70: Healing Strong and Healthy Holiday Eating | Kay Blackburn

Do you often find yourself succumbing to the holiday vice of over-indulgence? Fear not, for this episode promises to guide you through a healthy holiday season. We are joined by Kay Blackburn, a nutrition health coach and HealingStrong group leader, who has herself battled cancer, offering a fresh perspective on maintaining health during the holiday season.

As we dive into the heart of the matter, Kay provides invaluable insights on incorporating plant-based dishes and probiotic-rich foods into our holiday meals. And it's not just about food! Kay emphasizes the importance of a positive mindset and mindful eating, tips that are useful not just for the holidays, but for life in general. We also discuss the challenges of strict diets during the holiday season, offering strategies on adapting your favorite dishes to healthier versions. For those with specific health conditions, Kay shares her journey and strategies of maintaining a balance between indulgence and health.

Our episode isn't just about diet; we also highlight the importance of building a relationship with God and finding moments of stillness amidst the holiday season. We explore the HealingStrong organization, a network that supports individuals facing diseases such as cancer and other chronic illnesses. So, tune in for a heartfelt conversation that combines personal stories, expert advice, and a reminder to prioritize health, even during the holiday season. Let's make this holiday season not just merry, but also healthy!

HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.

Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.

When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.

To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:

Membership Program

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

you can look up a lot of things that you typically have in your holiday menu and find in a healthier way to do it, like your green bean casserole, your sweet potato casserole I mean, like sweet potatoes. Honestly, yesterday I just roasted organic sweet potatoes and I just and and that I served them with all the other fixing stuff that typically I would normally dump into the sweet potato casserole, or I did before, and so nobody gets a healthy option. And now it's like, okay, if you want to add butter and you want to add, you know, brown sugar and cinnamon and whatever else, it's all there on the side. But if you just want to have the sweet potato, because it's just awesome and it's a natural state, then just have that, and so that accommodates everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:53

You're listening to the I am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.

Speaker 3: 1:19

Well, at this recording it is Thanksgiving week. Of course, by the time you listen to this, it's after that, but before Christmas, and we want to talk about some ideas, because this is a hard time and you have a diagnosis or if you're fighting cancer or some other kind of disease. Nutrition is very important and these holiday seasons are not known for they're a great nutrition, but I brought in a expert, of course. I searched the whole world over and found the expert that's gonna be speaking with us all the way from Arizona. We have Kay Blackburn. How you doing, kay?

Speaker 1: 1:54

I'm doing great, jim. Thank you for that.

Speaker 3: 1:57

Well, yeah, I didn't search the whole world but that was a little tired, but you know what you're talking about far more than I do. Anyway, I love to eat. Of course, like I say, we're recording this just before Thanksgiving and that's as far as food's concerned. I prefer Thanksgiving over Christmas because I just love all the food that comes out with Thanksgiving and I've always had a big family, so there's always a lot of food, and of course, I used to be able to eat anything I wanted. Not the case anymore.

Speaker 3: 2:27

I want to eat smart. I want to eat things that will make my body healthy rather than invite disease, and so it's just something I've learned recently. I mean, it shouldn't be rocket science, I should have figured that out before, but now I do know, and I remember watching you on a video, kind of you were making the uh, that big salad that Chris Work talks about. Thought, man, I need to have her do that for me every week and just mail it to me. Just going to the grocery store, finding all those ingredients is challenging to me. Let's talk about, of course, with Thanksgiving coming up. Like I said, of course, by the time you're listening to this, it'll be over. But what kind of plans do you have for Thanksgiving? You get a lot of family coming over, or how do you handle Thanksgiving?

Speaker 1: 3:11

Well, you know what? I'm so blessed that we're actually going to be heading to Hawaii for Thanksgiving, which is going to be fantastic and great. But we, so we had our own little like Thanksgiving, pre Thanksgiving meal with my family yesterday, so I get to all the cooking done and everything I was. I think I hit four grocery stores in one day and was exhausted by the end of the day. So, but you're right, I mean, the holidays are really, really challenging, so I'm glad we're having this conversation.

