Discipline & Hard Work: Pick 1000 Weeds & You Can Play with Your Friends (Part 1) – Podcast Episode #6

Transcript & Timeline Natural Living Family Podcast, Episode 6 – Healthy Goal Setting

The contents of this presentation are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This presentation does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

[0:00 – 1:25] Prelude

Mama Z: She had been in an abusive marriage. And she told me that she had to fear the unknown less than she feared the known. She had to get to the place that it was time that she had to make a change.

Dr. Z: Hun, repeat that. This is important. She had to fear what?

Mama Z: She had to get to the place where she feared the unknown less than the known. And I remember Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said…And he’s probably my absolute favorite preacher, author forever. But he said, “Throw your heart over the bar. And your body and mind will follow.”

Dr. Z: The Bible says, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” So what do you do when your body says no, when everything says no?

Mama Z: Yeah, you mean at 4 o’clock in the morning when my body is saying, “Oh, that bed looks really nice.”

Dr. Z: Really, what do you do?

Mama Z: You put those pants on, and you go. And that’s the biggest thing. Sometimes you don’t feel like it. And sometimes you don’t. But if you put your body in that direction and you put your body and soul in what you’re doing, the rest of you will catch up to that.

[1:26 – 1:50] Intro

Dr. Z: Hey, there. Dr. Z here.

Mama Z: And Mama Z. And welcome to Episode 6 of our Natural Living Family podcast.

Dr. Z: Each week, we invite you into our home to talk about how you can master the art and science of natural living. And we share the very same tips our family uses every day to enjoy an abundant life. And you’re going to love today’s topic.

Mama Z: So come on in and get comfortable. After all, you’re one of the family, our Natural Living Family.

[1:51 – 2:20] Sponsor Spotlight: Thrive Market

Dr. Z: But before we dive into all the fun today, we’re excited to share a special note about today’s sponsor.

Mama Z: As a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Thrive Market is giving you 25% off your first order.

Dr. Z: Plus a free 30-day trial. Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com to find the special link so you could redeem this deal on the show notes from today’s episode.

[2:21 – 3:59] Intro Continued

Dr. Z: Yay! Well, hey. Look at your notes.

Mama Z: Yeah, there’s lots of good stuff.

Dr. Z: What are you supposed to do?

Mama Z: Well, you’re going to—

Dr. Z: No, look at your notes.

Mama Z: What?

Dr. Z: Or am I supposed to do the intro and then you’re going to do it.

Mama Z: Yeah, you’re going to do the—because you talk about, “Mama Z is going to tell you…” So this is you.

Dr. Z: Oh! What about the diffuser?

Mama Z: Well, that was at the bottom part. I will do that in just a minute before I start talking.

Dr. Z: Well, hey. We just flip flopped that a little bit. All right. Well, normally we give y’all our diffuser recipe. My bad. Wrong bullet point.

Mama Z: Yep.

Dr. Z: You’ve got to pick up a ball when I drop it, though.

Mama Z: Well, you didn’t set me up.

Dr. Z: All right, everyone. This is Episode 6 of the Natural Living Family podcast. We’re going to be talking about discipline, hard work, “healthy goal setting” so you can enjoy an abundant life. And I have air quotes when I talk about goals because I’m going to be explaining what I mean by we don’t, I don’t set goals in a traditional sense. And I don’t create vision boards, and why this has really helped me be very productive and über successful in our business.

And Sabrina, Mama Z, is going to talk to you about how she had to pick a thousand weeds—literally a thousand weeds—before she could play with her friends when she was a kid and how this really helped develop an insanely productive work ethic.

There are tons of golden nuggets that we’re going to share about staying focused, importance of not compromising, and tips that we have learned to how to enjoy abundance. And I’m not talking about just having a fat wallet. We’re talking about living a well-balanced, fruitful life.

Mama Z: Well, before we get into all that—

Dr. Z: Yeah, see, there we go. Now what?

[4:00 – 4:39] Today’s Diffuser Blend Recipe!

Mama Z: Now, we’re going to talk about our diffuser recipe because people always want to know what’s in our diffuser. And today, I have equal parts of lemon, lavender, and peppermint which is called the allergy blend because you’ve got the lavender that’s going to calm everything down, the peppermint that opens everything up, and the lemon that cleanses everything through. So we’ve got a very happy, very fragrant scent. But it’s good for multi-purposes, too.

Dr. Z: Yep, we love it.

Mama Z: Awesome, yeah.

Dr. Z: Everyone wants to hear. I think we need to boost the diffuser piece up top. People want to hear it. It’s like, boom! Let’s give them something good. What do you think?

Mama Z: Whatever you think.

[4:40 – 5:17] Write a Podcast Review If You Love the Podcast!

Dr. Z: I don’t know. We’re still hashing this thing out. We love it! And thank you so much for those of you who are leaving reviews, for those of you who are rating us. Go on wherever it is that you subscribe to podcasts. And please leave a review. Give us a ranking. If you’re streaming right now on YouTube or Facebook, because we put these videos up as well, leave comments. We love the interaction. And this has been really exciting for us because this is our very first podcast. And we’re still ironing out the kinks a little bit. And it’s a lot. It’s exciting. It’s fun.

Mama Z: Yeah, lots of fun.

Dr. Z: Dive right into it. This is your piece.

Mama Z: I’m going to.

Dr. Z: Do it.

[5:18 – 12:37] Growing Up Mama Z (Hint: It Involves Picking 1,000 Weeds)

Mama Z: I’m going to talk about my picking a thousand weeds before we could play with our friends. So the background of that was we always did a lot of yard work. That was part of it. And we knew that Saturday we would really commit at least half a day to doing something inside or outside for the family. So we ended up building a house and moving into this house when I was in sixth grade.

