The Wellth Factor with Stevyn Guinnip

I'm the Founder & CEO of Grow Wellthy™ and the creator of the Wellth Academy™. As a financial advisor's daughter who became an exercise physiologist & certified wellness coach, I help financial professionals earn back their health so they can retire wellthy.

I grew up as a financial advisor's daughter. For over 30 years my father helped a lot of people build financial portfolios to protect their wealth and prepare for retirement. I worked in his office growing up and always wondered why some of his clients would save and work hard their entire lives only to get sick or die prematurely.

It seemed like such a waste to me!

What bothered me even more was watching financial advisors, who know how to plan for the future, ignore their own health for decades. I kept asking myself, “What good is wealth if you don’t have your health?”

Fast forward....I became an exercise physiologist, a certified health & wellness coach, and founder of Grow Wellthy.

Now I help successful money managers use their financial expertise to recession-proof their health so they can live a life of wellness, freedom, happiness, and a body oozing with confidence. I work with financial sector professionals, their firms, and their clients. I help them create a game plan that applies sound financial principles to their pursuit of health so they can thrive physically, both now and in the future.

I have a master's degree in exercise physiology, and I'm also a certified wellness coach. For 20 years, I searched for answers - trying to figure out why the US was in the middle of a health crisis that the people in my industry couldn’t fix.

In the name of health & wellness, I've done it all.

I did research for the NIH (National Institutes of Health) on exercise and high blood pressure. I was an in-home personal trainer for wealthy clients. I ran corporate wellness programs, cardiac rehab programs, and group fitness programs. It all works so well on paper. It all works so well in the lab.  All the certifications, degrees, and conferences say the same thing. Get to the gym. Work out in your target heart rate zone. Eat a certain number of calories. Lift weights with sets and reps 3 times a week. You get the picture.

But I know from my experiences in the real world that that we can throw most of that out the window. Thankfully research has caught up to this idea in the last couple of years, too. So believe me when I say that you don't need to do any of that stuff to get healthy, lose weight, and protect yourself from chronic disease in the future.

My own struggle & revelation...

I had always been active, thin, and fit when I was young. My lifestyle...or body chemistry...or genetics - or maybe all 3 - made it seem.

But, then I turned 40. I got a stressful desk job. And I had an emergency hysterectomy all around the same time. (read more on that here)

BOOM! The body I once knew was no longer the same.

My hormones disappeared literally overnight. My desk job pinned me behind a computer all day, so it was no longer easy to stay active, and I was under constant stress trying to build a business in a foreign country.

Also, around 40 is a common age for people to notice a significant decline in health - metabolism slows down, muscle mass decreases, and risk of chronic disease increases, etc.

I was hit with a quadruple whammy - age, hormones, a desk job, and high stress.

During the year following my surgery, I was on a negative spiral downward in my health. My weight climbed. My waist thickened. My energy plummeted. I was in adrenal fatigue. My blood sugar crept out of the normal ranges, and I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes.

My frustration and fear grew. I kept thinking to myself…”I have a master’s degree in exercise physiology. I earned the most sought-after certification in my industry (American College of Sports Medicine). I’ve been coaching other people for years. How can I not figure this out for myself?!”

I beat myself up because the things that used to work for me to maintain my weight didn’t work anymore.

Yes, my life-threatening surgery changed my body forever. Yes, I got a desk job and had an intimate knowledge of stress. Yes, I was over 40 now. But that is how I figured out the answer. I now see those things as a gift.

Because, at a time when I needed help, conventional health and wellness 'wisdom' failed me.

But I found the solution and would love to show it to you, too.

My pre-diabetes is gone. A1C and fasting blood sugar are normal! I lost 20 lbs in 10 weeks and my waist shrunk 4 inches. I can't tell you how incredible it feels to have my peace of mind back. I know I'm no longer on the road to chronic disease.

Interestingly enough, I realized along the way that people in the financial industry are uniquely equipped to win at their health. (Remember, I’m a financial advisor’s daughter. I have 30 years of second-hand FA knowledge under my belt.)

That’s why I founded Grow Wellthy and why I only work people who understand financial principles. They will get it, and when they are ready, they will be successful.

