March 14, 2024

Empowering Health: Tracy Herbert's Inspiring Journey and the Three M's for a Happier Life

Empowering Health: Tracy Herbert's Inspiring Journey and the Three M's for a Happier Life

In this podcast episode, Dr. Fitness talked with Transformational Health and Longevity Coach Tracy Herbert about her inspiring health journey. Listen in as Tracy introduces the three M's for a healthier life: Mindset, Mouth, and Move. Stay tuned as she underscores the importance of cultivating a positive mindset, making mindful food choices, and incorporating movement into daily routines. Tracy also recounts her cross-country bike ride, highlighting the generosity she encountered and encourages listeners to embrace small changes for better health and find joy in life's journey.

Tracy Herbert is a Leading Authority on Health and Wellness, Transformational Health and Longevity Coach, Professional Speaker, Bestselling Author, Podcast Host, and Diabetes Advocate. She is a sought-after speaker and a frequent guest on TV shows. Tracy offers unique and personalized coaching programs to help clients reach their health and wellness goals. To learn more about Tracy, get other FREE resources, or schedule a complimentary strategy call go to: www.TracyHerbert.com

TIMESTAMPS
• [4:25] Tracy shares the value of self-discipline and making choices that align with their values, rather than giving in to unhealthy habits.
• [9:40] Tracy discusses the importance of mindset in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, sharing how they overcame cravings for unhealthy foods by reframing their thinking and imagining unpleasant scenarios.
• [17:27] Tracy emphasizes the importance of finding activities that people enjoy, as it can lead to a more active lifestyle and weight loss.
• [24:44] Tracy hopes to inspire people of all ages to live healthy lives, emphasizing the importance of not giving up and finding joy in the simple things.

For more information on the Your Health Moment podcast, visit: https://www.yourhealthmoment.com/

Connect with Us!
Max Sturdivant, Podcast Host & Health & Wellness Coach:
Podcast Website: https://www.yourhealthmoment.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iam.drfitness
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdrfitness/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamdrfitness1971

Tracy Herbert
Website: https://tracyherbert.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tracyherbertwellness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracyherbertwellness
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tracyherbertwellness
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-herbert

🤝 This podcast episode was brought to you by McGowan Spinal Rehabilitation Center🎙️ Podcast Production by Dandelion Media
🔊 Audio Produced by Mountain Valley Media

Transcript

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:04  
Hello, and welcome to Your Health Moment podcast. I'm your host Max Sturdivant better known as Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Now, whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, hydration, exercise, or even time management, you're in the right place and I'm here for you. Now let's dive right into this episode.

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Thank you for joining us for another episode of Your Health Moment. I'm your host, Dr. Fitness. And as always, we're going to discuss all things holistic health and wellness. So basically no different than each other podcasts that we've had. Except today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Tracy Herbert. And we're going to deep be discussing her three M's for living a longer, healthier, happy life. And I think I'm gonna leave it there. And I'm going to introduce Tracy and have Tracy take us away from there. Tracy, can you give us a little more about yourself? Absolutely.

Tracy Herbert  2:18  
It's fantastic to be here today. I'm so thankful for this opportunity. And I was 17 years old, lying in a hospital bed, IV stuck in my veins, I'm scared out of my mind, not even sure what's going on. And the doctor walks in, and he puts his hands on his hips. And he says, young lady, you're going to be dead in 20 years, you're going to die with horrible complications, you will have your legs amputated, you're gonna go blind, and you're never gonna be able to have any children. And as he turned around and started kind of walking out the room a little bit, he said, Oh, and by the way, you got to take several shots every single day for the rest of your life, because there's not a cure. And he walks out.

