5 Foods Hijacking Your Health with Dr Allyson Brown

Key Topics Discussed:

• Dr. Brown’s MS diagnosis and her journey to recovery
• The connection between gut health and autoimmune diseases
• The impact of diet changes, specifically eliminating inflammatory foods
• Overcoming the psychological toll of chronic illness and adopting a "wellness warrior" mindset
• Practical strategies for taking control of your health through diet and lifestyle

Dr. Allyson Brown, a wellness expert and advocate for holistic health, particularly in relation to autoimmune diseases. Dr. Brown, the Director of Everheal and the creator of the Four-Step Life Formula Program, shares her personal journey of overcoming multiple sclerosis (MS) and the incredible healing power of food and lifestyle changes.

Diagnosed with MS at the age of 23, while pursuing a PhD in forensic analytical chemistry, Dr. Brown faced debilitating fatigue, brain fog, and fear of a life confined to a wheelchair. Initially, she experienced temporary relief through conventional medicine, but the turning point in her health came after she began experimenting with diet changes. Dr. Brown narrates the profound impact these changes had on her MS symptoms, transforming her life and sparking a deep desire to help others. After years of research into gut health and autoimmune conditions, she now shares this knowledge through her Four-Step Life Formula Program, aimed at empowering others to manage chronic illness naturally.

Dr. Brown details her experience with functional medicine and the critical link between gut health and autoimmunity. By eliminating inflammatory foods such as sugar, processed foods, gluten, and dairy, and incorporating anti-inflammatory options like vegetables, healthy fats, and certain non-dairy substitutes, she not only regained her energy but also reversed many of the MS symptoms. She emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the body’s signals and making conscious choices to fuel it with the right foods.

The conversation dives into the emotional and psychological transformation that comes with chronic illness. Dr. Brown talks about her identity shift from being defined by illness to embracing the role of a "wellness warrior." This shift not only allowed her to reclaim her life but also to inspire others to take control of their health. 

Dr. Brown also offers practical advice for listeners struggling with chronic health issues, emphasizing the importance of starting with simple steps like eliminating a few common inflammatory foods. She advocates for building healthy habits over time, highlighting that these changes, although challenging at first, can lead to profound and lasting improvements in health.

If you're interested in making meaningful, sustainable changes to your health, Dr. Brown offers a free "Eat This, Not That" guide and encourages listeners to sign up for a free health strategy session through her website. She also offers personalized health blueprints to help individuals understand their specific needs and create a tailored plan for achieving better health.

Resources Mentioned:

• Dr. Allyson Brown's Four-Step Life Formula Program
• Free "Eat This, Not That" Guide
• Free Health Strategy Session (https://calendly.com/everheal/health-strategy-session)

Tune in and learn how you can start your own journey to better health today!

https://www.facebook.com/allyson.everheal/
https://www.everheal.com.au/

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Music.

Dianne Flemington: 0:22

Welcome, to the Healthy Aging coach podcast. I'm your coach. Dianne Flemington, Hi. Welcome to another episode of the Healthy Aging coach podcast. Today's guest Dr Allison Brown is an amazing woman. You will get to hear her story about how she has overcome some autoimmune diseases, and her participation in the world and what she's up to to educate and help support people, a generous hearted woman with lots of expertise, living expertise to share with all of you. So I would go grab yourself a nice warm beverage and sit down and have a little listen to what Dr Allison Brown has to offer us today. Now I'd be remiss if I didn't start with a wonderful introduction of Doctor Allison Brown. She is the director of everheal and creator of the four step life formula program. She completed her PhD in analytical research in 2010 and has presented nationally at the 2020 virtual disability Expo, and has been featured in ticker news, ticker insights, MS in touch magazine, and was an acclaimed speaker at the 2022 and 2023 symptom free ms Summit. After suffering from multiple sclerosis since 2005 Allison was forced to resign from her corporate job due to debilitating fatigue and brain fog. However, Allison's life changed forever when she discovered the healing properties of food, which helped her overcome these symptoms and restore her quality of life, Alison was researched has then researched recommendations from experts and functional medicine practitioners from across the globe to discover the critical links between gut health and autoimmunity, and sharing her research and life formula program to help educate, encourage and empower fellow autoimmune sufferers about how to improve such an important topic. Okay, tribe, here she is. Dr Allison Brown, yay. I am telling them about you. I am just like, I respect you. I'm proud of you. You've got amazing story to share. You're a huge inspiration for me, and I feel like I just met you, like a few months ago, and so I'm just totally excited to dig right in. How are you? Thank

Unknown: 3:09

you so much for having me, and it is so exciting. I'm super excited to be with you today and sharing my story and some stuff that might be able to help your tribe.

