good morning it is such a privilege
here today to talk about a topic that I
cared nothing about when I was a college
student but one that has clawed and
pushed its way to the center of my life
by the time I’m 40 wellness I’m gonna
talk today about why wellness is so hard
in practice it’s hard to put the
behaviors into place that we know would
make us well but it’s so easy in theory
we want to be well we want to feel good
don’t we we want to live long and happy
lives but there’s this disconnect
there’s a great little book called the
life-changing magic of tidying up and in
it the author says that before we change
our behaviors we have to first change
the way that we think so we’re going to
look at what perspectives that we hold
on wellness that might need to shift so
that we can make it a reality in our
lives the lives of our families in the
lives of our communities I want to start
by saying that I get that health is hard
I do a lot of Lunch and Learn book talks
and whenever I show up the ladies are
putting the little cakes and sweet tea
out on the tables and they start
apologizing because they think I’m like
the health nut there to tell them what
they’re doing wrong with their lives
and this makes me laugh because for most
of my life I have been about as
unhealthy as the first world person
could be if you don’t believe me there’s
my college roommate I think we ordered
off the RV’s dollar menu our last two
years and dollar in college for dinner I
was not very healthy for very long a
long time I spent making really poor
decisions because health wasn’t at the
front of my brain and I paid a big price
for that I want us to think about
putting health at the center putting
some new lenses on to look at health
after college I embraced the healthy
lifestyle of a vegetarian white wine is
vegetarian so is pizza if you put
vegetables on a french fries or
vegetarian I’m just thankful that my
mother controlled what I ate for a
little while she didn’t believe in
kool-aid or ding-dongs
I didn’t mean quit smoking until long up
quit being Coolio so I get that health
is hard if I cobble together the years
where my mother controlled but I ate my
three pregnancies and my recent health
turn around I may have lived about half
of my life without massive
disease-causing behavior and what I want
you to hear is that if I can do it
anybody can we need to start by talking
about why wellness is important we’re
living in pretty incredible times right
now in a lot of ways most of us in this
country aren’t starving right people
understand that we need to be educating
our population and caring for our
population people are living so long
that active aging centers are popping up
all over the country and these are good
things right but how many of us feel
well how many of us have the level of
vitality and energy that we wish we did
how many of us are dealing with some
underlying condition disease-free
disease well in Mississippi the numbers
are staggering we continue to lead the
nation in diabetes heart disease obesity
one in twelve of us are dealing with an
autoimmune disorder one in five of us
are on antidepressants and we’re so
familiar with these numbers we’re almost
numb to them so why can’t we just get
off the couch get to the gym quit eating
the fast food and get healthy I’m gonna
tell you why I think that is based on
some of my research wellness is not
popular health is not popular in our
culture it’s really not in fact it’s
pretty counterculture you have to take
an alternative stance I’m not talking
someone emo alternative kid I’m talking
you to be like rogue one revolutionary
to get down the grocery store aisle
without something that will kill you in
your cart you have to take an
alternative stance to get healthy
because there’s a tidal wave of culture
encouraging us to be unwell you know
believe me try showing up at a family
reunion in the South without Fried
Chicken driving the mom at the birthday
party that doesn’t hand out the little
candy bag after we had the cake and ice
cream and the kool-aid you see how those
kids look at you
I teach a little community class on
healthy cooking which cracks my husband
up because I just learned how to cook
about five years ago and every week I
hear girl
I don’t do green things and then we all
laugh like the way that we’re living
isn’t literally killing us and don’t get
me started on church where we go to feed
our souls and our glycemic index so
wellness is counter-cultural and not
only do you have to make an alternative
sand you had to be pretty thick-skinned
about it my children’s friends call me
the smoothie Nazi they know if they
spend the night at my house they have to
drink the green smoothie in the morning
so they do really want to stay it
doesn’t bother me but this is pretty
pervasive in our culture there’s this
lady at my kids school who started a
snack exchange this woman faithfully
carried around fruit to the classrooms
and actually convinced kids to get up
there hot fries and Doritos for apples
and oranges you would have thought she
would win some kind of award no the PTO
