EP 151: How to Eat for Energy & Grow Your Online Health Business with Energy Nutritionist and Healthpreneur Yuri Elkaim

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Yuri Elkaim, a former pro soccer player and bestselling author who has dedicated his life to uncovering the secrets of optimal health after losing all his hair to an autoimmune condition at just 17. Hear how Yuri went from severe health struggles to regrowing his hair and revitalizing his energy through transformative dietary changes. His journey from personal health battles to helping half a million others through his online business is nothing short of remarkable, offering invaluable insights into the power of nutrition and lifestyle.

JUMP RIGHT TO IT:

2:12 Health Journey & Overcoming Identity Struggles

18:10 Youthful Nutrition and Energy Transformation

27:39 Optimizing Energy Through Nutrition

40:40 Building Health Businesses for Professionals

CONNECT WITH YURI:

Website: https://yurielkaim.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yurielkaim1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthpreneur?igsh=cWRzYWtob3M5bndx 

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Healthpreneur 

My Best Resources on Eating for Energy:

19 Highly Alkaline Foods That Will Benefit Your Body

Sugar Detox Plan: A Powerful 7-Day Blueprint for Quitting Sugar

Buy Yuri’s Book, “The All Day Energy Diet”: https://amzn.to/3wDBxKd

Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com 

Contact The Show!

Website: http://www.ahnafulmer.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@imperfectlyempoweredpodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahnafulmer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahnadfulmer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I am your host, anna Fulmer. Having battled crippling health issues for 20 years, yuri Elkaim is a CEO, bestselling author and former pro soccer player, passionate about helping people make health and fitness simple again to enjoy energy all day long. Here to simplify the complex world of health and reduce your confusion with clear, actionable and science-backed advice that cuts through the nonsense. Welcome New York Times, wall Street Journal and USA Today. Bestselling author Yuri Elkayin. Yuri, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Thank you for having me. Anna, Great to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Yeah, absolutely. We were just saying offline, before we press record, that I am like Yuri's target market, everything that he does. I was literally falling down the rabbit hole of all of your websites because I'm like, oh, that's so good. I literally had to stop reading your blog posts because I was like I'm losing time. I got to just prepare for the interview.

Speaker 2: 1:09

I love it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to press the rewind button and hear. Your story is a unique one, and it started at the tender age of 17, which is a tough time, no matter how well life is going for you really, and yours was an exceptionally challenging start at 17. But share with us a little bit about how you even got to where you are right now.

Speaker 2: 1:34

Yeah, well, I mean, they kind of tie in together. So when I was seven just about 17, I lost all of my hair to an autoimmune condition, so like, as you see, like nothing like nowhere on my body. My wife lost all of my hair to an autoimmune condition, so like, as you see, like nothing like nowhere on my body. My wife is jealous of my nice legs because I don't have to shave. My dad is Moroccan so, for context, I had a lot more hair when I was young. But I was from a very young age I wanted to play pro soccer. So from 10 I was like I'm going to play pro soccer and so I dedicated all of my teenage years to training and playing. I was fit, but I didn't realize I wasn't healthy until I lost all my hair and I was like what, what's going on there? So I'm like, not surprisingly, the allopathic community didn't really have any answers other than injecting cortisone in my head and saying didn't really have any answers other than injecting cortisone in my head and saying it's probably stress, maybe it'll come back, who knows? So eight years later of going down the rabbit hole, of trying to find solutions, I didn't really find anything and then I went back, so I that. So I say this was probably the most important thing to happen for me, because it really moved me in the direction of wanting to figure out why this happened.

Speaker 2: 2:44

So my passion for soccer which I eventually ended up playing pro for a number of years, but my passion for like sport and fitness, as well as trying to figure this out was maybe I'll go to school and study kinesiology and health sciences. So that's where I started. I got my undergrad there, then I went back to school to study holistic nutrition and that's when my life changed, cause I was like whoa, like exposed to nutrition concepts that I was never even aware of and even going to one of the top universities in the world never heard about, and that was a huge moment in my life. So I was 25 at the time and I started experimenting with everything I was learning, so changing up my diet. I was like raw vegan for a number of months and I re-grew all of my hair in the space of a few months.

Speaker 2: 3:31

Now, 10 years later, I got a tetanus booster and it all fell out again, but we'll just say that for another day.

Speaker 2: 3:35

But at the time I was blown away, not even by the hair regrowth. But it was the energy that I was experiencing, because the thing that I hadn't pieced together was the energy that I was experiencing, because the thing that I hadn't pieced together was the fact that I was exhausted for most of my life, sleeping half of my days pretty much, and eventually, like as I started to learn about the body and at least from my perspective, I was so tired all the time because my body was constantly fighting stuff right, foods I wasn't supposed to be eating, or whatever, and so my immune system just went haywire. So as I started to clean things up, I started to, first and foremost, notice how much more energy I was feeling, and, as a by-product, I just re-grew my hair and I was like I have to share this message with the world, and so I started writing a book in the back of class when I was going through nutrition school.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Students, close your ears. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2: 4:27

And about what was it About? Nine years later, that became a number two New York Times bestseller because it started off as an ebook I just wanted to share with people. And then eventually I was. I had the opportunity to meet the publisher of the CEO of Hay House and that I was like I think I can turn this into a published book and it just became like this compelling message to want to share, like my own mess, how that could become the message to help other people.

Speaker 2: 4:53

So during that time, I was working as a nutritionist and trainer, one-on-one with clients. Seven years, burnt out 2005, I was like I gotta do something different. I can't, I can't keep doing this. So I set up a website. I had no clue what I was doing. I wanted to live the laptop lifestyle, write an ebook, make millions. Didn't happen, um so, but that was the start of my online business.

