Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello and
welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we're going to enter
into a conversation that willprobably go through a few
episodes.
I think it's really important.
Just to start off, I want tofirst of all thank everybody who
(00:22):
has supported this show as itcontinues to grow and our guests
continue to rise up and beinteresting and informational
and riveting, and the subscribercontent continues.
More subscribers have beencoming in and I just want to
(00:46):
thank everybody for that.
This is a dream of mine tobuild a community based on our
goal to be healthy, and it'shappening and the podcast is a
part of it, so I'm reallyexcited.
For those of you who don't know, I am the CEO of Gardens of
(01:07):
Hope, a 501c3 non-profit thatprovides therapeutic
horticulture and education tothose in need.
We're based out of Paris,california, and we've got a two
and a half acre botanical gardenand small farm and we teach
permaculture techniques, allsorts of healing modalities or
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practice here retreats and allsorts of good stuff, and that's
sort of the hub of this healingcommunity and I welcome you to
investigate.
Come on out, take a tour orjust, uh, maybe set up your own
little garden of hope.
It's your place.
Lately my brain's been gettingclearer and clearer.
(01:52):
I have finished my third roundof chemotherapy and hopefully I
won't need any more of that.
Um, my cancer battle is and mycancer battle is prevalent in
this podcast, but we're startingto shift into more open-ended
conversations about differentthings and solving problems and
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finding answers.
A lot of this is about gettingto the core of what makes things
happen.
You know, we have problems withWestern medicine because
generally it's symptomatic, itdoesn't generally go after the
(02:38):
core of a problem and it coversup symptoms and you end up with,
you know, these drug cocktailsof so many medicines to combat
the side effects of the firstmedicine, and on and on and on
and cascading effects andproblems and short-sightedness
and not ever really getting tothe root cause of things.
(03:00):
And so today I want to talk alittle bit about motivation and,
as my brain's getting a littleclearer, I'm thinking more and
more about really health andwhat does it mean and why are we
even seeking it?
What causes people to do thethings they do?
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What causes people to do thethings they do?
And so, first of all, Itypically will look at myself
when I'm asking a question likethis because that's the one
thing I can know.
And so, for example, today I'mgoing to be meeting with my
(03:46):
medical oncologist to go over aplan, and it's going to be a
zoom meeting and I'm going torecord it and it'll be featured
in a subscriber episode so thatyou can hear firsthand how this
goes and how somebody cancommunicate with the physician,
instead of just going okay, okay, okay, whatever you say, or
(04:08):
being combative and saying Iwon't do it.
You know, trying to find apractical solution to
complicated problem.
And this doctor wants to goforward with radiation and
chemotherapy as a follow-up tothe chemotherapy I've already
had and the primary tumor isbasically gone.
(04:29):
We're going to go over therecent CT scan I got and I will
listen to what she has to say,but I've prepared a pretty
involved presentation and seriesof questions to hopefully get
her to see things my way.
And my way is simply that Iwant the most amount of good
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with the least amount of harm inthe long term to my body when
it comes to solving this cancerproblem, and that's a pretty
straightforward motivation.
And the things that she'sproposing to do have a very
clear risk of causing morecancer.
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And so to me.
I think why would I do that,when her fear is that the cancer
is going to come back and okay,well, maybe if it does, then we
go and treat it again, insteadof let's go ahead and do a thing
that will likely cause morecancer in the future, and then I
got to have to deal with that.
(05:35):
So, anyways, for those of youwho are interested or are
subscribers, I would encourageyou to listen to that, because
it should be pretty interesting.
So, motivation, you know thatis a simple, straightforward
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motivation.
I want the most good to be formy body and the least amount of
harm.
I would have to say that for methat's a motivation for many
things I do, and not just mybody, but my mind, my spirit.
There are, sometimes I'll do,things that you know push the
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boundaries of what, let's justsay, normal people might do or
want to do, and I think, ifwe're wise, we'll weigh out the
risks and the benefits and or atleast potential benefits, and
make a decision based on thosethings.
So that's sort of the beginningof this motivation.
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So I would say, you know whatcauses people to want to pursue
health?
And in thinking about this Ireally came up with a lot of
motivations and I thought tomyself well, it's going to be a
bit of a conversation, so we'llprobably go into a couple of
different episodes talking aboutthis, because there's just a
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lot of information that I wantto get into and I think the
first thing would be Amotivation.
I think a sense of purpose is animportant factor in motivation.
Illnesses is that a sense ofpurpose is, I believe, a
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motivating factor.
In fact, I'm certain of it.
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But it's critical.
