The Shocking Truth About Chronic Disease and How I Overcame It

Hi, I'm Kamilah Stevenson, and I am starting a podcast show. That is right. Some of you may know me and some of you may not, but I felt like this was the time now to be able to share my world, the inside of me. A lot of people know me and a lot of people don't, and some have followed me and some have not. But I decided that it was time to really share my, my decades of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding concerning the health world, everything I've gathered over the years. To be able to provide value and just understanding on how to approach a life that can really be successful for you. And, you know, I am a health expert. I've been studying health for over 15 years, and I've been looking at case studies after case studies and doing the, the research and the science behind longevity and reversing chronic disease. It has not been a walk in the park, obviously. I I have faced my own challenges, and I'm going to share my story about how I overcame health problems, uh, heart problems when I was young and wanting to be a professional athlete and go to the Olympics. I had to overcome these issues of loss and, and grief concerning what I wanted to do in my life. And the reason why I didn't make it is because of my health and how I approached the framework of my health. And of course, I thought I was invincible as a young girl with my health and my eating. And so as a young girl, did overcome some things. And I want to share about how I missed out on my opportunity to make it as a professional athlete because of heart problems, and how I arose, uh, against the challenges to a situation where I could finally build my own health business and coach clients to reverse disease, and how became a TEDx speaker. I've had many great accomplishments and I've done many different things, but I absolutely love, at the core of my heart, helping people to triumph in the area of their health. And a lot of times when you use that word health, you, you think automatically that this is just physical health. This is not just physical health. This is your mental health, your emotional health, your relational health, your social health, you know, your physiological health. There are many components to healthy living. There's a lot to learn and there's a lot to grow. And quite frankly, most of us are where we are, uh, because of what we know and, and our highest level of thinking. And if you're right here at this point in your life because of your best thinking and you're not where you want to be, then I think there is some room to grow. And so here it will be an opportunity to learn and to grow and and to understand what healthy living looks like. Uh, I am a little older now, so I'm not super old, but a little older, and my outlook on health has dramatically changed. And like I said, I'll tell you my story about where I started, you know, even as a young girl, and how I got to the point where I could really manage my own health and reverse some damage that I had done to my own body, and also walk others through the same approach. And it's been And so I'm excited about this journey because I've always wanted to do a podcast. I have 3 babies and they require a lot of my time, obviously. And I didn't have time to do something like this, to sit down and really talk through certain elements and certain things concerning my life and concerning health, the health world. I didn't have the time to do it, you know, and, and now I'm excited because I do have the time to do it. And it's just a great season that I'm in right now, and I want to share it. I want to share it for those who know me and who don't. And I really want to make sure that I'm providing the best value as possible to life because I believe this is my purpose and this is what really makes me happy. And I'm all about being happy right now, and that is a skill, not just an emotion. And so I have to do things that bring me joy, which is to educate and to train and to teach and to coach and to share the, the information that I have. And so I want to do that with you, and I'm excited about it. Like I said, I've developed this podcast show, and this is the first time that I'm actually sitting down for, uh, just a longer podcast. This is the first time that I'm, that I'm doing it in this style and in this way. Yes, I've been on YouTube and social media for quite some time, and I'm on Instagram and TikTok, and I've been growing my followers, and I've been just growing, that influence and credibility for over some time, but now I really, I really desire to have a greater reach. Okay, so let me just say this. If you are watching right now, there are so many people who watch, who learn, who gather, and they don't subscribe. So I do want to say, just make sure that you do subscribe to my page because I am about to get some really, really valuable content out, and I couldn't be more excited than to help you grow and to develop and to learn and to, um, just advance in life. And guess what? I'm doing it with you. I have not reached the point of, you know, success the way I want to, and I have not, you know, reached the heights. You never reach the heights. As a matter of fact, you are always aiming and pushing through the glass ceiling. So I want to share a bit about my history and just the blueprint of what it means to live healthy, what it means to approach your life with intentionality, because a lot of people are not intentional. And if you don't take the driver's seat of your life, then your life will just start to go and you're going to just kind of be on the response end. You're going to be following life and you not dictating what life should be like for you. Uh, and that really, for a lot of people, mean that you're gonna be in a cycle if you don't become intentional. You're going to be in a cycle that keeps you connected to the past, keeps you locked into the past, keeps you locked into something that is technically rehearsed over and over again in different ways. You know, like how somebody, you know, have the same boyfriend or girlfriend or the same relationship that mimics the, the person from the past, just new name, new face, it's all the same. And we don't want to get stuck there, right? We don't want to get stuck in the past because if we're there, we cannot create our future. And there's a lot of things, honestly, that will limit you from creating the future that you want. And so health has to be an intentional, uh, pursuit. This isn't something that we could just live day by day and do whatever we want and procrastinate and be lazy and, you know, just not even think twice about what we're doing, why we're doing it, you know, how we're eating, how we're exercising. Are we sedentary? Are we laying around all day? Are we sitting down all day doing nothing? These things will affect your life, and life is