Exploring the Transformative Power of Plant-Based Diets

Hey, one more thing before you go. As vegetarian diets have increased in popularity, veganism has gained recognition as a healthy and potentially therapeutic diet choice.

An interesting approach to how microbes in our gut may be the key to everything that's wrong with us or that's right with us. After watching an interesting documentary this weekend, we found that it also creates balances in our gut microbes.

And we are going to have a conversation about our journey with that. Veganism, vegetarianism, and microbes in our gut. We recognize so many things that we're going to talk about, and we want to share them with you.

I'm your host, Michael Herst. I'm here with my lovely wife, Diane.

Hello.

Welcome to one more thing before you go over the Teacup Sunday with Michael and Diane. Hey, Diane.

Hey, Michael. I realized when I said hello in the introduction, it sounded like my Meineke guy. Hello.

Hello.

I love those commercials so much. Oh, they just make me smile.

It's mine. Key, mine, Mike, mine. Podcast. Yeah. Especially when they were running them like, I don't know, a bazillion times in the morning.

I loved it.

I loved it.

I know other people probably hated it. I loved it.

Then every. Which one, because obviously, you know, we get. You've got the tickle, the guy.

Oh, my God. My favorite.

You got them driving across the ocean. You got them, you know, with the water in there, getting them coffee.

Coffee. The one man band thing.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And the surprise, surprise, little thing out from the. Yeah, I got you.

I got you.

No, it's. It's. Well, that's the power of marketing. Right? It just did it.

Oh, my gosh.

Like, it was supposed to. Kind of crazy.

Yep.

Kind of crazy, man.

And I don't like commercials, but those are like, a lot.

Yeah. I mean, you stop in the morning before you get ready, you know, before you go into work.

Yeah.

You would, like, stop in and watch my commercials.

I watch my. My little German guy, so I don't know why.

Yeah. Running out of the bathroom. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold that.

Stop.

Wait.

My commercial. My commercial.

Kind of crazy this week, you know, I know that. You know, we do a lot of tv, as everybody knows, and I know mostly Sundays. This is what we're talking about. But in this particular case, this really.

This isn't a review of this particular documentary, although it's very good and you should watch it. This is more about our journeys with what comes about of it as you as a community. One more thing before we go. Community.

Know that, you know, I primarily have been Vegan for like close to 25 years now.

Yeah, you know, I'm technically pescatarian because I do eat fish and occasionally I eat eggs, but when I eat eggs, I, I have to yell at myself because my body yells at me and I don't eat fish as often as I used to anymore. But it's primarily vegan.

And do you remember back when I was first diagnosed with this incredibly horrible disease, the rheumatologist that I had when I was starting to investigate alternatives to the like four or five different drugs they want to put me on, and I had found some interesting information in regard to diet and what we eat and how it affects people with rheumatoid arthritis. And he basically told me it was a bs.

Yep, he did remember that. And he also, he also didn't tell you about the, the braces, the hand splints to wear overnight? He didn't tell you about those.

So you found about those like 10 years too late. And they were around at that point, but he didn't bother to tell you.

The shame.

It just shows you the medical profession and how the medical profession is designed or the health industry is designed to keep people within that industry, which, that's a whole nother conversation we'll talk about. But you know, we talk about society and culture here on this podcast. And this, this is a societal issue, I do believe, you know, in regard to that.

Well, part of that comes with our diet. What we eat, what we, you know, what we put into our bodies that'll cliche we are what we eat is like 100% true.

You know, and from my perspective, you know, as an individual that's been primarily vegan for the last 25 years or so, as I said. And then you now have evolved into a diet that's I would say 85 to 90% vegan. Because you still eat chicken.

I'd say, I'd say at least 80. 80% vegetarian. I don't know that. I don't know. I mean, I eat a lot. I eat a lot of eggs.

Yeah, you eat eggs.

I, I eat cheese.

Vegetarian from that perspective. So.

And I use what I did, I did just this week, I gave up my regular butter for plant based butter. I did do that. I only have regular milk. Lactose free though, but regular dairy milk on my cereal. So that's like maybe once a week.

I mean, I, I don't do a lot. I probably the most I do is, is I eat chicken. Yeah, because that's not every day either.

Yeah, you've Even changed. You don't really beef very rarely, do you? If we go out to.

Very rarely.

Something you eat like a grass fed or something like that.

A grass fed burger. Yes. I will do that once in a while. I don't eat fast food anymore.

