December 4, 2025 • 59 mins
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The future version of you is being built at your next meal, your next bedtime, and your next workout. We sit down with author and “glam grandma” Lynne Bowman to rethink what 80 can look like and map out a clear, joyful strategy for aging with strength, clarity, and community. No lectures, no fads—just the essentials that move the needle: cut added sugar, protect deep sleep, and train your muscles so your bones stay safe.
We go beyond the plate to the pillars that protect longevity. Resistance training builds the muscle that stabilizes joints and accelerates healing, turning a femur fracture into a comeback story. Sleep becomes a superpower — deep rest repairs tissue, balances hormones, and sparks insight.
If you’re ready to trade resignation for agency, this conversation hands you a friendly but firm blueprint. Start with one change—no added sugar, a lights‑out bedtime, or a simple strength session—and build from there. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs inspiration, and leave a quick review to help more people age on their own terms.
Chapters
0:00 Redefining What 80 Looks Like
4:23 The Big Three: No Sugar, Sleep, Move
6:12 Sleep Culture, Creativity, And Joy
18:18 Aging With Purpose And Strength Training
30:11 Grow Food, Teach Kids, Forage
33:02 Greens Three Times A Day Hack
35:07 Diabetic Eating
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Thanks for listening & Live Strong, Explore Boldly, Be Ready!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
We had this idea about what 80 looked like or
felt like.
And you know what?
No.
It's all about being healthy.
And then your question was, whatgot me on this path?
And I have a pretty simpleanswer for that, too, which took
me a while to figure out.
But my mother died when I was18.
(00:22):
And she had been chronicallyill.
She had uh kidney disease.
And at that time, there wasreally nothing that could be
done much for her.
So I experienced caring for herand watching her die and
watching her disability.
And as many of you out there, Iknow, in some way or other, have
done with people you love.
(00:43):
But at the age of 18, I not onlylost my mother, but because of
the circumstance of how muchthat costs over the years, I
lost my home.
My dad went off into anotherlife.
My two older siblings were gone.
So I was literally on the lawnwith my luggage.
(01:04):
And that was that was that.
SPEAKER_02 (01:07):
Hi friends, welcome to the New Normal Big Life
Podcast.
We bring you natural news andstories about nature that we
hope will inspire you to getoutside in an adventure, along
with a step-by-step plan to helpyou practice what you've learned
and create your own new normaland live the biggest life you
can dream.
I'm your host, Antoinette Lee,the Wellness Warrior.
Imagine this.
(01:36):
That's one in every 12 millionhuman beings alive right now.
Grandmas in Lagos, grandpas inTokyo, great aunts in Tulsa, who
can't button a shirt, climb astair, or remember their own
phone number because chronicillness has quietly stolen their
independence.
In this episode, you're going todiscover the one number that
(01:58):
should terrify every taxpayer,every parent, and every
30-something pretending that oldage is somebody else's problem.
Are you ready?
58 million Americans, over 65,enough people to fill every NFL
football stadio in the country900 times, already live with at
(02:18):
least one debilitating disease.
That's 93% of everyone whoqualified for Medicare.
And it's not just America'sproblem.
Asia is hiding 320 millionsilent sufferers.
Africa, the youngest continenton earth with a median age of
19, just crossed 33 millioncases, and that's with half the
(02:39):
diagnoses missing becausereporting is spotting at this.
These aren't statistics.
These are the people who taughtus how to ride bikes, who
survived wars we'd only readabout, who are about to cost the
global economy$47 trillion by2025 if we keep pretending the
tsunami of sickness is normalaging.
But here's the twist (03:01):
nobody's telling you.
They're decisions, decisionsabout salt, sleeplessness, and
sofas that started 40 years ago.
What proof this can change injust one generation?
Japan just dropped heart diseasedeaths 60% in 20 years, while
(03:23):
America's climb 12%.
Same lifespan, differentlifestyle choices.
Our guests will help you changehow you're aging, whether you're
8, 18, or 80 years old.
Today we're talking with glamgrandma Lynn Bowman, author of
Brownies for Breakfast, acookbook for diabetics and
people who love them, to findout how to eat, move, and sleep
(03:46):
for good health and longevity,even at age 80.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Can you tell us, this is thequestion that I've been wanting
to ask you since we connected?
What are the lifestyle changesthat people can make starting
today that can give them abetter chance of improved health
(04:07):
and aging, whether they're 8,18, or 80?
Because we all want to reach 80and live our best lives and not
be debilitated.
What are the three lifestyle orfour lifestyle changes they can
make?
SPEAKER_00 (04:21):
You know, I love that this is such a simple
answer.
It's so easy to answer thisquestion.
Because, hang on, here it is.
No sugar.
Quit today.
Stop.
And when I say sugar, I don'tmean whole fruits and you know,
real natural things.
I mean the sugar that we'reeating and drinking every day in
(04:42):
our coffees, in our sodas, onour cereals, whatever.
Stop it.
Stop.
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is figure out how tosleep.
Get your sleep.
Because so important, and Ican't believe I was kind of old
when I learned this.
Your body only heals when you'rein deep sleep.
(05:04):
We need to heal every day.
So no sugar, good sleep.
And of course, and is this ashow where I can say ass, move
your ass?
You must.
And we'll talk more about how todo that and what kind of
movement to do.
But those are the things.
And you know, I go on to say,okay, read labels.
You must read the label.
(05:25):
But that's about quitting sugarand don't eat crap.
Eat real food, whole food.
You know, that's really it.
If you can manage to do that,you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:37):
It's so simple.
But you know what?
So many people find that sodifficult to do.
So let's talk about what it wasthat got you thinking about
health and longevity.
And and if you don't mindtelling us, and I'll go first,
I'll be 58 next week.
How old are you, Lynn?
SPEAKER_00 (05:57):
Okay, and you're a baby.
I I which I love saying that toyou.
I am in my 80th year, which Ilike to say, and because 79
sounds kind of funky, but I willI will have my 80th birthday in
March, pretty coming up.
SPEAKER_02 (06:13):
And fantastic.
SPEAKER_00 (06:15):
Well, I love talking about this, Antoinette, because
we had this idea about what 80looked like or felt like.
And you know what?
No, it's it's all about beinghealthy.
And then your question was, whatgot me on this path?
And I have a pretty simpleanswer for that, too, which took
(06:36):
me a while to figure out.
But my mother died when I was18.
And she had been chronicallyill, she had kidney disease, and
at that time there was reallynothing that could be done much
for her.
So I experienced caring for herand watching her die and
watching her disability.
And as many of you out there, Iknow, in some way or other, have
(06:59):
done with people you love.
But at the age of 18, I not onlylost my mother, but because of
the circumstance of how muchthat costs over the years, I
lost my home.
My dad went off into anotherlife.
My two older siblings were gone.
So I was literally on the lawnwith my luggage, and that was
(07:24):
that was that.
So it completely changed myworldview, of course, as those
things do.
And I somehow determined that Iwas never gonna do that.
I was never going to leave mychildren.
I wanted to be a mom, I wantedto have a home and a family, and
(07:46):
my dog had been taken away,given away as a result, you
know.
So the idea of having all thatback meant good health.
It it was inextricable.
You had to be healthy to havethose things that I wanted.
I started young and and plus Inever had any money, and so I
(08:06):
learned how to entertain, youknow, on no money in my kitchen
and do it with healthy food.
And this is we're talking 60s,70s here.
And so my friends were sograteful that somebody knew how
to cook and somebody knew how toset a table, and and that was my
(08:29):
kind of secret sauce for asocial life.
I opened my door, people camein, they ate, we drank, we had a
good time, and it was cheap andit was fast, and it was easy,
and I'm still doing that.
I love it to be cheap and fastand easy because it's the
(08:50):
company that I want.
You know, it's not slaving inthe kitchen, and I don't want it
for you, I don't want it foranybody.
I want us to know how to do thissimply, and so I've been doing
it pretty much since I was 18.
SPEAKER_02 (09:03):
Wow.
And you know, you touched onsomething.
So many people forget that oneof the keys to longevity,
especially for people who we seeliving in places we call the
blue zone, like in Japan, forexample, where people not only
live longer, but they livehealthier into their older ages.
(09:25):
And they get together face toface with people.
They serve nutritious foods likeyou're talking about.
And that's something that I dowith my friends here in the
woods.
We don't see each other often,but we are intentional about
getting together once a month,just as Northwoods women, and
then once a month with ourfamilies all together.
(09:48):
And it's so beautiful.
And sometimes it's as simple ashaving mold wine around a
campfire like we did a few weeksago.
SPEAKER_00 (09:57):
For you, and I'm fond of saying that if you're
eating out of a bag in the backof a car by yourself, whether
that's a kid or you or on yourstringle, that's that's not
eating, it's never just aboutthe food.
Food is connection and communionand and society and friendship.
(10:20):
Food is all those things.
We are like wolves.
We we have evolved to share foodand eat together.
It's safer, it's moreinteresting, it's more fun.
And your body actually receivesthe nutrition in a different way
when it feels safe and comfortedand embraced in whatever way
(10:46):
that's happening.
SPEAKER_02 (10:47):
Um you're with your pack.
SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
With your pack, exactly, or you grab a pack, you
know.
I I have a substack too, and Irecently found myself writing
about flirting, Antoinette,because people think that's a
bad thing.
It's not, it's how we reach outto people, how we get eye
contact, how we say, How are youdoing?
(11:10):
You know, and mean it.
What's wrong with that?
And I I I would like toencourage people to do that with
food, you know, knock, knock,knock.
Mrs.
Johnson, I made soup.
Can you come over?
You know, whatever it is.
A couple of kids on your blockthat you like, ask your mom if
you can come bake brownies withme.
(11:31):
I mean, you know, that's sobeautiful.
Well, people are suffering fromloneliness.
We know this.
We've read all the statisticsand and we know it's out there.
And food is medicine forloneliness.
SPEAKER_02 (11:47):
If you're a listener and you haven't caught our
episode on the epidemic ofloneliness, make sure you listen
to that and you'll know whatLynn and I are talking about.
So, Lynn, I'm sure many of yourfriends and neighbors and people
that you come into contact within the internet on the internet
admire how you live your life.
I know that I do personally.
(12:08):
What would be some of the advicethat people would be surprised
that they would receive from youwho admire your health and
vitality at 80?
SPEAKER_00 (12:17):
I'm a grandma.
I have so much advice foreverybody, right?
And all the time about all kindsof things.
But of course, I've alreadytalked about sleep, which is
huge.
And we uh we live in a culturethat denigrates sleep.
Like if you're really somebody,if you're really working hard,
if you're really president ofthe United States, you don't
(12:39):
need to sleep, you know, wrong.
And that sleep can be a way thatwe solve problems.
And if you do any reading aboutinventions and the history of
science and so on, you know thatsome of the great minds have
received their inspiration insleep.
Think about that.
(13:00):
So sleep not only renewsyourselves, but it renews
yourself in many ways and andgives you information that you
need that you're too busy orcan't see or whatever.
