Welcome to the Hope Unlock Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wild-hearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations, and thrive with confidence, courage, and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to NewWingsCoaching.net and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked Podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Rebecca Stewart to the show. So excited to have her here today. Um, she is just a sweet friend of mine, and I know she has so much to share with you guys.
So before we get into that, would you be open to sharing a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_00Well, first, thank you so much for having me. It is such an honor um to be here, and I just love and adore you, and I'm so grateful to know you.
SPEAKER_02Right back at you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I am a uh, well, I am a wow, that's a that's a really loaded word, isn't it? Briefly, yes. I am a wife, a mama, um, I homeschool, I am a retired public school bus driver and retired international missionary. And then I in my act three or four of life decided to go back to school, became a I'm now a board certified nutritional therapy practitioner, and I started an online virtual practice where I work with clients on a one-on-one basis with their complex chronic health issues. And then I launched a health course for homeschoolers in high school to just give them real practical life skills to make good healthy choices for their lives. And yeah, that's kind of a little about me. Look at you.
SPEAKER_01So much goodness. I love um you have you've retired in a couple ways, but you've refired in a few other ways as well.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, I like that. Retiring and refining. That's golden.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna write it. Tell us a little bit about that journey from retiring. Well, because you're you're not quote unquote of retirement age, as the world would say, right?
SPEAKER_00Right. I did it for quite a long time. Um, it was a wonderful job that was able to help feed my family and pay some bills while I homeschooled my kids during the day. So it was a pretty unique, honestly God uh provided um in source of income and a good daily reminder of why I personally am choosing to homeschool my kids. Um, I well, it probably didn't help that I was also a like a special needs school bus driver. My kids were behaviorally challenged, and so I I was on first name basis with all the police officers. Oh, you were yeah. So I was ready for a change. The stress was was a
lot. I uh was got a hold of a a continuous glucose monitor and was monitoring and learning how my body handled sugar. And um, I learned that I have a very solid, stable blood sugar, except for the 20-minute drive to work in the morning and 20-minute drive on the way to work in the afternoon. And um, my blood sugar would spike really hard and fast. And um, so stress does that. Stress will cause your blood sugar to spike. Okay. And that was very eye-opening to me that my my job and my role that I was in was really creating a very kind of almost a visceral physical response in my body was like, no. So I uh yeah, so then um my we were just kind of I had been praying for a few years for a change because it it was just getting harder and harder. And my husband was blessed with a new job that um actually was triple the amount of money that we were both making at the time. So it really combined, huh? Yeah combined. Wow, yeah. So we it really uh provided a way for me to kind of step away from that and think of well, what do I want to do next? And my daughter was my my firstborn was leaving for university, and that I that was really hard for me to launch my first bird, and so um I asked the Lord for a good healthy distraction and next stage in life, and he said, Go back to school. So while my daughter went to school, I went back to school. Well, I still continue to homeschool my son, and um, so yeah, that's how that kind of changed.
SPEAKER_01I wanted to I want to just kind of hit on, you know, you have gone to school for you know the health aspect, right? So somebody might be asking, because I'm I'm wondering as I always do, um, that that visceral reaction, that that insulin spike that you were feeling not even during the work, but you were experiencing it before getting into the work. Do you did you did you experience any symptoms other than seeing it on the monitor? Did you is there anything that you were experiencing physically that you can remember? Because I'm I'm just wondering if maybe somebody's like, hmm, tell me more about that.
SPEAKER_00I mean, just the thought of driving the school bus in the mornings and afternoons uh was a little that that stress. I would feel my heartbeat, my heart rate rise a little bit, and I would feel that tingly anxiety, you know, that you feel in your chest and arms and legs, like, but not to the degree of warning, warning. It was more just like that subtle, because it was something I did every day and I'd been doing it for years. I think I just kind of learned that that's how I felt every time I would go to work, and it just was nothing new. So to see it on my actual um monitor was like, oh, something is, you know, something is happening. My body does not like this. And yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Good question. Great question. I love that. Um, because I know maybe you'll you'll talk a little bit more about this later as well. But so you headed in to go back to school before um tell me again the the name of the um like certification you received.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um I went to the nutritional therapy association. Okay. Yeah.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00It's an international or global um online nutritional therapy program. It's it's really phenomenal. It's it's pretty intensive. I I probably spent a good 20 to 30 hours a week in school. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um how long was that program?
SPEAKER_00It was a 12-month intensive.
SPEAKER_0112 months.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just to get started. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Now, had you like maybe years ago ever thought about doing something like that? Like what what what was the trigger to kind of push you into that realm then?
SPEAKER_00That's that's a wonderful question. So I was actually thinking about this today. You were that,
yeah. Uh when I was a little girl, I my so my dad was um in organ transplant research. So my dad actually was a part of the team that uh completed the first successful liver transplant ever done. And it was done on pigs. And my mom was a health major, and so I kind of I did, I grew up in a health household, research, science, science, science, lots of research. And so when I was younger, I always dreamed of being a doctor, and I always thought I'm going to be a doctor. And then when I was about 11 or 12, I developed um a significant hand tremor. And um, I've seen all the allologists, none of them know why my hands shake. So that kind of like ruled me out for uh, you know, sticking anybody with a needle or a scalpel. And then um I didn't know it at the time, but I was struggling with some learning disabilities, and um, I was really struggling in school. So I really died in middle school, probably my freshman sophomore year of high school, to the dream of ever doing anything in the health space and medical space because the only thing I thought I could do was be a doctor or a nurse. And I was like, I don't want to be a nurse. That sounds like too much work.
