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Melissa Deally grew up spending much time in Japan. When she settled down to a career she found herself in a sales position with a hotel chain assigned primarily to bring in Asian visitors to her hotels throughout the United States. After a 24-year successful career she suddenly was terminated as the hotel group downsized. Suddenly she needed to find a new income source. I can but wonder what any of us would do if literally overnight we were confronted with this problem.
As you will hear in our episode, Melissa literally pivoted based on life circumstances you will hear about. She has become a well-known and successful Integrative Health Practitioner & Registered Health Coach, who is also trained in NLP, Time Line Therapy and Hypnotherapy. Melissa will present us with some extremely useful insights about ways we can improve our physical and mental beings. I hope you will find what she has to say useful and invaluable. Thanks for listening and I hope you will let me know your thoughts about our episode and the Unstoppable Mindset podcast by emailing me at michaelhi@accessibe.com. About the Guest: Melissa Deally is an Integrative Health Practitioner & Registered Health Coach, who is also trained in NLP, Time Line Therapy and Hypnotherapy. She is dedicated to helping her clients discover the root cause of their health issue and truly heal. Melissa’s business is 100% virtual, and she works with the entire English speaking world. Melissa uses a 2 prong approach: 1) Discover your toxic load and lower it 2) Discover your body’s imbalances and then guides you on bringing your body back into balance, at which point it will heal itself. This is done through the use of Functional Medicine lab tests, mailed to your home! Melissa offers a very high level of support, to ensure her clients’ success, as we navigate the path bringing the body back into balance, while creating new lifestyle habits to ensure lasting results. Melissa is the winner of the Alignable 2022 Local Business Person Of The Year Award for Whistler and the 2021 Quality Care Award by Businesses From The Heart. Melissa is also the host of the “Don’t Wait For Your Wake Up Call!” podcast, an podcast offering practical education around health, which ranked in the top 5% of Global podcasts by Listen Notes in the first 3 months of launching. When not serving her clients, Melissa can be found on her paddle board, or backcountry hiking & camping with her daughter(s) or downhill skiing or cross country skiing, or planning her next trip for her Girl Guides (Girl Scout) unit or working on her passion project, Girls Matter, helping keep girls in school in Uganda, breaking the poverty cycle, one girl, one family, one village at a time. Link to my Discover Your Toxic Load Quiz: https://welcome.yourguidedhealthjourney.com/yourtoxicload
Contact: Email: melissa@yourguidedhealthjourney.com Website: https://yourguidedhealthjourney.com/detox-programs/ Fb: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.deally/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadeally/ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/guidedhealthjourney/ Podcast: “Don’t Wait For Your Wake Up Call!” Podcast https://yourguidedhealthjourney.com/podcast
About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes
Michael Hingson 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by
Michael Hingson 01:20 Well, Hi, and welcome back to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Glad you're with us hope that you're having a good day, wherever you are. And with whatever you're doing. I want to tell you just briefly about Melissa Deally, our guest today. So Melissa is an integrative health practitioner and health coach, and she's trained in NLP, we'll get to that timeline therapy and hypnotherapy. That's a lot. That's a mouthful. And I won't go further than that, because I'm going to let her tell the story. But I think you're going to find this an interesting episode. She has gone through some unexpected changes in her life, and we'll get to that as well. But for now, Melissa, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Thanks for being here.
Melissa Deally 02:11 Thanks so much for having me, Michael, I'm excited to be here.
Michael Hingson 02:15 Tell me a little about kind of you early on growing up, or whatever you want to talk about with regard to that.
Melissa Deally 02:24 Well, I'm gonna actually not go back quite that young yet. I'm gonna start years ago,
Michael Hingson 02:29 a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Right.
Melissa Deally 02:32 There you go. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Seven years ago is where I had that turning point, that unexpected turning point that you mentioned. And that was when big fish bought little fish. And the company I was working for was the little fish. And I'd worked there for 24 years. And one morning, I was given an hour to clear out my desk, and no word of thanks. And in that moment, I knew three things. I knew that I was never going to work for someone else again. I, whatever I did next needed to be more of service to humanity and the planet. And that I had no idea what it was going to be that I would do next. But I was open to being guided. And later that year, I came across a company that specialized in brain supplementation. And I found that really interesting because I realized I use my brain 24/7. And no one's ever told me that I could be doing more to support my brain. And meanwhile, I was well aware that we had near epidemic levels of Alzheimer's and dementia on the one hand, but I also had a grandmother who was 99 years old, living at home by herself fully cognitively functioning. And it made me think, well, how do I make sure I get on her path, something inside me, told me that just having good genes might not be enough. And I started thinking about her life compared to my life. And she was born in little old Christchurch, New Zealand back in 1916, and the bottom corner of the earth long before all the toxins we have in the world today growing all their own food on the property. And I had the good fortune to be raised in Tokyo, Japan. And that was a wonderful childhood. And I know you've traveled there a couple of times. And it was in the 1970s and we lived there for all up 11 years. And we're unfortunately at that time spewing out toxins from manufacturing plants. And so it made me realize that I was much more toxic than my grandmother was and that I was behind the eight ball. If I wanted to get on my grandmother's path which was to live you know I'm fully cognitively functioning right to the very end. And so that was an aha for me, I needed to do more for my health for my brain. And I started learning about brain health, I started learning about toxins and how they impact our the health of our body. And about four months later, my oldest daughter got a concussion in her first grade 12 soccer game of the season. And I started going to her appointments because a I could, I wasn't working full time. And B, I realized she didn't have the cognitive function with a concussion to go to the appointment, and then come home and tell me what the practitioner said she should do to advance her healing. And so I went with her. Two months later, I was driving to Vancouver, and I got a phone call from the high school, asking me to go and pick up my younger daughter who was in grade eight at the time, because she had a suspected concussion from gym class. And in that moment, I looked out at the heavens above, and I said, Really, this is how you show me my path, please stop taking out my children. So now I have two very different concussions in the house. And I'm going to two sets of appointments first to support both girls. And that was my next Aha, what do other people do that don't conveniently have a mum who isn't working to go to all their appointments with them. And I realized there was a little bit of a gap in the medical model in that people that are struggling with their health and struggling to recover from something need that extra support. The body doesn't heal in a stressed out state. And when we don't know what's going on, and we don't know, if we're doing things the right way, we're still in a stress state when we're trying to figure it out on our own. But when we have that support, then we can relax into the process and be guided and the body can start healing. So that was the start with my journey into health and wellness.
