July 14, 2025 • 49 mins
Are processed foods REALLY destroying your health? In episode 796 of the Savage Perspective Podcast, Robert Sikes dives deep with special guest Amanda Decker to expose the hidden dangers lurking in the foods most people consume daily. From misleading labels to harmful additives, this conversation uncovers the ways processed foods could be sabotaging your health, energy, and overall well-being. You’ll learn why low-carb diets can lead to life-changing health improvements, how the healthcare system may prioritize profit over true healing, and why eating locally sourced, high-quality food is crucial for both your body and your community. Amanda shares her expertise on overcoming traditional dietary myths, fighting back against systemic health challenges, and how small, intentional changes can have a huge impact on both physical and mental performance.
Ready to take control of your health and physique? Join Robert Sikes’ FREE Bodybuilding Masterclass today and discover how to structure your diet and mindset for massive results. Sign up here: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2
Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/
Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ
Chapters:
0:00 Are Processed Foods Poison?
1:47 Outdoor Health Events: Learning Through Nature
5:15 Why Medicine Misses the Root Causes of Illness
7:01 Low-Carb Diets: The Key to Lasting Health and Weight Loss
10:43 Insurance Problems: How Billing Hurts Your Health
18:02 The Challenges and Rewards of Working for Yourself
21:19 Why Doctors Still Recommend Outdated Diets
26:17 Fixing Healthcare and Food Systems from the Ground Up
31:15 Eat Local: Better Food, Health, and Community Support
35:36 Nutrition for Pets and Kids: Small Changes, Big Health Wins
45:13 Managing Stress, Skin, and Health With Diet
47:00 Sustainable Health: Building Muscle and Mindful Eating
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We have services to help people buy food, but the food that we
help them buy is not necessarilyfood that is healthy.
Because I've I've had psoriasis since the age of five.
I was struggling with my weight as early as the age of 5 yo,
yoing up and down. And it was through the wisdom of
my grandmother saying, hey, cut out the cookies and the
(00:22):
biscuits. And so I did and all I'm doing
is eating some meat, meat and vegetables.
But my weight was stable and I was not hungry.
I started recommending to my clients, hey, why don't you just
try cutting these few things outand eat more like this and see
what happens. And I saw the changes that were
happening then, but I was doing it kind of secret.
You know, I'm glad about it because if you go out and you
(00:44):
say publicly that you're recommending A ketogenic, low
carb carnivore diet, you start looking like the provider who's
a wacko and doesn't know anything and is opening
themselves up for scrutiny and. We are live, Amanda.
How are you doing this fine day I'm.
Doing great. Good, good.
I'm glad to hear you and I met. I guess the first time we met in
person was at meat stock, right?No, it was metabolic Health
(01:07):
Summit. OK.
That would have been did I go tothe one this past year?
You did well. It may have been a year ago.
I don't. Know yeah, there's a there's a
bunch of things. Together, but we were hanging
out at the keto chow table for afor a little bit.
That's right. That's right.
And you and I are both at meat stock.
This, I don't know, a month or two ago.
And then I'm gonna be speaking at your conference in September,
(01:28):
Low carb for better health, which I'm stoked about.
How many years have you been doing that?
This is your #4. You're #4 this will be my first
time going so I'm excited. I hope you enjoy it.
It's a, it's a beautiful event. You know, it's one where we
connect with each other. It is a lot about the
socialization with the speakers and with other attendees.
But the setting is beautiful. It's in a State Park, so we're
(01:49):
incorporating exercise more likea guided hike.
And then you are graciously going to help people learn
somebody weight exercises to stay strong, that kind of thing.
But you'll be in the park surrounded by the trees and
nature and that kind of thing doing the exercise.
So it's just, it's a resort likefeel.
Yeah, it's, it's a, it's going to be good.
I mean, anytime you're outside, especially in Tennessee, it's
going to be good. And in September I think will be
(02:10):
cooling down a little bit, so. Becoming office too much.
Still maybe a little humid. I mean, just like where you're
at, it's just humid. Yeah, because you live in
Tennessee, right? I do, yeah.
Yeah, Tennessee's nice. I I enjoy Tennessee immensely.
Yeah, the conference is actuallyin my hometown.
It's the only Conference Center in Dixon, which is about an hour
(02:31):
West of Nashville. So yeah.
When when it comes to the conferences, I was talking about
conferences on a prior podcast yesterday actually, and there's
a million different conferences.Everybody's got kind of like
their own take their own vibe. You've got like the really big,
you know, hack your health conferences.
You got the smaller, more intimate, like meet up kind of
styles. How would you describe your
(02:52):
conference? I think it's a blend of both.
It is designed not for healthcare providers, even
though there's plenty of healthcare providers that comes
with the everyday person who is wanting knowledge on how to make
their health better using nutritional approaches.
It's so there will be some sciency in there because we want
(03:14):
to explain the science so that people understand why the
changes that we're recommending are important and that they are
science backed. And not just because one day we
woke up and decided, hey, eatingmeats a good idea that it really
is science backed, but it is more about the connection making
that personal connection too. So it's a good blend of science
and connecting with other people.
(03:35):
Like in meat stock. I see it as, you know, that
personal connection. You know, when people are eating
together, they're sharing meals,which is definitely something we
do at Low carb for better health.
We have AVIP dinner that is justto sit back and socialize with
each other and with the speakers.
And then there's a meal served on Saturday at lunchtime.
And we did an extended lunch hour so that you can have time
to mingle with other people and hear their stories because we, I
(03:59):
mean, I've learned so much just from other people's health
stories, even as a healthcare provider.
I mean, I've been doing this for20 years.
But when I hear their stories and how they made certain tweaks
and it healed things in their body, then I can go research it
and find. So I think that's one of the
cool things about it. It's just the connection.
Yes, you get the science, yes, you get the speakers that are
big names in the community, but it's the connecting with other
(04:22):
people and learning from their stories that's important too.
Yeah. And I feel like, I mean, the
science is great, but I mean, people, if they want, they can
find the science anywhere. Like it's all these speakers,
they've got their own podcasts and YouTube channels, and they
can look at the research paper. But like, the conference scene
is where you can actually interact with other people going
through it and living it. And I think that is super
valuable. Yeah, actually sometimes hearing
(04:44):
all of that science in 15,000,000, different podcasts
and YouTube things that it's confusing for individuals.
You know, everybody has their own little take on things, and
so how do you take all of these bits of information and put them
into a usable format for the individual?
That's where the conference can help too, because then you're
around people who have taken that same information and
(05:05):
applied it to their lives, and you can hear their outcomes from
it. I totally agree.
Give me some back story on you personally.
So you've been in healthcare for20 years.
Yeah, like traditional, you know, Western medicine,
healthcare, like like give me, give me the, give me the
details. So I am a nurse practitioner and
I've been a nurse practitioner for 2021 years kind of in the
(05:26):
middle there. And when I first came out in
practice, I'm AGP. So general practice type things,
the first ten years was very conventional.
It was, you know, you have diabetes, here's your medicine,
I'll see you in three months. You have high blood pressure,
here's your medicine, we'll see you in three months.
And I got to the .10 years into my career that I was burned out
and ready to leave because all of us going to healthcare
(05:48):
because we want to help people. You know, we want to see people
get better. We don't go into healthcare to
be glorified drug dealers, but that's kind of what we've become
in the traditional medicine. So about 10 years in, I was
ready to leave practice because I was burnout.
The only people that got better,I say all the time were those
that had sinus infections and urinary tract infections because
(06:10):
I could cure those things. And I looked at my own health
journey because I have, I've hadpsoriasis since the age of five.
I was struggling with my weight as early as the age of 5 yo
yoing up and down and it was through the wisdom of my
grandmother saying hey cut out the cookies and the biscuits.
(06:34):
She wasn't the one cooking the cookies and biscuits, she was
the one telling you not to eat them.
Huh. Well.
She was cooking them, too, but she also spread the wisdom of
saying, hey, if you quit eating those, you're going to get
healthier. And so I did.
And I was just eating that way and I kept tweaking, not even
knowing anything about low carb.I was oblivious to low carb at
that point. And I had a friend of mine that
(06:55):
was a nurse practitioner and shesaid, hey, maybe you know,
you're eating low carb. I'm like, no, I'm not.
That's bad for you. That's going to kill you.
You can't eat that way. She's like, you really are.
You should look at what you're eating and count of your macros
and look what's happening. And I did.
And I was like, well, Dad got it, I'm eating low carb and all
I'm doing is eating some meat, meat and vegetables.
But my weight was stable and I was not hungry.
(07:15):
I was not having to bite my nails off waiting for the next
meal kind of thing that I had done with Yo Yoing so many times
before. And my psoriasis had improved.
I didn't put all of the psoriasis stuff together until
later down the road. But I started recommending to my
clients, hey, why don't you justtry cutting these few things out
and eat more like this and see what happens.
(07:37):
And I saw the changes that were happening then and the fact that
I was having to take them off ofmedicines instead of put them on
more medicines. But I was doing it kind of
secret, you know about it. Because if you go out and you
say publicly that you're recommending A ketogenic, low
carb carnivore diet, you start looking like the provider who's
a wacko and doesn't know anything and it's opening
(07:58):
themselves up for scrutiny. But I did it kind of quiet at
1st and then it eased into a brain explosion for me because I
went from only having my FNP credentials to adding a whole
bunch of letters behind my name because I wanted to feel good
about what I was recommending toto clients.
So I am certified through the Obesity Medicine Society or
(08:21):
association. I am a certified ketogenic
nutrition specialist through theAmerican Nutrition Association,
the SMHP, I'm a metabolic healthpractitioner.
And then I recently graduated from the Nutrition Network
Practitioner program. So I've got like 50 different
credentials behind my name, but I dove into weight management
and I did it publicly and I put a name out there and it started
(08:42):
putting things out there, you know, social media and the
practice just blew up. It was going great.
I was seeing great results, but I was also getting burnt out
because in the traditional medical model, if you think
about how much time you actuallyget with your provider is going
to be around 10 minutes at best.And that's a good office visit.
(09:04):
And as a provider, you're tryingto roll through 2530 patients a
day and do all the back paperwork and make it home at
the end of end of the day and see your kids because I have two
wonderful kids. So I had to leave that setting
because it was burning me out. Again, just trying to pump that
out every day and I truly felt like each client needed 30
(09:27):
minutes to an hour of my time, but I can only give him 10-10
minutes and it just almost felt fraudulent to me.
Like I know what you need. I know how much time I need to
spend with you, but I just don'thave it.
So I left traditional practice and now I own my own business
called Clear Path Medical. It's a direct primary care
clinic and each of my clients doget 30 minutes to an hour of my
(09:48):
time. And they can send me messages in
Saturday and Sunday if they haverandom questions and I can hop
on and answer questions. And I get to go home at night
and see my babies, which is awesome.
And I also live on a farm and I get to play on the farm when I
am done at the end of the day, instead of having to go home and
just knock out another chart after another chart after
(10:08):
another chart. And my clients are giving me
such amazing feedback just because of the connection that
they're getting with their healthcare team.
That's unlike anything they've experienced before.
I love it, I love it. How did my healthcare attorney?
You've got an interesting perspective because you've kind
of you've done both worlds. And any time I bring somebody on
that's, you know, in the traditional, conventional
(10:29):
Western medicine trajectory, it's like like everybody gets
into that space because they want to help people, but then
their hands kind of become tied.How is that structured?