an expansion of so many different things that people don't get it. Like, your health is going to reflect in every area of your life— your career, your relationship with your kids, your your spouse, how much money you make. A lot of people don't see the connection. There is a connection. And you know, when I started off as I was younger, you know, just a little bit of background about me, you know, I, I was very aggressive when it came to sports, and I was a track star. So I ran track, I did basketball, I did cross country, I just— I love sports. Any kind of sports you could put me in, I wanted to be in it. And I was very competitive as a young girl. And so— and that's actually a good thing, you know, to be competitive, to want to challenge yourself, to challenge yourself against other people so that you can become your best. I did all of that. But one thing I didn't realize is that there is a— there are principles, there's a framework, there are protocols in place that, you know, helps you to aid and to guide you into where you really desire to go. And I wasn't following that. So let me tell you my diet when I was a little child. Uh, it was really, really bad. And I talk a little bit about this in my TEDx talk. I would wake up— and I'm not like making this up, this is, this is really bad— but I would wake up in the morning, uh, and, and I'm gonna fast forward to high school because that's where things started to take a toll on me. But I would wake up and I would eat like Flamin' Hots and Doritos and ice cream. Yeah, ice cream with extra, extra Snickers and extra, extra granola on it and caramel on top. And, you know, I would eat that for breakfast sometime, actually. And, you know, my mom used to say, you know, you need to eat your veggies. And as a child, I didn't really listen. I didn't know the importance of it. And I'm young, I'm an athlete, I there's nothing that's going to happen to me, right? So that's what I thought. And one day, out of the blue, I started to get very nauseous. I'll never forget, I was in a cafeteria about my sophomore year in high school, I believe, and I ate some Home Runnin' Pizza. And I ate like 2 big slices of that pizza, and I went after, uh, school to go run and do a warm-up for my track at practice. And so when I did that, I remember getting nauseous, and all of a sudden I threw up. And I— that had never happened to me before, by the way. I had never thrown up after running. And so, uh, that started to happen pretty much, uh, several times a week. And I just kept eating bad, of course. Just imagine Flamin' Hots for breakfast, you know, for dinner, you know, burgers, McDonald's, french fries, you know, junk food. Uh, gyros. I would just eat whatever, and it was all processed food, by the way. And so, um, eventually I started to throw up not just once during practice, but I would start throwing up more than once. Like, if I had a track meet, I would run and then I would have to go in the bathroom and throw up after I ran. And then if I had another, uh, run— because I had sometimes like 4 or 5 different events between single events and, uh, and relay races. And so I would go back, and after each race, I noticed that I would just start throwing up more and more. And what I started to pay attention to— it came to me one day because I didn't have much self-awareness. I just didn't know what was happening to my body, um, in addition to other things that were happening, like, uh, skin problems and inflammation and ear infections and throat infections, you know, twice a month. I mean, it was really bad. Uh, but what I noticed is that I made a connection to where the vomiting would happen when my heart rate elevated really, really high. And so my heart would start pounding and just beating it like for 15, 20 minutes and would not go back down. I didn't know what that was all about, right? So my heart is pounding, pounding, pounding, and I can't really get my heart rate to go down. And when my heart would stay like that that's when I would stay nauseous to the point of when I would vomit, right? And so, um, that happened each and every time. And even if I stopped and just calmed down and just rested or whatever, I still could not get my heart rate down, right? So I still could not get my heart rate down for long, long periods of time, and that became a concern. So as I thought about it, I was like, something's not right with this. So I went to a doctor Here we go. I went to a doctor, and nothing against doctors, there are some amazing, amazing doctors out there, uh, and then there's some really bad doctors. And if you know what I mean, you've probably encountered one, if you understand when I say you do not want to give your time and your life in the hands of a bad doctor. That's another point. But I went to a doctor and I talked to him about what was going on And, uh, I noticed that he was a track runner because he had some kind of award or something on his wall. And so I felt comfortable because I'm like, this is relatable, this is somebody who understands what I'm going through. I'm having heart problems, I'm a track star, I really need to get this together. And so I felt comfortable for a moment, and then he came back in, and as I explained to him my problem, he knew right away, okay, this is not good. We're going to give you an EKG, we're going to test your heart out. Um, but this is not good. And so although he said that, I, I remember going to him a few times, and, and the only thing that he came up with is giving me medicine. Like, he, uh, I had now doctor's notes saying I could not run any longer because my heart was not where it needed to be, but he did not tell me anything valuable to change that situation, right? He just gave me medicine and sent me on my way. I never took the medicine, by the way, because something about that approach for trying to help the situation just didn't seem right to me. And so, uh, I just, I just kind of like had to stop doing sports as much because that was the triggering factor of my heart pounding. And, or either I just had to bear it because that's kind of what I did for quite some time. I just had to throw up. I, I went to the point where I was throwing up every single day because I I was running and because I wanted to run track. But eventually I did get prohibited from running for a period of time, but there was no real follow-up or anything. And so sometimes you think just because some of the problems slightly go away that you're okay. And so I, I just moved on with some of the sports I was doing, and I just dealt with the symptoms. I'm like, okay, this is what it is. Sometimes you deal with symptoms and you just get used to that way of being, right? You're not even looking for a way out. Like if you have high blood pressure, for example, you're just used to waking up, you're taking the medicine every day. Sometimes your heart goes a certain way, or