Modern Body Xperiment

Overcoming Adversity: The Road to Health and Wellness

• Dan and Jenni • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Who says overcoming medical challenges can't lead to self-discovery and empowerment? Join us, Dan and Jenni, as we peel back the layers of our own health journey that moved us from being overweight, overstressed, and over-medicated to healthier, happier individuals. We share our journey through the maze of celiac disease, anxiety, and type two diabetes in Ohio, and how the Wheel of Wellness dimensions became our compass to a healthier lifestyle. 

Our hope is that by sharing our stories about the trials of spondylolthesis, depression, a severed tricep tendon, a cancer scare, and a pancreatitis attack, you'll find courage to face your own health battles. We underscore the dangers of quick fixes and fad diets and stress the importance of researching medications. We want to stimulate a conversation that goes beyond the podcast. We're eager to hear your comments and feedback. So, let's hit the subscribe button and harness our collective experiences to optimize our health and future. Remember, you are not alone; together, we can create the future we desire.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Wheel of Wellness podcast. I'm your host, dan, and.

Speaker 2:

I'm your co-host Jenny.

Speaker 1:

This is a podcast where we present different areas of your life that could be improved to help you achieve your peak health and vitality.

Speaker 2:

Our goal is for you to expand the concept of self-care and development. We want to help you to transform the expectations of the average adult lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

Too many people are comfortable being overweight, overstressed and over-medicated. Stop accepting this trap as normal.

Speaker 2:

If that is normal. We want you to be unique. Unique as an eating for your health, not just for comfort. Unique as in being a weight that is optimal, not inflamed and obese.

Speaker 1:

Unique as in being connected with the people in your life and healthy relationships, not being glued to a screen or a monitor.

Speaker 2:

We get it.

Speaker 1:

In the past we have both been diagnosed as being obese. We have both dealt with the problems that come along with that diagnosis.

Speaker 2:

We used to be focused on our internal battles of anxiety and depression. Now we focus on each other and the life that is going on around us. We have both been on numerous medications that were just used to treat symptoms instead of healing us.

Speaker 1:

We know it's possible to get to a healthy weight, overcome metabolic challenges and find peace and contentment. Because we have done it, we constantly research numerous topics concerning personal health and investigate ways you can elevate your future.

Speaker 2:

Each week, we will be sharing valuable information and insights on how to create a future you desire instead of one you dread.

Speaker 1:

Be sure to tune in every week and don't forget to subscribe to never miss an episode. Check us out on our website, wwwwheelofwellnesspodcastcom.

Speaker 2:

Be unique with us as we present the Wheel of Wellness to reveal how we can optimize our future together.

Speaker 1:

Everybody, welcome back Wheel of Wellness podcast here. I'm Dan, I'm Jenny, guys, we're so excited to be back. We've obviously gone over, if you listen to the first couple of episodes, we've gone over the domains of the Wheel of Wellness.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and practical applications on how to apply those in your life.

Speaker 1:

Now I think introduction might be in store for us to be able to tell you why it has helped us in our lives.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we can kind of talk about some of the medical challenges we've had and how we use those applications to better our health.

Speaker 1:

First off, a brief introduction of myself. I have one biological son. To give you a hand on that how old I am. My son is 30 years old. I also have three step children, jenny's children, they are.

Speaker 2:

Yes, my youngest is 19 and my oldest is 25, and then I have a 23 year old as well.

Speaker 1:

But, honestly, we claim them all as our own and we love them just as much and they mean just as much to us. Each and every one of them, yes, absolutely. So, that gives you a little hint about our ages and how we deal with that. But with that being said, I worked a career of law enforcement for many years in Florida.

Speaker 2:

So did I for 10 of those years.

Speaker 1:

Yep we have recently well, not recently, I guess it wouldn't be recent. It's been what? 13 years now, yeah, almost 13 years, we moved to Ohio because Jenny has family here. Yes, and it's been, it's been our roller coaster ride, to say the least.

Speaker 2:

I was going to say it's challenging in the beginning, I agree.

Speaker 1:

But with that being said, you know we've found a lot of great things here. We've found a great home church. We've found a great home church. We've found a great social environment that can help us friends. We found obviously so much in the great outdoors that we can do here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I will say one thing Ohio is a great place for outdoor activities.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it is. It's right in that great strata to where it's not blistering hot all the time and it's also not freezing cold all the time. So Ohio is it's. It's turned out to be a little bit of a. I hate to say it, but it's a warm spot in my heart.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that took 13 years for him to get that. Yes, it did.

