Ep 62: From Exhausted to Empowered: A Patient’s Lifestyle Medicine Journey

 What does it look like when lifestyle medicine works in real life?

In this episode, Dr. Sarah Schuetz interviews her patient, Kam, whose journey through lifestyle medicine led to a 50-pound weight loss, fewer medications, and a life filled with more energy, movement, and confidence.

Kam shares how she learned to truly understand nutrition, not just follow a guide, how she gradually built physical activity into her life through Pilates and weight training, and how she learned to navigate real-world challenges like large family gatherings without falling off track.

Dr. Schuetz reflects on how lifestyle medicine shifts the power back to the patient — providing tools instead of temporary fixes — and why this model creates lasting change.

This conversation is honest, hopeful, and deeply motivating for anyone who wants to believe that change is still possible.

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The content in this podcast is for general reference and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be complete or exhaustive, or to be applicable to any
specific individual’s medical condition. No information provided in this podcast constitutes medical advice and is not an attempt to practice medicine or to provide specific medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This podcast does not create a physician- patient relationship and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please do not rely on this podcast for emergency medical treatment. Remember that everyone is different so make sure you consult your own healthcare professional before seeking any new treatment and before you alter, suspend, or initiate a new change in your routine.

Transcript

Ep 62: From Exhausted to Empowered: A Patient’s Lifestyle Medicine Journey

[00:00:00] Before we start today's episode, I would like to quickly read you our podcast disclaimer. The content in this podcast is for general reference and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be complete or exhaustive or to be applicable to any specific individual's medical condition. No information provided in this podcast constitutes medical advice and is not an attempt to practice medicine or to provide specific medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

This podcast does not create a physician patient relationship, and it's not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please do not rely on this podcast for emergency medical treatment. Remember that everyone is different, so make sure you consult your own healthcare professional before seeking any new treatment, and before you alter, suspend, or initiate a new change in your routine.

Welcome to the starting day. We're your host, Dr. Kitty Dotson and Dr. Sarah Schuetz. Two internal medicine doctors who spent years practicing traditional primary care. Over time, we realized something was missing from modern healthcare, a [00:01:00] real understanding of how everyday lifestyle choices impact overall health.

We'll help you cut through the noise of the countless health influencers and their conflicting opinions because no matter who you follow, the basics of lifestyle medicine are at the heart of it all.

 Welcome back to the starting gate. We're your host, Dr. Kitty Dotson and Dr. Sarah Schuetz. So today we're gonna do something a little bit different and something we're really excited to do. Yes. So instead of talking about lifestyle medicine, we are gonna let you hear from a patient of Dr. Sarah Schuetz and Let her tell us about how lifestyle medicine has let her have a health transformation. We are going to hear from her about how this has affected her, why she decided to even get into it, what struggles she has encountered along the way, and then what progress that she's seen in incorporating lifestyle medicine in her life.

So this isn't just a polished success [00:02:00] story, but really a real life story of someone that has decided to bring lifestyle medicine into their life in order to improve their health. So we're hoping it. Lets you listen to the challenges that she's experienced and let you apply that to your own life and hopefully help you along your journey as well.

Yeah, it's, we were very passionate about doing a show in this manner because so many times we see on social media these before and after photos of people who have health transformations and there's no information about what's happening in between the good, the bad, and the ugly. that's not real life.

That's not what actually helps people necessarily stay motivated to stay on track. It's understanding all that is involved in working through lifestyle changes for you personally. So I have the honor to have Kam Jackson here with me today, and we are going to let kitty ask us questions as a duo over here [00:03:00] and just give you all some insight on our journey together.

Thank you so much for doing this with us, Kam. Oh, 

you're welcome. I'm glad you 

asked. 

I'm happy to be here. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Are you from here in Lexington? 

I grew up in Lexington. My husband was in the Air Force for 20 years, and after he retired, we came back home.

I spent the last 16 years working at UK Internal Medicine. I just recently retired a couple years ago. I have three wonderful kids and six even more wonderful grandkids and I'm just enjoying life right now is retired, oh, that's wonderful.

Kam, can you tell us a little bit about what was happening in your life and in your health that made you decide to see Dr. Schuetz? 

 There were several things.

One of them being I had a lot more time on my hands to devote, to [00:04:00] myself, to my health. And, my lab numbers were bad. My clothing sizes were bad. Everything was just bad or I felt like they were bad. I didn't have a lot of energy. I was just tired all the time. I just, I really didn't want to do anything just because I was tired all the time.

I would thought how can I exercise if I'm tired all the time? It does, just doesn't make sense. And one of the other things was , my granddaughter was diagnosed with Type one diabetes and this just came out of nowhere. We were like, we were all just punched in the stomach.

We just couldn't figure out where this came from. So after her diagnosis I started thinking about my role, in, her health, so I'm looking through my pantry, the grandkids are always going to the pantry when they come to your house. I'm looking through my pantry and I'm looking at all these labels.

