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Bonus: Marcie Peters – How to Transform Your Health


Jonathan: Hey everyone! Jonathan Bailor back with another bonus, Smarter Science of Slim Podcast. Wonderful show for you today. I have the pleasure of sharing with you a woman who I met recently and really have a place for in my heart because she is an example of what I think we can only benefit from in the world and that’s is someone who is just about celebrating anyone and everyone who’s out there doing things to help people live better. Not about saying “This is better than this.” or “This is worse.” because we hear about all the news, it’s freaking us out and everything if going to kill us. Blah, blah, blah.

Bad news sells but good news heals and we need more of good news and more positivity in our life. Marcie Peters is an awesome source of both of those things. She is a transformational health coach and nutritionist. She’s also the founder of the Health and Happiness Guide as well as the Transform Your Health World Summit. She is a wonderful connector of those who share our passion for living better. Marcie, welcome to the show.

Marcie: Wow, Jonathan. Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here with you.

Jonathan: Well, Marcie, so that everyone can love you as much as I do, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started on this journey and why. Let’s be very open here, right? What you are so good at is not… a lot of people make their money by having their stick. They get out there and they say “This is the right way to go.” What you do is you just connect people and you synthesize stuff. I just love it. You’re the United Nations of Wellness.

Marcie: Thank you. Well, I’m really passionate about health and wellness, and the reason why is because I’d have a long road. It’s been a long health journey for me, personally. In doing so, it’s made me very passionate about helping other people so I’ll tell you a little bit about my story. In my early twenties, I got very sick. I was really ill and it compromised my life physically, financially, emotionally, my career, my relationships. Everything about my life was compromised. I was basically disabled and my health was a huge liability and I was an overachiever.

I am overachiever. I wasn’t used to these limitations and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. It was really a huge issue so bottom line, I was sick for sixteen years and I spent years acting I was fine when I felt like I was dying and I looked fine, too, which was a weird dichotomy, but I was really being impacted. It was a really a dark time in my life. I’ll just ask the listeners, have you ever felt so low and so beaten down? Do you feel like you actually can’t continue or you may not want to continue? There was turning point.

I remember at one point I was laying because that’s what I was able to do most days and I realized “Wow, this is my life. This is what my life has become. My life has been reduce to my bedroom, my home. I rarely left my home. I’ve lost my job. I was isolated. Friends and family, I didn’t want them to see me like that and I didn’t have the energy for relationship, exercise hurt too much so basically I had nothing. Then, I realized that something had to change and I couldn’t continue like that, either the misery needed to end or I needed to do something about it. Luckily, I decided that I would do something about it.

I would take matters into my own hand and not rely on doctors who weren’t helping me, and I educated myself and learned as much as I could about health and nutrition, and continue to learn about health and nutrition to this day. I’ve got my health coaching nutritionist certification and now I’m all about helping other people and having them have a better quality of life, and that’s how I make my mark in the world. I’ve been through a lot and I want to help others not have to go down such… it was sixteen years for me. I don’t want other people to suffer like that and certainly not for as long as I did so that’s why I’m so passionate about health.

Jonathan: Marcie, I appreciate you reliving that. I know it must not be easy and if you don’t mind, you’re bright, radiant person will bring the podcast back to brightness and radiance but just for a second, you mentioned in your story that it got to a point where you questioned whether or not this could go on in any sense. Just for a second, when this is an area that is very dear – no, dear is the wrong word – hits home with me because it has impacted my family very deeply and one distinction that I know has really me and helped the members of my family is sometimes things gets so bad that people consider ending their lives.

What you represent and what you’ve shown, why I’m so proud of you, is you show that you don’t have to end your life, you can end that life. The life that is so sad and the life that feels hopeless. Don’t end your life; end that life and transform your life into something that is worth living but that is so much easier said than done as you know. How did you do it?

Marcie: It is a very big mental leap because we’re conditioned by society and our culture to rely on doctors and rely on other people to fix this. If something is going wrong, it must be other people. It must be the circumstances. I kept blaming my circumstances and saying “Wow, this sucks. This is what it is.” but Jonathan, it’s not. You always have a choice. You can always change things and you can always turn things around.

You just have to and it’s hard when you’re in chronic pain and you’re suffering to have the mental wherewithal to say “I’m going to take responsibility for where I’m at, whether I caused it or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to take responsibility from this point forward and make those decisions that support me rather than break me down, whether it’s lifestyle, nutrition or whatever it is.” Just making that shift. I think it comes down to responsibility, personal responsibility, I think, and working towards that.

Jonathan: When we’re take responsibility we realized that we have this ultimate source of hope which is that we and be the change we need. In fact, we must be the change we need. You made a career out of talking with some of the most influential people in the field of wellness and personal transformation. What would you say are the three to five common denominators or the most compelling things you’ve seen around creating optimal health?

Marcie: Well, thanks for asking, Jonathan. I think the first thing to consider is bio individuality, meaning that everyone is going to be different and has a different constitution so they have different needs. Now, what works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next so it’s really a process of paying attention, awareness, which is so important in any aspect of life, awareness and understanding what works for you.

