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135. Personalizing Your Health Journey Through Diagnostic Labs with Reed Davis image

135. Personalizing Your Health Journey Through Diagnostic Labs with Reed Davis

Wellness and Wanderlust
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115 Plays1 year ago

How can we take back control of our health and really uncover the cause of our symptoms?

This week, we’re chatting with Reed Davis, an expert in functional lab testing and holistic lifestyle medicine.  He is the Founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® (FDN) and the FDN Certification Course with more than 4,000 graduates in 50 countries.

In this episode, we delve into the power of functional diagnostic testing, uncovering the HIDDEN factors that may be hindering your well-being and vitality. Reed shares tips for taking back control of your own health, his DRESS for Success protocol, how stress impacts our overall wellness, and much more.

If you enjoy this episode, please feel free to rate and review the podcast on whatever app you’re listening on, and share with a friend!

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Transcript

Introduction to Wellness and Wanderlust Podcast

00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the wellness and wanderlust podcast. We're here to demystify wellness and help you add a little adventure to your life. Tune in for a new episode every week, where we'll hear from incredible guests and talk about ways to be happier and healthier in our new normal. I'm your host, Valerie Moses. Let's get started.

Introduction of Guest Reed Davis

00:00:23
Speaker
Hello, my friends. Thank you for joining me for another fabulous interview on the Wellness and Wonderless podcast. I'm so grateful to have you all here with me this week, and I cannot wait for you to hear our latest episode. So this week we're chatting with Reed Davis, an expert in functional lab testing and holistic lifestyle medicine. He is the founder of functional diagnostic nutrition, FDN, and the FDN certification course with more than 4,000 graduates in 50 countries.
00:00:48
Speaker
His groundbreaking approach focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of health imbalances, offering individuals a path to optimal wellness. In this episode, we delve into the power of functional diagnostic testing, uncovering the hidden factors that may be hindering you from your wellbeing and vitality. Reed shares tips for taking back control of your own health,
00:01:07
Speaker
his dress for success protocol, how stress impacts our wellness, and much more. Reid also

Sponsorship Acknowledgment and Product Experience

00:01:13
Speaker
has a guidebook with simple steps to better health, which wellness and wanderlust listeners can download for free for a limited time at the link in our show notes. So be sure to check it out. I'd like to thank Laird Superfood for sponsoring this episode. If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I'm always on the go and looking for quick lifestyle shifts that can make a major impact on my health. That is why I love Laird Superfood products.
00:01:34
Speaker
I'm a big fan of their functional mushroom coffee with chaga and lion's meen. It's a great way to boost my energy for the day while getting a lot more out of my cup. All Laird products are sustainably sourced and thoroughly tested to ensure that you are incorporating the cleanest, finest fuel into your routine. They offer a variety of snacks and supplements full of wholesome plant-based ingredients to keep you charged for wherever life takes you. Are you ready to feel more energized, focused, and supported? Go to LairdSuperFood.com slash Wanderlust and add nourishing plant-based foods
00:02:03
Speaker
to fuel you from sunrise to sunset. Use our promo code

Reed Davis's Journey to Founding FDN

00:02:06
Speaker
WONDERLUST at checkout to save 15% off your purchase today. All right, my friends, now let's dive into this week's conversation. Reed, thank you so much for joining us at Wellness of WONDERLUST. How are you doing today?
00:02:17
Speaker
Doing fantastic. Thank you, Valerie, for having me. Happy to be here. I'm so happy to have you on. I'm really excited to get into the topic of what you do. Before we

Development of Functional Lab Testing Methods

00:02:27
Speaker
really dive into that, why don't you first just introduce yourself to our listeners and share a little bit about how you got into the holistic health space. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. Well, now I run a company of really highly qualified, skilled, and very caring people. We teach functional lab work.
00:02:44
Speaker
as it applies to all natural drug free solutions around the world where I think we're in 50 countries now. But it started back in the last century, actually in 1999, I was saving the whole planet, air birds, water, trees, bees, you know, it was an environmental law.
00:03:03
Speaker
and conservation and I was doing some good in the world. And that's a happy place for me when I feel that I have a purpose. But I was seeing how bad the environment was hurting flora and fauna and so on. And I decided I wanted to work with people instead. I was wondering, well, what about people? What's it doing to us, including me? I didn't have any health problems, but I didn't want anything to sneak up on me either. So I changed gears. I went to work in a clinic.
00:03:29
Speaker
Wellness Center in Southern California that had different types of doctors and things and I just fell in love there with the clinical side the as soon as I started working there and I was hired basically to
00:03:40
Speaker
to run the business end of things. But the owner invited me to attend a nutrition course she was taking to get her doctorate or a diplomat in nutrition,

Empowering Personal Health Control with Protocols

00:03:50
Speaker
said that I could be a certified nutritional therapist. And I thought, at first I just thought, what the heck, it's an opportunity you don't get. I mean, she said that I could work on her patients in between my classes.
00:04:01
Speaker
And I was thought, well, I'm never going to hear that opportunity again. So yes, I'll do. And that's when I fell in love with the clinical side of the business, meeting people where they're at face to face in the clinic. They were coming in for something else, like chiropractic or acupuncture or something. But I got to see them too and asked them what's going on. And what I was amazed with, Valerie, was just one after another. They'd been to six or eight people already.
00:04:30
Speaker
maybe 10 people. And even though we were helping them maybe with that chiropractor or acupuncture, they still had all these problems. And I thought, well, that's kind of a rip off, you know, maybe I can help. And so I spent quite a bit of time on that. You're wondering, what, what is it I could do? I was doing my nutrition, nutrition classes, but that was only helping so much like with the selling supplements and things. So just very, very lucky for me. I ran into the right people at the right time.
00:04:58
Speaker
And I got access to all these, what are now called functional lab work. So this was saliva testing, urine testing, stool testing, and some blood work, of course. But it was for people who'd already kind of been to their doctor and was told nothing's wrong with you. They ran blood work. Have you heard that before? Like physicians said nothing's wrong. Everything looks normal. Very much. Yeah. Well, there's something wrong and people know something's wrong.
00:05:24
Speaker
There's me, I didn't know a lot. I had a lot to learn, Valerie, but I had nothing to unlearn. You know, I was kind of an open book and I was also an accomplished academic, you know, environmental law. And I knew I could figure things out. And I went to work running those labs. And another thing occurred to me was that not only are these people caught like in a cycle of trial and error, I called it. You tried this, you tried that, you tried this, you tried that.
00:05:52
Speaker
A lot of those practitioners with their supplements or programs, therapies, whatever.
00:05:58
Speaker
were making money off these people, but they weren't really serving them. And by the way, I thought that wasn't very rewarding. I mean, how could that be rewarding? You're not really helping people.

