Hey everyone! Today I have the pleasure of telling you MY story. This is where the fire of Unconventional Wellness starts! Learn about how I want to help YOU overcome your mental and physical health issues - and how I can help you do it!
In today's show, we discuss:
- My journey through PTSD, chronic low back and knee pain
- How I used natural medicine and therapies to help
- Overcoming suicide - together as a community!
- Telling YOUR story
- What Unconvetional Wellness can do for you
Here are the show notes from today's show:
Frank:
00:00 Hey everyone and welcome to unconventional wellness radio is powerful and inspiring podcast sets it revolutionize and disrupt healthcare. It's trying to put you in the driver's seat. That'd be the force of change necessary for the lifestyle you've always wanted. I, I'm, uh, I'm Frank Ritz. I don't know if you guys know me, but I'm sort of like the high end, the scenes guy with jacqueline or website for Gosh, has it been like nine years now. And so, uh, and so I just came off a couple of really inspiring things and uh, and we're looking really into 2019 to provide some massive value for everybody who's been a fan of the Paleo Mama and everything that we have been doing or looking for a more natural way of being able to help take care of yourself and your family and your friends. And so I think it's about time for me to go ahead and sort of step out from behind the keyboard, if you will. And in terms of all of the support that I have provided and maybe start actually taking a little bit more of a mentorship and coaching role that, uh, that I've been wanting to
Speaker 2:
01:13 life works in very strange but yet mysterious ways. And one day you finally have that Aha moment. And My Aha moment is actually been over the course of the last probably five years. Uh, I, to tell you a little bit of a backstory, I am a certified physician assistant and I'm also a service disabled combat veteran. And I have really just tried to find myself in terms of what do I do, uh, in, in how am I supposed to change the world because I've always wanted to do something like that. And so let me start by first telling you a, you know, I have no disclosures, if you will. I don't have anything that I necessarily am going to speak about. And all I'm going to try to do is just provide value and, uh, and tell you that there is hope. And that's, that's really what the biggest part of this messages that I just want you to, to, to, to have hope.
Speaker 2:
02:10 And so I started off in my childhood as believing that I was going to just simply be a doctor. That was it. That was what I was supposed to do with my life. Right? And I already figured that out. I figured out the whole world at eight years old. And so I, uh, I had this mission of always wanting to help people and that I was going to be a doctor. So I get to high school, fast forward a little bit and I'm doing everything then I think that I should be doing. I'm taking those classes that I should. I'm trying to get really good at science, all that kind of stuff. Right. And so then I go into college and this is where I started getting my first real experience of a kind of like, just at transition of starting to finally understand what it is to, to kind of be out there and being an adult.
Speaker 2:
02:53 And so I still had that feeling though. The common thread was I'm going to be a doctor, right? So I went through all four years and the way that it worked at my school was, you could be anything. I am a graduate of University of Florida, go gators. And uh, and so I had a degree in exercise physiology was pretty heavy in like, you know, health sciences and things like that. And I applied for a heist or excuse me, as I was applying for medical school, first of all, nine slash 11 happened my senior year of uh, upon graduation. So my senior semester I'm getting ready to go. Nine slash 11 happens. And then unfortunately, something even more tragic happened. My father passed away. And uh, and, and, and from that point forward I just turmoil erupted. And so, um, I still kind of sorta wanted to be a doctor, but of course it started becoming a little bit more, uh, aware of, you know, how real life can be.
Speaker 2:
03:51 And so I applied and I got some secondaries back if you will. And I just took forever. I didn't spend any time filling out my secondary is because the way the medical school works is at the time when I applied, you take your m cat, which is the, uh, the, the test to, you know, it's the college admission test if you will, for trying to get into school and then you apply primaries which are just like, you know, however many colleges you want to apply for. And then they look at your packet if you will, in the they'll up. You'll usually do some secondary for most schools. And so secondary is came back on in about two, three schools. And I just never filled them out really. Well actually, let's just face it. I never saw them out at all because I turned to alcohol and I turned to food, um, in order to, to combat and deal with my depression about losing my dad.