And I'm looking at the carb levels, I'm looking at the sugar levels, I'm looking at the protein levels. I'm look, and I'm [00:05:00] thinking, Addie can't eat any of this, or she shouldn't be eating any of this. All this candy and cookies and crackers and all this stuff and I'm thinking if she shouldn't be eating it, maybe that means I shouldn't be eating it either, so that kind of gave me a push into looking at my own health a little bit deeper, for, her sake and all of ours really, wanting to have better snacks for the kids.

So Sarah, what do you remember from Kam's first visit as far as what you've, what really stood out to you that she did help?

Kam, Kam and I actually knew each other before she Kame, so that was an advantage because we used to work in UK internal medicine clinic together at uk, so we at least knew each other. And so I think that was easier for her to take a gamble on me when I just had opened up my practice.

But I do remember her coming to me, letting me know, Hey, I've just retired. Even though I have been in healthcare, I feel like I've never been able to fully get a good grasp on my lifestyle. [00:06:00] Mm-hmm. Help me. 

Yes. Yes. I feel like those were the 

words. She Kame to me. It's despite the fact that I know I need to be doing all these things, I see where they lead.

'cause I've seen patients struggle with these things as well in the poor health outcomes that can occur, but that still hasn't been enough to help me get where I need to be. So help me along this journey on working on these behavior changes, because I want long standing change to occur. And I think that's what brings a lot of people to lifestyle medicine is they may have done many programs for four weeks, six weeks, quick turnarounds.

Not personalized, but just these short fixes. But that never helps them have a long standing success. we came together and from that visit until now and continuing, we are working on personalized changes and adjustments for her. 

And did you find on that first visit that you felt like you, [00:07:00] goals for her and thinking about her health and longevity, that your goals for her were matching her own goals or were you having to merge those?

So I would 

say that there was probably, just walking in the door, a lot of times, a physician can look at paperwork or look at labs and have a, already developed, this is the things we need to be working on or adjusting. But I specifically remember one of the things that was super important to Kam was also I need to be able to just find myself again in the sense that she really just wanted to build the confidence to do some of the things she used to love and have the energy to do that.

And the clarity to do that. Yes. And I would've never, unless I took time to sit and listen, gather that information from a chart, from a questionnaire like that takes time to understand that. And I will say that guided a lot of the things we focused on upfront is helping to make sure we were doing that as well, not [00:08:00] just chasing lab values.

Yeah. 

And so Kam, it sounds like to me that you were really wanting to focus on fatigue and feeling kind of this lack of. Motivation to, yeah. Do what you Yeah. 

I just I needed to get back to being able to have more energy and to want to do things, to want to, do things that are better for me.

Yeah. 

and so where did you guys decide to start? Because that's a very vague thing to say,

and 

Yes, and 

that's why I said, I just basically I said I need help. Yeah. I need help. I need help in several different areas, just I needed help with my, physical health, mental health, neurological health, I just needed help. 'cause it just had 

all just gone lax. And I think that approach in these situations, patients can come to you with a very specific one goal. I want to improve my blood pressure. That's an easier place to [00:09:00] sometimes find a place to start.

But when we're taking a very whole person approach and trying to help heal your whole self. That can be really tricky. And I remember we talked, every visit we talk about all the lifestyle pillars and you can't do 'em all at once. And so it was more so of just learning small steps from the beginning, learning how to just bring movement back into your life in a very small way. Especially if you look back then to now, right? Yes. You can say that was, those were really small steps compared to what you are able to accomplish now. As well as just as she had mentioned her pantry, I remember in some of those first few visits, we were just learning some basics of what do I need to be eating to fuel my body in a way that I can also lose weight because that.

Sometimes it's very challenging for people because you can just eat less and then not actually fix that fatigue, and it just gets worse. And so it, it doesn't drive you to wanna continue it. So it's [00:10:00] learning how to not only eat in a way to lose weight, but to feel good. And we spend a lot of time learning that.

Kam's now a very much an expert on nutrition. I'm telling you, after all this time, like she can rattle off, she brings me cookbooks now and it's Hey, check these out. Look at all how well balanced they are. And they count off six vegetables in it, and just as really took the time to learn all this information to be able to do it on a daily basis.

Yeah. It is a little overwhelming. It is overwhelming to have to learn all of this I love to cook and cooking is an art. Cooking for weight loss is a science. Yeah, it is. Because you not only have to make a presentable dish, but I have to make sure that it fits all of my macro puzzle.

I have to make sure it fits my macro puzzle in my calorie deficit that I'm in. So that's the challenging part. And learning [00:11:00] how, I, I didn't know as much about nutrition as I thought I did. You think you know a lot, but you don't because I didn't know a lot of the science behind it.

I didn't know that if I have to increase my protein, you better increase your fiber and your water. All of that works together. And I, you don't think about these things if you don't know the science behind food. 

Yes. Yeah. So what helped you? To get started to understand it. What was the first step you took to understand this?

