Welcome back to The Inspired
Living with Autoimmunity podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Michaelson, and
today we're joined by Mark Carlson.
Mark's a board certified functional
diagnostic nutrition practitioner
who works with high performance
cronies to uncover their healing
opportunities to build their health.
Mark shares his inspiring story with
us today of his journey with Crohn's
disease and how he has overcome
this incredible health challenge.
He lets us in on what he's learned.
Spoiler alert, what you eat does
matter, and if we focus on building
our health instead of fixing disease,
the possibilities are endless.
Mark, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks, Julie.
Glad to be here.
I am so excited for this conversation.
And you're, you're bringing also the
male perspective which we were just
talking about before I hit record.
Which I love because although the
numbers you know, of women to men
listeners, autoimmune strugglers it's,
we we need Ben in the conversation.
So I'm, I'm really
excited to have you here.
I wanna start by asking you
to share your story with us.
I know you, you have this
incredible journey and I'd like
you to bring listeners along.
Yeah, sure.
Well, my story, the theme through
my story is, is this sense of
having to care for my family.
And it is taken me through well
through d few different careers.
But more so given me the motivation,
the I guess the desire, the, the need
to actually, the male side of fixing it.
It drew that out even more.
And, and in my case, it
actually worked out pretty well.
So I started out my career
in as a counselor in.
Chemical dependency and
mental health units.
And that worked out well.
And I started having some odd issues,
which eventually started being
diagnosed as dual dental ulcers.
And I kept that for often on, for maybe,
maybe five, seven years, and then ended
up transitioning to another career.
And that other career was
fantastic, is fantastic.
But it was highly stressful.
I mean, in the sense of there was a
lot of traveling, a lot of speaking to
board members, to to clients that were
quite high status, I guess you say.
And I knew I had to keep everything going.
And in the mean, The pain was starting to
get worse, and as we were talking earlier,
I, I had this kind of epiphany moment
that I needed to get even more help.
After my, my wife started noticing
that I was coming home late for
work later and later and later, and
eventually I broke down and told her,
Well, it's because I was in the I was
at the er, but not actually in the.
In the parking lot at the er, which
seems like that makes no sense.
So I was like, well it does make sense
cause I'm trying to figure out this thing.
I've had this quite a long time
now, and I doctor and they.
Told me at the time, Well, you
don't want it to be crunched And
that's where I was kinda left at.
That's, that's a terrible
way to, to leave it.
So in the meantime, they're doing
tests, tests after tests, you knows
up, scopes down, all the kind of stuff.
And I'm pulling over into
the er, parking after.
Because for some reason like this,
I could keep things together while
I was at work put on a good face.
But after work, you know, I guess the
tension kind of relieved from the body.
And, and I would, the pain would start
coming off and these convulsions of
paying would start going and I, and
I, there's no way I could even drive.
So I would pull over to the parking lot.
In the ER and lay in the back seat, get
as close to the door as I could just in
case I passed out or something like that.
I, I just didn't know what else to do.
But I, I, I thought that it was not so bad
to where I really needed to be in the er.
That's that kinda melt mindset, you know?
Yeah, I can fix it, I can take care of
myself locally, that stuff, I never went
to the er, went to the ER or, or went
to the hospital many other times later.
But I didn't there at that time,
I was getting a bit of a handle on
doing some ab testing, you know,
for, for with diets and coming from
the whole standpoint of back then,
this was in, this was the early 2000.
So it was, it was, you know, the
food pyramid was the big thing.
And, and so I would kind of
work my way from the bottom
to the top, you know, grains.
And starchy vegetables and breads
and then kind keep going up and very
methodically figure out what, what
hurt the worst pain was very much my,
my leader as, as far as what I do and
well, With the telling my wife what was
going on, that kind of made me think
a little bit differently as well too.
did you hear it as you said it,
yes, that's, that's it.
I heard it as I said, so.
Well, this sounds a bit crazy.
So by that time, I actually had my,
I had a physician general physician
who actually still did specialize in
digestive disorders, and he was one who
said, Well, you don't want be Crohns.
