Body Image, Positive Thinking & Never Giving Up: Dr. Z’s Fat Pants Story – Podcast Episode 12

Body Image, Positive Thinking & Never Giving Up: Dr. Z’s Fat Pants Story – Podcast Episode 12

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 – 0:41] Prelude

Dr. Z: I’ll never forget going to the local dry cleaner with all my pants and then getting—

Mama Z: And I can tell the story about this because this is the thing. We’ve had a dry cleaner for a long time. He took his pants to a different dry cleaner.

Dr. Z: I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed.

Mama Z: He took his pants somewhere else. I didn’t even know where to pick them up. And I was like, “Where am I going because this is not our dry cleaner?” We’ve been friend with our dry cleaner forever. I’ve been a client there forever.

Dr. Z: I had all my pants loosened 2 inches.

Mama Z: So I go over to this little place. And he never went back after that.

Dr. Z: I didn’t.

Mama Z: He didn’t go back.

Dr. Z: That was something that at the moment, I was there. And I need fat pants.

 

[0:42 -1:15] Intro

Hi, there. Dr. Z here.

Mama Z: And Mama Z. And welcome to Episode 12 of the Natural Living Family podcast.

Dr. Z: Each week, we invite you to 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 each and every day to enjoy an abundant life. And you’re going to love today’s talk.

Mama Z: So come on in and get comfortable. After all, you’re one of the family—our natural living family!

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

[1:16 – 2:09] Sponsor Spotlight: Air Doctor

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Mama Z: This is a recipe for a health disaster. And we can personally testify to how polluted air almost devastated our health.

Dr. Z: Thankfully, our friends at Air Doctor have a solution—their portable air purification system that anyone can afford.

Mama Z: As a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Air Doctor is giving you $300 off when you buy through our special podcast link.

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

[2:10 – 3:59] Diffuser Reveal: Citrus Dreamsicle

Yay! Welcome, everybody. I’m so excited about today because we’re going to be talking about my fat pants story. And it’s a tale of body image, positive thinking, and never giving up. You are going to want to stay tuned to the very, very end. But before we do, Mama Z?

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: What’s in our diffuser?

Mama Z: So what’s in our diffuser.

Dr. Z: Everyone always asks what’s in our diffuse.

Mama Z: Well, it’s a citrus dreamsicle today. We have equal parts of orange, key lime, and vanilla.

Dr. Z: Yum!

Mama Z: So it’s heavenly.

Dr. Z: Ooh, I like how you’re adding lime.

Mama Z: I love lime.

Dr. Z: Folks, in our upcoming book The Essential Oils Diet—shameless plug. Go to EssentialOilsDiet.com. Research has proven inhaling lime oil and grapefruit oil can trigger your brain to facilitate what’s known as lipolysis which means your body will burn fat. Lipolysis—burning fat.

And so one thing that we like to do, especially in the spirit of my fat pants story, is to do things. Use essential oils in a way where you will find a healthy weight. And we don’t realize certain oils and certain things make you crave maybe unhealthy things. And we’re like, “No. We don’t want to do that.”

So anyway, I love the citrus oils because they’re fat burning. They help with cravings.

Mama Z: They’re happy!

Dr. Z: I know! And if it could help me with my little pudgy around my waist area, we’re going to talk about that.

Mama Z: I think we need to start wrapping you.

Dr. Z: Well, that’s it! We have a recipe in the book about the wrap. And that’s the other thing. We are going to talk more and more about that. But this is not about the book. But just know. There’s a lot you could do with essential oils and bioactive-rich foods to really reach a healthy body image.

 

[4:00 – 9:16] A HUGE THANK YOU to Our Listeners!

So you know what? Even before we begin, I just remembered. I actually kept my phone in my lap. You know what? Thank you, for those of you listening on wherever you listen because everyone is listening somewhere on this podcast. We’ve had 201 ratings so far, at the time we’re recording and filming this. And this is—what day is it?

Mama Z: It’s March 1st.

Dr. Z: March 1st. Actually, yay! March 1st. So you’re probably listening to this—I don’t even known when this airs. This is funny. Oh, we’re airing this April 8th. Hey, this is April 8th. What do you say to me?

Mama Z: That’s the day after your birthday.

Dr. Z: Happy birthday to me!

Mama Z: Happy birthday, Dr. Z! Isn’t it fitting that this is around you.

Dr. Z: Not intentional. It just happened that way. Isn’t God awesome!

Mama Z: Awesome!

Dr. Z: See this is what we do. We try to record three, four, five, God willing, eight, nine episodes ahead of time so it gets us caught up. So yeah, it is March 1st. We’re recording. This goes live April 8th, the day after my 39th birthday. And at the time that we’re recording, we have 201 reviews and ratings of our podcast. And we have an average of 4.9 stars.

Mama Z: That’s awesome!

Dr. Z: Isn’t that sweet?

Mama Z: Thank you, guys!

Dr. Z: Yeah! And thank you so much for that. And I wanted to read a couple because these really touched my heart. And I just wanted to thank you, really just thank you from the bottom of my heart because, whether you live stream or watch through YouTube or Facebook or whether you’re on our website or iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, it really touches our hearts. And we thank you for joining our newsletter, giving us the feedback because this is our ministry. This is why we’re alive. This is what we do not only for a living but also this is what we did before we even made money. You know what I mean?

Mama Z: This is what we still do. We still call and help people.

Dr. Z: We need to talk about that more. And I actually do want to talk about finding your purpose because, don’t get me wrong. There are certain things that I do that I really don’t love—some of the technical stuff, sitting down on my butt for a couple extra hours a day that I’d rather not. And that’s where I got my walking treadmill and things like that or my standing desk treadmill. But there are certain things that are more task oriented. But as a whole, I don’t work anymore. And when you love what you do and do what you love, you stop working.

Mama Z: Yeah, I’ll never forget. When I worked at the Saginaw Spirit—

Dr. Z: That was a hockey team.

Mama Z: A hockey team in the middle of Michigan area. And the very first coach of the team, Dennis Desrosiers—I remember. I said, “Do you like what you do?”

And I remember him saying, “If I get to do what I’m doing now for the rest of my life, then I’ve never worked a day in my life.”

Dr. Z: That’s it. That’s the goal. I will give another shameless plug to a fantastic—to me it was life-changing—documentary called Happy. And I’m pretty sure you could watch it on Netflix. And this documentary talked about the secrets to happiness and the science behind positive psychology which is all about happiness. And they followed a rickshaw driver in India and an African American—I don’t know. I’ll say he was a chef, a short order—what are they called? Short order chef like at a burger-flipping restaurant. Not like a chef from a five-start diamond or whatever restaurant. But he worked at a burger joint. I think it was in New York or Chicago. And they followed somebody else.

They loved what they did. And it didn’t matter what they did. They weren’t presidents of the United States. They weren’t astronauts. They were just normal people doing normal jobs. And they loved it.

And enjoying what you do is one of the primary keys to happiness. And the Bible talks about enjoying the fruit of your labor. And it shouldn’t be a burden. And so whatever it is, do it with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength.

And sometimes—we’ve got to talk about this, too. And this brings me to my fat pants story in a minute. Sometimes, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do just to get by. And that can be tough. And don’t get me wrong. Those are challenging seasons. But like Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome.” And so we want to help you overcome these seasons because maybe you’re not living what you feel is your purpose, but you be faithful with the little that God has given you. And he will advance you to much and more.

Mama Z: Absolutely.

Dr. Z: And so there’s so much to be shared. So thank y’all for your support. But I want to read. I just want to give a couple call outs. This is from GroovyGirl via Apple podcast. GroovyGirl says, “This is such a great podcast, Dr. Z and Mama Z. They present such useful and helpful information. And they do it in such a wonderful, entertaining manner, too.” Oh!

“I love the way they bounce their comments off of each other. I also appreciate the love and respect for each other that they very clearly show. If you’re looking for great information, this is the place. You will not be only informed but entertained as well.”

Mama Z: That’s very nice.

Dr. Z: That’s so sweet. There are a lot of other ones. A lot of other ones! But anyway, I just wanted to highlight that one because that was just super sweet. I’m actually scrolling on my phone to see if I can find another find really quickly before we go into my fat pants story. And yes.

