October 10, 2025 • 26 mins
We trace a family’s pivot from soda-fueled routines to clean eating, and how a physician moved from skepticism to a functional medicine approach after seeing results. We share the elimination framework, real patient outcomes, and the role of community in making change stick.
• why a 30‑day clean eating reset clarified symptoms and habits
• the difference between food allergies and sensitivities
• what to eliminate first and simple swaps that work
• how gentle detox supports liver and kidney pathways
• results that changed a physician’s practice philosophy
• raising label‑literate kids and building sustainable meals
• using elimination as both diagnostic and therapeutic
• bridging traditional care with functional medicine across ages
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Hey everybody, welcome to the show.
Allow me to introduce my betterhalf, Missy Ross.
Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Well, it's my pleasure.
Today I want to talk with you,Missy, about things more related
to how maybe clean eating hasled to more of a functional
medicine lifestyle for me as aphysician, but also as a family.
And I'd love to just start backand let's say tell us a little
(00:56):
bit about maybe your journey.
I know things really sort ofcame to a head for you in around
2006 when you started to makesome life changes on your health
journey.
But if you could give us somecontext, maybe kind of share a
little bit about your wellnessjourney as as far back as you
want to go.
SPEAKER_00 (01:14):
Okay.
Well, we'll have to go far backjust to be able to um kind of
get the full picture of what washappening.
Um I will say though, in 2006, Iwas at a time where I just was
um a very busy mom.
I would just had our fifth baby,and I was homeschooling and uh
(01:37):
taking care of all the kids, butI was also just at a point in my
life where I just didn't feel mybest.
I was tired and of course, withlots of little people in my
house, but um more so justdidn't feel well, felt bloated
and just um not healthy, notsleeping well, of course, but
also just had brain fog and allthe things that I think um you
(01:59):
just chalk up to, oh, I have allthese kids and I'm postpartum
and uh this is normal.
This is my new normal, at leastfor now.
And so I just kind of thoughtthat this it was normal.
But if we rewind back to when Iwas a kid, um grew up in a great
home.
(02:20):
I actually um grew up with mymom and single parent family,
and she was amazing.
Um, and I think too, when westopped to look at just our
patterns and familial patterns,um, she just was doing the
things that she had learned andgrown in.
Um, and as far as health andwellness go, she she would cook
and she would do um some greatdinners, but she was notorious.
(02:43):
And I love you, mom.
If you watch this, you'reamazing.
Um she was notorious for givingme a Coke and a Pop Tart every
morning uh for breakfast.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Coke and a Pop Tart.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
Coke and a Pop Tart.
And she's like, you need thatlittle pet.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
And um, did you toast them or did you just eat
them like right out of the?
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Oh, I ate them right running out the door.
But um, yeah, that was kind ofthe norm for me, or whatever I
could grab.
But it was definitely not yourprotein-packed, healthy
breakfast.
Um, but it was what I hadlearned to do.
So uh fast forward just in myadult life, college and even
early marriage, we just it wasvery common for us to drink a
(03:24):
lot of Cokes and drink, have alot of sugar and just um, you
know, eat the best we could, butnot worry about um all the
things that were in it.
And so um back to 2006, I feltlike I just was experiencing
just the normal stuff, like thisis normal for me.
And I was introduced um to this30 days to healthy living, uh,
(03:49):
health and wellness kind ofthing.
And I thought, what is this?
Is this really um something forme?
And I had tried a lot of otherthings.
I had tried some different dietsand different things, and it,
you know, it worked for a littlebit, but the moment you stopped,
um, I usually gained weightback.
And I learned more about that asI went on my health and wellness
(04:10):
journey.
But I thought, okay, I'm gonnagive this a try.
I had a friend who was um inArban and she's like, you need
to try this 30 days to healthyliving, it's gonna change your
life.
And I'm like, okay, yeah, I'veheard that before.
But I was desperate to dosomething.
And so I did the healthy uh 30days to healthy living and use
their products, and it was agame changer in so many ways and
(04:32):
set me on a course for um abetter way of eating, something
more sustainable, something thatallowed me to see the foods that
were sabotaging me and makehealthy choices and keep um and
keep continuing to do that.
It was sustainable, which is thefirst time that that had ever
been the case.
SPEAKER_01 (04:51):
I want to dive a little more, you know, deeper
into kind of maybe a little moreof the specifics of that, you
know, plan, that that cleaneating plan, that 30-day plan.
But uh, I remember you sharingthis with me when you were
learning about it.
And uh what was my initialresponse?
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Well, um, being a physician, uh, we had lots of
different um supplements anddifferent programs and things
that you had seen, of course, atthe up until that point.
And it was actually um comical.
You're like, this is if I can beso frank, I'm just gonna say,
(05:34):
um, you know, this is just abunch of snake oil, like this is
not gonna work.
Why are we spending all thismoney on it?
And I'm like, well, because likemy friends since it works, and
I've seen these people changeour lives.
So I'm I'm gonna give it a try.
Yeah.
And so you were a little I wasskeptical.
SPEAKER_01 (05:50):
You were skeptical for sure.
That's probably a nice way tosay it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:53):
However, you were telling people to be healthy,
yeah, and drinking the whole sixCokes a day and pot of coffee,
and you know, I'm likehypocrisy.
Um, so I mean, I I thought,well, if I can make some changes
and at least some learn some newthings, then maybe it could
affect everything.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Kind of like do as I say, not as I do, I guess,
right?
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
And obviously, very traditional in my mindset, my
training, uh, very what we callevidence-based, you know, not
really wanting to probably lookat the data that was emerging at
the time about about what thisis the science behind this.
And I know you started actuallydigging deeper into the science
and learning more about that,and you got me to start looking
at that as well during that timeframe.
(06:35):
Um, but you know, I thought, oh,I know best, I know better.
And I thought, well, I'll justhumor you and let you do your
thing.
And if it makes you happy, gofor it.
It's not gonna hurt you, I don'tthink.