sitting there going, what, what, what did you say? And that was my journey. Now 47 years ago, I'm learning about life, learning about the how to live longer, healthier life, despite whatever your age setback diagnosis, because we all struggle with so many things. And I was in the hospital for probably about two weeks, learning everything I could about what was called been juvenile diabetes. Now it's called type one diabetes, the kind that not so many people in the world have, but it is growing the type two diabetes, which we're not going to get into all the diabetes. But type two is typically not always found in older people who are more lifestyle related, where type one diabetes, it's an autoimmune problem. And my pancreas quit producing insulin right then and there. And so without shots, I die. And so I started learning everything I could while I was in the hospital, and everybody kept telling me the same thing. You're gonna be dead 20 years, and you're gonna die with horrible complications. And I'm sending a 17 I'm still saying, Excuse me, timeout. This isn't right. And so when I got out of the hospital, I started going to a local medical school library, researching everything I could not just about diabetes, but how can I as a 17 year old kid, start being healthier. And I was a varsity letter person in high school. I mean, I did it all. And I was an athlete my whole life. And I was always very healthy. So I thought which I still was, I mean, you know, still thin, no, nothing that I was expecting. And I went with my friends to a movie, my first outing having diabetes, and I'm running out the door. My mom's yelling at me, Tracy, remember, you can't eat anything. Now she didn't say it because we were poor or she didn't say it because, you know, she was trying to be mean, but back then I was having to be on a very restricted diet, and I had to learn The self discipline that's actually has saved my life. And so all my friends were ordering the popcorn, the candy, the soft drinks, you know it. And I walked up to the concession stand clerk, and I asked for a cup. Because back in the mid 70s, we didn't have bottled water. We didn't have diet, soft drinks or anything. And I just wanted to get a cup of water out of the drinking fountain. And the cashier said, Oh, no. And I said, Oh, I'll be glad to pay for it. And she said, No, all I was trying to do was fit in with my friends and have something and I'm running out of the movie theater, I'm screaming, I'm crying, why me? Why me? And all the way home, I started. just bawling my eyes out, got into bed. And I said, Tracy, you've got two choices. You can be better, or you could be better. What are you going to choose? And at that moment, 47 years later, I said, I'm going to be better no matter what. And so I've lived pretty much my whole life saying, okay, Tracy, I have two choices, what am I going to do? Okay, I'm going to be better, or I'm going to choose this, instead of this, or I'm going to move do this exercise instead of Netflix, binge watching all night long, or something like that. And so I've spent my whole entire life figuring this out, because without it, I knew I was gonna die. And as I started reaching my mid 30s, by the way, I'd already had two healthy children by this time, but I started, you know, everything the doctor said would never happen. happened has happened to me, you know, I'm not going to live a healthy life. Well, I am, you know, I'm gonna have horrible complications. I don't have any complications. I have to grow healthy kids. But most importantly, I have six grandkids, which is the best thing ever. I love my grandkids, and my kids, but grandkids are very special. But I started feeling like, I was so worn down in my 30s. And I thought, maybe the doctors were right. That was the first time I started thinking, ooh, you know what, maybe I was wrong. And I just had no energy. I mean, I was living my life with blood sugars like this, which most everybody does, even without diabetes. And I started thinking, okay, Tracy, get your researchers hat back on, get back to the libraries and start researching. And what I started realizing is, I was beginning to eat because they started loosening up my dietary restrictions, having diabetes, and I started eating like, the normal Western diet, you know, I would have the hashbrowns and the bacon and eggs and bread stuff for breakfast. And my blood sugar's would go super high, just like everybody's even without diabetes, and then it would crash. But when people's blood sugar's crash, which everybody's does, that's when we become tired. That's also when we want to reach for something unhealthy. So when I started putting my researchers hat on thinking, Wait a minute, Tracy, you want to start keeping your