Oh, I like this one, too. This is from—your names are kind of funny on Apple and iTunes and Stitcher. It’s like ShellRed93 or whatever it is. This is from LeahDotN. “I just started listening to you guys. And I’m so inspired. I’m a single mom who is a full-time college student. And I work part time with very little help. I am so happy I found your podcast.”

 

[9:17 – 13:36] Why Dr. Z and Mama Z Value Transparency

And I like this one because this leads into my story because it all started when I was a full-time student working part time. And thankfully, I wasn’t a single parent. And my heart goes out to you who are. But this is something that is really important for people to hear because you are not alone.

Mama Z: That’s right.

Dr. Z: And we are just as normal and real as it comes. We might be neighbors. I don’t know. If you see me at the store, say hey. My name is Eric, by the way. I call myself Dr. Z because so many people get tripped up on Zielinski. Literally, since I’ve been a kid, no one knows how to even approach my name.

Mama Z: I didn’t even know how to spell it right for the first month. I was like, “I before E except after C.”

Dr. Z: So I’m like, “Just call me Dr. Z.”

Mama Z: And you named me Mama Z when I was pregnant with Esther.

Dr. Z: That was funny. That was funny.

Mama Z: “Mama Z, my baby-making machine.”

Dr. Z: Yes, that was funny.

Mama Z: That was so cute. You wrote that little stick figure picture on my super greens container.

Dr. Z: So my name is Eric. My mom didn’t name me “doctor.” So if you see me, say, “Hi, Eric.” We just want you to know that—

Mama Z: We’re normal.

Dr. Z: Especially these people—and we know most of them, by the way. Your favorite Dr. SoAndSo, a lot of your favorite mommy bloggers who do health, we know a lot of these people. And they’re normal people with normal problems. And the thing, though, that may be a little bit different about us than maybe some people listening right now is that our lives are very open. And we wear our lives, our experiences, our struggles, and everything on our sleeves. And we have a very public life. And so a lot of people are private. And we are not very private, by the way. And that’s why we do what we do. And we want to be very real.

And I’ll say one thing. When I accepted Christ, my whole life was transformed March 16, 2003. What is that? 16 years. I will be soon celebrating my 16-year anniversary. But now it’s April 8th, which is weird, on the podcast. So I celebrated two weeks ago. We’re still learning this thing. So I learned very quickly to be very open with my story. And I’m going to share with you a very vulnerable part of my story.

And I want you to be vulnerable, too, because the Lord says in the book of Revelation that, “By the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony,” that we bring people freedom, that there is health. There is healing. And of course, I’m giving my own version of this. But there is victory. There is safety. There is ministry. There is salvation.

Essentially, you have a light. And your story is your light. If you put a bowl over your light, your lamp—no, we don’t want to be that way. No city on a hill should be hidden. We are salt of the earth, light of the world.

And so when I accepted Christ, I became very open with my story. I did drugs. I used to do this. I used to do that. But God freed me. And so there’s a huge difference between jumping all over a topic and dumping on someone your dirty laundry without hope. If you have a story of hope—and your story of hope might be simply put, “I’m going through hell right now. But you know what? I have hope. And God is with me.” That is a story you need to hear.

Mama Z: “And God will see me through it.”

Dr. Z: That is a story. That is something you need to share with people.

And so we’re just like you. And I say that because people see us. And yeah, we put on studio makeup when we film because I don’t want my face to look like a light bulb. And when we do professional photos and things. Really! People, really. But have you ever seen someone online? You know the best compliment—I’m rambling. This is fun.

You know what I think the best compliment I’ve ever gotten from someone was—she actually said to me when I was doing a book signing. I forget her name. But she goes, “You look like how you do online.”

And I was like, “Yes!”

Mama Z: I love when people say, “You look just like your picture.”

And I’m like, “Well, thank God!” Because there are some people—

Dr. Z: Oh, most.

Mama Z: That I look for people. And then I’m like, “Oh, they’re here? Where?” And then I’m like, “Whoa! Okay.”

Dr. Z: Photoshop, baby! Yeah, they Photoshop 30 pounds off their face and tummy. And they’re like, “That’s not you. Maybe that was you 10 years ago, but that’s not you today.” So our photos are current. And we’re real.

 

[13:37 – 22:17] Dr. Z’s Journey from Dow Chemical to Fat Pants

And so anyway, I have a fat pants story. My fat pants story started when I started school when I was 29 years old. And you can go back. And you could hear the first couple episodes. We talk about our origin story and our walk and things. But when I was 29, and Sabrina being much older than me—she was 31 at the time. My Mrs. Robinson.

We decided to quit my perfectly good job at Dow Chemical. I was part of their high-end customer support finance division. It was six figure income potential. I’ll never forget that because my dad, being a truck driver, just blue collar teamster guy from Detroit, his goal and dream for me was to have a clean job. He would come home. And I’ll never forget my dad. He worked nights. And he would come home at 7:30, 8 in the morning. And bless his heart for working hard to provide for the family.

He’d come home. His clothes would be filthy. He’d have to wear a hat all the time because he worked in an area, they called it Zug Island. It was right by this industrial—I don’t even know what it was, an industrial waste plant. The air, the smog. His hands were permanently stained. He could never get his hands 100% clean. He calls my hands “priest hands” because they’re Catholic. He said we’ve got priest hands, to this day.

And so my dad was like, “Work in finance. Get a clean job. Make some money.” And not intentionally, but I fulfilled my dad’s prophecy for me. I found myself in finance. I had a clean job, desk job. But it wasn’t fulfilling. It wasn’t doing this. I was still helping people, coaching people. We still did all the healthy things we did.

But we were very much inspired by our friend, David Jockers, DrJockers.com. We had lunch with him. And David is like, “Why don’t you become a chiropractor?” Remember that?

Mama Z: He goes, “I think you guys should be doing this.”

Dr. Z: Remember that?

Mama Z: Oh, yeah.

Dr. Z: That was right when David started.

Mama Z: I even remember what I fixed.

Dr. Z: It was almost 10 years ago. It was in May 10 years ago, actually 11 years. Wait. When are we? 2009.

Mama Z: I made him a healthy tuna noodle casserole.

Dr. Z: Is that recipe in that book?

Mama Z: Yes, I believe it is.

Dr. Z: Love that. EssentialOilsDiet.com.

So Dr. Jockers, David as we know him—we’ve got to tell more about his story because he’s one of the most inspiring, hard-working people I’ve ever met. And he’s like, “You should be chiropractor. You guys should do this.”

Mama Z: And so on the way home, we literally started dreaming about what the possibilities were. We had a little one.

Dr. Z: Driving home, meaning we were in Georgia—

Mama Z: We were visiting Georgia.

Dr. Z: When we hear him say that. And we drove home to Michigan. So we had 12 hours to think. This is a big part because it was 12 hours.

Mama Z: So it was so interesting. We never put our house up for rent. It literally was rented. And all the doors were wide open to come here.

Dr. Z: Yeah, in three months.

Mama Z: In three months.

Dr. Z: So by the time we heard him in May and heard that call from God, we prayed. And it was like God spoke a word like that rhema word of God.

Mama Z: And then the next week, our chiropractor back home—

Dr. Z: Dr. Corey Rodnick.

Mama Z: Yep. So they had a whole thing about becoming a chiropractor. It just happened to be the next week they were doing.

Dr. Z: Oh, they had a recruiter.

Mama Z: They had a recruiter.

Dr. Z: From Life University. Yes, and they invited us there because again, it was all these different people inviting us, encouraging us.

And so why am I saying that? Because up until that point, I was 29 years old.

Mama Z: We knew we loved to help people. We would have people over. We would fix healthy meals. We did all of this stuff.

Dr. Z: But I was 29 years old. I had a decent job. It was a desk job, though.

Mama Z: But we were like, “You’re working for a chemical company.”

Dr. Z: So I was struggling with the desk job thing where I was sitting down a lot. But we still exercised at least three, four times a week. You were teaching group fitness at Smitty’s. And Sabrina was doing her boxing class. And why I’m saying all this is because I was a young guy. And we had one baby.

