July 6, 2025 • 34 mins
Searching for answers to your health challenges? The solution might be simpler than you think. In this illuminating episode, we examine the profound power of journaling as a transformative tool for anyone seeking meaningful health improvements.
When facing weight issues, sleep problems, chronic conditions, or even cancer, our natural tendency is to look externally for sophisticated solutions. Yet the most powerful catalyst for change often begins with the simple act of documenting our journey. As your host shares from decades of personal and professional experience, our minds frequently distort reality—not necessarily through deliberate deception, but through unconscious filtering and selective memory.
Through compelling stories and practical examples, we explore how maintaining a consistent journal creates the mindfulness necessary to break unconscious patterns. Whether tracking food intake, sleep quality, medication effects, or emotional states, written records reveal connections and patterns invisible to casual observation. This awareness becomes the foundation for sustainable change through the compound effect—small, consistent adjustments that yield remarkable results over time.
Most significantly, your relationship with your journal serves as a reliable indicator of your readiness for transformation. Those who maintain their journals invariably achieve their health goals, while those who abandon the practice typically aren't prepared for the changes they claim to seek. This isn't about judgment but about honestly assessing your commitment to your own wellbeing.
Ready to unlock insights that could transform your health? Grab a notebook, download an app, or find whatever journaling method works for you—and take the first step toward becoming your own best health detective. Your future self will thank you for the clarity and direction this simple practice provides.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joe Grumbine, md, mph .
Well hello and welcome back tothe Healthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, Joe Grumbine,and today we're going to be
talking about some tools, orparticularly a tool to finding
answers.
For those of you who are new tothe show, this is a podcast
(00:22):
that is designed not only toprovide a wealth of information
about healthy living from manydifferent perspectives, but also
an attempt, an effort to builda community with the common
thread of people seeking health,and so far it's been pretty
(00:47):
successful.
The podcast has continued togrow.
We've had a wide range ofguests and if you're interested
in participating as a guest,contact me.
I'm easy to reach.
If you think the show isvaluable, I would ask that maybe
tell somebody about it or sharea link or put a comment or
(01:10):
review or something to let usknow that you think this is an
important show or valuable andreally excited about the
progress.
It's all been organic andgrassroots and the community
that's been building around thisthrough the gardens of hope in
(01:33):
Paris, california, has beenremarkable.
We've been working togetherwith many different health
related activities and events,including sound baths and yoga
and plant medicine, ceremonies,retreats, workshops all kinds of
(01:57):
things been growing.
We've had people travel 12hours to come down and
participate in our events andnot only make the trip but come
(02:18):
back again.
So we're really excited aboutthe progress of this.
We're really excited about theprogress of this.
We'll be talking about moreactivities and events in future
episodes.
Today I want to talk about atool that I think is maybe one
of the most valuable tools youcan use if you're seeking to
(02:41):
find answers within yourself,and this is a tool that I use
kind of as a filter in some waysand then as a very valuable
tool in others.
Excuse me, and it's the idea ofa journal.
(03:04):
So a lot of times people willcome to me and say, oh, I want
you to consult me on this orthat.
Maybe it's losing weight orfinding better sleep habits, or
you know cancer, and I like tokind of get a baseline.
(03:24):
You got got to figure out.
Where are we?
What am I dealing with?
Because people will come andtell you about their problem,
but they'll miss things, maybeintentionally, maybe
unintentionally, but they'llleave a piece out that affects
the outcome dramatically, and sothey might say, well, I don't
(03:49):
sleep very well, and they forgetto tell you that.
You know, the person in theapartment next door plays their
music at four o'clock in themorning or whatever.
There's a million things thatget left out.
And you know we're workingtogether on this strategy and
nothing's working.
Nothing's working and you go,finally you find out this
(04:09):
missing piece and you're like,well, if I had known that ahead
of time we could have gone adifferent direction.
And so when somebody comes to meon a consult, usually what I'll
do is I'll say, okay, well, thefirst thing we're going to do
is let's start journaling.
You know, a lot of times it hasto do with diet.
(04:32):
Diet will have something to dowith it.
I'll say well, you need towrite down everything you're
eating and when you're eating it, and that way we can start to
understand what is food.
How does food fit into theequation?
If it's related to sleep, we'lltalk about everything that we
can that's related to sleep.
If it has to do with whatever,it has to do with cancer
(04:56):
especially.
You know, diet is such animportant part of solving the
problem of cancer that if youdon't pay attention to what
you're eating and sometimes whenyou're eating it, I don't know
how you're gonna come up withanswers.
And then you know things likemedication and all of that, and
(05:19):
most people will not disciplinethemselves, will not discipline
themselves to do that, and so Idon't waste any time anymore.
I used to spend.
I can remember about a year agoI had a lady and she contacted
me.
I didn't know who she was,where she came from.
I think she had used some of myWillow Creek Springs products
(05:43):
and that's how she found me.
And she says I, I know you canhelp me with this, it was.
It was pretty much a weightrelated issue.
And she says I've tried thisand I've tried that.
And we talked oh my God, youknow my, my policy is you get 10
minutes for free and then thenwe either figure out we're going
to work together and establishsome kind of a collaboration or
(06:05):
partnership or you know, you payfor your services and we go
that way.
But no, no, I didn't listen tomy own rules and I sat there
with her for close to an hourhearing her story and all the
details of the ailments she had,and you know, I think she was a
(06:29):
nurse and all the stresses ofthis and that she a lot of times
people just want to vent, theywant to somebody to hear them
and you know that's cool.
