Rebellious Wellness for Women Over 50 with Gregory Anne Cox

Today's guest is Gregory Anne Cox. By nature Gregory is a rule breaker — and she encourages her clients to be too — because (many) of the rules are made by people with financial incentives to promote them, or, they continue to live in the comfortable shade of old science despite new findings. Like genes are not destiny.The Rebellious approach says there is No. One. Way. to be healthy. And that genes are only a small part of how we age. Experts say somewhere between 20% and 30%. Gregory can help you find the way that will work for you–no matter how long you’ve been at it or how many ways you’ve tried.

Rebellious Wellness Over 50 is a platform with Gregory's core belief that it is an act of rebellion to stand for your health in this world of Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Medicine.Rebellious Wellness exists so you can arm yourself with the latest and best science has to offer us, so you have choices. Gregory is a certified life and weight loss coach, science geek, author and podcaster. She has invested countless hours and dollars in learning about all aspects of women's health from hormones to thyroid health, genetics and alternative options for healthy aging.

Empowered Within Host:
Hi, I'm Jennifer! Empowering You to Be You! Welcome to my cozy world, our "ah-ha" place of growth, insights, healing, inspiration and empowering success!

Jennifer Pilates, Spiritual Thought Leader has been  transforming clients body, mind and spirits worldwide for over 20-years as a Celebrity Trainer + Empowerment Mindset Coach, World-Renowned Intuitive-Medium Advisor, Author and Host of the Top-Rated Podcast Host Empowered Within. 

 Jennifer is a  multi

Claim Your First Grocery Delivery Order FREE - Click Here
I Love the convenience of working while someone else is grocery shop

Jennifer Pilates Exclusive 8-week Pilates  program will give you a total Body, Mind and Spirit Transformation of health and wellness! JOIN TODAY! 
Use Promo Code: EWSpecial for $200 Savings!! 

Transcript

0:59

Welcome to Empowered Within a Soul Quenching transformational podcast that will set your soul on fire through candid and inspiring conversations. Leading experts, celebrities, healers, and I share our journeys of how we've overcome challenges to living an empowered life from within. I'm your host, Jennifer Pilates. Welcome to another episode of Empowered Within. Hi there and welcome to the show. Today's guest is Gregory Ann Cox. Rebellious Wellness exists so you can arm yourself with the latest and best science has to offer us so you have choices. Gregory is a certified life and weight loss coach, science geek, author, and podcaster. Gregory Ann's childhood dream of becoming a doctor. Never had a chance but. That didn't stop her from finding a way to help people heal. She has invested countless hours in learning all about aspects of women's health, from hormones to thyroid to genetics, and alternative options for healthy aging. Gregory is both serious about her work and funny about getting Older as the rebellious being that she is by nature. Gregory Ann is a rule breaker and encourages her clients to be so too. She believes there is no inevitable decline just because the clock is ticking. Changes, yes. Falling apart? No. Will I say amen to that? And welcome to the show Gregory Ann. Thank you, Jennifer. Great intro. Oh, I thank you. This is you. This is your amazing life. My goodness. So tell me what brought you to Rebellious Wellness? What was that pivotal moment in your life and how did you get that great name? Well, rebellious wellness name or my name? Well, both. I love'em both. Let's start with rebellious wellness. I came out of the womb with a rebellious streak. I was late, I was not coming. And then, you know, finally they made me happen. But my mother would tell you I never was. I was a polite, nice child, but I wasn't easy in the sense that there were too many rules and there were boxes, there were sides around the sandbox. And so I had this in instinctive way of being, that meant I was going to challenge the status quo. And I guess the first, you mentioned I wanted to be a doctor. I really did because I saw that if, you know, people were hurting or people were sick, being a doctor would be a way to help them. As it turns out, it was a good idea that my chemistry teacher said, you really are not good at science. You should stick to language. You're really good at language. And it, you know, threw me off course, but I never would've made a great Western medical model doctor. I could have gotten through the schooling, I would've learned the chemistry and the science, cuz I love science. But what I find about conventional medicine, western medicine anyway, is that it's a prescription pad formula. It's a cradle to grave situation and it is not a listening. Situation and people need to be heard. Their stories about their trauma, their pain, the good stuff, the bad stuff. And western medicine just isn't designed to help people heal. It's helped. It's designed to help people in emergencies get through those onto the next thing. So my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when I was 19. And I still had this idea that I wasn't gonna medical school but I was gonna become a psychologist. But when she got sick, it sort of took all of our attention towards her. And this was many years ago when there was no like five year chance of recovering and being, it was just a death sentence. And watching her decline, I started reading every natural health book cuz they were giving her medicine and they sent her home and said, there's nothing we can do. And I thought, oh God. I got this hit. I'm