Mama Z: And my parents would watch Esther. And we would go work out at the gym. Then we would also do my class.

Dr. Z: But we were pretty healthy. And I’ve got to say something about my cushy desk job. It was really nice. It was one of those 8 to 5. Every once in a while, I would work till 6. And I would never, ever bring my work home. I had it down pat. I would play a lot of sports with my friends. I was exercising. I was in pretty decent shape.

Mama Z: And up until I had Esther, same kind of thing with working for the Chamber. It was very similar. So we got off at the same times.

Dr. Z: It was a family thing.

Mama Z: Yeah, we got to enjoy fitness together.

Dr. Z: We’d go on walks around the block with our daughter. And so I had this really cushy life. And then we decided to move. Everything worked out perfectly. Like Sabrina said, we didn’t even have to worry about putting our home up for sale. It was great.

Well, then school started. And I already had a bachelor’s degree. I knew what school was like. But I never did school like this. Chiropractic college, if you don’t know this, is part medical school. The residency is different. Our clinicals is not 24-hour working at an ER. But for the first two and a half, three years, it’s almost identical to the coursework. And so I found myself quickly having to study all day, seven days a week. And it was a very rigorous program where you would take—

Mama Z: And you had to leave because if you did not get on the road by 6:30—because sometimes, you’d have 7 o’clock classes.

Dr. Z: I know.

Mama Z: You’d have to get, between 6 and 6:30, on the road before you’d leave.

Dr. Z: So I’d wake up at 6, get on the road by 6:30, get to class. I’d have class and clinicals all the way through sometimes 7, 8, 9 at night. And that basically lasted four years. And then you add my research because I started researching. Then I started traveling. And so why I’m saying this is because I found myself barely surviving in this environment where I became—and I’m going to say it—a slave to my schedule.

And here’s what happened for me. Sabrina wasn’t working. And we didn’t ever want her to work. She was taking care of the baby and the house. And yeah, she had a part time job doing group fitness for a couple extra bucks a week. But we didn’t want her to work full time. And then Esther would go to daycare. And so we really, really scrimped and saved.

And at one point, we got on food stamps. Thank God for government assistance! And we’ve paid that back 100 times over, by the way. So thank God for that! And if you are a full time student and an adult, look into government assistance because you should qualify for food stamps. And that was huge for us.

And I started working because we needed to make ends meet. And I’ll never forget my first student loan check. Again, I’m a master’s/doctorate student at the time. We only got $4500 for a quarter, three months. Who can live on $4500, a family of three? That didn’t even cover—

Mama Z: And I remember you went in and were like, “Isn’t this a mistake?”

Dr. Z: Yeah, and that was a whole other story. So I can totally relate to that wonderful mom who left us that review who is a single mom, working part time, going to school full time, and all the other people who have done that because when you’re in that situation you have to work like a dog to make ends meet.

And what happened was time became an issue where the easiest thing, for me at least, to compensate for what I needed to do—if you had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul—exercise became something that became a luxury. It wasn’t a necessity for me anymore.

Mama Z: Right. Because I remember at first, you used the gym at school and went there really regularly.

Dr. Z: I tried.

Mama Z: And I would actually meet you to go and workout and stuff like that. and then your schedule just got too fierce for it.

Dr. Z: And so what happened was it was a transition, though. This didn’t happen overnight. I remember the first year or two. And the wonderful thing, I went to Life University, Marietta, Georgia. They’re beautiful. And if you know anything about me—and you will as we continue to talk on these podcasts—I love nature. I love hiking. And there was this beautiful mile and a half, 2 mile hike in the woods right behind school. We chose that school because we loved Georgia. We love hiking and the waterfalls. And I remember studying immunology and pathology. Remember Ichabod Crane, that Halloween movie, reading a book in his nose and walking down the street? I was that guy. I was reading my notes.

Mama Z: I don’t even know how you do that. Seriously.

Dr. Z: I fell a couple times. No, I’m joking. But you learn coordination.

So I’m reading and walking at the same time. And I tried to incorporate that. And initially, it wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m busy. I can’t exercise.” No! Because my times with Esther when she was a baby. I would put on the backpack. And I would go hiking at Red Top Mountain. And I would do that stuff. But slowly, a little bit less here. I was like, “Okay. I’m not going to go to the gym this week. I’m just going to go walk with Esther, go on a hike.” And it became less and less and less. And it was slow, slow.

 

[22:16 – 32:22] When Self-Care Starts to Decline…

And this happens to most people. We get into the situations that we do slowly. It’s not overnight.

Mama Z: And I started working out more.

Dr. Z: Yeah, and the first thing I stopped doing was going to the gym for muscle resistance. But I still kept up movement. And the nice thing—it was a bigger campus. So I could walk a lot. Well, after things got really busy, when we had national boards which were hard, by the way, I didn’t have a day off. I was studying. I would go to Starbucks all day Saturday, Sunday.

Mama Z: Yeah, the kids thought you worked at Starbucks. They thought you worked at Starbucks. And I was like, “Well, Daddy is working at Starbucks. But he doesn’t work for Starbucks.”

Dr. Z: Well, you mentioned something. You said something. Kids. See what happened was we went to school.

Mama Z: We came down with one child. And then we added for a total of four.

Dr. Z: Yeah, so in school we had two more kids. And I wouldn’t not recommend that to anybody. Being an adult, getting your doctorate single is hard enough, let alone with a family.

And so now I’m sleep deprived. Now I’m dealing with diapers. And I’m dealing with babies waking up. And Sabrina breast fed. So she carried the brunt of that. But still, Sabrina needed a break. And it got really, really, really hard. And so maybe you can’t relate to being a full time student as an adult. But maybe you could relate, like I am now, an entrepreneur. And you own your own business. And you have young kids. It’s a tough season.

So what happened was—I forget what year it was exactly. But a few years ago and a few years into school, in the middle here, my pants started fitting really, really tightly. And we were broke. Again, B-R-oke. We were capital B broke. And I just remember, “I can’t afford a new wardrobe.” And I had to wear special clothes at school because I was doing my clinicals.

And so I went to my wardrobe where I used to have to work. Again, I worked corporate jobs for several years. I had all the nice pants and suits. None of that stuff fit me anymore.

And the thing is, as a student, you could sneak by with workout gear, sweatpants. But when you’re in clinicals, they didn’t let that slide. So I went to my fancy clothes. And none of them fit because my tummy got a little too chubby.

Mama Z: Because you ate a little too much healthy cookies.

Dr. Z: No, it wasn’t the cookies. I just stopped exercising. And that’s the one thing I will tell you, though. I will tell you. Well, actually, no. I’ll confess. You just reminded me. If it weren’t for my diet, I would seriously be 25, 30 pounds overweight right now. Our diet, the Essential Oils Diet lifestyle that we live is what saved me. But there was a point we were having some marital issues. (We’ve got to talk about that, by the way, in a future episode.) I was stressed.

Mama Z: And when you get stressed, you get ouchy.

Dr. Z: I coped with food. And in the first time in my life, I realized the significance of eating to live versus living to eat. And I started going—now, again, it was healthy. Again, all of this stuff was naturally sweetened, gluten free, all this stuff. But still, go back to our previous episode on all good things in moderation. I started overloading on the good things. Like Sabrina says, the cookies. I brought coffee back into my life because I was exhausted, studying literally 12, 15 hours a day and then trying to be a dad and trying to be a husband. It almost killed me.

Mama Z: You still didn’t have it all the time.

Dr. Z: It almost killed me. There were some people. And we kid you not, folks. There’s a saying in chiropractic college. You either get married, divorced, or you have a baby. Well, thank God! We didn’t get divorced. But we had two babies. And our friends—and we’ll share a little bit about her later. One of our friends gained 50 pounds in school. And she was a pageant contestant and beautiful young lady who just—it’s hard.

And so I found myself using food. And food became an idol to me. And I used it as coping. And this was a huge transformation for me because I’ve got to say, I was broken emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And then when I couldn’t fit into my dress pants for clinic, I was done.

Mama Z: And I remember sometimes—

Dr. Z: I was done. I was like, “What happened to me?”

