In this episode you’ll learn:
– Linda’s background of being on prednisone and anti-inflammatories and methotrexate and Humira
– why non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and prednisone create the most gut problems
– Who the hardest type of clients that Clint works with
– How the drugs and the disease made Linda very sick and tired
– Creating a powerful attention really works as we clear distractions
– how to educate family members on basic nutrition
– where to source the materials for the Paddison Program
– the danger in the iron supplements when you have anaemia of chronic disease
– how MTX created dangerous side effects that nearly prevented her from driving
– The thrill of getting off all the toxic drugs
– The thrill of being in control of her health and looking forward to a new career in teaching.
Clint: Well, I’m very pleased to welcome you back whether you’re listening or watching this online to welcome another guest. And today, we’re going to be talking with Linda who’s in Victoria, one of the southern states of Australia. How are you, Linda?
Linda: I’m well.
Clint: Well, you look well. You’ve got a big grin and we’ve just had a brief chat before we’ve started with this and you’ve given me a little background on how far you’ve come. Just to give us a flavor of what to expect for the rest of this conversation, maybe you could summarize for us in just a few paragraphs, you know, where you were and maybe where you’re at now so that we get excited about what’s to come.
Linda: You know, I guess I was diagnosed in 2011 and it wasn’t until last year in October that I started the Paddison Program. At that time, I was still in a lot of pain. Most of my symptoms were controlled by heavy medications, which were making me feel sick. And now, six months later, I am pain-free and off all my medications.
Clint: Well, that is outstanding. So, you and I haven’t had a…you know, we haven’t had a tremendous amount of online communication. There had been some and it’s been, you know, back and forth about some specifics that we haven’t really had a chance to connect and talk about the big picture. So this is gonna be fresh for me and I’m excited to learn a lot about what you’ve been through. Now, there’s a lot of aspects to your situation I wanna cover. First of all, you live in a rural area, so I want us to make sure that we talk about whether or not there’s additional challenges to being in an area that may not, you know, have access to the big health foods stores, say like Whole Foods in the U.S.A.
And also, just kind of touch upon the drugs that you’re on the challenges because you were on some of the most expensive and the most heavily marketed drugs on the market, especially in the U.S., some of the drug you mentioned before we got on is marketed like every ad break on some channels. So, let’s get into your story and we’ll cover these things off as we go.
Linda: Yeah, okay. So, I guess to start at the beginning, I was doing boot camp and I was very fit, and then one day when I was in the plane position at 6:00 in the morning with all the, you know, eyes and everything. I said to my instructor, “I’ve got join pain in my hands.” And she said, “You need to go to a doctor and get tested for rheumatoid, you know.” And anyway, I went to the doctor and he says, “Oh, I’ll test you but, you know, I doubt there’s anything wrong.” And I came back and my blood test result, the scale and then it when I went to the rheumatologist and my first rheumatologist wasn’t, you know. And he said, gave me the news, “So you’ve got an incurable disease, it’s degenerative, and you’ll have it for the rest of your life.”
And I said, “Will I be able to work?” And he said, “Oh, yes, yes. You’ll be able to work but you’ll always be in pain, you know.” And anyway, I went to him about three times and then I found a new rheumatologist that was more my style. But he did instantly relieved the pain with some, you know, prednisolone and anti-inflammatories, and he put me on methotrexate which is methotrexate is one of the drugs that has made me feel sick right from day one. So, anyway, let’s skip forward a bit to with my new rheumatologist. She put me on…I got off the prednisolone after a few, almost six months or something. And I got off the anti-inflammatories because I didn’t like either of those.
Clint: Okay, and let me just have a little, if I might just gently interrupt your story as we go to add some sort of author’s commentary or like a veteran’s commentary, because I see this so much. You know, the hardest clients that I worked with, the ones that have been taking the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories or the painkillers for very long periods of time, or who have been on prednisone for years and years and years and years, all who’ve taken antibiotics leading up to coming into my radar for a long period of time. Those three drugs are so detrimental to gut health, that they could have been eating fast food and meat and dairy and oils their whole life and still not have the problems that those particular drugs seem to create, based on my experience with working with those folks.