SPEAKER_01Right. I mean, when you think back to like that that time frame, I was thinking about this recently, like at least in the high school I went to is like, here's your categories of things that you can go to school for doctor, lawyer, you know, just the you know, here's what they make. And you know, I was thinking like interesting, like how they can almost kind of you know cause you to think like these are your only options. Yeah. And then there's no creative options outside of that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, out of the box. I don't know. Thinking outside of the box, how dare you?
SPEAKER_01Um we're so out of the box.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh, that's my life story. But but yeah, it was um, it was actually during, I mean, we've always as a family tried to eat healthy and eat right. In fact, we were vegans for three years, just lots of raw fruits and vegetables, very clean vegan. And what I didn't realize at the time that as a parent, I um was failing my children um and leading my family and trying to be healthy and that and eating that type of a diet because I was um I was holding back essential nutrients that my children needed to develop their brains and their hormones and so much more. And when my daughter was 16, um she the kind a switch kind of flipped and uh she she just began to spiral mentally and emotionally very fast. And we took her to therapists, we took her to doctors, we had no idea what was going on with her. She began cutting herself, attempting suicide. It was it was a season of just I was in pure exhaustion and desperation, just trying to figure out what was wrong with my daughter. And we did a thorough, you know, thorough blood panels, we did um month-long hair and saliva testing and um all when the testings we did tons of testing and came back that she had like no neurotransmitters, like she didn't even score for neurotransmitters, and then she didn't even um register for any hormones and like none. And I'm like, wow. And that's when I was like, wait, okay, so this is a physiological issue. This is not like a a trauma issue, this is actually a physical issue, and so then I I uh just asked the Lord, you know, what to do. And um, it was actually driving to work one morning. It was like 4 30 in the morning, and I was half awake, but I was like, Lord, what in the world can I do? I said, but I don't have capacity to do much. I need something simple, I need something very easy, and I I just I need help. I and I I don't know what to
do. And I kept hearing the word like carnivore going through my mind. And this is this was before that that diet was even known. And I was like, I don't even know what that means. What does carnivore mean? Like all morning as I'm driving my bus, I keep hearing this word carnivore, carnivore, carnivore. I'm like, what the freak is carnivore? Right. And I get home and um one of my really good friends, she's she sends me a video and she said, you know, I was praying for you and your daughter this morning, and I just I came across this video and I felt like I was supposed to send it to you. And it was the story of this teenage girl. She was 16, same age as my daughter at the time. She'd been a vegan for three years, and she was experiencing all the same symptoms that my daughter was. And then she decided to try this carnivore diet and within a couple of weeks reversed everything. And I was like, Oh, it's a diet. And so then I went down that rabbit hole. And um, so my my husband was right on board. He was like, give me steak and bacon again. Oh, yeah, baby. So we we uh we did a complete like 180 from no animal products whatsoever to 100% animal products and nothing else. And within two weeks, two weeks, that's all it took, 14 days. I remember it. It was like a switch was flipped in my daughter. The color came back in her eyes, she started laughing again, she stopped spiraling, she was hanging out with friends again. Like it was it was such a dramatic difference and change that was happening in front of me. That's when I was like, wait a minute, there's something to this what you eat really makes a big difference in your life. And that's when I was like, I need to know more, and I need to know I need an I need more, I need more information. And so that's when I decided to pursue um learning about the power of nutrition and the foundations of life. And yeah, they're really powerful, like really, really powerful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's amazing. So I I'm just kind of curious too, like it wasn't just your daughter who, you know, went this way, the 180, but you all did. What did you guys all experience um different, you know, quote unquote uh breakthroughs as well?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so definitely. Um my husband, who had, I didn't even realize it, had kind of been dealing with a little bit of depression. And you would have probably thought just seasonal depression, but he snapped like to life and was full of energy and was doing chores and like just getting up and cooking. And I was like, okay, he's wow, something's happening. So there's some vitality and libido kicking in there that wasn't there before. And then, you know, my son was the same way. My son um he just became just so much happier and content and calmer. And um I there, yeah, they uh for me personally, I didn't realize that I was generally an anxious person because within on the three-week mark for me, I had such a calm that ran through every cell of my being. It was like somebody because I I mean I have a tremor, I shake all the time. So I just thought what I feel is my shaking, but I didn't realize that I was also anxious. And I experienced like a moments of pure zero anxiety, and it was just like, whoa. Um I also um I also suffer from um a virus that I picked up while working in China and um suffered with joint and muscle pain, fatigue, just general inflamm inflammation side of symptoms. And on that same in that same period, um, I was pain-free. I completely pain-free. I was pain-free. Yeah. And um, so it's not I love carnivore. I think it's a beautiful therapeutic diet. I think it it's definitely very powerful when done correctly. It's not easy, it's a very it's hard, but it's very simple. So, like like my brain capacity, my emotional capacity, I couldn't track macros and stuff and food. I'm like, if it, if it's if it's an animal product, eat it. If it's not an animal product, don't eat it. Like that's all that's it's very simple in that sense. Um, yeah, so yeah.