But when you get quiet and stilland sleep, the information comes
(13:21):
to you.
And you asked me anotherquestion.
You asked me kind of like whatwould be the one thing?
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
Yeah, some some surprising advice that people
who say, Lynn, I really admirehow you're aging with vitality
and youthfulness and vigor.
What additional advice would yougive them?
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Well, don't worry about it too much, just do it.
I I don't journal, I don't countcalories, I don't I have a was
given an Apple Watch, but itdrives me crazy.
I don't look at what myheartbeat is, whatever.
What I think is the mostimportant thing you can do is
enjoy when you bring joy toeverything that you do that you
(14:04):
can possibly bring joy to.
I mean, I know there are thingsthat you can't, but the little
stupid things, just putting asimple meal on the table, riding
somewhere in a car with afriend.
I mean, all these things that wedo, if you can just stop and go,
am I am I as joyful as I shouldbe, as I could be, because I'm
(14:25):
liking this.
This is good.
Being conscious of joy andgiving joy and bringing joy,
which with food isn't hard.
SPEAKER_02 (14:36):
It's in creating something that's made from whole
foods and bringing it to someoneor inviting them over is really
a forgotten, not I don't know ifit's forgotten, but not a skill
that we practice anymore.
And, you know, I'm reallygrateful that my neighbors, for
(14:56):
example, will hike to my housewith something that they baked.
Like I made a pumpkin cake and Ihiked all the way over here to
bring you some, and that's justsuch a beautiful thing.
Or, you know, when I make someMadeleines for someone who's
recovered from surgery and Ihike them over to their house
while they're still warm, orI'll go ski, cross-country ski
(15:17):
to check on a neighbor.
These are all activities thatget us outside even in the
winter, even when people don'tfeel well, get us outside in
nature, visiting people, givingan expression of love to them
from something that you madewith your own two hands.
And it feels really good.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Another thing, Antoinette, talking to you, I
realize that we should sharewith everyone who wants to
listen is that by becomingprofessional women, as you and I
did, and and I shared with youthat my first real big girl job
was in 1966 at an advertisingagency in downtown Los Angeles.
(15:58):
We spend so much of our life andour energy in that career, in
that job.
But the most valuable thing youhave as you grow older, as you
raise a family or not, but thething that we must have is a
network of women, the support ofwomen.
I mean, I love men, and I'm, youknow, have a husband and he's
(16:19):
great, but they already own theworld.
That's you know, that's done.
We must allow ourselves to giveour energy and our love to our
circle of women.
And I I recently, I think Ithink I told you that I broke my
femur in May.
And so I was laid up.
(16:40):
I mean, if any of you have hadexperience with that kind of a,
it's the biggest bone, it holdsyour body up, and when it's
gone, oh, you know, it's bad.
And I fortunately had a goodsurgeon and I had good care and
so on.
But but I was down and doingrelatively nothing for months,
for three months.
I could do nothing.
(17:00):
I just had to lay there.
And the silver lining was thatmany of my girlfriends,
particularly, came and sat withme.
You know, they brought maybesome food, whatever.
And I would have an hour or twoor three, just them, just
talking, nothing else happening.
Just me over here and them nextto in the chair.
(17:23):
And I came to realize that asmuch as I love these girls and
do things with them, we don'thave this opportunity to just
face to face, uninterrupted,share.
And I learned so much aboutthem, you know, that I didn't
know their history and theirbackground.
So then they learned somethingabout me.
But that is true joy, I think.
(17:47):
And in this case, here I was,you know, in pain and down and
out and so on.
But being cared for in the bestpossible way that didn't cost
anybody anything but some time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:59):
You bring up such a great point.
It is very important for humanbeings to be amongst their own
gender, whether it's men withmen, whether it's women with
women.
It's just something aboutfeeding off of that energy that
just boosts you.
And it's not about dislikinganyone or, like you said, we can
(18:22):
have great men in our lives andwe still need girl time.
Men can have great women intheir lives, they still need
time when they're just withtheir male friends.
And I want to encourage women tonot feel like you're losing out
on something when your guy wantsto go do something on his own.
If he wants to go golfing orfishing or hunting on his own,
(18:46):
give him that time and space todo that, either alone or with
his friends.
And the same for yourself.
Take that time for yourself,especially uh women with
children who often don't get aminute alone, unless there's a
child standing outside thebathroom yelling for you, you
know.
So make sure that you'respending some time alone with
(19:08):
yourself and alone with yourfriends.
SPEAKER_00 (19:10):
And appreciate that you women are the ones who
transfer information.
You are the ones, and it used tobe called gossip.
It was denigrated.
It's it is the heart of thecommunity.
It's what's it's the news, it'swhat's happening.
And I listening to you talkabout your your guy going off.
This is a story that we allknow, is your husband has been
(19:33):
fishing with his friend Ray for50 years.
And finally you you say to him,So is Ray's wife okay?
And he says to you, Oh, is Raymarried?
I rest my case.
And y'all out there have hadsome experience with this kind
of a thing.
Because men do not communicateabout the same kinds of things
that women do.
(19:54):
Now, you could have asked himabout Ray's carburetor, and he
would have known exactly whatthe problem was and how long
he'd had the problem and how hewas going to fix it.
SPEAKER_02 (20:03):
Right, right, exactly.
So I know a lot of people whoreach even like 65, and they
pretty much just give up onlife.
And what I mean by that is theyretire, they're going to their
home, and they hardly ever goanywhere except to run errands.
They give up their hobbies,there's or they may have never
(20:26):
had any hobbies because theywere so busy raising children
and having careers and so forth,or taking care of their parents,
like in my case, too.
So I wonder why you continue tofocus on or center
health-focused lifestyle choiceswhen you're at a time in your
(20:47):
life where you could say, Well,you know, this is the normal
aging process, and I'm gonnaslow down, I'm gonna lose my
cognitive abilities, I'm gonnause my lose my mobility,
stability, and flexibility.
Why do you continue focusing onyour health at an age where most
people are like, I don't have toworry about that anymore?
It's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
I'm having a blast.
I mean, first of all, look at ustalking, you know, from coast to
coast.
I this never would have happenedif I hadn't forced myself to
finish this last book.
It's my fourth book, Browniesfor Breakfast, but it's what I
like to do.
I've always done it, writing andand illustrating and so on.
(21:29):
And I feel like I have a messagethat needs to be out there.
And I don't because I've beendoing this a long time,
Antoinette.
When I first knew I was diabeticin my 40s, the medical community
was like, well, you know, trynot to gain weight.
They had no information for meat all.
(21:51):
So it began this project ofresearching in whatever way I
could.
And still today, I amastonished.
I mean, the figure is somethinglike 80% of the people in the
United States are pre-diabeticor diabetic.
It's a huge number.
And people don't understand howthey got that way, what it is,
(22:13):
what to do.
And it's what I've already toldyou.
It's not difficult, it's simple.
You just have to commit and doit.
And the other reason, besidesgood health, that you should
commit and do it is becauseyou'll eat better food.
It tastes better, it looksbetter.
It's it's all good.
It's better for the earth.
There's no downside except youhave to get your rear end in the
(22:38):
kitchen and do a little foodprep because you cannot be
healthy eating in restaurants.
I mean, and yes, I cheat everyonce in a while, you know, and I
like to go to a restaurant wherethey cook in a way that I don't,
you know, Thai food that'sreally interesting, or you know,
Peruvian food or something,which I can do because I'm in
California.
I'm at this still because I wantpeople to see what a difference
(23:02):
it makes in your life when youdo these simple things.
I'm I'm gonna say a word here.
It's a funny word.
Allulose.
Ever heard of it?
No.
See, I'm here to tell you I'mgonna be Glinda today.
I'm gonna say, okay, your lifeis about to get better because
(23:23):
there is a there are a couple ofsugar substitutes that you can
absolutely enjoy immediatelytoday, this week, and you forget
sugar.
You don't need it anymore,because allulose is a natural
product called a rare sugar.
It's made out of squishing afood down and just pulling the
(23:46):
sweetness out of it, nochemicals, no cooking, nothing.
And it caramelizes like sugar,it tastes exactly, doesn't give
you a tummy ache, it's great.
And with a few tricks like this,and then in three weeks, by the
way, another thing I want peopleto know in three weeks after
you've quit eating sugar, reallyquit, your saliva changes
(24:08):
chemically, and it doesn't tastethe same to you anymore.
And you don't crave it anymorelike you craved it.
So with a few little tweaks toyour lifestyle, you can be
rocking out with granny here.
Now, I have an advantage thatI've been doing it for a long
time, and I want you, youyoungins in your 20s and 30s and
(24:28):
40s, listening to and 50s,listening to this, do it now.
Because the sooner you do it,the better you will age, the
healthier, stronger you'll be.
I also lift weights.
I do resistance training, and soI'm totally on my soapbox about
that, because they told me whatliterally on the table as I was
(24:50):
about to be surgically filledwith titanium, as I have
titanium from my knee to my hipnow.
I love it.
I'm so bionic.
They said, we don't see women inyour kind of shape.
And this used to be a deathsentence, and now you're gonna
heal, you're gonna be fine,which I have healed, I'm still
healing, I'm fine.
(25:11):
But but when particularly womenwould break a hip or a femur,
that was always, well, that'sGranny's done for, you know, she
just can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
I have noticed that.
Before we cover the next topicin this episode, I want to
introduce you to the adventuresports lifestyle with what I
call a micro story about anadventure that I've had.
The adventure sports lifestyleand my deep connection to nature
is essential to my good health.
So here's the story.
One summer evening on NorthCarolina's outer banks, I went
bodyboarding with friends.
(25:45):
The water was as warm as abathtub, so I decided to catch
one more wave while my friendslooked on.
As the wave approached, I turnedmy board to point it towards
shore and rode the wave.
Before long, I felt the bump offish hitting my body as I looked
to my right and my left.
There was a school of 10 to 15inch fish riding the wave with
(26:07):
me.
My friends couldn't believe whatthey saw.
I did that.
I hope this inspires you to getoutside and adventure alone with
friends with the people you lovemost.
I've noticed that a woman over acertain age goes in for surgery,
and then next thing you know,she has some uh staph infection,
and then maybe pneumonia, andthen there's not long before
(26:30):
she's in a nursing home, andthen no longer with us very
shortly after that.
I was going to ask you, whatdoes your daily health regimen
look like?
You've already told us a fewthings, but could you sort of go
through it, you know, maybe hourby hour?
I wake up at this time and I dowhatever the things that you do.
SPEAKER_00 (26:50):
I made a big fat exception for your interview
today because normally Thursdaymorning is a workout for me, but
you and I were trying to gettogether on the time.
So here we are.
So, yes, I go to a local gym,and I love this.
It's in a goat barn.
It's it's and I like I live in asmall town in the country, and
so my gym that I go to with 10,12 other women, and I have
(27:14):
privates with two or three otherwomen and this great trainer,
but it's in this wonderful oldbarn on an old farm in Pescadero
where I live.