Speaker 2:
04:36 And so, um, I finally filled it out and it turned it in. And I actually got a phone call from the board when I actually got an email from the board about my packet and saying that we would have loved to accept to you. You seem like you were very qualified, but we've already filled up our class and so that ship sailed. And so, um, at that point I started going, what do I do now? Right. So for the last 20 years I was supposed to be a doctor and so now what do I do? So I started getting this feeling of, um, let me, let me go and use my degree. So I graduated, I finished college and then I started working at a health fitness center and worked my way up through that. Became a general manager of one of the stores. But then I got this inkling I can't be the only member of my family that hasn't served in the military, actually come from where my father served.
Speaker 2:
05:29 Uh, you know, both of my brothers served in the military. And so I said, I can't, I don't want to be the only one that hasn't served in the military. And so I went and I saw a recruiter come to find out that, uh, you know, military recruiter ended up being an army, rolled out the red carpet. Obviously they were accepting everybody because of nine slash 11. And uh, there was just one problem. I was very overweight when I left college. I was, must have been probably about 265 pounds because like I said, I drownded my sorrow and alcohol and pizza and that's pretty much all I ate because of nine slash 11 and then subsequently losing my dad. And so I was 265 pounds and I was extremely well qualified to join the service. But for one reason I was drastically overweight. And so the recruiter wanting to work with me and he said, here's the deal.
Speaker 2:
06:23 You got to be able to do this. And he laid out a good plan and goal for me. And I started working at it and I started realizing that it made me feel good. It actually made me feel good to start focusing on my food, start focusing on the fact that I needed to stop drinking so much and that I also needed to be able to get out and enjoy the sunshine. And so I started doing some really good army training. Started putting a backpack on, just walking, started out slow, just started functionally moving because I was terribly out of shape. I probably couldn't even have finished a half of a mile walk when I first started. I couldn't even do, but maybe two pushups. I mean, I was really, really out of shape. And so slowly over the course of the next couple of months I started working out and I come to find out that I started getting really good at it.
Speaker 2:
07:05 And so, um, I started kind of like literally peeling back the layers of the onion and I found out that I'm actually not too bad at trying to be good. And so I, uh, started really getting into what do I want to do when I'm in the military? Well, that was where that common bug of wanting to help people came back. And so I enlisted into the army as a combat medic and I was allowed to actually join because I ended up losing over 55, almost 60 pounds in order to be able to actually join the service. So I joined the service and I shipped off to basic training, finished basic training. I'm probably one of the best experiences you'll hear, a couple of experience that I probably would never do again, but one of the best experience that I would never do again in my life.
Speaker 2:
07:52 Um, but at that time when I graduated basic training, I showed up to kind of like my first assignment, if you will, and I have the opportunity because of the fact that I graduated high school to go ahead and go onto officer candidate school to become a commissioned officer in the US military or into the United States army. I said, you know, I had to call a couple of mentors that I had made throughout the time and I even called my recruiter and I said, what do you guys think? Well, um, I decided to go ahead and go the officer route. And so, um, I went through something called officer candidate school, which was a 14 week at the time, of course, a much more stringent than a basic training. You learn a lot about how to be a leader and sort of started, started pulling those heartstrings about like a training you on the fact that you know you're not a born leader but you are.
Speaker 2:
08:42 You can be created one based on your choices and based on the things that others can teach you. So I finished officer candidate school and then I was sworn in as a newly promoted second lieutenant in the army, but my job was not related to medicine whatsoever. They started me off as a ordinance officer and I do remember like as if it was yesterday, I turned to the other folks in my unit at school and I said, what in the, you know, what? Fill in the blank is ordinance and come to find out that it's actually just maintenance. It's maintenance and munitions, meaning that I was responsible for the maintenance of trucks and I was responsible for the maintenance of weapons, needless to say, totally and needs of the army thing. Not what I was intending to serve my country, but I embraced it right.