I think 

it was once Dr. Schuetz had a plan for me, I think what I did was I took that information and I ran with it because she told me, okay, let's just start out with logging your breakfast and your lunch. I think it was, yes. Yeah. Just two meals a day. And I thought I need to log all of them.

I logged every meal every day, because I thought I have to take this information and I have to go [00:12:00] running with it. And I just started just reading about nutrition, reading about foods what foods can I get under for this macro that I need? All the different foods out there.

It's a little overwhelming and I just started making up. Every week I would make up my grocery list and I'd like, I need this many macros for this and this much protein, and what foods do I need to eat to fit these macros or these micros

and so did you learning experience end up having to incorporate a lot of new foods that you weren't used to?

That, plus I incorporated a lot of foods that I grew up eating, but I didn't like once I learned how to cook those foods differently, then my mom did. I'm sorry, but my mom didn't cook. Wasn't a good cook sometimes, we always had, good food growing up. But I took some of those foods that I didn't think I liked and I [00:13:00] learned how to cook them differently to the way I like them now.

And so I'm incorporating so much food. In my diet now that I never thought I would like. Once a week or once every two weeks, I'm gonna try a different fruit or vegetable that I've never tried before. And I, that's how I've been incorporating tons more fruit and vegetables in my diet.

Oh, that's awesome. I love that it's 30 

plants a week. Oh she's a pro. She can do it.

I would say one of the things that I think has brought the most success for her is many times we just want someone to tell us exactly what to eat for the rest of our lives. And we know that's not.

Necessarily how this is going to work. It can be helpful upfront knowing some ideas of what breakfast may look like or lunch may look like, or what dinner may look like, but really just taking time to understand why that's a good option. Then gives you the power to experiment with so many other different types of foods.

Because we all have [00:14:00] to be honest with ourselves, we have different taste preferences. Culturally, people have different things that they like. What you have access to is different. So the more that you're able to learn how to adjust different recipes and food to what you need and use that knowledge to just run with it, it gives you the best chance for long-term success because then you can.

You can pivot and you don't feel like you get bored with eating the same things all the time. And she's done an amazing job of doing that and learning how to find recipes that still work for her that before when she started was like, tell me the exact thing to eat. But now I don't ever have to tell her what to eat.

She's telling me what to eat at this point and giving me recipes that are amazing. So I think that is something that helps people with long-term success, is learning how to adjust different foods to fit their own lifestyle. 

And I'm constantly looking [00:15:00] at clean eating cookbooks or healthy eating cookbooks, Mediterranean cookbooks.

I'm scouring Pinterest looking for recipes. 'cause say for instance, I have a I bought a white squash, never had it before. the first thing I'm gonna do is I go into Pinterest and type in white squash and look at all the recipes that come up for under white squash. 'cause I've never eaten it before.

How should I cook it? Should I roast it? Should I, grill it? And so basically that's what I do. I just scour the recipes.

Yeah. And I would say for anyone listening, you seem like the ideal patient who is like really taking this information and wanting to incorporate new plants and all of these things.

But as we've said before as well, you don't have to have 800 recipes. If you can get. A good six or seven recipes down that you can just repeat and repeat. Yeah. That's a great place to start. And then you can follow in, Kam's footsteps later. Yeah. Later. Yeah. And there are some [00:16:00] things, I 

do some things, I do eat the same thing several times a week, but then other things, I wanna try something new.

And I love how you mentioned there may be things that you didn't like as a kid. Yeah. And then now you are, I'm thinking brussel sprouts. 

That for me, me boiled mine was asparagus. Asparagus, becausecause. I only had it in this weird, slimy form, and I was like in a can that was boiled. Yes.

Everything was in a can or a jar. Yeah. So now everything is 

fresh. And when you first started this, what were you keeping track of or reflecting on to keep you going?

 I think that I really needed to. Look into the future because I knew that I wanted to get from a before to and after.

Version of myself. And I knew that, it was something I had to stick with because I've not always been very good at, in the past sticking with things. I'm very, I can be very inconsistent with things. I start things.

I don't [00:17:00] finish things sometimes. So I knew that this was something that I had to put discipline in to, to get to that after 

point. And Sarah, what did you notice when she came back? Maybe the first or second follow up. She's been making these diet changes. What did you see different in her? Was it labs?

Was it the way she was appearing? 

Some of the things I remember our discussions about over time over the first few months, how she quit thinking about fast food as much. Do you remember that discussion? Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. She had this aha moment of as I've changed. I thought I was always gonna be battling, not having fast food or not going through this drive through, and she was like, suddenly, I just don't want it.

Yeah.

Do you remember there was like this moment that made it very. That's a pivotal moment for a lot of people on their health journeys. Is because so much you feel like, ugh, I'm always gonna feel like I'm depriving myself. But when you're consistent enough with eating more of these whole foods,, actually, there's a [00:18:00] turning point that it becomes easier.