Stevyn Guinnip, MS, CWC

Wellth Advisor, Founder & CEO

www.growwellthy.com

www.ageucational.com

Full Transcript Below 

Terry - AGEUcational (00:02):

Hello, and welcome

Roy - AGEUcational (00:02):

To another episode of educational. Uh, this is Roy I'm Terry. So, uh, this show, you know, we are, uh, a brand new podcast and, uh, just what we want to do is strive to bring a lot of topics surrounding aging, healthy aging, things that we can do to age better things that we can do once we age. And also some things that we can do better to, uh, you know, help slow down that aging process. So we'll be, uh, talking about our journey, monetary with our parents, as well as you know, in our life. And then we also bring, um, want to bring on subject matter experts and professionals in different fields in order to give us some good commentary on, uh, you know, other diverse topics. So with that, I'll turn it over to

Terry - AGEUcational (00:53):

Yeah, today we're very excited to have Steven Guinnip. She is an exercise physiologist, a certified health and wellness coach, and she is also the founder of grow wealthy, w E L L T H Y. She grew up as a financial advisor's daughter and for over 30 years, she watched her father helped many people grow their wealth and their portfolios portfolios, excuse me, to protect their wealth and perfect prepare for retirement. She worked in his office while she was growing up and often wondered why people would save and work hard their entire lives only to get sick or die prematurely. Um, and ask the question what good as well. If you don't have your health, Steven, welcome to the show. We're so glad that you decided to join us today.

Stevyn (01:49):                                                                                                              

Thank you so much, Terry and Roy, I'm so happy to be here.

Terry - AGEUcational (01:53):

Yeah. If you, if you don't mind, um, you, if you can kind of go through your, um, your background, your professional background, as well as we'll talk about your personal journey and why you are where you are today.

Stevyn (02:11):

Of course, yes. I was an athlete in school. I'm five 10, but I was a gymnast. I never should have been a gymnast. Yes, I was too tall and I was a swimmer also. And so I was always very active. And like you said, I grew up in the house of a financial advisor. So I have what I call second hand knowledge of the financial industry, kind of like secondhand smoke, but it's all, all good for you. And, um, I considered my dad to be in a helping industry. He really helped people with their peace of mind as they were aging and taking care of their family members and making sure that they had enough. And I decided to go into a helping industry as well, but on the flip side, which was health as opposed to wealth. And I started out with a master's degree in exercise, science, kinesiology, and physiology.

Stevyn (03:06):

And I S I actually, my first job out of my master's work was working for the NIH, the national institutes of health, looking at high blood pressure and the effects of exercise on women, if you could actually exercise your way out of medication. Wow. And what was really interesting, I'll just take one second to explain this is that the same study was done on men, and it was enough with men to exercise three times a week for 45 minutes in your target heart rate zone. And that would reduce blood pressure enough to get off of medication many times, but with women, it was not true. And that sparked my curiosity. Why, why could people respond so differently even across from gender to gender, um, to the same type of engagement. So I began a career of an exercise physiologist from that point forward, working with all kinds of clients.

Stevyn (03:57):

Um, I, I think I've counted and tried to calculate over 5,000 client hours of all kinds of people with different diseases, disabilities, you know, goals, helping people lose a hundred pounds to helping people who have bleeding disorders to still stay healthy and, uh, corporate wellness and cardiac rehab. So I did that for 20 years and then I moved to Australia and I was, uh, I was there in the fitness capacity to launch a kettlebell program. My family and I went, my kids were four and eight at the time. And we left our family here, extended family, and moved to down under and there. So I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (04:39):

No, I said, wow. That's Oh yeah. Culture shock. Yeah. So

Stevyn (04:45):

Many great things about Australia. And one of them is that people seem happier. They seem less stressed, and that was palpable to us coming from the States as we stay there about a year and a half. And then when we moved back, it felt like this heavy blanket of stress kind of fell over us. And, you know, just like the American kind of striving for more all the time and just working harder. And it made me really reassess what it is that I do, because as I said, I worked on everything from the exercise side of things, and then understanding that there are lifestyle factors that affect your health outside of exercise. And there are what I call the low-hanging fruit. It's the stuff that everybody can work on. And it doesn't require a lot of activity or effort. And, um, those are the first three steps that in my four step step plan, I guess, is doing the things that don't involve exercise.