That's incredible.
SPEAKER_01So when somebody hears carnivore now, like we I see it a lot. I see it more now than ever, and I I'm also very much into like I love looking into nutrition and holistic things and functional medicine things and all the things that are, you know, I like to say super natural. So um if somebody's wondering, like, what is what is carnivore diet? Like, what does it actually consist of? Like, give us give us a snapshot of your day, and we're not saying this is what you need to go do. I just wanted to put that out there as a disclosure. This is not medical advice at all. Exactly. No, but what would your day like actually look like? Um specifically for your daughter, especially for that radical transformation.
SPEAKER_00So we had because the kids were good going off of carbohydrates and sugars is like going off of drugs, and it's not easy. So bec the cravings get very intense. So we had to get very creative with our food. So some people who are carnivore, they'll just eat steak or they'll just eat hamburger patties or chicken, or sometimes they'll just eat deli meats. And some people are all some, yeah. Um, and then you know, there are different types of carnivores. So there's carnivore where it's like basically 90% animal products and 10% fruit and honey. And then you've got the hardcore lion diet where it is literally red meat, um, and water, and maybe a little salt. That's it.
SPEAKER_01Did you say the lion diet?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the lion diet. So there there are like there there's a whole range and um within just that whole diet alone. But for us, kind of our typical day was um really lots of bacon and eggs and sausage and for um breakfast and cheese. And then we would get creative with burgers. We did um we did loaded nachos, but instead of corn chips, we used pork rinds. And we yeah, we use pork rinds, we do like lots of taco meat with some seasoning. We did do some seasonings because we just you just need seasoning uh to flavor, right? Oh my goodness. And um, like the cheese and the sour cream, and um so we would kind of do like loaded pork rinds that way. We got really creative with um meat pizza, so we would make like a a meat, uh meat, chicken and cheese blended, um, like a ground chicken and cheese mixed uh crust, and then we would just do like cheese and then load it with like pepperoni and sausage and stuff. We just get creative. There's cookbooks out there now. I wish I had, but there's some there's some wonderful cookbooks, carnivore cookbooks out there that you can get to get really, really creative and make um chicken nuggets. Well, um, we would make homemade chicken tenders or chicken nuggets using um basically crushed pork rinds for the crust. So instead of a bread uh you know uh gluten breading or like a bread breading um for your nuggets or tenders, we would use pork rinds for a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01So interesting. Yeah, we got we have I've never heard of that before. I haven't dug into it too much either. I'm I my question is like, you know, fiber, you know, how how was your everybody's digestion? Did everybody do well? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00It actually healed my IBS. Um yeah. And so this is when I was like, wait a minute, I need to go to school and figure this out because this doesn't make any sense. And I and and I started to realize like so much of what I hear and what I've learned and what people say, I'm like, wait, is this really true? And I fiber is one of those things, it's one of the only things in our food that we eat that is impossible for our body to digest. So, in the sense that we cannot break it down, we
cannot take it apart and use it for our good. It it fiber, when it enters the mouth, it will exit, you know, out the other end in its part. So fiber does provide um it does act in a couple ways, in the sense that it will act as a binder. So it binds to toxins, excess hormones, those things that are moving through the gut and help pull them out. Um, fiber also can't, depending upon the type of fiber, can feed the good bacteria in your colon, in your microbiome. So it acts as a fuel source for them. Um, but uh fiber actually can cause constipation. It can just your your intestinal tract is only one cell deep. And so it's very fragile. So if you have a lot of fiber, it can it's I kind of think of it as like put running a bunch of mulch through pantyhose. Like it's gonna scrape up and snag the walls, you know, the walls of your intestines. Like putting mulch through pantyhose is gonna snag your pantyhose. So I never thought of it that way. It's uh it's it's it is it's roughage and it and people say it's scrape up your intestines. I'm like, oh Lord, your intestines are supposed to be nice and slippery. And slimy, and they have a mucus layer, and it's to protect, you know, protect them from getting cut up and beat up so things don't move through that aren't supposed to go through. And and so yeah, it actually um it's after going carnivore for a while, we're not still carnivore anymore. We're I mean, we eat a lot of meat, but um my daughter had severe gluten sensitivity, but she was able to heal her gut, and so that now she can handle she can handle bread now. It's she doesn't any bread? Yeah, she can eat any bread, she can eat any any gluten, it's not a problem for her at all. Um really me, I had um, I had really bad IBS and I think it stemmed a lot from anxiety, but like trauma. Um yeah, but my my gut, I I with my history of my virus and trying drugs, and I was on trials, I think I really messed things up and in there, and um yeah, I became incredibly regular and healthy, no bloating, no gas. Um yeah, I basically eliminated all bloating, all gas, and kept got us all regular. So it was a very opposite effect that I was expecting it to have.
SPEAKER_01So how how long was it that you guys were or like specifically for you, how long were you like following this path?