And therefore, what you’ve done which is to have a sort of a triple therapy there with the painkillers, the prednisone and also the methotrexate. By dropping those first two in that order, you’ve eliminated the two that are most detrimental to the gut. And you have then proceeded with one that is yeah, maybe more scary for most people but has in my view and it’s just my opinion. But from what I’ve seen and observed with many, many folks is that it doesn’t seem to have the two steps backward effect when you’re trying to heal of those first, first few drugs. So, thank you for giving me that little chance to jump in, and I’ll let you pick it up now from when you’re now just on the methotrexate.
Linda: Yeah, no worries. The methotrexate still wasn’t totally controlling it but, you know, the rheumatologist that I wasn’t so happy with, you know, pretty much singled out how it is. You know, as people a lot more soft to this pain. And I’m like, “Well, you know, I’m just, you know, I’ve got a one-year-old baby and, you know, got a six-year-old toddler and I can’t be living like this.” So, I found a new rheumatologist. I had to travel to Geelong which is, I don’t know, four or five hours away to various state, someone, she is a young doctor and much more progressive. She put me on Plaquenil as well.
And she went through the process of getting me on Humira injections. We’ve tried a few different ones. There was a few before we ended up with Humira which was controlling it quite well. And all the time I just wanted to get off the methotrexate because it always made me feel sick. Like I’m a non-drinker and I always felt like I had a hangover, you know, after I had taken my methotrexate. And so, you know, I worked with her to get the dose down as much as I could. It was in 2014, I was like, “Ugh, this just isn’t good enough.” And I Googled is there a cure for rheumatoid and I found your diet. And bought it and I was desperate. So I just went to page one and I went, you know, diet one and I read it and a while I had to swear because I just like no, there’s no way.
Clint: Look, you can swear, we’ll just edit them out because of the rating on iTunes needs to be preserved. Yeah.
Linda: But I do think oh, this is just, you know, there’s no way I can beat it. I was tired, I was stressed, I was sick. You know, I was very, very busy and I just went, “There’s no way I can do that.” So, it wasn’t in 2016 in June, my whole family got very sick. We all got very bad colds and my husband ended up in a hospital with pneumonia for two weeks. And that’s when I went, “I’m doing too much. My family’s health is my priority now.”
Clint: Right now at that moment was your tipping point, wasn’t it? It was like this is it. I’ve had enough. I will anything it takes in my power to change this situation.
Linda: Yes, exactly. And I started with the family, of course, being a mother. I dropped my volunteer work at scouting which I love. I’m a cub scout leader and I will be again one day soon. But I had to drop that, it was taking 16 hours a week of my time and I were to cut time. And I also did dressmaking on the side, so I dropped the dressmaking and the scouts and I just focused on just my merchandising job. Just went to work, come home, you know, find extra things to work at. And as the rest of the time, I stripped the whole house. I took everything out of…one room at a time. I took everything out, scrubbed the place, got…you know, looked for mold, threw out a skip full of stuff. And just, you know, cleanse the house and then, everyone started to feel a bit better. And then I started to feel like I had enough time. So, I actually got the diet again and read it. I’ve read it from the start.
Clint: You got passed page one.
Linda: Yes, yes. You know, I got passed that, anyway. So it was really interesting because this was in the month of May because I started the five in October. So it must have been, I don’t know, the month before. So I read the first chapter and I stopped. I can’t remember which order it’s in but I stopped eat food group. I stopped eating it after I’ve read the chapter. And I was like, “Oh, my gosh. You know, I can’t possibly eat those foods anymore.” So, I have this period of time where I was very hungry but not eating anything.
Clint: Because I think the chapter is called the killers, and you have to work through it one at a time and I explained what’s going on with each one. But then the chapter after that is kind of like, “Well, what do you eat?”
Linda: Yes, that’s right.
Clint: And you haven’t got to the foods yet.
