How One Man’s Life Was Transformed by Eating Real Food

So my big like, current life goal, I guess right now, is essentially to be an off grid homesteader. That’s where I want to go. I want to do the whole thing off grid homestead, be self-sustainable, you know, then essentially be able to help other people do the same thing.

You are listening to the Dr. Haley Show, the podcast dedicated to helping you optimize your health. Each episode there will be an interview or a message to help you discover better health. We will be featuring health radicals on the show to bring new ideas to the table, as well as doubling down on key fundamentals to support you living your best life. Your host is no other than the founder of Haley Nutrition Dr. Michael Haley.

This is the Dr. Haley Show podcast. Today’s guest is Nick Craciun. Nick is a product of, well, a former guest of mine, Tim James from Chemical Free Body. Nick had well had some challenges in his life and joined the Inner Circle Group coaching program. He took to it so well. He started doing all the things that were recommended and became a coach himself.

We’re going to be talking about his transformation. He’s kind of young. He’s not a health care professional. He doesn’t have a doctor’s license. He’s speaking from his own experience, as he’s probably, I’m guessing, Nick, welcome to the show. I’m guessing you’re still on your journey and probably learning every day.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I’m almost 60 years old and I’ve studied like you wouldn’t believe. Every day I’m still thinking, no, there’s still another level to this. And you’re in your early 20s, I believe. Is that correct?

I’m 33.

33. Okay. I did not know that. Okay. Wouldn’t have guessed. Now, I do want to ask because you got, like, the oxygen thing that you’re wearing. What’s that?

Oh, this is the Aquacure. So it’s for molecular hydrogen. It’s what it does.

Oh, okay. And what does that do for you?

I really just like a ton of different benefits. So our body’s made up about 64% hydrogen, which that’s most of our body, obviously. So obviously we have a big focus on like oxygen and stuff like that was oxygen is something like 8% or something like that I don’t remember off hand. But basically most our body’s hydrogen. So basically we’re giving our body more hydrogen. You’re supporting all the bodily functions. That should be, one of the biggest things too, that I’ve seen with the Aquacure and molecular hydrogen is essentially it’s anti-aging. Whatever is going on in the body that you know is causing aging, this helps reverse it.

So, I’ve used it for my feet, because I had a really bad work injury two years ago, and there’s like a little bag that comes with then you can put it in the bag so it helps heal the scars. But the biggest thing is with this is basically repairing scars. So I’ve definitely seen over two years I’ve seen my scars on my feet getting better, you know.

So now how long, how many hours a day are you wearing that?

I try to do at least two, You know, I’m at my desk working, so I try to have it on while I’m here. Yeah, I try to do at least two. You know, I use it while. I’m at sauna, but I’m always drinking the water. Like, every time I drink water. I put it through that too, because that it charges the water with the molecular hydrogen.

So yeah, I understand that hydrogen is, one of the most powerful antioxidants. Am I correct in that? In other words, you have a free radical. It’s essentially missing a hydrogen, Okay, let’s talk a little bit about your experience. If I understand correctly, at some point in time, you lost 60 pounds of toxic waste. And I say that a little humorously, because excessive waste and blubber is where we store our toxins.

Yeah.

And from what I understand, you were drinking energy drinks and living off those so kind of high sugar, chemical filled, processed foods and drink to get through the day. And, I also recall hearing that you were one of those, you know, tinfoil and maybe still are a tinfoil hat kind of guy a little bit. I think we all are. Yeah. And just absorbing a lot of content. And at some point you kind of drifted into the health area and Tim James had gotten your attention. what was going on? How were you brought up? How did you surround yourself with all this, you know, toxic nutrition and consume that on a daily basis? And what did it take to finally wake you up and say, hey, this is not right?

Yeah. So I think a lot of it goes back. I mean, obviously up until a point I was just kind of like, you know, living my parents and eating standard stuff. We didn’t eat like horrible food, like we didn’t eat a bunch of processed food. Like we had a good dinner each night. You know, it was kind of a steak and potatoes house. So eat a lot of steak and potatoes. But, you know, they kind of just let me drink pop, and you know, eat candy and stuff like that, and grandparents spoil me. So I kind of just every time I go to my grandparents, I’d have some bread and butter and a big bowl of cookies and cream, ice cream with chocolate sirup or something on it. And, you know, of course, the grandparents being like, oh, you know, honey, go get it. Just there you go.

But, yeah, around 14 was like right around when I got in high school, I started getting really depressed. I didn’t know it was going on. Obviously. I was just kind of like, I just didn’t have energy. I didn’t have motivation. I just kind of was just like, there going through the day is just felt like crap every day. Honestly, I had no idea why. But, you know, it was kind of I never luckily, I never went on psych meds. I never, you know, I maybe it’s not good. I probably should go to therapy or something like that, but I was never on psych meds early. My parents never really did that. But they also didn’t necessarily help there kind of with those parents. Like, oh, just be positive. Just, you know, don’t think negative thoughts. I’m like, I it’s not how it’s not how it’s working. I can’t just not think negative thoughts, which is kind of like part of my body. So, it I,

You know, I, I’m going to jump in on there because anyone listening to this, there is truth to that meaning when you’re thinking of good things, you know, the Scripture says, something to the effect of, you know, whatever is good, whatever is excellent, think about such things. There is a health benefit to it, and it does affect your body chemistry, the nutrition that is in you, however, that you’re fighting with all the toxins that you’ve taken in. And if you don’t clean those up, you know you need more than just positive thinking. You can’t turn chemicals and crap into good nutrition by thinking it. You can’t think it good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So go ahead.