SPEAKER_00Um really diligently. Diligently, I would say um we we did it probably for like two years. And my daughter more for like seven, eight months, and then at home, my so my son, when my son is still at home with us, he was, but like he would go to friends' houses and youth group, and he would eat like the pizza and the hot dogs and stuff. I'm like, I don't really care, you know, like which you're I just I I can only control what you're having at home. And right, so I just didn't I don't stress about what he's having at friends' houses. But it would be interesting because he would eat a bunch of junk, you know, over a weekend while spending the night at a buddy's house and then come home and he would just be like he would feel sick and like crap for the like the next 24 hours, and I'd be like, Okay, what are we learning about this? Like how you are responding to what you are eating, like that's a new learning experience for you.
SPEAKER_01So what did it look like to like kind of re-enter back into like what what does it look like for you guys now? Like, how do you what is your operating system like each day?
SPEAKER_00Now it's I mean, we are still, I think, mostly, I mean, we're probably a really strong keto. I I do um we're both mostly meat and veg. And every once in a while we'll have some fruit and not we don't really do grains very much. Um, I was for my for my school, I had to learn how to make sourdough. And so I was on a little bit of a sourdough kick there for a while, which was which God used to really heal a couple of things in me
uh unexpectedly.
unknownReally?
SPEAKER_01Was making it or eating it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I yeah, both. Um I uh I didn't realize how much being in the kitchen stressed me out.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Planning in a meal, planning and planning meals, shopping, like being in the kitchen was very stressful for me. I didn't like it. And my husband loves being in the kitchen, he loves cooking, and I never understood him because he's like, This is my safe place, this is where I de-stress. And I'm like, are you kidding me? This is like this is the trigger for all like sign you up, then buddy, for right? Yeah, so I mean, he did he does cook majority of our meals, and I'm very thankful to the Lord for him. Uh so but the sourdough process required community and it required talking to people. Well, first I had to acquire my starter from someone and learning from them and talking to people. So it it and then it also required me to spend a significant amount of time in the kitchen because sourdough is very time-consuming, but it's a slow process. And so it got me into a place where I was always feeling pressed for time and feeling that stress, but the sourdough process put me in the same space, but forced me to slow down and just begin to kind of breathe and enjoy that process. And um it it kind of helped me really readjust my idea and my belief system and and even kind of I think reset my nervous system being in in the kitchen. It was no longer a stressful place, it actually became a place of calm and and safety. I don't really enjoy cooking very much, but it's not like a it's not like it was before. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Did you name your sourdough starter?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. I've I have a Sam. His name's Sam.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you had to take care of Sam, right? That's great. It's those sourdough babies are a lot of work. I didn't do well. I had to give mine up for adoption. Oh, God bless you for doing that. I tried. I tried. Somebody had said that um it might work because I'm actually gluten-free. I have yet to experience that healing. I'm believing for it. Um, but now you've got me, my brain's kind of rolling a little bit here. IBS, you know, gluten-free, all the things. So um, Sam, what a beautiful friend to help you through your journey and you know, bring in a new rhythm. Um what was your favorite? Like, I I've seen a lot of people eating carnivore now, but they eat a lot of butter. Did you guys eat a lot of butter? Oh, yeah, we did.
SPEAKER_00We put butter everything. Yes. I I learned actually started to crave it. I was never a person that liked eating the fat. Um, especially like the fat cap on the steak. I'm like, ew. Any extra fat on burgers? I'm like, ew. But um it took about two months, about two months in. I think my body was like, this is the good stuff, this is the gold. And I started to crave it. And um, yeah, I was like, I want the fattiest
steak and the whole fat burgers, um, and a lot of butter. And it's because what every single cell is held together with a membrane, and that membrane is made of fat. And you need to eat the fat for your body to make the cell membrane, which is actually the brain of the cell. It's it's what decides what happens to a cell, what goes in, what goes out. Like it is the cellular membrane, it does not get the beautiful attention that it deserves. It truly is the brain, but it it needs the fat. And you need to eat the fat. And then also all of your hormones are made out of fat. Your neurotransmitters are that, you know, all the the happy feel-good, you know, chemicals in your brain are made out of fat. So it's if you're not eating the fat, then your hormones are gonna tank and you're probably gonna be depressed and your cells are gonna struggle.
SPEAKER_01And I didn't know that. My brain, I've I've thought about this before too. Like, how old are you? I'm 45. You're 45. Okay, so I'm 48. So we're kind of same, we're the same generation. I grew up in California and I remember. I will never forget this. I I was in elementary school. I I wanna say I was maybe in first or second grade, and this guy brought in a blob of fat into the classroom. And he said, if you eat these things, you're gonna get fat. And I was like, I will not get fat, so I will not eat any of these things. And it caused, it was a big precursor to um eating disorders. Like literally, I'm telling you, if I would get pizza, I would take all of the cheese off and I would blot the pizza with paper towels to get all the fat off. Oh, that was our generation member.
SPEAKER_02I don't know a single person who didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh, yes. All the fat-free things. Like I just ate it all up. And I look at that now and I'm like, my sister went to school for nursing, and she was like, you know what? We hardly ate any fat, um, and our brain needed fat. And I'm like, that's what the problem is then. I'm totally kidding.
SPEAKER_00That was my problem. I thought there were in the same way. But you know, family.