Dianne Flemington: 3:19

You are going to be more than a help to the tribe. This inspiration alone, your story is going to be moving. I'm moving them. I'm pretty sure of it, so I've set them up with your intro. They're ready for you. And I think that if it's okay with you, would you just be able to start us off with a little bit of your journey and story of how you got here?

Unknown: 3:40

Yeah. So I was doing my PhD in forensic analytical chemistry, and in the second year of that, when I was 23 years old, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So that was a pretty big hit for somebody that sort of needed their brain power and needed their energy and and really was trying to work in quite a stressful situation. Obviously, it was a really hard hit, because I had a lot of chronic fatigue, I had a lot of brain fog, and things just didn't look the same. My life was heading this way, and then it really got a bit derailed. So I I did manage to finish my PhD, I got my health sort of stabilized, I would say. So went to the point where I got around one relapse per year. So if you're not sure about MS, it's an autoimmune condition, and it affects the brain and spinal cord. So basically, your immune system, the thing that's supposed to protect you, starts to kind of go, Oh, that looks like a virus, or that looks like a foreign body, and it starts to attack these areas. And so you can imagine that attacks to the brain and spinal cord leave us with a lot of debilitating symptoms. So yes, obviously my mind went straight to like, Oh, I'm going to end up in a wheelchair before I'm I'm thinking. 30, which is actually what my neurologist told me in the first three years, because I had a lot of aggressive relapses that affected my leg function predominantly, and it was really scary time. So he said, if we don't figure out how to settle down these relapses, you'll be in a wheelchair by the time you're 30. Terrified me, but I was like, Well, I don't know how to do that, like, what? How do I control something that's uncontrollable? Anyway? So I was in a stressful relationship at the time as well. So I got out of that relationship. Things settled down, stabilized until 2013 2013 I had a very debilitating relapse that ended me up in hospital and I couldn't walk, so I was getting the usual treatment, which is a an anti inflammatory sort of treatment with corticosteroids that did nothing. And they did an experimental procedure on me called plasmapheresis, where they basically cut me open here in my at my collarbone, and put some lines in, and basically it was a line into my heart. And they pump your blood out. They spin the plasma down, they take out the plasma, sorry, spin the blood down, take out the plasma, put new plasma in and pump it back in. So it's like a normal change for your blood. It hopes that it would remove the antibodies that were actually causing the problem. So I had that procedure done. A couple of months later, I was like, look, it's only my leg function that's affected. My brain's still kind of wired, and I sort of want to get back to work. So I started figuring out a way. In fact, a mutual friend of ours, Simone Bohr, she was working at the same place as I was. So she drove me into work every day, and I, you know, we parked in the disabled car park, and I hobbled up with my my walking stick. And there was a lady that I worked with, and I didn't realize this at the time, but she was this light of inspiration and hope that I had never thought about. She came up to me day and she said, Have you ever tried changing your diet? And I was like, why would I do that? Like, what do you mean? What do you mean? Does that have to do? That's right. I was like, I've got multiple sclerosis. What's that going to do? And she said, Well, I've got an autoimmune condition too, and it's really helped me to start eating a clean diet. I'll bring in the cookbook for you. And I was kind of like, Oh yeah, okay, whatever you say. Anyway, she bought in the cookbook. And then I was like, Oh my God, she's going to know if I don't do anything with this, because I'm going to see it every day at work. So I was like, oh my god, I'm going to have to do this. So I went home to my husband. I was in a bit of a panic, but I was like, I think we need to make some changes to our diets. And he's, like, whatever you need, like, I'll just do whatever you want. We made changes, and for the next on and off of like, four years, we made changes to our diet. Needless to say, I regained my function. To walk again. I felt good. I'd lost a bit of weight. Everything was fine, but I had no idea that it was linked in any way to the diet change. So somewhere in four years, I just fell back into my old habits, and in 2018 I got a life changing relapse where my brain fog and energy was so bad that I had to resign from my corporate job as an analyst, and I couldn't even work out what work out what eight divided by two was one day like, that's how bad my brain function was. I remember just sitting on my couch looking like staring out the window like a zombie, thinking, This is it, if I don't work out how to get better, this is as good as my life is going to be, this sort of miserable existence just getting up and doing nothing and feeling nothing just is going to be the rest of my life. And that terrified me. So there was this little voice inside my head that went, Yeah, yeah, but didn't you do those diet changes that time? Remember those? And I was like, I guess I should try it, just to you know, love the list, just in case. Anyway. So I made the changes, and three months later, my brain function came flooding back, my energy came flooding back, like I was a teenager again. No longer had anxiety and depression. And I was like, what just happened? I had no and so I was like, this must be to do with food, because all the medication I'd been given, none of that had any impact, but food. I started looking, and the information I came across was so life changing. And I was like, oh my god, I never knew this. And so I thought, if I never knew it, other people didn't know it as well. I need to share this information. So that's what I got into my business for, and