Yeah, not, not that I wouldn't want it, but I just don't do it because it was years of me going to the fast food places and boy did just wrecked me. It wrecked me.

Well, and you know, we found from personal experience that it helps to manage disease. It's helped me manage my rheumatoid arthritis. I'm not on any rheumatic disease. Rheumatic.

I don't know, it sounds so old fashioned.

Here's your rheumatic. I got some rheumatic stuff going on here. Rheumatism, my rheumatism, my rheumatism acting up.

I don't know why that's.

You know. Yeah, see back when that was, I go, there's my old man impression. Now I'm an old man. So it fits. It's okay.

But we know that it helps manage my rheumatoid arthritis and it does it pretty effectively.

And because it does it pretty effectively, you know, when I slip off of it, I honestly can and you know, from being around me, know how much it affects me when I do kind of make. Take a misstep or if we go someplace and I say, hey, does this have this in it? This have that in it? And they go, oh no, it doesn't.

And then, you know, after we eat it and I come home and the next day I can't move. You know, we know that. Well, yeah, it did have something in it. We know that it works and that what we eat, you know, is what it is.

It has definitely been tried and tried and tested a lot.

You know, I know that they found a bazillion diets out there, everybody. Weight Watchers. And I mean, help me out with some of these. There's Weight Watchers, there's Jenny Craig. Jenny Craig.

And some of these have already gone under.

Yeah, I think Jenny Craig's no longer.

I don't know, I think Weight Watchers did the same thing.

No, Weight Watchers is still around. They're just, they keep reinventing. They keep reinventing what they're doing. Probably because they're trying to stay with it.

But I think Oprah still, Oprah's still on Weight Watchers board. So they're still, they're still alive.

And of course we have the keto diet.

Keto right.

I mean, you name it. Paleo diet.

Paleo diet, right.

They go into a whole slew of stuff but really in reality, you know, some of the diet that they've, that they've got out there, they go, oh, this is more healthy for you.

I had a conversation with an individual that literally said to fix all of your ailments, you need to, you know, stop being a vegan and you need to eat meat and eat meat and introduce meat and just have, you know, meat six times a day.

Let's be clear, she was not a dietitian of any means.

She was just not a dietitian. Correct.

Regular person that thinks she knew the answers.

And the whole thing of it is that we know that from my perspective and what I learned way back when, I won't mention any names but the doctor, the rheumatoid doctor back in Colorado had told me that it was a bunch of bs. There was no scientific proof in regard to whether or not diet would have any effect on inflammation or arthritis.

You know, I wish I would have found another doctor because as we have come to find out that it does have a significant effect on it.

Now that could be because at that time there maybe wasn't scientific proof. They were just people were writing about it. Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, these people that were writing were dietitians and people writing were other rheumatologists and Dr. Brown who luckily when we moved here to Arizona, I found a doctor that actually followed Dr.

Brown's protocol in regard to going to a vegan diet and elimination, food elimination and taking out specific foods like nightshade group and anything what, eight or nine vegetables in the nightshade group along with eliminating red meat and pork. And they said you could kind of get away with chicken. But when I tried it, I didn't have any real luck with it. They said you could eat turkey.

Well, same thing. So.

And you don't really like turkey anyway?

Not really. I never been really been a big turkey guy, but I have turkey legs.

You can be a little bit of a turkey butt sometimes, but we can.

All be turkey butts every once in a while. You could be a turkey butt, I could be a turkey butt.

I'm never a turkey butt.

You're a turkey butt, I'm a turkey butt. Everybody's a turkey butt.

There's a turkey butt.

But yeah, I mean it helps with rheumatoid arthritis. It helps with being heart healthy. Veganism and this almost is like cannibalism, doesn't it?

Cannibalism you really hate that word. Every time you say it.

It's like you go to a restaurant and you say the way the host says veganism or cannibalism. Which one would you like, please? Well, I'll take the cannibalism. Do you have something in between?

Can I have a little cannibalism with my veganism to spice it up a little bit?

Stop it.

But you know, realistically, when we've done it and even your evolution with food has made some drastic changes. We know it's drastic. This documentary is on Netflix.

And I know that you would never believe we'd be on Netflix because we never talk about being on Netflix, do we?

Gee, I can't imagine being our favorite streaming service.

It's called Hack youk Health, the Secrets of youf Gut. It's a directed by Anjali Nair. It's starring the cast is, is. It's all, all these people are themselves, actually.

