1. The Holistic Health Adventure

[Music] I'm Dr. Tom. I'm Marissa. And we're the Nixon's. After a decade of helping patients with the list of health, we have learned a lot. That knowledge has literally been life-changing for our own family. We started this podcast simply to share practical tools, spread some encouragement, and help empower your family. With the same natural health knowledge we use in our very own home. We know every journey is full of mountains and valleys. Our hope is to help equip you along the way. Welcome to the holistic health adventure. [Music] Hey guys, welcome. What a hoop! Hanging out with Dr. Nixon. That's me, my beautiful wife Marissa. Hello there. That's her. And we're so excited to hang out with you guys. Today, our intention really is really just to set the tone, really open up the doors and the windows into our life. We'll talk about health struggles that I've had. Health struggles that you've had, how to overcome them, and we're really excited to do this. Health struggles. Yeah, I mean, it's awesome. We all struggle. Do you struggle? We all struggle. We all struggle. We're going to dive deep into it. And it's going to be an awesome time. So really, with the podcast, when people ask the question like, why are you starting a podcast? What's your intention behind it? Yeah, so we have been talking about a podcast for, shoot, probably here, probably longer. And it's one of those things where you ask yourself, does the world really need another podcast? There's so much information out there. And a lot of good podcasts. So many good podcasts. And honestly, it got to the point where like, even if one person, even if our moms, just, even just, in my mom. I don't know if you're a mom. I don't know if my mom knows how. Maybe not, even if just my mom listens to this. I feel great. But honestly, really, we feel so extraordinarily thankful and empowered with all of the natural health knowledge that we've acquired over the last decade that we just want to share what we know. We just feel so thankful. We own a holistic chiropractic office. We just celebrated our seventh birthday. And we've seen thousands and thousands of patients come into our doors, into our office. We've had the honor and privilege of witnessing their health journey and their victories. They're allowing their body to naturally heal themselves. And we just feel so fortunate that that's our world. And so we just wanted to be a little corner of your world where you come to gain some health knowledge, mostly just gain encouragement. Just empower you that you're not doing this alone. And also just share the victories and what are the things that has helped us overcome those struggles. Yeah, I love it. I mean, because so often you see someone on the other side who's doing all the right things. The person that we all want to be eating right in their exercise, they look fit, and they don't yell at their kids, and they read their Bible, they're all the right things or whatever. But one of the things we don't realize is that person, more often than not, went through some struggles, mindset struggles, practical struggles, applicable struggles of how to get there. So we're going to dive through that. And it's going to be super, super fun. So the next thing, when we talk about health struggles, we talk about stories. One of the things just for me, the way I got here, whatever here is, here, meaning being a holistic health coach, being a doctor, being a chiropractor, my health journey, as growing up as a kid, we didn't do anything right. I mean, if my mom's listening, she's like, yeah, we didn't. We, my parents owned businesses. They were entrepreneurs. They ran successful businesses. We were busy all the time. My parents worked all the time. So food was really just a byproduct of convenience. So like fast food, McDonald's, burying, whatever was quick, whatever was fast, putting the microwave, feed yourself, whatever it was, you know what I mean? And so we kind of grew up eating the standard American diet. And so I mean, that took a toll on our life. One of the things we know is that convenience costs, right? Doesn't usually cost a lot of money. It sometimes looks cheaper, but at some point, it's going to cost you. And so one of the first things we ran into is my father in his early 40s had a massive heart attack. They rushed from the hospital. They saved my dad's life. I'm so thankful for that. And so after his heart attack, my dad came home through the recovery process. And they had a month of medications. Blood pressure pills, cholesterol medication, and a vandia, which was a diabetes medication that they used at the time. And it's just hard because we know this. Medications, they don't really fix causes, right? Like they weren't saying, hey, Mr. Nixon, take this blood pressure pill, and it will fix your heart disease. They're just saying, hey, manage your symptom. That really what they do is they just cover up a symptom or manage a symptom. And so the problem is they also come along with side effects. And so my dad started getting them lots of side effects, mood