Dianne Flemington: 9:42

your doctor didn't know it, no, because he they didn't point you in that direction. Yeah, that's, well, I

Unknown: 9:50

mean, that's a whole other issue. Is our direction in traditional medicine, in western medicine, is to just go down the pharmaceutical path. That's. What they know, that's what they get trained in. They don't get trained in in dietetics and nutrition. That's not what they do. They get trained in what medication can stop the symptoms for XYZ illness and what they do, yeah, which is unfortunate, but

Dianne Flemington: 10:15

wow. You know you're telling your story, and I'm literally, there's a sense of you went through, like an identity shift in all of this. Can you talk about that a bit like, what was that like for you?

Unknown: 10:28

Absolutely, you know, I think one of the hardest parts of ms, and I imagine that a lot of chronic health conditions, from what I hear from my clients as well, is that there's a sense of loss of who you are, because all of a sudden you become the illness, you become the fatigue and the low energy and the pain and the all of the bad things. And so I would say that over the course of my life, I was sort of almost, might have even been self branded, but as the pain girl, or the girl that's always sick, or the girl that always has the medication in her bag, if you've got a headache, just go to Alison. She's got painkillers, all of that sort of stuff that was my identity, and somewhere you lose your sense of happiness and self worth and things that matter to you? Do you go through this loss period and it's so frustrating because you just want to get back to you. You just want to feel better, and when you just don't know how that becomes really, really frustrating. So now I'm actually in the in the I went through the process of adopting a new identity for myself, and because I decided that my future could look like, oh yeah, I've got MS, I'm a that girl, but it also could look like I'm the wellness warrior that fights against illness and that is going to live a life of wellness. So that's the identity that I adopt now, is the wellness warrior. That's my new identity.

Dianne Flemington: 12:02

Amazing. How did you get from there? Like, how did you get from that victim and mentality to wellness? Like, you say you adopted it, but it's not like a flip of a switch. I can't imagine it was like that.

Unknown: 12:15

Definitely not and what you So, what I was doing was I was fighting against all my upbringing, all of the you know, you get sick, you take medication, Allison, like that was my entire knowledge base of how you treat illness, and that, as I said, become my identity. But what you need to do at some stage is to take responsibility to go, Well, if I sort of might have contributed to this, then I might be able to contribute to fixing this. And that was a big realization for me, was that I actually wasn't powerless in this journey, this struggle, that I know that maybe your tribe, or definitely people that I've met across the traps, have definitely experienced this feeling, and when we start to take ownership, to go, you know what? I could just make maybe a better choice, and maybe I feel better. And then when you realize that you do feel better, and you go, Oh, that actually made a difference, maybe I'm going to keep doing that, and it kind of becomes this self perpetuating thing. So when I work with clients over three months, we develop habits. We develop new delhi daily healthy habits. And that's the period of time that it takes before they go. You know what else? And I got this, like, see you later. I'm all in like, I know exactly what I've done, exactly how I feel, and if I ever stray from it, I know why I felt the way that I felt sorry. It's super important. It's super inspiring to just see clients take action, take that responsibility, and see them, their switch their the light goes off, and they go, I get it now, and they're unstoppable. Honestly, it's amazing. Wow.