It's about seven minutes downthe road, which is great.
Highly, highly recommend thatyou find a group, a class, some
way to have a social life thatinvolves you moving and training
(27:39):
yourself.
And weight training, as youprobably know, everybody's
reading about it now, resistancetraining, particularly for
women, because we haven't doneit.
So build up your bones and notonly your bones, but the doctor
explained to me, yeah, Lynn,everybody's bones age, you know,
so on, as he's on the operatingtable with me lying down there,
(28:01):
you know, drugged and happy.
He said, everybody's bones age,mine do too, yours do, but you
need the muscle around your boneto be holding you up and
balancing you.
So, in addition to all the stuffyou're doing, and I'm sure you
are, aren't you?
Yes, right.
Okay, in addition to all thestuff you're doing to strengthen
(28:22):
your bones, eating well, doingresistance training, building
your muscle is what's going tokeep you safe, safer, much
safer.
So, and plus you'll look better.
You know, absolutely, yeah, andand you will feel much better,
much, much better.
So, yeah, resistance training,good food.
(28:45):
Here's the bad news no morecocktails, no alcohol.
Do I cheat?
Yeah, sometimes.
Little bourbon and branch, youknow.
But basically, all of that aboutalcohol being good for you in a
small amount of the right.
SPEAKER_02 (29:02):
No, no, it's not.
Sorry.
Well, I'm not a big drinkerbecause I had a brain injury,
and it's actually very hard forme to have alcohol.
It affects me in a way thatmakes me less social because I
get too sleepy.
So I could, I'm usually actuallyI'm almost always the designated
driver because I don't care if Idrink or not.
(29:24):
So that's an easy one for me.
You know, I used to be acompetitive bodybuilder and
power lifter.
And yeah, with a 200-pound benchpress, a 350-pound squat, and a
500-pound deadlift.
And on our rural property, wehave a homestead.
I lift 100 pounds by myself on aregular basis.
But I don't lift heavy weightsanymore.
(29:46):
I use exercise bands, I do yogaand pilates, and then I'm an
avid outdoors woman.
I'm actually a sponsoredadventure sports athlete.
So I hunt and fish and kayak anduh surf and all the things.
So yeah, I a hundred percentagree.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Okay, but and I don't have all that to say.
And you wanted to know what mydaily schedule was.
I wake up early with the birdsand I read.
I love that quiet reading timeand I drink my coffee.
And then two or three days aweek, I'm working back up
because of this femur break thatI had.
So I'm now up to three days aweek doing my going to the gym
(30:25):
for my exercise.
And then on those same days, orin addition, on the days that
I'm not in the gym, I try andwalk down the end of my lane and
back, which is not a big fatwalk, but again, it's part of
the healing process for my leg.
And the doctor was very specificand said, I know what kind of a
woman you are.
(30:45):
You're gonna push too fat,you're gonna push too hard.
And I'm warning you, I don'twant you to wreck this beautiful
titanium thing I put in yourleg.
So, okay, okay, okay.
So I'm gently moving back intobeing more active with my body
on my leg.
And I spend a lot of the daydoing things that that I never
had time to do.
(31:06):
And you'll laugh.
Okay, you'll love this one.
I iron my pillowcases.
I mean, I the the whole idea ofbeing able to really be, you
know, Harriet housewife.
I never could do that.
I had three kids, I was a singlemom, I had a career that was
crazy, so on.
And so now at this stage of mylife, to be able to place my
(31:28):
things carefully in my house andkeep everything, you know,
dusted.
And I love it.
I mean, it's meditative, itmakes me happy.
I love gardening.
SPEAKER_02 (31:37):
You are my, you are definitely one of my people,
Lynn, because I am the same way.
This is my actual cabin.
If you're watching us onYouTube, this is my actual cabin
family room.
And one of the things thatpeople say right after I say,
Welcome to the cabin and welcomethem inside, they go, Oh my god,
it's so clean in here.
(31:58):
I don't know what they wereexpecting.
I don't know, dust and cobwebsand I don't know, my dog's hair.
But you know, I have always beena very clean, organized person.
And I was a very busy kid, youknow, with academic programs and
uh uh student athlete programs.
(32:20):
So I was always very busy, and Ijust felt like if I was
organized and my room was clean,I think better, I function
better, I can be go, go, go, andthen easily, you know, shut down
for rest and rest in restorativehealth.
And I learned that as a kid, andI've kept that through my entire
life.
And I think it's one of thesecrets to my good health.
SPEAKER_00 (32:44):
Absolutely.
I agree with you.
It's it's got a bad name rightnow.
You know, I tease people aboutbeing a an elderly trad wife.
Um, but I to me, the ritual ofkeeping your space in order and
you know, clean and havingthings where you need them, I
(33:05):
don't waste time that waylooking for things and wishing
I'm and it's an old habit, Ithink, from from professional
life where you didn't have achoice.
You had to have the right stuffand you had to have it in front
of you, and you had, you know,but yeah, my mind demands order
in my space.
And then because I'm a writeressentially these days and all
(33:28):
along, I'm finally justadmitting it.
That's what you are.
Okay.
All right.
I need quiet time, I need tohave my stuff in order, and then
I need to sit.
But sitting at a computerwriting is a health challenge.
And so because I do that, I haveto get up, I have to walk
around, I have to go up mystairs a few times, you know,
(33:49):
take a load of laundry, ironsomething, whatever.
So it's a balance between thosethings.
And I feel lucky to be able todo that now after so many years
of crazy.
I mean, this is how crazy itwas, and my children don't
believe me.
But I would get up at five inthe morning and put on a full
(34:10):
set of lashes, full makeup,because I worked in an office in
the advertising business.
I had to be there before the mengot there because none of them
believed that a woman with threechildren could do this work, and
so I had to do it better,faster, and look better while I
was doing it, you know, or itwasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_02 (34:32):
We have to do it backwards and in high heels like
Ginger Rogers, and with lashesstuck on.
Yes.
So if we could go back and talkabout food for just a moment,
because food is so essential toyour good health.
You wrote a book with afascinating title, Brownies for
Breakfast, a cookbook fordiabetics, and the people who
(34:56):
love them.
Tell us about your book.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
Right here.
It it came about because peopleasked me to do it.
I kept talking about theserecipes and talking about how to
eat for and there wasn't at thetime anything out there that I
believed was really helpful topeople.
It was all about, you know, thethe sort of microbiology of it
(35:20):
all in the blah.
No, no, no.
Tell me what to do.
Tell me how to fix it.
Give me, you know, right?
Make one step by step, step bystep.
So I I I just went about it inthe way that I knew how to go
about it with my iPhone, takingthe pictures, because I wanted
(35:42):
you to be able to make what Iwas making in my kitchen with no
stylists and no speciallighting, and uh, you know, just
here's the food, here's how youdo it.
And I've I've been so happy thatI, and I had a wonderful
designer friend, Elise Huffman,uh helped me put it all
together.
(36:02):
But we need we need a guidebook,you know, we need a simple,
enjoyable, and I've got storiesin there, and I promise a couple
little laughs for you becausefood can be funny too, very
often in my kitchen.
Yes, because I'm impatient,right?
I'm messy in the kitchen becauseI'm doing it like this.
(36:22):
And and I don't, I'm not good atmeasuring everything, Antoine.
And I I have to assume thatthere are a lot of people out
there who also don'tparticularly want to measure
things.
So there are recipes in thisbook with two ingredients that I
promise you you will love, orthree or five ingredients.
I'm not gonna send you down tothe grocery store in the middle
of the night to buy somethingyou don't have.
(36:44):
I tell you exactly what youneed, and it's simple, it's
ordinary stuff, but so oftenit's things that people just
don't think about.
And here's a quick example.
I have a recipe in here fortakeout tacos.
I don't know if I can open thepage up to it fast enough.
And this is not just sweets, bythe way, it's also uh savory
(37:05):
food.
SPEAKER_02 (37:06):
But I love that you include whole foods, plant-based
ingredients, sugar-free,dairy-free, gluten-free.
SPEAKER_00 (37:15):
I love it so much.
And you can use it if you'revegetarian, if you're vegan, if
you don't care, it's all inhere.
You just add meat or don't addmeat, or you know, whatever you
feel like.
No dairy, fine, use this.
Because it's not, you know,nuclear physics.
It's pretty easy, really, tomake a good plate of food quick
(37:37):
if you've got some good wholefood in your house.
We also grow food, and I and Ireally encourage people to have
whether it's just a little potfull of stuff out in your porch
or a little pot on your sink.
And if you have children orgrandchildren, you know that
kids love nothing more.
And I don't care what fancyschool or you know, again,
(38:00):
nuclear physics, you're fine,kids love to grow things and
they love to eat what they grow.
You want you want them to eatveggies, let them grow veggies.
They will eat those veggies ifthey've grown them.
And you know, I have afour-year-old grandson that is
here fairly often.
(38:21):
He lives a few hours away inReno, but he and his papa, my
husband, grow fava beans.
And this child, you'd think itwas the most expensive,
elaborate toy in the universe.
Being able to grow fava beansand then eat them.
I love that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:39):
We take kids to camp.
We developed in adventure sportscamp.
We take kids to the mountain andwe teach them about things that
they can do at home to practicebeing stewards of the land and
water around their homes.
And so we teach them aboutgardening, about growing your
own food, but also about how aplant that you might see at the
(39:03):
nursery can become an invasivespecies in your community.
And then they go back home andthey're teaching their parents
and grandparents, and these arekids age six to 16.
They're telling their parents,you can't buy that plant unless
you're going to have it indoorsbecause it will be an invasive
species here where we live.
(39:23):
And they can actually explainwhat that means and they talk
their parents out of buyingthings they would have
ordinarily bought bought.
SPEAKER_00 (39:30):
I love too that we're teaching kids herbalism.
We're teaching kids how toforage for food.
You know, we kind of lost thisin our because women, it's our
fault because we have to work inoffices, but because there's so
much to be gleaned in everysense from just walking out and
where you live and where I liveanyway, walking out the door and
(39:53):
seeing what's growing.
I mean, it's a miracle, it's allright there.
It wants to be there for you.
SPEAKER_02 (40:00):
I hope if you haven't, listeners, caught the
episode on the return towildcrafting and foraging, which
are two different things.
Catch that episode when you geta chance.
I give you step by step how toget started, from what tools you
need, what skills you need todevelop, and how to go about it
(40:20):
step by step.
And I hope you'll also try mydandelion gummies for your good
health.
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SPEAKER_00 (41:25):
And your question actually was kind of referring
to the book and you know, how doyou how do you make food every
day?
Here's a quick one that willillustrate for you what I talk
about.
We have a takeria not far awaythat's wonderful.
It's fresh, you know, fish thatis local and a lot of vegetables
and wonderful people.
(41:45):
And a favorite thing is to comehome with a shrimp burrito and
you cut it in three pieces.
Don't eat the whole thing.
Cut it in three pieces.