like, there's something we can do. I know there's something we can do, and I really, that was the moment that I decided to look outside of Western medicine and not to say that. I could have cured her. I couldn't have, I don't believe that alternative cures will necessarily cure a person's cancer unless they have a very strong intention. That's a whole different conversation. But what we do know is that adjunct therapies, alternative practices can help support a person's body who's going through any kind of a major. Medical health shift, health problem. So little by little I just kept reading and writing. I started blogging about this stuff. When I hit perimenopause, I was, I had a blog. It was like, Jesus Christ, what the hell is happening here? And how do we hit, how do we fix it? Right. And I got a following. And then, you know, so that's the genesis. And my name, my, my name is Gregory because my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's maiden name was Gregory. And then I was born on St. Gregory's Day and somehow in an Irish Catholic family, that all came together as a decision. I love that decision coming from a very Irish Catholic family myself. So I understand that. So I wanna talk about how you believe there is no inevitable decline. Talk to me about that. What do you mean when you say that? Because I'm sure some people are like, well, wait, what do you mean I don't have to decline? Well, I think we need to define decline or at least set a, oh, what's a distinction between declining and having things change? I'm not saying that we won't lose some muscle unless we work really hard, and even then I won't. I'm not saying that our metabolism doesn't slow down. It does. I'm not saying that we feel like we're losing our mind because we can't find our keys more often, or the person's name that we're talking to in that moment. Those things will happen, but I mean, decline in the sense that we become less of a person. Our world becomes smaller. Our relationships shrivel up. Communication is not great because we're cranky about our pain. That's what I mean by decline. We don't have to have that experience just because the body is changing and we have to change along with it. And I think that's what some people feel challenged by is, you know, I can't. Walk as fast as I used to, and so now I'm not gonna walk or I'm not going to be able to, you know, pick up my grandkids. It's just too hard. So I'll let them come to me on the couch if we want to stay vibrant and have the flexibility, literal flexibility in our body, and the flexibility that comes with having a body that works. We have to adapt to the changes and figure out what we can do rather than focusing on what's not working. Right. I think that is great advice and great reminders for people. I was watching a commercial the other day subjected to a commercial, Greg, and it's all about these new sneakers and how they're just slip on. Yeah. In my, the, in my mind, I'm like lazy. encouraging people to not bend over. Yeah. Right. And I, and so it's exactly what you're saying. And I think that, people get into that lax of day because this is what's being fed to you every day, throughout society. And it's really looking at yourself and going, well, how do you really feel? Yeah. So you talk about there are five things that every woman needs to say. I love this to stay fit, healthy, sassy, and sane. After 50, what are those five things? Because I can tell you I have a birthday coming up here shortly and I might need them. Oh, okay. Happy birthday in advance. Thank you. Okay, so this really is a circle of thing. It's five things, but no one thing except maybe sleep is more important than the others. Cuz without sleep, the others, without each one of them, each other one gets harder, if you know what I mean. So it's not like a progression like today I'm gonna eat healthy tomorrow, I'm gonna move my body. Then so the five things are sleep, as I mentioned. Really the number one most important thing for our overall health, and especially as we age for our brain takes the biggest hit if we're not good sleepers, and it's a total myth. Ladies and EU gents that might be listening in, that we don't need as much sleep as we age. We absolutely need the same amount of quality sleep. The next thing is to fall in love with fat. Oh, the horrors. Let's talk about fat. People still in this day and age, which surprises me, have a fat phobia. Many people do, and if we look fat is very healthy. It's a long, slow burn of energy as opposed to simple carbohydrates. I'm not saying carbohydrates all across the board. I'm talking about, you know, like white pasta, white bread, sugary things. They burn up through your body really quickly, and so then you're left hungry earlier than you need to be. Whereas if you put fat on ti, even put fat on your carbohydrates, your simple carbs, it'll help you stay full longer and have more energy, which is really what we're looking for. Right. And I know that there are certain nutrition experts that say certain people should eat throughout the day. Snack, and a small meal here and there. I don't actually hold that's a good thing for the body. If you think about the many thousands of years of people before us, they didn't have food as accessible as we do all the time. They didn't eat whenever they felt like it, and they stayed long and healthy. Now, granted, they didn't live to 86, 85, 90, a hundred, but they were also fighting off saber tooth tigers and, you know, living in conditions that no antibiotics for, you know, an infection. So fat is really important. So the other thing is protein and fat in real whole foods almost always come together. If you think about an