Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey everybody, what's going on? Doctor Chad Woolner here. Dr Buddy Alan, and this is episode one of the Health Fundamentals podcast. Welcome on today's episode we're going to be discussing the question is moderation a bad thing? So let's get started.

Speaker 2: (00:15)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm Dr Chad Woolner and I'm Dr Buddy Alan. And this show is about giving you the simple but powerful cutting edge tools you need to change your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show,

Speaker 3: (00:30)
the path to your best life down to a science.

Speaker 1: (00:36)
So, hey everybody, welcome to the episode. This is our inaugural episode. There's been a lot of thought and energy that has gone into this and so we're excited to finally launch the podcast. As a quick introduction, my name is doctor Chad Woolner. Uh, I'm a chiropractic physician here in Meridian, Idaho. I'm Dr Buddy Alan. I am also a chiropractic physician here in Idaho. Um, been doing it for a good lot of years, 15 plus years and love it. Yeah. And we've known each other for Golly, Glenn, 12 years, almost 12 years. I, uh, I moved here to Idaho, uh, after finishing school and started working for you. And, uh, a couple of years are. And then after about a year, started my own practice and, uh, Doctor Alan joined us about four years ago, uh, here. And we've since, uh, integrated our clinic and it's been a ton of fun and it's just been a really great experience working with Dr. Allen and we've just learned a lot over the years.

Speaker 1: (01:38)
And this podcast has been something that we have been talking about for Kali well over two years. Yeah. And so now we're finally pulling the trigger on it, launching the podcast. We're excited. And basically our whole approach, uh, with this podcast, the health fundamentals is really our intent behind this is to really give people a actionable but simple concepts, strategies, tactics, tools that they can use and apply into their life to have a dramatic impact for good, to help them, uh, improve their health and ultimately improve their life. And, uh, and so we wanted to kind of kick off our first episode by first introducing a, what we call kind of the framework or the Lens in which we see the world. Uh, we've had like a, like I said, we've had collectively we've had over 20 years of experience working with patients in a variety of different capacities, both from a chiropractic clinic, from an integrated clinic now.

Speaker 1: (02:35)
Uh, and then also Dr. Allen has done a lot of health coaching over his ears and we can talk a little bit more about that, but, um, to kind of set the stage, uh, let me just kind of introduce for those who are, uh, watching this show, um, and, and whether you're watching or listening, we're going to go over at the same, but we created a, what we call the five fundamentals of health. And this is kind of our declaration of really a framework that I think people can see and embrace that would really help them maybe simplify the way that they look at improving health. Because again, uh, if you look at the information that's out there, sometimes things can get really, really complicated. We are incredibly good as human beings at taking something that is fairly simple and complicating the heck out of it.

Speaker 1: (03:18)
Absolutely. And just making it, making it way more difficult than it need be. Yeah, absolutely. So a doctor, Alan, you want to introduce the five fundamentals of health? Absolutely. So again, five fundamentals. Just coming back down to, there's a few simple things that we need to remember and understand and focus on to be able to move forward in a very positive direction in our life. And, and so we basically started out by saying we believe that the highest levels of health are going to be achieved when one, we understand the truth that health comes from the inside. All right? It's coming from within, not because we're missing something from the outside in. Okay. Number two, our approach, our approach towards health is one of simplicity and consistency. Once again, coming back to we're really good at complicating things in our lives. It comes down to a few simple things done consistently over time will make a tremendous difference in the outcomes of our lives.

Speaker 1: (04:13)
And that's not to say that you shouldn't have, uh, the right information. Sometimes people are missing some things. Sure. But again, more often than not the things that they're missing or just simple little tweaks here and there and hopefully you can get that from this podcast. You know, some of those answers, some of those insights, some of those things you may not be aware of or familiar with you about. So number three, our body is functioning correctly, both mechanically and chemically. All right. Our bodies are both, you know, we have moving parts both inside and out. And, uh, if things aren't on a functioning level and we're not doing things correctly, then what's going to happen is we're going to start having hidden things start to show their face. We're going to start having symptoms. Yeah. Chemical breakdown, mechanical breakdown, either way. Yeah. A number four.

