Addicted To Wellness with Ashley James

if you have these cravings for really unhealthy foods, it might just be that you have an unhealthy gut microbiome and it’s telling you to crave its food, right? So you just got to get started crowding out your plate with the good foods, and then you’ll start to crave those foods because you’re replenishing the food source for your good gut bacteria.

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. I’m Dr. Michael Haley, your show host and today’s guest. Ashley James, a master practitioner and trainer in neuro linguistic programing, timeline therapy and a holistic health coach. She is host of the Learn True Health podcast. She’s been podcasting since 2016 with over 500 episodes. In fact, I was blessed to be on episode 555 not too long ago and back 474 I think 401 was the other one. The third one that we were on and the last one we talked a lot about Aloe Vera. Previous podcast, we talked about gut health. Check them out. Check out her podcast. It is absolutely amazing. My favorite podcast, you would think my own would be my favorite podcast, but when I’m driving, I’m listening to Ashley James the Learn True Health podcast.

And this is a true story. Ashley, thank you for joining me today. Absolutely. It’s such a pleasure to finally be on your show. You’re one of my favorite guests. You know, I’ve had hundreds of, doctors and dozens of chiropractors, but you’re probably my favorite when I’m thinking about other chiropractors and you’re definitely up there in, my top ten guests. Because, when we get started, it’s funny, when we’ve had phone calls together and it’s like, we should be recording this because we get into these awesome discussions about gut health and, so many different ways that we can support the body’s ability to heal itself. And so I’m just super passionate, just like you are, about helping people heal their bodies and taking back their personal power to be able to, finally break free from the suffering.

Right. And so I suffered for many years, I suffered from crippling anxiety. I had type two diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I was told I’d never be able to have kids after a battery of tests from an endocrinologist. So I had infertility as well, and it wasn’t until I started to step away from what the MDS were telling me, because they told me I’d have this for the rest of my life, and I decided to defy their belief system, and I decided to go out and seek health for myself and that’s why I do this podcast now, because I know there’s people who are listening to it.

So doing this interview with you doing my podcast, you doing your podcast, we have a very similar mission. We’re here to help people who were, like me, seeking to defy the MDS, who said, you’re going to have this for the rest of your life and you have to be on these meds for the rest of your life, and this is just how it is because of your genetics, right?

Or because you’re because of your age or because of your race, or because of your sex or whatever. These excuses that they give are largely that they’re not the truth. And you can you can shift your health. And so that’s what I did is I went on this journey and I ended up reversing all those health issues. And I conceived naturally. We have an amazing son that we homeschool. He’s, ten and a half. And by the way, he received your plant, your aloe vera plant. That’s one of the things I know you do is you sell your aloe vera pups. I was expecting it to be that big. The thing was, I think it was like this big.

And so my son immediately went outside and got a pot and planted it, immediately, like, he just. He’s such a botanist. And he was so excited. So he thanks you for your aloe vera plant. And he named it this really cool name. I’m forgetting what the name is now, but it was like it was like Vera. Like Vera something he had this whole I’ll ask him again and I’ll text it to you later. But he names all his plants and he also names the house flies. So when we have a housefly he’s like, there’s Jeffrey. I’m like, how do you know that one’s Jeffrey? So. But he’s. Yeah, he’s got a, he’s got a love for aloe and for the plant that you sent.

So thank you. So. Yeah, my life. If I had listened to the MDS, I wouldn’t have my son. I don’t even know if I’d still be alive, actually. And my. But let’s talk about that for a second. First of all, how old were you when you started having these challenges? So going all the way back, I was, sickly as a young child, before the age of six, I was going to public schools of first and second grade, and they had, you know, chocolate. I’d have chocolate milk, and then I’d have a sore throat and I’d wake up with a sore throat. And I thought that was normal because it happened all the time. And I was just wake up really tired, and I had goop in my eyes waking up. The goop was so bad I couldn’t even open my eyelids, which was really scary to me.

I had to, like, peel away the goop and I was just tired and always had a sore throat. And then my mom took me to a naturopathic physician Dr. D’Adamo. This is in Toronto. He had a clinic there, if you know the name he was when you were how old I was six at this point in 1986. You’re still six? I’m six years old. So before the age of six or so, but right around the age of six and I’m in the first grade, she took me to a Dr. D’Adamo and he looked at my eyes and took a drop of blood and said, you’re an old blood type. And he looked at my ears and, looked at my nose and just, you know, examined me and said, you’re allergic to milk, yeast, wheat and sugar.

Stay away from them and you’re going to eat this way. And so he put my whole family on the O blood type diet, which we would call paleo. Now, you know, it’s, you know, lean meats and lots of vegetables and no food combining. So it’s like fruit is separate from everything else and no dairy. And so I just grew up eating, like, whole foods. Right. So chicken and potato or chicken and yams and lentils and broccoli, and overnight, my sore throats went away. And so I tested it cause I’m a kid. So I’d go over to a friend’s house, have some chocolate, or have a glass of milk, and the sore throat would come back. Right. And so I could turn that on and off.