Speaker 2:
09:31 Because I was still serving. And so I did that wrap for about four years. Fast forward now to my first unit that I deployed with. I was part of the 101st, uh, came back from an overseas tour in a, in Korea. And uh, and so I said I got to get back into medicine. So during my deployment I actually started shadowing a, both an md as well as my, what is called the Battalion Pa, this battalion or Squadron Pa as a, as a, as a person in charge of the health of a particular unit. Uh, just so happened that we were about three to 500 folks inside of our unit and I just watched him work and I just simply said, okay, I think I finally get it. This is what I'm supposed to do in medicine. So I had the opportunity to apply for the interservice physician assistant program, which is all branches come together and they all study together and then they go and learn their clinicals for the following year.
Speaker 2:
10:28 So it's a two year program. First Year is what we call drinking from a fire hose where you learn all of the medical sciences that you could possibly jam into your brain in one year. Probably ended up taking three to five tests a week and somehow survived, but during that, that's when I met Jackie and so she joined me after we were married for my last final trimester of my first year of PA school and then she was with me from that point forward through my clinicals, which we moved to another place and finish that out and so that was it. You know, I graduated from physician assistant school and I was like, that's what I guess I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life. And so I practiced as a PA, absolutely enjoyed it, learned a lot about soldiers, learned a lot about medicine, absolutely enjoyed what I did, but then my time in the army caught up with me and my first deployment, especially the, the situation that happened or the couple of situations that happen started really catching up with me and I was really, really good at being able to hide it.
Speaker 2:
11:36 That's one thing that you learn in the military, have something called military bearing. You can absolutely have chaos going on in your life and you're not supposed to show it. And then on top of that, you know, as a senior enlisted, okay, so somebody who's been an enlisted soldier in the army for a while as well as officers were not supposed to show any type of weakness because our soldiers pick it up really, really quick. And so I was able to bury the entire understanding of what happened in my first deployment. Then I'll tell you that story now. So in my first deployment, uh, we were on a mission that, uh, we were supposed to just go out and do what was called route clearance as well as, uh, some route redirection, if you will. That was what this mission was in particular for. So, uh, we kind of rolled out, if you will, from the wire and, uh, and we went on our mission and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
12:28 And then we kinda did what is called a hasty stop. And so we came to an intersection of one of the larger, uh, routes that were in the bag, that area of Iraq for a, the beginning of the war. So this is like around the 2004, actually more so 2005 timeframe. So, you know, two years we were like coming with the second we were coming in with the second wave, if you will, of what happened. We got kicked off in late 2002 early, 2003 after, you know, nine slash 11 had happened. And so we come to a hasty stop and my lead gun track, the ncl calls me a [inaudible]. I was the platoon leader. I was the mission leader, if you will. And, uh, and he said, sir, I think that we're dealing with a couple of wires that I see out there, uh, in roll over them.
Speaker 2:
13:17 Well, come to find out that we actually were on top of them to tell you the quick story. But during that time I actually went and I walked up to his truck and I grabbed my binoculars and I'm looking at it and I go, you're absolutely right. I completely agree with you. I see exactly what you're saying. And so for some strange reason an out of body experience happened and it was definitely something that I was a. I was a brand new officer and I made sort of one of those judgement mistakes. But thank God there's a good news story out of this. But I made a judgment mistake and I actually walked with him out to go see these wires. For some reason we thought it was a good idea. I don't know why folks. I wish I could tell you that probably every other brain cell was telling me don't do this.
Speaker 2:
14:01 That's a dumb idea. But instead I, I kinda just like instinct takeover and probably put caution and judgement into the wind. And I walked up there with him and so I. and so we see the wires and stuff like that. And then finally, after what seemed like probably an eternity, but it may have just been seconds that passed by, I grabbed him and I yank him back and I go, what are we doing there? Some expletives here, but what are we doing? I grabbed them and I pull them back to the truck. Well, we call something called Explosive Ordinance disposal. And if you've ever seen the movie, Oh golly. What's it called? The, uh, the hurt locker. This is big on Explosive Ordinance Disposal Disposal folks. And so it just so happens that a particular truck that was designed at the time to dig up dirt and stuff like that and take a look at things, it was a passing by because it was finishing up its mission.