blood sugar's more level, even though I was still taking insulin? You know, I started thinking, What can I do? So I started with just a minor changes, and I started eating salads for breakfast. And like salmon, leftover salmon, leftover chicken, people thought I was crazy. But you know what, I started having level blood sugars. And I started having more and more energy. And I've always been a long distance runner, long distance bike, bicyclists and everything. But I started getting into more also doing those by start doing more meditation, more yoga, and started letting my body relax. Instead of always pushing, pushing, pushing to the next race, I started spending more time relaxing, and I started having more and more energy. And it was so funny, because my doctor started asking me, What are you doing? First of all, because this is working amazingly well. And he was the one that encouraged me to write my first book, because he said, Tracy, oh, wow, you've got to get this information out there. You know, he was a brilliant physician, he is now retired, because he's, I mean, this is 47 years we're talking about. But he said, you know, you've got to get this information out there. Because people with or without diabetes need to know this. And to me, it was just, well, this is common sense. And he's like, No, you're spending all your time researching. So I would take articles to him that I was researching. And he would say, Wow, I never knew that. And he said, Give me more research. So I'd send it to him. But the great thing about him was he would start showing other patients this. So then I started writing my book. And I thought, why am I still alive? You know, you, when you start really doing when you write a book, especially you start doing a lot of self reflecting. But when you start reflecting on your prior life and what you've been doing, things start popping up. And I started thinking, okay, mindset is so important. So that became my first M was having the right mindset, knowing I could take control, I can choose what I want to do. And so back to when I was 17. All my friends were eating pizza one day, and that's what you did as a high school senior And I started thinking about, well, how can I keep myself from being so tempted, because it was really hard to turn down pizza. And so I had imagined that I'd be totally so horrible. And I started imagining rats using the restroom running across the pizza. pretty disturbing. But you know what, I didn't want that pizza anymore. And so that was all a mindset thing. So as I started developing from about the mid 30s, now into my mid 60s, I started developing all these habits, and it all boils down to having the right mindsets. And then the second M is mouth, we have to learn to eat to live, we don't live to eat. So making simple choices, okay, today, am I going to have a donut? Or would I possibly have something healthy, and then maybe add an apple to it, you know, if you want something sweet, grab some blueberries. I mean, there's simple swaps, we can all do. And you know, so many people like the flavored coffees and stuff with all the sugar and all the nastiness piled in there. But I drink a lot of green tea, because green tea is known to reduce heart risk disease. And so I'm a big green drinker proponent, don't put sugar in it, but just start drinking green tea, making one swap from eating or drinking a sugary coffee, you know, Coffee House drink to having you know, a true glass of a cup of really good organic, you know, green tea. So mindset made me start thinking about my mouth, then the mouth, I started really, that's when I started noticing the big difference in my energy. Like I mentioned earlier, I started eating to live not living to eat. And then the third M is move. And we have to get our four chairs and move more. And so when you have those three M's together, if you have the right mindset, more than likely, you're going to eat healthy. But then you're going to also want to exercise. But let's say you have something totally, totally horrible to eat, which we all do. I'm not perfect, nobody is, but you eat something that you know, you shouldn't have eaten more than likely, you're probably not going to want to go for a walk afterwards. And get rid of some of that excess, this horrible caloric intake, and also all the added sugar and everything else. And so when I started reducing how much processed food I was eating, and limiting to maybe three to 5% a week, sometimes 20 depending on what was going on with my family and things.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  12:23  
And when you say three to 5% someone listening, what how can you Is there a way to help them understand that a little better? Absolutely 5% Absolutely one meal or it

