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THE podcast for navigating all things midlife with honesty, humor, and heart
Heidi (00:15)
Welcome to the Evolving Together podcast, where we chat about all the things in midlife with honesty, humor, and heart. Today I have a guest who was referred to me by one of our listeners who also happens to be a mutual friend. So I want to say thank you, Goy, for the suggestion. I love it when my listeners and friends recommend guests for the podcast.
I have
with me
today
Dr. Niti Solomon.
Dr. Niti is a board-certified holistic physician and also a best-selling author of Project Love, Naked Health and Vitality Dressed Up Books. She's the pioneer of
the women's health movement named Feminine Forward, which is the champion project for female leaders to support one another to achieve well-being with ease. And this bio only scratches the surface of what Dr. Niti is all about and has to offer,
So this is why I'm super excited to learn more through a conversation here on the Evolving Together podcast. Hello, welcome, Dr. Niti.
Doctor Niti (01:10)
Hi, thank you for having me.
Heidi (01:13)
Yes, I know you're really busy, so taking the time to come on and have a little chat about health. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. Over Yes. You're in the right place. this podcast, well, it's just a little baby podcast just starting out, but I have a feeling that at least one episode every month will be around health and food or nutrition or
Doctor Niti (01:24)
Me too.
Heidi (01:40)
self-care So I'm gonna get right into it. you are a pediatrician, but you've also moved into an area of healthcare that I am super passionate about and that's holistic and lifestyle medicine with a focus on women 40 years young and beyond.
I love this because in midlife there's a different sort of self care that is required, especially if we haven't been doing much of that up until now, or maybe we took our bodies for granted. And ⁓ your programs are so simple and it can be done at any age and and any gender can benefit and find success. I just wanna point that out, even though you focus on women's health, ⁓ everything's very foundational and I'm curious
about your story and what inspired you to go in this direction.
Doctor Niti (02:31)
thank you, Heidi, for having me And I'm so excited to be here with you and the listeners.
I I went through my own health journey. about ⁓ two thousand eight, two thousand six, two thousand eight, I went through my what you so called midlife crisis with my family life and also my health. It seems like it crumbled at the same time. Yeah, I went through ⁓
Heidi (02:56)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (02:58)
I've been having symptoms of allergies and such, but you know, didn't think much of it. Just take allergy pill, you know, have reflux, take reflux pills, like the pill for our ill, right? And so the next thing you know, you take all these pills, you know, three, four, five pills for many, many years, four, five years. And ⁓ I just thought, okay, I have allergies, everybody have allergies, and you know, I have skin tests, and yeah, I have allergy to grasses, and you know.
What can I do about it? No, I can't do anything about it. Just, you know, keep doing what you're doing because also I didn't wanna change, right? You you like what you eat and things and you know, like like I don't wanna hear anything about I don't wanna change. I like what I eat. I don't wanna have to go through this whatever people call, you know, this anti-inflammatory diet.
I walked the other way, I'm not kidding you. When I heard like, no, I don't want hear about it. And and then I went to ⁓ I think it's just you know my lucky day, I went to ⁓ naturopathic clinic and they have a lecture I was just curious ⁓ about this diet and like you take off this and that. And for some reason that day, you know, I didn't think of it as a restriction. Usually I think of diet like restriction, I don't want it. But that day I was curious.
Heidi (04:12)
Nobody does.
Doctor Niti (04:14)
Right? I was curious. So
Heidi (04:15)
Right? Nobody does.
Doctor Niti (04:17)
I'm a I'm a lifelong learner. I love to learn new things, you know, and that day it flipped for me to be like, ⁓ this is like something new that you can learn, you know. So it's like, I'm learning new things and I'm always curious. I was like, I'm curious about this diet. What are you gonna do? I'm gonna do it just because I'm curious and I wanna learn something new.
didn't think of it like a diet, you know. So for some reason that day. And I did it. And within three days I woke up my third day after that change. and I had no symptoms. I was having congestion every morning. I couldn't even breathe at night, had to breathe through my mouth. It was horrible. It was it's like getting worse and my allergy worse and worse and this is after four, five years. That's what I ended up
Having all these, you know, severe symptoms. And that third after the third day I woke up and I had no symptoms. I still remember that that morning. I was like, my God, it's the food that I ate that caused these symptoms. And I didn't suspect it even a little bit because you know, I don't go to fast food, I don't eat really junk food, I don't drink soda or anything. And
Heidi (05:19)
Mm-hmm.
Doctor Niti (05:30)
I eat a lot of vegetable. I'm Asian, you know. I grew up eating a lot of veggie. I didn't think like, you know, wheat and a certain, you know, what we call GMO, you know, was the culprit of my health plumetting And but anyway, but that day I woke up like a new person and I realized for the the first time that whatever I learned, because I also have both certification at that time in gastroenterology and nutrition. So I also have
Heidi (05:32)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (06:00)
specialty. And I did not know scrap about this. And and also ironically during you know that that day when I went to that clinic, they also have a lecture, you know, this she's actually a chiropractor that do holistic medicine. This is in Portland, Oregon. And ⁓ they show me slides and you know, during her lecture one of the slides was quoting Voltaire
Heidi (06:04)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (06:28)
The French philosopher, that doctor don't know anything about health. And I feel like a slap on my face, you know, and and I woke up after the third day and I was like, ⁓ shoot, I really didn't know a lot. So I took upon myself to start studying. I was like, okay, I need to I need to learn this. why am I not knowing this after the residency fellowship, med school, all that. And
Heidi (06:33)
Mm. I'm sure, yeah.