SPEAKER_01It's knowing what you know now, um, you've had like supernatural healing. Your daughters had supernatural healing. Um, what would you say to somebody who's like in our generation? And you know, maybe what what are some next steps that they can do to maybe reverse some of the things that maybe are kind of like plaguing them because of some potential? I mean, is is that a thing, do you think? Like, oh, absolutely. I feel like with my plagues that come through all the the decades that they just can't get over?
SPEAKER_00The the trends through the years, the low fat trend, the low salt trend. I feel like those are the two greatest lies that our generation is really uh uh I think contribute so much to chronic illness. I mean, there's so many factors, but fat, first of all, um does not make you fat. That was actually a lie paid for by the sugar industry. And there is evidence out there to that. The seven, you can people can look that up, but um your your cells, your fat cells, they grow when um in by from insulin. So insulin is the hormone that tells a cell to grow and get bigger. Well, proteins and carbohydrates trigger an insulin response. Fat does not. Fat is the only food that you can eat that will not trigger insulin in your body. So it's physically impossible to get fat off of fat. Um, and so I just say enjoy the fat, eat the fat. It's it makes life say that again and yell it really loud. Enjoy the fat, eat the fat. It makes food taste better. The joy of food comes back to life on your taste buds. Um and then also the other one, the other big one that I battle a lot with my clients is the salt. Uh we are in a low salt, we actually are living in a salt-sodium deficit and mineral deficit. And it's we need we need salt for so many things. I think that um salt and sodium and mineral deficiency is the main leading cause of like a lot of heart disease and um joint pain, uh, hormone issues. I mean, it's your minerals are your spark plugs. So you need you need your minerals to kind of like create actions in your cells to actually do things. And so um, yeah, salt is not bad for your heart. It's not it, it's actually really good for your heart. In fact, if you if you do have a heart attack or an episode, the first thing doctors will do is load you up on high amounts of sodium. So it's it's like they know this. Interesting, huh? Yeah, yeah. So I want to people with chronic headaches, you know, the you're salt deficient. You're and good quality salt, none of that iodized table stripped chemical laden. What do you recommend for salt? Just as a little clue or somebody else. Yeah, I love a really min heavy, mineral dense salt. There's some beautiful companies out there. We love I love salter, it's S-A-L-T-R. Um, there's Redmond Real Salt, there's Celtic Sea Salt, Baja Gold, Um salt. So just any really good hardy salt that's just natural and um is loaded with lots of other minerals too.
SPEAKER_01So it it just brings so much flavor to so much. I'll never forget years ago. My chiropractor checked my blood pressure and it was so low. She's like, girl, you need a salt wick. And I was just, you know, I was so um, I don't know, just I I kind of listened to all the things, you know, because I was big into health and I was listening to the doctors and blah blah blah blah before I kind of went down that natural health pathway. And um it was like the moment I had, I think it was like pink Himalayan salt that I had bought from must have been at Sam's Club, kind of the twisty greeter type thing. I put that stuff on my salad and I'm like, whoa, I have been missing out on this my entire life. Like you felt robbed at that moment. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely release forgiveness to everyone that had lied to you about salty.
SPEAKER_01I'm telling you, I want to line up at the I don't even know what what associations we could go to. That's a whole other story there walking down that trail today. But um, so tell us tell us your your business name. People are probably wondering, like, what is her business? How do I find her? And like where we keep going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I named my practice Liberty Wellness because when you are whole and healthy, man, there is freedom to live the life that God's called you to live. I feel like the church, this is one of those issues where the church has just really missed the mark, unfortunately. And we just we are not taking responsibility for our health and making healthy choices. And because when we are
healthy, we have vitality and we're able to actually do and actually be what God has called us to do and whom be whom God's called us to be, and be a very active participant in the kingdom of God, and we're we're not dragging anybody else down with us. It's so I I just feel like where there's health, there's liberty, there's freedom, and that's that's just I mean, who doesn't want that?