Yeah.

Julia Enders. And Julie Enders is an md. She's an author. She's a gut specialist, actually. Heidi Kramer. And she's also, she's a mentor.

She's doctor actually, also as well, John Kryon self, a neurologic scientist, University of College York. And we have a neuroscientist and a neurologist here because there's a connection between your gut and your brain.

And they're finding that, believe it or not, with Alzheimer's and with Lewy Body Dementia now, too.

And Parkinson's.

And Parkinson's. So, you know, he got involved as well. There's a microbiologist and several other people.

And they followed this group of individuals in regard to their methodologies and what they were doing. They followed four people with their different, different ailments. Journeys, I guess.

Yeah, yeah. Well, aliments. Some of them had, like, physical ailments going on with them.

Yeah. They had one person that was on a. She called, it is her words, a forever weight loss diet.

Because she'd, she'd, she'd go on a diet that they wanted, these fad diets, and then she'd lose the weight, then she'd put it all back on, and then she'd go on another diet and she'd lose the weight and then put it back on. And she called it a forever diet.

Well, just like everyone else is on.

Yeah, it's a forever or forever weight loss diet, you know, and we'll talk a little bit about the Mediterranean. Now, obviously, disclaimer. We are not doctors. We are not scientists. We are not dietitians.

But this is from our own personal experience and what I've learned over the last 25 years.

So everything that we talk about right now is based upon what we've learned and what we've observed in like, this documentary and several other documentaries in regard to, you know, health. Because I take a very proactive approach in my disease. And I took a proactive approach because, as we know, and I haven't been.

This part of, this part of my journey has not been talked about on the podcast before on the show. You know, I went from 165 healthy individual, 165, 170 pound individual, down to 100 pounds. And this disease just tore me up.

You were. Yes, but let's be clear, you were still 165 even after you had. Had the. Been diagnosed for a number of years.

I was. And then the drugs they put me on.

Right, that's what dropped your weight, is what did it.

And then I've learned to come, learn to find out that, you know, the gut and what's in your gut and your, the gut microbes are key to allowing your body to heal the way it needs to be healing and to take care of itself the way that you take care of. And that it will have an a, either a negative or positive effect on something like autoimmune disease.

And that if you don't have the right amount of the microbes in your, the right gut health in your body, in your stomach, in your bowels, in your whole body actually has got them, then what it does is it creates chaos. And that chaos turns into inflammation, and inflammation turns into pain, pain turns into grumpy.

Never have I been in pain and grumpy at the same time days and weeks. You know, it turns into chronic pain. And chronic pain is not fun to be around.

It's not fun to experience, it's not fun to be around, and it's not fun to watch your body deteriorate because of certain things about. So everything we're talking about right now is because I've learned the hard way from my perspective.

And you recently learned a little bit of the hard way yourself in regard to this.

Yes, I did.

And it was nice to see this documentary validate some things in regard to that and to kind of really delve deep into what options we have in the proactive choice that we need to make to keep our own health on track. You know, kind of a.

Well, I thought it was interesting. You know, they talk about everyone's microbiome, basically the whole, the whole area where the microbes live.

And everybody, everybody's microbiome is so individualized that not one thing is going to work for you that's going to work for me. So there's really no blanket way to approach this. And you have to be proactive in your own individual health.

You know, it is, it's a journey. Anybody that's gone through or walked this path before, it's a journey.

And if you've got an autoimmune disease or chronic problem in regard to that, you know, our youngest daughter has got endometriosis. We've talked about that on the show before.

She's been on the show a couple of different times talking about it as well herself with me, realistically, you know, these kind of autoimmune diseases, if managed correctly, literally, it's like night and day. I mean, night and day. You have seen her, you've seen me at an absolute pain.

I mean, where I can't hardly walk and move, I can't hardly stand up straight. If I ate something I wasn't supposed to eat or if I had an issue with accidentally going, I won't say off the wagon because I really don't.

But if we, you know, if there's something that go, I'm going to try this, you know, I pay for it and you notice it and you know, it's from a vegan perspective and from a vegetarian perspective, there are nutritional benefits of being a vegan. I am also gluten free.

So I add gluten free on top of that because it has been proven, there are scientific studies that have been done that gluten wheat and I won't list off everything in there, but I'll leave some links to the articles. But has a detrimental effect on inflammation and that it will cause you to.