And that next spring, we got out there, started planting the garden. We planned it out. Then we planted. And we realized, because there were no other houses really around us but one or two. So there was a lot of wind that blew. And unfortunately, lots of seeds and lots of weeds. And we learned about how you have to pull weeds out by the roots or they come back. So that was job security really because at that point—and my dad being in charge of the—we joke around and call it the anal-lytical department. He was an analytic chemist, a scientist in the agricultural department. And so basically he found that sometimes people weren’t pulling out weeds at the roots. And so he started saying—

Dr. Z: At work, you mean? Or at home?

Mama Z: At home.

Dr. Z: Oh, so he was quality control at the house.

Mama Z: Yeah, so we had to put them in a bucket.

Dr. Z: So he wasn’t picking weeds at work, in the office.

Mama Z: Well, I don’t know. He could’ve. I have no idea. We tried to outsmart the whole system all the time.

Dr. Z: You can’t outsmart your dad. He’s got it nailed down.

Mama Z: So we have 40 fruit trees in a lot and a half in the city. And so we had an edger.

Dr. Z: Hold on a second. You just glossed over that. Her home, when I first met Sabrina—and again, this was right after my conversion. I was all about Christ. I was all about health. And I remember visiting your home for the first time. And it was like Willy Wonka land for me. You could eat everything!

Mama Z: Blueberries.

Dr. Z: Everything!

Mama Z: It was the perfect time of the year, too.

Dr. Z: It was July 4th, around that time. And I’ve never seen—and again, this is in the city, suburb. When she says a lot and a half, it’s—

Mama Z: On a cul-de-sac.

Dr. Z: It’s in a cul-de-sac. It’s a normal. It’s not a huge—

Mama Z: It’s a pie-shaped lot.

Dr. Z: It’s not even an acre.

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: Not even half an acre. It’s literally a yard that was just everything. Grapes. I never had currants. I never had fresh grapes in my life before that time. I never had fresh currants. Everything. I think I fell in love with the garden before I fell in love with you.

Mama Z: No, no, no. You had already told me that—

Dr. Z: I think it helps.

Mama Z: I was the one for you a few days before that.

Dr. Z: I think it was because of the garden.

Mama Z: So this must have just sold the deal right there.

Dr. Z: I think it was. I married in. And that’s where I realized you marry a family. You don’t marry an individual, by the way. And I married the best family ever. Anyway, so I’m sorry. It’s a lot of maintenance.

Mama Z: So to set the stage, even at our previous home, we had fruit trees. So when we moved—and this is no joke—we had the choice. We took the fruit trees with us because one thing we learned is that when you leave a place, you have different desires than someone else who’s going to move in there. So really, if you want it, you need to take it with you.

So we had our choice. We could take a tree in a wheelbarrow or a wagon. And our house was only half a mile from our old house. But we had our choice—wheelbarrow or wagon. And we had to carry trees in it. And for every load of trees we brought over, we got a pair of socks. But I remember thinking it was really worth it. But in order to get those socks, we had to turn in holey socks in order to get the new pair.

Dr. Z: Interesting. You worked for socks.

Mama Z: I worked for socks.

Dr. Z: I don’t think I’d work for socks.

Mama Z: Well, we’re in the neighborhood. And this kid comes out and was like, “Are you the one I saw bringing a tree in a wheelbarrow or something?” And so they knew us right away because we spent all this time outside doing work.

So we brought all these trees. And we had to put grass down and all this stuff. So we had to dig trenches around all of our trees so we could fill up the water reservoir. Well, I did all the watering at our old house. So my sister, that was her job, edging. We had to edge everything.

So here we are. We’re out there. And now, we’ve got three times the amount of trees. So of course, my edger totally went dead a little early. So I got out of the rest of my edging. And my sister still had to water all the trees.

So my dad got smart. And he got a second edger. So one was always plugged in and on the charger. And the other one was right there. So no matter what. And don’t worry, he got two extra battery packs for each one, so if something happened we would have enough batteries to continue what we were doing.

So now this is the next season. We’ve realized that there are some weeds. And I learned a lot of important lessons. Now, because my dad—if we asked him, “Can we go to the mall? Can we do this?”

And he would say, “Well, what are you going to do for me?”

And I’m like, “Well, I don’t know.”

And he’s like, “How about pick a thousand weeds?” And he would say, “You better pick a thousand weeds. And if it doesn’t look like a thousand, I’ll count them. And you have to pick another thousand.” So we would literally count it. And he still, to this day, counts how many blossoms he cuts off the trees. He gives us a report. Now that he doesn’t work for somebody and he’s retired, he writes his friends and family a full report on how many of this or that or this or that that he’s accomplished. And it’s so funny because our family and friends are like, “Wow! Your dad is really specific.”

Dr. Z: True story. And no, let me put this in perspective for people. What are you talking about? You know the Christmas letter you get from people during Christmas time? You might get a picture. You might get a, “This is what happened to Suzy and Bobby and us.” That’s what her dad does every week. It’s the Christmas letter version of his life. And it’s pretty impressive. Literally, to the picking.

Let me ask you, though, did you try to sneak out of a thousand weeds? And did you get caught.

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: Ever.

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: That’s hard to believe.

Mama Z: Now, my sister did, though.

Dr. Z: Which one?

Mama Z: Samantha.

Dr. Z: Samantha. I would imagine it would be Veronica.

Mama Z: She would try to cut the corners a little bit more and fluff her bucket.

Dr. Z: Like it cut out at 750 or something?

Mama Z: I don’t know. I just remember just in my mind I committed to at least a half day doing yard work, whether it was cutting down the chives, picking herbs, whatever it was that we needed. But always weeding needed to be done. You could spend one section of the garden and get a thousand weeds. There was just so much. I think it’s three mammoth gardens that they have. Then they have the different herb gardens. So there’s a lot of coverage there.

Dr. Z: And he did his part of the bargain. He took you to the mall.