SPEAKER_01I love that. And he he gave you that name, right? Yeah. That's that's beautiful. Um I want you to kind of tap into a little bit of the the church, um, if you're open to that in this realm. Um, I in my experience, um, and I I j I just think that a lot of the churches maybe don't know, right? They don't that's not their focus. Um I I've I've experienced in a lot of churches, you know, maybe it's going to the buffet or donuts and snacks and pop and you know what I mean? Just all of the um non helpful foods. We'll just say that. Um, what would you like what what would you say to somebody maybe who's listening in today who maybe that is you know what what's not being pushed, but available there. Um and what what could they do to kind of start leaning into more of a a super natural lifestyle? I love how you say that. Super natural. Let's be super about that. Let's be super natural in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's actually a challenge I'm currently facing with my church. And what's interesting is that they are a lot of people in the church are very health conscious and health-minded. So that's it's kind of helpful. But the leadership is not so much. So I am kind of personally in this space, but I feel like the church in general has done a really good job of ministering to the spirit and even, you know, teaching us about, you know, how to manage the soul. But we but the the physical body, I mean, we are three parts and we are wholly three parts. And and you're right, it's not done on purpose or malice, it's just really a source, I think, of just ignorance. And then also like I don't I don't know if there is a sense of overwhelm because deal when you're already ministering to the spirit in the soul, it's like, oh my gosh, now we have to minister to the body too. Like it's just it's a lot of work. And um, but the the thing is, is if you're not healthy, you can't be a contributing member of your community and and the way that you know God could fully use you and and how you could be. And so you're not just hurting yourself if you're sick, you're you're hurting your whole community, and um and possibly even being a you know a burden to your community, and you know that so I think you know, being strategic and just you know, if you're having a potluck, or if you know, there's you know uh a youth group meeting, just providing a charcuterie board. Everybody loves charcuterie, like just something with a whole food, like a fruit platter, a veggie tray, you know, try and find some of those seed-free oil chips and just make a really amazing dip with some whole foods. Like you can get creative with with whole foods and that are still culturally acceptable without so it just takes a little bit more work than just I mean, you can pretty much pick up a veggie or fruit tray anywhere. Just don't buy the donuts, you know. Just don't um don't buy the cake, don't buy the Doritos. Um yeah, even the naked ones are really bad for you still, but you know, just tell us what the effects are of just eating a bag of Doritos, just oh, I think that could be pretty um pretty different for each person, but it's a it's a chemical can it's a chem chemical, chemically made food, and it's nicknamed a hyper palatable food. So it's designed to trigger the brain um and the brain's addicting addictive centers. So that's why you can never just eat one. You know, it's like you're you have to have more. So there's your your self-will um is out the
window because you've just triggered your brain to be addicted to something, so you you're never satisfied. Um, so in a way, you're kind of relinquishing your own will in that sense, um, in eating, you know, junk food, and because they're designed to be that way, um, it can take a real toll on your digestive digestion, blood sugar regulation. There's a whole toxin um, depending upon the person's toxin load, it can lead to a non-alcoholic, fatty liver, gallbladder issues, um, IBS, bloating gas, acne, because your body, um, because it's such a like a foreign object, isn't it? It's a such, yeah, there the it's such a toxin that it starts activating your your body basically goes into survival mode. It signals a stress response. So your cortisol will go through the root, but it also like starts firing all your detox pathways. So you could break out into a sweat. The acne thing is a detox pathway, your heart rate increased, um, so you're stressing your heart. Um, yeah, there's a lot that can go into eating a bag of chips. I wish I knew.
SPEAKER_01I mean, before I I just I love bringing awareness to people because you know, we don't know what we don't know. And I've learned a lot of things over the years that I didn't know. So I'm believing that you know, we're we're not here to cause fear or anything like that, but we're bringing awareness here because um I I love what you said, like we're three part, and what would you say? Um well, you know, it's really interesting. I have to share with you just kind of this vision I was seeing. I I think it was probably back in the 50s or 60s. Um church ladies would put together recipes.
SPEAKER_00Oh, those recipe books are golden, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I'm like, what if there was like a flip the script recipe book made for from churches to churches? Oh, that would be amazing.
SPEAKER_00I love that idea. Hmm, great. That got me thinking. Yes.
SPEAKER_01It's about time we bring back some of that culture, yeah the body bringing the body back into order. Oh, that's cool. You gotta start a little like warrior troupe here. I love it. Somebody might be listening in and they're like, Oh, I'm I'm
in. about it.
SPEAKER_00It's really easy now because we have like internet and email. So like all you need to do is like say, hey, email us your recipes and then just throw them all into you know Canva or something.
SPEAKER_01What's your email if they want to get a hold of you?
SPEAKER_00Um I'm Rebecca at liberty wellnessandco.com. So yeah. If you have some recipes, please send them my way.
SPEAKER_01I love recipes. I mean stuff like recipes that are like your family will eat. Like I remember when I first went gluten free, um I would make stuff and I I wouldn't tell my family it was gluten free and they were like oh this is so good. Little did they know it was like chickpea noodles or whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I know I snuck so much food into my kids' meals they had no idea it was awesome.
SPEAKER_01And they can look back and appreciate it now, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah absolutely at least I hope they do they better no they absolutely do.
