#9: How Jodie Beat Paralysis Without Surgery - With Jodie Brown

In this episode, Jodie shares her incredible journey of beating paralysis without surgery. Learn how she reversed aging and improved her healthspan!
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Links Discussed In This Episode: 
https://youtu.be/0O9tXbgxckM?si=72ZqNMnOzLi4Fl9d 
https://youtu.be/5VwJGT1OXhQ?si=7EMJU6xYkde10di5

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:12 My Free Gift To You!
• 2:51 Jodie's Story - The beginning
• 4:25 How Jodie Ended Up Partially Paralyzed
• 8:14 Mindset: The Key to Overcoming Adversity
• 15:17 The Role of Support in Recovery
• 15:39 The Importance of Prevention
• 29:19 Foot and Hip Health: The Foundation of Mobility
• 39:22 The Short Route Metaphor
• 40:39 Personal Athletic Journey
• 42:16 Rebuilding Foundations for Longevity
• 44:37 Client Success Story: Jenny's Transformation
• 46:08 Pillars of Health: Exercise, Nutrition, and Recovery
• 48:05 Jodie's Routine
• 56:51 Nutrition and Eating Habits
• 1:03:30 Intermittent Fasting and Hydration
• 1:06:16 Essential Foods and Beekeeping Aspirations
• 1:09:23 The Power of Honey
• 1:10:45 Supplements and Their Role
• 1:12:52 Navigating Hormone Replacement
• 1:15:16 The Importance of Sleep
• 1:20:35 Community and Relationships
• 1:26:36 Secrets to Health
• 1:36:25 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Transcript

 Hey there, welcome to youthful aging secrets. I'm your host, Ricardo Vasquez. Today's guest is Jody Brown. She's a 51 year old fitness expert and mother of one. And at the age of 37, she had a terrible accident that left her partially paralyzed. Doctors told her that she might never walk again unless she underwent a very risky surgery, but Jodi refused to accept that fate. 

Instead, with the support of her husband, Nolan, she harnessed the power of biomechanics and exercise to walk again and rebuild her body stronger than ever before. Today, Jodi channels her experience into teaching exercises for injury prevention and aging gracefully, especially for those of us who are over 40 years old. 

But anyone can benefit from her advice. In this episode, we talk about how to bounce back from injuries, how to stop injuries before they happen, how to make your mindset a game changer for recovery,  how to keep your hips and feet strong and mobile, how to turn setbacks into comebacks with a mindset shift, and much more.

Jordi's got a great attitude and an awesome sense of humor. I had a lot of fun talking to her. We had many laughs and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Before we start today's episode, I want to quickly tell you about my free five health hacks newsletter. If you're busy, but still want to live as healthy as possible for as long as possible, this just may be perfect for you. 

If you don't have time to catch every podcast episode, follow all the experts or stay on top of the latest health span and longevity research, check out my That's exactly where my newsletter comes in. Every week I send out a quote to inspire your week, a summary of the latest podcast episode, a quick breakdown of the health topic backed by latest research and actionable takeaways.

Cool stuff. I'm loving that week and a thoughtful question to get you thinking deeper.  The best part is you can read it in a time. It takes you to drink your coffee. If you're interested, head over to youthful aging secrets. com forward slash subscribe and join for free. Let's get it. Jody. Welcome to the call.

I really appreciate you being here. So Jody, the purpose of this call really is like we discussed this to extract your, I hate to use the word secrets, but you know what your routines, your behaviors, your habits, et cetera, the basically your lifestyle and what you do and don't do to get you to where you've currently gotten the results you're getting.

Obviously you look great. Um, and you know, you're teaching a lot of women to do the same thing. And so, yeah, my goal is to extract that, the little wisdom nuggets from you and your routines. And then hopefully people can get some values from that. So why don't we start with how old are you, Joni?  I am 51. 51 years young.

Awesome. 51 years young. Yes. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Um, that's awesome. So why don't we start from the beginning? How did you get into this whole fitness world and exercise and all the stuff that you do? Is that something you were born with or maybe you can walk us through it? Well, I think I've always been, I've always been involved in, um, being active and being fit even from being very young.

I was always outdoors and was active and running. And I used to be a long distance runner, uh, up until my, my mid twenties. And I used to ride horses an awful lot as well. So I've always been very active and I've always, um, been very much into mountain walking and hiking. What I hadn't. Um, being very good at was taking care of myself when I was doing all of these extreme activities.

So, um, I did used to compete athletically as a runner up until the age of about 18, um, and then I just would run for fun, but I had quite a few accidents and injuries.  I wish I'd put my, my body under, under stress and had caused some problems to my spine. And I think all the running over the years, probably not running with the best form had caused my spine to impact and put it under stress.

And then I had my daughter just over 14 years ago and pregnancy does things to a body, puts low pressure on a body. And I finally. The last accident I had was the one that made me, left me partially paralyzed when I was carrying my daughter out of a bookshop. And I literally, most insignificant of my accidents, I tripped coming out the steps and naturally, um, when you're holding your, you're holding a baby, your instinct is to hold the baby up and protect the baby.

So there was nothing to impact my fall and I fell on concrete. And that was, um, to use a pun, the straw that broke the camel's back.  But  so my recovery from that final accident and all the injuries I'd had over the years was what made me think, you know, there's got to be a better way to staying fit than hammering your body and injuring yourself.

And, um, that's what led to where I am now. And I've been doing that for the last 14 years is staying fit and helping people to stay fit without injuring themselves or putting undue stress on their body. Wow. That's crazy. So you said you were partially paralyzed. Could you go into that a little bit deeper, like literally paralyzed?

What like, could you elaborate a little bit? Yeah. So my right side sort of from my, um, sort of from my lower back down, I wouldn't function, I couldn't utilize it. I could feel everything. So, um, you know, if you touch my skin or tickled my feet, I could feel it. I could feel the touch, but I just physically.

Could not make it function. The neural pathways, um, through damage to my lumbar spine had, um, they, they had shut off and, um, nothing, nothing that any medical intervention was doing was  going to, was making it come back. The, my lumbar spine was so impacted. I had so many things going on. It had ruptured um, discs, it had herniated discs, it had decompression. 

Uh, what's known medically as a black disc. I had two of those where on an MRI, um, what should look as a desk should look like white and fluffy. Mine was black, which means basically as completely deteriorated. And that was what, um, had caused, um, damage or compression on the neural pathways. I was told by the doctors that the only sort of hope I had was beef them to cut me open and put some artificial desks to, um, I guess,  Yeah.

Stuck my spine back up again, but that they would have a shelf life and they wouldn't last forever. So ultimately in about 12 years time, they'd have to cut me open again and replace them. And I've seen over the years, so many people who have had, um, lower back surgery, the It hasn't been successful for a lot of people.

It's left them with a lot of  limitations, and I didn't want that. So, and even so, even if the doctor told me if they had done this surgery, if I was going to walk again, it would be with a walking aid. My response to that was, I probably can't repeat it in this interview. Yeah, repeat it, please  repeat it.

Yeah. Fuck off.  Yeah. But there's no, this is not a politically correct, uh, podcast or anything. Exactly. And you know, so they, they told me I had to get used to it and, um, wanted to bring me out a wheelchair. And I said, you can, you can, you can take my wheelchair and shop it. I'm not leaving here in a wheelchair.

I'm not having one. I wouldn't even look at it. It was not going to be part of my world. And, um, so there was a lot of, um, a lot of trying to get me to accept my fate.  And that's how my life was. And, and I refused to, I didn't want to speak to listen to or hear from anybody that had anything to say about me being permanently, partially paralyzed.

So it was just, I wasn't entertaining it was not happening.  I love that. That's a good mindset. We'll definitely dive into mindset, which over the years I've started to realize that I believe mindset is probably number one in everything we do. It, it really starts with our belief systems and what we're willing to accept and whatnot.

And it seems like with this. It really did start off with your mindset where you're like, Nope, not happening. And so that's where your brain starts to look for another way because you're making it so that this is not something I'm going to accept. Right? So many people do,  unfortunately. So you must have been in a lot of pain when that happened.

And obviously following that. Holy shit. So what happened with your daughter? Like in that moment, you, you did catch her. She didn't. Bear any of the impact. No, she didn't. So I, I couldn't move. My husband got me and took me to the, to the hospital.  That's an interesting story right there as well. I think that was the first time my husband saw me.

Professional term is lose my shit. You're a lucky guy, man. Usually women,  men will see women in those states sometimes, you know? Yeah. So, I mean, I went there and I had a, a, a doctor there in the a and e, um, shouldn't, was insisting. I had a watering section and kidney infection  kept. I was like,  I, I've just fallen down the step.

I've landed on my back. And, um, she was saying. You know, no, it's a kidney. Now I'm sure it's a kidney infection. We're going to send you off and, you know, and do a water test and all the rest of it. We'll get you some antibiotics and  I'm like,  you know, you're not listening. I've fallen on my back. I can't walk.

My legs not moving. I am in excruciating pain. She was just convinced that I had a really bad water inflection brought on by falling over out of a bookshop. So I was just saying to her, listen, you know, Knock that crap off, you know, send me for an x ray, send me for an MRI. This is not a water infection. Um, she literally rolled her eyes at me and she turned to my husband as I was a child.

I wasn't even there. And she went, as I was saying to her, 

I mean, I'm in pain and my legs not working and I'm frightened. And I just went to her. She literally ran out.  of the treatment room and came back with another doctor who agreed, yes, I think we should send you for some x rays or MRI. Um, but, um, yeah, so when I, when I've made my mind up about something, when I know what's right in my body, not what's wrong in my body, I'm, I'm pretty hard to convince.

Um, yeah, I try as they might to convince me that I wasn't going to walk again. That's awesome. And I'm happy that you made that, you know, transformation and you're currently at where you're at. That's awesome. Um, so how long did it take from the fall to where you were? I don't want to say a hundred percent, but what you were like, okay, I'm, I'm good.

Like I'm not partially paralyzed or et cetera. How long was that journey? It was progressive. So I would say, um, nine months I was up on my feet and walking not completely without pain. Um, and I did have one procedure done throughout it because it was a point where I was stuck. I'd got my leg. Um, working, I'd got it functioning, but my spine was like an S band that was happening because the back muscles were in a chronic spasm and they were pulling my spine one way and then the other way.