you feel uncomfortable, or you might get dizzy, or you might get a headache, or you might feel a certain way, not feel well. And you're so used to that, like, that it just becomes a part of your DNA and your life and your identity that you don't do anything about it, right? And so you're like a walking zombie. You're just going through the motions of this, and you just haven't had that aha moment to snap out and to say, wait, this is not the way I should be living. This is not normal. This is not right. Okay, so, um, that's where I was, you know, and I'm young, I don't understand. And so it got to the point where I could not run anymore because that was the triggering factor. And so my thought is, you know, okay, this, this exercise is causing me, you know, to, to do this. And even when I would go lift weights and things like that, anything that would get my heart rate up just kind of caused sometimes levels of dizziness and, and, um, and some, some kind of nauseousness. And of course it was heart inflammation. And so, uh, I couldn't— I could— long story short, I couldn't really— I really couldn't do what I love to do. And I was really, really good at it. I was a star athlete. I was the most athletic, uh, person of the year. And, you know, everybody knew me for that. And so, uh, my hopes and my dreams— I had so many scholarships, and I was looking forward to it. But that sickness and what I had to deal with in order to run and to train It was so impactful and devastating to my body and my mind that it made me never want to do— to run again. And I was really passionate about it at one point, but the sickness made, made me change. And I had to go through even the regret of that and just, just feeling like, man, if I had known, like, that I should have been eating healthy and just creating a lifestyle that creates that level of success for my desire, I would have done it. I just didn't know to do it, and I didn't have anybody to really tell me as a young athlete that I should be doing that. And I didn't think that by me being so young that I would have these problems. And some people don't have these problems. They can eat like crap and still be fine for, for quite some time. It just didn't happen for me. And so that's when I went on a journey. Now, when I was younger, my journey looked a lot different, okay? I had ambitions to be an athlete, and so everything that I did in the health world was centered around that. Now, I was always a researcher, so I began studying Exercise. That was the first health principle I studied was exercise. And like I said, because I had a different phase of what I wanted to do. And so, but once my athletic journey was compromised, I went into other things. And so I started there. Even in high school, I was studying how to build muscle, you know, muscle mass, how to create endurance. You know, I was, I was studying all kinds of different things. Even if I couldn't perform it because I was limited in my health, I was still researching it because I had a researcher's heart, right? And so as I got a little older and got to college, I did not still understand nutrition. All of this time I didn't understand, but I still began— I still continue to be sick. I still continue to have problems, uh, skin problems, energy problems. I still continue to have sinus infections, throat infections that were really, really bad. Like, it wasn't normal. It was like Every other week I was getting an infection. I was getting some kind of inflammatory response in my sinus area, my ears, my nose. Uh, it was super painful, and it was not normal to walk around, you know, 75% of the month with, you know, a sore throat or of an infection. And so what I, uh, what I noticed is that I just wasn't well. I wasn't feeling well, right? And so I uh, decided to start just thinking about that. Like, why am I not, like, feeling like crap? Like, why am I not well? You know, this is beyond— like, I don't want to live like this. I don't want to be sick all the time. I don't want to have sore throats all the time. It hurts, right? And so, uh, eventually I started to look into some other research, and I started to go in a different direction, right? And so that's when I started to learn about herbs. And that's because I was trying to find a way out. I was wondering, and I was talking to one of my friends, and I was like, I wonder how people feel who never get sick. Is that even possible, like, to never ever get sick, right? Is that, is that a thing? Like, can that happen? Can you never get sick? And I didn't know if that could happen, but I said, well, what if it could? What if there is? And listen, never before that point, that moment in my 20s, did I ever think that somebody could live, like, disease-free or just free from sickness. I thought sickness was a part of life. I thought it was just a part of life, like that we're all living like this, right? And so it was that question that I ran into of, is it possible to never get sick? That was the question that led me into the deep levels of research to find out how can you live a life without sickness and with the experience of that life, would that experience be like mind-blowing? Like, what would that feel like? And just the awareness of if that could happen is what sent me down a journey, right? So I started to investigate how to heal myself of being sick, you know. And of course, I ran into like herbs and vitamin therapy and all of this stuff. So I went down that entire bunny trail, right? I went down the entire scope of herbology and vitamins and, uh, certain things that can— medicinal properties, natural medicinal properties that could, um, reverse your symptoms, reverse disease, reverse sickness. And then I started to really, really believe that that, man, if you understood herbs and medicinal medication and even preventative things, you know, like, uh, garlic, or, you know, um, I don't know, I— it was so many of them. But even if I understood these, these herbs and I take them and I take these different vitamins, maybe I could never get sick. Now here's what I didn't know yet. Yeah, I didn't know that eating— your eating— I, I don't know, it was like the last thing to click, that your eating had played a part in this, right? I just thought, you know, some people get sick and we just better know the right supplements, medicinal medication, and herbs to be able to reverse that. But I didn't realize— I think what I'm trying to say is I didn't realize that this stuff was preventable. I realized that you could fix situations, but you could not prevent them. And so that was a turning point for my personal growth in the health world is that I stumbled across understanding that it was food. And mainly a lot of times, especially at that age, it was food that caused a lot of those problems, and sugar, right? Now, of course, now I am older and I have a lot more understanding in this