By that time, he already had scheduled
me to see somebody else, so that
kind of got me off of the proverbial
couch to where I, I could see him.
And so of course, that sent
down a whole nother path.
More tests.
More tests, more tests.
And that GI said, Well, I know what
actual, what test I need to run.
And it was GI series but insurance is
gonna make me run these others first.
And so it was about another six
months, six months of that where I'm
having to pull over into the , into
the parking lot and just kinda wait
for these pains to kind of subside.
Seemed to so strange.
It was, it would last for about
two or three minutes, excruciating
pain, and then like a release of
endorphins for like five minutes.
And it would do that for, for
like 30 minutes to an hour.
So, so, and the, and I was also
doing a bunch of, you know, the
typical medications at the time.
The biologics really weren't that
big into everything but the steroids.
And, and I at one of the
times at work when we were in,
We're chiming in.
They, they know all about steroids
and biologics in this house,
I got up over here to the, I even
went to one of the, one of the
meetings after I was on about probably
six months being on and off the
steroids, prednisone in particular.
Guy came up to me, said, Are,
are you Mark's older brother?
And he was dead serious.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then he realized, you know, as
it's coming out of his mouth, Wait
a minute, this might actually part,
and, you know, you get that like
face and the, that, that prednisone
look where Oh, you just bloated.
And, and oh, I mean, so that was,
and I had many other side effects
from the, the prednisone as well too.
The reason why I stayed on Predone so
long is they couldn't find anything
and lot of other kind medication go on
and off and off, which is such a common
story for with Crohns is this diagnosis.
So about another three months of going
through these tests, the insurance company
required, We did get to the GI series.
And that's the test where you
swallow the barium and you stand up
and for about four hours you watch
the barium go all the way down.
And it's the most amazing test.
It really is.
And I could see it, It it's
like a like you would see.
Water or even like a syrup
kind of going down a a hose.
And it looks really good, really
good until it got down to, you
know, right beside my my naval
and then it went now to just like
little veins and barely even that.
And and I could say, See right there?
Hey,
That's where it
right there.
Yeah, that's it.
And I tell you it's exactly
where I'm feeling it.
And he was right.
That's exactly what it needed to be.
Well, by that time they, they
found a lot of other things too.
There was a stricture, so a place.
It was just swollen so bad, nothing
could really hardly ever get through it,
and that's where the pain really was.
And that was at the the ileum, A classic
place for Crohn's, the terminal ileum,
the end of your small digestion digestive
system right before it goes into the
large digest, the digestive tract.
So.
There was ulcers below and ulcers above.
And so they said I had severe,
severe Crohns and I would
need some lot of surgery.
And it was looking like after the
first surgery there maybe two or three
other ones after that as well too.
So of course it's spining in my
mind it's like, it's impossible.
There's no way I.
Take off work, for surgery.
I mean, I gotta pay the bills.
I gotta, I gotta raise my family.
I mean, how, how does
anybody ever do this?
So by that time I was still going
through a very methodical process
of, of just diet and very interesting
things were, I was finding out that.
I, of course starting out with the
the bottom of the food pyramid.
The worst, absolute worst thing
that gave me pain was brown rice.
And that's what I was told to eat.
Eat rice, eat potatoes.
That would hurt so bad and it was
repeatable cuz I didn it twice.
I couldn't do anymore more
after I would do that.
It would just, I mean, I, I couldn't,
I would be wiped out for the whole day.
Just a little bit of, of brown rice.
One of the last things I even tried
was just doing straight, like red meat.
Cause like red meat, that's
like the worst thing.
It's hard to digest, right?
Well,
So they say,
yeah.
So they say, and, and, and it's
changing a little bit now I guess,
but but I could within three
days of eating nothing but meat.
And maybe a little bit of crucifer
vegetables, but mostly just need, I
could be pain free, which actually made
no sense to me or any of the doctors.
So I went the last, the last
recommendation was for me to
have surgery and have a fair
amount of my bowel taken out.
I was pretty confident at this point
that I could control at least the pain
that I wanted to see what would happen.