And what I've learned and youknow, I struggled with this,
with the cannabis side of things, for a long time, because in
making cannabis oil and offeringit to people who I knew I could
help if they were just to takeit.
But I also know that it's adifficult task to take that much
cannabis oil.
A lot of people have a hardtime with that, and it kind of
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blew my mind the first time.
Somebody told me I just can'tdo it, it's too much.
And I thought to myself wow, soyou're willing to risk dying
instead of just being reallystoned for a while.
And when I began my cancerjourney, that was the first
thing I did, is I started takingmy own oil and it was rough,
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but I never questioned it.
I just did it because I love mylife and I have huge purpose in
my life and I, you know, wantnothing more than to have a long
and fulfilled life with thebest quality I can afford.
And apparently that's notsomething that everybody shares,
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and apparently that's notsomething that everybody shares.
And so, and I could see, youknow, as my cancer was
progressing and it was reallysucking the life out of me and
all of the things I was tryingto do to solve it were just
overwhelming.
I was really there were timeswhen I thought to myself I can
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see how somebody would let goand just say, man, I just can't
do this anymore and just let go,and especially if you're not
afraid of death, it's like youknow which I'm not it's like I
could see it.
And I actually had to reelmyself in one time, not because
I was depressed or anything, Iwas just exhausted and all the
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things I had to keep track ofevery single day and just in an
effort to stay alive, and Icould feel myself sort of
floating downward and going, wow, I could just let go and just
float away and I had to reelmyself back in.
So I think a sense of purpose ishugely important and I think
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that if you're consideringmaking a change or taking an
aggressive action towards oragainst a thing, whether it's a
disease or a condition likeobesity, or there's just so many
bad relationship or any numberof things that are going to be a
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difficult task I think having aclear sense of purpose is
important.
So some people, you know, it'syour own life.
For me that was simple.
Some people, it's a spouse orfamily member, children, even,
who knows, maybe even pets andanimals.
You know, I can't let them down.
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Maybe that's a good sense ofpurpose.
Some people, it's more thanthat.
It's like with me.
I believe I have a gift and atool to help people find their
way and find answers and findtheir best version of themselves
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and find their healthy life,and that means mentally,
spiritually, physically, all ofthose things.
And I believe I've got theability to do that and it's
starting to happen and peopleare starting to find me and I'm
able to interact and I'mwatching positive benefits
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happen, you know.
And so eventually, you know,we'll have a nice consulting
service built up and the gardensof hope will be thriving, we'll
have sessions going on everyday and and retreats and all
these things happening in such ameaningful way that will
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fulfill the dream that I have ofthat.
But meanwhile the purpose issimple.
You know we just keep goingtowards these goals.
There are so many differenttypes of sense of purpose that
one person could have that.
I just think it's important topay attention to that and maybe
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look and see do I have one or amI just floating, drifting in
life?
So another motivation is, youknow, longevity.
That ties to the sense ofpurpose.
But specifically, I want tolive a long life.
That's something I want.
So therefore it would makesense to go after a healthy
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lifestyle.
The more healthy you are,probably the longer you're going
to live.
And you know they've got allsorts of anti-aging tools
nowadays and they range from,you know, compounds, supplements
, practices, all sorts ofdifferent things to increase
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longevity.
And if that is your purpose, Ithink that you can accomplish it
even with a small amount ofeffort, and I would encourage
you to do that, simply because Ithink everybody should live a
long and healthy life.
Another sense of purpose mightbe to remove a problem.
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So, for example, I found out Ihad cancer.
So my renewed sense of purposewas I need to remove that cancer
from my body and replace itwith a fully restored,
genetically reset, healthy body.
And so that's a huge task, ahuge sense of purpose and,
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frankly, a lifetime of work.
It doesn't really go away.
Once you've found that you havethis, you have a likelihood of
getting it again.
So you've got to keep solvingthat problem and I think
sometimes a condition that couldcause health problems, such as
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obesity, weight management, is ahuge motivation.
I know that my healthy journey,or my journey to health, has
ebbed and flowed over the years.
When I was young, I was intofitness.
I liked my body, I liked theway I looked and felt.
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I worked hard.
I physically toiled to makemoney.
As a kid I used to run longdistance Well, for me, it was
long distance.
I used to run long distance orwell, for me, it was long
distance, but I used to run andI used to work out and I used to
, you know again, just work hardin the garden, and I, you know,
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paid attention to my physiqueand my health and my abilities.
I also had a lung disease thatI've struggled with all my life,
so that was another factor inthis, was mitigating that, and
ultimately that's what led me tostudying herbs and natural
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medicine, and becoming aformulator was my desire.