Holistic and Traditional Medicine Approaches

00:06:06
Speaker
And so again, with the labs and making my own observations, along with some really good counseling and mentorship, of course, from some brilliant people, I started to sort things out and find out what was really wrong with them. And because I wasn't a medical doctor, I couldn't diagnose or treat anything. And that line was always very, very clear to me.
00:06:28
Speaker
As a matter of fact, the doctors are kind of laughing and saying, gee, you can't write prescriptions or make dinos. You're going to have to figure out what's really wrong with them. And I spent the next 10 years, 10 years there.
00:06:40
Speaker
working my butt off. To me, it was kind of fun, but working really hard to figure out what was wrong. And I kind of evolved this system of investigation, number one, investigating what's really wrong with people. And I discovered this pattern that exists in the lab work that I was able to then duplicate. It started to be like, wow, this pattern really, here, we're going to test this, this, and this.
00:07:05
Speaker
And then we're going to then apply the general principles of healing. We're not going to treat anything specifically like a physician. We're not going to just tell you some supplements or certainly weren't writing any prescriptions at the time or now. We weren't doing surgery, that's for sure.
00:07:22
Speaker
So once we discovered what's really wrong, and that followed a pattern, I'll give you the pattern, then apply the principles of healing that people themselves could be in control of so that they weren't being controlled by others. And that was something that I also really bothered me in the beginning. Not only were they caught

Addressing Health Issues with FDN

00:07:43
Speaker
in that cyclotron error, but they had given up control of their own health. And I thought it should be in our own hands, right? Yeah.
00:07:51
Speaker
And so, you know, the story goes that after 10 years, you stumble across a few things. And I was very much into codifying and tracking, making sure I could get the same results with the next person and the next person.
00:08:06
Speaker
Next person. Matter of fact, early on, I was out riding my motorcycles. I do all the time. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to be the last person these people need to see. I'm going to put control of their health back in their hands. And I'm going to be the last one they need to see because of that. And that's what we strive for.
00:08:23
Speaker
for the last quarter century. And eventually, I was asked to teach. We had such a good thing going on. This pattern, we call it H-I-D-D-E-N, that spells hidden. And for most practical purposes, they are hidden. The hormone problems, the immune system problems, detoxification and digestion, of course. And then E is energy and N is nervous system balance.
00:08:49
Speaker
the autonomic system. So HIDDEN became my gold standard investigative methodology. And when I got that data on a person, a real person, and correlated it with them, they always said the same thing. I can't believe you figured this out. You figured out my problem. This explains why it feels so lousy.
00:09:08
Speaker
When others either hadn't even bothered to figure it out or just said, you know, try my therapy, try my therapy. Maybe this will help. Maybe that, well, maybe he's don't cut it. Not for me. So I had, so I developed that system of hidden.
00:09:21
Speaker
That's the investigative looking for those problems, healing opportunities in those areas. And then I couldn't get out the prescription pads. Like I said, I had to come up with a system that they could follow that they would be in control of. And we call that D-R-E-S-S, Dress for Health Success. And that stands, of course, for diet and rest.
00:09:43
Speaker
and exercise and stress reduction and supplementation. And those are each big areas that I spent years studying to individualize them. So they're individualized, D-R-E-S-S, sound simple, diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, supplementation. Well, who doesn't know that? But when you apply it systematically, according to the data, like the lab test results, and the person, it's called clinical correlation. You know, Mrs. Smith, does this explain why you feel so lousy?
00:10:12
Speaker
Yes, Reed, and I can't believe you did this. So happy that someone finally figured out their problems. Now, how do I fix it? Well, here you have to live a certain way. You can't keep doing the same things.
00:10:24
Speaker
some of the time, there's kind of rules, consequences of certain behaviors. And so we sorted it all out to make it easy for a person to understand, number one. And then of course, the last thing is the coaching methodology, which is based on goal setting and positive psychology and frequent visits to hold people accountable and answer their questions.
00:10:46
Speaker
keep them on track and change course when necessary. I mean, things occur, so you have to be able to adjust course. But step one was the hidden stressors, run the labs, get the data. Step two is correlate it with a unique individual, one person, so that it explains everything. And step three is to coach them up through the dress process,