You know, but I I reallythought, like, oh boy, here we
go.
Um I didn't understand it.
And again, I think a lot oftimes it's a it's important to
realize that I think we look atlife through our lenses, our
(06:57):
biases.
We all have biases, we all haveour our backgrounds, our our
family of origin stuff that youmentioned, how we look at life,
how we you know decide how wemake decisions.
And of course I'm lookingthrough some lenses that were
that were maybe on this side ofthe fence.
And not really maybe beingwilling to budge or or look at
(07:18):
things differently, look at lifedifferently.
And uh but it was it was good.
You kept sharing with me, andand you knew I was drinking at
least six Cokes, at least sixCokes a day, a pot of coffee a
day, and starting to show in mymidsection, I'm sure.
You know, I was I was gainingweight and I wasn't really
exercising a whole lot.
I was in the in the busy seasonof being a young attending,
(07:41):
delivering lots of babies, crazylifestyle, busy busy, you know,
and kids and um but you stillwanted to see, you wanted me to
you started getting results, youstarted seeing things, you
started feeling better, youstarted experiencing some
benefits, and we'll dick getmore into that too.
I want to dive deeper into that.
But you were persistent insharing that.
Um you know, you were sharingthat with me, and and and I
(08:05):
thought, you know, what theheck?
You know, I wasn't healthy as ashealthy as I should be.
And uh I started taking youradvice, taking your medicine, so
to speak.
Let uh let food be thy medicine,right?
Kind of a deal.
Learning more about cleaneating, learning learning more
about um detoxification andelimination diets and maybe the
(08:29):
more of the why and learningmore about the science behind
it.
And but but most importantly,um, you know, there's clearly
some results that I had startedseeing.
Um how I started feeling feelingbetter and you know, experienced
um more energy, um, experiencingbetter sleep.
Uh of course the the bonus of oflosing weight, right?
(08:50):
When you cut out all that sugar,all those calories, empty
calories I was consuming.
Uh I think I lost what, like 20pounds or something like that.
It was crazy.
It was awesome.
Well, yeah.
And that then I started to, youknow, exercise and maybe ran a
marathon not too much uh later.
I competed and ran a fullmarathon and just really got on
it.
Of course, we've kind ofyo-yodas since yo yo, you know,
(09:11):
since here and there over theyears.
Yeah.
But I'm grateful that we're at aplace now where we've been so
much more consistent and andreally live in this lifestyle.
But I would love to hear youexplain to our audience in
detail, you know, as much detailas you want about you know why
clean eating, what is cleaneating?
Why do we want to eat clean?
(09:33):
Um, how do we do something likethis?
Tell me the ins and outs and asmuch detail of of what that
means and and what yourunderstanding is.
And so our audience can learn alittle bit of of maybe how this
might might benefit them aswell.
So please, please share with ouraudience about clean eating,
what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
Well, at least for me during this journey, I had um
a community of people, which wasum really, really amazing.
And it because at first, whenthe whole plan was explained to
me, I thought there's no waythat I can do this and actually
stay on it.
Uh, it was a plan that I had wascompletely foreign to me in
(10:12):
terms of like really looking atlabels and seeing what was in
our products and what was in thegrocery stores and what um we
were actually consuming.
And so um having the recipes,having um the guidelines were
pivotal for me and a coach thatwas like, this is what we do.
Um and after walking throughthat, this whole process, I'm
(10:34):
like, oh, I can, I can helppeople.
I can, this is something that Ican share and um help others
with whatever uh just differentsymptoms that they were feeling.
Uh but the basic plan is it isan elimination diet in the sense
that we're getting rid of somereally um kind of heavy hitters
in our diet that we don't evenreally focus on.
(10:55):
Uh we're getting rid of, youknow, uh gluten, dairy, whey,
soy, uh, caffeine, sugar,alcohol, um, just all of those
things.
And I remember when that listjust came out, I was like, well,
what else is there to eat?
Like, what am I gonna eat?
Is is there, are there differentthings?
How what does this look like?
Um, but what I quickly learnedis that, you know, you can't
(11:18):
obviously substitute anythingfor sugar in the sense that what
we what I was used to eating,but there were a lot of
substitutions that I could make.
Like I can get off dairy and Ican substitute it with almond
milk or coconut milk orsomething that was a non-dairy
um milk.
I could still eat spaghetti anddo those, um, still make that
(11:39):
for my children and um kind ofnoodles with brown spaghetti.
Yeah, like I would use brownrice noodles and I would either
make my own spaghetti sauce or Iwould make sure that the sugar
content was under a certainamount of grams.
And so um we still do salads.
We were just making our ownsalad dressings and not, you
know, using all the processedones.
And so it became an um more of ajust kind of exciting kind of
(12:05):
time where I'm like, oh, I canstill eat like chips and salsa.
I can still eat some of thesethings, but I just learned how
to exchange that.
Um, the things that were notserving me into foods that
actually were.
And um, the way it was kind ofexplained to me, because I think
you hear that detox or you hearelimination diet and you hear
all these, you know, key wordsand you start to think like,
(12:26):
this is really like this is bad,or I'm gonna need to be near a
bathroom, you know, orsomething's gonna happen, or you
know, like a colon cleanse orsomething.
SPEAKER_01 (12:34):
And it's not we're not talking about that when we
say that necessarily.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
Yeah.
And so it's not like that atall.
Um, but it is a gentle, at leastthe program I went through was a
gentle detoxification of yourliver and kidneys.
And so the goal was to justflush out all those things that
have kind of been sitting inthose eliminating organs and um
flush it out by just stopping toconsume all those things that I
mentioned before and thenpouring in the right foods,
(13:00):
whole foods and things that willactually serve your body.
And so they kind of explained itto me, um, which is actually
fascinating, um, kind of justlike a slow draining bathtub.
Like your body is like, well, ifyou have a slow draining bathtub
at home and you leave the waterkind of just trickling just a
little bit, um, eventually it'sgoing to raise to the top, spill
(13:21):
over, and wreak havoc all overyour home.