But if I don't know you and Idon't have the time necessarily
to just give to you for free, Idon't know why.
You know why I would do that,and I've learned over many, many
(06:56):
, many years and many, many,many people and doing that that
it just never works and maybeyou'll help somebody a little
bit, but it's generally acolossal waste of effort and so.
But no, I didn't listen, and soafter all of this, I said, okay
, well, here's your assignment,you need to go and journal this
(07:20):
and then we'll go forward.
And I didn't hear from her forabout a week and then, finally,
she did send me an email orwhatever.
That said, okay, I got myjournal and she scheduled an
appointment to sit down andstart working on it.
And appointment came and wentand she wasn't there.
(07:44):
She didn't show up and I neverheard from her again.
I thought to myself, wow, okay,even when you said you did the
journal, maybe you did, maybeyou didn't, I don't know, but
still that the integrity and thewherewithal to complete a task
(08:04):
like that is very telling.
And so I would say, if you'relooking to solve any problem,
health-related or otherwisestart to journal and it's going
to give you a lot more than justsome basic facts.
(08:25):
So what happens is, when youstart directing your attention
to a topic, things start toshift and I think when you say I
want something to happen inyour mind, a change begins to
make a quantum change, if youwill, and I don't know how it
(08:48):
works, but I do know thatwherever you direct your
attention, those things start tohappen on some level.
They could happen positively,negatively, but something will
happen as soon as you start tothink about a thing.
So if I say, well, I want tolose some weight, or I got this
(09:09):
cancer that needs to go, ormaybe I just found out I've got
MS or an addiction I finallyneed to kick, or whatever it is,
maybe it's a relationshipproblem and you say, you know, I
think it's time for me to makea change.
Whatever that change is, well, Ithink that what happens is we
(09:34):
have a perception of times, wesugarcoat things or we will
overlook things, or we willsometimes even change things in
our mind as to what happened.
And it happens all the time youtalk to somebody.
(09:55):
Maybe it's somebody you knowand love.
Maybe it's somebody you don'tknow at all, maybe it's somebody
you have some limitedrelationship with.
But if you talk to people aboutthings that happen, you'll
realize that people make shit upall the time and I don't know
(10:16):
if it's intentional, I don'tknow if it's just how they
actually remember things, butI've been present at events or
you know, when somethinghappened and witnessed something
, and then I've gone back andlistened to or later on heard
(10:39):
somebody describe the thing thathappened and I think to myself,
wow, how did you come up withthat?
And then you think, wow, ifyou're going to do that for
maybe something that doesn'thave any real importance of you
know, why would you even botherto make something like that up?
(11:00):
You go, wow, what are peoplewilling and capable and able to
do, whether, again, intentionalor not?
And you think to yourself, wow,how do you find any answers
when there's so much justbullshit out there?
And you know.
Then you get into thedissemination of information and
(11:25):
all of that with purpose andyou go, man, how does anybody
find any answers?
And so, again, this journalbecomes an important tool when
you decide you're going to startbeing honest about things,
(11:47):
things, and I really don't thinkthat most people are dishonest
on purpose.
I think they just don't thinkabout things.
Or you know, your brain sort ofpatches things up for you a lot
of times without you reallypaying any attention to it.
And so let's say, example, youare overweight and you come to
(12:08):
me and say I need to lose 20pounds, can you help me?
And I'll say, yeah, sure, let's.
Let's start looking at theobvious things and then we'll
work our way through it.
So you'd say to yourself, okay,what factors are likely to
contribute to weight?
And you say, obviously, my foodintake.
That would be certainly one ofthem.
I would probably go to sleep,because people that don't sleep,
(12:33):
generally you have a differentway of metabolizing food.
So I would look at that.
I would look at things likemobility, exercise you know what
are you doing that counteractsthe food you're taking in.
I would look at when you eat,the frequency of meals, other
(13:00):
factors like health conditions,blood pressure, diabetes, heart
disease, anything like that.
Medications a lot of medicationsaffect weight gain and loss.
I know for me they had me on asteroid and I gained a ton of
(13:23):
weight as a result, and itwasn't just that, it was a
series of things, but that wasdefinitely a contributing factor
.
So you start off and you say,okay, well, try to make things
doable.
So if you start out with a taskand it is too complicated, it's
(13:46):
just like a New Year'sresolution how likely are you
are to complete something thathas 10 working parts, that maybe
you get through it once, twice,three times, but after that
you're like geez, is it worth it?
So much hassle, so many things Iknow with my journey to
(14:06):
resolving cancer the amount ofactivities, restrictions,
supplements, foods, all of thethings I've had to do.
It's been arduous things I'vehad to do.
(14:30):
It's been arduous and it'sprobably just simply my sheer
will to live that has kept megoing on it.
And I know most people that Iconsult about cancer don't
follow through.
And it's sad because I knowthat I have answers that could
help people.
But frankly, people are notwilling to put the effort that
it takes more often than not tosolve their problem of, I don't
(14:56):
know, staying alive.
I would think that's kind of animportant thing, but you'd be
surprised how many people findthat too much of an effort to do
the thing that would solve theproblem.
And again, journaling can beinstrumental in that.
In fact, one of the tells thatI have for myself if I'm on
(15:19):
point or not is that I'm keepingmy journal and sometimes it's
just a planner.
You know you keep a plannertogether and what do you do?