moms made fun of her the color the fruit
lady so you have to make an alternative
stance and you have to be pretty
thick-skinned about it and the only time
I know that this happens is when you’re
so sick and tired of being sick and
tired you just don’t care you got to
look for these instances in your life
because they come but they don’t come
all the time
and these are the points when you can
make a change that’s what happened for
me I decided that I was so tired of
being tired and sick that I was going to
put my professional career as a
researcher to work to solve a very
personal problem I was a qualitative
researcher which meant I gathered
stories and look for patterns I was
looking at schools that succeeded with
children and poverty the outliers the
ones who were making a difference
despite all the odds and so I took that
pattern I took that research and I put
it to work at health I started looking
for the outliers and helped the people
who’d lost a hundred pounds and kept it
off for several years the people who put
their diabetes and autoimmune disorders
into remission the cancer survivors and
what I found was a pattern and I was so
excited about what I found that after I
saw by health problems I went on and
figured I saw everybody else’s – it was
really exciting and the pattern was that
people who are well see things
differently when it comes to health they
wear a different set of
and we’re gonna look at those lenses I’m
going to ask you to put those on because
like we said at the beginning you have
to change your way of thinking before
you change your behavior
the first perspective change on health
is that people who are well owned their
wellness they’re not out there doctor
hopping looking for a pill or procedure
or a plan that will fix them they’re
becoming their own experts they’re doing
their own research they’re looking at
people with their condition and what
they do and they’re putting those
practices to work in their lives
consistently one of my more frustrating
conditions has been an autoimmune
condition called chronic urticaria or
chronic hives
a lot of mornings I’ll wake up and feel
like I landed in a sting nettle bush and
it doesn’t get top or it doesn’t take
very long to get tired of that so I went
to the allergist and they gave me
antihistamines that didn’t work but they
sent me on to the autoimmune doctor and
the autoimmune doctor gave me steroids
but made me a little crazy but didn’t
work and they sent me to the autoimmune
allergist and they gave me injections
that also did not work and sent me to
the dermatologist and at this point I
have to say wait a minute I’m gonna keep
looking for somebody else to fix me or
am I gonna look at people with this
condition and try to put those practices
to work in my own life I’m not
completely healed at any moment my lip
could swell up like Daffy Duck and I’m
just praying that doesn’t happen during
this talk but I’m a lot better than I
would have been if I kept looking for
someone else to make me well the second
perspective change is that wellness is
not a destination you don’t get to check
it off well that’s done it’s a journey
it’s a way of life it’s not like when
you go on a diet you get to go off and
keep your results they embrace this as a
journey and Odyssey really to make their
own lives better but what’s so
interesting is the people that do this
that take this journey that embrace
wellness it’s a way of life they often
find their meaning their purpose in it a
great example is dr. Terry Walsh she’s
my favorite position and did the intro
to my first book she was a medical
doctor who was diagnosed with severe
multiple sclerosis and she was declining
so rapidly she was about to lose her
medical practice she
in a wheelchair and sliding into
dementia and she knew the clinicians
didn’t have anything for her but she
also knew that takes 30 years to get
from the lab research to the clinic and
so she dove in she owned her health and
she started a journey she found that if
we feed ourselves correctly they will
function correctly and then when she’s
not out riding hundreds of miles on her
bike she’s running a major Medical
Institute and helping other people
embrace the journey the third perception
change is maybe the most important
people who are well don’t see it as a
punishment they don’t see it as having
to give up all the joyful great things
in life they see it as an invitation to
a better life a life full of vitality
creativity and energy that you probably
haven’t experienced since you were a kid
you see this in recovering people who
are really bad off not moping around
wondering why they can’t have a drink
they’re on fire we’re waking up in the
morning and feeling good and they want
to share that with people so once we
understand that we have to own our
health somebody else is not going to fix
us that we have to brace it as a way of
life we don’t just get to be done with
it and that it’s not a punishment it’s
an invitation to a better life
then we can start looking at specific
behaviors I want to suggest that small
