In this episode, Lesa Koski opens up about navigating difficult times, including battles with divorce and breast cancer. She highlights five areas that provided strength: faith, community, nutrition, physical health, and rest. Emphasizing the power of faith, gratitude, and meditation, the host shares how these elements helped her overcome adversity. She reflects on the critical role of community and the support from a prayer group during chemotherapy. The episode delves into the benefits of adopting a healthier lifestyle, including intermittent fasting and reducing alcohol intake, which improved her physical well-being and life satisfaction. This episode aims to offer practical advice and encouragement to listeners facing their own challenges, while also inviting feedback and suggestions for future discussions.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

00:28 Personal Journey and Lessons Learned

02:59 Strengthening Relationship with God

09:05 Strengthening Relationship with People

12:32 Overcoming Health Fears with Community Support

13:09 Embracing Social Activities and Authenticity

14:15 The Role of Diet in Cancer Treatment

16:12 Intermittent Fasting and Genetic Insights

17:51 Healthy Eating Habits and Lifestyle Changes

20:43 Concluding Thoughts and Future Topics

Bio: I am a wife, a mama, a grandma and an animal lover.  I am blessed to be serving people from my barn office.  I am obsessed with learning and communication.  I love sharing what I learn with all of you!  There is nothing more gratifying than holding people's hands through difficulties and sharing all the joy around us!  

I am a recovering attorney who was mostly a stay at home mom;  who adopted one and birthed two, ridden the bumpy marriage ride for 32 years.  Found my passion at 50, learned how to control my mindset and anxiety and have built an amazing business in the last 6 years.  I have journeyed through motherhood, weddings, grandbabies, entrepreneurship and menopause with grace, tears and laughter. I now I will share my story through breast cancer with you.   I want to help women suffer less,  know God loves them and they are worthy!!    I am here to help you and I know all about what you’re going through. 

saddleuplive.com 

saddleuppod.com.  

@saddleuplive

https://linktr.ee/LesaKoski

Welcome listeners.

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I am really excited for

you to be here today.

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And this episode is going to

be a little bit different.

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I've done some of these in the

past where I don't have a guest.

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And the reason I'm doing this is because

I'm going to be hitting the road and

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going on some other friends podcasts.

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And, the world that I'm.

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And during work and prior to everything

I've been through was the divorce world.

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And interestingly enough, what I

have learned through my journey of

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the hard process of going through

the breast cancer diagnosis and the

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treatment is that I want to I want

to share with you what I learned.

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to strengthen me through the process.

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And I realized that kind of can equate to

anything hard that we're going through.

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So whether it's a divorce that you're

going through or a bad diagnosis

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or something hard with your family,

I feel like these five things that

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I strengthened Helps my wellbeing.

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And so I thought I can talk about that.

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It's not really related directly to any

specific problem, but I think what I

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learned can help you through anything.

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It helped me and is still helping me and.

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I need to say I'm a work in progress.

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I'm growing so much

still learning every day.

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And I'll share with you the things

that I still really need to work on.

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So if you have any good tips, let

me know, that's what I want to do.

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I want to help people.

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So I want to talk about these five

categories that I strengthen, and I'm

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probably going to talk about them more

and new things that I've learned along

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the way, because it's such a journey.

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So I was a little bit nervous about this.

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I always am when talking

about the breast cancer thing.

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And I've shared with my audience before,

I so am a people pleaser but I do feel

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like sharing it is going to help people.

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It's probably going to

help me in a way too.

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So here's the deal.

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I'll give you just a.

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Really quick glance at all the

things I'm going to talk about them.

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Some of them kind of overlap

and I'm going to try, I'm hoping

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that I can keep this brief.

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I'm usually pretty brief.

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But if this, if I dig longer into one

strength, This could be like a two segment

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series, but I'm going to try to get it

done in one quick little 20 minute series.

