Latest / NHA Today Podcast / 3 Skills Everyone Needs to Make Healthy Living Last, with Luanne Spiros | NHA Today
Transcript
- Stephan Esser: Hi, it's Dr. Esser with the NHA Today podcast. And today I'm excited to have on the podcast with Eve-Lynne Spiros, who's a Yoga Alliance ERY2 200 ACSM Cancer Exercise Specialist with a whole host of certificates and an amazing resume of experiences throughout all different aspects of health and healthy living, wellness, coaching, et cetera. So very excited kind of hear about her passion, her journey to where she is today. Tidbits, information that we can all learn from. then also hoping to invite all of you to join her at 2026 NHA annual conference in Ohio coming up in June. So, Luanne, thank you for joining the podcast today. Luanne: Thank you for inviting me. It's a privilege. Stephan Esser: You know, when I looked through your list of certificates and experiences you had, was like, wow, that is a lot of stuff. Those are a lot of experiences. mean, quite a journey that you had to today. So I want to actually jump right in for a couple of quick questions I thought could start us off. When you work with a client, what do you think is easier for them to change? Is it movement or is it nutrition in your mind? What's easier? Luanne: movement. Stephan Esser: Tell me more. Luanne: Yes. And this comes back to one of the questions kind of in prep for today is I'm a ⁓ huge believer in behavioral change or what I like to just call learning. I find ⁓ nutrition, food tends to be ⁓ more challenging, not just because of the food, but mostly because ⁓ of conditions around it. Our social environment, the skills we have, and the settings we are in. Our communities make or break so much of our successes in life and a big reason why. Stephan Esser: Makes sense, and do you use exercise or movement as kind of like an entry point to help people begin to develop new habits or tell us more about how you might see that. Luanne: Yes, I find that ⁓ movement is something that many people recognize as being important and are kind of in doing kind of their behavioral change process. they start with awareness and then they have desire, then they have knowledge, then they have action, and then they have reinforcement. And ⁓ they start out with that awareness, ⁓ tends to be ⁓ a good place to start to bring people in and then to try to weave in the other pillars. ⁓ As we know from lifestyle medicine, from the NSHA espouses, tends to be easier to weave in, ⁓ the movement is always a good place and it's ⁓ tactile that you get immediate response from it. Stephan Esser: Right. And so when you sit down with somebody and you're, saying, Hey, I want to improve my health. And you get them started with movement. ⁓ would you say it's pretty individual that when you start adding nutrition, or do you have kind of a, Hey, we've been doing this for a month or two months. Now let's start adding changes in nutrition. When, when, what makes you kind of move to the next level for people? Luanne: Absolutely, I think that's a brilliant question. from my experience and from my research and education, it's individual. There's one size fits all. Generally doesn't work other commonalities. Absolutely. There are themes and all around people and practices. But the difference between a young individual engineer who is living on his or her own in a new city, in a new place, and is starting lots of new habits very different than maybe a mother who has her parents living in the home and has three children and a family and has been living in the same place for 20 years where there's lots of routines of the places you go and the people you meet. So those dynamics make such a difference in how weave in what I call behavioral change, but I really like to call just learning. Stephan Esser: Right? Right. So it sounds like the general message is the same across the board. We all need to move more and eat healthier food. But when integrating these and how it integrated them is very nuanced and very individual specific. Is that kind of what you'd say? You know, first those. Luanne: willingness to learn. Absolutely, absolutely. We are a village. I call them the three S's and I've heard it from other experts out there. Social skills and setting, the people with whom we surround ourselves, the skills that we develop, health promoting in this case, and the setting, the environment that we create or we try to break down, whatever that might be, make or break it. Stephan Esser: Nice, nice, I like it. So when you think about, if you could give me three skills that you think everybody needs to have, that they need to develop in order to implement healthy living for a lifetime. And this doesn't have to be your top three, it could just be three that come to mind. Three skills that somebody needs to have that you think they need to develop. Luanne: ⁓ that's a great question. Yes. Yes, absolutely. is what I like to say with a lot of my attorney friends is ⁓ caption, read the fine print. So your ability to ⁓ and actually read and learn ⁓ something on your own and not let packaging ⁓ ⁓ decide. Sometimes we have to just ⁓ look it and read it. As Kim Williams says, know, ⁓ Stephan Esser: Nice Luanne: And God, we trust everyone else bring data. And so there's that component, which I love. Second is in understanding and assessing ⁓ social environment and being able to say, okay, is this individual, this event, this process health promoting or not? Am I becoming a better person long-term? Because of this community, because of what it is. There are great practices that say you don't necessarily have to... end things, but sometimes if you can introduce new things. So for example, going to the NHA conference, you have the opportunity to meet so many people that are like-minded or are trying to