is sustainable and simple is good I want
to just make a few suggestions to you
that might help water in Mississippi we
ingest over a thousand calories a day
just through our drink imagine if we
went 365 days and we didn’t change our
exercise our diet or our stress levels
but we just switched our drink tap water
what would do that what would that do
for the state of our health physical
health mental health energy levels the
state of our health so water let me
suggest that the second thing has to do
with self-care people who are well
aren’t perfect they don’t get it right
every time but they keep coming back to
what they know works the keep coming
back a couple weeks ago we went to New
Orleans to see my husband’s favorite
band u2 and I told him on the way down I
was going to eat broiled fish and
and I’ve been doing really well because
I knew I was gonna give this talk and I
did but then the dessert menu came it
looks really good and everything’s
snowballing by 1:00 in the morning I’m
eating Fritos out of us cheese can you
know it’s just terrible I totally went
off the rails but up to Edun at this
long enough but not this long enough
that I know the trick is to get back on
track you just keep coming back
the third suggestion is to understand
stress stress is the underlying culprit
behind almost every condition that we
have in the easiest way to lower stress
is mindfulness and Mississippi were a
little worried about mindfulness we
think it might not be Christian or
something but let me suggest that it’s
actually scientific and that every major
Medical Institute in the country has
shown that 15 minutes a day on your
phone download an app there are
thousands do it before you get out of
bed the morning at lunch before you go
to bed at night
15 minutes day if you do that for 30
days and you don’t notice a difference
give me a call it’s powerful just
lowering stress last thing find an
exercise that you like that you don’t
hate I hate running I only run if
somebody chases me but I love walking my
dog I like yoga because it feels like
relaxing instead of punishment find
something that rewards you that fills
you up what do you like gardening
dancing cleaning find something you like
it’s a reward it’s not a punishment and
you’ll stick with it and we need you to
make your change when we need you to
make your small change in Mississippi
because these changes ripple out they
ripple out into our families the change
one individual impacts a family and that
impacts our communities I want to end
with a little story about how that
worked in my life about five years ago I
decided I wanted to get off my
antidepressants I had tried many times
over the years I went on than when I was
20 and they were probably warranted then
but you know 16 17 years later I wasn’t
so sure and I didn’t like having to
depend on a little pill to make me well
and I tried to get off but I would have
to have a panic attack or fall on the
floor you know in deep depression every
time and I got tired enough of it that
it was time to make a change notice
those cracks those thin spaces when
you’re ready to make a change and so
I signed up for a class called 21 days
to bliss my friends were putting it on
and you gave up the seven major food
intolerances in a supportive environment
I did not do very well in that class I
called it 21 days to hell and I failed
miserably actually but I noticed enough
of a shift at the end of that that I
bought dr. Alejandro univers book clean
gut and I did another 21 days I don’t do
very well at that either but by the end
of that one I noticed that I was on to
something
I noticed enough that when my daughter
who was 4 years old at the time had a
health crisis that came to a head she
was at a sensory disorder she couldn’t
stand the way clothes felt on her body
and we were in a crossroads we didn’t
know what to do she had to go to school
and she wouldnt work clothes so we had
to do something and we were considering
medication for a four-year-old but I
read one line right around then in brain
brain the book grain brain about sensory
disorders and food and I thought maybe
and so New Year’s Day I threw out
everything and we started to on in the
gut in psychology syndrome diet together
and that little girl who hadn’t worn
socks in three years in two weeks was
fine she’s beautiful and smart and
talented and fine to the state she had
two relapses that year Halloween and
Christmas that’s powerful my little
shift helped me save my daughter and you
can bet that that shift impacts my
community I used to think if we could
find the right curriculum every child
could learn I don’t think so I think our
educational reform probably needs to
start in the cafeteria and you can bet
on the most annoying PTO mom up there
advocating for food and movement and
extended recess my change helped me save
my daughter impacts my community
Mississippi needs your personal change
needs your personal change and like my
friend Nancy Woodruff says most change
starts at home and probably in the
kitchen thank you
you
[Applause]