swings, anger, depression. They put them on more medication to the point where, after so many months later, my dad had another heart attack. This time they went in. They did quadruple heart bypass. Again, they saved his life. We have the most amazing emergency medical system in the world. At the same time, we have one of the worst health care systems. Right? So they saved my dad's life a second time. And that's the one that really woke my dad up. And for a lot of our patients, they're take something in their life sometimes that tends to have to wake them up to take care of themselves. And it doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Sometimes it can just be a light bulb, or maybe like a podcast like this to realize, like, man, maybe I should actually take care of myself. And some of my dad did. He changed the way he ate. He changed the way he moved. He started taking care of his nervousus. We had a friend down in Florida who was a chiropractor. And he started reading and learning and cutting out sugar. He lost 100 pounds. He went from smoking three packs of cigarettes a day to none. And I'm so proud of him. - He's so amazing. - So awesome. And he worked hard. It wasn't easy. Being healthy isn't always easy. He had to break it to you. But it's worth it. - So strong. - And my dad went through all that, got off all that stuff. And now my dad's alive. He's around. He's able to hang out with his kids. And his grandkids now. After going through all that. And so that really just encouraged me when I was in college. I thought, you know, I had a conversation with my dad. And he just reminded me, goes, "The thing that helped me the most is when someone helped me change my mindset." And so through college, I started learning more about health, through chiropractic school. And learning even more about nutrition and exercise and the nervous system and detoxification. And learning how to take care of your body. - Can I ask a question? - When you were a kid, I've actually never asked you that. This, when you were a kid watching your dad transform. I mean, he lost 100 pounds. - Yeah. - Like, what did that feel like for you? - Yeah, interesting. Okay, great question. So he never really, like it wasn't, he did it for us, but he didn't make us do it with him. So I get this question sometimes, or I get the other side is like, a wife will say, like, I can't change my nutrition 'cause my husband's not on board. Right, or I can't change the way he eats my kids, don't wanna eat vegetables. You know what I mean? So I just can't do it. And I remember my dad, like he never, we never even talked about it. He just did it. He knew that if I wanna be around for my family, I've got a, I've got a change. I got a change the way I eat. - That's incredible. - So we actually, me and my sister, kept eating not great food. And he just, and I don't know, maybe it was like a test for him or something, but he just built this resilience to where the stuff that he used to love and crave and eat all the time, he just stopped. Like, we would still go out to restaurants and he would order a salad while we ate all the other - Incredible. - Notchos, you know what I mean? - You know what's incredible 'cause decades later, he is still the exact same way. - Yeah. - Still doing the same thing. - Like he's not in the boat of like, shaming other people like, "Oh, how could you eat that around me?" Or, you know, "Why aren't you doing this with me?" He's all about just, I'm gonna take responsibility for my health and my life and I'm gonna make the changes in each of them. - So good. - Yeah, but really made a huge impact in my life. And so my whole goal, man, it's like, man, if I can help another mom or dad or husband or wife, just understand like, "Hey, you can actually make the changes. "Hey, you're worth making the changes. "Maybe you don't have to go through it. "My dad went through. "However, you are going through something like that. "Hey, there's victory on the other side. "There's hope on the other side. "There's life and health "and your family on the other side of it." So that's a lot, that's really where my passion and my heart for it comes from. - I think I cut you off. So you went to school. - Yeah. - You were still sharing your story. - Yeah, I went to school and then what happened? It's met you. - Then you went to care practice school. - We started dating when we were 17. - Did you share? - Oh, wow. - What made you go to care practice school? - I mean, so the conversation was, so someone saved, a doctor saved my dad's life and then a doctor really helped my dad change his health. The one that saved his life, the guys who did open heart surgery, I thought about actually going down that route. I remember shadowing a couple of doctors and I'm like, "Blood, Needle, surgery." That's not for me. - No thanks. - No thanks. - It helps you, dad. - What's up, Ethan? - Well, Guy who taught me, you know, like, how to eat better, ring some books from some medical doctors, like, just getting educated that person. and help change my mindset and gave me an action plan to get