Linda: That’s right, I haven’t got to the food yet. So, yeah, I was just…so I must have been awake quickly and before I started the diet. So, once I’ve read it and the evidence is so compelling, you know, I said to my family, I said, “Look, I have to do this.” And all of the tools and with the diet are fantastic like I, you know, I’ve been writing down why you’re doing it and having a diary. I still brought my diaries. So I’m up to diary number four of my food diaries. And, you know, so that was crucial to being able to succeed in it. And, you know, my family were in, you know, in theory is, “Sounds great, you should do it.” But, you know, they haven’t really changed what they’re eating at all.
So I really had to prepare two meals most of the time. But that’s something that I’m slowly hoping to inspire them to change. So, yeah, it was really after about two weeks of the Paddison Program, I was pain-free. And then I had the excitement of being able to go to the rheumatologist and say, “Look.” Because actually, I mentioned it back when I discovered your diet, I mentioned it to my rheumatologist and she said, “Well, eating healthy does help, you know, but I wouldn’t commit to, you know, if you do…because there hasn’t been enough testing and, you know, all that stuff. But there is evidence out there but nothing’s been proven anyway. But, you know, you definitely should eat healthy.” But I’m not a [inaudible 00:11:20] person so just eating healthy is a bit too vague for me to be able to sink my teeth into.
Clint: Yeah, and also it doesn’t work just eating healthy. Because what’s the definition of healthy for most people? The definition of healthy is maybe not as often having fast food. It’s not eating out at junk food restaurants so much. Or it’s maybe reducing the amount of hot chips that they have at night. You know, they consider that healthy. I mean seriously, here I am in the States at the moment, and I took a photograph the other day at this place called Sam’s Club and I didn’t even know what it was. But it’s like Costco which is like a wholesale outlet for people who are happy to shop in like a huge shed and load up like pallets of food.
And I took a photo of this one lady who is walking out with a pallet of food. And I’m not joking, there was not one single item on the pallet that had grown or was natural. It was all boxed, it was all processed, and every horrific kind of processed food, brand, and product you can buy, the sort of things I put up on slides when I’m speaking, like don’t eat this. It was the whole pallet and she’s pushing it out to the big SUV.
Linda: That’s hilarious. I actually, since I’ve started this, I’ve seen people at fast-food outlets, you know, and they obviously look unhealthy and [inaudible 00:12:50]. And I just feel like going up and slapping it out of their hands and say, “Don’t do it. You’re killing yourself.”
Clint: I know, I know, I know. Because they just haven’t got to the pain levels that you and I and others have experienced. Because when you reach a pain level that’s inhumane, because let’s face it, our body was never ever meant to ever feel this bad in these circumstances. Sure, in the past back in, you know, days before modern technology, we might have fallen over and broken a leg and being in agony. There’s no doubt about it. But not the kind of agony that’s created by our own body, in our own joints, or different parts of the body for different autoimmune conditions, because we were never ever meant to have this happen to us.
And in studies showing in Africa, a study based on African show there was no presence of rheumatoid arthritis before the 1960’s. So in a country that doesn’t eat a western lifestyle, there was no rheumatoid prior to modern introduction of processed foods and a high fat, high meat diet. So, you know, we’re just not…it’s an unnatural state. So, yeah. So, I mean yeah, watching it it’s just intolerable, I just, yeah, it’s so hard.
Linda: I know, I know. And then the weird thing is like I grew up on a farm so, you know, I’ve got a free, full of free land, you know.
Clint: You and me both. I grew up on a farm as well. You know, and my dad, bless his heart because, you know, he’s now mostly vegetarian based on, you know, watching his son go through what I went through. Him and mom both, especially mom who is mostly vegetarian before. He used to serve us meat three times a day and say, you know, because he read one book as we often do about, you know, how to eat. And he stuck with it his whole adult life until I got sick.
Linda: Well, it’s what we’re taught at school, like it’s difficult because, you know, my children is still taught that you need foods from all these food groups. And it’s very hard to explain that, you know, you can get protein from just plain iced foods. But the teaching, so my six-year-old son is very, very [inaudible 00:15:14]. So, knowing what healthy food is and, you know, and they say and they ask, you know, “What’s healthy?” And he puts his hand up and said, “The Paddison Program.” And the teacher said, “What’s the Paddison Program?” So, all of the grade one know about it now.