So I got a, i, a specialist,
I, a specialist, a gi this
was in, and he had some very.
They said he had some very
experimental new ways to treat
Crohn's and I was like, Oh, right.
This is great.
You know, I of stuff written down my diet,
this process to that has, has
nothing to do with it . So
Unbelievable.
I knew
I
I'd been waiting for it.
I was like, Did anybody tell you?
You know, it has nothing
to do with what you eat.
Oh, and, and, and that was demoralizing
really in some ways because I kind
of put him up on a pedestal cuz he
was third level up of seeing a GI
person that, hey, this guy really
knows who he was talking about.
And so his recommendation was just new
while they were biologics is what it was.
They were coming out and
that was his recomme.
And, and I got a whole bunch of by
auction and went to the refrigerator.
Well, it was a bit demo demoralizing, but
at the same time it kinda lit a fire on
me and, and I went back to the surgeon.
The second surgeon I had, I had
two people, you know, second
opinion on surgery as well too.
So the second surgeon I went back to and
asked him, I showed him my GI series test.
I actually went to the the lab and
said, Hey, can you give me that, that
test, after watching it go down and
showing him nothing, showing right
where stuff was, and they gave it to me.
By the way, anybody can get that.
I mean, if you have some medical
records, you can get any of the
stuff they put onto the dvd.
That's right.
So it, so I took it to that search and
said, You see this part right here?
I mean, I, I see this.
I mean, you, I know you do.
Can you just take out that part?
Just that one part, because we've
talked about it and, and, and I
knew that that was not just an
inflamed part of my intestines.
It was scarred.
It was scarred where it's hard.
So I thought there's realistically,
there's no way that's gonna
heal or at, I'm not gonna be
able to with it, to, to hill.
So after a little while, he said yeah,
yeah, I'll just take out just that one.
And that was the moment right then
where I was like, I just realized
I bargained, I bargained with my
surgeon and I, I, I effectively did
that with the my GI specialist of the
specialist as well too, because I up
firing him, firing their doctors, but.
I think sometimes we do need
to fire a doctor and find
somebody who's more aligned.
So I say, Oh, good for you.
we're good.
Well,
did he, I'm just curious.
I have so many questions, but, We'll,
we'll, we'll circle back, but I, I wanna
know, you know, in that bargaining,
Mm-hmm.
you know, if I only take this part
out, you're gonna come back for more.
Yeah.
Yeah, he did.
He, he totally ex he, But he expected
that from the beginning anyway,
Right,
so if we're talking about,
you're saving potentially feet
of intestines by not jumping right.
that's right.
So, you know, he, So long
story, we did take out about
seven inches the terminal Ile.
Which wasn't too bad compared to, it was
probably gonna be a few feet before that,
and in different places as well too.
This was just in one place, so
I thought the healing might be
a little bit easier as well too.
And I had this newfound sense of,
Hey, I'm about, I'm in control.
I can make these decisions and
let's just see what happens.
I know I can go pain free or at
least pretty close to pain free for a
while by just controlling what I eat.
There's gotta be something there.
There's gotta be.
And so I did that and you know
about I ended up over the course.
You know, it probably took a total of
five years and working more and more diet.
I ended up doing the c d diet with this,
which is the specific carbohydrate diet.
I'm sure you're aware of.
Elaine, gosh, she a biochemist
did a fabulous job of coming
down to a methodology figuring
out which carbohydrates.
Easier to digest based on being
a complex carbohydrate versus a
disaccharide versus a monosaccharide.
So complex car had to be
broken down to a disaccharides.
Diac have broken down to
monosaccharides, and then it can
go into your blood bloodstream.
We as people with Crohn's, you see, i b
d, just general digestive issues, have a
problem with that step going all the way.
And frankly, a lot of people
may have it as well too.
It's just difficult to digest
some of the complex car.
And that SCD diet formed the basis
of me going from basically kind of
like a to, into something like this.
And that got me, you know
60% of the way there.
I.