avocado, it has both. Salmon has both. Dairy products have both, and together they make up a core of good, solid, again, energetic food. Food that keeps you fueled for a long time. But protein is the building block of every cell in the body, and unless you're really conscious of how much protein you're getting in every day, women tend to be. A little bit below par in the protein consumption category. It's also really great for immunity. That's a big thing for people these days after the coronavirus. Then there's other things floating around. We wanna have as much resistance to the bugs that float around as we possibly can have, and protein is going to help with that. So we have sleep, fat, protein, and learn to balance your blood sugar. This is not about learning chemistry. I didn't wanna do it. You don't have to do it. What you have to do is listen to your body after you eat. Do you get tired? Do you get cranky? Do you feel like you could keep eating? Those are signs that you've probably had a meal that raised your blood sugar more than your body can process in a hurry in the amount of time it should. So when we eat blood sugar should go up 90 minutes to two hours later. It should go back to baseline. Just a natural progression. So it is going to go up. Nothing wrong with that. But when you eat too much food with a sugary carb situation that's gonna turn into sugar, it's hard for the body to make use of all that. And so you end up with all these symptoms. And then the fifth thing is your mind. You have to have this mindset of, I believe that I believe what Greg said and what Jennifer teaches. We don't have to decline, but we do have to be aware of what we're thinking. Everything is food. I say everything that goes in our mouths and everything we let into our awareness. Our consciousness plays a huge part of how we age and how we experience life. I in every moment, and for people that are struggling with some symptoms or they wanna lose a few pounds, if you feel like nothing's gonna work, that is the worst sentence to come out of anybody's mouth. I've tried everything. Guess what? You haven't. Because you wouldn't still have the desire to change if you tried everything and it wasn't gonna work. That desire would be like, all right, I'm done. So those things all together are this complete package of all you need. Now, of course, it's diet agnostic. You could be keto, you could be vegan, you could be anything you want, but you have to listen to your body when you eat your food. If somebody's telling you to be vegan, but you're feeling tired, you're don't have energy, you're cranky. Maybe that's not the right diet for you. Same thing on the other side. With keto, you be keto and lose a lot of weight probably, but not necessarily. The best for everybody. I appreciate that you went through all those and shared those, and I appreciate this last bit where you're talking about, it's really important to pay attention to how you feel regardless of what anyone tells you, because I, for one, throughout the years, I don't know if you've done this, anything that my clients have ever wanted to try. I've done it first. And I've done some crazy things, and I'll tell you, being vegan, oh my gosh, cranky. I was just a bitch. I was a complete bitch and my hair was falling out, so that wasn't, yeah, I know. Oh, that wasn't gonna work for me. I always find there's this beautiful balance and when you can find what works for you and you see it and you pay attention to it. Whether you wanna go a 70 40 or an 80 20 rule with yourself, that's okay. None of us are perfect every day. But you can be the best that you can for your body at any given moment. Absolutely I love that you focus so much with women, 50 plus, and that you work so, so amazingly with hormones and so on and so forth. What are the top three things that you want women 50 plus to know? So decline in the sense that we become less of a person. Our world becomes smaller. Our relationships shrivel up. Communication is not great because we're cranky about our pain. That's what I mean by decline. We don't have to have that experience just because the body is changing and we have to change along with it. And I think that's what some people feel challenged by is, you know, I can't. Walk as fast as I used to, and so now I'm not gonna walk or I'm not going to be able to, you know, pick up my grandkids. It's just too hard. So I'll let them come to me on the couch if we want to stay vibrant and have the flexibility, literal flexibility in our body, and the flexibility that comes with having a body that works. We have to adapt to the changes and figure out what we can do rather than focusing on what's not working. I'm a big fan of bioidentical hormone replacement. I understand that it's not the only route through the perimenopause menopause transition. However, If you think about the hormone number one hormone that declines many do is, but in women it's estrogen. Estrogen is like the queen jewel, the crown jewel in the queen's crown of heart, bone, brain, thyroid function, all of those things. It is critical and it peaks in our thirties, so even though we may not have symptoms of anything, and some people may have no symptoms whatsoever in our forties, late forties, we're starting on the downward spiral. So if you could replace that in a way that was safe and it would give you some protection against heart disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, osteopenia, diabetes, why wouldn't you do a little research and get comfortable with the idea? You know, and I, this is one of those things that I tested before I said anything to anybody. I did. I worked with a acupuncturist who was an orial medicine