And so that's kind of what'sgoing on with our with our
kidneys and our eliminatingorgans.
They're they're bogged down witheverything that we're consuming,
whether it's the food that'sfull of just different, you
know, different processed foods,things like that, or the air
that we breathe has toxins andum things we put on our skin,
(13:41):
which I think we don't evenreally notice um or don't think
about that.
That's, you know, your skin'syour largest organ.
So whatever you put on it, it'sgoing to get absorbed.
So you're bringing in all ofthese things.
So your eliminating organs haveto be able to flush those out on
a daily basis.
And so if your liver's boggeddown, it's kind of like that
slow journey bathtub that justum starts to fill.
(14:02):
It can't flush, it can'tdetoxify, it can't get rid of
things, and it starts to buildup and spill over and wreak
havoc all over your body by wayof symptoms that we think are
normal, like headaches and um,you know, mood swings and
bloatedness, IBS, uh some, youknow, all the dark spots on our
skin, from even like, you know,migraines.
(14:22):
There's so many differentthings.
And we kind of just chalk it upto this is normal, or I'm just
kind of experiencing these weirdthings, or I'm just getting
older.
And um, it wasn't until I didthe 30 day that actually just I
fleshed everything out and I ittotally changed my life in so
many different ways, but I feltdifferent.
I was able to concentrate.
I didn't have the brain fog,even with all my little people,
(14:43):
and I didn't have um, I wasn'tbloated, I didn't have
headaches, I wasn't drinkingcoffee for the first time, like
ever.
Um, and so yeah, those were justa few things.
And I lost weight.
So I lost the fifth, I lost 15pounds the first month.
And that was actually when younoticed it.
And you were like, okay, what isthis?
Maybe I should take a look.
And you actually joined me likethis is what happened.
(15:04):
You joined me the last likeeight days of that my 30, that
first 30 day.
Like, maybe I'll try this.
So you tried it and lost like 11pounds, like that, of course.
And I was like, don't ever dothis with me.
SPEAKER_01 (15:18):
That's right.
I remember you were happy and Iwas happy as that.
SPEAKER_00 (15:22):
Like, it's not fair that men have to get to do that.
SPEAKER_01 (15:25):
Men have a little easier job sometimes at getting
that weight off right away.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
Yeah.
But um, then we continued on,and that's probably another
conversation, but it was it wasa sustainable, um, it was a
sustainable way of life thatactually enabled us to get
healthier in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Well, you you know, it really is just you know,
proofs in the pudding.
You can't argue with results,you know.
And uh seeing that you weredoing it in a very natural,
healthy way with just by movingyour s your food sources around,
you know, that really opened mymind.
And of course, seeing theresults, I'm like, yeah, I think
I want to I wanna try this, youknow.
And it but you encouraged metoo.
(16:04):
It wasn't like you were like,You need to join me.
You need to enjoy me.
And you weren't you weren't uglyabout it or mean about it or but
but uh I don't know, you you wonme over.
And uh so I started to then lookat things more holistically, not
just for myself, but I reallystarted to think about wow, if
this is helping me, you know,I'm I I used to, you know, I'm
I'm prescribing medicines tomedicines to help people, and
(16:27):
that's appropriate.
We need to do that still whenwhen people need that.
I have you know, crazy highblood pressure or out of control
diabetes.
You want to get it undercontrol.
But I thought, hmm, maybe I canmaybe we can do something to
help people.
Well, this is something that issustainable and something that
can serve them for their theirlifetime, you know, and maybe we
don't have to be so dependent onmedications for everything.
So I started digging into theliterature and the research out
(16:49):
there about you know, functionalmedicine, integrative medicine,
holistic medicine, more, more ofthat sort of thing.
And I actually then uh did somemore studies through uh A4M,
which is the American Academy ofAnti-Aging Medicine, as well as
some studies through theInstitute for Uh Functional
Medicine, took a lot of coursesand certifications and uh
(17:09):
fellowship trained actually.
And so um did that fellowship inat A4M and um tremendous.
You know, I started seeing well,I can start implementing other
it got me to to think outsidethe box, right?
And it's what got me then to tostart thinking about um what I
can do to help help more people.
(17:30):
Um I used to get very excitedabout oh, I I cured or fixed
diabetes or high blood pressurewith this pill or that pill, and
that used to excite me.
And then I I changed that thescript, you know, I'm like,
well, I'm more excited now whenI can get people off of blood
pressure medicine or get peopleoff of diabetes medicine or
cholesterol medicine as anexample.
So it really, really was umtremendous.
(17:52):
And I'd love for you to sharesome more stories about that in
just a second about maybe somepatients.
But I'd love to hear too, evenmore personally, how do you
think that you know, cleaneating, how did it help our our
children?
And I want to maybe we'll visiton a we got another time to
talk.
We're gonna talk as much as wewant to, but you know, maybe
just a 30,000-foot view,overview of of maybe how you
(18:14):
think how maybe clean eatinghelped our our children in
general.
SPEAKER_00 (18:19):
In general.
Um, well, it's actually um giventhem quite the different
childhood and um start just tohealthy living than you and I
definitely had.
Uh they now are more aware ofwhat's what's in their foods,
what to look for, how to readingredients.
(18:40):
Uh we don't we don't really umkeep a I mean we we don't eat
perfectly by any means, but wedon't keep the normal processed
foods in the house.
And so um they and they theyrealize that they enjoy
actually, we have some, actuallyseveral of our kids that love to
cook.
(19:00):
And now, even um, as we haveadult children, they we're not
always compliant as kids, butum, they are making those
choices now for themselves, nowthat they have those choices to
do they have the ability tochoose what they want to eat
when they want to eat it.
They're choosing a healthierlifestyle and they're reading
labels and they're eating morecleaner foods than than ever.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
Give them an education, you know, on how to
how to adopt a lifestyle ofwellness.
And everything starts withnutrition, right?
It's the foundation ofeverything in in health and
wellness, to be honest.