Mama Z: Oh, yeah.

Dr. Z: Okay, cool. So it was a good, fair exchange. It was like a deal. It was like a business deal.

Mama Z: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pick a thousand weeds; you can play with your friends.

Dr. Z: Cool.

[12:38 – 17:32] Mama Z’s Early Life Lessons

Mama Z: And I remember one instance. And I remember him saying now, “If you do a bad job, you’re going to do it again. And you’re going to do it again and again until you do a job correctly because I want you to get to the place that when you do a job you do it right the first time.” And it was ingrained in us. And I remember I had to pick an extra area of herbs. And it was in our—you know that big circle garden that has the retaining wall around it?

Dr. Z: Mm-hm.

Mama Z: And I wanted to go boating with my friends so badly on their family’s boat. And so I had to weed this whole area. It was intense. And my dad basically said, “All right. You’re going to weed this whole area. And if I find five weeds, then you’re going to have to pick more.”

Dr. Z: Five.

Mama Z: So I tried my best. And I missed this one section.

Dr. Z: He’s such a taskmaster.

Mama Z: And I remember, “Oh my gosh! What am I going to do?” So I remember taking the little claw, the little claw tool for gardening. And I just clawed it up. And I just picked up all that dirt. And I put it in my bucket. I must have gotten them all at that point. I wanted to go so badly.

But other than that, I remember just learning so much, being in the garden, and just about discipline and structure because we had such a structured environment. And if we got our jobs done—and as we got older, we added more jobs to it. We’d have to wash off the deck.

My dad is also very specific about his lawn. And when we had a dog, basically when the dog pees in the grass it will kill the grass. And then it grows back thicker. So if you took the dog out, you had to wash in the area that the dog went potty.

Dr. Z: With a hose?

Mama Z: With a hose. “Water it in. Wash it in.”

Dr. Z: Wow. That’s unbelievable.

Mama Z: In order to make sure that it spread the wealth because it actually was kind of like a fertilizer.

Dr. Z: But you would want to sleep on the grass. It’s that soft.

Mama Z: It is so soft.

Dr. Z: His grass—they actually have a garden tour. So shout out to your mom and dad. The local Midland, Michigan. The local—what is it? What’s it called?

Mama Z: I know the mayor organizes it.

Dr. Z: It’s like a garden walk.

Mama Z: It is.

Dr. Z: Where they go around the top five or six.

Mama Z: They choose homes in the area.

Dr. Z: Most beautiful gardens in the whole, entire city. And they got chosen this year. How exciting!

Mama Z: Yes, and they were chosen many years ago. But it’s really because it’s so much fuller now. They are much more of an urban homestead, even though they always were. But everything is usable in that area. And so it’s really going to be featured as an urban homestead. And the cool thing about it is—

And I remember the first time. It actually rained during the original garden walk that we were part of many, many years ago. And I remember my dad just about crying because thousands of people walked on his grass. And it matted his grass because it was raining. And so I’m excited to be there this year for it. And it’ll be fabulous.

Dr. Z: Yeah, so if you’re local to Midland, Michigan, meet Mama Z and I, whether you’re—what is it? Tri-Cities—Bay City, Saginaw, that whole—

Mama Z: Midland, Flint area, yeah.

Dr. Z: For those of you who are watching. Middle Michigan. This is the mitt of Michigan. Right in the middle there.

Mama Z: Yep, middle of the mitten.

Dr. Z: So just put a little context to Sabrina’s dad. Sabrina’s dad is by far one of the most disciplined, accomplished people that I’ve ever met in my life. And I’ve got to say, as a son-in-law, I’ve looked up to him as a father figure because he has really supported us every step of the way. And we actually want to talk about that. If you want to be a ditch digger, I’ll give you a golden shovel. That’s her dad.

And really, if it weren’t for her mom and dad supporting us every step of the way through school and all the things that we’ve done, we literally wouldn’t be here right now. And we wouldn’t be able to help the millions of people who watch our master classes, watch the documentaries we’re in and we’re doing, our website, our books. None of it would be possible.

And as I’ve talked—and I really like your father’s stories. They’re really fun. But you’ve got to think. This is a man who is a Ph.D. chemist who was a college athlete, could’ve gone pro. He was a college athlete in what? Baseball, football, and—

Mama Z: Hockey. Or basketball.

Dr. Z: Hockey. Or no, it was basketball, I think. And so just having this über sense of accomplishment and discipline and passing it on to his daughters. All of your sisters are super accomplished. Your one sister is a Ph.D. chemist. Apple doesn’t [fall] far away from the tree. She teaches at the Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. Your other sister is a registered nurse who’s going on to her master’s and accomplished that area. Just super accomplished.

[17:33 – 22:21] How Dr. Z Gets the Important Things Done

And so I want you to share a little bit about what you’ve done to stay motivated because there’s this point where—I know for myself, I don’t come from that lineage. I don’t come from that lineage of über accomplished people in my family. And so I’m the first in my family to be a doctor. I’m the first to do a lot of things actually. And not to give the details of all the things. But it’s been very inspiring for me to watch you because you, by living the way that you do, have really pushed me to up my game.

Mama Z: Yeah, you were even up before 7 a.m. this morning. I’m so proud of you.

Dr. Z: And what did I do?

Mama Z: You read your Bible.

Dr. Z: A whole chapter. I read John chapter 14.

Mama Z: Yeah

Dr. Z: And?

Mama Z: And then you worked out. And you took the kids to school after I got them all ready.

Dr. Z: And then I got home. I got Bella ready. And just a context there. I am not your morning riser type. But in school, I would wake up at 6 o’clock every day because I had 7 o’clock classes. It was miserable for me.

Mama Z: And the traffic.

Dr. Z: Oh, it was miserable.

Mama Z: You had to leave by 6:30, or you would never make it.