Impact of Diet on Health

00:11:06
Speaker
to give them a customized dress program that is, you know, with all reasonable expectations.
00:11:14
Speaker
going to fix their problems. It's so fascinating and I love that you continue to help people in this new setting and how you were able to really apply that because I do when you asked like, can I relate or have I experienced that? Absolutely. You've gone to doctors before where they've said, well, these very common labs that we would test for numbers look good, so everything must be functioning and you're totally fine. Yeah.
00:11:41
Speaker
There have been very few times where something came up on a very basic lab and the doctor was able to say hey change this behaviorally or whatever and it actually made that difference. Like I think so often these things are hidden or there are correlations between things going on in our bodies that we just are not connecting the dots when we're not
00:12:02
Speaker
those medical professionals or we don't have that experience. And so I think it's really amazing how you take that and you individualize it too. Cause I've even had doctors say, well, you know, maybe I asked one time for thyroid, well, what should I be doing to help with my nutrition? And doctor said, well, don't go too crazy on seafood, but don't cut it out. And I thought that was a very strange and I don't really eat seafood. And so not a very helpful answer. And then just said, well, watch what you eat.
00:12:29
Speaker
But really taking that and individualizing that and actually making it something that we can take action on and move forward with. I'm glad you mentioned this area because it's really important to not blame doctors. We can't blame the doctors because they're not training what we do.
00:12:46
Speaker
And all those people coming in the office at first that said, you know, my doctor just wants to put me on drugs or my doctor said there's nothing wrong with me or something like that. They were kind of blaming the doctor like it's their fault. And what I learned later was that they really had their
00:13:01
Speaker
ladder up against the wrong wall. They were going to a physician whose job is to identify disease and serious disease processes and provide some intervention to slow that down or even stop it. That's not what natural medicine is. That's not what what I do is called functional diagnostic nutrition and nurturing. FDN, known around the world as FDN,
00:13:25
Speaker
And to be non-medical, but that doesn't make medical bad. See, medicine knows how to intervene when it's, when the downward spiral is really contracted. So, you know, if you go into a physician and you make certain complaints and they run certain labs, they may find something that's really going south. And that's what you want them for. But they're not going to find the little subtle things that don't show up on their particular blood work.
00:13:52
Speaker
So that's why everything looks normal. That's what they're trained to do. And they've saved a lot of lives, believe me. So we just had our ladder up against the wrong wall. You don't want to climb the wall of drugs and surgery. You want your ladder on the wall of
00:14:06
Speaker
Well, what's the right diet? How do I get a better night's sleep and exercise and reduce stress and take my supplements and the right ones that are gonna help me with what I have going on? So that's a different wall, so we can't blame the doctors. I always think that's important to point out.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, doctors have been, I had life-saving surgery as a little kid where it was a very obvious thing that was wrong. He did do a kind of groundbreaking surgery that he had sort of designed and it was life-changing, life-saving. I'm still here today, very thankful for that. But it's so true that so much of what we're going through on a daily basis is not killing us quickly at least. And so it may not be as easily detectable or it may not be at that point.
00:14:50
Speaker
Yes, exactly. So the way I put that is that the observations that I can make with our functional labs, these saliva and urine and stool testing and some blood work, the observations I can make, it takes time to capitalize on. We have to work with you for some time and sometimes protracted things. It's going to take a while to heal, right? So the things that doctors are really good at is when that timeline is really shortened.
00:15:19
Speaker
So we call it a contracted, not protracted. So if the downward spiral is really contracted, then there's no time to capitalize on my observations, the labs I run. That's when the physician can say, hey, we need to get you out of the woods here real quick. And here's some medication that's going to save your behind. And then you can work on everything else too. You can still do our work, but the work, and it's your work, it's called self-trading really and self-managing, but we coach you and
00:15:49
Speaker
It takes time and it works around the edges of whatever that thing is. If you have a medical thing, works around the edges of it until what? It could be gone. It could go away if you just keep at it. And so I've seen people in three months completely change their life around and sometimes three years.
00:16:07
Speaker
Some problems are really deep and the recovery process is lengthy, but you know what? You can do it. Everyone can do it. That's why health coaching is so popular these days. People realize, you know, if I had like a coach, people have business coaches and tennis coaches and, you know, personal trainers.
00:16:25
Speaker
So someone that knows how to read these labs the right way and interpret that and get you on track with the customized dress, the D-R-E-S-S program, that's the kind of coach you want. And we hang in there with people. We encourage you and we keep you on track and we change courses, as I said. So it's really quite remarkable. It's a great field to be in.
00:16:48
Speaker
I would imagine that has to be so rewarding and so fulfilling. I mean, especially as you said, having these patients come in who have said like, I can't believe you figured this out and no one's ever been able to. And I think that when you're really struggling with your health and not sure where to turn, you can feel so out of control. And even if you get the lab work yourself somehow and try to interpret it
00:17:11
Speaker
you know, online. I mean, if you're not a trained professional, you're going to be going to Dr. Google, who will tell you something horrible. And it's not at all what you should be doing. And so to have that person that's really an advocate for you that can customize it for you and understand you on that bio individual level. Exactly. And you can even have a medical problem and still work with that person again, around the edges of it.
00:17:35
Speaker
And they don't conflict with each other. They compliment each other.

Stressors and Health Protocols

00:17:39
Speaker
You know, when I started in 1999, we were called alternative medicine. It was an alternative clinic. Well, soon it became, I started hearing this word complimentary because it was working. So they couldn't dismiss it as just alternative. But, and then it became integrative where, Hey, let's do both together. And now it's called functional medicine. And we're, we kind of.
00:18:02
Speaker
pioneered a lot of the things that they do. I think it still has a ways to go. Functional medical doctors are still diagnosing and treating specifics and that's just how their algorithms work. Their licensure and insurance and all these things contain them into that system. So they have to diagnose and treat and they might be looking a little bit further upstream and it might be more into some of the natural therapies and things.
00:18:29
Speaker
but it has not arrived yet because the moment you diagnose and you tell someone the name of their problem, you're forgetting the other eight things they have to work on. Remember, it's not, it's hormone, immune, digestion, detoxification, energy production, nervous system balance, there's oxidative stress, you know, there's others. So, you know, you need an epigenetic program, which means influencing your genes.
00:18:52
Speaker
to keep you healthy. And it does require comprehension. And it's fun. It's fascinating. And with the systems that I created in the office, you know, using the acronyms, using the step by step, make it easy on people. It's kind of cool. It works. Oh, yeah. Now, I'm curious when you're when you're working with patients, and I'm sure you have
00:19:13
Speaker
a whole host of people that are coming in with different things. But what would you say, especially for the listeners who may not have pursued this type of treatment before, what are some of the most common complaints you typically see among your patients and start to conduct testing for? Well, it's a great question. You name it. We have people who are tired and fatigued and overweight and don't sleep well and their hair thins out and they get grumpy.
00:19:41
Speaker
Lots of things that are coming, but they're also vague.
00:19:44
Speaker
They're not medical conditions. So if you go into someone whose job is to diagnose and treat specifics with a bunch of vague complaints and they run your blood work and it looks, quote unquote, normal, then you're going to be, you're going to go into the cycle of trial and error. You're going to try this diet and that diet. You can try these products and those products, program after program. So until you come across a system, and I'm sure there's others like ours, but kind of fond of ours because it took me 10
00:20:14
Speaker
10 years to figure it out. And I've been teaching it since 2008. So a long time. And we learn as we go, of course. But it's a system of being in control yourself. And you just need the data. You need data. You have to have. Well, what do you mean hormone problem?
00:20:33
Speaker
which hormones and how are they out of balance? Is it estrogen over progesterone or is it cortisol over DHEA? So there's lots of imbalances that could occur. And when you see your cortisol high over DHEA, one's catabolic, cortisol breaks your body down and DHEA is anabolic, it builds your body up.
00:20:54
Speaker
up. So you'd want to balance. Of course you're going to break down, build up, breakdown, build up. That's normal. That's natural. That's the way it goes. But when you're breaking down faster than you're building up, how do you think you feel? And then you're tired, you're fatigued and you need stimulants in the morning. You need sedatives at night. You're just not as happy as you used to be.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then what happens is your immune system goes down because high cortisol to DHEA will drive secretory IgA down. The secretory