You start making a record ofthings you do, things you plan
to do.
Hopefully you follow up aplanner with little notes about
(15:39):
things that happened or didn'thappen so you can look and say,
well, gee, I have all thesethings planned for the next
weeks and months, whatever it is, and then you go back and look
at what you did or didn't do,how it worked out.
You start to be able to gainsome insight from those things.
For me, I've been journalingsince I was a kid, off and on
(16:02):
whether it's some kind of adiary or hell.
I used to keep a fishingjournal as a young teenager.
I love to fish, so much thatand I was, you know, fairly
obsessive when I came up tosomething that I liked to do,
that it became my life and Ilived to catch a fish and I
would go to different places andI would journal everything the
(16:26):
time of the day, the bait I used, no-transcript Field and stream
, peak feeding times were thetides, I mean.
All kinds of things I wouldtrack and then I'd look back at
(16:46):
my results and I'd say, wow,okay, I did this when the moon
was.
Even I've had planting journals.
You know I grew pot for a lotof years 40 years and there was
times where, you know, I'd growhydroponically, times I'd grow
out in the field, I'd grow withsoil, I'd grow all different
(17:11):
ways and some years you get agreat crop, some years not so
much.
And I learned that if youjournal what you're doing, how
often you're watering, what thetemperatures were like, what the
pH of things were, you would beable to replicate your
successes and avoid yourfailures.
(17:32):
And so I know that when myplanner is kind of my general
journal, for a long time I waswriting down just thoughts and
maybe sort of a diary typedescription of daily activities
(17:54):
and I thought that one day I wasgoing to make a book out of
these things.
But going back and reading themI realized that my observations
often didn see progress.
I've made both spiritually,emotionally, mentally, all
(18:25):
different ways, and in somecases physically.
By looking back at what was Ithinking back.
Then I can go back.
You know, five years, 10 years,15 years.
Sometimes I don't know if I'vegotten, if I know where any
journals are prior to that.
But you know they've beenhelpful.
It never hurts.
(18:45):
But helpful enough to write abook, no.
So I generally don't do thatanymore, but maybe I should and
sometimes I think about it.
Sometimes a prayer journal.
You know just so many differentthings we and sometimes I think
about it.
Sometimes a prayer journal.
You know just so many differentthings we can do.
I think even writing down whatyou're doing ingrains it and
(19:11):
brings your mindfulness to athing.
So you know, know, we do thingsmindlessly.
All the time we eat, we haveactivities like scrolling
through your phone or watchingtv or getting into an argument
(19:32):
or whatever.
Is your the thing you doplaying video games?
You know how many people Is thething you do playing video
games, how many people playgames and have no idea how much
time they actually spend doingthat, or spend time scrolling or
watching videos.
And nowadays there's apps thatmonitor your screen time, which
is kind of helpful.
Again, it's a little journal foryou.
(19:53):
It says, hey, yesterday youwere on that thing for six hours
or eight hours or whatever.
You think to yourself holy shit, what could I have done with
that time besides mindlesslylooking at stuff.
Now I'm not saying mindlessactivities aren't healthy and
helpful, because sometimes youjust need to not think about
things.
But when you look at, maybe,the value of sitting quietly in
(20:18):
nature over looking at somegoofy meme that somebody did, or
maybe even watching contentthat stirs negative emotions or
is somehow the vibration of itis is is not on a high level,
(20:40):
Well then why are you doing it?
So I think sometimes identifyingsomething that you want to do
is a key part of journaling forhealth, and I think that sets an
intention in place.
I think that identifying goalsso we say, okay, identify a
(21:03):
problem, I'm whatever 10 poundsoverweight I have I set a goal
right off the bat.
Well, I wanna lose I don't knowa pound a week for 10 weeks.
That's an attainable goal byany measure In 10 weeks.
If you can't lose 10 pounds in10 weeks, then I'd say you're
(21:28):
probably not trying very hardand you should be able to
maintain it if you can correctyour behavior, correct your
habits, establish a coursecorrection.
So I've talked before and I'lltalk again about the compound
effect, where making a realchange in a small way will have
more effect over the long haul,which, as we get older, we
(21:52):
realize time goes by pretty darnquick.
So if you say, well, I'm goingto make one small adjustment to
my diet, and that's maybe I justdon't drink soda anymore, or
maybe I'll eat vegetables once aday, a day more than I do, or
whatever you pick the thing thatyou can stay with, as opposed
(22:14):
to I'm going to go on this rigiddiet.
I'm going to start fasting, dointermittent, you know 20 and 4,
(22:37):
or whatever it is that youdecide that you're going to do
as an extreme measure.
You'll get extreme results withan extreme measure, but are you
going to stick with it and areyou going to journal it?
And so I think that thiscompound effect, a small course
correction that you can journaland watch, is important.
(22:59):
And then I think, along withthe mindfulness being accurate
and not relying on your memory,you know people will go.
I'll say well, you know, tell meabout what you eat.
And they'll go oh well, youknow, for breakfast I had this,
for lunch I had this, I didn'tdo dinner, or whatever, and
(23:19):
they'll forget.
They stopped at whatever BurgerKing and grabbed a number three
on their way home because theywere starved, because whatever,
and they forgot about it.
They didn't even think about itand so in their mind they did
this, but in actuality they didthat and the results are, you
(23:43):
know, they didn't lose thatweight or they didn't gain some,
or whatever.
So that's one element I thinkyou just get yourself right.
When you start writing it down,you start paying attention.