Yeah. So basically it was I mean like 14 years going through that, once I graduated high school was what I, you know, I started it, I had a job and, you know, connect with people will start smoking weed, you get connected to other drugs. And that was kind of that spiral because I was kind of I mean, I was depressed for a while and I just kind of went to that phase where I didn’t know what to do, and I was kind of using drugs and stuff to medicate and all that obviously didn’t work. You know, eventually get on oxy and stuff like that. I spent like two years on. Oxy is not a good time.

And, you know, I basically was all my 20s until about 27 It was just total just hanging on for dear life. I went to college for IT, and I did okay for like 2 or 3 years, but that I just totally fell off. Like when I started got into oxy I just totally fell off. I stopped going, stopped caring.

What was it that led to the oxys Was it just recreation or was there, you know, a diagnosis, an injury or something?

No, there’s no diagnosis. It was just I was working at a restaurant. It was offered to me. It helped me work harder and just It just grabs you, you know, just grabs that. You get more and more available and there it is. So

I know how potent that stuff is. You know, I remember, after a surgery, I took one Vicodin and the pain was gone, but I recognized, wow, I want another one of these. And it took one, and I wanted more. For me I decided I could not. If I had one more, I might not be able to turn back. Yeah. So for me, I stopped at one, with the Vicodin. And, you know, I don’t know what the difference is between that and oxy, but there are some drugs that just Wow. How do you say, no.

Oxycodone is essentially synthetic heroin. So it’s. I was taking a what? They were like these, like 30 milligram. I didn’t take a whole, I didn’t I was never the person that was just getting, like, totally messed up and, you know, nodding off and passing out stuff like that. It was more so I used little amounts to just keep going and not feel like crap. But obviously it led to me feel like crap. So it’s a cycle, you know? It never works. It never works. It’s tell you out there. If you try to use drugs to compensate, it does not work. Might work short term, but long term it always digs you on a deeper hole.

Yes. Yes. I like to share with the audience that drugs can save your life. But if you’re not using them to just buy time until you figure out a solution to the problem, you’re digging a hole.

Yeah. One positive word that did have an effect. I was about 27 because I, you know, I was trying all these different things. I didn’t know what to do, and, I had a stint in the, What was it like the the mental health wing of the hospital? They basically sent me there because they thought I was suicidal and all that. So I went there and I was on SSRI’s for a little bit. Those didn’t work. Those were awful.

I forget what that stands for SSRI

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. So just kind of regulates serotonin in the brain. But it really just makes you a zombie. That’s what how I felt I had no emotions. I think the only thing nothing was good. Nothing was bad. It was just here. But it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t enjoyable at all.

But, I did use Wellbutrin, and Wellbutrin, was enough to. Because that worked. Wellbutrin works more with dopamine and that was able to like when I first started using it, I kept telling everybody I’m like, I felt like my drug addiction was cured because it it gave me it filled that hole that I was using drugs to fill, which I used that for about two years. And that was really that really did help me. So I do tell people you’re in there, like, if you are really deep in depression, you’re really deep in drug addiction, and you need something, get out. Like, I did it. It worked for me. I used it for two years. I got off it. Now I’m better than ever.

Even when I had my injury at the hospital, I told them I didn’t want oxys, I didn’t know I didn’t leave, went to the hospital. I, they gave me some tramadol, which, I mean, it didn’t do anything anyway, so I just didn’t like, use it or care for it. It was just kind of there. But yeah, I was doing a cure or helping my pain. Naturally, I was using our turmeric product combined with, high quality CBD. And I also did use kratom, which, I don’t if you know about kratom. That’s more of a, it’s a plant. It’s literally just the leaf of a plant that’s ground up, which is more, you know, it. There’s a lot of big pharma propaganda about it. So it’s like, people think it is. It acts in the brain as an opiate, but it’s not a technical opiate. It’s not addictive like an opiate, but, I mean, there are people that do get messed up on it. But for me, I didn’t want to use oxy. My pain was really, really bad and it helped I stuck with it. Then that was it. So I was able to not do oxy, then morphine shots in the hospital. But that wasn’t. I didn’t really do much, you know. But yeah, that pain, I mean getting your feet crushed by a Three time block that, that’s painful

going to that. And, you know, because we haven’t talked about it, you were working in a machine shop, which essentially means, you know, there’s all kinds of dangerous equipment, things that cut and bend steel and there’s drill presses and all kinds of, you know, you’re working with big, heavy items. And what happened?

So basically, we made we were machining this big three ton blocks of metal. They’re basically they’re being used for, like, fracking trucks or something like that. But, you know, the machines we used, the machine that were massive, they were the size of garages and, you know, but we had, they basically take these parts and put them on this big crane and then to the machine, stuff like that below. And you put them on the machine itself. You have to clamp it down because, you know, when you’re machining it, it’s, you know, really metal on metal that the metal moves while you’re machining it, that destroys the whole thing. And then you have a $25,000 piece of metal that’s not good for anything.