Put it on a bed of greens.
Because one of my firstrecommendations is eat greens
three times a day.
And people go, How am I going todo that?
(42:07):
Here's how you do that.
Here's one way.
So instead of just working downthat burrito, cut it in three
pieces.
So now you've got three meals.
You put a bed, just you pull abag or a thing out of your
fridge and you sprinkle somelettuce or spinach or or arugula
or whatever on the plate.
You put down your one-third of aburrito, you put a little more
(42:28):
salsa, I put Trader Joe's greensalsas, excellent, made from
good food, tomatillos.
Put that on top, put some eitherreal cheese or cheese substitute
on top, stick that in themicrowave and nuke it.
And now you have this beautifulthing with all this green
underneath it and the cheesemelting and the stuff.
It's so much better than justwith a burrito.
(42:53):
And now you can have two more,or you can have a friend or
husband or a daughter eat withyou out of that one burrito.
And I'm here to tell you that atthe price we now pay for our
burritos, you kind of need tostretch it.
I mean, it's I I don't denyanyone getting what they need to
(43:13):
get for their food, but it'sit's twice what it was.
SPEAKER_02 (43:18):
Three times where I live, three times what it used
to cost.
And I love this idea ofstretching out that meal.
If you're single, you have threemeals.
If you're sharing it with afriend or a family member, then
you have two meals for the twoof you and as another meal for
yourself left over.
I love adding the greens.
It's okay to eat out once in awhile, like you're saying, but
(43:40):
you bring it home and you add alittle something extra to it.
I love that so much.
SPEAKER_00 (43:45):
I also ask for no rice.
So what happens is I get morebeans and more veggies in the
burrito.
And of course, as a diabetic,and here's another thing: once
diabetic, once you you alwaysare.
You don't like yes, and you willreverse it and you will get and
your hemoglobin A1C will bebetter, but you have to always
(44:05):
think like a diabetic.
And I suggest that foreverybody, because the same
diet, let's say, same way ofeating that works best for
diabetics is best for heartpatients, kidney disease,
preventing, you know,cholesterol.
I mean, go down the whole list,it's the way we should all be
eating.
SPEAKER_02 (44:26):
The diabetics way of eating is also a low
inflammation diet.
And inflammation is one of thehallmarks of many chronic
illnesses from heart disease,diabetes itself, obesity, some
forms of cancer, lymphedema.
And even if you've had a braininjury like me, you really have
(44:48):
to control your widespreadinflammation possibilities.
So eating this way is great foreveryone, not just someone who's
pre-diabetic or diabetic.
SPEAKER_00 (44:59):
Glad you brought that up too, because guess what
is responsible for possibly mostof the inflammation in
everybody's bodies now?
Can you guess?
White sugar, white flour, whitesugar, sugar, sugar.
And people are getting it in theform of soda pop.
(45:21):
I can't believe people are stillallowing their children to drink
soda pop.
And the diet coke that is no,no, no.
Read the label on that, puppy.
You know, read the label.
Do you really want to be good?
And it kind of tickles me in agruesome way that people are so
(45:42):
much more aware and careful ofwhat their cocker spaniel eats
than what their child, theirhuman child, is consuming or
what they themselves areconsuming, right?
SPEAKER_02 (45:52):
For those of you who don't know, one of the main
ingredients in your soda is alsothe main ingredient in the
cleaner that the United StatesNavy uses to clean its ships.
Think about that for a moment.
I rest my case.
So, Lynn, what would I besurprised to see in your home?
SPEAKER_00 (46:13):
Well, I've just removed them, but I had two real
bearskin rugs.
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02 (46:21):
That just sounds like a story right there.
SPEAKER_00 (46:23):
Yeah, it comes with a story.
And it was my father-in-law wasa hunter in the Northwoods.
You know, he would disappear formonths at a time and come back.
And the he passed away a fewyears back, and we we got this
barrel of stuff.
And and my my husband's motherpassed away not long after he
(46:44):
did.
So we found ourselves with allthis stuff, as many of us do,
not knowing what to do.
And we opened this bigcontainer, and it was full of
fur stuff from Bob's hunting.
And so not knowing, I didn'twant to put it back.
I mean, what do you do with anactual bear skin?
(47:07):
So I used it as a rug, and thenand now I've put it away again,
and I'm I'm thinking again aboutwhere it might go.
One of my kids, maybe.
And then I had a a wonderful oldantique pear wood settee that uh
my sister-in-law had given meFrench old piece.
It was just wonderful, and I hadit recovered with deer skin,
(47:29):
which ended up being beautiful.
This poor creature died.
I I want to give it meaning.
And it's death, right?
So so I see it every day in myroom on this beautiful little
settee.
So people might look at me andgo, well, really?
You're not not eating meat.
No, and I actually do eat meat.
(47:50):
I don't eat a lot of meat, but Ido eat meat.
And we live in an area, assounds like you do too.
This is kind of a hub forregenerative agriculture.
So I have a number of neighborswho are raising goats and pigs
and geese and cattle in a very,how shall I say, emotionally
(48:12):
well adjusted kind of way.
I mean, these are happy cattle.
SPEAKER_02 (48:15):
In a florative kind of way, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:18):
Yes, and and they're not wrecking the land.
You know, they're very, verycautious of maintaining the
health of the earth, too.
So in that case, I'll tell youthe story quickly of having some
friends over from down thestreet.
I just said, Come on, over,bring your kids.
And they're so happy when yousay, Can we bring our kids?
Yes, bring your kids.
And we had a wonderful dinner.
And to thank me, the husbandsent me a note and said, I put a
(48:39):
gift for you out in our mailbox.
So when you when you drive by,as I do every day on my way to
town, just it's in there.
It's it's a roast for you tocook.
And it turned out to be a goatleg.
Wow, yes, please.
And I thought, okay, I've nevercooked a goat leg, but I quickly
(49:00):
looked up a couple of recipesand there was a French one, and
that's kind of the way I lean.
So it took a whole bottle ofPinot Noir and a beautiful La
Chambre pot.
And that's something else we cantalk about too.
Those clay pots from Colombiathat are so wonderful.
And it was heavenly with somevegetables in it.
It was so, and I never thoughtI'd be eating little, you know,
(49:22):
Lucy or whatever the goat's namewas.
But I thanked her and blessedher.
And and and that goat leg was, Igotta say, absolutely lovely
food.
But this is not something thatwe eat every day.
You know, this is a thing that'skind of a special occasion
thing.
SPEAKER_02 (49:41):
Yes, I yeah, definitely.
You brought up a couple of a fewinteresting points as a hunter
and as a person who has ahomestead that I I want to talk
about.
So, first of all, there is someresearch from Germany, Japan,
several other countries that areshowing that people genetically
(50:05):
are predisposed to have apreference, a metabolic
preference of either beingcompletely vegetarian, mostly
vegetarian, or vegan or meateaters.
And it's important to know yourtype.
And there are tests that you cando to kind of figure that out.
(50:26):
I explored different things interms of styles of eating, and I
realized as a brain injurysurvivor, and I've been told
this by several neurologists,that because my brain is
injured, it requires more animalfat than maybe the average
person.
(50:47):
And some people, like vegans whocan thrive on no animal protein,
they are just a unique kind ofhuman being that can thrive on
that.
Then there are some people whocan thrive on very little animal
protein, and then there arepeople like me who need a
(51:08):
significant amount of animalprotein.
So I will we grow a lot of ourown vegetables, and I also do a
lot of foraging.
So vegetables and herbs areessential to our diet every
meal.
I even have figured out how toincorporate kale for breakfast,
if you can believe that.
So that's something importantfor people to know is that there
(51:31):
is no one way of eating that'sgoing to be right for everyone.
So explore, keep a, I like tokeep a food journal of how do I
feel when I eat a little animalprotein, a lot of animal
protein, or no animal protein atall.
And that's how I figured outwhat was best for me.
And then my neurologist justconfirmed it.
(51:52):
The other thing to keep in mindis some people get very upset
when you talk about harvestinganimals for meat or for crafts
or for warmth.
For example, some people mightuse that bear skin to make a
coat out of it, or they mightuse it for decoration like you
(52:14):
did with a rug.
But here's the thing to keep inmind: if there are no natural
predators for those animals, andyou create a herd of deer, for
example, that needs when theherd is small, they need this
amount of resources.
Food, water, shelter, space toroam.
(52:34):
When the herd is bigger, they'llneed this amount of resources.
As the herd grows, they needmore and more resources.
And as the herd grows andresources don't increase, then
the herd gets sick and the herddecreases until it could almost
die off.
And we've seen communities wherethey have limited or stopped
(52:56):
hunting, and then they lose anentire herd population because
there aren't enough resources tosupport the number of animals in
that community.
So here is a natural order ofthings to be able to hunt and
gather.
And I know there are some peoplewho believe that you should
(53:16):
never harvest an animal for anyreason.
And you're fine to believe that,but the reality of it is if
you're going to be a steward ofthe land and water in which you
on which you live, you have tounderstand resource management.
Just like I have to manage theforest, the trees in my forest,
if I want the forest to thrive,we have to manage the animal
(53:38):
population as well.
SPEAKER_00 (53:40):
Yes, all of that.
And I'm glad to see more andmore coming out that way.
And taking it back to anutrition thing, for example, if
you're Inuit, you don't thriveon the same diet as a northern
European person or SouthAmerican person because of,
yeah, hello, natural selection.
I mean, you know, we've we'veevolved to eat what was
(54:02):
available to us.
And and I know I talk a fairamount about the difference in
the proteins in goat milk and incow milk.
And there are huge populationsthat really cannot happily drink
or eat cow's milk products.
SPEAKER_02 (54:20):
It's just not my family's from Nigeria and
Africans, we tend to not dowell, especially as we get
older.
We tend to have some lactoseintolerance.
For me, I did not have an excessamount of dairy, and so I never
developed lactose intolerance.
SPEAKER_00 (54:37):
And lucky you, but also a lot of dairy, even for
someone like me who toleratesdairy just fine, it's not a good
idea.
I mean, you know, too much fat,too much, you know, it's just
not something, and and it has todo with where the dairy is
coming from.
You know, uh, did you know thecow?
(54:58):
Well, then it's a differentdeal.
If you don't know the cow, wewould all be eating a little
differently if we could actuallysee the process of where our
food is coming from.
unknown (55:10):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (55:11):
That RBST that you might find in your dairy
products is also an endocrinedisruptor.
So think about that for amoment.
So, Glynn this has been such aninsightful conversation.
I definitely have to have youback multiple times.
We're going to do a conversationjust on diabetes.
That's such an important topic.
(55:31):
But what more would you like toleave listeners with today?
SPEAKER_00 (55:34):
And the thing I want people to always remember is to
eat with joy.
I I really want you to enjoyevery bite, every word of the
other people at the table,whatever.
I want you not worrying andstressing about what you're
eating or how much you'reeating.
I want you to arrange it so youcan relax, eat what you want,
(55:57):
and enjoy every bite.
I love that so much.
SPEAKER_02 (56:00):
Thank you so much for joining me here today in the
cabin.
Thank you, Antoinette.
Until next time, friends, I'mAntoinette Lee, your wellness
warrior here at the New NormalBig Life Podcast.
I hope one day to see you on theriver, in the backcountry, or in
the horse barn living your bestlife.
Struggling with health problemsor seeking natural health
solutions, we've got youcovered.
Don't miss our latest podcastepisodes, exclusive blog posts,
(56:24):
and free ebooks packed withlife-changing wellness tips.
Be sure to help others find thisgreat information by leaving us
a star rating and a reviewwherever you get your podcasts.
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We had this idea about what 80 looked like or
felt like.
And you know what?
No.
It's all about being healthy.
And then your question was, whatgot me on this path?
And I have a pretty simpleanswer for that, too, which took
me a while to figure out.
But my mother died when I was18.
(00:22):
And she had been chronicallyill.
She had uh kidney disease.
And at that time, there wasreally nothing that could be
done much for her.
So I experienced caring for herand watching her die and
watching her disability.
And as many of you out there, Iknow, in some way or other, have
done with people you love.
(00:43):
But at the age of 18, I not onlylost my mother, but because of
the circumstance of how muchthat costs over the years, I
lost my home.
My dad went off into anotherlife.
My two older siblings were gone.
So I was literally on the lawnwith my luggage.
(01:04):
And that was that was that.
SPEAKER_02 (01:07):
Hi friends, welcome to the New Normal Big Life
Podcast.
We bring you natural news andstories about nature that we
hope will inspire you to getoutside in an adventure, along
with a step-by-step plan to helpyou practice what you've learned
and create your own new normaland live the biggest life you
can dream.
I'm your host, Antoinette Lee,the Wellness Warrior.
Imagine this.
(01:36):
That's one in every 12 millionhuman beings alive right now.
Grandmas in Lagos, grandpas inTokyo, great aunts in Tulsa, who
can't button a shirt, climb astair, or remember their own
phone number because chronicillness has quietly stolen their
independence.
In this episode, you're going todiscover the one number that
(01:58):
should terrify every taxpayer,every parent, and every
30-something pretending that oldage is somebody else's problem.
Are you ready?
58 million Americans, over 65,enough people to fill every NFL
football stadio in the country900 times, already live with at
(02:18):
least one debilitating disease.
That's 93% of everyone whoqualified for Medicare.
And it's not just America'sproblem.
Asia is hiding 320 millionsilent sufferers.
Africa, the youngest continenton earth with a median age of
19, just crossed 33 millioncases, and that's with half the
(02:39):
diagnoses missing becausereporting is spotting at this.
These aren't statistics.
These are the people who taughtus how to ride bikes, who
survived wars we'd only readabout, who are about to cost the
global economy$47 trillion by2025 if we keep pretending the
tsunami of sickness is normalaging.
But here's the twist (03:01):
nobody's telling you.
They're decisions, decisionsabout salt, sleeplessness, and
sofas that started 40 years ago.
What proof this can change injust one generation?
Japan just dropped heart diseasedeaths 60% in 20 years, while
(03:23):
America's climb 12%.
Same lifespan, differentlifestyle choices.
Our guests will help you changehow you're aging, whether you're
8, 18, or 80 years old.
Today we're talking with glamgrandma Lynn Bowman, author of
Brownies for Breakfast, acookbook for diabetics and
people who love them, to findout how to eat, move, and sleep
(03:46):
for good health and longevity,even at age 80.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Can you tell us, this is thequestion that I've been wanting
to ask you since we connected?
What are the lifestyle changesthat people can make starting
today that can give them abetter chance of improved health
(04:07):
and aging, whether they're 8,18, or 80?
Because we all want to reach 80and live our best lives and not
be debilitated.
What are the three lifestyle orfour lifestyle changes they can
make?
SPEAKER_00 (04:21):
You know, I love that this is such a simple
answer.
It's so easy to answer thisquestion.
Because, hang on, here it is.
No sugar.
Quit today.
Stop.
And when I say sugar, I don'tmean whole fruits and you know,
real natural things.
I mean the sugar that we'reeating and drinking every day in
(04:42):
our coffees, in our sodas, onour cereals, whatever.
Stop it.
Stop.
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is figure out how tosleep.
Get your sleep.
Because so important, and Ican't believe I was kind of old
when I learned this.
Your body only heals when you'rein deep sleep.
(05:04):
We need to heal every day.
So no sugar, good sleep.
And of course, and is this ashow where I can say ass, move
your ass?
You must.
And we'll talk more about how todo that and what kind of
movement to do.
But those are the things.
And you know, I go on to say,okay, read labels.
You must read the label.
(05:25):
But that's about quitting sugarand don't eat crap.
Eat real food, whole food.
You know, that's really it.
If you can manage to do that,you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:37):
It's so simple.
But you know what?
So many people find that sodifficult to do.
So let's talk about what it wasthat got you thinking about
health and longevity.
And and if you don't mindtelling us, and I'll go first,
I'll be 58 next week.
How old are you, Lynn?
SPEAKER_00 (05:57):
Okay, and you're a baby.
I I which I love saying that toyou.
I am in my 80th year, which Ilike to say, and because 79
sounds kind of funky, but I willI will have my 80th birthday in
March, pretty coming up.
SPEAKER_02 (06:13):
And fantastic.
SPEAKER_00 (06:15):
Well, I love talking about this, Antoinette, because
we had this idea about what 80looked like or felt like.
And you know what?
No, it's it's all about beinghealthy.
And then your question was, whatgot me on this path?
And I have a pretty simpleanswer for that, too, which took
(06:36):
me a while to figure out.
But my mother died when I was18.
And she had been chronicallyill, she had kidney disease, and
at that time there was reallynothing that could be done much
for her.
So I experienced caring for herand watching her die and
watching her disability.
And as many of you out there, Iknow, in some way or other, have
(06:59):
done with people you love.
But at the age of 18, I not onlylost my mother, but because of
the circumstance of how muchthat costs over the years, I
lost my home.
My dad went off into anotherlife.
My two older siblings were gone.
So I was literally on the lawnwith my luggage, and that was
(07:24):
that was that.
So it completely changed myworldview, of course, as those
things do.
And I somehow determined that Iwas never gonna do that.
I was never going to leave mychildren.
I wanted to be a mom, I wantedto have a home and a family, and
(07:46):
my dog had been taken away,given away as a result, you
know.
So the idea of having all thatback meant good health.
It it was inextricable.
You had to be healthy to havethose things that I wanted.
I started young and and plus Inever had any money, and so I
(08:06):
learned how to entertain, youknow, on no money in my kitchen
and do it with healthy food.
And this is we're talking 60s,70s here.
And so my friends were sograteful that somebody knew how
to cook and somebody knew how toset a table, and and that was my
(08:29):
kind of secret sauce for asocial life.
I opened my door, people camein, they ate, we drank, we had a
good time, and it was cheap andit was fast, and it was easy,
and I'm still doing that.
I love it to be cheap and fastand easy because it's the
(08:50):
company that I want.
You know, it's not slaving inthe kitchen, and I don't want it
for you, I don't want it foranybody.
I want us to know how to do thissimply, and so I've been doing
it pretty much since I was 18.
SPEAKER_02 (09:03):
Wow.
And you know, you touched onsomething.
So many people forget that oneof the keys to longevity,
especially for people who we seeliving in places we call the
blue zone, like in Japan, forexample, where people not only
live longer, but they livehealthier into their older ages.
(09:25):
And they get together face toface with people.
They serve nutritious foods likeyou're talking about.
And that's something that I dowith my friends here in the
woods.
We don't see each other often,but we are intentional about
getting together once a month,just as Northwoods women, and
then once a month with ourfamilies all together.
(09:48):
And it's so beautiful.
And sometimes it's as simple ashaving mold wine around a
campfire like we did a few weeksago.
SPEAKER_00 (09:57):
For you, and I'm fond of saying that if you're
eating out of a bag in the backof a car by yourself, whether
that's a kid or you or on yourstringle, that's that's not
eating, it's never just aboutthe food.
Food is connection and communionand and society and friendship.
(10:20):
Food is all those things.
We are like wolves.
We we have evolved to share foodand eat together.
It's safer, it's moreinteresting, it's more fun.
And your body actually receivesthe nutrition in a different way
when it feels safe and comfortedand embraced in whatever way
(10:46):
that's happening.
SPEAKER_02 (10:47):
Um you're with your pack.
SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
With your pack, exactly, or you grab a pack, you
know.
I I have a substack too, and Irecently found myself writing
about flirting, Antoinette,because people think that's a
bad thing.
It's not, it's how we reach outto people, how we get eye
contact, how we say, How are youdoing?
(11:10):
You know, and mean it.
What's wrong with that?
And I I I would like toencourage people to do that with
food, you know, knock, knock,knock.
Mrs.
Johnson, I made soup.
Can you come over?
You know, whatever it is.
A couple of kids on your blockthat you like, ask your mom if
you can come bake brownies withme.
(11:31):
I mean, you know, that's sobeautiful.
Well, people are suffering fromloneliness.
We know this.
We've read all the statisticsand and we know it's out there.
And food is medicine forloneliness.
SPEAKER_02 (11:47):
If you're a listener and you haven't caught our
episode on the epidemic ofloneliness, make sure you listen
to that and you'll know whatLynn and I are talking about.
So, Lynn, I'm sure many of yourfriends and neighbors and people
that you come into contact within the internet on the internet
admire how you live your life.
I know that I do personally.
(12:08):
What would be some of the advicethat people would be surprised
that they would receive from youwho admire your health and
vitality at 80?
SPEAKER_00 (12:17):
I'm a grandma.
I have so much advice foreverybody, right?
And all the time about all kindsof things.
But of course, I've alreadytalked about sleep, which is
huge.
And we uh we live in a culturethat denigrates sleep.
Like if you're really somebody,if you're really working hard,
if you're really president ofthe United States, you don't
(12:39):
need to sleep, you know, wrong.
And that sleep can be a way thatwe solve problems.
And if you do any reading aboutinventions and the history of
science and so on, you know thatsome of the great minds have
received their inspiration insleep.
Think about that.
(13:00):
So sleep not only renewsyourselves, but it renews
yourself in many ways and andgives you information that you
need that you're too busy orcan't see or whatever.
But when you get quiet and stilland sleep, the information comes
(13:21):
to you.
And you asked me anotherquestion.
You asked me kind of like whatwould be the one thing?
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
Yeah, some some surprising advice that people
who say, Lynn, I really admirehow you're aging with vitality
and youthfulness and vigor.
What additional advice would yougive them?
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Well, don't worry about it too much, just do it.
I I don't journal, I don't countcalories, I don't I have a was
given an Apple Watch, but itdrives me crazy.
I don't look at what myheartbeat is, whatever.
What I think is the mostimportant thing you can do is
enjoy when you bring joy toeverything that you do that you
(14:04):
can possibly bring joy to.
