You're Doing Great Mom

It's been over 5 years since my last podcast episode. Now, after lots of time off from podcasting, my wonderful friend Julie Foubert is with me to re-launch my podcast!

Julie Foubert is a certified ethical leadership consultant, parenting coach, speaker and trainer. She teaches and coaches in both English and in French. Based in Nice, France, she coaches parents worldwide thanks to the magic of online meetings. Her speciality for guiding future and young parents of babies and children 0-3 years old is anchored in over 15 years of experience as a former teacher and manager. She has already coached thousands of families to reconnect with themselves, prepare their relationships and couples for the grand passage of parenting, and work through universal themes that parents too often feel alone in managing: bedtime struggles, emotional regulation, building a “village” in our modern society, becoming more conscious of negative thought patterns and making concrete, positive changes in daily life, so that parents can feel empowered to raise their children with more love, peace, serenity and resilience.

To work with Julie, you can download the Be the Change mobile App, and begin to benefit from short, accessible mediations, visualizations and parenting training sessions, and even choose a membership option giving you access to one-on-one coaching with Julie, starting at €159 / month.

Chantal Challenger lives a different life from many of us, traveling around the world with her husband and two kids. She and her husband work in the hospitality/hotel industry, and have chosen a life as expats currently living in Jakarta. She shares about how they chose to move from their home in Australia, and how they’ve adapted to raising their family in a different culture.

She had her children in Singapore, which is a very different birth culture where up to 45% of births are c-sections. Chantal was surprised to learn that many women choose an elective c-section, and for her it posed a slight challenge in finding a doctor who was supportive of natural birth. She also talks about the breastfeeding culture which is also very different than what she thought, where most babies are fed formula as the ‘norm’. So when she wanted to breastfeed her babies, she often had other women asking her why she was doing something so abnormal.

It was fascinating to listen to Chantal talk about her life, and the cool thing about her was that she’s just another mom doing the best that she can, raising her children, being a wife, and living her day to day life just like all of us moms in the world.

What I love about Chantal’s attitude and philosophy of life is how she makes choices even in the face of doubt and fear, with no regrets, and goes in with 100% commitment. We can only gain from following our hearts and going for it.

If you’d like to ask Chantal a question, send her an email at [email protected]

Anyone who has written their own book deserves lots of congratulations. And lots of book sales. Especially if it took them ten years to research and write it.

Well, that's what my husband Julian Wiseman has just completed. And it's now on sale. 

It's called Port Vintages. 

There's a lot of things that I didn't know about port wine. For example, I had no idea that it's not made every year. You'll learn more about that from this episode. I also didn't know what the differences are between Tawny Port, Crusted Port, Late Bottled Vintage Port, and finally, Vintage Port. 

Many listeners have loved my past episodes with my husband (here and here), and I've had some requests that he continue to be a regular 'guest'. We always have fun with it, and it always seems like a good time to spend together. 

Julian's book is a substantial and impressive reference book on Port Vintages. In fact, it's the only reference book on the subject. He went around to many different sources, including old libraries at universities, archives, department stores, auction houses, and many more. Ten years of researching and gathering data to find all the port vintages ever declared. 

If you are a wine lover and you also enjoy port, this episode is so interesting with so much information about wine and Vintage Port. And you will see how much of a port geek he is. 

Check out www.portvintages.com to buy your copy (or 10) of Port Vintages. Any questions or requests for bulk orders. email me at [email protected]

Enjoy!

Keith Wassung's got one of those stories. Ex-navy, super athlete, weightlifting champion, and on his way to fame, life was on a pretty extraordinary path. Then, at age 22, his body started to slowly break down, first with sinus headaches, then digestion problems, loss of hearing, and more, which eventually led him to be dependant on 18 different drugs. His health deteriorated so badly that he lost nearly all hope. He thought that was it. What more could he do? What saved him was a random chance encounter with a chiropractor who told him that he wanted to help him. Keith thought he was crazy. What’s a chiropractor going to do for him?

Keith’s story is incredible and inspiring. After regaining his health and getting back his strength from his regular chiropractic adjustments, his passion for sharing his experience with chiropractic was born. He researched and studied everything he could possibly learn about what chiropractic is, and how he can tell as many people as possible. And now, after 30 years of spreading the chiropractic message by selling information and educational material, he has built a huge empire and well-known brand within the chiropractic profession.