Personal Stories on Lifestyle and Wellness

00:21:20
Speaker
IgA is the main ingredient in the lining of your gut, the mucosal barrier. So we see that being chronically low in people with chronically high cortisol. And well, then what happens? They end up with a dysbiosis. All these things can be measured. I can show you on paper how these dominoes start to fall. And so you have someone who maybe they were doing great
00:21:41
Speaker
They could be in any profession, any person, anywhere, you know, raising children. Believe it or not, that's stressful. Have you ever heard that before? I have. You know, it's like, well, you don't work. What do you mean I don't work? I raised four kids, you know, like that worked, man. And then as their body starts to break down and you get the immune system, then the digestion isn't as good as it used to be.
00:22:06
Speaker
that leads to nutrient deficiencies and upsets. And boy, we could go down that rabbit hole for a whole hour easily. And then detoxification, you get the sort of leaky gut, you get antigen penetration, you get basically a congested liver, and now you're not detoxifying.
00:22:23
Speaker
That spills over things, especially into the other detoxifying organs, your skin and your kidneys and your colon and your lymph system and your lungs even. So you see people with all these different types of symptoms and it all can go back to the stress, the downward spiral.
00:22:41
Speaker
the dysfunction, again, hormone, immune, digestion, detoxification. Energy production is highly affected, especially if you're not eating perfectly for your type. And then nervous system balance. People are too sympathetic dominant. They're in fight flight, which is guess what? We just made a complete circle. You just completed a circle right there. The more dysfunctional, the more
00:23:03
Speaker
demand for cortisol, and the more dysfunctional you get. That's why we call it a downward spiral. And what I sorted out was all the labs to run. It sounds like a lot. It might sound expensive, and I'm sorry, it's not. You're going to invest a little money in some labs, but you can do them at home. Except one, you get a blood draw. But the others, you do it at home. You're kind of self-testing. You're working with a professional who knows exactly what that all means.
00:23:29
Speaker
and can teach you. So it's very empowering. And I think you remember the first goal I set out to accomplish was to put people back in control of their own health. So data is important. Believe me, I can go on and on.
00:23:42
Speaker
No, but that's so, that really is so important because I think we as patients don't always know what to ask for and what could be causing like so many, you're so right with some of these symptoms just being so vague. And for example, I have Hashimoto's which I've known for a long time.
00:23:59
Speaker
did not know until a couple of years ago or about a year ago that I had pernicious anemia. And so sometimes wondering, well, is the fatigue or some of those symptoms tied to the anemia or are they tied to the thyroid or is it something else entirely? And I've been the queen of vague symptoms my whole life and not vague symptoms. And it's very challenging. It can be really easy to, I think, give up as a patient sometimes. And so to have, again, this empowerment of
00:24:28
Speaker
Here is the information for you. Here are some actual tangible things you can do to start feeling better. Rather than just, you know, sometimes I have with the perdicious anemia, I do take a methylated B vitamin and that's really helped, but it's so often it's not an easy fix or it's not, you know, it's not going to be a quick fix. There's going to be a lot of change and it is
00:24:52
Speaker
very multifaceted, as you said, with this protocol. And I understand that it has to probably differ a lot by health condition and whatever the person is going through. But in terms of the dress for health success protocol, is there anything kind of universally that we should all be doing or what are some of the more common changes that your patients often will be making?
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good question. And I'll take you back to the dress protocol. We start with the weakest area. So you can eat according to, we call it metabolic typing. You eat according to your genetics, your metabolic type. You know, it's kind of ancestral dieting, but not all ancestral diets are made the same. So you have an ancestral diet and you have a sleep pattern. We really help people fix their sleep. A lot of times they're just going to bed earlier and getting up earlier.
00:25:44
Speaker
And getting with the natural circadian rhythm that

Future Plans and Personal Growth

00:25:47
Speaker
humans have, we're diurnal. We're not nocturnal. There's nocturnal animals and there's diurnal. And it's all prescripted by the sun and the moon and all that stuff. I mean, you just are a certain way. So diet is metabolic typing. We create sleep sanctuaries and make sure people get a good night's sleep.
00:26:07
Speaker
the right hours per day. And then exercise, there's no one program that's right for everybody. So you got to meet people where they're at and fit that. Now, stress reduction is huge because there's so many different types. There's that mental, emotional, there's the physical trauma and aches and pains and things from injuries like I've had. And then there's the chemical and biochemical. You make your own toxins, you make your own poisons, so to speak, believe it or not. And there's enough in the environment to kill
00:26:35
Speaker
and choke a horse you know we all know that right so we could go on and on so you got the diet right for you rest you got exercise you got stress reduction sorting that out we use labs like food sensitivity testing that's a major stressor it also covers diet so you know you you get with one test you're getting two big lifestyle areas and then supplements they're very interesting and i don't have my own line
00:26:59
Speaker
But I know a lot about them and I teach how to use supplements properly. Vitamins, minerals, a sense of fatty acids, there's trace elements and phytonutrients and

Role of Gratitude and Mindfulness

00:27:09
Speaker
all the amino acids and how they break down in their neurotransmitters, blah, blah, blah. So there's a lot to know, but it's five simple areas, D-R-E-S-S. And we start, answer your question, with the weakest area, where once we've done the lab work and we know what the healing opportunities are,
00:27:25
Speaker
basically what needs fixing or rebalancing and repairing and restoring and rebuilding. You know all that from data. It takes professional assessment, but then the rest is up to the person. We're going to work together on DRESS, sort that out.
00:27:40
Speaker
your weakest area. And the third thing is the coaching. And again, I'm not picking on doctors. I love doctors, but it's what you do between visits that matters. And that's how I started. Valerie, a long time ago was telling, you know, look, you're coming in the office for your chiropractic treatments. That's great. Good job. What are you doing between visits? And that's how I came up with the D-R-E-S-S. What are you eating? What time do you go to bed? How do you rest? Are you exercising, joining a gym?
00:28:08
Speaker
various things.