Mama Z: You would be sleeping. And I would just be praying over you because—

Dr. Z: Ah! You never told me that.

Mama Z: Yeah, many times. And at night, I would just be praying over you because I couldn’t do as much. All I knew I could do was I could pray.

Dr. Z: If I would’ve known that, I never would’ve quit my job. If I would’ve known what I had to go through, I never would’ve done it.

Mama Z: But the thing was that I really feel like God had shielded us from that at that time because his plan was for so much more. We had everything in our mind, what we thought we would do. But we always left everything up to God. We always committed everything we did to God. And we knew he would guide our path. And he did in a totally different way.

I just remember you saying after writing all the essential oil articles for so many bloggers that you were like, “I will never do this.”

Dr. Z: Oh, have a blog?

Mama Z: Yeah.

Dr. Z: Oh, yeah.

Mama Z: “I will never do this. I will never.”

Dr. Z: I never wanted it.

Mama Z: And you know what? When he would say it, I would say in my mind—and this is so funny because I was telling some of my friends the other day. I would say, “Huh. Yeah, he is.” And I just knew out of my spirit, it came. But I knew I couldn’t say that to you because you were not there yet. And I just knew that that was going to be where we were going.

Dr. Z: Yeah, I had no idea this was going to happen.

Mama Z: But I didn’t know how.

Dr. Z: You never know.

Mama Z: I didn’t know how. And I didn’t know why. I just knew that that was going to be something that we did. And I didn’t even know what it meant at the time because I wasn’t really into all that. I was into making recipes and gardening and all the things that I had done over the years. And so it was a different time. But I remember being in the bathroom because a lot of times we had a big bathroom. And you would be working on your computer in the bathroom and stuff. And I would be getting ready. And so that’s where we would do a lot of our talking. And I remember you just saying, “I will never do this.”

And I remember. I turned around. And I went into our little linen closet. And I was like, “Yeah, he will.”

Dr. Z: Because I was hoping to have that nice, I don’t want to say cushy because I know chiropractors and medical doctors and people who have clinics work hard. But they’re typically not working on the weekends. And they don’t work nights. They have office hours, unless they’re doing paperwork. The internet don’t sleep, y’all. And I knew the hard work. And I knew the things. I knew the struggles. And I never thought I would ever have an online business.

So as a side note, you mentioned—

Mama Z: Or the hate mail or the other stuff that you get.

Dr. Z: Oh, well. That’s a whole other topic. But as a tip for you, God shields what we have to go through. Or we would never go through it. And every woman listening right now, if you truly knew—some people—the excruciating pain that comes with childbirth, many of you would never have sex. You would just be like, “I don’t want to deal with that.” God in his infinite wisdom shields that. And how many women have mom-amnesia? You go through—and some women go through—

Mama Z: You just remember it’s a lot of work.

Dr. Z: You remember it’s a lot of work. But when you’re in the midst of it—I’ve gone through now four natural homebirths with Sabrina. I don’t think you really, truly remember every aspect of everything. I think there’s an element where you—

Mama Z: No, I remember.

Dr. Z: I don’t think you remember all the pain.

Mama Z: Yeah, I do.

Dr. Z: I think you gloss over it. It wasn’t like—no, you have a little—it’s called mom-amnesia.

Mama Z: No, no, no. I remember the last labor when Bella wanted to have her hands. She was praying.

Dr. Z: That was tough. That was tough.

Mama Z: Her hands were underneath her chin.

Dr. Z: At one point, you say things like you felt like you were dying. You seriously don’t remember.

Mama Z: Yes, that was.

Dr. Z: Next time we have a birth, we’re going to have Chris videotape it. Chris opens up his eyes. Chris, our video/audio guy who’s listening. He’s like, “What?”

Mama Z: He’s like, “I’ll set up the cameras and leave.”

Dr. Z: No, we actually did have a videographer. But she was a woman.

Mama Z: We did. We did.

Dr. Z: But anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that—

Mama Z: No, that last time I really did feel like that.

Dr. Z: God shields a lot of what we have to go through. Or we never would go through it to get the end result. And I’m so glad now, looking back. Ten years ago, 10 now, 10 years ago to when we made this decision. I’m so glad we did it because look at the fruit. But the reality was it took a long time. It took a few years, many moons, to get to the position I was in.

So I’ll never forget going to the local dry cleaner with all my pants and then getting—

Mama Z: And I’ve got to tell a story about this because this is the thing. We’ve had a dry cleaner for a long time. He took his pants to a different dry cleaner.

Dr. Z: I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed.

Mama Z: He took his pants somewhere else. I didn’t even know where to pick them up. And I was like, “Where am I going because this is not our dry cleaner?” We’ve been friends with our dry cleaner forever. I’ve been a client there forever.

Dr. Z: I had all my pants loosened 2 inches.

Mama Z: So I go over to this little place. And he never went back after that.

Dr. Z: I didn’t.

Mama Z: He didn’t go back.

Dr. Z: That was something that, at the moment, I was there. And I need fat pants. I call them fat pants. And I have a fat pants story. And you know what? I’m, at this point, still getting—I was 32 inches when I met you. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to 32 because I’m 33 right now. But I went from 32 to 34 and then down to 33. And I think if I really, really focused I could get down to my fighting weight.

Mama Z: I think so. We’ve got to start wrapping your belly, man.

Dr. Z: I know. I’ve got to wrap my belly, exercise. But you know the thing the last few months I’ve done intentionally in 2019 is I’ve forced myself to exercise because I’m telling you. Guess what happened though? After school stopped, what happened was I developed these habitual behaviors. And Sabrina and I had a little bit of a disagreement about how to call it.

But before we cover that, a word from our sponsor.

 

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[33:28 – 40:45] How Do You Define Workaholism?

Dr. Z: So episode 10, we actually deleted. We’ll have a confession here. I just didn’t like how it went. And Sabrina said something that really triggered something in my spirit because what did you call me?

Mama Z: I said that you were a professional workaholic.

Dr. Z: Ugh! You called me a workaholic!

Mama Z: Listen. But I meant it not in the way that you received it.

Dr. Z: How do you not receive it in a negative way?

Mama Z: For me, being that my dad is a driver, always was a driver and literally I’ve done performance type things my whole life—I always perform. That’s just how I am. So I look at that as dedication. I look at that as you’re committed to your family. I look at it as you would do anything for us.

And I remember the look in your face when I said it. And what I was saying was not how you received it.

Dr. Z: All right. Workaholic. The definition is a person who compulsively works hard and long hours.

Mama Z: Look at the definition. That wasn’t necessarily how I meant it, but it is.

Dr. Z: It’s—ah. So bottom line is that I—and I’ll say this is where I feel it was a negative connotation which is why it hurt me at the time when you said it because I became addicted to the work. And for the those of you who’ve gone through a similar story or for those of you who have to work 50, 60, 70. I don’t want to say 50; 60+ hours.

I’ll never forget working 120 hours one week because I had to because stuff was happening. And I was the only person in the world who could do it, and I owned my own business. You develop an attraction. You develop an addiction. There’s a high that comes from the result. And also you develop habits where you don’t take care of yourself anymore. This is why we wanted to cover self-love, y’all. If you haven’t listened to those episodes a few episodes back. I was not loving myself. I wasn’t taking care of myself. You develop habits where your whole world revolves around work.

If the first thing you do in the morning is open up your phone and then start on email and the last thing you do is close out your email and in the middle is 15, 20 hours’ worth of work, that’s too much.

So I became a workaholic. And in my opinion, a negative way. And once I realized I didn’t need to work so much anymore because we had bills. We had money in the bank. Thank God! It was hard to stop. And this is where I noticed people. And I could see 40s and 50s and 60-year-old men and women go through their life. And they have estranged relationships with their family. I can’t tell you how many days I just haven’t seen my kids. And I’m not traveling all the time. I’m working. That breaks my heart.

I don’t want to be the workaholic dad that doesn’t see his kids and misses all their gymnastic meets and things. But you know what? There is a season. And I feel I had to go through that season. I had to do what I had to do. And I thank you, though, for honoring that because you see it as a sacrifice and an honor. And it’s broken my heart. It’s been so hard. It really has been.