aspire. And that is huge. It's huge. believe isolation kills. And so when we're isolated, things become so much harder. So immersing yourself with others like yourself, Dr. Esser. And then the third I would say is the whole accountability. If I need to say, Dr. Esser, I'm going to send you a thumbs up every night when I've done my 30 push-ups or my 100 push-ups, whatever, and I know that you know that I know, that's going to probably add a little bit more commitment than if I am alone and by myself and just say, OK, I'm just going to try really hard. So hopefully that answers your question. Stephan Esser: That was good, those are some good tips. And so I'm curious if there was a book that you would recommend to our viewers to help them kind of, because it sounds like some of what you were sharing was almost some of the emotional intelligence paradigms, right? Kind of getting to know yourself, what you stand for, believe in some of these things. books that you would say, hey, everybody should read this. Who's trying to make meaningful change. Luanne: my gosh. I don't know if I could pick one, if I could give a few, because I absolutely, yeah. Yes. ⁓ my gosh. So Knowledge is Power, ⁓ Jefferson Atomic Habits excellent by Clary. BJ Fogg's ⁓ Habits is And I highly recommend people when they're excited about something to go to ⁓ YouTube and go TED Talks. And many times you'll those same authors. Stephan Esser: Please, yes, throw out a couple. Luanne: Presenting it so you can get an idea if you like that person or not and they're kind of where they're coming from Absolutely, if you really want kind of some of the hardcore with it. Dr. Rao Roy Baumeister who wrote willpower and Power of habits is another but I cannot underestimate what I think, you know how thoughts become words words become deeds deeds become habits habits become who we are right, it's just all about those habits and systems and you Instead of fighting them, you build systems and around so it flows. And that makes all the difference in the world. Stephan Esser: Beautiful. I like it. You know, I was thinking everybody who changes their behavior is usually for either fear of some risk or because they're looking for reward, right? One of the two. And when you think about that, in your experience, one is the better long-term motivator? Avoidance of risk or desire of reward? Luanne: Yeah, those are great questions. think what the literature would probably say is risk tends to be pretty short term and tends to be longer term. And so there's like so many things that's nuanced. so you people, back to your first question, it's individual kind of where people are at, but generally speaking, beating with a stick is not nearly as motivating as leading with honey. I'm a beekeeper as well, and so a master beekeeper. so that's, although I'm a sustainable one. And so I ⁓ find that long-term, if you can drive behaviors in a positive way, Dr. BJ Fogg says that, he says, I ⁓ better when I feel good about myself, not when I feel bad about myself. ⁓ yeah, I that often with folks beating ourselves up tends to not take us to a good place. Stephan Esser: Ha Nice. Yeah, I like what you're saying there, kind of focusing on the positive outcome, on the positive for ourselves, for our community, for the people around us, perhaps. There's so many positives that you can find in the behavior changes that you're talking about. Eating more healthfully, right? More sustainably, living. love it. You mentioned that ⁓ exercise you is an intervention that seems easier to go first steps, right? Rather than nutrition. ⁓ So you think about plant-based nutrition, I wanted to ask you in your mind, what are the... hardest things about transitioning to plant-based nutrition in your mind. Luanne: Absolutely. think Dr. Barnard would probably echo this, and I'm pretty sure I got some of this from him, and that is whole dairy cheese. The dairy side seems to be a really, really part for most people, it was for me as well, ⁓ and for physical and also just the context. We ⁓ live in world food is designed for profit. that's a big part of that. So somebody I would put dairy is a challenge. ⁓ The plant-based is, I call it death by a thousand paper cuts. And that is, you you go to an event or you meet people, you're going, you're going to be traveling internationally, you're to be this or that. And that whole thing of, okay, what are all the things I need to do to ⁓ create environment of success, even though I don't know where I'm going to be or what I'm going to do. So that level of preparation, preparation. ⁓ key, being to, whether it's food, it's actually batch processing, learning new cooking so that you become more confident. 20 years ago, I mean, I'm embarrassed to say, but I would put a frozen pizza in the oven and the smoke alarm would go off and I'm like, time to eat. I did not cook, I not do any of that. Stephan Esser: Mm-hmm. Luanne: And you you kind of have to find an environment where you can learn new skills and that skill setting and social. Stephan Esser: Right. Yeah, so I'm hearing from you there, of the dairy is a challenge, obviously with all those case morphine, right? And then all that, and the saturated fat, et cetera, and then the food preparation, right? Kind of those are some big transitions, some challenges. I'm curious, what are the top couple reasons to keep you motivated to eat a plant-based diet now? Like, what is it? Luanne: Yep, people like you, right? Surrounding yourselves with others who inspire you, who have own journeys that they're figuring out and they're navigating. having, we in a time where I'm so grateful that we have resources available that ⁓ just available earlier. They've evolved, technology has evolved. really, my quick story is a few years ago when I went to NHA by myself and had a goal. I