Mindful Eating & Lifestyle Choices - A Conversation with Angela Lamb

Welcome to the joyful journey podcast. If you're looking for more clarity in your life, clarity of purpose or how to activate that purpose, and you are someone who wants to operate from your highest self to be a force for good, you know this world craves, then this is the show for you. I'm Anita Adams, your host and guide to finding clarity and creating a life you love. Let's tap into our inner wisdom, access our highest self and unleash joy. As we do this, we raise our vibration and heightened the collective consciousness and that my friend, is the joyful journey. Let's dive in. Hey joyful journey are neither Adams here your host and today I have the pleasure to introduce you to Angela Lamb who is on a mission to make families healthier. Angela created the health documentary on inflamed meat reversing the American diet and lifestyle. And her healthy living children's book superhero healthy Henry discovers Planet Earth she created both after she overcame her own very scary health challenges that surface due to a lifetime of the standard American diet and lifestyle. Now healthier than ever, Angela spends her time in a multitude of ways to stay healthy, and to help others be healthy. Angela is also the creator of the award winning health Docu series, The Art of natural healing. And more recently, she released her second children's book, bonding with my bunnies yoga lesson plans for families and children, which gives families children and educators mindfulness tools to practice yoga, mindfulness, strengthen family bonding, and relieve stress. Welcome, Angela. I'm so excited to have you on the show.

Yeah,thank you so much for having me. This is such an honor. Yes, so

great. Now I know this is completely irrelevant. But it is a fun little tidbit to share. Angela and I first met in Hamburg, Germany over 30 years ago, when we were both pursuing a modeling career, we became fast friends for the short few months that we were living in the same city together. And here many, many, many, many moons later, we reunited to talk about bringing more joy, happiness and health into the world. And how cool is that?

So fun. So fun. So fun. I've

just, it's just so exciting to see how our paths we then become interconnected and how we just do different things and still come back together. And I love it. I love this journey that we are on. And speaking of the journey, I'd really love to start by hearing more about what led you to your personal health journey.

Sure, absolutely. So I was the standard American not that I was completely unhealthy eating fast food every day. But I really didn't think about what I put into my body. And then I turned 40. And it was like everything started crashing down. I had a very serious hospitalization where my bloodwork was all at dangerous levels. I saw every specialist there was and basically when they finally let me out of the hospital over a week later, they told me that I was chronically inflamed, which I never heard that term before. And that I would have to take a blood thinner and a statin medication for the rest of my life because I had a blood clotting disorder. And I was told that there was nothing I could do about it. So I had was diagnosed out after I got out of the hospital with a blood clotting disorder called antiphospholipid syndrome. It's a mouthful, I know. And I was I also learned that I was pre diabetic at the time. So all these red flags of you know when you're not fully thinking about what you're putting into your body and exercising regularly. As you get older, you get warning signs and I got a crash boom BAM of a warning warning sign with a chronic illness. So I felt that it was odd that they weren't giving me solutions of how I could reverse my health for the better. It was literally in the at the hospital. It was Just these are the medications you're going to have to take for the rest of your life, you're going to have to get bi weekly blood draws, you know, which is a huge lifestyle change of going to the doctors all the time and getting monitored. And that there's nothing you can do about it. So I just did not accept that. So I started looking into what is chronic inflammation. I learned about an anti inflammatory diet, and I started doing a elimination diet to find out what would possibly make me chronically inflamed. I learned a lot of people and I'm one of those people gluten and dairy affect. Some other people have nightshade vegetables, or other things that make them chronically inflamed. I also started learning that there was a difference between conventional medicine Doc's and Doc's that would dive deeper in what I call root cause medicine where they maybe do the genetic testing to look at their some genetic mutations that are causing your body not to process things like they should. And I learned that in fact, I had some of those. And so I had to take some supplements to fill the void of what my body was not doing naturally. So changing all of this habit habits and making exercise a priority, making my diet a priority, and seeing the right doctors to guide me. It took about a year and a half of being extremely rigid and, and motivated. But over time, I was able to put my autoimmune condition into remission, and it's been in remission ever since.