Dianne Flemington: 14:01

It's like, I don't know there's so much gift giving going on here, and your generosity of spirit is just viewing through right now. So that's lovely. So tribe Alison was just talking about the transition space between, you know, having choice, knowing that something's not working in ourselves, and having choice to create our new identity. And I hope that you heard there's a couple of key things that she just mentioned in there was one, just the noticing, like what's not working and what is working. And then there's your choice, your Power Zone is in there, but also getting clear on what is it that that future identity you want to look like? So even though Allison might be talking about it in terms of, you know, wellness, we can do this in any area of our life. And I just wanted to tap in you're on the shoulder tribe, and just say, hey, here's a pretty amazing example of, you know, looking to shift our identities intentionally. So thanks Allison for sharing that out loud.

Unknown: 14:59

Appreciate that. Yeah, very well, and it's been a big game changer for me and my clients as well. So I'm happy to share anything that can help others. Yep,

Dianne Flemington: 15:09

we got that. Your heart is beaming, you know, food, right? Oh, like you say that. And I am over a year, and I don't consider myself, you know, the most healthiest person on the planet, and I'm not the most unhealthiest, and I have gotten that sense of, geez, when I eat this, this happens, and when I eat that, that happens. But it's to your point, it's hard to stay on track. But is there like, an easy Is there, like, what are some inflammatory foods that you might want to share with us, or ways to find out what is working. What What are inflammatory foods for each of us? Are they all the same? Or, how does this go for you?

Unknown: 15:47

Yeah, and I, I do appreciate that everybody's different and that everybody has different triggers. I love what you said before about the awareness of self. Is that if you eat something and your body starts going, Oh, I'm getting bloating or gas or headaches or a rash comes up, or something that doesn't feel good, that's your body going I couldn't cope with that. I'm going to inflammation and give you a warning sign. So they're warning signs. So I just wanted to reflect on what you just said, because that's super important. The awareness is a huge key when it comes to what foods should we be eating? I like to stay simple, so I recommend to eliminate five foods. Start with five foods only because I like that blanket for everybody, and I'm going to prove to you that they are so if I say I'm going to say a word a food. You tell me whether it's a good food for your health or a bad food for your health, just okay. So if I say sugar, is this a good food or a bad food? Bad,

Dianne Flemington: 16:49

so bad, okay, got it right.

Unknown: 16:54

What about processed foods? Bad,

Dianne Flemington: 16:56

so bad, bad. Okay. Tip.

Unknown: 16:58

What about vegetables? Good,

Dianne Flemington: 17:01

good. Well, most of them are good,

Unknown: 17:05

three out of three.

Dianne Flemington: 17:06

What about if

Unknown: 17:07

I say alcohol? Bad? Okay, bad. Guess what? You got them all right, so you want to what those so obviously I just mentioned three bad foods. There sugar, processed foods and alcohol. I didn't even need to tell you. So those would be the places to start. If you are like, I don't know where to start, those would definitely be the places to start with the five foods, sugar, processed foods, alcohol, as we've just said, but also gluten and dairy. So in about 70 to 80% of the population, gluten and dairy are inflammatory. Now, some people can handle them without causing inflammation. Most of the population, though, has an inflammatory response. So I could go into the details of why, but it probably isn't necessary for this one. But if you're feeling like, if you drink milk and you get like, oh, big tummy, and you feel really, oh, heavy and bloated, and it's probably your body is going I can't really process that. It's not working for me. Yeah. So those are some good indicators. And same with gluten. Gluten free bread is a better option. A two milk is a better option. Lactose free milk is a better option. Goat's milk, goat's cheese, better option. But it won't bore you with all the details, but yeah, that would be the places to kind of start with those inflammatory foods.