Speaker 2: 5:18

So back in 2005 and then for the next 13 years, eventually eventually figuring things out, helping half a million people to better health with information and products and coaching. And then I sold that company about six years ago because a lot of other people in our space were asking me for business advice. I was like, huh, what's? Maybe there's an opportunity here. And by that point I'd spent so much time learning how to build a business that I became very good at it and I had shot thousands of videos around health, fitness, nutrition and I was just kind of tired of talking about it. So I thought to myself maybe this is my next chapter. And that's really where Healthpreneur was born.

Speaker 2: 5:59

And I went through a really interesting year of imposter syndrome because for me, for so long I identified as a health expert and I worried I'm like what are people going to think of me if I'm now this business guy, right? Oh, he's just out to make money, blah, like all of this nonsense. And then for like a year I just like didn't do anything. And then I said you know what? This is not about me, this is about serving a lot of people. My mission's always been to help a billion people and I figured if I could help other practitioners build better businesses, then they could help more people and collectively we all win. And so that's how I got here to where I am today.

Speaker 1: 6:37

I love it. You can tell he's told that story more than once. That was beautifully done, except I'm going to press rewind again. On your website you talk about the hair loss and the struggle. You mentioned identity, and what I really appreciate about your story is I think it's a conversation that you do not hear men having as often when it comes to the aesthetic element of identity, because it is in the culture that we're in tends to be more geared toward women from the aesthetic standpoint, and I would love to hear your thoughts and what you remember feeling and struggling with for so many years. You you have this lovely story on your website and you talk about the point that you got to where you were drawing your eyebrows on with makeup and the thing is right Like listen, here's the thing.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Let's talk about what we women do, right?

Speaker 1: 7:39

Like I don't laugh at that at all, because let's talk about us women.

Speaker 1: 7:41

We're tattooing eyebrows on and we have eyebrows right, and like we're injecting ourselves with botox and we're getting lip fillers and we're doing the false eyelash thing and the hair extensions. And everyone who's been on here and heard me before knows I am not saying there's anything wrong with that. It's not a right or wrong, but the wisdom principle that comes in is like being able to pause and ask ourselves the really hard why? And then, secondly, the how is it impacting me and those around me? And so I would love to hear from your perspective, which is a unique one, what it felt like before you had that, what you called like baptism moment, where it was sort of like this releasing experience. Because I think we need to hear it, because where do we find our confidence truly and how do we wrestle with this concept of that? We hear a lot as women just do whatever you need to do to feel confident, because it's a really uh, it's sort of an endless pursuit, then, of enough when is enough enough.

Speaker 2: 8:47

I mean, I think life is full of dichotomies. Right, it's like accept yourself but get better. Like it's nonstop, right? Yes, so for context, I lost all my hair, regrew it, and then I kept my head shaved but I had eyebrows and so forth, and then when I lost my hair again, it was I was 31. So by that time I had grown this health business online and I'm thinking, oh dear. Now what are people going to think?

Speaker 2: 9:14

Because I'm this health expert who looks like he's going through chemo, and there was a tremendous amount of shame that came with that. And so what I did is I said let me paint on some eyebrows every single day with my wife's makeup. And it's just so weird because I have hundreds of videos on YouTube where I have painted eyebrows on and some of the videos most of them don't look the same right Like I'm like what is? What's going on here? But I was. I was. I didn't even think about that at the time. I was more concerned about what people were going to think of me without eyebrows, that I was willing to look like a clown with them on, and I did that for two years and the hardest part was not wanting to work out and to a level where I would sweat because it might drip off or not want it to go swimming with my little kids at the time because of my wash off, and it was exhausting, like, honestly, that it felt like it's only makeup, but it felt like there was a massive anvil on my back because it was just this charade every day. And two years later I was at an event and whatever, but I made a decision to just stop. I was like you know what? I'm going to wake up tomorrow I'm going to throw. I'm throwing the makeup out right now. I'm going to wake up in the morning and I'm done. So I go to the events and I have eyebrows fake eyebrows.

Speaker 2: 10:37

The next morning I wake up and I don't have eyebrows and it was very like. I was like okay, are people going to know I was so self-absorbed. What are people are they going to notice? We're so self-absorbed. For the most part, we like, we're so like. What are people going to think? No one cares.

Speaker 2: 10:53

So I go to this yoga session on the beach and we're in the Dominican and previously I would have thought to myself okay, well, if it rains or if I go in the ocean, this is not going to make sense. So I remember we're laying in Shavasana and it starts raining and I'm like this is like the most amazing miracle. So I get up out of Shavasana and I was like you know what? I'm going to go, run into the beach, run into the ocean and go for a swim. So I go in there and I'm like, free as a bird.

Speaker 2: 11:22

I come out of the water and, to your point, it literally felt like a baptism, like I was reborn, and it was one of the most freeing moments, and I think the lesson that I had to learn in that process was I'm good enough, right the way I am. I'm perfect just the way I am Now. With that said, I'm not saying that's like a hall pass to not improve and get better as a person, but it gave me a lot of permission just to be myself, and I think for a very long time I was too concerned what other people thought of me, to a point where I didn't even care anymore. To definitely to a lesser extent. And so a lot of people say well, it must have been hard losing your hair when you were 17. And I was like, honestly, it wasn't that bad. It was harder the second time because I had more to lose reputation, whatever.