You say, well, every time I putanything in my mouth, I got to
write it down.
So maybe you keep a littlenotebook with you or whatever it
(24:04):
is.
But if you do this correctly,then you'll be able to go back
and look and maybe, moreimportantly, I could go back and
look or somebody else couldlook and help you.
And then you have things likecontributing factors.
So if you're not thinking about, all you're thinking about is
(24:25):
the food part of it, but you'renot thinking about exercise and
you think, yeah, I'm prettyactive, I get out there, but you
don't realize you're sittingdown at your computer, for you
know seven hours at a time andthe harm that that can do, or
certainly the lack of good thatthat will do, you might not be
(24:46):
mindful of that.
So if you start saying, well,track when you sit down, just
start paying attention to that,or sometimes set a timer for 20,
30 minutes.
Say, well, I'm not going to sitdown for more than 20, 30
minutes at a time and I wouldget up and walk around for five
minutes.
Well, I guarantee you, if youdon't set that timer and be
mindful of it, you're going tolose time and you'll be sitting
(25:09):
there for three hours andrealize that, oh shit, I forgot
again.
And so, again, journaling canbe instrumental in just keeping
your mind on that target.
Things like sleep and thefactors that can affect sleep we
(25:34):
don't think about these things.
You don't notice there's a bluelight in your, your room and
you think to yourself no, no,there's not.
Then you look and, sure enough,on the cable uh box, there's
this little blue light that iscasting blue light in your room
while you're trying to sleep, orwhatever.
(25:55):
There's a million things.
Um, you know where's soundcoming from?
Know where's sound coming fromor not, where's light coming
from or not.
You know where's my phone?
You know let's not even talkabout electromagnetic fields and
things like that Where's theWi-Fi signal at?
You know, we can go endlesslydeep into this, but even just
(26:18):
again, being mindful of it, well, how much did you sleep?
Now there are tools beyond thejournal that you can use.
There's apps, there's watches,there's trackers, and you know
those are all journaling toolsand using them is good.
It doesn't mean a journaldoesn't just mean a pen and
paper although for me I happento learn when I write things
(26:42):
down in a different way.
So when I use computer apps andthings like that, my brain
doesn't file them away in thesame way as when I take a pen
and paper and write it down.
But you figure out what worksfor you.
I think that's the key.
But you figure out what worksfor you.
I think that's the key.
And then possible interactionsof things that you might not see
(27:08):
, a pattern.
So when you start to look atthings like supplements and
medications, when you're takingthem, and then you can start
looking at when you ate and whenyou slept and when you moved
and you can start to get abigger picture.
When you can start to look atthese things, you know maybe you
(27:31):
put it together as a table andif you journal in such a way
where you're monitoring, youknow things that can be overlaid
.
Maybe you do it in aspreadsheet or I don't know.
There's ways to do it where youcan without a whole lot of
effort, start to overlap or evenjuxtapose things, that you can
(27:55):
go oh wow, I can see when I dothis that happens and you can
start to look at causes andeffects and start to add or
remove a single item from theequation and sit there and look
at it.
And I think maybe the mostimportant element of a journal,
(28:18):
aside from the mindfulnessaspect, is you can see long-term
progress when it happens insmall increments.
So I think a lot of the problemthat people have is we don't
see results fast enough and welose interest and so we say,
well, I need to, you know, get asix pack, or I want to get
(28:41):
strong, or I want to lose thisweight, or I want to, you know,
get this wrinkle off of my faceor whatever it is the change
you're trying to make, and youwork hard for a while and you
don't see those answershappening and you're just like,
geez, why do I do it when it'sso much work and I'm not getting
(29:02):
these results?
But what you don't realize isthat you know it took you 10
years For me I had to look atthis giant tumor on my neck when
it was a giant tumor and I said, well, it probably took me 20
years to make this thing.
What's my expectation?
That's going to go away in sixweeks to make this thing.
What's my expectation?
That's going to go away in sixweeks.
(29:23):
And you know, because of thehuge effort I made and the
choices I made, the research Imade, I was able to make it
virtually go away in nine weeks.
But had I not done probablyhalf of those things, it
wouldn't have.
In my opinion, we don't knowwhat we don't know.
But getting extreme resultstakes a huge amount of effort
(29:44):
and again, I don't know thatmost people are willing to put
forth that kind of effort.
But when you're able to journalthings and say, wow, I look
back over a month, two months,six months, a year and you say,
look where I was then and evenif you're just making a small,
maybe you only lose a half apound a week, but you know, over
(30:06):
52 weeks you can say, wow, Ilost 25 pounds and that's a year
.
You can lose 25 pounds in ayear and keep it off.
And with a small change andstay in the course, you're more
likely to do that than goingextreme and doing, you know,
(30:27):
extreme exercise, extreme diet,extreme, you know, modifications
and then trying to holdyourself to that for a long
period of time, long period oftime.
So I think if you're going topick a tool to make a change in
your life and it can be mentally, spiritually, physically,
(30:48):
trying to make a positive thinghappen or make a negative thing
get smaller or go away I thinkmaking a decision that you
really want to do this thing andwe will talk about that more in
the future about you knowdecisions and things like that
(31:09):
and then solidifying thatdecision by making a commitment
to journal and then sticking toit.
Making a commitment to journaland then sticking to it, I think
the commitment you know, youmake an agreement with yourself
and you say I'm going to do this.