better. I'm like, okay, I can do that. He had a great friend when we were younger, who was a chiropractor, and it was just so fascinating to me, one of the big principles of chiropractic really is that the body heals itself. It's really this idea of holistic health, right? And so I mean that word, right now it might be like a buzz word or I want to live holistically, but for me, when I see the word holistic health, I think to myself, whole living, wholeness, right? That you would be whole, mind, body, and spirit. One of the things that practically looks like, I remember in school, we learned the body in sections. There's like a cardiovascular system, and a respiratory system, and a digestive system. And we learned them like separate, but the reality is, is they all work together, right? They all work in tandem, they all work together. And so holistically, when you take care of yourself from a standpoint of wholeness, multiple things can get better, right? So if you eat better and lose weight, like your cardiovascular system's better, and your respiratory system is better, and your digestive system is better, whole body can get too sciencey on you to lose you. You'd get there, but to me, that's what holistic living and holistic health looks like. - So good, man, I'm so proud of your dad. I love that guy. - It's you, he's great. - So glad he decided to take care of himself. - Yeah, I mean, he's not perfect by any means, but he's an amazing dad. He's an amazing grandpa, and he really just made the decision in his mind, I wanna be around, I'm going to be around, and I'll do what it takes. - And who, I just encourage you, wherever you're at, just to take the time and think through, what does it look like decades from now? What does it look like when I'm actually a grandparent? And even for me right now, we have a two and a half year old named Lincoln, he is just so sweet. But it's just, it's one of those things that in our culture and our society, we are so eager to want a quick fix and a pill that helps this or that. And just to get over the symptom that we have is quickly as possible, and then to go back to our normal life. But I think it's so empowering and so important to slow down and think long-term and think over the timeline of your whole life and asking yourself, are the daily habits that I'm doing right now going to make me a healthy grandpa? And for my story, just to, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor of chiropractic, a doctor of anything, I don't like needles or blood or any of all that. I think nurses and doctors are extraordinary, you guys are superheroes, I would pass out. But we actually started dating in high school, fun facts for those of you who don't know. Way before, way before chiropractic or anything. And I actually went to school for business and then I did corporate event planning in Orlando, Florida for a few years. And on the way to work one day in F-150, pull that in front of me in the rain and my car smashed into them. - Oh, it was the worst. - Was the worst. - That is the worst phone call to get. I think you texted me a picture. - No, I don't think we were even, I don't think texting was a thing back then. (laughing) - Honestly, it was a long time ago. When we guys, when we first started dating, literally no one texted. And then we all got phones as we, like we all started turning 16, we all got phones and you had to text with like the three numbers. - And you had pay for each word or I did? - Oh yeah, I did have to pay for it, that was fun. But like you went to press one number like four times. - Expensive phone bill, yeah. - The young kids have no idea what we're talking about. - No clue we're talking about. - Anyway, so I got in a car accident. I probably called you and said I'm fine. - Remember where the guy was wearing the guy that you ran into? - Oh yeah, a guy helped me. - Oh that guy. - My little tiny Celica, the airbag went off and I remember thinking it smells like fire and I need to get out of the car and I was kind of delusional. 'Cause I went from 40 miles an hour to zero in an instant. And a guy helped me with Dale Earnhardt pajama pants. - That's where he was wearing. - That's what he was wearing. - He was helping with the pajama pants. - No, he was wearing. (laughing) No, he was wearing Dale Earnhardt pajama pants. I have no idea what shirt he was wearing, but I just remember thinking. - Was he wearing a shirt? - I hope so. - Dale. - Anyway, he held me out of the car and my boyfriend at the time, Tom Nixon said this was a day later, said, "You should really go to a chiropractor." And he was in chiropractic school at the time and you guys literally knew nothing about chiropractic. - I was so bad at explaining it. - You were bad at explaining it. You are not the great communicator you are today. And I remember thinking, all I know about chiropractors is I saw an adjustment like one time and it was a scary neck adjustment that you also see in movies when they kill somebody. And I just recall thinking, "I'm good. Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm just gonna go back to work." And I borrowed my mom's minivan, which was super rad for a while. And yeah, then the next day, my neck pain got a little bit worse. And then the next day it got a little bit worse and my pesky boyfriend said over and over, you should really try it. And me being the stubborn person, I tend to be, finally said, "You know what? I'm going to go try this just to prove to him that it doesn't work." - Because I'm stubborn like that, apparently. And so I walk into this chiropractic office and it feels so strange. They're doing exercises before, like warm up exercises before they get adjusted. There's these like traction unit things that help your neck, but they hang on the wall. So it just looks scary. And I remember walking in thinking, "This is so strange and everybody in here is super joyful," which was very suspicious because normally, when you go into a doctor's office, it's pretty somber, everyone's quiet, and they look sad, everyone's sick. And I walked into this office and everyone was joyful. And you guys, I'm a pretty joyful person. Like I skip around, I love snow, I love, yeah, love life, it's pretty joyful, but this was just strange. So, started getting adjusted and much to my surprise, my neck pain that I had went away. And of course, I thought that was just a coincidence. - And then I said, I told you. - I didn't want to admit it, but I said this, it's probably just went away on its own. (laughing) But then I discovered after many more adjustments that the headaches that I've been so used, had been so used to having my entire life, literally one of my first memories of a birthday party when I was six years old. First memories I had was going to this girls' birthday party, getting a migraine. And then if I ate after I got migraines, I would throw up. - Oh, sure, absolutely. - And so I have this memory of being six years old and being curled up in my friend's mom's lap, and then my mom came and got me. And that was just part of my childhood, part of my teenage years of just getting headaches, knowing that if I ate something in that time frame, I would probably-- - I mean, you saw headaches were normal. - I mean, and I thought it was super normal because both my parents had headaches and so I just carried around, excceded your migraine and would pop it like it was candy and never really thought much about it. And so I started getting adjusted and started noticing, of course, in a very suspicious manner. Like, my headaches are diminishing. This is interesting, probably a coincidence, but I don't know. And then I didn't have my cycle for two years and I had gone to a couple of different doctors about that and every single doctor I went to just wanted to put me on birth control. And I didn't know much about-- I didn't know anything about holistic health at that time, but I do remember thinking back then, it does not make sense to just take birth control to get my cycle back. And then one day I'm gonna want a child and I'll get off of my birth control, but nothing was fixed. And so I still won't have anything correct in my cycle. And so I knew enough to not just go on birth control to artificially with a chemical, give me a cycle, but I didn't know the answer, but lo and behold, after chiropractic, my cycle came back and then I really just started paying attention to what in the world was happening in this office. And it was really chiropractic was really like my gateway drug into holistic health and what all that entailed. And like he said, holistic health is really just taking care of the whole person, mind, body, spirit, everything affects each other and it's finding the cause. It's not just looking at a symptom and seeing, okay, you don't have your cycle, let's just prescribe a medication. It's considering all the lifestyle habits. Is your nervous system functioning? What does your nutrition look like? What are the stress factors? Is there toxicity? Are you exercising? Are you mobile? Are you moving? What's your water intake? Mind said, all of these things, anything that affects your wholeness and your well-being, all of those are factors into your health. And so really I just shifted my entire way of thinking about how I even take care of myself. And I was so clueless back then, I remember learning about chiropractic and how much they made a big deal about helping people come off of medications. And I remember thinking that are people really on that many medications? I just had no clue. I was so clueless about just what health looked like I thought I was pretty healthy, but just had no idea what holistic health even meant. But long story short, I ended up working in another chiropractic office after many, many discussions of you and I considering possibly opening an office together, because I really just saw the benefit of people getting well and I thought it was extraordinary and really no, I felt like chiropractic was such a secret and that nobody knew this was an option. And so I started working in a chiropractic office, you know, just to make sure I loved it. And that's really when I just was completely