Michael Hingson 07:08 So one question before we go further, what were you doing for the company you worked for, for 24 years until you were laid off?
Melissa Deally 07:18 I was in sales, it was a hotel company, Delta hotels, which is a Canadian hotel brand, we had over 40 hotels across the country. And I worked for national sales, and I was bringing in Asian tourists from all over Asia, because of course, having grown up in Japan, I do speak Japanese. And I was in charge of all of our Asian business across the country.
Michael Hingson 07:42 So the reason I asked that is what you just described and the journey that you started going through, took a lot of self analysis, a lot of looking at you and exploring some options and so on. What I'm curious about is how did you get to the point in your psyche, in your world where you were able to do that a lot of people when something like what you just described happens to them aren't able to move forward and just are struggling with Oh, my gosh, how am I going to go anywhere from here? And I can't do that. I don't know what to do. And I'm not saying you didn't go through some of that, although you can you can say whether you did or not. But still, what is it that made you be able to analyze and start down the road you did? Well,
Melissa Deally 08:41 I had the good fortune of already having been introduced to personal growth work before I was let go from my corporate job. And it wasn't introduced to me through my corporate world, but through my personal life. One of the books that I had read was by Carol Dweck, the mindset, all about the growth mindset and the closed mindset. And I really enjoyed that book. And I also had the have the good benefit of having a mother who always taught me to look at the positives. And then when every door closes, another door opens. And so when this happened, yes, there were tears. There was that sense of why Aren't I good enough? Because some salespeople were kept on not very many saw more, but you start questioning yourself, why wasn't I the one that was kept on? Why aren't I good enough? But I realized going down that path wasn't going to serve me. And I needed to recognize that. In reality, things always happen for us and not to us. And when we can approach life from that perspective. It allows As to release some of the stress and the turmoil and the beating ourselves up and to instead look at what benefit can come out of this. And I decided to look at this as an opportunity to do something completely different with my life for the second half of my career, as I called it, then what I had done before. And I was also in a place where if I took on that mindset, I really didn't have any option to do anything different because I am in a small town. And if I stayed in hotels, I would have taken my career backwards 10 plus years, and I would have ended up working for a single hotel instead of the entire brand. And I simply wasn't interested in that. So I had to look at what are the opportunities. And once I was let go, I had a lot more time on my hands. So I was able to dive into that personal growth, experience even more, and I read a lot of books and learned a lot about myself, like you said, journaling and diving deep, and who am I? And what do I want to do? And what do I want my legacy to be? And how can I make the world a better place?
Michael Hingson 11:17 I'm curious, from a sales standpoint, what what is your philosophy of sales? What was your philosophy? And has it changed at all with all that has happened in the last seven years?
Melissa Deally 11:34 So my philosophy, I don't think it's changed in those last seven years, I so I come from a numbers background as well, I have a commerce degree. And I was in accounting before I ever got into sales, which I know that in and of itself is a bit of an anomaly. But when I was working with my clients, I always was putting myself myself in their shoes, how could I serve them? And how can we come together? How can I serve them while serving me, you know, our interests, the hotel interests as well. But also in the negotiation piece. Because I have that numbers background, I relied on those numbers, and I would show them their numbers, right. And once we had the numbers on the table, and I made my proposal, they really didn't have a place to argue back and forth one way or the other. And you know, he can make it a whole elongated process. And I found that to be very, very effective. But I was always wanting to come at it, where I would listen to them and understand what their needs were, and try to meet their needs to the best of my ability while also looking after the needs of the club.
Michael Hingson 12:46 And that was in a sense, really why I was asking the question, because I know that when I was suddenly thrust into the need to make a decision, do I want to go into sales or look for a job elsewhere, which which did happen to me, I was doing some human factors studies and other things at the time and literally, unexpectedly was told that I would be let go, or I could go into sales. And as I, as I love to tell people, I took a micro nanosecond to make the decision that I'd lower my standards and go into sales from science, right? But but the reality is that as I as I went into sales, and I took Dale Carnegie sales courses and other things, what I was taught was that good salespeople, look at the situations that they're going into with different customers, they look at the customer's needs, they listen most of all to the customer. And ultimately it comes down to you can't sell the customer, anything they have to want to buy in your job is to be a counselor, and a person to guide them. And the good salespeople do that.
Melissa Deally 14:06 I 100% agree with that. And that that was my kind of, you know, natural, innate approach. And you asked me has it changed in the last seven years? And I would say no, because I still need to listen to my customers needs, we're talking about their health, I want to understand their health goals. I want to understand if I'm even the right person to be working with them. Right. And, and that they need to buy, they need to be ready to invest in themselves, their own self worth and their health before I can even work with them, right because I don't do the work for them. I guide them they still have to be willing to do the work.