I mean, I know there are thingsthat you can't, but the little
stupid things, just putting asimple meal on the table, riding
somewhere in a car with afriend.
I mean, all these things that wedo, if you can just stop and go,
am I am I as joyful as I shouldbe, as I could be, because I'm
(14:25):
liking this.
This is good.
Being conscious of joy andgiving joy and bringing joy,
which with food isn't hard.
SPEAKER_02 (14:36):
It's in creating something that's made from whole
foods and bringing it to someoneor inviting them over is really
a forgotten, not I don't know ifit's forgotten, but not a skill
that we practice anymore.
And, you know, I'm reallygrateful that my neighbors, for
(14:56):
example, will hike to my housewith something that they baked.
Like I made a pumpkin cake and Ihiked all the way over here to
bring you some, and that's justsuch a beautiful thing.
Or, you know, when I make someMadeleines for someone who's
recovered from surgery and Ihike them over to their house
while they're still warm, orI'll go ski, cross-country ski
(15:17):
to check on a neighbor.
These are all activities thatget us outside even in the
winter, even when people don'tfeel well, get us outside in
nature, visiting people, givingan expression of love to them
from something that you madewith your own two hands.
And it feels really good.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Another thing, Antoinette, talking to you, I
realize that we should sharewith everyone who wants to
listen is that by becomingprofessional women, as you and I
did, and and I shared with youthat my first real big girl job
was in 1966 at an advertisingagency in downtown Los Angeles.
(15:58):
We spend so much of our life andour energy in that career, in
that job.
But the most valuable thing youhave as you grow older, as you
raise a family or not, but thething that we must have is a
network of women, the support ofwomen.
I mean, I love men, and I'm, youknow, have a husband and he's
(16:19):
great, but they already own theworld.
That's you know, that's done.
We must allow ourselves to giveour energy and our love to our
circle of women.
And I I recently, I think Ithink I told you that I broke my
femur in May.
And so I was laid up.
(16:40):
I mean, if any of you have hadexperience with that kind of a,
it's the biggest bone, it holdsyour body up, and when it's
gone, oh, you know, it's bad.
And I fortunately had a goodsurgeon and I had good care and
so on.
But but I was down and doingrelatively nothing for months,
for three months.
I could do nothing.
(17:00):
I just had to lay there.
And the silver lining was thatmany of my girlfriends,
particularly, came and sat withme.
You know, they brought maybesome food, whatever.
And I would have an hour or twoor three, just them, just
talking, nothing else happening.
Just me over here and them nextto in the chair.
(17:23):
And I came to realize that asmuch as I love these girls and
do things with them, we don'thave this opportunity to just
face to face, uninterrupted,share.
And I learned so much aboutthem, you know, that I didn't
know their history and theirbackground.
So then they learned somethingabout me.
But that is true joy, I think.
(17:47):
And in this case, here I was,you know, in pain and down and
out and so on.
But being cared for in the bestpossible way that didn't cost
anybody anything but some time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:59):
You bring up such a great point.
It is very important for humanbeings to be amongst their own
gender, whether it's men withmen, whether it's women with
women.
It's just something aboutfeeding off of that energy that
just boosts you.
And it's not about dislikinganyone or, like you said, we can
(18:22):
have great men in our lives andwe still need girl time.
Men can have great women intheir lives, they still need
time when they're just withtheir male friends.
And I want to encourage women tonot feel like you're losing out
on something when your guy wantsto go do something on his own.
If he wants to go golfing orfishing or hunting on his own,
(18:46):
give him that time and space todo that, either alone or with
his friends.
And the same for yourself.
Take that time for yourself,especially uh women with
children who often don't get aminute alone, unless there's a
child standing outside thebathroom yelling for you, you
know.
So make sure that you'respending some time alone with
(19:08):
yourself and alone with yourfriends.
SPEAKER_00 (19:10):
And appreciate that you women are the ones who
transfer information.
You are the ones, and it used tobe called gossip.
It was denigrated.
It's it is the heart of thecommunity.
It's what's it's the news, it'swhat's happening.
And I listening to you talkabout your your guy going off.
This is a story that we allknow, is your husband has been
(19:33):
fishing with his friend Ray for50 years.
And finally you you say to him,So is Ray's wife okay?
And he says to you, Oh, is Raymarried?
I rest my case.
And y'all out there have hadsome experience with this kind
of a thing.
Because men do not communicateabout the same kinds of things
that women do.
(19:54):
Now, you could have asked himabout Ray's carburetor, and he
would have known exactly whatthe problem was and how long
he'd had the problem and how hewas going to fix it.
SPEAKER_02 (20:03):
Right, right, exactly.
So I know a lot of people whoreach even like 65, and they
pretty much just give up onlife.
And what I mean by that is theyretire, they're going to their
home, and they hardly ever goanywhere except to run errands.
They give up their hobbies,there's or they may have never
(20:26):
had any hobbies because theywere so busy raising children
and having careers and so forth,or taking care of their parents,
like in my case, too.
So I wonder why you continue tofocus on or center
health-focused lifestyle choiceswhen you're at a time in your
(20:47):
life where you could say, Well,you know, this is the normal
aging process, and I'm gonnaslow down, I'm gonna lose my
cognitive abilities, I'm gonnause my lose my mobility,
stability, and flexibility.
Why do you continue focusing onyour health at an age where most
people are like, I don't have toworry about that anymore?
It's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
I'm having a blast.
I mean, first of all, look at ustalking, you know, from coast to
coast.
I this never would have happenedif I hadn't forced myself to
finish this last book.
It's my fourth book, Browniesfor Breakfast, but it's what I
like to do.
I've always done it, writing andand illustrating and so on.
(21:29):
And I feel like I have a messagethat needs to be out there.
And I don't because I've beendoing this a long time,
Antoinette.
When I first knew I was diabeticin my 40s, the medical community
was like, well, you know, trynot to gain weight.
They had no information for meat all.
(21:51):
So it began this project ofresearching in whatever way I
could.
And still today, I amastonished.
I mean, the figure is somethinglike 80% of the people in the
United States are pre-diabeticor diabetic.
It's a huge number.
And people don't understand howthey got that way, what it is,
(22:13):
what to do.
And it's what I've already toldyou.
It's not difficult, it's simple.
You just have to commit and doit.
And the other reason, besidesgood health, that you should
commit and do it is becauseyou'll eat better food.
It tastes better, it looksbetter.
It's it's all good.
It's better for the earth.
There's no downside except youhave to get your rear end in the
(22:38):
kitchen and do a little foodprep because you cannot be
healthy eating in restaurants.
I mean, and yes, I cheat everyonce in a while, you know, and I
like to go to a restaurant wherethey cook in a way that I don't,
you know, Thai food that'sreally interesting, or you know,
Peruvian food or something,which I can do because I'm in
California.
I'm at this still because I wantpeople to see what a difference
(23:02):
it makes in your life when youdo these simple things.
I'm I'm gonna say a word here.
It's a funny word.
Allulose.
Ever heard of it?
No.
See, I'm here to tell you I'mgonna be Glinda today.
I'm gonna say, okay, your lifeis about to get better because
(23:23):
there is a there are a couple ofsugar substitutes that you can
absolutely enjoy immediatelytoday, this week, and you forget
sugar.
You don't need it anymore,because allulose is a natural
product called a rare sugar.
It's made out of squishing afood down and just pulling the
(23:46):
sweetness out of it, nochemicals, no cooking, nothing.
And it caramelizes like sugar,it tastes exactly, doesn't give
you a tummy ache, it's great.
And with a few tricks like this,and then in three weeks, by the
way, another thing I want peopleto know in three weeks after
you've quit eating sugar, reallyquit, your saliva changes
(24:08):
chemically, and it doesn't tastethe same to you anymore.
And you don't crave it anymorelike you craved it.
So with a few little tweaks toyour lifestyle, you can be
rocking out with granny here.
Now, I have an advantage thatI've been doing it for a long
time, and I want you, youyoungins in your 20s and 30s and
(24:28):
40s, listening to and 50s,listening to this, do it now.
Because the sooner you do it,the better you will age, the
healthier, stronger you'll be.
I also lift weights.
I do resistance training, and soI'm totally on my soapbox about
that, because they told me whatliterally on the table as I was
(24:50):
about to be surgically filledwith titanium, as I have
titanium from my knee to my hipnow.
I love it.
I'm so bionic.
They said, we don't see women inyour kind of shape.
And this used to be a deathsentence, and now you're gonna
heal, you're gonna be fine,which I have healed, I'm still
healing, I'm fine.
(25:11):
But but when particularly womenwould break a hip or a femur,
that was always, well, that'sGranny's done for, you know, she
just can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
I have noticed that.
Before we cover the next topicin this episode, I want to
introduce you to the adventuresports lifestyle with what I
call a micro story about anadventure that I've had.
The adventure sports lifestyleand my deep connection to nature
is essential to my good health.
So here's the story.
One summer evening on NorthCarolina's outer banks, I went
bodyboarding with friends.
(25:45):
The water was as warm as abathtub, so I decided to catch
one more wave while my friendslooked on.
As the wave approached, I turnedmy board to point it towards
shore and rode the wave.
Before long, I felt the bump offish hitting my body as I looked
to my right and my left.
There was a school of 10 to 15inch fish riding the wave with
(26:07):
me.
My friends couldn't believe whatthey saw.
I did that.
I hope this inspires you to getoutside and adventure alone with
friends with the people you lovemost.
I've noticed that a woman over acertain age goes in for surgery,
and then next thing you know,she has some uh staph infection,
and then maybe pneumonia, andthen there's not long before
(26:30):
she's in a nursing home, andthen no longer with us very
shortly after that.
I was going to ask you, whatdoes your daily health regimen
look like?
You've already told us a fewthings, but could you sort of go
through it, you know, maybe hourby hour?
I wake up at this time and I dowhatever the things that you do.
SPEAKER_00 (26:50):
I made a big fat exception for your interview
today because normally Thursdaymorning is a workout for me, but
you and I were trying to gettogether on the time.
So here we are.
So, yes, I go to a local gym,and I love this.
It's in a goat barn.
It's it's and I like I live in asmall town in the country, and
so my gym that I go to with 10,12 other women, and I have
(27:14):
privates with two or three otherwomen and this great trainer,
but it's in this wonderful oldbarn on an old farm in Pescadero
where I live.
It's about seven minutes downthe road, which is great.
Highly, highly recommend thatyou find a group, a class, some
way to have a social life thatinvolves you moving and training
(27:39):
yourself.
And weight training, as youprobably know, everybody's
reading about it now, resistancetraining, particularly for
women, because we haven't doneit.
So build up your bones and notonly your bones, but the doctor
explained to me, yeah, Lynn,everybody's bones age, you know,
so on, as he's on the operatingtable with me lying down there,
(28:01):
you know, drugged and happy.
He said, everybody's bones age,mine do too, yours do, but you
need the muscle around your boneto be holding you up and
balancing you.