So, but basically I was we machined it, it was done. I was going to unclamp it from the table. And when I unclamped it from the table, it fell forward and then fell forward onto my feet. And it was basically against this lip on the edge of that, the whole platform was raised up maybe five feet. And, so it fell forward onto my feet and then pinned me up against the lip there. And, I mean, if it just fell, maybe 2 or 3in more forward, it probably would have clipped my feet at the ankles, like, just cut them off. But, lucky was kind of just on the front, so also like if it was on concrete that fell on my feet on concrete, my feet would have been flat. It would have been over.

But right. Because it was on this raised platform, it was metal. It pushed the metal down a little bit where my feet were. So it didn’t get the full crazy brunt.

Wow

But you know wow with three ton, it was like 6,000 pound piece of metal. So luckily there was a lot of lucky situations about it and the whole platform didn’t collapse. It didn’t fall forward onto me just on my feet. And also, you only had like seven guys there, but, you know, six guys plus a toe motor and some crowbars. They get it off me enough to get my feet out. That was a lot. I thought I was gonna be out of there forever. I didn’t know how long I was gonna be under that thing, but they did a really good job. The longest part was waiting for the ambulance to come. That was, like, 25 minutes just laying on there on the floor. Just like, Holy crap. Because I’ve never had a major injury at all. Like, they I’ve never broken a bone. Nothing like that. And so that was a whole there’s definitely a whole thing. I didn’t walk for three months after that. You know, long recovery.

But, I also had this realization because I went to the emergency room, there right after, and, you know, of course they knock you out and all that and look at everything and all that. When they knocked me out, I didn’t I wasn’t just totally out. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know what kind of thing it was, but I was the way I explained it, it was I was somewhere, not my body, but I was more aware than ever. It was almost like a psychedelic trip of some kind. But, basically, I had this realization while I was there that on something this was meant to happen, for some reason, I wasn’t living the life I was meant to live, and this is what’s going to push me forward. It’s going to hurt for a little bit. But basically, you know, I don’t know if it was like conversation with my higher self or God, whatever you want to call it, but it was basically a realization that this was meant to happen. But I go on to do the things that I’m meant to do at it, as the it did all work out.

I for my injury, the biggest thing I did was be positive because everyone coming to the hospital will one visit me and feel like oh Nick I’m so sorry it’s so bad, you know? What are you going to do? And I know, like, everyone’s freaked out. Like you’re never going to walk the same. You’re going to hurt the rest of your life. This, all this, like, just cause the negative comments and then I’m the one there that’s like, no, it’s cool. I’ll be fine. It’s going to suck for a little bit, but I’ll walk again. I’ll go golf again and everything will be fine. And it’s how it worked out. So yeah, it’s crazy. Like that’s where I had my positivity. Like I couldn’t have my positivity when I was depressed. But when I had this big injury, all that positivity was there and I was like,

because you have been in chemical free for a period of time going into that?

Yeah, that definitely played a big part, because I was younger, like an awakening process, I guess, through that year.

Yeah. Can you imagine having gone into that depressed?

it would. Yeah, it would’ve been totally. That’d be a totally different thing. I don’t know if I would have recovered. Right. If I would have been on oxy, you know, if I had been like, yeah, I give you the oxy, just like who knows where I’ve got, you know, I don’t know.

Yeah.

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So you went from, you know, the steak and potatoes, which, you know, isn’t necessarily a horrible diet if you’re eating real clean foods. But obviously the beef these days are, if you don’t know the source, chances are it’s filled with hormones and chemicals and antibiotics and all kinds of things that are just toxic to you. You went from that to what? Steak and energy drinks to?

a, now, I, I mean, I eat a lot of microgreens now because I grow a lot of those, unfortunately, you know, it’s winter in Ohio, so no garden anymore. But, you know, I grow some stuff indoors, like, I, you know, got a little hydroponic set up because, like, like arugula lettuce and stuff like that. But I try to eat as many microgreens as I can, because that’s obviously as good as it gets, you know? But I sell local farmers markets, so I get produce from the Farmers market, I do eat eggs from the market, stuff like that.

To the people listening, I want you to tune in right now because Nick is repeating the things that I love to talk about. You know, it’s winter time. He’s in Ohio, but he’s farming indoors, growing sprouts is something that we do in our home all the time. We grow our sprouts in our kitchen sink. You know, I’m in Florida, so I’m also growing. stuff outside still.

there you go Yeah,

but sprouts is one of your most nutritious, nutrient dense foods. You take a little seed, you sprout it, and all of a sudden the nutrition is magnified about tenfold. Now, microgreens why microgreens and not big seeds and things like that?

So microgreens, I mean, I started with growing just the sprouts in the jar. I still do that here and there for ones like fenugreek. I love Fenugreek sprouts. But, when I started growing microgreens, like, as I was grow, I started at sprouts. I was still at my parents house when I started that, and, that’s all I could really do. They didn’t want me to set up a whole rack with all the stuff, but I didn’t have a lot of space in my room. So when I moved out, though, that was like, first thing I did was I set up the microgreens thing, which actually, when I did move out, that was it was only a month and a half later when I had my injury, so I wasn’t out very long. I was just starting to sell markets, just try to get out there because I knew I wanted to do something with the sprouts and microgreens. I knew I wanted to do something locally, do it.