said, I'm gonna meet new people, I'm gonna talk to three new people, I'm gonna try to connect with these two. I had some goals and now are our friends. These are the people that have come to our homes. These are people that are gonna be visiting me in a couple of months that I hadn't known existed. Like you, right? years ago, I didn't know you existed. so... Stephan Esser: Beautiful. Luanne: putting yourself, seeking out your tribe, seeking out, tribe's another great book, or I think it's a good book for that, seeking out your community, creating your community if it's not there. can do it online, you can do it physically, combination. That's a huge part of it, not feeling alone and isolated. Stephan Esser: Mm-hmm. Well, and I mean, everything you've said about this way of living, right, is one of celebration and positives, right? Like you even said, the whole idea of reward. so it sounds like, you know, surrounding yourself with people who have shared belief systems and are passionate about healthy living makes it that much easier and more enjoyable. But then you're all celebrating together, right? You kind of living longer, better kind of thing. think a lot of ⁓ of the talks this year at the NHA conference are going to be on healthspan, right? Kind of expanding. being well, living longer, right? Rectangularizing the morbidity curve, another term that they use, all those sorts of things. So, you you talked about exercise and many people struggle to kind of keep exercise as a regular habit. And so I'm curious for you, how do you make exercise a daily part of your routine? Luanne: Yes, ⁓ that's a great question. Stephan Esser: Where does it fit for you? Because you're crazy busy. You got a lot of things going on. So where do you fit it in? Luanne: Yes, so the habit is the operative word. There's a saying in contracts, don't build it in, don't bolt it on. And it's this idea that don't try to add things all over. OK, I'm going to wait for the moment, and then I'm going to add this, and I'm going to do this, and have these great ambitions. No. Try to build things into your processes so it becomes automatic. So for example, So today I went and I had students today that I taught at the fitness center. have students that are there at 730. ⁓ get there before 730 so that I am there for them. Because it would be much more likely for me not to do something if I didn't have a place that I had to go and I didn't have to show up. And I didn't have to, you know, ⁓ present the night. I made sure I had all my stuff out, my gym bag, my notes, my... music, whatever, certifications for people. I did it the night before. So creating these little habits where it becomes, okay, it's 10 o'clock. This is what I do when I brush my teeth. That's what BJ Fogg would say. When I brush my teeth, I think, ooh, I need to make sure I have my gym bag downstairs, right? And your brain tells you it's time to do it. You don't try to tell your brain with lots of a thousand post-it notes and try to remember and try to, you know. yourself that you're going to remember all this. I certainly don't remember all of it. I have to build systems ⁓ they work. They work. It's amazing. Stephan Esser: I like that mindset, think, know, kind of that build it in, don't bolt it on. And it kind of makes me also think of the whole channel factor in your life. And that's one of the things that Doug Lyle and Alan Goldhammer in their book, right, kind of talk about, you know, with regards to change is kind of creating a life that directs you, right, where you're wanting to go, kind of, you don't have to think about it as much, you know, it's just kind of, you if I have healthy food in the refrigerator, I'm far more likely to eat well than if I don't have healthy food in the fridge. So just kind of little guideposts along the way, right? That guide the current of my life. So what about the days that you don't have something scheduled to teach and you're just not feeling motivated? How do you get yourself still exercise? Luanne: Sure. some of techniques that have worked really well for me ⁓ the ⁓ ⁓ last I went, I have a swimming, I go and I swim early in the morning and then I meet a friend to run and it pouring outside and it was great. I'm in the Chicagoland area and it was cold and I didn't know that it was going to be cold and rainy and you know, it seemed like it was going to be fine. I came out and it was awful. And I contacted my friend like, hey, are you sure you still want to run at 7 a.m. because I know she doesn't necessarily want to have it when it's really cold. And she said, no, I'm in. And I thought, OK. Yeah. I was this close. Right. I was this close to saying, I'm to go home. I already did my exercise. Whatever. So accountability, telling someone going to do something, making those commitments, scheduling things. Stephan Esser: Rats. Right. Luanne: having it so that I've already paid for my swim lane and I've already scheduled it so someone's gonna say, well, why didn't you show up? my own dog food ⁓ doing that, telling other people ⁓ then, and trying to make, just structure in a way that they're the most meaningful, useful, helpful, certainly don't do anything that's ⁓ painful, you're resisting. Safety first always paramount. Stephan Esser: Good, I like it. I'm gonna give you a challenging scenario and we're gonna see if you can help us solve this, right? So you're coaching someone in lifestyle change and they say their significant other is not supportive. What are some tips you might give? Luanne: Oh, you are so good. So I had a meeting three hours ago and that was exactly what the topic was. You're good. I know you've got a good reputation. here's, I love that this one of the other, you talk about some of the favorite books that I absolutely love, Predictably Irrational is another