And it was excruciating. I did speak to my doctor at the time that was, I was working with, and I said, what can you do? These muscle spasms aren't helping. And I was on,  10 milligrams plus a day of diazepam, um, to try and get them to release and they weren't. And of course the diazepam makes you groggy and I needed that  function back.

So I had what they call, I think it's called a spinal tap when they just injected a muscle relaxer. So I was, I was awake for it, but very docile and very relaxed. And they just inject along the spine. to get the, um, muscle spasms, um, to release and stop  because I'd already got my, um, my walking function back, but it was harbored by this S bend in my spine, which pulled my pelvis out of alignment and made it all very, very painful. 

Once I had that spinal block or spinal tap, my spine was able to straighten. I would say about 75%  Improvement and that made a huge difference. So from that, I was able to work on, um, like muscle recruitment patterns. What I call that the sequence, the order of events that muscles work and get them working more functionally.

So I finally had that spinal tap after about nine months. And then the recovery after that was really quite, quite quick after that. I have relapses.  Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're very few and far between and I can recover from them within a day because I now know what to do. Right. Yeah. And of course, you're doing a lot of the things that are strengthening your muscles and your mobility and all that stuff.

So it does, of course it makes it so it's much easier versus someone who's, you know, Who's not active at all and something happened,  it's very hard to recover from that, especially as you get so were you on any other medications other than  you mentioned, what was it? White diazepam as a, as a muscle relaxer.

Yeah, I did take some painkillers, but they made me, and they were quite strong and they would make me feel very nauseous and very sick. Would I only take, you know, take off the very, very surface of the pain. I scrapped those. Yeah. I find with, um, for me personally, not right, not saying this to everybody, but me personally, whenever you take some kind of pharmaceutical, there's always a payoff.

There's always something else. So, so no, no, I didn't really want to be on the pain meds.  So for the little bit of pain they took away, they gave me other problems. Right. I'm, I'm scared of the pain meds just simply because of how highly addictive some of them can be, uh, that talk about just regular Tylenol or something like that.

There's been a lot of documentaries on, on that. And yeah, that's why I asked throughout that journey. I'm sure that was a very long 9 months, give or take to a year ish. Were there any moments where you've had doubts where you're like. Maybe I'm just, you know, frustrated or feeling like defeated or some of the, those moments if you don't mind sharing them with us.

Yeah, no, I don't, I don't mind sharing them.  Um, yes, of course there were moments and there was, um, there was times where I felt very frustrated and very angry. If I, um, couldn't do what it is we were. Um, my husband and I were working on, it was a really testing time for our marriage. Um, not for him. He was steadfast for me. 

Um, I mean, he was putting me in, lifting me in and out of the bath and taking me to the bathroom and helping me get dressed and all, and all those, those other things. And there was times that I would get very angry. Uh, and frustrated and, uh, I w I would lash out and that was, it was, it was my fear. It was it was fear and, and, and frustration.

You know, I know, I know, I know a couple of two or a plate or two flew  across the room on occasions and, um, a few choice words, um, came out my mouth, but, um, push hats off to my husband. He just took it.  He just took it. He didn't, he didn't judge it. He didn't react to it. He understood it. He knew where it was coming from and he either did one or two things.

He, he gave me my space or he gave me a hug. He just always seemed to know which was the right one of the two to, to choose from, um, cause I would break down, you know, I usually have to being angry or frustrated, I would break down in tears and I would have that moment of weakness and I would allow it. 

But I wouldn't allow it to stay. So, but yeah, and, and still even now, um, I still get moments of, of fear if, um, I get a little twinge or something goes into a little, a little spasm. I'm a little bit like, Oh shit. Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. But I know what I need to do. I know what exercises I need to do.

I know how to reactivate the muscles that have gone to sleep and or or shut down or the neuropath is shut down and sometimes I can rectify it within an hour and sometimes it can be a day. This very, very infrequent. I think the last time was around. It was June 2022. That was the last, um, relapse. That was a bad one.

I was in a pretty bad way then. I was overseas, so I wasn't with my husband. I'd gone off for a couple of weeks on a, on an adventure, trekking and hiking. And bang, that's when it got me. That was the last time. And I haven't had, um, barely a twinge since then.  It did. It was a couple of days into, I would say it was about five days into my two week trip.

And, uh, I did a stupid thing. I'd gone out walking in what, um, we call slip flops. And, um, then they're terrible for you. Um, because you can't, your, your feet can't function correctly in slip flops because you're, you're always gripping them with your toes.  Yes. And I've gone out for a walk down to the beach.

I'd only gone down in, in my flip flops and was going to walk, walk back on the beach, but I, you know, I decided to go on an adventure, you know, in flip flops. So I couldn't function my feet properly, which meant I couldn't function my legs properly and I couldn't function my glutes and my hips, muscles in my hips on my sort of turnaround to back to my hotel where I was staying.

We'll be in the, where I was staying, I felt that my back, it just literally started to go  muscles just going tighter and tighter. And my pelvis started to go rigid and not move. And by the time I got back, I was in agony and it had gone, I did, it took me about two hours to walk back in that. And with, with this excruciating pain. 

So the muscle spasms had really, really, um, sit in. Yeah. And my husband wasn't.  With me, I decided to go off in the weeks, so I couldn't, I didn't remedy it the way I would have done it if, um, if he'd been with me. So I think the fact that I had such a long flights and long driving and long waiting around in airports, the whole thing impacted.

Yeah,  it was a pulp. It's gone. Yeah.  It worked out. And hats off to your husband. That's very admirable. I respect that a lot. And for, uh, you know, I, I can only speak for myself as a man. It's sometimes it's hard not to react, even though you understand where someone may be in that moment, you forget where they're coming from, especially if you're helping and then they're maybe snap or barky. 

So. Yeah, I admire that. So hats off to your husband. That's you're, you're very blessed. That's, that's great. I am. And, you know, I often say to people, the only reason I know how to help other people is because he helped me without that. I wouldn't be doing this. He's far, far more knowledgeable than I am. I can only do what I do because he helped me. 

That's it. That's really sweet. That's nice.  Yeah. That's quite the journey. And are you the most grateful or happy that happened in the sense that, you know, with perhaps without that happening, you wouldn't be where you are today in terms of your business and what you're doing. Do you, is there a party that's grateful for that experience or wouldn't change a thing?

Yeah. Wouldn't change a thing. If I had the time all over again, I'd have the exact same experience. I always wanted to be. Some kind of healer  and all my, all my, um, life I've done something that involves healing something, someone, somewhere. Before I had the accident, I used to work for, um, the ministry of education of the Cayman islands.

And I used to work with children with behavior problems in school. So my job was to figure out what, you know, what were they not happy about? Because behavior is a message when children are acting up in school or whatever, that they're trying to tell you something they're trying to tell you something is not okay.

I'm not okay. I'm not happy. Um, and that was my job to discover what that message was and help other people, uh, understand it so we could make it a little bit better. So I've always done something that involves  Some kind of healing, some kind of pure remedy. So this for me is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

And I wouldn't be doing what I do now if I hadn't had that accident and gone through what I'd gone through. I just don't think I'd be as good at it. Yeah, I guess you've, you also have that empathy and compassion for others that perhaps come from a similar journey or, you know, you know, firsthand all those.

Roadblocks that they're going through are going to go through. Right. So exactly, exactly. And not taking anything away from types of therapists or physios or whatever. I think it makes you having experienced and gone through it. It makes you more be able to relate more the frustrations that people are going through.

It's one thing. It's one thing. Um, sharing the knowledge. of how to fix and heal and exercises that you can do, but understanding what people's barriers are and what they're going through up here and here in relation to it is a whole different thing. And I can really relate to that because the, the, you know, the thing, what I do, the exercises, the information that I share, uh, it's not my information.

It's information that's out there in the universe anyway, you know, I haven't really invented anything new and they've adapted a few things, but it's just, you know, my job is to take that information and just as my, um, business consultant says, I'm just, I'm a vessel for information. The information is there and I just channel it through to people because I have been through what a lot of people have been through.

I'm, I'm just, You know, able to, to channel it, maybe effectively, if that makes sense. It definitely does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you, if you think about any type of position in healthcare system, for example, let's take a psychologist or therapist, I find I've had the privilege of speaking to them and, you know, from personally, even professionally.

The ones I find to be, at least for me, that I resonated  the most with were the ones that dealt with a lot of trauma themselves. So, you know, I know someone that had a lot of childhood trauma and she's incredible and, and, and I think it's because of that experience, she understands. Yeah. Well, when people are like, Oh, you just don't understand, I've had this, that, and then like, Oh, I've, I've been through that a lot, like, you know, so it builds that trust.

And I think in your situation, you've, you've gone through that hardship. And so if people even haven't gone through that, you, it's easier for you to relate and to say, listen, I know you feel this way, or you're thinking that way. And I think when people get that connection with you, they, it can help provide some motivational fuel for them as well.

Right. Yeah, but it's, it's learning it at a very real level and we, we, we see this now in governments, you know, you have governments who have people met people in government who have come from wealthy families and been to private schools and then making decisions for a nation of people that they can't relate to.

Yes, they've never been, you know, I remember the working class or they've never had it harder. They've never understood the world the way, um, people like you and I understand it. They're not, they can't relate to it yet. You get somebody who's kind of like come, you know, a politician that's come up from, you know, from the streets, if you like, or from a working class background and live that.

They're far more relatable and people, people trust them because they know then they're not, you know, talking out of, um, what they've learned in a textbook, they're talking from life. And I think that's a privileged perspective, which is like, so out of touch.  Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So I'm in Canada, you're in the UK, right?

Yes. And in Canada, especially throughout the pandemic, just to touch on your point, they were pretty strict. And Canada is one of the most, as far as I know, one of the most strictest with. All the lockdowns and all the stuff going on. I think you guys were pretty too, right? Pretty strict there, but yeah. You know, our premier was like, a lot of the things our government was doing, it was like shutting down businesses and, and I understand the fear, the things that are going on.