But, you know, the whole injury gave me enough time to do all that by basically microgreens. So I prefer that because I think it’s a little bit more rewarding. There’s a little bit more effort into it, but there’s also more varieties you can grow, there’s more flavor It goes through photosynthesis, so you get a little bit more nutrients out of it. You’re able to add nutrients in it. Like I had, ocean solutions to it. Just, get a little bit more in there. Yeah, it’s I just really enjoy growing the microgreens there. They’re fun cool clipping them. they’re flavorful. People love them. So

Generally, the rule of thumb is the more aroma, the more flavor, the more color, the more nutritious. Okay. And I, you know, I like mung beans, and I can snack on them like popcorn, and they’re going to be nutritious, but they’re not going to have the flavor, aroma or color of broccoli sprouts.

Yeah. Yeah. Mung beans are that’s those are like a staple. Like if you grow sprouts you gotta grow some mung beans. There’s easiest there’s just food. There is.

Yeah. it’s the quickest, most rewarding sprout in a jar and, you know, in two days. Yeah. You put it in, I, I like, I do half gallon jars, those, you know, same. Okay, and you put an inch deep of mung beans. Two days later, it goes all the way to the top of the jar. Yeah. So very, very rewarding. Very inexpensive and super nutritious.

Very inexpensive. You get like a 5 pound bucket for I don’t even like 20 bucks. I don’t think I truly, really cheap.

I’m going to have to look into that myself. I, we, you know, I used to get them in the bulk area, Whole Foods. They stopped carrying them there, and now you find them in little bags in the aisles. But, yeah, it does make sense to get the big buckets of them. I actually got a five gallon bucket of a mix. It’s got the mung bean. adzuki. Yeah, like the powerhouse. Like protein mix. Lentils. What’s the other, chickpeas?

Yeah, that’s really they have a mix just like that. It’s called, like, protein powerhouse mix or something like that. Yes. Like 23 bucks for 5 pounds. It’s like nothing.

Yeah. It’s easy to get a lot of variety in single jar, but now if you were separating them, you would probably grow your lentils a little bit longer than your mung beans and your adzuki… well, they’ll kind of fit in the in between the two of those somewhere. And, your chickpeas, you might go an extra day with if you were sprouting them separately. But you can do it all together and kind of get something in the middle that’s nice and tasty and super nutritious.

Yeah, when I eat the microgreens, I just throw a big salad. I just mix them all together like you get all the colors, get all the flavors, get all the nutrients. You know, I do grow several microgreens with different colors. Like I grow the rainbow radish. That’s really, really purple. Red cabbage, which is like a really like nice red stem and stuff. I try to get more colorful varieties or I really non colorful varieties grow is like sunflower broccoli, but there’s not really. But there is a some varieties sunflower that has some red but SunFlower is Delicious. All right. But a little more a little More work involved in growing sunflowers sprouts.

I like juicing it. I juice the sunflower, sunflower pea and then the wheat grass. Well, I don’t actually don’t do wheat grass anymore, I do spelt and kumut grass instead. I just try to avoid the modern wheat, you know, as best I can. I also think the spelt tastes better too. It’s like a much sweeter taste to it. So I’ve been growing that. It’s definitely, it seems like a little a little step up, you know, it’s a little better than the wheat grass, but yeah.

Yeah. The and what’s the big difference for people listening in that I’ve never done this, the wheat grass. The sunflower sprouts. Well, you’re going to grow those in soil. You can’t just put them in your jar with water. Then you want them growing straight up because you got to get rid of the shells and all that.

the hulls and that’s what’s nice about juicing them as you don’t have to add it. Just like when I have a tray that I know is specifically for juicing. I mean, I get some of those hulls off, but I don’t worry about it too much because it’s just going to get crushed in the juicer anyway. right? Yeah, it saves time for doing that for sure, because that is the biggest pain of growing Sunflower, for sure, is getting those holes off.

So I actually like eating the sprouts myself. And just like the mung beans, eating them like popcorn or putting them, like you said, in a salad. Or if you’re making sandwiches, okay, you can put them on the sandwich. But, you know, when you make it, like, the best, the snack on, I think it’s like, really just something about there’s a good texture or a good flavor. They’re really good that just take a handful and, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. When? Now, when you use them in a salad. Are you using lettuce in a salad or is that your lettuce? Now?

So sometimes, when I had a garden in the summer, still, I was growing lettuce. So I would take some lettuce from that kind of be like the base. But a lot of times I like salad. It’s just microgreens. Just a big thing of microgreens.

Yeah. For me, I mean, you know, if you look up the definition of a salad, it could be a, a mix of, well, fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, seeds. You generally eat it cold, but some of the components might be cooked. So we might make some cooked beets and chop them up and then have them in the refrigerator and then scoop some into our salad or al dente carrots. You know, because I don’t really like raw carrots, but I don’t like a mushy either. I kind of like them a little bit. al dente So we’ll make those at a time, keep them in the refrigerator, scoop them into the salad. And if you’re a meat eater, you might put in, little tuna or even steak, you know, if you’re a meat eater, quality sources And that’s your salad. But what I haven’t bought in a long time is lettuce. I can’t justify it just because there’s not enough flavor. There’s not enough nutrients.