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So here's the things that helped

me through something really hard,

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which for me was the breast cancer

diagnosis and the treatment.

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And the number one thing, and

I've talked about this before, was

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strengthening my relationship with God.

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And I think that.

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What was running a mist for me and

that area was that I can, I love

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learning and I love South growth and

I love coaching and all those things

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help me, but I didn't really run them

through that tunnel of God first.

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And when you go through something hard.

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You are alone.

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Like I, and I'm going to

talk about community too.

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Like you need that community,

but you're alone and.

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When I sat there all

alone, Jesus was all I had.

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And I had such a great opportunity

to strengthen that relationship

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because he was the only one that

really knew what I was going through.

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And he was the only one that

was really there with me.

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And I'm not putting down like

my husband, my family, they

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all want it to be there for me.

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But when you're going through something

really hard, no one really understands.

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And so that kind of hit

me over the head wow.

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And it really refined me.

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And I just want you to know, so some

of the things that I did to strengthen

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that, to be able to put everything at

his feet and just stop worrying about it.

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And someday I'm going to

tell you the story about.

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What happened probably a month before

that, where I was begging for God

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to please just take away my anxiety.

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Please just let me be able to lay

everything at his feet and then boom,

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this happened and I got to learn.

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But being able to do that and

to count on him changed my life.

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And a good friend of mine

told me about the pause app.

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It's called P a U S E and.

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It really did help me.

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It helps you to restore

that relationship with God.

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It walks you through it's

biblical, it's Christian.

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It walks you through how to just give

it to him because that's all you can do.

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You really don't have a choice and

it's so freeing and so peaceful.

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And so it's just That's one of the

things that I did that has refined me.

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And another thing I think this taught

me is I am not perfect and I don't

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have to be, Peter wasn't perfect.

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Daniel wasn't no one was

perfect in the Bible.

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Jesus Yes, and we can

all work to be like him.

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We're not here to be perfect.

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We're here to work towards being closer

to God So anything that I can do, you

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know trying to read my Bible Every

day trying to sometimes it's just one

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passage whatever it is being prayful

in everything makes me feel better.

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And oh my gosh, the gratitude to be

able to see gratitude and hard things

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makes you not feel the other things.

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So don't forget that.

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So even when you're in the midst of

going through chemotherapy and you

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wake up and the sun is shining and

you go Oh my gosh, thank you, God,

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that I feel good that I can go out

for a walk that I have some time to

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rest and that I have a great prognosis

and I'm going to have a healthy life.

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There's so much to always be thankful for.

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There always is.

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So that was another thing that

gratitude was part of that.

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It was interwoven with that So I'm

talking about the strengthening

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my relationship with God then I'm

going to talk about strengthening my

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relationship with people and community

strengthening my relationship or my food

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and fasting strengthening physically.

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That's just strengthening.

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And then the last one I'm going to

talk about is strengthening rest.

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I should have said that at

the beginning, but I didn't.

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And that's how it's going to go.

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And I don't really edit.

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So sorry, but those are the things we're

going to hopefully get through all today

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oh, there's one other thing I want to

tell you about that, that I learned.

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I have been a person that

always has questions.

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Should I be doing this?

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Should I be doing that?

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What school should my kids go

to when they were growing up?

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I, my head can just go nuts and

a really good friend who I'm

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going to have on this podcast.

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podcast.

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She's amazing.

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She's the one who did my genetic test.

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She taught me this kind of meditative

tool where I sit quietly and I think

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of a time when I was feeling lots of

love and, it could be your wedding day.

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It could be the day you got engaged.

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It could be when you

held your baby in your.

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your arms or I've had one that has

to do with my animal, Charlie, my

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horse, Charlie but go to a moment

where you felt a lot of love and then

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sit in that moment, close your eyes.

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and sit in that moment and see everything

around you and feel that love again,

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feel what that felt like, and then

say, where's God, where is God here?

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And it's so interesting because

sometimes I feel like God is

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way up high looking down at me.