here today to talk about a topic that I
cared nothing about when I was a college
student but one that has clawed and
pushed its way to the center of my life
by the time I’m 40 wellness I’m gonna
talk today about why wellness is so hard
in practice it’s hard to put the
behaviors into place that we know would
make us well but it’s so easy in theory
we want to be well we want to feel good
don’t we we want to live long and happy
lives but there’s this disconnect
there’s a great little book called the
life-changing magic of tidying up and in
it the author says that before we change
our behaviors we have to first change
the way that we think so we’re going to
look at what perspectives that we hold
on wellness that might need to shift so
that we can make it a reality in our
lives the lives of our families in the
lives of our communities I want to start
by saying that I get that health is hard
I do a lot of Lunch and Learn book talks
and whenever I show up the ladies are
putting the little cakes and sweet tea
out on the tables and they start
apologizing because they think I’m like
the health nut there to tell them what
they’re doing wrong with their lives
and this makes me laugh because for most
of my life I have been about as
unhealthy as the first world person
could be if you don’t believe me there’s
my college roommate I think we ordered
off the RV’s dollar menu our last two
years and dollar in college for dinner I
was not very healthy for very long a
long time I spent making really poor
decisions because health wasn’t at the
front of my brain and I paid a big price
for that I want us to think about
putting health at the center putting
some new lenses on to look at health
after college I embraced the healthy
lifestyle of a vegetarian white wine is
vegetarian so is pizza if you put
vegetables on a french fries or
vegetarian I’m just thankful that my
mother controlled what I ate for a
little while she didn’t believe in
kool-aid or ding-dongs
I didn’t mean quit smoking until long up
quit being Coolio so I get that health
is hard if I cobble together the years
where my mother controlled but I ate my
three pregnancies and my recent health
turn around I may have lived about half
of my life without massive
disease-causing behavior and what I want
you to hear is that if I can do it
anybody can we need to start by talking
about why wellness is important we’re
living in pretty incredible times right
now in a lot of ways most of us in this
country aren’t starving right people
understand that we need to be educating
our population and caring for our
population people are living so long
that active aging centers are popping up
all over the country and these are good
things right but how many of us feel
well how many of us have the level of
vitality and energy that we wish we did
how many of us are dealing with some
underlying condition disease-free
disease well in Mississippi the numbers
are staggering we continue to lead the
nation in diabetes heart disease obesity
one in twelve of us are dealing with an
autoimmune disorder one in five of us
are on antidepressants and we’re so
familiar with these numbers we’re almost
numb to them so why can’t we just get
off the couch get to the gym quit eating
the fast food and get healthy I’m gonna
tell you why I think that is based on
some of my research wellness is not
popular health is not popular in our
culture it’s really not in fact it’s
pretty counterculture you have to take
an alternative stance I’m not talking
someone emo alternative kid I’m talking
you to be like rogue one revolutionary
to get down the grocery store aisle
without something that will kill you in
your cart you have to take an
alternative stance to get healthy
because there’s a tidal wave of culture
encouraging us to be unwell you know
believe me try showing up at a family
reunion in the South without Fried
Chicken driving the mom at the birthday
party that doesn’t hand out the little
candy bag after we had the cake and ice
cream and the kool-aid you see how those
kids look at you
I teach a little community class on
healthy cooking which cracks my husband
up because I just learned how to cook
about five years ago and every week I
hear girl
I don’t do green things and then we all
laugh like the way that we’re living
isn’t literally killing us and don’t get
me started on church where we go to feed
our souls and our glycemic index so
wellness is counter-cultural and not
only do you have to make an alternative
sand you had to be pretty thick-skinned
about it my children’s friends call me
the smoothie Nazi they know if they
spend the night at my house they have to
drink the green smoothie in the morning
so they do really want to stay it
doesn’t bother me but this is pretty
pervasive in our culture there’s this
lady at my kids school who started a
snack exchange this woman faithfully
carried around fruit to the classrooms
and actually convinced kids to get up
there hot fries and Doritos for apples
and oranges you would have thought she
would win some kind of award no the PTO
moms made fun of her the color the fruit