Speaker 3: 3:49

Yeah, and you do. You love to cook, right.

Speaker 1: 3:52

I do. I do like to cook a lot and of course, you know, with the cancer diagnosis in 2016 and then changing kind of lifestyle and diet nutrition in 2017, that cooking looks a whole lot different than it did before. But I still have, you know, a family that likes the traditional. You know holiday fixings, and so I have learned to kind of navigate how do I and make it work for everyone.

Speaker 3: 4:22

Right, right, and of course it's different. People respond to different nutritional needs because it depends on what you like. Some people, if they're going through a diagnosis and they have to be really on a strict protocol, you know they don't want to eat the meat and whatnot. Now for some of it myself that you know I have been declared cancer-free. I like that. I still don't want to eat a whole lot of meat, but I'm going to have some turkey this Thursday. It's kind of one of your healthier meats, right.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Yeah, yeah, I mean I think so, and then like barbecue on the grill, you know with pork or whatever, but yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:03

So, yeah, okay, I feel good about it then. So Kay Blackburn has endorsed it, so I can eat a little bit of turkey Not too much, but whatever and sauerkraut I always love sauerkraut and I know that's healthy, and we always had that with our Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I think it's strange to some people, but for some reason sauerkraut was always a part of it and I found out hey, that's pretty healthy, so I can eat a lot of that.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, miso those are all really high in probiotics and good to have whenever you're eating, especially a big meal like on Thanksgiving. But as I was preparing for our holiday meal yesterday, my family actually doesn't really love turkey, so I'll spend some time cooking some other things, and so I really do feel like the holidays can be well. They just are. They're a very stressful time, stressful for people who are in, especially the ones that are responsible for feeding everybody. It can be really, really stressful, and if you're also the person who is dealing with a diagnosis, that can be particularly challenging. But I was telling you earlier that my friend, rachel Claussen, was telling me about something that she read recently that said we have Halloween, this holiday that focuses around candy, and it's followed by a holiday that's focused on pies and desserts, and then we have cookies and desserts with Christmas and then followed by cocktails and alcohol around New Year's, and so we're just got this whole like last quarter of the year. That's just really like it can be really damaging to our bodies what we typically consume. But more importantly, I think, is especially like for me that first year going to holiday parties after I'd realized I've got to totally change my diet, like the mindset shift and not being salty, being around everybody who's eating like a normal meal and feeling either guilty that I can't, or guilty if I do, or salty like if I can't. And so I think one of the important things is to try and do a little bit of mind shift around that, whether it be sitting down and praying and asking God just to give you grace, to change your heart and give you a positive attitude, an attitude of gratefulness, like it's not forever but it is a season and through it you can learn a lot in the healing process, not only for yourself, but just in the actions that you take to heal your body and what.

Speaker 1: 7:58

And that might entail a holiday feast. If you're preparing it, that looks a little bit different than what you would normally prepare. Or if you're just like that super amazing person who ends up cooking everything that your family typically loves and then having the other stuff that's just for you, that's another way to adapt to it. But I think, being shifting the mindset that you know what, yeah, you could, you could totally eat all that stuff, but at least for me, I knew that if I chose to do that just the way I did it in years past. It's just followed by a tremendous amount of guilt. That can be also not great. So, like having a little bit of turkey, like you say you're gonna do, jim, on Thursday, I think is great, as long as you're like on the daily, you're doing all the things that it's important to do, whether it be juicing and eating a lot of vegetables, trying to avoid processed foods and processed sugar, and getting a ton of vegetables and salads and drinking enough water during the holidays and getting enough rest. All those things are kind of the daily staples, right, that we need to do as we're going through this healing journey, but also specifically around like how to do a holiday meal if you're the one hosting.