Going a little bit further, a little
bit further and figuring out if I
dropped out some of the antinutrients
outta the carbohydrates as well too,
like the Oates, the gluten, and and
those, those type that actually robbed
your body of nutrients along the way.
So I ended up with this,
basically this food list, this
food list of the c d foods.
Minus the Antinutrients foods and
prioritize based off of blood sugar
and insulin response as well too.
So I ended up having this big long
spreadsheet and I found out that well,
well, it took me about 60% of the way
there, taking out the antinutrients and
then dropping down into ketosis gave me
the performance that I really needed.
So it takes me back to where, I want
to not just be able to provide for my
family, but I wanna perform really well.
I mean, I, I was in a high pressure job.
I didn't have a choice but to perform
well, , and, and I, I did extremely well.
I, I I dropping down into ketosis after
going through the series of the SCD
and everything made a huge difference.
And at that point, I started not only.
Just getting better, but being better
than I was even before in the past.
And ever since then, that's
been about 10, 15 years ago.
Ever since then, when I drop out
of that kind of methodology, the
sluggishness starts coming back.
And I mean, I, I was diagnosed
with narcolepsy at one point.
Because the just being so, I
mean, I just couldn't even, Yeah.
Yeah.
And part of that, part of that was
the side effects of the medications
as well too, going on and off, but
just having just a gut in terrible.
You know, just couldn't absorb nutrients
Well, and a blended, I mean, couldn't,
enzymes, you know, was terrible shape all.
Amazing.
And for those of you that are
listening on audio, I would say he
looks like Mark's younger brother.
Certainly not Mark's older brother
Oh, and today's my birthday.
I
Oh, happy birthday.
I'm, I got, I have got a year on
you, but I know, I know what it's
like to feel younger in your fifties
than you do in your forties, so
it's, it's pretty darn fantastic.
Yeah, it's great
I, I feel younger now
than I did in my thirties.
This when everything was going
on was in, I was in my thirties.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Crazy.
Our, our story tracks
in so many kinda ways.
It is amazing.
I mean, that's that's gotta be
inspiring to other folks that
which is why we're here.
This is why
Yeah.
what we do.
Right.
So I wanna circle all the way back
Yeah, go ahead.
and I believe I, I do know
the answer to this, but I want
listeners to, to hear it as well.
You started playing with diet.
Fairly early on when you were
like, No, I gotta fix this.
And you alluded to it, but by just
this, was you looking for a solution?
This was not doctors saying, Hey, you
have a gut issue, Food might be involved.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Actually I was, I was told by, by
not just doctors, but pretty much
everybody, there's really nothing.
The diet is just not even a course to go.
But I didn't have a choice
and, and this is important.
I, I don't know if I would've had
the intelligence maybe, I mean, I
was into nutrition before all this.
I've, I've been a personal trainer in
the nineties and, and you know, that
was a big part of nutrition and all.
But, but you know, that was
like I say, food pyramid type
Right.
MI
not, not this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, totally opposite
of what I ended up doing.
But
It's always.
where, where I was like,
Shocking.
Well, this idea of you can have
this major gut issue and we're
going to talk about, clarify this
is Crohn's and autoimmune disease.
Is it not an autoimmune disease?
I still am shocked with any
autoimmune like issue that, that
doctors aren't, you know, addressing
food, but especially when it.
To the gut, you know, I, I beyond donate
gluten if you have celiac, that's it.
That's all they say.
So it, it's is truly unbelievable to me.
it, it is.
And, and what I was gonna say
is I was forced into going down
this path purely because of pain.
I didn't have a choice.
So when I got to the point of
really it was meat and fat.
That I felt the best off of, and
that went against everything I knew.
Oh, my cholesterol, I'm heart attack.
I know all these things'.
Yeah, I remember when I first went
keto and it too was, had been a
process of eliminating things and I'd
been on a low fat diet my whole life.
So, you know, no surprise that finally
having high quality fats, you know,
just turned cells on in my body.
And I remember my, my GP
saying to me, Oh my gosh.
Your cholesterol.
My cholesterol had always
been high, which makes sense.
I was inflamed.