So I think that's really been atremendous uh leg up that they
had.
There were several years that wedidn't eat that way, right?
(19:42):
We had a lot of cokes and andpop tarts and cereals and all
kinds of putties, all the donutsand all kinds of yummy stuff.
And and again, we're not againstany of that stuff now.
It's just we don't consume thoselike we used to.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:54):
So usually if I do buy that, they're like, are we
having a party?
Like, who's coming over?
Like, why'd you buy all thisstuff?
So it's not it's not the norm,but um, yeah, they just make
different choices now.
SPEAKER_01 (20:06):
Can you think of some specific um examples that
maybe some um some of ourpatients, you know, obviously
like maybe some scenarios whereyou've, you know, maybe with
patients and maybe how youshared specifically with
patients, how you've been ableto help them.
SPEAKER_00 (20:22):
Yeah.
Well, it's actually very muchthe same way that um I explained
it just a minute ago, how it wasintroduced to me.
You know, I just kind of listenfirst, you know, what are some
things that they're I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
being able to kind of just sitand have a discussion about what
it is that they're experiencingand, you know, what what is
(20:43):
affecting them, what they'relooking, what their goals are
and what they're looking toaccomplish by doing um something
like this or doing a 30-day orany kind of um diet change.
And uh it's been actually reallyexciting to see so many
different results.
Obviously, we can't make claimsthat it's just this or it's just
that.
I mean, it's hard work, it'smaking those choices, it's doing
(21:05):
all the things, but they we'veseen, in particular, we've had
specifically several patients.
I can count them on two, threehands, um, that have had
different autoimmune issues anddifferent uh and ladies with
PCOS, people that have hadissues with you know having
(21:28):
children or just not hormoneissues and imbalance, metabolic
issues, diabetes, hypertension,all of those things.
And so we've seen countlesspeople, either um like people
with diabetes or cholesterol,being able to come off their
medicines or at least alter themto where they're not so
dependent on them.
Uh, ladies that have, you know,been able to balance their
(21:50):
hormones through just cleanereating and um just just see some
really miraculous things.
Even ladies who didn't thinkthey could have children have
had children and some reallycool, cool stories.
Some amazing stories.
And so I think too, it's justbeing able to walk alongside
them and being able to coachthem and let them know like, you
can definitely do this.
(22:10):
It seems like it's hard.
It's just like that, taking thatfirst step and knowing that um,
you know, it there's there'slife on the other side and
sustainable.
SPEAKER_01 (22:18):
Well, it's made a difference.
It's not just a program, butit's you mentioned at the
outset, you know, coaching andcommunity.
And I think that's somethingthat that it's it's you could do
these things on your own.
There's plenty of information onthe internet.
You can read, you can do yourown thing.
And there's people that are verymuch self-starters and you know,
self-taught.
Um, but there's something to besaid for having somebody coach
you through the process orsomebody or a community of
(22:41):
people that can come alongsideyou that are going through it
with you.
Um, and that serves to help youon lots of levels, you know.
I think that's that's the beautyof of where this has come from,
you know, and how it's impacteduh our family and how it's
impacting other families.
And like I said earlier, it'sbridging that gap between the
traditional approach and theholistic approach and saying
(23:01):
it's not either or, but and howcan we take the best of medicine
and the best of what we knowintegrately and functional
medicine-wise, and how can wemarry these things together?
Of course, in our practicethrough a primary care lens,
where we're seeing newborns allthe way up to, you know, people
that are in their final stretchof life, that final season of
life.
And it's a real privilege to beable to care for people across
the spectrum.
Um, and seeing cases even withthese little newborns, you know,
(23:22):
where kids are having reflux andthey're having rashes or eczema
infants.
Yeah.
And we get, you know, we talk tomoms about, you know, well, what
are you eating?
You know, what are youingesting?
What are you doing?
Or or kids in the toddler yearsand, you know, developing
eczema, asthma, allergies.
And a lot of times it comes backto, you know, sometimes
elimination.
(23:43):
Or we see inflammatory markersthat are very high on patients,
um, and we don't know why.
So we start thinking, like,what's causing the inflammation?
And a lot of times it's what weput in our bodies, what we're
exposed to and what we put inour bodies.
And so when we do theseelimination diets, it's not to
say, oh, you have an allergy togluten or you have a, you know,
a celiac disease, because we'llwork up people for those things,
(24:03):
but a lot of times it'snegative.
And but we find that a lot ofthese foods like gluten and
dairy are a little morepro-inflammatory.
So maybe there are sensitivitiesand not necessarily food
allergies.
There's a distinction betweenfood sensitivities and food
allergies.
So people that are manifestingthe symptoms that you described
earlier, like the vague symptomsof brain fog or headache, or
(24:24):
maybe some rashes or GI issues,they may have some food
sensitivities.
So when we start with what'smost common, I always tell my
students and other people thatthat rotate with me and that
common things happen commonly.
And so when you look at glutenand dairy, those seem to be uh a
big you know factor or player ina lot of these issues.
(24:45):
So when we eliminate gluten anddairy, just that alone sometimes
can be uh both diagnostic andtherapeutic, right?
I can diagnose a problem becausethey got better and it's
therapeutic because they'rebetter.
So a lot of times just by doingthat with moms that are
breastfeeding and their kids arehaving issues, we see the kids'
issues clear up.
Or as the kids are older, oreven well, you know, adult
(25:05):
patients have issues that clearup when they do the elimination
or do this clean eating, it canreally help to reset.
And I think that's the that'sthe beauty of of of this
particular journey.
That clean eating has really,you know, um started.
And really, Missy, I think weowe it all to you.
I owe it all to you, truly, onso many levels.
(25:26):
Um and uh so this would probablya good place to wrap up for
today, but I would love to haveyou back so we can continue part
two of some more discussions.
I have some some questions Iwant to ask.
But um I just want to end with amaybe a little word of
encouragement today.
Um, every one of us is at adifferent point in our health
(25:46):
and wellness journey.