Dr. Z: It was miserable. But I went to bed early. See, that’s the key. And I’m learning that. That’s what you do. You fall asleep really early. But for me, I really thrive at this 8, 9, 10 o’clock thing. The kids are in bed. I like watching a movie or doing work. But if I get to bed at midnight and then you’ve got to eat, sleep 7, 8 hours. So I’m waking up at 8. And that’s been my normal flow for the last couple of years.

This is something I’ve realized. To get what I want to get done, if I’m going to fit the time in to exercise, if I’m going to fit the time in to pray and read the Bible, it has to be early in the morning. It’s like for me it’s impossible to do any of that midday because life happens. Work happens. Kids happen.

Mama Z: And that’s one of the reasons why I always talk about working out first thing in the morning because a lot of people find every excuse under the sun before the end of the day if they put it off. And they can always take another client. They can always do this. Or they fill their time up here, there. Or they’ve got to get this for that person or this for that person.

And I think it’s really important to recognize on the work ethic part, which is something that they instilled in my—not just my dad, but both of my sets of grandparents. It was really big on that. And one of the things that was never told to me but that I got out of it is there are no shortcuts. And there are no shortcuts because, believe me, if there were, I would’ve figured it out by now.

And I remember washing dishes. And my job was always to dry and put away dishes. That was my part. And so when I would do it, I remember my martial arts teacher summing it up for me, Ms. Terry. And she would say, “Economy of motion.” So I would want to make sure I grabbed every single dish that went in this drawer or this spot just so I wouldn’t have to go back to that spot so that I would not waste time. And I would always try to figure this and that out.

But truly when it comes to the big things, there are no shortcuts. You have to be disciplined in order to wake up at a certain time. And believe me. It’s so funny. There are times that I am late for my workouts because little Elijah will get up. And he’s so cute in the morning. And he’ll be like, “Mommy, but I love you.” And this. And he’ll go on.

Dr. Z: At 5 in the morning, 4. His clock is different than anyone else’s.

Mama Z: And with Bella, she would want to nurse at that time. It was like they knew I was up. And I felt like in junior high/high school, trying to sneak out of the house. But I’m trying to sneak out without my kids waking up. And what did we do? We did nothing in high school or junior high.

Dr. Z: See, that’s what you’re doing. You set yourself up for success. And this is just an open confession to everyone. I’m about to turn 39 soon. My entire decade of the 30s has just been this survival mode where I quit a very good corporate job. We moved down to Georgia, studied to be a chiropractor because we had this vision, this dream of opening up a health center.

And I’m telling you something. Chiropractic college ain’t no joke. Going to classes 12+ hours a day, clinical settings, working, studying on the weekends, clinical board Ps, all my research.

Mama Z: And then you traveled and all that stuff.

Dr. Z: I literally became a slave. But before we talk about that, here’s a quick note about our sponsor.

[22:22 – 23:00] Sponsor Spotlight: Thrive Market

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Mama Z: Yes. From ingredients to snacks, it’s so awesome. And the kids go nuts.

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[23:01 – 27:45] Bringing Intention to Your Daily Schedule

Dr. Z: And I don’t know what else to say. I became a slave to my schedule. And at the point, because we were living on student loans, which by the way ain’t cheap either—living on student loans, my job was to pass my classes. And that took things to a different perspective because passing a class, especially at that level is just very similar to medical school, the residency aspect of everything. I had to work 7+ days a week. It seemed like sometimes I would work 8, 9 hours a week. And so when I graduated—

Mama Z: Well, and remember. We started our business two years. What was it? Two and a half years before you graduated. About two and a half years. Because we needed to make sure that we transitioned well into what we were going to do.

Dr. Z: Again, I started at 30 years old. The month I turned 30 is when I started to school. It’s been this, “What’s the next fire to put out? What’s the next exam? What’s the next board? What’s the next patient? What’s the next research trial?” And my life literally became a response to fire that needed to be put out.

And it wasn’t until relatively recently I realized I need to start being more proactive. And then I just started observing. Literally, if I’m going to be determined to exercise, I need to fit it in my schedule. And I need to put it in. What do you always say? If it’s not in your schedule, it ain’t going to happen.

Mama Z: That’s right. It’s not. And you have to make time for it. And even for me, because I do train really hard and it’s really important, even taking personal time.

And I know we’ll talk a little bit more about self-love next episode. But it’s really important to take time to make sure that—and I go and get a massage. And for me, it’s more like physical therapy because there’s always a fire we’re putting out in the body.

But at the same time, you have to make sure that you’re trying to relax your body and that you’re taking that down time. For some people, it’s a bath. Some people, it’s manicures and pedicures. It all has to be taking care of yourself in the process because if you don’t then you can’t take care of the other people. And as you know, then the next fire is already there. So if you don’t put it in your schedule—

Dr. Z: Yeah, it’s about balance. And so I could relate to having a very strong work ethic. But when it came to exercising, that was something that was very easy and the first thing that got cut out because, how do I have time to exercise? I’m studying. And then when I graduated and then when we were really now living on our own without having student loans to help us pay the bills, now I became Papa Bear with three kids at the time, providing for the family with maxed out credit cards, student loans up the wazoo, could barely pay rent one month. Remember all that? It was crazy.

And so this is where I’ve recognized, yes, you might have a work ethic. And you’re trying to do things. You’re trying to accomplish goals and intentions in your life. But if you don’t have the discipline and if you don’t have the structure, things aren’t going to happen the way that you want them to.

Mama Z: Right. And one of the best tips that I learned many years ago from one of my mentors was, look at your calendar, and put things in a color-accordance to different things. Like, make bills red because it’s like giving your blood. Exercise green or blue. And church is this color and this color. And you want to have each area of your life in a different color so that you can see how balanced you are on paper so you know what you have to do to make sure that you keep your life in balance.