sold, because I watched literally miracles every day happen in that space. I remember watching a mom no longer needing her walker anymore and she just left her walker in her office and she would say, well, to like, walk off with her kids just with complete mobility. I remember watching a patient of ours who had come off anti-depressants and literally watched her her eyes like brighten and be able to focus and just have a different love and appreciation for life. And I watched kids no longer need an ear infection surgery because their body healed itself from ear infections. And it's just a different way of taking care of your body and zooming out and looking at, okay, if I have this symptom, if I had this going on, how can I help that in a natural way that allows the body to heal itself? We're not anti-medication. We're not anti-doctors and antihospels. There's absolutely a time and place for all of those things. But if it's so simple to change your nutrition to help with digestive issues, why is that not the first line of defense? I just think it's so wild that in our country right now, having open heart surgery feels normal and routine, but changing the way that we eat is such a drastic thing. And I think there's just such a necessary shift that needs to take place for our health care. And it's just we're so thankful to see it. I think one of the things you said that was so important is just like cause, right? I think the best doctors in the world would be the ones that help their patients understand or help their patients find the cause. Otherwise, all you're doing is treating a symptom. And it's fine. When someone's in extreme pain, like, yeah, sure, treat the symptom, help them feel less pain, whatever that means. But if you don't find the cause or fix the cause that they're going to live with that perpetually for the rest of their life. So good. So good. There's so many, even for simple things, struggling with fatigue. Are you dehydrated? Dehydration is the number one cause of afternoon fatigue. What's your stress level? What does your water intake look like? If depression, have you taken time outside? Are you exercising? Have you sought out counseling? Counseling is so incredible. And I think asking for help is such a sign of courage and strength and not a sign of weakness. And I wish our medical system were pro counseling and pro teaching these different tools that help you instead of quickly prescribing a medication. Same with sleep, you know, it's so easy to just want a medication to help you sleep. Well, again, are you working out? Because a research study after research study shows that exercise helps you sleep at night. Are you turning your screens off an hour before bed to make sure that blue light is not affecting your. Circadian rhythm. And all that good stuff. And so it's just a mindset shift of finding the cause. Yeah, that's so good. And honestly, too, we're not trying to sit here and say like, hey, we got it all together. We're perfect because we're not. We've come a long way from where we were. Amen. Thank you very much. You used to love cookies. You didn't tell about that. Oh my goodness. You're gonna tell about it. You're going to in a second. I mean, but we've definitely all had struggles. I think one of the big ones that I just, I feel like recently have really been working on. And I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on really is just an exercise routine. I think changing my nutrition was a big piece of it. Taking care of my nervous system. Like on board with that. That was easy and getting adjusted. And it's great. And it feels awesome. When I came to exercise, taking, you know, an hour out of my day, you know, three, four times a week. For me, especially, and maybe it's just, you know, us running a business. Me being a three on the end of your gram. Love the end of gram. If you don't know what that means, you will, hopefully this future episode. But just wanting to help more people. I found it very difficult. I'm like, man, I could either spend this hour multiple days a week like working out. Or I can use that time to help more people. And thinking like, yeah, because that's my purpose and passion. And the reality is I think a lot of doctors nurses feel this way. We have a high capacity for needy people just to remember. We're not responsible to carry all of them. Like quite frankly, we can't. And if you try to, you'll experience burnout. A lot of doctors, a lot of nurses, a lot of caregivers, a lot of moms. Hello, get there. You know, so it's just important to remember, like taking care of you is so important. If you don't take care of yourself, if you go down, who's going to take care of all the other people. So it's so important and so valuable and so important to take care of yourself. And so exercise, once I kind of made that mindset switch, really like once we had Lincoln, a year into having Lincoln. I remember thinking like, man, I've got to figure out how to get this exercise routine down. It's important for my health. It's important for my cardiovascular health. Just knowing what my dad