It's an inflammatory
molecule , so makes total
such.
But when I did, when I first went
keto, it did go even higher and
she was panicking and I, that
was exactly what I said to her.
I said, I feel well.
I'm not changing a thing.
Like if I die, if this, the high
cholesterol kills me tomorrow,
which I now know was never
going to fine, I, I feel well.
And sure enough, without changing
a thing, just giving my body more
time, it all came right back to,
you know, came down actually lower
than it had ever been in my life.
But it, it is, it's just remarkable.
You, you did.
I joke, I, I, I've said
it on the podcast before.
I used to think I was smart, you
know, but I believed my doctors
when they said, nothing you can do.
And so I love that you were like,
Hey, nobody else was fixing this.
I had to do it.
And I, I was thinking about.
I know cuz I, I've, I've talked to
people with Crohn's in uc and they
are told, you know, just eat gentle
foods like rice, and, and carbs.
And I think of even as a young mom
when my kids got diarrhea, shocker
that my son who has celiac, used
to get diarrhea when he was little
And they would always say, you know, brat.
Like, why are we doing
that to our children?
Why are we giving them rice and
toast when their guts are inflamed?
Just it's wild.
And yeah, and, and we're completely
the, the lifestyle we typically live.
us right into doing all that as well too.
And the processed foods.
Oh man, the processed foods are, if
there's any one evil out of the food,
it's processed foods and we're constantly
bombarded with you know, the ads.
And when you go to work, you're driving
to work and you pass 20 billboards
about a filet of fish sandwich and
your mouth starts watering cuz it
really does look good, you know, so.
It, it's, it's crazy.
It's like we have to, we have to
change so much in today's, today's
lifestyle in, in order for us to
actually have a healthy lifestyle.
I mean, two years, it was so much
easier to live healthier than it now.
that's what it was.
Now it's like swimming upstream and,
and, you know, fighting a fight.
And it, and it is, I, I do try to always
give the grace of, it's so much easier
for somebody like myself or you that.
Had such severe negative
consequences to living, you know,
eating the standard American diet.
And, and so, you know, for me there, I,
there's no, you're not going to eat rice.
I'm not going to eat gluten.
You know, like there's no way I
would do that to myself versus.
Someone who hasn't really connected
all those dots yet, or somebody who
would like to prevent illness, but
you know, isn't really, doesn't,
can't feel that direct impact.
Yeah.
talk to us a little bit about you,
you know, said we're gonna connect
Crohn's and autoimmune and, and I
again, sometimes think I'm educated.
I'm like, I thought Crohns
was an autoimmune condition.
So let, let's talk about that.
Explain to us what do they know?
Yeah, Well, it has been classified
in autoimmune condition for a very
long time, and in many cases it
still is, but is starting to change.
So a quick refresher of your immune
system is you have the two parts.
You have the.
The adaptive immune
system that we're used to.
You know, we come in, come in contact
with a new virus, a new bacteria,
something like that, that we don't,
our body has not seen before.
So in order to develop some
kind resistance against it,
it creates , what's the word?
Antibodies.
It, it creates antibodies.
And we can see this when this whole
system of creating antibodies and
being able to fight a disease goes
haywire into the autoimmune issues.
So Celiac, you know, has
an antibody counterpart.
Rheumatoid arthritis has
an antibody counterpart.
So these
Shemos.
Yep.
Up.
shemos.
Does
and I always say this is a, it is.
It's a good system.
It's just, as you mentioned, when it
goes awry that we end up with auto
units when we start attacking self.
Right?
It starts attacking itself.
Well, the funny thing is with
Crohn's, there has been no
antibody found for Crohn's, and
they don't expect there will be.
So the other part of the immune system
is the in native immune system, the
immune system that we're born with.
When, when we, when we're very small,
we can have a cut and it gets a
little bit inflamed and heals up.
Well, that's the, the immune
system we're born with that
knows how to deal with that.
Well, just like any other genes,
it can go awry as well too.
And when the innate immune system
goes awry, it's more systemic.
So crohn and systemic means
it inflams anywhere in the.