That's beautiful. So does that mean that you do not have to take the medication, the daily pills and stuff? Or do you have to do that and modify your

eye, I was able to get myself off of the blood thinners, I was able to get myself off the statin, I do forever have to take a supplement because I've not naturally produced vitamin B, like I said, which causes other things to happen, which, which causes blood clotting issues. So I have to fill the gap.

But supplements are different than a prescription for sure. Yeah, yeah. Okay, for clarity sake, can you describe what you believe to be the standard American diet and lifestyle?

I believe it's a lot of processed food, a lot of fast food, just convenient food. I mean, a lot of these problems that we're facing health wise, is because we don't make things from scratch anymore. And we get quick service things that are pumped full of preservatives and hormones and all these things that are not good for our body, right? Eating more pure. And yeah, eating and nobody's perfect. I'm not perfect, even still to this day, but just consciously thinking about what you're putting into your body.

Yeah, yeah, I can't remember who told me this was a long time ago. But it's something that I adopted in my shopping for food. And and the idea was to do most of your shopping on the outside of the grocery store, like on the instead of going down the aisles, because the outside, that's where you find your fresh produce, and your meats and dairies, and whatever. Whereas on the aisles, that's where all the processed food is. And so I started to really pay attention to where I was going to get my food and trying to do more along the perimeter of the store. I don't know, I thought that was kind of an interesting little insight into how we shop. So

exactly. Yeah, it's a easy way to think of it to simplify.

Yeah, exactly. So I was really surprised to read on your website that the top eight reasons for death in the US and I suspect that this is probably the same or close to being true in Canada as well, that these deaths are due to chronic inflammation, inflammation, and your movie is all about educating your audience about this health crisis. It's a movie I highly recommend. Everybody watched by the way it's it's only just over an hour, and it's packed full of great information. And I learned I learned so much can you can you give us some broad strokes here though, about what causes chronic inflammation and what we can do to prevent it.

Chronic inflammation. It's not only diet, a lot of chronic inflammation is also called caused by our stress levels, as well and it's basically your Have your body constantly on high alert. It's kind of like an internal fight or flight. So if you're constantly putting things into your body, either stress or food that's making it inflamed, then over time your body starts attacking itself. So it can attack itself in autoimmune, which 80% of women, and 80% of the people that have autoimmune disorders are women. So you'll see that in women, you'll see heart disease a lot and men and women. You know, there's most of if you look at the top causes of death, it's it starts with chronic inflammation.

i You shared in your movie, and I thought it was a really great analogy about the water filling the cup and overflowing the cup. Can you describe that for the audience here, because I really helped me visualize how this affects our bodies.

Yes, and that is actually not something that I came up with. Dr. Jessica Black, who wrote the anti inflammatory diet and recipe book was a and she is based out of Portland, Oregon, I discovered her book when I was learning about inflammation and wanting to change my diet. And I implemented a lot of her recipes. And that's actually when I started doing that, and I would go to my rheumatologist, that's when he started seeing a lot of improvement in my blood bloodwork, all my inflammatory bloodwork markers was starting to go down. And as she describes it, is you're dealing with your genetics, and that's something you cannot control. That's, you know, the, the bottom of the cup, you know, being felled, and then you add in stress, and you add in your diet. And over time, if you just keep adding to the things that are attacking your body, your your cup is going to overflow and cause disease. And if you don't change those things, then like often a lot of people that have autoimmune issues, they don't just have one, it starts with one and then at about develops into another and another and then maybe they get high blood pressure and heart disease and you know, it just keeps growing and growing.

And it's lifestyle and diet that is continuing to be added to that cup that causes it to overflow.

Exactly.