context. So I understand also like how stress and other lifestyle habits, and trauma plays a role. So I'm not, I'm not saying that those things are not in place, but at that age, that was what was happening to me. Like, it wasn't— I don't think about a lot of trauma that was causing me to be sick, or a lot of like stress, chronic stress, or anything like that at that point. Now, I'm not saying that that didn't happen later as time went on, and I'll share that But at that point, it was just an issue of my diet. I was eating sugar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and processed food. So of course my body started to break down. Now, I think young people deal with a lot more stress now than when we were younger, and the reason why is because we have all of this technology that also creates a lot of stress. And so, like, this generation is dealing with things that are different from what my generation dealt with when I was growing up. I mean, like, we were outside getting son playing hopscotch and double dutch and playing hide and seek in the park. And, you know, at the park riding our bikes with our friends and at the rec center. And we were doing things that also kind of helped with lifestyle, like getting enough sunlight, going out, being social. Now it's a lot different. Folks are scrolling on the internet and glued to their computer, and they're sitting down more. They're more sedentary. They're more locked to their screens. There's a lot of depression. We've been through isolation and, you know, shutdown down of the world, you know, like we've been through a lot. And so this, this generation, like, it's a little bit different with, with the children. And, and so it may even be a different paradigm with what needs to, to work as far as getting young people on board to be healthy so that their dreams are not forfeited. Like, young people have the ability to be creative and to know what they want to do and be in life, you know. They're young and they're like, I want to be this, I want to be that. And that was me. Like, I want to, you know, be a professional athlete. I'm good at this. I'm naturally good. And if I just train where I need to, I can be what I, what I desire to be. But I couldn't train because of health problems. And so that became an issue, of course. But, you know, we need to set children up for success, right? And so a part of that we're finding out is that children need to have a health framework. They need to be doing things that help them to emotionally grow, mentally grow, physically grow in a healthy manner. Are. And there's so much resistance because of social— really just the social status and what everybody is doing right now. And so there's like a childhood indoctrination in so many different ways. And the social proof is setting the standard for what health looks like and what a child's life should look like. Social proof says every child should have a phone and be scrolling on social media and, uh, just glued to technology. And so a lot of children are coming away from really social, social communication that they need in a healthy way, and that, that development that they need. And so they're, they're up against a lot. This is a, this is a weird place that we're in, and health and, and being an advocate for health for youth, the youth, man, we need to really step it up because even the food right now and the processed foods and the marketing madness that is gearing towards, uh, you, the youth, is just outrageous right now at this point. And so there, there are some things that, that, that we need to really address with that. And I understand it because like I said, I've been through some things being young and having to, uh, not have the knowledge, not have the information to do the things that I desire to do, and it cost me a whole lot. So anyway, let's fast forward and just say, you know, I did finally understand that nutrition played a role. But then guess what? I didn't— you know, you just follow the, the news that's out there, right? So what kind of nutrition? Oh, there's these fads out there. The, the— let's try the low-fat diet, right? Let's try, um, like no meat. Let's eat any meat because meat causes heart problems and cancer and all of this. And you know, you got, um, oh, healthy whole grain. I mean, the grains— the, the industry now, when I was looking at the food pyramid, what we were taught in our high school, in my high school, was the food pyramid was eat a bunch of grains and meat was like eat minimal meat, a bunch of grains, of course, and sugar you know, they say whole grains, but it was, it was wrong because it has to be wrong how they were pushing it because more and more people got sick. It's just that simple. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this, that when you eat the Americanized diet that was pushed, more people got sick. So okay, you're eating a low-fat diet now, you're eating hardly any meat, uh, now you don't have enough enough, you know, cholesterol and healthy fats in your body because you, you think that this is the right way. Uh, you're eating a bunch of whole grains, so we're gonna start our morning with, um, Cheerios, you know, like, because, oh, it's got grain in it and it helps with a healthy heart. It even has the advertisement. So we're eating Cheerios thinking that this is healthy for us, right? And so, uh, and again, more and more people getting sick and just pushing the agenda. I mean, the low-fat diet, if you take the fat out of food, what are they going to replace it with? Because fat is, is the reason why it's tasty, right? And so now if we strip the fat, we still got to make it taste good and make people want to buy it. So guess what we're going to do? We're going to put sugar alternatives in there. So we take away the fat and we add more sugar, and now we got people who are, you know, having problems with their brain and the functionality of their, their thinking, and all of this stuff starts happening, right? And I went into research with Alzheimer's in my early 20s and started to really understand what was causing Alzheimer's. And that's actually where I started, uh, with even a deepening of the journey of real, real investigation of the health world, you know. After I started to realize, okay, it's nutrition, it's, it's sugar. And let me just say this, like, I had a really bad episode of, like, acne me when I was in college because I drank this drink called Tang, T-A-N-G. It was so good at the time, right? And so I was drinking a liter of it every day. I was so addicted to it. It was a little powder that you put inside of water and you shake it up and you mix it. And I just got super addicted to Tang, and I was just drinking and drinking and drinking until my, my face broke out so bad, and I could not understand. Even with drinking that much, uh, liquid of like sugar every day— liquid sugar, basically— I