doctor. Tried really hard to get, I had fibroids. I had, you know, tried everything she said. Every needle, every herb, everything went on. The thyroid diet went on the, you know, and I was still really struggling. I had brain fog. That was the worst part, was the brain fog and not sleeping. Cuz of course you wake up, you're sweating, you're, you know, you wanna kill somebody and. My regular doctor said we could start you on a little, a small dose of estrogen and progesterone, cuz you have to have the balance. You don't want to take just one. And I did research and I said, all right from what I can read, it's safe. There was the women's health initiative study that said that it wasn't, it was a bad study. The people in the study already had heart disease. Most of them were way older than most doctors would start somebody on B H R T. Anyway, so I tried a little bit, and I can tell you that within four days I felt better. I was sleeping, I wasn't flashing. And so from there, I just started doing research. As it turns out, and many women will experience this, I end up with hypothyroidism a few years later. Totally separate issue. But again, I had to learn before they say, oh, let's put you on medication. I'm like, oh, what kind of medication? What if I don't need me? How can I help this naturally? And I didn't seem to be able, my body didn't respond to whatever was being prescribed to me. So now I take Nature Thyroid. Everything's in balance. It's been a journey that was, gosh, 18 years ago or so, that I started on this whole journey. And I've had to find at times when if I would move or a doctor would leave a practice, I would have to find a new doctor. That's the most frustrating part, but it's much more common these days to find docs who are educated in this science. And there are online doctors who I recommend, if anybody wants, I mean, not affiliate, I just know them. And they do great work online, so you don't even have to be in the same town with them. And I just interviewed a doctor last week whose episode will be out in a few weeks who's an expert in all of this stuff. And she really explained in detail how the hormone replacement, the importance of it, if we want to not decline. Tying back to what you talked about, we talked about in the beginning, And she's of the idea, as was my first doctor, that you can start a woman on these things at any point in their lives. Some doctors will say 65 is the cutoff point. Once you're over 65, you're too late. That's only because in America, many maybe Canada, most people over 65 start to present with some kind of heart disease, heart anomalies, high blood pressure, that kind of thing, and they're dealing with the old science saying that they contributed to heart. Problems when in fact they strengthen the function of the heart. So that's my spiel on B H R T. Fascinating. So I have a couple of questions. Yeah. My first question is, when you were going through and you were experimenting different things. Were you doing pellets? Were you doing creams? Were you doing pills? What was your experience? So the first recommendation I got was a pill. Of two different pills. So a pill of estrogen and a pill of progesterone. I did feel better, but as time went on, I, it was just too much of a dose. Like I, for whatever reason, and there's only so many compounded doses, like truly compounded medicine is exorbitantly expensive. So within the compounding world, cuz most of these things come through compounding pharmacies, they standardize the dosage of things. And then I was reading and I thought, I don't wanna take a pill that has to go through my liver before it gets to the body where it needs to be. And it could turn into metabolites are funny that way. So then I asked my doc if we could change to a cream, and we did. And that solved the problem. So I've never done pellets with testosterone, and that's the only pelletized hormone that I know of. I could be wrong. Yeah. But I, yeah, so I do transdermal estrogen. I have now in the past, maybe year, added my doc, new doc, cuz we moved, added some testosterone, which I have to say I was, I did so much research because I thought, oh my God, I don't wanna do testosterone. My voice is gonna change. I'm gonna get hairy. And I was not sure that it was safe. But all the research lately that has been coming out says that it is safe. And so I added some testosterone and it definitely helped with my energy. Levels. In. Now are you doing the cream or are you doing shots for your test? The cream. The cream, okay. No, I don't want, I don't want any shots. Yeah, I haven't, I've tried in the past I did progesterone creams, but I'm not on those anymore. And then for a while, cuz I, I got very o c d about my hormones when I was in my mid to late forties. I was like, literally every three to six months we're like checking my blood work. I don't know why I got on this kick. I was just like, I wanted to know what was going on. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, you know, the world shut down and this, that, and the other thing. And I hadn't checked anything in a while and I thought, I don't know. I'm just gonna go check. And I went, it was just in a random doctor's office. I was in a place I didn't live and I thought, I just wanted to know and she pulled up everything. And I said, she goes, here's all your numbers. And I had all my charts from the last five to six years because that's how o OCD one can get. And I know that feeling right. And she looked at me and she goes, you're fine. She goes, you present? No symptoms. I said, no, I'm not having, and she, you know, she goes down the list, she said, the only thing you were a little low in. And I said, let me guess, testosterone. She goes, yeah. I said, that's the only thing I've really ever been on. And I've been between the shots and then I was changed to the cream. And then the world shut down and I wasn't with my usual doctors. And so I ended up going off of everything, which honestly, one of my cardiologists had been begging me to go off anyways and been fine. Like just, she's like, I can't believe that you have, she's like, you've got nothing. You present nothing. What do you do? And I said, Pilates and I walk. That's what I do. When I drink a lot of water, like, like, and I have really good jeans. I guess like that's it. Yeah. And speaking of jeans, that's the caveat for anything that we talk about that I may say I'm a fan of this, I'm a fan of that. I have had a genetic test done. Because again, I was resistant for years. I was like, I even have blog posts out there somewhere in the world saying, ah, I think this is bs. Don't go there because they're gonna tell you might have diabetes someday in that, you know? Anyway. So I finally I finally said yes. So I happen to know that what I take and what I put in like hormones and supplements and food, I happen to know whether my body is going to be receptive to certain things, whether something's not indicated for me on a genetic level. Now granted they don't test like how is your estrogen receptor there? There's probably vari gene variations that would indicate those things, but this particular lab tests for like 600 variations, and that's not one of them. But based on how I feel like your doctor said, you're, you don't have any symptom based on what I'm doing and based on the blood work that I get done, I'm doing the right thing for my body. So it's not true for everybody. And every, like, if you don't have symptoms, this doctor I interviewed the other day, she said, even if you don't have symptoms, you should be doing it because it will help you age better. I'm not sure that I'm that zealous. I would agree to refer that. To say that's a. I, I just, I'm not there. Yeah. I would agree. I've, I mean, and through my work and through your work, I've seen a lot of women and, my, clients that are usually attracted to me are 40 plus. And so I've watched my clients go through the pellets and they did do I think it was progesterone and estrogen with that. What I watched and what made me feel uncomfortable was once that pellet was in your tail. It was in there. Yeah. So if you didn't like it, if you had a reaction, if it was too much, too little, it didn't matter. It's still in your tail for that period of time until you go back. So I always knew for me personally, that was too much lack of control. That was too, I'm with you, that I didn't, did not, that did not sit well with me. So, no, and I don't want them digging in to pull it out either. Oh, no. It's just the whole thing. The whole thing. None of that sounds great. I like the creams that I've used in the past that has been great. The the testosterone shots. I will, the difference, this is what I learned. So if anyone out there has experienced this, the shots there was such a high, when you gave yourself a shot, it was like, I don't even know. Like I, let me just say this. I've never done drugs. I could understand why people do drugs if this is how you felt, because it was so amazing. Wow. But, and then it teetered off. Right throughout the time until your next shot. The difference with the cream is that it was just more consistent and you never got that high. Yeah, because I have to use it every day. Right. So it's gonna be this. Right. So it was much more of a plateau, which, and it was also a bit, I mean, I guess it was easier. You know, to some respects, and I think you could control your amounts better, I found, well, yeah. When we first did this, my doc was like a three month blood test kind guy. Well, he said tired for 90 days, but if you don't feel well in two weeks, let me know. And I didn't feel much of anything. And so he just incrementally increased it the second time and then I was like, oh yeah, I can, I definitely can feel a little bit better in my energy. And it wasn't, I wasn't looking for more energy. I honestly hadn't even thought of asking him about testosterone. He asked me and he said, how are your workouts? Cuz he knows that I said, you know, I don't feel like I have the same VO two max. Like I can't work out on the bike as hard and. I'm not a crazy, you know, I'm not like a professional psych, but I just happen to like my Peloton and I like to go fast. And so when he said that, he said, I think that maybe this will help. And he was right. So that's what it just gave me back what I felt like was me. For now. Okay. And I may have to adjust downwards at some point. I'm okay with that. Yeah. I would agree. I mean, I was. I was a big proponent of the testosterone and again, it was between my heart doctor, after I had a surgery back in 2018 and he just looked at me and he goes, I'm begging you please. And I'm like, really? And then the world shut down. And so it was well, I guess that's the end of that for a little bit. Right. And I've been fine. You know, when I did the test I thought, well, I'm just gonna keep rolling with this. And yeah, as long as everything feels great, then we just keep. On that train, and I think that's important for people to know too, that it is your body and you can't experiment here and there, but always remember to come back to what feels in alignment with you, not what your doctor tells you. Absolutely. Or your neighbor, Betty Lou. It's, how do you feel? Exactly. So let's talk about the book that you wrote. Our genes do not determine the size of our genes. J e a n s love that title. Tell me all about