Yeah. The only lettuce I’ll eat is really romaine. Yeah. No. Iceberg is just like eating water. And most of that water is probably pesticide ridden all at. So it’s like it’s not really worth eating iceberg lettuce. I don’t I love these to go places like eat steak salads and stuff like that back in the day. But it’s like, hey, everywhere you go it’s just iceberg and you pay like$15 for a salad. You get like a little tiny steak that you don’t know where it’s from. And, throw all the other stuff on it. You know, some places are better than the others, but I’ll make a steak salad occasionally. I do have a source locally. I can get some good beef. So I’ll have that here. There. Because, back in the day, steaks out was always kind of my favorite. It’s like combination of everything there. A little potatoes on there too, but, I don’t do it as often anymore, but when I do it, I do it right.

Yeah, I and I agree with that. Yeah. I happen to have, you know, grass fed source where, you know, we with some friends will split a quarter or a half cow kind of thing. Yeah, that’s the way I do it. You’re getting all different kinds of cuts. And now when it comes to animal foods, I’m just thinking of this on the cuff. Yeah. Have you ever killed your own?

I haven’t

it’s one of those things because for some people, animal foods are. Well, people don’t like it because there’s life involved. And I would say that too many people have been too distanced from the taking of that life to truly appreciate what they’re getting and what that exchange is. But, when you take a life, kill a chicken, you eat the whole thing. You just don’t feel right, you know, throwing parts of it away so you can move on to the next one that you’re going to kill.

You have to respect you. True.

Yes. It’s done with respect and you appreciate it. you’re not just eating the big meat and you’re getting you’re literally picking it all off, getting it all. And then you might even simmer down everything that’s left over and make a bone stock soup out of it and get the most nutritious parts of it. And that is something that you kind of learn by being involved in that process. For kids. There’s kids these days that don’t realize that hamburger is an animal food and, oh, where does it come from? I thought just came from the grocery store. Yeah. You know, you’re too far removed from reality. So, yeah, that’s a lot of people today.

Yeah. So, you know, the nutrients they are in animal foods, but where do the animals get them from? From the plant foods. Yes. You can eat the plants. And when you’re consuming animal foods, you’re hopefully eating animal foods that have consumed the plant foods, not the fake stuff that’s been fed, genetically modified, you know, corn and grains sprayed with chemicals. Roundup. Yeah.

So you went through this transformation. You’re chemical free. You have a horrible injury. And you avoid the drugs as much as possible. How do you think that affected your ability to be walking again in that period of time? You did. and with the mental attitude. how much impact do you think that had?

Oh, I think I had a great impact because, I mean, I was I was told by basically everyone around me how bad it was and that I’ll never be the same. And I just kept being in my head. No, I was like, no, I’m going to I’m going to recover. I’m going to be fine, you know? And I was, you know, that’s like what I keep thinking back. I really, really believe, you know, the fact that my body was getting cleaned up. Know I did a lot of cleaning up. And that year, at that time, I think that definitely a major part of me recovering, but also just like that positive mindset really, really kept me going through it.

And I’m, you know, not to say I didn’t have a few days here and there. I mean, it was three months sitting at home in a wheelchair still like, you know, I had a, you know, I still had a day here and there. I’m just like, but, you know, then I would just be like, hey, you know, friend, can you come over and hang out with me for a little bit? I’m feeling a little down. And then they go with me and then I’ll feel better.

Where do you think you’d be today if you didn’t go into that with your new diet and mindset?

I, I mean, I could still be recovering. I could be on oxys for all I know. You know, I, I can very easily seem because the second day I was in the hospital, like the initial day I was there like, yeah, I was bad. But when I woke up the next morning, I mean, that was like 11 out of ten, like cut my legs off, I’m done pain. And, I was like really, really, really close. I was like, they were asking if I want oxys I’m like, you know, do I, do I really want to try it? And, even my dad was like, oh, maybe it’s, you know, if it’s that bad, maybe you should just like. But eventually they, they didn’t give it to me because they knew I had the history. And so they just didn’t. And I’m like, I’m really glad that that was because, you know, it’s really tough when you’re in that situation, like, all you’re thinking about is how I want my legs cut off because I hurt so bad, you know? And I’m really glad that I didn’t cave in that situation.

But, if I did, you know, who knows where I could be? You know, I could be in a gutter on heroin. I don’t know, but I’m so here I am and I, I’m able to talk about the story and how I was able recover, which to me is really important because I, I know that there’s a lot of people out there that get in that situation, and don’t come out of it Right. You know, I, I’ve heard numerous times where people were regular person never did a drug in their life, totally good person. They get an injury. Something along the lines, like I had, maybe a car accident hurt their back. Whatever. They go into the hospital and they’re given pain medication, you know, and then they get out of the hospital or whatever it is, you know, they’re on the pain medication for 60 days, but then they get off it. Their pain is still there. They can’t get any more meds from the doctor. And so what do they do? They go on the streets and then they end up on heroin or something. And it’s like, I’ve seen that story numerous times and it’s really sad. You know, it’s tough because like totally normal people that just all they did was trust their doctors with an injury and then they have to like, you know, crippling addiction now. And

so it’s, so instead of being in that boat now and still being on drugs and with your you know, new life and new, health perspective. Are you still working with Tim James?

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

how so?