Speaker 2:
14:55 And so we kind of flag them down and we said, hey, would you do us a favor and just take a look at this? We believe that we're dealing with an IED. And so they look at it, they start digging after about, I don't know, must have been 15, 20 minutes, maybe I'm the person who was in charge of that vehicle comes over and talks to me and said, wow, he's like the, did you know the size of the, the piece of ordinance that we're dealing with? And of course I tell him, I said, no, we just saw the wires and all that kind of stuff. He goes, well, you're dealing with a pressure plate ied and the size of the round that's underneath it as a one five, five round. Okay. So let's, let's explain what that even means, right? So one, five, five round folks is the type of thing, if you've ever seen the gigantic tank looking thing with a big old canon on it, that is an artillery style of vehicle.
Speaker 2:
15:38 And what that is designed to do as hurl a bullet over the course of not just feet or meters or yards, it's supposed to be up to miles away and a one, five, five rounds. The standard round size of what one of these massive tank like artillery vehicles fires. So needless to say, it packs a large punch. It is probably a couple of steps underneath like some of like our rockets that we can fire that can actually decimate like a, like a square kilometer. And we stood and we were standing on it and we come to find out that not only were we standing on it but it was also pressure plate Id folks that could have died that day. And I didn't and I'm eod came out. We called them up afterwards because we identified that it was an explosive device. Eod comes out and of course I tried to put on the whole, you know, a facade of everything's all good, everything's great and let me go ahead and blow up this piece of ordinance so they let me do it.
Speaker 2:
16:47 It was kind of cool. They had a little robot that it went out at attached a piece of c, four, two and they let me push the button and I watched it blow up. And then of course another sense of doom fell over me because I said, wow, I could have been me in that gigantic mushroom cloud right there. And it wouldn't have just been brown and we're probably had that wonderful color that, that would have been the rest of me. And so, um, you know, we, we went back and we tried to decompress and stuff like that and there were some other things that had happened while we were over in Iraq that you just don't forget. And so, excuse me. So I come back. Good news was though, is that first of all, I made it home. And then secondly, um, I was accepted to physician assistant school. And so I show up for physician assistant school with your classic ptsd symptoms, you know, uh, at the time our first year was down in San Antonio, Texas. That's where we went to our first year during PA school. And they had
Frank:
17:50 the same exact barriers that we used during my deployment. I'm to direct the traffic. Like I was saying, I was on a highway. I remember it specifically. My hands were sweating. I was gripping the steering wheel with all of that. I had inside of both of my arms sweating profusely and a driving probably on a 65 mile an hour highway. I'm driving like 17 miles an hour, sweating. People are honking their horns behind me and stuff like that. And the reason why I felt that way was because of these same exact barriers that our enemy at the time would use to actually explode into our vehicles to try to kill us. Nightmares had them. I'm pulling away from people, Kinda could do it, couldn't do it. Of course, when I was at on-duty, everything was all good. When I was at home, I was by myself, um, turn to alcohol, self-medicated, all those things. Right? So I say that because somehow by the grace of God, I was able to still finish PA school, but one of the largest questions that I had was that I met Jackie and we got married somehow. She, uh,
Frank:
19:17 she's still, um,
Speaker 3:
19:20 saw something in me.
Frank:
19:26 Wish I could pause it because I need some water. But, um, finished school, go to another unit, um, ended up in a Fort Stewart, Georgia. Thank you. Ben. Ended up in Fort Stewart, Georgia and then I started seeing soldiers as a, uh, as a certified pa and it was therapeutic. And so, um, and so she's awesome by the way. And so, uh,
Speaker 3:
20:04 alright,
Frank:
20:05 like I finally have myself composed there and so it was therapeutic to be able to talk to soldiers about their experience as well. Excuse me. I was offered everything under the sun. I was offered any type of anti depression medication. I was offered, um, you know, opioid medications for my physical conditions and things like that. Passed it all up, drove on. But then I started looking into integrative health and I had the opportunity to do this while I was still on active duty. So I had some really great physical therapists that were doing some integrative measures. I had some, uh, some chiropractors that I had the pleasure and, and, and just blessing and of working with. And I started realizing while I was still on active duty that I was allowed to actually use natural methods instead of conventional medicine methods to manage my ptsd in my, um, you know, musculoskeletal conditions.