lady so you have to make an alternative
stance and you have to be pretty
thick-skinned about it and the only time
I know that this happens is when you’re
so sick and tired of being sick and
tired you just don’t care you got to
look for these instances in your life
because they come but they don’t come
all the time
and these are the points when you can
make a change that’s what happened for
me I decided that I was so tired of
being tired and sick that I was going to
put my professional career as a
researcher to work to solve a very
personal problem I was a qualitative
researcher which meant I gathered
stories and look for patterns I was
looking at schools that succeeded with
children and poverty the outliers the
ones who were making a difference
despite all the odds and so I took that
pattern I took that research and I put
it to work at health I started looking
for the outliers and helped the people
who’d lost a hundred pounds and kept it
off for several years the people who put
their diabetes and autoimmune disorders
into remission the cancer survivors and
what I found was a pattern and I was so
excited about what I found that after I
saw by health problems I went on and
figured I saw everybody else’s – it was
really exciting and the pattern was that
people who are well see things
differently when it comes to health they
wear a different set of
and we’re gonna look at those lenses I’m
going to ask you to put those on because
like we said at the beginning you have
to change your way of thinking before
you change your behavior
the first perspective change on health
is that people who are well owned their
wellness they’re not out there doctor
hopping looking for a pill or procedure
or a plan that will fix them they’re
becoming their own experts they’re doing
their own research they’re looking at
people with their condition and what
they do and they’re putting those
practices to work in their lives
consistently one of my more frustrating
conditions has been an autoimmune
condition called chronic urticaria or
chronic hives
a lot of mornings I’ll wake up and feel
like I landed in a sting nettle bush and
it doesn’t get top or it doesn’t take
very long to get tired of that so I went
to the allergist and they gave me
antihistamines that didn’t work but they
sent me on to the autoimmune doctor and
the autoimmune doctor gave me steroids
but made me a little crazy but didn’t
work and they sent me to the autoimmune
allergist and they gave me injections
that also did not work and sent me to
the dermatologist and at this point I
have to say wait a minute I’m gonna keep
looking for somebody else to fix me or
am I gonna look at people with this
condition and try to put those practices
to work in my own life I’m not
completely healed at any moment my lip
could swell up like Daffy Duck and I’m
just praying that doesn’t happen during
this talk but I’m a lot better than I
would have been if I kept looking for
someone else to make me well the second
perspective change is that wellness is
not a destination you don’t get to check
it off well that’s done it’s a journey
it’s a way of life it’s not like when
you go on a diet you get to go off and
keep your results they embrace this as a
journey and Odyssey really to make their
own lives better but what’s so
interesting is the people that do this
that take this journey that embrace
wellness it’s a way of life they often
find their meaning their purpose in it a
great example is dr. Terry Walsh she’s
my favorite position and did the intro
to my first book she was a medical
doctor who was diagnosed with severe
multiple sclerosis and she was declining
so rapidly she was about to lose her
medical practice she
in a wheelchair and sliding into
dementia and she knew the clinicians
didn’t have anything for her but she
also knew that takes 30 years to get
from the lab research to the clinic and
so she dove in she owned her health and
she started a journey she found that if
we feed ourselves correctly they will
function correctly and then when she’s
not out riding hundreds of miles on her
bike she’s running a major Medical
Institute and helping other people
embrace the journey the third perception
change is maybe the most important
people who are well don’t see it as a
punishment they don’t see it as having
to give up all the joyful great things
in life they see it as an invitation to
a better life a life full of vitality
creativity and energy that you probably
haven’t experienced since you were a kid
you see this in recovering people who
are really bad off not moping around
wondering why they can’t have a drink
they’re on fire we’re waking up in the
morning and feeling good and they want
to share that with people so once we
understand that we have to own our
health somebody else is not going to fix
us that we have to brace it as a way of
life we don’t just get to be done with
it and that it’s not a punishment it’s
an invitation to a better life
then we can start looking at specific
behaviors I want to suggest that small
is sustainable and simple is good I want