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And sometimes like some of them, when I'm

rocking a grandbaby thought he's right

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there, he's right there in my heart.

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Like sitting here with me and so I just

feel that and then I've got a pad of

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paper and I write dear Lisa, and I ask him

the question like God you want me to do

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divorces and then I write What I'm, what I

come up with and then I say love Jesus and

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it has been so insightful and I am someone

that could Go back and keep asking the

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same question So sometimes I just go

back and look through the journal that

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I have and I'm like, oh I did already

ask that and he did answer and I can you

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know a lot of times I'll put reasoning

behind it and it's how I came to You

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Strengthening my relationship with people.

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So when this first happened to me, it's

just like a, it slaps you in the face

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and you whoa, stop and look at your life

and you think about how you want to live.

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And I knew one of the things I

wanted to do was be a better wife.

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Cause I think I had.

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put a lot of stuff before my marriage.

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So that was one thing I learned.

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And then I also started really

thinking about how I've been

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standoffish with people.

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Like I didn't want them to know me super

well because then they might not like me

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or get really dig in and get really close.

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So I did one of these.

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Meditations, and then I came up with

do what you love in community because

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that's another thing when I talk about

strengthening my rest and rejuvenation,

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that's about fun and I lost that.

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So then I started thinking about

what things do I love to do.

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And of course I love walking.

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I love working out.

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I love horses.

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And I started adding the, oh,

and I love holding my grandbaby.

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So grandma more work less.

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So I started doing those

things that I love in community

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and it's changed in my life.

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And here's, it's so interesting and

I'm going to talk more about it when

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I get to the last subject of rest

and rejuvenation, because that's

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the thing that I'm, That has, was

missing, really missing from my life.

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I think that prior to this, I was

pretty healthy with food, pretty

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healthy with exercise, but I

was not getting my rejuvenation.

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And I think a lot of us can get

wrapped up in Thinking we have to

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be somebody and work so hard and we

forget that you have to have the fun

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to, in your life, the laughter, the

joy to bring down that stress level,

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to give your body time to recuperate.

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And God wants us to have that.

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He told us to have a day of rest.

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So it's interesting how it

all ends up being biblical.

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But I learned how to strengthen

my relationship with people.

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And I had one of the things that

I did was I had a prayer warrior

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group, and I also had family members

that I didn't have the family

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members on the prayer warrior group.

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The prayer warrior group is a group of

friends and some of them, I don't see

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a lot, but people, I want it prayers.

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And so even though a lot of

times I was super anxious.

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And I felt Oh my gosh, I'm

asking for way too much.

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They're going to think I'm nuts,

or I'm asking pray that my hair

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stays or whatever, dumb stuff.

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You think, Oh, that's dumb.

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Why am I asking for prayer?

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But I kept going back and I

kept asking them to pray for me.

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And that prayer warrior group was so

essential because I was when you're

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going through chemo, you don't really

want to be around a lot of people.

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You don't want to get sick.

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You want to be able to get through it.

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And having that.

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That's where having voice technology

and the technology that we have,

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where you don't have to actually be

in front of people in a church, but

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you can reach out to them was amazing.

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And even though I felt I'm

asking for way too much.

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I kept making myself because

I knew I needed those prayers.

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And I've said this before.

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I will never forget driving in to surgery.

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And that's when you're like going to

learn a lot and you're scared to death.

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I'm, I am I'm scared to

death of health things.

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Some people aren't, but I am.

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And it was such a dark day,

but I had a supernatural piece

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and I swear I could just.

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feel like the angels and all the

prayers riding along with me in

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the car as I went to the hospital.

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And it just it gave me strength.

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It wasn't fun.

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It was horrible, but there was a strength

there that I never would have had.

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And that was my community.

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And that community stayed with me.

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me as I went through everything

and I am forever grateful to that.

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And now I'm going to a workout class.