There's so much to it. However, a lot of it was this attitude of like, oh, don't worry, it's gonna be fine. It's like, yeah, easy for you to say. You don't, you don't have, you're, you're good. You know? You still continue. Well, still getting paid muscle pain.  And when people lose their businesses, you're not going to be there to help them out and you're, and all the added stress, that's like probably more unhealthy than if, than if.

The average healthy person got COVID and so not to turn this into a whole thing, but yeah, it's, it's like, they're so out of touch from it. So I, I totally can relate to that when I see people  understand where I'm coming from. Just that understanding alone, sometimes like, Oh, you get it. And that's where I'm coming from.

It's, I don't know if I know any more or any less than other, you know, mobility coaches, fitness coaches, physios out there. I don't know, but I do get it. I know what it's like to hurt, to be in pain, to be injured and to have to work with that injury and to work with limitations. Cause there are, there are many things where you won't see me doing in any of my social media or YouTube videos.

Is doing any kind of acrobatics  or anything that's impressive, you know, I'm leaping upside down, swinging around bars and stuff.  But that doesn't mean that I can't be fit and strong and mobile and  be the best version of myself because there are some things that I'd love to, to be able to do, but I know that there.

It's too risky. It's too much of a risk for me. Um, and we're a lot of people out there, you know, not everybody wants to be set by, um, you know, leg pressing a hundred K, 200 K  or who wants to, you know, walk on their hands and do backflips. Not everybody wants to do that, you know, but I think most people want to be in their best shape and do.

The best that they can with their physical age, physical limitations, and physical ability. That's awesome. So throughout that experience, um, we'll, we'll switch this topic in a minute. I'm just curious out of that experience, what would you say was the biggest Take home lesson for you, or if there was multiple, what were some of them that were really like epiphanies from the accident from the whole experience from the moment you fell until you were like, you're never done, but you're like, I did it like you hit a milestone.

We're like, wow, I, I kind of recovered through this. What were some of the, you know, the key insights or the, those moments where you can call them epiphanies that you walked away with? Well, I think, like I said to you,  what made the actual tripping over coming out of the bookshop was just the straw that broke the camel's back, you know?

If I hadn't done, um, damage to my, to my spine prior to that, I probably wouldn't have had that kind of impact on me when I, when I fell, I probably might've been sore for a few days, a little bit of bruised. So I think the epiphany for me was that injuries are preventable. And you don't have to wait until you're injured and certainly, you know, I used to have very weak ankles and I lost count of how many times I sprained my ankles.

I haven't sprained my ankle in years and years and years because I now know what to do, how to, um, mobilize and how to exercise and strengthen them so that it doesn't happen anymore. And it's never happened since. So that's my big epiphany is, is don't wait until you're injured. And that's often what people do.

And I, I say this sometimes to my clients that we, we often don't listen to our body. We often don't connect with our body until something hurts. You know, we don't pay attention until something hurts. We don't give it that care to prevent it getting to that, um, stage. And it's a little bit like your car, you know, some people might just drive and drive and drive the car and then bang, boom, Something with pop one day and he, Oh yeah, I probably should have taken it for a service a bit more often than I did  fix that should have had that look at it when that little rattle or not was happening.

I probably should have done something about it. And that's for me. That's the big epiphany because my back was, um, You know, my body was telling me, it was giving me warning signs for a while and I wasn't listening. Yeah, I totally, I totally agree with that. Interesting. So prevention, let's switch gears and while we're on the topic of prevention, what is your preventative maintenance  like right now?

Is there a specific thing you do? That is. A requirement for your particular injury and things you've got there. Or do you have like a overall one that you would recommend everyone do too? You know, that's a big question because there's such a big directory of exercises and the things that you can do those.

I mean, I could sit here all day telling you for me, there are the two things, and you'll see this a lot on my  Instagram and social media is feet, getting your feet moving and your, your glutes, your hips. feet and hips, feet and hips. Um, you know, you can stay active and still, and not that I'm negating doing upper body, um, strength work, but you know, if you want to be active and go outdoors and do your walking and go places, you need.

Your feet and your hips to be working. You fix the feet and the hips. You're pretty much good to go with your knees and your lower back. Your feet are your foundation to everything. So I would say everybody should do that. If you think about a building, if your foundation isn't strong, it isn't balanced and the structure is not right.

Anything you build on top of that is going to crumble. It's going to creak. It's going to crack. You're going to have to be doing, um, repair work, et cetera. So it all starts, it all starts with the feet. So many people, so many clients that have come to us with back problems or hip problems over the years.

And the first thing we look at is their feet. And they go, no, that's not my feet. It's my back. And then my physio said, it's this in my back. And I've been seeing this chiropractor for my back for, for 18 months. And my first question is if, if your car had a problem, if your car had a mechanical fault, you took it to a mechanic and he sent you away and your car drove perfectly for three days and the problem came back, you wouldn't keep taking your car back to that same mechanic and paying him week after week, after week, after week.

People will do that with physios and chiropractors, they'll go back and they'll pay and pay and pay and pay and pay and they'll just, you know, treat the symptom, they'll treat the back. So we've had,  gosh, a hundred, countless number of clients that have come to the back problems and we've looked at their feet and we've balanced their feet, got mobility back in the feet, got the function back in the feet and their back problems have gone, their hip problems have gone.

And we haven't even had to touch it. So, I mean, that's not a hundred percent of the cases, but it's a  big number, a big majority of cases you fix the feet. Yeah, I agree with that. I, um, I think the feet are often very much neglected and they are the foundations where everything starts as far as movement on your feet, of course, from the ground up question for flat footed individuals.

And I'm one of them  and I've had a lot of issues with my feet as a result, especially as I got older, I've been a lifelong martial artist,  right? So we do go barefoot a lot, which is good. Um, I think it's great, but if you neglect your feet, which I did for most of my life, and I just recently started actually another interview with a, a gentleman who's a physiotherapist was also talking about that and he had me, he gave me some ideas, which I've been doing, and it has made a huge difference.

Um, he's very big on starting with your feet and getting back that range of motion, mobility in your toes and flexibility in your toes and all of the above and the types of shoes you wear and all that stuff. So back to the question, do you deal with people who are flat? Are you flat footed? Do you deal with people that are flat footed?

And if so, what are your recommendations? Yeah, I, uh, well, I had one flat foot and that was, that was a bit of, that was part of the problem. One of my feet was, was flat. Worse than both, no? Cause it's kind of like an off balancing. Exactly. Flat feet. So the feet are supposed to flatten. So your feet have two functions.

Um, well they have two basic functions. They have quite a few functions. We'll just stick with the two. So the feet are shock absorbers and they are a propulsion unit.  So when you land on your feet, your foot is supposed to flatten. That's his job. It flattens to absorb the shock. The problem happens is when it doesn't unflatten because to spring you forward, the feet, you know, sort of contract and propel you forward.

And so that's the problem. Can, can you fix flat feet? Yes, absolutely. It just means they're not moving. That's all flat feet is. It means they're not moving and what we would look at is getting them moving again. There's 33 bones and countless. I can't remember how many muscles and ligaments there are in the foot.

Now, common sense tells you something with that many bones, that many joints. So you've dealt with people who have had, how did you fix your, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot, but a general overview of like, how do you fix your flat feet? Or how did you fix your 1 flat foot? Like, is there a specific exercises if there is like 1 or 2 exercises, if you don't mind sharing it, or just like a conceptual approach to it.

To how to address it or, or, you know, go through it. Yeah. Well, we've got a, I mean, I have a whole foot series on my YouTube channel, um, of them footwork, all the footwork and your ability, your foot strength, correcting flat feet. So that's all there on YouTube is free. Anybody can go on there.  and access them and watch them.

And you know, one of the, the first thing we do is, is get the foot moving. First of all, um, the foot often become rigid for a number of reasons, footwear, let's just pick footwear. So that's one of the guilty ones, you know? So what we have to do is exercises that involve moving the foot because the feet actually, they rotate.

The foot rotates, um, in the middle of the foot and the most common joints, um, for becoming stuck is, I don't know, I don't put my foot up in the camera, but, um, we have bones that, you know, a joint halfway through the foot, often that joint won't move. So if you think, um. All right, I'm just going to, I'm going to get,  what's coming out around here.

Okay. We have a, a joints, uh, across there. That's a great caption for the interview. Just the foot. So when it, so if you think the end of my fingers are the joints, okay. If that joint's not moving, that's what creates the flat foot. The joint becomes, sits down, presses down. So there's loads of exercises that we can do to get that joint sort of moving there.

But if you think these fingers are also those joints, a little bit, they also have this ability as well, or should have. to rotate. So one of the very common things we use is a ball as simple as a ball and doing certain exercises on the ball at certain part on certain parts of the feet and then movements with the feet to get that foot movement going.

But also, um, a lot of it is about the neural pathway connection. So if we do an exercise that sort of challenges the foot,  So if we move a person's center of gravity around and we challenge that foot, then we can get that foot to wake up again. And it's like a light bulb goes off and it goes, Oh, I remember now.

And it doesn't want to forget again. So often once you, once you flick that switch and you flip that switch back on and the foot remembers its function and how happy that feels in the whole body, those neuropathways want to keep firing. They want to keep making that happen. They want to replicate it. So, um, we'll definitely link to all your social media outlets, website, et cetera.

And I'll even make a link directly to the. The foot, uh, whether you have a, is it a playlist or just one video? Yeah, no, there's a playlist. There's a whole foot playlist on that. Yep. Yep. So I'll definitely link to that. Um, it'll be in the notes and we'll, we'll mention all, we'll plug those as well, just so people are aware and I'm going to check them out myself too.

So, all right. So preventative part of your preventative maintenance, as you said, your feet and your hips, do you have a whole hip series as well? I do have a, I have a whole, um, so I have a whole hip mobility series on there as well. Um, and they're not hidden, um, you know, they're, they're free go and watch them.

So,  um, but yeah, your glutes, I would say the second most important thing after your feet would be your, your glutes because your hips are, you know, a really mobile joint, you know, it's a border socket joint. They move all over.  You know, creating the stability and function in those hips is crucial because if your, if your glutes aren't working, what takes over is your, your back must still do it for a bit.