And but the I just want to sharereally what I think is a
take-home point for today, andthat is to consider pursuing
just a more holistic path inyour healthcare, like in your
wellness plan, so that you canexperience better health, not
only experience better health,but you learn to experience it
(26:07):
your way.
Thanks for joining us today.
Hey everybody, welcome to the show.
Allow me to introduce my betterhalf, Missy Ross.
Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Well, it's my pleasure.
Today I want to talk with you,Missy, about things more related
to how maybe clean eating hasled to more of a functional
medicine lifestyle for me as aphysician, but also as a family.
And I'd love to just start backand let's say tell us a little
(00:56):
bit about maybe your journey.
I know things really sort ofcame to a head for you in around
2006 when you started to makesome life changes on your health
journey.
But if you could give us somecontext, maybe kind of share a
little bit about your wellnessjourney as as far back as you
want to go.
SPEAKER_00 (01:14):
Okay.
Well, we'll have to go far backjust to be able to um kind of
get the full picture of what washappening.
Um I will say though, in 2006, Iwas at a time where I just was
um a very busy mom.
I would just had our fifth baby,and I was homeschooling and uh
(01:37):
taking care of all the kids, butI was also just at a point in my
life where I just didn't feel mybest.
I was tired and of course, withlots of little people in my
house, but um more so justdidn't feel well, felt bloated
and just um not healthy, notsleeping well, of course, but
also just had brain fog and allthe things that I think um you
(01:59):
just chalk up to, oh, I have allthese kids and I'm postpartum
and uh this is normal.
This is my new normal, at leastfor now.
And so I just kind of thoughtthat this it was normal.
But if we rewind back to when Iwas a kid, um grew up in a great
home.
(02:20):
I actually um grew up with mymom and single parent family,
and she was amazing.
Um, and I think too, when westopped to look at just our
patterns and familial patterns,um, she just was doing the
things that she had learned andgrown in.
Um, and as far as health andwellness go, she she would cook
and she would do um some greatdinners, but she was notorious.
(02:43):
And I love you, mom.
If you watch this, you'reamazing.
Um she was notorious for givingme a Coke and a Pop Tart every
morning uh for breakfast.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Coke and a Pop Tart.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
Coke and a Pop Tart.
And she's like, you need thatlittle pet.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
And um, did you toast them or did you just eat
them like right out of the?
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Oh, I ate them right running out the door.
But um, yeah, that was kind ofthe norm for me, or whatever I
could grab.
But it was definitely not yourprotein-packed, healthy
breakfast.
Um, but it was what I hadlearned to do.
So uh fast forward just in myadult life, college and even
early marriage, we just it wasvery common for us to drink a
(03:24):
lot of Cokes and drink, have alot of sugar and just um, you
know, eat the best we could, butnot worry about um all the
things that were in it.
And so um back to 2006, I feltlike I just was experiencing
just the normal stuff, like thisis normal for me.
And I was introduced um to this30 days to healthy living, uh,
(03:49):
health and wellness kind ofthing.
And I thought, what is this?
Is this really um something forme?
And I had tried a lot of otherthings.
I had tried some different dietsand different things, and it,
you know, it worked for a littlebit, but the moment you stopped,
um, I usually gained weightback.
And I learned more about that asI went on my health and wellness
(04:10):
journey.
But I thought, okay, I'm gonnagive this a try.
I had a friend who was um inArban and she's like, you need
to try this 30 days to healthyliving, it's gonna change your
life.
And I'm like, okay, yeah, I'veheard that before.
But I was desperate to dosomething.
And so I did the healthy uh 30days to healthy living and use
their products, and it was agame changer in so many ways and
(04:32):
set me on a course for um abetter way of eating, something
more sustainable, something thatallowed me to see the foods that
were sabotaging me and makehealthy choices and keep um and
keep continuing to do that.
It was sustainable, which is thefirst time that that had ever
been the case.
SPEAKER_01 (04:51):
I want to dive a little more, you know, deeper
into kind of maybe a little moreof the specifics of that, you
know, plan, that that cleaneating plan, that 30-day plan.
But uh, I remember you sharingthis with me when you were
learning about it.
And uh what was my initialresponse?
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Well, um, being a physician, uh, we had lots of
different um supplements anddifferent programs and things
that you had seen, of course, atthe up until that point.
And it was actually um comical.
You're like, this is if I can beso frank, I'm just gonna say,
(05:34):
um, you know, this is just abunch of snake oil, like this is
not gonna work.
Why are we spending all thismoney on it?
And I'm like, well, because likemy friends since it works, and
I've seen these people changeour lives.
So I'm I'm gonna give it a try.
Yeah.
And so you were a little I wasskeptical.
SPEAKER_01 (05:50):
You were skeptical for sure.
That's probably a nice way tosay it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:53):
However, you were telling people to be healthy,
yeah, and drinking the whole sixCokes a day and pot of coffee,
and you know, I'm likehypocrisy.
Um, so I mean, I I thought,well, if I can make some changes
and at least some learn some newthings, then maybe it could
affect everything.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Kind of like do as I say, not as I do, I guess,
right?
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
And obviously, very traditional in my mindset, my
training, uh, very what we callevidence-based, you know, not
really wanting to probably lookat the data that was emerging at
the time about about what thisis the science behind this.
And I know you started actuallydigging deeper into the science
and learning more about that,and you got me to start looking
at that as well during that timeframe.
(06:35):
Um, but you know, I thought, oh,I know best, I know better.
And I thought, well, I'll justhumor you and let you do your
thing.
And if it makes you happy, gofor it.
It's not gonna hurt you, I don'tthink.
You know, but I I reallythought, like, oh boy, here we
go.
Um I didn't understand it.
And again, I think a lot oftimes it's a it's important to
realize that I think we look atlife through our lenses, our
(06:57):
biases.
We all have biases, we all haveour our backgrounds, our our
family of origin stuff that youmentioned, how we look at life,
how we you know decide how wemake decisions.