Mama Z: Yeah, I would never have stepped in the way of work. My mom said

this many years ago. And I believe that it relates to work, too, because she said that my dad had friends. And some of them fell to the side. But every time they would go out and go hunting or exercising. I think he played volleyball for a while. Their wives would treat them meanly. And my mom said, “You need to allow your husband to have as much time with his friends as he needs or to exercise or other things like that; and always encourage that because you want him to be able to foster other relationships. And you want him to enjoy coming back to you, not regret it.” Because they’re mad because they’re not spending time with you even though they’re busy.

And I never looked at it like that. That’s how my mom taught me. And I looked at it the same way with work. This is for our future. This is what’s happening. This is the groundwork of what’s going on. And I need to make sure that I allow the freedom and the flexibility to be able to let you have the hours that you need so that you don’t feel like you have to be home at 6 o’clock for—as we call it in my family’s house—the toe-tapping hour because, “Are we going to have dinner over there?” I didn’t want you to feel that. We’re always going to be here. We’re on a routine. And we have our things that happen all at these times. And if you can be there, great. But I don’t want to put pressure on you because I know what you’re doing for us and our family.

Dr. Z: Well, you’ve been very supportive. And if anything, you drive me to work a little harder than what I would normally work. You’re driver. You’re a slave driver. You really are. You have your standard. And that has helped me because I’ve never had that in my life. I’ve never had that coach. You’ve been a great coach and a cheerleader. Yet I feel it went way out of balance.

And the thing is I actually had to repent to God because I’m like, “Lord, to me this has all been about my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I feel I’ve hurt myself and gotten out of balance.” Especially when it came to using food as an idol for coping instead of falling on my knees. I stopped fasting every week. I had a routine!

Mama Z: You would fast all day Monday.

Dr. Z: Every Monday, at work.

Mama Z: And then sometimes you’d have dinner. Sometimes you wouldn’t. I’d always have it ready just in case you wanted it. And I’d never know.

Dr. Z: So my routine, a healthy, fit, strong routine, got completely thrown out the wayside. And I’m still now developing my new routine. And I hope, by God’s grace, I’m looking forward to this year because I’m really looking forward to having 40 years old and beyond. I’m looking forward to the decade of 40s to be years when I’m in much more control, a decade of being much more proactive.

And I’ll tell you, the 30s have been tough. Have been tough! And a lot of you can relate. I talked to our friend Robyn Openshaw, the Green Smoothie Girl, who I was crying out to her a little bit about this last year. And she’s like, “Look, Eric.” She said, “The 30s are tough. You’re building your career. You’re growing your family. It’s your decade of growth.” She goes, “40s? Things are a lot easier because typically speaking you’re not having many more kids. Your businesses are stable.” She goes, “Wait till you become 50! It’s awesome. You can coast. 60s, you’re retired. And then 70s, you sail out into the sunset.”

She’s 50 now, and she gave me her perspective because she’s been here, done that. And she knows. And there are very few people that I could really relate to now that do what we do. There aren’t a lot of people.

So fat pants. It broke my heart. It was the most humbling thing I think I’ve ever experienced. One of the top three. The other ones we might talk about in another episode.

 

[40:45 – 49:29] Body Talk from a Mother of 4

And so here’s the thing we’ve got to transition to, Sabrina, body image because one thing that really affected me is, why didn’t I go to our normal at the time? Again, judge me if you want. But I’m being real. Why I didn’t go to our normal dry cleaner was because I was embarrassed. And I was embarrassed of how I looked. I started thinking twice before—

Mama Z: And I was embarrassed that I had to go to a different dry cleaner.

Dr. Z: I’ve embraced. And this was something, too.

Mama Z: And I want to talk about this from the women’s side, too, because when you’ve had as many pregnancies as I’ve had.

Dr. Z: Body image.

Mama Z: Yeah.

Dr. Z: Let’s really focus because this is a body image issue. And loving yourself in spite of not looking maybe how you want to.

Mama Z: But listen. If you’re a woman in your childbearing years who is having children, your waistline is going to change. And after really being totally healed, like I think we had mentioned before, when my good friend was here, she wanted to know where our scale was. And I’m like, “I don’t know.” And then we found that there was a scale. One didn’t have batteries. And the other one was holding up a toilet brush. And it was stuck on 60 pounds. So obviously, that’s not what a toilet brush weighs. So it’s not working right.

But I don’t get on the scale. And I think that’s important because I used to all the time because my parents would always get on the scale all the time. And my dad always monitors what weight he’s at. And then it’ll decide whether he does extra workouts or not and all this stuff. And he has it all figured out to this system.

Dr. Z: It was part of the Christmas letter.

Mama Z: Oh, really?

Dr. Z: Your dad’s Christmas letter, remember?

Mama Z: This year? Okay.

Dr. Z: No, no. When you were kids.

Mama Z: So this was so funny.

Dr. Z: You sister Sam was mortified.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh! So my dad would literally—because he’s a storyteller. So he’s word pictures. He’s like, “Yep, Sabrina is weighing in at this.”

Dr. Z: This is the Christmas letter! Imagine getting a Christmas card.

Mama Z: We had all of our stats. So with speed skating, we had like baseball cards. So he would put what he thought we weighed on there. Or he would make us get on the scale and do the whole height and weight and measurements and stuff. And then he’d print it out and put it on the back of it and then send it to our family. And I’m like, “Seriously?”

At one point, I said, “I think we can stop with the whole height, weight, and measurement. We’re normal people now. We don’t need all that.”

And so it was so funny because he’s just so particular like that. So he would have us get on the scale and all that kind of stuff.

But I found that for me that was not a good motivator for me. And if you do the right things and you’re eating the right way and you’re exercising the right way, then you’re going to naturally fall into the perfect weight for your body and your body type. And there was a book that I had read regarding that. And that really inspired me in that way. And I never really got on the scale anymore. And I didn’t weigh in that. They make you do that for when you’re pregnant so you know that you are gaining a certain amount of weight. And then I would report that to my midwife as well.

But the thing is that so many women have told me over the years, “I never lost that baby weight. And my baby is 25.” But one thing I read at one point was so good. It’s like, “You know what? It took your body 10 months to get into this situation. You need to allow yourself the grace to get out of that situation. And it could take about the same amount of time.”

And for me, I did colonics. And I did lots of different things once it was safe to do that after birth and whatnot. And I would always do nice, gentle cleanse at about six months, when the baby was six months old. That was gentle, so it was fine for the baby.

I really always want to—because people will ask me, “Oh, do you have clothes I could borrow?” Well, yeah. I’ve got clothes in every size because I’m not going to be uncomfortable whether it’s pregnancy clothes or regular clothes or whatever. And so as you go up and as you go down, I do have clothes in different sizes and stuff like that because you’re not going to want to wear the same size that you normally wear when you’re nine months pregnant. You’re just not. And you are going to stretch out some pants. And you have to know that going into it.

But I love what God does because I think he shields you of a lot of that while you’re in that transition. And you take advantage of that time so that it doesn’t affect your body image and that you are happy with yourself because you might look really cute and pregnant but not always do you feel that way inside. And you would always remind me all the time. “Oh, you look so pretty with your baby bump and stuff.”

And then I had certain friends who would always want me to take a belly picture every week. And I was so glad with Bella. My one friend Lisa O. She would make me take a picture every week. She’s like, “I haven’t gotten my picture yet.”

But you know what? I have all of those from every week from the time I found out I was pregnant until I had the baby at almost 42 weeks. So really remember those things. But you have to remember there is a process. And God will give you grace for those seasons that you are transitioning in weight. And as you are eating the right things and if you are exercising, that body weight will go back to your normal body weight.

And to add to that, because of being a group fitness instructor, I was able, through most of my pregnancies except for a short period when I was on bed rest with one of them, to exercise at least five to six times a week.

And I think that’s really important because if all you can do is get out and walk, you need to do that. And for some of the Santas that I’ve worked with and the Mrs. Clauses over the years, that’s something that is available to everybody. Everybody has a mall somewhere close by or a neighborhood that they can walk in. And just adding that, changing nothing else, just adding that, I’ve seen such a difference that it’s made in people’s lives.