And I think that’s really important because still to this day, we have different stuff on the calendar. It’s still color coded. And now with all that you can do on your iPhones and stuff like that, I can still color code all of my stuff. School comes in as one color. And then you’ve got this color and this color. So you can still have a physical look at what you’re doing. And that was a huge tip for me.

Dr. Z: Yeah, there are so many productivity tools. And so not to go too much into productivity, which we should talk about that in the future—I love all these. Every time we talk, we come up with new little notes and episodes.

[27:46 – 32:12] Making Progress in Spite of Fatigue or Illness

I want to address the laziness that sometimes is in people. And people listening right now that just at this point—and I don’t want anyone to be shamed. And lazy is a tough word. But the Bible talks about the lazy person barely picking—I don’t want to paraphrase it. I’ve got to get the verse. But not even wanting to muster the energy to put food into their mouth. The lazy person rolls over their bed like a hinge on a door. And these people, their gardens are overridden with weeds and nettles.

And the diligent person the Bible talks about. The book of Proverbs is very much in tune for hard work and diligence. The book of Proverbs dichotomizes the “lazy person.” They’re not harvesting the beautiful, bountiful crops that the abundant-mindset, hardworking person is. And I think that’s important because the Bible tells us very clearly you will be rewarded for your hard work. You’ll reap what you sow. And if you sow laziness, if you sow lethargy, if you sow not what Sabrina is trying to talk about, you’re not going to reap the benefits.

But here’s the thing I think we need to touch on. What about people who just don’t have that in them right now? And I say this because some people, it’s been beaten out of you physically. It’s been beaten out of you emotionally. Some people, the trials of life, the abuse, the trauma, the let downs, the put downs, the teasing, the bullying all through life. How do you get that back?

I don’t know if you guys can hear upstairs. Bella is nonstop. She’s two and a half years old. She’s nonstop. Moving, playing, there’s nothing lazy about her. How do we get that back? Because you have your Scripture verses and your motivating affirmations. Is that where you start?

Mama Z: Well, so one of my students many years ago, her name was Marcia. And I actually just ran into her a little bit ago. She came to our book signing in Midland last year.

Dr. Z: And we have another one for The Essential Oils Diet book that will be July, the first or second week of July. Oh, don’t even get me started. Lots of book signings coming up. Can’t wait!

Mama Z: Yay! But she had been in an abusive marriage. And she told me that she had to fear the unknown less than she feared the known. She had to get to the place that it was time that she had to make a change.

Dr. Z: Hold on. Repeat that. This is important. She had to fear what?

Mama Z: She had to get to the place where she feared the unknown less than the known. And I remember Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said—and he’s probably my absolute favorite preacher, author forever. But he said, “Throw your heart over the bar. And your body and mind will follow.”

Dr. Z: The Bible says, “The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” So what do you do when your body says no, when everything says no?

Mama Z: Yeah, you mean at 4 o’clock in the morning when my body is saying, “Oh, just that bed looks really nice.”

Dr. Z: Really, what do you do?

Mama Z: You put those pants on, and you go. And that’s the biggest thing. Sometimes you don’t feel like it. And sometimes you don’t. But if you put your body in that direction and you put your body and soul in what you’re doing, the rest of you will catch up to that.

And so especially people who are making changes after having thyroid issues and other things go on with their bodies and they’re tired of all of this. They’re tired. They’re tired of everything that’s going on. And it takes not having to worry about what the doctor is going to say the next time you go in but putting your mind past that. You’re already seeing beyond where you’re at right now in order to know that there is something better. And as you move your body in that way, things will happen. As you make intentions, things will happen.

[32:13 – 36:38] Incorporating Exercise into Your Natural Living Lifestyle

Dr. Z: So here’s a practical thing. And this is something that I had to do. Let’s touch base on exercise because there is a direct “you reap what you sow.” If you are diligent and hardworking in your exercise, you will reap a body that you will be happy with. And I’m not talking super model size 0 or negative 2 body. I’m talking the body that God gave you. You’ll be fit and strong and healthy and energetic. But, myself included, not exercising for several years really—and I get this.

My heart goes out to single, working moms more than anyone on the planet. I don’t know how y’all do it. I want to encourage you to build into your schedule the time that you need to really exercise, to focus on your health because that way you’ll be able to work and raise your kiddos and all the other things.

And get a support group. And that’s where the Natural Living Family comes into play. Imagine having a local Natural Living Family where maybe you work out and exercise with three or four of your friends. And then you hire a babysitter once a month. And then all the kids go to your house with your babysitter while you and your girlfriends workout. And the next week, someone else pays for the babysitter.

So what you’re doing is you’re spreading out the cost. And you’re sharing this with someone else and making it fun, doing things like that.

Mama Z: Well, and especially for new moms and stuff because I remember one of my mothers in the faith, I call her. She would walk the mall. And we walked almost every work week day of my pregnancy. And so as soon as she popped out, two weeks later, we were walking that mall again right afterwards. And having that camaraderie.

But one of the things I’ve talked with my midwife about is then you get two, three, four kids. And it’s a lot harder to manage that. So getting creative like that is huge.

Dr. Z: Yeah, having support. And so if you can relate to me, maybe you’re in this survival situation. Maybe you’re like me, the primary provider of the home and your wife is raising babies and taking care of kiddos. And your job is at work, making money. And things are tight. I’m talking to you. Or I’m talking to the single mom who is just burning the candle at both ends right now. And you know you need to exercise. But A) you don’t have the energy to exercise. Where do you start? Let me give you an allowance, first of all, to stay away from energy drinks. Those things are poison, even the natural energy drinks.