Dianne Flemington: 18:27

So just to step on gluten a little bit longer. How do we know if we actually have like, we say inflammatory, but what are we looking like? Do my joints blow up? Or what am I actually experiencing we classify as inflammatory? There

Unknown: 18:42

are, like, a bunch of different inflammatory symptoms. Basically, if it doesn't feel good in your body, like, as a really just blanket general rule, it's probably like, there's a reason that that's happened, because your body is actually built to function perfectly well. You know, 99 point whatever percentage of people their bodies are, they're born and they're raised that their bodies are perfectly willing to be able to do things heal their body, just everything. It's it's designed to work perfectly. It's just that we hijack it by putting in the wrong stuff and fueling it with the wrong food. So I usually tell people, listen to your body. It's the best indicator of whether or not you're getting those inflammatory symptoms, but it can. It could look like brain fog, fatigue, migraines, headaches, uh, joint pain, acne, it can be a bunch of different ones. But if your body is feeling something not so good, try to trace it back to why, try to look for that root cause. And often it's something that we ate. And often we actually know, you know, we'll go out and have McDonald's and we'll be like, Oh my God, I feel so sick, and I've got bloating and I've got headaches but, but it was tasty, so I'm just gonna deal with it. You know?

Dianne Flemington: 19:56

So funny. I was cycling the other day, and I. On the way back, I usually get, like, a smoothie from coffee bean there, I don't know why, like a banana Moroccan or something anyway, just something to help the energize me to get back. And there was three construction workers standing there, and they were talking about McDonald's, and they're standing in line to get a sandwich or something, and I heard them say McDonald's is great for like, the first 30 minutes, and then after 30 minutes, I'm like, That's pretty amazing, that their that their awareness of that is there. So that's great.

Unknown: 20:28

I mean, the things more like about a minute or whilst it hits your taste buds, because your taste buds will go, oh, this tastes really good. And then your body, once it processes your body's like, Oh, what is going on here? And honestly, I have to admit, I grew up on McDonald's once a week. We would, I hate it, Saturday, and we would eat McDonald's as a family. That was family time, and we would have McDonald's once a week. So I was addicted to sugar and junk food since before I can remember, but like, 30 years it was rare sugar and junk food addiction. But it can be done. I promise you, if I can do it, I figure anyone can do it honestly. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington: 21:12

but seriously, and actually, something that you just raised there that gets me curious is how we're raised, right, where some people say, Well, I never, I'm fine, and I grew up eating this stuff. And maybe there's they're not paying attention to symptoms, so I don't know. Is there anything to be said about that? Or we just,

Unknown: 21:34

they're just kind of a lot of what you see is that people kind of go, Oh, I've got, I've got diabetes, but it runs in my family, like they'll put a thing on it, that it runs in my family. Now, what I will say about that is that it's only 25% genetic 75% which is huge, by the way, is environment. So what it means is, if you're if you're getting raised in a family that, yes, you're eating McDonald's once a week, like me, if you have the genetic predisposition to actually get a chronic illness, you've got the genetic little code sitting there, but it has to be switched on or off. Now, if you're eating the wrong foods, and you're kind of creating the perfect storm. Now it's not just not just food, but it's sort of stresses and medications and all sorts of stuff. If you're creating the perfect storm, it flips the switch on to go, Yep, we're going to flick on the switch for autoimmunity, or MS, in my case. So that was the real what pulled the trigger was actually my environmental factors. Now, I wasn't destined to get MS, but I was predisposed to potentially get it if the conditions were right, which obviously, because of that there being a poor conditions, that's what sort of triggered that to go on.