Speaker 2: 12:13

But what was interesting is I shot a video for my YouTube channel at the time. It's called like my coming out and that was a very, probably one of the most fearful moments of my life which sounds ridiculous even saying this and I just said hey guys, this is me, this is what's going on, and what was interesting about that is like I had tons of comments of people just like thank you so much for being the real you, et cetera. And then I started to notice that it was giving other people permission to be themselves At least that was my intention and I realized I was like man, like all this time, you know, it was just like people know there's something going on, but it's like this awkwardness of like you don't want to say anything or whatever. Even some of my friends like it was never brought up in conversation, but it was a very, very liberating moment and it started to really get me thinking of like what's what really matters in life? Like it's it's only hair. You know people are suffering with so yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Well, I I so appreciate your transparency and your authenticity, because it is something that women especially like. We struggle with this all of the time, and some of it is societally driven. A lot of it is societally driven, but we also have the opportunity to choose. Like you're saying, like it is societally driven, A lot of it is societally driven, but we also have the opportunity to choose. Like you're saying, it is a choice to decide.

Speaker 1: 13:30

Am I going to keep subjecting myself to these artificial, invasive, whatever solutions to meet a societal standard of beauty? That is not sustainable. It's not, frankly, natural, authentic, and the word that I heard you use I think at least three times that you felt after was freedom. And so this is the question for those of us listening, and I'm just I'm tapping in here for a second because Yuri's perspective is so unique and I value it, especially as a man coming from a man that the question we need to ask ourselves are we truly experiencing freedom and increased confidence with these artificial, superficial applications, or are we actually creating almost more bondage for ourselves because we're trying to meet everyone else's idea of what pretty and worthwhile really is? And so I just thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2: 14:28

Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think it's very tiring to live a life trying to make other people happy or worrying about what other people think, whether that's our parents, our friends or even strangers who don't even know us.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Amen, that's it. It's the industry. It's still to your point. It is not crazy at all to me to feel like the most fearful thing you did was get in front of a camera without eyebrows on, because, especially when you're in a forward-facing leadership position, this is why so many of us female leaders are doing all the things the hair extensions, the false eyelashes, the tattooed eyebrows, the Botox, fill it in because we're in the front and people are watching us and criticizing us more openly. And it's still hurts, even if it's strangers, so not weird at all.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Yeah, and listen, I mean, I think social media, as we know, is obviously exacerbated, because it's like, when you look at, for instance, instagram, all you see is and now, especially like ai photo or ai versions of perfection, which is, you know, crazy, how realistic it looks. And if that, if you see that like, even subconsciously, over and over again, that is the new standard of what you think is normal, yes, of like this body or this face or this whatever, once what, no big deal. But if you see that over and over and over again, you just start to be like this is how I have to look, this is how I have to show up, and I think we all have to go on a journey. I mean, all of us are on a journey in some way, shape or form, where we have to learn these lessons.

Speaker 2: 15:57

I'm just very blessed that I learned them fairly early on in life and that's why I love serving health professionals, because almost everyone I've ever worked with has had some crisis from a health perspective, which is why they want to help other people, because they wanted to help themselves. And I think it's very interesting because I think some of the most enlightened people I know have gone through the most traumatic things in their life, whether it's losing a parent or a loved one or a major health issue. It's losing a parent or loved one or a major health issue, and there's a level of wisdom that comes with that. That is very, very I don't. I don't want to say rare, but maybe, like again, I'm blessed to work with health professionals every day. But you know, there's a certain level of growth that comes with challenges and I think it's just seeing the blessing and all that and looking at how do I turn this? It didn't happen to me, it happened for me. And then how can I use that to serve other people?

Speaker 1: 16:47

Yeah, amen to that. And it comes back to dichotomies again. It's like you're holding intention these two concepts. I, one of my best friends, was diagnosed with cancer at a young age, with young kids, and I had her on the podcast and she said I know greater joy because I've known deeper grief.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Yep greater joy because I've known deeper grief, and it's exactly what you're saying is we can stay comfortable right here and try to meet everyone else's expectations, or we can live more authentically and it's probably going to hurt, but in that then there's probably going to be greater joy, greater wisdom, et cetera, and the opportunity to change the world in a powerful way, like Yuri is doing right now.

Speaker 1: 17:25

You also highlighted the fact I have said this so many times on the podcast and your story fits into it beautifully again the lack of knowledge we still have about nutrition, and what's so fascinating is that, despite playing professional soccer, there was still this gap in nutritional understanding as it affects our function, and so I think that's one of my issues that we're seeing still in the health and fitness industry. It's better, but that diet and nutrition is still too focused on, to our point, appearance as opposed to function. So you this is an area that you have a lot of expertise in. You wrote. Maybe is this the that you have a lot of expertise in. You wrote maybe is this the book you were writing in the back of the classroom All day energy.

Speaker 1: 18:10

Yep, that was the one he was writing while he's in school. Love it.

Speaker 2: 18:15

Yeah, it was called eating for energy at the time and then it morphed into the all day energy diet as we decided to turn it into a published book. But yeah, I mean like I was like. You know, they say, like youth is wasted on the young, I think I was a living example of that because when I was in my teenage years I would go to McDonald's before a soccer game and I'd have a big Mac combo like no big deal.

Speaker 2: 18:40

And then I remember when I was playing professionally, so I was in France I remember having Nutella sort of crepes with Nutella, three hours before a match. I would you know, live in close to, like a.

Speaker 2: 18:53

Which sounds fantastic, if I'm being honest, but yeah, but for anyone who's like aware of nutrition, they're like man, like how did you not fall asleep on the field? But stuff like that. I'd have a whole baguette every day. I had no clue because I just thought, well, I'll burn it off, but that was my thinking. It's like I had no idea that food could impact cognitive function, performance, recovery and it's almost like you almost want to be old in your teenage years to be like oh my god, how like my body is so sore. But if I eat this way, it feels better. Unfortunately, we have to live a bit to experience that. But yeah, that's why, like, for me it was like the nutrition stuff I learned when I quote unquote retired playing soccer. I was like man. If I had known this beforehand, that would have been useful.