Speaker 1: 9:31

I looked up a lot because I have some very my favorite websites that have so many recipes, but there are some great ones that I'm actually writing a blog right now about and so should be ready by the time this thing actually airs that you can look up a lot of things that you typically have in your holiday menu and find a healthier way to do it, like your green bean casserole, your sweet potato casserole I mean like sweet potatoes. Honestly, yesterday I just roasted organic sweet potatoes and I just and that I served them with all the other fixing stuff that typically I would normally dump into the sweet potato casserole, or I did before, and so nobody gets a healthy option. And now it's like, okay, if you wanna add butter and you wanna add brown sugar and cinnamon and whatever else, it's all there on the side. But if you just wanna have the sweet potato because it's just awesome in its a natural state, then just have that, and so that accommodates everybody and it also makes less work, to be honest, than making a whole sweet potato casserole itself. And I sort of did the same thing with the green beans.

Speaker 1: 10:51

I did not I was able to walk through the grocery store and not buy a can of cream of mushroom soup, as all I just did I ate blanched some green beans and I ended up throwing it on top of a shaved brussel sprout salad and added some pomegranate seeds and had some pumpkin seeds on top of it, with a little bit of pear on top of it with this lemon juice and olive oil, just tossed it and it was fantastic. And I think that, going into, as you've got all the food laid out on the buffet, that the majority of your plate is filled with those greens, right, the salads, the greens and then if you have like one quarter of your plate that's like reserved for maybe some of the more indulgent things that you don't really have all the time, like, I think that that is a good, adaptable way to do Thanksgiving or any Christmas or any holiday meal where you're getting together.

Speaker 3: 11:57

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, cause in these big meals there are healthy things in there. So what you're saying is you kind of keep them healthy and just have the less healthy stuff that others can add to it if they want to, cause you don't want them to be miserable and mad at you because you want to be healthy, right, right, like that uncle that nobody likes, he's going to be a pain. I don't have any of those. I'm sure I got my diagnosis in September of what year that was 16 of it was and so the first thing I did was cut sugar out, cause that's a no brainer, you know, sugar is just not good, especially too much of it. But I cut it totally out. And so that's kind of rough going into Christmas, cause there's a few cookies out there and pies, and but I went.

Speaker 3: 12:48

I went several Christmases without even being tempted for the cookies because you know, in my mind I'm like, oh my God, I gotta beat this thing. I only have a couple of months to live, I gotta beat this thing. So I mean, your perspective changes when you're the one who is fighting this kind of disease that wants to take you out in your mind. You want to do the right thing. And if it's somebody who is, you know, at an active healing state, you know they're trying to fight this. Obviously they're going to go strict with their protocol through the season. But as far as people who have maybe like myself and yourself, who have kind of come through the worst part of it and you know cause you're still healthy now, right.

Speaker 1: 13:28

I am, I am and it's been. I got diagnosed to right around the same time, yeah, so you know we're in the maintenance mode.

Speaker 3: 13:35

We just want to do the right thing so it doesn't happen again. You know, obviously you don't want to go back to the way you were doing it before, because it's just. That means it will just eventually come back. Yeah, but I think you know, like what you were saying, I never thought about that, just keeping the healthy part separate and then adding the other things to it.

Speaker 3: 13:54

And now I have to the point where of course I am a real sucker for the chocolate chip cookies. My mother always had those and of course your mom always stays the best. So through a Christmas season I'll have two or three, which is fine, and it kind of feeds that desire of me, and then I'm finished with it because to me sugar is not the same as what it was before Stuff I just shoved in me. Now I realize I can have a little bit now, but for the most part stay away from it and you can do that the holidays. I think the worst part of it is the stress that comes with it, not just all the stuff, the cooking and the presents and all that, but the stress of wanting to do the right thing and then feeling guilty, like you said, for eating something terrible. The stress is really worse for your health.

Speaker 1: 14:45

I think anyway, yeah, I couldn't agree more the stress absolutely with everything that's related to the holidays, that the Christmas gifts and, of course, taking care of yourself, getting enough rest, you know, drinking enough water. And I think also, like, when you're talking about holiday sweets, right, yeah, I think one having the natural, the fruits, looking up some great recipes for a healthier version of something and doing even berries on a little bit of like. You know, if you're going vegan, like a coconut milk, plain yogurt, right, that's not sweetened and you could put in a few drops of organic stevia in it to like sweeten it up, and then you know that could be quite a good, you know, sweet treat. You just want something that kind of satisfies your sweet tooth and makes you feel like you're just sitting by when everybody's loading their plates with pies and ice cream and cake.