Stevyn (05:40):

Um, and so because of that, about five years ago, I did a complete one 80 on what I do. And instead of getting, trying to get people to move and go to the gym, I now get, try to get people to just, um, I guess, address in a really proactive way, the lifestyle diseases, what causes those lifestyle style diseases. And according to the CDC, there's seven of them that are the most common, and maybe we can link to that link or something, but the seven most common have to do with brain diseases, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, those kinds of things that we're all pretty comfortable with or familiar with. Um, but there are lifestyle diseases and we can do so much in the workplace at home, um, with our loved ones to help protect us from going there. So that's why I do what I do now.

Roy - AGEUcational (06:27):

Well, nice. Yeah. And that was, I'm glad you said that about, uh, other things we can do besides the gym. Cause I was fixing to have to cut this interview short so I could go get my 45 minutes in and get my blood pressure back down. So we'll take a breather on that. And uh, so yeah, and you know, it's funny you talk about diabetes and I was just looking the other day, um, cause we have another podcast where we talk about some health eating and things like that. And um, you know, diabetes is kind of double edge because not only is it, I think number seven on the list of things that will kill you, but it also is a heavy contributor to number nine. We know which is I think the renal failure. And so between that and the high blood pressure, um, you know, those are things that we all need to pay more attention to. And you know, a lot of us, me I'll be, I'll throw myself under the bus and say, you know, sometimes we know we have it, but if we don't, uh, actually take our readings or go to the doctor, then everything's okay because it's not, you know, in the forefront of our mind, which you don't know exactly. Exactly.

Stevyn (07:34):

Yeah. It's easy to kind of ignore it that way. Isn't it? Yeah.

Roy - AGEUcational (07:38):

But you know, the, in this show, I think one thing that really stuck out one reason why I wanted to reach out to you is because I, I really enjoyed your play on, uh, wealth, wealth. See, Oh my gosh, we've had this conversation. Well, wealth, wealth, wealth, and wellness. Oh my gosh. Well grow wealthy so well, yeah. Well wealth advisor, w E L L. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's, you know, it's, it's a really a cool play on words and it goes along with, um, you know, something we were thinking about is that, like you said, is that we, um, we try very hard to save enough money where we don't outlive that. But unfortunately, um, nowadays we tend to outlive our wellness, uh, probably a very higher rates than we do run out of money.

Stevyn (08:33):

Yeah. And I think that what you're referring to is what I, I, um, teach about the health span versus the lifespan. So we might be living longer, but we're not living well longer. And so it's kind of what, what I've heard said is, is we, we live short and we die along. And so it's a long, slow, painful, uncomfortable, expensive, um, kind of meeting toward the end of our lives when it would really, if we could just kind of correct some of these things in our lives, like our, our low-level movement and sedentary penis and our stress and what we're putting into our bodies, as far as food goes, we could kind of earn back some of that quality of life and we could live long and then we could die short, which is much more appealing to more people. And so I see wealth as being twofold. Wealth is your money, which is kind of like, like if you were in a car, your, your wealth, your money would be the gas in the car. How far can it get you? And then that car, your wealth, like w E L L your wellness would be the actual physical structure of the car itself. So do you have flat tires? Is your oil leaking, you know, is your engine overheating because without one or the other, you're not going to make it that far. Right. Right.

Roy - AGEUcational (10:00):

Yeah. And, you know, we, the, as we age that, um, you know, things just start happening and, and, you know, that's a concern I'm getting to that point that it's like, well, you know, what's it going to be like in 20 years? And so I need to, you know, it's been kind of an awakening to start taking better care, getting in better health because, uh, I mean, you know, um, you see these guys and well, we'll just, uh, hate to get political, but, you know, we were actually watching the, uh, today, we were actually watching the inauguration. I'm thinking, you know, by, in the 78 years old and he gets around good. I mean, you know, it hasn't been that many years ago that when you were 65 or 70, you know, you were in the rocking chair and on the cane. And so just to see the people of age and the way they're out there moving. And, um, I think it's, um, but it's probably a tribute to the way that they've lived their life up to that point. I don't think you wake up at 75 and say today, I'm going to get in shape and do all these things yet. You can have some effect, but the, the real big effect is probably, uh, you know, uh, a life, uh, uh, life of committed to that lifestyle.