it. Okay. It's funny, so the person, the company that I did the gene test with, I am now on their team as a member. So I'm, I do copywriting, so I'm doing copy for them and I've had to learn all about their business. And I've been with them for, I dunno, four months. And I just realized today, I was like, oh, I never told them about my book. It was about epigenetics and genes. And I wrote it in 2013. So what happened when I was doing all this, you know, self biohacking and learning about everything, it's always, I'm always balanced. I'm learning about the science of the body with the science of the mind. And Dr. Epigenetics, Bruce Lipton. had put out his book. Your audience may know him. I'm sure you do. Jennifer. And he talked about epigenetics, the science of what happens around a cell or a being that influences the cell. And he's, his thing was cell biology. He started, he learned this by recording and watching his sales and Petri dishes when he influenced the environment around them, whether that was their, the medium that they were in, what kind of food he gave them. The noise he played in the room or didn't play music, he played yelling at them, being nice to them. All these things affected the cell. So he wrote this book and I went like, oh my God, this is it. And I thought, and that's why mindset is one of the five things. It's just if and again, everything is food. Everything that we let into our environment can influence the body. And so I was all jazzed about this, and I started to take note of what I heard from some of my clients. You know, well this one woman, I'll never forget it, she's actually in the book. She has three or four sisters, and she was probably mid forties when she came to me, all gloom and doom, perimenopause, I'm getting fat, I'm just gonna be fat like all my sisters. And my mother was, you know, this and that. And I was like, oh wait. I don't think this has to happen this way. So I would, and I would hear these things from people saying like, well, everybody in my family has diabetes, so why should I care? And I can take medication, so why should I care? And I thought, okay, fine. Take medication. I'm not poo-pooing anybody who feels like that's their option and their only option. But what if you didn't have to take the medication? And what if you didn't have, can I prove that you don't have to be a product of your genes? Yes. As a matter of fact, in those days it was about 70% of who we are. Is based on what we do. And about 30% they thought was genetics. Now it's like 20% is genetics, and that means 80% is something we can contribute to 80% of our actions, our habits, our thoughts are contributing to how we have our lives, how we experience our health or our decline and not decline. And I interviewed this doctor. Her name is Dr. Jay Dunn, and I said, You know, many years after writing this book just a few months ago, I said, is it, was I right? And she said, absolutely. That's how I do the work I do because if I can show people the biochemical pathways from this variation, cuz she said, and this is important for people to realize, it's never one gene that's responsible for something that happens. There isn't. We all have a BRCA gene. Women are afraid of brca, right, of breast cancer. Right. That gene is what gives us breast tissue that grows. So we all have it. It's the variation and the other genes that influence it, that can turn it into a cancerous or organ our breast into cancer. So it's never one gene, it's variations. But what happens when you have a variation if you like, let's just say the variation. I'm trying to think of one for me. The thyroid thing. So one of the biochemical pathways in my body is blocking the pituitary receptor to get the thing that makes a thyroid produce the hormone that I'm supposed to have. Well, if we go above what's blocking it and see what's like, what's the pathway to fixing that? Because there's something in our body that's biochemically messed up, and so this is a work that she does with her practitioners. Is helps people after you get a test to say, and she started doing this for depression and anxiety and ptsd. She has amazing success stories. So, but I, in my fledgling little science brain, I just hooked onto this idea that we had some influence over how we experienced life and we shouldn't fear. The familial lineage of a disease or you know, and there are some genes that are always going to give somebody like TA X disease and there are a few diseases that are like, they're just gonna drop into the body going down the line, but it still doesn't mean that the person has to have that disease express. In full, devastating, et cetera, et cetera. So that's what the book was really a perimenopause, how to get through perimenopause. But the foundation was this idea that you have to believe that you have possibility outside of your genetic profile. I, and it was really about how sugar and affects you and don't believe it was a book of myths. Like the myth is calories in, calories out. The myth is that the American standard, American diet is healthy and that, you know, high carlow fat is better for you than something else. So that was the, that's how I worked this into the book, but it really was a myth busting kind of thing and I appreciate it so much cuz that's something that I have been working with clients on for years. That you and your environment, Is what affects your body, your mind, and your spirit. It is not because great grandma had A, B, and C and so did you know everyone else and now you, no. That is not how it works. Yeah. And I make sure that I'm always working particularly with my mom on that. Oh yeah. And we find it very interesting because she has family