And that's your first tell ifyou're not serious, because if
(31:30):
you stop journaling you clearlyare not serious about what
you're doing, and so at leastyou can realize I'm not ready
for this yet, or you know, orhopefully it'll be.
Get back to it, you know,remember and make the correction
.
So this is my two cents on thetool of journaling, and I highly
(31:54):
encourage you to begin in someway journal something and start
to see the value of this tooland if you come to me for a
consultation, expect that I'mgoing to give that to you as
your first homework assignment.
And if you're serious aboutwanting to make change, reach
out.
I can help most people withmost things.
(32:16):
If you decide you really wantto do it, all right.
Well, this has been anotherepisode of the Healthy Living
Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine.
I appreciate all the supportand we will see you next week,
or next time, I guess.
Joe Grumbine, md, mph .
Well hello and welcome back tothe Healthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, Joe Grumbine,and today we're going to be
talking about some tools, orparticularly a tool to finding
answers.
For those of you who are new tothe show, this is a podcast
(00:22):
that is designed not only toprovide a wealth of information
about healthy living from manydifferent perspectives, but also
an attempt, an effort to builda community with the common
thread of people seeking health,and so far it's been pretty
(00:47):
successful.
The podcast has continued togrow.
We've had a wide range ofguests and if you're interested
in participating as a guest,contact me.
I'm easy to reach.
If you think the show isvaluable, I would ask that maybe
tell somebody about it or sharea link or put a comment or
(01:10):
review or something to let usknow that you think this is an
important show or valuable andreally excited about the
progress.
It's all been organic andgrassroots and the community
that's been building around thisthrough the gardens of hope in
(01:33):
Paris, california, has beenremarkable.
We've been working togetherwith many different health
related activities and events,including sound baths and yoga
and plant medicine, ceremonies,retreats, workshops all kinds of
(01:57):
things been growing.
We've had people travel 12hours to come down and
participate in our events andnot only make the trip but come
(02:18):
back again.
So we're really excited aboutthe progress of this.
We're really excited about theprogress of this.
We'll be talking about moreactivities and events in future
episodes.
Today I want to talk about atool that I think is maybe one
of the most valuable tools youcan use if you're seeking to
(02:41):
find answers within yourself,and this is a tool that I use
kind of as a filter in some waysand then as a very valuable
tool in others.
Excuse me, and it's the idea ofa journal.
(03:04):
So a lot of times people willcome to me and say, oh, I want
you to consult me on this orthat.
Maybe it's losing weight orfinding better sleep habits, or
you know cancer, and I like tokind of get a baseline.
(03:24):
You got got to figure out.
Where are we?
What am I dealing with?
Because people will come andtell you about their problem,
but they'll miss things, maybeintentionally, maybe
unintentionally, but they'llleave a piece out that affects
the outcome dramatically, and sothey might say, well, I don't
(03:49):
sleep very well, and they forgetto tell you that.
You know, the person in theapartment next door plays their
music at four o'clock in themorning or whatever.
There's a million things thatget left out.
And you know we're workingtogether on this strategy and
nothing's working.
Nothing's working and you go,finally you find out this
(04:09):
missing piece and you're like,well, if I had known that ahead
of time we could have gone adifferent direction.
And so when somebody comes to meon a consult, usually what I'll
do is I'll say, okay, well, thefirst thing we're going to do
is let's start journaling.
You know, a lot of times it hasto do with diet.
(04:32):
Diet will have something to dowith it.
I'll say well, you need towrite down everything you're
eating and when you're eating it, and that way we can start to
understand what is food.
How does food fit into theequation?
If it's related to sleep, we'lltalk about everything that we
can that's related to sleep.
If it has to do with whatever,it has to do with cancer
(04:56):
especially.
You know, diet is such animportant part of solving the
problem of cancer that if youdon't pay attention to what
you're eating and sometimes whenyou're eating it, I don't know
how you're gonna come up withanswers.
And then you know things likemedication and all of that, and
(05:19):
most people will not disciplinethemselves, will not discipline
themselves to do that, and so Idon't waste any time anymore.
I used to spend.
I can remember about a year agoI had a lady and she contacted
me.
I didn't know who she was,where she came from.
I think she had used some of myWillow Creek Springs products
(05:43):
and that's how she found me.
And she says I, I know you canhelp me with this, it was.
It was pretty much a weightrelated issue.
And she says I've tried thisand I've tried that.
And we talked oh my God, youknow my, my policy is you get 10
minutes for free and then thenwe either figure out we're going
to work together and establishsome kind of a collaboration or
(06:05):
partnership or you know, you payfor your services and we go
that way.
But no, no, I didn't listen tomy own rules and I sat there
with her for close to an hourhearing her story and all the
details of the ailments she had,and you know, I think she was a
(06:29):
nurse and all the stresses ofthis and that she a lot of times
people just want to vent, theywant to somebody to hear them
and you know that's cool.
But if I don't know you and Idon't have the time necessarily
to just give to you for free, Idon't know why.
You know why I would do that,and I've learned over many, many
(06:56):
, many years and many, many,many people and doing that that
it just never works and maybeyou'll help somebody a little
bit, but it's generally acolossal waste of effort and so.
But no, I didn't listen, and soafter all of this, I said, okay
, well, here's your assignment,you need to go and journal this
(07:20):
and then we'll go forward.
And I didn't hear from her forabout a week and then, finally,
she did send me an email orwhatever.
That said, okay, I got myjournal and she scheduled an
appointment to sit down andstart working on it.