I will stick with Tim till the at like I love Tim. Yeah. You know, I love what I do. And, you know, we’re growing as a company obviously. So it’s really cool to be a part of the journey to grow. I do customer support. I love doing that because I literally just people call me and ask me questions I give advice, and I’m able to kind of like, share my experience and touch people a little bit, you know? So sometimes people call just a regular call and we have a two hour conversation just because we end up talking about things and giving advice they’re telling about their story. And that just kind of leads to, you know, a lot of these connections, a lot of people I’ve been able to talk to you to learn even more.

So a lot of these people I’ve talked to is also helped me on my journey, because I can hear what they’ve done, what hasn’t worked for them, what worked for them, what they’ve been through. So it’s this constant knowledge, and I could use that knowledge to help other people. You know, I’m just trying to try to kind of follow in the Tim step or the footsteps of Tim, you know, because he, you know, he’s doing a lot of the right stuff. So I kind of just follow his lead, go from there.

You know, I’m doing my own little things here locally, like I do teach some classes on microgreens, how to grow microgreens here locally and stuff like that. I’m trying to get more involved locally because my area in Northeast Ohio doesn’t care much about health, like I’m getting through a little bit. But, you know, it’s tough. It’s tough when you live in an area that doesn’t care much about health to break through with health, especially when it’s like there kind of, you know, I don’t know if cheap is the word not everyone has a ton of money or they don’t feel it’s worth spending the money on good food.

Yeah, I’m chuckling a little bit because, you know, I’m from near where you are. I, grew up in a little town called Strongsville, Ohio.

Oh, yeah. Okay. You probably. Yeah. Like, it’s about like an hour from me I think. Yeah, yeah, probably. Maybe not even,

you’re in, like, the Youngstown area, I believe.

Yeah. No, I, I was like, middle of Trumbull County, Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I’m gonna say it again because, you know, you mentioned the microgreens again. And people, if you’re not growing your own, I’m glad that you’re teaching people to, learn how to grow them. If you can’t, if you’re not, if you’re not willing to, you don’t have the time to buy them. They’re so good for you.

Sprouts in a jar, though. To me, they’re actually they do have automatic sprouting machines they’re like 150 bucks. But, literally all you do is put in the seeds, fill it up with water, and then you don’t have to do anything. And then four days later you have a container Full sprouts. Yeah. I mean, do you know if you got the extra money but you don’t at the time that absolutely works great.

But, I mean, for me, I, you know, when I was working 60 hour weeks for a little bit at the machine shop, I was still growing the sprouts. But I never forget that time because it was when I first started growing them. And I would be so excited to wake up in the morning like it was one of the early times. I was just really, really excited to wake up in the morning to go check on my sprouts, see how they did, you know, water in the jars and stuff like that. You know how my little morning routine of waking up first thing I did was water the sprouts? Yeah, see how they were doing. But, I mean, I grew nothing in my entire life. I never grew anything. And I went right into growing sprouts in jars with success. So it’s really not that hard. The biggest thing I always tell people is the number one thing that makes them go bad is drainage. If you’re not draining them properly, they will go bad in the jar. Besides that, it’s mostly foolproof, you know, as yeah, draining in mid lids. Yeah.

Essentially, if you’re listening and you haven’t done this yet, there’s three things you need a jar, a lid on it with holes and some beans or some something to sprout. That’s the that’s the easiest quickest. That’s your mung bean, your zuki beans. And now if you don’t want to go that you know that fancy and go out and get a jar and a lid, you can use a pot with a colander. Who doesn’t have a colander already? And right there in your sink.

Yeah, there’s like stainless steel, like wire things. I’ve. Because I’ve had times where I had seeds and I poured them in there and then I just like, let them drain for a little bit. And then I just kind of was like, you know, let me just see if they’ll just grow in here, that I’ll just throw them in the colander And the you just as good absolute in the water a little bit more because it’s not contained in the jar, the moisture stay in there. But so I oh yeah.

But if, if you’re, if you’re putting your colander in a bowl then you it’s easy to keep them submerged. Yeah. For that first day. And then you just lift the colander up it change the water. And so yeah it’s really the reason you want to change the water in that first day as you’re keeping them submerged is you’ll almost be making beer if you don’t. But you know, you need clean water. Okay. And then they grow good. And that’s nice.

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How important was powdered greens in your transformation?

Oh, definitely important. Definitely important. because I wasn’t juicing at the time. I wasn’t eating sprouts or microgreens. And when I found Tim. That’s obviously the biggest thing he talked about was the green 85. And that was you know, it’s literally there’s a scoop and some water, which at the time when I found Tim, I was actually taking Ag1. So I was, I was trying to focus a little, you know, get improve a little bit. So like I heard Ag1 on a podcast, I was listening to it work and I was like, all right, let’s give it a shot. And, you know, I liked it for 2 or 3 months or whatever. I took it. But then when I heard Tim on the podcast and I got the green 85, I was like, oh, this is a big step up. You know, it’s a big like, clearly it’s better than the athletic Greens, even though I had like half the amount of grams in it, like it was a substantial effect difference when I started taking that.

A lot of them are, you know, they have fillers in it and things that take up space. So you’re not getting as much nutrition. You might be having a 10 to 15g scoop, but you’re still not getting the same amount of nutrition as one, where you’re really just getting the powdered fruits and vegetables and grasses and, the things that really make a difference.