Clint: Well, that’s sensational, how funny. Isn’t that cool, you know? Yeah, I think because we find it hard to differentiate the word protein and meat products. They’re almost synonymous with each other. And yet, there are plant foods with more protein content per gram than meat products. So, it’s just the marketing job that’s been very, very successful. It’s like oranges and vitamin C. There are foods that are richer in vitamin C than oranges and potassium in bananas. You know, it’s the same old thing. We fall into this trap of thinking that one nutrient, one food. Whereas, every food unless you’re talking about something like oils which have no nutrients whatsoever.
Most foods have such a wide variety of nutrients that it’s just stupidity to associate one food with one nutrient unless you’ve taken a single vitamin supplement like a B12, which isn’t a food anyway. So, okay. We’re having a fun conversation here, I’m enjoying chatting. So, tell us some, what has it been like trying to source foods in a rural environment? Because we have a lot of clients who do live in rural areas, particularly in Australia where we have lots and lots of open, vast space with single towns with hours between them. And, you know, how difficult was it to get some of the foods, because the foods that I recommend aren’t necessarily the most common?
Linda: No. Actually, quite easy. The health food shop had most of like the things that I had a bit of trouble sourcing in the beginning were miso paste and things. But mostly because I haven’t heard of them anyway, and buckwheat. But they were readily available at the health food shop. And there’s also a shop which is handy. I never stopped to organic because it’s so expensive, so there’s an Asian tiff market in our of town and it’s just new. And so, you know, I get bulk cheap peas and now that I’m more advanced to get, you know, bulk grains from there, and just make sure I wash them really well.
Clint: Yeah, that’s awesome. I used to do the same thing. I used to get kimchi from a Korean place right next to where I used to do Bikram Yoga. And I would also buy from there, they used to sell frozen edamame beans, so I used to buy all these frozen edamame beans there as well. So, the Asian restaurants can be super, sorry. The Asian supermarkets can be super helpful.
Linda: Yes, they do.
Clint: You didn’t have to buy anything online. You didn’t go through any Amazon sort of, yeah.
Linda: No, I didn’t. I mean, I just didn’t do, like I couldn’t find edamame beans, I just didn’t have them. I just had all the things, you know, like, yeah, it’s enough variety when we get up in it that it doesn’t matter. And I tried, I can’t remember the name of one of the grains, I just didn’t like it.
Clint: Amaranth?
Linda: Yeah, I didn’t like it. I bought…but I found it at the supermarket. But I found I just didn’t like it so I just slipped it out. And yeah, oh, and interestingly, my iron levels…I’ve been on iron tablets for a few months prior to starting the diet. And the doctor had said, “Oh, your iron levels are quite good,” just before I started the diet. “But since you’re starting this diet, you better stay on the tablets.” So, anyway, after a month of being on the Paddison Program, I was able to get off those tablets.
Clint: That’s awesome.
Linda: Because I was getting plenty of nutrition.
Clint: Yeah, yeah, my rule of thumb with anemia or lack or iron. And these things is there’s a couple of things going on with you now, so this is more for listeners who haven’t got access to all the information. So, we know that with anemia, there’s iron deficiency anemia which is the one that 99% of people think about. But then there’s also anemia or chronic disease which is where, you know, state of inflammation. The body actually withholds the iron from the body, so that pathogens who need iron to be able to function and attack us are not able to get what they need. So, we shouldn’t treat anemia of chronic disease with iron supplementation unless we’re very, very cautious. So, if anyone wants more on that.
Linda: Yeah, they do the little blood tests but yeah, it’s interesting.
Clint: Yeah, it can be dangerous, yeah. Yeah, yeah. For anyone wondering what noise is in the background who’s not watching the view on YouTube, there’s a little dog that’s, not that little medium-size dog that’s been sitting next to the table the whole time.
