we've produced that in partnership with the fit lab in st paul a program that tries to create awareness about the need for increased physical activity for doing things that change in support a longer and more high quality life for people like me and i've had marvelous results both by physical activity but also our program contains a component that provides nutrition advice and counseling because things are programmed it also provides mental health support i'm pleased to have the nutrition advisor my health coach my tradition coach julie mcmahon here today julie thank you for being here thank you thanks for having me on your company is nutrition julie a holistic health coach and i am a certified nutrition educator and so my passion is guiding people through dietary and lifestyle upgrades that will really just amplify their lives so i believe that we have a choice we really have a choice in how we live how we age how we love how we feel how much energy we have in a day and i believe it all starts with food and so i've created a system called the food first system and w it i'm a mom of five kids i get the convenience factor but really it is all about making conscious decisions that will impact your life in a really positive way not just your health not just your weight but also how you're homeless once a week for this period of time plus we work together on the insight to help fitness challenge and you're providing the same kind of counseling to the other participants in the health challenge one of the things i discovered the other life that's going on in our gut and really if we were in eastern medicine or in the east no matter what we went to the doctor for we would be looking at got health first so if you went in and you were depressed or anxious or overweight or bacteria in our gut we have bad bacteria we have yeast we have all sorts of things that live in our gut and most people not knowledge to i shouldn't say that but a lot of people are walking around with an abundance of bad bacteria and not enough and so that's probably there's some truth in that but it's not the truth right so people don't know that they have to discern and differentiate between what bacteria in the environment are productive that life right and a lot of our good bacteria are killed off by really common things processed foods sugar alcohol stress environmental toxins i mean hello we we live on planet earth right i mean all these things intentional in restoring that which was good that was destroyed as part of the process of healing yes any time you've been on an antibiotic you really need to amp up again and add the good bacteria back in and a lot of people do that with  and other great strategies fermented foods and in our culture here in america we we really did a poor job of bringing over the fermented foods from whatever cultures we came from most other places in the world have raw fermented foods that are full of these good bacteria that we need but i see this a lot with kids especially you know the kids that continually get infections they get that first one and then they get an antibiotic and their body doesn't have that good bacteria anymore to keep fighting off more ear infections so it's important to just build it up again how does the good bacteria originate inside the body a couple of ways understand when you're born with a  the described good bacteria described the the the notion the idea in the work of good bacteria in the body yes well you brought up a couple things there so we get our good bacteria from our mother so we rely on the health of our mother really at the time we were born so if if your mother was very sick or in ill health you would not get as much good bacteria as you would  have otherwise also you need to have a regular birth not a syrian birth if you're born into seri and you miss out on that inoculation of good bacteria and also when we nurse our babies were passing on those good bacteria so there's hundreds of different good bacteria bad bacteria in our body there's all different ones and so they all have sort of different functions but mainly what they do they help a lot with mood but if i have somebody come to me with anxiety or depression my first grab for them is us look at your gut health and sped up if i have somebody that comes to me that's sick a lot of munitions same thing and looking at amping up there got health or digestive issues a lot of people have digestive issues and it's really just that they're suffering from what's called  this comes from inflammation in your body you really want to avoid that sugar also kills off the good bacteria that we're just talking about and a lot of people crave sugar a lot of people crave salt and really it's because they are not getting the proper nutrients from their body once you're off so very you don't crave it as much kind of an addictive thing you know but once you get away from it you realize it wasn't your friend so yes i'm glad you  was a reason a motivation to do less salt you introduced me to him earlier in the himalayan sea salt and i am able to use that but don't have the same craving for salty miss and salt food that i used to have and so absolutely and yes you're absolutely right that if you think you're not a regular white process table salt that most of us grew up with that most of us see and restaurants are maybe in our own cupboards that certainly is toxic and that does cause more hypertension and and issues and that is to be avoided completely but we do need cell we need salt so that our cells really absorb water properly and we get enough hydration and enough minerals so the pink himalayan salt definitely has the minerals that we need it has eighty four trace minerals and that will help to drive that water into your cells so we do need grain well and that you bring up a very