Right. Okay. I thought that was really, really interesting. I like I like visuals I learned better that way. Thanks for sharing that. Um, so you mentioned I'm lost her name. Now. That the book the author of the book,

and Dad ducted Jessica black, she is a naturopathic doctor, which I before I started my health journey, I didn't know of naturopathic doctors, I don't know if in Canada, they're more prevalent, but I live in the middle of the country and the middle America and Missouri. And they're there. They are not licensed here. But they go through the same training as a medical doctor, but they're more focused versus on suppressing the symptoms with the medication, they're more focused on how to reverse it naturally. And she was the first naturopath that I came in contact with and what she wrote in her book, The anti inflammation diet and recipe book was a significant part. And in addition to the doctors that I was seeing locally, that were helping me figure out what was wrong with my genetics and how to fill the gaps with that. Her dietary guidance helped me tremendously

so would you recommend that as a good starting point for a lot

i i would and her recipes are very simple. And you know, I reached out to her when I was filming and and flame me and she she was an open book wanting to help.

Yeah, she shared a lot of great information. So anti chronic inflammation that includes diabetes, and what are some other common common diseases that are triggered from chronic inflammation

and high blood pressure, autoimmune heart disease, COPD, even which is often a huge, you know, there are Americans Yeah,

I know a lot of people that are currently at that pre diabetic condition. And so this probably this book probably be a really good book for for them to

tell. Yeah. And also she talks about in an inflamed me, she talks about our intake of sugar. So one of the big differences as when everybody used to make things from scratch versus getting something from a box is they knew exactly how much sugar they were putting into it. But now sugar is if you look at a box, sometimes it can be confusing, because there's so many names for yes.

Yeah, Is that intentional to deceive us? Wonder?

Um, you know, I think yes. And I think you know, there's so many manufactured sugars now that you know, not not, the lay person is just not aware of all the names. Yeah,

I got stopped taking dairy. And I started drinking oat milk. And I'm like, Oh, this is so great. I love it. And then a friend just recently told me she's like, Do you know what sugar is in that? I'm like, it's the unsweetened version. She's like, it's still got a lot of sugar. I'm like, No. And I looked at the label. And sure enough, it was like, I think was the second ingredient. I'm like, what

the very watchful and kind of be an investigator

totally is, I find that frustrating. It's just like, and I because I thought it was making a healthy choice. And it turns out, it wasn't so healthy. So I'm now I'm drinking almond milk, unsweetened almond milk, which is good. But then there's issues with that, too. Apparently, I'm killing rainforests or whatever. I just feel like I can never, I can never win. But I get it. You know, we got we do have to be we just being mindful, right? I know. That's your your thing is mindfulness approach to our health and fitness. Okay, very, very cool. So I'm going to include a link to the name of that book in our show notes, because it sounds like something I should pick up as well. So thank you. All right. After you made your movie, you then created your first children's book superhero healthy, Henry, tell us about this superhero and why you created him?

Yes. So I, you know, I think back how I got into this predicament of a chronic illness. And, you know, it all stems from how are the habits that were instilled in us when we were a kid. And, you know, my parents were both very busy, they worked and we relied on a lot of processed food, and I was an overweight child. And if you look at the store aisles, if you're going in the inner aisles of the grocery store, how are they appealing to children, they're appealing to children by putting junk, you know, fun characters on processed food. And so I wanted to create a book that made vegetables and fruits and whole grains and healthy food, exciting and fun. And so I came up with healthy Henry. And I started doing storytimes where I dressed as a gigantic carrot, which got the kids laughing and paying attention to my messaging and the carrot even dance. And would would read my healthy Henry storytime my healthy Henry story book. healthy eating and exercise.

Yeah, that's awesome. And I watched a video with you doing that. And the kids are just like, lighted.

answers about what they're eating.