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I'm calling my friends

to go horseback riding.

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I'm going on walks with people.

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I'm not hiding and say, and I

would always use the excuse.

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I'm an introvert.

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I don't know that I am

really an introvert.

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I think I was just more concerned about.

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Always having to keep, always having

to be happy and bubbly and look

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perfect and not make a mistake.

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And when you can start letting

that go, I'm not going to say that

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I don't still fall prey to that.

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I do sadly.

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And it's going to be something

that I'm going to need.

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I'm going to need to keep working on that.

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God keeps showing me, I even say

this with my husband I try to

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make myself look better than I am.

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And it's that's wrong and unauthentic.

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It's not authentic and it's, you

can't, how can someone love you when

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you don't show them who you truly are?

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So those first two are big ones that I

just am looking at the clock going, Oh,

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this is going to be a two part series

because I've talked way too long about.

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God and community.

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But those are two really important things.

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And I'm just going to touch on food.

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And if you want to go back, I do have

a podcast that I did about thriving

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through breast cancer treatment.

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And I talk a little bit about

food, but I really went all in

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during my treatment because I knew

that it would help my body fight.

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It would help my body be attracted to the

chemo or the radiation to not have sugars.

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And so even though I had

always, been pretty healthy.

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There were things I was lacking.

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And if you go back and listen to that

podcast, you'll hear probably more about

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this, but I'm just going to restate.

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I think one thing that I was doing that

wasn't healthy was probably having a glass

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of wine too much, maybe five nights a week

or with dinner or when he ate something.

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Italian or steak.

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There was always a reason to unwind.

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Peanuts and wine were my favorite.

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And so through chemo, I was, I didn't

have any wine because I thought I'm

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already, I'm putting so many toxins

in, I don't want to put more because

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your body's got to work through that.

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And like I said, that past podcast,

we'll talk more about that.

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But what was so interesting was

what helped me through the chemo.

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Helps me through my everyday life.

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I have lost weight and I am, I finally,

I probably for the first time in

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my life don't care and feel good.

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I feel good at my weight and it's

been, I want to say it, it is

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simple, but It probably took me going

through this to get used to the idea

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of rarely having a glass of wine.

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I'll have a glass of wine if I go to a

winery or a nice dinner with friends.

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But now I have a sea, a sevia ginger

ale rather than a glass of wine.

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Sometimes if I'm, having something and

another thing that I learned, I'll I

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was doing a lot of fasting, but I was.

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I think I was doing it wrong.

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I was going really hard where I

would do a 48 hour or a 72 hour fast.

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And then I would jump back into

normal eating and having my wine.

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And I think it was stressful on my body.

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So what I learned is that.

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Just simply that intermittent

fasting of stop eating at six or

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seven and then reintroduce food.

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I think they want you to fast

for 16 hours and then have your

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eating window be that eight hours.

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I've been really working on,

and this is part of, I want

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to talk more about genetics.

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And I'm going to have Marie on

because I looked at my genetic makeup.

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I know what I need to eat.

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And so it is always good to have healthy

proteins, be organic as much as you can.

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For my body, I really need a lot of

vegetables and fruits because it needs

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to be able to clean my cells out.

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And I think I was probably more

focused on proteins and I think

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I was eating too many dairy.

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So I stay away from glutens and

Dairies, but I don't freak out.

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If I, if there's a little bit of

blue cheese on my salad, I eat it.

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I am careful about dressings.

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I don't use.

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The, I don't use package

stuff as much as I can.

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But like I said, if I go to a

restaurant, sometimes I'll see if they

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have oil and vinegar and sometimes

I'll get the dressing that they have.

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So I'm doing my best and I'm not be,

I'm working on not being perfect, but

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most of the time when I'm eating at

home, I'm eating lots of fruits and

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vegetables and lots of healthy proteins.

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I do eat lots of meat.

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I want to start eating more fish because.