Tracy Herbert  12:35  
can be everybody's different. But I also snack twice a day. Because when I was diagnosed with diabetes, you were taught, okay, you have to eat three meals a day. And you have to have these two snacks, what I started doing is reaching for like a bag of potato chips, or some crackers for my snack, instead of reaching for some celery or some carrots or something just you know fresh vegetables. So I start when I say three to 5%. Sometimes for me, that's not whole a whole week of not having any processed snacks, or no processed snacks, and then maybe one dinner or two lunches, or sometimes now, I don't recommend this if you have diabetes. But most days of the week now I do intermittent fasting. I don't do any type of training for 16 To 2816 to 18 hours. Now. Oh, that's Fanta I know. And now again, I don't recommend this with anybody on insulin or lowering diabetes or lowering blood sugar medication. But I've been able to work because I've been doing a lot of things over my life. And I also wear technology that shows me what my blood sugars are, and how much insulin I need to take and things like that. So I don't eat typically breakfast. And when I do I make it we do a green protein shake, where we put a lot of spinach and things like that arugula, whatever we have in our refrigerator, and some protein powder, and avocado, and then a little bit of almond milk. And that's what we have for our shake. And so we're getting our healthy fats, we're getting all of our greens, and then we're getting some, you know, almond milk, which doesn't have any sugar, the kind I buy doesn't have any sugar, but there's just reducing the sugar for me is critical. But now more and more research is showing to lower your risk of heart disease to lower your risk of cancer to lower your risk of arthritis. Cut out the sugar, but we didn't know that back when I was diagnosed. So what I say I typically do three to 5% a week of no a little bit of cheating here and there. So it's going to be like maybe instead of having a sweet potato for a meal, I may have mashed potatoes instead. Because to me that's a big cheat because it spikes my butcher quicker. And so things like that. But what I highly recommend to especially to people that are viewing and watching and watching and listening is you know, make one swap. Just make one swap today. you find something that you know you shouldn't be eating. And I use donuts a lot, because so many people like donuts. So you drive by the donut shop every day to work. So go a different route, so you're not tempted. And then one day, just say I don't want a doughnut, and then donate a doughnut, find something else that gives you pleasure, but it's good for your body, not gonna kill you, like stone knows what to do. And, again, the next day, do the same thing and add one more thing. Because what happens when we start making too many changes at once? We're not going to stick with it. And so that's what's so important. But going back to why, why had gotten back into a little bit more processed food a couple of years ago, to celebrate my diagnosis of diabetes that 40 years, I rode my bicycle from San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge to New York City, the Brooklyn Bridge, and that's 3527 miles. So I don't take things lightly. You know, I go all in for everything. But then,