And I was like, oh, I can turn this. I did that with Diet Coke, believe it or not. What would you feel when you drank Diet Coke? I didn’t realize, I realized it was bad for me because I studied in school and understood what the aspartame was and how it was, and neurologically affecting me. I never connected that with ringing in the ears, but I quit drinking diet soda and a few years later, you know, recreational food time. I decided to have a Diet Coke again. And a day or two later, I noticed that I had ringing in the ears again. And I wondered, is it possible I’ve had it for two days since having that Diet Coke? It eventually went away and I decided to test that theory, and I had a Diet Coke, and sure enough, it came right back So for me and that we’re going more than 20 years ago to that people that follow me, I promise you, I’m not having Diet Cokes on the side anymore. I don’t consider that a recreational food anymore. I consider it a toxin. It is what it is if you want, but a Coke like flavor, you can get like an Olipop or gets like a help.

There’s, like these healthier sodas. Now, I know you. Have you seen an Olipop? But it’s a, prebiotic drink, and they make it tastes like Coke, but it’s healthy. It’s like. So it’s a healthy alternative. Well, I like making my own sodas, so to speak, and they’re usually not carbonated, but, like, right now I’m holding up. It looks like I’m doing urotherapy. I’m not, I promise you. So I but I don’t have a problem if you do, I have my green smoothie because I was running around all morning. So I didn’t get to have breakfast. I have my water. And I have I could be and I’ve got my ginger tea, so I’ve got three.

There you go. That’s what I’m having a ginger lemon with little stevia. But I could put that in carbonated water if I wanted, or I could carbonated myself with a soda stream. What I don’t like about it, the carbonated water is very acidic and that’s the only downside I really see to it. Not that acid is going to kill us either, right?

A lot of us don’t have enough acid, but it doesn’t seem natural to me to put something that’s so acidic, like a 3 1/2 or 3 or something like that. It seems like maybe we could be throwing things off, just like if you were drinking a pH of ten water. Well, that seems a little excessive in the other direction, right?

But one thing I want to point out, so we can kind of define who this discussion is for, you were talking about all the challenges you had and you were going to the medical doctor. And they are trained to prescribe to squash a symptom. And then you went to a different kind of doctor that is trained to look to the cause and eliminate the cause, instead of give you something to hide the symptom. And it’d be kind of like taking my, well, black electrical tape and putting it over the check engine light. I’m getting rid of the symptom yet. I should have probably found out what the light was on there for, maybe I needed to add oil or something like that. And now I’m wrecking my car. And medical doctors are trained to just cover the symptom cover the engine light, and it does not work.

So sure, it kept coming back. How do you feel about his approach now with the, prescribed diet? Oh, as in Dr. D’Adamo? Yes. So. Well, he. So he’s passed away and his son has taken over their, you know, legacy. And I think there’s some validity, but, I mean, like to say that because I am O blood type means I shouldn’t eat, like, coconut or pineapple because my ancestors didn’t come near places, like, didn’t grow up near places that had it. Like, I don’t know if I believe that, but what I really appreciate about his diet or any whole foods diet is that what is it removing. Right? So it’s teaching people to go back to nature and eat whole foods. Right. So some people want to eat whole foods plant based, which is void of all animal products. And then, you know, you’re looking at quality single ingredients that you’re putting together to make a meal.

And I know for some people who don’t cook, that sounds like overwhelming. I actually created a whole course on my website, for teaching people how to cook whole food plant based. it’s very liberating and very simple once you learn how, you know, I just make a pot of this, a pot of that steams of vegetables, bada bing, bada boom, like we’re done. So meals are actually seem less complicated when there isn’t meat. Now, that I cook that way. But if someone chooses to eat meat, I would say do this thing called crowding out where instead of thinking about what you can’t have, think about the things you want to add to your plate. So if you can eat a cup of lentils every day, especially if you want to have weight loss or what have gut health, you can work your way up to it.

Make sure you soak them overnight and cook them in the Instant Pot, and that’ll really help with digestion. It’ll help you feel satiated. So if you’re choosing to maybe eat, more responsibly and not overeat, it’s going to make you feel fuller longer. It’s going to help extend your blood sugar like balance and extend it longer. So think about things that you can add that have a lot of, like a bang for your buck. So a cup of lentils a day goes a really long way. Eating 1 to 3 apples a day with the peel. Make sure they’re organic. So good for your gut health. So instead of snacking on, you know, whatever Starbucks sells, you know, have a bag of organic apples and see if you can get them, like locally from a farm.

I that’s what I do because I’m in Washington. I feel blessed that there’s so many farms here that I can do. You pick or buy straight from the don’t spray their apples with anything. But get as close to nature as you can. as far away from processed, you know, sprays or chemicals as you can. Obviously there’s something on the apple. You can wash it, as best you can, but the skin is also healthy, right? So I’m saying like, don’t just remove the skin because the skin, if you can get an organic and non sprayed apple is really healthy for your gut health. So just adding like I’m going to add a teaspoon and work your way up to a tablespoon a day of flax or chia or both.

You know these foods go such a long way to help crowd out. So then you’re not snacking because you’re not, like, going to go for the bag of chips or the chocolates or whatever you’re craving, especially right around now. So this is from now until I think February is when I am on my soapbox talking about how flu season is a lie. It is candy season and it is not flu season. you’re consuming sugar. Sugar turns off your immune system. you can go look this up. Sugar makes the white blood cells fall asleep. And takes all the defenses down. So now you’ve left open to anything coming in it. It creates a perfect environment in your body for illness to take hold.