good point because our bodies do need iodine especially with some of the things like fukushima happening in the world where there is more radiation and we need the iodine to protect ourselves to protect our thyroid  or so the iodised salt really has a very low level of iodine it wasn't really giving us what we needed anyway much better source is seaweeds and i know that can be a tough pill to swallow for some people you know but i see weight as an excellent strategy for getting in your iodine also there is iodine supplementation that if somebody had a thyroid issue they might choose to go that route there's also seaweed tablets that you can to swallow if you don't want to are needed in our body we need more green foods so high in protein high in anti oxidants high in b vitamins minerals and zines amino acids it goes on and on there are a couple of my favorite top  just all the different probiotics on the shelf they vary greatly and how many of those are actually still living at the time they've made it through transport is on the shelf and to your counter and into your system so sometimes people take a pro adek and then down a glass of coffee or a cup of coffee right after it really that he is just not conducive to keeping those bacteria well and happy and alive so always twenty billion or more and then i do also recommend multiple strains so you can see on the on the bottle how many strains there are i say at least five or six strains we have many many strains in our body  together synergistically so since there are so many strains it's good to populate with a variety of strains and then continually change up your probiotic so that to kind of hit all the areas own you know sort of developing a quality of life you use the word lifestyle change but this is all about at the end of the day how do we change our life so that we're in control in that we're responsible for what we ingest and how we expend the energy that life affords us is that correct absolutely and it can be so hard to change our habits and we are creatures of habit we have are the things we do every day and so that's where health coach can come in handy just to say ok maybe we could do it this way today and really start looking at making some step by step changes that will be lasting in the long run so my colleagues and friends who are participants with me and you in the insight health fitness challenge you have had the excitement the enjoyment of getting some cooking coaching from you as well you have brought our classes to cooking demonstrations at local co op stores talk about that for a minute yeah well that's a lot of fun so as a group we go over to the mississippi market we utilize their cooking space and we really just get in the kitchen and start talking about what is going to be healthy for us what would make a great breakfast what would make a great lunch and so i'm always focusing on how to get more vegetables and fruits especially some raw vegetables and fruits into our daily intake that's usually where people aren't getting enough of leafy greens or other greens like  dinner and that's so rewarding and it's so fulfilling and you've given me some suggestions and represents the peas but the main thing is that i enjoy this idea of eating green it's a new thing for me and avoid processed bread for example process foods as much as possible and to go more with more withdraw in this movie or just raw you know the salads the tomatoes  for period of time i had almost gone to close to vegetarian i never claimed and never want to decide to be a vegetarian but i've gratefully greatly greatly eliminated my animal protein  doable and and you mentioned before especially not corelate things like that where we can add in plant sources of protein and a lot of that you love to garden and it's such a great way to be connected to nature and connected to your food source and yes it is self funded just walk out in your garden see what's growing bring it and make a salad make a some of the it's such a different dynamic than going to the grocery store and sometimes these foods have traveled hundreds of miles to get to us fitness challenge we'll come back and talk more about that in a few minutes please come back bobbie on a personal quest to improve our health our goal our mission is longevity with quality i'm sixty eight bob we just turned sixty seven we both feel like we're play thirty's fort we know what no we are but i think i can speak for her our energy and our vibration and our attitude about where we are we think we have great energy sufficient energy and attitude that gives  us the spirit of doing you know and of making things happen i think that's a fairly energetic robust youthful orientation so what we're doing with you helps us maintain and improve that our goal can happen and so it's important in the this conversation about how we what we must do to do our part in making the journey happen do you think about that what i really love is that you both are doing this together so often i have clients come in and they want to make a change that maybe their spouse doesn't want to or maybe they're not well supported in their family it is just beautiful to watch you and bobby go through this process together and absolutely once you feel better it start to resonate on a higher frequency frequency and you start to think about other things maybe that you still want to do in this lifetime and so i've watched you guys go through that process and it's been beautiful thing for us to do what's important to us what we're doing together with you at the insight health fitness challenge and so talk about the kind of experiences you've had first of all as a coach providing direction and feedback and support to me and other members of the fitness challenge this well we're doing is really a great thing