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  16:00  
how many miles did you ride each day? That's,

Tracy Herbert  16:03  
that's a question everybody asks it varied every day, every day, okay, cuz there's several reasons why. The first reason and I'm gonna use Wyoming a lot. And anytime I talk about my trip across the United States, because Wyoming, I rode on the interstate the whole time, because there's no back roads that go across Wyoming. So I rode on Interstate 80. And while I was riding on there, every 76 miles, there's a rest stop those. So that's where I would stop in Wyoming every 76 miles, it'd be like, go here, and then go here, spend the night and then go here. And then what we did was, Oh, that's cool. My husband, we, my husband, and I bought an RV recreational vehicle. And then what I did was, because I had to have my insulin in controlled environment, so I couldn't just ride my bicycle and carry my insulin with me, because I didn't want the insulin, the heat and the cool, it would have been horribly, it would have ruined. And so what we did was we bought an RV so we could keep the, my insulin in the refrigerator. And then, so when I leave in the morning, I'd get on my bicycle. And I'd say I'm going for a bike ride, just like we do, just like these small little steps I was talking about with food and everything else. I didn't leave the Golden Gate Bridge saying, I've got 3527 miles. Now I go, I'm going for a bike ride, because I would have been overwhelmed. But every day, every inch, I got closer and closer. And that's what's so important about health. It's not all or nothing. You get on your bicycle, and you go for no right or you walk around the block, go for a ride. And I have to share the story if it's okay with you is no, it's absolutely because I met a lady in Sacramento, which was on I can't remember, I think it was on day two or three I can't remember. Because I did a TV appearance just before I met her. And she was she was I was waiting for the light to turn green. And she just happened to say, Oh, I wish I could ride my bike across the city. And I said, I'm going to New York City. But that gut feeling we all have. I knew I need to get off my bike and talk to her. And so I got off my bike, and I started talking to her. And she was the nicest sweetest lady, probably in her mid 30s. But she was morbidly obese. And she was telling me, I can't even walk around the block to go home, I have to wait for my brother to pick me up. And I thought, Oh, this poor lady. And I kept saying, Can you do this? And everything was I can't. And remember two choices. Everything boils down to two choices. And I start everything I said she said, I can't I can't. I thought okay, Tracy, come on. You're a health coach, what can you tell her? And I thought, okay, can you watch your into your driveway. And just like that for a split second, you can see a little bit of hope in her eyes. And she said, I think I can as Okay, walk you into your driveway, rest and walk back, and then do that the next day, go a little further, if you can go next door, go around the block, you know, every day do something a little bit further. By the time I got into New York City I was writing in, I got a text message from her. And she said, I have to tell you, I just signed up for my first 5k Walk. And this was a lady who couldn't even walk two or three houses to her to her house from the bus stop. And she said not only did I realize I'm enjoying walking so much, but the weight is just falling off on me. And she's I'm not changing anything I'm eating. And I thought that's what it's about. So she was just taking small little steps. But she got to the point where she could sign up for a first 5k Walk. And I always say if you can do that, anybody can do it. I mean, you know if I could ride my bike as a, you know, 58 year old grandmother, you know, you could ride your bike across the street, or you could walk across the street or go hiking or whatever. So find activities that people enjoy. And I think people will say, why did you ride your bike? Well, I love to ride bikes, you know. And so I rode my bike, it was started as a celebration, because again, I choose to live and I am so much happier with the right kind of mindset that I thought it'd be fun. Let's try that. So that's my roadmap. bike. And then everyday was a little different. I did a lot of TV appearances. But I've done TV before, when my books would come out, they'd have me come into the studios and be interviewed. And so some of the same people I was having a relationship with. So then when I was riding my bike, they say, Okay, can you do this? You know, can you do this time and stuff like that. And then I also spoken to a lot of colleges, a lot of high schools, a lot of camps, children's camps, even though it was the summertime, they still had like clubs and stuff in there. And so they wanted me to come and speak to them on a lot of the hospitals, doctors offices, when they would find out about it, we'd have me come in, because a lot of doctors over the years have had me come into their office and do talks for people with diabetes, and how to take control of your health, not just with my personal training experience in my health coaching experience, but just because I do it every day, because I have to, because if that I'm going to die. And so every day was a totally different day on the bike ride, I ended up spending the last four or five, six days in New Jersey, waiting to finish my ride in New York, because I would finish on the Dr. Oz Show. And because of their taping schedule, I had to kind of wait for them, you know, which, again, the purpose was to provide hope for people. Because that's why that's why I named my book, The second book write for hope. Because without hope we have nothing. And I didn't have hope at 17. And so I had to learn how to develop the hope that I have now. And I've had throughout my life. But i Nobody gave me hope. And so it's so important for me to stop and talk to people. So it took me three months to finish, I could have done it easily in six weeks. But the goal was to sit there and encourage as many people as I could. And people encouraged me along the way too. So it was the most incredible experience of my life. And as I'm getting closer and closer to my 50th anniversary, my diagnosis. Everybody says, What are you going to do next? And I'm not sure, yeah, you'll be the first. Next but anyway, I just love life and choose to enjoy it every every step of the way. And again, that bike ride across the country, I was beginning to feel like, I heard so many. There's horrible people in the world. You know, you hear that all the time. And I'm like, No, I met some of the nice, I didn't see any, I didn't have any problems along the route. People would stop, give me water, one man stop with his wife and fix a flat tire for me. And I'm like, I can fix it. They're like, No, no, no, you just enjoy sitting down having this glass of water, you know, sitting our cards, air conditioned. And you know, just things like that I'd stopped sometimes in a little town. And people just say, Hey, can I buy you some lunch? Sure. I mean, so you know,

