change without. Without you. So we need every single person to really create change.

And, and also I think probably for you as well, like, this didn't happen overnight. 10 years. First we used to eat. Like, people or classmates are shocked. Like, you see McDonald's. Like, yes. Like 10, 15, 10, 12 years ago, we say McDonald's, Burger King, all that. Like, I know for me especially, I wasn't born into this, but every single year we stopped fast food. Then we stopped like, you know, ultra processed gluten. Then we started to go like this and then that. And then year after year, we just started to learn and step by step by step, and we educated ourselves.

I was just gonna say you educated yourself.

And especially as like, I think one of the biggest misconceptions right now is that kids don't need to be educated about their health and that they don't need to be educated about what foods to eat, which is completely wrong. Teach your kids, teach your family to read the labels. Tell them what each, what each ingredient does to you. Like when we found out that red, 40 and yellow, you know, the, the yellow artificial colors, they, they. Yeah, they cause cancer. We were like, why are we putting this in our own bodies?

Right. Why are we putting it in our food?

Yeah.

Because if obviously, if our mother just yelled at us, don't eat this, don't eat that, then we would be like, oh, okay, fine, just because you would say, but we educated on ourselves and we made that decision because we know how it affects our body.

Right?

Yeah.

And that's another, you know, another tip for people is read the labels. Right. I used to tell my kids, if you can't pronounce it, it's not real food. If there's something in there that's, you know, and if you have more than five ingredients, really read what's in there because it's probably not real food.

Exactly. Our mom used to say, like, if it sounds like it's, it was made in a lab experience, like a laboratory. It probably was.

Probably.

And we found that mostly true for almost all of those ultra processed ingredients that we found.

That's when you go, dang, my mom is right again.

Yeah, I know, right?

Thank you so much. What a privilege to have you here. And I'm excited I'll get to meet you in person at Mind Share in a few weeks and thrilled for your success. And again, everybody needs to buy your book. So we will put that in the show notes, name of the book. We'll put a link to Amazon and they can pre order now and it will come out November 4th. Did you say November 13th? November 13th. November 13th. So look for that to be shipped out then and you'll have it in your hot little hands. Thank you so, so much. You're all amazing and wonderful young men. Yeah. Hold it up one more time. Amazing, amazing young men. And congratulations. What a great accomplishment and so needed right now on our planet.

Thank you. It was our pleasure.

It really is our pleasure.

Thank you.