Because as humans, we're designed so amazingly almost to a fault. So for example, if we are, if we're injured, Let's just say we live a bit more organically and a bit more wild and you become injured, you know, something kicks in, you know, adrenaline kicks in and you know, you can, we've seen animals on nature programs with a break with one broken leg, get themselves to safety.

And that's how we're designed to be able to get ourselves somewhere safe. So anything and everything will kick in to get you there. Um, the problem is it undoing it and remembering to go back to how it used to, especially if you're, you know, you have an injury, it actually only takes about, um, for you to develop a badge form in your movement.

It only takes about 72 hours for that to become the, the tech, the template of how you move, you know, and it becomes a habit because I was saying, You almost habituate that pattern. It becomes a habitual pattern of light. So it becomes a habitual pattern. And that becomes your form. So what we have to do is we have to make it remember what it used to feel like.

And my husband has a really good way of describing this. He says, he said, imagine you're taking, you've been taking your kids to school for a couple of years, and it's been taking you 20 minutes to go around the village, around the town, up the street, back down, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then one day. And you're quite used to that.

And it becomes quite normal. It's your routine. It's your habit to do, to do, to do 20 minutes off the school. And all of a sudden, somebody says to you, do you know you could go that way and only takes five minutes. It's straightforward. Would you go that long way again? And would you always take that short route?

You'd always take that, that easy route, wouldn't you? That short route. And that's how those muscles work in that body. You know, your body's, when things aren't working properly, it becomes normal and it becomes accepting. And you go that long route, that hard route. Then our job is just to teach, is that actually you can get that quicker and it's much easier.

So that's what we do. We, we, we train those muscles, we educate those muscles to remember the short route again. Right? And once they've learn it and they go, oh yeah. Pretty soon that short route becomes normal and they don't wanna go the long way round again. Yeah, that, I like that. That's a good metaphor or analogy.

Yeah. That, that's, that's his, I stole it.  I'm going to borrow that, uh, yeah, that's a great analogy. I like that. It makes a lot of sense. Um, going back to the whole injury and preventative maintenance, et cetera. I've been athletic my whole life. You know, I've always been in sports and especially combat sports.

And one of the things I neglected growing up was mobility, flexibility. Obviously it comes built in with some mobility, of course, special martial arts. But I mean, I didn't consciously say, Oh, I'm going to do some mobility right now. I just. It just happened when it happened, there was no programming or, you know what I'm saying?

So  with that said, I've had, I would say more injuries in the last five years than I've had my whole life. And even those injuries were kind of freak accidents. They weren't like aware. It was like in combat sports, someone kicks you in the ribs, you might get a broken rib. That's kind of different than something that's giving you signs of, Hey, I'm going to fall apart soon.

And so, you know, both my knees actually hurt my knee this week. And like, What I've realized is, and like you said, it's not addressing my feet, it's not addressing my glutes aren't firing, my hamstrings are tight, et cetera, old hip injuries, and so by not addressing these things, I've had all these other issues.

And so I've also had that kind of epiphany like, you know what, I've got to address this because. I'm getting stronger at the gym. I'm doing all this weight, all this, but I think in a sense, well, it's a good thing, but it's also aggravating it. Cause as you're getting stronger in these maybe incorrect movement patterns, you're kind of worsening the situation.

You know what I mean? Like if your mobility isn't following along with your strength, you could actually be doing damage too, right? At least for me, speaking to me personally, that's how it was for me. Yeah. Well, what you're doing is it, and again, I'll take it back to that building on a good foundation. Jen.

If you are, if you are not correcting, let's, let's say your, you know, your shoulder mobility, let's say, you know, your, your shoulders are in a bad, you know, a bad position, uh, that's going to make them susceptible to injury. And then you strengthen that you're strengthening the problem. It's makes it hard to fix.

And that's a real barrier working with people who, um, aren't in a fitness program. It's sometimes easier if they're going, you know, they haven't been doing much for years and they want to start something that's sometimes a lot easier because you're kind of working with a blank slate. But sometimes we work with, um, athletes and pro athletes or people who are really into fitness and have getting them to, you know, Scale it back and to change things and to stop doing that heavyweights or whatever, or stop doing so much cycling, um, so that we can read pattern and reform.

So we're basically rebuilding their foundation and then so they can move forward. With more longevity and less injuries is very hard to do for somebody who's already in a fitness program or in their favorite sport or, uh, you know, you know, going to the gym regular and regular and they don't want to stop.

You tell them, you know, actually we need to scale this back temporarily. And runners is a good example. There's people who've been running and they're getting a lot of knee or hip or back injuries. They've been running with the wrong shoes and running with the wrong form. And then they come, you know, they come along and we say, well, you know, actually just run, just go back to running just a, you know, a mile or two mile, but running this way.

And the idea of not running that usual 10, 15 miles and only running a mile. It's very, very difficult to say, you know, just this little, this scaling this back. Now I'm relearning this starting from scratch again, you know, it's going to help you. It's going to eliminate the knee pain, the back pain. This is why you're having it.

And often, not always, but often people are not prepared to do that. And then that's when, you know, in two or three, five years time, they're done. And it's just taking a little step back to begin with scaling it back, rebuilding it back up. It's what's going to keep them running and running and running. I do have, we have one client we've had, she's been coming to us for years.

Every week she comes to a class.  Um, I hope she won't mind me saying her name is Jenny. And, um, she's a lady of a certain age and she, she loved running. And we did a run, we did a running workshop, she did a running workshop, and she did some one to ones with us, and she comes to our class every week, and she could run for miles, but she wasn't running well, and she wasn't enjoying it, she was in pain, and she did it, she scaled it right, right, right, right back.

She now runs, and she'll run forever, she, you see her, some, we've had a couple of people have said, I saw your lady.  I saw her run around Wellington park. She runs like a gazelle. It's a joy to watch her run. She just glides and she's happy and she's loving it, but she would have certainly had to have given up running.

If she hadn't just taken that time to scale it back. I want to say her age, but I can't remember her exact age. If she ever watches this back  and I get it wrong,  I'm not going to do it. But Jenny, if Jenny, if you watch this, I'm talking about you and you know who you are. Yeah. If she, if she looks, uh, incredible for her age, I'd like to interview her too.

If that's cool. You make that connection. That's awesome. I love, I love to hear those stories and, and kind of proud of her. She's very dedicated and she's, you know, she has, you look at her, she has the physique of a 20 year old. It's amazing. Okay. So let's scale it back. So when it comes to longevity and biohacking, which is what this is all about, there's a few pillars, right?

I call them pillars of health. Of course, you have the big three, you know, you have your exercise, which I would put mobility, flexibility, uh, preventative stuff. I put that under the exercise umbrella, then you have nutrition diet, right? I would also include,  I want,  I had cherry bakewell tart for breakfast this morning.

That's another misconception. People have is that you have to be perfect. It's not true, but we'll get into that. And then we have recovery, which you could. Kind of put preventative stuff there, but recovery is more so rest and sleep. But then we have things like supplements could fit into nutrition or pharmacology.

Sometimes I used to be big, like no medicine ever, but I do think it fits. Oh, there is a time and place when the time comes. Yeah. But I think when people are overly dependent and think that it's this panacea or like this end all cure all is where it becomes a problem. Yeah. So with that said, I want to kind of touch on each one and see what you're doing, what you're maybe not doing or your thoughts on it, if you don't mind.

And we don't have to go into deep detail, but I really do want to see, because you're obviously doing things. things right. And I don't think it's only one thing, you know, I think when it's all of them are working together synergistically, I think is when you see the magic, right? Because you see people who only exercise, maybe they feel like shit, or they eat great, but they don't move.

There's a lot of people in certain  communities that they just only eat well, but it's like you gotta move to, you know, you can't just like, or some people do everything, but they don't sleep. I have a good friend, I won't name him, but he does all of the above this guy never sleeps. So I'm like, well, that's why you feel like shit, man.

Cause you don't rest. Like he's like, oh, but I take this and I do that. I'm like, yeah, but you don't sleep. So we can start from, you know, as far as exercise goes, I know you do a lot of different things, but do you have like an overall arching concept or framework that you work within as far as. Cardio resistance training and doesn't have to be heavy.

It can be body weight doesn't matter, but some kind of resistance, cardio and flexibility slash mobility. Do you have like a framework for how what you do specifically and how you approach it? Yeah, a lot of resistance training with body weight and I use a lot of bands and a lot of balance and core work.

So I'll use in all of my classes. I mean, we use little small instability balls. So, um, you know, my, my sort of philosophy is, um, Having the whole body working as a unit, as one unit in terms of cardio, this is going to surprise you. I hate comedy.  I had the idea of like, you know, jumping up and down and pumping and sweating and  can't stand it. 

Cardio for me is brisk walking and hill walk, that kind of thing. Yeah. So just, just, you know, running up and down the spot for the sake of it. It's, I find it, I just find it boring and tedious. I mean, I know some people love it. It's just, um, you know, people, a lot of people are surprised that, uh, I don't really do a great deal of cardio, but there's a lot of science and I won't.

I won't go into it one because I, I, I wouldn't do it justice if I did, but, um, when you get to sort of my age, uh, a different kind of cardio has a more positive effect on aging. Um, so sort of like pounding the streets and running happy, lots of, uh, heavy exercise. Um, cardio can be quite aging on the face, you know, I will still run, I'll do, I'll do some sprint training every now and again.

So short bursts, short bursts of sprinting with, um, some power walking or some, just some brisk walking  is what I tend to do. And, um, I do love hiking up hills. I live just at the very, very close to the edge of a place in the UK called the Peak District. And the name speaks for itself, the Peak District, a lot of hills, very, very beautiful.

And uh, and I do love sort of hiking up hills and walking for miles, you know, I like being out in nature. So that's, that's how I get my, my cardio and it's not really heavy. And then the rest of the stuff they say is body weight or resistance training or working out. doing exercise that involves the whole body to get involved rather than doing like an isolated bicep curl.

We'll do occasionally, but I prefer the whole body movements, mobility, flexibility. I do, I do a lot of stretching as well. Lots of different types of stretching. Some, some types of stretching are, are not great. Some are short term benefits and then  There's other types of stretching that have more long term benefits to them.