You know, from behind the curtain, like you basically go
to you go to medical school, youhave all this debt piling up,
whether you're a nurse or a doctor, whatever the case may
be. And then you go into practice
and like, how does that, how is it structured to basically
(10:52):
require you to only have those 10 minute sessions?
Because I know insurance comes into play, the billable time
comes into play. How is all that look to the
layperson? Well, it comes down to it works
just like any other business, you know, cash in, cash out and
in the insurance based model, when I see a client, you know,
(11:15):
yes, I'm there is the the billable by minutes, but
actually most of us bill on complexity because we don't have
the minutes that were were able to.
You know, if you get 1520 minutes, that should be a level
2 or level 4 visit. But if the client has a higher
complexity, you spend 10 minuteswith them, then you can still
build that higher amount and getmore in.
But your overhead is the biggestthing.
(11:37):
So it is the billing to your insurance company, paying the
staff to be able to do that, thehaggling back and forth, the
collections people, the credentialing people.
I mean, it's just the the amountoverhead.
So when I left conventional medicine and went to direct pay,
my overhead went down to 1/3 of what it was in my previous
(11:57):
practice. Wow.
And the complexity is linked with the prescriptions, right?
Like generally, if you're able to prescribe something the
complexity. Yes, you can do complexity, just
say if someone has diabetes but it is diet controlled, just the
diagnosis of diabetes can increase your complexity or you
can do it off of prescriptions. So if you have these diagnosis
(12:18):
plus the prescriptions, it can get you into that level of
complexity there. So most doctors, healthcare
providers, they're kind of from a billing standpoint, they're
incentivized to prescribe something or increase the
complexity, not so much increasetime.
Because if you can have more people with fewer time and
(12:40):
increase complexity prescriptions, then you have
more billable income that then gets passed off the insurance
company. So the practice gets more money.
Absolutely. And then the next level of that
is you're graded by insurance companies, by how you prescribe
and what tests that you order. So for example, if you've
diagnosed someone with diabetes,you're required or not required,
(13:04):
you are highly encouraged to give them an ACE inhibitor,
which is a blood pressure medication that's there to
protect their kidneys. They're to have a statin
medication. They're to have a microalbumin
test, which is a test for kidneys done every three months,
the A1C every three months, and a cholesterol every three months
with an LDL under a certain level.
So those are goals. And then say, for example, the
(13:26):
Blue Cross Blue Shield looks at my prescriptions and my
diagnosis on their clients and they assign me star levels based
off of that. And at the end of the year, if
my star levels are at a certain height then I can get a bonus or
I can even receive higher reimbursements per visit the
next year with my clients. If I my store level goes down
(13:49):
then my reimbursement can potentially go down too.
Wow. So you're really kind of damned
if you do, damned if you don't, basically.
Yeah. Why do more people not go the
route of solo practice or havingtheir own operation?
I mean, I'm assuming it's kind of like akin to, you know,
working in a career at a corporation versus becoming an
(14:11):
entrepreneur. Like you just have so much more
uncertainty. Is that the main limiting factor
there? I think there's a lot of fear
and you know, it's something I thought about doing for years.
And finally, Doctor Doctor Berryis who I work with as my
supervising position in Tennessee.
We were having lunch. He Anisha and he's like, will
you quit being chicken shit and just do this already?
(14:32):
Sounds like something would say.Thanks.
He's like, quit being scared it's going to work because
they're you're, you're kind of inbred into thinking that
everybody has to use their insurance at all times or
they're not going to seek out your care.
But the reality is this, there'sa lot of people who are just
getting sick and tired of getting that traditional
insurance based care and not getting answers.
(14:53):
So they're not getting the health they want.
So what does it matter if they're paying with their
insurance or not because they'renot getting what they need.
They want to go outside of that model and they can still use
insurance in my model, which is great.
What I do is I give them the information to submit it to
their insurance and file for outof network.
No, they may not get as much of their money back as if I was an
in network provider, but it still can offset that cost a
(15:14):
little bit. That's there.
But yeah. Insurance is crazy.
I mean, like for us, like we were using, I don't know, I
think we've used Blue Cross, I think we've used Ambetter, like
nothing like crystal. And I never get sick, like
literally never get sick. And I'm doing all kinds of, you
know, proactive testing, blood work.
Like I'm, I'm wanting to get allthis stuff done because I'm
always doing some type of experiment and like going
(15:37):
through a primary care, having them trying to get these labs
drawn using insurance like it was never covered.
And I would like go to an, I would schedule an appointment,
be there for an hour and a half and then wait two weeks to get
my results back. And I still wind up paying a
bunch of money. Now I just get them all direct
whatever I want to test for. I go into a like a diagnostic
(15:58):
center. I'm there for 10 minutes and I
get the results back in 24 to 48hours.
And it's like, I feel like people that actually care about
their health are totally fine doing whatever needs to be done
to reach that health outcome. And if that means testing, if
that means getting, you know, seeking care, But like, I don't
like insurance companies being the bottleneck.
(16:19):
That's just not a good model. Yeah, it's not.
And you know, they can even dictate what test the provider
orders. For example, like vitamin D, you
have to have a diagnosis of deficiency before you can test
with it. Like, how the crap does that
make sense? How do I know if it's deficient
if I haven't tested it? So the patient often ends up
(16:39):
paying for it out of pocket the first time to get it covered the
next time. Or I can lie and say, yeah, they
got vitamin D deficiency to to draw it.
B12. I can only draw that like once a
year. And sometimes specifically Blue
Cross Blue Shield won't check AB12 level unless you have a
diagnosis of pernicious anemia. Well, how do you know if you
have pernicious anemia? Unless you're drawing the blood
to to check it just, it doesn't make sense.
(17:02):
When people go to a primary care, are they honestly getting
that much like individualized care and expertise from that
doctor or physician, or is it more so like they're just run
through the model that the insurance company kind of paves
for the provider? I'm going to say it depends.
I, I do think that all providersstill have the heart to help
(17:25):
people. And so they're going to do their
best to order test and to make recommendations based off of
what they, the best knowledge that they have.
But for example, someone's coming for an annual physical,
you're just going to get the model that the insurance is
going to pay for it. We're going to order the basic
lab panel that we know is going to get covered.
(17:45):
We're going to do the basic tests that we know is going to
get covered. We're going to recommend the
tests, they're going to be covered.
And if anything is outside of that, it's probably because it's
prompted by the individual asking for more testing.
And those typically aren't covered anything that the
individual's asking for in addition to correct.
Gotcha, gotcha. What has it been like for you
since switching over and doing your own thing?
(18:07):
I mean, I know you started, you said January.
January, yeah. 1/3 of the overhead but what else?
Like what's the what's the pros and cons?
Pros and cons? Well, I really like being able
to be the master of my own domain and schedule.
I've kind of been a boss lady from even before I was an
official boss lady, so there's that aspect.
But the biggest thing for me is just the freedom to spend time
(18:28):
with each individual client and to dive into their needs and
recommend things based off of what I feel like it's right for
them and not just what is covered for them.
So the free one has been the biggest thing.
From a a sheer revenue standpoint, like is there a
significant hit to you personally in doing your own
(18:50):
thing or if you have the demand from the clientele that are
willing to pay, like is that a pretty easy transition?
It was, it's been a pretty easy transition, but anytime you
start a new business and you're a businessman, when you started
your business, that first coupleof months you got to build
revenue up and make sure that you have, you know, so I didn't
get paid the first couple of months.
I made sure my staff was paid. I built up extra to make sure
(19:11):
that all bills would be paid if there was a, a bad month.
I did have a lot of my clients follow me over which helped that
stick to no more than about 2 1/2 months I think was the when
I took my first paycheck out of this business.
So having that build up and not having to start without a single
client and brand new out there, that was very helpful.
(19:33):
At this point it's pretty stable.
So I'm six months, seven months in and I've got my stable,
steady revenue and we're lookingnow at how many clients do we
take to continue to have the connection with our clients and
our personal lifestyles that we want, you know, before we start,
is it time to cap out or do we keep growing?
Where are we at? I'm assuming from a client's
(19:54):
standpoint, like it's only positive.
I mean, they get more time, theyget more expertise, they get
more freedom and you're able to diagnose and prescribe and.
Offer assistance catering to them as individuals better, yeah
and. It kind of goes back into what I
was saying with the conference too.
You know, when clients come to me, they've said I've listened
to these 15 different people andI'm on 20 million supplements
and I'm trying this fasting routine and that and I just feel
(20:16):
lost. So they're actually getting
someone who can help them sort through individually with them,
say, well, you're trying this and this isn't working, let's
try something different or let'sdrop all these supplements
because let's just eat better and not take 15 supplements.
You might as well be on 15 meds at that point too.
Totally what? What's the primary demographic
of clients that are coming to see you you?
(20:39):
Mean like income or like just? Ailments or like where are they
at in life? Like what are they typically
coming to you with his shoes on?Yeah, so.
I would say the most of my clientele are between the ages
of 40 and 65 right now. Most of them are coming to me
because they are low carb and have been low carb and want a
(21:01):
provider that's not going to fight them on this way.
They're just they're tired of arguing with their providers and
they want to know that what they're doing is safe.
I would say that I am in Tennessee, so the majority of my
clients are white. That's my demographic.
In my town, we have African American, we have Mexican, and
(21:22):
they have a small population there, but most of them are are
white middle class people. But they're coming because they
just want clarity on what they're doing, male and female.
Pretty even split, yeah. Male and female, pretty even
split. When it, when it comes to
nutrition, why is it that most general care physicians going
through the Western medicine route, like they just default to
(21:44):
the mixed diet? Like they do they get in trouble
for prescribing low carb? Like, is that like a legitimate,
you know, red flag to insurance providers?
Because I've got like a employeethat's got diabetes and type 1
and he just went to get his annual check up and they're
like, yeah, you got to eat more carbs.
You got to have more of a mixed diet.
And it's like you don't know anything about nutrition.
(22:06):
What what are you doing? So is it?
Are they just like default checklist answers?
I think it stems back to fear again when the low fat diet was
put out in America as being the gold standard diet and being the
heart healthy plan. Doctors just got honed in on
(22:26):
that's the answer and didn't go and look for the evidence
themselves one way or the other.Whether I think a lot of it's
the time, you know, when they'retrying to cram as much in their
day as they are to make the business of it work.
I research more now than I did in my traditional practice
because I have more time to actually go and research and
read the literature myself. So they just got in that zone.
(22:48):
And when big organizations like the American Diabetes
Association, American Heart Association, say low fat is the
way to go, that's what the doctors are going to put out.
Because they probably goes back to fear a little bit too,
because say you recommend a low carb diet and then that
individual ends up having a heart attack.
(23:10):
It's not going to look well for you in court because you're not
following that recommendation that's set out by the major
medical organizations like the ADA and American Heart
Association that's there. So I think it's a fear.
A fear are those? Organizations good at looking at
and deciphering the new science,the new literature like or is
that kind of like an F to thought for them?
(23:31):
I think they're just bias, yeah.You know they're.
Biased and it's really hard to to put your name and your stamp
on something for 20-30 years andthen to come back and say, hey,
I was wrong. It's just really hard to admit
that. And so when we've seen
concessions happen, like when the ADA came out and said that
low carb is should be an option,like one of the options, at
(23:53):
least they kind of did it under the table.
You know, they didn't announce it wasn't a big, it didn't make
a big social media splash. It was just kind of on the side,
You know, we still recommend this, that Oh yeah, you can try
this, too. Interesting.