So bacteria, virus, whatever’s going on, it is the environment of your body that plays the biggest role in your defenses. So if you want to not get the flu this, you know, candy season, I invite you to consider do not partake in anything with processed sugar in it. And you know, if you start, if this little voice in your heads, like, I can’t do that. You know what about Thanksgiving, what about, you know, if these voices in your head start, like, defending the candy, like, well, it’s just once a day or it’s just, you know, a few holidays. Listen, that’s food addiction. if you can’t not have it, that’s something you have to have a serious you know, come to Jesus, talk with yourself about, because I’ve been there.

Right? I’ve had those conversations with myself and I’ve worked with clients who’ve had those conversations. And so it’s like, it’s so freeing, though, when you get on the other side and food isn’t controlling you. So when you choose to not fortunately, we should have published this podcast before Halloween. But you know, now that everyone’s already participated and checking their children’s candy bags. Happy flu season. Okay, sorry about that. Next, next Halloween. Well, this is evergreen. You know, people listen to this where whenever you are listening to this, there’s still Thanksgiving and Christmas and, you know, Valentine’s Day when I was 13. So.

I got on, this healthy way of eating when I was six. And all of my immune stuff went away. My sore throats went away until I was 13, I rebelled, I was, you know, As a teenager and my parents were like, don’t eat the candy. And I’m like, I’m 13. I’m going do what I want. And so I ended up eating like an entire bag of Halloween candy on Halloween. when I was 13 because I was rebelling. And I proceeded to get my first infection that required antibiotics. I had never been on antibiotics until I was 13, and I got my first infection that was so bad. It lasted from and I had to be on multiple courses of antibiotics. It lasted from, Thanksgiving to, Christmas, and it started in my lungs and went into my gut.

And I had to just like I said, I was on multiple courses and I had this. I did have an Aha moment, like I did that to myself, like, I overindulged in the candy and I caused my immune system to lower. And I had that little aha moment. And then about ten years ago, my husband brings home a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. And I had not had an infection in over ten years that required antibiotics, like I had been free from it for a very long time. And he, we decided to eat it and it just again, that overindulge. And I hadn’t done it in many years, but I immediately gave myself a UTI and I was like, there goes like, I’m not going to repeat this, you know what I mean?

So it’s like, you know, sugar equals immune system problems, right? So just knowing that there’s simple changes we can make to our diet. And so starting by adding things to the plate that crowd out the stuff we’re like reaching for when you feel full from Whole Foods satiated you’ll have more energy. And then you won’t have the food cravings as much. And everything just starts to run really smoothly and that gives you a leg up. That energy and mental clarity gives you a leg up to want to make more health changes. Some of the foods you mentioned are phenomenal. Apples. Some people can’t tolerate the fiber. Bake it, boil it, soften it by cooking it. If you have it, enjoyed a baked apple and pretend you have an apple pie.

The lentils. I like that you pointed out, soaking them. I might even take it a step further until they sprout. Yes, and then maybe cook them. But lentils are complete protein. All your essential amino acids are there. And when you talk about the bang for the buck, we’ve always referred to beans as kind of like pennies. You know, you can buy those for beans. They’re some of the most healthiest, nutritious foods, jam packed with fiber and protein and, healthy fats. you enjoying the show thus far? One of the many health secrets that we have covered on the show is all around aloe vera. Specifically drinking raw aloe vera. Our aloe vera has helped our customers effectively heal their gut, increase their intestine health, lower inflammation in the body, eliminate and or decrease acid reflux, have glowing skin and hair, and so much more.

Now, as a frequent member of our audience, you will be exposed to exclusive specials and coupon codes for the awesome products manufactured by Haley Nutrition. That’s right, for simply being awesome and tuning in. You can get a mini discount to help you optimize and better your health. To see how we can help and support you on your health journey. Tune in to the episodes and listen for coupon codes that you can use at haleynutrition.com. Before you make your orders of raw aloe vera. Once again, it’s www.haleynutrition.com. Now back to the show. this diet thing. I also like that you pointed out that, you know, yeah, there’s blood typing and there’s all these different kind of diets, but ultimately we’re all different. And when we’re talking about these things, I consume animal foods.

And I perceive from our discussions you avoid them. you know, I’m not I want to just point out that, I don’t believe in diet dogma, and I don’t want anyone to ever feel trapped in diet dogma. because if I felt like I needed, for example, eggs. Right. If I needed the choline, if I needed, you know what I mean?

Like or if I needed, like, omegas and I just wasn’t getting enough, like, you know, fish oil or something. You see what I mean? Like, I’m not going to say. Right. Oh. Suffer because you can’t have that. Right. So, I’m more concerned about what people shouldn’t eat because that’s honestly most of the food out there is not food. It’s processed garbage. And it’s like, I think you’re going to be healthier if you’re eating whole ingredients, whole single ingredients. And, you know, I would say play with trying to replace some of your animal products with some whole food, like lentils. Right. So you don’t necessarily have to eat animal products at every single meal to get your protein right and to get all your nutrition.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ever have it. But they have done studies showing that even if you, for example, only eat meat once a day, you significantly increase the protection of your cardiovascular system like it’s measurable. So I would just play with that, you know, ten years ago, I was someone who could not have a meal without animal products. And it scared me to. I’m like, what do you mean it? Like it scared me to even try to eat a one meal without it. and then, my husband woke up one day and said, I don’t want to eat meat anymore. And I was like, what? You’re the guy that, like, only eats meat? That’s like, I couldn’t even get a vegetable into him.