Speaker 1:

But as much as I've enjoyed being in Ohio, I have had some challenges here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and me as well, like I felt like after moving to Ohio my health kind of went sideways a little bit. I'm like wow, what's going on?

Speaker 1:

here. Yeah, I mean as well as your health going sideways. Mine kind of did as well, but mine a couple of different reasons. I mean you had some physical ailments. Frankly, I had some anxiety issues and you know we had to deal with them in different ways.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as soon as I came up here, you know we were stressed because of the move and just the Environment being different. You know, moving from out of state is a big deal.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

We were both retired from the Sheriff's office and decided to start a new life here, just to be closer to my family, and it was just a huge challenge in our life. So, with that being said, I was very stressed out we both were and then I ended up getting diagnosed with celiac disease well, first year.

Speaker 1:

Well you, well, yeah, but you didn't get diagnosed with celiac disease immediately. It took a while from them to figure out what was going on. I mean they thought basically everything from leprosy.

Speaker 2:

Leukemia, bed bugs.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, and that went on for months until they figured out and that was kind of like back when a Celiacs and the gluten tolerances weren't really on the forefront where they are now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was very hard for them to diagnose and we can talk about that more later as we go through the will of wellness Dimensions. But it was definitely a challenging time, stressful time, and that was just the start of Some of the elements.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, I mean, and when you were dealing with that, that's kind of like the same time when my weight Exploded and I started the. I have osteoarthritis in both my knees and that's when that really Exacerbated and got a lot worse.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we were getting monthly injections for your knees, yeah, it was really painful.

Speaker 1:

It was. I was having difficulty moving around.

Speaker 2:

It was just really a bad time but aside now on that, you've also had nine surgeries on your knees.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, but I mean, yeah, I might be dumb but I should be tough, so. So those are a couple of the challenges that we had. We've engaged in some things since that point in time. Also For you, what happened after, after Celiacs, what was the next big thing that was on the forefront?

Speaker 2:

well, my weight was terrible and, you know, on top of everything else with the digestive issues, I ended up with type 2 diabetes, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

Well, they tell you okay, you have Celiacs and you have to eat this certain way. And then you're trying to figure out how to eat. And this is back before gluten-free stuff was very popular.

Speaker 2:

So the diet went sideways. This is when Donatos would give you a pizza, a gluten-free pizza, which was vegetables, cheese on a paper plate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was a salad. That was before the free crust. Yeah, before the advent of cauliflower crust. Yeah so, yeah, the weight kind of went crazy. Mine went crazy as well. When I moved to Ohio I was right around 200 pounds and I found a way pretty quickly, within a year, year and a half, to Figure out how to get up to 250.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you know I wasn't 250, but I definitely was pushing 200 pounds. I was probably what? 198?.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm, and just it, just on a reference scale. I'm about I'm 5, 10 in the right pair of shoes.

Speaker 2:

And I am a midget.

Speaker 1:

That's Blakely incorrect. You're close to it.

Speaker 2:

You're close to it, I'm really 5 1, so Well, that's my shoes on.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we've got to be honest here, right? Yes, okay, so so the reference range is like I'm 5, 10 with the right pair of shoes on, and I'm 250 and you're 5, 1, with a little bit of a heel on my shoe and almost 200 pounds, and you pretty much just rolled around instead of locks.

Speaker 1:

You worked 200 pounds with a size heel you had to have because it weighed that much. So and obviously when we did that, there were a lot of medical things that came along with that. You know high blood pressure.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that was the third thing, I think I. No, I already had that when we moved up here.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, but I mean that's when it you know, it just jumped, the scale just jumped. The scale jumped and the blood pressure cuff jumped. The blood sugar jumped.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that was bad Ended up on insulin.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm. Yep, oh yeah Now with me. I had really a little bit of a cancer scare. The doctors were convinced that I had cancer and they were setting me up for treatments and everything went a little bit sideways and that really got into my mind.

Speaker 2:

That's when your health anxiety kicked in.