still didn't put two and two together. So I know sometimes people don't put two and two together, right, when it's— when it comes to their eating. I didn't put it together. I just thought— I don't know why— I didn't even think about why I was breaking out. Out. I didn't know until like maybe a decade later that Tang is what broke me out when I started to learn about nutrition in a very detailed way and how it affects the body and how sugar affects the body. And so when I went into my research with Alzheimer's, because I work with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients for 15+ years and write on the neurologist And, uh, as we started to investigate their diet and their lifestyle as to why they wound up with Alzheimer's, one of the things I started to realize was a lot of them had a chronic disease. They were on— like, I, I was with— I was with people who had like 30 medications that they were taking a day. And I remember thinking to myself, as I'm putting in the medications in the computer and, and jotting them down, and asking them about their life and asking them about this, this cycle of medication that they were on, I remember saying, I cannot live like this. There's no way that I want to be taking 30 different medications by the time I get older. And it was just a spiral thing out of control, like, oh, they put me on this pill for high blood pressure, and then, you know, then this elevated, and then this started to happen, and then they put me on this pill because my thyroid got out of control, and then the diabetes that became of the, you know, I was a diabetic and I took this pill for that and then it create this side effect. And so they gave me this pill for that. And, uh, oh, and that pill over there, that just didn't help it because of my neuro, uh, my, um, neuropathy. And, uh, you know, and so it was like this spiral of like information about the history of the medication, and it just got worse and worse and worse.. And then eventually they wind up sometimes with Alzheimer's. And listen, I did not meet people who were older with Alzheimer's or just meet people who were older. I did, but not just older. I met people in their 40s and 50s with Alzheimer's. I didn't even know you could get Alzheimer's at 40 and 50 years old, as a matter of fact. Like, I didn't know this was possible. And I'm thinking to myself I gotta set my life up right. This cannot be me. Like, I would walk through the door and I'm thinking I'm waiting on somebody's grandmom to come to the door, and I see somebody in their 50s or their 40s come to the door, and I'm like, hi, uh, can I, uh, is such and such home? You know, and it's like, oh yeah, that's me. And it's like, you know, no, I mean such and such, uh, I'm here to do the testing. They're part of the Alzheimer's study. And it's like, yeah, that's me. And I'm thinking to myself, well, you look like you— you're like, you're young, you know. Of course I didn't say that, but that's what I'm thinking. And so we go and we do testing, and they're normal, you know. They seem normal until I ask them what year it is. And, you know, let's say it's a— it's, you know, supposed to be, you know, 2010, and they answered 1998. And I'm like, there's no way, there's no way this is real. Like, how did this happen? No, I can't— how did this happen? Because this cannot be me. And so of course I'm asking questions and investigating because it is a research study. And so I'm asking, I'm asking the questions I need to ask for the study, but I'm also asked— I'm also doing my own investigation on the side because this is kind of scary, right? And so that, that's actually what really got me into the health world is seeing the end stages of people's lives and it tracing back to lifestyle, medication, and chronic disease. And, you know, just, yeah, like, I was like, I have to do something quick, you know. And again, up until this point, I have been and understanding certain various approaches to health. But it wasn't like— it wasn't into— I didn't really push into that chronic disease space until I started working as a researcher for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. And we study brains, and we're under, like I say, neurologists. And a lot of them started just with chronic disease. And so I put, you know, my little two cents together and figured out, oh, chronic disease puts you at more risk for Alzheimer's. And then over the journey, I started to understand the brain is one of the most valuable things that you need to take care of. And so this wasn't just about, like, these specific little things. This has been like a journey that has connected the dots together as time went on. And so then I realized I want to help people to prevent chronic disease. And so I go into really going after how to prevent this, because that's me at this stage, like, I need to prevent this, right? And then at some point, the prevention switched to, okay, what about people who have it already? They need to reverse it. And so it went from prevention to reversing, which some of the same principles that you use to prevent disease, you also use to reverse disease. And I understood that also. And so it was, it was the recognition of looking at a person's life. Like, there's so many lessons that I learned from that period of time. I saw the elderly in really bad situations. I saw them in really bad homes, like nursing homes. And that's when I realized I don't want to be in a bad nursing home. Even that phase of my life started to dictate everything about me. Like, One of the things that I learned, uh, is that men were dying quicker than women, you know. And, uh, yeah, like some, some women would be widowed twice. So I said, I need to marry a younger man. I better not marry no older man or something, you know. He might be out of here, you know. And so, and, and that's nothing against anybody who marries, you know, older or younger or whatever, you know. People marry for different reasons. But it made me want to marry a younger man because I bumped into so many men who died before women and they weren't taking care of their health. And that's when I started to learn that men don't go to the doctors as, uh, men don't go to the doctor as much as they need to. And, uh, and some do, but a lot don't because they get scared. I guess men are a little different than women. And so there's a lot about that, that season of my life that dictated my world. Yeah, like even my financial approach to life. You know, I said to myself, I don't want to wind up in a, in a nursing home that looks like this. You're not being cared for. And a lot of people just didn't have the money and the finances, and a lot of them didn't have long-term health care. That's why even at my young age, I have long-term health care, because again, that season really made me start thinking and pondering about everything in my future. Everything. And