So what they're starting to call
Crohn's is an autoinflammatory disease
Ah, okay.
so than a autoimmune.
So it does the inflammation.
Mm-hmm.
And it, it, but it doesn't do it.
It you, it does focus it in the gut.
But as Crohn's is known to expand
more than say u you uc does.
I had it everywhere and, but it was
concentrated into terminal ium, which
is very, very typical of a Crohn's.
But if I look back, my parents.
Told me that they went to they,
it was shortly after well, well, I
think their first big vacation with
me when I was young and around two
years old, they had to leave and,
and this was thousands of miles away.
They finally had to leave and
come back home because I had so
many ulcers in my mouth and, You
know, just scream as a little kid.
Just couldn't take that kind of stuff.
And I remember as a child, I don't
know, maybe even up through teenagers,
I would on a regular basis get
ulcers like in my mouth as well too.
So that kind of shows
where Crohn's does expand.
And it's also, I kind call, I,
I'm starting to see Crohn's as
more like a, as a cascade disease.
Shortly after I was diagnosed, I
started having my physician ask
me, Well, do I have any arthritis?
Mm-hmm.
I was like, No, I, I don't,
don't really have any.
And they kept asking, Found
arthritis itself
to Crohn's makes more sense as an
autoinflammatory rather than autoimmune.
Cause it works with the the innate immune.
It's, it's, it's a disruption
of the immune, the innate immune
system where it attacks itself
and it's kind more generalized.
It may start in the gut, but easily other
autoimmune systems autoimmune diseases,
Wow.
So mechanism.
Mechanism of action.
Is different.
Expression is similar cuz most
autoimmune conditions also
it's systemic inflammation.
It's, you know, RA isn't just joint pain.
It can affect the heart, It can
affect, you know, So so I, I love
that understanding of, okay, you
know, this is a different process
kind of going on behind the scenes.
You are, you focus on.
Not disease management, right?
We're trying to shift the focus from
disease management to building health.
That's right.
talk about that.
Share with us this approach of, you
know, if you, if you really wanna solve
the problems you have to build health.
Yeah.
I, I kind of say Now look, the
doctors worry about your z.
And our job is to worry about our health.
And they're two totally separate things.
We put this health, this what
kind of diet do I need to do?
What kinda exercises do on our
doctors, which is completely crazy
and they don't even want that either.
That's not their responsibility.
But we kind of, we always say that,
We'll, talk to your doctor before
starting this exercise program or talk
to your doctor about what kinda, what
do you need to eat, but they don't want.
And they had no training in that.
And I started realizing that with some of
my experiences about the doctors saying,
My diet has nothing to do with it, even
though I went from pain to no pain.
And, and so I went down.
For me, it was a path of going, you
know, what kind of diet is right for me?
What type, how is my rest?
Like, you know, am I sleeping well at.
And am I doing the right exercise?
Am I actually doing the
right kind of exercise?
Which I was not at the time, I was
doing a lot of the, you know, at the
time it was kinda like sprinting hit
that kinda stuff swapped it all over
to doing just resistance training.
I could recover so much better from that
and I, and it, and it had the benefit of.
Helping me sleep better
at night as well too.
And, and, and a lot of the
stress reduction side of
things was, was really big.
And, and for me, what that turns into
now is not just the stress that we kind
always talk about, like the emotional
stress of, of things or just stressful
situations, but the hidden stressors.
And so, I kind of had an avoidance of
doing tests after all the poking and
fair
dones.
Scary after a
into functional lab testing and opened
up a whole new world about what to look.
So then instead of focusing on the
disease of Crohn's, I would look at things
like, Well, are my hormones balanced?
You know, my corsol, the
d e a ratio, What's that?
In my immune system, my secretory iga.
You know, how, how is that my digestion?
You know, this is one of
the things that for me, I.
Is a leading indicator.
You know, I look at things like indican
it, it's kind of, it's a, it's a market
that shows how well protein is being
broken down and absorbed in the gut.
So if you, if protein does not, it ends
up futurizing then, then you get some
this sy release that you can test for.