Speaker 1: 15:49

You know, another thing that's really quite healthy for you is dark chocolate, right, in small quantity, of course. You know anything that's higher than 70%. You know cacao, I think is really good. There's some even out there that you know don't have any. You know sugar in them, you know. So you know, I think that I've even made room recently some keto cup, like. So the organic peanut butter inside of like unsweetened dark chocolate and then frozen and they're like little, they're like healthy little Reese's, you know cups and so and they're very satisfying and they the palate changes whenever you start really getting serious and taking sugar out of your diet. Then, all of a sudden, things that aren't sweet or things that are even just lightly sweetened are just like, oh you know, they don't even taste good. But I think it's just a matter of changing your palate, getting to that place.

Speaker 3: 16:48

Yeah, like ginger. I never really wanted ginger on anything, but now that I've added that your body starts craving these things, it's like your body knows. Hey, that's good for me, exactly so you know, I bought some ginger this morning.

Speaker 3: 17:00

I couldn't find it for a while. I had to go to a different grocery store and like, oh, I bought this, I'm going to chop it up. I got a freeze bar of it, so I have it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just you, just, I don't know, you acquire a taste for healthy things and you lose the taste for unhealthy things like sugar. Yeah, and I do know, with the dark chocolate, because I get like a 92%, because I'm just that kind of a man. But I think that I get raspberry jelly. That's no sugar added, is just the fruit, the sweetness of the fruit. Yeah, what's that. On that dark chocolate, I always feel guilty. I thought, man, this is like candy.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yeah, right, I mean, that sounds fabulous. Or, yeah, I am a sucker for like a nut butter, right, a nut butter and you know a square of dark chocolate, or maybe even a couple squares of dark chocolate. I mean, you know, to me that feels very satiating. But you know another thing that, because I know that Thanksgiving, you know, tends to be, like you do, a huge, huge meal, right, so either you know going into it, thinking about, you know, maybe starting your day really well right, with, maybe a green smoothie or you know, some juice that's really going to nourish your body first, because typically maybe you're doing like a late lunch or you know an early dinner, sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 18:26

Another thing to think about that a lot of people may not realize is that when you eat right, you're typically getting a big glucose spike and so, especially particularly if you're eating things with sugar or a lot of carbohydrates and that sort of thing, so you know you can prep your body for that big meal, which is good, even on a daily basis. You know, much like sports teams kind of have their rituals before the big game right, to prepare your body with a little bit of apple cider, vinegar and water. I actually like to put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in like like a seltzer water before you know meals, and it really will help to reduce your blood glucose level after you eat. So you know that can be really helpful and that's helpful because it, you know, reduces the amount of insulin that your body releases after you eat.

Speaker 3: 19:20

So yeah, I gotta rate that one down.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Yeah, you know, the other thing that I think is really cool as you know, we embark on this journey of trying to figure out how, how can we eat where it's not like boring, all right, so it's like okay, and I I follow some pretty interesting people and there's one guy on Instagram that he he's like, his handle is at no meat disco and he has done some really amazing things with like mushrooms, for example. So mushrooms, right, really great for the immune system, really healthy for you, and he does some things. Like you can the texture when you cook. We sorry, mushrooms can taste very much like meat.

Speaker 1: 20:08

So like portobello mushrooms, you know those big king oyster mushrooms or even lion's mane mushrooms that you can take and then you can, if you look up a recipe, it can taste very much like a chicken or like a scallop. You know, just, it's all in the seasonings and how you go about cooking it. So, if you know, it might be an opportunity to really try something new, try a new recipe, which can be really fun. And soups soups are also great during the holidays as well, right, butternut squash soup or cauliflower soup, I mean. So those are all great things to really have on hand.

Speaker 3: 20:49

Yeah, and don't go starving. I always go to the meal starving. Well, America is now starving. I mean, I'm starving every hour because you know metabolism is just so high. But still, if you like, drink one of those juices or something like you're talking about that. You feel a little bit full, but hungry enough to eat the meal, but you're not overdoing it.