Doctor Niti (06:58)
So I found out that at that time there's a board certification for Integrative holistic medicine called ABIHM, American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine. I went to take the course and got the board certification.
Similar to several famous, you know, ⁓ Dr. Mark Hyman actually was one of my teachers. And yeah, Dr. David Perlmutter yeah, there are several famous holistic doctors who were ABIHM certified. And yeah, and that changed my life. I've I'm not the same doctor since, right?
Heidi (07:18)
wow.
Yeah. I know both yeah.
Doctor Niti (07:33)
I learn to integrate different I I'm always feel like there's something missing with traditional or Western medicine, you know, but now I learn that there are ways and tools that you can add on and integrate into the practice to make the patient get better and faster too. And so I you know, I think differently now. You know, I always think that, you know, there's there's always other way to
Heidi (07:52)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (08:00)
To practice medicine, not just to give people prescription. But this like opened my eyes, my heart to, you know, the way to help people better. From starting my case study, my first case study was me, and it changed my life and my trajectory, my perspective. I'm a different doctor.
Heidi (08:13)
Right. Right.
That's amazing.
I'm gonna read a quote from your Naked Health book overview. It says the superpower of simplifying things was born out of her passion as a pediatrician to entice children to buy into
Practicing healthy habits. Dr. Niti instinctively presents the information with astounding application and the readers can quickly discover their missing pieces and implement their goals. I mean that right there, I feel like at some point everybody has those missing pieces. And it's like even when the labs and the diagnostics are you're fine, you're a normal range, but you feel like total crap. You're like, okay, I I'm not okay. But
Then what? And so I love that your missing pieces were what took you to the next level.
I do think that a lot of times our own personal health journeys in particular are what kind of catapults us to the next step of whatever it is. I mean, that was how I got into I used to be a s well, I'm still a certified health coach, helping other people, change their foundational nutrition through getting supplements that were whole food. And I still wholeheartedly believe in that and just keeping things really simple.
that's something that I really admire about your programs
Doctor Niti (09:36)
yeah, from working with kids, yeah, you you learn like how to make it easy for them because nobody like it hard, you know.
Heidi (09:44)
Absolutely. And if you can teach a child, I think you've you've said that somewhere in your work, if you can teach a child how to do something, then really anybody can do it. And I know that when I taught third grade and I've I taught all through elementary different levels, you have to simplify everything and keep it as easy as possible. Simple doesn't mean easy, but usually if it's simple it's a little bit easier to do. So and f
Doctor Niti (10:08)
And and fun, fun. It has to be
fun too.
Heidi (10:10)
Fun, yes.
And that's another word I wanna talk about. ⁓ you use the word ⁓ fun span. and I love that if you would just kind of explain what fun span is. I mean, we know health span and life span. Tell me about fun span.
Doctor Niti (10:25)
Yeah, we start
with lifespan, right? Everybody wanna live longer. And then, you know, somebody coined the term a health span, you know, like, yeah, but we live longer, but we're also, you know, healthy and feel good. And then I wanna go another step further, like we need to be kicking it and having fun. What's what's life without fun? You know, like you just you you're not gonna drag your feet just day by day just being alive and not sick, you know?
Heidi (10:46)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (10:53)
Health is not the absence of sickness. It it's the vibrancy, your your youthfulness, your vitality is beyond that. And that's what I'm talking about. The fun span, you have to have vitality. You feel youthful. It doesn't matter at any age, right? You have the energy. The energy is the supply to propel us forward and give us the tool to enjoy our life. Because if without energy, people don't even want to get out of bed.
Heidi (11:17)
Absolutely.
That's so
true. It's like we I yeah, we wanna we wanna have that health span. We don't wanna just, you know, live to eighty or ninety and be a sack of potatoes or as my or as my my one of my guests, Candace, who was I think episode five, talked about how
Doctor Niti (11:30)
Yeah.
Heidi (11:39)
if you're not moving every day, you become a statue and and that's like basically, you know, you're j you just atrophy. And I think also if it's fun, we're gonna want to do things. So absolutely.
Doctor Niti (11:52)
And can can I insert here, Oscar Wilde,
have you heard Oscar Wilde said living is rare. That's what he said. Most people barely exist. the fun span is the answer to what he talked about living. Are you living?
Heidi (12:03)
That
Yeah.
I love that. Yeah. that is so true. That is so true. you've got a few different things that I wanna go over with with our listeners. first of all, you keep it simple and I think that's great. And you start at such a foundational
holistic
level for anyone listening. Holistic means the whole person. So you're not just treating, ⁓
obesity or blood pressure or any number of things, gastrointestinal you're looking at the whole person and treating the whole person. And that's that's something that I'm super passionate about. When I had students and they'd come to me and they'd say, I got a headache and it's like, okay, well they wanted to go to the nurse to get medicine. And I'd Well when was the last time you drank water?
Doctor Niti (12:55)
my god, you are my girl. Yes, the number one cause of headache is dehydration. You hit the spot, Doctor Heidi.
Heidi (12:59)
Yes. Yes. Yes. That's right.