And not everyone will stay on board until they, get to that. So I do remember that. And I remember when Kam was like, I just feel better. Yeah. And some weight loss had occurred at that point, but there was just this turn of just she was able to see that she felt better and there was no turning back at this point.

There was no questioning, is this gonna work for me? Can I stick with this? It was just like, I feel better, let's keep going. And she just kept going. 

Do you guys remember how long that took? 

. I'm not 

sure 

it, I'm not sure. It was it, I 

would say maybe 

four to six months would you say?

Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Because I wasn't, 'cause I don't miss the fast food and I don't, I I was telling her like sometimes when you're watching a commercial and say, I don't know, whatever, burger it is and you think, oh my gosh, that looks good. Now all I can think about is how many calories that is, or , how much fat that is or how much sodium that is, or, whatever.[00:19:00] 

And I don't, I like to go out to eat, but I don't miss that. I don't miss that like fast food. And if we are out traveling or whatever and we stop for fast food, I'm thinking okay. I'm not as excited about it. 

I think the other things that started to evolve over time was just more confidence to do other things. Once she was able to conquer nutrition, she started exploring more forms of exercise.

Which was something that she wasn't doing a whole lot of, and, really mastered working on those small habits and billing on them. And actually giving herself credit for doing great work. Being like, oh look, I got this done. Good job now. Keep going. Because I do think that so many times in people's health journeys, they focus a lot on the negative.

And I really watch Kam this whole time, could have a frustrating month or have an obstacle. It's not that this whole journey was perfect, but [00:20:00] continuing to give herself credit and having a moment to reflect on that, of all the progress made, because that's what's helped her stick with it. 

And I know you mentioned a little while ago that movement was something that you weren't doing consistently.

Yeah. And you were tired and it seemed I don't wanna do this. Yeah. What did you start with to. Get moving. 

 When I was working on the floor, I was getting between eight and 12 thousand steps a day. And then I went to a sit down job, which drastically cut my, steps.

Sitting all day, eight hours a day, just makes you feel more tired. And so when I started moving again, yeah, it was a slow start because , I started going to Pilates twice a week. And I got myself a rowing machine and I have a treadmill at home.

I have weights, so I have all of this at my fingertips and I thought I just need to start slow. Like I would start on the rowing machine for, 20 [00:21:00] minutes or, doing weightlifting. I had dumbbells, so I started that out slow, and then I just progressed, I progressed and all these different types of workouts and more times a week.

So now I'm doing Pilates twice a week. And then actually yesterday I started with my husband's barbells. So I'm going to try to do Deadlift, yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna start that. I seen him on the floor and I thought, I can do that.

And I, and the weights were already on that, the weight place were there and. It was only 50 pounds. And I picked it up and I thought this is light. I need to add more weight to this. That is incredible. 50 pounds is heavy. So I'm gonna add, so the next time I'm gonna add more weight. .

 And another thing I specifically remember is you commenting on your walking ability. Yes. And yes. The moment, this was further down our journey, maybe a year in that you went for a walk and you suddenly didn't have [00:22:00] any shortness of breath whatsoever, and you were like, I made it like, yeah. 

I didn't even really notice because, normally when I'm walking, me and my husband take the dog for a walk or I walk the dog, not even a quarter, a mile into it. I'm huffing and puffing and my hips hurt. My hips hurt. I'm huffing and puffing. I can't talk and walk at the same time. And then all of a sudden we're walking one evening and I get this revelation and I'm like, and I'm talking to my husband about something and I've, and I, all of a sudden it hit me, wait, I'm talking and walking at the same time.

I'm not tired. I could probably keep going. My hips aren't hurting, and I was like, when did I start doing this? When I don't even know when I started was I was able to walk and talk at the same time.

And I did a 5K I walked a 5K on a Saturday and the Friday prior to that I practiced a 5K just around my [00:23:00] house. And so technically I did two five Ks back to back and I probably could have walked another mile after that.

That's amazing. But I was shocked because I didn't even notice, like I didn't even notice when I crossed that bridge of huffing and puffing to talking and walking at the same time and not being worn out.

What do you feel like was your biggest obstacle to stick with? These movement goals that you had for yourself? 

Being consistent because some days I exercise in the morning and some days I exercise in the afternoon. I don't know why I do that, but I just, when I'm home, I just put my exercise off until the afternoon.

I'm doing other things around the house first, but when I go to Pilates in early morning, I get a lot more done when I get home. ' cause I'm, I'm reard up and ready to go, but when I'm at home I wanna sit there with my coffee and, just get [00:24:00] ready for the day.

And then I find myself. Not as raring to go, but I, I still get it done. I just don't have that mental, I need to be more consistent.

, When did you start noticing any improvements in the lab values that you were initially worried about?

I think it was that first year, and I noticed that my numbers I was like. Are you sure this is me?