Episode Conclusion and Audience Engagement

00:28:09
Speaker
And so over 10 years of that kind of consulting, I figured out some patterns and started making it easy for people to do and to remember and to stay on track and to be accountable because you have a health problem and you want to get rid of it.
00:28:25
Speaker
You can. Yeah. Well, I'm laughing to thinking about, you know, what happens between visits. It was a not medical visit, but I had a massage earlier in the week. I've been having a lot of back and neck pain and some stress. And I think also from sitting at a desk all day.
00:28:41
Speaker
at my day job and it was so funny. I left the massage feeling so great and then I got to the office the next day, was hunched over, was starting to get sore again. I'm thinking, wow, this is what I'm doing for the several weeks in between appointments and like I am doing the stretches she showed me, but I'm thinking, wow, there's actually so much more that I should be conscious of in between so that it's not so bad.
00:29:04
Speaker
When I get there, finally for those appointments, because it's true. What you get out of those office visits is great, but if you're not able to take something with you or- Yes. I found that Pilates was one of my favorite forms of exercise because it works with your core strength. You learn to sit with better posture. At my lectures, sometimes I'm looking at a group of people, I'm up on the stage, whatever, and I say, okay, now everyone sit up straight.
00:29:31
Speaker
you'd be amazed how many people have to shift their posture. No one is sitting up straight. There's one person who didn't have to move, and it's because he's meditating or something. It's like, yeah, everyone has this week for posture. You have no core strength. So if there's things to start working on, it's kind of going back to your question, where do you start? What do you do? It's your weakest area. For most people, it's diet, frankly, and stress.
00:29:57
Speaker
I would say there's people just don't even know what's stressing them. They can't even identify. I don't know why I'm so stressed out. Well, you work two jobs and have three kids and, and gee, do you think that might be a little stressful in today's world with the radio playing in the car and the news on at home and say, Oh my God, there's so much stress. That's not even to mention the air, the water, the electromagnetic magnetic frequencies, the radiation.
00:30:22
Speaker
and then homes can have mold. You can have personal care products that aren't working for you. They're working against you. Same thing with household cleaning products and all the stuff that's on the market. They put fire retardants on children's clothing. But yeah, there's a lot of things that could stress you out that you don't even know are happening. So it's good to get some training and to be aware. And I think working with it, we call our people FDN practitioners. So functional diagnostic nutrition.
00:30:49
Speaker
I teach them what I learned in 10 years, in about 10 months to a year. It's a full-time study program with people who usually they have some kind of health problem, but they are working on it and they want to help others. So they get certified by me and then they go out in the world and they've solved their own problem. They go out and help others just like them. And they make a good living doing it, by the way. Well, I mean, there's such a need for it.
00:31:16
Speaker
And I really don't think that there can be too many because everybody is going to relate to someone differently, is going to take something different away from whichever practitioner they're working with. And I think that if you have someone who brings a unique set of experiences with them that maybe you identify with, I mean, they're certainly so that has to be so rewarding for them. And again, they're just something
00:31:40
Speaker
that there really is truly a need for. I would imagine that the sleep and the stress kind of often, or at least I know in my case personally, but I would imagine they often go hand in hand. Yes, it all goes sort of hand in hand. I mean, when I'm explaining the dress program, I hold up a hand, you know, and I go D-R-E-S-S, pointing my fingers. If someone says to me, hey, what should I take? Like, they think just supplements are going to do it. I remind them, again, look at your hand, the finger,
00:32:08
Speaker
D-R-E-S supplements is what? 20% of the problem. It's never just the supplements. It's never just the stress. There's the exercise, the sleep, the diet, and you can just sort it out. You get up in the morning. By the way, what's a big stressor, I think I mentioned it, is just getting up on the wrong side of the bed. You get up with a bad attitude. Well, plan on having a bad day. You get up with a great attitude.
00:32:34
Speaker
I'm not saying funny things, but you get up with a good attitude. You still have a bad day, but you won't know it.
00:32:44
Speaker
I'm just teasing but I really think that there is a way and there's a plan and I'm just tickled that I've been able to help as many people as like when you were you were asking me what are some of the common complaints I think a case after case one mom was coming in for chiropractic and nutrition and you know she just had some aches and pains and also some low energy and a few pounds to lose
00:33:08
Speaker
not too tough a case at all. But her kid, she said, Reed, do you ever work with children? I said, yeah, I've been a football coach for 15 years, love kids, raised four kids. And why? Oh, they want to put my son on drugs at school because he is poking at the other kids and not paying attention. I said, what do you mean there's a doctor there? She goes, no, it's just the teacher and the principal want them on drugs. I said, well, they can't say that. You know, that's not allowed.
00:33:35
Speaker
So anyway, she goes, I know and I don't want to do it, but what else can I do? They want them to stay home. If I, I said, I don't know if I could help or not, but let's run some labs. What do I do? I run labs, found out some things that were irritating this boy's nervous system. By the way, he was only nine.
00:33:52
Speaker
A poor nine-year-old kid being, you need drugs. So something wrong with this world. But within a very short period of time, I think it was three weeks after we got our test results and cleaned up the boy's diet and sleep patterns and exercise and things like that, kind of the dress program for a kid, the principal of the school tracked me down and said, Mr. Davis, you know, I've got your number from so and so. And I just want to know, Billy, he's such a, you know, improved young man. He's paying attention.
00:34:20
Speaker
He doesn't poke at the other kids. He's not being kicked out of class kind of a thing. What did you put him on? Which just, oh, it just ruined the whole thing. I discovered some magic pill or something. I said, no, sir. What we put him on was a cleaner diet and lifestyle and sleep program and things like that. It's not just, and he didn't want to talk much after that, but the point is that it wasn't just some supplement or something.
00:34:47
Speaker
And we really helped. And that's why I agree with you. It feels so good to do this kind of work. Oh, I'm sure. I mean, I remember hearing that, you know, my, my dad was one of those kids in school who probably had ADHD, did not have the diagnosis. And he said in those days that a lot of times when the kids were acting up, the kids that were acting up were sent to run around outside and to exercise and that, that, and he used to do that when he was babysitting it, the kids were like, you know, Miss B is like, okay, go get some exercise. And.
00:35:16
Speaker
You know, a lot of the time, like that played a major role. I remember in my early twenties, I experimented a lot with whole 30 and with paleo. And I remember reading, like, I don't have children. So it was the first time I really saw how much food was affecting me.
00:35:32
Speaker
But reading in that community from people who had children and maybe their children weren't 100% on the protocol, but because maybe it was the mom that was doing it or both of the parents, a lot of the meals were going to be a lot more whole foods and real ingredients that some of the kids who had some behavioral problems, it was managed a lot better. They were behaving a lot better. They were doing better in class and that it was having this major effect
00:35:57
Speaker
from that very early age that that you're so right maybe a medication and if you need a medication of course take a medication but you should not be getting diagnosed by somebody who is not a not a medical professional and maybe if there are other interventions that you can take you know