Right? They got very excited that they got to talk about superheroes and share what what vegetables they were eating, and it just made something healthy positive for them.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's so it's so true. We got to start at that young age to to create those healthy habits, right. And it's hard like I I have two children who are adult children now that you know, when they were younger, and both my husband and I are working and then there's you know, soccer practice and there's just like running from one thing to the next. You just want to go for the quick fix because you need it. You got to get food into the kids before you get them out the door again. And it was really it was really challenging. Fortunately, I had my daughter. She hated McDonald's. She refused to eat McDonald's. I remember. I remember being like, come on. Yeah, it'll just chicken mcnuggets are awesome. Not gonna eat that. So she actually helped train me to not put that kind of food into them, but I get the, I get the need for it sometimes, you know, like, it's like the convenience and we are busy. We're leading we're, we're all leading very busy lives trying to get our be the support for our families and make the money to create the lifestyle that you want. And yet we're undermining ourselves by some of the lifestyle choices were making at the same time. It's kind of ironic, in a way, isn't it? But

it is. And when I started making the changes of myself, so when I had my big hospitalization, my little one was two. And my, my older daughter was seven. And it was interesting, because I kind of, I asked, so like, you think about the fast, quick food. But it can be as simple as carrots with hummus or an apple. And once I had to simplify, I found that I was rubbing that it was getting rubbed off on them. And they would start grabbing the simple things that don't take any time for preparation. And granted, sometimes you want a more complex cooked meal. But when you're running around like crazy Have you can just grab the simple things.

Yeah, just having it ready. Having it there in the house is the first step. I guess that

is the first step. And I kind of went back, you know, when your kids are babies, and you have that baby bag of the diapers and the snack and the wipes. I started having in my purse, things that were simple that were shelf stable, like nuts, and just easy things that we could have on hand. So when we were hungry, we went and grabbed the bad stuff.

Right? Yeah, that's, that's a, that's a really good key point, having it just right there and easily accessible. So you can make so you can make the good choice. Yeah. I'd like to also in your, in the movie, somebody, one of your professionals were talking about that your plate should be 50% colorful. And I thought that was a good little measuring stick and my plate isn't, you know, my dinner plate is not definitely not 50% You know, the colorful vegetables and stuff like that I grew up in the meat and potato family. And so, yeah, yeah, and so just and I am getting better, I'm most definitely getting better. However, I've never heard that before 50%. And I like having I like having milestones to reach towards or, you know, benchmarks, you know, like that. That is very, again, visual for me, I can look at my plate and like is 50% of it, you know, red and yellow, and green and all the beautiful colors of our vegetable counter. But, I mean, so I'm going to start implementing that visual rule moving forward. So thanks for sharing that in your movie.

That was Sure absolutely. And one thing when I do storytimes for superhero healthy Henry making kids think about specials, sometimes foods versus all the time food. So you all the time you want a variety of fruits and vegetables and healthy food. And it's not I don't think anyone does well when you say you can't have it, because then they just want the bad stuff even more just to think of it as the special sometimes food. Right? And that seemed to really register that seems to really register with kids. Yeah, and that category. Yeah, I think

that's important to recognize you know, like it's we shouldn't try to eliminate necessarily eliminate everything it's because then when you when you fall off then you can beat yourself up and all the all the stuff that goes with that whereas if you you know just in moderation I guess is a good way of of looking at it so awesome. Okay, I want to talk about your latest book, bonding with my bunnies yoga lesson plans for families and children. What prompted creating this book?

Yes. So that was kind of the this book came out of an evolution of my health changes. So I before my chronic illness, I exercise sporadically. I never was a regular at any type of exercise. So I started to become a regular of exercise and my older daughter went to a summer sleepaway camp and she did childrens yoga. And she absolutely loved it. And she actually started making me realize the benefits of not only the physical activity, but the relaxation, the breathing exercises, the calming your body. And she really pushed hard for me to not only get certified in yoga, but to teach kids yoga, something that she can participate in.

It's awesome. So your daughter wanted you to get certified so you can teach others

to be a part of it and do it with me. So she was the influence they are. And then I've always been a creative and I really loved creating the lessons. And I found that there wasn't a lot of children joke yoga, readily available lessons, because it's different than adult Yoga, you there, they're not going to be as still as adults are. And you have to incorporate games and make it fun for them. Even the yoga practice. The fun thing with yoga naturally is that there's a lot of animals if you're using the English terminology of the poses, there's a lot of animals in yoga, so having them do down dog and bark like a dog or do calf cow and make those noises. It just lightens the mood and mile and they have so much fun with it while they're being mindful while they're calming their body bodies while while they're learning breathing exercises. And I would teach the classes. And I would find that myself and my children and my students would start using various pieces of the class when they would get a little stressed out or have too much going on. And it just they it gave them a mechanism to relax.