Because I, these numbers haven't been this good in 30 years. I was like, are you sure this isn't me? But it was so I was very surprised. I was very surprised that my lab numbers were so good. And 

what did you see improving Sarah? 

not only lab values of her metabolic health. There's a multitude of those lab values that we monitor, but it was also a big goal.

That Kam had was to be able to drop some medicines as well. Yeah. And she's [00:25:00] been able to do that come completely off her blood pressure medicine which was a, just a huge win in general. So not just lab values, but also less medicine Who doesn't love less medicine? 

Yep. I got to cut in half actually.

My cholesterol medicine. The one blood pressure medicine that I was on I got to drop that. But there's one that I can't stop taking, but the one that I was on for the short time, I got to drop that. Yeah.

Yeah, that is awesome. Do you feel like with your family I think sometimes people's families can be helpful in encouraging them to do these changes and sometimes they can be hard if you're trying to cook to someone else's taste or if someone else doesn't wanna move with you.

Did you feel like family was helpful in your case or did it make it hard at times? 

At home it's just me and my husband. He's always been in good health, , so he's not as calorie strict as me. he [00:26:00] is able to eat all the snacks he wants to eat, which is hard on me at times.

But I do the best I can with letting him do what wants to do, and, I think the hard part is when we have family gatherings, Christmas and birthdays, we have a lot of, birthdays during the year and, holidays. that can be a struggle, but I get through it.

But as far as encouragement I get a lot of encouragement from you. I have to make sure that I'm doing what's giving myself positive. I love that. 

I do statement. And I think you have gotten, and I think this is helpful for our listeners 'cause you are, you've improved this skillset tremendously. How have you learned to navigate all these family gatherings?

'cause that's something I get asked a lot and I think from when you started to now you have learned how to do that. And so what has helped you have the best success on learning to navigate all those [00:27:00] things when you feel like they're all the time always coming at you. Yeah. 

I just have to make sure I'm aware of what kinds of foods that are gonna be available.

 I do have a family member that likes to bring a lot of salads, so that, that's helpful. And depending on, like what type of holiday it is, most of them function around food. So I just have to be very aware of .

, What's gonna be there, what's the occasion, and just make sure I'm making smart choices. Try not to eat too much cake, try not to eat too much hot dogs and, french fries and things like that. It's hard because I do love a good hot dog and, during July 4th and, we all love good hot dogs and.

So instead of, eating a hamburger and a hot dog, I will choose which one do I want the most. 

 And that's what I think Kam has done the best, is she's really learned how to navigate the all or nothing mindset. And [00:28:00] really learned how to just ride the middle of the road when it comes to these gatherings, which I think gives a lot of people the most success.

'cause many times when we have that all or nothing mindset we go into a holiday and just break free, then it seems really hard to get back on board after it's all over. Yeah. And as I've watched her learn how to navigate this, she's gotten just really good at being like, I'm just gonna have this, a smaller piece.

I'm gonna have the dessert, I'm gonna have a smaller piece, but I'm not going to just, have three. Yeah. I wanna sample all of them. And I really think that has been a huge part of her success as well, is really learning how to stop that all or nothing mindset.

I feel like I can still have my hot dog.

 I just don't have the bun. Yeah. it's a give and take. Because if you told me that I could never have another hot dog, or I never have another cheeseburger or, I was like, oh, eventually your body is going to rebel against that.

If you, when you give up something and you say, I'm never going to eat [00:29:00] these Cheetos again, your body's eventually gonna, rebel against you unless you have super, self-control. yeah. At least if you have a few, then that kind of just, it takes the edge off and you feel satisfied and you're able to move on and you're able to reset the next day without feeling like you're missing out on everything and you're watching everybody else enjoy their food.

And you can eat this food as long as you eat mindfully and then you reset the next day. Yeah, I think that's great. 

And how do you feel like this has helped with just your general management of stress and mood?

I'm definitely in a better mood more often because I feel like I have more to look forward to. I, I get excited about going to Pilates.

if I miss for some reason or we're not having class. I've, I actually [00:30:00] feel guilty if I don't go to Pilates on a Tuesday or Thursday. But I feel like that

where I'm at now, it makes me feel better about myself. And so that boosts your mood also when you feel better about yourself. And it just makes me look forward to just basically living life again. Getting out there and, enjoying a walk with my dog and feeling good that I'm able to do that.

, Do you feel like you've been able to motivate anyone else in your life to make positive change by watching you? 

 If anyone else is motivated I have never heard any feedback with regarding that. Yeah. So I'm hoping to motivate people. .

But you're motivated really more by how you're 

feeling? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm enjoying shopping again, buying cute clothes and things like that. So it's, it certainly helps, to buy smaller [00:31:00] clothes or to go shopping for cute workout clothes. That keeps me motivated too.

Yeah, I have a huge amount of workout clothes. 

And just so our listeners can understand, how would you explain your energy levels before doing all this compared to now? If you could actually give a side by side comparison. 

Before it was just dread, there was a lot of dread, oh, I've gotta do this, I've gotta do that.