Speaker 2: 19:39

But, I was able. So it's interesting because I went back to. I worked as the assistant coach and strengthening conditioning coach at the University of Toronto with the men's soccer program for seven years and one of the most proudest like one of the most proudest things I was able to do there was help teenagers. I remember, like I remember one practice. You know there's guys walking down the street coming to the stadium. These are 18 year old kids and they have a green juice in their hand you know You're like I've done it.

Speaker 2: 20:12

I think my work here is done, you know, but that was like it was. It was great to just re-.

Speaker 1: 20:17

It was actually just diet Mountain Dew, I'm just kidding, exactly.

Speaker 2: 20:20

Exactly so like instilling those types of knowledge and understanding in young kids that I never had access to was was very rewarding for me, so I love that.

Speaker 1: 20:31

Um, in a minute we're going to dive more into Yuri's expert advice on how to uh double your energy in seven days, but also tap into his amazing company called health printer. Those of you that are health professionals, you are not going to want to miss this. But first he didn't know he was signing up for this. We're going to play a quick round of would you rather?

Speaker 2: 20:49

My kids watch this on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 20:52

How's that for transition? Oh, do they Well they can watch it again on YouTube when this episode goes out.

Speaker 2: 20:56

We're going to love it.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Okay, would you rather go to the movie theater or a concert hall? So like either you're going to go to the movie theater and watch a movie or going to go and like see a musical on Broadway or something.

Speaker 2: 21:14

I guess it depends on, like, if it's a musical and if it's a terrible soul sucking movie, probably not so much. But if it's a good movie, I'll take the movie. If it's a comedian or some type of DJ, because I like that type of music, I would go to the concert hall. So I guess it depends. That's not a good answer, but yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:30

It depends he's fired from. Would you Rather he's done? Your kids are so disappointed. I'm just kidding. What's your favorite movie?

Speaker 2: 22:42

Nacho Libre. Okay, uh, natural libre. Okay, did you see that one in the theater?

Speaker 1: 22:49

you have not lived if you have not seen that movie. Yeah, you're also fired if you've not watched natural libre. I have actually seen it, but I don't I forget it it's most people will be like.

Speaker 2: 22:57

That's the most ridiculous movie of all time and that's that's like you now know, yuri, that's it, yeah yeah, I just. I just find a lot of the hollywood stuff is so overly dark and horrific yes that I can't. I can't even watch it like it. Just I hear that it just negatively affects my energy. So I tend to gravitate towards things that are lighter, funnier, a little bit goofy yeah, I hear that.

Speaker 1: 23:22

I mean, sometimes we just need to be able to laugh more at ourselves in the world around us. Would you rather tea or coffee?

Speaker 2: 23:31

Coffee, no question.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Just like what? This isn't a question. Okay, I support that. How do you drink? How do you drink your coffee?

Speaker 2: 23:39

So typically I'll do a long espresso in the morning, no sugar, no cream, and then I also like Starbucks cold brew brew. So I don't like starbucks coffee other than their nitro cold brew, so I'll do that as well I'm with you there.

Speaker 1: 23:54

My go-to starbucks drink is the sweet cream nitro cold brew.

Speaker 2: 23:59

It's pretty much the only drink that I get there.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Look at that. We were meant to be friends for so many reasons. Um okay, would you rather cake or pie?

Speaker 2: 24:10

I'm going to go with pie on this one.

Speaker 1: 24:12

What's your favorite pie? There's the people. Always it's one or the other. There's never like there's never. Ah, both on this one.

Speaker 2: 24:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:19

People have distinct opinions.

Speaker 2: 24:22

I, um, I like a good bumbleberry pie, but I don't eat pie ever Like I don't, I don't, I'm not really I don't eat that stuff anymore. But yeah, it's not your bumbleberry pie.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Yeah, what is a bumbleberry?

Speaker 2: 24:34

is this a canadian? Thing, it might be a canadian thing. It's a type of. It's almost like a I don't even know.

Speaker 1: 24:40

It's like a raspberry, blueberry, blackberry combination, I think huh, it's like a raspberry married a blueberry and did something else with it's good a strawberry, but I never, I've never, had it outside of a pie, so I don't really know yeah or it might be bumbleberry, or it might be a combination, I don't even know so we don't know, but you can look it up, guys, bumbleberry pie, look it up and let us know where it's, where it's originated from.

Speaker 1: 25:09

Um, okay, would you rather a? Maybe you have one of these, I don't even know. Would you rather a private jet or a personal yacht?

Speaker 2: 25:16

Private jet for sure.

Speaker 1: 25:18

Where are you taking your family on your private jet? Money's not an issue. Time is not even an issue.

Speaker 2: 25:23

The world is our winter home in Mexico.

Speaker 1: 25:27

You're already going to a place that you already have. There's nowhere else you'd rather go.

Speaker 2: 25:31

No, I mean well, we're, well, we're just. My wife and I were just there the last three days because we're about seven months from completion and there's a reason we're building there, so it's like oh, I see you're right.

Speaker 1: 25:41

So you're building this home in mexico. That's a cool idea, that's awesome where do you just build a home? In mexico? Well, there's a lot of it on the coast.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Yeah, so we're building in an area, uh, that's just north of acapulco. There's a lot of places. Is it on the coast? Yeah, so we're building in an area that's just north of Acapulco. It's a bit of a private community. It's right on the cliff, overlooking the Pacific. We've been there 15 times in our lives and like it's just, it's like the type of place where you get off the plane and you feel at home, like there's an energy there.

Speaker 2: 26:07

That's very special, and when we learned about the development that was happening, we're like, uh, we're definitely looking at this and so that's that's kind of like our, our winter escape from the cold because we live in Toronto. Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:22

I don't blame you there. I, I really love the Mexican culture too. I've also been to Mexico quite a few times and, um, I would even just say as a culture, they are just very warm and welcoming in my experience, yeah, yeah, and it's so funny because there's so much fear.