Do you need animal protein? Do you need to be off gluten? Do you need a raw diet? Do you need to be off grains or dairy? Are there certain things that are causing inflammation in your body and the main things that would cause that inflammation would gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, corn, soy, sugar is an artificial color and sweeteners, having the right percentage of protein and carbs, and so it’s a process of experimentation – exercise wise and all those things, what works for you and a coach can help with that.

That being said, I consider at least four major considerations for good health: Nutrition, which is mostly about eating whole, real foods. Exercise, moving in ways that are fun for you that you’ll do regularly. Sleeping at least seven to eight hours at night, and looking at the mind/body which would be stress management, body image and how your thoughts affect you so those are the main things I would consider first off.

Jonathan: Marcie, you focus initially right where I would agree the initial focus should be and that’s on individuality and finding what’s right for you as an individual. Why do you think there are so… it seems that’s the most common sense thing ever. Should I keep doing this? Well, is it making you feel better or worst? If it makes you feel better, keep doing it. If it makes you feel worse, don’t do it. How does it work for you? It doesn’t matter how it works for Sally. It doesn’t matter how it works for Tom. It doesn’t matter what guru, PhD, television host says, what matters is whether or not it’s working for you but a lot of people don’t take that approach. A lot of people say “No, do this.”

Marcie: It’s what sells diet books, to be honest, because there is a lot of broad generalization. A lot of broad sweeping strokes that say “Okay, everyone should do this and not this.” and really some of that advice can be certainly valid but the most important thing is paying attention and figuring out “Does that advice work for you?” and maybe, you can track a food journal. It’s really, really helpful; not just what you’re eating but how does it make you feel and what effect is it having on you.

Do you have gastro-intestinal upset after you eat a certain thing because that shouldn’t happen? You know stuff like that and then, how did you sleep that night and how do you feel the next day because food can actually affect you for 24-48 hours.

Jonathan: It gets back to that original point you made where it’s that personal responsibility. No coach, no one other than you will know how each and every decision you make makes you feel. You are the only person that has that data so since you are the only person with that data, seems like you are the only person that can accurately act based on that data.

Marcie: Correct, yeah. You have to keep track of it. It’s so easy to think “I remember this, that I felt this way.” but finding a way to write it down, keep track of it that way is really important so you can look back at it and like a scientist. Then, you have your data that you can pull from and make decisions from.

Jonathan: You mentioned sleep as another key characteristic or key required component of a healthy lifestyle but it’s so under appreciated in our culture. If you go into work in the morning and you tell your co-workers, “Hey I got up two hours early and ran.” They’re “Oh, my gosh! You are a solider.” Then, if you say “Hey, I slept in for two hours.” They’re “Oh, you’re lazy.” Whereas in reality the latter may be healthier for you than the former. What are your thoughts on giving ourselves permission to sleep?

Marcie: It’s so true, Jonathan. You brought up a great point in our society. It’s all about doing rather than being, and in the being part of it, which is just as important as the doing, you really need to find the balance between the two. It is about slowing down, getting [indescribable 12:46], getting quiet and part of that is allowing yourself to sleep when you need to so you made a good point. Give yourself permission. The best thing you can do for sleep is to start winding down earlier and try to be asleep between ten and ten-thirty, which sounds really early, but if you keep yourself up too late, you can actually bring adrenal fatigue or adrenal exhaustion upon yourself.

You are going to have higher levels of cortisol, higher levels of stress, which causes cortisol, which causes weight gain or at least for you to hold on to extra weight, and so sleep is very under appreciated in terms of weight loss and general well-being, so just getting to bed early and letting yourself sleep as long as you need to.

Jonathan: Such a critical point, Marcie. One of the most common questions I get asked, it’s the person asking the question and so many pre-menopausal or post-menopausal females experience great challenge with what seems like mysterious weigh-gain and they’ll cut calories and they’ll exercise more like the mainstream tells them to do and that will not help. The other thing which often these same individuals experience is a real trouble sleeping. If you’re sleeping four hours a night, start on that first, because that is a big deal. That’s like someone that says “I eat pop-tarts all day.” Are you kidding? It ain’t going to work, right?

Marcie: Right. You can’t overcome the lack of sleep that your body needs so you’re right. Start there.

Jonathan: I think it’s really important for people to look at sleep that way because again, if we’re in our stage of life where sleep becomes difficult like a lot of the females who are in the pre or post-menopausal phase, have a really hard time sleeping and then they have this weight gain take place and they think it’s a problem with their eating or their exercise and so they are dittling with their eating and their exercise. It’s making them crazy because it’s not doing anything.

Well, the reason it’s not doing anything is that’s actually probably not the cause of the weight gain, your hormones are flipping out because you are not sleeping and you have adrenal fatigue and leptin and ghrelin are all screwed up. I almost cursed there. Sleep is very, very important. Marcie, what are some other things we can do, obviously winding down is helpful, have you learned anything from any other experts or have you seen anything in your own personal experience from the literature? What are some other ways we can help ourselves fall and stay asleep?