And again, I talk about those in my videos a lot on the, on the YouTube, active stretching and different types and different methods as well. Just for people watching the type of cardio that you're referring to typically follow, I would assume falls under the category of zone two cardio. Which is where you are walking at a brisk pace.

And the idea is, there's different levels for everybody.  You can talk, but you're not, like, here, like, right now. It would be like, if you were on the phone, someone would know, like, Are you walking or something? Like, you can hear the, like, their breathing. Not only just enjoying the flower, like, you're moving.

But you're just walking. So, Zone 2, there's a lot of data that shows, is the healthiest. Form of cardio, especially for longevity as the base. So I follow Dr. Pita Tia, and he, he talks about zone two being like, if you look at a triangle zone two would be the base. And so it represents 80 percent of your cardiovascular output.

So what you're doing is I totally agree. I do the same thing and I hate jogging and stuff. I feel it destroys my joints. I feel like shit. It's never been my thing, but I, there is another type of cardio. Which is more short duration, uh, high intensity, which is like short spurts, like sprinting,  where you can really only go all out for about eight to 10 seconds.

The human body can't go full Blast for 30 seconds is physiologically impossible. Like look at sprinters, they, when they hit top speed, they can't maintain that for many seconds. It's just not, they were designed. But then you can go all out for long, but you'll notice your speed diminishes. Cause  there's a lot of, uh, science on the VO two max and longevity.

And so those short bursts are excellent for health. So I think, I think we're on the same page. I do the same kind of thing, and I don't do those a lot. I do them maybe once or twice a week. You don't really need to do it like crazy. I have a whole video on VO2 max and things you can do. But yeah, that's, that's awesome for, for your cardio.

And then for your resistance, um, I like to say resistance because people say weight training, it's not the weights. It's the resistance that matters. Progressive. So whether it's body weight or bands or weights, it doesn't matter. It's as long as you're. Challenging your muscles and getting stronger  and working and the resistances and I'll just get, I'm just going to use bicep curl just for an example.

A lot of people would do a bicep curl, you know, here's, here's your weight and they'll just work this movements, just the contraction  and they'll let it go. But it's working in both. So you're resisting the weight as it's coming back down and resisting, resisting, resisting. So you're working the muscles in both directions, much, much, um, much, much more effective and safe and injury preventing as well.

Yeah. So the eccentric phase, right. Where it's like the negative. Um, it's actually more important because it's resisting against gravity. And, and I also agree with you that when I can, I do isolation stuff too, probably more so for aesthetics, you know, cause you're like targets as a guy, you know, you want to have the pipes, but it's like, but I agree with you when I can use multi plane movements where my entire body's kind of working as a unit. 

You know, kettlebells are great for that body weight, like gymnastic or, you know, Pilates, gymnastics, yoga, those kinds of things kind of incorporate those a little bit better where you're using the entire body. I totally,  how many times do you typically do all of these different things per week for yourself?

And how long are these sessions for myself? I would probably say, um, depending on how much admin I have to do, um, two or three times a week dedicated just to doing them, um, myself and I do. And then I, obviously I do my, my classes, my in person classes as well. So, um, I'll never give those up. Um, however much online I go, I love.

being in the room with sort of, you know, 15, we have a lot of fun doing what we do a lot of fun. And, um, it's just the pleasure to be among the energy. So, you know, I, I teach those classes, but, um, I would say even, let's say if I teach seven classes a week in person, but a lot of that time I'm, I'm up and about and I'm walking among them.

So I'm not doing seven classes myself because I will demonstrate. The exercise and I'm up and I'm adjusting and I'm moving and I'm barking and 

so, so dedicated for myself, um, three times a week with the, what you referred to as the zone two cardio. I know that sort of, you know, three or four. times a week. Um, but also as well, we, you know, in my, in my living room, you know, we, we have a, there's a, there's a permanent foam roller. There's a permanent resistance band.

There's a permanent kettlebell. And so if we're watching a movie where, you know, I'll be doing something, I'll be stretching something, you know, if I'm going to sit and watch a movie, there's no reason why I can't sit lay on my back and do a little hamstring stretch or a little bit of hip mobility. I'm not going to miss anything.

I just prefer to keep things. Moving and that's better for me and my body as well, because I will, you know, I've got to make sure that I don't seize up probably most people, but would need to, but I just, my body's happier when it's moving than when it's static. Absolutely. Me too.  Years of wrestling and destroying my neck, things like that.

I got to go in and when I do, I'm good. Okay. So that's, that's really cool. I'd like to point out that even though when you're teaching the class, you might not be doing everything you are demonstrating, you still demonstrating, you still walk up and down. So I would imagine if you measured your heart rate and your steps and all that, you know, I'm sure you're still getting a more than average workout than most people would.

So you, but that's cool for you. It's bonus. It's like, you know,  you're still active is my point and people have to say, okay, so we touched on the exercise component. I want to go into the nutrition. And that's including what you drink, you drink alcohol  very rarely. I will have a, a very occasional, uh, glass of wine.

I commonly would have maybe two glasses of wine a month. Um, yeah, I've never been a big drinker. It's never, it's never, it's never bothered me. I've not, uh, I mean, I have drunk. It's just not something that I've ever really made part of my life, even when I was younger. Okay. So minimal drinking, if that, as far as.

Your eating habits, do you follow a specific diet, things you avoid, when do you eat, all these things. All my life, I have, I eat when I'm hungry. I, I, I've always listened to my body. Breakfast, I can't, I know some people can't, can't manage without breakfast. And I, you know, I, and I don't, I wouldn't, I never have, um.

To try and would try and teach nutrition, because I think it's a very different thing. And you, you, some people just can't imagine not having breakfast or not eating until 12 o'clock or two o'clock. It just, that just feels natural to me. So I think for me, my number one rule is listen to my body. If I'm hungry, it's time to, my body's saying it's time to eat.

If I'm not hungry, I'm not just going to eat because it's 12 o'clock and that's what, you know. We're supposed to do it 12 o'clock is eat lunch. I won't eat for the, for the sake of it because it's a, you know, that's, that's like a cultural norm to eat breakfast, lunch, you know, dinner or tea as we say. Um, in the UK I just listen, you know, from if I'm hungry, I eat, I mean, I eat, and if I don't, I don't.

I do drink a lot of, um, water. I do keep myself very hydrated. Now, when I do eat, what do I eat? I rarely, rarely eat any red meat.  I tend to eat. A lot of nuts, a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, and I tried not to cook my vegetables. I try to eat a lot of raw stuff as well. So, and I don't eat  big meals either.

I can't stomach it. I'm going to have myself a naturally small stomach. So I, I'm what people would call, glutton. 

And I do have a Chinese takeaway once a week, or, or fish and chips.  Oh, I heard you have some of the best fish and chips in the UK, right? Is that we do? So, yes. So I made new friends from the UK. I'm adding you to that list and, um,  I haven't visited yet, which is embarrassing, but I'm thinking. Probably 2025.

I'm going to make a trip out there. I got a good buddy out there. But I think 80 percent of the time I eat really good stuff. And so, you know, this morning, you know, there was a very unfortunate incident where there was a Cherry Bakewell left out from the night before. And for  breakfast. With a coffee,  coffee and cane for breakfast.

Cause that's what I, that's what I find. So now I just think, you know what? I'm pretty good. Um, I don't like junk food. Uh, McDonald's, you'll never see me at McDonald's. I'd have to be desperate or just going through for a bottle of water or something, but I just don't eat that  stuff.  I always say my, my diet is what, um, my grandma used to make.

You know, they didn't have convenience food. They didn't have quick food. They didn't have processed food. So I eat like my grandma used to cook when I was a little girl. Do you cook yourself?  Yeah. Awesome. Does your husband does hubby cook? Okay. So this is, this is the truth. Hubby is there the main chef in the house.

Yeah. He's Caribbean. So is he Jamaica? He is. What? I grew up around Jamaicans. I'm from Toronto. There's a lot of Jamaicans here. Or there's a lot of Jamaicans there. Yeah. Yeah. So I grew up around Jamaicans and I'm Latino, I'm Hispanic, but my best friend growing up was Jamaican too. So I was always going to his house and the mom was always cooking and I learned how to make some Jamaican food too.

And I love Caribbean in general. There's a lot of Caribbeans in Toronto.  So I love Caribbean, so I love Jamaican food. So you have all the oxtail and curry goat and dumplings and all. Curry goat is my naughty, my naughty favorites. But it's good. It's good. If it's made, it depends on how it's made, you know, but it's yeah.

Yeah. I was, when I was, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I didn't want to, um,  have any eat anything that, um, no red meat. And, um,  And I didn't want to eat anything that wasn't good for my baby. I really wanted, uh, to, to not do that. But then it, it just got to me one day. You know, I was just that we were living in the Cayman Islands and I sent my husband out.

I said,  go and get me some curry goat . And he said, Curry goat.  And um, and cream and Madeira cake. So cream, I was just used to, yeah, I love cream, any cream filled cakes, fresh cream. So yeah, I, I, I'll have my noughties, I'll have my cakes and I'll have my, my treats. Don't deny them, don't crave them, but don't deny them if I want one.

Right. That's good. I think that's a balanced way to, to live. I, I think any extreme on either side is not good. I don't think you get to eat like shit all the time, and it's not good to be like a military sergeant with food either, which I have had phases in my life where I was like that, and it's like, it's not fun to live like that, but it's also not fun to be around people like that.

They're kind of annoying, right?  Yeah.  Nobody likes the extremes on either side. It's like, well, it didn't show that. No, I did. I did. I did try. I did try veganism for one. I kept it up for a long time and I did find a friend said to me, how can you tell there's a vegan in the room? And I went, I don't know.

And she went, don't worry. They'll fucking tell you.  That's absolutely true. Yeah. What is so true? Because I became one of them.  I was, you know, I felt like I had to like, you know, to everybody, I'm vegan. Yeah. But do you notice now there's a whole carnivore diet thing now, right? So the carnivore diet is like people who only eat meat.

Really? They're like on the opposite ends. They will tell you as well. And they'll, they'll preach about how you shouldn't eat vegetables and you should only eat meat. They're just as, I'm talking with the extremists, I don't want to piss anybody off, and if I do, good, then I don't care either, but they're like the extremists on the other end. 