Dianne Flemington: 22:51

That's brilliant. I want the tribe to hear that no matter what your condition growing up is, you're not at the circumstance of it. You can make and try what Allison's speaking to, and work walking away from inflammatory foods. You know, you know what the top three are. Now, what if you just tried that? That's brilliant. So I hear the word inflammatory, but then there's anti inflammatory. So what can you speak to anti inflammatory foods? Yeah,

Unknown: 23:21

look, um, where I would go with that is obviously steer and clear of those five inflammatory ones, but things that we know are good for us, like you mentioned, vegetables, for the most part, most vegetables are going to be good for us. There are some vegetables that aren't as good and aren't that are actually inflammatory for some people, excuse me, like nightshades, for example. Nightshade vegetables are a certain class of vegetables that include things like white potatoes, capers, chilies, that sort of thing, eggplant and that can cause inflammation for certain people. So if you're getting bad symptoms when you eat those, you're one of those people, and you should steer clear of that, because you're going to listen to your body and hear what it's saying to saying to you, and it's it's warning you to not eat those. So vegetables would be the number one. There's full of phytonutrients, phytochemicals that are actually going to heal your body, which is amazing. That's where I definitely start. Obviously, fruit is, is okay in moderation, things like, fish, you know, we don't eat enough fish these days. Things like, great with four omega threes. Nuts and seeds are amazing, preferably activated. If you can non dairy, milks, that would be your substitute for, you know, milks as well. What else are really good healthy fats, I think we underestimate the importance of healthy fats, and that's things like avocado oil, olive oil, good, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, things like that that are actually going to boost that fat burning potential in your body. But, yeah. We do need fat our brains predominantly fats, fat to bridge the barriers to in order to get those, get those through there. So those are some of the My Favorite anti inflammatories that I would go with. And definitely herbs as well. Herbs huge.

Dianne Flemington: 25:17

So I'm over here going, yeah, if I'm just starting out for the first time, and this going, oh my gosh, like that feels like a whole lot of learning. I would clearly reach out to you for sure. And what's, what does someone expect? Like, what's the first step? Where would you start them down the path?

Unknown: 25:41

Yeah, look, I think one of the first steps is, is you can get, I've got a free sort of eat this, not that diagram that I can send out to people that sign up to my Facebook, Facebook group. That's a good place to start. But if you're looking at that and you're like, Oh, I'm going to try this this week, and then you get two days in and you're like, Oh, it's just all too hard, and I don't know what to book in a free strategy session with me to just talk where you currently at. Because sometimes people go, I don't really know what to do, where to start. And then one of the other things that I can do is do a health a custom health blueprint for you, so you answer any questions, then we talk through how you're going in these different key life areas, and where can we actually get you some wins on the board so you can start feeling better as soon as possible, and otherwise, the next sort of steps would be to work together to do some coaching, do my programs that actually teach you more in depth information about gut health and the importance of different foods and lifestyle and all that sort of stuff as well. So it depends on what kind of level of support and guidance people need. But, you know, I offer a different range of things, but certainly can get get into a free health strategies session would be a good place to start as well. Awesome.

Dianne Flemington: 26:59

Thanks for those, Allison and my tribe does know that coaches have tons of merit to getting people to create momentum around changes they want to make in their life. So I'm just going to reiterate that you know, Allison would be a fantastic place just to start, get started, find out where you're starting at as she speaks to as she's talking, to get that assessment through Allison, and then have her help you create that momentum in a healthy way, and someone to check in with that can because there is a lot of learning, I would say, behind you know, not just the foods themselves, but really what most important to each of us is how they correspond and relate with our body. And Allison would be early on. I don't know that. So that's amazing,

Unknown: 27:43

and that's a great support. It's, it's what I developed, because I know how tough it is, like I had to make the changes by myself, and I had no idea what I was really doing. I was stumbling my way through. It took me longer than it probably should have, and still I kind of, I fell into the results. But the thing is that the statistics don't really want either, because only 5% of people actually succeed on their own. Because it's tough making changes to your diet and lifestyle, particularly overcoming things like sugar addiction. It's really tough because we get in the sugar addiction cycle as well. And basically, if you've ever had sugar cravings that are like, just go get some sugar. You know, you want me, Come on, have a chocolate bar. And you're like, oh my god, I just need to right now. Those are really strong cravings, and I'm definitely aware of those, and it was really tough to overcome by myself. So look, getting the help to actually guide you through what to expect, overcoming or detoxing. Detoxing goes through a whole lot of stuff through your body. That's when people quit. It's, you know, within the first week, three weeks, something like that, where they're overcoming sugar, they're going through all these types of changes. Their body's detoxing all these inflammatory chemicals, and that's when people quit, because they're like, I feel like crap. I'm doing all these changes. I'm not even feeling better, because that's what happens. That's why people fail. And I almost was one of the in fact, I did it many times, like I do those yo yo diets that I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna do a diet. And then, you know, two weeks in, I'm like, Oh, I feel terrible. And the food's, you know, it's just not worth it, right?