it's a great idea putting together a strong fitness program a strong christian counseling program and a strong military support program so unique combination combination and the beauty of the thing is that this thing is driven by macfarlane media insight news so we're able to be very public about our experience and our goal is to create conversation in the community about health and to change the conversation change the narrative so that our people begin to articulate a vision of helpfulness of activity of knowledge around food around nutrition and around physical activity that's what the goal is for my point of view from your point of that all support each other you know it's a challenge they're all competing against one another but really they're all really supporting one another so for me it's all about education and also empowerment really giving people the tools they need really prefer you who are opening their lives to a body of knowledge in a new set of experiences but what you heard back from the participants i had such wonderful feedback about those people send me cards people send me emails they're grateful they're grateful that i just gave them that extra bit of knowledge they needed to take care of themselves well a lot of a lot of gratitude a lot of life changing transformation people who really felt like they were going down a road of possible chronic disease and illness and obesity and really turning that corner and and feeling great feeling energetic and feeling like i'm doing this i'm doing this on my own you know you're giving me the tools but i'm empowered and i'm doing and so i love that feedback it's been awesome so this last round you join the program as well  well not one of my better ideas and i did i wanted to get a better idea of what it's like to really go through the fitness portion of the challenge oh my gosh yeah it's  and i'm a person that works out all the time anyway this is another level and definitely i felt the support and love of the group which was really motivating and really fun to be a part of and i mean i went there sometimes thinking  i really want to go down really want to do this i think we've all had that feeling on the way to the gym sometimes more one more guess what it's over and you feel so good absolutely and i've gone there after a real hard day at work or maybe and sad about this or that or whatever but i when i be there after that workout i feel can keep putting off things or we can dive in and what i want people to do is thinking about diving in and getting busy getting fit and what i really want people to do julie is to decide that in our community we have among us the resources and people like nutrition julie people like tyrone miner people like dr terry moore so we have the resources and the capacity to engage ourselves to challenge ourselves and to bit by bit incrementally experience growth development the achievement of the fitness and health goals to do the life changing that will give us the quality of life and if we do that individually we end up being a source in our community that creates a an attraction a light for others to begin to do their part that makes sense to you absolutely the ripple effect and i'm working with maybe one person and then they go home they tell their husband about it they start to feed their kids differently  it's a huge huge ramification once you start working with one person that just spreads throughout the community and you're right the conversation starts to change so what's your vision what do you want to do long term with nutrition julie that business what would you call i would like to create and and your cation center where people can learn how to grow their food they can learn what they want to be eating or what they need to be eating for optimal health and also how to prepare the foods that would be greenhouses cooking facilities on site so that i could take somebody through that whole process and take groups through that together for ten week programs that include in that feature rigorous rigorous challenging physical fitness but it's supported by counseling information that is provided by julie invites all of us into their business the fit lab so that we can learn and share and support each other i think it's a wonderful thing they complement each other so well you know when i am in the gym  book as well let's talk about the food first concept let's explore that absolutely well as i started working with more and more clients i realized that there were many of the same things the same upgrades that people could be making with their diet and lifestyle that would help them so i put together what's called the food first system and again as i mentioned earlier it's all about prioritizing food in your life making time for it providing people with the tools and resources and recipes they need to make that happen but also food first for pharmaceuticals so also a lot of people that come to  me are struggling with their on a lot of pharmaceuticals and many people don't want to be on them they want to get off of them i'm not a doctor i can't say oh well you can't be on that but i can start to give them the tools that their body needs to be back in balance so my food first system actually is all about balance it's it's honoring the fact that our body wants to heal our body wants to be well we just need to give it the tools things to try in their life to put them on that healthy journey and there will also be coaching time with me and email support and i and all of that so it's not totally just virtual so it's just a way to support a larger community because i am getting a lot of clients i can't be everywhere at once and so i created this virtual program so that i can help more people fluent wonderful yes and talk about the book yes so there be a companion book