Speaker 1: (04:59)
And then lastly, we are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually into one more. That's four. We got, whoa. One more. Oh, sorry, sorry. And number five. Sorry, I was getting excited. Yeah. Don't, don't miss. Number five. This is an important one. Um, and then the fifth one is that we're fueling ourselves properly. All right. It comes down to a few simple, a simple things that we can be doing to making sure we're, we're feeding our body right? We're feeling our body right. Because ultimately, as cliche as this sounds, that we are what we eat, it's more true than people understand. Absolutely. Yeah. And so the, the thing that's been really interesting, uh, we've, we've seen, uh, over the course of our, of our time, both working together and, and by ourselves, you know, the vast majority of people that struggled with health issues, this shouldn't come as any sort of a surprise to people, but the vast majority of people that are struggling with, with real significant problems are people that are dealing with chronic health problems, not acute health problems are not some sort of a rare disease.

Speaker 1: (05:58)
You know, those, there are those people who do struggle with those things, but hence the term rare. Those are the exceptions and not the rule. And so most people that we work with on a regular day to day basis are people that have just let some of these things slip over time. Uh, maybe they've just lost track, maybe they just didn't know a or a combination of those two things. And really at the end of the day, uh, getting people to a better place in their life has really one way or another focusing on one or more of these five fundamentals. Right. Absolutely. Which kind of brings us to the question that we wanted to kind of tackle an episode number one. Um, the term that has kind of taken a beating over the past, I think, I dunno, a couple of years that I've seen on social media here and there and, uh, is, is this term moderation?

Speaker 1: (06:48)
Uh, both Dr. Allen and I, you're going to find, while, we don't agree on everything. Maybe. I Don't know. I think most things we see pretty eye to eye on, that's why we get along. That's why we're able to see a partnership in business as much like a marriage. Right? And, uh, and so, uh, but the thing that, that he and I have have both understood over the years is that we see fairly ida I in terms of moderation, that moderation isn't a bad thing. And yet it's kind of taken a beating and social media. I've seen several instances where people will say things like, a moderation will kill you. Um, and it's not about moderation. Moderation is a lie. And, and I can appreciate to a degree where they're coming from, I'm not trying to play overly diplomatic here. Sure. But the problem is that what they're doing is they're, I think, and I believe they're addressing it from an inappropriate lens.

Speaker 1: (07:36)
They're not really talking about true moderation. I think sometimes people can use moderation as an excuse to indulge, right? We talked about this earlier. You know, that somebody who's eating a Mcdonald's once a day, that's moderation. No, that's not moderation. You know, or somebody who, um, you know, whatever drinks, drinks, Soda Pop, uh, twice a week, moderation, we'll even, that's not moderation. You know what I mean? And so understanding what true moderation really is, uh, is, is really the key here. And I think that's the thing that's unfortunate is moderation has kind of gotten a bad rap because it's been, I think, largely misunderstood or used as a, people have kind of camouflaged bad behavior or poor behavior, poor choices under that banner of it being moderation. Right. Well, and you know, people, again, a Dr. Warner mentioned that I had done a lot of health coaching over the years working with people in weight loss.

Speaker 1: (08:26)
And it's interesting because the problem is, is we, we have a tendency when people are talking about moderation, we're trying to fit everybody or they're trying to fit everybody in the same box, right? And the, the reality is is we're all different. You know, some people, some people when it comes to making changes in their lives, need someone on there that just pats him on the back and says, you're doing a great job. You know what, you're, you're doing awesome. Other people need a drill sergeant, right? Some people, you give them the right path and it's like all, you don't ever have to talk to him again. They will do, they will take it and run with it. Okay. So when you start talking about moderation, um, it's, it's honestly, it's, it's one of these people that are like, they're probably the type a that's very, um, self, you know, self directed self, very driven in, in one direction and, and they live a very rigid life.

Speaker 1: (09:15)
Okay. And unfortunately that doesn't work for everybody. Yeah. It's not a one size fits all. Exactly. Yeah. No, and that's, and that's really cool. You know, what's neat is, uh, doctor Alan's experience over the years doing health coaching, uh, that has been an incredible education in terms of human nature, uh, in terms of, you know, the psychology, uh, of change, right? It's really what we're talking about. And, and at the end of the day, and I think that's maybe a good shift that we can kind of kind of, uh, end with in terms of this episode is talk about that. Like, uh, how does, how does moderation play into this idea of change? We talked about this, right, in terms of, uh, you know, when we look at polar extremes, it seems today anymore, these days, that's, that's what gets most of the attention today. When you look at the news, when you look at politics, when you look at current affairs, when you look at all of these things, um, the headlines are extremely polarizing one way or another.