I gave them the the pee talk
I even gave this talk to my third and fifth graders.
I'd say, When you wake up in the morning, you should feel like you have to go pee. Really bad.
And the kids would kinda look at me like, What? I was like, Yeah, if you're drinking enough water, you're gonna wake up in the morning and you're gonna feel like you have to go pee because I would have students that would come in and they know, I got a headache, I got you know, they're they put their head on the desk, they were sleepy, they couldn't think clearly. And I said, When was the last time you drank water? I don't I don't know. I said, Did you drink some this morning? No. Did you drink some last night? No.
I'm sure some of the parents were probably like, What? Why are you talking to my kid about that? because I teach holistically. I teach the whole child.
I don't know how people function, but yes, hydration. And I think that's w yeah, and that's one of your your three tenets, I think, isn't it? The ⁓ activity
Doctor Niti (13:51)
Hydration, hydration, hydration, yeah.
The forte
of AWE-some number two is water because yeah, it's such an important your body almost 70-80% water. That's the most elements in your body. How could you ignore? I call majority chairholder, right? If if someone holds almost a hundred percent share of something, they're the owner. And
Heidi (14:02)
Yes.
I like that. That is
a good way to look at it, yeah.
Doctor Niti (14:25)
And how could you ignore the owner, the the the one that hold the most chair? How could you? And that's the cause of so many different problems. Like you say, the headache. I have so many teenagers that come into my clinic and you know, headache or you know, brain fog or like ⁓ anxiety, dizziness, so you know, f vision problem, different things. ⁓
Heidi (14:31)
Yeah, that's
Doctor Niti (14:51)
And main thing, yeah, I said, how much water do you drink? That I also addressed that. That's because the most common. And they said, ⁓ I drink a lot of water. So I said, how much? How many glasses? ⁓ two. It's like two glasses of water is a lot of water? You know, this is like teenage, right? So you're they like bigger than me. So definitely that's not a lot of water for that size body, you know? Not like a little little kid.
Heidi (15:15)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (15:18)
So yeah, people don't know what is the right amount of water is one thing. I'm wondering whether the parents are the same way so they didn't share that, you know, with the kid or or what's going on. But a lot of teenagers are like that and they're too busy doing some exercise, you know, on their phone and they're not paying attention. They they're stuck into the social media and stuff, you know. I say use technology, don't let technology uses you.
Heidi (15:28)
Probably.
⁓
yes. Hell yes, that's exactly it. Yeah, I'm a big believ
Doctor Niti (15:46)
Set the alarm every two hours,
drink a glass of water. Now you're using technology. Otherwise the technology, the algorithm and everything, they're using you.
Heidi (15:56)
Yeah. It's funny that you say that because ⁓ my mom doesn't love water. She's gonna be eighty two in July and ⁓ she has early stage dementia and so she forgets things, you know, and like like we all do. And if it's not if it's not on our mind, it's easy to forget. We get busy. And so I'm always trying to get her to drink enough water. So, you know, I tried the alarm thing, she didn't really like that. So I got her one of those poppets, you the with the bubbles and you you pop the little
pop it things down and so she every time she drinks six ounces of water she pops one down or some liquid, so she's gotta do ten of those. So that's sixty ounces of water for her. So we're you know, trying to stay on the on the good side of hydration. It's like
Doctor Niti (16:38)
For for little
kids I give them sticker that's heart or star, you know, and I tell the parents, when you drink water or eat the veggie, give a star, give a heart, and then have them learn how to count it. Little kid to and look at the color of it, teach them the color, ki teach them how to count, and then you give a reward. Like five five star, we go to the park, you know, ten star we go to the beach. Something healthy, something fun that that you want for them as well, you know, and th but something they want. So there'll be
Heidi (16:47)
Yes.
⁓ yeah.
Yes.
Doctor Niti (17:06)
you know, inspiring, encouraging them to do it. And then once it become habits, then it's automated.
Heidi (17:09)
I
I love that. that's great. so you've written a couple books, I bought the workbook, but you called it you called it the playbook, and I love that.
Doctor Niti (17:17)
you. A playbook. ⁓
book, Project Love, Lifestyle Optimization, Victoriously Established. See, I want this book to be in school, actually. I'm praying that it's so simple. My friend says it's fourth grade level. And so to teach kids, you know, fourth or fifth grade, fifth grader, and then this is a naked health book. And the reason I call it naked health is not about sexual health, okay. It's it mean that. I mean like naked truth.
Heidi (17:30)
⁓
That's perfect though. That's perfect because mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (17:49)
So we stripped our barriers. Cause I feel like, you know, people know. When when I have a booth at one of the expo for this book, everybody passed yeah, eat right, exercise, right? You know, it's like everybody know, but why are we having problems? You know, like eat right, exercise, whatever that means, people are not doing it. So there's a there's a gap between the whatever they know and the
Heidi (18:02)
Mm-hmm.
Doctor Niti (18:15)
Execution, the manifestation, the the practice.
Heidi (18:19)
hey, I have a huge favor to ask you. Okay, two, two favors. First, could you stop and go to wherever you're listening and give the Evolving Together podcast a five star review? That would mean so much. It helps the podcast move up in visibility
The other request that I have, please, please, please, is
could you share this podcast with at least one person that you think needs to hear this information? Thank you so much.