Dianne Flemington: 29:29

No, yeah, that's brilliant. I'm glad you shared all that. What's it look like if people are showing up in there working with, like, their own GP, or, I don't know, functional medicine doctor, or something like that, and they've requested that you're now part of their team. Do you work along those conditions? Look, sometimes

Unknown: 29:51

people are working alongside, particularly a functional medicine practitioner, and often, you know, there's recommendations that I'd say to people that might just check. Your physician just to make sure that's right for you. Because not everything's going to be 100% perfect for everyone, but it's definitely great to have a healthcare team, you know, a bunch of people that can support you. So getting a naturopath or functional medicine practitioner is one of the best things that you can do. They're going to point you in the right direction as far as that goes. Yeah, it's definitely great, because that helps you to overcome the 95% failure rate. You're actually setting yourself up for success, which is, yeah, good, brilliant, brilliant. The

Dianne Flemington: 30:31

tribe is aware of how I support them build their healthcare team. So it's and I just wanted to check in and let know that Allison works alongside the team other team members. So don't let it feel like it's a one or another situation. Remember, the more team members that are in the know, the better off we're going to be by creating that momentum and knowledge for ourselves. So that's great. Um, how can they find you? Allison, like, what? What might they be looking for when they get to work with you. What are some things that you do? You do one on one, I think is one of my first questions. You do one on one? Yeah. People

Unknown: 31:08

are Yeah, okay. We do one on one coaching as part of my three months life formula program. That's the program that I first built. That's my signature program, which is three months, because that's how long it takes to make sustainable diet, lifestyle changes, and to overcome that detoxing and sugar cravings and to basically get to the point where they're like, You know what? Allison, I've learned everything I need to learn from you. I feel amazing. See you later. I'm online. It's really empowering for people when they're like, I know what to do now. I'm not lost in the dark, just randomly trying to make changes of stuff that I think they've learnt, the basics, they've understood it, and they're empowered to be able to make those changes, which is super important. We can also do group coaching as well. So I have a little group coaching class as well that we just sort of try to support each other, get your questions answered, do some little meditations and all that sort of stuff as well, just to help it feel like it's a community, because that's important as well. Yeah, definitely.

Dianne Flemington: 32:10

So tribe, I've put in the transcript. And if you're listening to some audio alone, you'll see it in the podcast notes all the connection and links to access Allison and her tools, and I think she said something about a cheat sheet for us that she might supply for the tribe. So we'll get that added in there. We'll just tug some hairs over there, and we'll get her to put that in there for us. And we will any last minute advice that you want to give to the tribe around you know what to notice? I don't know, just anything that's kind of hanging out on the fringe that you want to fold into this conversation. Listen.

Unknown: 32:45

I just think you know, one of the best piece of advice is to listen to your body. And if you're kind of, if you're having sort of stop and weight gain or brain fog, fatigue, those are the three most classic symptoms that I ever hear from my clients, whether or not they have autoimmunity or not. These are people. It could be, you know, working professionals. It could be sports, athletes. It could be, you know, the stay at home mom. It could be anybody. But these are the most common symptoms, and they're all related. They're all related to gut health. And when we start fixing up our gut health through diet and lifestyle changes, we can start to see big changes. So if you're sort of going, You know what, I think I might fall into that category, just reach out, reach out and and and give me a call, or otherwise. Diane, Dianne, is actually quite an expert in this space as well. To be a nurse, she's selling herself short.