SPEAKER_01Well what so what are you up to and what can um how can others get involved and like what what are you doing? Like what what is what is next on the horizon for you? Do you have groups? Do you coach one-on-one? What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00Yeah I I do work with clients one-on-one so I'm kind of that person that people come to when they've gotten all their blood labs back and the doctor looks at them and they're like oh you're fine but they don't feel fine and something's still wrong and they need more help but they've kind of exhausted their resources with conventional medicine. So that's that's my favorite because that was me for 20 years. And um so I I empathize with that and the more complex and chronic your illness
is the more fun I have with it and the breakthrough is is just even better and so much fun. So I do work with clients one-on-one. One of my favorites was she came to me she she hadn't been able to eat. Yeah is I've got so many from this last year but um I had a client she's actually um out in uh central Asia in a country I I don't really want to say the name of it um but she came to me she's like I haven't been able to eat without my stomach hurting for four years now and I'm like four years that's terrible that sounds like torture and she's like I just can't eat anything without being in pain so we did our full intake all the things and I got her on um I got her on her protocol and within 10 days she messages me and she's like I can eat everything in it pain free. It's like a miracle and I'm like thank you know that's amazing it's you know it it was just like a quick buy-in so then she was like what do I do next to get healthy so we stepped up and like she had a couple of other health issues so we tackled those one of those was um seizures she'd been experiencing um anywhere between 10 and 20 seizures a day since she was like five years old and that was not one of her like concerns because she'd lived with it her whole life doctors had told her she would have that her whole life and there was nothing they could do except give her a medicine and she tried the medicines hated how they made her feel so she's not she was refusing medicine. But in my mind you know I'm like we're gonna tackle this seizure thing I don't know how Lord we're gonna do this but I really want her to be seizure free. And um so I kind of within her protocols kind of snuck in some ideas that would help support um potentially I I actually reached out to a couple of other practitioners who specialize in seizures and I said help me and um they gave me some brilliant advice and so anyway within four months after working with me she was seizure free and she hasn't had seizures since and that was eight months ago. And so yeah that was like she was like wait what what did we do? How is this possible? And I was just like you know what I know this wasn't on your agenda but it was on mine because that just sounds really frustrating and annoying and like very limiting in life that there's no freedom if you're having to navigate the potential of a grandma seizure every day and then having to deal with small seizures like a couple an hour. You know like that's just not that's just that's no fun. That's not freedom in life and um yeah and then I had another one where uh she came to me last fall and thyroid stuff some other things and the doctors were like trying all kinds of things they weren't really working and one of one of her main complaints was severe hip and knee pain and she went to a doctor they did some x-rays turns out her one of her femurs so one of her leg bones was actually physically shorter by I think a couple inches like it was a substantial difference. And and if you did walk behind her you'd see like she kind of walked like her hips were a little were off. Um and she had been talking to a doctor about getting you know special shoes or inserts and she looked at me and she's like I don't want to wear special shoes and inserts this just sounds annoying and I'm like that does sound annoying but I was like that's out of my scope I can't make your legs grow like I can't I was like I can help you with like some pain some ligaments some other stuff but that's kind of out of my that's out of my scope and um but I was like Lord you've you've got to do something like this is her she and she had been wanting to experience a physical miracle um she'd seen other people experience miracles but she she was um she just turned 60 and she was like I just I really want to feel a touch of the Lord and it was a couple weeks after she started work or a month after she started working with me um we were dealing with a bunch of stuff it was so much fun but she one Sunday morning at church she just sat down she asked for prayer and for something completely different and her son and her husband were sitting next to her she was um actually sitting on the floor with her feet out in front of her legs straight feet out in front of her and um while they were praying for her she felt her skin rubbing against the inside of her jeans and her son's jaw dropped and looked at her husband said did you see that and they were like we think we saw it and her leg grew and then she went to the doctor uh that next day he redid the scans and he said um your leg bones are both the same length on both legs yes so it was just kind of like
wow thank you Lord like you're the only one who can really grow bones and I really am so grateful you did that and so now we can really deal with some other things too so it was just like wow that was really really cool so yeah that's kind of a little bit of what I do with clients and then um and then I'm also I wrote and launched an online high school course for homeschoolers it's a health class it's kind of like the Maha class on steroids and it's really it was really motivated honestly by my daughter she was at university and she was like mom you have to work with this person this friend this friend nobody knows how to eat nobody understands the importance of sleep nobody knows how to take care of themselves and they're all sick they're all a mess and I was like why why are we sending our kids out into the world we're launching our beautiful babies into the world completely ill equipped to make health decisions for themselves and they're hurting themselves unintentionally you know and and I'm like why don't we take advantage of the requirement you know for students to graduate high school they have to take a health class a semester health class why not we just take advantage of that and restructure into a way that is actually practical and applicable and like provides real empowering health and life skills into these kids so that you know so I don't just teach health I teach them about insurance about how to doctors I teach them about other healing modalities like homeopathy and herbology and um ancient medicines I I teach them about um you know their rights as a patient you know understanding the rights and their the laws and um you know their the right to informed consent is really important. I teach them about the wild west of supplements and um how to discern media how to read a scientific study how to figure out if somebody's telling the truth or not on you know is this Instagram you know influencer for real or are they being bought and paid for like just it's just real practical life skills. And so it is yes learning about macros how to read food labels how to shop how to use AI to create um you know like you can for college kids that are going you know to the dining hall they can use it they can upload the menu into like ChatGPT or GROC and say I'm on this diet I want whole foods I want to eat you know this many macros blah blah blah blah blah and then it will tell them what to eat from the dining hall. Like so there's just so many really cool tools that our kids can can use um they just have to be shown how to use them or told that they're available. So that's I'm really hoping to get this class in like every home because it's been changing lives and changing whole families' lives and it's been so much fun. I had one student um we have one module just on the digestion and um track digestive tract and um he had been dealing with a lot of digestive issues and he didn't tell me this until at the end of class but he said I took what I learned from that module and I I used all of your advice and I healed my digestion I no longer have issues anymore and I can eat anything and I'm finally gaining weight and it was just like oh my goodness like the kids are actually using what they're learning and and it's just been wild and blowing my mind. Every semester blows my freaking mind what these kids do with this information. Now is this like a group that you lead is it online in person it's on um they can find it on my website it's a it's an online uh health class yeah so I have students directly teaching like with a video yeah um well it's live and um self-paced so I do uh yeah I do I have a live class where I teach weekly live or they can yeah do it on their own with with videos so it's a self-paced that way so they have either option. Well how can people find that it's is it specifically somewhere on your website yeah it's just on the top um banner of my website says health course and just click on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah easy find needs to get into everybody's hands.