Right awesome. I'm trying to get my husband to do yoga with me. Maybe I should introduce some of the you know bark like a dog. Yeah, like it might work you might actually try lion toes. Lion pens, like that. Oh, my joy that.

Awesome. I love it. And

are you are you teaching classes to children? Now? It's like what

I do I teach at the library. Yes, it's a great community. And people are familiar with my book and they bring their families in to do get together and I just love it. That's

so awesome. Very cool. All right. Well, for someone who has fallen victim to the conveniences of North American lifestyle, what would you say are some easy to implement tips that you can offer to make the necessary changes that we need to lead a healthier life?

Sure, you know, really, it's going back to basics, like you said, shot the perimeter. Even if you don't have a lot of time, go to the simple fruits and vegetables that are readily available. If you need a little added sauce, you know salsa or hummus are great additions to kind of spice it up. And if you don't have time to exercise, you know, take the stairs versus the elevator don't drive 10 minutes around the parking lot to find the closest spot go ahead and get the furthest away spot and then walk a little bit you know little things like that make all the difference in the world. And And that actually brings me one of the the Docu series that I created after an inflamed me it's much more technical in the sense that an inflamed me was my own personal journey and how to get started. And then the art of natural healing Docu series was a collaboration with two local naturopaths. And they beautifully broke it down and two, they talk about inflammation and they give you tools to combat inflammation with different recipes are modalities that you can implement at home. So that was kind of the next phase if you delve deep into natural healing if you wanted some resources for recipes and different ways to naturally feel at home. That's a great series to watch.

Awesome. That sounds brilliant. I will definitely check that out. And where would we find the Docu series?

Sure the Docu series is So on a lot of video on demand platforms, probably the most popular is Amazon Prime, as well as who black if I don't know if Canada has to blue plus what the US uses for the library? Oh, yeah. Check it out video on demand and the library to be is another one that a lot of people go to for it.

Okay. And I know there's there's a lot of resources on your website as well. So we'll include a link in the show notes. And your website is healthy Live Nation.

Yeah, right on peloton, Play Live Nation,

live nation.com, which is awesome. Lots of great information there, including some recipes I noticed as well. Are those your recipes that are on the is there my recipe so great, there are a few that caught my attention. I'm gonna I'm definitely going to try so awesome. Good. This is great. There's some I feel like I've got some homework lined up for myself in the next little while. And just the whole lifestyle. My husband just retired. And so we're looking at trying to create healthier lifestyles right now like not that we've been unhealthy. But we've got more time now he certainly has more time to make the make really good choices. And he's still young, he's only 58. Right? So he's, he's young, and he can make the choices to ensure that longevity or create greater opportunities or likelihood for longevity. So I think some of the stuff that you're presenting here is a really great starting point for for us. So I appreciate it. I appreciate all that. And any if people wanted to connect with you in any other way, do you do any coaching? I don't I didn't notice that on your website. I mean,

I did do coaching for a period of time, but my focus is more putting out these resources to highlight.

Okay, great. Yeah, so you can reach a broader audience with your movies and Docu series and books. That's awesome. Good stuff. I love the work you're doing. And it's so incredibly important for us to be able to have that joyful life that I love talking about. It's you know, starts with with our health as a good friend of mine says health is wealth, right? We need to have we need to have that health and then we can have that beautiful, wealthy, rich life. So thank you for giving us some tips that we can use to create that. And joyful journeyer thank you for tuning in with us today. I hope you got some value out of this. Please do check out Angela's website healthy life nation.com And her movies. Her resources are really fantastic. Some really great insights that you'll you'll get there. So awesome. Thank you again, Angela. So lovely connecting with you. And

connecting with you. Thank you so much. I love what you're doing.