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, intervention is a word I try not to use because I feel more like instead of intervening, that's what doctors do well, like the kid comes in and can't breathe. Well, they intervene and get their ways open and make sure the kid can breathe against you. Intervention is one thing, but bringing principles to bear, healing through healing principles to bear on a condition or person situation is a little different. And so what are those principles? Well, they're embodied.
00:36:43
Speaker
in the d-r-e-s-s you know good nutrition and everything else the detoxification those are those are immutable they're there and you can't run away from the consequences of poor nutrition or poor sleep or poor exercise and things but i was reminded value when you were talking about your dad you know what we used to call kids like that we just called them boys yeah
00:37:07
Speaker
Well, he's a boy, you know, he's going to do those sorts of things. That's the way it was back then. I'm 70 years old and I remember those years, you know, good memory. And I lived, you know, both my parents and kind of a normal upbringing and things like that. And we were allowed to rough and tumble a little bit and it was considered absolutely
00:37:28
Speaker
appropriate. Yeah. And I think too, like something that this newest generation of children, and I would say even, I mean, when I was growing up, but I think it just has gotten worse and worse over the years in terms of the nutrition, the food is so processed now. And that was another thing with the whole 30 when I was doing that, all of a sudden I'm reading every label in the store and seeing that there's food dye in the pickles and there was sugar in bone broth.
00:37:55
Speaker
And you had to really read it to see, or even high-fructose corn syrup and things that were not sweet and they were not... Oh, God, that's so true. I'm sure that, again, with nutrition, and you mentioned that when you're working with patients that it's all going to depend on the metabolic type. Are there any commonalities among what you do in terms of cleaning up diet?
00:38:19
Speaker
I could give some really good tips. You might want to get your pencil up for this one. How you feel after eating matters. And if you eat the right fuel mixture for your genes and everything else is equal, let's say you don't have a disease, there's nothing holding you back really. If you're just eating wrong, you're going to feel it. And if you're eating right, you're going to feel it. So what should you feel?
00:38:44
Speaker
And what could change that? So it's the ratio of protein, fat and carbs is the best place to start. For the most part today, if you eat meat, you're getting plenty of protein and fat in the meat section. And it's just how it looks on your plate. You don't have to measure grams or anything else silly like that, calories or any of that stuff. You just look on your plate and you're going to learn what percentage of protein, fat, let's say there's, pretend there's a steak.
00:39:12
Speaker
That's the protein and fat. And then there's some nice vegetables. Hopefully you're growing your own. I have this thing called lettuce grow, like lettuce, the word lettuce and grow, lettuce grow. Everyone could grow their own vegetables on that thing. It's amazing. So if you looked at the plate and this can be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and it looked like it was about 50, 50, 50% protein and fat, the meat, and then the other was the vegetables, then that's a certain ratio that that would be.
00:39:40
Speaker
So some people, believe it or not, do really well on about 75 to 80% protein and fat. These would be your paleotype. And the deal is that they're very fast oxidizers. They burn fuel very quickly. And so they need slow burning fuel, like protein and fat. It burns slowly. So if you're a fast oxidizer like me, I'm a very quick metabolizer, fast oxidizer.
00:40:05
Speaker
Because oxidization means you're burning the fuel. So guess how I feel 90 minutes after eating when I eat that way? High energy, really good energy, solid, that can get me through to my next meal. I also feel highly satisfied. There's this quality called satiation and nothing was missing. I'm not craving anything. That meal was great, really nourished me.
00:40:29
Speaker
And then the third quality or element would be actually sense of well-being or mood, like good mood, like you're in a good mood. So if you eat, look at what's on your plate. Matter of fact, we have people write it down. We have these.
00:40:43
Speaker
call them diet set record sheets and you keep them for about a week. And then you learn like, wow, I can't believe it. I've had so many people, Valerie, they say, I can't believe eating more protein and fat for breakfast was good for me. You know, now at 10 o'clock, instead of needing a snack and feeling kind of tired and irritable and like something that was missing, I actually feel good. I feel high energy. I can get to my next meal. I feel satisfied. I'm not craving anything.
00:41:10
Speaker
and I actually feel like I'm in a good mood. So food, again, everything else with your health being equal, is a perfect indicator. So that's the qualities of satiation, energy and mood or wellbeing, all in one, all from just how you ate breakfast or lunch or dinner, whatever it is. And so you start to figure out what is the right ratio of protein, fat and carbs for me. And it comes from your genetics.
00:41:37
Speaker
There's a genetic layer. If your ancestors were from the Andes Mountains and you're a Quechuan native, well, you're a high-carb person. You're a slow oxidizer. You survive very well. You have the same feeling of energy, well-being, satiation from potatoes and corn, which to me, I'd be starving. I wouldn't have no energy. I would feel miserable.
00:42:04
Speaker
and be craving all the time if all I ate was carbohydrates. So this is bred into our bones by tens of thousands of years, millennia, into our bones. Our genetic requirements for energy production is really, really an important aspect of eating for sure. Now I can go on and on, but just saying, like, metabolic typing and getting the diet right, once you know the principles, you can do it. And I spent a quarter century, which is a big part of my life,
00:42:33
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that that's so important to just have that understanding. And I think even kind of just taking it back to a mindfulness piece there with you're eating something and taking a moment to think about how am I feeling and reflect and actually sit in your body? Because I think that's also something that
00:42:51
Speaker
when you're dealing with, in my case oftentimes, I think it's the autoimmune side, but when you're feeling, again, these fake symptoms, you almost go out of your body and I think you stop trusting your body and not really understand like, you know, I was so sick as a kid that I, as an adult, would sometimes go to the doctor and almost nothing was wrong, but I just didn't know because it was really hard to get a gauge on it for a little while. And I think that
00:43:16
Speaker
doing something like that and getting to know what's going to work for you and using that data behind it and then kind of adjusting. And I think that takes the control back, but it also just gets you back into your body. Yes. And again, having a system for other than trying to get lucky is always been what I thought was missing in the beginning. 25 years ago, people just don't know the principles involved and how to apply them.
00:43:45
Speaker
because we're being sold a bunch of crap all the time. Yeah, it is definitely an industry. You know, I can put it mildly. Yeah. And so I think it's I think it's so great that something like this, you're actually giving people the testing that they need so that they can then
00:44:01
Speaker
Because again, there is so much information out there. And if we just Google diet right now or best diet for blank, I remember one time with two conflicting health things, getting conflicting information on whether I should eat tomatoes. There are so many foods out there that aren't really inherently one way or another. There are health benefits and there are problems depending on how you're. Depending on who's eating it, not to cut you off, depending on who's eating it. So that's the magic that in the, the, the understanding.
00:44:30
Speaker
that we begin with is that there's no inherent quality to any food. I mean, it has its protein, fat, carbs, its vitamins, minerals, the sense of fatty acids, antioxidants, amino acids, trace elements, phytonutrients. Yes, it's got all that, but which ones are right for you? That's genetic. That's built into your bones. And if you eat that way, you're going to have the energy, you're going to have the sense of well-being, you're going to be satiated, and you're going to know it.