And of course I'm lookingthrough some lenses that were
that were maybe on this side ofthe fence.
And not really maybe beingwilling to budge or or look at
(07:18):
things differently, look at lifedifferently.
And uh but it was it was good.
You kept sharing with me, andand you knew I was drinking at
least six Cokes, at least sixCokes a day, a pot of coffee a
day, and starting to show in mymidsection, I'm sure.
You know, I was I was gainingweight and I wasn't really
exercising a whole lot.
I was in the in the busy seasonof being a young attending,
(07:41):
delivering lots of babies, crazylifestyle, busy busy, you know,
and kids and um but you stillwanted to see, you wanted me to
you started getting results, youstarted seeing things, you
started feeling better, youstarted experiencing some
benefits, and we'll dick getmore into that too.
I want to dive deeper into that.
But you were persistent insharing that.
Um you know, you were sharingthat with me, and and and I
(08:05):
thought, you know, what theheck?
You know, I wasn't healthy as ashealthy as I should be.
And uh I started taking youradvice, taking your medicine, so
to speak.
Let uh let food be thy medicine,right?
Kind of a deal.
Learning more about cleaneating, learning learning more
about um detoxification andelimination diets and maybe the
(08:29):
more of the why and learningmore about the science behind
it.
And but but most importantly,um, you know, there's clearly
some results that I had startedseeing.
Um how I started feeling feelingbetter and you know, experienced
um more energy, um, experiencingbetter sleep.
Uh of course the the bonus of oflosing weight, right?
(08:50):
When you cut out all that sugar,all those calories, empty
calories I was consuming.
Uh I think I lost what, like 20pounds or something like that.
It was crazy.
It was awesome.
Well, yeah.
And that then I started to, youknow, exercise and maybe ran a
marathon not too much uh later.
I competed and ran a fullmarathon and just really got on
it.
Of course, we've kind ofyo-yodas since yo yo, you know,
(09:11):
since here and there over theyears.
Yeah.
But I'm grateful that we're at aplace now where we've been so
much more consistent and andreally live in this lifestyle.
But I would love to hear youexplain to our audience in
detail, you know, as much detailas you want about you know why
clean eating, what is cleaneating?
Why do we want to eat clean?
(09:33):
Um, how do we do something likethis?
Tell me the ins and outs and asmuch detail of of what that
means and and what yourunderstanding is.
And so our audience can learn alittle bit of of maybe how this
might might benefit them aswell.
So please, please share with ouraudience about clean eating,
what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
Well, at least for me during this journey, I had um
a community of people, which wasum really, really amazing.
And it because at first, whenthe whole plan was explained to
me, I thought there's no waythat I can do this and actually
stay on it.
Uh, it was a plan that I had wascompletely foreign to me in
(10:12):
terms of like really looking atlabels and seeing what was in
our products and what was in thegrocery stores and what um we
were actually consuming.
And so um having the recipes,having um the guidelines were
pivotal for me and a coach thatwas like, this is what we do.
Um and after walking throughthat, this whole process, I'm
(10:34):
like, oh, I can, I can helppeople.
I can, this is something that Ican share and um help others
with whatever uh just differentsymptoms that they were feeling.
Uh but the basic plan is it isan elimination diet in the sense
that we're getting rid of somereally um kind of heavy hitters
in our diet that we don't evenreally focus on.
(10:55):
Uh we're getting rid of, youknow, uh gluten, dairy, whey,
soy, uh, caffeine, sugar,alcohol, um, just all of those
things.
And I remember when that listjust came out, I was like, well,
what else is there to eat?
Like, what am I gonna eat?
Is is there, are there differentthings?
How what does this look like?
Um, but what I quickly learnedis that, you know, you can't
(11:18):
obviously substitute anythingfor sugar in the sense that what
we what I was used to eating,but there were a lot of
substitutions that I could make.
Like I can get off dairy and Ican substitute it with almond
milk or coconut milk orsomething that was a non-dairy
um milk.
I could still eat spaghetti anddo those, um, still make that
(11:39):
for my children and um kind ofnoodles with brown spaghetti.
Yeah, like I would use brownrice noodles and I would either
make my own spaghetti sauce or Iwould make sure that the sugar
content was under a certainamount of grams.
And so um we still do salads.
We were just making our ownsalad dressings and not, you
know, using all the processedones.
And so it became an um more of ajust kind of exciting kind of
(12:05):
time where I'm like, oh, I canstill eat like chips and salsa.
I can still eat some of thesethings, but I just learned how
to exchange that.
Um, the things that were notserving me into foods that
actually were.
And um, the way it was kind ofexplained to me, because I think
you hear that detox or you hearelimination diet and you hear
all these, you know, key wordsand you start to think like,
(12:26):
this is really like this is bad,or I'm gonna need to be near a
bathroom, you know, orsomething's gonna happen, or you
know, like a colon cleanse orsomething.
SPEAKER_01 (12:34):
And it's not we're not talking about that when we
say that necessarily.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
Yeah.
And so it's not like that atall.
Um, but it is a gentle, at leastthe program I went through was a
gentle detoxification of yourliver and kidneys.
And so the goal was to justflush out all those things that
have kind of been sitting inthose eliminating organs and um
flush it out by just stopping toconsume all those things that I
mentioned before and thenpouring in the right foods,
(13:00):
whole foods and things that willactually serve your body.
And so they kind of explained itto me, um, which is actually
fascinating, um, kind of justlike a slow draining bathtub.
Like your body is like, well, ifyou have a slow draining bathtub
at home and you leave the waterkind of just trickling just a
little bit, um, eventually it'sgoing to raise to the top, spill
(13:21):
over, and wreak havoc all overyour home.
And so that's kind of what'sgoing on with our with our
kidneys and our eliminatingorgans.
They're they're bogged down witheverything that we're consuming,
whether it's the food that'sfull of just different, you
know, different processed foods,things like that, or the air
that we breathe has toxins andum things we put on our skin,
(13:41):
which I think we don't evenreally notice um or don't think
about that.