And he’s like, I don’t want to eat any more. I’m like, well, what are you going to eat? And so we went on this journey together and I kept having guests. I kept talking about Whole Foods plant based, and I felt very threatening to my nervous system. This concept of like, what do you mean? You’re going to take away my chicken and my stake and my eggs. And, you know, it felt very threatening. And so I just started to just learn these recipes and cook and had a lot of fun in the kitchen. And turned out it’s so delicious. Within three days of doing this, my husband said, if you had told me that not eating meat would have been this delicious, I would have done it a long time ago.

So but don’t buy into a dogma like I have to be vegan, or I have to be paleo, or I have to be this listen to your body. Just you know, like, play with it, be willing. You know, I’m going to try a day with no meat. Instead, I’m going to have a little bit of lentils, a little bit of this. And I would say work your way up because your gut microbiome isn’t used to it. If you’d go like, for example, from keto or from carnivore to all of a sudden plant food heavy, right? your gut microbiome takes a few weeks to catch up. Your digestion takes a few weeks. So I would say just try the crowding out method where you’re like, I’m going to try adding some lentils.

I’m going to try adding some leafy greens, I’m going to try adding, you know, some baked potatoes or yams and whole foods. Just keep adding the whole foods to your plate or your bowl and then you’re crowding out more and more of the processed food. So that’s my first step. But yeah, you know what?

Like I think that people can be healthy and eat animals. I just see that. there’s so much evidence that eating more and more plants and less and less animals, it has the best health outcomes. I can make an argument for that. Generally speaking, plant foods are detoxifying and cleansing, and we are in a ever more toxic environment every day. Yeah. So it seems that we need more of those just as a adaptation to the current, you know, the things we breathe and the water that we drink. It’s everywhere. You know, I remember hearing Gabriel Cousens and he was, this ten years ago, probably he was talking about how they could detect, radiation from Fukushima in the farmlands in Missouri.

Oh, wow. Because it goes everywhere, you know, it goes into the ocean, the ocean currents stir like a blender and ends up here and things evaporate and then rain down everywhere. Right. We can’t escape it. Yeah, and we can. There’s, these red sands from the, Sahara Desert that travel across. And then they rain down on, like, Georgia and the Carolinas. So everyone is affected by everything on this earth. So all the pollution in Asia, you know, comes over here eventually. Right. And, but even interest in our backyard, there’s 80,000 new manmade chemicals in the last 40 years. And our air, food, water and soil. So we have to make a conscious effort to detoxify, you know, and that’s such a buzzword.

Oh, detox. But we do need to make a conscious effort to support our body’s ability to detoxify healthily. And as simple as, like you said, Baking an apple can go a long way to supporting gut health. Anything with fiber in it helps the body detoxify because it helps pull the bile out. so a most of the toxins in our body tries to get out of us is captured in the bile which it’s comes from the liver. So liver detoxifies the liver puts the toxins in the bile and the bile is, made from cholesterol. So the I mean, we could go on a rant about how good cholesterol is for you, your body makes it, it’s very important. You should not ever take if you have cholesterol medication. I’m not a doctor. I can’t tell you what to do but throw that crap out because it is causing dementia.

It is so unhealthy for you and it what it does is It forces your liver to not work properly. And to so your liver makes less cholesterol. But every single cell that has a nucleus. So think trillions of cells in your body, every single cell makes cholesterol. It’s needed for so many functions, especially detox. So the liver detoxes puts it in the bile made from cholesterol. And then the bile, goes into the small intestine to help emulsify, so that we can break down the fats are healthy fats in our small intestines so we can absorb them there. And then because it’s a costly thing for the body to make, the body will reabsorb, will try to recollect the bile.

Our bodies weren’t made to live in such a toxic world. So the body doesn’t realize that when it’s re absorbing the bile, it’s re absorbing the toxins. So this is why we want fiber. This is why I think like, for example, one of the reasons why, people who are on the carnivore diet don’t last that long is there’s no fiber in that diet. And so we want a fiber rich. You want to be eating 40 to 50g of fiber a day. The average American eats 15. And there is so much evidence to show that lower fiber diets lead to colon cancer. Well, when you eat fiber. So apples. And like that three apples a day. I talked about the lentils. I talked about, you know, broccoli.

You. The more fiber you eat. So fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, beans and whole grains. But I want to say a caveat is gluten free grains because I don’t believe barley, wheat, Rye, and oats are necessarily healthy for us. So these foods grab onto that bile and shuttle it out. And that helps us to just keep the toxins out of us as much as possible. So and plus, it also is food for your gut microbiome. And you said something on one of my episodes, which I adore and that is you said chew your food so well that you’re chewing it for your microbiome so that your microbiome can eat it. And I just love that analogy. Like just seeing that like my little microbiome, the little, you know, bacteria, like being able to say, oh, thank you for choosing it for me because I can eat it now because you have to chew your food enough.

So the good bacteria. Because here’s the thing about good bacteria that I learned a few years ago that just blew my mind. I mean, you probably already know this, but many people don’t. There’s about 6 pounds of good bacteria in your gut. Well, hopefully it’s the good kind, right? The good strains. So there’s there should be thousands, thousands of good strains of good bacteria. Right. And so everyone knows of like acidophilus. That’s just one of them. And acidophilus by the way. When you have a good amount of it, it’s like cows in your gut that, graze on the, the candida. And so candida is actually a food for the acidophilus. And so if you have a good amount of acidophilus, it will keep the candida at bay.