It's like, it's fine, if you want to eat like that, it's all good, that's my point. Go for it. What works for you? I think, uh, like exercises and every body is different and everybody is different. Right. So it's like, sure. I just don't like when people kind of shove it down your throat. No pun intended.

They're like telling you what you should do. It's kind of annoying. Okay. So, so it sounds like you, you know, Uh, intermittent fast. Is that fair to say, do you eat within a shorter window? Not, not consciously, but it just seems like that's your routine. You eat between, I think I did not realize somebody, you know, until this, the intermittent fasting became a thing that a lot of people are talking about.

Now I'm like,  I, I think I've always been doing that. Yeah. , you know, , that's what, that what happened to me too. Yeah. I, I was like, oh, I, I had eaten that same eight to nine hour window too. That's kinda how I eat. Yeah, exactly. So I didn't realize I'm doing it. So, yeah. So I, you people say, God, you can fast, you can not eat till three o'clock for, or whatever.

And I'm like, yeah, it's been doing it all my life. I didn't, didn't realize it was a, a thing if I, if I'd known, I would've, you know. Branded it, market it, and sold it myself.  So what, what window would you say you're at just for the sake of argument? Is it between like one to eight or like, when do you start eating?

When do you take any calories? And when do you stop taking any calories? That includes, there's always times that I don't do it. Um, you know, depending on what we're doing, but as a rule, I don't really eat after eight o'clock and I don't really eat until between 12 and one the next day. So I don't know what's the calculation of that.

Yeah. So you basically go from one to eight or 12 to eight ish. So eight hour when you give it to you. And I know you, like you said, you're not, I'm not holding it to it. It's just generally how you eat, but you're not timing it. And it's just your cycle. And if I ever did wake up hungry, I'd eat. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a very healthy way to, to approach it.

I agree with that. It's not everyday. I would say it's 80 percent of the time that I'm, that I'm doing that. Like I say, if I wake up and it gets nine o'clock and I want to eat something, I'll eat it. And it's, there's no, there's no rule. It's just, if my body's hungry, it's hungry. That's great. I think that's awesome.

And you said you stay very well hydrated. So is that something, just water or do you drink, is water your go to? No. No. Yeah.  Like, yes. Yeah. Pretty much. You seem like one of those ladies that would have a big bottle and you just drink it.  Yeah. I'll stick different things in it. I'll stick cucumber in it or lemon in it.

Never heard that in my life. A cucumber in the water? That's crazy. Yes. It's very good. Let me try that. The cucumber in the water. Gives it like a taste. Like guess and it does have a little bit of a taste to it. Yeah. I know some people put, um, strawberries and raspberries and stuff in their water to give it different, different flavors.

I, I, lemon of course. And lime. Yes. I've heard of them. Never heard of cucumber. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a thing. You cut it up, you just put it like with Yeah. Just put half a dozen slices of, um, cucumber in the water. Oh, okay. I'm gonna try it. Let me try. Here we go. Okay, cool. Okay. That's, that's great. Um, now I'll, I'll ask you this and then we'll move on.

What are some must have foods or things for you personally? I'm not saying, suggesting you're encouraging everybody, but for yourself, is there like some must haves that you're like, I have to eat this as much as I can or, and also what should you avoid for you personally? You mentioned McDonald's fast food or like processed.

Yeah. I don't eat any of that. Yeah.  I think for me, uh, essential fatty acids. Um, I, I can tell when I haven't had them, so I, I, I don't avoid fats in my diet. I avoid bad fats, um, but I don't avoid the good fats, so I always, uh, people freak out. I have butter in my coffee. Oh, okay.  Yeah. Every morning I have, um, a double espresso with a shot of, um, butter, real butter, real grass fed butter in there.

It's great. I love coffee with butter in it. It's amazing. Oh, you do?  I don't do it all the time, but I actually just, I don't do it for any health benefit. I just actually like the way it tastes. More so than cream and when I put a slice, like a little bit of butter for the texture tastes amazing, man. Honey and butter for me is the best one.

I think for me, that would be my essential as well, would be the honey. So around where we live, there's a lot of honey, like, um, local, uh, honey. What are they called? Farmers? Yeah. And, um, so, um, my husband loves it. He loves going out. He has a motorbike and he goes a little ride out to the countryside with his little box in the back and he'll come back with his little jars of local honey and he'll go to different places as well.

There's his favorites. And I'll come back with raw and pasteurized honey, local honey.  Yeah, I mean, I've done some research on it. I'm quite fascinated by, by bees. And so I think it's going to be, that wants to be my, my destiny, I think, is to be a beekeeper. There's a good episode. Uh, do you watch Joe Rogan?

I'm sure you've heard of him. No, I don't really watch TV. It's he's a podcaster. You never heard of Joe Rogan? No, no. That's what you're like. One of the first people. That's crazy. Okay. Cool. So Joe Rogan, there was a lady who was a beekeeper that was on his show and she goes like he, you know, he goes deep into the, her career and it's very fascinating.

Like the first 20 minutes when she was explaining bees, there was so much stuff I had no clue about. I was like, holy shit. Like just, it's incredible. She's and she's so passionate. Like she's obsessed with bees. That it kind of gets you hooked because of her passion. I would probably listen to that because I'm kind of a little bit in love with bees myself.

Ask your husband if he's ever heard of Joe Rogan. Okay. I'm sure he has. That's crazy. I mean, his podcast gets like, I don't know how many hundred millions of downloads per episode, et cetera. And he's, he's also a UFC fighting announcer. He's also the host of Fear Factor. If you've ever heard of that. I'm interested in the bee lady.

Definitely. The raw, um, unprocessed, because when the, when the, the honey you tend to see on, on the shelves has been boiled. So we, we get it, you know, straight, literally straight out of the hive into the jar. You know, I've been reading some research on how a spoonful of honey can sustain a human all day.

And it's the one, I think it's the one food. Now I don't know the science behind this, or if it's actually true, but I've read that. Honey is the one thing that could stay in human life. If you just, if you just add honey, it could sustain human life. That's what I'm right. I don't think I agree with that.

But I think if you're stranded and you have nothing else, it's probably good. It's very, um, mineral dense. And I do have, um, I tend to put a teaspoon of bee pollen into a bit of yogurt or something as well, just, you know, raw bee pollen. Uh, as well, very dense in minerals, you know, I do, I do feel like it's good for my skin.

Honey and, um, olive oil are probably my two biggest weaknesses as far as healthy, you know, I, I, I might even overdo it. I love olive oil, almost everything. And I love honey on almost everything. There's like the two things I eat a lot of. I put honey on it. Even, even my mustard is honey mustard. Like it's a good obsession. 

I needed french fries or anything like that. I use honey as my dip instead of ketchup or anything. A lot of, um, raw local honey. Yeah. I get my raw, well, pasteurized as best as I can. We have some friends with farmers and stuff. And so we get the raw honey as well. And I can tell the difference for sure. The texture.

Okay. That's cool. So do you take any supplements? I take collagen, collagen powder. Okay. So that goes in my coffee in the morning. So my collagen, my honey and my butter all go in my coffee in the, in the morning. Like the way you say butter. We say butter. You're like butter.  So yeah,  you guys. Well, we, we, apparently we, our English comes from England.

So. Yeah. uk, I don't know, but butter, we, we have variations in, in the UK as well. So we like, I would say butter the further down south UK you save butter, but then the further north you might get butter. Butter.  We say butter altogether. Like B-U-D-D-E-R. Butter. Yeah, butter. But  , so there's, yeah, there's variations of how people say it here.

So collagen, is that it?  Um, and sometimes I don't take the consistent supplement, I probably should, but, uh, tumeric  Uh, I take, you know, I'll take turmeric intermittently. I'll take different, different, different things. Um, somebody, uh, a lady, I can't remember her name now. She was in a group chat that I was in online.

And, um, she was talking about taking a prenatal vitamins. And I just thought, Oh, that, you know, she, the justification for it was quite, was quite good. And so I ordered some, and there was some that's really good for fetal eye development and something else going, Oh, brain and eye. And I just thinking, okay, well, my eyes are starting to go.

My brain started.  I figured if anything, if it can, if it can help grow a new one, it might be able to do a little bit of repair on, on these.  That I've yet to, uh, I've only been taking that for a few days, um, whether I'll do anything or not, but, um, probably just go straight training and does nothing, but if you can start like seeing through walls or objects, you know, it's working all of a sudden you take off your glasses.

You're like, shit,  2020. Well, I eat raw carrots. My most days I'll have a raw carrot. Um, and what's supposed to be really good at the eyesight, but, um, Yeah. You look really blurry to me now, but yeah.  All right. And any pharmacology, meaning medicine, uh, pharmaceutical drugs, anything like that, that you take hormones or I know some people take like men take testosterone, women take testosterone.

Bioidentical hormones or something like that. Yeah. Do you guys take anything like that or no? Just trying to.  No, no, I've never taken that. I know there's a lot of women my age take, um, hormone replacements and stuff. And I've never done that. I think I've been quite lucky. I think I've kind of gone through that phase of life fairly unscathed, but I know some women don't.

You won't see me on my. Social media talking about menopause and all those kind of things, it's, I can't, it's not something I've struggled with, so I think it wouldn't be right for me to, to talk about it or advise women on it because I haven't, like the injury I had, I can relate to it. So I could think of it.

I've not struggled with menopause. So it's not something that, you know, it's not my bag. It's not what I'm going to talk about because it wouldn't seem right. I don't know what, how these women are feeling and what they're experiencing. I can't relate to it. So I wouldn't push anything like that or, or even try to sound like I know anything about it.

Right. That's that's honorable of you. I admire that. That's pretty cool. So no, um, no, it doesn't seem like you, you rely much on supplements either or stuff like that more. So just from your food and you just listen to your intuition, your instincts of am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Like, which I think is the way we're designed to be honest with you.

I think in five years time, my body may tell me, you know, that it needs some kind of  supplement and, and I'll take it if there's benefits to it. But as I am right now, it's not something that I'm nothing that I'm taking.  Now on the topic of preventative maintenance, et cetera, do you, do you get checked out regularly?