Heidi (18:45)
as a health coach and just been a health enthusiast my whole life,
people all the time have a health talk with somebody and it's I know. But knowing isn't doing.
in your experience as a doctor, what do you think is that missing piece that gap between, okay, I know how to do it
But I'm not doing it. Like I mean I have my ideas, but I'd love to hear what you think about that.
Doctor Niti (19:08)
⁓ I'm I'm glad that you have some idea. I want to hear yours too. But I I think it's habits and program, right? We all program. ⁓ you know how we do things like you know the the conscious mind is only of you know the five to ten percent and the subconscious is the vast thing that have these pre-program that make us do certain things or don't do certain things, right? As we know scientifically. And so without the good
instilled habits, you know, you you're keeping your old program and even though you know, your program are not telling you to do that. So you don't do that. And that's why I create this the AWE-some right? The AWE-some method or formula that to shift you. Just like how you put the, you know, when you get new credit card and then you put the automatic payment because you know, busy people like us.
You're not gonna remember to like pay this and that. So every bill, if you can, you will put the them on automatic payment. Because you're not gonna remember and you're gonna get the the charge, right? If you don't pay on time. And and even something that sometimes I thought, like, I'm gonna do it. And and then and then when the time comes, I was having something going on and I forgot. So automatic, that's the way to go. The brain wants routine.
Heidi (20:12)
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I know.
Doctor Niti (20:32)
And simple, right? Because your brain has so many millions of things a day. So anything that can be automated, the brain loves it. And anything routine that you do it, you know, you wake up, you brush your teeth, you make coffee, or you notice that you have your routine that you do every day.
Heidi (20:53)
Right.
Doctor Niti (20:53)
And
so we need to a assert, the new program to override the old program.
Heidi (20:54)
Yeah.
Yeah, habit. Because like you said, before You you were like, ⁓ I don't wanna change what I do, I don't wanna change my habits, you know, I like my food, I like I like how I do things, I get cranky in the morning if I have to fast for blood work.
Even though I c have no problem fasting until I go in, you know, and get fasting blood work, I just like, mm, you know, my routine feels different. I don't like it. And I c I it's so ridiculous. But that's yeah. I think
Doctor Niti (21:25)
Mm.
Well well
I I came up with one thing that why why we avoid things because you know how we punish people by putting people in jail, right? you reduce or limit or take away their freedom. Or you ground your kid, right? You you you say that you can't have this, you can't have iPad or whatever for how many days, how many hours. That is why. Because to take away something
It feels like a punishment. That is my theory. What you think that
Heidi (22:02)
Well, I think you're
I think you're right because we don't we don't like to be told what to do. We don't want want to lose our independence or our autonomy. We like we just like our comforts. Yeah. I yeah, freedom. I think you're right about that. I think the the thing too about the gap in between the knowing and then the doing, I think it is w whether it's simple enough. And that's your AWE-some program,
Doctor Niti (22:11)
Freedom. Yeah.
the reason I invented this is because one of my patients, an eight year old boy, was crying in my clinic. We used to implement this thing called five two one program, which I don't know who started it, but it's in the state of Oregon at that time. They have this program that five portion of vegetable a day that like one size fit all.
You know, it's like everybody you they they tell them the same thing and it didn't work, but you know, the old program. I would just keep saying thing over and over and over and it didn't work, but like, okay, it didn't work
Heidi (22:55)
That's because
whoever created it didn't really understand kids or didn't really they just thought, that sounds good on paper. Right.
Doctor Niti (23:00)
Yeah, it's it's a one size with all, you know, it's
it's a goal that like you should have, it's ideal. However, when my patient was crying because, you know, he was like, he's afraid I'm gonna yell at him because he gained weight or something, I mean it's like, no, and he's not even that big. But I didn't realize that, you know, he'd see me as authority or something. But anyway, it I it was just like, my god, he's crying, I need to do something.
That is how I designed a program based on everything I know, right? And and crunching on time with that few minutes, I came up with this. And ⁓ and also I believe in you know divine guidance. I got the divine download that's like meet meet him where he's at. So I was like, okay, ⁓ okay, activity, water, energy, ⁓ AWE-some. So like
Heidi (23:42)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (23:51)
I was like, okay, activity. How I so I asked him like how much how much do you want to, you know, be active? Like I'm not talking about going to the gym or anything. I'm talking about the minutes that you're not gonna be inactive. Because actually that's how when when they do research about obesity, they talk about inactivity. That's the problem. So so I say, you know, you walk your dog, you know, you help your mom in the kitchen, anything.
Anything that you're not sitting on the couch doing nothing, count. And yeah, and then he told me like 30 minutes. Most kids tell me 30 or 60 minutes. Yeah, not not like 10, 15 minutes. And they say, yeah, that's what they're gonna commit each day to do, right? It's a commitment to yourself. And then W water, I asked mom, like roughly how much is he drinking right now? And then they say, ⁓ he drink about two glasses a day, and then
This is a little kid, so let's say four glasses is the is the goal. I was like, can we do like two and a half or three? You know, one glass is eight ounces right? Usually for older kids, I say one portion, you know, you change each week or so. And then E is the energy. for kid we call rainbow vegetable, right? They they like color of the rainbow. For older ladies, I I come I came up with the thing called gem veggie because
Heidi (25:06)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (25:14)
I was like, ⁓ we like, you know, we like beautiful things, we like jewelry, we like gem. So I was like, well, why don't we think about the green vegetable like emerald and the white like diamond? And then I asked at the time my teenage daughter, she's like, ⁓ that sound really good, mom. And I was usually she doesn't agree with me on anything. So I was like
Yeah, I found something good that I want people to feel like enticing and and enjoyable, that it's not like a torture, you know, it's something fun that they can incorporate into their daily life. And so I was like, okay, how many portions of vegetable is he eating now? Like, okay, just one portion, one cup uncooked, half cup cooked. And so I said, Can we do two? And then I've never gotten a no.