Speaker 1:

Oh man did it ever, you know. At that point in time I thought it was really appropriate and really normal for somebody to take the blood pressure every 15 minutes for every day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think you spent more time doing that than anything else.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I did. Well, I mean the time that I wasn't taking my blood pressure. I was thinking about taking my blood pressure, yeah there was a lot of wasted time there. Oh, I did waste a lot of time with that and with my health. The anxiety was me telling me that I wasn't in control of things, so that was really challenging for me, not being in control, because I'd always been that type person. The A type personality is overused, but I was always the control freak and example we go on vacations. I would have a binder.

Speaker 1:

I'd have a binder laid out and we would be at this gas station this point in time to be able to get this much gas, and that would be planned out for a week and where we'd be getting gas or where we would be eating that whole 10 yards. So maybe a little bit OCD there, you think? So yeah, I dealt with that. But with that being said, anxiety became a large part and I did a bad thing by letting it become part of my identity. You know it's terrible thing when you say you let anxiety become your identity rather than saying you're being affected by anxiety or you're having anxious thoughts. That just exacerbates things and makes things so difficult.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I we'd spent a lot of time with you recovering from that and, of course, we still struggle with it. Right, I struggle with depression on and off my pretty much my entire life, at least my adult life. However, even as what? Within the past year, I've had to really hunker down on anxiety and depression.

Speaker 1:

I didn't even realize I had anxiety.

Speaker 2:

So lovely health issues there, as well mentally.

Speaker 1:

You know they're basically sisters anxiety and depression. When one's there, the other one's gonna be very nearby and you have to be aware of it. And once you are aware of the fact that you're dealing with one of those two situations, you have to be on guard for the other situation before it comes around because it will come around, especially if you're not guarding for it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree, and that's something that and we still struggle with those things today.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, but the good thing is I really wouldn't say struggle, I'd say that we deal with those things. We were struggling with them before, when we would deal with the taking blood pressures every 15 minutes. Yeah that's true, but now we are aware of it and we use things like the Wheel of Wellness to go ahead and help us deal with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and of course I also. I'm like the autoimmune freak. So not only type two diabetes, celiac disease, but also spinae locesis which is the condition of the spine and all of these things have been very challenging, but I've been able to use the Wheel of Wellness and to apply some of those practical applications to help me through these things, including my depression and anxiety.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's all inclusive, like we were talking about in previous episodes. It's a balance and you have to have everything, at least working on everything or be aware of all parts of the wheel. For me, I deal with a lot of my issues with the physical Domain, the physical spoke, on the wheel of wellness, and by doing that I also create myself more stress, just like with my knees. If I try and run, I can go ahead and challenge them, but they can become pretty sore and I have to be. I have to take care of them. And also I Do jujitsu and in doing jujitsu I had a complete, completely severed tricep tendon. That was a fun time. That was a really fun time not being able to use my dominant hand for anything and I thank you so much for all the help you gave me during that, jenny.

Speaker 2:

Okay, whatever.

Speaker 1:

So the emotional, the social Aspects of the wheel of wellness, they really help when you get to those type situations, especially the social, and I need you for my dominant hand, mm-hmm, so you think.

Speaker 2:

But also, what about the time I had the, the cancer cells in the uterus?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that was a very scary time as well, but obviously how to go and have that taken care of. But again, your health physical health Impacts your mental health so much if you will let it.

Speaker 1:

But also, with that being said, your mental health can impact your physical health, and in both a positive and a negative way.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely can you know we can. You know you dealt with that. You dealt with your cancer Scare and you dealt dealt with it very well. Obviously, there was some nights crying, there was surgery to go through, there was things that we had to deal with, but you handled that like a champ. And also one thing that we didn't discuss when you're dealing with type 2 diabetes was the, the Medication that you had. That didn't really work out.

Speaker 2:

That good for you. Yeah, the pancreatitis attack, that was so fun, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we should use the name of the medication or not, but yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty well-known. I don't think that there's anything that can Hurt this by saying what it was, but I was on genuvia. Mm-hmm and I was on it for actually a couple of years at this point.

Speaker 2:

I woke up in the middle of the night and felt I thought I was having a heart attack. I was in so much pain it was going through my back, so rushed to the ER and Lo and behold, after some testing that's what it was. And they admitted me. And, long story short, as soon as they took me out of that medicine I would split out of hospital on a day or two, and that's kind of unheard of with a pain. With the pancreas attack like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah that that they were very shocked with how quickly you were able to recover from that, but it just shows the medication once you were off the medication. They started pumping full of fluids. It was able to Correct itself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you got to be careful and do your research when it comes to medication as well.