So you.
I'm starting to look for all of these
kind of markers, Sluggish liver,
you know all these kind of things.
So I start working on
this oxidative stress.
I start working on all these
kind of things, and so what
I do now is kind of hit.
Hit at, hit at it very hard,
very comprehensively at first
to find out exactly what's
going on in my body right now.
Not just Crohns, not just the gi,
not just my microbiome, but all those
other things I mentioned as well too.
And it gives me a very clear sense of all
the things I can actually work toward to
build my help up, you know, going forward.
And that has made all the
difference in the world.
So I can, I can map out going forward.
You know, what I need to do on
the, my diet, my rest, my exercise,
my supplementation, the stress to
relieve those hidden stressors,
you know, internally as well too.
So,
Sure.
so that's, that's kind of, that's
kind of how it, it's taken me
and, and that's actually not
even looking at Crohn's anymore.
And
Right.
I haven't looked at Crohn's in 10
years and it's been wonderful for me.
I love it.
And, and that's, This is
functional medicine, right?
This is what we do when, when
we, We all need these systems.
We need these building blocks.
And when we look for those deficits
and roadblocks really to healing
because the body is designed to heal.
And when you're expressing something
like Crohn's or RA or whatever
it is, you've got roadblocks.
And so yes, we need to remove
the roadblock, but like you
said, we need to build the.
And get those systems working beautifully.
And then, you know, we're not using
names of diagnoses, we're we're
just people creating wellness.
That's the, that's the beauty of it.
exactly it.
Well said.
It's amazing.
So do you have a, I think I know the
answer just from what you had said,
but is there a specific diet that you
recommend or is this an individualized.
Well, short answer is
individualized thing.
I, the diet that I end up kind
of doing a default and, and it's
not really so much a diet as a
list that I, I referenced before.
I, I call it a specific keto food list.
So it is that specific carbohydrate
diet and then taking away some
of the, the histamine, the
oscillates, that kinda stuff.
And and normalized it for low blood sugar,
low insulin reaction foods as well too.
And, and that's kind of my go to list,
but it's not really a full on diet.
You can do it so many different ways.
Matter of fact, I keep it a
spreadsheet so I can sort.
Well, what, what affects
the blood sugar the most?
What's the most histamine, you know,
and I can go down the line as well too.
Or just carbs, calories, that kinda stuff.
So it's very, it's a very
nice utility type sheet.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Well that's been a lot of my career
is in technology, so it kinda.
Know, the engineering side comes
out when, when that goes in.
So, yeah, so I guess
that's kind of my go to.
But if, if I'm talking generally, what I
always recommend is more of a paleolithic,
you know, hundred gatherer type diet.
And I go for more, yeah, I go
for more higher fat as well too.
We all still have this fat phobia, which.
Probably the thing that is one
of the biggest roadblocks that
I've found for most everybody.
Getting into a diet that actually
will get you, you know, healthy.
I mean, that's, that's
probably one of the big things.
So that's when I work with people,
that's probably one of the, the
bigger things I have to work with.
That takes a long time to
kind of break through that.
That's decades of programming.
We all need to, I remember when I first.
Started, you know, I, I understood
my br like logically and
scientifically why I needed the fat.
And I just remember gagging on it, in
the beginning, you know, and I can tell
you it has been ages since I've had
a boneless skinless chicken breast.
Thank goodness,
I had enough of those through the first
part of my life , you can't go back.
You just, you know, when, when you feel
your body come alive, that wellness
that you're talking about again,
it's now, you know, you don't wanna
go, don't wanna go the other way.
So what is one step that listeners
can take today to start to
improve their health or start to
build wellness for themselves.
One step.
I know it's a trick question.
It's tough
Yeah.
And, and the funny thing is, I knew
you were gonna ask that as well too,
I know, but it's so hard to pick one
It is, you
to start to move the needle.
Something they can do.
I, I think it's, I think the
main thing is we have this,
we're we're told to set goals.
And when this areas, it'll
probably be around New Year's time.
Right?
New Year's resolution.
You have New Year's resolution start Yeah.
To start working out every day or
have New Year's resolution to, to
eat better, whatever that happens to.
Those are goals, right?
And I think that's the wrong path to take.
And if, if I would have one thing to say
is, is stop with the goals and start with.
Building a process, a system.
So instead of well, I'm gonna go work
out every day, it kind of sets you up for
failure cuz you're not gonna do it, right?
I mean, that's what always happens, but
think about what's going on in your life.
That is conducive to working out
every day or eating well every day.
So the podcast, you know, when you have
something coming in your ear that's
talking about help, talking about working
out, and, and it might be a specific
thing that, that you like as well too.
It starts building that kind of constant.
Instead of the billboards coming
at you every day, you're starting
to have other things coming.
So you're thinking.
How does my life need to be structured
so I can do these things, Not this
goal of I wanna work out every day.
How can you structure your life?
So when you're going to work
and you have all, you know, you
have all these billboards coming
at you, take the countryside.
Yes, it's gonna take longer for you
to get to work, but maybe you need to
go to bed a little hour early anyway.
So you start thinking about, well, how
can I structure my life rather than
having goals to do these specific things?
How can I structure my life to where
it's a healthy lifestyle going forward?
That takes longer, but it's way more
sustainable to keep as well too.
So you're going to bed an hour early.
You're, you're taking
the countryside to work.
You're, you're seeing pastures in
nice moving cows instead of the
fla of fish billboards coming.
And, and you're getting these
podcasts coming in to start to talk
about health, starting to talk about
exercise, you know, new ways of doing.
So what you're doing is you're building
this, this, this loop, this loop
of reinforcing healthy lifestyles.
And that is what starts really making
you have the big changes going forward.
So I, I guess that's a lot.
I know you wanted
something short and quicky.
You
Well, I will, I'll sum it up for you
so that it's the one thing, which what
I heard you say was, you know, instead
of setting the goals that we never
stick with anyway, really take the.
Time to create that system, to build
the healthy, healthy lifestyle.
And like you said, You think about
it, it, so I, you know, something
you can start today is thinking
about what does that look like?
What would it take?
And that's how you set
yourself up for success.
So I, I think that's
a beautiful one thing.
It's a, it's a, it's an amazing
overarching and we share this,
you know, as a coach, it's, I, I
don't wanna say I don't like goals.
Goals are great.
I don't like resolutions and I don't
like, you know, it's, it's Part of what
I do in supporting my clients is we
make sure we're setting it up for six.
You know, they'll say, Oh no, I'm
just gonna cook, you know, on plan.
Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Like, let's start with, you
know, what are you gonna make?
What's the grocery list?
When are you gonna shop?
You know, all these parts
and pieces, and that's where
So, So what's in your
to.
Yeah.
exactly.
What do, if you open up your
pantry, do you have a whole bunch
of processed food sitting there?
Well, you do.
Then you're probably not gonna have,
you're not gonna be successful with
the goal of not food's much harder
Yeah, so start is that that beginning
of the setup would be, you know, pantry,
clean out time and you know, really,
really figuring out what that looks like.
And I love what you said back to
the, your, the systems guy, you know,
Allows you to create that system for.
That's right, and don't, don't beat
yourself up if you know you have
these moments where if things don't,
it's not about things that to.
I love it.
Every, every one day better or
one thing better is, is moving
you in the right direction.
So for people who listen on the go
on that nice country drive to work,
if they're lucky enough to have
that where can listeners find you?
The best place is my website.
It's www.healthundercontrol.com.
They can also send me an email,
mark@healthundercontrol.com as well too.
Wonderful.
Mark, thank you so much.
You have shared some
amazing gold with us today.
Well thank you Julie's.
Thank you so much for having me on this.
The work you're doing here is fantastic.
Oh, and I wish you Years
and years of success.
Thank you so much.
Right back at you.
For everyone listening.
Remember, you can get the
show notes and transcripts by
visiting inspired living.show.
I hope you did great time and enjoyed
this episode as much as I did.
I'll see you next week.