Michael Hingson 14:44 And that's is true in a straightforward regular sales job is it isn't the kind of coaching and the teaching that you do today and that's exactly the point. But it means that you need to dig and learn and understand And, and analyze as you go along. And that also means that you have to look at you, as you're working with any customer in sales or whatever you're doing to make sure that I'm really doing the best thing for my customer or my client, and I'm listening to them. And my position, even in a regular sales opportunity is, I hope that even when I'm successful at selling, I learn more from my customers than they learned from me because every one is different. And I believe that every customer has a lot to teach the salespeople with whom they work.
Melissa Deally 15:48 Absolutely, I agree, 100%. And I would say the one difference between selling in my corporate world and selling now is a molars to selling in the corporate world, I was selling a product, but I was also selling on behalf of someone else. Now I'm selling a service. And really, I'm selling myself, right, they're not buying my program, they're buying what I can do for them through that program. And so I did have to get comfortable with selling myself because that was different to selling on behalf of someone else. Right, I have to listen. And I learned from my clients as much as they learned from me, if not more,
Michael Hingson 16:29 except I think ultimately even in sales. Yes, you want your customers to buy a product. But in reality, when you are working with a customer in sales, what are you selling? Are you selling the product? Or are you selling yourself because you're the teacher and the guidance, the guide or and the counselor, I once interviewed someone, he was my best sales guy. And whenever I whenever I hired a salesperson, I always asked, What are you going to be selling for me because I wanted to see how they would respond. And usually people said, well, we're going to sell your, your products, your CAD system, or later it was tape backup systems. And this is what they do. When I asked this particular person's name is Kevin is Kevin still. When I asked Kevin, what are you going to be selling for me, he said, The only thing that I really have to sell is myself and my word, products are stuff. And ultimately, they're going to buy from me if they trust me, and I have to demonstrate to them, my knowledge, my understanding of what they need, and sell them on the fact that my word is my bond. And I expect that you would have to back me up on that. But everything else is stuff. And I still subscribe to that, that the products aren't really what you're selling, even in the most basic use car name car, or, you know, in a clothing store stuff. Ultimately, they're going to mostly buy from you. Because you have gained their trust, which means you've sold yourself.
Melissa Deally 18:09 Right. And I agree with that, actually. And that's very true. And it's good to for you to point that out. Because you're right, that I still have relationships with those clients to this day, because of the strength of the relationships that we built over all of those years and their trust in me. And it was all always their choice to work with me versus someone else, you know, they had that choice to make, because we weren't the only hotel in town. Right?
Michael Hingson 18:40 Yeah, it's it is really, ultimately all about us. And when we have that kind of mindset, what we are really doing is adopting a mindset of ongoing analysis. And that is, of course, what you really did. And I think that that's really important, because you are very much involved in analysis. You analyzed a lot of things after you were let go. And so you went into a different kind of sales after September 11 When I was selling for a computer company, and then people started calling and saying would you come and tell your story and tell us what we should learn about September 11. Ultimately, what I realized was that I had the opportunity to sell something a whole lot more basic than computer hardware, and helping people which was still a good thing but helping people make sure their data was secure and and stored and handled okay, but rather, now I got to sell attitudes. I got to sell a whole different kind of concept of being prepared to deal with emergencies on We're standing that blindness isn't the so called disability that they think it is teaching people to have attitudes that say, I can do more than I thought I could. Yep. And that really is as good as it gets.
Melissa Deally 20:17 Yeah, I love that. And that's such a positive message that you were able to share out of something that was so horrific. Right.
Michael Hingson 20:25 Right. So you went off, and you did a lot of analysis, and you had two daughters who had concussions, but obviously also prove that as a result, they had hard heads, right? Yes.
Melissa Deally 20:42 They have both recovered, fully recovered,
Michael Hingson 20:45 which is a good thing. So how did you then actually end up being a coach and a healing practitioner and so on?
Melissa Deally 20:57 Yeah. So after I realized there was this gap in the model, and it made me wonder what other people did. I actually had people start contacting me, because it is a small town and they knew our story, how often does one household have two concussions, right? And they were calling me and saying, Oh, my husband got a concussion? What do I do? Or I have employers calling me saying, I have an employee with a concussion? How do I bring them back to work. And around the same time a holistic clinic was opening, and I was invited to work in the clinic to help other people that were struggling with concussions recover, and bring that nutritional piece to it that wasn't being addressed by other practitioners, because we have many experts in town when it comes to concussion. But I couldn't get liability insurance to work there because I didn't have any certifications. So I, again, had to decide, do I want to go down this path or not? And I decided that I did. But now I need to get a certification. So I'm thinking life coach, because that had been bouncing around in the back of my head ever since I've been let go. But it hadn't landed. And I thought, Okay, well, now I guess this is the time I need to do this. And I called a friend who was a life coach and said, Hey, you're a life coach, where did you do your training, I need to train to become a life coach. And he said, You don't need to be a life coach, you need to be a health coach. And I went, what, what's that I've never even heard the term health coach before. And I felt like that was just another, you know, drop from the universe for me as it directed my path. And I started searching health coaching courses online, I found one that I absolutely aligned with. And within 10 days, I started that training. And from the moment I started that training, I knew I had landed in my passion. I couldn't get enough of it. I just wanted to study more and more and more. And I started learning things going, Wow, how come I never knew that about my own body? And then why didn't somebody hasn't somebody ever told me this before. And I realized that after all those years in the corporate world and raising kids and being a wife that I just hadn't had time, or then the inclination to do extra learning on my health. And if I didn't know this stuff, there was probably millions of other people out there that didn't know it either. And that maybe I should be making health information more accessible for people. So that was one idea that kind of came out of that. And as I went through my health coaching, I did my life coaching but didn't enjoy it as much. I definitely stuck with the health coaching, then I came across the integrative health practitioner organization. And I love that because now we're using the science of functional medicine labs to understand what's going on inside the body. Because people don't know we obviously can't see inside our body, right, but our body is always trying to work for us, despite what we might be doing to it. But when it's out of balance, that's when we start to have, you know, sickness and disease set in. Or maybe it's, you know, weight gain, et cetera, et cetera. When we know what's going on, when we know where the imbalances are, we can guide the body back into balance by supporting the deficiencies by releasing the toxins because unfortunately, we do live in a toxic world as I learned when I was thinking about myself versus my grandmother, and bring the body back into balance. And when we do that the body takes over and heals itself, because that's what it's designed to do. And so that's the work that I've done for the last three years now is helping people understand the imbalances in their physical body, and how we bring that back into balance. And our modern world has is out of balance because of poor sleep, poor nutrition and high stress. Those are the three big factors. Yep.
Michael Hingson 24:56 You have talked about the idea of over blowing trash cans and detoxing. Can you or would you please talk to us about that what what that means, why it's important and what the significance of all that is?
Melissa Deally 25:10 Sure. So I like in our liver and kidneys, to the trash cans of our body, they are our detox systems, and try to help us get the toxins out. It's just like overflowing trash cans that you see in a city park, right? The reason our trash cans inside our body are overflowing is because since World War Two, we have had 144,000 manmade chemicals introduced into our environment that are getting inside our body through our waterways, the waterways, airways, we put them on our skin through personal care products we use, they're getting into our body to our food, because of pesticides and herbicides, etc. And as a result, our liver is overloaded. And our and undernourished is what I like to say. So all of these factors that our livers trying to deal with, its tasked with keeping our body clean, cleansing our blood every six minutes, but it was never designed to have to deal with this overload. And at the same time, we have nutrient depleted soil systems as a result of industrial agriculture, and take take take from the land without allowing the land to rejuvenate the nutrients. And if the nutrients aren't in the soil, they're don't grow into our food, then we're not getting them into our body. So our liver is undernourished and overburdened. And as a result, our bodies are struggling with a myriad of symptoms that people are very quick to accept as aging, as seasonal allergies, as genetics. And the reality is, is all the chronic illness that we have in the world today. So much of it, we don't need to have if people understood the importance of detoxing, and helping their body release these toxins.
Michael Hingson 27:10 So we live in a world where, at least from my standpoint, I love drinking water. A lot of people don't they drink other things. And you know, there's something to be said for bourbon. But by the same token, we're talking about water. Yeah. So how, how do I deal with that? Because if we're drinking tap water, as you said, there are chemicals introduced. So what do you advise people just to make sure that they always have good glasses of water,
Melissa Deally 27:41 get a good filtration system in the house. That's the best way you want to really ensure that you're getting a filtration system that is actually getting out a lot of the heavy metal toxins, some of what you're naturally coming into our water just from water coming down mountains and rocks, etc. As well as the chemical toxins. Berkey filters can be quite good, the Brita filters are pretty useless, they don't do much,
Michael Hingson 28:10 or they don't taste that good.
Melissa Deally 28:13 Or an actual filtration system that honestly is the is the best thing. And then also to recognize that we can't avoid the toxins anymore in this day and age, but you can choose to do something about them. And that's why I run guided detox programs for people to teach people how to safely detox in a way that's easy. I provide all the recipes, they're delicious. And you know, people don't have to take vacation to do a detox they can do it in their regular everyday life. And it's interesting because in a Vedic medicine, which goes back 6000 years, they still promote detoxification, to this day, Latin American medicine, same thing. Asian culture is still detox to this day. It's only in the western world where it's been forgotten. And we're told just to have a shower or a bath and wash your outer body. And that's enough for good health and good hygiene, but we're completely ignoring our inner body. And we do have to look after our inner body. Because as Hippocrates said, 1000s of years ago, all disease starts in the gut. When we look after the gut, we're boosting our immune system because 70% of our immune system is in our gut, our liver and kidneys are part of our gut. And what we know today through the science of epigenetics is that we have so much more control over our health outcomes than we were led to believe. It used to be that if your parents had such and such a disease that you'd be told you would get it too because of the genetics, but the genetics are actually only five to 10% of the equation. And the other 90 to 95% is actually the lifestyle that you live and what you're putting into your body and How you're looking after your inner body. And when you keep your inner body clean, and you're improving lifestyle habits, that's when you are shifting your health outcomes. And that's where we can eliminate chronic illness.
Michael Hingson 30:17 So how do we go about detoxing, doing detoxification?
Melissa Deally 30:25 So the way that I teach it is it includes putting the body into a state of something called autophagy, which is I just call it deep cleaning. And that's fasting. So we use a powdered shake, which has all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs in it to be supported and nourished while we don't eat any real food. And so what that allows the body to do is start cleaning house. You see, every time we put food in our mouth, that turns on digestion. And because we need to eat to live, digestion trumps the other system, right. But if we stop for long enough, and don't put food in, and instead, we have a shake with the vitamins and minerals in it, and it's very diluted, and we sip it slowly so that in sipping it, the body can absorb it easily without turning on digestion, we allow the body to go into deep cleaning mode. And the longer we're in it, the more it can do so after about 12 hours, we're in the state of autophagy. And then 24 hours now we're starting to clear up dead, dead cells and damaged cells, and sorry, at 12 hours, and we're getting rid of toxins, right? Then we're getting rid of dead cells and damaged cells. After 36 hours. Now we have the human growth hormone kicking in and starting to regenerate new young, vibrant cells, which give us new vitality and new energy. And then after on day three, now we start having some meals, we're spacing our meals apart, though, so that we can eat the meal and have time for digestion have time for cleaning, before we eat the next meal, instead of just grazing all day long, which has become a real problem through COVID. And everybody at home and the refrigerators just there and we just continue to eat and the body never gets a chance to get into any deep cleaning. And so it can't do the extra work that's needed to help support the liver and the kidneys. And then we use some supplements as well to support the liver and kidneys to.
Michael Hingson 32:28 So how do you how do you respond to or what would you say about old products like nutrient systems where when you're trying to lose weight, they have a lot of special food. And they suggest that you eat a number of small meals every day, and shakes. But that what you're doing is you're changing your metabolism. Is that something that's totally contrary to what you talked about during the whole ongoing detox process? Or does it sort of coexist? Or how does that work?
Melissa Deally 33:05 I'm not familiar with their program per se. We do need to change people's metabolisms when they're trying to lose weight. And it depends where each individual is at in that journey. Some people when they're trying to lose weight have been you know, roller coaster or yo yo dieting for years and years. And all they know how to do is eat fewer calories and eat fewer calories and eat fewer calories. But while that might sound like it makes sense, if I eat less, I should lose weight. The body is designed to protect itself, and the body doesn't want you to starve it right. And so as you start lowering your calories lower and lower and lower, people will often find Well, I'm not losing weight anymore. And the reason is, is because the body is now holding on to every little bit of morsel of food that you're putting in not knowing when the next morsel is going to come and it doesn't want to starve. And so it's slowing down the metabolism. In order to have that have you tried to feel satiated for longer, right? And to protect itself from starvation and take longer to break down that meal? Will we need to actually be speeding up the metabolism and getting you moving? In order to have you actually lose weight? So again, it's kind of counterintuitive for people and if they're coming from that place, then having smaller meals more often might make sense. But I would be looking
Michael Hingson 34:35 really if it's really doing the job of helping to increase your metabolism. Exactly. And yeah, I'm not either yet but I'm starting to learn about it. But it makes sense if if it changes the metabolism. Clearly that's a good thing.
Melissa Deally 34:55 There are yes there's other ways we can be changing metabolism as well. little bit, I would be going to first.
Michael Hingson 35:03 Yeah, understand, but it is, but it is all about changing habits. It's all about changing mindsets, and it's all about giving the body what it really needs. And the things that you are saying are not magic. And I have heard them many times before. We, I know Karen and I tried to eat in a very healthy way. So we don't eat a lot of fried foods, we don't try to eat any more foods with chemicals than we have to we get food, we get meats and so on from sources where there are not preservatives introduced and things like that, although I'm sure that there are still some chemicals that exist. But still, it's, we do have to eat better. So chips aren't necessary every day.
Melissa Deally 35:51 Correct. And I love what you're saying is you're trying to make those healthy choices. But you're also recognizing that you can't do it 100%. So we do the best we can. And then we support the body in helping it to detox to get rid of the rest. And you're right chips aren't needed every single day. I teach the 8020 rule, right. So when people are finished their detox with me, I teach them how not to retox after the detox because that's obviously a really important step. If they've done all of this work, right, and they're feeling good, they don't want to go back to feeling the way they used to feel. And I'd teach them to make it a lifestyle, because you can't just do one detox in your life and think you're good to go. It's you know, do a 21 day detox to start, but quarterly do a seven day detox because the toxins are always coming in. And you need to keep always getting them out, right. And in between, we're living by the 8020 rule, where 80% of the time, you're choosing to eat in a way that nourishes and serves your body, and 20% of the time, okay, maybe that's not the best choice for your health, but you're out with friends, or it's someone's birthday, and you're celebrating a cake or you're watching a hockey game, and there's chips, whatever it is, you can plan around that in your week, because you know, when you're gonna have social things, and you don't have control over your food, and then you know, when you're at home, and you do have control over your food. And when we eat 80% of the time really well. And only 20% of the time we're not eating well, the body can cope with that. And it's not causing undue inflammation on the body and undo breakdown, etc, of cells and, you know, causing ill health. But when we do it the other way around, and 20% of the time we're eating well and 80% of the time we're not and we're living at fast food, joints, et cetera. That is where we're going to, you know, cause the ability to break down.
Michael Hingson 37:44 There is something to be said for the concept of Girl Scout Cookie, Thin Mints, however. And we we buy to support the Girl Scouts, but I put them in the freezer, we asked, I usually like to buy a case at a time, which is 12 boxes. Yeah, this year, somehow accidentally, when the order came, it was two cases which is worse. But unfortunately for the Girl Scouts being in the freezer and out of sight, those two cases will probably last us two or three years. Right. And, and it really is a treat, to eat to eat them. Both of us, fortunately, are not snackers, which is great. So we and we eat dinner. And that's basically it. And we sometimes will have dessert and sometimes not. But at the same time, you're right 80% of the time, we should really be eating as healthy as we can and we should be working in a way to keep our systems is free from chemicals and so on as possible. And for us, even 20% is probably high of the other, which is great.
Melissa Deally 38:55 Right. And so a couple of things that you've said there, you know, not eating after dinner is really beneficial for the body as well. Because that allows digestion to be completed before you go to bed. Ideally, we want to finish dinner two to three hours before we go to bed. Because when digestion has finished before we go to bed, then the body when you fall asleep can start detoxing. And that's when the body is designed to detox is overnight. But if the body's still in digestion mode because you ate and then went to bed, like within half an hour, the bodies too busy digesting to start detoxing. So you're not getting the same window of detoxing happening overnight. Plus you're not sleeping as well when the body's still in digestion mode, right because that uses energy too. So I just wanted to share that with you. So yeah, keep that up. And then also your comment about Girl Scout thin mint cookies. I know them very well because I'm a girl guide leader here in Canada have been for 17 years now. Both my daughters have funded trips to New York City. You to Europe by selling girl scout cookies among other things. And, and so is interesting because they're in the freezer, they are absolutely delicious. And sometimes when people are buying them, my daughters would give them tips on how to best enjoy them. And we would always be saying put them in the freezer, or maybe you crush them up and serve them over ice cream. I know Dairy Queen, here, the owners had a daughter and Girl Scouts or Girl Guides. And so at one point, they were serving Girl Guide, cookie, Dairy Queen ice cream sundaes and things. But those, they were something that I enjoyed, but I also had them in the freezer. So they were out of sight out in line. And we didn't buy case we buy a box or two, but they would last a long time. And they were very much a treat
Michael Hingson 40:49 when we buy a case, because we can afford to do that for the next couple of years. And so it's it's supporting the girls. And I want to do that too. So and that's
Melissa Deally 41:00 awesome. And you have many more flavors than we do. You've got like 12 flavors in the States, we just have the the mint slices. And then we have the chocolate vanilla creams in the spring,
Michael Hingson 41:09 we get pretty fixated on the Thin Mints. And so that's what
Melissa Deally 41:14 you have like 12 flavors there. But just back to our conversation on sales, I just want to say that my younger daughter in particular has developed, she's now at university, but she has developed incredible sales skills because of all of those years of selling girl scout cookies. And my older daughter did a really good job with it as well. And she what I found with her is she got really strategic at the age of five. And she figured out if I stand outside this store right in front of the exit so that people can actually go left or right, and they have to listen to me, I increase my sales.
Michael Hingson 41:53 The we have a market near us. And when you go into the market, there's an entryway. And you go into this little kind of area where the carts are stored and so on. And then you go into the store. And the girls have very strategically put themselves right between the two doors. Right? So you can't you can't miss them. Right? And then the really smart ones have learned to say things like, I would really appreciate it if you would buy a box or whatever of cookies as opposed to would you buy a box of cookies? Because the typical answer is going to be no but it is a lot harder, rightfully so to resist, I would appreciate it if you would write. Very sales tip for all the girls listening out there for next
Melissa Deally 42:46 year. One of the one time when my daughter really surprised me was somebody came along and she was outside a store and she had her cat blanket over a shopping basket and all the boxes of cookies decorated on top. And they said, Oh no, no, I don't want any cookies. I've bought too many already. I've eaten too many. And when chic. That lady came back out of the store, my daughter said to her, I know that you said you've eaten too many. But how much would your colleagues love it if you took some cookies to work with you tomorrow? There you are. And the lady bought cookies. And then my daughter went on and said, and probably you have some neighbors that would love a gift of a box of cookies. And so she ended up walking away with several boxes of cookies after that, so I thought that was brilliant. She came up with it on her own, I was just standing there for moral support. So as a selling cookies teaches these girls have, you know, a lot. And as we discussed at the very beginning, we are always selling no matter what what stage of life we're in. And so it's a very foundational skill, but they're learning.
Michael Hingson 43:58 So tell me a little bit more about deep tax programs. You have detox programs. And I believe that you can go to the store and other places and buy T dot detox programs. How are yours different? How did you get into that? Or where do you get them from love to know more?
Melissa Deally 44:15 Yeah, so my detox programs are created by a naturopathic doctor and my mentor who I did my integrative health practitioner training through and they're based on exactly what our physical body needs understanding the fact that we have overburdened and undernourished liver and kidneys. Whereas the programs that you buy in stores very often it's a detox tea, or it might be just a, you know, generic detox program, that if you think of an overflowing trash can, they might scrape off the amount that's overflowing but not actually empty the trash can. Whereas the program that I offer is literally picking Yep, that trash can and emptying it. And it's also guided, because it's very individual. And so I put clients on an app so that they can track how they're doing all of that information flows through to me, so I can support them. If they're struggling, I can cheer those on that are doing well. They have the ability to ask questions of me throughout. I provide recipes, because I want my clients to have that kind of success. And they get that by being supported. When you go and buy a program at the store. You don't have that support. You have to, you know, do it yourself, and how often do we give up on ourselves, right? We don't give up on other people, but we tend to give up on ourselves. So that's the main difference is the accountability piece, the support the guidance to customize it for each individual, because they're coming to it from a different place of health, as well as the fact that it's created by a medical doctor who studied Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese traditional medicine, and naturopathic medicine and taking the best of that to create this program.
Michael Hingson 46:03 Of course, the question that one would think of is, oh, gee, this must be pretty expensive. How, how much does it cost? I mean, obviously, no price is too high when you're truly trying to take care of your body. But economics are economics.
Melissa Deally 46:19 Exactly. So what is your health worth to you? Right, so the detox kit itself is 269 US dollars for the three weeks, that's not per week, that's for the three weeks, and for six of those days, you're not eating any foods, so you're saving on your grocery bill. So pretty reasonable price for a three week period. And then it depends whether people want to work with me in a group program or a one to one program as to what price point they pay for my services. And as you said, what it comes down to is what is your health worth to you. And while it might be a stretch for some people, when they start out working with me, by the time that they're through the detox program, they are so ecstatic by the results they've had, how much better they're feeling that they're telling me that I should be charging three times what I'm charging. So
Michael Hingson 47:09 I will also bet that for those who are interested in it, and are concerned about doing it, you will also lose weight from it. Or most likely you will
Melissa Deally 47:24 you absolutely you will, it starts the weight loss process for people in a really healthy, natural way. Because those toxins weigh something. And at the same time, I'm teaching about digestion, I'm teaching about eating the right way for your body and understanding nutritional myths and supplements. I'm teaching about sugar, where it's sneaking into your diet, et cetera, et cetera. And then as I said, how not to retox after your detox. So it starts the weight loss journey, that people then have the skills and the ability to maintain beyond the end of the program. And I put them into a detox grad membership program for people that do my group program with me and get all of this learning so that they can have monthly calls with me just to get their questions answered. And there's no charge for that. It's because I want to allow them to continue stepping into this choice of living healthy and improving their health and be connected to a community of like minded people.
Michael Hingson 48:26 What do you like best about what you're doing now? You obviously you're very enthused about it, what, what really stands out to you about what you're doing now.
Melissa Deally 48:35 I absolutely love seeing the results my clients get it is so fulfilling for me. And it brings me such joy from whether it's detox clients that are ecstatic that their, you know, long standing pain has gone away that they're sleeping like they've never slept before they wake up with energy, like all of those are big wins for people in our busy life. Right, too. You know, recently I had a client who suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for 40 years, and tried to get help from various doctors along the way. And then was referred to me by a mutual friend. And I suggested we run lab tests and see, you know, where her imbalances were. And she did that because she'd never been offered that before. And I suspected that there was probably some heavy metal toxin issues going on. And sure enough, there were and we started resolving that right away. I could see where her mitochondria levels were at. And you know, there are energy powerhouses, if they're not functioning properly, it's hard to have energy so we're able to support that I could see where her cortisol levels were, and why she was sleeping at such odd hours. Not to mention something as simple as blue light blocking glasses helped her sleep better. So all of these things that we implemented together just within two weeks of are starting my wellness protocol, she messaged me and said, I can't remember feeling this good. You've just given me 40 years of my life back. And I spent the last three days sewing a new quilt and pillowcases for our bed. And I work nine and 10 hour days. And I haven't been able to do that in 40 years. And messages like that just melt my heart, because I love those stories.
Michael Hingson 50:24 You mentioned lab tests. So how does that work? Because you do everything virtually right?
Melissa Deally 50:28 I do. And so the lab tests get mailed to people's homes, with the instructions on how to complete them. And then they mail them back to the labs and I get the results. And we review the results over zoom. And I write the wellness protocol for you. And I continue with a minimum of three follow up sessions. So we never just do one session. Again, that was a little bit of a gap in the market that I saw, it's great for people to be told what to do, but then do they actually go and do it. Right? Sometimes we already know what we need to do, and we're not doing it. So by having multiple follow up sessions, people are much more inclined to actually take action, follow the protocols, they know they can check in with me in between if they have questions, etc. And again, that support keeps people on track and gets them the results they're looking for.
Michael Hingson 51:21 So do you ever tell people to get the lab tests? And to do it right, go to the doctor's office? Are your tests the same? Are they different or what?
Melissa Deally 51:30 They're different. So the regular medical doctors don't have access to these, these are functional medicine lab tests. And I don't ever send anybody to a clinic, they literally get mailed to their home. And they're either a urine test saliva test, blood test or clipping of hair from the nape of the neck. And the blood test isn't a blood draw like you do at the doctor's office is literally prick your finger, and then let drops of blood fall down onto a card. And then you let the card dry. And you nail that off to the lab. So it's very easy for people to do their own labs at home. And they get very different information to what they've ever seen before. So they're powerful labs.
Michael Hingson 52:11 Which is, which is pretty cool, huh?
Melissa Deally 52:14 Yeah. So in terms of some of the information that people can get, as I said, we can assess for heavy metal toxins in the body, we can assess for mineral levels in the body, which is really important because in our stressed out world, we burn through our minerals when we're under stress, and then we become deficient. And then the body is you know, out of balance and can't bring itself back as we talked about earlier. And it also shows our mineral imbalances. So not only do we need to be deficient across the board with our minerals, but they need to be imbalanced with each other. There's another lab that shows if we have Candida, or bacterial overgrowth in our gut, mold or fungus, and it shows our neurotransmitter levels, because of the gut brain connection, it shows our vitamin levels, another lab shows our inflammation levels, people know or have heard that inflammation is the trigger of disease, it's not the root cause the root cause triggers that inflammation, and then that ongoing inflammation can trigger cells to turn on disease. But this test will assess our inflammation levels. So we know what's our risk, and can we bring our inflammation levels down. And when we know what they are, we absolutely can do that. Another lab looks at all of our hormones very, very important. Our sex hormones, or cortisol levels, or thyroid, insulin levels, vitamin D, and they're all interconnected. So having all of that in one lab is very powerful. And we can do food sensitivity labs. And then we can also do stool labs looking for parasites, h pylori, and all that kind of fun stuff that people don't want to talk about or know about. But there are reality, even in North America, they're not just developing country problems.
Michael Hingson 53:58 The the idea of, of doing a lot of these tests certainly must give you absolutely quantifiable information, then, as you pointed out earlier, you're a numbers person. So that probably gives you a good base then for helping people understand what they really need to do. And I would assume that for the most part, people accept that unless they're just incredibly skeptical and don't trust anything.