Speaker 2: 26:39

Oh my God, so we bought the land during COVID, so we never were there. So we bought everything on the internet pretty much and thankfully we're working with one of the top architects in the country. But everyone was like just be careful. I'm like, dude, it's been better building there than it would be building in Toronto. It's been so seamless and amazing and it's just like why don't you go to Mexico and experience it before you start talking about shit on the news?

Speaker 1: 27:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, I'm excited for you. Thank you. If you see some random woman floating in the pool outside your house, it's probably me. Well, hopefully not floating, maybe swimming floating. I have a different connotation.

Speaker 1: 27:29

Okay, we don't want anybody's floating in the pool. No one, get any ideas, I can't float anyway. Actually I think there's a whole nother conversation, but hopefully I'll never get stranded in the ocean or else I'm gone. Heaven's my next destination. So we talk about nutrition a little bit and then we're going to talk about Healthpreneur, this concept of all-day energy.

Speaker 1: 27:47

You've got so many great quotes on your website, but what we're really tapping into is this concept of, I think, eating for function as much as weight loss. Sometimes we get so into this idea, especially depending on what your own history is with food. There's a lot of disordered eating, and it's really hard for us to get out of that concept of almost eating less, sort of like a deprivation mindset, when in reality, as you and I both know, most of us actually need to be eating more, just more of the right thing. So I would love to hear this concept. Your book talks about how to double your energy in seven days and leveraging food as that source. Talk to me a little bit about what that even looks like. When someone first hears that, what is the first step they need to take to leverage food for energy?

Speaker 2: 28:42

Yeah, so there's. The basic premise of the book is just eat more plants, eat more greens. Alkalize the body. It's not rocket science, it's like everyone says the same thing, kind of, and so I just share what worked for me, which was alkalizing my body, realizing that at the time it was very acidic from the standard american diet of processed foods. Um, I won't get into the science of, like you know, acid, alkaline stuff, but basically eating more greens, allowing more like nutrient rich foods into your body. And it just so happens when you do that, your body just tends to operate better with respect to, um kind of immediate levers. A lot of times it's just to understand like there might be one or two things you're eating that are just robbing your energy.

Speaker 2: 29:32

So it might be bread it might be caffeine, it might be sugar, and just by removing those you start to recognize like, oh wow, I feel a lot better with that stuff. And so there's kind of two ways of looking at this. One is like you can get rid of stuff that doesn't make you feel great, and then the important thing is you have to fill the void of something, Otherwise we'll just lean back into certain habits. And then the second thing is well, if we could take that approach, or we could just focus on adding more of the good in and the better we feel, the more the good just pushes the not so good out of the way, just like having a better player on your team puts someone who's less good on the bench, and so it's less about being.

Speaker 2: 30:16

I mean, the book's premise is eat more plants, more of them, the raw state, and at the time of when I was writing the book, I was more vegetarian, but I still eat a lot of meat. Now I shouldn't say a lot of meats, like I'll eat meat several times a week and I honestly I don't care. Like if someone is vegan, great, if someone's keto, awesome. I think the key is like I wrote the book at a very different time in my life, but the principles still apply and I think the key, like one of the key lessons that I've learned over life, over my time, is like just experiment with different stuff and see what works best for you, because, you know, even though tens of thousands of people have read the book and gone through it and have transformations, it doesn't mean that that's the best way for them to eat forever Like.

Speaker 2: 31:01

So for me, that was what worked for me for a good decade and then I was like you know what? Like I was just at a different stage of my life where I felt like eating more meats and fish and steak and stuff and I was like cool, so if I'm going to have that stuff, well, let's not forget the basic principles of like let's make sure we have some greens coming in, some veggies and some fruit. So I'm not so dogmatic about I think what I've noticed is when I got into nutrition, I was very dogmatic because I was like it's gotta be like organic and I'm like and that's exhausting. I think a lot of us go through that journey and it's okay, I mean, I think it's easier mentally.

Speaker 1: 31:43

This is where, especially like in my fitness nutrition coaching that I've had to work with women is we almost want black and white, because then we don't have to make decisions and we don't have to use our brains. Exactly, but the problem is it's not sustainable. We burn out and we exhaust ourselves and then we swing back to the other side. So like what you're saying, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 32:01

Because, like as an example in the book, I demonized caffeine, demonized it yeah. Like it's one of the energy robbers, along with sugar. And here I am now.

Speaker 2: 32:17

Whatever it is, 15 years later, and coffee is one of the joys of my life, yeah, and, but I, I, but I don't overdo it. Like I have a coffee in the morning I'll have two at the most and I enjoy that experience and for me, I'm like I understand what it does to the adrenals if it's overdone and you just kind of listen to your body, you know, and like I, I enjoy a nice coffee on a nice day sitting outside, and I would rather have that experience than being, oh, my god, your coffee has mold in it, unless you're using these specific beans. I'm like, oh, please, just stop so.

Speaker 2: 32:51

So, yeah, it's like, yeah, I just saw that Instagram ad not that long ago.

Speaker 2: 32:58

And I was like that's part of why I kind of stepped out of the nutrition and health space a little bit. When you get so far down the rabbit hole, you realize you don't actually know much because there's no one answer. There's so many different paths and it's like, because there's no one answer, there's so many different paths and it's like. I remember when I was on Dr Oz which was an amazing experience and cool, whatever One of the segments we were talking about lemon water and you know we talked about the benefits of it and so forth, and it was just, it's such a simple concept Squeeze some lemon in some water. And I can't tell you, not from that specifically, but just in general. When I would talk with people about that, they'd be like well, how much lemon, how much water? Yes, yes, it doesn't matter, just squeeze half a lemon as much as you like. How much apple cider vinegar should I have?