Stevyn (11:16):

Yeah. Yeah. And I, I call that the wellness window, and it's roughly speaking between 40 and 60 years old ish, that if you really make wellness a focus, then, um, it's called your next 8,000 days. So wife can basically be, be chopped up into four sets of 8,000 days or 22 years. And that middle range, the four, uh, 40 to 60, your, your range is really like, if you do that one, well, then your next 8,000 days, which is, you know, your seventies and eighties, um, you're going to be a lot more spry, healthier on less medications. And, um, so what I teach clients to do is to prepare now for your next 8,000 days.

Terry - AGEUcational (12:07):

That's a great analogy. I mean, I that's, that's awesome. And, you know, we're, we're talking to our, um, audiences, all it's educational, so it's for older, more mature people. Um, but it's also for their caretakers as well. So this was a great, um, great time to have you on and talk about this. Um, can you talk a little bit about your, um, your personal health issue that made you do do a little bit of what you're doing?

Stevyn (12:46):

Of course, yes. Yeah. I was actually, when I was living in Australia, we were, um, on our way headed back in about eight weeks. And I ended up with an emergency hysterectomy in Australia in the middle of the night on a holiday. And it was like this big dramatic, almost die kind of thing. Cause I got septic. And because of that experience, I had to go through six weeks of recovery and really strong antibiotics. So immediately kind of overnight, all my hormones were taken away and all of my gut bacteria was destroyed. And if you know much about health and follow, what's kind of happening right now, your gut health really predicts your physical health and long-term chronic disease prevention, um, on how much good bacteria you've got in mind was just completely destroyed. And so over the next year I gained weight. Like I've never gained before.

Stevyn (13:42):

And that's very indicative of a lot of people who are going through menopause or they they're beyond menopause and their hormones are changing or maybe men, their testosterone is dropping. All of a sudden, you kind of find yourself like, Oh, this isn't the body I had before. It's not responding the way that I'm used to it responding. And so it's kind of like, um, you know, you have life events, like maybe you have a child or there's a death in the family, or you get married. There are those points in your life. When you reassess your financial security, it's the same for your health. There are points in your health when you want to reassess and you just want to say, okay, what's changed. How is my body different or unique at this point in life? And what can I do to help, um, help it along and, and, and make sure that I'm not getting sicker faster than I need to be.

Stevyn (14:32):

And one of the main things that I run across is that, especially for caretakers or even people who are in a care situation, they're being cared for is that stress goes up. It just skyrockets. And when you've got the cortisol and the stress hormones running around your body, it's almost like they're kind of just pinging and touching everything and damaging cells. And you end up in a worse place than you could have. So sometimes that self-assessment is as simple as like I'm in a really stressful situation. I'm not super happy about what can I do to reframe that, to create a different mindset, shift my paradigm, or create some things that are going to bring some happiness and joy either to me, my caregiver, my parents, whatever that is. That's a valid reason for your health to take a, take a nosedive and people just kind of brush it off and say, Oh, it's okay. I'll just, that's not that big of a deal, but it is. Yeah. And, and it's important to, to assess that early and often daily.

Terry - AGEUcational (15:31):

Yeah. Caretakers, you know, they, well, everybody, they don't think about themselves and you got to take care of yourself in order to be able to take care of somebody else. So that it's just so important to do that. Yeah.

Roy - AGEUcational (15:46):

And you have to think about, um, the other part is if you don't take care of yourself and you're not there to provide the care for your loved one who is going to do that. Cause you know, a lot of times it may, you may be the person of last resort. There may not be a backup. So, you know, we have to think of that for sure. I've got some more questions on the caregiver aspect, but one thing you mentioned was our gut health. And so, um, you know, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but there's a, I've seen a lot of information about probiotics. And even for men, I think it's a generally more used to be more suggested for women. But now they're saying, you know what, this gut health, that it's important. So, um, you know, I, I found one and was taking it for a while, but then I read some research and said, well, if you take it every day, you're defeating the purpose because man, it's been a while since I read that. But anyway, it's so finally I was just like, all right, I don't know what to take it or not to take it. I'm just quitting. So, so what's kind of the, uh, what's the science behind the probiotics.