I remember being in chiropractic school hearing about Keith’s work. In fact, I always thought he was a chiropractor himself and he had a huge practice. In the profession, he is well-respected and is often seen lecturing at some of the biggest and most popular chiropractic seminars in the world.

In this episode with Keith, he talks about his family, his six children, and his how he has built his life full of passion, prosperity, love, and dedication to serving and giving to people.

It was an honor to have him on my podcast. This is an awesome episode and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Keith's website: http://keithwassung.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.wassung

— Dr MaryAnne

Tom’s the kinda guy that you can hang out with, have a beer with, and chat about anything. His energy fuels you each and every minute. He’s also the guy you could call up and ask his advice and he’d give you his 100% with a solid answer. And he’s also the guy you’d see on a stage in front of thousands of people. He’s unstoppable.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Thomas Waller. He’s a dynamic successful chiropractor in Lincoln, UK and he owns and runs his practice with his wife Sarah (at the time of the recording, they were planning their wedding and about to get married). The very first time I heard about Tom was, serendipitously, a few years ago. A close friend of mine was in need of a good chiropractor and she asked me if I knew anyone near her in Bristol. So I asked some colleagues and everyone recommended Tom. He was practicing in Bristol at the time and he was highly recommended. I had no idea who he was. I just trusted my chiropractic friends. Each time I checked in with my friend, she told me how great Tom is and how he was helping her tremendously. She only said wonderful things about him. Over time, Tom kept on popping up on my radar on Facebook, as well as among mutual friends at seminars, yet I had never actually got the chance to meet him face to face.

I was so happy when Tom volunteered to be a part of my podcast to talk about fatherhood and parenting. I was so looking forward to what he’d say about those topics, and I also knew we’d spend a lot of time talking about chiropractic.

A few weeks after we recorded the episode, we finally got a chance to meet in person at a seminar. It was such a pleasure to do this episode with him, and I’m very much looking forward to following and supporting him in his plans, as well as our continued friendship.

You can connect and reach out to Tom by going to his website: www.epochcentres.co.uk Facebook: Thomas Waller Dc and facebook.com/epochlincoln Instagram: dr_tom_dc33

Craig Peterson is American who lives in Rome Italy. He’s 35 years old and he’s a Network Spinal Chiropractor. He is not a father, and he’s in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t want children. He’s thought about having kids, and it was his current girlfriend who gave him the deeper thought of why he wants kids, and why not live life without having kids.

Check out Dr Craig's website: 

Brendan Waddington continues the conversation of fatherhood into the second episode of the series speaking to men.

There are so many people on this planet, and it's always such a joy and so much fun to speak to someone who you know is making a difference in the world. I just met Brendan and to me, he is an all around great guy. Intelligent, interesting, fun, totally got his shit together, and he has even written a book about no-bullshit health. 

His new book is called “The Wellness Bible, A No bullshit Guide to Wellness”. His website is http://nobullshitwellness.com/

Brendan is a naturopath, soft-tissue therapist, personal trainer, and he also helps miners by coaching them on their health. When I asked him to be on my podcast, he didn't think I'd be interested because he's not a father. Naturally, it's what people would think, but I was very keen on having men who are not fathers to talk about their views on the subject. Brendan mentions that he definitely wants kids eventually, and it was interesting to hear how he thinks and feels about fatherhood. 

This is the first episode in my 3rd series on my podcast, You're Doing Great Mom. I decided to include my husband and to have his episode kick off the series talking about fatherhood. This series is centered around the topic of fatherhood, where men from all walks of life share their views on the subject. My husband and I sat down together on a Saturday with our kids running around. It took us all day to get some good solid recordings down without too much interruption.