to just make a few suggestions to you
that might help water in Mississippi we
ingest over a thousand calories a day
just through our drink imagine if we
went 365 days and we didn’t change our
exercise our diet or our stress levels
but we just switched our drink tap water
what would do that what would that do
for the state of our health physical
health mental health energy levels the
state of our health so water let me
suggest that the second thing has to do
with self-care people who are well
aren’t perfect they don’t get it right
every time but they keep coming back to
what they know works the keep coming
back a couple weeks ago we went to New
Orleans to see my husband’s favorite
band u2 and I told him on the way down I
was going to eat broiled fish and
and I’ve been doing really well because
I knew I was gonna give this talk and I
did but then the dessert menu came it
looks really good and everything’s
snowballing by 1:00 in the morning I’m
eating Fritos out of us cheese can you
know it’s just terrible I totally went
off the rails but up to Edun at this
long enough but not this long enough
that I know the trick is to get back on
track you just keep coming back
the third suggestion is to understand
stress stress is the underlying culprit
behind almost every condition that we
have in the easiest way to lower stress
is mindfulness and Mississippi were a
little worried about mindfulness we
think it might not be Christian or
something but let me suggest that it’s
actually scientific and that every major
Medical Institute in the country has
shown that 15 minutes a day on your
phone download an app there are
thousands do it before you get out of
bed the morning at lunch before you go
to bed at night
15 minutes day if you do that for 30
days and you don’t notice a difference
give me a call it’s powerful just
lowering stress last thing find an
exercise that you like that you don’t
hate I hate running I only run if
somebody chases me but I love walking my
dog I like yoga because it feels like
relaxing instead of punishment find
something that rewards you that fills
you up what do you like gardening
dancing cleaning find something you like
it’s a reward it’s not a punishment and
you’ll stick with it and we need you to
make your change when we need you to
make your small change in Mississippi
because these changes ripple out they
ripple out into our families the change
one individual impacts a family and that
impacts our communities I want to end
with a little story about how that
worked in my life about five years ago I
decided I wanted to get off my
antidepressants I had tried many times
over the years I went on than when I was
20 and they were probably warranted then
but you know 16 17 years later I wasn’t
so sure and I didn’t like having to
depend on a little pill to make me well
and I tried to get off but I would have
to have a panic attack or fall on the
floor you know in deep depression every
time and I got tired enough of it that
it was time to make a change notice
those cracks those thin spaces when
you’re ready to make a change and so
I signed up for a class called 21 days
to bliss my friends were putting it on
and you gave up the seven major food
intolerances in a supportive environment
I did not do very well in that class I
called it 21 days to hell and I failed
miserably actually but I noticed enough
of a shift at the end of that that I
bought dr. Alejandro univers book clean
gut and I did another 21 days I don’t do
very well at that either but by the end
of that one I noticed that I was on to
something
I noticed enough that when my daughter
who was 4 years old at the time had a
health crisis that came to a head she
was at a sensory disorder she couldn’t
stand the way clothes felt on her body
and we were in a crossroads we didn’t
know what to do she had to go to school
and she wouldnt work clothes so we had
to do something and we were considering
medication for a four-year-old but I
read one line right around then in brain
brain the book grain brain about sensory
disorders and food and I thought maybe
and so New Year’s Day I threw out
everything and we started to on in the
gut in psychology syndrome diet together
and that little girl who hadn’t worn
socks in three years in two weeks was
fine she’s beautiful and smart and
talented and fine to the state she had
two relapses that year Halloween and
Christmas that’s powerful my little
shift helped me save my daughter and you
can bet that that shift impacts my
community I used to think if we could
find the right curriculum every child
could learn I don’t think so I think our
educational reform probably needs to
start in the cafeteria and you can bet
on the most annoying PTO mom up there
advocating for food and movement and
extended recess my change helped me save
my daughter impacts my community
Mississippi needs your personal change
needs your personal change and like my
friend Nancy Woodruff says most change
starts at home and probably in the
kitchen thank you
you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: