Have you ever considered how you might regain your good health or maintain the health you have? How about the excitement and challenge of downsizing and this after living on a farm? Well, on today's podcast, it is my distinct pleasure to have my friend, an amazing gracious lady as my guest, Pam Hedge. Pam is married to her best friend and they just recently downsized to tiny living. She and her husband reside in a 29 foot fifth wheel outside of Aiken, South Carolina. Pam Retired after 30 years in the publishing industry. The last 11 years spent as the owner, publisher, designer, and editor of her own magazine called all things country. Both her health and her husband had been transformed through plexus and now she shares what she has learned, helping others regain health and vitality. Pam is a passionate kind, caring person by nature and knowledgeable health and wellness coach and network marketer for plexis worldwide. This is a terrific combination for those who are under her care. When Pam isn't helping people change their health and their lives, she enjoys spending her own yarn and knitting. She particularly likes knitting socks. Pam is a proud mom to one daughter who lives in Idaho and delighted to be a grandma to a granddaughter. Pam and her husband Dave share their home with three dogs who rule their lives. Abby, the senior lab and two very spoiled Yorkies Dixie and champ. Pam, thank you so much for joining me on today's podcast. Well, thank you Sandra. I am just thrilled. It's great to have you here. And I'm going to just jump in because I know our listeners want to hear about your, your health journey and what that all entailed. So if you would tell me about your journey to regain your health and that of your husband's. Well, it, it actually started quite by accident. If you would have asked me in February of 2014, I would have told you I was pretty healthy. And so is my husband other than, you know, we were at 50 and you know what happens when you turn 50. So, um, anyway, he had a stroke. He had a stroke and just opened my eyes. He spent a week in UK hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. And they figured out that there wasn't really much they can do about it because of where it was located in the top of his head. So they sent them home with a bag full of medications and they literally turned him into a Zombie. But man I did, I knew for 20 years, wasn't there anymore. He was sleeping all the time. He never did that. He, he, he just was different. So I had actually just a couple more months before that started drinking this pink drink and a friend of mine had been sharing with me and I put her off and put her off and put her off. Finally relented. Well, after Dave had his stroke, I thought I need to do some more research. They have leather products, um, I need to research what all they have. So I got him going on their vitamins and they had a bad that we have an excellent probiotic and, and an Omega product that has five Omegas versus just have three. And I helps his heart and his brain. So I got all all of that into him and he started feeling better. So. And I'm a researcher by nature, my nature, so I have just tried to learn everything I can about the ingredients are all plant based ingredients. Um, it, it's really the best solution I found for our healthcare. Well, that's pretty, uh, pretty amazing. Um, just to what you went through and, and how you've noticed even the benefit for your husband and what he went through with the stroke. Yeah. So dovetailing off that with the benefits, what have you noticed? What have you experienced in improving your, your own personal health? Personally, I, I sleep better. That's what I noticed right off the bat. And when I wake up in the morning, I'm ready to get up and I could before I could lay there for half hour an hour to myself, I didn't even want to get up, you know, that felt good. Now when I wake up, it's my eyes are open and I'm ready for the day because you're feeling rested. I slept all night. I just feel clear. What do I need to get and do and everything we put in our bodies is different. Right. And I'm not saying we were not on a diet, so to speak. Some people are, some people aren't what, what Dave and I noticed is, you know, I used to make him dinner and he ate two hamburgers along with everything else. Pretty soon he was fall after one hamburger. You, you're, you get full. You don't even realize it really. But, and then it got to the point where if I put too many chemicals in my body, I couldn't tell. You can tell by the taste of the food. Even so. Well, we put in our bodies is different and our mindset is much clearer now. Uh, another great benefit, especially if you have a husband that is one of those people when he's sick, Dave's not been sick for four years. He had that stroke, but he's not had a cold, is not had tonsillitis. His glands used to swell up on him two or three times a year. He's not been sick. And he was a terrible patient. Terrible driving me crazy. Know that that's been a blessing. You know, I was gonna say that's a benefit right there you can imagine. And the other thing I really noticed is from so many years of being a graphic artist, my bones in my shoulders, I went to the doctor, had a Max raid, they told me I had degenerative bone disease. Oh. And I literally could not raise my arms above my shoulders without pain. And it got to the point where every month before my paper got published, I would have to go to the chiropractor and have him work on me and then go to my massage therapist and have her work on me. Yes. To get through that. That week I put the magazine together that that all went away. And, and I can't say that degenerative bone disease went away. What it was, is I had so much inflammation in me that now everything just kind of works. Right? A lot of it I, you know, I used to look at people and because I've always been big my whole life thinking, oh, I'm just fat. I was never that fat was just inflamed areas of abuse and antibiotics and processed foods. Mcdonald's, it all adds up. It all adds up. In the end, you, you're hearing all, all the time now more and more about gut health. It really is a thing. Listen to your gut. We've heard that our whole lives, right? We should have been. Yeah, we should have been paying attention. I know. I should've been. [08:23] Oh, that's, that's actually very inspiring and exciting even to hear about that. Just the whole inflammation thing and that wasn't so much that you were overweight as you were really inflamed and your body was showing it, um, that it was wanting help and you gave it help it sounds like. And it took me awhile. It, I've lost it right at 80 pounds over the period of four years and I didn't lose anything for two years. Scales never really changed. My clothing got and my face got skinnier. It was all just that inflammation coming out. What does my body really and eliminate? Or the candy, the yeast that's in your system to. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a whole nother subject, right? Yeah. And you said for the first two years you really didn't notice a scale difference. Like you wouldn't have a scale victory, but you were noticing other non scale victories, like your clothing size change or face slimming down and no more inflammation and you're sleeping better. Feeling pretty awesome. Yeah. And other things to Dave's words disappeared. That's incredible. Uh, my feet. I've always had very scaly feet on the bottom of my feet. Of course I don't like shoes much anyway. I've always abused my feet. My beautician's will tell you that. Um, but yeah, once I got my gut healthy than all that white scaly stuff came off my feet. That's amazing. Those are what we call non scale victories. [10:17] Well, so as you're talking about these victories, I know they're, I'm, I'm assuring that you had made either hitting some roadblocks or some obstacles while you were on this transition to better health. Would you share with our listeners what you may have come up against? Well, you know, a lot of it is everyone thinks I lost all my weight by dieting and that couldn't be farther from the truth. It took me 52 years and diets I gassed clear back into high school. Uh, my mom sent me to hypnosis, I like to hypnosis with Dr Stipe for two years. That's right. And that's probably why to this day. I don't like to eat, I don't like the act of eating. I have to force myself to eat because of that. But I've been on diets before. Right. And, and I had an aunt that lost all kinds of weight on the Atkins Diet years ago, but after that she got colon cancer. Oh. And then the more research you see, uh, that was a big thing that happened to people that followed the Atkins Diet. So you're like, oh, I learned that, you know, the first three letters of diet is die. Yeah. I just, we want, we want, we just have decided that we eat healthier rotatable eatable ice cream every night. We do, but we don't. Yeah, I'd rather have a bowl of fruit. Well, and I, I like what you also said, Pam, was that though you lost weight, you see it on the scale. Now the scale registers that, but it's really not so much dieting because it was, your body was so inflamed and I wonder how many of us on, you know, at least in America, how many of us, um, we, me being one of them, we need to lose weight, I need to go on a diet, need to do these things and we want to eat healthy and we're making healthier choices, but we still haven't lost the weight. And I, I wonder how much of it is the inflammation as you shared because that sure sounds like compelling truth that our bodies are inflamed with what nutrition we're giving them or not giving them. Exactly. And I believe inflammation is a major thing even with Lupus and fibromyalgia and, and of course once a person's diagnosed with them, then they're on a medication regimen forever, which exasperates the problem. Uh, I, I'm not saying plexus, heels, anything, I'm just in its worse looking into gut health. Absolutely. Whatever form or fashion you do it. I personally have liked what's happened with me, but anyone can go to a health food store. It's just that not everyone knows Exactly. Well, which leads me to this next question, Pam, is what support and resources did you use that assisted you in meeting your health goals? So you've touched on it a little bit, but could you elaborate for our listeners a little bit more? Uh, I, you know, through my plexis journey, I've are applying that research is above me and it's unlike any plexuses a multilevel marketing company. Uh, I believe that's changed over the years. I know it has with ours was our company. We have 200,000 probably customers and 20,000 ambassadors. At least I couldn't. I could message anyone of them at any time, 24 hours a day. It doesn't even really matter if you know them or if you've met him. We're all here for each other. So that's quite a network of if you need some encouragement or if you had a question. Yeah, you could use, that's. Yeah. We have doctors, we have nurses at now, our corporate offices. We do, we have the researchers. I've met the doctors I've met this year at convention. I met the doctor, created our joy, Yom Harvard and mit graduate, you know? Yeah. We, we have the clinical trials now to backup our products to when I joined plexes, a very new company. Things have changed a lot as far as as we grew. Tarell and Alec Robinson May or thorough analysis. Clark made the decision to spend more in research, get the, get the clinical trials because they both believe in this. It's done amazing things. I've seen it do amazing things for many families and not just through their health, through their, we call it the health and happiness company. It's one of the most incredible business opportunities I've ever come across too. Oh, that's how my grandfather was an Avon lady for 24 years and technically I guess that was considered an Mlm. I work from home. Yeah. Mary Kay or Herbalife Avon. My grandmother loved it and she was a quintessential Avon Lady. Oh, that's awesome. That's beautiful. What's the most? The milky. His skin and she believed in Avon with all her heart and she made that her living for 24 years after she retired as a union man. That's awesome. Oh, good for her, good for her. And her granddaughters followed in her footsteps because you're part of an Mlm and plexus I know is really a solid company. And so where can our listeners contact you for more information about plexis? Uh, my website is plexus people.com that takes you right to my website and then there you can find information on the clinical trials. Uh, all our products, which we only have 17 products. We, you know, we have a multivitamin, we have a mega x, which is our plant based Omega replaces fish oil. We have our probiotic which is freeze dried and it's just amazing. It gets clear to your stomach before it starts activating and that's why it's so effective. Uh, a lot of probiotic, especially if you take a probiotic that needs to be refrigerated, you take that and you put it in your system and 98 degrees it starts activating immediately and most of it doesn't get to your gut. Oh my goodness. Down your throat. That's. But I had not thought about that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I always knew you wanted to get refrigerated, kind [inaudible] was supposed to be better, but now the. Yeah, that makes sense. Our body isn't refrigerated. Well, you'll have a real healthy throat. Pam, I also know that you're a blogger and have recently downsized to a tiny living. So would you tell our people a bit more about your, your blogging and about your downsize living and what were some of the challenges and what are some of the things that you're especially enjoying? I love to, of course, you know, as is my live tiny living came, came around after another accident, quite literally. I got in a car wreck just a year after dave stroke again, Kevin Holmes and deliver in my magazine and I rolled my car and gotten a bad rap And I just kinda took it as the final message from our Alara than I needed to be doing something to their fruit. I'm here. I was the only employee and I'm laying in the hospital, you know, my sales person who's sitting next to me, but between the two of us, we can't keep this thing running. And uh, it was a tough couple months of course, but we got back in it, but I just kept looking around our 3000 square foot home, especially during my rehabilitation and there was just too much. The only thing that really mattered to me during them three weeks was, well, it was sitting on the other end of the couch with me and my husband. Hm. That's really what it came down to. We, yeah, we just, we had too much and yeah, we couldn't do what we wanted to do because we had too much and we were taken care of too much. And I finally asked myself if I, what I was doing today was getting me any closer to where I wanted to be tomorrow. And the answer was no, no, we were just killing ourselves. So that's when we started the whole hold down sizing. Dave started watching those tiny living shows on TV ran. That just kind of piqued our interest. And then I kinda got to the mindset where I started picking things up and looking at it, especially as I was dusting, what does this really mean to me? Life changing tomorrow if I didn't have this in my hand and well that's quite a process. Wow. Mindset saying, excuse me, like I said, it really came down to of course, you know, having a major accident and wondering why I survived that