So, in addition to all the stuffyou're doing, and I'm sure you
are, aren't you?
Yes, right.
Okay, in addition to all thestuff you're doing to strengthen
(28:22):
your bones, eating well, doingresistance training, building
your muscle is what's going tokeep you safe, safer, much
safer.
So, and plus you'll look better.
You know, absolutely, yeah, andand you will feel much better,
much, much better.
So, yeah, resistance training,good food.
(28:45):
Here's the bad news no morecocktails, no alcohol.
Do I cheat?
Yeah, sometimes.
Little bourbon and branch, youknow.
But basically, all of that aboutalcohol being good for you in a
small amount of the right.
SPEAKER_02 (29:02):
No, no, it's not.
Sorry.
Well, I'm not a big drinkerbecause I had a brain injury,
and it's actually very hard forme to have alcohol.
It affects me in a way thatmakes me less social because I
get too sleepy.
So I could, I'm usually actuallyI'm almost always the designated
driver because I don't care if Idrink or not.
(29:24):
So that's an easy one for me.
You know, I used to be acompetitive bodybuilder and
power lifter.
And yeah, with a 200-pound benchpress, a 350-pound squat, and a
500-pound deadlift.
And on our rural property, wehave a homestead.
I lift 100 pounds by myself on aregular basis.
But I don't lift heavy weightsanymore.
(29:46):
I use exercise bands, I do yogaand pilates, and then I'm an
avid outdoors woman.
I'm actually a sponsoredadventure sports athlete.
So I hunt and fish and kayak anduh surf and all the things.
So yeah, I a hundred percentagree.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Okay, but and I don't have all that to say.
And you wanted to know what mydaily schedule was.
I wake up early with the birdsand I read.
I love that quiet reading timeand I drink my coffee.
And then two or three days aweek, I'm working back up
because of this femur break thatI had.
So I'm now up to three days aweek doing my going to the gym
(30:25):
for my exercise.
And then on those same days, orin addition, on the days that
I'm not in the gym, I try andwalk down the end of my lane and
back, which is not a big fatwalk, but again, it's part of
the healing process for my leg.
And the doctor was very specificand said, I know what kind of a
woman you are.
(30:45):
You're gonna push too fat,you're gonna push too hard.
And I'm warning you, I don'twant you to wreck this beautiful
titanium thing I put in yourleg.
So, okay, okay, okay.
So I'm gently moving back intobeing more active with my body
on my leg.
And I spend a lot of the daydoing things that that I never
had time to do.
(31:06):
And you'll laugh.
Okay, you'll love this one.
I iron my pillowcases.
I mean, I the the whole idea ofbeing able to really be, you
know, Harriet housewife.
I never could do that.
I had three kids, I was a singlemom, I had a career that was
crazy, so on.
And so now at this stage of mylife, to be able to place my
(31:28):
things carefully in my house andkeep everything, you know,
dusted.
And I love it.
I mean, it's meditative, itmakes me happy.
I love gardening.
SPEAKER_02 (31:37):
You are my, you are definitely one of my people,
Lynn, because I am the same way.
This is my actual cabin.
If you're watching us onYouTube, this is my actual cabin
family room.
And one of the things thatpeople say right after I say,
Welcome to the cabin and welcomethem inside, they go, Oh my god,
it's so clean in here.
(31:58):
I don't know what they wereexpecting.
I don't know, dust and cobwebsand I don't know, my dog's hair.
But you know, I have always beena very clean, organized person.
And I was a very busy kid, youknow, with academic programs and
uh uh student athlete programs.
(32:20):
So I was always very busy, and Ijust felt like if I was
organized and my room was clean,I think better, I function
better, I can be go, go, go, andthen easily, you know, shut down
for rest and rest in restorativehealth.
And I learned that as a kid, andI've kept that through my entire
life.
And I think it's one of thesecrets to my good health.
SPEAKER_00 (32:44):
Absolutely.
I agree with you.
It's it's got a bad name rightnow.
You know, I tease people aboutbeing a an elderly trad wife.
Um, but I to me, the ritual ofkeeping your space in order and
you know, clean and havingthings where you need them, I
(33:05):
don't waste time that waylooking for things and wishing
I'm and it's an old habit, Ithink, from from professional
life where you didn't have achoice.
You had to have the right stuffand you had to have it in front
of you, and you had, you know,but yeah, my mind demands order
in my space.
And then because I'm a writeressentially these days and all
(33:28):
along, I'm finally justadmitting it.
That's what you are.
Okay.
All right.
I need quiet time, I need tohave my stuff in order, and then
I need to sit.
But sitting at a computerwriting is a health challenge.
And so because I do that, I haveto get up, I have to walk
around, I have to go up mystairs a few times, you know,
(33:49):
take a load of laundry, ironsomething, whatever.
So it's a balance between thosethings.
And I feel lucky to be able todo that now after so many years
of crazy.
I mean, this is how crazy itwas, and my children don't
believe me.
But I would get up at five inthe morning and put on a full
(34:10):
set of lashes, full makeup,because I worked in an office in
the advertising business.
I had to be there before the mengot there because none of them
believed that a woman with threechildren could do this work, and
so I had to do it better,faster, and look better while I
was doing it, you know, or itwasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_02 (34:32):
We have to do it backwards and in high heels like
Ginger Rogers, and with lashesstuck on.
Yes.
So if we could go back and talkabout food for just a moment,
because food is so essential toyour good health.
You wrote a book with afascinating title, Brownies for
Breakfast, a cookbook fordiabetics, and the people who
(34:56):
love them.
Tell us about your book.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
Right here.
It it came about because peopleasked me to do it.
I kept talking about theserecipes and talking about how to
eat for and there wasn't at thetime anything out there that I
believed was really helpful topeople.
It was all about, you know, thethe sort of microbiology of it
(35:20):
all in the blah.
No, no, no.
Tell me what to do.
Tell me how to fix it.
Give me, you know, right?
Make one step by step, step bystep.
So I I I just went about it inthe way that I knew how to go
about it with my iPhone, takingthe pictures, because I wanted
(35:42):
you to be able to make what Iwas making in my kitchen with no
stylists and no speciallighting, and uh, you know, just
here's the food, here's how youdo it.
And I've I've been so happy thatI, and I had a wonderful
designer friend, Elise Huffman,uh helped me put it all
together.
(36:02):
But we need we need a guidebook,you know, we need a simple,
enjoyable, and I've got storiesin there, and I promise a couple
little laughs for you becausefood can be funny too, very
often in my kitchen.
Yes, because I'm impatient,right?
I'm messy in the kitchen becauseI'm doing it like this.
(36:22):
And and I don't, I'm not good atmeasuring everything, Antoine.
And I I have to assume thatthere are a lot of people out
there who also don'tparticularly want to measure
things.
So there are recipes in thisbook with two ingredients that I
promise you you will love, orthree or five ingredients.
I'm not gonna send you down tothe grocery store in the middle
of the night to buy somethingyou don't have.
(36:44):
I tell you exactly what youneed, and it's simple, it's
ordinary stuff, but so oftenit's things that people just
don't think about.
And here's a quick example.
I have a recipe in here fortakeout tacos.
I don't know if I can open thepage up to it fast enough.
And this is not just sweets, bythe way, it's also uh savory
(37:05):
food.
SPEAKER_02 (37:06):
But I love that you include whole foods, plant-based
ingredients, sugar-free,dairy-free, gluten-free.
SPEAKER_00 (37:15):
I love it so much.
And you can use it if you'revegetarian, if you're vegan, if
you don't care, it's all inhere.
You just add meat or don't addmeat, or you know, whatever you
feel like.
No dairy, fine, use this.
Because it's not, you know,nuclear physics.
It's pretty easy, really, tomake a good plate of food quick
(37:37):
if you've got some good wholefood in your house.
We also grow food, and I and Ireally encourage people to have
whether it's just a little potfull of stuff out in your porch
or a little pot on your sink.
And if you have children orgrandchildren, you know that
kids love nothing more.
And I don't care what fancyschool or you know, again,
(38:00):
nuclear physics, you're fine,kids love to grow things and
they love to eat what they grow.
You want you want them to eatveggies, let them grow veggies.
They will eat those veggies ifthey've grown them.
And you know, I have afour-year-old grandson that is
here fairly often.
(38:21):
He lives a few hours away inReno, but he and his papa, my
husband, grow fava beans.
And this child, you'd think itwas the most expensive,
elaborate toy in the universe.
Being able to grow fava beansand then eat them.
I love that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:39):
We take kids to camp.
We developed in adventure sportscamp.
We take kids to the mountain andwe teach them about things that
they can do at home to practicebeing stewards of the land and
water around their homes.
And so we teach them aboutgardening, about growing your
own food, but also about how aplant that you might see at the
(39:03):
nursery can become an invasivespecies in your community.
And then they go back home andthey're teaching their parents
and grandparents, and these arekids age six to 16.
They're telling their parents,you can't buy that plant unless
you're going to have it indoorsbecause it will be an invasive
species here where we live.
(39:23):
And they can actually explainwhat that means and they talk
their parents out of buyingthings they would have
ordinarily bought bought.
SPEAKER_00 (39:30):
I love too that we're teaching kids herbalism.
We're teaching kids how toforage for food.
You know, we kind of lost thisin our because women, it's our
fault because we have to work inoffices, but because there's so
much to be gleaned in everysense from just walking out and
where you live and where I liveanyway, walking out the door and
(39:53):
seeing what's growing.
I mean, it's a miracle, it's allright there.
It wants to be there for you.
SPEAKER_02 (40:00):
I hope if you haven't, listeners, caught the
episode on the return towildcrafting and foraging, which
are two different things.
Catch that episode when you geta chance.
I give you step by step how toget started, from what tools you
need, what skills you need todevelop, and how to go about it
(40:20):
step by step.
And I hope you'll also try mydandelion gummies for your good
health.
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SPEAKER_00 (41:25):
And your question actually was kind of referring
to the book and you know, how doyou how do you make food every
day?
Here's a quick one that willillustrate for you what I talk
about.
We have a takeria not far awaythat's wonderful.
It's fresh, you know, fish thatis local and a lot of vegetables
and wonderful people.
(41:45):
And a favorite thing is to comehome with a shrimp burrito and
you cut it in three pieces.
Don't eat the whole thing.
Cut it in three pieces.
Put it on a bed of greens.
Because one of my firstrecommendations is eat greens
three times a day.
And people go, How am I going todo that?
(42:07):
Here's how you do that.
Here's one way.
So instead of just working downthat burrito, cut it in three
pieces.
So now you've got three meals.
You put a bed, just you pull abag or a thing out of your
fridge and you sprinkle somelettuce or spinach or or arugula
or whatever on the plate.
You put down your one-third of aburrito, you put a little more
(42:28):
salsa, I put Trader Joe's greensalsas, excellent, made from
good food, tomatillos.
Put that on top, put some eitherreal cheese or cheese substitute
on top, stick that in themicrowave and nuke it.