Frank:
21:14 It was at the same time. All right, so let me, let me parallel this. That the same time that I'm starting to get this bug about doing this. Jackie is creating the Paleo Mama website and so she's looking into how to create whole clean food for us to be able to eat, raising the kids with whole clean food, raising me if you will, with whole clean food and just um, and, and just, it all kind of started weaving together finally. So back in 2009, I think I did another deployment. It was my final deployment, but this time I was on the provider side and not the, I was still a soldier, but I mean of course I was on the provider's side, not the soldier side. And so through my workings with integrative health, I was able to start implementing these things because while we're down range, meaning like while we were deployed, I can't give medications to soldiers that are going to stop them from being on target.
Frank:
22:21 You know what I mean? Like, I'm not allowed to give them psychotropic medications because they may cause drowsiness and, you know, feelings of numbness and detachment from their surroundings. So I had to avoid anti depression medications, but these are men and women that are like, you know, possibly on their second, third, even fourth deployment because at the time we were super embedded in the Middle East and uh, and, and we were fighting like just chronic battle fatigue. Right. So like even coming back for 12 months or 15 months, we usually just recycling and just returning back to the Middle East. And so that was not an option. Um, I was not allowed to utilize opioid medications. Um, I wasn't allowed to give these prescriptions, you know, because they were dealing with chronic, you know, not just battle fatigue. And now we're dealing with like, you know, chronic knee pain and back pain and shoulder pain and hip pain and this pain and that pain.
Frank:
23:22 And I can't give these medications either. And so I had to get creative with how am I going to manage the stress of the environment both in a mental and physical way. And yet still be able to have them be able to complete the mission. So I had to get creative and I started developing these ways and so then my physical and mental conditions caught up with me. And, and at the time this was now a fast, or excuse me, rewind that a little bit to 2014 or 2013. I just, I couldn't do surface anymore. And so, uh, I was medically retired because of my conditions. And, uh, and subsequently I decided like, well, what do I do from here? Right? Like now I'm a, I'm a PA and I still want to help people. So what in the heck do I do? So I went back into being a Pa of course, but this time I said, I'm not going to do conventional medicine.
Frank:
24:21 I'm not going to do, you know, go see somebody and try to fix problems. Instead I'm going to actually sit down with people and talk with them about their problems and start practicing a lot of these things that I started learning in the military about trying to manage things without conventional medicine ways. So I started working for an integrated health clinic. It's kind of cool. We worked with a chiropractor as well, so I learned even more things about massage therapy and reiki healing and, and, and in acupuncture and I'm just all of these really awesome things that are out there that are unconventional and a, and are still extremely useful when used in, in certain ways. And so anyway, I'm at the same time, like I said, Jackie's website is starting to really gain some mats of traction. Uh, she's really exciting. A lot of folks, people are looking to her for do it yourself things and recipes and how to eat right and all these things that she's implementing with our family. And so, like I said, we start stitching and weaving together this basket or rope even more if you will. And so I said to myself like, you know,
Frank:
25:32 the city that we were living in the city that I grew up in a and it just wasn't doing it for us. Like we didn't want to be in, in a, you know, the city that we're living anymore. So I look at her at one point and I go, if you can live anywhere in the country, wherever would you think about it? And so that's when we started talking and we come to find out that we both love western North Carolina. And so I said, okay, we need a means to get there, we're going to need the money to get there. So what do we do? So all of a sudden this thing within that week pops into my inbox, um, you know, and, and it says that there's a job available for a physician, assistant instructor in western North Carolina. We're opening up a brand new school, it's going to be the satellite school of this other school near Charlotte and uh, and we need a PA or we need some PA's to go in there and in launch this and start teaching pa school,
Speaker 3:
26:23 I apply and I get the job.