to that that's called the food first book and in that it'll go more into my story how i got on this journey myself and why i'm so passionate that people have these tools and story so i grew up in a very holistic family my mom was a nurse my dad was an accountant but he came home every day and grew all of our own food my mom cooked dinner all the time we had  honey we had an apple orchard and pretty much if we ate it we either grew it or my dad went out and hunted for it so we had a lot of great food choices and and this will probably astonish a lot of people but we only ate out like once a year it was like a big deal to eat out in and if you compare that to nowadays when i mean people you know quite frequently so i grew up in this really holistic environment and then it drove my passion for food and health and wellness and so when i got older and my dad got sick he got sick with prostate cancer and i could not understand it i could not understand how this person who eats so well and who was such a positive person always looked at the great side of everything and i always laughed at a great sense of humor i just can't understand how can this person get sick this just doesn't make sense to me  that set me on my insuring of really taking more classes really learning about how the body works how the body functions and how our bodies can get out of balance for a variety of reasons not just eating but other things as well and drove my passion to make sure that other people and their families don't have to experience that i look back now and with what i know now i could have i could have turned the corner for him i believe maestro tyrone miner tyrone i have to tell you there's a guy that is changing my life under his direction the leadership of taking on the fitness routine that i never imagined i could do and as a consequence of experience a los over over fifty sixty pounds of experience a decrease in blood pressure i'm experienced the ability to run like i never could before i'm almost seventy years old but i as i said earlier julie i feel like thirty forty and i attribute that to the about allowing a person to do everything they want to do every day and take that approach to fitness focuses on functional movements so that people can be independent and so yeah it's a total commitment when it comes to fitness and health nutrition exercise the mental aspect even the spiritual experiences and then your academic experience with you got a master's degree couple mystery degrees and your teacher absolutely a teacher for this is my sixteenth year so i have like you said two masters degrees one in apply c ology in the other in sport management so i'm fortunate to be able to use both of those degrees and in my everyday work in teaching and then running the fit lab i tell the story about your being my trainer and getting me started on this path but let me have you tell the story about how we both together created this opportunity that we're calling the insight health fitness challenge yeah you know i mean it started as you know it was a personal journey for you you know in terms of improving your health and you know we we've done everything i mean we started out in your garage where you were working all over the twin cities and and i think you  u really embraced everything about a holistic fitness and wellness lifestyle and then you know be in the visionary that you are you wanted to take the energy that you were receiving to the larger community in the twin cities area and so yeah i mean we basically put our brains together and figured out a way of how to bring the model that we had for you in change transforming your the surface as far as what we can do the impact we can have locally and nationally and then one day international i love the fact that your company the food lab is a company that involves you and your wife jamie miner we're talking about you earlier in that you both bring yoga training in the fitness training and it's a great combination and sometimes you work together sometimes separately neither one of you is  i expect to leave water on the floor every time in your presence right and so you think that you're going to be relaxing and that is what you put as much energy and you burn it the same way and i love that you know me sweat is there that disappeared and the day happened and the main thing is that when it's over i really feel good you know so that's a good thing you know mack for a lot of people there when they decide to make a complete change in their lifestyle i look at it almost like a pathway with doors on the side and you know there's going to be some rough goings and i feel like most people are looking for that exit left or right to other people so it's not just about you it's about the community of people you're working out with it's about the impact that it's had in your family life so as you start to build momentum in this fitness area i feel like it's kind of like that snowball you know pushing up pushing up and at some point it gains momentum you get to the top of the hill and it's going to go down there is hoping that in the future tyrone  even more successful in lighting the professional community in our twin cities here i think that there are men and women like in our age group at the top in the eurasia group but there are men and women who are professionals and who are visible and who i know they think they want to figure out a way to both improve their personal lives but be a model for others so i'm hoping that this conversation this television show this radio show will encourage them to go ahead into not put off but call today or step up today and decide that nutrition belongs to me i belong to nutrition that fitness belongs to me i belong to a fitness strategy and if they choose to support choose to join and benefit from the