And appointment came and wentand she wasn't there.
(07:44):
She didn't show up and I neverheard from her again.
I thought to myself, wow, okay,even when you said you did the
journal, maybe you did, maybeyou didn't, I don't know, but
still that the integrity and thewherewithal to complete a task
(08:04):
like that is very telling.
And so I would say, if you'relooking to solve any problem,
health-related or otherwisestart to journal and it's going
to give you a lot more than justsome basic facts.
(08:25):
So what happens is, when youstart directing your attention
to a topic, things start toshift and I think when you say I
want something to happen inyour mind, a change begins to
make a quantum change, if youwill, and I don't know how it
(08:48):
works, but I do know thatwherever you direct your
attention, those things start tohappen on some level.
They could happen positively,negatively, but something will
happen as soon as you start tothink about a thing.
So if I say, well, I want tolose some weight, or I got this
(09:09):
cancer that needs to go, ormaybe I just found out I've got
MS or an addiction I finallyneed to kick, or whatever it is,
maybe it's a relationshipproblem and you say, you know, I
think it's time for me to makea change.
Whatever that change is, well, Ithink that what happens is we
(09:34):
have a perception of times, wesugarcoat things or we will
overlook things, or we willsometimes even change things in
our mind as to what happened.
And it happens all the time youtalk to somebody.
(09:55):
Maybe it's somebody you knowand love.
Maybe it's somebody you don'tknow at all, maybe it's somebody
you have some limitedrelationship with.
But if you talk to people aboutthings that happen, you'll
realize that people make shit upall the time and I don't know
(10:16):
if it's intentional, I don'tknow if it's just how they
actually remember things, butI've been present at events or
you know, when somethinghappened and witnessed something
, and then I've gone back andlistened to or later on heard
(10:39):
somebody describe the thing thathappened and I think to myself,
wow, how did you come up withthat?
And then you think, wow, ifyou're going to do that for
maybe something that doesn'thave any real importance of you
know, why would you even botherto make something like that up?
(11:00):
You go, wow, what are peoplewilling and capable and able to
do, whether, again, intentionalor not?
And you think to yourself, wow,how do you find any answers
when there's so much justbullshit out there?
And you know.
Then you get into thedissemination of information and
(11:25):
all of that with purpose andyou go, man, how does anybody
find any answers?
And so, again, this journalbecomes an important tool when
you decide you're going to startbeing honest about things,
(11:47):
things, and I really don't thinkthat most people are dishonest
on purpose.
I think they just don't thinkabout things.
Or you know, your brain sort ofpatches things up for you a lot
of times without you reallypaying any attention to it.
And so let's say, example, youare overweight and you come to
(12:08):
me and say I need to lose 20pounds, can you help me?
And I'll say, yeah, sure, let's.
Let's start looking at theobvious things and then we'll
work our way through it.
So you'd say to yourself, okay,what factors are likely to
contribute to weight?
And you say, obviously, my foodintake.
That would be certainly one ofthem.
I would probably go to sleep,because people that don't sleep,
(12:33):
generally you have a differentway of metabolizing food.
So I would look at that.
I would look at things likemobility, exercise you know what
are you doing that counteractsthe food you're taking in.
I would look at when you eat,the frequency of meals, other
(13:00):
factors like health conditions,blood pressure, diabetes, heart
disease, anything like that.
Medications a lot of medicationsaffect weight gain and loss.
I know for me they had me on asteroid and I gained a ton of
(13:23):
weight as a result, and itwasn't just that, it was a
series of things, but that wasdefinitely a contributing factor
.
So you start off and you say,okay, well, try to make things
doable.
So if you start out with a taskand it is too complicated, it's
(13:46):
just like a New Year'sresolution how likely are you
are to complete something thathas 10 working parts, that maybe
you get through it once, twice,three times, but after that
you're like geez, is it worth it?
So much hassle, so many things Iknow with my journey to
(14:06):
resolving cancer the amount ofactivities, restrictions,
supplements, foods, all of thethings I've had to do.
It's been arduous things I'vehad to do.
(14:30):
It's been arduous and it'sprobably just simply my sheer
will to live that has kept megoing on it.
And I know most people that Iconsult about cancer don't
follow through.
And it's sad because I knowthat I have answers that could
help people.
But frankly, people are notwilling to put the effort that
it takes more often than not tosolve their problem of, I don't
(14:56):
know, staying alive.
I would think that's kind of animportant thing, but you'd be
surprised how many people findthat too much of an effort to do
the thing that would solve theproblem.
And again, journaling can beinstrumental in that.
In fact, one of the tells thatI have for myself if I'm on
(15:19):
point or not is that I'm keepingmy journal and sometimes it's
just a planner.
You know you keep a plannertogether and what do you do?
You start making a record ofthings you do, things you plan
to do.
Hopefully you follow up aplanner with little notes about
(15:39):
things that happened or didn'thappen so you can look and say,
well, gee, I have all thesethings planned for the next
weeks and months, whatever it is, and then you go back and look
at what you did or didn't do,how it worked out.
You start to be able to gainsome insight from those things.
For me, I've been journalingsince I was a kid, off and on
(16:02):
whether it's some kind of adiary or hell.
I used to keep a fishingjournal as a young teenager.
I love to fish, so much thatand I was, you know, fairly
obsessive when I came up tosomething that I liked to do,
that it became my life and Ilived to catch a fish and I
would go to different places andI would journal everything the
(16:26):
time of the day, the bait I used, no-transcript Field and stream
, peak feeding times were thetides, I mean.