Speaker 1: 33:49

I don't care. Like to have a tablespoon, it's fine, no, I don't care, like to have a tablespoon, it's fine, you know so.

Speaker 2: 33:53

But I get it Like the problem is most people.

Speaker 1: 33:57

And we've all been there. This is, if you are listening, right now, yuri and I are laughing with you, not at you, because we're literally, we've been there, totally Right, like we've all been there, as he literally just said. So we have to be able to laugh at ourselves, but there is something to be heard here. Don't miss it.

Speaker 2: 34:13

And I think too, it's like the part of my mission and it still is to this day is like most people know more about their cars than they do about their body, and so it's no surprise when someone's like completely oblivious to the benefit of water or walking, and then there's a very large percent of the population that is obviously becoming more mindful of it and aware of it, which is great. But you know, it's like it's challenging, because if you don't know anything, then how are you supposed to make a good decision? And then you get fed very one-sided information based on what you interact with online, and that only reinforces a very myopic view of anything, and so then you don't see the alternative, and it's just a really kind of tricky time to try to make sense of as a as a consumer in general.

Speaker 1: 35:04

What would you say so for somebody listening? Because, that being said, I think you and I would both agree there are certain principles that hold true, not necessarily dogmatic to the point that your life is going to absolutely fall apart and will have no meaning if you don't apply them. However, there are certain truths that exist. If you want to have more energy during the day, prevent disease and live a more freeing life, especially in the standpoint of fulfilling your God-given purpose with more energy, freedom and joy, there are some nutritional principles that exist. What would you say that those are? If somebody wants to start improving their energy, whether it be foods they need to get rid of today or certain foods they need to start eating today water, whatever, you would say in your years of experience what are a couple of principles they can start doing to have more energy?

Speaker 2: 36:01

I'd say the big three are going to be wheat or gluten. Uh, sugar and caffeine are probably the three things I would consider removing temporarily so you can feel the difference and then you can make a decision of whether you want to reincorporate them. Um, I'd say those are kind of like the top three in terms of like removal and just play with that in terms of addition as a very, very baseline. Like just drinking more water, like we just have to be drinking more water throughout the day. Um, getting more green. So I think even just as simple as like a greens powder or a green juice, whatever form, as long as it's green, just get into the body.

Speaker 2: 36:39

There's so many benefits to that, I think, focusing on moving more, working out less. So get outside, move your body, get some sunlight. Think of like what would our ancestors have done thousands of years ago and try to get closer to that. Of like what would our ancestors have done thousands of years ago and try to get closer to that. So if they go to bed at sundown and wake up at sunlight, can we replicate that? I think one of the most important things from a sleep perspective is go to bed and wake up at the same time every single day for the rest of your life. That is probably the single best thing I can share with respect to having more energy, because it completely regulates your circadian rhythm.

Speaker 1: 37:17

You guys, yuri said it. I've said it a million times, but Yuri said it. So if you didn't, believe me, believe him. He's got way more years of experience than me and knowledge. So believe him at least.

Speaker 2: 37:24

And listen like there's. I'm not the only person to say this, a lot of other people do as well. It's probably the single most overarching thing you can do to change your, your, how your body just functions. Yeah, so that is a starting point to drink more water, get some more greens, consider removing caffeine, sugar, wheat, slash, gluten, at least temporarily, and then, aside from that, you can do all of that stuff and still be lethargic and miserable if you do not love what you do every single day. I think one of the most important things to have more energy is to wake up every single day like a laser guided missile with a strong purpose, and I think that's a very overlooked thing, because I know plenty of people who don't have the best diets, but they are man like they're just pumped because they have something purposeful they're working towards.

Speaker 1: 38:20

I love that. And for those of you that just heard water and you're like how much water? You're one of those.

Speaker 2: 38:28

I'll tell you what I tell people.

Speaker 1: 38:30

What I tell people is try to drink half your body weight in ounces a day. There you go. For those of you that need a number, try to drink half your body weight in ounces a day as a starting point.

Speaker 2: 38:41

Yeah, and soda doesn't count, that's right.

Speaker 1: 38:45

Caffeine doesn't count either, you guys. Coffee doesn't count as much as I would like it to. It does not. Yeah, what you just said is so good I have said this before that there's that quote that goes around that passion fuels purpose and, as I talk about in my program Early Morning Habit, that I believe that purpose more effectively fuels passion and passion and energy are so closely tied together and what you just said sits there beautifully. And, to take it an even step further, your program Healthpreneur we have not really talked about that yet, but that's what he has transitioned into you guys, from being this energy nutritionist, as his website says, which is fantastic. I love that.

Speaker 1: 39:32

But one of the things that you said in the trainings I listened to all your free trainings and you had this line that I'm going to misquote it, but the idea was that we live in an age where people now want specialists, not generalists, and I actually think that fits to what you just said. Whether people listening are in business or not. That idea of I would argue, we're all specialists at something. Even the stay-at-home mom who feels like she's a little burnt out doesn't have the energy wondering what her purpose is in life. You are a specialist at something. You just might not have ever taken the time to figure out what that is, and so, anyway, whether you're in business or not, you guys listening into this.

Speaker 1: 40:14

These principles, I think, apply to all of us, and with those of us that have done personal branding work, it's almost therapeutic. I feel like it's been a very enlightening journey, even just in my personal life, let alone my professional one. So, for all of our health professionals especially who are listening, you guys tune in here, turn it up, pause what you're doing and listen. Tell us about Healthpreneur.

Speaker 2: 40:43

I mean very simply we help health professionals build scalable coaching businesses that transform our lives with heart. I refer to it as a scalable coaching business, which means it's a business that can scale. If it can scale, then it's sustainable. If you do one-on-one work, as an example, in a clinic, that's not scalable, it's not sustainable. Burnout is the biggest problem in our space. It's not scalable, it's not sustainable. Burnout is the biggest problem in our space because all of us were fed into this medical matrix of the only way to help people is one-on-one and you should be a martyr in the service of other people. And it's ridiculous. And we have amazing health practitioners who are unknown to a lot of people or they undercharge or they try to help everyone. Or they undercharge, or they try to help everyone, and so they here's.