Dianne Flemington: 33:37

I don't think so. So let me ask you something, if they do supplementations or anything like that, are you able to still kind of bring them along and form them and work with the food? Okay? Awesome, yeah, great, yeah, sure. The tribe is

Unknown: 33:50

supplements. It's supplementary to the basic kind of thing. So we want to as much as possible and then just supplement as we need to

Dianne Flemington: 33:59

brilliant. Love it. Okay. Thank you. You like I said, when I first met you and heard your story, I was really gobsmacked, so I'm in awe of you, if I have to admit the truth. And thank you so much for taking the time to be on here. But you don't get off so quick, because the tribe loves these fire questions. They want to know our guests. They want to know, hey, how long do you want to live to

Unknown: 34:27

you know what? I don't have a number in mind, but as long as I'm happy and healthy, I don't mind. You know, it could be any number of days, any number of years, any number of anything. As long as I'm happy and healthy, then I live a full and happy life. So one of the

Dianne Flemington: 34:47

questions I usually ask as a partner to that is, you know, what will what will living to that length of time allow you to be do or have? So let me just rephrase this for you, since you answered it and kind of. Of you know, an ambiguous way. What will what kind of life are you? Say, fulfilled, happy life. But what's going on for you? What will you be doing, and what would you have? And I share a bit of

Unknown: 35:12

that. Yeah. So my husband and I are currently on a bit of a route to become rent investors. So we have a plan to sell our principal place of residence and go and live wherever we want to live, and have investment properties that earn us some interest sort of money along the way. So this would effectively allow us to be able to travel. We love traveling. We are starting to run workshops and health and wellness workshops to help people to boost their health and lifestyle. I'd love to be able to run those all over the world. That would be my absolute dream. And, yeah, travel amidst, amidst the workshops like that would be amazing. Running retreats, wellness retreats. Let's go do that. Why

Dianne Flemington: 35:56

don't we? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love it. I'm in. So next question, number two is, what is something that scares you about growing older? Um,

Unknown: 36:10

it's a really good question, um, and not something I've ever really thought about. I suppose what, what might have used to scare me is, you know that old age comes with, you know, Alzheimer's and dementia and all of those illnesses that you kind of go, wow, that's just part of aging. But what I know now is that those things aren't my destiny, aren't my fate if I make those changes now, so that sort of scares me a lot less. I suppose what would scare me is that I get to the end of my life and I haven't been happy and fulfilled, you know, and I haven't I look back with regrets about what I could have done, what I should have done. So yeah, that would probably be my biggest fear, is having regrets. Okay, got it. Can't imagine someone so generous, like you have regrets, but hey, everybody's different, right?

Dianne Flemington: 37:06

Okay, last question, who's the coolest oldest person? You know, they could be alive or dead,

Unknown: 37:12

coolest older person? Um, look, I have to be a little bit biased. Um, I really love Dr Mark Holman, yeah, he's, like, all about longevity and everything. And, you know, he's, like, working out, he's probably looks as fit and as he is as healthy as he possibly has been all of his life. And he's in his probably 60s or 70s or something now, yeah. And I kind of just go, wow. Like, you know, if somebody like him can kind of go, the light switch went off in my brain, and now I'm going for it. You know, that gives us a little bit of inspiration to be able to just go and do those things and make them happen, take that action to make it happen. Because, if we're just sitting on our hands, guess what?

Dianne Flemington: 37:58

Things are going to happen? That's, yeah, I think

Unknown: 38:02

the Einstein quote, which is the definition of insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I was doing that my whole life. I didn't realize that I needed to actually change. I thought that I could just buy the book or watch the video and then I'd be fixed. Doesn't work that way. You've got to take the action. So yeah, that was my hard learning that way. But yes, Dr Mike Hyman would be the cause person. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington: 38:29

I'd have to agree with you on that one, too. He is pretty darn cool. All right, thank you, Allison and the tribe for hanging out with us today. You know where to reach Alison. All of those details will be provided for you, and I hope everybody remains well, makes great health decisions and go and love, go and love on a loved one or a friend near you today. We'll see you later. Thank You. Allison Ciao, for now you