Melissa Deally 54:24 Usually those people don't buy the labs in the first place. And I've had some of those people and they question it and they go to their doctor, and their doctor will tell them that there's no validity in any of those labs. And that's fine. Like I'm not holding a gun to anybody's head, but for the people that are looking for answers or that really want to prioritize their health, that, you know, I always offer a discovery call to understand what their goals are, and I can show them what the lab results look like so they can get an idea of what they're going to get. And when people jump in and do the labs. They're excited to get their results and most of the time They're also excited to take action, because they want to feel better. And they've already done their detox with me at that point, because I start everybody with a detox. And they already know they're feeling better. And now they just want to continue that journey. And the reason I start everyone with the detox is a the reality we live in a toxic world and be, there's no point me giving someone a healing protocol, where they haven't done the detox and cleared out their pathways, because the healing protocol isn't all going to get to the cells that need it. If we clear out the pathways, it will, and then they get much faster results. It's kind of like that overflowing trashcan, again, it will stick an apple on the top, it's healthy, and you want it to get down inside the trashcan, if you put it on the top of an overflowing trash can, it doesn't go down inside, it just falls on the ground on the side doesn't get where we want it to go.
Michael Hingson 55:49 And you really you're really passionate about what you do. Were you ever this passionate when you had a career working in the hotel industry and so on. You
Melissa Deally 56:00 know, I absolutely loved that career as well. But it was a different kind of passion. And I, this passion that I have now about what I do is far greater simply because there is more fulfillment from it. Because I am changing lives, I am helping, you know, make the world a better place.
Michael Hingson 56:22 So what would you say to people that have encountered an unexpected thing in their life, a change some experience that they didn't expect? What would you say to help them become more of a mindset of feeling unstoppable, and being able to move on?
Melissa Deally 56:45 I would definitely encourage them to step back. And to as hard as it is, in the moment, to just keep reminding yourself, everything happens for us, not to us. And as I walk this path that will become apparent to me as to why this has happened. I don't know the answer right now. But to know that there's a reason. But when I look back with 2020 hindsight, I'm going to actually appreciate that this happened. And when we can bring ourselves into that headspace, we can release the regret, we can release beating ourselves up, we can release the sadness and the anger. And we get to move forward as opposed to staying stuck in our misery.
Michael Hingson 57:42 One of the things that I would add, I think the one major thing I would add to that is, when something unexpected happens, we worry about all sorts of things, we sometimes let our mind go in different directions. And I advise people don't worry about the things that you can't control, it will only stress you out, focus on the things you can, and the rest will take care of itself. And if you read thunder dog, if you get thunder dog, we talk a lot about that, because that's a major part of my experience in the World Trade Center. And recognizing that we have to focus on what we can control and not worry about the rest.
Melissa Deally 58:20 That is so very true. And I agree 100%. And at the start of the pandemic, I was doing daily meditations and just some learning for people. And that was one of the first lessons that I was teaching is to let go of what you can't control. Stop worrying about all the unknowns, and focus on what you can control. And when you bring yourself down into that space, again, you can release a lot of external stress.
Michael Hingson 58:48 What final things would you like to say to people, we're going to have to wrap this up? But do you have any final words that you would like people to remember when when we end this?
Melissa Deally 58:59 Sure i i would love people to remember the power of their mind. And their mindset and the way that they talk to themselves impacts their outcomes. And to think about how you talk to yourself and ask yourself if you talk to your best friend that way would they be your best friend. And if not, start talking to yourself as if you were someone that you love. And as you start to do that, life improves. And the other piece of that that I want people to know is that you can be empowered in your health. And if you're feeling that you're not, then definitely seek out practitioners that will help you get to that place of empowerment.
Michael Hingson 59:50 There's nothing wrong with using coaches coaches are to guide and to help teach they don't solve problems, but they're great teachers.
Melissa Deally 59:58 Exactly. We don't do it for you Are we guide?
Michael Hingson 1:00:00 Well, Melissa Deally welcome, or thank you very much for being here and welcome, everyone to Melissa's world. I hope that you've enjoyed this. I really have learned a lot and greatly appreciate the advice and suggestions that you brought us. And I hope that we get to do this again soon.
Melissa Deally 1:00:23 Well, thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate the opportunity to share this message and start changing the global the health of our global community and improving it for the better.
Michael Hingson 1:00:35 So if people want to reach out to you and learn about the courses that you teach and the programs that you have, and how to take advantage of them, how do they do that?
Melissa Deally 1:00:46 Best place to go is my website, which is yourguidedhealthjourney.com. And people can book a complimentary call with me if they would like to discuss their health goals, they can also find my discover your toxic load quiz on my website, as well and take the quiz to figure out how toxic you are. And don't be shocked if the score is high. It's great to know that because then you know that you can bring it down.
Michael Hingson 1:01:13 You see though the website one more time,
Melissa Deally 1:01:15 yourguidedhealthjourney.com
Michael Hingson 1:01:19 There you go. Well, Melissa, thanks very much. And I want to thank you for listening to us today. Please give us a five star rating. I think that what Melissa brought us in the way of a message deserves that. And I hope you do as well. So we'd love a five star rating. We'd love you to reach out and let me know what you think of our episode today and unstoppable mindset in general. You can reach me Michael Hingson at Michaelhi M I C H A E L H I at accessiBe A C C E S S I B E.com. Michaelhi@accessibe.com And you can also reach me and learn more about the unstoppable mindset podcast by going to www.Michaelhingson.com/podcast. And again, give us a five star rating. When you do or wherever you get your podcast from we would certainly appreciate it. So again, Melissa, thanks very much. We really appreciate you being here today.
Melissa Deally 1:02:23 Thank you for having me and I look forward to seeing you again soon Michael
Michael Hingson 1:02:27 will will do it.
Michael Hingson 1:02:32 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.