I just don't feel like it, I don't want to, A lot of, I don't want to. That was a big part of it too. But. Now I just, I feel more energy, I feel like just putting more effort into a lot of things. just daily life things. Putting more energy into, taking walks or cleaning the house as humdrum as that must sound, I still have to clean the house.

And that's a workout too. , But I just have more energy to do the things that I wanna [00:32:00] do. 

And if someone's listening and they can really relate to that initial version of you that's tired and unmotivated, and they feel like this is just too much and I don't know if I can do this.

What would you say to them? I 

would say just start small, the baby steps. Even if it's only a few minutes a day, just, get off the couch and clean something or walk out the door, walk outside, look at your garden. Just walk around your yard.

Look to see what needs to be done. . I'm sure something will catch your eye, oh, I need to do this, or I need to remember to do that. As far as, do you mean as far as the energy level or weight loss in 

general? Or just if they feel like it seems like a lot of effort.

I don't know if I can do it. I'm hesitant to even get started. 

 You just have to look within yourself. You have to look within yourself, and you have to [00:33:00] pull that determination out. That's basically what it is. It's determination that you need to pull out of yourself and find and it's baby steps to get started.

And once you get those baby steps moving, it gets easier. 

another thing that I think has been so remarkable, 'cause we've been working together for so long, is you've been able to stay consistent. What at this point, do you think is the reason that you keep showing up and you didn't let go of this compared to other times when you had tried?

, I think it's just something inside of me that tells me I've gotta keep doing it. I don't know where this is coming from really. Actually, I can't believe that I have been able to put this much effort into myself because as a mom and a grandma and a wife, and, you've put so much of yourself into others to make sure they are doing what they need to [00:34:00] do, that you kinda lose yourself, you lose yourself.

In the moment, you lose yourself over time. I think somewhere deep inside I've managed to pull that out and that the discipline and the drive and the determination, it's just been buried and I finally am able to pull it out. 

and I'll help reflect on this as well, because I know we've talked about this is Sometimes when you feel like you've tried and tried and then you try again, is we, when you don't start small enough and you don't gain that momentum and that ability to show that you can have some successes upfront that's the most important thing that needs to happen. You need to prove to yourself you can have those small wins.

So you keep going and believe in yourself because just as you're describing, I don't think this is uncommon. I think this happens to many women. They lose themselves because they pour every bit of their energy into all of their family, and there's nothing left for them. So it's really learning how to [00:35:00] finally look deep inside and be like, I'm gonna do this thing for me.

Yeah. And when it became about doing it for me to feel better and have that health, you were able to stick with it. 

Yeah. Yeah. I guess because I've just never had enough hours in the day just for me. Since I've been retired, I have more time for me. And that was one of my brick walls when I retired, was, okay, now what?

 I have all this time, I have all this freedom. Now what do I do with the second half of my life? And part of that was if I don't get to a healthy part of my life, I'm gonna be spending my retirement years in the doctor's office. And nobody wants that. I love my doctors, but I don't want to be there any longer, more than I have to.

So I thought if I want to [00:36:00] enjoy my retirement years, I have to get myself. Healthy enough to enjoy those retirement years because , I don't wanna just sit on the porch, on the rocking chair, I want to travel. I want to do things I may not have been able to do before, now that I have all this time and learn more thing, learn.

And, I was diagnosed with, mild cognitive impairment and so part of getting my mental, my neurological health , back in shape also, and, along with physical shape, I've started reading more, putting more effort into reading and learning things.

what would you say to the previous version of you or to, let's say, another mom who is very busy and taking care of lots of other people and not taking care of herself, but she is not to retirement. She's got 15 years to go. What would you say to her to encourage her to take any step in this [00:37:00] direction?

 One of the things is you have no time to go to the gym or go. Or exercise. Is there someone in your life that can give you a little respite a couple of times a week just to get out and take a walk? If you have small kids, I know what it's like to have, small kids at home and not have any time to do things.

maybe find , someone that can help you to give you a, a 30 minute respite a couple of days a week so you can get out and either, take a walk with one of your friends or go to the y or go to a gym, even if it's just 30 minutes, at a time. Or if you'd like to spend time with your friends in a book club or 

yeah. Ask for help. I think I'm hearing we heard that from Dr. Degler as well. I think so many women get used to putting themselves last. Mm-hmm. And they never ask for help in order to get themselves in the mix. And [00:38:00] so I feel like I'm hearing from you. 

Yeah. Just yeah. Reach out to even, and even to, even if you have to pay, say if we're a babysitter, maybe if you don't have anybody that home, that can, take care of the kids for 30 minutes at a time, a couple days a week maybe hire a babysitter just for a 30 minutes a day or an hour a day.

There might be a teenager in your neighborhood that, would like a few extra dollars to spend, or if they're of age where they can stay by themselves, trust them for an hour at a time and go out and do something nice for yourself. 