So I think it’s really important when you feel like it’s overwhelming, sometimes you’ve just got to put your head down. And you’ve just got to go through it and do the work, knowing that in the end it will work out the way that it’s supposed to.

Dr. Z: So we need to remember that—and this is something I’ve taken away from this experience and watching Sabrina through the four—well, the five pregnancies; we actually lost a baby—is embracing all seasons of life. The book of Romans in chapter 8 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

And so if you’re going through a season like I was where you’re struggling and maybe you’re using some potentially unhealthy things to cope, don’t allow yourself to be condemned because in another verse in another chapter of another book, Paul says, “Godly sorrow produces repentance unto life, but guilt that comes from the Devil produces death.”

And so I battled this for a season because I was guilty. I was condemning myself. And that produced more self-destructive behaviors. And that’s when things really became tough between Sabrina and me in our marriage. And it wasn’t until I was able to forgive myself, let go, and give it up to God that I received this Romans 8 because this is our inheritance in Christ, y’all. Condemnation, there is no such thing in Christ. He paid the price!

And here’s the thing, though. That doesn’t mean we’re perfect because like the book of Proverbs says in chapter 24, “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise up again. But the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” So you will mess up, 100%. Expect it. But because we’re righteous in Christ Jesus, we will get up again. And I had to allow these verses to really minister to my spirit, my soul, my body. And then once I was able to accept where I was at, I was able to have a clearer head. And now, I wasn’t guilt ridden. I wasn’t doing things because I had to. It was because I wanted to. It was a really transformative experience for me.

 

[49:30 – 58:33] The Essential Oils Diet Group: You’re Invited!

And see, a lot of the things that Sabrina has shared and other things, we’re working with our Essential Oil Diet challengers. And we have come up with some super practical tips that we’ve learned over the years. And we have this group. But we want to invite you to this because this is life changing. And we have a diet group. It’s part of our Essential Oils Diet. So here’s how this works. We’ve had a lot of people ask us about this. We had a test group of 100 people go through it. And now there are a lot of people because we have open enrollment.

So how this works is first you go to EssentialOilsDiet.com. You preorder our book right now. The book will come out May 7th. If you preorder the book, you get a bunch of bonuses. Sabrina and I did a shopping tour. She did, what? Two and a half, three hours’ worth of exercise demos from the book. You get several cooking demonstrations on how to make healthy food. And we give you all kinds of cool things.

But in my opinion, the best thing is our special golden ticket to be part of our weight loss/healthy living diet challenge. And it’s just not for people who want to lose weight. We call it the Essential Oils Diet Challenge based off the book.

But you buy the book. You preorder it. You give us your name and email. We’re going to give you a special invitation to our private Facebook group that Sabrina and I are helping you. We have mentors. We have community leaders. We have people in that have gone through a challenge. And we’re going to be working with you on check ins and all the great things that you need. We’ll pop in on videos. We have weekly check ins for every stage of the game, whether it’s us doing it or one of our mentors.

And what we want to do is walk you through what we’ve gone through. And we’re going to share a couple little more tips here before we end up today because the feedback we’ve gotten from everybody is pretty much the same feedback we’ve gotten since the last 15 years of doing this very casually because we’ve worked with a lot of people.

Mama Z: Yeah, a lot of couples, a lot of everybody.

Dr. Z: But we’re asking you for something, though. This is a 60-day challenge. And we’ll talk more about the book in future episodes. But the book is separated in two different phases. Phase 1 is a 30-day fast track. We call it our boot camp because it just resets your mind, resets your metabolism, gets you really focused and in control. The next phase is the rest of your life. See, this diet isn’t a diet in the terms of it’s made to be broken and it’s temporary. It’s diet in the sense that it is your food choice. And we have a diet. And our diet is, technically speaking, the foods that we eat. It’s not a “plan” or a program. So we walk you through.

But why 60 days? Well, it takes on average 66 days to develop a habit. And that’s been proven by research. So if you could give us 60 days—just give us 60 days. Give us two months. Watch what will happen. Your taste buds change. Your weight will normalize. Your hormones will balance. Everything from hair growing back thicker to boosting your libido to not being so angry at your kids, the testimonials we’re getting from everyone in this group—

Mama Z: Yes, those are amazing.

Dr. Z: Men and women. It’s life changing. Why? Because you’re getting a grip. You’re making exercise part of your life. You’re scheduling it in your calendar. You’re controlling your food intake. You are part of a community that supports you. And this is why we do what we do.

And to be real, to be honest, to be open, it’s fun.

Mama Z: It is fun.

Dr. Z: It is fun! And pictures, if we do it—you’re not required to. But we really encourage you to give before pictures and then after pictures.

Mama Z: And I’m going to tell you why.

Dr. Z: Yeah, talk about the pictures.

Mama Z: There are a couple reasons about this. And number one, you get a lot more out of it if you have a Facebook account. And I know people who literally sign up for a Facebook account, were never going to use this except for this.

Dr. Z: Yes, this is on Facebook. There’s a reason why. But yes, a lot of people are anti-Facebook, but—

Mama Z: And there’s a reason why, because you need to draw a line in the sand. And this has to be a—

Dr. Z: Could we talk about Facebook, though, because we get a lot of—a lot of people aren’t on Facebook. Folks, just trust us. This is the only way that we could do it without charging you. It’s free. And Facebook right now is not going out of business. So you can’t crash the servers. And so as practical as it might sound, if we would have to do it on our website, it would cost us a lot of money. It would cost us tens of thousands of dollars in development to make sure so we could have a non-Facebook group. And then we’d have to charge you because we don’t have a budget for that stuff. So to make this free—it is free—it has to be on Facebook. And so just bear with us.

Mama Z: And so I talk about it, yeah.

Dr. Z: Open up a dummy account. Just trust us. It’ll be worth it.

Mama Z: And I actually had people who opened up a dummy account that now are using Facebook. And they’re motivating other people because this is the thing.

Dr. Z: Yeah, it’s a ministry.

Mama Z: When you take pictures of yourself to start with—and you have to. It might be non-mandatory. But I’m telling you, you have to. You have to know where you start. And you have to hold yourself accountable. And not only does the group hold you accountable. But also if you are really, seriously wanting to make a change in your life, this is the way to do it. And I have seen people who have not had any success, who have lost the same 10 to 20 pounds over and over again (gained it, lost it, gained it, lost it, gained it, lost it), and have been in a rut for a long time be able to get a hold of their life again, be able to get a hold of some of the emotional things that they weren’t dealing with because they were coping with food and coming to that realization and helping people walk through it and how to do that. It’s something that we’ve dealt with for so long. And it’s just been transforming for so many people from thyroid things that were causing them not to lose weight. They were able not only to lose weight but actually start getting better numbers on thyroid. And just all the different testimonials have been amazing.

And my best friend, I had watched her go through a lot of this. And she literally drew that line in the sand. And now, she has been a mentor for other people on our group because she’s done so well. And she was like, “You know what? I’ve learned how to make every excuse under the sun, moon, and the rainbows. But you wouldn’t let me out of that. And I feel like I got a step ahead.” Because she was about to come and visit us for a few days while she was doing her sugar detox.

But she said, “What it forced me to do—” because I always encourage people, like you saw in one of our previous podcast episode—

Dr. Z: Heard. Saw-heard.

Mama Z: Oh yeah, if you’re watching it on YouTube, you’re seeing it. If you’re listening, you’re hearing it.

Dr. Z: I know. I’m sorry. Heard.

Mama Z: But to do a booklet with all of your favorite Scriptures and quotes because what happens is what you’ll find is as you’re making these transitions your body wants to normally go back to other things. But then you’re like, “No, I’m not doing that anymore.” And then if you take that time to journal and to read the Scriptures and the quotes that are motivating you, then you’re going to start meditating on other things.

And what she said was, “You know what? It made me start thinking about some of the emotional attachments that were here that needed to be taken care of.”

And our good friend Olivia, I had seen her last week. She had job shadowed me for doing food prep. And so when she came over, I knew she looked a lot different. But I didn’t know how different she looked until I saw her pictures online.

Dr. Z: Unbelievable!

Mama Z: And then we saw her video that she did for a testimonial video.