it was, it was pretty much the change of, of my approach to life. I found life to be more valuable if we can figure out a way to experience it without sickness and pain and medication, and all of those different types of things. And so I started to take this stuff a lot more serious. And, and I'm happy I did, because because it brought me— it brought me down the path that I'm on now. And that does not mean that there weren't so many different other setbacks that I had. Life is life. It's not linear. It's up and down. And so I've dealt with— later on in life, obviously, you know, you have kids, you get married, and you got all these responsibilities. There's a lot that I do. Even right now, I'm managing my health company, I'm managing my real estate company, I'm a full-time mom. You know, I got 3 beautiful kids that I take to school, that I, um, have to manage their world with, with, you know, taking to school and picking them up and taking them to their sporting events and getting everything that they need. Of course, they, they depend on me, and, um, and, you know, kids depend on their mamas in ways they don't depend on their daddies. It's like I could be on vacation and Daddy is right there and they're texting me asking me, uh, to buy them groceries and food and do this and do that, and just, it's just how it is. But, uh, you get into a different phase and season of life where you're managing so much, and you don't realize what you need to, uh, manage, manage your health the best that you can. And so you stumble across different, uh, variances of the health world, and they just begin to expand and compound on top of each other as to what you should be doing in every phase of life and And you know, that's what personal growth is about. That's what personal development is about. It's about you're not going to have all the answers in one moment. The answers come little by little, day by day, month by month, year by year. And that's what it looked like for me because I came into a season where I started to not be able to manage my stress levels the way I wanted to. And I wind up having really, really bad anxiety. And I mean, I'm not talking about just just scared, or just— I don't know, like, I'm talking really bad anxiety. Like, anxiety to where I could not sleep at night. I thought I was gonna die. My body started to manifest certain, certain symptoms. And so that's when you started— start understanding, okay, well, I need to now address this. What's going on with my body? And I learned about, you know, chronic stress, and you just start to understand, like, different things that play a role, even aside from the nutrition, you know, and different approaches that you need to take. And when I tell you, it is— there's a lot out there. There's a lot of research out there. There's a lot of things that you need to be doing. And I want to be able to share all of those things. I mean, you, you can only share them bits by bits because This is, you know, 40+ years of understanding in the health world, going through trial and error, researching, looking at case studies, investigating, finding what works, what don't work, you know, doing interviews, working with people, you know, trying certain regimens. Like, I track all my data at this point, so I pretty much know everything because because I just like— I'm a data person, I'm a science person. So I just love and, uh, just knowing what my metrics look like, what they look like when I did this, what it looked like when I did that. You know, when I go to bed at this time, when I eat certain foods, uh, when I'm, you know, exercising a certain way. I just love it. And listen, I have tried everything. I love trying things, right? So I've tried everything. Like, even in the exercise world, you know, I've everything. I'm, you know, high-intensity interval training. I've been a sprinter. I've done long distance. I've done the plyometrics. I do boxing. I've done MMA. I've, you know, cycling, you know, everything, anything that you can think of, heavy weights, heavy resistance training, you know, the body weights, pull-ups, you know, upside-down push-ups. I mean, everything, right? And so even the way I used to train in my 20s is different from how I train now. Now, because again, compounding evidence of what works, especially when you're over 40 years old, you have different hormones and you just have, uh, different susceptibilities and things in your body begin to change. And so there's just a different approach that I've understood that has to happen, and you always have to recalibrate where you are in every season of life. One thing that I have noticed in life is that balance There's no such thing. Let's just say that there's no such thing as balance. Balance is about calibrating and recalibrating based upon your priorities. For example, if I am, uh, if I am prioritizing, you know, starting a new podcast show, right, I'm going to put a lot of my energy and my effort in that direction, and some, some things from, from other avenues are going to not be as prioritized, right? So I'm putting, you know, 80% of my energy here and 20% there. And it's not about balance, like, oh, a little bit here, a little bit there. It all matters with what is a priority. Now, say in the midst of doing podcasting, my children, uh, wind up having some problems or get sick, that becomes my priority. So it's not about, okay, well, I'm gonna balance that and then— but no, I'm giving probably all my energy to that for the moment until things stabilize, until everything is okay, you know, and then I'll go back to whatever else I'm doing. And so I learned it's not about balance, it's about what is a priority for this day, what is a priority for this week, what is your priorities for this month, and what are your priorities for this year, what are your priorities for this decade. Right? You have to start to calibrate and recalibrate. Every single day requires a calibration that makes sense for that day. And that's the way I start to balance my health world. Why? Because it is so much out there, and it can actually confuse you. What kind of exercises do you do? Cardio? Do you lift weights? Uh, how about your zone 2 training and your zone 4 training and if you do this many minutes of high-intensity interval training, uh, no, you need to walk, and because it's, you know, less stress. And, uh, you know, oh, you eat this, okay, you should eat, you know, the carnivore diet, and you should know, well, let's do keto. And okay, I did keto, and you know, my electrolytes was off, and things happen because of my lifestyle. And I'm, you know, surfing all day for 2 hours, so keto doesn't work for me. I need to add some carbs. I need to add fruit. Like there's so much out there and people get confused. And that's, that's where I started to understand, for me, it's gonna be the approach of the individual. Like, you are