members that have very similar situations right now, and they called her and they're like, well, what pills are you taking? And she's like, I don't take anything. And she doesn't, you know, and bless her heart, she's gonna be, or no, just turn 72 or what month are we in? Yes. Just turn 72. You know, and isn't, and because we, you know, I'm just always guiding her and she's guiding me and it's all about, your mindset and what you think and what you believe is your reality. Yeah. And quick story about what you think. So one of the tests that Bruce Lipton did with his cells, now just imagine a bunch of cells of a little Petri dish. Probably anybody who went to school had some sort of biology class. And if whenever he's stressed out their environment, even with words, and people have probably seen Dr. Yamamoto, the Japanese man who, scientists who froze the water. And when he froze it with beautiful music playing, they were beautiful and aligned. And when he froze it with like, I don't know, death nettle, it would. Go crazy. But anyway, what he found was all the cells would go to one side of the Petri dish when they were stressed and bunch up together. And then when he would look at the cells under a microscope, he realized they had stopped respirating, eliminating. They weren't. They were basically just in a holding pattern. That's exactly what happens to us when we have a negative environment, especially if it's a self-induced one. Like, I'm bad, I'm not smart enough. I'm not. I'm too old. All of those things create in our cells that same stress condition. So we can't fully function a hundred percent. If part of us is on high alert, part of us is shut down. So to your point, everything, whether it's, you know, maybe there's a jackhammer outside your window, you live in New York City, like got used to, chances are there was one at some point and you couldn't concentrate on work. That's a stressor. You know, and if you live with somebody who you're constantly at odds with, that's a big stressor. And you may not be able to kick your these people out of your life, but you can find some way to mitigate what it does to you, how you react to it, or how you experience it. Absolutely. Oh, I love this. So, I wanna talk about, I know I told you in the beginning I said, Ooh, I did a little digging and I found a little something that I wanted to talk about. Okay, I'm ready. And I'm gonna call it a she. I don't know if it is, but let's talk about the Divine Wild Ride. So the Divine Wild Ride is a part of me it for people that are listening. It is a business, a website that is. On hold at the moment because it's a part of me that I, it's a spiritual outlet. I don't even know how to describe it. Okay. So when I turned 60 and I, all my friends were, a lot of people are like, is this all there is? And I've always been into personal development. Like since I was in college, I've been doing, you know, courses and crazy things and bending rebar with my chest. Whatever I could do, I did fire walking. And so to me, there was this part of me that a lot of people had never experienced that I thought was really cool, and it opened my mind. It makes it easier for me to be with what is and accept and try not to react because I've had some of this training and I know that people are curious and I wanted to bring people into the world of curio, let them have their curiosity in a safe space. And you know, so my friend recently, a friend I've had since high school, we were talking, she said, well, her son died a few years ago. He said, you know, I saw a medium, don't tell the other girls. And I'm like, I get it. I've seen a medium too. But we didn't wanna, but we finally did. We all had lunch together. And she's like, I'm just gonna tell. I was like, okay. And like nine outta 10 people were like, really? You did? Was it cool? Was it, so the Divine Wild Ride was originally conceived to bring. People like mediums, like alternative practitioners that maybe are on the skinny branches. Two people in the form of a conversation so that you can listen in your home. Nobody has to know, but you might get intrigued. It might feel like, oh, that's the one thing. I wanna have my palm red, or I wanna have my human design red. Or just to give people to satisfy the curiosity about what is above and around the body. Or inside the body, we're energy beings, right? But a lot of people don't get that, and I think it's important to understand. So I keep saying I'm going to relaunch it and it's a lot to do, but I have my coaching through the Divine Wild Coaching is much different than rebellious wellness. Rebellious wellness is really, people wanna age well, they don't know whether they're doing it, you know, to the max or not. Divine. Wild coaching is more like, I just want somebody to unleash me. I wanna say things I haven't said before. I wanna test the waters and I want to go a little crazy and see what's on the other side of that. So thank you for asking. I really loved the divine outright. I loved when I came across it through your website and I went, wait a minute here. There's a whole nother door. I just, you know, found over here this hallway, and I think it's wonderful and I would love to see a way that you can bring both worlds together. I would too. And you know, I've had umpteen coaches and people tell me that I, yeah, I just haven't found a way, that's why I put the link to it on my rebellious wellness site. Because I do I value it. I love it. And I'll be honest, running one podcast, as you know, Jennifer, he's time consuming and then having another business, doing the copywriting is also, you know, a thing. So, but I figured when my, it's there in my intentional world to have