Speaker 1: (10:09)
And the, the challenge there is that, uh, the polar ends get most of the attention. And what happens is moderation gets kind of a bad rap there too, because it's not as exciting. It's not nearly as enticing. Oh, absolutely. And, uh, and so, but, but the thing is, is when we're talking about true long term consistent change over time, rarely do the extremes, uh, provide any sort of a longterm solution. Sure. You can use extremes. And, and I would even argue that, that there is a time and a place sometimes for extreme measures temporarily. Absolutely. You know, but in terms of the overall, if we're looking for long term permanent change, um, it's gotta be sustainable and, and the key to sustainability is going to be moderation. It really is consistency and simplicity. The things we've been kind of saying here and the way that I look at it, this is kind of the way that I frame it and you can kind of share your experience with this too, is if you look at two polar extremes in terms of the way people's psychology is on one end of the spectrum, one extreme, then you have what we call self defeating behaviors and attitudes.

Speaker 1: (11:17)
Uh, and then on the other end of the spectrum we have self deceiving behaviors and attitudes. And neither of those two polar ends are good for us. Right? And what I mean by that, let me give some context here. You know, the self defeating is when, when somebody isn't living up to the standard that they feel they should be living up to, they, they impose self punishment, whether it be a negative self talk or, or they'll, you know, they'll punish themselves by saying, okay, well tomorrow I've got to, you know, to make up for my poor behavior today I've got a, you know, and they assign whatever punishment do you know? Or, or even worse, what they'll do is they'll, they'll indulgent certain comforting behaviors too to help assuage the pain of the, of the, you know, of the self defeating, um, negative self talk, etc.

Speaker 1: (12:03)
Etc. And then on the other end, it's interesting because, uh, on the self deceiving and fit, we're really good at lying to ourselves and softening things and not being realistic with ourselves. I had a patient some years ago who, who told me he only had to lose 40 pounds, which in and of itself was, he had way more to lose than just 40 pounds. But even that, he acted like 40 pounds was no big deal. You know, in 40 pounds as a, in the grand scheme of things, that's a huge deal. That can make a huge difference in somebody's life for the good or the bad. And so right in the middle is, is really the, the operative term in moderation that we're going for is this idea, this concept of self awareness. Right. And so maybe you can kind of talk a little bit about that in terms of your experience, health coaching with people finding that kind of that middle ground where they can be consistent with it.

Speaker 1: (12:48)
Absolutely. But you know, you were talking about, um, patient patients are, I would have to say one of the best things I love about practicing is I get to learn from so many different people, their experiences, the things that they do and learn, you know, like, Ooh, that was awesome. And that's not so awesome. I mean, we have patients that come in that are 80 pounds overweight. Their blood pressure is normal only because they take a ton of medication for it. And yet when they, when they're asked what is, how would they rate their health? They put excellent. All right. So I mean, that's completely deceiving. Exactly. So if, if that's how your mind is working or you need to lose 80 pounds and you say, oh, I just need to lose 40 pounds, all right. It's like 40 pounds is great, but you're, you're shooting yourself well, short of where you need to be headed.

Speaker 1: (13:36)
Right. Um, and then on the other side as far as finding, finding that happy places on the, again, the other extreme, I've had people, and literally I had a gout once years ago, lose a hundred pounds and she was, she had another, I think 40 or 50 pounds she wanted to lose. She was doing amazing. She had one weekend where they went to the Oregon coast. They had air, she, I believe it, she had a bowl of clam chowder. And in her mind she had failed. And from that point on she went to go, go on and gain all that a hundred pounds back. Because again, that whole like, I'm a failure. I'm not good. I'm so she felt like all or nothing thinking. Yeah. And so the reality is, is again, who we are today is a compile a nation of our daily habits, routines, and actions. Okay.