insight till fitness challenge i was in a meeting earlier today and someone said oh give me tyrol's number i got a call because i've been this yeah absolutely i think we can't the impact that when you have prominent people in the community taking the bull by the horns and say and i'm going to lead by example and not just because it almost seems like people think it's either or a champion for changing structures and and working on programs or i'm totally fitness and  i think you can find a happy medium where you can be at the front at the forefront and improving the health of the community but also making sure that you take care of yourself first and i think that speaks volumes with for the leaders and their coming total commitment not just to preaching changing health but living it demonstrating it and that aligns with your your concept of food first thinking food knowing that food can be your ally or your adversary if you think about it the right way and the proactive you can make powerful decisions for yourself right julie have a real simple step by step process instead of trying to change everything at once just take it step by step walk us through some of the training that we get with you tyrell yeah you know i'm so here again is the beauty of our fitness challenge is that you get a variety of trainers i don't know if people would even though they would enjoy it afterwards and the result i don't know if they quite want to see my face five days a week no idea how much i'm going to challenge him you know personally i like to involve total body activities we do everything from body weight strength training to using implement such as  groups it's the holistic approach you know there's various components to being physically fit it's not just about being strong but it's also muscle and burns making sure your joints are mobile your muscles flexibility there is muscle strength that is an aspect but ultimately the goal is to produce someone who is of a healthy weight of a healthy body composition because that's oftentimes overlooked and again to produce a person that can be functional and do everything that they want to do in their life regardless of their age up and down the stairs lifting you enjoy and so i just think the more we can implement these holistic pitons programs across generations that just equals in my mind a longer flipping the tire we have a tractor tire that you and i had and we flipped up and down the alley and so it was hard work hard doing it but boy did i feel good doing that and i tell you honestly i wanted to make sure somebody in me i would never have done that but you had me out there doing that i remember the first time we ran around the lake most died i really did a little bit i thought i wasn't going to live but i can get around that you know and we've done the mild a couple of times anyway and i survived it and improve my times and so the point i want to make to our viewers and our listeners this life change this lifestyle change the stability to do things even at this stage of life and i'm saying this should be for everybody at whatever stage of life there is and it is so worth it so we warding so fulfilling and so necessary and as black people whose experience with health with the disparities we got to pay more attention and so i want to invite to all of our viewers all of our listeners who have the taught who have the conversation to be part of it to be in it and to put their minds and their bodies to work to do personal improvement but do it in a way that reflects your sense of obligation to the entire community because that's how we reduce the disparities we have everybody changing every life improving each one what do you think lee i mean it's kind of the old saying each one teach one you know so we can impact and a vigil they in turn can be a voice and can impact maybe their children maybe they're a role model for their children and over three hundred pounds going to jog and you know a year later you're running a sub twelve mile twelve minute mile you're down fifty sixty pounds and i'm an educator as well and i don't know if this is a good thing or  not but i work with youth ages twelve to fourteen and some of them many of them can't run a sub twelve minute mile well  and it is important to know that this can be done still so you know i actually want to encourage people to hear this conversation to join the conversation to be part of this movement with us one of the things we have in mind for next year twenty sixteen is to do something that's more family and to figure out how to get children involved because we're having this wonderful success what adults thirty's forty's always been about the older one of the group but we think that now we can modify the program be based on your teaching skills and you're working with children to involve the family and families with children as well so we're working that out as we speak it's important back because this is the first generation who per the projections are that we are going to outlive them in terms of lifespan and that absolutely with technology and the knowledge that we have about nutrition and exercise that's unacceptable and so that's cross generation or approach that were taken to make it more of a family affair i think that it's going to be hugely impactful on that the families that we work with and  you know we're both looking at figuring out how we can connect this on a national level through the national newspaper publishers association foundation my goal as a communicator is to be able to create a story and tell the story tyrell minor holder of finland  julie mcmahon owner of nutrition julie food first system i want to thank both of you for being on the program today i thank you for being my friends and for working with me i'm claiming the life changing power