Topics included: Fatherhood Dating Sperm Virility Alcohol Foie Gras Blue Planet Hitchcock story-telling styles Having a will Submarines Breastfeeding Baby fat-folds Baby bathtime Being a fat bastard Diapers Astronauts Fonseca Port More alcohol How to taste wine when you’re 12. Test-taking skills How to be an astronaut or an Olympic swimmer Final words of advice about fatherhood How not to get murdered by your wife

You can find out more information about my husband Julian on his website, http://www.jdawiseman.com/author.html

Lillian Lartey is my guest in this last episode of 2017. She’s a personal trainer, massage therapist, and I consider her a life coach for women because she is so grounded in her values and commitment to having an extraordinary life. She came over to record this episode, and it was wonderful to spend those 90-minutes together. So much of what she said was illuminating for me about womenhood, and motherhood. Lillian isn’t a mother, and yet, she has so much wisdom about it!

“If we look from the central part of the world going eastwards, a lot of the time when it comes to parenthood, it’s not just the mom taking total responsibility of that child or those children; you’ve got a total village, you’ve got a total town taking care of that child. So that mother doesn’t necessarily have those pressures that they do in the Western world. We also don’t have those pressures of wanting to get a really good job, wanting to have A, B, and C; Take the children to the best school, have the best clothes, have all this money, etc, go on the best holidays - all this pressure adds in. Why? Where as, when we appreciate our lives why we’re here, and that mum gives birth in a village to a child, everybody celebrates that. That’s everybody’s child. It’s not just that mum who’s given birth to that child. It’s everybody’s responsibility.”

Lillian is a personal trainer, massage therapist, and I consider her a life coach for women because she is so grounded in her values and commitment to having an extraordinary life.

“For mums, I believe, and having worked with mums in the type of work that I do, a majority of the time, if they’re under that pressure to have to hand over their baby, at say, at 6 months, even a year, their bodies physically are not ready to let go. Because it’s such an emotional trauma - one, in terms of when you’re pregnant and you’re carrying a child. There’s so many hormonal activities going on. Two, when you give birth. And in three, through nursing that child. And that body, I believe, has to go through a process of recovery, and that includes when you’re doing the releasing of that child to go into someone else’s hands, in terms of going to school or going to nursery, taking care of the house, etc.”

As a life coach, she has helped women, many of them mothers, to focus on themselves and to achieve happiness, building back their health, self-esteem, and love for life.

“I’ve had women who wanna be super women, you know business women in particular are like, ‘Oh yeah, I gave birth yesterday, and I’m here today and I’m treatin’ my clients, I’m speaking to my clients, and I’ve got my baby on my boob…’ And I just think, ‘Why’? In the Western world there’s this race to get back and to prove yourself that, ‘I’m a strong woman and I’m going to be a responsible mother, and I can do it all.’ And then they crash and burn.” 

Check out Lillian's website for her business, I Want My Body Back. 

“I like to think I lead a very intentional life. And that isn’t that it’s not open to surprises or spontaneity. But I very deliberately chosen … and I’ve been very lucky, I realize that when I say that. Not everyone gets to choose as much ‘cause there’s inherent struggle with being able to just to afford doing things like that. I get that. I love living by myself. I love setting my own hours. I love being able to keep everything clean and neat and how I want it. There’s intention to those things. I really enjoy that."

Drea Clark lives in LA and works in film. She's my sister's best friend from highschool and we've known each other for a really long time. She's basically considered to be part of our family. I asked her to be on my podcast for this current series of conversations with women who are not mothers, and she was totally enthusiastic to participate.

I knew it would be a fantastic conversation, a fun one too, because Drea is just so articulate in just about anything. 

Yeah.

You ask her about anything, and she'll have something to say about it.

And it usually makes you want to go, "Hmmmmm."

I love Drea.

She's fabulous.

In this episode, Drea opens up and tells it like it is, raw, and direct, sharing her views on why she’s not a mother and that she’s very happy in her life without children.

“You should live your life in a way that you feel bad for other people for living it differently.”

“Oh my God. I had it so good. My parents are legit good parents, and they are a very loving couple. So it’s ironic to me that I’m like, ‘Oh you guys knocked it out of the park on both fronts. Do not take it personally that I am not replicating that,’ because I remember telling them years ago when I sort of knew that I wasn’t gonna have kids - I wanted them to know.”

If you want to get in touch with Drea or find our more about her, go to her website: dreaclark.com or find her on Twitter @thedreaclark

 You can check out my website, You're Doing Great Mom and be sure to subscribe and write a review. I would be so happy if you all do that. Thanks, and see you next week!