All kinds of things I wouldtrack and then I'd look back at
(16:46):
my results and I'd say, wow,okay, I did this when the moon
was.
Even I've had planting journals.
You know I grew pot for a lotof years 40 years and there was
times where, you know, I'd growhydroponically, times I'd grow
out in the field, I'd grow withsoil, I'd grow all different
(17:11):
ways and some years you get agreat crop, some years not so
much.
And I learned that if youjournal what you're doing, how
often you're watering, what thetemperatures were like, what the
pH of things were, you would beable to replicate your
successes and avoid yourfailures.
(17:32):
And so I know that when myplanner is kind of my general
journal, for a long time I waswriting down just thoughts and
maybe sort of a diary typedescription of daily activities
(17:54):
and I thought that one day I wasgoing to make a book out of
these things.
But going back and reading themI realized that my observations
often didn see progress.
I've made both spiritually,emotionally, mentally, all
(18:25):
different ways, and in somecases physically.
By looking back at what was Ithinking back.
Then I can go back.
You know, five years, 10 years,15 years.
Sometimes I don't know if I'vegotten, if I know where any
journals are prior to that.
But you know they've beenhelpful.
It never hurts.
(18:45):
But helpful enough to write abook, no.
So I generally don't do thatanymore, but maybe I should and
sometimes I think about it.
Sometimes a prayer journal.
You know just so many differentthings we and sometimes I think
about it.
Sometimes a prayer journal.
You know just so many differentthings we can do.
I think even writing down whatyou're doing ingrains it and
(19:11):
brings your mindfulness to athing.
So you know, know, we do thingsmindlessly.
All the time we eat, we haveactivities like scrolling
through your phone or watchingtv or getting into an argument
(19:32):
or whatever.
Is your the thing you doplaying video games?
You know how many people Is thething you do playing video
games, how many people playgames and have no idea how much
time they actually spend doingthat, or spend time scrolling or
watching videos.
And nowadays there's apps thatmonitor your screen time, which
is kind of helpful.
Again, it's a little journal foryou.
(19:53):
It says, hey, yesterday youwere on that thing for six hours
or eight hours or whatever.
You think to yourself holy shit, what could I have done with
that time besides mindlesslylooking at stuff.
Now I'm not saying mindlessactivities aren't healthy and
helpful, because sometimes youjust need to not think about
things.
But when you look at, maybe,the value of sitting quietly in
(20:18):
nature over looking at somegoofy meme that somebody did, or
maybe even watching contentthat stirs negative emotions or
is somehow the vibration of itis is is not on a high level,
(20:40):
Well then why are you doing it?
So I think sometimes identifyingsomething that you want to do
is a key part of journaling forhealth, and I think that sets an
intention in place.
I think that identifying goalsso we say, okay, identify a
(21:03):
problem, I'm whatever 10 poundsoverweight I have I set a goal
right off the bat.
Well, I wanna lose I don't knowa pound a week for 10 weeks.
That's an attainable goal byany measure In 10 weeks.
If you can't lose 10 pounds in10 weeks, then I'd say you're
(21:28):
probably not trying very hardand you should be able to
maintain it if you can correctyour behavior, correct your
habits, establish a coursecorrection.
So I've talked before and I'lltalk again about the compound
effect, where making a realchange in a small way will have
more effect over the long haul,which, as we get older, we
(21:52):
realize time goes by pretty darnquick.
So if you say, well, I'm goingto make one small adjustment to
my diet, and that's maybe I justdon't drink soda anymore, or
maybe I'll eat vegetables once aday, a day more than I do, or
whatever you pick the thing thatyou can stay with, as opposed
(22:14):
to I'm going to go on this rigiddiet.
I'm going to start fasting, dointermittent, you know 20 and 4,
(22:37):
or whatever it is that youdecide that you're going to do
as an extreme measure.
You'll get extreme results withan extreme measure, but are you
going to stick with it and areyou going to journal it?
And so I think that thiscompound effect, a small course
correction that you can journaland watch, is important.
(22:59):
And then I think, along withthe mindfulness being accurate
and not relying on your memory,you know people will go.
I'll say well, you know, tell meabout what you eat.
And they'll go oh well, youknow, for breakfast I had this,
for lunch I had this, I didn'tdo dinner, or whatever, and
(23:19):
they'll forget.
They stopped at whatever BurgerKing and grabbed a number three
on their way home because theywere starved, because whatever,
and they forgot about it.
They didn't even think about itand so in their mind they did
this, but in actuality they didthat and the results are, you
(23:43):
know, they didn't lose thatweight or they didn't gain some,
or whatever.
So that's one element I thinkyou just get yourself right.
When you start writing it down,you start paying attention.
You say, well, every time I putanything in my mouth, I got to
write it down.
So maybe you keep a littlenotebook with you or whatever it
(24:04):
is.
But if you do this correctly,then you'll be able to go back
and look and maybe, moreimportantly, I could go back and
look or somebody else couldlook and help you.
And then you have things likecontributing factors.
So if you're not thinking about, all you're thinking about is
(24:25):
the food part of it, but you'renot thinking about exercise and
you think, yeah, I'm prettyactive, I get out there, but you
don't realize you're sittingdown at your computer, for you
know seven hours at a time andthe harm that that can do, or
certainly the lack of good thatthat will do, you might not be
(24:46):
mindful of that.