I think that is really great advice.

 I know we've talked about this in at times, but what other advice would you give people that are just overwhelmed thinking about changing their way of eating that you felt like ended up being a little bit easier than you thought it would be?

 Maybe you didn't think any of it was easy, so that's okay. [00:39:00] Just as a motivator. 'cause I think sometimes we get so overwhelmed thinking about making changes to our nutrition and then we don't do anything at all. 

I would. Call my lifestyle doc and set up an appointment. Wasn't trying for that plug, but thank you to discuss nutrition because it is a science and an art in eating.

I it is, it can be a little overwhelming. or, talk to your primary care, they can set you up with a nutritionist mm-hmm. who can sit down with you and, start out small discussing what types of nutrition you need daily and how to fulfill those nutritional needs if you were to sit down with a nutritionist to discuss even the basics of nutrition. And if you know the basics, then it's easy to expand from there 

unfortunately I feel in today's [00:40:00] world, we're not given any image of what the basics should look like.

Yeah. So it becomes very confusing and I, what I always tell people is, I, truly think nutrition should be very personalized. And I've said this over and over again, so even following whatever the latest diet trend is or what is felt to be the healthiest eating, I really think having that one-on-one.

Education from someone who specializes in nutrition, dietetics, it is a huge advantage because they can help personalize to your specific needs. And we all have specific needs when it comes to nutrition. There is value in that. I know we all like to just get our information off social media and the internet because it's free. But I do think there's a lot of value in having someone actually understand you, your health to help set you up for better success. 

Because fad diets don't work. 

No, they don't. They do not. They do 

not work. They do not. 

Kam, [00:41:00] what is a healthy habit that you have now that you never would've thought you'd have?

 maybe weightlifting.

I, I've never tried that before. With the dumbbells, I've done machines at curves. I used to love curves. But I don't think I would've picked up weights. 

And 

she picks up 

heavy weights now too. 

I don't think I would pick up a heavy Yeah. I don't think I, in the past I would've thought about doing weightlifting.

And what is a new food that you've learned to love during all this?

Different types of squash that I've never eaten before. Like I grew up eating like maybe one certain one. Just the yellow squash. Yeah. Or the acorn squash. That was my grandma always made that. And I'm learning to like cottage cheese, learning to like that.

Normally I blend it in my smoothies, but I'm learning to eat it, with other foods to What about [00:42:00] tofu? I like silk and tofu. Yeah. Silken. But I'm not a fan of the firm. No I just remembered you were like, I never thought I liked tofu, but I found silk and tofu. I'm so silken.

Yes. Because that I can make into a good pudding or Yeah. Put it in my smoothies. Yeah. There's a lot of things that I didn't think I would like that I've learned how to cook. And you gave me the secret to eating things You said hide it. Yeah. Hide lots of things. He gave me the secret. Yeah. So I've started doing that, hiding things that I don't think that I'm gonna like.

Yeah. Kitty likes hiding seeds and everything. That's her thing that she hides. 

I hide lots. I like to hide vegetables and things. And I hide lentils a lot too. You can hide lentils in just about anything, 

but I can't cook those. Good. I've, I've tried, there's different grains that I've tried that I'm not good at cooking. I don't, I cook 'em too long, or I don't cook 'em long enough. Yeah. They're weird. Yeah. But I like, like chickpeas. I can only eat them when I make my own hummus. [00:43:00] I make my own hummus. But I can't just eat a chickpea by itself. By itself. I'm not, it's, I think it's the texture.

Texture. I'm a texture person. 

I like that you've experimented so much with figuring out other ways that you can Yeah. That's incorporate things into your life, which is really cool. What would you say is your go-to stress reliever now instead of driving through a drive through? 

I think getting outside in the yard, walking around with the dog and just walking around looking at, my, my flower beds, thinking about what I'm gonna do in the spring, making plans for this and that, just to get out of the house. To get out, outside. 

That helps.

And what do you have in your pantry now for your granddaughter who has diabetes? 

I have healthier snacks. More high protein snacks.

Can you give some other grandmothers out there an idea? I'm talking to you, mom. 

, I'm keeping [00:44:00] more high protein better, better, healthier snacks in the pantry for them. Still a few little sugary snacks here and there, but I don't wanna completely, lose your grandma card. Yeah, lose my grandma card. But I will say, I do have a funny story about my granddaughters when they were little, they were probably, I don't know, 10, 11 years old.

They were at the house and I was in the kitchen and I heard them talking in the dining room. They were eating a sandwich. And Addie, my oldest granddaughter, I heard her say, I'm glad I'm glad she made the sandwiches with the white bread. It's not the wheat bread or nut bread she usually has.

So I just thought that was a funny little, it's grandma's whole grain bread there. She says it's not that nut bread they usually have. 

So Sarah, can you wrap up? [00:45:00] I know when we were talking about. Who would be a good patient to, to talk to and talk about how lifestyle medicine has helped them.