But when you take antibiotics you wipe out all the good stuff. Then the candida overgrowth you get candida overgrowth, fungal overgrowth and so when you eat these healthy plant foods, you’re feeding the microbiome and the 6 pounds of bacteria. And you’re also replenishing that microbiome. The more different types of plants you eat and that microbiome it poops out. So it eats your food. Right. But what is it doing for us? Right. It’s pooping out chemicals that our potty absorbs that become our nutrients. If you had a completely sterile gut, you would die because we need the nutrients that the gut bacteria makes for our health, for our heart health. Like really cool protective. If they cross the blood brain barrier, they even help change our behaviors.

Like the more you eat kale, your gut bacteria that eat kale will produce a chemical that crosses your blood brain barrier and makes you crave kale. And if you have these cravings for really unhealthy foods, it might just be that you have an unhealthy gut microbiome and it’s telling you to crave its food, right? So you just got to get started crowding out your plate with the good foods, and then you’ll start to crave those foods because you’re replenishing the food source for your good gut bacteria. I like that something that you just said when you were talking about the bacteria making these things for us. I’ve heard it. I’ve heard you say it on another podcast because a lot of us know what probiotics are. And then we’re recently understanding prebiotics. Feed the probiotics and then the one that you talked about. Yeah. Postbiotics.

And that’s it’s so fascinating. Right. So I did this test you can do and they test the genetic expressions of your different microbiome. So it’ll tell you what your microbiome is making for you. And I start to have these heart palpitations. Now I was in my 30s. I’m like, why am I having heart palpitations? And this is right around the time when we were going plant based, my husband and I, but I still was eating eggs. I love, love, love eggs. But I was having these heart palpitations and I’m like, what is going on? Like. And it was just like my heart was just skipping and beating weird. So I went to the cardiologist. They were like a device that measured my heart for a few days. I came back to him and he said, listen, it’s like 1% of time or less than 1% of time.

Just come back to me when you’re older and you need cholesterol medication, because that was pretty much all he had. And I’m like, well, why is my heart doing this? And he goes, you know, you may think your heart’s weak and that’s why it’s doing it. Your heart’s actually really intelligent and really strong and it is something’s inflaming it. So he said that and like I was like, okay. He goes, something’s inflaming your heart. Now. I had to dig. And this is really annoying. Like, as an MD, he should have been like teaching me. But I had to dig this out of him. You know, something’s inflaming your heart, and that’s why your heart’s trying to reset. That’s why it’s doing this.

Little hiccups. It’s trying to reset, but it’s something’s inflaming it. So I went home like, you know, all I eat or like, vegetables and salads and, you know, like, I have eggs on my. I would make these breakfast salads with, like, 20 different plants and then have an egg on top kind of thing. And it was like, so delicious. And then I looked at my tests and I’m looking down and I’m seeing that, when I eat eggs, the bacteria which your bacteria can change over time, but the bacteria that I had in my gut turned eggs into an inflammatory product. So the postbiotic was inflammatory to the heart.

And so I stopped eating eggs, the heart palpitations went away. And then I did a test, and a few days later I ate an egg. And I was even finished eating my breakfast. And I started to get heart palpitations again. I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding me, so I could turn them on and off based on whether I was eating eggs or not. And that it wasn’t that the eggs were like I wasn’t having an allergy to eggs, it was that my gut microbiome at the time was producing, taking the eggs and turning them into something that caused inflammation. So not all postbiotic products are healthy, right? So if you’re, you know, some of your gut microbiome can take seemingly healthy foods and turn it into something bad.

That’s why we need to consciously direct our gut microbiome to become healthier and healthier through the foods we eat. So when I cut out eggs and focus more on cultivating a good gut microbiome, a more diverse gut microbiome, everything became healthier in my life. But that was an aha moment. How many people have, like, heart palpitations and they’re put on a medication when it was something in their diet and that was something that was like a diet or lifestyle change that needs to take place. Yeah. You had, doctor Natasha Campbell McBride on your podcast, and one of the things that she talks about is the Food Journal.

You kind of did that only without writing it down. You figured this out in your head that when I eat these things, this happens. And in the food journal or food mood poop journal, some people will call it because it’s not only what you eat. Mood would be how you feel. And that doesn’t necessarily only mean digestion, but it includes digestion. So it’s the food mood pooped journal and it could mean, how is your mental clarity? Are you foggy? are you firing on all cylinders today? Are you sleeping well? Are you restless at night? What’s happening in your life? You write that down in the journal. You write down what you eat when you eat it.

And maybe you have some comments about your bowel function. And when you start realizing, wow, I have palpitations every time after eating eggs, and that lasts this long. Okay. I just I’m seeing the pattern and I’m identifying the foods that work for me. And we’re all different. That’s why we not, we’re not going to get into that diet dogma stuff. We might, you know, be a little dogmatic when it says, hey, you don’t want to eat the crap that comes in the packaging and that doesn’t expire. That’s not food. That’s not food when it comes to when it comes to recreational foods, you know, there’s some actually real whole food, recreational foods, you can actually have some healthy, sweet, clean treats, but we wouldn’t want to live on that, probably because if we did our mood, our food mood poop journal would kind of show we’re not doing as well.