So, like from one to two or from two to three, right? I just I just add one portion to whatever they're doing. And he turned to me and he said, Yeah, I can do two, you know? And so, yeah, and then energy out, I came up with that ⁓ is not an energy is not just in, right? Energy out is our emotion. How we output our emotion is very important because that's actually dictate how we behave, probably almost entirely.
Heidi (26:10)
⁓ I love that.
Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Doctor Niti (26:30)
Right? Eighty, ninety percent
of our behavior is psychology. So I said, you know, ⁓ we have to be mindful how we're feeling, 'cause when we don't feel good, we don't eat good, you know, and we can be rebellious and we can stuff our face, we can fill the void, or we feel sad or stress, or anger, you know. a lot of us emotional eat, you know, that's that's it's common and it's not wrong, but we need to be mindful so that we can correct the course or shift it, you know.
Heidi (26:50)
Yes.
Doctor Niti (26:58)
So and then I came up with the the simple simple rule that n rule number one, never beat yourself up, because that's what I did, right? Growing up, like you're a perfectionist, everything has to be perfect and good and you don't do good, like I'm mad at myself and then guess what? When you're mad at yourself, you do worse. Then you're like rebellious and you're like, I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna throw the towel and and do really bad stuff, you know, and then you eat really bad or three times of whatever you used to do.
Heidi (26:59)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (27:27)
And then rule number two, persist the progress. And this is based on epigenetics, right? That your taste bud change every seven to eight days. So within one to two weeks, you should be able to shift it up. But again, no rush, you're the big boss. I tell them, you control your how you want to do this, okay? Me and mom are not telling you what to do. So you go at your own pace, you you progress, you know, incrementally. ⁓ in Spanish, we're poco poco, but I'll I'll tell that s you know that story later. But
So so you just go, you know, every one to two weeks. If you can increase, you increase, you know, one two to two, two to three. Again, no rush. And then ⁓ rule number three, wake up, say you are awesome go to bed, say you are awesome Like pat yourself in the back, celebrate it's small win too but you know, every day tell yourself, I'm doing good, and whenever you did not get your goal, say
I'm gonna do better, not procrastination. This is self-forgiveness, self-compassion, self-love. We're not doing this for anybody else anyway. So who who is gonna be patrolling or policing you? Like, no, okay, today not my day. Nobody's perfect, and definitely nobody is perfect all the time every day, including me. I'm telling them, you think I'm like doing all this good all the time? No, it's okay. I'm human too. And yeah, so you give a lot of
a lot of room for, you know, comfort and ease and not no restriction. You do more when you feel no restriction than when you feel like, I have to do this, you know, just like Adam and Eve with the apple story, right? so that's that's how I came up with it and and
He came back in a month and he was like a new kid. Like, you know, mom say he even eat three portions sometime, the vegetables and and yeah, so very happy kid, yeah, instead of crying.
Heidi (29:16)
I love that. I I I
I think that's so great. that's a testament to what a great doctor you are too, because you really listened and you you had that compassion. You're like, I need to f find a solution. I'm sure it's really hard 'cause you wanna fix everyone's problems, but you know, obviously can't always do that. But I love that you came up with that and it's so simple.
AWE-some activity, water, and energy. I love the gem veggies. I love that. ⁓ my god. That is
Doctor Niti (29:42)
And I yeah, I I make yeah, I make
a handout, it's on my website like like a free thing. And then and then I expand, you know, because that's the beginning for you know, to start, right? And then S is sleep stress management O optimism and then M me, self care, self love, self compassion and also is moderation. You know, Buddhist teaching not too tight, not too loose, and then E enthusiasm.
Heidi (30:05)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (30:10)
Because again when we're excited to do something, it propels forward, you know, give us the sense of joy and you know, the then the fun that we're talking about.
Heidi (30:14)
Yes.
I I love too that it really comes from a place of self care and self love and and I think instilling that in children at a young age is so important because if they don't learn it from their their home life then then who are they gonna learn it from?
Doctor Niti (30:33)
after you know, after a while, ⁓ I actually realized like it worked so well. It changed several kids. Like it's like night and day, it it it's like they're like a different person when they came back. That's why I was like, hm, I I cannot not share this with the world. I feel like it's so powerful. I never imagined to write a book or anything. I'm I'm originally from Thailand. English is not my first language, right? So
Heidi (30:54)
Yeah.
Doctor Niti (31:01)
It's a very daring thing to do, I think.
Heidi (31:03)
Yeah, it's
like you said, it was a divine download, guided, yes, divinely guided. And then also, ⁓ then you were driven to to make a difference and I think that's beautiful.
Doctor Niti (31:05)
guidance.