Linda: Sorry, she gives her back side.
Clint: Now, tell us about the drugs you were on. A lot of people faced the challenge where their drugs are starting to waver in their effectiveness? I went through this. I was on ten milligram and it seemed to reduce most of my symptoms, not all. And then after a year, I needed to go up and up, and up. And it just seemed like for me, methotrexate just loses effectiveness and I got to maximum dose. And we talked earlier about that moment in time when you said, “I don’t care what it takes. I’m just doing everything in my power.” Well, that was for me when I was told that A, I’d be going on to more medications in addition to the methotrexate, or an alternative and that was at least or at least a severe.
And B, I wouldn’t be able to have children in the foreseeable future because of these drugs and that, for me, was my tipping point. And I said, “Whatever it takes, I’m doing this.” So, what was your experience? We’ve had the experience with methotrexate in terms of how you didn’t respond well to it. But before we get off methotrexate and on to the other drugs, when did you feel the side effects or the negative effects of methotrexate and what were they?
Linda: Well, at the very start they put me on very high dose of 20, I think 20, 25 milligrams. And I just felt, the best I can describe it is like having a hangover, and I also felt very vague. When I was driving to work or whenever I’d be thinking, “Jeez, I don’t know that I’m not safe, you know, because I’m on this drug and it was sort of affecting my concentration.” So, I worked hard to get it down and I actually did get it down to five milligrams at one point. But then when it started going back up, like, it was just after everyone are being sick and everything. The doctor said that, “Maybe you better go back to ten milligrams [inaudible 00:22:17] still suffering.” And that’s when I went, “Right, I better read that diet.”
Clint: Right, yeah. Same path, same moment. A talk of worst drugs, it’s amazing how afraid we are of the drugs. And I’ve surveyed a lot of my clients and found that the reason they, you know, want to adopt the changes that I recommend is more strongly to avoid medications than what it is to lower the pain. It’s quite incredible.
Linda: Yeah. It is true. And even though, like when I started my pain diary, I was recording pain in most joints in around seven to five school. You know, I’ve been living with that level of pain for a very long time and finding it acceptable. But then after two weeks, we’re always getting zeros in most of them. I was like, “Oh, my god, you know, like I didn’t realize how much I was putting up with until I start, you know, until it wasn’t there.” And now I occasionally get like a .25 in my right foot which I dropped down at the start of the diet. Unbeknownst to me, I broke my foot. I dropped a vase and a fan on it.
And, you know, I just what, you know, as someone rheumatoid used to go, “Okay, this is another pain.” But anyway, turns out I broke my foot. So that foot through this whole Paddison Program has pretty much being the only thing that gives me a warning that something I’ve eaten or medicines I’ve had have affected me. And so I adjust my diet with that.
Clint: Wow, so if I understand correctly, so you’ve got no pain now in any part of your body except you do get a sense that sometimes you’re getting some pain in one of the metatarsals of your feet. And what you do then is you…and because that’s where the pain is going to because it’s been broken, and so then you readjust by doing what? Do you go back to some of the more basic foods?
Linda: I always make sure that I’m having at least three or four Paddison Program meals, or probably more than that. But I usually try to have one Paddison Program meal a day, like I often have a miso soup for breakfast or kitchari, another one of my favorites.
Clint: Oh, yeah, we love that, too.
Linda: The quinoa veggie soup, I love that. So, I try and put those in as much as I can. If I notice it, for example, I was strictly on the diet until a couple of months ago when I decided that I lost too much weight. So what I did was I introduced the rest of the grains that I could think of, that I would be likely to eat, and I did that for two weeks and I felt fine. So then I did the rest of the veggies and then I did the rest of the fruits. And then there was a few things I reserved that I thought might affect me. And so, just recently, I tried tomatoes, so I got a .25 or one fourth today. And I think that’s from the tomatoes and all, you know. So I’ve dropped them again. And I just got the backup. I know exactly where I got to with the testing. So, if anything happens and I get regular pain, I’ll just go back to that where I was up to, and started producing things one at a time again.