And now you have this beautifulthing with all this green
underneath it and the cheesemelting and the stuff.
It's so much better than justwith a burrito.
(42:53):
And now you can have two more,or you can have a friend or
husband or a daughter eat withyou out of that one burrito.
And I'm here to tell you that atthe price we now pay for our
burritos, you kind of need tostretch it.
I mean, it's I I don't denyanyone getting what they need to
(43:13):
get for their food, but it'sit's twice what it was.
SPEAKER_02 (43:18):
Three times where I live, three times what it used
to cost.
And I love this idea ofstretching out that meal.
If you're single, you have threemeals.
If you're sharing it with afriend or a family member, then
you have two meals for the twoof you and as another meal for
yourself left over.
I love adding the greens.
It's okay to eat out once in awhile, like you're saying, but
(43:40):
you bring it home and you add alittle something extra to it.
I love that so much.
SPEAKER_00 (43:45):
I also ask for no rice.
So what happens is I get morebeans and more veggies in the
burrito.
And of course, as a diabetic,and here's another thing: once
diabetic, once you you alwaysare.
You don't like yes, and you willreverse it and you will get and
your hemoglobin A1C will bebetter, but you have to always
(44:05):
think like a diabetic.
And I suggest that foreverybody, because the same
diet, let's say, same way ofeating that works best for
diabetics is best for heartpatients, kidney disease,
preventing, you know,cholesterol.
I mean, go down the whole list,it's the way we should all be
eating.
SPEAKER_02 (44:26):
The diabetics way of eating is also a low
inflammation diet.
And inflammation is one of thehallmarks of many chronic
illnesses from heart disease,diabetes itself, obesity, some
forms of cancer, lymphedema.
And even if you've had a braininjury like me, you really have
(44:48):
to control your widespreadinflammation possibilities.
So eating this way is great foreveryone, not just someone who's
pre-diabetic or diabetic.
SPEAKER_00 (44:59):
Glad you brought that up too, because guess what
is responsible for possibly mostof the inflammation in
everybody's bodies now?
Can you guess?
White sugar, white flour, whitesugar, sugar, sugar.
And people are getting it in theform of soda pop.
(45:21):
I can't believe people are stillallowing their children to drink
soda pop.
And the diet coke that is no,no, no.
Read the label on that, puppy.
You know, read the label.
Do you really want to be good?
And it kind of tickles me in agruesome way that people are so
(45:42):
much more aware and careful ofwhat their cocker spaniel eats
than what their child, theirhuman child, is consuming or
what they themselves areconsuming, right?
SPEAKER_02 (45:52):
For those of you who don't know, one of the main
ingredients in your soda is alsothe main ingredient in the
cleaner that the United StatesNavy uses to clean its ships.
Think about that for a moment.
I rest my case.
So, Lynn, what would I besurprised to see in your home?
SPEAKER_00 (46:13):
Well, I've just removed them, but I had two real
bearskin rugs.
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02 (46:21):
That just sounds like a story right there.
SPEAKER_00 (46:23):
Yeah, it comes with a story.
And it was my father-in-law wasa hunter in the Northwoods.
You know, he would disappear formonths at a time and come back.
And the he passed away a fewyears back, and we we got this
barrel of stuff.
And and my my husband's motherpassed away not long after he
(46:44):
did.
So we found ourselves with allthis stuff, as many of us do,
not knowing what to do.
And we opened this bigcontainer, and it was full of
fur stuff from Bob's hunting.
And so not knowing, I didn'twant to put it back.
I mean, what do you do with anactual bear skin?
(47:07):
So I used it as a rug, and thenand now I've put it away again,
and I'm I'm thinking again aboutwhere it might go.
One of my kids, maybe.
And then I had a a wonderful oldantique pear wood settee that uh
my sister-in-law had given meFrench old piece.
It was just wonderful, and I hadit recovered with deer skin,
(47:29):
which ended up being beautiful.
This poor creature died.
I I want to give it meaning.
And it's death, right?
So so I see it every day in myroom on this beautiful little
settee.
So people might look at me andgo, well, really?
You're not not eating meat.
No, and I actually do eat meat.
(47:50):
I don't eat a lot of meat, but Ido eat meat.
And we live in an area, assounds like you do too.
This is kind of a hub forregenerative agriculture.
So I have a number of neighborswho are raising goats and pigs
and geese and cattle in a very,how shall I say, emotionally
(48:12):
well adjusted kind of way.
I mean, these are happy cattle.
SPEAKER_02 (48:15):
In a florative kind of way, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:18):
Yes, and and they're not wrecking the land.
You know, they're very, verycautious of maintaining the
health of the earth, too.
So in that case, I'll tell youthe story quickly of having some
friends over from down thestreet.
I just said, Come on, over,bring your kids.
And they're so happy when yousay, Can we bring our kids?
Yes, bring your kids.
And we had a wonderful dinner.
And to thank me, the husbandsent me a note and said, I put a
(48:39):
gift for you out in our mailbox.
So when you when you drive by,as I do every day on my way to
town, just it's in there.
It's it's a roast for you tocook.
And it turned out to be a goatleg.
Wow, yes, please.
And I thought, okay, I've nevercooked a goat leg, but I quickly
(49:00):
looked up a couple of recipesand there was a French one, and
that's kind of the way I lean.
So it took a whole bottle ofPinot Noir and a beautiful La
Chambre pot.
And that's something else we cantalk about too.
Those clay pots from Colombiathat are so wonderful.
And it was heavenly with somevegetables in it.
It was so, and I never thoughtI'd be eating little, you know,
(49:22):
Lucy or whatever the goat's namewas.
But I thanked her and blessedher.
And and and that goat leg was, Igotta say, absolutely lovely
food.
But this is not something thatwe eat every day.
You know, this is a thing that'skind of a special occasion
thing.
SPEAKER_02 (49:41):
Yes, I yeah, definitely.
You brought up a couple of a fewinteresting points as a hunter
and as a person who has ahomestead that I I want to talk
about.
So, first of all, there is someresearch from Germany, Japan,
several other countries that areshowing that people genetically
(50:05):
are predisposed to have apreference, a metabolic
preference of either beingcompletely vegetarian, mostly
vegetarian, or vegan or meateaters.
And it's important to know yourtype.
And there are tests that you cando to kind of figure that out.
(50:26):
I explored different things interms of styles of eating, and I
realized as a brain injurysurvivor, and I've been told
this by several neurologists,that because my brain is
injured, it requires more animalfat than maybe the average
person.
(50:47):
And some people, like vegans whocan thrive on no animal protein,
they are just a unique kind ofhuman being that can thrive on
that.
Then there are some people whocan thrive on very little animal
protein, and then there arepeople like me who need a
(51:08):
significant amount of animalprotein.
So I will we grow a lot of ourown vegetables, and I also do a
lot of foraging.
So vegetables and herbs areessential to our diet every
meal.
I even have figured out how toincorporate kale for breakfast,
if you can believe that.
So that's something importantfor people to know is that there
(51:31):
is no one way of eating that'sgoing to be right for everyone.
So explore, keep a, I like tokeep a food journal of how do I
feel when I eat a little animalprotein, a lot of animal
protein, or no animal protein atall.
And that's how I figured outwhat was best for me.
And then my neurologist justconfirmed it.
(51:52):
The other thing to keep in mindis some people get very upset
when you talk about harvestinganimals for meat or for crafts
or for warmth.
For example, some people mightuse that bear skin to make a
coat out of it, or they mightuse it for decoration like you
(52:14):
did with a rug.
But here's the thing to keep inmind: if there are no natural
predators for those animals, andyou create a herd of deer, for
example, that needs when theherd is small, they need this
amount of resources.
Food, water, shelter, space toroam.
(52:34):
When the herd is bigger, they'llneed this amount of resources.
As the herd grows, they needmore and more resources.
And as the herd grows andresources don't increase, then
the herd gets sick and the herddecreases until it could almost
die off.
And we've seen communities wherethey have limited or stopped
(52:56):
hunting, and then they lose anentire herd population because
there aren't enough resources tosupport the number of animals in
that community.
So here is a natural order ofthings to be able to hunt and
gather.
And I know there are some peoplewho believe that you should
(53:16):
never harvest an animal for anyreason.
And you're fine to believe that,but the reality of it is if
you're going to be a steward ofthe land and water in which you
on which you live, you have tounderstand resource management.
Just like I have to manage theforest, the trees in my forest,
if I want the forest to thrive,we have to manage the animal
(53:38):
population as well.
SPEAKER_00 (53:40):
Yes, all of that.
And I'm glad to see more andmore coming out that way.
And taking it back to anutrition thing, for example, if
you're Inuit, you don't thriveon the same diet as a northern
European person or SouthAmerican person because of,
yeah, hello, natural selection.
I mean, you know, we've we'veevolved to eat what was
(54:02):
available to us.
And and I know I talk a fairamount about the difference in
the proteins in goat milk and incow milk.
And there are huge populationsthat really cannot happily drink
or eat cow's milk products.
SPEAKER_02 (54:20):
It's just not my family's from Nigeria and
Africans, we tend to not dowell, especially as we get
older.
We tend to have some lactoseintolerance.
For me, I did not have an excessamount of dairy, and so I never
developed lactose intolerance.
SPEAKER_00 (54:37):
And lucky you, but also a lot of dairy, even for
someone like me who toleratesdairy just fine, it's not a good
idea.
I mean, you know, too much fat,too much, you know, it's just
not something, and and it has todo with where the dairy is
coming from.
You know, uh, did you know thecow?
(54:58):
Well, then it's a differentdeal.
If you don't know the cow, wewould all be eating a little
differently if we could actuallysee the process of where our
food is coming from.
unknown (55:10):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (55:11):
That RBST that you might find in your dairy
products is also an endocrinedisruptor.
So think about that for amoment.
So, Glynn this has been such aninsightful conversation.
I definitely have to have youback multiple times.
We're going to do a conversationjust on diabetes.
That's such an important topic.
(55:31):
But what more would you like toleave listeners with today?
SPEAKER_00 (55:34):
And the thing I want people to always remember is to
eat with joy.
I I really want you to enjoyevery bite, every word of the
other people at the table,whatever.
I want you not worrying andstressing about what you're
eating or how much you'reeating.
I want you to arrange it so youcan relax, eat what you want,
(55:57):
and enjoy every bite.
I love that so much.
SPEAKER_02 (56:00):
Thank you so much for joining me here today in the
cabin.
Thank you, Antoinette.
Until next time, friends, I'mAntoinette Lee, your wellness
warrior here at the New NormalBig Life Podcast.
I hope one day to see you on theriver, in the backcountry, or in
the horse barn living your bestlife.
Struggling with health problemsor seeking natural health
solutions, we've got youcovered.
Don't miss our latest podcastepisodes, exclusive blog posts,
(56:24):
and free ebooks packed withlife-changing wellness tips.
Be sure to help others find thisgreat information by leaving us
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Dateline NBC
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.