Heidi (31:13)
we've always heard it takes twenty one days to change a habit. And that's a bunch of baloney. And people hear it and they just keep repeating it. twenty one days I think that came from a study like way, way, way back where like maybe one or two people
it changed the habit in twenty one days, but tha that's not true. It takes how long? It takes like sixty sixty six days or something like three months or something.
Doctor Niti (31:40)
There's other study as well. But again, you know, who's your police? this is based on epigenetics, right? And it depends on where you at. That's why, you know, my first ⁓ again, I believe it's angel tell me like when when he was crying Meet him where he's at. That's what they told me. Meet him where he's at. Like not like, you're gonna
Eat five portion vegetable. If you're eating one portion every day you feel like a failure because you never get there and you can't jump the house, you know. So I said, ⁓ can you do two? And and then he can do it.
Heidi (32:08)
Yes. And meeting Yeah.
Yes. And meeting people where they're at, I think, is is essential for any relationship, really. You know, we all have to kind of remind ourselves sometimes. Yeah.
Doctor Niti (32:20)
To climb up, right? Yeah, it it take
it take, you know, the incremental another story I wanna share with you. I have an autistic patient that, mom she doesn't speak English, she was in Oregon, and I you know, I I give them advice and stuff. I reverse several autistic kids from nonverbal to talk. Yeah. And
Heidi (32:40)
I love that.
Doctor Niti (32:41)
to talking and he was already like eight years old. He's actually smacked me in my face. I wasn't familiar at the time I didn't have a lot of autistic patients right? they would hit they would flap their arms and they didn't know, you know, so that pook on my face. I so I learned to dance around the table and not get hit, you know? But but anyway, so I told her, you know, this and that from what I know and ⁓
Heidi (32:55)
Mm-hmm.
Doctor Niti (33:06)
After like a few months, I was like, I'm just curious, you know, like how how much can you implement or what's going on, you know? And she said, Poco poco. And that means in Spanish means little by little. And guess what? Within a few months, this boy talks. And he I walk into the room and you know, he sits there, he I say, How are you? He said, How are you? And I exam him, he didn't hit me, he was like
Heidi (33:19)
Mm.
Doctor Niti (33:32)
He go to school like an ⁓ like other kids and he can make conversation. This is in a few months and this mom didn't have a lot of money or anything, didn't speak English, you know, they were underprivileged children that I serve when I was in the clinic in Oregon. And yeah, and he was talking and
Heidi (33:35)
That's beautiful.
That's I
that's beautiful. when I was at the high school I taught special education and then actually when I was in the elementary level I had a lot of students with different needs and a lot of diversity huge range of of abilities and inabilities and like communication styles, all that. And it would
drive me crazy sometimes and not just for the autistic kids, but kids that had ADHD and things and I was like, I'd see what they would eat for lunch or their snacks and it's just like it would drive me crazy. I couldn't tell parents. We can't have that discussion around food and things like that, like gut health and all that stuff. but there's one parent that stands out actually a set of parents and I I had their
child in third grade. And well, actually I had him in first grade too. when I was an assistant. Anyway. So his parents, once they got the diagnosis, they jumped on it. They changed his diet and they they were so proactive. when I taught him in third grade, he
would cry if I made him read or write. He did not want to do that. And ⁓ that year, he grew four plus grade levels in his reading level. Yeah, the highest, the highest of any student.
I'd moved up to high school many years later teaching special ed and I I noticed that he wasn't on my special ed roster. And I thought, that's interesting. And he was in an honors English class. Honors English. And I mean, I was so I had to I had to track him down. I was just so proud of him and overwhelmed. And and then when he graduated
He came to my classroom to give me a hug goodbye. ⁓ and he's in college and it's like I get so emotional because it's like ⁓ it was yeah, and I'm like it could be but his parents really got on to the what he was eating and not eating and really and you know, so probably some therapy too. I don't really remember it's been so long, but I just I couldn't believe it. I was like I was so proud of this kid and I was so proud of his parents too, you know. And it's like
Doctor Niti (35:41)
I love the story. I I want to cry too. I'm like, I love it.
Yeah.
Heidi (36:03)
that really shows you that what you're putting in your body, it does make a difference. ⁓ and it's not overnight sometimes. It takes a long time, but in some cases, you know, if there's something that's triggering a an inner irritation of some sort, or I mean, there's so many factors, but I just yeah, I love to hear that story. Yeah.
Doctor Niti (36:22)
That's a beautiful story. Yeah, I have one too
I have one mom that also didn't speak English, but as soon as she met me, somehow she knew. ⁓ she juiced him vegetables, and you know, he he he he was diagnosed with autism, asthma, allergies, all the 3A, you know. And yeah, and then you know, within a year, like we call him professor because he looked so good.
Heidi (36:37)
Mm-hmm.
Doctor Niti (36:44)
Yeah, his allergy was gone. His asthma was gone. I remember looking at his nose, you know, like in one year, I'm like, my god, your allergy looked much better. And then now his asthma is like no more exacerbation, anything. And mom was like on it from day one, since she met me. Like, okay, what do I need to do? Somehow she didn't like question whether I need to know you one more visit. You know, she just said, Tell me what to do and
Heidi (36:57)
Mm.
That's that's us.
Doctor Niti (37:11)
And yeah, and she juice him vegetable
every day. Yeah.
Heidi (37:15)
That's
AWE-some. Yeah, because you just wanna see your kids happy, your your patients happy, your students whatever.