Frank:
26:28 So we bundle everything up again and we have only lived in, we've only lived where we were living for what, five months maybe. And so we were like packing up again. So. Hi, welcome back to the military. Um, so we pack up and we move out here, don't know a soul. And a, I started teaching well at that point, that's when Jackie, founder, Tara, and some other things that she has been working on online and, uh, really started gaining some massive traction at this point, um, about her financial success that she was appreciating through her website. And so I remember at one point I looked at her and I go, well, okay, so this thing that you got going on, it's pretty awesome and you've grown it exceptionally well. And uh, you know, were you thinking about going with this? So she looks at me and she goes, I'd love for you to come on and work with me.
Frank:
27:18 And I told her, I said, well, you know, being the pragmatic than I am, I had to say, that sounds all well and good. It scares the living, you know, what out of me. But if you can replace my income as a professor in PA school, I'll come home and work with you. And she did. And so I'm now, excuse me, present day. I've been working with this cow. Um, for the last three and a half years and I haven't had to work in practice since. And so through that time we have been able to really dive into our, I shouldn't say I've been able to dive into, although I will speak about Jackie here in a couple of moments because she deserves a great deal of credit, um, about my recovery through ptsd. But, um, I started digging a little bit more it to the veterans administration system.
Frank:
28:14 Wonderful System when it works, right? Like, so they are. Everybody has a passion for helping veterans and we love that and we think that that's an amazing benefit that we have. The thing is though, is that like, you know, it's a little bit, it can be a little clunky at times and you know, there's certain types of modalities, if you will, for being able to be treated that aren't covered by veterans administration services. And so chiropractic medicine worked really well for me. Um, acupuncture worked really well for me. Come to find out the va actually will cover that. So that was pretty awesome. Um, but then I started moving over here in western North Carolina and if you haven't been here, it's a very natural community. Um, at the same time also we started getting this little crazy bug about like, well, let's be farmers to like, so like we went from this like let's do organic food or clean food and then why can't we start doing it ourselves?
Frank:
29:09 Like why can't we start making our own food? And so that whole thing was starting to kind of come to reality and crystallizing. And so, um, we had a hobby farm where we first started when I was teaching pa school and then we subsequently moved out of there and move north of Asheville and now we have a fully fledged farm here. And the, the, the agricultural piece of my overcoming things has been remarkable. There are now studies folks that are showing the benefit of combat veterans or veterans getting their hands into the soil, feeling those nutrients and those minerals that are able to really help with not only mental but even possibly physical conditions. And so I'm here to tell you that that's true. Farming has been therapeutic for me. There is this fancy term that we're not throwing around called Agra therapy, um, when we're talking about veterans and it's been monumental for my mental health.
Frank:
30:18 Um, something about getting into, you know, I'm not a big gardener but I still work with the land, um, but something about working with the land and working with animals has just been phenomenal for me. And so that's another piece that was always kind of working in there besides these nonconventional methods that has really helped. And lastly wants something that has really helped. Well, excuse me. So let's, that's, that's the, you know, so that's the piece in terms of like our nutrition, you know, and then I started functionally moving better with the farm and getting active and getting outside. One thing about western North Carolina is, it's unbelievable. The hiking trails and just being in nature and having like just this big back yard here. Um, so that was really helpful. I started sleeping better and I want to show you how to do that eventually.
Frank:
31:05 But I started actually getting like eight wonderful hours of sleep at night. No nightmares, no. Um, you know, abrupt wake ups, if you will. Um, I was arrested, I was able to reduce stress. I was able to manage my anxiety, um, through both, you know, some conventional, I'm convinced more conventional ways, but a lot of unconventional ways. And then we started to removing toxins from our home. You know, we started like eating off of the right things, using the right utensils, using the right food products, getting rid of these processed foods, not spraying anything at our farm and raising things in our organic methods. Uh, all of these things, you know, getting out and getting sunshine, you know, like started doing all these things and through these baby steps I've been able to over come any, well, most of my ptsd symptoms, I still carry some with me, you know, like Jackie can attest to the fact that when I'm sitting in a restaurant I got to sit in a particular spot, my house, good luck breaking in.