Dr. Z: So exciting.

Mama Z: And just even her jawline difference and everything, she looked like a totally different person. And I love to see her confidence back. And the other things that were associated with it. And it’s all part of making these transitions because it’s a lot deeper than what you think until you get involved with that. And it’s been a blessing for so many people.

Dr. Z: And the thing about it is one of the reasons why we’re requiring you to buy the book is because you need the information in the book. We explain why we do what we do.

Mama Z: Yeah, all the why’s.

Dr. Z: So this book Essential Oils Diet is available everywhere books are sold. You buy a book anywhere. It doesn’t matter. Preorder it anymore. Go back to our website EssentialOilsDiet.com. Sign up and say, “Hey, I bought the book.” And what we’re going to give you is our quick start guide so you will have the tools that you need to start the 60-day challenge. And then when you get the book when it comes out May 7th, you’ll get it. Now you could read it from start to finish.

 

[58:33 – 1:02:31] What Are You Willing to Commit?

That is the commitment we’re asking you to. And we’re asking you just to commit which is—most stores have it on sale for $16 or $17. So it’s super cost effective. Sabrina—there’s a series of all the exercises that you could do at home which cost you $0. And who was it? Olivia, who said she’s saving how much? $50 a week.

Mama Z: $50 a week. It was funny because her husband says, “Now, how much more is this costing you per week?”

Dr. Z: Oh yeah! She’s documenting it. And she’s a very conscientious mom.

Mama Z: She is.

Dr. Z: And doctor. She’s a chiropractic, by the way.

Mama Z: Yeah. And she goes, “No, actually we’re saving $50 a week.”

Dr. Z: Yep, so going back to the last episode or two, we were talking about living healthy doesn’t have to be more expensive because it isn’t. Another example of it.

So I’m so excited about it. I want to give a testimonial. This was from Jody who is another chiropractor. It’s cool. We get a lot of healthcare professionals part of our group.

Now this was in time of Fat Tuesday, Paczki Day if you’re Polish or whatever, Mardi Gras. This is in that time. So she gave us a testimonial in February. So this is from February 2019.

Jody was just in the challenge for three weeks only. Again, it’s an eight-week/60-day challenge. Here’s what Jody says, “My face and hands are skinnier. And the belly rolls are starting to roll away. And even though the paczki have appeared in the stores, Dr. Z and Mama Z and everyone in Michigan knows what I’m talking about.” If you know what a paczki is.

Mama Z: See, when I mentioned the paczki —

Dr. Z: She goes, “I will not waver.” Yeah, paczki .

Mama Z: So when I mentioned a paczki —

Dr. Z: Jelly-filled, fried doughnut that used to be—

Mama Z: But people looked at me in the South when I was teaching class.

Dr. Z: Like, “What’s a paczki ?”

Mama Z: They said it was Paczki Day. And people looked at me.

Dr. Z: You have King Cake here or something. They have a weird Mardi Gras cake.

Mama Z: I don’t know. It was different. It was different. But anyway, they’re disgusting. I remember when I worked for [Durla] Studio, they would always order a big case of them. And I could never eat anything like that. They were just ginormous.

And so I just remember thinking, “Wow! I know this is Polish country and Bay City, Michigan.” And I could not partake in them. But when people didn’t know what they were, think of three doughnuts in one, all filled with different things.

Dr. Z: Oh, it’s unbelievable! It’s horrible!

Mama Z: And frosting on top.

Dr. Z: It’s heart attack. It’s your last gorge before you go through Lent where you deny yourself three months. And then you go back to eating junk. And that’s what Easter has become. Anyway, that’s a whole other topic. Let me finish Jody. It’s awesome.

So Jody says, “I’m so thankful I did this when I did.” Because again, this is in the heat, the heart of just gorge time. And she goes, “I still have to not overdo the exercise. I have to pay attention, listen to my body, and rest.” Because she battles with adrenal fatigue. But hopefully after she’s done she won’t.

She says, “I’m very hopeful that this new lifestyle change that I KNEW,” she says. Capital K-N-E-W. “That I KNEW I needed. But I needed that kick in the pants. That this will help heal my hormones and get those adrenals working properly again. I can’t thank you enough for this challenge and the support in this community. It’s been the missing piece to the abundant life.”

Mama Z: And that was at three weeks.

Dr. Z: Yeah, it was at three weeks. And we’ll walk through again.

Mama Z: Yeah, because there are different parts. And there are different themes.

Dr. Z: And we’ll cover that. Yeah, that’s part of the group.

Mama Z: Every week, we’ll help you. We’ve watched the trend of how things go and the questions and the things that people have given us over the years.

Dr. Z: So you talked about—here are a couple keys, though. So in this group, we’re walking through with you. And here’s one thing, though, too. Join. It’s free. Just preorder the book. And you’ll get all the resources you need to start today. And it’s open enrollment. So you could start today. And someone else can start next week. And someone can start the other week. And we will walk you through.

I want to give a couple tips. A couple tips. You gave a tip on the dangers of living on the scale. But there are a couple tips that we really want to give people. Again, this is in the spirit of body image. Focus on how you feel. Focus on your energy, your sleep, your mood, your libido. So whatever it is that you’re doing, if you’re trying to change a lifestyle behavior, which I did—one thing I noticed started changing immediately is once I got a grip on my life, I started exercising again, I did not need coffee anymore to get through the day. I was like, “Hallelujah!”

First thing, mood, libido. Things started feeling better before they started looking better. And one thing we’ve told our people is don’t focus on the scale for at least the first month.

Mama Z: Right. Don’t even get on the scale.

Dr. Z: And we encourage you not even go on the scale till the end because asked them for measurements. “Hey, give us your measurements because we’re going to help you track this.” Again, this was a special group of people. So if you start this challenge, we invite you to go through. Have your measurements. There is an application to be part of this because it’s accountability. You’re going to put down your measurements, your weight. And we’ll give them back to you after you’re done, after 60 days so you could see, wow!

But here’s the thing. Everyone. That precious lady, what’s her—? How old is she?

Mama Z: Fran?

Dr. Z: Yeah, how old? Fran has to be at least 70? She has to buy new underwear.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh! I was just going to mention that. She goes, “I’m having a real problem, folks.”

Dr. Z: Fran is so sweet.

Mama Z: “I went and got new underwear. But obviously, there was something wrong with the package because they were way too big. And so the next package I got was way too big. So then I realized I just don’t need those bigger underwear anymore. So now I’ve got to buy new underwear again.”

Dr. Z: Same thing with Lisa.

So here’s the other thing. And this is funny but it’s real. You will save money on food. You will save money on medical expenses. But you will spend money on clothes because you’re going to have to buy better clothes.

Mama Z: But it was cool to here.

Dr. Z: This is great problem to have.

Mama Z: Right. It was cool because different people had said, “Yeah, before I had my bra strap on the loosest it could go. Well, thank God! My bra had six different notches that I could notch it down to. But now I’m on the last notch. So now I’m going to have to buy a new bra.”

 

[1:02:32 – 1:13:15] How You Should Track Your Progress

Dr. Z: Hey. So how do you track your progress? Again, don’t worry about the scale because one thing we’ve found for anyone who’s trying, like myself included, to go from fat pants down to your fighting weight is that you start feeling better first.

So whatever it is, we want to encourage some healthy behaviors, to start doing things you know is right. Go to our website. Get the book. Join the challenge. Learn. Learn, learn, learn, learn.

And next episode, we’re going to cover how to navigate that because we are in the internet renaissance, y’all. And I can’t wait for next episode because there’s way too much information and so much confusion out there.

So once you start getting on this healthy path, don’t focus on the scale. Focus on how you feel because that is a measurable tangible result. A measurable, tangible result on how you feel. And I want you to document. This is really key.

And Christ is looking up. You guys can probably hear Bella. Screams of joy. That’s fine. Bella, we love you upstairs. Bless our nanny’s heart. So Chris, every time Bella is like, “Ah, ah!” I can see his eyes in my peripheral vision. Love you, Chris. You’re good.

So anyway, what we want to do, wrapping up here. Love you all. So don’t focus on the scale. Focus on how you feel.