Stevyn (16:51):

There's two things to keep in mind when you want a healthy gut. Um, one is probiotics, which are the actual bugs themselves, you know, the living organisms. And then there's the prebiotics and prebiotics are the food for the probiotics. So if you're going to have a healthy colony of this bacteria in your gut biome, then they need to have something to eat that they like to eat. And so you could have the bacteria in your system from a probiotic, but if you're not feeding it well with things like asparagus or apples or onions, you know, those kinds of things that are prebiotics, um, if you're feeding it with cookies and cakes and packaged, who knows what, they're not going to like that food and they're going to die out anyway. So you can be taking a probiotic, but if your diet doesn't support it, it's really not going to do that much for you.

Stevyn (17:44):

The second part of that is there's so many colonies, so many different strains of probiotics that you don't want to stick with the same one. So, you know, finding a bottle that's in the refrigerator section of the health food store, not on the shelf because they might not be surviving the shelf life. So the refrigerator section, then when that bottle is gone, then get a different kind. That's got a different strain because the health comes in the variety or the diversification, if we want to use money terms of your gut. And so having both sides of that is important.

Roy - AGEUcational (18:20):

The other thing that happened, I guess I got in on this, right when the craze started, because this is a little bit of an exaggeration, but you know, at first it would be like, the bottle would say, Oh, this contains 10 different strains. And then all of a sudden it was ones that, you know, now we contain a gazillion strains or, and I don't think, I don't think home strains, but anyway, it was just like this, uh, huge range. All of a sudden that opened up from where it was to where it went. So does the, do we need to pay attention to that, that number, if it's 10 million, 30 million or whatever,

Stevyn (18:58):

Higher the number the better. Okay. Yeah. I mean just the higher, the number, the better the, the horse is important. They, you know, that it's a reputable refrigerated source, but yes, I mean, you really do want to say stay high as high as you can on those numbers. And especially if you've had a lifestyle, a lifetime of antibiotics, um, then it's really important. And sometimes it can take, you know, two, three, four, five years even to kind of reestablish established. And it just depends on kind of what the health is. Um, one of the things I deal with with my clients a lot is something called you were talking about like the different diseases earlier, and this, this does tie in because if you don't protect your gut health, then your body doesn't absorb the same nutrients in the same way. And it actually can damage your metabolism.

Stevyn (19:49):

And by metabolism, I mean, like inside of each cell, you've got your mitochondria, that's your powerhouse that uses energy. And there's three different kinds of energy. You know, you've got caregivers and you've got people who are being cared for. They also have three kinds of energy. And it's important to know if they're working off of a blood sugar, energy, maybe they're eating and they've got good blood sugar, and then they can go and do a lot of things. But if they're, if they're eating, um, and, and have it, haven't eaten for a long period of time, they can't work off of blood sugar. They're working off of something called glycogen stores and that's in your muscle and your liver. And that's like, that's like your savings account, you know, dip into your savings account. And then there's one more account. That's like your, your certificates of deposit, you know, your CDs, which is harder to get your hands on and that's your fat account.

Stevyn (20:41):

So there's fat, there's glycogen stores, and then there's blood sugar. And those are your three different systems. And for your body to really have energy that lasts all day long, to be able to care for people, you need to be able to utilize all three of those and access them. And that comes from, you know, having low stress, great nutrients and, um, some good low-level movement throughout the day, just to let your body know that it's still alive. So, so many people just sit sedentary throughout the day. Doesn't matter what it is. If you're in a wheelchair, if you can open and close your hands, if you can raise your arms or do circles, um, I used to teach a class called, uh, silver sneakers, and we would just do chair exercises. You actually have a second heartbeat in your calves, a second heart in your calves, and that's kind of a stretch, but when you do toe raises, like go up and down on your toes like this, it's helping to pump that blood back up to your heart. You can do that in a wheelchair or in a chair, you know, anything that you do helps to keep those systems working better. And I liken it to, um, like my phone, you know, it goes dark if I don't touch it, but if you keep kind of touching the screen, the light stays on, and that's what we want to do. Keep touching the screen, keep just moving and, and, and using the parts of your body. And they will last longer.