Speaker 2: 41:33

The thing is like when you have a brick and mortar, you can become very successful in spite of yourself, because people walk down the street and they fall in your lap and then, because you help everyone, they just refer whoever they want, and that's cool. However, when you start to look at okay, well, maybe I don't want to build a prison, which I refer to as a brick and mortar. I actually want to have time and location freedom. I want to be able to reach, teach and influence more people. I want to move, maybe, from doctoring to coaching, because that's where true transformation happens. It's not transactional anymore. Then you actually have to build a business Like you actually have to put yourself out there, and a lot of us obviously do so virtually. So when you proactively have to put yourself out there, and especially online, no one is walking by your quote, unquote, brick and mortar. Virtually no one knows you exist. Obscurity is the biggest danger to everyone. And so how do you proactively put yourself in front of people? Well, you have to be very clear about who it is you serve, because, just even like mechanically, if you say I help people with X, y, z, a, b, c, d, how do you even coherently have a message that can be repeated over and over again that will get people to say, oh yeah, that's so-and-so, they're the expert in ABCDEFG. No one thinks like that. So from a marketing perspective, it's near impossible to have a successful business, at least online, where you proactively have to put yourself out there, whether that's running ads, creating content in a way where people are like, oh yeah, and is that person, because everyone's looking to put us in a drawer. They want to give us a label so they can make sense of this world very easily.

Speaker 2: 43:13

One of the biggest reasons people love working with us is because we only work with health professionals. Right, like we could do what we do with mortgage brokers and other people. But we like we don't. And that's very attractive because everyone wants to work with a specialist. And that's very attractive because everyone wants to work with a specialist. No one, like if you have a roof leak, no one's calling the general contractor like you want the roofer or the plumber or the specialist, because we inherently know they're the best at that specific thing.

Speaker 2: 43:40

Yet for some reason, we're like well, I'm going to alienate a lot of people, I'm not going to be able to help everyone. Yeah, obviously, who cares? We're going to help 7 billion people in the first place. No, and you still won't help the 0.0001% of the market you're hoping to serve. There's millions of people with migraines. There are millions of people with type 2 diabetes. Insert one specific specialty that you have the most experience with, that you have the most joy in serving and you know you can get the best results for and you will have more than especially online. Specifically, you'll have more people than you can serve in 10 lifetimes.

Speaker 1: 44:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:18

I mean, it's so true, sorry.

Speaker 1: 44:20

Keep going. Yeah, no, I was just going to say I mean, I am a living testimony of this. When I started out in this space, I was all over the place. I started as a home DIY decor blogger, which is hilarious. In this space, it was just like a creative outlet to share our family's fixed-reparature adventures with our homes. Nursing I went to John Hopkins.

Speaker 1: 44:47

I was in emergency medicine for 10 years. I helped start up two stroke programs from the ground up, you know, published by American Heart Association. So I was online for this home DIY decor which I absolutely loved. It's an incredible community. And then COVID hit and then, for the first time, I was like, oh okay, we need, like educated information. And so it was the first time I ever put myself out there online as a the health expert that I actually am, um, and so it started this whole new virtual journey for me and it's just been such a cool story. But to what you're saying um, there's so many points, but one, even from a medical standpoint in emergency medicine I was a prime example of we always joke. We are an inch deep and a mile wide. We're not actually experts at anything except expecting the unexpected, and that's about all and keeping you from death.

Speaker 1: 45:38

We just keep you from dying. That's about our expertise, cause you can't have a hospital.

Speaker 2: 45:44

that's going to triage. Sorry, you have a back injury. Sorry, we can't deal with you. Gunshot wound Come on in Like you can't do a hospital that's going to triage. Sorry, you have a back injury. Sorry, we can't deal with you. Gunshot wound Come on in Like you can't do that. It's just the nature. It's just a catch-all right.

Speaker 1: 45:52

Yeah. So not only was it like I knew that the Home Diagway area was just sort of like a stepping stone, and what I found is the same women who came to in my unique position with a foot on either side of healthcare as well as preventative care, because they're not the same.

Speaker 1: 46:14

Disease care is not the same as the fitness nutrition industry. So anyway, to your point. This was really a period of wrestling for me and for those of you listening right now health professionals, who are either in the virtual space or you're still in the brick and mortar and you're trying to step into the virtual space like, shoot me a message anytime. I'll give my insight as much as I can, and I'm going to end up pointing you to Yuri. So maybe just bypass me completely and go to Yuri. But this took me so long is where I'm going with this to throw stuff up at the wall and figure out what sticks and why am I in this space in the first place? And, um, I ended up creating early morning habit because when I was a fitness nutrition coach for fast way to fat loss, I saw Amanda Tress on your website.

Speaker 1: 47:00

I was like, oh girl, there she is. Uh, she and I went to college together but I coached for her program. Yeah yeah, love Amanda and Brandon coach for her program. And you know what's so interesting? What you said earlier is the one thing that I always struggled with is I have never actually struggled with my weight and I grew up in a very fitness forward family because my dad had a heart attack at the age of 40. So at a young age I was like, okay, exercise could save my life. So I struggled, feeling like I missed this connection with my clients. Even though I was very educated, I couldn't connect with them personally because I didn't have that experience where I had that rock bottom moment that I had to really climb out of, except for one thing, which was my desperate desire to become a morning person and rise a little bit earlier and start my day quiet, with God's word and a workout.

Speaker 2: 47:53

And so.