Clint: Absolutely perfect. That’s the precise formula.
Linda: Yeah. The doctor was getting worried I was being [inaudible 00:25:45]. And the challenge has been because I’ve had constant sinus infections, every time I’ve tried to exercise effectively, I’ve ended up with a sinus infection. So, the thing that I need to do more on like the thing that’s been lacking in my Paddison Program is proper exercise and strength building. So, that’s my next health project once I’ve had, I’m having an operation tomorrow, so after I recover from that, then [inaudible 00:26:13] priority, we exercise to go with the diet, to finish up the healing.
Clint: Okay. And because I’m privy to what that operation is because you’ve told me on email that it is for your sinus. Now, is this a problem that has been, that started around the same time as rheumatoid or is it a longer term thing?
Linda: I think I’ve always had sinusitis but it’s just being in the last ten months that it’s become very chronic. And I think some of the medicines have made it a bit worse, you know. But, yeah. The thing that was interesting this year, since I started the program and I’m keeping a record of everything that goes in my mouth including medicines, and I found I was in a situation where I had, I was well and I knew I didn’t… So I dropped first medicine, I was allowed to drop was the methotrexate, so I dropped that, like with consultation with my rheumatologist. She said, “Okay, your blood tests are all still fine. You know, the medicines had been controlling it but, you know, you’re fine and you’re saying that you’ve got no symptoms. So you can try without them.”
And so I try without one and, you know, after a month or so, I was so, you know, heaven, I get rid of the, you know, what can I get rid of next and, you know, you can get rid of the Plaquenil so I tried that and it’s been fantastic. So, you know, I had no symptoms. But the one that she was very worried about me going off was Humira injections because there’s a process that’s expensive to have. And there’s an involved process that you’ve got to make criteria to be eligible to be out of, be funded to have it because they’re well over thousands of dollars of injection if you don’t have the government funding. And so, you know, she said, “You won’t be able to have it again, you know, you only get one chance.”
And anyway, so I was in a situation where I was getting, I kept getting sinus infections and I keep bringing up and saying, “Look, I’m pretty sick to have the injection,” because you can’t have them when you’ve got the infection. And she said, “That’s okay.” And she said, “You know, just wait until you’re better and then have it.” So I wait until I was better and then I have it. And then I’d get, within two days, I’d have a bad infection back again. And so I go to the GP and then the GP would say, “Hey, you need antibiotics.” And I go, “I don’t wanna take antibiotics.” And anyway, but he’d given me some of it because I was keeping records. I couldn’t say, “Okay, I had ten dose with antibiotics and I had ten dose worth of pain in multiple joints.”
And I would just say, so I went to the doctor and I showed him, this is the part. “I can’t take antibiotics.” And so the next time I had an infection I went to him and I said, “Look, I can’t take antibiotics because, you know, it gives me flare-ups.” And he says, “Well, best you don’t take them.” And so I’ve been managing it with [inaudible 00:29:09] and all sorts of other alternatives but, you know, I’m still being sick. But I was stick with the antibiotics anyways, so the recovery time was about the same, whether the I had the antibiotics or not.
And at the same time, I also rang my rheumatologist and I said, “Look, every time I have a Humira injection, I get an infection.” She says, “Well, best stay off it until you get your sinus problem sorted out.” So, I said, “Okay, I will.” And so I stopped taking Humira and I stopped taking antibiotics. And my sinus is still being a problem, but I haven’t had a chronic infection since I started fighting those things. You know, so yeah. I’ve been snuffly but not really grossly infected and sick. So it’s been just fantastic. And I go back to the rheumatologist in July and I can’t wait to say, “I’m never taking Humira again.” And she’s been, you know, we’ve been conversing, I’m fine. And, you know, she knows that I’m still symptom-free.
Clint: It’s just so awesome. It’s just such a lovely place that you’ve gotten to now. Before the call, you said it’s been about four months since you have been off those antibiotics and the Humira.
Linda: That’s right.