Doctor Niti (37:21)
We all want to reach our potential, you know, and a lot of time, you know, a lot of people don't because it's just so many layers of these habits a program or the the environmental support, you know, or not support.
Heidi (37:35)
Yeah. everyone has a different potential. It's not about, you know, reaching a certain standard. Yeah. Which was one reason I couldn't teach anymore because they wanted standards across the board for every student. I'm like, everybody's different. Stop. Stop trying. Yes, let's like teach to the child and the whole child yeah, anyway, that's a whole other story.
Doctor Niti (37:39)
Everybody different, yeah.
Yes. Individual.
And by the way, you know, I have people that read my my book here. It's not written to be a weight loss book, but several of the people that read my book lose a lot of weight, like from 15 to 40 pounds on average. And and yeah, but that's what they told me. And then several mom that I talked to in the clinic, you know, when I talk to the the kid, I have mom that told me.
Heidi (38:08)
Wow.
Doctor Niti (38:19)
I lost 20 pounds since I met you. And then one mom told me I lost 40 pounds. She gave me testimonial, I put on my website. Yeah she lost 40 pound. And then not only that, she say, people ask me what did I do? Because her depression was gone. You know, she goes to church and people ask her, like, what did you do? You you're just different. And I just talked to her kid. she wasn't my patient. I talked to her kid.
Heidi (38:26)
I saw that. Yes, she yes. She was
I love it.
I love it. She was listening, she was curious and she was ready. She was open. we talked about that in episode seven with my friend Tiffany. We talked about love and boundaries and self love and we s we were saying like one of the first steps is to be open. It's like, Okay, I need to do something different or I'm ready just be open and see what happens
Doctor Niti (38:47)
Yeah.
Heidi (39:02)
a ton of people say, I need to lose weight or I want to be healthier or this or that or I just don't have the energy.
Where would you recommend somebody starting if they're just like, I gotta do something?
Doctor Niti (39:10)
Well
Heidi (39:11)
would you recommend the first book, the Love Book or the Naked Health book?
Doctor Niti (39:15)
Project Love you will finish this within four hours. It's very simple and quick read book, so if you want something really quick, you know, and you d you don't like to read. naked health is more integrative, ⁓ you know, information in there. So
So, you know, they they're both useful, of course, but Naked Health more elaborated in and integrated new science and a lot of research and information as well.
Heidi (39:35)
Okay.
start simple.
I showed my mom the the playbook it's just so simple.
it kind of felt a little bit like kinda like a children's workbook from way back in the day. it has a little bit of that feel. I mean, it's not juvenile by any means, but it's it doesn't feel heavy, I guess is what I'm trying to say. It feels it feels doable and simple and
And not something you're like, I've gotta do my workbook today. I've gotta chart this. I've gotta yes, lighthearted. So I would encourage anybody that's r that's looking for s a place to start and to really shift those habits so that you're not in the same place next year as you are this year. I would say definitely check that out. I think it's fantastic.
Doctor Niti (40:08)
Light Hearted light hearted yeah.
easier than you
Heidi (40:24)
for sure.
Doctor Niti (40:24)
Or you can go
to my website, you know, too, and and and use some tool and and if you want to do it yourself, you know, cause I feel like get help from somewhere, right? And in any way you can afford, you know. I I want it to be very affordable. I have mini course on my website too, because ⁓ my goal is people to achieve well-being with grace and ease. And I want it to reach millions of people. I that is my intention, like to make it affordable and that people can enjoy
different perspective of their health, just like how I woke up that day and like, my gosh, I cannot keep doing this. That's why I was sick. I was taking all these pills and that's not gonna do it. You know, it's it's
Heidi (41:00)
Yeah. Yeah. And you
do have a lot of resources on your website. You know, you have you have the the downloadable journal for for people to track things, Yeah, that's helpful.
Doctor Niti (41:10)
yeah, I come up with a table. Yeah, you can download that and then do it too.
you grade yourself, how AWE-some you are each day. Nobody gonna police you do your own thing,
Heidi (41:17)
Yes.
Doctor Niti (41:19)
You're the big boss of your body.
Heidi (41:19)
it.
what gem veggies are you gonna eat? I love it.
Doctor Niti (41:22)
Gem veggie, yeah, you eat all these, you know, the
diamond, the the ruby, the the emerald, the sapphire, you know. Like whatever will will cheer you on, entice you to do more because you deserve the best, to be your best and to reach your highest potential. And you can be role model for younger generations and your children as well. Your grandkids.
Heidi (41:27)
I I love that. I love that.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well
Yes. And grandchildren.
I wanna talk a little bit about
what comes next.
Doctor Niti (41:47)
I'm so
I wrote in my book about having the Academy Award new category of well being. 'Cause I feel like it's so needed. You know, all this film about well being always get a lot of attention, you know, like What the Health or Super Size Me that was from many, many years ago.
Heidi (41:59)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Doctor Niti (42:03)
And I was like, we need people to make more films about well-being. You know, there's too many films about violence and this and that. It's fun to watch sometime, but you know, there are things that that would help uplift the planet, the country, the world. And guess what? I got involved somehow. I did not like look for it. my friend is the director of a movie that I got involved in called the Art of Manifestation. So
I was like, wow. I wrote in my book about, having the
new
Academy Award, category of well-being, and then I manifested a film, you know. then I I came up with the Feminine forward ⁓ because, you know, Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich that has been around for about 90 years, you know, almost a hundred years, and people still talk about it. ⁓
Heidi (42:40)
That's great.