SPEAKER_00I love it because um the self-paste is just super easy and um I even have friends who are like can I take it I'm 50 years old I'm like absolutely just know that it's written for like the youths but it I mean the information is you know can be transferable right everyone.
SPEAKER_01So yeah and don't worry you don't have to grade yourself if you don't want to everybody gets hey I love this wow I didn't know that you did that that is really incredible. It's so needed in so many spaces wow um what is your favorite like age range to work with you know it sounds like you've worked with younger you know the youth the 60s um you're probably like me like we don't pigeonhole ourselves into like an age rocket like you know need to niche it down it's like but what would be like kind of your favorite um age range to work with I would say like what generation honestly I absolutely love working with the high schoolers I never thought I would say that after being a bus driver for so long and a youth pastor and just kind of getting burnt out on working with I mean I love my kids but um they there's just something so beautiful and unique on this generation this next generation and they get they just they get a lot of slack and um there's just a lot of bad things being said about them and but the thing is is I I see potential I see hunger I see a desire for a real organic life and these kids think through things they ask amazing questions and um they're uh it's really fun because I feel like I'm getting them where they're experiencing consequences of their health choices.
SPEAKER_00So they're able to observe and kind of still tune in with their own like innate wisdom and and and seeing what's actually happening um with their the consequences of their choices. But they're not they're they they haven't been doing it for so long that they they're so they've they've kind of crossed into the realm of real chronic issues and really hard to come back from. I don't know a single illness that you can't recover from I say that again I don't know a single illness that you cannot actually recover from because the body God designed our body our default system is to heal and like I I've met so many people that have been told this will never heal and and it it it's totally possible. I've seen it over and over and over again but um but it's harder to do the longer you make bad health choices the more damage you do to the body over a longer period of time it's just a harder challenge to reverse it.
SPEAKER_01So I just love getting these kids at the beginning and I feel like I'm I'm putting them on my shoulders and I'm setting them up and I'm like you know your choices are yours but like you're going in this with eyes wide open you know what I mean and I want to set you up for success not beautiful in the offense like you're you're coming at it from an offensive like position rather than trying to defend if defensively come back you know what I mean like yes that's the great way of saying that yeah you're you're like literally helping prevent right and it's generational yeah I just completely completely generational it has generational implications so um what a full circle um redemption story here if you guys are catching that she went from missions and retired and she was a bus driver and retired and now she has refired with a massive vehicle of transformation so we thank you for everything that you're doing. Be sure that you reach out to Rebecca I'm gonna have all of her contact information in the show notes but if you could just share your website with us again and your email again in case somebody's like wait wait wait I want to just hear it.
SPEAKER_00It's just liberty wellness and co dot com and my name Rebecca R-E-B-E-C-C-A at liberty wellness and co dot com. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook and uh Liberty Wellness and Co. And I have a podcast too that you were a wonderful guest of we talk all things health and teenagers and fun stuff. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And what's the name of your podcast?
SPEAKER_00Liberty Net Wellness with Rebecca Stewart.
SPEAKER_01I'm trying to stay consistent we do our best right I know I'm not usually consistent but I'm trying we we don't fit in boxes listeners put it that way um well thank you so much for coming on today um and thank you for being a brave voice who's setting so many free um before I close though I just want to give you another opportunity to like if you have any words of wisdom over I always do this for the one that one that's listening in today and then would you pray us out?
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_00I mean I'm assuming most of your your followers know the Lord and I just I just want to encourage you to really be courageous and listen to his leading when it comes to your health and ask questions and don't be afraid to ask him questions and ask everyone else questions but we are the only animal on the planet that depends on someone else to tell us what to eat and how to live. And but within us the Lord did put within us the same it's called innate
wisdom that every other animal has that just that knowing of what's good for them. And I just want to challenge you to be courageous to tap into that and trust that and um yeah it's it's really sweet and sacred and honoring to your body and I working with the Lord I think you'll experience healing and breakthrough in ways you just never even thought was possible. Um so yeah uh Father I thank you so much for this amazing opportunity and uh for those who are listening I ask that you would release a fresh wave of knowing and hearing and seeing you leading and and guiding them. Lord that there would be a restoration within their being to tap into listening to their body and and understanding um how to listen to their body and honor their body and for those who need an actual healing miracle Lord I am just gonna boldly say please Jesus just release your healing oil and I love how you you know in Ephesians it says you will do more than we could possibly ask or imagine. And Father I ask that you would release that right now. Release more than we could possibly ask or imagine right now and just blow us away as we just courageously step into trusting you in new ways in our life in this next season. Yeah and I just bless everyone in the name of Jesus amen.
SPEAKER_01Amen we're gonna have to have you back again sometime I think there's gonna be some more that you're gonna be releasing I'm just saying this is such an honor thank you so much for having me. Welcome let me close with our anchoring verse that's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 1513 thank you Rebecca this has been amazing. Be sure to reach out to her like I said and I will be back with another episode next week. Thanks listeners