Clint: Which is a tremendous amount of time to be off Humira. If you look at the sort of lag time for that drug, you’re certainly right down into the tiny, tiny tail of what maybe residual within your body. So, one certainly could not argue that your symptoms are as they are because of that drug. It’s being far too long. So, this has been a really, really interesting conversation. And you’re very articulate and very good at recalling, you know, what transpired and it’s being really great to listen too. I know that my listeners often can spend a lot of time thinking about supplements, and you’re a great example I seem to pick up of someone who hasn’t fascinated about the supplement side of things. But was there anything that you did take at all besides just the food as medicine?
Linda: I wasn’t really…yeah, I’m not really interested in supplements. My GP did prescribed vitamin D tablets, vitamin E, the little yellow ones. No, vitamin D, vitamin D.
Clint: D, yeah, good. One I like, the other I don’t.
Linda: Yes, yeah, vitamin D. And towards the end, that was all is on this vitamin D. And towards the end when I started losing too much weight, he prescribed multivitamin which he said sometimes helps at the diet and it did. Because I found I was always full but I was still losing so much weight. And so yeah, so that was helpful at the end. But, you know, it’s not something, yeah, I’m quite happy not have any supplements, you know.
Clint: Yeah, that’s good. So, there are some that are well documented elsewhere that I think are worthy of a try. But I feel that they get a disproportionate amount of attention when people are trying to heal. They also distract you from taking bigger action than taking the pills. So the brain can only think about a certain number of task at hand. And when one of them is which one of my supplements should I take now, it can feel like we’re ticking the box of doing something positive, when that should be replaced with how long can I spend at the gym today? Can I fit in a Bikram class? Or shall I take the time to clean the juicer and make another green smoothie, or clean the blender? Do you know what I mean? These are better quality questions than which supplement?
Linda: Yeah, I find it’s all about the food and, you know, and the preparation like being, for me, having a family that needed to stay on the said diet at the moment, and myself, you know, and I had to have a lot of time to prepare the food and all of those things. And yeah, it’s got to be the priority because, you know, if you’re starving and there’s nothing there, you have to cook it. It’s not good, it means you’re not [inaudible 00:33:32].
Clint: You’ve got be highly prepared, don’t you? You’ve got to have all the foods that you need to make your meals at the front and foremost visible of the cupboard. Because if there’s something there that looks very tempting it’s, you know, after several months you’ve really start to feel the sort of the pull towards doing something bad. And now it happens even more when you’re doing so well. It’s when you’re doing so well, you feel like I can afford to do this and that. I know we’re heading towards the end of our chat, but can you explain some tips that you’ve got for other people who are also in your situation, where you are cooking for sort of yourself and separately for the family with different meals. Have you worked out how to streamline this or to make this more efficient?
Linda: Yes. Now that I’m not as restricted, I’m sure it can work. It’s taking me a long time to get it but I do. I’ve been Googling vegan recipes and vegan, you know, kind of things. And a tip that I found which is great was preparing in bulk. So, at the moment, one of my favorite meals is the Buddha bowl which has grains, fresh veggies, salad or cooked veggies, and you know, smashed avocado and things. So, I’ve cooked a lot of those components. I’ve got a fridge full of fresh veggies that I’ve roasted in the air, there was no oil on that. And so, you know, so I’ve got the components there.
So, it’s just a matter of heating up and adding bits on. So my meals, you know, and the freezer’s got several containers of quinoa and veggie soup, and that sort of stuff. So, you know, like one bulk cooking day a week can tie over till the next week. And you have here a couple of favorite emergency meals. I mean, my emergency meal is miso soup because, you know, I can cook it in 40 minutes. And so it’s kind of by backstop before I haven’t got a plan. It’s my emergency meal. And so, yeah, you just got to have your emergency meals and you know, sort of have your components pre-prepared.