Roy - AGEUcational (22:10):

Yeah. And they, you know, they have said that setting is the new smoking and, you know, a lot of us that have more desk jobs now, uh, you know, it just makes it that much harder, especially as we, you know, transition into that, uh, you know, into the older age, you know, it's, uh, for me, it's become a big concern because it just of what you said, not being, uh, constantly in motion and things like that. But I want to talk, get back to the caregivers for a minute that, okay.

Stevyn (22:42):

Oh, I was just going to say that sitting is the new smoking was coined by Dr. Levine of the Mayo clinic. And, um, his solution to that is called meet non-exercise activity, thermogenesis. And basically that's just like a fancy way of saying move more at low levels.

Roy - AGEUcational (23:00):

Okay. Okay. Yeah. And you know, sometimes it's just like stuff for me setting an egg timer or a, uh, uh, alarm on my phone ever 50 minutes to an hour just to stand up. Because if not, you know, I can end up sitting in that chair for hours and hours upon the end, which I know is bad. But, uh, you know, I was going to talk about the caregivers for a minute. It's an important statistic to remember, and I'm not sure if you've seen it or aware of it, but there used to be a stat that about 70% of caregivers who provide care to a higher need individuals, um, they will pass before the person that they're caring for. And so that's, uh, another important aspect of this as that caregiver is that it's very important, you know, to take care of yourself.

Stevyn (23:53):

Well, a lot of people see taking care of yourself as being selfish, and it's the exact opposite. Actually, your self care is actually caring for your loved one so that you can take care of them longer. And that paradigm shift is hard for people too. They're so used to pouring out. You're not used to pouring in, but you know, energy is a, a limited source. It's not infinite. And you have to allow time for your body to go into what's called your parasympathetic nervous system. And to be able to, it's just like switching the light off on your, on your nervous system, letting your body rest, letting it digest its food and repair, rest digest, and repair. That's Paris, the parasympathetic nervous system. And most caregivers I've, I've seen my family be in caregiver roles. I'm not in that role myself yet, but I've, I've seen it firsthand and it's easy to stay in the, on position all the time because the person needs so much care and you want to make sure you're doing it right. And you're taking care of your life. And a lot of caregivers are taking care of to two directions, you know, maybe parents and children still at some level. And they get kind of sandwiched in between there and the burnout in that, um, will, will lead to illness if they don't check it and take good care of themselves.

Terry - AGEUcational (25:19):

Yeah. And that's what, that's what we talk about a lot. I mean, cause we're, we're the sandwich generation or we're in the sandwich arena right now, you know, um, my daughters are 22 and 28 and then my mom, she just turned 86 this past fall. And she, thankfully she has been pretty healthy up til now. Um, well, and she, she is healthy now, but she did have a, uh, stay in the hospital, um, in October. And, um, she has, she has been doing really well on her recovery as far as her physical and occupational therapies and all of that. And she's, she's in a retirement home. Um, so she's still able to do that, which we're, we're very happy about. And she is too, she's ready to not be, I mean, she's ready to be on her own and independent again, but she had to build back up to that and it, it was a group effort.

Roy - AGEUcational (26:20):

Yeah. I just, I keep, uh, I don't have any more, I used to have a thing hanging over my desk. And so we can talk about the basic building blocks of health is number one and number one, it's eat. Right. And, you know, eat well-rounded nutritious, not just always out of the fast food window, but drinking our water. And then also getting, uh, you know, anywhere between, I guess, six to eight hours sleep depending on who you listen to with that. And then of course, you know, the exercise is stay moving and, um, I'll just get your opinion on that. I've always felt like those are kind of the fundamental building blocks to, you know, being a well,

Stevyn (27:03):

Yeah, I think that the, those are great, great, um, categories of being well. I think if you could kind of stand those on a foundation of awareness and curiosity, so being aware of what you're currently doing and then being curious about what something else might look like, because everyone kind of knows maybe what they should be doing, but to internalize that and pose the question to yourself that says, huh, I wonder what it would feel like to eat beans or I wonder what it feels like to go to bed by 10 o'clock, you know, and just by posing that question, your brain is engaged, your subconscious mind engages, and it wants to find out the answer to that. So it's almost like a software program in your brain. That's going to make it happen. So that's why I always say awareness and curiosity is first.