And the nice thing about it is you get and this is where I’m going to kind of steer the conversation. You start getting addicted to the things that make you feel good. You no longer I haven’t had ice cream in probably, I don’t know, it’s been a few years easily, probably 5 or 6 years. And the last time I had it was probably the first time I had it in a year or more. Because I don’t, I really enjoy ice cream and it could be very good healthy fresh ice cream from raw milk or whatever grass fed. Everything could be right, but I don’t feel good after eating it. I feel good while I’m eating it, but not after I eat it. So I don’t crave that anymore. I’m addicted to the foods that make me feel good.

As a thank you for tuning in to the Dr. Haley Show podcast. I have a special coupon code that can be used throughout the month of November 2025. Get $10 off your purchase of $100 or more at Haley nutrition.com. The coupon code is XXXXXXX. That’s XXXXXXX. And as usual, you can even use this coupon with on sale and already discounted bundled items. Enjoy the rest of the podcast. Tell me about your new book and program. Thank you. Addicted to addicted to Wellness. So I wrote I wrote a book called Addicted to Wellness, and I published it last year. And I also made like an audio video, course, that I sell for people who, like, I listen to books like I can read, but like, I work from home. I’m also a homeschooling mom, so I am staying at home. I don’t know, I’m just like, I’ve got a million things. And so how I get content in me is through audio, right? And, so I do enjoy reading, but most of the time I’m listening. So I did create an, like an audio course that people can

listen to my book right? or people who are more visual, but like, I want it digitally, so I, I did that. It’s on my website learntruehealth.com. But the whole premise of my book, which also if you want the physical copy like you can find on Amazon, it’s Addicted to Wellness by Ashley James and I made it. it’s eight by 11. So it’s not you know it’s not a little book there are points where you journal in it and it is large print. So you don’t need to get your readers out because I was thinking no barriers to entry. Right. It is a fun I love it, it’s fun. And thinking, yeah, well, I was thinking, I’m thinking of my husband too. I was thinking of, like, all the people who are just like, yeah, I’d like to do that, but where are my readers?

Right? I’m like, no, if people are wanting help, they probably also like need just larger print. So I just made it like a really fun experience to transform your life. And so every week we go through a different health challenge and you can pick between 1 and 4 health challenges that you’ll take on that week. And, and sort of the difficulty level, depending on where you are in life, if you’re just starting out on your health journey or if you’re a health nut like me that just wants to take it to the next level, it challenges you. Choose your level of challenge, and then you journal quick in the morning and in the evening.

You check in. It’s kind of like food mood poop. It asks different questions that draws information out of you. And you can look back and reflect and go, oh, like, was this challenge something that made a difference? Right. How is my energy level? And so we get into the first thing we do is become more self-aware because really, I can only speak from the point of view of a woman. We tend to cut ourselves off from the neck down and stop. We kind of ignore our body, right to just like, kind of force ourselves to get through the day and to become more self-aware, allows us to listen to the symptoms of the body, which is the language the body is speaking to us and to just, slow down.

So chewing your food is one thing. You know, breathing is another. Doing a body scan, you know, checking in with yourself to become more mindful. And when we do, our body starts talking to us. And not from a point of being threatened, but from a point of, starting to be able to gain direction from that voice, because that voice might say, hey, I really need to go to bed early tonight, or, hey, I really need to go for a walk or I need to get off of the screen. You know, you start listening to your body. Your body is going to start talking back and it wants to tell you what to do.

So that we can start feeling better. And then we get into hydration, but on a whole new level, because this is something I learned that just blew my mind. Is that a 5% reduction in hydration leads to a 25% reduction in energy production. And what that means is, let’s say you need 100oz of water a day, but today you only got 95. It doesn’t seem like a big difference. You are now under hydrated, and being 5% under hydrated leads to a up to 25% reduction in your cells ability to produce energy. Your mitochondria cannot produce enough ATP, so your body can’t produce enough energy. your brain has the highest concentration of ATP. And when we start like starving the brain of water, right, you’re going to get a headache, right? You’re going to have brain fog. But then people typically go to pain meds and caffeine, right. For the energy right, which is decreasing their hydration further. So I wanted to just paint the picture of the average American or Canadian or whoever’s listening.

The average person is waking up the morning and immediately slamming some kind of caffeine to just like, get enough energy. Right? And then, or they may get a sugary caffeinated beverage. You’re like, if some kind of Frappuccino thingy. And then, they’re already dehydrated, right? They’re not like pounding back the water first thing in the morning because they’re drinking caffeine. And then later in the day they’re reaching for maybe more caffeine and sugar because they need the pick me up. the energy, right? They think sugar gives them, and then they come home like tired and wired, and they need to self-medicate again or self-soothe. So they go to the alcohol. I just want a glass of wine, or I want a shot of bourbon or whatever, right.

Or some kind of cocktail or a beer. And now all these activities. So sugar, alcohol, caffeine, dehydrate the body further. So now you go to bed dehydrated, right? I wake up the next day, do it all over again. You’re self-medicating all the time, but you’re chronically dehydrated. I want to talk about you’re still awake the next day. Yeah, yeah. Here’s exactly you did not get very good sleep. So I want to talk about the cells. Okay? Your body’s not a camel. You do not have anywhere where you, like, store excess water, right? So you actually need to drink throughout the day. You’re most dehydrated first thing in the morning because we didn’t drink for the last eight hours.