That's, you know, your skin'syour largest organ.
So whatever you put on it, it'sgoing to get absorbed.
So you're bringing in all ofthese things.
So your eliminating organs haveto be able to flush those out on
a daily basis.
And so if your liver's boggeddown, it's kind of like that
slow journey bathtub that justum starts to fill.
(14:02):
It can't flush, it can'tdetoxify, it can't get rid of
things, and it starts to buildup and spill over and wreak
havoc all over your body by wayof symptoms that we think are
normal, like headaches and um,you know, mood swings and
bloatedness, IBS, uh some, youknow, all the dark spots on our
skin, from even like, you know,migraines.
(14:22):
There's so many differentthings.
And we kind of just chalk it upto this is normal, or I'm just
kind of experiencing these weirdthings, or I'm just getting
older.
And um, it wasn't until I didthe 30 day that actually just I
fleshed everything out and I ittotally changed my life in so
many different ways, but I feltdifferent.
I was able to concentrate.
I didn't have the brain fog,even with all my little people,
(14:43):
and I didn't have um, I wasn'tbloated, I didn't have
headaches, I wasn't drinkingcoffee for the first time, like
ever.
Um, and so yeah, those were justa few things.
And I lost weight.
So I lost the fifth, I lost 15pounds the first month.
And that was actually when younoticed it.
And you were like, okay, what isthis?
Maybe I should take a look.
And you actually joined me likethis is what happened.
(15:04):
You joined me the last likeeight days of that my 30, that
first 30 day.
Like, maybe I'll try this.
So you tried it and lost like 11pounds, like that, of course.
And I was like, don't ever dothis with me.
SPEAKER_01 (15:18):
That's right.
I remember you were happy and Iwas happy as that.
SPEAKER_00 (15:22):
Like, it's not fair that men have to get to do that.
SPEAKER_01 (15:25):
Men have a little easier job sometimes at getting
that weight off right away.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
Yeah.
But um, then we continued on,and that's probably another
conversation, but it was it wasa sustainable, um, it was a
sustainable way of life thatactually enabled us to get
healthier in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Well, you you know, it really is just you know,
proofs in the pudding.
You can't argue with results,you know.
And uh seeing that you weredoing it in a very natural,
healthy way with just by movingyour s your food sources around,
you know, that really opened mymind.
And of course, seeing theresults, I'm like, yeah, I think
I want to I wanna try this, youknow.
And it but you encouraged metoo.
(16:04):
It wasn't like you were like,You need to join me.
You need to enjoy me.
And you weren't you weren't uglyabout it or mean about it or but
but uh I don't know, you you wonme over.
And uh so I started to then lookat things more holistically, not
just for myself, but I reallystarted to think about wow, if
this is helping me, you know,I'm I I used to, you know, I'm
I'm prescribing medicines tomedicines to help people, and
(16:27):
that's appropriate.
We need to do that still whenwhen people need that.
I have you know, crazy highblood pressure or out of control
diabetes.
You want to get it undercontrol.
But I thought, hmm, maybe I canmaybe we can do something to
help people.
Well, this is something that issustainable and something that
can serve them for their theirlifetime, you know, and maybe we
don't have to be so dependent onmedications for everything.
So I started digging into theliterature and the research out
(16:49):
there about you know, functionalmedicine, integrative medicine,
holistic medicine, more, more ofthat sort of thing.
And I actually then uh did somemore studies through uh A4M,
which is the American Academy ofAnti-Aging Medicine, as well as
some studies through theInstitute for Uh Functional
Medicine, took a lot of coursesand certifications and uh
(17:09):
fellowship trained actually.
And so um did that fellowship inat A4M and um tremendous.
You know, I started seeing well,I can start implementing other
it got me to to think outsidethe box, right?
And it's what got me then to tostart thinking about um what I
can do to help help more people.
(17:30):
Um I used to get very excitedabout oh, I I cured or fixed
diabetes or high blood pressurewith this pill or that pill, and
that used to excite me.
And then I I changed that thescript, you know, I'm like,
well, I'm more excited now whenI can get people off of blood
pressure medicine or get peopleoff of diabetes medicine or
cholesterol medicine as anexample.
So it really, really was umtremendous.
(17:52):
And I'd love for you to sharesome more stories about that in
just a second about maybe somepatients.
But I'd love to hear too, evenmore personally, how do you
think that you know, cleaneating, how did it help our our
children?
And I want to maybe we'll visiton a we got another time to
talk.
We're gonna talk as much as wewant to, but you know, maybe
just a 30,000-foot view,overview of of maybe how you
(18:14):
think how maybe clean eatinghelped our our children in
general.
SPEAKER_00 (18:19):
In general.
Um, well, it's actually um giventhem quite the different
childhood and um start just tohealthy living than you and I
definitely had.
Uh they now are more aware ofwhat's what's in their foods,
what to look for, how to readingredients.
(18:40):
Uh we don't we don't really umkeep a I mean we we don't eat
perfectly by any means, but wedon't keep the normal processed
foods in the house.
And so um they and they theyrealize that they enjoy
actually, we have some, actuallyseveral of our kids that love to
cook.
(19:00):
And now, even um, as we haveadult children, they we're not
always compliant as kids, butum, they are making those
choices now for themselves, nowthat they have those choices to
do they have the ability tochoose what they want to eat
when they want to eat it.
They're choosing a healthierlifestyle and they're reading
labels and they're eating morecleaner foods than than ever.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
Give them an education, you know, on how to
how to adopt a lifestyle ofwellness.
And everything starts withnutrition, right?
It's the foundation ofeverything in in health and
wellness, to be honest.
So I think that's really been atremendous uh leg up that they
had.
There were several years that wedidn't eat that way, right?
(19:42):
We had a lot of cokes and andpop tarts and cereals and all
kinds of putties, all the donutsand all kinds of yummy stuff.
And and again, we're not againstany of that stuff now.