Stevyn (27:54):

Yeah. And then yes, I recommend, you know, the daily dozen is a free app that you can get on Google play or the iTunes store. And it's, it's made my Dr. Greger of nutrition, facts.org. And that's a great thing for everyone to just download to their phone and see are you get, cause eating a variety of foods is sometimes hard to want to find, like, what does that mean? And gives you all the best categories and you can kind of check them off and you can see, Oh, it's been a week and I haven't had anything green or when was the last time I had a cruciferous vegetable, like broccoli cauliflower, you know, those kinds of things. Cause they have different health properties. And so I find that to be a really useful tool to help people actually make that one happen.

Terry - AGEUcational (28:51):

I can spell it. Yeah.

Roy - AGEUcational (28:55):

I was gonna kind of comically challenge you on that last point about if we ask ourselves the question we subconsciously or, you know, it'll, we'll see. As I told Terry, I was sure wondering what it would be like to win that lotto last night. We did, we did, we did. I only got two numbers, so

Terry - AGEUcational (29:11):

We, we want eight, but I'll try again tonight almost, almost pretty close half.

Roy - AGEUcational (29:23):

The other thing I think that, um, I think we can do better again and again, I'll throw myself under the bus a little bit is that we can be kind to ourselves that we're not going to beat. We're not going to do all this stuff perfect. Every day, we've got to just make an attempt to do the best we can. And you know, Terry was, uh, one of her daily motivations the other day was something about being in the moment. And you were talking about that. The awareness is if you're eating, sat there and think about what we're eating and not be, you know, like, and she was telling me that as I had 25 other things I was thinking about, so, you know, we can be aware and be in the moment, but we can also be kind when we do trip up and just realize, Hey, you know, today's behind us. There's nothing we can do about what's past, but we can look to the future and try to, uh, you know, do better tomorrow. And I think we, um, caregivers can be really, really hard on themselves. Um, they never, a lot of them never feel like they can do enough. And um, so anyway, just, just another little tidbit I think,

Stevyn (30:33):

Well, what's interesting is, um, there's a place for guilt in life. You know, if you say something mean that you shouldn't have, if you, um, kill somebody, you know, like there's reasons to feel guilty, but, but food is not one of them. Food should never be a source of guilt. It's just, it's a source of like curiosity. We'll go back to that again. Oh, I wonder what made me want to eat that? And then you can start to understand the underlying effects of what's prompting you to do that. I was talking to my, um, my group coaching guys today and I was telling them, you know, one of them wanted to eat a bagel and I'm telling you on this dirty and this daily doesn't list, there's no bagels on that list. Cause I can just really want the bale. And I'm like, eat the bagel, you know, the bagel, give yourself permission and enjoy it like that.

Stevyn (31:32):

Clean of enjoyment is gonna do, it's gonna, it's gonna treat your health so much better than the feeling of guilt, because then it sets you up for a bad hormone response and you just don't want that hormone in there. And so if you're going to have the brownie with the ice cream and the whipped cream on top, like I had last night, then give yourself permission, enjoy it, taste it, love it. And then know when you've had enough and move on to the next thing. So I think that that's what people like bad food, good food, guilt, you willpower. And that's just, we just need to toss all that thinking out the door and just be aware. I always tell everybody, ask yourself three questions every day, three questions all the time. Why do I want to eat? And then just know the reason either you're hungry or um, you just want it, or there's some sort of craving or you're bored.

Stevyn (32:24):

Like there's always an answer. And sometimes just knowing what that answer is, is enough to free you from that. Um, so that's one question. Why do I want to eat? The second question is when was the last time I moved my body? Like if you're just kind of asking yourself that periodically, when did I move us and let that be your prompt to do something, anything. And then the third one is what is my stress level right now? How do I feel? Am I in my tense and my breathing out of my chest up here and my breathing from my belly and I relaxed those three questions will take you farther than any program or exercise membership.

Roy - AGEUcational (33:01):

And that's one thing I did leave off my list was to breathe. And I, you know, people used to laugh because I had that written up there. But, uh, you know, it's been pointed out to me over time and not necessarily, it doesn't have to be stress, it can be intensity, but I will hold my breath or, you know, and then catch yourself. But breathing is important. I think that's a huge, uh, part of, uh, I think it's a huge part of yoga is that, you know, learning the breathing and breath control and things like that. And it, it, it can really do wonders for our health. There's a breathe app also. That's really good. Yeah. I turned off my notifications. I need to, yeah, breathing is good.