went through, I've got to take this seriously. And so I did, I just created a routine, created a rhythm. I found something that I enjoyed. I've done lots of different exercising. And I really, I found CrossFit and I really enjoy it. I enjoy a little bit of the competitive aspect. I just remind myself when I go in, like, hey, you're not that good. So don't try to win. Don't try to win. Don't worry yourself. Because I'm very competitive. I'm highly competitive and not good. So that's a recipe for pain. True. So I just remind myself, just I want to walk in. I'm just like, remember while you're here, you're not here to win. You're not here to prove yourself. You're not here to show off. You're here to just take care of your body. This is a discipline. It's exercise. You're taking care of your heart. You're taking care of your health. And you're doing it for yourself and for your family. And I literally remind myself of that when I go. Because it's really easy for me to fall right back into the routine of. There's a lot of other things, emails, stuff, event, PowerPoint, workshops, things that I should be doing to help more people. And so I just put that into perspective. And so I'm going to do it now. About a solid year on this crossroad. How do you? Routine just did a competition. Not trying to brag. We entered the novice division. Like first timers. We got first. That's fine. That enough said. You couldn't help yourself. I was not bragging. Just saying like. Not bragging, but bragging. We didn't plan on winning. We just did unnecessary detail. So I want to know. We worked hard. Good job. I want to know some of the like nitty gritty practical things that helped you create that routine. Okay. So you liked. You found something that you liked. That's step number one. Yes. Like make the time right. So figure out in your schedule where is it going to happen. I'm not a morning person. I'm not working out at 6 a.m. If you are though, that's extraordinary. Yeah, great. Do it. Neither of us are those types of people. Maybe one day. I just. I like drinking coffee in the morning. Not sweaty. That's like my biggest thing. Well, I don't like to work out in the morning. I just like to enjoy my coffee in my. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like my pajamas. Just not sweaty. There's really two types of people in the world. People who wake up and they're like ready to talk. And then people who wake up and they're like don't talk to me for at least 30 minutes. I'm more in that boat. I'm it. It depends on where I wake up. Mm hmm. Where do you wake up in a lot of different places? Yeah, I'm in a way. When we travel, I feel like I wake up like an energizer bunny. Oh, that's ready to go. I hear that. But if we're in our house and it's wintertime and it's still pitch black outside, I, you know, I need a little minute. Anyway, back to practical tips. You know what I was asking all the nitty-gritty. Okay, so like that doesn't work 6.30 p.m. when I get off of work. Like I'm tired. I want to go home and hug my kid. So like, okay, where the world am I going to put this? So I started doing lunchtime. Lunchtime. Nune on Mondays. Nune on Wednesdays. Nune on Thursdays. Became my routine. I throw another workout in there on Tuesday afternoon. But the Monday Wednesday Thursday really became my thing. Lunchtime. I could adjust patients in the morning, I can go there right after, I could I can eat, grab snacks, protein shakes, whatever I'm eating for lunch, chopsticks, all of the goodies, healthy fats, and then I can go right back into work right after that. And it just became a rhythm and a routine that actually worked for me. One of the other things was just packing my bag the night before. So simple, right? Like, Jim closed bag shoes. Snacks, lunch. Food, put it by the front door, and just grab it on the way out. Otherwise, if I wake up in the morning and I'm like, oh no, I'm late to work, I'm going to just give myself, it's so easy to give yourself an excuse, right? Like, ah, man, I didn't get my clothes. Oh, I'm late. I got to run to work. I don't have time to grab my workout shoes. And so just eliminate your excuses, right? Like you know what they're going to be. So those two things right there helped me a lot. So helpful. We're really intentional. We do something every Sunday night called our next seven meeting where we go through our week for the next seven days and talk about our schedule with Lincoln. We go through what we're eating every night for dinner. So we meal plan. And then we also talk about where we're exercising. So we really value all of those things. So in order to actually value it, you have to either put time towards it or money towards it. That's like the definition of value and in a practical way. And so we just said, okay, this year, and this was what end of 2018 said in 2019, it's going to be, you said it's going to be your year to exercise. So really proud of you. We have to. You've come a long way. Thanks. That next seven meetings were really helpful because we also plan out our date night. That's really important to us. We