It's just we don't consume thoselike we used to.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:54):
So usually if I do buy that, they're like, are we
having a party?
Like, who's coming over?
Like, why'd you buy all thisstuff?
So it's not it's not the norm,but um, yeah, they just make
different choices now.
SPEAKER_01 (20:06):
Can you think of some specific um examples that
maybe some um some of ourpatients, you know, obviously
like maybe some scenarios whereyou've, you know, maybe with
patients and maybe how youshared specifically with
patients, how you've been ableto help them.
SPEAKER_00 (20:22):
Yeah.
Well, it's actually very muchthe same way that um I explained
it just a minute ago, how it wasintroduced to me.
You know, I just kind of listenfirst, you know, what are some
things that they're I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
being able to kind of just sitand have a discussion about what
it is that they're experiencingand, you know, what what is
(20:43):
affecting them, what they'relooking, what their goals are
and what they're looking toaccomplish by doing um something
like this or doing a 30-day orany kind of um diet change.
And uh it's been actually reallyexciting to see so many
different results.
Obviously, we can't make claimsthat it's just this or it's just
that.
I mean, it's hard work, it'smaking those choices, it's doing
(21:05):
all the things, but they we'veseen, in particular, we've had
specifically several patients.
I can count them on two, threehands, um, that have had
different autoimmune issues anddifferent uh and ladies with
PCOS, people that have hadissues with you know having
(21:28):
children or just not hormoneissues and imbalance, metabolic
issues, diabetes, hypertension,all of those things.
And so we've seen countlesspeople, either um like people
with diabetes or cholesterol,being able to come off their
medicines or at least alter themto where they're not so
dependent on them.
Uh, ladies that have, you know,been able to balance their
(21:50):
hormones through just cleanereating and um just just see some
really miraculous things.
Even ladies who didn't thinkthey could have children have
had children and some reallycool, cool stories.
Some amazing stories.
And so I think too, it's justbeing able to walk alongside
them and being able to coachthem and let them know like, you
can definitely do this.
(22:10):
It seems like it's hard.
It's just like that, taking thatfirst step and knowing that um,
you know, it there's there'slife on the other side and
sustainable.
SPEAKER_01 (22:18):
Well, it's made a difference.
It's not just a program, butit's you mentioned at the
outset, you know, coaching andcommunity.
And I think that's somethingthat that it's it's you could do
these things on your own.
There's plenty of information onthe internet.
You can read, you can do yourown thing.
And there's people that are verymuch self-starters and you know,
self-taught.
Um, but there's something to besaid for having somebody coach
you through the process orsomebody or a community of
(22:41):
people that can come alongsideyou that are going through it
with you.
Um, and that serves to help youon lots of levels, you know.
I think that's that's the beautyof of where this has come from,
you know, and how it's impacteduh our family and how it's
impacting other families.
And like I said earlier, it'sbridging that gap between the
traditional approach and theholistic approach and saying
(23:01):
it's not either or, but and howcan we take the best of medicine
and the best of what we knowintegrately and functional
medicine-wise, and how can wemarry these things together?
Of course, in our practicethrough a primary care lens,
where we're seeing newborns allthe way up to, you know, people
that are in their final stretchof life, that final season of
life.
And it's a real privilege to beable to care for people across
the spectrum.
Um, and seeing cases even withthese little newborns, you know,
(23:22):
where kids are having reflux andthey're having rashes or eczema
infants.
Yeah.
And we get, you know, we talk tomoms about, you know, well, what
are you eating?
You know, what are youingesting?
What are you doing?
Or or kids in the toddler yearsand, you know, developing
eczema, asthma, allergies.
And a lot of times it comes backto, you know, sometimes
elimination.
(23:43):
Or we see inflammatory markersthat are very high on patients,
um, and we don't know why.
So we start thinking, like,what's causing the inflammation?
And a lot of times it's what weput in our bodies, what we're
exposed to and what we put inour bodies.
And so when we do theseelimination diets, it's not to
say, oh, you have an allergy togluten or you have a, you know,
a celiac disease, because we'llwork up people for those things,
(24:03):
but a lot of times it'snegative.
And but we find that a lot ofthese foods like gluten and
dairy are a little morepro-inflammatory.
So maybe there are sensitivitiesand not necessarily food
allergies.
There's a distinction betweenfood sensitivities and food
allergies.
So people that are manifestingthe symptoms that you described
earlier, like the vague symptomsof brain fog or headache, or
(24:24):
maybe some rashes or GI issues,they may have some food
sensitivities.
So when we start with what'smost common, I always tell my
students and other people thatthat rotate with me and that
common things happen commonly.
And so when you look at glutenand dairy, those seem to be uh a
big you know factor or player ina lot of these issues.
(24:45):
So when we eliminate gluten anddairy, just that alone sometimes
can be uh both diagnostic andtherapeutic, right?
I can diagnose a problem becausethey got better and it's
therapeutic because they'rebetter.
So a lot of times just by doingthat with moms that are
breastfeeding and their kids arehaving issues, we see the kids'
issues clear up.
Or as the kids are older, oreven well, you know, adult
(25:05):
patients have issues that clearup when they do the elimination
or do this clean eating, it canreally help to reset.
And I think that's the that'sthe beauty of of of this
particular journey.
That clean eating has really,you know, um started.
And really, Missy, I think weowe it all to you.
I owe it all to you, truly, onso many levels.
(25:26):
Um and uh so this would probablya good place to wrap up for
today, but I would love to haveyou back so we can continue part
two of some more discussions.
I have some some questions Iwant to ask.
But um I just want to end with amaybe a little word of
encouragement today.
Um, every one of us is at adifferent point in our health
(25:46):
and wellness journey.
And but the I just want to sharereally what I think is a
take-home point for today, andthat is to consider pursuing
just a more holistic path inyour healthcare, like in your
wellness plan, so that you canexperience better health, not
only experience better health,but you learn to experience it
(26:07):
your way.
Thanks for joining us today.
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