But I want you to imagine your cell. So you have a cell wall, and that cell is like a grape. Okay. And inside there’s all these little organelles. You have a nucleus. You have the mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of the cell, and you have all these functions going on. And I had a cellular biologist once tell me on my show that what’s happening in a single human cell is more busy. There’s more things happening inside that cell than what’s happening in all of Manhattan. So you have to get the processes are so complex and we barely we still barely understand everything. Right. But the cell is making nutrients. And, you know, taking in nutrients, making different nutrients, making different proteins, making energy right for the cell. And now I want you to imagine you don’t drink enough water.

So Let’s say we take this grape and it’s at 100% hydration. But you do the thing that most people do. And you drink coffee and you drink alcohol, you’re taking sugar and you don’t drink an adequate amount of water that cell is giving up. So it starts with your muscles, right?

So then you get cramps and then what do you do? Go to the doctor and get on some drug for, for restless leg syndrome when you’re really just dehydrated and don’t have enough minerals. So your cell starts to shrink and it can lose 60% of its water. So I want you to imagine the cells become more like a grape. Right? Or, sorry, more like a raisin. The grape went to a raisin right? Now. Can the cell produce everything it’s meant to produce? It doesn’t have the space. It doesn’t like it. Can’t it? The cell stops functioning correctly, so it produces less energy.

It can’t do the things it needs to. It can’t detox correctly. It can’t do anything correctly. And the body gives up water. In it starts with the muscles and the it tries to not give up water from the organs. Right. So then it’s going to go, it’s going to give up from the cerebral spinal fluid. it’s going to start giving up from the blood like there’s an order of operation. So because it does triage work. Right. So we don’t because we don’t like dehydrate the heart because and we just die today. But it will go through and you’ll feel it. Right. So thirst happens when you’re already in the red, when you’re already chronically dehydrated, when your cells have become raisins that’s when thirst happens.

If you’re waiting to feel no water in your mouth, which is what we call thirst, your body has run out of the ability to produce saliva. So it is now robbed the water from our tissues to protect our heart , Right? So in order to like we you’re like drink quick, get the water. So if you’re thirsty in your mouth, you have already all your cells in your like all the tissue in your body is already raisins and your, all the connective tissue that runs through your whole body, all your fascia is now adhering and sticking together and getting sticky and not lubricated.

So you’re waking up stiff. I wonder why it’s because you’re not hydrated, right? So week two of my book, we get into a hydration challenge that will take your hydration to the next level and you will have more mental clarity, more energy, better sleep. And most people, when they follow this, lose 5 to 10 pounds. Not a fat but of excess water because it’s inflammation, inflammation in the body. And it’s this weird thing that happens. But when we drink enough water, we actually flush. We flush out all this inflammation from not drinking enough water. And then you’ll find you don’t need to self-medicate with the caffeine and the like. I can’t believe I’m caffeine free. Like this is. And I feel tons of energy. And that’s this is what happens.

You don’t need to do any caffeine, and then you don’t need the alcohol at night because you feel you don’t feel jittery and crazy and stressed. Like you need something to take you down. Like you need the uppers and downers. You just don’t need them anymore. What you needed was water. So that’s like, that’s just week two. But we get into all kinds of cool stuff. In my book, that’s addicted to wellness and the whole point was, like, I have addiction brain. And so I have been learning my whole life how to turn it around so that I am making the healthiest choices possible. and I found out that, like, dang, I started craving kale.

Like, what’s up with that? You know, I started craving going in the gym, like, what’s up with that? And that’s because we can turn it around and use our addiction brain to our advantage so that we’re craving healthier and healthier choices, and that the things that controlled us in the past, like certain foods like ice cream, no longer have a control over us. Like, yeah, sure, we enjoy it in the moment. We might notice we suffer afterwards, but you know, we can take it or leave it. And it’s like, if you can’t take or leave a certain food, then you have an addiction problem. And so if I say like, try going meat free for a month and you got really stressed out.

You’re like, you know, I can’t live without it. It’s like, or I told you to go sugar free. You’re like, I can’t live without it. I’m like You deserve to have a transformation so that this isn’t controlling you anymore. You know, if you go to learntruehealth.com This is where I found this out today. I don’t think you charge enough for the program. It’s a 12 week program that promises a total metamorphosis in your approach to health. That’s, definitely, significant promise. And who can’t use that? learntruehealth.com Check it out. You can’t miss it. It’s right below the header. And like I said, I’m not going to say how much you’re charging my perspective. Not enough, it’s just pennies basically. Like for what you get. Yeah. I wanted to make it accessible to everyone. And it appears you definitely did that. Have you seen some total metamorphosis And people that have followed your program? I know you have, but I want to hear about some of that. Yeah. I mean, people do reach out, you know, when there’s, you know, in politics, when you write a letter to your politician, they consider that’s like 10,000 people, right? Have you ever heard that? Like, if you write one letter, they go, well,

10,000 constituents might believe this because when one person actually took the time. So when I get testimonial, it’s like there are more people out there, but like, who takes the time right to reach out. But it’s really neat. So I have a Facebook group and people reach out there and then people email me and reach out there and yeah, I’ve, it’s everywhere from, you know, people not having diabetes anymore. Not being on but my favorite is when they’re like, I’m so healthy, I don’t need to be on this medication anymore.