What I want to do is I want to give you a little bit of thumbs up to have a cup of coffee and to have a matcha green tea. And sometimes at 5 o’clock at night, I force myself to, “I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to exercise.” So right now, I could wake up now at 7 in the morning, have a great exercise. I don’t need any caffeine. And I do great. But there’s nothing wrong with having a transition period where maybe you do have a cup of coffee first. Or I would prefer a matcha green tea because it’s less acidic, and it’s so powerful and immune boosting.

But think about in those terms where, don’t shame yourself. And do what you’ve got to do to get the job done. And that’s something I just had to get the job done. I just remember being so tired. And at one point, it was 8 o’clock at night. And I’m like, “I’ve got to do something. I have to.” Whether the kids were in bed or I was working 12 hours that day, I did what I had to do. And sometimes you need a crutch. But my encouragement is to be a healthy crutch.

Red Bull, these things. I’m telling you something, bad news bears. And we’ll talk maybe in a future episode about why. But actually, all of it’s in my book. I have a whole chapter on athletes in my Healing Power of Essential Oils book.

But just to give you people out there that could relate to me, if you could relate to me and we realize it takes energy to make energy because energy really isn’t created or destroyed. Then do what you’ve got to do to get the job done.

Mama Z: Well, and this is the thing, too. And when you get to that place where you have made it over your hill—

Dr. Z: Yeah, exactly.

[36:39 – 38:21 ] Is It a Crutch or an Addiction?

Mama Z: This is thing that’s so key. God wants us to be free because He did not set His Son free…And it says that whoever sets His Son free wants him to be free indeed. You know that awesome Scripture? I need to—

Dr. Z: That’s it.

Mama Z: Yeah, yeah. Anyway. So the biggest thing is that if you find yourself giving into those crutches where it’s coffee or green tea, then I would suggest a season of even fasting that.

Dr. Z: Yeah, a crutch isn’t designed forever. A crutch is designed to help you. So when your foot heals, you go back to walking. But yeah, that’s the other thing. It doesn’t become a crutch now; it becomes an anchor. Crutches are temporary. Addiction and being depending on things—see, that’s the difference. Yes.

Mama Z: We don’t want to be tied in anything. And that’s the thing.

Dr. Z: No, but you’ve got to go what you’ve got to do for a season.

Mama Z: Right. But you know if something is tying you down if when you don’t do that, then you have a headache. Or you have this. Or something that reminds you that you need to be doing this or that.

Dr. Z: That’s when you become dependent on it.

Mama Z: And you have to make sure that you keep your body free. And that’s why we love doing intermittent fasting, doing a Daniel fast.

Dr. Z: Actually, you know what I did do? It was Sunday. It was Sunday would be my no-caffeine day. None. Not even herbal tea with a little spot of green tea. It was completely caffeine free. I would choose a day, family day. A day that if I was a little more tired I could just hang out with the kids and watch a movie or a football game or something. But choose a day.

And I’ll say, if you can afford to do this, try going the entire weekend without caffeine. That will literally reset things so that when you start on Monday, you won’t need that cup of coffee. That’s the discipline.

Mama Z: Right because eventually you want that to be a treat, not something that, oh, if I get back into that habitual thing or that, that it’s going to affect my lifestyle.

[38:22 – 41:22] Crafting Your Personal Affirmations & Scripture Readings

Mama Z: And so one of the other things that I think is really important too is when you are making [changes]… And it doesn’t matter whether it’s that you’re going to start eating healthier or that you’re going to work out or some of the other things. But what I like to do is I like to put together motivational Scriptures and quotes that pertain to that. And I’m going to share some of my tips on how I DIY that at the end of today’s episode.

Dr. Z: Yep, in the natural living tip. What do y’all think about these natural living tips we put together?

Mama Z: I hope they’re super helpful.

Dr. Z: Yeah, if you’re new to this program, at the very end of the show, we have a natural living tip. And a couple episodes ago, I shared my immune-boosting shot, the recipe that we use to cure ourselves of pneumonia, which that’s a whole, crazy story we talked about. And you gave them some other natural living tips about how to buy good, shelf-stable foods to keep your pantry stocked up and loaded. And so this is going to be a good tip.

Mama Z: Yeah, and so for me, when I’m mentally preparing—because I’ve given birth four times, when I’m preparing even for that, I have certain Scriptures that I put together and pictures of the family and stuff like that so that when I am in labor I’ve already been looking over these verses and really affirming them in my spirit so that when I am in labor I’m focused on that and those things. And so just like that—

And I learned this from my sales day. And I had certain Scriptures and affirmations that I would say and do. And originally, I got that from Norman Vincent Peale. And that was one of his tips—to do that kind of thing and go through the Bible.

Dr. Z: What does the Bible say? “As a man [as a person] thinks in his heart, so he shall be.”

Mama Z: Exactly.

Dr. Z: Right?

Mama Z: Yep. So there are so many good Scriptures about being an overcomer. And so sometimes, I’ll pick Scriptures and quotes that are topical. And sometimes, it’ll be for an event. Or sometimes, it’s just for what’s going on in my life. Or the best Scriptures for this year are Scriptures to stand on that I’m currently standing on. So it can be any of those things. And I’m going to give you a little variety of what I’ve done later.

But that can be key because what you think when you’re all by yourself is who you really are. And it’s important that in those times—you have to have time just to be able to listen to God, of course, too. But in the time that you’re filling your body up, you want to make sure that it’s with the right things and that it’s with the right Scriptures and the right things that are going to motivate you in a positive way.

[41:23 – 47:18] You Are Who and What YOU Say You Are

Dr. Z: Hey, what did Dr. Barlcay say?—one of our favorite pastors at Living Word Church in Midland. He said something about stinkin’ thinkin’. You’ve got to clear up your stinkin’ thinkin’. The Bible says that we’re supposed to cast down all vain imagination and thought that comes against the knowledge of Christ.