Mama Z: Notice how your clothes are feeling.

Dr. Z: And notice how your clothes fit.

Mama Z: And I’m going to say one other thing, too.

Dr. Z: Because why? Muscle weighs—

Mama Z: Muscle weighs more than fat.

Dr. Z: Think about this. So if you’re doing what we’re telling you to do, if you’re going to exercise regularly—and this is going to be a natural living tip. Mama Z is going to give you a really practical exercise tip. So stay tuned to the end.

If you’re going to be exercising regularly, if you’re going to be changing your diet, you might not lose weight initially because muscle weighs more than fat. And so for me, believe it or not, I only gained 10 pounds during my fat pants story because everything that was in my chest and shoulders went down to my abdomen. And so now I’m bringing it back from my abdomen to my chest and shoulders. It’s like, bloop!

Mama Z: Whoo!

Dr. Z: It’s like a cartoon.

Mama Z: Bloop! Up to Superman.

Dr. Z: But I didn’t gain. I am 160 pounds, healthy, 5’10.5” man. And so if I get under 155, I’m a little concerned. I don’t want to be anorexic. So I don’t want to be above 165. I have this sweet spot—160. I only gained 10 pounds, y’all. And that was a huge thing because, again, I had no more pectoral muscles. And it went to my little chubbies. So anyway, I’m getting my pects back.

Mama Z: And I remember one of the kids said, “Daddy, do you have nummies?”

Dr. Z: We call them nummies.

Mama Z: We call breastfeeding nummies and obviously talking about a certain body part. And so when they said that to Eric, he looked at me. And he was like, “Uh…”

Dr. Z: That was body image. I was like, “I don’t have boobs. I don’t have man boobs.” I got to a point where you could say—call them man boobs. That’s humbling, y’all. But again, it’s not a criticism. It was something I had to deal with. But focus on how your clothes are fitting. And celebrate the success.

Mama Z: And I’m going to make one suggestion, too. And this was one I made many years ago that my good friend still reminds me of. And she was in a place where she was wearing much baggier clothes. And she called it, “I was wearing a muumuu.”

And I go, “Guess what? If you’re making these changes, no more muumuu.” Because yes, you dress right for your body type. But there’s a certain way that people dress when they’re trying to hide things that are going on in their body. And that affects your body and self-esteem too.

Dr. Z: That makes me think of Julie. Don’t let me forget that, Julie from Chase Bank.

Mama Z: Okay.

Dr. Z: Oh, I love that girl.

Mama Z: But it’s really important that you start getting out there and start dressing for success in a way because that’s going to change. And you know what? When I was changing back to my normal size from being pregnant, I would, so many times, go into the second hand store because I’d sell clothes that I’d already worn. And then I’d buy new ones for that next size. And I’d trade them out and that kind of thing. But I want you to dress for success because you are worth it. And when you dress that way, your mood elevates. And the way that you carry yourself elevates.

Dr. Z: Yeah, look good. Stop wearing sweatpants. I get it. I did it. I did it. I was guilty of it. Stop looking—and I don’t want to say, “Like a slob.” But you know what? We shouldn’t. We should look polished. And my grandma, being raised in that Great Depression era, my grandma was poor. And folks, I don’t come from a lot of money. My grandma and grandpa were working poor. She wore a dress every day, or a skirt and a blouse, every day of her life. Even when she was sick in the nursing home, she looked her best.

And I’m telling you something. If you’re a little overweight, you don’t feel like you’re not worth it.

Mama Z: That’s right.

Dr. Z: You need to wear clothes that fit you. I’ll never forget Julie. When I was managing a Chase Bank at the time in Saginaw, Michigan, Julie, coming from her mouth, she was “big and black and beautiful.” And she wore jewelry. She wore her outfits. And she was a bigger woman. I’ll never forget her telling me because I learned something, too. She was like, “I’m big. And I’m beautiful. And I love it.” And I saw this woman who took great care of herself. She always had makeup, did her hair, had her jewelry. She wore form-fitting enough outfits where, you know what? She looks good. And yeah, she could’ve lost 50 pounds. And I hope she did. But the reality was you look the best that you could look.

And I’ve seen way too many people, myself included, go to those sweat suits. And we just look like we’re lounging around. No, take it up. Look good, feel good.

Mama Z: When I had Esther and we decided that I would leave one of my favorite jobs at the Midland Chamber of Commerce, I said, “You know what? I’m transitioning into my new role as the mother, as a job, as the mother to Esther.” And I dressed every daily for success. And I wasn’t going to get in those traps because it is a cycle of how you feel.

Dr. Z: Smart. A lot of newborn moms don’t put on clothes. They’re just in pajamas.

Mama Z: And you know what? I didn’t shower until noon or 1 o’clock. So I’m not going to say that I was up and showered and looking awesome by 8 o’clock.

Dr. Z: I don’t shower till noon or 1 o’clock still. It happens.

Mama Z: It happens. But the thing is that it didn’t happen at 8 o’clock because I’m dealing with poopy diapers and this and that. But I can guarantee you that I always would dress that part. And it affects how you feel. And Norman Vincent Peale said, “Throw your heart over the bar. And your mind and body and actions will follow.”

Dr. Z: Amen!

Mama Z: And so when you’re dressing for success as well, no matter what phase you’re at in your journey, I think it’s important to note that those things are important.

And what you say about yourself is also important. We know Proverbs 18:21, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it eat the fruit thereof.” Words have power. And what you say has power. And you need to be meditating on the right things that are nourishing for your body.

Dr. Z: Ban from your vocabulary, “I am fat.” Never say, “I am ugly.” Never say, “I’m out of shape.”

Mama Z: Say, “Guess what? I know that Psalm 138:8 says that God will perfect that which concerns me.” And I’ve always thought, too, there’s a flipside of that. And we should also be praying that God perfect in us the things that concern Him because, believe me, I’m sure there is. And I know that he died on the cross for us. But if we’re supposed to live our best self and we’re where we’re at, then there’s some growth that has to happen for us to fulfill our purpose in God. And we need to do it.

Dr. Z: Amen. Amen, amen, amen! There’s so much. I actually want to do a whole episode on the power of words. But you do hold life and death in the power of your tongue.

So folks, we love you. We appreciate you. We invite you to join our Essential Oils Diet Challenge. Just go to EssentialOilsDiet.com. Preorder the book. Join. Be part of this. Commit. And we want you to expect life change.

 

[1:13:22 – 1:14:21] Natural Living Tip: Getting Back into Exercise

And to wrap up today’s show, we have a special natural living tip for you.

Mama Z: If you are just adding exercise back into your life, I want you to commit to either using your phone or getting a pedometer. And I want you to do 10,000 steps a day. That means in everything that you’re doing, I want to hear some testimonials.

And you know what? Over the years of teaching at the CWH International Santa School, this is one tidbit that I have literally seen change lives, even if nothing else changed, just that you started moving and staying in motion. 10,000 steps a day. And that’s as a minimum. I would really like it to be 15,000. But 10,000 steps a day to start with. Get your body in motion, not sitting. Force yourself to get out there. Force yourself to go up and down the stairs more times, whatever it happens to be. But get those steps in for the day.

And it’s really cool because my Santa Clauses know—and they actually check in with my on Facebook or different places. Or they’ve had a birthday and I say happy birthday to them. Then they’re like, “Hey, guess what? I got 15,061 steps today.” Or when we rolled into exercise class last year, the guy said, “Hey, as I walked through the door, I got 10,005 steps.” So make it fun. And get your steps in each day. And watch the results.

Dr. Z: And don’t forget. As a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Air Doctor is giving you $300 off their portable air purification system so that you and your family can enjoy pure, clean air in your home all day long.

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

 

[1:14:22 – end] Episode WrapUp

Dr. Z: So thank you for listening. And we hope you have enjoyed the show. And as a reminder, you can find all of the Natural Living Family podcast episodes, show notes, transcripts on NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com. And while on our website, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter which includes a personal invite to join our private Facebook group so you can connect with me and Mama Z and also meet thousands of other natural living lovers just like you.

And don’t forget, subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. We so appreciate the love and support.

Well, Dr. Z here.

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: Yeah, God bless!