So if you start saying, well,track when you sit down, just
start paying attention to that,or sometimes set a timer for 20,
30 minutes.
Say, well, I'm not going to sitdown for more than 20, 30
minutes at a time and I wouldget up and walk around for five
minutes.
Well, I guarantee you, if youdon't set that timer and be
mindful of it, you're going tolose time and you'll be sitting
(25:09):
there for three hours andrealize that, oh shit, I forgot
again.
And so, again, journaling canbe instrumental in just keeping
your mind on that target.
Things like sleep and thefactors that can affect sleep we
(25:34):
don't think about these things.
You don't notice there's a bluelight in your, your room and
you think to yourself no, no,there's not.
Then you look and, sure enough,on the cable uh box, there's
this little blue light that iscasting blue light in your room
while you're trying to sleep, orwhatever.
(25:55):
There's a million things.
Um, you know where's soundcoming from?
Know where's sound coming fromor not, where's light coming
from or not.
You know where's my phone?
You know let's not even talkabout electromagnetic fields and
things like that Where's theWi-Fi signal at?
You know, we can go endlesslydeep into this, but even just
(26:18):
again, being mindful of it, well, how much did you sleep?
Now there are tools beyond thejournal that you can use.
There's apps, there's watches,there's trackers, and you know
those are all journaling toolsand using them is good.
It doesn't mean a journaldoesn't just mean a pen and
paper although for me I happento learn when I write things
(26:42):
down in a different way.
So when I use computer apps andthings like that, my brain
doesn't file them away in thesame way as when I take a pen
and paper and write it down.
But you figure out what worksfor you.
I think that's the key.
But you figure out what worksfor you.
I think that's the key.
And then possible interactionsof things that you might not see
(27:08):
, a pattern.
So when you start to look atthings like supplements and
medications, when you're takingthem, and then you can start
looking at when you ate and whenyou slept and when you moved
and you can start to get abigger picture.
When you can start to look atthese things, you know maybe you
(27:31):
put it together as a table andif you journal in such a way
where you're monitoring, youknow things that can be overlaid
.
Maybe you do it in aspreadsheet or I don't know.
There's ways to do it where youcan without a whole lot of
effort, start to overlap or evenjuxtapose things, that you can
(27:55):
go oh wow, I can see when I dothis that happens and you can
start to look at causes andeffects and start to add or
remove a single item from theequation and sit there and look
at it.
And I think maybe the mostimportant element of a journal,
(28:18):
aside from the mindfulnessaspect, is you can see long-term
progress when it happens insmall increments.
So I think a lot of the problemthat people have is we don't
see results fast enough and welose interest and so we say,
well, I need to, you know, get asix pack, or I want to get
(28:41):
strong, or I want to lose thisweight, or I want to, you know,
get this wrinkle off of my faceor whatever it is the change
you're trying to make, and youwork hard for a while and you
don't see those answershappening and you're just like,
geez, why do I do it when it'sso much work and I'm not getting
(29:02):
these results?
But what you don't realize isthat you know it took you 10
years For me I had to look atthis giant tumor on my neck when
it was a giant tumor and I said, well, it probably took me 20
years to make this thing.
What's my expectation?
That's going to go away in sixweeks to make this thing.
What's my expectation?
That's going to go away in sixweeks.
(29:23):
And you know, because of thehuge effort I made and the
choices I made, the research Imade, I was able to make it
virtually go away in nine weeks.
But had I not done probablyhalf of those things, it
wouldn't have.
In my opinion, we don't knowwhat we don't know.
But getting extreme resultstakes a huge amount of effort
(29:44):
and again, I don't know thatmost people are willing to put
forth that kind of effort.
But when you're able to journalthings and say, wow, I look
back over a month, two months,six months, a year and you say,
look where I was then and evenif you're just making a small,
maybe you only lose a half apound a week, but you know, over
(30:06):
52 weeks you can say, wow, Ilost 25 pounds and that's a year
.
You can lose 25 pounds in ayear and keep it off.
And with a small change andstay in the course, you're more
likely to do that than goingextreme and doing, you know,
(30:27):
extreme exercise, extreme diet,extreme, you know, modifications
and then trying to holdyourself to that for a long
period of time, long period oftime.
So I think if you're going topick a tool to make a change in
your life and it can be mentally, spiritually, physically,
(30:48):
trying to make a positive thinghappen or make a negative thing
get smaller or go away I thinkmaking a decision that you
really want to do this thing andwe will talk about that more in
the future about you knowdecisions and things like that
(31:09):
and then solidifying thatdecision by making a commitment
to journal and then sticking toit.
Making a commitment to journaland then sticking to it, I think
the commitment you know, youmake an agreement with yourself
and you say I'm going to do this.
And that's your first tell ifyou're not serious, because if
(31:30):
you stop journaling you clearlyare not serious about what
you're doing, and so at leastyou can realize I'm not ready
for this yet, or you know, orhopefully it'll be.
Get back to it, you know,remember and make the correction
.
So this is my two cents on thetool of journaling, and I highly
(31:54):
encourage you to begin in someway journal something and start
to see the value of this tooland if you come to me for a
consultation, expect that I'mgoing to give that to you as
your first homework assignment.
And if you're serious aboutwanting to make change, reach
out.
I can help most people withmost things.
(32:16):
If you decide you really wantto do it, all right.
Well, this has been anotherepisode of the Healthy Living
Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine.
I appreciate all the supportand we will see you next week,
or next time, I guess.
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