started that about, you probably read the same time a couple years ago. A couple years ago. And just really purposefully planning it out. We want to set intentional time together. So yeah, that next seven meeting is very awesome. So good. So good. I feel like I had a different question for you, but I don't anymore. So I'm just going to talk about my health struggle. And these are, gosh, we have so many. So this is just one of many. First episode. But one thing that I know so many can relate to, I've probably talked about sugar with our patients more than any other topic. And so for me, again, knew nothing about holistic health. I thought my nutrition was superb because, you know, I ate cereal for practice. I thought it was so. I really thought I was so healthy. I ate. Sorry. I forgot cereal in the morning. It was probably like, it probably said, hi, source of fiber on the box that I believe did. And then I had Nutra grain bars for snacks and it has Nutra in the word. And, you know, I probably had a banana somewhere in there and then pasta for dinner, which, you know, probably helped me somewhere. Yeah, with red sauce. Tomatoes. Yep. So I was a picture of health. But every single night I had Publix chocolate chip cookies. Come on. If you don't know Publix. If you don't know Publix, where originally from Florida, we grew up in a small town called the Ormabeech and Publix is basically your only grocery store option, but nobody's mad about it because we all love it. It's so good. We're shopping as a pleasure. And I, you know, started eating Publix chocolate chip cookies basically from birth. And I love them ever since. And you can't just have one. And you can't, you cannot just have one. They make them like slightly smaller. So when you eat one, you're like, I should probably just have like six more. Smaller than one. Then, you know, your average larger cookie, I guess. And you buy them by the dozen. So you can't just like have a couple cookie, like they come in a dozen and I used to eat like six cookies every night. Really? Every night. Growing up, I had the biggest sweet tooth. I would sneak just craft carbles, plain craft carbles. Yeah, it's. But they would live in the top shelf in my parent's kitchen. And I would like climb up on the counter and just eat them. And I had so many cavities growing up. Everyone right now is thinking about all of the stuff that they did when they are kids. Or are still doing because it's real. No, that's so real. They're all listening. You're adults. You don't have to like sneak it anymore. Right? Yeah, but you still feel like you need to sneak it. Oh, okay. This is real life. Okay. Listen, I know where you're at. You're addicted to sugar. It's okay. Been there. So I, mine was cookies or any dessert or sugary thing. I remember thinking when people would say, oh, that's too sweet. And I remember looking at them like they were crazy because that never, like that never existed in my world of taste buds that loved sugar. And so I would eat desserts anytime they were around. When I did corporate event planning, we were an awesome organization and people used to deliver desserts to our break room. I'm not kidding every day. Either a catering company or a new restaurant that opened. And so our break room had these amazing desserts on a daily basis. I also loved baking. And so I used to bake myself. I would bake different desserts and bring them to the office. I even had a sign on my cubicle that said office baker. And it was Marissa, Marissa Bauer. Do you remember when you were 18? What did I bring you? Banana cakes. Banana cake. Three. Three. Did I layer them or just bring three? No. Just three. I really skipped my first class to make this guy, this kid for his 18th birthday banana cake. And not healthy banana cake, but it was good. So you are addicted to sugar. So I was addicted to sugar like hard core. And I remember like other co-workers that weren't addicted to sugar and they like wouldn't eat the dessert that was in there. And I thought it was just so wild. And I was like, you're wasting that. You are missing out on this opportunity to taste this delicious thing. So. Meanwhile, you're like getting diabetes. Yes, definitely. And so I'm eating also so many cavities. So many cavities. And so I'm eating six chocolate chip cookies, a night, public's brand, delicious. And then I start learning about how toxic sugar is to your body. And I have always been active. I always really valued health, but just didn't really know what the definition of health was. And so as I started learning this, and then as we started having these conversations of maybe one day we could do this like chiropractic off-sync together. And the education that I had in what sugar turned into long term, I had this like weird identity crisis of I love sugar. I love baking sugar for people. But this is not serving me well and me baking these desserts is not serving anyone else. Well, you're like two worlds colliding. Yeah, it was this like I was like, what do I do with myself? And so I remember the first thing that helped me practical was finding