Speaker 1: 21:11

Exactly. I think, really, if you can do exactly like you said, I mean, start your day, get something really, you know, really healthy in it, and then you know make sure if you're not hosting then and you're going to someone else's house, absolutely Bring a huge salad is what I would recommend or just some great dish. That is something that you could basically eat as your main course and that way, not asking you know the host to you know, make something special for you.

Speaker 1: 21:44

You don't find yourself in a position where you are like, oh gosh, well, I got there and there was nothing, you know really, so I just had to eat whatever was there. You know, I've been in the midst of like you you and I were talking about Disney earlier actually packing my own food into Disneyland, my kale salads, that sort of thing. You know, when you're in this, you got to be all in and you just got to be in that mindset that you know what. I'm not a victim here. I'm actually doing something right for my body and it's up to me, right, it's up to me and it's up to God. So if you are in that mindset where you're like I'm gonna do it right, like I think Chris work just posted something, like if you're gonna do it like, go all in right, and so why wouldn't you? I mean, this is your life, there's nothing more important than that. So it is a season.

Speaker 3: 22:41

Yeah, and of course, we were talking mostly about Thanksgiving dinner, which is behind us now as you're listening to this, but it's the same principle, obviously for Christmas, new Year's, all these things where you're gathering with a lot of family, friends and eating a lot of food. But what is your? Of course you're going. You're in Hawaii for Thanksgiving, right? That's pretty rough.

Speaker 1: 23:02

We'll be praying for you but Christmas.

Speaker 3: 23:04

What's your plan for Christmas as far as gathering and eating the right stuff?

Speaker 1: 23:09

Yeah, we'll be in. We'll be with my family in Texas. Actually, we're gonna hit two families in Texas on Christmas Day, so that's gonna be fabulous, which, yeah, I mean it most definitely will be a challenge, as we're gonna be going from one family in Plano to another family in College Station and doing a four-hour drive in between there, right, it's like, oh gosh, how do I make sure that there's something there for me to eat? And again, it could be as simple as picking up a bag salad. I don't typically do bag salads, but on a pinch that's an easy thing to do.

Speaker 1: 23:51

And picking up some of those you know the vegetables I like cruciferous vegetables, so I always like to do that and you know, just picking up some things at the grocery store that will allow me to, you know, have them there, so that you know there's just, you know there's no excuses, right, there's. So you know. I think that that's mainly the thing is being prepared. There would be holiday time or not holiday time, right, whether you're traveling or whether you're just on a regular occasion, right, going to somebody's house.

Speaker 3: 24:23

Right. Well, there are excuses, they're just not legitimate. We could have find the excuses, that's for sure.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Yeah, I will also say it's great to take a walk after you have a meal. All the time it is because then you just give your body the chance to burn off. You know, when you eat right, your body turns all that food into glucose and it pushes it into your cells. And if you don't, if you just take the nap after you eat right, then that just gets like stored as fat and you don't. You know it's good to take a walk. That's why if you take a walk, you know 20 minutes walk after you eat. You know that's just a great way to like kind of burn that off and then go take your nap.

Speaker 3: 25:08

Yeah, Excellent. I didn't take a nap to save my life, but most people can, especially after a big meal. So, yeah, that makes sense. I love the walk. I have a lot of nervous energy like a Chihuahua, so walking is good for me. Now, try to now. We did your story a year or two ago on the podcast, but I'm trying to remember you're the only one in your family that really has the cancer diagnosis, right?

Speaker 1: 25:34

Yes, yes, I'm like mom. My mom had breast cancer as well, but she's still. She's still thriving, yeah, in my immediate family, just me so.

Speaker 3: 25:47

Yeah, and you seem very healthy, since I saw you at Houston, saw you in person there, and that we were on a panel together talking some stuff, and so, yeah, you just seem like you've never had any issues, very healthy. I looked like I'm just limping through life, I realize.

Speaker 1: 26:05

No, not at all. Not at all. That's by God's grace. He has blessed me and I'm just so excited to be able to continue to be a student and constantly learn how to do this life better, and I just do truly believe anybody who's dealing with a diagnosis right now is this is just. It's just an opportunity really to like make life, to switch up things right and make life better and really finding out what it is that God has in store right To. Perhaps it's a total paradigm shift of your life and purpose and your mission. It certainly was for me, so I'm so grateful.