And people with rheumatoid arthritis, people with gout, people with, oh my gosh, Mississippi lupus, anything along that line, it will create a negative environment in your body. So I'm gluten free as well.

But experiencing a diet like in fresh fruits and vegetables and legumes and whole grains, you know, the right whole grains depending upon whether or not you've got rheumatoid like me, where you can't have.

Wheat because there's still some other grains you can't have. Not just the wheat, but I've switched.

To, I've switched to stuff like amaranth and millet and buckwheat and you know, Namaste's got a fantastic gluten free flour blend. Blend that we cook with and I make muffins and I make pancakes and I make, you know, anything that we'll say a regular pasta and pasta.

The pasta's with. The pasta's with Caputo.

No, the pasta is with Namaste. The pizza and the bread and the focaccia. Oh, that's what is with the Caputo Fiore galut, which is like fantastic.

And you know, maybe I'll do a show one of these days on all of those things so that people kind of have a good, really a wide variety. Because when I first started this journey, man, it was hard, wasn't it?

Yeah, I think the bread part was the hardest. At the very first there just wasn't. There wasn't the gluten free products out there. And the ones that were. Were awful.

Yeah. Like cardboard.

They've gotten better.

That and the fact that they put. You learn these things. Modified food starch is actually wheat. Yes.

So if you're reading your labels. Yes. If you're reading labels, they will say modified food starch and they will be specific.

If it's tapioca food starch, which is fine because it's not gluten or rice, they'll do rice, white rice. But sometimes if it says just modified food starch, more than likely that's wheat.

Dear Clear. All right. It also say multodextrin or corn starch type thing. It will sometimes say that. Now some people can have that. I cannot.

People with rheumatoid arthritis really will stay away from corn, corn, corn.

And that's what a lot of the gluten free products. They substitute corn for the wheat.

Yeah. And you know, it's interesting because I was on, I stopped all meat and just again, occasionally fish, even way back when.

And you know, I would, before I had the, the allergic reaction to the medication that they had had me on. Again, like I said earlier, I was £165 and I was doing really, really well.

And you were golfing.

I was golfing. I was, yes. I was doing reading a normal lifestyle and I started losing weight drastically because of the medication and stuff.

But they said, well, that's because you're vegan. It's like I was 165 pounds being a vegan. So you know that's not true. So.

And we all know that eating more fruits and vegetables can promote heart health and reduce the risk of other chronic diseases and so forth. Like we just talked about the fact that this was a medical clinic for everybody out there. Obviously Diane and I Know, it was a medical clinic.

This was a medical clinic.

So obviously, for them to come out and blame my weight loss immediately on the fact that I was a, quote, vegan, unquote, you know, was absolutely ludicrous from that perspective. And it was like, now I gotta find out. It's a long story about having to get off of everything and then trying to regain my health.

And that's a whole nother show. Yeah, another show.

But if people are finding out that the role of plant based diets in weight management is effective and that it will help improve your digestive health because it puts the right microbes and so forth in Charlie saying, hi, yes, Charlie, what'd you need, baby? Just give me a minute. You know, it puts the right microbes within your system. It balances them out, which. That's kind of what this show talked about.

You know, there was a one woman in there that she goes, was it. She had 30 or 60. Did they tell her? 60. 60 different fruits and vegetables. She was supposed to start juicing.

Oh, put it. Put in the juice. Yeah, it was a lot.

Well, they gave her.

And it was. And it was veggies, that. Veggies and fruit. Oh, some of it you would never, ever, ever want to put in a smoothie or juice.

Plus, I think she kind of misunderstood just a little bit because when they gave her the sheet she was reading from, I think they gave her 60 that she could pick from and she thought she had to put them all in.

Yeah, so she did.

So she did. And she's kind of gone. No, that's kind of.

And some of those that she, when she was putting it in, I'm like, don't. Stop, Stop it. Don't put that in there. That's. I mean, no. And we do. We do juices. We, you know, we do fresh fruit and vegetable juices.

And we're like, would you ever put that. No, I would never, ever think to put that in there.

And when I found out that, I mean, when we. When I stopped juicing, because I stopped juicing for a little while because of my hands and the equipment that we had, it caught up with me.

And it caught up with me really fast.

Yeah. And lasted a while. It was hard to combat it.

Hey, we had to take a really quick break because Charlie had to go out back. Now, that's my. That's my radio commercial voice.

It's pretty good. Just, you know, put the little German. Put the German accent on. You're the Meinekey guy. Well, not really.