Marcie: Thanks for asking, Jonathan. I wanted to bring up is primary foods. Primary foods are… not a lot of people are talking about this but it’s so important. They are not what we eat but they are actually things that nourish our soul in a non-food way. They feed the soul so primary foods include: career, life purpose, relationships, spirituality, connection, physical activity, education, creativity, finances, home environment. There’s a lot that goes into that but it’s the other things that feed your soul, and so what happens when I’m working with clients is it comes up a lot is they’re eating a lot.

They may even have an eating disorder or some kind of [indiscernible 16:05] relationship with food and sometimes it’s because there are missing components in other areas of their life that they are trying to fill with food. When actually, the root cause isn’t being address. Maybe, they don’t like their job or they are in a bad relationship or they are single and lonely and they don’t know how to handle that so they use food as a distraction or a way to entertain themselves or keep themselves busy and not focus on the pain that is inside. As humans, we have two motivating factors: we move away from pain or towards pleasure so that distraction helps us move away from pain.

Looking at primary foods, I would say is totally the first thing, probably even… it’s right up there with sleep at least. Other things to consider for optimal health, I am thinking of at least seven right off the bat are detoxification, things you can add into your regular routines plus doing cleansing programs couple times a year, colon cleansing being really important. Two, look at food allergies and your gut health, and one way to uncover food allergies is doing an elimination diet. You can get the testing. It’s not always completely accurate and it can be expensive so if you do an elimination diet and you can look up more on how that works, that’s really effective.

Then I would say, three is self-care and nurturing your body. People wanted to be seen, heard and valued, and you can do that for yourself. Provide self-care and nurture for your own self. Then, four was sleep. We talked about that. Five would be the stillness, the centering, the connection, the gratitude of connecting with something that’s higher than yourself if you believe in that or simply connecting with your own body. Then, six is cooking at home. It’s so important. You can’t really control what you eat or even know what’s in what you eat if you are eating out and other people are preparing your food.

Then, the last one I would say, if you are still struggling and you’re trying to working on all of those aspects that you are not sure how to prioritize or how to get everything going together is work with an experienced coach. He can guide you and help you through maybe, some limiting beliefs, hold you accountable, bring some clarity and that sort of thing.

Jonathan: Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, Marcie, what’s next for you on this journey?

Marcie: Well, as you know, I created an amazing free event. I’m so excited about it. It’s Transform Your Health World Summit, and Jonathan is one of the experts on that summit. What it is, it’s a free audio event where you can listen to interviews with experts, people who are in the top of their field and just hear what they have to say in terms of actionable tips that you can implement into your life. Just to name a few others besides Jonathan.

Other experts on the summit are Tana Amen, Dr. Neal Barnard, Jonny Bowden, Dr. Alan Christianson, Joy Houston, Alex Jamieson. We’ll be speaking with Dr. Daniel Kalish, Natalie Ledwell, Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, Diane Sanfillippo, Dr. Bernie Siegel, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, David Wolf, JJ Virgin. We have an amazing lineup. That’s at TransformYourHealthSummit.com so that’s what’s next. I’m incredibly excited. It airs October 1st through the 11th and as soon as you save your spot by providing your name and email, you’ll get information daily on those interviews and how to access those.

Jonathan: Very cool. A lot of those names will be very, very familiar with listeners of this show because they are friends of the show. Listeners, if some of those names aren’t familiar know that for many of them you will be hearing from them because I have a quite a few recorded podcast in the cannon. It is a great group of people.

Well, Marcie, thank you so much for all that you do to help people, to connect the dots and to celebrate similarities rather than demonizing differences. There’s enough complexity and negativity in the world, we don’t need to invent new sources of it so thank you so much for keeping it positive and keeping it healthy.

Marcie: You’re absolutely welcome. Thank you so much, Jonathan and I appreciate everything you’re doing in the world, too. You’re definitely one of those people that’s adding to the change that is making a difference.

Jonathan: Thank you, Marcie. Listeners, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Our delightful guest today again was Marcie Peters. You can learn more about her as well as the delightful summit of which I am honored to be a part of at TransformYourHealthSummit.com.

Again,that’s TransformYourHealthSummit.com, hosted by Marcie Peters. Remember this week and every week after, eat smarter, exercise smarter and live better. Chat with you soon.

This week we have the pleasure of hearing from Marcie Peters. In her own words:

“Marcie Peters is a Health Coach and the founder / visionary behind The Health and Happiness Guide. She is committed to helping others with chronic illness find restored health. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and is completing a HHC certification and nutritionist program at Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), with training under Joshua Rosenthal, Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Susan Blum, Walter Willett, David Wolfe, Andrea Beaman, John Douillard, Barry Sears, Joy Bauer, and Dr Mark Hyman.

With a passion for health and nutrition, Marcie provides valuable education and coaching aimed at transforming health conditions. She specializes in reversing the symptoms of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, arthritis, leaky gut, digestion issues, sleep issues/insomnia, excess weight, diabetes, and compromised immune system by focusing on food as medicine along with other lifestyle and health modalities for optimal healing and vitality.”