Mm.
Doctor Niti (42:56)
And he interviewed all male, right? Everybody they interviewed, you know, Charles Schwab, ⁓ Ford, Rockefeller, all male. And I was like, we need the female version of this, you know, and diversity, you know, like different ethnicity, so I was like, I'm gonna do this book and and my friend said, we're gonna do the movie too with this. So we are forming the project.
Heidi (43:08)
Yes, yes.
Good. Good. So
So that's in development. this is great. Yes, yes.
Doctor Niti (43:24)
the young girl need need role model, you know, and ⁓ we
need to really learn from the best, right? We have so many female leaders nowadays and that you know, back then women were not even allowed to vote, right? So we came a long way, and we need to support each other.
Heidi (43:40)
Absolutely. I did a book club on the Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hills book. It was really yeah, it was really interesting. I enjoyed that process and I thought about doing it again at some point. But now that I think about it, why do it on that book? I could do it on Feminine Forward
Doctor Niti (43:44)
you did?
Heidi and
it's not just about the money, right? It's not just about the richness and you know, the richness in life is, you know, mind, body, spirit. We are multifaceted, multidimensional individual, you know. of course financial well being is important, but also, you know, physical, mental health, all these things are important for our well being and and we need to integrate all of that and you know, that's what I'm
Heidi (44:00)
Right.
Doctor Niti (44:18)
interviewing the leaders in the field, right? And and to ask them, you know, their secret of, their routine, how they keep their rejuvenation, their vibrancy, you know, why they look good. And you know, usually these women look great. Even, you know, they are, you know, older and ⁓ we are, I said, you know, young at heart, right?
Heidi (44:34)
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
That's right. Yeah, because I mean financial wealth is is definitely something that most people want and enjoy. But what good is it if you don't have the rest of it to go to go along with it? Exactly, exactly. Health is wealth. for sure. Yes.
Doctor Niti (44:43)
We are as young as our heart, said
W without health, what do you have?
Yes.
Heidi (45:02)
thank you so much for this AWE-some, AWE-some AWE-some, helpful and inspiring conversation. we'll have you back on when when Feminine Foreword gets finished We'll have you on again when when the the art of manifestation
Doctor Niti (45:05)
AWE-some
thank you, Heidi. Thank you. ⁓
Heidi (45:19)
film comes out. I'm I'm really excited about
that. Actually if I I'm not sure if I can put the trailer in the show notes, but I would love to be able to do that. Well, we'll talk about that.
Doctor Niti (45:28)
Yeah, that
that would be that would be AWE-some. women, we need to stick together, you know, because because this is this is our life and our time.
Heidi (45:32)
That's right. That's right. Yeah.
That's for sure, yes. so all of Dr. Niti's information is gonna be in the show notes definitely check out the website for videos and articles. follow her on Instagram and Facebook and I'm sure that that will inspire you to want to reclaim your energy and vitality and vibrancy
Doctor Niti (45:55)
We all deserve the best.
Heidi (45:57)
Yes,
and we deserve to be able to reclaim that that we took for granted in our younger years. Yeah. It's all within reach, it's all possible. It's it's not complicated. Poco Poco. Yes.
Doctor Niti (46:01)
To be our best. Mm-hmm.
Yes.
can do it, you can do it. And poco poco, little, little, you know, that yeah.
It's just a habit we I call holistic health habits. So e H3 the formation of holistic health habits. And you just need a little framework of how to track and to trace and to scale, right? From one portion, two portion, three portion.
Heidi (46:18)
Yes.
I love that.
Yes.
Doctor Niti (46:32)
Again, start with A W E right? All the kids say, Yeah, it's easy, just three things. I say, just focus on three things. Can you do that? Yes, I can do that. So you can do it.
Heidi (46:36)
Yes.
Yes, absolutely. And
offer the support, you know, through the website, and then through the books and things like that and through the podcast today. And and that's just beautiful that we're not meant to do these things alone. You know, we're meant to have that love and that support. And I think that's wonderful that you are so energetic and and so passionate about it. it makes me wanna change up some things right now because I have
Doctor Niti (47:01)
Yeah. Right? My
Heidi (47:05)
I have some areas that need to be, you know, changed up, trust me. So but thankfully we can evolve together and I love that. And I again thank you so much for being here and and I really appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you.
Doctor Niti (47:13)
Thank you.
Thank
you, Heidi. So yeah, start drinking your water, right? That's what my friend said. Like after I read your book, I drink more water.
Heidi (47:26)
Love that. Yes.
Heidi (47:27)
Well, I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to go get another big glass of water. I just wanted to pop in here real quick and mention that the movie trailer for the Art of Manifestation, the movie that Dr. Niti was talking about, I'm going to put that in the show notes. It is a really cool project that she's been working on with a host of people.
And you will probably recognize some I noticed I saw Doctor Lipton, Doctor Bruce Lipton in there and some others. it's gonna be really exciting. It comes out I believe in September. So you can get a sneak peek of it a little bit early. So check it out.
Heidi (48:03)
and now for the disclaimer. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as professional advice. The views expressed are our own and should not be taken as medical, legal, or financial guidance. always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
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