Do you do like blood work, um, go to the doctor and do all your panels and. Yeah. All that. Yeah. So that's great. And right there would identify oftentimes, Hey, your, you may be your vitamin B or whatever is lower, et cetera. And that's a supplement might come into thing. I think a lot of people don't realize the word supplement in of itself is it's supposed to supplement your diet.

It's not supposed to replace, it's not supposed to be that. And a lot of people get stuck on that, you know, where they're. They don't do the other things, they do the supplement. Like I told you, my friend doesn't sleep, but he takes certain supplements to help with energy and recovery. And I'm like, but sleep is the foundation.

You gotta take care of home first, you know? Now sleep, also part of preventative. How's your sleep? It's had its good days and it has its bad days.  This may have been part of the menopause, but I went through a period of insomnia, I would really struggle to stay asleep. That was my problem. So I think I've kind of gone through that.

My sleep can be really good or really bad. The problem with me is it gets to about 10 o'clock at night sometimes and I get ideas.  I start thinking about, um, you know, something that I want to record or something that I want to say or an exercise and I'm like, Oh,  that's really good. And I have to kind of like act on it there and then, and then my husband's in bed and then at one o'clock in the morning, I'm like tapping him and go, you need to see this ankle exercise I've just come up with and he's like, he's asleep and he's done.

So I'm just laid there and I'm thinking, I'm waiting for him to wake up so I can practice it. Yeah. So my thing is getting ideas and I get excited, so I have to really, um, you know, kind of tune out a little bit and tune in to, to, to, I just, I get very excited about different things. Thanks to my business consultant, I get very excited about business and business ideas and about my own business as well.

And so, um, you know, I kind of get into that when I get into something, it's a bit hard for me to get off that wheel sometimes. I have to be very disciplined. Yeah, I'm the same way. I get those as well. It's a very energizing and when you are passionate about the thing you're doing, I think is a blessing as well because a lot of people, they're quote unquote job or whatever source of income they have, you know, I'm blessed like this is part of what I do.

And I love these conversations. I'm not doing this. I would do this. Normally, so for me, it's a blessing, you know, like these kinds of things in all relate to what you're talking about. On average, do you, how many hours would you say you sleep just speaking on average and when do you sleep? How long? I would probably say on average six  by one.

I would love to get a good seven hours sleep every night, but yeah, I can't, I'm not, I cannot.  Um, lie in bed, you know, some people always Saturday, Sunday, now lay in bed till 10 o'clock. I would just be like, like, they're like,  what am I doing here? I'm just like, where is the life after, you know, I want to get up.

And then as soon as, as soon as the birds start singing, I'm up. Okay. So you're not, you're very energetic. That's just your personality. Probably. Yeah. There's different cycles. People have different sleep patterns. So that's, that's good. And do you take naps or anything or not really your thing? Love a nap.

Okay. Love an afternoon nap. Love it. Every day? typically taken at that? No, not every day. If I haven't, if I've not been getting the sleep that I need at night, it will, it will catch up with me. And, um, you know, sometimes before my daughter comes home from school, you know, I just think, I'll have a little nap and, um, and it's lovely. 

Quickly. Uh, an hour. An hour. Okay, friend. Just like I just took a nap. Like how long is five hours?  ? I've done those before. You're such a asshole. That's not a nap.  . . It's still funny. Yeah, but I like it. You talking about it's during the day. I'm like, that's not a nap though, by definition. Like it's five hours.

That's Yeah. I don't, I don't go for a nap every day. But, you know, my body's, you know, my eyes are going, my body feels tired. I will sit down and shut down. Yeah. Yeah. I love a good nap. Unfortunately, I can't get them in as much anymore, but. When I, I can, I'm one of those people I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime I could, you could light me on fire when I'm asleep and like, I'm not waking up.

I, when I was little, my parents told me that they thought there's been times where they thought I was dead. Like, you got to take him to the hospital. Like why is he not responding? Like  it would fall and fall off a bed or something. I would just keep going. Like I'm a heavy, heavy sleeper, which is probably not good if anyone breaks in, you know?

Yeah. I think I could be like, I can either be really light sleeper or I can be, if my body needs to sleep, it's sleeping. I, I, when I was younger, I have fallen asleep. In nightclubs, um, next to the boom box, the speaker, and I've got to just wave my friends and now they're there and I have literally fallen asleep on the, with my head on the speaker and I need to sleep.

One friend said to me one time, I'd never heard the expression, I've never heard anybody else say it, but she said, you could fall asleep on a chicken's lip.  I've never heard that. I've never heard it. I don't know what it means, but it's just kind of stuck with me. Okay. Before I sleep on a chicken's lip.

That might be the title of this podcast. How to fall asleep on a chicken's lip. On a chicken's lip.  All right. Why? Why chicken's lip? I don't get it. I have no idea. I don't do chicken's lip. I could understand on a rooster's lip. Cause there's, you know, there.  Yeah. I never understood it. She just said it randomly.

And I thought, okay, cool. That never heard that, that and the cucumbers is new cucumber in the water and falling asleep on a chicken's lip. Um, okay. So we talked about how you eat your, you know, staying hydrated, sleep and the role it plays. We talked about exercise and cardio and all that stuff. I think another thing I didn't mention, uh, which you kind of alluded to in this conversation is, The importance of relationships, community, I would say like that emotional health component.

So, for example, how we manage stress, how we kind of operate in the world. Some people are kind of set for being pessimistic and down and perhaps seeing the glasses half full.  And other people seem to be a little bit more optimistic and they, even when the challenges come, they, they just look at it through a different lens and from, obviously we don't know each other that well, just from what I gather, it seems like you're generally somebody who's passionate, excited, you seem to have a, a, a great relationship at home and, and you love what you do, you would love to help people and you've seemed like you probably have some good relationships.

Am I correct in that assessment? Yeah, that's pretty much. I'm quite a hung buddy. I don't have a huge circle of friends who are people who are close to me. I have a very small circle. I have this circle, which is quite small. There's a very few people in it. And then I have a slightly outer circle, which are, I don't want to use the word superficial friends because none of them are superficial friends, but you know, acquaintances, people who I'm friendly with rather than close to.

A difference.  But yeah, I mean, I can count on this hand and still have change for the number of people that are in that, um, real inner circle. Right. Like tight friend and stuff. But would you say that not so much in the quantity, I'm not speaking about that more so like the quality where it's really deep, where you have that emotional support you have, like especially for example, when you talked about your husband. 

During your accident, like if you had to do it alone, I would imagine it would have been really tough. Right? And so that's what I'm talking about. Like having that community, whether it's 1 or 10, it doesn't matter. It's just a sense of community, even with how you help people. I see you light up when you talk about, Oh, I love doing my classes still.

It doesn't matter how much online and. You still like that interaction, which to me falls under that umbrella of community, does that, does that play a big role for you? Like, does that keep you humble and happy? And yeah, I like, I like to feel that there's something that I do that matters. to other people that I'm doing something with people that's really important to them and really beneficial to them because the energy that's created in, in, in that room, in that environment at that time is incredible.

And whatever they're getting from it, I'm getting tenfold because it just makes me feel like I've got a purpose and it's a darn good one as well. What making people feel better.  When people spend an hour, um, with me and we spend an hour together and they walk out of that room and they feel good, they feel lift, they feel energized, they feel amazing.

You know what, like I said, whatever that gives them, it gives me tenfold. I can be, gosh, on my knees and I had no sleep, not through choice of my own and just feeling like, um, crap and thinking  before getting out of bed or driving to my studio and teaching. The second I walked through that door. And the first person walks in, I just, it's like a light.

It's like a switch goes off. I just go into a whole different vibe, just immediate. It's very symbiotic.  Um, they're just as important to me as I am, as they feel I am, I am to them. I could never, I could never give it up. You know, it's like when the, if I won the lottery and sold my brand for, you know, 10 million tomorrow, I didn't need any money.

I would still rock up to that class on a Tuesday morning, on a Friday morning.  That's beautiful. That's a blessing too. I think that's important. And I, I think that's probably one of the keys to your, your, you know, vibrant nature and health and all that is it's a purpose  and you get it from that. So that's, that's great.

I need them. I need them.  They say they need me, but I need them.  That's really cool. I love that. I'd love to see one of your, is it only women? No. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say, I've got to go wake shopping and  No, no. It's a, it's, it's a mixture of men and women and we're there, they're all  classes.

I think it was great as well. I mean, the, the, the sort of average age in my class, I would say is, is 55. That would be like, you know, your, your, your media and obviously there's not, I don't miss anybody under the age of 40. age of 40, 45 in my classes. So sort of 15, like upwards. And they're of that time of their life where they have less of a filter.

So you get a very, you, you get, you get a lot of honesty and, um, they care  far less than what, you know, you know, we did in our twenties. And it's just, it's just, it's just a great. Honest space to be. I love that. I get that from my martial arts too.  Demographic is 90, 95 percent men. But the women are that joined to are also pretty badass and, um, that's the vibe is pretty bold, honest, vulgar, just not rude and obnoxious.

Just, you know, just real, like, yeah, just kind of tribe. Yeah. Yeah,  you just real, you just real and I, and I'm lucky and blessed to have a lot of friends.  We can have that type of energy to  each other, humble, you know, make fun of each other, call each other out on bullshit. You need that. I think it's important.

Yeah, you definitely do. Yeah. I always say, um, of my friends and of my friendship too, that means, but that you need, you don't want somebody to tell you what you want to hear. You need someone who will tell you what you need to hear.  So I think we've touched on pretty much most of the main areas. I just want to ask you a question.

What would you say in your opinion, well, first of all, do you think there are secrets to health? Do you think there are some secrets to. Optimizing one's health. I think there are secret, there are secrets, but I think they are secrets that they're not really hidden. They're just not realized if that makes sense. 

So I think a lot of it starts here.  So for the listeners pointing to your head and your heart,  for you to my head and my heart. So, you know, if you feel it here and you want to hear and you act on it through through here, that's it. And, but a lot of people ask that secret is, is there, and it's talking to you and it's telling you, but we, sometimes we don't listen and that's the, the secret.

It's no longer a secret when you're listening to what you should be listening to. Yeah. In your body, when you suppress it and you ignore those voices and you ignore those messages in your body. You're making it a secret and making it hidden and you people want to go and look somewhere else. They want, they want a miracle cure or they want somebody like me, who's got a secret to share it to them.