Speaker 1: 47:53

I create a program where I was like and I did it. It took two years to do it. I did it and I was like why am I not teaching women how to do this?

Speaker 2: 48:00

Yeah, that's actually one of the easiest ways. One of the easiest ways to narrow down is well, who would I want to like if you serve you in the past?

Speaker 2: 48:10

yes that's a great place to start, because I would venture to say there are millions of women who have the same desire as you did or do. Yes, yeah, and unless you have some weird obscure thing that no one has a desire around, like when I I came online, I didn't help people with alopecia, which was the hair loss thing. I helped. I was a generalist. That's why it took me so long to get traction, cause I was doing everything and that was a hard lesson I had to learn. Like with healthpreneur, I was like I'm not making those mistakes again. But if I was being very true to myself, I could have said I'm going to only work with athletes who want to get better in soccer. Right, like you, you it's.

Speaker 2: 48:53

It's instead of like worrying about like, is this the best market? Don't worry about where the opportunity is. Don't jump on the trend. There are so much opportunity in every possible vertical or condition or desire in the health and fitness space. It's crazy, assuming you're helping people solve something they want solving or help with. There are tens of millions of people out there with that thing and so, whether it's migraine, headaches or starting a morning work like morning habit, you know type of ritual, most of us it's like well, just look back, like what would I, what would I have wanted five or 10 years ago? And just do that because other people out there will have, or are wanting, the same thing. They're just earlier in their journey and now you're a couple of steps ahead of them and you can resonate because of your story as well, which is very powerful.

Speaker 1: 49:44

Yes, yeah, and that was something that came across very clearly in your trainings. You guys, we're going to make sure this link is included for you to be able to get all of these free trainings. But one of the things that is so crucial is to get really clear on who you serve, and you just said that, but it's like anything that's easy to say and you may think that you know you probably don't. I'm just going to throw that out there. You think you do, you don't, until you do these free trainings, and then you'll realize like, oh, that's how you do it, because if you know who, then how do you reach them? Because you're obscure. We've been too busy. You know being on call and saving lives. We haven't had time to be on Instagram. So this is where Healthpreneur comes in. Tell us a little bit about your uniqueness. Not only you serve health professionals, but how are you guys uniquely positioned to help health professionals build and monetize their business?

Speaker 2: 50:40

So one is I've been online in the health space since 2005, which is almost unheard of in our space. There's a lot of people who started a couple of years ago, who had a good month, and now they're coaches or business coaches, and I think true expertise doesn't lie. So number one is we have an unparalleled reputation, because I built and sold a very big company in the health space and now we help people do that. So it's not like I'm doing something I've never done before, which a lot of people unfortunately do. Aside from that, I think what we do very well is we help make business simple for people, especially health professionals, who have amazing technical skills but very limited business skills, and we help them understand the principles and mechanics of building a business, and part of that is systems, part of it is skills, and we help them on both. So we help them install the right systems to help them bring people into their world. How?

Speaker 1: 51:41

do, I do that.

Speaker 2: 51:42

I just do this, this and this, and then how do I help them online? Just do this, this and this. And then the second piece is the skills, because a lot, of, a lot of I mean a lot of amazing people in our space. They will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go through school and then nothing to build their business and marketing skills. But again, because in the case of like an ER, for instance, people just fall into your lap. But as soon as you're not in that environment and no one's falling in your lap, you're like how do I reach people? That's a new skill you have to build.

Speaker 2: 52:11

So skill around clarity of messaging, clarity of who you want to serve, understanding all these little skills that need to be built to become better at marketing, to become better at selling, because we're always selling something, whether it's a vision, an idea, a person in your program, whatever it is and then learning how to run a business, so becoming not just a technician but an actual CEO and not everyone wants to do that, and that's fine. Just understand the trade-off. The trade-off is like you'll be working in the trenches forever or you could build a business that impacts a lot of people, and if you don't know how to do that, that is 100% okay, cause you didn't know how to do what you did before you went to school. So we're kind of like the business school for health professionals. That's actually applicable and we'll actually help you earn what you want to earn, have more time and location freedom, and doing so without a lot of the grinds that we now see all over the place.

Speaker 1: 53:05

So yeah, and you know, I think the bottom line, you guys listening who are like, ooh, that might be what I need. It is what you need. I'm telling you that right now Because I think the key is time ends up being more valuable than money. Right, we reach a point where it's like time is the one thing we cannot make more of. There are 24 hours in a day period. You can always make more money. So the idea is, you know how about we skip over the amount of money that you're losing because you're giving up too much time and invest with someone who is actually going to help you skip over, make you more money and save you time by leveraging their own expertise. So I Healthpreneur is just such an amazing. I've already said to my husband like it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when we end up working together, cause I love what you guys do.

Speaker 1: 53:54

Hey, I love it. I love it. Um, where can people find you? Follow you, learn more about what you do? Health printer especially.

Speaker 2: 54:05

Yeah, uh, I I guess the two, two best places is I put everything out on youtube, uh, for free. So, like I don't, I don't hold anything back, I share some of I I think, my best stuff on youtube. So if you just go to youtube and search for healthpreneur, you'll find our channel. Um second, if you want to connect I'm on instagram at healthpreneur just send me a DM saying you saw me on on Anna's show and I'll hook you up with some free trainings that, uh, anna alluded to and we can help you. You know, at least from that perspective, get more clarity on you know how you could grow your business, if that's the stage you're at.

Speaker 1: 54:42

Awesome, Love it. We'll make sure these links to everything are included in the show notes. You guys, Gary, it's such an honor to have you. I just pray God's blessing over your home, your family, your sweet kiddos and just all that you're doing to help really those of us in the health profession thrive and serve more people and serve them well. So thank you.

Speaker 2: 55:03

You're welcome. Thanks for having me, Anna.