something else at night to consume instead of chocolate chip cookies. And so I used to take something else healthier. Something else healthier. Yeah, just a different cake or something else out there. So I used to take this grass-fed way protein, the max living brand of it. I remember this. Yeah, I know. I used to take a scoop of way protein as two scoops of almond butter, like raw almond butter from Trader Joe's and a dash of sea salt and a like splash of almond milk. And I would stir it together and either eat it straight up with a spoon or dip some strawberries in it. And I ate that every single night for like months. But it had no sugar. It had no sugar in it. It had stevia. The protein was sweet and with stevia. So it was sweet and it like it helped me when I felt crazy and it was like I need sugar right now. Because that's real. Like when you stop eating sugar, like you feel crazy. Oh, the cravings are insane. It's like coming off a drug. Oh, it definitely is. And so I would eat that all the time. And it honestly helped so much because I didn't also another tip getting all the sugar out of your house. Environment matters. So we can take control over environment. So we're removing anything that was sugary out of the house and then replacing it with something that was a healthier option and still gave me that like, okay, I'm eating dessert but isn't fueling my cravings. And so ate that every night. And honestly, it took me probably a whole year until I got to the point where I could be around desserts in other places and not eat it. And I remember the day when I looked at it and thought, I don't need to eat that. Like if I don't eat it, it's not a waste. Because part of me had this thing like, well, if I don't eat it, it's just going to get thrown away. And I don't want it to get thrown away. But meanwhile, I'm literally fueling my body with garbage. - Here's the thing, we are not like anti-dessert ever. Now we're super intentional for having dessert, it's gonna be phenomenal. We're gonna enjoy it, we're not gonna feel guilty about it, but then we're also not gonna eat it every day. It's literally a vacation experience. So yeah, sugar. That is, and it's been, what, seven, eight years? That was probably eight years ago. What's it like now, new crave sugar ever? - I literally never crave sugar, ever. And I, all the time, well, try something, even if there's a tea and it's sweetened with a lot of honey, I can experience that, oh wow, this is way too sweet. That thing that people were talking about that I could never relate to, but it takes time to train your taste buds. And it doesn't take seven years, that is totally myth. That your taste buds change every seven years. Your taste buds can change actually in 14 days. And so if you cut all sugar out within 14 days, your cravings will subside. However, in those 14 days, it is so hard. And you start to think that it's impossible and you start to think, why did I do this? And you feel crazy and you get headaches. But it just, it takes time. And it takes changing your environment and changing your thought patterns about what sugar is. And not as something to cope with any experience you're having or just, this is just part of my daily routine or what I do, but actually treating dessert as a separate celebratory event, if that makes sense. But yeah, sugar, we feel you. If you are in that world right now and you're addicted to sugar, I just encourage you to find something to replace it with and also just be aware of how much sugar you're consuming, not just in desserts, but also in fruit drinks. So that's one of the number one ways that people consume a ton of sugars in different juices and teas that sugar is added to. For females, the amount of daily intake is 25 grams a day of sugar. In one soda, I think it's like 40 something grams. So even with one soda, you're already consuming more sugar than the daily allotted amount. So yeah, make those baby steps to minimize the sugar. It has so many different effects on your body that we just wanna stay away from and live so we can live healthier, better lives. - It's true. And we're gonna walk you guys through. The good things are there's so many options. There's so many available things and switches and baby steps. And so we're gonna coach you guys, guide you guys through how to start making some of these changes. So if you're listening right now and you're thinking, like, man, I'm struggling with you guys right now, when it comes to sugar, like, hey, been there, we've done that, we're walking through it together. You're not alone. So we wanna encourage you guys along the way as we walk through these health struggles together. - Better together. - Better together. We're so excited to do it. So excited you guys are on the journey with us. We love you all so much. And we'll see you guys next time. - Have a beautiful day. Thanks for adventuring with us. For more free resources, check out our Insta at TwinsittbyHealth. And if this was helpful for you, feel free to share this podcast with a friend or subscribe to it. See you next time. (upbeat music)