Well, that depends Will I get lucky.

Or, you know, I don't like the Meineke guy in that way.

Okay, good.

He just makes me laugh.

No, it is interesting. After watching that documentary really got me more aware of, I guess, realizing again what this can actually do to us.

And I think you had a realization yourself, because we were talking about the fact that when your microbes get kind of screwed up in. When they're balanced, you feel great.

Yeah.

When they get off balance, when they're messed up with a kill. And you'd have to watch this documentary to really understand it because it would be way too much to go into in regard to. Yeah.

And we're not. We wouldn't be able to do it justice. It was so well done. Yeah, it has. It has. It's very entertaining.

It sounds like it really wouldn't be entertaining. It's entertaining and it's interesting and just things that, like, wow, that really does make sense.

Like, never would have put that together, but that makes a lot of sense.

So the thing that I learned or that I realized or I was confirmed was, you know, I started a serious, like, really finally being serious about exercise and weight loss. May 1, 2023, is when I started. And I started, I went off. I just was like, okay, this is what I'm doing. This. I'm not getting any younger. And this is.

I can't feel this way anymore. And I wanted to lose 70 pounds. And I, I, I put it out there to my. And to myself.

I'm not going to focus on the number, but I had to have some sort of an end goal. But I was like, I'm just going to see how much I can lose by my birthday, and then I'm going to see how much I can lose by a year later.

And, you know, I just keep doing these little things. And of course, things got messed up. Of course they did, because I'm human. But I've been able to pretty much stick with working out seven days a week.

Sometimes I don't do as much as I should, but I, I try to at least do something. But last month. Well, what are we in? We're in June. So when I. I know. So the month of May, I weigh myself every first of the month.

It's the only time I weigh myself. I don't measure myself, and I don't do anything else other than that.

So when I was, When I weighed myself on June 1st, I realized I gained almost 5 pounds in the month of May. One month, I gained 5 pounds back of I had lost almost 30 pounds. And I gained 5 back, and it about destroyed me.

But I realized exactly why it happened, and I was honest with myself, and I had gotten. I went back on sugar. I was bad. I went back on sugar the month of May, kind of in April. May. And I totally saw it. I finally saw it.

Like, I looked at it and I felt it, and I realized how much pain I was in and how it was really messing with my head, too. Like, my depression came back worse as I was eating the sugar. And then seeing this, it was like, wow.

I mean, I just saw the connection for the first time in my life.

And your stomach. I mean, you were having.

And my stomach.

Yeah, we'll say problems in that area that, you know, you hadn't had for quite some time, and that created, you know, the problems in there. So basically reintroducing that poison.

Yeah, unfortunately, because it tastes good. It really does. But I also realized the. The more I, you know, it start. Of course, it started off with, oh, I can handle just a little bit. It's fine.

I can, you know, but. But just that little bit led to more and Led to more and my craving for it. I had not craved it in almost a year. I was craving it constantly.

So it obviously reacts with the brain and every. I mean, everything is all connected, for sure, and you have to be very, very careful. And again, it's very individualized.

Some people can just have a little bit and then be fine, but I have an addictive personality, so that's. I go. I go big or go home on everything. So.

Well, and realistically, it. It is. You know, there were a couple of people in the documentary that they were talking.

They had depression and they had some other things, you know, going on with them that were similar to that. And one of them is a chef who literally, she says, well, I have to taste what I'm fixing, but she's a pastry chef.

Yeah.

And then she had to realize sugar.

Sugar is the worst thing for her.

Exactly.

So, you know, it's interesting because, you know, in this article that I had found, and I'll try to make this quick, there were two articles that I read at the National Library of Medicine, national center for Biotechnology Information with the National Health Institute official website of the United States government.

Wow.

Yeah. I have to take a day of the breath. I have to have a smoothie to give me some energy. To come back to this show. The health advantages of a vegan diet.

Exploring the gut microbiota. Microbiota. There we go. Gut microbiome. That's A new one Connection. It was written by Mariam Glickbauer and Ming Ching Ye.

This review examines whether or not there's evidence that the strict vegan diet confers health advantages beyond that of a vegetarian diet or overall healthy eating. Few studies include vegan subject as a distinct experimental group.

Yet when vegan diets are directly prepared or compared to vegetarian and omnivoric diets, a pattern of protective health benefits emerge.