My first experience this is pretty interesting. I think my first experience with powdered greens was around 2004 or so. And I remember at the time I was taking little capsules with some powder in it. I didn’t know notice any difference, but I felt like I was doing something that was beneficial for me and I’m sure it was, but I wasn’t getting enough because only you can only fit so much in a capsule. Now, if you’re taking capsules and you’re not willing to make the drink okay, that’s better than nothing.

But I read this article in one of the chiropractic journals at the time, and it was written by this, Doctor John Maher. And it was about powdered fruits and vegetables. And I was bothered by the article because I could tell this guy knew more about phyto-nutrition than I did. That bothered me. I like being the most knowledgeable person. So I contacted the author of that particular article and had a little discussion. I said, well, what do you know? What are you doing? You said, actually, I’m the guy that formulated and he named this particular product and he said, but now I’m working on something else. He said, you can’t buy it yet. No, but I could send you some samples. I said, okay, send me some samples.

And I took this stuff and I thought, wow, this is the first time I’ve ever taken a supplement. And I actually feel different to the point where I was actually concerned, I didn’t tell my wife at the time, what was going on because I was concerned. I thought, I feel so good. Is there is there cocaine in this? What’s going on? And I started looking up the different ingredients. Okay. And it just made sense that, well, okay, these things light you up like you’re supposed to be. I wasn’t depressed. I wasn’t, you know, sick. I was nutrient deficient. And now I had these in my body was working more like it was supposed to.

Well, a few days later, my wife at the time, I say that now she’s the mother of my children, no longer my wife, but she approached me and she said something like that, you know, my mom and I noticed a difference in you. Are you taking anti-depressants? She thought I was taking drugs because I was a different person Because I was lit up by taking powdered fruits and vegetables.

Right. That’s awesome.

And I said, yeah. I said, no, no, I’m just I’m taking this supplement. Why didn’t you tell me? I said, honestly, I feel so good. I’m concerned. Of course, she said, can I have some? Yeah. And it was a very noticeable change life changing. people, get yourself a good source of your powdered fruits and vegetables. If you’ve never tried it, take them daily for a week. See if you don’t notice a difference.

For me, it’s not an increase in energy. It’s not running out of energy because most of us wake up with enough energy. But for some of us, we get halfway through the day and you know we need a nap or you get to the end of the day you don’t have time to, you know, you don’t have energy left to finish the things. Now, with the powdered fruits and vegetables, you get to the end of the day and you’re saying, what else can I accomplish today? What else can I do? Yeah,

or even then, if you do still get, you know, tired in the middle of the day, like it’s really easy. Just take another scoop in the middle of the day and just here you go. Just get another shot. You know? I mean, it’s better than you know drinking another cup of coffee in the afternoon or something like that. You know, like I’ve talked to people where they would drink coffee regularly in the morning. They start taking greens in the morning instead, and then they start drinking coffee. Like it gives me more energy throughout the day. I feel even better. I’m like, there you go.

Yeah, well, you’re pushing the limits on that one. I’m not going to give up my coffee, though.

I still drink it there. In there I just get I get life boost

Yeah. I enjoy a little coffee or a coffee drink. Now, if I went and had, a coffee from McDonald’s or something like that, I wouldn’t be able to finish it. I’d get super wired. Yeah. So I don’t know why. Maybe I’m not making it that strong. I’m actually having a espresso, but I’m having it in a nice, you know, I mix it with a little vegan protein powder and some coconut milk, and it to me, it’s like a, a treat, but it’s healthy. It’s carbohydrate free. Has a little stevia, a sweet it make it nice organic of course. And you know, coffee has antioxidants. There could be some benefits. What I’m not getting is so much caffeine that I’m jittery and wired.

Yeah, yeah, just like you do. I also take, like, l-theanine, like a little, you know, like 200mg of l-theanine to take with the coffee kind of balances that out. So if you do get jittery and do that, or I just take it every time I drink coffee, it just kind of helps. Regardless, it takes that wiry energy and just kind of gives you a little, little layer of focus. So it’s just a little more clarity for it instead of just being there. Yeah. You know energy.

So yeah, I, I never, never have that much. Although I’m drinking espresso and yes, espresso is more concentrated than your typical coffee. It’s a very small amount. So you’re actually getting less milligrams of caffeine.

So espresso seems that whenever I have espresso, I don’t have a machine or I don’t make it myself or anything, but whatever I do, it seems to, I don’t know, it hits a little different. Like it’s not like, wiry, jittery, but like, if I have some espresso and I want to go, like, work, I can do that. And just me, it’s like, I don’t know. It’s like a super charged a little bit. So the last, you know, forever. But it seems to charge me up a little bit more than regular coffee. If that makes sense.

Oh yeah. I guess it depends on how much you have. But it is it is definitely more concentrated, but you usually have a lot less of it. So a, for most people, I would say it’s less caffeine than regular coffee because you drink so much more of the regular coffee.

Where do you see yourself in ten years from now? And what are you doing?