Stevyn (33:40):

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Breathing is one of those things that can actually change your chemicals. So I don't have to do anything, et cetera. And my chemicals in my brain will change to a stress response or I can breathe from my belly and I can actually reduce my heart rate, my blood pressure and my stress hormones as well. Right. And opposite is true too. I'll just step back. So maybe you can see a little bit better if I stand in a power pose like this with my feet square and my arms on my hips for two minutes, it raises your testosterone and it lowers your color, your, your cortisol, your stress hormone. And that's a perfect way to get yourself ready to go in and talk to your doctor and advocate for yourself or for your loved one, because you're not intimidated. All of a sudden you're standing full and strong and your hormones, and it actually changes the way that you think and come across. Um, if you're going to go get a job interview, stand like that for two minutes, and then we will have the confidence that you didn't have before. So your body can change your mind and your mind can change your body. It's so connected.

Roy - AGEUcational (34:50):

Yeah, it really, I was going to say, you know, mind, body, and soul, that it's all, they all have their part in our wellness spectrum. Exactly. No. Well, Steven, we want to thank you for being on the show. I mean, it's been a great talk, a lot of great information. So, um, if you to understand, you know, what is something that you use in your daily life that, um, could be, you know, an app or a habit, something that you do that you feel like really perpetuates your wellness that you just couldn't do without on a daily basis?

Stevyn (35:31):

Yeah, well, one that I use all the time is that daily dozen app. Um, I like to check in on my own my myself and see how many I'm getting. There's 24 possible checkboxes in that app. I like to try to make sure I'm getting at least 15 of those every day and not leaving out any category over a three-day period. And that pretty much covers your nutrition. Um, so that one, I love, I also love tracking devices. Some people don't love them, but I do. So I have this one on it's called a wise band, w Y Z E it's cheap. It's like $29. You can get a Fitbit, which is more expensive. Those are good too. Um, and basically it buzzes me if I haven't moved for a while. So if I forget, it's my reminder. And then at the end of the day, you know, like I'm, I'm at 5,000 steps for today, which I don't, I don't want to be that low. Um, anything under 5,000 is considered to be sedentary by researchers standards. So I use this as benchmark and just say, Oh, I probably should go for a walk after dinner tonight. I haven't really moved that much. And it's a good reminder.

Roy - AGEUcational (36:36):

Wow. 5,000. Okay. Okay. Well tell everybody, you know, who would your client be? You know, what can you do for them? And of course, how could they reach out and get ahold of you?

Stevyn (36:54):

Okay, great. Yeah. Um, as my, the name of my company is indicates grow wealthy. Um, I am in more of the finance space. So a lot of my clients are financial professionals or they're financially savvy in some way, they understand longterm planning. They understand kind of what it takes to have goals that are in the future with short-term wins and long-term dividends and that kind of thing. So mostly, um, people who understand financial concepts and want to apply that to their health, um, so they can prepare themselves for retirement. So my website is growellthy.com grow. And then wellthy.com. And if anybody is interested, thinks they might be a good fit for my wellth Academy, they can fill out some information for a free wellness audit. I'm happy to go over their numbers, do a free consultation for them and give them some really great information that they can either go work with on their own, or they could potentially work with me on, okay.

Roy - AGEUcational (37:54):

Okay, great. Well reach out to Stevyn. I'm sure she can help you, uh, stretch your wellness to, uh, you know, kind of coincide with your lifespan as well. We don't want to outlive that for sure. Right? So, uh, that's going to do it for this episode of educational. Of course you can find us on all the major podcast platforms. iTunes are changed to Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and a whole bunch more. Also, you can find us on Facebook. We do have a group. We do like to try to stimulate discussion there. Uh, check us out on the website at www.AGEUcational.com.

Roy - AGEUcational (38:43):

You know, we post our podcast there also check us out on YouTube. We'll be posting, uh, uh, the videos of the interviews there as well. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other. This is,

Speaker 5 (38:57):

We appreciate it, Stevyn. Thank you so much. This is Terry signing off.

www.growwellthy.com

www.agecational.com