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of my genetic makeup.

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I know that I need fish

and my husband loves it.

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I think I'm the one that

kind of shies away from it.

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So these were the things that I did.

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So the intermittent fasting is easy.

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It's not easy if you're snacking

with a glass of wine every night.

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And so there are still times,

and I did have popcorn last

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night with my ginger ale.

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When we were playing Yahtzee and

I let myself do that sometimes.

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For the most part during the week, I

do stop eating early and then I start

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a little bit later in the day and that

has brought down my inflammation and

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along with probably the gluten and the

dairy, which, we don't want inflammation

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in our body and I feel better.

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I don't ever feel.

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or, I do if I work out hard, but not stiff

and I'm on medications that could have

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really bad side effects that do that.

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And so I feel like I'm giving myself

a new life by just eating foods.

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healthy foods that are not processed.

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I love going to the co op and

grabbing some broccoli and making

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a beef vegetable soup, and I'm

having so much fun with that.

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And it really does taste good.

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And I still have dark chocolate

because it's good for me.

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And I love that cocoa in my coffee

and that has changed my life.

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I have not gained any weight.

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back.

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I've lost a lot through this.

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And I just think that

it's a better way to live.

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And so that's a blessing

of going through cancer.

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It's going to help me to be more

healthy through the rest of my life.

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And.

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Not to mention feeling better.

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So now I get to feel better and be at

the weight that I want it to be for years

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and be stronger and healthier and live a

longer life because of what I've learned.

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And like I said, I was doing it.

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But not really.

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And I think my thing was probably

mostly the wine and maybe packaged a

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little bit too many packaged foods.

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Making things from scratch

has become fun for me.

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And what's hard is I feel bad for

moms who are working all the time.

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I think about this and

you're trying to eat healthy.

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It is not easy because you

do have to put the time in.

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And now I do have more time.

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So my heart goes out to you and

I just say, do the best you can.

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And also.

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Let that be enough do the best

that you can be aware of it.

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And that's more than what you were doing

before to just know Yeah, I'm gonna I'm

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gonna choose this over this so and I do

want to go in and talk about food more and

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then the last things that we're gonna talk

about which I don't have time for because

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I blabbed on and on and I Feel like this

was it was fun, but I feel like I maybe

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went off on tangent, so I apologize.

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These are a little bit hard to do, but

it, and it is also fun because I feel

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like I'm sitting down having a cup of

coffee with my friends, which I love.

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And so we're going to stop there.

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We're going to stop at

strengthening your relationship

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with God, with people, with food.

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And then I'm going to do

another one next week.

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And I'm just going to talk about

physical strengthening and how, what

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I've learned about exercise and health.

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And then probably the most important thing

that I still need to learn more about is

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rest and rejuvenation, strengthening that.

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And I'm going to talk a little

bit about What I've been doing.

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I'm still not there.

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But of course we're going to

talk about a little bit about

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the fun again and breath work.

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So that'll be coming up next week.

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So this is a two part series, but

I really appreciate you being here.

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And.

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If there's something that you would

like me to explore or someone that you

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think is amazing that I should have on

as a guest, I've got a couple coming up.

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I'm doing a couple new

recordings on Thursday.

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But anyone that you can think of that

you think would be amazing on saddle

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up live, I would love to have them.

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And I'm so grateful that you're here.

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And I'm just so grateful for my life

and the sun is shining, and this

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has been the most beautiful fall.

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And I joke about, we were at a At an

apple orchard with my grandkids and

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my son, Jack is like, it is so hot.

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It doesn't even feel like we

are like, this is fall stuff.

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And I'm like that's because

God's giving me a little summer.

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Cause I didn't have one.

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So I feel like I'm getting

the best of both worlds.

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We're getting a little cool weather

rolling in, but I just say, God bless you.

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Thank you for listening.

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And I will be back next week

with those last two things that

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we can work on to strengthen.

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Take good care.