You know, getting better sleep, more energy, more mental clarity. those are the big ones. But when someone says, like, I’m off of all my medication, that’s that’s my favorite. So. Yeah, And then sometimes people reach out and they work with me one on one. So I offer a free call, so anyone can, you know, just book a free call and just chat with me. And, what’s fun about that is they’ll be like, I’ve been listening to your show, and it’s so weird talking to you. I’m like, know how that feels because I’ve. actually talked to people I consider, like, celebrities in my mind, like health celebrities. So I know it’s like, oh, starshock. I’m like, don’t be starshock. I’m just a normal person. But yeah, but next week I’m going to be starting from ground zero My following is probably going to all ditch me and go to Learn True Health Podcast No, I’ll be starting. I’ll be starting all over again. No way. You’re awesome. But just, you know what’s really cool about what we do as far as being, you know, having the podcast and having such wonderful guests on, we get to learn from all of the experts. And I can only imagine what that’s like for you.

After well over 500 episodes, and your podcasts can go a little long too. Sometimes they’re 90 minutes. Two hours. Yeah, I don’t look at the clock unless the guest has a deadline. I just like going deep, you know, and I found that it’s like really people and the guests will empty out of their like their spiel after about 45 minutes, like the regular spiel they have. And then they’re kind of empty because that’s like they’ve like said everything they normally say on every show. Right? And then after about 45 minutes, that’s when I can get like I can dig deeper. And so I just noticed like if I just get like 45 minutes, I’m just getting the regular spiel.

But it’s like we go deep because I appreciate listening to podcasts where people go deep and then all my guests, I’ve had are just like, oh, thank you. They’ve never been able to go this deep in this field or in this topic before. And, it’s just a conversation like we’re having. It’s good. And yeah, we went deep into aloe vera just, a couple weeks ago. That was fun. I enjoyed that conversation. Well, this is great. I unfortunately have to wrap up because I got a schedule. I got a yes. Keep it. And we’re running up at the end of the hour. I hate to do this.

People go to learntruehealth.com but don’t leave me. They won’t. You’re amazing, I love you, I love your work. I’m. I just think what you do is so awesome. And, you know, I was just reading the other day about there’s this other thing about aloe and, have you seen the studies about aloe and HIV?

Yes, actually. Doctor, boy, I haven’t talked to him in a while. He’s in the Florida Keys, and he had an HIV clinic there, but he did some of the earliest research in the, early 80s and with around HIV. And, they gave aloe vera to, I believe, eight people that had, HIV. And it became undetectable in all of them. Right. and it’s that it’s like, are you kidding me? Like, this is it’s so healthy for the immune system for so many reasons. But this is why no one’s going to leave you because you’re Wesley Calvin there. Okay. There you go, doctor Wesley Calvin Well, it came back. I will look into that because just it popped it up on my feed about HIV and aloe.

And it was talking about the science of like, What’s in aloe that actually helps with that. But oh my gosh, like, why aren’t we shipping aloe plants over to Africa? You know what I mean? Like what’s going on? Why are we not you know, it’s because it’s not patented. It’s not a pharmaceutical, but it’s ridiculous. you’re aloe is so amazing. you’re the only company out there we can get the purest, preserved aloe that is like. It’s like you said, the way. The way you harvest it and the way the minimally processed, it preserves the enzymes. So it’s frozen so quickly. It preserves the enzymes. And you’re getting just what you need, right? not the stuff, not the outer stuff, but just the inner stuff.

And so I’m such a huge fan of what you do and of your product and all the healing that it provides for so many people. Thank you. We’re having a good time in business. We really enjoy going to the farm and being involved in the processing of the aloe. I’ve learned so much about food processing. What’s really in the food out there. So we’re definitely having a good time. Nice. What should I have asked? Is there anything I left out? I’m glad we got to talk about the 12 week program. Addicted to Health. I mean, addicted to Wellness. I know it’s easy to it’s easy to like, you know, interchange it with other words. But yeah, it’s addicted to wellness.

Well, if you ever want to have me back, I can teach my anxiety. I teach a tool that turns off anxiety so we can have another call if you want, about anxiety. And that’s a big, big passion of mine because it’s the number one, health problem that people like, the number one health diagnosis that people suffer from in the world. And I have tools. I’ve been teaching people how to turn off anxiety off for 20 years. So I have a tool that takes 90s to teach. It takes people about 15 seconds to do, and they can turn off anxiety. So they gain a huge amount of control over their life. When they learn how to control their anxiety. And if they can’t wait to the next podcast, where can they go right now to find out about that, they can go to learntruehealth.com They can, type in anxiety and I have some talks there, but I’m actually in the middle of making a course, which I’ll be launching soon. So if they go to my website and then enter,

I believe it’s at the bottom of the page if they put in their newsletter. So just join my newsletter on learntruehealth.com. I’m going to be sending out an email when my courses available, but I’m building out my whole course where I’m teaching all my tools for people to learn how to turn off anxiety and also rewire the brain so it never goes to anxiety in the first place. And that is a very transformative course. I’m really excited to publish it soon. wow That’s great Ashley, I love and appreciate you. Thank you for all you do and thank you for joining me today. Thank you. This is awesome.

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.