because I should have went through the fence instead of flew over them and it would've been a much different story. Um, but I, I only have so many days left. Each of us were put on this earth was so many days and my days are getting shorter so I, I'm not done. I'm not done with what I want to do. But what, how wise you were to. And I like [inaudible] I'm in a transition as you and I shared that, you know, getting ready for a move, but just as you're picking up things or dusting them or having to move things because you're dusting them, you know, how relevant or important is this thing to hold onto it because we have so many things and those things end up weighing us down. So you were so wise to already go through that process and and start processing that as you were getting ready to downsize. When you think about it when you're holding some. Yeah. I could hold something and say, Oh, I bought this in Florida. You still have the memory, right? You have the memory of when you bought it. So the memory is the most important thing anyway. And not having to dust all that stuff usually a lot more time. Well, and I also like Pam, when you were going through your recovery after you're, you're a terrible accident and your husband's still recovering from a stroke, that you know it really, you, you got it. That, that connection that you know, this whole podcast series about art of connection, that you realized what's important was right at the end of the couch. Right? Right. There, your husband. That connection, that relationship and so that it just brought tears to my eyes. I thought, that's so wonderful that you said that, that that's really what it's all about. That's what I married him for, to spend my life with them. That's right. Not with a bunch of ceramics or memorabilia that you need to dust your husband. So what was the biggest obstacle with this transition to tiny living? Well, you know, the downsizing part. I'm still downsizing now. We just moved from a class C motorhome up into a fifth wheel devil. My space maybe to 200 square feet. I'm living big. Yeah, large. There's still stuff I'm throwing away the or, and I'm not throwing away because if it made it this far and someone else can use it. So whether it's going to the Spca or goodwill, whoever needs it, if you need it. I've got it. I've been helped many times in my life and it's time for me to help. Well, and I know you say it's time for you to help you have a helping heart and I know you've always done that because that's just who you are. Um, well Pam, what about the biggest delights you found? What? This transition? Oh, by far, the time freedom. I was by very smart lady when I was in my early twenties. That time means everything. And, and then I in order for 30 years, because I spent every bit of my time working to support my mom, my daughter, you know, running around doing this, doing that. I forgot just how valuable my time was. And by the time I remembered how valuable my time was, my daughter is married with a child of her own and I'm not her main priority anymore. Yeah. Right. Ten years I was the goto person and, and then all of a sudden she's gone and now what? So. And I still didn't learn because heck, I was 57 years old before I decided that my time means a lot to me. The other thing is being able to be a wife again, and that might sound funny, but I always wanted to live in a little house on the prairie days where you got to cook and clean and make a home for your hardworking husband. Okay. Horse for 30 years, David, you know, there was a point where Dave and I work different shifts. It was actually a point in Oregon where Dave, Jenny and I all three work different shifts and rarely saw each other. That's not life. That's working for a living, I guess instead of living to work and that's what I do and it's because we've acquired so much. Yeah, yeah. We've acquired way too much and it costs money to take care of all those things and you and Dave have wisely see matt and transition to a tiny living. I think it's very inspiring and my husband and I are looking forward to doing the same thing as well as we move back to our home state as I'm getting ready to do that. That's exciting. So I thank you for sharing that, Pam, and with your blog, um, could you tell us where people could follow you on your blog? It's called leaving footprints. Sixty one.blogspot.com. Calm. I like that. Leaving footprints. [email protected]. Is that correct? I'll send you all right. That'd be great because I know our listeners would like to check in with you and they can check in with you again at plexis. Could you give us your website for that again, Pam, before we sign off today. Terrific. Terrific. Well, Pam, thank you so much for spending this time with me and sharing with our listeners about your health journey and all that you've discovered. It's just been a delight and I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I hope all of you have just totally blessed day. Thank you so much and listeners, thank you so much for joining. Pam and I today on the art of connection. This is Sandra Vernon. You can follow me also on instagram or facebook at facebook. It. Thank you.