Speaker 3: 26:56

Yeah, because, if I remember correctly, you were seemingly very healthy before your diagnosis. I mean, you were into exercising, and weren't you? Were you a trainer or a?

Speaker 1: 27:09

I was a nutrition coach for a health and wellness company, so yeah, so it actually was quite a shock that I got diagnosed right in the midst of that. But you know what I had gone through a lot of stressful period of time with a move and homeschooling and things like that. But you know what I mean. Like I was thinking back to because I had stage three non-Pochkin's lymphoma, with a tumor that was 13 by 15 centimeters in my abdomen that I had really no symptoms until I had symptoms and then it was really, you know, alarmingly large. But you know stress. I'm a type A person and I have to really fight that. I have to. You know the restlessness in me. I've always got to be going, going, going and you know the to-do list is always long and you know that's a personality thing that I really need to work on all the time. So it's like you said, it's not necessarily just the things that you put in your body, but it's a lifestyle right.

Speaker 3: 28:24

Yes, I was just. I just happened to have this book right next to me out reading. I just read a book called the Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air, which is very deep. It was written back in the 1800s, so, and this guy's deep theologian Kirkgaard is his last name, but it just talked about the Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air, how they don't think about tomorrow. They didn't think about yesterday, they're just in the moment and they don't worry about anything. Like the flower, it'll bloom wherever it's at. It doesn't make excuses, it doesn't care who's watching, it just does what it knows to do. And it talks about just being silent and listen to God. Because we don't hear God a lot, because we're, we're, surround ourselves with a lot of noise, our mind is always going. But if you sit still and again, still, those voices in your mind which I have trouble with, suddenly realize, wow, god just wants us to sit with him and build that relationship and that you know it takes care of stress right there. Yeah, so the holiday let's wrap this thing up with.

Speaker 3: 29:28

If you're going through the diagnosis, I mean if you're going through the healing part, obviously you stick with whatever protocol you're on, and if you're hosting it, you know you make the healthy. They take the healthy part of the food, of the meal and keep that separate from the junk. You know, like the marshmallows that go on top with the sweet potatoes that's something our family always has like. You have that separate because there are people who want that in there. But you know you can have a healthy meal and make it available to everybody there. Of course, if you're not the host which I never am just bring healthy stuff with you. If they're not going to have it for you and get rid of the stress. Just enjoy it. Don't make a big deal out of anything.

Speaker 1: 30:11

Right.

Speaker 3: 30:12

Enjoy being with your family and friends. Hopefully that's what you can do, yeah, especially if you're in Hawaii.

Speaker 1: 30:17

But I mean, I do. I really think that what you've just shared is a good reminder, because you know, really, the holiday season it is about the food, but it's not about the food right, it's about and thanks. It's about you know birth or Christ it's you know. And so sitting with that right, I mean, if there's ever a time and I'm speaking to myself more than anybody else there's ever a time to be diligent about your quiet time with the Lord. This season is really really critical for that, because we can get up first thing in the morning and start our days like, oh my gosh, I've got so much to do, right.

Speaker 3: 31:03

Right.

Speaker 1: 31:04

But even five minutes, just five minutes, to really quiet your mind and just sit with it, sit with Him. I think is so important.

Speaker 3: 31:14

Yeah, and remember the birth of Christ. I mean, it's kind of a big deal, I know, yes, Sometimes. Well, we forget about that sometimes because we get so busy. But yeah, it's definitely the reason for the season. I didn't coin that phrase, by the way. I like to take credit, but I can't. Okay, thank you so much. It was good to talk to you again. Great to talk to you again. See you at our 20th anniversary celebration.

Speaker 1: 31:38

Sounds great. Yes, I look forward to it, Hopefully before then. All right, well, Merry Christmas. Yes, Merry Christmas to you and to everybody listening to this podcast.

Speaker 2: 31:48

You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.

Speaker 2: 32:21

It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at 25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well, so check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.