So it's just, you know, here's the secret, here's the combination, turn it and everything's better. It doesn't make sense. So when, when you say listening to your, you know, your mind and your, your heart, what do you mean specifically? As it relates to health, I think many people are good at ignoring what your body's telling you.

I don't know why. Um, maybe we don't want to hear it. Maybe we think it's too much effort to listen to your body. Maybe we think it's too much of a sacrifice to live a certain way or a certain lifestyle or to do a particular fitness program or follow a particular fitness routine or diet or whatever. I think, and I haven't, I've never really figured out why, because again, it's not something I can relate to, but why we sometimes, you know, press that message back down, why some people don't listen to it.

Some people don't want to hear it. Some people don't want to hear that they can cure themselves so they can get better. Sometimes they're happy.  There's a really bizarre thing about, um, horses and I can remember when I was younger on all the stables that I used to go to, there would be, um, a fire drill and on every fire drill, every horse's stables and every stables, it always said in case of the fire, get the horses at the stables and shut the door.

door.  And the reason is because the horse will always go back to the stable. That stable could be burning down. The roof could be on fire. It would always go back to that stable rather than run to the hills. And there's a funny kind of psychology in that. And I think sometimes that happens with people, you know, I think they feel safer in their state.

Rather than, you know, sort of, uh, you know, face something new and something unfamiliar and try it and set themselves free. They sometimes want to go back to that stable and stay in that stable. I don't know why I haven't figured it out. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's fear of the unknown. Maybe it's a bit of a fear of failure. 

Even if you try and leave that stable and you fail and you have to go back to the stable, at least you tried. That's my fear is never trying.  You know, to get the end of my life and figure, well, I never, I never tried to run, I never tried to escape the stable. I never saw, you know, what was on the other side.

Um, I'd rather go there. Discover it wasn't all it was meant to be, but to not know, and to not try and not to not experience it, that's too scary for me. So, I think there's a lot of fear in people when it comes to fitness and exercise and doing things and trying to optimize that, that their health, they're afraid that it might not work.

I like that. That's an excellent metaphor. Another one I like a lot,  along with your husband's.  That's great. I think we can end it there because that was, that was beautifully said. I, I really appreciate that mindset. I think out of. Everything we spoke about the theme that seems to connect all of it is your perspective on things and I, I, this is what I take from it.

Anyhow, that mindset, that belief that like, you have to keep pushing even through the hardest times. You could have definitely gave up. Right? So that. Be partially paralyzed. I'm going to probably have to rely on drugs and, and it would have been downhill. But you were like, no, hell no. Fuck you. 

But hey, you need that though. I admire you need that, you know, I think the reason I was successful at recovery, it was because I did have my husband, he believed it. He believed me when, um, you know, at times when I didn't believe it and I felt a little bit weak, um, he was there. That's beautiful lesson for sure  are there any tips, just as a take home for people that are watching this that maybe there's probably a variety of people that will see this there's people who are on the fence to get started, and they want to, you know.

Live a healthier life in all the areas we talked about, but they need that push those people who are currently doing it. Just looking for maybe some more insights. And then there's others who are like, probably ahead of us, but they're like, again, also looking at 1st, what would you say to the, them specifically, the ones who are kind of on the fence are getting started and really.

Yeah, I think if you're already, um, fit and healthy and active, the stuff that I teach, you can do it alongside. It's not designed to replace it. It's not to say you have to stop doing that. You have to display, just integrate into it. Okay. And you can work with it. And for the people sitting on the fence. I would say, just ask yourself, what is really stopping you?

Why are you not? And be really honest with yourself. If you can come up with a credible answer as to why you shouldn't just do one little thing every day for five minutes, 10 minutes, then, um, let me know because I'll probably have a reason why, why that's not the case and why you shouldn't do it. Yeah.

Well, but I think a lot of it is, is don't be afraid. This is all designed to.  Everything that I do and that I teach is designed to alleviate the fear so that you're not going to hurt yourself. So you're not going to be harmed. And there's always something we can do. There's always, there's always a way around it.

If you think, Oh, I've got a bad knee, so I can't exercise. Yeah, you  can't. I recently have bad knees now. I hate to even say that I've injured my knees. And so my knees are recovering. Yeah, exactly. They're in the process. I'm a big believer in, you know, words or, or uh, thoughts or things, you know, and words become manifest as for sure I believe the power of our words.

So I'm always catching myself like, no, no, no. I don't have bad knees. I had an injury. Like,  the truth is I never did have bad knees my entire life, so I know that's bullshit. I've been recently thinking about, uh, a, a question I like to ask people. A lot of podcasters have like their thing, and I, I recently thought of something and I, I. 

I hope you don't mind. I want to ask. So let's say, imagine yourself, you left this world, you pass away, and despite what you believe in, you're going to another dimension or whatnot, etc. But you can only take one, one lesson or one lesson that you can leave for maybe your, your daughter or. For your friends and family, but you can only take one with you in that one lesson.

What would that be one? I said, I probably should have asked you beforehand because it's funny, but I'd like that. But what I love about not asking before, because I thought of that, that the instinctual response is usually the one that's. I find that comes from the heart right away from the heart right away would be  a neat person.

It's not related to fitness. I think this is just, it doesn't have to be anything is, um, the value of freedom, not just, um, being free yourself. Um, being free of fear, being free of also giving other people that freedom. And that can be in your, your, your marriage, um, in your relationships. And it sounds like a strange thing, but my husband has his freedom.

I have my freedom. You know, if he, you know, if he has an opportunity to go overseas and do some work, I'm going to encourage him to go, you know, to give people that freedom. And this is what I love in my job as well is, you know, helping people to get physically better. It gives them that freedom.  So the one thing I would take away from the planet would be that the value of freedom of having it and of giving it, that's beautiful.

Um, if you're familiar with Jocko Willink, which just, this kind of ties in perfectly on this book I'm reading right now.  So  yeah, the book is called the extreme ownership, how us Navy SEALs lead and win. And he's a former Navy SEAL commander, et cetera. But there's a lot of metaphors that relate to business and life, et cetera.

And his main philosophy is discipline equals freedom. Like that's everything he talks about. And the idea is that if you're disciplined. What you eat, how you eat, how you sleep, you know, all this stuff we're talking about, it gives you freedom. So it's kind of like that it's, it's ironic, right? Because you would think the more disciplined you have, the less freedom you have, this more rigid, right?

But it's the opposite because you are very disciplined and that allows you to have all this freedom. If you didn't take care of your mobility and your flexibility and your resistance, you, you would lack that freedom because your things break down. And it ties in, it's, it's funny how it ties into what I'm reading too.

So maybe it's a message for me as well. So I love it.  So, um,  no, definitely. I don't believe in them.  Jodi, please tell me where everyone can find you. I'm going to include everything in the links as well. And I have them, but I just would like you to. Tell everybody where they can find you, anything you have, uh, social media programs, et cetera.

Well, you can find me on YouTube. The fitness lady online is my, uh, YouTube. Name the fitness lady online, although I'm sure if you just type in the fitness lady, if you can't remember the online bit, it'll, uh, I will pop up there. So the fitness lady online on YouTube and on Instagram, simple for fitness lady on Insta.

Well, I have to say, I have a TikTok and everything, so the links are all I'm on, but you find those two, um, and then my website really difficult to remember. It's thefitnesslady.  co. uk.  Okay. So, and obviously on the website, it's got the links to all these different channels to them. Okay, great. I'm going to include all of those.

I'm also going to include, as we discussed the link directly to the playlist. We talked about the foot playlist for all you weirdos with foot fetishes and I'm joking. 

Never know  my videos. What, what? I have that in my head earlier. Like, should I say it shall fucking discuss it. Yeah. I think, I think it's an audience for that as well, but, um, oh, that's not judging anybody. Not judging anybody.  It's like, um, and there was another playlist we talked about. Can you remind me?

Um, I think it was a hip mobility one. That's right, that's right. Yeah. And a foot one and glute glutes hip type thing. Um, so I'm gonna put links to all that. And I also have to send you the B lady episode. Yes, please. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Um, I think that's it. Anything else? Anything else you want to mention?

No, I think that's good thing. We've covered all bases. Um, just,  just like to add though on the end of this, just to mention it throughout the interview, but just to honor my husband, because, um, none, none of this is possible without him. You don't see his face very often. And, um, he doesn't make an appearance very often in the videos.

He does. He does sometimes, but he is actually, I get a lot of my ideas from him, a lot of support from him. It's not without him. It's not possible. So I would just, uh, let people to, to recognize that and to know that the uns, the unsung hero, if you like. Yeah, that's, that's beautiful. That's awesome. I love that.

And I would love to have him. On the show, if he's open to it, um, if he's a private guy, it's all good. I'm sure, I'm sure he would have some. Yeah, but I'm sure him and I can have some, uh, we'll build some rapport because again, I grew up with my, my Jamaican brothers and I have so funny stories and I'm sure it'll open them up a bit.

So  I'll suggest it to him. I'll suggest it to him. Yeah, I can. I would love to. I, I'd love to pick his brain on his experiences and what it was like from his perspective. You know, because, uh, I think people can get a lot of value from that. You're good at ducking the plates and the cups. 

How did you develop all your reflexes? Well,  Jodi was going nuts one day and I had to go full blown matrix. 

Yeah. What did you do? Like I existed. Not well.  Yeah. I mean, we laugh about it now. Um, I think there was one time I'd got very frustrated because I wanted to peel a potato and I was struggling to stand up and do it. And I just launched the potato  and it left like a potato shaped hole in the fresh plaster on the wall.

And just, just, you know, he, he just happened to walk in and he just literally went, Oh, That's hilarious. 

My girl's a Latina and she's also up, you know, into martial arts and stuff. So I'll just leave it there. Okay, Jody. So I'm going to end this interview, um, a little bit about technical glitch, but we're all good. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like subscribe and leave a comment.

It really helps me grow the podcast. Remember to sign up for my free five health hacks newsletter and head over to useful aging secrets. com forward slash subscribe and join for free. Stay healthy and I'll see you on the next one.