And there’s a point where—I’ll tell you something. This hit me in the gut. This is another one of those hit-me-in-the-guts. I realized that if I took the bait of Satan and if I would internalize a thought—and I used to battle with this. “I’m stupid.” “I’m ugly.” “I’m not in shape.” “I’m not this. I’m not that.” All these things. I used to actually suffer a lot in high school and college with these thoughts which led me to dive into significant, deep depression and, at one point, suicidal thoughts.

And it all started with this—not still, small voice, by the way, because we know the Bible refers to God being that still small voice. This was a loud microphone. And this was the enemy of our souls, just yelling at me. “You’re not good enough. You can’t do this.”

I will never forget when I didn’t believe I could be a doctor. That put an indelible mark on my life. I remember being a kid, a little kid, thinking I could do anything I put my mind to. I remember being 4, 5, 6 years old, dreaming of being a world-famous doctor, world-famous lawyer. I had great aspirations. And something—a beat down session, fear, abuse, trauma, bullying year after year after year. And then I go to the point where I’m like, “I couldn’t be a doctor.” That’s why I chose to enroll in the business college at school. And then when I was in business college, I really struggled with economics.

Mama Z: But I love that.

Dr. Z: And I’m like, “Well, I can’t do this.” And guess what? I took English literature because that was easy for me. I literally in college took the easy way out because I didn’t have the faith in myself that I could even be a doctor because I always would tell myself that I don’t have a good memory.

Mama Z: That’s so weird because—

Dr. Z: I chose the path of the least resistance up until I met you and up until I met Christ. And then ever since then—especially you.

Mama Z: I am such a nerd.

Dr. Z: Because you’re definitely not the path of least resistance though.

Mama Z: No, I am not.

Dr. Z: With me though.

Mama Z: Literally, I remember being in college.

Dr. Z: And Chris can testify, our podcast producer. Sometimes our pre-chats are a little heated here. But Sabrina is not least resistance.

Mama Z: No. So literally, listen. When I went to college, I literally told the counselor there. I was not going to pay for a math class that I had in high school. I said, “I’m not going to do it.”

They said, “Well, you have to take basic math for business curriculum.”

And I said, “I took pre-calculus and analytic geometry. I’m going to take calculus.”

And he said, “Well, you don’t need to do that though.”

And I said, “I told you I’m not taking a class I already took.”

And I remember talking to them when I was getting ready to graduate. And they’re like, “But you didn’t take basic math.”

And I was like, “But I took calculus. And I tutored people in my calculus class.” I said, “If I took calculus, I think I could probably pass basic math.”

And with my background with my dad, I took chemistry for fun and made it an honors class. And that was super fun for me. And yeah, so I guess we did things a little differently on that end.

Dr. Z: Very differently.

Mama Z: But it was actually pretty fun.

Dr. Z: Well, speaking of fun, this has been a fun episode. And I think we need to cover the healthy goal setting and stuff in a part two. This has been cool. I think right now your personal training story, your pageant training story, I definitely want to flesh out what you do and how you visualize because that’s a huge deal. And we’re going to talk.

So how about this? How about next episode, we cover a part two to this where we cover—people need to understand what you do. You compete at a really high level. And I see you. Emotionally, mentally, and physically, you transform. It’s like these people who prepare for fitness shows and things like that, which is really cool.

And so let us chat. Next episode, we’re going to cover. And I really want to debunk this whole vision board, goal mentality that people have that traps them to mediocrity. And I’m going to explain that. And I’m going to leave y’all at a cliff hanger here because, tell you something, it wasn’t until I dropped the goals and I dropped the vision board that I started to see success.

And here’s a tip. I started to let God have His way. And I’m telling you something. Like the Bible says, He will do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we can ever ask or imagine. And I am a testimony to that, which by the way, my beautiful wife, you’re a testimony to that. I never thought I would be able to marry a beautiful woman like you?

Mama Z: You’re so sweet.

Dr. Z: No, really! You literally are, to me and I’m sure other people that are watching you, the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever met inside and out. And it wasn’t until literally I met Christ that God even gave me the confidence that I could even talk to someone like you, let alone marry someone like you.

Mama Z: You’re so sweet.

Dr. Z: And so that’s a huge story because you wouldn’t have been on my vision board if I had a vision board.

[47:19 – 54:39] Mama Z’s Natural Living Tip: Scriptures for Natural Living

Before we do, before we transition off, I want to wrap up today’s show with Mama Z’s special natural living tip. You mentioned positive affirmations and favorite stuff. So go into it.

Mama Z: Okay. So basically, I’m going to show you what I do and talk about it because for our YouTube crowd, you’ll actually get to see it. But I’m going to explain what I do.

Dr. Z: And people can go to the website. You can go to the NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com and check out the show notes because you can actually watch the video. And Mama Z is going to show you what she does, which is very cool.

Mama Z: Right. So for the year, I put basically different categories together on the Scriptures, from battles to blessing, grace, gifts, healing, humility, lots of different things. Lots of different areas. And I put the Scriptures down from that. And I study over those things.

And also topically. I have Scriptures on lots of different areas, from healing. And of course, you have great Scriptures for healing on our Natural Living Family website as well which is one of our top posts.

And then also, like I mentioned, during my births, I have Scriptures that I really feel are pertinent for that because literally in how I feel, from the time I get pregnant until I go into labor, I have this prep time. And I consider that just as much prep time as I do getting ready for a pageant or an event or whatever. And I take it just as seriously. So I have that.

Now, the other thing that I do—and this is funny because I—

Dr. Z: Well, show everyone. And then that way, Chris can get it on the camera. That way you guys can see. And maybe, Chris, we could do a little B-roll shot of this. So hold it up. Vanna White it.

Mama Z: Yeah, so I have—

Dr. Z: Isn’t that cool? This is what Sabrina has. When she gave birth, she laminated these sheets with her top Scriptures. And they’re color coded with pictures of the family on the bottom. And this is what she was looking at in the birth tub in our basement for all of our births. And I was like, how cool!

Mama Z: And this one was from Elijah’s birth. So I just printed that out.

Dr. Z: Every one was a different birth.

Mama Z: And every one was adjusted for where we were at at that time.

Dr. Z: So basically, have something printed out. Get it laminated. Stick it on your mirror in your bathroom so you see it every day. But tie in—share with your wallet-sized thing or whatever they’re called.

Mama Z: And this is so funny because one of my kids stole my prop. I have plan B of what you can do this as a DIY thing at home as well. So I worked for a photographer. And they did senior pictures. And so they have what’s called a senior picture wallet book. So it’s a wallet book. You take it to school. Your friends give you wallets when you’re a senior. And then you share and have a book of wallets. So I had something like that, not exactly this when I was a senior. But I worked there many years later.

So I thought, “This is the perfect size,” because it’s a little bigger than a business card. And it’s something I can flip through because it has little binders. So you can easily find them on Amazon and whatnot.

And so I put each one of the Scriptures or quotes or things in this book. And then you can look at them. And I’ve had this in my car and other places to look at the different things.

So like my quote, “There are no shortcuts.” Right here. “There are no shortcuts.” No shortcuts.

You can take a key ring and just print it out on cardstock paper, cut it. On any Microsoft Word, you can actually put one per page. And then you can print.

Dr. Z: Or Apple if you’re a Mac user like me.

Mama Z: Oh yeah, of course. Okay.

Dr. Z: Don’t discriminate.

Mama Z: But when you go to print, it’ll let you print four or six pages to a piece of paper. So it makes it little wallet sizes so you don’t have to do something crazy to make it fit on paper.

Dr. Z: Or use your PowerPoint presentation and have a Scripture be a slide and print out six slides a page.

Mama Z: Same exact kind of thing.

Dr. Z: Yeah, that’s what I would do because what you just said made me confused. But that’s how I would do it.

Mama Z: Yeah, so either way, it works just fine. And then you just adjust the size of the font based on how big it is or whatever. So then you just punch a hole in it.

Dr. Z: So you have six quotes on a piece of paper. And you cut the paper in six equal sizes.

Mama Z: And I think I did four for this.

Dr. Z: Or four.

Mama Z: But you could do either really. It doesn’t matter, whatever you need.

Dr. Z: So I’m looking at it. And you have a hole puncher. You popped a hole.

Mama Z: Yeah, popped a hole. Then I put a key ring.

Dr. Z: Love it.

Mama Z: I have this little drawer for broken things that we can repurpose.

Dr. Z: Key ring.

Mama Z: And so this was a broken key ring of one of the kids’ dollar store something-or-others.

Dr. Z: So I would get it laminated. I would get it laminated. And they could do all this at Office Max or your local UPS store or whatever.

Mama Z: And one thing to think of is when you go to laminate it, if you already have the hole punch, then laminate them. And then you can re-cut them out. But if you hole punch them later, it’ll peel away. So if you hole punch it before you get it laminated, then all the little areas are already all set.

So then, okay, once you do that, you get that on there. And then you have stuff to flip by. And it’s so funny. I actually saw the guy that did—we have a totally green bug guy that comes.

Dr. Z: Pest control.

Mama Z: Yep. And I went out to his car one day because he asked me about the essential oils and all the different stuff. And I gave him a book. And he had a bunch of questions. And he had things marked and stuff. And so I saw in his car he had something very similar right up in front of where it says how much gas you have. And he just had it sitting there, one of his quotes.

Dr. Z: That’s cool.

Mama Z: It was really cool. And so I know that there are more people who do that. So I think that is something that you can work on. Awesome.

Well, I know you had mentioned adding Scriptures. But I think you can have a whole book of Scriptures. Or you could have both Scriptures and quotes, whatever you think.

Now, I know all of you are thinking, “Well, this is good food for the soul. But what about food for our bodies?” And we have found that there is a great place to get healthy food which is good and healthy food for the body which is also good for the soul, too. And it won’t break the bank. And what are we talking about here?

[54:40 – 55:15] Sponsor Spotlight: Thrive Market

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Mama Z: Absolutely. So keep in mind, Thrive Market’s prices are already 25 to 50% off. And now, they’re giving you an extra 25% off your first order plus a free 30-day trial.

Dr. Z: Seriously, many of you are going to be making a grocery run this week. So why not give Thrive Market a try and shop from home? You’re going to love it.

Mama Z: Absolutely. Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com to find the special link so you can redeem this deal on the show notes from today’s episode.

[55:16 – End] Episode WrapUp

Dr. Z: And that’s a wrap, everybody! Thank you for listening. This was fun. I can’t wait for part two. We’re going to cover healthy goal setting. We’re going to transition into your personal trainer and pageant days and how that’s really led you into being now a top competitor for the Mrs. Georgia, America pageant coming out in June 2019 and how you got first runner up. You actually won swimsuit last year competing.

Mama Z: And the photogenic.

Dr. Z: Yeah, but swimsuit is important because you competed with girls half your age. So girls, ladies, age does not matter. I can’t wait. So tune in next time. We’re going to talk about that.

And as a reminder, y’all, you can find our Natural Living Family Podcast episodes, show notes, transcripts, and a link so you could watch Mama Z share with you all this cool stuff that she’s showing with you because we stream this on YouTube and Facebook and other places. You can find all of this at NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com.

And while on our website, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter. This way, you’ll get a personal invitation to join our private Facebook group so you can connect one-on-one with us and meet thousands of our natural living lovers just like you.

And don’t forget. Please, please, please subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. We love hearing what you have to say about our show.

With that, this is Dr. Z.

Mama Z: And Mama Z.

Dr. Z: And our hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience the abundant life. God bless y’all.

Mama Z: Bye-bye.

Dr. Z: Bye-bye.