And you thought of Kam immediately. Can you wrap up why she came to mind for you 

The reason I really wanted Kam to do this because I got to watch someone walk in my door feeling completely defeated with no confidence in themselves and not feeling their best, and really just discouraged about what retirement was going to look like and have got to watch a complete transformation over the period of time that we've worked together into someone who is active.

Fueling their body in a way that they have great energy, has improved their cognition and their mental health, and just their overall confidence in life and see [00:46:00] them glow. I don't think there's anyone any better to demonstrate what lifestyle medicine is at this point, because she has just been able to take all of the information provided and just do it slowly and stick with it.

It's just, it's an example of what lifestyle medicine's supposed to be, and she's done it all. 

and I love that because it's not about a perfect. Lifestyle. I love that you still have a hot dog when you want to, and it's, it really is about being able to find what you can be consistent with in order to feel better and to feel more like yourself.

and that is the beauty of lifestyle medicine. It truly is. And I'm just so proud of her 

and I'm so thankful that you put so much effort into me. I can come to you and I know that there's a lot of days that I come to you and I don't feel good about [00:47:00] getting on that scale because I don't feel like I've made progress.

But you always find a way to bring me back down to earth and bring me back down and, getting out that whipping, cracking it and making me, get me back on track. If I'm feeling down about myself, I do have stagnant months. I do have these stagnant times and you are so good about lifting me back up and showing me that it's not always about what I see outside because that's where I make a mistake, is I only see the outside and I think, oh, I'm not losing any weight.

I'm having a stagnant month. and I look and I get on the scale and I see that maybe I've improved my muscle tone, my muscle mass, or I've lost a pound or two here or there. I don't see that. I don't see the inside. I just see the outside and I see the number on the scale, and I let that get me [00:48:00] down sometimes.

'cause I don't feel like I'm putting enough effort, the effort isn't there sometimes, but you always have a way of bringing me back down to earth and telling me it's not always gonna be a dooms day every month. And it's, yeah.

 it's where I think that it's so helpful to have accountability with people because.

We all are gonna have hard times. Yeah. And sometimes we just think that, oh, I can get through this together. And I think we all need to be okay having support no matter how much we know. No. No matter what we do for a profession, it's learning to be okay to lean into someone during those times, because we can't always see the whole picture.

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

That's the mistake I make, is not allowing myself to see the whole picture. I just see, one [00:49:00] side of the sheet. , I don't see both sides of the sheet. I feel like , my month is stagnant. I'm not gonna enjoy these numbers when I get on that scale.

But I know that . I'll feel like a different person walking outta the office than I did coming in. Mm-hmm. That's for sure. And I knew that you would be someone that I was comfortable with from the very beginning because I did work with you and I knew your bedside manner.

I knew how passionate she was about her patients. I knew that this would be a good fit. And I was so excited when I saw that you were opening this clinic, this practice, I thought, this is exactly what I need when I needed it. this was an aha moment that I saw that you were opening this practice.

I thought, this is exactly what I need when I needed it. And you've been a, just a godsend to me. I know that you say I do all the work, but I have to give you, 70% of the credit because without, you don't deserve all that. You 

[00:50:00] get more than that. But without you, I 

couldn't have done, I have never been able to do this with anybody else.

So I just I don't know what I would do without you. 

I just have to tell you 

that. 

Thank you. I really appreciate that. I will take that. And it's, it is very rewarding. More so being able to walk alongside people in this journey and watching, not me actually doing the intervention, which is what we typically do a lot in medicine that we are, we're prescribing the medicine to take that fixes someone's pneumonia or we are doing the procedure to drain an abscess or you name it. Okay. But instead in this field, I'm able to give someone else the tools to do the intervention and have the success and have the confidence in themself. That is the most rewarding part of lifestyle medicine. 

Doesn't that fall under learn one, do one, teach one.

Yes. 

And that it, 'cause at this [00:51:00] point I feel like Kam is now has the ability and the tools that she will not always need me. I can always be there for her, but she will not always need me because she has been able to build that confidence in herself, to take ownership of her health again. 

I don't know when I can give you up though.

Oh, you're, you are in the driver's seat. I'm just a passenger that just talks to you occasionally, but you're in the driver's seat and so I really do think that is what helps so many people have success is getting that skillset and that confidence that they can be the driver of their health again.

And where we just mess that up so much in medicine, traditional medicine is 'cause we're always the interventional person, but not really ever trying to throw that back with the patient so they can be in the driver's seat again. 

Yeah. You're feeding them, but you're not teaching them how to eat.

Yes. Yeah. 

Yeah. I feel like you have [00:52:00] motivated me and hopefully motivated a lot of people listening. And thank you so much for sharing your story and letting us all know that we can do it and we can get started. You can do it if you try. That's if I can do 

it, anybody can do it. I hopefully y'all have enjoyed this show and let us know if Kam inspired you so we can let her know as well.

And be sure to tune in next week. See you next time.