My motivation was I didn't wantthe Western medical treatments
anymore.
I didn't want the allergy testsand allergy shots and medicines
that made me feel all weird andthe trips to the emergency room
and all of those things.
I didn't want that anymore andso I began studying herbs and
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growing them and formulating,and that was a clear motivation.
When my father died about eightyears ago, at one point I
reflected and I realized that hewas overweight by a lot at
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least 50 pounds, probably morethan that.
He had heart disease from afairly young age, from younger
than I am right now.
So when my dad was my age, hehad already had a heart episode
and a bypass heart episode and abypass and ultimately he got
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diabetes, more than likely fromhis weight.
He had sleep apnea, which Ialso had or probably still have,
but I manage it now but hewouldn't treat it, he wouldn't
handle it.
He had a very stressful lifeand I looked at myself.
Now remember, if you know ordon't know, he was a surgeon and
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had a lifetime of medicaltraining and he knew better.
He knew the things he did werelikely to cause him harm and he
did them anyways.
He didn't have a motivation toavoid those things.
He would rather have herathered to do those things than
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to avoid them, for whateverreason.
And when he passed, I was therewith him when he passed and you
know that's a pretty powerfulexperience to share with
somebody.
And sometime after I realized Ilooked at myself and I said,
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holy shit, I'm going to be himpretty soon if I don't do
something about it.
I'm going to be him pretty soonif I don't do something about
it.
And I began a journey ofstarting out with weight loss.
I was a good 50 poundsoverweight and initially my
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motivation was my daughter.
She was getting married and shesaid hey, dad, why don't we
lose 20 pounds?
And I said, ok, let's make itinteresting and let's make a bet
.
And I bet her a chunk of moneythat I would lose the weight
before she would.
And I did.
I whooped her ass and that wasmy motivation.
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I knew that I'm a prettycompetitive person and that if I
put myself in a position whereI was going to be directly
competing with somebody, I wouldgive it more effort.
And once I got that first 20pounds off and I began learning
about food and really working onmy diet, my nutrition,
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nutritional intake.
I saw results and when I sawresults I got more motivated and
ultimately I lost 50 pounds andmanaged to maintain it.
And sort of what I did is Ikept, I set a line and if I
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crossed that line I had to fastuntil I got back below that line
.
And that was my deal I madewith myself.
And subsequently, when I gotcancer and I had took on a even
more rigid diet, I ended uplosing a whole lot more weight
than that.
And with this diet I'm at rightnow it's very difficult to get
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weight but keep it on, but I'mslowly building it back.
I have sort of the oppositeproblem now.
It's easy to drop weight withthis diet that I'm on and
difficult to gain it.
So that sort of weightmanagement is a good sense of
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purpose and that ties into,let's say, disease prevention.
We decide we want to be healthyand avoid.
You know I don't want diabetes.
My grandma had diabetes.
I have a genetic predispositionto it.
Now I'm motivated to keepcancer out of my body and I've
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learned a lot of tools andtechniques to do that, and so
it's a great motivation.
Some diseases you can't doanything about, in the sense of
you know, genetic diseases, msand a lot of different diseases
that are just a genetic flaw,and if you get them, you know,
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you know whatever there's atreatment, or maybe there isn't,
or there are things you can doto mitigate your problem, but
you can't necessarily avoid it.
But many diseases are avoidable.
You know, STDs are totallyavoidable if you have safe
practices and again, a huge one.
There's heart disease, there'sgenetic factors to it, but
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certainly your health practicesare going to be a big factor in
this, and so I think, I thinkkeeping your body healthy,
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avoiding diseases, avoidingailments that could be prevented
, having a good long life, asense of purpose, all of that, I
think, is some powerful andprimary motivations for being
healthy, and I would encourageanybody who's listening to this
to consider any of those threeas a challenge, as a goal.
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You know, think about that foryourself and, if not, maybe
question and find out why, like,if you don't feel motivated to
live a long life, well, whyMaybe examine that and maybe
figure out that you've got somemental, spiritual issues that
you need to deal with and maybethat'll take you down that road.
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I think I'm going to wrap it uphere.
I've got a lot more material tocover, so this will probably go
two or three or four episodesin the motivation of being
healthy.
So I thank everybody whosupported the show and remember
you can leave a comment, you canleave a review.
If you're interested in being aguest on the show, reach out.
(23:00):
I'm glad to book you.
I love to have theseconversations and let's find our
way to health folks.
We will spend another episodeof the Healthy Living Podcast
and we will see you next time.