So my big like, current life goal, I guess right now, is essentially to be an off grid homesteader. That’s where I want to go. I want to do the whole thing off grid homestead, be self-sustainable, you know, then essentially be able to help other people do the same thing. Yeah. Because, you know, I’m sure with a lot of other people with 2020 and C…d and all that, we saw where things were going, we saw that were gonna push things. And we have to be less dependent on, you know, government and on these systems. So that’s my biggest goal. That’s my you know, that’s why I started Grow Food because obviously I learned about all how the food’s terrible. You know, you just kind of have to take the steps in your life to be less dependent on these systems because they could collapse at any moment. You know, the way things are now. So you really have to be able to rely on yourself as people around you that you can trust. You know, grow your own food, raise your own animals.

Yes. And now we enter into the tinfoil hat conversation. Yeah. No. And I joke about it, but. And my audience knows that I’m that way myself a bit. And when it comes to, being, you know, self-sustaining, independent, off grid or whatever the case is, even if you’re in a regular neighborhood on a small little property that’s covered mostly by home and you hardly have any yard, you can still be growing your own food and you can still be trading with your neighbors. Yeah, I could be growing avocados, and the person next to me could be growing mangoes. And the person next to them in Florida. Where in Florida? Yeah, could be growing. So back up I wish. Well, yeah. But in Ohio, you know, you could be grow. And even in the wintertime you could be growing, mung beans and they could be growing, you know, wheatgrass and the next one growing, you know, and you could be trading.

I’m big on that. I do that a lot. The farmers market, because, you know, I’ll be there. And if I have some stuff left over, I’ll be like, here tried some microgreens for some eggs or whatever. I do this stuff all the time. I think that’s I and everybody that does it. They’re like, I love trading. It’s great. I’m like, me too. And there’s something about it. Like there’s no middleman of money. It’s just you and the person, you and the stuff just trading back and forth. There’s no intermediary.

the goods are the commerce.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, it does make sense. And, you know, you could go out in the country and have your acres and lots of distance between the homes and be totally, you know, independent and off grid. But you can also kind of live that same way in the city.

Yeah. It’s Tougher, you know, it’s a personally, I don’t like being around a ton of people at all, like being really close together and all that. Like where I live now, it’s like a it’s a small city. It’s like 6 or 7000 people. But, you know, houses are kind of close together, but I have enough room for a backyard. I got some woods behind my house, you know, so it’s enough that I could. I had basically half my backyard garden this year.

I don’t think I’ve heard the term woods since I lived in Ohio. Yeah, we had woods in the backyard. I’m in Florida. There’s no there’s no woods stuff. There might be in some parts of Florida, but not where I am. I miss that at least. Go. Yeah. Walking through the woods with our friends.

There is a lot of really nice areas around here. I’m sure you probably bend to like, Nelson’s Ledges if you lived around here and stuff. There were no ledges.

You know, it was the long time ago. And I’m old, so, you know, we’re talking literally 45 years ago.

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Just right. There’s a very beautiful area. This is totally natural area. So there’s a quarry where it was like a manmade quarry where they dug all the stuff, which is a lake now, but there’s also this beautiful wooded area with all these gorgeous rocks and waterfalls and little streams and little caves to go through and all this cool. And it’s like one of the coolest areas around. It really is. That’s a lot of areas like that around Ohio. That’s basically cornfields, really cool, like hidden wooded areas and stuff like that. And then you get like pockets of city.

Yeah. So in the woods and the creeks, you get, get out and smell the roses, so to speak, and connect with nature. Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.

Well, tell us about what you’re currently doing, where people should be following you if they want to, you know, learn from you. How do they get in touch with you?

Yeah. Well, I’m doing all my work with chemical free body. I’m the support guy there, so if you want to contact me, at chemical free body, just support at chemicalfreebody.com You can email me. The phone number is on the site (888) 368-9898. And call me anytime. It goes right to my phone and I’ll answer. We have no bots. We have no AI support. It’s all me. So if you need anything, I’m the guy.

For microgreens, if you’re interested in learning to grow microgreens or learning to go sprouts. I love teaching people how to do that. Yeah, if you want to grow sprouts, I’ll just teach you how to do it. I’ll spend an hour with you on the phone and I’ll teach you how to do it. For me, it’s so important for people to be able to do it that I just. I just want to teach people how to do it. Yeah. Like I tell people around here, like, if I could just make a living, you know, doing, like, free body stuff, obviously. But then on the side, just teaching people to grow microgreens rather than growing it, I would much rather do that. But not everyone has the time or the energy. You know, that to be able to do it. So, you know, I’m still going to grow for myself, obviously. But personally, I just I love teaching it.

It will be life changing for you people if you haven’t done it. Yeah. Do it. Get in touch with Nick. He’ll show you how. You can’t beat that.

Yeah. If you want to check out my website, they’re alive. My microgreens website. You know, if you haven’t been in the Ohio area, you want to order some off me? It’s www.creationsbackyard.com

Okay, I’ll have links above, below, somewhere to the side of this podcast, depending on what platform you are on. Nick, thank you so much for joining me today.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

I hope you enjoyed that episode today on the Dr. Haley Show. Make sure to hit subscribe on whichever platform you are listening to this. If this episode made you think of someone, go ahead, take a screenshot and share this exact episode with them. You can catch the show notes for this episode on drhaley.com. If you want to geek out with Dr. Michael Haley on other radical health topics. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel where he posts exclusive video content. All the details are at drhaley.com and we can’t wait to hang out with you on the next episode.