it be back. And I know that I will get that feeling. How do I feel? I'll feel it when it's time to put some attention there. And that's not an excuse. That's just how I operate. Absolutely. No. That's how I operate too. Right time, right place, when you know. You know, and then when you receive that inkling of feeling, then you act on that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wonderful. Well, let me ask you this, and in all of your amazing, incredible years of geeking out science-wise, which I absolutely adore, and being the incredible being that you are, what has been your biggest aha moment so far in everything that you've worked through personally and professionally? I think the biggest aha moment, which may sound like a cliche in this day and age of girl power and all powerful whatever create your life is that we really, we are the limiter on what we can experience and what we can enjoy, whether it's conditioning. That led to beliefs of limit, whether it's not knowing I mean, did we ever, I wasn't taught how to dream, how to envision I planned. Right. Although I didn't really plan, cuz that's the rebellious side of me. It kind of just went where life was calling me to be. But we are more, we're more. Then we give ourselves credit for, and if you think of being an energetic being, if the whole universe is made of energy, which it is, and we are receivers and transmitters, and we could believe that we could tap into that rather than taking this course or going to this school or marrying that person, then we might have bigger visions and the confidence to go after them. Cuz I have taken on jobs in my life that. No way. I would've looked on paper like that person who got the job and then did it, but something in me just said, what? What's the worst? They could say, no, you know? That's kind of a way to look at life. Now. It's like, oh, you should be quieting down. When are you gonna retire? I'm thinking, well, I don't know. I don't know because there's still more I want more. Life is about more. You look at nature, it's always recreating and dying and coming back to life. I just think. Have confidence in yourself that you can have it be bigger if that's what you want. Right. I agree with you. I don't really believe in the culture of retirement. No. And it was interesting. I did a podcast a few weeks ago with a person similar to you and I, and she said, if people only understood that you're supposed to have new goals every 30 years, So when you are in your seventies, you're supposed to still be making goals for the rest of your life. You are not supposed to stop. You stop because your breath stopped and now you're transitioning. That's when you stop. Right? And I thought, oh, I love that. Yeah, that's beautiful. Isn't that Cause I thought I can't imagine I l I love what I do. Like you I can't imagine never not showing up and serving and helping, exactly. Yeah. I can't imagine. I may wanna stop doing a few things that I do. Right. But. That would only be to make room for other things that I want to do that I can't get to right now. Exactly. You sound just like me. I know. The other day I'm like, God, I think I feel like I need to trim some fat. And then I looked at, I'm like, but I love everything that I'm doing. I get it. How many hats can I wear? Okay, I get it. Totally. Well, Greg, will you share with us where can our community best connect with you? Okay, I am on Instagram as Rebel. Well, 50. And my website is Rebellious Wellness over fifty.com. And I just added a little chat which I really like called Talk. So if you ever go to Rebellious Wellness over fifty.com and you have a question about something or you don't see something and you'd like to see it, just hit the chat box and leave me a message. I do love Instagram. I'm not an influencer by any means, but I do try to keep in touch with people when they connect there. Oh, fabulous. That's wonderful. And of course, all of Greg's information will be over in the show notes on Jennifer pilates.com. As we close out the show today, what is one last piece of inspiration that you'd like to leave with us? Don't believe the conventional wisdom, don't believe the chatter around you that you are going to become less, that you are going to have to fade away. That, again, these sound like cliches, but it's easier said than done to shut out the noise and live in a way that suits you. And whether that's, as Jennifer said, it doesn't matter if somebody else says it's right for you, if it's not right for you, it's not right for you. So make sure that you're putting your own feelings and your own intuition first. And yeah, you can get advice from people, but don't take it unless it feels like a fit. Amen. I love that explanation point. Greg, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your incredible knowledge, which I just adore, and I love the spiritual side, and I love how you are meshing it to all together and bringing it to the rest of us and enlightening us all. Thank you so much, Jennifer. This is great. You Ash, great questions and I love your energy. Oh, thank you so much. I love yours too, and I'm sure that we'll have you back on because I have a feeling there's lots more work to be coming from you. Okay. I will not disappoint. All right. Well, as we say, until next time, may you live an empowered life from within. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates. Your feedback is important. It helps me to connect with you and gives me insight into who you are and what you're enjoying about the show. For today's show, notes and discount codes from today's sponsors. Head over to jennifer pilates.com. Until next time, may you live an empowered life from within.