The relatively recent inclusion of vegan diets in the study of gut microbiota and the health allows us the opportunity to assess whether the vegan gut microbiota is distinct and whether or not the health advantages and characteristic of a vegan diet may be partially exclaimed by an associated microbiota profile. I know that's a lot to take in, but I'll leave a link in the show notes. Everybody has it.

The relationship between the diet and the intestinal microbial profile appears to follow a continuum with vegans displaying a gut microbiota that's distinct from that omnivores, but not always significantly different from that of vegetarians.

The vegan gut profile appears to be unique in several characteristics, including a reduced abundance of pathobots and a greater abundance of protective species, reducing levels of inflammation, which is a key factor in making, you know, the microbial mic. Why do they have to make this so complicated? Microbiota with protective health effects.

So in reality, that right there just validated for me for my rheumatoid arthritis, that eating the diet that I'm eating now and even kind of moving away from fish that I eat, not every day, not all the time, but I do introduce it. Staying away from the eggs says, yeah, you're able to reevaluate your gut and what's in it to help me with my inflammation.

So it, it was also another refresher for me and a wake up call as well, because it gave me validation in several. Between the documentary and that article gave me, yeah, immense validation.

Yeah.

Well, I think that what I liked about the documentary too is that they, they start right out saying, you know, look, yeah, the stuff that you're probably doing with your body is probably screwing up your gut and that's why you feel like crap. But you can change it.

And that I thought was really great that they said at the beginning, in the middle, at the end, you can change this, you can feel better. And so immediately, right, you immediately texted Nicole to hey, you gotta watch this. I don't know if she, I don't know if she did, but well, yeah.

I don't know if she did either because she probably went. Looked at it and went, ah, crap, is dad getting on me again?

You know, look, I'm not always on my daughter, but I am trying to be proactive with her health because she's in pain. We've seen it, we've witnessed it. We watched her sit there double over in pain.

So I want her to feel better and I want her to be able to get over this and to be able to make, you know, approaches. I've, I've talked to her for years and she has taken some steps.

She's. She's done better.

Yeah, she's actually so.

But, you know, this, this whole system, I think especially understanding more about the, the types of gut bacteria, not bacteria, probiotics and, you know, well, bacteria. There's good as well.

There's good bacteria and bad bacteria.

Bad bacteria. It's like kind of a war zone inside your body.

They do such a great job. I mean, they really do. Let's just. There's some animation stuff, which I will. I'm a sucker for that. I love, I love anything with animation, so.

But it's really cute. It's really, it just really explains everything. It really does.

And done very effectively and efficiently because it's done in such a way that you're enthralled with each one of these people's journeys to see where they're at with it. And they do use the methodology, methodologies in there. That might give people some.

Yeah.

Pause.

You might, you might get a little squeamish at some of it because I did. But, you know, hey, if it works, it works, right?

It does. And, you know, I, I would recommend that, you know, if you are considering becoming a vegan or considering vegan.

A vegetarian, you know, do it at a time, you know, introduce it a step. It doesn't happen overnight. I need to tell everybody that. Again, I'm not a dietitian, but I am an individual that experienced this and learned it.

I'm an individual that. I have been an advocate for this lifestyle for quite some time now. And I can tell you that for me, it works. And I had a severe case of.

I've been on nine different drugs for my rheumatoid arthritis and all that did was put me from 165 pounds healthy, 165 pounds to 100 pounds almost put me in the hospital and, you know, a hard journey trying to get it back. So getting rid of all of that, I was able to get off of my Medications, not recommending that you get off your medications or cut them cold turkey.

You talked that over with your doctor.

This is just our journey. This is just what we've done.

Exactly.

I personally was able to get off those medications and, and be able to continue with my journey with managing it with food, with this diet, with juicing, with fruits and vegetables. And it's closely related to the Mediterranean diet and the Blue Zone diet. Yeah, it is the Mediterranean diet and the Blue Zone diet.

If you're not familiar with the Blue Zone diet, the Blue Zone diet is. They call it a diet, but it's really a lifestyle. And, you know, it started out with nine blue Zone diet or blue zone areas.

Now slip to like 11, I think, or 12 because they've added a couple more. But they're the longest living individuals on planet earth that live in these nine different zones or now 11 different zones.

They believe that it's because of what they eat.

It's what they eat and how they.

Eat it and also how they live. And also how they live.

I was gonna say it's a lifestyle. It's not just a diet. It's a lifestyle. You have to learn to take stress out of your life and to get good rest and to not get angry.