Frank:
32:10 It's like Fort Knox. Uh, so, you know, I still have some nuances about me, but I guess don't we all. But uh, but, but, but by far I would definitely say that I'm, I'm feeling pretty solid about where I'm at today. Here's the one piece that I'm going to do my best not to lose it because I already started losing it a little bit. I have to say something. So now I'm starting to lose it. So if you have mental health issues, if you have depression, if you have anxiety, if you have anything right, you have a fear of whatever. You have a support structure in your life. You may have a parent, you may have a brother and he may have a sister. You might have a cousin. You've got somebody who loves you. They are imperative to your wellbeing. The problem is though, is that by design, we as human beings are extremely not humble. We're terrible at sharing our hearts. And I sit here today to let you know that it works. You have to share what's going on in here and what's going on in here with somebody. You can't keep it to yourself because if you do, it'll eat you up from inside up.
Frank:
33:34 Jackie has been that for me. I'll keep it together. I promise you just need somebody who will be willing to accept that abrasiveness and who will accept the harshness and allow you to pour out of you what you have inside
Frank:
34:03 and you know why it's not going to happen once it happened a dozen times, but it's got to happen over time. We're not creatures. Excuse me. I use the analogy that we're not light switches, right? Like you can't just go and just go wake up all of a sudden the next day and just go. That said, I'm going to change myself. Right? Like you. You may wake up at the motivation to do so, but it's going to take time because it took you time to get there, and so you need to find somebody who can be your social support and your social structure who loves you. That's huge, who loves you and is willing to accept you even when you're at your worst. Find that person in your life. It's crucial. If you get nothing from this video, find someone in your life you know that you can do that with, could just be an old high school friend that you facebook message them, you know what I mean?
Frank:
35:00 Text them if you have their phone number, just say like, I need somebody and we always had that moment where you know, I can share something with you, but reach out. Find somebody. I'm somebody who is going to be loud to be transparent and allow you to literally off gas, you know, and and just and just be your worst and they'll just look at you and tell you everything's fine and everything's all good and be willing to accept you for everything that you are. Because what we need to do is what I've realized is in my own mental health, trying to push away, those are those characteristics that I didn't like. I found out that they came at me even harder with double or triple or even five times the effort I would push away, push away, push away, and would come back even harder. So what I've had to realize is that these are all characteristics that make me up and I have to embrace them. And so instead of, you know, proverbially poking at the line, we need to instead embrace and give that line a hug. And so, um, I say all that because support, support structure is, is worth it. I mean, I hate statistics. I know that statistics wake us up, but statistics don't give names and it's a shame that there's a statistic of 22 veterans a day commit suicide.
Frank:
36:37 Those 22 people, how many hundreds, how many dozens to hundreds of people do they affect that are still living.
Frank:
36:48 So it's, don't get me wrong, the 22 a day is an alarming number. It shouldn't even be one a day, but it is not just those 22 that are ultimately affected. Like I said, I'm trying not to sound callous when I say this. I don't want it to be one a day, but it's, you know, w we forget about also possibly the people that survived them, right? Because I always say that to my patients. I've said it for years is that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and that we've allowed it to get to the point where we're actually thinking about harming ourself. Um, some of you guys that might be watching this, some of you guys that, you know, could be on the call, I'm just going to be real. Somebody out there right now watching this may have had thoughts of harming themselves. And I tell you, find someone, if you share your heart, you're gonna be vulnerable and yes, you're gonna, you know, probably not be your best self, but the payoff is huge. Guys, the payoff could be life changing. It can be life saving. So I urge you find someone that can um, that can help.
Frank:
38:18 And uh, you know, I just want you to know that, um, that there's hope. Sorry, don't know where the salt gottman from, but wow, you when you talk about it enough and sure enough, there's always this little tiny bit that like bowl stir up inside of you. But I just want you to know that as a conventionally trained provider who has been practicing medicine on my own, excuse me, I don't feel like I've had it, but I definitely know that we can help. And so
Frank:
38:59 don't give up right there is hope for you, for your family, for your friends, whomever. We all know somebody. I jokingly say that like mental health is like the Kevin Bacon, you know the six degrees of separation game. Like we know somebody who has been affected or we are somebody who is being affected and we have to bind together and we have to create community. Again. That's where our relationships are. Excuse me. That's where our society is lacking. I just got finished with this really great, very inspiring conference that was put together here in my neck of the woods and providers from around the country. Matter of fact, medical providers, doctors, Dietitians, nurse practitioners, you know, those sorts of folks came together to talk about nutrition. Like how is it that some statistics that I can throw at you, right? Because they only are supposed to design to like catch attention because they are powerful in that regards. But like let's get rid of these statistics, right? It is 80 percent plus of Americans with chronic disease. There are actually preventable. I'll just let that sink in for a second. Eighty percent of Americans and our healthcare costs are because of preventable disease.