uniquely designed as an individual. So I do believe in bio-individuality. What is your background? What is your history? What is your sex? What is your age? What is your weight? How much muscle mass do you have? How much fat do you have on your body? What's your susceptibilities? How are your hormones? Uh, how much sleep do you get at night? How much chronic stress do you have? What kind of trauma have you experienced? Like, what kind of culture are you in? Are you where, uh, in a place where there's a lot of sun? Are you in a place where it's cold out? That's going to change what kind of supplements you need to take. You know, what have you dealt with in the past? You know, what kind of inflammation do you have on your body? Where does your stress go? Like, as far as your body is concerned, and what happens to you, what, what's the manifestations when you have stress, you know. So I say that to say everybody's so uniquely designed that everybody needs a different approach. One approach don't work for the next person. There are some common ground, there is some common ground to pretty much everything, like, um, or to everyone. There's a common ground to everyone, like sugar, for example. Is, you know, too much sugar and too much processed food, we all can agree. But when it comes to, you know, eating plants, eating animal, eating dairy, you know, uh, eating— going gluten-free, all these other different things, it depends how many calories you need to take in and what kind of metabolic state are you at, you know. So everybody's different, and what works for one person may not work for the next person. Person, you might— there may be a food or supplement that works extremely well for one person, and for somebody else, they may be allergic to it. Just like certain foods, some people have allergies. So we got to eventually understand ourselves, right? And so that's when it comes to understanding the broader life lessons of personal growth. See, when people are growing, they come into certain awareness of themselves. And this is the name of the game, is that if you're going to be healthy, you have to have an awareness of yourself. Like, you have to understand you. You have to pay some attention to you. You have to wake up from sleeping, from sleepwalking, from letting life just, you know, have you going day to day and moment to moment. There is a such thing as coming into a complete revelation of who you are and what your identity makeup looks like. And that is a part of health. Your identity, your emotional intelligence, your level of awareness of you, your habits, whether they're good or bad, your ability to self-sabotage is important to know because These are things that will affect your life. That is the health journey for you. So it is not limited to just physical or exercising, eating. Like, and that's what I mean, like, along the way I've built one thing after the next, after the next, after the next, and you just compound on top of what you need to know. And that's when you get into your sweet spot, because eventually you have to know what the framework of longevity looks like for you. And see, now I am more apt to following the blueprints and the necessary actions for longevity. When I was in my 20s, I was following it for, you know, to try to be athletic or to build as much muscle, or I was in competition with myself. I used to train like I was an athlete, and one day I'll share my story story about, you know, my pregnancies and my surgeries that I had and the obstacles that I faced, and even go into greater detail about the anxiety. And I mean, that was a whole season of just devastation to my mind, body, and soul. But there's been so much that I've had to face. And when you face those things and you understand how to overcome them and how to get your body into a position and your life into a position where you can overcome the challenges and, and become even mentally strong through a lot of different avenues. I love meditation and prayer. Those type of things are hallmarks, and they are, they are foundations to my health journey. And so I don't want you to look at health as— I want you to use my story and understand that it's, it, there's a journey, there's, there's this— there's this, like, this life that we live and we learn throughout it, and we start to come into greater knowledge of even things from the past when we come into our understanding of where we are, how we should live, how we should approach life, how we should raise our kids, how we should focus on, you know, the, the issues that we face and not just ignore them. Our temperaments, our levels of patience, our ability to communicate, our ability to, uh, become leaders of our own selves first, because I believe that self-mastery is something that is important. Like, these are all principles that you need to learn. And so when I say health, I'm talking about everything from mind, body, and soul that needs to be elevated into a way where you can experience life in a way that is refreshing to your mind, your body, and your soul. And that puts you at a great position to be able to help other people and to add value to other people because you are processing life through a way or in a way that is, is, that can be almost like contagious or that can be shared with someone else. And it starts with And so everything that I've done in life, you know, to understand health, I have reflected that information on my own self. I don't just research to, you know, push information and to, you know, tell people what they need to do. I have reflected that same information on me. And I don't judge people for how they're, you know, living their life. I open up my eyes to myself to learn other people. Because even there's a scripture that says, you know, before you judge someone else and try to, you know, get the little speck out of their eye, get the hole out of yours. See, once you look in the mirror and you find the different ways that your life is not in sync with purpose and destiny and and, and, and your highest level of attainment. Like, once you, you find that you're not in the frequency zone that you need to be in, you start to adjust that for your own self. And of course, if you love yourself, you'll investigate how to do that. You'll research how to do that. Then you'll apply the information to your own life. And then as you apply it to your own life, you're going to learn some things about it. People will see it. They will start to ask. They will start to inquire. And they will see where you are with your levels of habits and disciplines, and they'll see the difference, and they'll start asking you about it. And you'll want to share because what you experience that is so delightful, you want other people to experience. And so then as you share it, as you teach it, as you train it, as you coach to other people— and this is, this is me— then that information that you're giving others, the seeds that you're planting, the, the outlet that you have, it is coming back to fortify where you are because it is an accountability to your own personal life. So what you give out comes back and it helps to anchor you in where you are. And that's why I had to do this podcast, because not only do I have a lot to share about life life, and about health, and wisdom for the principles that we should live by. And there are some principles that we should live by, and we should, we should model after, you know, even other successful frameworks. But not only are you going to learn and we'll grow together, but it helps me. It helps to fortify, it gives me an accountability. And guess what? I wanted wanted somebody to grow with. And that's why I'm here, is because I want somebody to grow with. I want a community where we can grow together, because it's better when we do it together than when we do it by ourselves. And I understand that. And I've been limited in my, in my reach, and in my paradigm, in the way I do things. I'm, I'm kind of limited if I don't step out and take this approach. And hence, this is the reason why I'm here. And I'm sharing my life, I'm sharing my journey. And I want to do it with an army of people who, who are after the same things. And this is a good thing, is to be healthier, is to be healthier and to grow. And so I created, I created Health Goat, this podcast, in order to be able to accommodate that and to be the vehicle to get the word out and to allow there to be influence and growth and, and value being added to the world around me beyond my reach. And I absolutely love that. And so I just wanted you to understand my plan here is to really help to develop and to grow you in a sense of accomplishment and success and to be able to get you to fly as high as you possibly can. Life is precious. Time is precious. The present moment that we're in is precious because the present is all that we have. All we have is this moment right here and right now, and we have to be able to be empowered with the resources and the tools to be able to manage the moment it as best as we can so that we can create the future that we really desire, the future that we really deserve. There are some things that we deserve in life. We are supposed to have great experiences, but we can't do that without the intentional effort to move forward and to get a game plan in place where you can learn and grow and understand. Because I'm going to say this Life is not about all this other stuff that you think it's about— your money and your career. And it's not about, you know, um, how many people I can impress, how many Facebook followers I have, or how many, uh, people will buy into what I have. It's not about none of that. Life is about personal growth. And all of these things are nothing but tools to grow us. Your career, how you invest your money, um, your, your ability to learn about how to get healthier— they're tools for personal development. That's it. Our life is about growth. Our life is about going from glory to glory, from to faith, from level to level. Grow is the name of the game. We all are doing it. We all are here. We all have this valuable asset in us— our mind, our ability to think. Because as a man thinketh, so is he. And remember, your best thinking has got you where you are now. So that means you have to upgrade your thinking because I'm sure you're not where you want to be. I'm sure there are some things that you want to accomplish that you haven't. I'm sure there's some success that you want to experience that you haven't had. And it is my almost like mission to really educate, illuminate, inspire, motivate you know, um, just to, to help you to break through the barriers, uh, that you've had and to really see you on the other side of things. And whatever challenges you have, they are— they are able— you are able to overcome them. Why? Because that's what we're— that's what we're here for. That, that's what— that's what our, our— that's what life is about, is overcoming the challenges, and, and, and being able to not just stay where we are. Like, even if there is some, some setbacks that we experience, we don't have to stay there. We can stand up, we can gain the knowledge, the wisdom, and we can move forward in, in new levels of glory, like, as it pertains to our life. And that's what we're all here trying to do. And so, uh, I just wanted to paint that picture to let you know exactly where we are and how we're going to go about this journey. And I'm going to be sharing some amazing things about myself, my life. Like I said, there's a lot that people don't know. And the reason why, honestly, I'll be honest and tell you, because I'm an introvert. And I tend to live in my own world. I live in my own mind the majority of the time. And I've come to a place where, you know, I, you know, life is, life is is valuable and is precious. And I need to be able to, like, really help and motivate and inspire as many people as I possibly can and just share my life. You know, we're doing it for one another. And I need to be inspired by other people's life. And, and we need to do life together. And that's, that's the name of the game, is us doing life together, growing together, and making sure that our health health framework is where it needs to be. And that's how we're going to continue on with life. And so that is what I wanted to share for today. And again, if you've gotten some value out of this, make sure you please subscribe. Do not sit here, listen to this, and get information and value and not subscribe and share and share it with other people. People. Let them know that I am now going to be doing, uh, podcasting, and I'm going to be sharing the good news. And always, there's a lot to me that you don't know that you're gonna find out as time go on. And, um, yeah, share it. And, and then this is what I want you to do, and I'll end here. I want you to, you know, ask questions and, and suggest topics for the future and suggest what you, what you want me to talk about, put it in the comments. I, I love to hear what people have to say and what's valuable to them, and that's why I'm here. And I promise I will make sure that your questions and your topics are covered. There's a lot to cover, and I, I'll go, I'll go down that journey and make sure that, that we're hitting, we're hitting it off with the things that you value the most. And I do care about what what you value, and I care about the areas that you're struggling in and the challenges that you're facing and the obstacles that you desire to overcome. I do care, and I want to help you to do that this year and just for the rest of your life. And so let's do this journey together, and I can't wait to see you next time. This has been a wonderful time, and I'm Kamilah Stevenson. This has been an episode of health goat. I'll see you next time.