00:45:00
Speaker
And it's amazing when you start eating according to your metabolic type. Now, people have things that'll throw it off a little bit if you come in with certain health conditions. It's a little bit harder to figure out, but we have the supplements, we have the sleep, we have the exercise. There's a lot to the dress program to keep you going, keep you on track while we refine that diet. And again, the supplements can be very helpful. One thing I'll point your audience to, as far as the foods go, is the environmental working group.
00:45:30
Speaker
So it's EWG.org and it's just a free place to go and get information. EWG, environmentalworkinggroup.org. They will tell you which foods are the most toxic
00:45:44
Speaker
which foods are the safest. And hopefully they work with your metabolic type, but when you said, depends who's eating it, it's true, but there are certain foods that are bad for everyone. There's no foods good for everyone, but there's certain foods that are bad, like sugar. We all know, you mentioned high fructose corn syrup. I was amazed the other day, because there's a certain type of smoked beef sausage that I like. And my wife's reading the label, she goes, oh my God, this has got a high fructose corn syrup in it.
00:46:13
Speaker
And I'm going, oh my God, you just ruined my lunch because I was really enjoying it up until you said that. You know, I love, and that's the thing. See, they're putting stuff in our meat, even. Who would put fruits of corn syrup on meat?
00:46:28
Speaker
Well, these guys did because they knew it would taste really good if you did. You got to pay attention, I guess. Right. Yeah. I really wanted pickles. And I remember reading all the, it was very hard to find pickles in just my regular grocery store. I finally did, but it was hard to find pickles that didn't have food dye or corn syrup. And it was wild. And I definitely want to check out, um, EWGs that just the foods on there.
00:46:54
Speaker
I've used it and I think glisters will find this beneficial too. I've actually used it to look through personal care items that I've used. I'm certainly, you know, I definitely use some things that are questionable, but it's at least helpful, especially when I want to try, I'm looking for a new type of product that I don't already have. Well, let's look and see what brands are actually putting out something that is good for us and isn't like completely poisoning us because oh my gosh, just going through what was in my cabinets.
00:47:23
Speaker
None of them were like the really horrible, but they have their skin deep. I think is what it's called where they can search. Yeah. And none of mine were like on the, it could be green if it was really good, red, if it was going to kill you tomorrow. And I think a lot of mine were in the yellow zone and maybe some parts of the packaging were good or certain ingredients were good, but then even the ones that were sold as clean are actually not quite as clean. Like there is a carcinogenic ingredient in it that.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was just so interesting and eye-opening. So I think having resources like that to really look into what we're putting into and on our bodies. I think it's so important.
00:48:05
Speaker
Again, these are what we call contributors to metabolic chaos. The household products, the personal care products, the stuff that's in our clothing and in paint, like if you had a room painted, my wife wants to paint. And I'm like, we're not painting because I can't stand the fumes. I don't want that stuff in my breathing environment, stuff like that. We compromise a little bit, but generally we're not painting around here very much because it's toxic.
00:48:31
Speaker
and it gets in you and it's hard to get out, you know, who can detoxify that well? And so we're on the same page. Yeah, it's challenging and just knowing that there's formaldehyde in plenty of, you know, and then there was a really big problem back in my hometown in one neighborhood where the Chinese drywall and people were getting very, very sick. And so there is so much out there and some of which like maybe we don't, you know, we're not as aware, we don't have
00:49:00
Speaker
hopefully you have control over where you're living, but it's a harder thing to change. But I think at least being able to work through these things that we are doing to ourselves on a daily basis. And I know with these, they're all stressors, but in general, I think we have
00:49:16
Speaker
all kinds of stressors in our lives. We went through a pandemic. We have political turmoil. We have all the things happening in the world and families, children, just life happening. What tips do you have in general for dealing with stress and just lifestyle factors we can take into account there? You know, it's a huge question because there's so many types of stress. You know, we were alluding to that earlier.
00:49:42
Speaker
I categorize them into three big areas. One is your mental emotional stressors. And when you say the word stress, that's what people immediately...
00:49:49
Speaker
think of, well, I hate my job and driving to work sucks and my kids are misbehaving and financial. I mean, just name all the stuff, right? But there's other types. For me, I don't worry too much about things, but my physical body, I've got such a well-used body. The sports that I did and the extreme sports and I've injured myself. Unfortunately, I did some stupid things or at least very risky things. And now I pay for it with
00:50:14
Speaker
I'm spending a lot of money on stem cells and things like that to rebuild my body. Well, your body responds the same, whether it's that you hate your job or your shoulder hurts. The body's reaction is to elevate that cortisol to DHA ratio for the most part. For as long as it can, you'll go into this adaptive state. So your body's adapting all the time. And then there's another kind of stress, and that's the chemical and biochemical stressors, the environment. Going back to where I came from,
00:50:42
Speaker
I knew how bad the environment was because I studied it and saw dead animals, flora, fauna, you know, again, air birds, water trees, bees, and started wondering, what about people? Well, it's bad on us too. So you have three different areas and just like anything else, which one's your weakest area?
00:50:58
Speaker
Do you need to work on your relationships, whether it's your relationship with your spouse or with money or your kids or with your church or God or whatever, you know, and you can reduce a lot of stress in that area through communicating and getting on the same page with people, creating understandings and not taking any credit.
00:51:16
Speaker
But, you know, now with the physical, so that's the mental emotional and it's a big area. Some people, I'll say that in my efforts to help them overcome obstacles to healing, it was in their mind a lot. I mean, I'm not saying, oh, it's all in your head. I'm saying that for some people,
00:51:35
Speaker
obstacles to healing are more in your mind and emotions than maybe in your physical body or your environment. And so that's a worthwhile consideration. So you got all the mental, emotional, and you got all that physical, and then you got the chemical, biochemical. Well, we moved out in the country because we didn't want to be in the city breathing that stuff. And it's not perfect here either. But we also grow our own food. It's completely 100% organic vegetables.
00:52:03
Speaker
all the time. And so we do buy our meats and buy them mostly online. So you can just start at your weakest area. For some people, I think I alluded to this, they have no purpose in life. And that's stressful. If you get up, yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. Looking at some 19, 20 year old doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. They're lost and they're stressed out and they resort to silly things, risky things. I think that's part of that mental, emotional, spiritual aspect
00:52:31
Speaker
that you can't be ignored, can't be ignored. That's why my people that I train ask all these questions. We have questionnaires that help sort it out into what are the weaker areas in terms of how you're showing up to us, what are your main complaints, and a lot more. And then we can go from there after we run the labs.
00:52:51
Speaker
Absolutely. I think all of those are really important for us to be keeping in mind because yeah, I think we do often go to the mental and emotional, but even within the mental and emotional, I think oftentimes we don't give it credit unless it's like the big traumatic thing that happened or something that like whatever society is defining as the most stressful thing or we think that what we're going through is totally normal.
00:53:16
Speaker