Frank:
40:31 Eighty percent. If I take five people, four of them have chronic illness.
Speaker 3:
40:41 What
Frank:
40:42 I mean, what are we doing to ourselves, right? Like this has got to stop. We've got to stop eating and not taking care of ourselves in this way. And so I want to help. And so I him devising a way to get what is going on in here out to you guys and I want to make sure that we can reach you in such a way that you can apply these things immediately. Um, so I asked the question, where do you see yourself in your wellness journey or in your way of trying to be more natural? Where do you see yourself in the next year?
Frank:
41:27 Because a lot can happen in a year and, and we want to help you do that. And so, uh, I'm going to be teaming up with a lot of these really great connections that I've made, other medical doctors and other folks who are wellness experts and I'm going to bring to you something that is going to be real, Raul probably unedited at times and, uh, extremely valuable and easy because that's what's important, right? I consider it, I can tell you just for example, I can tell you about food all day long about why you shouldn't eat this and why you shouldn't eat this and why you should eat this. But the fact of the matter is, is like does it taste good? Right? Because like if something doesn't taste good, it's not like it's going to be nutritionist because it's not even going to go into our mouth.
Frank:
42:14 And so we need to uncover and peel away the pieces of this onion to make it to where it's like useful for you. And so, uh, that is my goal. That is my mission. Like I said, I've been weaving this together or I shouldn't say that I've been leaving it because let's face it, no, I haven't. Um, it's, it's a, it's a story that I've just had to live out a or had the pleasure to live out, but now it's finally all coming together and so we want to teach you about food and, and functional movement and how to get better sleep and detoxing. We want to teach you all these things. So I, I just, I realized that, uh, all of these things happen because I want to be the conduit, if you will, of the testimony to be able to bring it to you. They'll let you know. There's hope that you don't have to become a statistic. You don't have to wonder why are you a slave to so many things and let you break free and let you be empowered and let you understand that there's hope.
Frank:
43:21 I'm excited. Can't say you don't see it, but I'm scared. I'm scared for a good reason. I have fear of what's to come because I don't want it to go really well. And, uh, you know, I just want to make sure, excuse me, that it's something that you can always provide value. And so a lot of guys, um, I'm planning on actually starting a podcast, I promise it won't be this long, but I'm going to bring a lot of these subject matter experts on my podcast and, uh, and, and really just try to meet you where you're at, you know, whether it'd be on your computer, you listened to me in your car, whatever. I want you to be able to hear this information and get some value, but most importantly, help you figure out the way to apply it into your life so you can start making the changes you've always wanted and started living the natural life that you deserve and stop being statistics.
Frank:
44:19 So like I said, love you guys. Can't wait to broadcast to you here in the near future. And please stay tuned to this website because we're bringing in big changes as well. And, uh, and we're gonna meet you where you're at. And we're going to have the beginning of the most healthiest, 2019 and we possibly can. And beyond, and so, uh, if you want to comment below, share your story, please let us know and those comments below because stories are powerful. You have a story, you are a story and a, and we need to bond together no matter what way it takes a, we need to bond together and we need to be willing to get each other's back. And most of all we need community. And so I urge you, please share your story, let us know how we can help and then help each other. And I cannot wait to see what this whole thing as we roll it out is going to do for you guys. And, and all of us saying, yeah, I'm just, I'm super excited. I'm just about to explode out of his chair by. I can't wait. So I hope you enjoyed this and I appreciate you giving me your time and thanks for letting me tell my story flush you.