Trying to say interesting what? What research does get you
excited? Like, what are you diving into
now? From a science standpoint, that
is looking promising. That is just adding another
(24:15):
feather in the hat to keto low carb as a, you know, premier
option for people. Yeah.
So the research with inflammation and helping with
like gut issues, autoimmune stuff, that is things that I'm
interested in right now. I am trying to read up a lot on
peptides. Peptides are kind of the the big
(24:37):
hot topic. Right now, Hot topic.
Right now in this, you know, it's a provider for 20 years,
you know, weight management. I was very familiar with GLP one
peptides, but there's this wholeother world out there that I
didn't really even know about because we're not taught it in
conventional medicine. But it's very intriguing and
I've got clients asking about it.
So I'm doing a couple of continuing medical education
things on that, reading some books, that kind of thing.
(24:58):
So that's where my interest is currently.
How do you do your? Research like what is?
What is your workflow for like? OK, I've got a problem.
I've had a client asking about this.
Where do you turn to 1st? Like how do you structure that?
I guess it has depend on the following.
I do different things. There is a place open evidence
(25:19):
that's kind of like AI for healthcare providers where you
can go and it pulls a lot in. I have done my own searches and
like pub Med just looking for, you know, keywords if what I'm
going through and trying to pullstudies and then look through
and decipher of those type things.
I will also go to providers thatI have trusted and read the
(25:39):
reports and listen to them. So if I trust them, I'm going to
go and say, hey, what have they written on it they compiled
together. I love to go listen to Nick
Norwood stuff that he's putting out because he can take a lot of
information and convince it in alittle bit of video.
And then he links the studies and I can go out and look at
those two. So a lot of it is connecting
with other providers that I trust and then vetting their
(26:00):
information that they put out. Yeah, love it.
You think there's more providersthat are kind of catering
towards that low carb lifestyle?It seems like that's growing in
prevalence. For sure it is.
It is. And I think it's just because,
you know, like I talked about megetting burnt out is we're tired
of not seeing our patients get better.
And you know, you can only look at a broken system and see that
(26:21):
it's not working for so long before you either just become a
robot and keep doing it, or you break and do something
different. Do you think the system is going
to change on their own accord, or do you think there's going to
make some type of implosion that's going to force a change,
or do you think it's just going to keep doing what it's?
Doing, I don't really know. It takes a long time to change a
(26:43):
healthcare system. I mean, I may be dead and gone
before we actually see a lot of good quality, meaningful changes
happening. I think there's a lot of
exciting things going on. I think the world is starting to
wake up and realize that what we're doing doesn't work.
There's a lot of mistrust in themedical community right now post
COVID, just of, hey, I need to do my own research because
(27:07):
cannot trust these people. Like it's the lies that have
come out, you know, during that time.
I think it's still mostly grassroots thing.
It's coming from patients and individual people demanding
changes. And when enough people demand
changes, it starts to move up. You know, the food companies
start to recognize, like with the dyes that we're now pulling
(27:27):
out of products. How long have we been kind of
hearing that dyes are bad for us?
And just now we're seeing that come across.
So. But I still think it happened to
the grass, grass root. There's a whole bunch of people.
And then finally the when their money talks because they're not
buying products or they're goingin different places, then the
uppers make a change. Yeah.
(27:49):
I mean, it's, it's, it's capitalism for sure, which I'm,
I'm a capitalist through and through, but it's like, it's
unfortunate that money should have such a dictating effect on
people's health. And I feel like as more people
recognize the truth and just feel confident to self
experiment themselves and try things and figure it out, you
know that that tide will shift. That's like there's certainly
(28:10):
has to be a decrease in money going through the conventional
methods with all these soul practices opening up with more
information out there. But I don't know.
I mean, I look at society and you and I are both in the South
and Arkansas is pretty unhealthystate.
There are pockets of Tennessee that are healthy, but many are
not. And it's I feel like the it's
(28:31):
kind of like a classic. The rich get rich, the poor get
poor. It's like the healthy people get
healthier because there's more information than ever and
options than ever. But like the unhealthier people
just keep going downward. You know, it's it's sad.
It is it. Is and some of that has to do
with the food system that you know, we have.
We have services to help people buy food, but the food that we
(28:52):
help them buy is not necessarilyfood that is healthy.
So why can not in every county, I don't understand why they
can't use the same SNAP, WIC, whatever benefits they're using
at local farmers market to buy fresh produce.
You know, that seems like an easy thing.
You're supporting your local economy and you're giving fresh
good Whole Foods. Why?
(29:13):
Why can't everybody use those benefits there as opposed to
having to go to Krueger where, you know, I'm staring down a bag
of potato chips that's probably going to make it in my cart and
it's paid for. Yeah, just.
Just as the the healthcare system, insurance provider, that
system is jacked up, the food system is also knocked up.
I mean, like I've had Will Harrison, I've had several
(29:33):
people on talking about regenerative agriculture and
like the commodity beef system, which is a very broken system in
and of itself. And like chicken, for instance,
chicken is so artificially deflated price wise because of
like Tyson, like people think something's wrong if they have
to pay more than 5 bucks for a whole chicken.
But like a a well raised chicken, you can't raise a well
(29:55):
meaning chicken for that little.So like it's a totally broken
system. I just buy chickens from a local
guy here that does it totally regeneratively.
And they were expensive chickens.
And I'm like, man, these are twice of what I'm paying at
Whole Foods. But then he's like breaking down
his cost. And I'm like, well, that's what
I want because I want the quality.
And I don't think that should bethe case.
(30:15):
Like, I think, you know, people like we, we, we just got to be
honest and transparent with things.
And like, there can't be all these subsidies that create this
massive disconnect because, like, obviously nobody wants to
support what Tyson's doing, but you got to be able to afford
quality meat at the same time aswell.
So like figuring out that is a whole nother battle, Yeah.
(30:36):
Absolutely. You said you've got a little
homestead operation yourself though.
Well. So I live on a family farm.
It's been in my family for almost a century at this point.
We're just a couple years away from Angus Century farm.
My parents are the current farmers.
They raise Black Angus cattle. Where are the farmers when they
go out of town or when they needneed help?
(30:56):
But all of my two siblings and Iwill have careers in different
ways that are not farming, but we're still there and ready to
help it. My dad raises most of the Black
Angus cattle and it's great because I get cow.
That's awesome. Every year.
I have a cow or actually we're up to 2 cows now because I have
a 16 year old and a 10 year old.They're both heavy meat eaters.
(31:17):
And then my husband and I are mostly carnivore.
I eat more veggies than he does,but.
So we're going through 2 cows a year, but I can see my cow, I
know where it was raised, I knowwhat happened to it and I can go
meet my butcher that preps my cow and he takes all of my organ
meats and grinds it into my ground beef so I can micro dose
that. So I feel really good about my
beef and where it comes from andI love supporting local farmers.
(31:41):
I still pay for my cow even though it comes from my family
farm. I pay my dad because he put
money in to raise that cow. You know, there was the way to
fertilize the crops, there's themachinery that was needed there,
you know, fuel. All of that stuff adds up during
the year. So I still pay for my cow, but I
love supporting local farmers and I get to name my cow.
(32:01):
So last year at the conference, I showed a picture of my cow for
the year. His name was Joe Joe and I had a
great conversation before he went to the to the slaughter
place. But he had a great life.
I showed his wonderful field that he lived in for all of his
life up until the one day that was very bad for Joe.
And but I told you I was like, man, I appreciate you.
You were going to feed my family.
(32:22):
You are nice and plump and you're going to be juicy and
you're going to taste amazing. But I greatly appreciate you.
So I'm going to name the one this year.
I haven't named it yet though. Now that that's so good, I mean,
like I, I, I'm in the same boat.Like I get all my beef locally.
I know my farmer, I know how they're raised, what they're
eating. And same with my chicken, my
pork, my lamb. It's like that's the best way to
do it like a hunt a lot as well.Like everything that I eat, I've
(32:45):
either raised or harvested or know who raised and I feel like
that is the way to go. I mean, sometimes it's, it's
more expensive, but often times it's not like the kind of that
we got, you know, like it's likewhen you buy a whole cow, it
winds up being cheaper than whatyou would get and all the
segmented cuts at a, you know, nicer grocery store.
So like it's an investment because it's a lump front, you
(33:06):
know, upfront cost, but it's cheaper and it's way healthier.
And you're not supporting the commodity beef system.
Plus you're you're supporting local, you're supporting the
people that are in your own community.
And that's, that's where it's atright there.
Yeah. Do you process?
Your own game when you hunt. Yeah, so I do all the processing
myself. So I'll go deer hunting or elk
hunting. I got an elk on my wall right
now and I did all that, stayed up all night long processing
(33:30):
that bad boy. But he's delicious.
And yeah, I mean, you, you respect the animal all the more.
And like when I hunt, you know, I take that life.
But I don't do it in a disrespectful manner.
And when I'm eating that food, like I am very careful not to
waste any of it. Like every morsel gets consumed
because I worked so hard to bring it here.
And you know, when respected animal and what he sacrificed to
(33:52):
feed me and my family. And I feel like if we all had
that connect connection with ourfood, we wouldn't take it for
granted because, like, food waste is another thing that
really just rubs me raw. Like, I hate throwing food away,
especially quality food. Like if it's bags of Lay's
potato chips, like, that's not even food in my book.
So we can throw that away. Yeah, totally.
Yeah. Y'all have chickens or anything
(34:13):
too? Or just the the beef that you
raised. Yeah.
So just. The beef my husband does hunt
and takes a couple deer a year to kind of subsidize the beef.
My mother-in-law has chickens soshe supplies those.
As soon as she's done having chickens, then yes, I will have
chickens because we eat a lot ofeggs and I like knowing where
they come from as well. But I'm 100% same place you are
(34:33):
as don't don't waste the food. So even when we get our cow, I
get the bones and all the extra fat.
We'll cook it down and make our tallow to use for cooking during
the year. And I'll make bone broth from
the bones and some that are justfor my dogs to get them extra
nutrition as well. But you know, use every bit as
you can. The organ meats, I have not
gotten to the tongue yet. I've tried several times to cook
(34:54):
the tongue. I do give it to my dogs.
I just can't. I can't.
Can't do it, but when my husbandstarted processing his own
venison it, you're right, it changes how you think about the
animal and it changes how much you appreciate the food when
you're eating it and using as much as we can use scraping as
much as we can off for the grindthat we do so.
(35:16):
The tongue's easy, though. I get this, boil it, peel that
skin off and then you just shredit and it's like it's like
shredded like BBQ pork almost. It's pretty good.
I'll save. Mine for you if you want but.
Hey, the dogs is good too. Like our dog.
Our dog is straight up pure carnivore.
Him, he's like a year and a halfold and we feed him 6 lbs of raw
meat a day and that's all he eats, you know?
(35:38):
So he's healthy, nutritious and certainly not living off a
kipple. Yeah.
Yeah, well, I, I don't feed my fresh meat as much as you are.
I do a high quality dog food that's more protein.
But we were using a different dog food that we thought was
high protein and a good quality.And I noticed that my lab was
getting more feeble earlier thanI thought he should be.
(36:01):
He was just, you know, labs, they're active, they want to
run, they want to go, they're friendly, they're got full of
energy. And it's like he's just, he's
lazy, but it's more than lazy. So we changed up his food.
We researched like, you know, this doesn't look, so we didn't
research. I stopped and paused and looked
at his food. And it's like, this doesn't look
the same that it used to. Like, it's got more just gunk in
(36:23):
the bag. And so we changed his food, and
within two weeks, he was up and running, bounding around, had
all kinds of energy. His coat looked better.
And it's like, OK, bad. Yeah.
Dog food. Dog food.
Company is weird like the the packaging on dog food like
marketing itself is interesting like marketing dog food like
they really hype it up but you actually they make it very
(36:45):
difficult to see what's actuallyin the dog food so you actually
have to like do some research onit but then it's it's often
times not nearly as good as they're promoting it to be No,
not. At all, but they get lots of
bones and tongue and there you go like that to supplement them
there. You go, you said you had a a 16
year old and what was it? 12101010 Both boys No.
(37:08):
My 16 year old's a boy and my 10year old's a girl.
How do you? Treat their nutrition knowing
what you know, but not want to be this like like overly, you
know, micromanaging mother like how do you how do you juggle
that? Oh well.
That's very interesting story and I do the best I can.
I can say that my 16 year old, they're two different kind of
(37:29):
people nutritionally. So my 16 year old now eats a lot
of junk food that I don't approve of.
You know, I can't control what the choices he makes at friend's
house and at school. I I've given him the knowledge,
I've given him the backbones. I've talked to him as much as I
can talk to him. But you've been a 16 year old
boy. You think you know everything at
(37:52):
some point and your parents don't know everything.
And one day you wake up and you realize your parents really did
know a lot of things. So I, I can't control what he
eats outside of my home. I can control what's in my home.
And so when he's eating in my home, he is eating the same
things that my husband and I eat.
We do have some cleaner package things because kids like to eat
(38:14):
things out of packages. So we've got some gummies that
are made of 100% fruit puree anddon't have dyes and don't have
added sugar. It's just basically fruit puree
and gelatin, things like that that they can have.
They still eat more carbs than my husband and I do.
So like I will make them sweet potatoes and white potatoes and
things like that, but I make them at home kind of thing.
(38:37):
My daughter is different. So she, I was still going
through kind of my awakening, soto say, in healthcare and
nutrition when around the time and I was pregnant with her and
then she was born. And so she still got a lot of
the puffs and the things that I wish I had never given her.
(38:58):
And it was about when she was 4,I had was home for something.
I don't remember why I was home for three or four days when I
normally would not have been home that long with her.
And I noticed she was going to the bathroom like, I don't know,
it's half day and she'd already been like 6 times.
I was like, baby, you feel OK orare you sick?
She just no, I'm fine mom. It's like, are you just, are you
(39:21):
just peeing a lot? Just no, I had to potty like
why? Why is my kid going to the
bathroom? And then I started thinking,
it's like she's always saying mom in my belly kind of hurts.
Crud. And then I started thinking back
through. I was like, OK, she really does
go to the bathroom a lot. And I always thought that her
(39:41):
saying her belly hurt was just akid complaining.
Then you feel like a bad mom because like my kids really been
suffering for a couple years andI didn't even realize it.
So at that point we removed all the wheat grain products
whatsoever from her diet, so no more healthy still cut oatmeal
type things even though it was the organic and clean type
(40:02):
products. We cut out anything that she ate
elsewhere and literally within aweek she was normal bathroom
habits and hadn't complained about stomach pain.
Wow, that's awesome. Now she's. 10, she reads labels
like a hawk. She is her own self advocate.
She goes to school and she's like, y'all shouldn't be eating
that. I sure ain't eating that.
(40:23):
That's going to make my belly hurt.
It's making you guys sick. You don't know it yet, but it's
making you sick. She did a 4H project as a sugar
detective trying to tell people how to read labels to identify
how much sugar is in the food that they were eating.
She's already said she's going to take over my practice one
day, like in January, my first day when I was coming to
practice, she said, all right, don't mess it up, mom, because
(40:44):
it's going to be mine. So she's she's all on board, All
on board. But yeah, she's very clean and
she loves meat. She's her favorite food is roast
that her daddy makes. And she also likes baby back
ribs. Those are her favorite things to
eat. And she'll do some veggies,
clean veggies like, you know, squash, zucchini, stuff like
that. But yeah, she stays away from
(41:05):
mostly packaged, packs her lunchevery day in.
Honestly, I think it's just because she knows what happens
to her body. She's seen it just like us
adults, you know, we have to seeit for ourselves.
We have to see what it's doing to ourselves before we're swear
off from it. Yeah, I feel like it's.
Almost like a blessing in disguise when you've got some
kind of underlying ailments thatis triggered when you're eating
(41:27):
junk food. Because then it's like a pretty
motivating factor not to eat that food.
But if you don't have anything specific and you're not as in
tune with your body, like you'renot aware of that chronic, you
know, compounding impact. And like with kids, like I don't
know what I'm going to do with Rigel.
I mean, he's 3 and like he eats the same stuff we eat.
(41:48):
So like super clean. I mean, he like Crystal was keto
all throughout her pregnancy, all throughout breastfeeding.
I mean, his first meal was like this massive beef knuckle bone
that he was not on at six monthsold.
So like, he's straight up legit keto, but I don't know what he's
going to be like as he gets older and starts making his own
decisions because I don't want to be overbearing and like force
(42:09):
it on him. But same time I don't want him
to, you know, screw up his health and longevity either.
So I got to figure that out whenit comes, I guess most of it.
Is just control what's in your home?
Yeah, for sure he's going to. Have you know when she goes,
when they go to church and like vacation Bible school?
They had gluten free options forher, but she had some junk food
(42:30):
that we would not have normally had in her own home.
It's one week, she's back out ofit.
So if you're controlling, if my parents had controlled the way
that I'm controlling, you know, in the home, I don't think I
would have had the obesity issuethat I had as a younger kid.
I don't think my psoriasis wouldhave been to the extreme that it
was where it was on 80% of my body had some sort of plaque on
(42:50):
it. I think I still would have had
it. It just wouldn't have been this
extreme. So one you do the best, you
can't can't beat yourself up forit, but just control within your
own home and don't give them. Make sure they have other
options. You know when Willow goes to
different stuff, she has a bag that she takes with her so she
has other options. And as long as she has something
to eat when her friends are eating, she could care less
(43:12):
because she's there to be with her friends and have fun.
Totally, totally. Speaking of psoriasis, a little
bit of a tangent here, but I've got another employee that's
carnivore, pretty much carnivore.
He's had psoriasis his whole life and it's gotten a lot
better since doing carnivore. But he noticed that like whole
eggs, you know, ramped it up. So now he, he has chickens, he's
been raising chickens, but now he doesn't eat the eggs.
(43:34):
So he gives me the eggs, but like he's pretty much just
eating meat. He'll have some dark chocolate
on occasion. But do you have any other idea
what could be, you know, keepingthem from getting that cleared
up? Because do you have any of it
anymore or is it totally bad? I do.
Well, my psoriasis story says from the age of five had my
first plaques and it's really rare.
It was really rare in the early 80s to have kids with psoriasis.
(43:56):
It was usually something that kicked in more in adulthood.
Now it's kind of every age everywhere.
It I'd go through flares where it would be bad flares where it
would calm down. Heat, it makes it worse, gas
heat makes it worse because the,the, I guess the name, chemicals
on the skin, things like that. I was on an immunosuppressant at
(44:18):
one point. So I took a, a shot that
suppressed my immune system and that got me completely clear.
But I, I guess it was COVID whenCOVID hit and I was working in
the COVID trailer, it scared me to be on something to suppress
my immune system while I'm actively seeing COVID patients.
So I came off of it and I went carnivore at that time, stayed
(44:40):
clear for probably a year. And so I went carnivore 3, three
months. And then I slowly added back
started with like avocado and then some cucumber, you know,
low inflammatory type vegetables.
And I found certain things wouldtrigger it like tomatoes and
nightshades will trigger my psoriasis.
And if I have it like a little tomato here, it's not a big
(45:02):
deal. I've had tomatoes back-to-back
days. I'll start to itch at the sites
where I had previous plaque. But stress is my biggest
trigger. It is hands down the biggest
trigger. There was a it was clear for
several years I had a major stress or hit in my life and
just a little patch at the back of my head started coming out.
And scalp is probably one of thehardest places to get to clear
(45:25):
up for psoriasis. What I've found is higher fat
helps. So definitely sticking to a
higher fat amount. Things like red light therapy
has been very helpful at keepingit calm down as well.
Salt therapy. So like a Halo unit eating salt
on the skin can be very helpful as well at keeping it inflamed.
(45:45):
But there is a genetic componentto it.
I don't think I'm ever going to be 100% clean of my psoriasis no
matter how clean and clear that I, that I get that I'm able to,
to manage it. So managing stress is a big part
of it. Adding those alternative
therapies has been helpful to How would you even suggest
looking at environmental toxins?Like, you know, what does he
(46:08):
have some sort of heavy metal buildup or even plastic buildup
like BPA or glyphosate from years before when he was not as
healthy? But there are other.
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, he, he's been like
troubleshooting all kinds of different things.
But I'll, I'll bring that. Maybe I'm just stressing him out
too much at work. Maybe that's the the primary
driver to it paid. More, give him more vacation,
(46:31):
all that nice stuff. Yeah, yeah.
There you go. There you go.
But yeah, psoriasis, like anything skin related is, is
tricky because like I used to have crazy bad acne and I feel
like I could have totally absolved that had I known then
about nutrition like I do now. Like did your 16 year old have a
bunch of acne or no? Some, and I can tell when he has
(46:53):
snuck in more sodas and different things at other places
just because he'll have more of an an outbreak there.
But not not bad, not too bad. Yeah, skin's a tough one because
it's like you could have so manythings dialed in perfectly.
And if your skin's still like, we're always our own worst
critic, like nobody probably even noticed your psoriasis.
But like, it's in the back of your mind kind of just driving
(47:13):
you crazy. And it's, I don't know, it's
it's it's one of those things that just you want to just nip,
nip in the bud and get finished with.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Well, Amanda, I am super excitedabout your conference in
September. That's two weeks before my
competition that I'm promoting. So I'm going to be busy
September, but it's going to be awesome.
I can't wait to go back to Tennessee.
(47:33):
You're going to be at. Prime physique at that time,
right I'm. Not competing at this one, so
I'm promoting. I'm not competing but I will be.
Hopefully not too too soft and fluffy.
Yeah, people think that of you if you start getting fluffy.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's kind of weird, like composition because
it's not healthy to stay that lean for too long.
(47:53):
You got to have a legitimate building phase, eat more food,
ramp up metabolic rape. But like when you're in
competition shape, like people just expect that of you at all
times. It's like, I don't want to be
like that at all times. Like, it's not healthy to be
like that at all times. The body is designed to have
some fat on it. For sure, For sure, For sure.
Yeah. Yeah, 100% so I'm super stoked
(48:14):
I'm gonna have to do some thinking as to what I want to do
for a work and in this outdoor in the park body weight thing,
I'm going to be brutal with people that I'm going to make
them make brutal I'll. Go.
I'll go a little, yeah, they'll be able to do it.
They'll be able to do it, but I'm going to get creative with
it for sure. Yeah.
I. Think it'll be a lot of fun, and
if anybody's interested in checking out the conference, the
(48:35):
website's pretty easy. It's the letter L, the letter C,
the #4bh.com. So low carb for
betterhealth.com, but just lc4bh.com.
Perfect. Well.
I'll link out, make it easy for people to find you and what what
is your practice website and link again.
Yeah, it's clear path. Medical.net and you can find me
on all social media while the ones that I participate in at
(48:57):
deck or less carbs. Awesome, are you doing remote
care as well or is it all for inperson?
I am. I'm licensed in now 23 states
across the US. Arkansas being one of them.
No, sorry, get you in Arkansas too.
I would love. To be in Arkansas, but they do
not, I have to have a supervising physician in
(49:17):
Arkansas. And every time you add that adds
another level of cost. So in the 23 that I'm licensed
in outside of Tennessee, I have full practice authority, meaning
that I don't have to have a physician collaborate with me.
Got you, got you, got you. That makes sense.
Well, I'm super excited for thatas well.
It's awesome that you're, you know, having the ball in your
own court now since January, andyou're rock and rolling with it.
(49:38):
I've got no doubt that you'll continue to grow with it.
So keep doing what you doing. Keep changing lives for sure.
Amanda, Awesome. It's great.
Talking with you. Likewise, we'll see you soon.
We have services to help people buy food, but the food that we
help them buy is not necessarilyfood that is healthy.
Because I've I've had psoriasis since the age of five.
I was struggling with my weight as early as the age of 5 yo,
yoing up and down. And it was through the wisdom of
my grandmother saying, hey, cut out the cookies and the
(00:22):
biscuits. And so I did and all I'm doing
is eating some meat, meat and vegetables.
But my weight was stable and I was not hungry.
I started recommending to my clients, hey, why don't you just
try cutting these few things outand eat more like this and see
what happens. And I saw the changes that were
happening then, but I was doing it kind of secret.
You know, I'm glad about it because if you go out and you
(00:44):
say publicly that you're recommending A ketogenic, low
carb carnivore diet, you start looking like the provider who's
a wacko and doesn't know anything and is opening
themselves up for scrutiny and. We are live, Amanda.
How are you doing this fine day I'm.
Doing great. Good, good.
I'm glad to hear you and I met. I guess the first time we met in
person was at meat stock, right?No, it was metabolic Health
(01:07):
Summit. OK.
That would have been did I go tothe one this past year?
You did well. It may have been a year ago.
I don't. Know yeah, there's a there's a
bunch of things. Together, but we were hanging
out at the keto chow table for afor a little bit.
That's right. That's right.
And you and I are both at meat stock.
This, I don't know, a month or two ago.
And then I'm gonna be speaking at your conference in September,
(01:28):
Low carb for better health, which I'm stoked about.
How many years have you been doing that?
This is your #4. You're #4 this will be my first
time going so I'm excited. I hope you enjoy it.
It's a, it's a beautiful event. You know, it's one where we
connect with each other. It is a lot about the
socialization with the speakers and with other attendees.
But the setting is beautiful. It's in a State Park, so we're
(01:49):
incorporating exercise more likea guided hike.
And then you are graciously going to help people learn
somebody weight exercises to stay strong, that kind of thing.
But you'll be in the park surrounded by the trees and
nature and that kind of thing doing the exercise.
So it's just, it's a resort likefeel.
Yeah, it's, it's a, it's going to be good.
I mean, anytime you're outside, especially in Tennessee, it's
going to be good. And in September I think will be
(02:10):
cooling down a little bit, so. Becoming office too much.
Still maybe a little humid. I mean, just like where you're
at, it's just humid. Yeah, because you live in
Tennessee, right? I do, yeah.
Yeah, Tennessee's nice. I I enjoy Tennessee immensely.
Yeah, the conference is actuallyin my hometown.
It's the only Conference Center in Dixon, which is about an hour
(02:31):
West of Nashville. So yeah.
When when it comes to the conferences, I was talking about
conferences on a prior podcast yesterday actually, and there's
a million different conferences.Everybody's got kind of like
their own take their own vibe. You've got like the really big,
you know, hack your health conferences.
You got the smaller, more intimate, like meet up kind of
styles. How would you describe your
(02:52):
conference? I think it's a blend of both.
It is designed not for healthcare providers, even
though there's plenty of healthcare providers that comes
with the everyday person who is wanting knowledge on how to make
their health better using nutritional approaches.
It's so there will be some sciency in there because we want
(03:14):
to explain the science so that people understand why the
changes that we're recommending are important and that they are
science backed. And not just because one day we
woke up and decided, hey, eatingmeats a good idea that it really
is science backed, but it is more about the connection making
that personal connection too. So it's a good blend of science
and connecting with other people.
(03:35):
Like in meat stock. I see it as, you know, that
personal connection. You know, when people are eating
together, they're sharing meals,which is definitely something we
do at Low carb for better health.
We have AVIP dinner that is justto sit back and socialize with
each other and with the speakers.
And then there's a meal served on Saturday at lunchtime.
And we did an extended lunch hour so that you can have time
to mingle with other people and hear their stories because we, I
(03:59):
mean, I've learned so much just from other people's health
stories, even as a healthcare provider.
I mean, I've been doing this for20 years.
But when I hear their stories and how they made certain tweaks
and it healed things in their body, then I can go research it
and find. So I think that's one of the
cool things about it. It's just the connection.
Yes, you get the science, yes, you get the speakers that are
big names in the community, but it's the connecting with other
(04:22):
people and learning from their stories that's important too.
Yeah. And I feel like, I mean, the
science is great, but I mean, people, if they want, they can
find the science anywhere. Like it's all these speakers,
they've got their own podcasts and YouTube channels, and they
can look at the research paper. But like, the conference scene
is where you can actually interact with other people going
through it and living it. And I think that is super
valuable. Yeah, actually sometimes hearing
(04:44):
all of that science in 15,000,000, different podcasts
and YouTube things that it's confusing for individuals.
You know, everybody has their own little take on things, and
so how do you take all of these bits of information and put them
into a usable format for the individual?
That's where the conference can help too, because then you're
around people who have taken that same information and
(05:05):
applied it to their lives, and you can hear their outcomes from
it. I totally agree.
Give me some back story on you personally.
So you've been in healthcare for20 years.
Yeah, like traditional, you know, Western medicine,
healthcare, like like give me, give me the, give me the
details. So I am a nurse practitioner and
I've been a nurse practitioner for 2021 years kind of in the
(05:26):
middle there. And when I first came out in
practice, I'm AGP. So general practice type things,
the first ten years was very conventional.
It was, you know, you have diabetes, here's your medicine,
I'll see you in three months. You have high blood pressure,
here's your medicine, we'll see you in three months.
And I got to the .10 years into my career that I was burned out
and ready to leave because all of us going to healthcare
(05:48):
because we want to help people. You know, we want to see people
get better. We don't go into healthcare to
be glorified drug dealers, but that's kind of what we've become
in the traditional medicine. So about 10 years in, I was
ready to leave practice because I was burnout.
The only people that got better,I say all the time were those
that had sinus infections and urinary tract infections because
(06:10):
I could cure those things. And I looked at my own health
journey because I have, I've hadpsoriasis since the age of five.
I was struggling with my weight as early as the age of 5 yo
yoing up and down and it was through the wisdom of my
grandmother saying hey cut out the cookies and the biscuits.
(06:34):
She wasn't the one cooking the cookies and biscuits, she was
the one telling you not to eat them.
Huh. Well.
She was cooking them, too, but she also spread the wisdom of
saying, hey, if you quit eating those, you're going to get
healthier. And so I did.
And I was just eating that way and I kept tweaking, not even
knowing anything about low carb.I was oblivious to low carb at
that point. And I had a friend of mine that
(06:55):
was a nurse practitioner and shesaid, hey, maybe you know,
you're eating low carb. I'm like, no, I'm not.
That's bad for you. That's going to kill you.
You can't eat that way. She's like, you really are.
You should look at what you're eating and count of your macros
and look what's happening. And I did.
And I was like, well, Dad got it, I'm eating low carb and all
I'm doing is eating some meat, meat and vegetables.
But my weight was stable and I was not hungry.
(07:15):
I was not having to bite my nails off waiting for the next
meal kind of thing that I had done with Yo Yoing so many times
before. And my psoriasis had improved.
I didn't put all of the psoriasis stuff together until
later down the road. But I started recommending to my
clients, hey, why don't you justtry cutting these few things out
and eat more like this and see what happens.
(07:37):
And I saw the changes that were happening then and the fact that
I was having to take them off ofmedicines instead of put them on
more medicines. But I was doing it kind of
secret, you know about it. Because if you go out and you
say publicly that you're recommending A ketogenic, low
carb carnivore diet, you start looking like the provider who's
a wacko and doesn't know anything and it's opening
(07:58):
themselves up for scrutiny. But I did it kind of quiet at
1st and then it eased into a brain explosion for me because I
went from only having my FNP credentials to adding a whole
bunch of letters behind my name because I wanted to feel good
about what I was recommending toto clients.
So I am certified through the Obesity Medicine Society or
(08:21):
association. I am a certified ketogenic
nutrition specialist through theAmerican Nutrition Association,
the SMHP, I'm a metabolic healthpractitioner.
And then I recently graduated from the Nutrition Network
Practitioner program. So I've got like 50 different
credentials behind my name, but I dove into weight management
and I did it publicly and I put a name out there and it started
(08:42):
putting things out there, you know, social media and the
practice just blew up. It was going great.
I was seeing great results, but I was also getting burnt out
because in the traditional medical model, if you think
about how much time you actuallyget with your provider is going
to be around 10 minutes at best.And that's a good office visit.
(09:04):
And as a provider, you're tryingto roll through 2530 patients a
day and do all the back paperwork and make it home at
the end of end of the day and see your kids because I have two
wonderful kids. So I had to leave that setting
because it was burning me out. Again, just trying to pump that
out every day and I truly felt like each client needed 30
(09:27):
minutes to an hour of my time, but I can only give him 10-10
minutes and it just almost felt fraudulent to me.
Like I know what you need. I know how much time I need to
spend with you, but I just don'thave it.
So I left traditional practice and now I own my own business
called Clear Path Medical. It's a direct primary care
clinic and each of my clients doget 30 minutes to an hour of my
(09:48):
time. And they can send me messages in
Saturday and Sunday if they haverandom questions and I can hop
on and answer questions. And I get to go home at night
and see my babies, which is awesome.
And I also live on a farm and I get to play on the farm when I
am done at the end of the day, instead of having to go home and
just knock out another chart after another chart after
(10:08):
another chart. And my clients are giving me
such amazing feedback just because of the connection that
they're getting with their healthcare team.
That's unlike anything they've experienced before.
I love it, I love it. How did my healthcare attorney?
You've got an interesting perspective because you've kind
of you've done both worlds. And any time I bring somebody on
that's, you know, in the traditional, conventional
(10:29):
Western medicine trajectory, it's like like everybody gets
into that space because they want to help people, but then
their hands kind of become tied.How is that structured?
You know, from behind the curtain, like you basically go
to you go to medical school, youhave all this debt piling up,
whether you're a nurse or a doctor, whatever the case may
be. And then you go into practice
and like, how does that, how is it structured to basically
(10:52):
require you to only have those 10 minute sessions?
Because I know insurance comes into play, the billable time
comes into play. How is all that look to the
layperson? Well, it comes down to it works
just like any other business, you know, cash in, cash out and
in the insurance based model, when I see a client, you know,
(11:15):
yes, I'm there is the the billable by minutes, but
actually most of us bill on complexity because we don't have
the minutes that were were able to.
You know, if you get 1520 minutes, that should be a level
2 or level 4 visit. But if the client has a higher
complexity, you spend 10 minuteswith them, then you can still
build that higher amount and getmore in.
But your overhead is the biggestthing.
(11:37):
So it is the billing to your insurance company, paying the
staff to be able to do that, thehaggling back and forth, the
collections people, the credentialing people.
I mean, it's just the the amountoverhead.
So when I left conventional medicine and went to direct pay,
my overhead went down to 1/3 of what it was in my previous
(11:57):
practice. Wow.
And the complexity is linked with the prescriptions, right?
Like generally, if you're able to prescribe something the
complexity. Yes, you can do complexity, just
say if someone has diabetes but it is diet controlled, just the
diagnosis of diabetes can increase your complexity or you
can do it off of prescriptions. So if you have these diagnosis
(12:18):
plus the prescriptions, it can get you into that level of
complexity there. So most doctors, healthcare
providers, they're kind of from a billing standpoint, they're
incentivized to prescribe something or increase the
complexity, not so much increasetime.
Because if you can have more people with fewer time and
(12:40):
increase complexity prescriptions, then you have
more billable income that then gets passed off the insurance
company. So the practice gets more money.
Absolutely. And then the next level of that
is you're graded by insurance companies, by how you prescribe
and what tests that you order. So for example, if you've
diagnosed someone with diabetes,you're required or not required,
(13:04):
you are highly encouraged to give them an ACE inhibitor,
which is a blood pressure medication that's there to
protect their kidneys. They're to have a statin
medication. They're to have a microalbumin
test, which is a test for kidneys done every three months,
the A1C every three months, and a cholesterol every three months
with an LDL under a certain level.
So those are goals. And then say, for example, the
(13:26):
Blue Cross Blue Shield looks at my prescriptions and my
diagnosis on their clients and they assign me star levels based
off of that. And at the end of the year, if
my star levels are at a certain height then I can get a bonus or
I can even receive higher reimbursements per visit the
next year with my clients. If I my store level goes down
(13:49):
then my reimbursement can potentially go down too.
Wow. So you're really kind of damned
if you do, damned if you don't, basically.
Yeah. Why do more people not go the
route of solo practice or havingtheir own operation?
I mean, I'm assuming it's kind of like akin to, you know,
working in a career at a corporation versus becoming an
(14:11):
entrepreneur. Like you just have so much more
uncertainty. Is that the main limiting factor
there? I think there's a lot of fear
and you know, it's something I thought about doing for years.
And finally, Doctor Doctor Berryis who I work with as my
supervising position in Tennessee.
We were having lunch. He Anisha and he's like, will
you quit being chicken shit and just do this already?
(14:32):
Sounds like something would say.Thanks.
He's like, quit being scared it's going to work because
they're you're, you're kind of inbred into thinking that
everybody has to use their insurance at all times or
they're not going to seek out your care.
But the reality is this, there'sa lot of people who are just
getting sick and tired of getting that traditional
insurance based care and not getting answers.
(14:53):
So they're not getting the health they want.
So what does it matter if they're paying with their
insurance or not because they'renot getting what they need.
They want to go outside of that model and they can still use
insurance in my model, which is great.
What I do is I give them the information to submit it to
their insurance and file for outof network.
No, they may not get as much of their money back as if I was an
in network provider, but it still can offset that cost a
(15:14):
little bit. That's there.
But yeah. Insurance is crazy.
I mean, like for us, like we were using, I don't know, I
think we've used Blue Cross, I think we've used Ambetter, like
nothing like crystal. And I never get sick, like
literally never get sick. And I'm doing all kinds of, you
know, proactive testing, blood work.
Like I'm, I'm wanting to get allthis stuff done because I'm
always doing some type of experiment and like going
(15:37):
through a primary care, having them trying to get these labs
drawn using insurance like it was never covered.
And I would like go to an, I would schedule an appointment,
be there for an hour and a half and then wait two weeks to get
my results back. And I still wind up paying a
bunch of money. Now I just get them all direct
whatever I want to test for. I go into a like a diagnostic
(15:58):
center. I'm there for 10 minutes and I
get the results back in 24 to 48hours.
And it's like, I feel like people that actually care about
their health are totally fine doing whatever needs to be done
to reach that health outcome. And if that means testing, if
that means getting, you know, seeking care, But like, I don't
like insurance companies being the bottleneck.
(16:19):
That's just not a good model. Yeah, it's not.
And you know, they can even dictate what test the provider
orders. For example, like vitamin D, you
have to have a diagnosis of deficiency before you can test
with it. Like, how the crap does that
make sense? How do I know if it's deficient
if I haven't tested it? So the patient often ends up
(16:39):
paying for it out of pocket the first time to get it covered the
next time. Or I can lie and say, yeah, they
got vitamin D deficiency to to draw it.
B12. I can only draw that like once a
year. And sometimes specifically Blue
Cross Blue Shield won't check AB12 level unless you have a
diagnosis of pernicious anemia. Well, how do you know if you
have pernicious anemia? Unless you're drawing the blood
to to check it just, it doesn't make sense.
(17:02):
When people go to a primary care, are they honestly getting
that much like individualized care and expertise from that
doctor or physician, or is it more so like they're just run
through the model that the insurance company kind of paves
for the provider? I'm going to say it depends.
I, I do think that all providersstill have the heart to help
(17:25):
people. And so they're going to do their
best to order test and to make recommendations based off of
what they, the best knowledge that they have.
But for example, someone's coming for an annual physical,
you're just going to get the model that the insurance is
going to pay for it. We're going to order the basic
lab panel that we know is going to get covered.
(17:45):
We're going to do the basic tests that we know is going to
get covered. We're going to recommend the
tests, they're going to be covered.
And if anything is outside of that, it's probably because it's
prompted by the individual asking for more testing.
And those typically aren't covered anything that the
individual's asking for in addition to correct.
Gotcha, gotcha. What has it been like for you
since switching over and doing your own thing?
(18:07):
I mean, I know you started, you said January.
January, yeah. 1/3 of the overhead but what else?
Like what's the what's the pros and cons?
Pros and cons? Well, I really like being able
to be the master of my own domain and schedule.
I've kind of been a boss lady from even before I was an
official boss lady, so there's that aspect.
But the biggest thing for me is just the freedom to spend time
(18:28):
with each individual client and to dive into their needs and
recommend things based off of what I feel like it's right for
them and not just what is covered for them.
So the free one has been the biggest thing.
From a a sheer revenue standpoint, like is there a
significant hit to you personally in doing your own
(18:50):
thing or if you have the demand from the clientele that are
willing to pay, like is that a pretty easy transition?
It was, it's been a pretty easy transition, but anytime you
start a new business and you're a businessman, when you started
your business, that first coupleof months you got to build
revenue up and make sure that you have, you know, so I didn't
get paid the first couple of months.
I made sure my staff was paid. I built up extra to make sure
(19:11):
that all bills would be paid if there was a, a bad month.
I did have a lot of my clients follow me over which helped that
stick to no more than about 2 1/2 months I think was the when
I took my first paycheck out of this business.
So having that build up and not having to start without a single
client and brand new out there, that was very helpful.
(19:33):
At this point it's pretty stable.
So I'm six months, seven months in and I've got my stable,
steady revenue and we're lookingnow at how many clients do we
take to continue to have the connection with our clients and
our personal lifestyles that we want, you know, before we start,
is it time to cap out or do we keep growing?
Where are we at? I'm assuming from a client's
(19:54):
standpoint, like it's only positive.
I mean, they get more time, theyget more expertise, they get
more freedom and you're able to diagnose and prescribe and.
Offer assistance catering to them as individuals better, yeah
and. It kind of goes back into what I
was saying with the conference too.
You know, when clients come to me, they've said I've listened
to these 15 different people andI'm on 20 million supplements
and I'm trying this fasting routine and that and I just feel
(20:16):
lost. So they're actually getting
someone who can help them sort through individually with them,
say, well, you're trying this and this isn't working, let's
try something different or let'sdrop all these supplements
because let's just eat better and not take 15 supplements.
You might as well be on 15 meds at that point too.
Totally what? What's the primary demographic
of clients that are coming to see you you?
(20:39):
Mean like income or like just? Ailments or like where are they
at in life? Like what are they typically
coming to you with his shoes on?Yeah, so.
I would say the most of my clientele are between the ages
of 40 and 65 right now. Most of them are coming to me
because they are low carb and have been low carb and want a
(21:01):
provider that's not going to fight them on this way.
They're just they're tired of arguing with their providers and
they want to know that what they're doing is safe.
I would say that I am in Tennessee, so the majority of my
clients are white. That's my demographic.
In my town, we have African American, we have Mexican, and
(21:22):
they have a small population there, but most of them are are
white middle class people. But they're coming because they
just want clarity on what they're doing, male and female.
Pretty even split, yeah. Male and female, pretty even
split. When it, when it comes to
nutrition, why is it that most general care physicians going
through the Western medicine route, like they just default to
(21:44):
the mixed diet? Like they do they get in trouble
for prescribing low carb? Like, is that like a legitimate,
you know, red flag to insurance providers?
Because I've got like a employeethat's got diabetes and type 1
and he just went to get his annual check up and they're
like, yeah, you got to eat more carbs.
You got to have more of a mixed diet.
And it's like you don't know anything about nutrition.
(22:06):
What what are you doing? So is it?
Are they just like default checklist answers?
I think it stems back to fear again when the low fat diet was
put out in America as being the gold standard diet and being the
heart healthy plan. Doctors just got honed in on
(22:26):
that's the answer and didn't go and look for the evidence
themselves one way or the other.Whether I think a lot of it's
the time, you know, when they'retrying to cram as much in their
day as they are to make the business of it work.
I research more now than I did in my traditional practice
because I have more time to actually go and research and
read the literature myself. So they just got in that zone.
(22:48):
And when big organizations like the American Diabetes
Association, American Heart Association, say low fat is the
way to go, that's what the doctors are going to put out.
Because they probably goes back to fear a little bit too,
because say you recommend a low carb diet and then that
individual ends up having a heart attack.
(23:10):
It's not going to look well for you in court because you're not
following that recommendation that's set out by the major
medical organizations like the ADA and American Heart
Association that's there. So I think it's a fear.
A fear are those? Organizations good at looking at
and deciphering the new science,the new literature like or is
that kind of like an F to thought for them?
(23:31):
I think they're just bias, yeah.You know they're.
Biased and it's really hard to to put your name and your stamp
on something for 20-30 years andthen to come back and say, hey,
I was wrong. It's just really hard to admit
that. And so when we've seen
concessions happen, like when the ADA came out and said that
low carb is should be an option,like one of the options, at
(23:53):
least they kind of did it under the table.
You know, they didn't announce it wasn't a big, it didn't make
a big social media splash. It was just kind of on the side,
You know, we still recommend this, that Oh yeah, you can try
this, too. Interesting.
Trying to say interesting what? What research does get you
excited? Like, what are you diving into
now? From a science standpoint, that
is looking promising. That is just adding another
(24:15):
feather in the hat to keto low carb as a, you know, premier
option for people. Yeah.
So the research with inflammation and helping with
like gut issues, autoimmune stuff, that is things that I'm
interested in right now. I am trying to read up a lot on
peptides. Peptides are kind of the the big
(24:37):
hot topic. Right now, Hot topic.
Right now in this, you know, it's a provider for 20 years,
you know, weight management. I was very familiar with GLP one
peptides, but there's this wholeother world out there that I
didn't really even know about because we're not taught it in
conventional medicine. But it's very intriguing and
I've got clients asking about it.
So I'm doing a couple of continuing medical education
things on that, reading some books, that kind of thing.
(24:58):
So that's where my interest is currently.
How do you do your? Research like what is?
What is your workflow for like? OK, I've got a problem.
I've had a client asking about this.
Where do you turn to 1st? Like how do you structure that?
I guess it has depend on the following.
I do different things. There is a place open evidence
(25:19):
that's kind of like AI for healthcare providers where you
can go and it pulls a lot in. I have done my own searches and
like pub Med just looking for, you know, keywords if what I'm
going through and trying to pullstudies and then look through
and decipher of those type things.
I will also go to providers thatI have trusted and read the
(25:39):
reports and listen to them. So if I trust them, I'm going to
go and say, hey, what have they written on it they compiled
together. I love to go listen to Nick
Norwood stuff that he's putting out because he can take a lot of
information and convince it in alittle bit of video.
And then he links the studies and I can go out and look at
those two. So a lot of it is connecting
with other providers that I trust and then vetting their
(26:00):
information that they put out. Yeah, love it.
You think there's more providersthat are kind of catering
towards that low carb lifestyle?It seems like that's growing in
prevalence. For sure it is.
It is. And I think it's just because,
you know, like I talked about megetting burnt out is we're tired
of not seeing our patients get better.
And you know, you can only look at a broken system and see that
(26:21):
it's not working for so long before you either just become a
robot and keep doing it, or you break and do something
different. Do you think the system is going
to change on their own accord, or do you think there's going to
make some type of implosion that's going to force a change,
or do you think it's just going to keep doing what it's?
Doing, I don't really know. It takes a long time to change a
(26:43):
healthcare system. I mean, I may be dead and gone
before we actually see a lot of good quality, meaningful changes
happening. I think there's a lot of
exciting things going on. I think the world is starting to
wake up and realize that what we're doing doesn't work.
There's a lot of mistrust in themedical community right now post
COVID, just of, hey, I need to do my own research because
(27:07):
cannot trust these people. Like it's the lies that have
come out, you know, during that time.
I think it's still mostly grassroots thing.
It's coming from patients and individual people demanding
changes. And when enough people demand
changes, it starts to move up. You know, the food companies
start to recognize, like with the dyes that we're now pulling
(27:27):
out of products. How long have we been kind of
hearing that dyes are bad for us?
And just now we're seeing that come across.
So. But I still think it happened to
the grass, grass root. There's a whole bunch of people.
And then finally the when their money talks because they're not
buying products or they're goingin different places, then the
uppers make a change. Yeah.
(27:49):
I mean, it's, it's, it's capitalism for sure, which I'm,
I'm a capitalist through and through, but it's like, it's
unfortunate that money should have such a dictating effect on
people's health. And I feel like as more people
recognize the truth and just feel confident to self
experiment themselves and try things and figure it out, you
know that that tide will shift. That's like there's certainly
(28:10):
has to be a decrease in money going through the conventional
methods with all these soul practices opening up with more
information out there. But I don't know.
I mean, I look at society and you and I are both in the South
and Arkansas is pretty unhealthystate.
There are pockets of Tennessee that are healthy, but many are
not. And it's I feel like the it's
(28:31):
kind of like a classic. The rich get rich, the poor get
poor. It's like the healthy people get
healthier because there's more information than ever and
options than ever. But like the unhealthier people
just keep going downward. You know, it's it's sad.
It is it. Is and some of that has to do
with the food system that you know, we have.
We have services to help people buy food, but the food that we
(28:52):
help them buy is not necessarilyfood that is healthy.
So why can not in every county, I don't understand why they
can't use the same SNAP, WIC, whatever benefits they're using
at local farmers market to buy fresh produce.
You know, that seems like an easy thing.
You're supporting your local economy and you're giving fresh
good Whole Foods. Why?
(29:13):
Why can't everybody use those benefits there as opposed to
having to go to Krueger where, you know, I'm staring down a bag
of potato chips that's probably going to make it in my cart and
it's paid for. Yeah, just.
Just as the the healthcare system, insurance provider, that
system is jacked up, the food system is also knocked up.
I mean, like I've had Will Harrison, I've had several
(29:33):
people on talking about regenerative agriculture and
like the commodity beef system, which is a very broken system in
and of itself. And like chicken, for instance,
chicken is so artificially deflated price wise because of
like Tyson, like people think something's wrong if they have
to pay more than 5 bucks for a whole chicken.
But like a a well raised chicken, you can't raise a well
(29:55):
meaning chicken for that little.So like it's a totally broken
system. I just buy chickens from a local
guy here that does it totally regeneratively.
And they were expensive chickens.
And I'm like, man, these are twice of what I'm paying at
Whole Foods. But then he's like breaking down
his cost. And I'm like, well, that's what
I want because I want the quality.
And I don't think that should bethe case.
(30:15):
Like, I think, you know, people like we, we, we just got to be
honest and transparent with things.
And like, there can't be all these subsidies that create this
massive disconnect because, like, obviously nobody wants to
support what Tyson's doing, but you got to be able to afford
quality meat at the same time aswell.
So like figuring out that is a whole nother battle, Yeah.
(30:36):
Absolutely. You said you've got a little
homestead operation yourself though.
Well. So I live on a family farm.
It's been in my family for almost a century at this point.
We're just a couple years away from Angus Century farm.
My parents are the current farmers.
They raise Black Angus cattle. Where are the farmers when they
go out of town or when they needneed help?
(30:56):
But all of my two siblings and Iwill have careers in different
ways that are not farming, but we're still there and ready to
help it. My dad raises most of the Black
Angus cattle and it's great because I get cow.
That's awesome. Every year.
I have a cow or actually we're up to 2 cows now because I have
a 16 year old and a 10 year old.They're both heavy meat eaters.
(31:17):
And then my husband and I are mostly carnivore.
I eat more veggies than he does,but.
So we're going through 2 cows a year, but I can see my cow, I
know where it was raised, I knowwhat happened to it and I can go
meet my butcher that preps my cow and he takes all of my organ
meats and grinds it into my ground beef so I can micro dose
that. So I feel really good about my
beef and where it comes from andI love supporting local farmers.
(31:41):
I still pay for my cow even though it comes from my family
farm. I pay my dad because he put
money in to raise that cow. You know, there was the way to
fertilize the crops, there's themachinery that was needed there,
you know, fuel. All of that stuff adds up during
the year. So I still pay for my cow, but I
love supporting local farmers and I get to name my cow.
(32:01):
So last year at the conference, I showed a picture of my cow for
the year. His name was Joe Joe and I had a
great conversation before he went to the to the slaughter
place. But he had a great life.
I showed his wonderful field that he lived in for all of his
life up until the one day that was very bad for Joe.
And but I told you I was like, man, I appreciate you.
You were going to feed my family.
(32:22):
You are nice and plump and you're going to be juicy and
you're going to taste amazing. But I greatly appreciate you.
So I'm going to name the one this year.
I haven't named it yet though. Now that that's so good, I mean,
like I, I, I'm in the same boat.Like I get all my beef locally.
I know my farmer, I know how they're raised, what they're
eating. And same with my chicken, my
pork, my lamb. It's like that's the best way to
do it like a hunt a lot as well.Like everything that I eat, I've
(32:45):
either raised or harvested or know who raised and I feel like
that is the way to go. I mean, sometimes it's, it's
more expensive, but often times it's not like the kind of that
we got, you know, like it's likewhen you buy a whole cow, it
winds up being cheaper than whatyou would get and all the
segmented cuts at a, you know, nicer grocery store.
So like it's an investment because it's a lump front, you
(33:06):
know, upfront cost, but it's cheaper and it's way healthier.
And you're not supporting the commodity beef system.
Plus you're you're supporting local, you're supporting the
people that are in your own community.
And that's, that's where it's atright there.
Yeah. Do you process?
Your own game when you hunt. Yeah, so I do all the processing
myself. So I'll go deer hunting or elk
hunting. I got an elk on my wall right
now and I did all that, stayed up all night long processing
(33:30):
that bad boy. But he's delicious.
And yeah, I mean, you, you respect the animal all the more.
And like when I hunt, you know, I take that life.
But I don't do it in a disrespectful manner.
And when I'm eating that food, like I am very careful not to
waste any of it. Like every morsel gets consumed
because I worked so hard to bring it here.
And you know, when respected animal and what he sacrificed to
(33:52):
feed me and my family. And I feel like if we all had
that connect connection with ourfood, we wouldn't take it for
granted because, like, food waste is another thing that
really just rubs me raw. Like, I hate throwing food away,
especially quality food. Like if it's bags of Lay's
potato chips, like, that's not even food in my book.
So we can throw that away. Yeah, totally.
Yeah. Y'all have chickens or anything
(34:13):
too? Or just the the beef that you
raised. Yeah.
So just. The beef my husband does hunt
and takes a couple deer a year to kind of subsidize the beef.
My mother-in-law has chickens soshe supplies those.
As soon as she's done having chickens, then yes, I will have
chickens because we eat a lot ofeggs and I like knowing where
they come from as well. But I'm 100% same place you are
(34:33):
as don't don't waste the food. So even when we get our cow, I
get the bones and all the extra fat.
We'll cook it down and make our tallow to use for cooking during
the year. And I'll make bone broth from
the bones and some that are justfor my dogs to get them extra
nutrition as well. But you know, use every bit as
you can. The organ meats, I have not
gotten to the tongue yet. I've tried several times to cook
(34:54):
the tongue. I do give it to my dogs.
I just can't. I can't.
Can't do it, but when my husbandstarted processing his own
venison it, you're right, it changes how you think about the
animal and it changes how much you appreciate the food when
you're eating it and using as much as we can use scraping as
much as we can off for the grindthat we do so.
(35:16):
The tongue's easy, though. I get this, boil it, peel that
skin off and then you just shredit and it's like it's like
shredded like BBQ pork almost. It's pretty good.
I'll save. Mine for you if you want but.
Hey, the dogs is good too. Like our dog.
Our dog is straight up pure carnivore.
Him, he's like a year and a halfold and we feed him 6 lbs of raw
meat a day and that's all he eats, you know?
(35:38):
So he's healthy, nutritious and certainly not living off a
kipple. Yeah.
Yeah, well, I, I don't feed my fresh meat as much as you are.
I do a high quality dog food that's more protein.
But we were using a different dog food that we thought was
high protein and a good quality.And I noticed that my lab was
getting more feeble earlier thanI thought he should be.
(36:01):
He was just, you know, labs, they're active, they want to
run, they want to go, they're friendly, they're got full of
energy. And it's like he's just, he's
lazy, but it's more than lazy. So we changed up his food.
We researched like, you know, this doesn't look, so we didn't
research. I stopped and paused and looked
at his food. And it's like, this doesn't look
the same that it used to. Like, it's got more just gunk in
(36:23):
the bag. And so we changed his food, and
within two weeks, he was up and running, bounding around, had
all kinds of energy. His coat looked better.
And it's like, OK, bad. Yeah.
Dog food. Dog food.
Company is weird like the the packaging on dog food like
marketing itself is interesting like marketing dog food like
they really hype it up but you actually they make it very
(36:45):
difficult to see what's actuallyin the dog food so you actually
have to like do some research onit but then it's it's often
times not nearly as good as they're promoting it to be No,
not. At all, but they get lots of
bones and tongue and there you go like that to supplement them
there. You go, you said you had a a 16
year old and what was it? 12101010 Both boys No.
(37:08):
My 16 year old's a boy and my 10year old's a girl.
How do you? Treat their nutrition knowing
what you know, but not want to be this like like overly, you
know, micromanaging mother like how do you how do you juggle
that? Oh well.
That's very interesting story and I do the best I can.
I can say that my 16 year old, they're two different kind of
(37:29):
people nutritionally. So my 16 year old now eats a lot
of junk food that I don't approve of.
You know, I can't control what the choices he makes at friend's
house and at school. I I've given him the knowledge,
I've given him the backbones. I've talked to him as much as I
can talk to him. But you've been a 16 year old
boy. You think you know everything at
(37:52):
some point and your parents don't know everything.
And one day you wake up and you realize your parents really did
know a lot of things. So I, I can't control what he
eats outside of my home. I can control what's in my home.
And so when he's eating in my home, he is eating the same
things that my husband and I eat.
We do have some cleaner package things because kids like to eat
(38:14):
things out of packages. So we've got some gummies that
are made of 100% fruit puree anddon't have dyes and don't have
added sugar. It's just basically fruit puree
and gelatin, things like that that they can have.
They still eat more carbs than my husband and I do.
So like I will make them sweet potatoes and white potatoes and
things like that, but I make them at home kind of thing.
(38:37):
My daughter is different. So she, I was still going
through kind of my awakening, soto say, in healthcare and
nutrition when around the time and I was pregnant with her and
then she was born. And so she still got a lot of
the puffs and the things that I wish I had never given her.
(38:58):
And it was about when she was 4,I had was home for something.
I don't remember why I was home for three or four days when I
normally would not have been home that long with her.
And I noticed she was going to the bathroom like, I don't know,
it's half day and she'd already been like 6 times.
I was like, baby, you feel OK orare you sick?
She just no, I'm fine mom. It's like, are you just, are you
(39:21):
just peeing a lot? Just no, I had to potty like
why? Why is my kid going to the
bathroom? And then I started thinking,
it's like she's always saying mom in my belly kind of hurts.
Crud. And then I started thinking back
through. I was like, OK, she really does
go to the bathroom a lot. And I always thought that her
(39:41):
saying her belly hurt was just akid complaining.
Then you feel like a bad mom because like my kids really been
suffering for a couple years andI didn't even realize it.
So at that point we removed all the wheat grain products
whatsoever from her diet, so no more healthy still cut oatmeal
type things even though it was the organic and clean type
(40:02):
products. We cut out anything that she ate
elsewhere and literally within aweek she was normal bathroom
habits and hadn't complained about stomach pain.
Wow, that's awesome. Now she's. 10, she reads labels
like a hawk. She is her own self advocate.
She goes to school and she's like, y'all shouldn't be eating
that. I sure ain't eating that.
(40:23):
That's going to make my belly hurt.
It's making you guys sick. You don't know it yet, but it's
making you sick. She did a 4H project as a sugar
detective trying to tell people how to read labels to identify
how much sugar is in the food that they were eating.
She's already said she's going to take over my practice one
day, like in January, my first day when I was coming to
practice, she said, all right, don't mess it up, mom, because
(40:44):
it's going to be mine. So she's she's all on board, All
on board. But yeah, she's very clean and
she loves meat. She's her favorite food is roast
that her daddy makes. And she also likes baby back
ribs. Those are her favorite things to
eat. And she'll do some veggies,
clean veggies like, you know, squash, zucchini, stuff like
that. But yeah, she stays away from
(41:05):
mostly packaged, packs her lunchevery day in.
Honestly, I think it's just because she knows what happens
to her body. She's seen it just like us
adults, you know, we have to seeit for ourselves.
We have to see what it's doing to ourselves before we're swear
off from it. Yeah, I feel like it's.
Almost like a blessing in disguise when you've got some
kind of underlying ailments thatis triggered when you're eating
(41:27):
junk food. Because then it's like a pretty
motivating factor not to eat that food.
But if you don't have anything specific and you're not as in
tune with your body, like you'renot aware of that chronic, you
know, compounding impact. And like with kids, like I don't
know what I'm going to do with Rigel.
I mean, he's 3 and like he eats the same stuff we eat.
(41:48):
So like super clean. I mean, he like Crystal was keto
all throughout her pregnancy, all throughout breastfeeding.
I mean, his first meal was like this massive beef knuckle bone
that he was not on at six monthsold.
So like, he's straight up legit keto, but I don't know what he's
going to be like as he gets older and starts making his own
decisions because I don't want to be overbearing and like force
(42:09):
it on him. But same time I don't want him
to, you know, screw up his health and longevity either.
So I got to figure that out whenit comes, I guess most of it.
Is just control what's in your home?
Yeah, for sure he's going to. Have you know when she goes,
when they go to church and like vacation Bible school?
They had gluten free options forher, but she had some junk food
(42:30):
that we would not have normally had in her own home.
It's one week, she's back out ofit.
So if you're controlling, if my parents had controlled the way
that I'm controlling, you know, in the home, I don't think I
would have had the obesity issuethat I had as a younger kid.
I don't think my psoriasis wouldhave been to the extreme that it
was where it was on 80% of my body had some sort of plaque on
(42:50):
it. I think I still would have had
it. It just wouldn't have been this
extreme. So one you do the best, you
can't can't beat yourself up forit, but just control within your
own home and don't give them. Make sure they have other
options. You know when Willow goes to
different stuff, she has a bag that she takes with her so she
has other options. And as long as she has something
to eat when her friends are eating, she could care less
(43:12):
because she's there to be with her friends and have fun.
Totally, totally. Speaking of psoriasis, a little
bit of a tangent here, but I've got another employee that's
carnivore, pretty much carnivore.
He's had psoriasis his whole life and it's gotten a lot
better since doing carnivore. But he noticed that like whole
eggs, you know, ramped it up. So now he, he has chickens, he's
been raising chickens, but now he doesn't eat the eggs.
(43:34):
So he gives me the eggs, but like he's pretty much just
eating meat. He'll have some dark chocolate
on occasion. But do you have any other idea
what could be, you know, keepingthem from getting that cleared
up? Because do you have any of it
anymore or is it totally bad? I do.
Well, my psoriasis story says from the age of five had my
first plaques and it's really rare.
It was really rare in the early 80s to have kids with psoriasis.
(43:56):
It was usually something that kicked in more in adulthood.
Now it's kind of every age everywhere.
It I'd go through flares where it would be bad flares where it
would calm down. Heat, it makes it worse, gas
heat makes it worse because the,the, I guess the name, chemicals
on the skin, things like that. I was on an immunosuppressant at
(44:18):
one point. So I took a, a shot that
suppressed my immune system and that got me completely clear.
But I, I guess it was COVID whenCOVID hit and I was working in
the COVID trailer, it scared me to be on something to suppress
my immune system while I'm actively seeing COVID patients.
So I came off of it and I went carnivore at that time, stayed
(44:40):
clear for probably a year. And so I went carnivore 3, three
months. And then I slowly added back
started with like avocado and then some cucumber, you know,
low inflammatory type vegetables.
And I found certain things wouldtrigger it like tomatoes and
nightshades will trigger my psoriasis.
And if I have it like a little tomato here, it's not a big
(45:02):
deal. I've had tomatoes back-to-back
days. I'll start to itch at the sites
where I had previous plaque. But stress is my biggest
trigger. It is hands down the biggest
trigger. There was a it was clear for
several years I had a major stress or hit in my life and
just a little patch at the back of my head started coming out.
And scalp is probably one of thehardest places to get to clear
(45:25):
up for psoriasis. What I've found is higher fat
helps. So definitely sticking to a
higher fat amount. Things like red light therapy
has been very helpful at keepingit calm down as well.
Salt therapy. So like a Halo unit eating salt
on the skin can be very helpful as well at keeping it inflamed.
(45:45):
But there is a genetic componentto it.
I don't think I'm ever going to be 100% clean of my psoriasis no
matter how clean and clear that I, that I get that I'm able to,
to manage it. So managing stress is a big part
of it. Adding those alternative
therapies has been helpful to How would you even suggest
looking at environmental toxins?Like, you know, what does he
(46:08):
have some sort of heavy metal buildup or even plastic buildup
like BPA or glyphosate from years before when he was not as
healthy? But there are other.
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, he, he's been like
troubleshooting all kinds of different things.
But I'll, I'll bring that. Maybe I'm just stressing him out
too much at work. Maybe that's the the primary
driver to it paid. More, give him more vacation,
(46:31):
all that nice stuff. Yeah, yeah.
There you go. There you go.
But yeah, psoriasis, like anything skin related is, is
tricky because like I used to have crazy bad acne and I feel
like I could have totally absolved that had I known then
about nutrition like I do now. Like did your 16 year old have a
bunch of acne or no? Some, and I can tell when he has
(46:53):
snuck in more sodas and different things at other places
just because he'll have more of an an outbreak there.
But not not bad, not too bad. Yeah, skin's a tough one because
it's like you could have so manythings dialed in perfectly.
And if your skin's still like, we're always our own worst
critic, like nobody probably even noticed your psoriasis.
But like, it's in the back of your mind kind of just driving
(47:13):
you crazy. And it's, I don't know, it's
it's it's one of those things that just you want to just nip,
nip in the bud and get finished with.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Well, Amanda, I am super excitedabout your conference in
September. That's two weeks before my
competition that I'm promoting. So I'm going to be busy
September, but it's going to be awesome.
I can't wait to go back to Tennessee.
(47:33):
You're going to be at. Prime physique at that time,
right I'm. Not competing at this one, so
I'm promoting. I'm not competing but I will be.
Hopefully not too too soft and fluffy.
Yeah, people think that of you if you start getting fluffy.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's kind of weird, like composition because
it's not healthy to stay that lean for too long.
(47:53):
You got to have a legitimate building phase, eat more food,
ramp up metabolic rape. But like when you're in
competition shape, like people just expect that of you at all
times. It's like, I don't want to be
like that at all times. Like, it's not healthy to be
like that at all times. The body is designed to have
some fat on it. For sure, For sure, For sure.
Yeah. Yeah, 100% so I'm super stoked
(48:14):
I'm gonna have to do some thinking as to what I want to do
for a work and in this outdoor in the park body weight thing,
I'm going to be brutal with people that I'm going to make
them make brutal I'll. Go.
I'll go a little, yeah, they'll be able to do it.
They'll be able to do it, but I'm going to get creative with
it for sure. Yeah.
I. Think it'll be a lot of fun, and
if anybody's interested in checking out the conference, the
(48:35):
website's pretty easy. It's the letter L, the letter C,
the #4bh.com. So low carb for
betterhealth.com, but just lc4bh.com.
Perfect. Well.
I'll link out, make it easy for people to find you and what what
is your practice website and link again.
Yeah, it's clear path. Medical.net and you can find me
on all social media while the ones that I participate in at
(48:57):
deck or less carbs. Awesome, are you doing remote
care as well or is it all for inperson?
I am. I'm licensed in now 23 states
across the US. Arkansas being one of them.
No, sorry, get you in Arkansas too.
I would love. To be in Arkansas, but they do
not, I have to have a supervising physician in
(49:17):
Arkansas. And every time you add that adds
another level of cost. So in the 23 that I'm licensed
in outside of Tennessee, I have full practice authority, meaning
that I don't have to have a physician collaborate with me.
Got you, got you, got you. That makes sense.
Well, I'm super excited for thatas well.
It's awesome that you're, you know, having the ball in your
own court now since January, andyou're rock and rolling with it.
(49:38):
I've got no doubt that you'll continue to grow with it.
So keep doing what you doing. Keep changing lives for sure.
Amanda, Awesome. It's great.
Talking with you. Likewise, we'll see you soon.
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