Speaker 1: (14:27)
And so if we consistently each year are putting on a few extra pounds or five or 10 extra pounds, the reality is is we've got to get some things in check really quickly. Okay. Because it's not just because you can't blame it on DNA, you can't blame it on your, your parents, your injuries. I mean there's lots of different extenuating circumstances. But the reality is, is the things I do from a dated on a day to day basis when I wake up, when I go to bed, when I eat, what I, you know, what I'm drinking. All of those things play a part in who I am today. Yeah. So the, the best way as far as from a moderation standpoint is like, and to be able to really give a, a very self aware, look at where I'm at. It's, where was I a year ago? Okay. Was I better or was I worse?

Speaker 1: (15:18)
All right. Cause if I'm, if I'm improving, that's wonderful. All right. And are there things I could do to improve even more? Um, and again, the extremes, you can do extreme things for a short period of time. Extreme things are, if not impossible, they're incredibly hard to maintain. All right? So it's like from a, from a very moderate standpoint, moderation is just about finding something that works, learning what to eat, how to eat, still being able to eat the things that you enjoy, but also be able to maintain your health. Right? There's, there is a balance there. Absolutely. And as much as some people may gain weight easier than others, I promise you, you can figure out the tweaks in your life to make it to where, and I, and I talk about weight because I have a ton of experience with that, but the, the same energy it takes to lose weight is the same exact energy it takes to get stronger takes to get better than business, to heal injuries, some health challenges, et Cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1: (16:18)
Absolutely. So yeah, through this podcast, you'll hear me refer to that a lot because I have a ton of experience with working with people in the weight loss realm. And again, it's just, it's that same energy that we're trying to tap into to be able to make good positive changes in our lives and everything that we're talking about. Again, that moderation is about learning. How to, um, you know, using like our five fundamentals of health to simplify your life, but at the same token, by simplifying it, actually simplify it in a positive direction, right? And let's kind of end with kind of two concepts that we want to drive home. Let's get really tactical for people who are listening to this are like, that's good and fine. You know, finding that balance, right? Finding that self awareness, right? We talked about one in self deceiving, the other end self defeating right behaviors.

Speaker 1: (17:02)
We want to, if we're looking for that self awareness, how do we go about doing that? Well, I would propose and feel free to add to this Dr. Allen. I would propose a simple tactical thing that you could do starting right now. We're starting tomorrow. Better, sooner, the better, right? Absolutely. There's a great book called Atomic Habits and I learned this from, from that book, phenomenal book. In fact, we're going to be referencing a lot of great books. A lot of the concepts that I've kind of developed in this realm come from another great book called the willpower instinct by Dr. Kelly mcgonigal. Um, which is a phenomenal book in and of itself. But in the book atomic habits, one of the things he talks about, um, in terms of finding consistency is that far too often we focus our efforts on the, the what, right? And he says a simple little tweak, uh, which is, which is very profound when you think about it and CSUs focus on who instead of what it meaning, who do you want to be, what do you know, what not necessarily what do you need to do, but, but what do you want to become?

Speaker 1: (17:58)
Who Do you want to become? Meaning creating a clear true self identity, right? That, um, I want to be, and at my core, I believe myself to be this type of an individual. I believe at my core, I'm somebody who values health. So therefore I'm a healthy person, right? And you may not at the beginning, you may not necessarily buy into that. You may not believe it, but you have to to some level or another, get deep enough inside to, to really peel away at the, at the negative self talk and the negative self image. And really carve away to the essence of who you really, truly a desire most ardently to become. And, and that, um, becomes the kind of guiding tension, tension. And we'll talk about the idea of tension moving forward and stuff, but to pull you towards changing the appropriate behaviors.

Speaker 1: (18:50)
Because if you can, if you can truly convince yourself of your real identity and not a fake identity based off of either self deception or self defeating, uh, attitudes and behaviors, um, that will be a sufficiently strong and powerful, um, guiding force, we'll call it to dictate a pair of behaviors. Because really, uh, at, at the, when it, when all is said and done, we as human beings, we need congruency in our lives. If there are things that are incongruent, we will either rise or fall to meet, uh, that, that identity, right? If we believe at our core that were unhealthy, unworthy, slobs, pathetic, you will change your behaviors accordingly to meet that identity to, you know, we'll either rise or fall to the occasion, so to speak, right? And so really getting a clear image of your core identity, right? So literally what you can do tactically, literally write that down in a journal, a today or tomorrow, ideally today.