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  22:37  
oh, that's so nice. It's so you did get to experience a wonderful side of the country. Exactly. Exactly. everyday person. And how gracious and wonderful people can be. That's it's in itself a wonderful gift.

Tracy Herbert  22:52  
That's that's that, to me was the best thing of the whole thing was just getting to see it, then people say still today, they'll say, Oh, the world's going you know, it's going apart. It's falling apart and everything. It's horrible. And I'm like, no, no, let's get out there and be around people, you know, quit watching all the horrible stuff that they talk about on TV and all the all the other stuff and quit reading all that and go out and talk to people because everybody's nice, not everybody. But you know what I mean? The majority of us are really just trying to live life and do the best we can.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  23:22  
Well, clearly your ride provided a lot of hope for people. It was such a great mission.

Tracy Herbert  23:29  
If I can share them inspirational. Thank you, if

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  23:32  
I can please share

Tracy Herbert  23:33  
this. I again, I did a lot of social media along the way. And in any way it there's a lot of people that have started following the ride. And again, it's not about me, but it's about the mission to provide hope. And I got a message from a mom of the first week of my ride, share this. She has she at that time, she had a six year old daughter, who was living with type one diabetes for two years. So she had gotten it four years old. And her daughter started saying, My life is over. I'm just done with this. She was so depressed. And she was so discouraged. And her mom started showing my videos to her. And she was like, and I told I don't believe this. But I'd always say if this old lady can do it, what's stopping you from doing it? Because I want these kids to say, you know, this old lady is doing and I'm not a whole I didn't feel like I was old. I mean very few old people ride their bike across the country. But you know what I'm saying, but I want the kids to see it. So she'd say, Oh, mommy, let's so her mom got a pitch big map of the United States. And she hung it on her bedroom wall. And then she cut out a picture of a bicycle and then cut a picture of my head and put the head on her bicycle and move my little bicycle every day. And she started seeing it. And I said that's why that's why we named it ride for hope. I had a bunch of the kids give me names of what they think that book should be in the documentary should be and that everybody said ride for hope because you're giving people hope.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  24:55  
Absolutely. Wow. And what You see next what I mean, you've done so many incredible things. I mean, you brought awareness to diabetes in a way that I mean few people have in, you're so empathetic for people, of course that are experiencing it, because you've dealt with it yourself. What's what's next? I mean, you three books under your belt. What's next? Well,

Tracy Herbert  25:24  
this is where I'm all over the place. I just, I love life. And I love to encourage people. But as a few years ago, we, my husband, and I have a lot of friends about our age. And one day, we were all together having lunch or dinner or something together. And we were driving home because every one of our friends, every one of them was complaining, oh, I can't do this, I'm tired, I can't do this, this hurts, this hurts. And we were driving home. And I said, I don't want to be that way. And my husband's like, I don't either. So now, I'm really shifting towards encouraging people, my age and older baby boomers, you know that they can live a healthy life, it doesn't matter. If you want to spend the rest of your life on a rocking chair. Great, do it. But if you don't, these are some of the things you can do. And it's so simple. And so I'm really, I'm shifting gears a little bit, kids are always going to be my joy. But I also had the other end of the world, the spectrum, we have the young kids, but then we had the older people that are giving up on life. And I'm like, don't give up, don't give up. And there's a really interesting research paper that they did, I believe it was in the 90s, I should have had that. I'm gonna give you the information anyway, because it's so fascinating. It was only 10. Okay, it's only 10 People in the nursing home. So it's really not even certified study. But it's so impactful when you hear the story, they took 10 people, and all they did was give them a few weights, you know, just small little lightweights for their legs and their arms, they were teaching them some of their things to do. They were all bedridden, every one of them was bedridden. By the time this study ended, it was only three months long. So it wasn't a very long study. But three months if old people 90 and older, I didn't say 90 and older, 90 and older, in a nursing home, in a bed can't get out can make changes than anybody can. But six out of the 10 were able to walk to the dining room and have a meal with their friends. And social isolation is critical for everybody. That's not good for our mental well being at all. And then two were able to get and do their wheelchair step. But they could go to the dining hall. So at least they weren't eating in their rooms. And then the other two stayed in the rooms, they couldn't get out still. But the point is that, you know, the majority of the people, eight out of 10, were able to go to the dining hall and eat a meal with their friends, instead of being stuck in their room. And so at 90 and older, if they can do it, same thing, if this old lady could ride her bike across the United States, anybody can make a change, you just got to figure out what you want to do. That's, that's what it's about is finding out what you want to accomplish, and then do it, you know, make ways make steps you can do it.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  28:13  
Now, you've been coaching people for a long time. So when you find someone that's having a hard time, you know, making that commitment to themselves to, to, to move or to do things. How have you found is the best way to support them?

Tracy Herbert  28:31  
Sometimes, not sometimes, for me, it's all the time, you have to keep digging and asking the questions. The most important thing is, why do you want to make the change, people don't call me just because they want to do something, they, they don't know what they're calling me for or reaching out to me, they don't physically pick up the phone and call me. But you know, they don't know why they know they need to do something. Or maybe their doctor told them they need to do something, or maybe their spouse or friends or kids or family or whomever. But the point is, if a doctor or a spouse, or a friend tells you, you need to make those changes, you're probably not gonna be successful. So I start really deep digging deep, and asking those questions. And I keep saying why? Why? Well, I mean, sometimes it's 20 times, why do you want that. And then eventually, it finally boils down to their real reason for wanting to work with me and get healthy. Because if you just say, oh, I want to lose weight for a class reunion or something, you know, or I've got a vacation coming up. I don't work with those kinds of people because that's not healthy, and they're not going to make the change forever. This is not about weight loss. It's not about getting strong. It all is important, but the most important thing is living the rest of your life healthy because again, I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life on a rocking chair. I'm not going to do it. That's not what that's not what I want to do and most people don't that's why I use the rocking I