And there's a whole many different things about community and about talking with people and looking out for your family, looking out for your neighbors, looking out for other people, keeping that community. Connection. Yeah, connection, which we're looking out for you guys. This is our community. One more thing before you go is our community.

And, you know, we want to look out for everybody that's in here and make sure that you guys have options and, you know, ways of improving your life in a very proactive, in a very positive way. As you all know, we've done this. We're closing in on publishing 400 episodes here. We've got over 400 interviews.

You know, I'm still posting, you know, each week, but it's been a journey and I want to make sure that we as a community continue to grow in a positive way as well.

Yep. We want everybody to feel good.

And is from your perspective, Diane, how. I mean, everybody just heard how it was teaching me. How did it. I mean, how I feel, what it's doing for me. Tell me how it's doing for you.

How do you feel about.

About eating 80% veggies in my diet, you mean?

Yeah, I mean, has it made a significant difference?

Oh, yeah. I mean, I didn't think. I never. I don't think I'VE ever lost close to £30 in a year. I mean, not that that's. It really doesn't sound like a lot, right?

£30. It took a year to lose almost £30. But I think that's part of it, too.

I think if you do it slowly, you know, and just kind of just, you know, not focus so much on a number, but just say, I'm just gonna do this. I'm gonna do this for me, and I'm gonna do this to feel better and, you know, not just know that it's just gonna be. It's gonna take time.

It takes what it takes. That's what I told myself. This is gonna take as long as it takes.

I'm not gonna stop, you know, and, yeah, I'm gonna mess up, but I'm gonna get back on it. And I have been able to where normally decades of doing this. As soon as I mess up, I'd be like, well, I already messed up. I'm just going to do it.

Well, I'm not doing that anymore. I realize I focus on what I did wrong. I see what it did to me.

I really connect with what it did, how I feel, and then I get better, you know, and I get back on it. Right, so.

And you've noticed what it does when you. When you introduce to your body things that your body doesn't like, you know what it feels like. You recognize.

I know what it feels like now.

Yeah.

When I was.

When I was back on the sugar, When I was back on the sugar, I realized my anxiety levels went back up where I had been off of my anxiety meds for a while, and I. So I started back on them, and then I felt worse after that, too. So I got back off of those, Got off the sugar again and again. This is just for me.

This might not work for everybody, but I was hurting from head to toe. I was achy everywhere. When I would eat the next day after I'd eat the sugar, I was achy everywhere.

I was like, wow, I've never realized that before, but, yeah, that makes that. That actually was happening to me for years, and I didn't realize it.

It just felt like normal. And again, just to emphasize, this is our experience, right?

We're not doctors, we're not giving you medical advice or we're not telling you what to do. If you choose to try this yourself, please do it with caution.

Make sure you talk to your doctor, your health practitioner, whoever you trust within this arena, and they may or may not agree with it, but you need to be proactive in your choices as well and tell them that this is something that I want to try or something that I want to do, take control of your health, take control of your direction in that regard. So. Yeah, I mean, you never believe I'm 92 years old, right?

No, not at all.

Not at all. No. It's a situation that I think that. Check out that again, this wasn't a review of the documentary. It really wasn't.

This was a wake up call for Diana and I both to really kind of have a better, deeper understanding of what our gut feels like when it's supposed to work correctly and. And along with the rest of our body. And we all know it. Do you like having heartburn? Do you like having headaches? Do you like having.

Well, I'll just be gross diarrhea or constipation? Do you like having to not go to the bathroom for two, three, four days in a row kind of a situation?

I don't. Yeah.

But, yeah. Anyway, well, listen, I think we talked everybody's ear off enough. Yes, hopefully.

And my phone is about to die.

They're going to be an immediate, immediate, immediate. Okay. I'm now vegan. Thank you very much. I appreciate you.

You know, take it slow, Take it slow. Try it out. Take it slow.

Yep. Hey, one more thing before you all go. We want to thank you for being part of the One more thing before you go community.

Thank you for being part of our family. Thank you for being with us with each and every episode that we're here.

If you love us, please make sure you subscribe, you follow, and you share and comment and give us a review because it just helps us to bring you bigger and better and more things. And again, reminder, there's going to be some changes evolving. You've already seen some of them already. Keep that in mind.

And I think one more thing before you all go. Do you have anything else to say, Diane?

No, I don't. I think I'm good.

Have a great day. Have a great week and thanks for listening and watching.

Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing before youe Go.

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