And always have a fresh salad in the fridge, you know, already prepared. And try to serve that up to the family as well. Like, you know, yes, give them their shit food but also give them, you know, a bit of…sorry. You know, give them something good as well and, you know, eventually. Like, they’re a fan of kitchari. I feed them kitchari once a week but the rest of it is slowly, slowly. But yeah, so they…
Clint: Yeah, there’s some really good tips there. And I do agree with all of those things and preparing in bulk is just a fabulous tool. You may recall some of our forum members have posted pictures where, like Glen for instance, comes to mind. He’s got, you know, a week’s worth of meals prepackaged, ready to go all in their individual containers that he takes to work each day. And it really works for him and it really does take away that sort of repetitive, robotic food prep that you have to do all the time when time is so precious.
Linda: Yeah, that’s it. There is food.
Clint: Thanks so much for coming on this episode. Where does life take you from this point, Linda? I say to people when they overcome rheumatoid arthritis and become their own puppeteer like you are now, where you if you’re feeling a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know exactly what to do to restore it. You are in control, in complete control of your condition, which is the ultimate goal of what we’re aiming for here. It’s not a cure, it’s not remission. These words don’t work for us. What we’re looking for is complete confidence and control over our condition. Now that you have achieved that, what lies ahead for you in any kind of category?
Linda: Look, there’s so many things like I’m just so excited. I’m able to like our family is not particularly sporty, but now I’m able to run around with my six-year-old and play catch and, you know, do those things much more often. And the dog gets walked a lot more often that she used to. And so those sort of things I wanna get my fitness up to an even higher level. We run to the bus stop every morning because we’re running late and it doesn’t hurt. Except for the, [makes sound], because I’m not fit. And I’m actually seriously considering a teaching degree next year now that I’m well enough and I’ve got enough energy. Yeah, so I’d like to, yeah, I think that’s something I wanna do.
And we enroll as camp but I’m looking forward to doing more camping again now because without pain, it will just be so much less of a hassle. And yeah, so I wanna get the whole family a bit more outdoor and active like we, you know, we sort of always have been but we need a bit more, you know, a bit more of the outdoor life again. Because, you know, it’s very easy to just go, “Ah, it’s too hot.” Okay. So, where I might take the kids for a walk, I would make them walk the dog and that sort of stuff, so.
Clint: Yeah, absolutely. Well, anything that involves exercises and outdoors is fabulous,, isn’t it? Exercise is like insurance, you know. The more you put in, protect yourself from future disease or…
Linda: There’s a cave called the Sơn Đoòng Cave that just sounds amazing but you’ve got to be super fit and you’ve got to be able to rock climb to go to it. It’s a very isolated cave, so that’s another long-term goal.
Clint: All right. Well, keep us updated. Because I’m keying to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, that’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I believe that the physicality of it now is not gonna be a problem at all. It’s actually trying to work out, how to do it with two little kids and the whole logistics of having a small family makes it hard. But look, these things are, you know, these things are possible to us when we take a period of our life where we say enough is enough, and we got to do something about it. And, you know, you fortunately were able to do it without losing income. You’re able to drop to charitable aspects of your life, which was, you know, obviously things you enjoy and were sort of wonderful things.
But to be able to keep up your income side of things at the same time was a big plus. I, at the same time, in my experience was, I dropped all of the low income aspects of my work. You know, I’ve been working in entertainment for seven, eight years, and so I’ve dropped performing at all the little comedy clubs and I wouldn’t travel into state for anything other than high-paying corporate jobs because it was too much on my body. So, you know, like you, I had to prune that parts of my life that were not really essential so that I could concentrate on getting well.
Linda: Yeah, it’s interesting.
Clint: It is, it is. It’s a…
Linda: Really, really. I read a book called “Essentialism” around the same time which was very helpful for prioritizing what’s really important, you know, which was good.
Clint: Yes, definitely. I might get you to send through the author of that book and I’ll link that in the show notes. I just wanna thank you for coming on this show and for sharing your story. And I’m sure most, if not everyone will get a lot out of it. And I think you’ll be a fantastic teacher. You’re very, very eloquent at explaining things and recounting your stories. So, if I, you know, had a house that you would be sending kids to your school.
Linda: Fantastic.
Clint: So, thanks very much for coming on as a guest, and I wish you all the best, and let’s stay in touch.
Linda: Indeed, thanks.