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  29:57  
can't imagine. I can't imagine To new in a rocking chair actually, well, your husband must be so wonderful to share in like some of these missions with you like being in a motorhome and going across the country. Is he in health and wellness as well,

Tracy Herbert  30:15  
but he is by osmosis he is but no, he's not. But he actually, he and I actually wrote the third or my third book together, which is very interesting. Because I, he's always given me permission to share the story. I don't typically tell things to people in this, I get their permission. But about 20 years ago, he was on three different medications, he was 40 pounds overweight. And I would, you know, simply, you know, subliminally say, you know, you may want to try this. But then you don't want to tell your spouse that. And so he just started, gradually started making some changes, and then started writing the first time we rode bikes together, he couldn't even ride a full mile. And now he's riding 2530 miles at a time with me, but he's always making the changes himself. But then he'll now he's begin to ask questions. But the nice thing is, for 20 years, he's been off all medication. He's almost 70. I mean, he's in his late 60s, I'm in my mid 60s. But the thing is, he's kept off his medication, and he's kept off the weight. And he's like, this is so simple. Why didn't I pick this up earlier, I'm like, it was your choice. Again, you got to know your why. But as his knee started getting achy, and you know, his hips started bothering him and things like that, he knew, I don't want to spend the rest of my life. You know, sitting on a rocking chair, we use that example, because we backpack to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we just completed that trip again, a couple of months ago, where we carry all of our clothes, all of our food, we hike to the very bottom of the Grand Canyon, spend a couple of nights and we hiked back out. But the first time my husband and I ever did that. We did that in our 40s the first time. And we met a couple of the bottom who is 84 and 86. And they were the courageous couple in the world. So we use them as our role model. So when we start feeling like, oh, gosh, my back hurts today. I'm not gonna go for a run or walk. Oh, no, I am already for an 86 year old friends. And so he's just changed from this side all the way over here. And now he's as healthy as I am. And what's so funny is our kids, they're always like, we can't keep up with y'all. And our grandkids are always like, Okay, we know Papa name, you're involved, we're going to do something crazy inactive?

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  32:24  
Oh, that's fantastic. I mean, so you see your desire for health, just kind of continuing to go through generation and generation, it's having an impact on your grandchildren, even Yes,

Tracy Herbert  32:36  
and if we can reach the, you know, this, I mean, you're an expert. But if we can reach the kids, then they have a much better outlook on life, for their health than what they do if they don't. And what's so sad is so many children now are being diagnosed with type two diabetes, which used to be called adult onset, it's because so much time is spent in front of TV, computers and all that. And so when we start with the kids, we eventually will get up there to the parents, and then from the parents, then the grandparents. And it's it's a generational thing, it can either be a curse or a blessing. And where's it going to be?

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  33:13  
Well, you know what, that sounds like a really good place to leave this. And we're gonna leave it at being a blessing. It's a blessing to be able to share the gifts of good health and things that everyone can do, no matter where you are on that health continuum, to move in a direction of for to be being more healthy. So, Tracy Herbert, I'd like to thank you for joining me today. And I want to thank the listeners for tuning in to another episode of Your Health moment. I look forward to talking to you again next week. Take care and good bye for now. Tracy, thank you so much. Thanks. It's been it was fantastic. Oh my god, you're amazing.

Tracy Herbert  34:03  
Well, you know, every day is a gift. When you have that extra day life. You just what am I going to do today to help somebody else you know? Because, you know, in the fitness industry, if we don't do it, nobody else is if we don't encourage people, nobody's gonna do it.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  34:19  
It's so true. And being there for people when they're ready. Yes. Because sometimes I just have to wait for someone to be ready for the support. You know, because you can What's that expression? You can bring a horse to water but you can't make them drink. That's exactly what but being able to be present and just to be on platforms like your own and being out there and doing things to bring awareness. It's it's a real gift and this has been an honor for me to have the opportunity to speak with you today. 

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