And I think we have that hustle culture now where it's like, go, go, go. And when you are tired, drink a coffee or an energy drink and keep going. And it's not necessarily the way we're meant to be living. And so then we're not giving credence to that. I think that that's really harmful for us. I love with the physical, the Pilates, because that was founded to help
00:53:40
Speaker
The founder, I think you used it basically to heal his own injuries. So it's a really great one for healing your own body. Yeah. You're so right. His name was Joseph Pilates and the Pilates system is what the, uh, is it the Swedish army uses now, um, as their entire training program. It's like, it's phenomenal. He healed the broken body. He wasn't allowed to be on sports teams because he walked funny and looked funny. And, um, he fixed himself.
00:54:10
Speaker
And now it's a world renowned system of core strengthening and straightening and balance and all these really important things.
00:54:19
Speaker
It's helped me a lot. I mean, I even find that when I'm sore between Pilates and then I think a lot of yoga poses, which there, there are, there is some crossover, I think with, with some of what you might do in those two. I feel like between those two, that really does help me quite a bit. And Hey, if I can do that instead of taking an end set and wrecking my stomach, you know, Hey, there absolutely is crossover and you could throw a, you know, Qigong and some of the martial arts in there because they're, they're about balance and resiliency.
00:54:50
Speaker
within the physical body strength and flexibility and all these sorts of things that are really critical.
00:54:55
Speaker
Absolutely. I do have, I would love to switch gears a little bit. I have some rapid fire questions, but we get to know you a little better and yeah, just, um, I'll fire away and, and we'll go from there. So what is your favorite self-care practice right now? Uh, it's gotta be meditation right now, getting a, getting my infrared sauna, which I have. So I guess it's a combination of therapies and I listened to my meditation and that's my favorite. It's not my most frequent.
00:55:23
Speaker
but it's my favorite for sure. Being more self-aware, working on separating my sense of being from all the crap going on, it reminds you kind of who you really are. So I think that's my favorite.
00:55:35
Speaker
Oh, that's fantastic. I love the idea of combining those two as well. Now, if you had a one word theme for this year, what would that be? I'd have to say expansion, because we're expanding. I have wonderful, wonderful people working with me. We're a great team. You know, it's my company, but they're very vested in the mission. They're all really mission driven. And the company's doing very well. So expansion is spreading the love, I would have to say.
00:56:05
Speaker
I think that's such a great theme to have. And I think it's so powerful in the type of work. Well, I think in anyone's work, but I think especially when you're patient driven, you're really able to, you know, with spreading the love. I mean, your patients feel that and I think it impacts the overall results that they're going to have.
00:56:24
Speaker
results-driven. Yeah, you just said the key word. It's results-driven. And so we all track our statistics and things like that, that prove we are expanding. What you can measure, you can expand on, you can improve. If you're not taking measurements and you might feel good, but you're, you got to actually take, that's why we love the labs because they show you, you're before and after. And so, so I agree with you completely.
00:56:51
Speaker
And anything that isn't growing is dying according to certain philosophies. You're going up or you're going down. There's no staying the same in this world. The world hates a static situation. You've heard nature abhors a vacuum. It's so true.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah. Again, I really, really love that theme. I think that that's amazing and just something really fantastic to be striving for. My final question for you from our rapid fires, what are you most looking forward to right now? And this can really be any area of life. It can be personal, professional, wherever you want to go.
00:57:26
Speaker
Well, big picture, you know, would be to just spend more time in Cabo with my wife, hiking and doing the things we do down there, writing, like to have more time to write a couple books. I'm working on one right now, but it's very slow go. So I would say turning my company over to the employees and they can have it. I kid you not. Most people in my position would be their exit strategy would be to cash in their chips.
00:57:54
Speaker
And I don't really need to do that. I can do very well by turning it over to the wonderful people who work for me. I've been training the leadership and that have about 40 people. So I know that's a mouthful, but yeah, I want to not retire, but spend more time writing and working on myself.
00:58:12
Speaker
Well, I think that's amazing. Cabo, first of all, just sounds beautiful. It sounds like the perfect place to be doing that, especially the hiking too. But I enjoy writing. And when you can write in a beautiful place, it's even better. And yeah, being able to spend the time doing the things you really love.
00:58:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I wish I had grandkids kind of getting tempted to coach football again. I'm very youthful. I'm 70, but I really don't feel it one bit. People say I don't look it. And I got a lot of spirit left. My mom's 94 next week. Happy birthday to her. Yeah, I've got some longevity going. And so we'll see what the future holds. But thank you for asking.
00:58:52
Speaker
Of course. No, I think that's all amazing. And I'm excited to see what's next for you and for your organization and just for the work that you're doing. And Reed, I want to thank you for coming on the show. I know our information for you will be in the show notes, but is there anything else that you'd like to leave with our listeners today? Keep your chins up.
00:59:14
Speaker
Like really, how I get up in the morning, I really try to remember every day before I put my feet on the floor. Because that's the moment. Because if your feet are on the floor, you're getting up and you're going and you're going to the bathroom and downstairs for coffee or whatever. But I try to take a second before I put my feet on the ground to be thankful. One of my students is kind of a big shot now, Ben Azati. He'd be a good guy for your practice, by the way. He calls it vitamin G.
00:59:42
Speaker
It's that important. It's like a vitamin. It's a daily vitamin. Your gratitude dictates your attitude. And if you start off every day looking at the cup as half full, then one day it may runneth over.
00:59:56
Speaker
I really love that. I think that that's a powerful reminder that we all need. I think it's so easy to wake up and just go, go, go time to get the day started and not take the time to reflect and be thankful for everything that we have in our lives. So thank you for that reminder. And thank you so much for coming on the show and for all the work that you do.
01:00:15
Speaker
Valerie, same to you. I think you're doing an amazing job with your podcast, reaching people, spreading the love, getting them to pay attention, be more aware of their environment, be more self-aware and through education. That's what we do, right? So good job to you too.
01:00:31
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in this week and for being a part of the wellness and wanderlust community. Reed shared a lot of great tips about the many facets of our overall wellness and how we can better take back control of our own health. I loved what he said at the end about gratitude and how he starts each day. I think that that's such a powerful message that we all need to hear and it tends to slip by us pretty easily, but it really does tie back to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
01:00:53
Speaker
Now, as I mentioned at the top of the show, Reed has a guidebook. He's sharing with our listeners for free for a limited time. So thank you, Reed. You can check it out in the show notes to learn more about the Dress for Success protocol and how you can incorporate it into your life. And we've also included information about Reed's company in the show notes as well.
01:01:09
Speaker
If you have found this episode valuable, I so encourage you to share it with your friends and family. Your support helps us to reach more listeners and make an even more positive impact on their lives. Don't forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts. It helps us continue to bring you exceptional content and amazing experts in the field. So I can't wait to hear from you all. And until next time.