Speaker 1:

Now there are a lot of little bumps in the road, I guess you'd say and hiccups that we've been through. These are some of the big things that we've dealt with. Obviously, I'm there's people out there that's dealt with way worse than you know.

Speaker 2:

So many, so many people deal with so many variety of health issues, especially in today's society. It's a fast society. We got to eat quick, we got to keep moving and and then you're so tired you don't want to work out, you just want to flop on the couch and be done with the day.

Speaker 1:

You can take a meal and you can plop it in the microwave and have it ready in three minutes and just wolf it down, and you don't know what kind of what you just put in your body Exactly. The preservatives, the rotten types of ingredients that's in it. That's bad for you. So that is plays a big role for us on the physical spectrum of wellness.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because I mean, obviously we're going to talk about nutrition in that dimension. But also just to point out, there's so many people out there talking about health and wellness and fitness and nutrition and there's a lot of BS and it's hard to filter through what is real and what's the fad diet today, yeah, whatever People tend to go with a quick fix and that's just not. It's not going to happen, not in a healthy way, you're exactly right.

Speaker 1:

The thing is there's so much stuff out there and there's so many different medications that you can be on. They can be a quick fix. There's so many different types of diets out there that can be a quick fix, but the things that we've done just this is just a little insight to a future podcast. I've been eating keto or low carb for probably about two and a half years.

Speaker 2:

When you say yeah, 2020, I think, is when we started our mission of trying to be healthier.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's so. That's a. I would say that's not a flash in the pan, that's not a fad diet. I've been doing that and, like I said, we start off around 250. I generally stay between 190 and 195.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's a healthy weight for you. You're also very muscular.

Speaker 1:

So, that's. It's healthy, Well you know I, depending on the time of the year whether it's the holidays or not I range anywhere between like 14 and 16% body fat.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I always have, you know, just as a little sense of pride. I always have at least two of my abs showing the top two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, shut up.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, anyways, well, hey, you know that is an introduction to us and, like I said, you know we understand that everybody out there deals with things, and people dealt with a lot worse than what we've dealt with. But we just want to let you into a little bit of insight of the things that we've gone through and when we start going through specific domains of the real wellness, it'll kind of give you an insight into the things that we changed, the things that we monitored and the things that basically sometimes we just kept the same, that were healthy for us, and that will show you how it helped us to go ahead and build a healthier lifestyle. Healthier lifestyle, that's right.

Speaker 2:

And I will say too for us, we built that healthier lifestyle, but we're still building on it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's a, it's a lifestyle, so you have to continue to build on those that foundation that you created. So we're not perfect, we still have our challenges and we're still working on things.

Speaker 1:

You know, I used to have a really good friend. He used to say that if you shoot for the stars but you land on the moon, you still got pretty far, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I mean and we have come a long way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean you might vary off by 5%, 10% from your original goal, but you're still moving in the right direction. That's what's about, and our goal is to be healthy, to be holistically healthy and have wellness in all aspects of our life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and just a quick insight. I know you talked about your weight and everybody's price down here, thinking I'm still 200 it depends on what heels you're wearing. Yeah, so my weight did drop to about 150. I think my lowest was 149. But I have gone back up to 160. I average between 160 and 165, but there's a reason why, and we'll get to that, and it has to do with the physical part of it.

Speaker 1:

And nutrition. That's a good reason.

Speaker 2:

I think yeah.

Speaker 1:

But, with that being said, that's for a future time. And listen, that was just a real quick introduction for who we are, where we came from, what we're dealing with and what we need to continue working on to go ahead and maintain where we're at.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and there's so much out there that we can talk about, so hopefully you guys will come back and join us for the next episode.

Speaker 1:

The thing is, you know, you guys got to follow us, you got to go ahead and see what happens next with us, Because we're going to go into the different parts of the domains and it's going to be fun, and we're going to go ahead and let you into the parts of our lives. That's kind of I'm a little bashful too, but why not? You know, I mean, this is about helping people, this is about helping us, and maybe you guys can help us as well.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. We look forward to your comments. Go to our website wwwWheelOfWellnessPodcastcom. Absolutely Go there to hit subscribe or, you know, leave us some comments. Yeah, emails, check us out we really appreciate your time, guys.

Speaker 1:

We know it's valuable and we cherish it. Thank you so much. We're looking forward to talking to you guys soon.