Speaker 1: (19:45)
Write it down. Who are you at your core, or at least who are you striving to become. Really identify with that. When you identify with that, that will create a certain amount of self awareness that will then allow you to create behaviors. And then the things that you do on a regular basis, the habits that you develop, um, you can, you can judge those habits against you. You now have a standard, right? I am this person. I want to become this person. This is the ideal that I'm striving for. What a healthy person do this thing. Would a healthy person eat out regularly? Unwritten. Oh, they wouldn't what a healthy person get up early in the morning and exercise. Yeah, they probably would, you know what a healthy person's study more about nutrition with the, you know what I mean? It let that be the guiding kind of pull to create the necessary tension.

Speaker 1: (20:29)
Um, so that would be kind of the, the first thing. Uh, and then the other thing that you had kind of mentioned, I'm drawing a blank on it now. You were, we were talking about it. I lost it. I lost my train of thought. Um, but you, you had been talking about, uh, your experience health coaching, um, golly, it'll, it'll come to me. But what were you, were you going to say anything add to it? You had mentioned two books and one of the other books that I was the, as we've been talking and really that kind of, I think initially led us to thinking about these five fundamentals of health was the compound effect. Oh, great. Darren hardy rate book, wonderful, Wonderful Book. And, and a very, a very simple, easy read, but very powerful in that, you know, we all have the ability to change.

Speaker 1: (21:13)
All right. Change. And we've doctor Walner frequent talks about the, the beauty between our 24 hour day period where we literally get a daily do over every morning, daily reset. So we can reset. We can just because the past 10 years haven't served us, it doesn't mean tomorrow can't. Yep. All right. And so, um, what I would say is in kind of closing, what are my thoughts for this morning and as we begin this podcast is, you know, what we all, and the reason we're doing this is because we all need help to get better, to improve. We all need coaching. All right. And, uh, and, and really the best of all individuals, whether it be in business, whether it be in sports, whether no matter what it is, everybody has mentors, tutors, coaches, people that help them, that, that actually see more in them than they can actually see in themselves.

Speaker 1: (22:06)
Yeah. All right. And they help us become better. And so our whole goal with this as we hopefully can help you, um, think about things differently. Um, you know, find that energy and that willpower within, within yourself to kind of change, to want to move forward in a different direction. Um, the beauty with, again, those daily do overs is just because, let, yesterday, yesterday was terrible. Um, it doesn't mean tomorrow or today can't be fantastic. Yep. Tomorrow hasn't written itself. Yeah, exactly. The great point that you bring up there. Yeah. And I would just simply say that you know, that if, if worst comes to worst, worst case scenario here for Ya, if you don't feel that in yourself, lean on us right now, lean on this podcast, let this podcast be a, I know this might sound cliche and cheesy, but let it be a beacon of light and hope to you, uh, that things can change and that they will change.

Speaker 1: (22:54)
And hopefully that's what we can provide for you guys, is a, is the necessary tools, strategies, and motivation, uh, to really, um, help you make significant breakthroughs and changes in your life in terms of your overall health and well being. So anything else you want to add? No, sir. K uh, thank you guys so much for listening to this first episode. Uh, we, uh, we're looking forward to sharing a whole lot more with you guys. It's going to be great. This has been a ton of fun already. I know. I am just going to really, really enjoy this whole process and this journey of, of going through and, and uh, just sharing a lot of the inside conversations that doctor Alan and I have on a, on a fairly regular basis. Um, we're definitely not for a lack of opinions on things and so we're ready to share it, but hopefully you recognize to some degree in another that our opinions are based off of a lot of collectively a lot of experience that we've had over the years. And so we know a thing or two about helping make changes in their life and get healthier. And so we hope that you'll join us along the way and subscribe to this podcast and uh, and uh, enjoy this process with us. So thanks for listening and we'll talk to you guys in the next episode.

Speaker 2: (23:58)
Thanks for listening to the health fundamentals podcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you stay in the loop and in the note with all of the cutting edge health information that we share, if you know other people that could benefit from this information, please share it with them as well. Also be sure to give us a review. These really help us to ultimately help more people. Last but not least, if you have questions that you want answered live on the show, or if you have ideas for topics that you would like us to cover, please shoot us an email and let us know at info@thehealthfundamentals.com.