one and there's a lot of this about cognitive biases and you just hit on one of them. So the best time to learn to swim is when you're sinking. Stephan Esser: I was listening. Luanne: The best time to try to make a decision isn't when you're in the heat of the moment. are your spouse, your partner, it's probably not if it's when he or she is going to create an environment that's going to be difficult. When the student is ready, the teacher will come. I am not going to change my spouse. I'm not going to change my friend. I'm not going to change. In fact, I'm at the hard time just trying to change myself. So take that off the table of trying to convince somebody to change. What you can do is you can anticipate and say, OK, we're going to go to a party this weekend. We know that there's going to be drinking going on. There's going be drinking. There's going to be a lot of bad food. There's going to be this or that. My spouse maybe wants to participate or doesn't want to participate. What can I do before the emotional? They call them hot moments and cold moments. Instead of being in the hot moment where you're trying to decide, you plan in advance. OK, maybe we can bring something for this partner who is not a whole food plant beast, which is quite likely that the person isn't. How can we have beans in another food? So if it's going to be, you know, a burrito, person wants to have beef, maybe you're going to bring beans. You make it easy. You make sure you always have a can of beans in the downstairs. You to anticipate what are his or her objections. And chances are it's probably not too novel. Once you start realizing it's not if, it's when, that this stuff's going to keep coming up and it's not going to change by itself, you start to say, OK, what can I do to prevent it? How can I prevent the situation? Or how can I at least treatment? have something that I can mitigate in it, don't wait until you're in the middle of the situation to try to fix it, because that's generally really, really hard to do. Stephan Esser: So awareness, preparation, and being flexible, it sounds like to some extent, with a situation being dynamic in the midst of it. then, you know, when it comes to kind of exercise habits, what's your feeling about, do you have a specific type of exercise you like? Is it just what people are willing to do? it, you know, how do you guide people? Do you evaluate what their personal goals are and then help them develop patterns. mean, tell us more. Luanne: Yes, I think those are fabulous questions. I of come back to my little triangle here. I'm certified with the Titleist Performance Institute for the golf organization. It's like the university. ⁓ And of the things they talk about is you combine your medical with your fitness and your expert. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to ask about his or her medical history. What does his or her medical people say? Contraindications, recommendations, all of that. Because sometimes there may be a healthcare person who says, this person who's maybe or maybe has some situation ⁓ not be on a treadmill that's going like this. So may be that. Second is the person's goals, understanding what his or her is trying to achieve. I call it the why. What the value that he or she is trying to fulfill, not just the how. And so I listen for that and understanding any past experiences he or he has had. So for example, if someone, let's say was an expert tennis player, right? And somebody had all sorts of, history of doing certain things at a certain success level, at certain challenges, that's very helpful to understand past successes help you get future successes. So somebody has an understanding, ⁓ this is how I achieve this goal. I have to do this, I do this, here's how I manage it. So those kinds of contexts make a difference. So I bring in together their goals, their history and their own experiences, their behavioral change experiences. Did they ever quit smoking? Did they ever this, you those kinds of things. Their medical, you know, safety first. And then with that, I bring in the elements might be a good match for that person. And it's a dialogue. The more that that person is bought in and can make tiny habits, tiny changes. gets them on that project and they call that project momentum. You keep moving in a direction, you get momentum and momentum. Does that help? Stephan Esser: Nice. ⁓ I think so. Absolutely. So when you're gonna be at the conference this summer, tell us what you're gonna be teaching, leading, tell us what you're gonna be doing there. Luanne: Yes, thanks for asking. So it's a privilege be offering the oncology yoga two ⁓ sessions will be, that we're determining the actual dates and times now. ⁓ And that oncology yoga, it's going to provide an opportunity ⁓ for to participate ⁓ and maybe use experience if they've had a cancer treatment or cancer experience in the past. a type of yoga that's going to provide support and ⁓ There's saying from Tara Prinster, who's the of Yoga for Cancer, one of the programs I completed. And she says, cancer takes our breath away, and ⁓ yoga it And so it can be incredibly empowering, ⁓ not just from breath standpoint, although that's... critical. We know now that our vagus nerve and our diaphragm as it goes ups and down affects so many of our digestive system, our respiratory system, our circulatory system, all of this. But what also this ⁓ allows is a way to maybe work with side effects. One of many things that are often underestimated are the side effects that come along for cancer treatments. That could be neuropathy. It could be digestion, constipation. It could be bone density challenges. because of ⁓ certain maybe treatments that someone experiences. So this provides an environment for understanding how that might be helpful. And I'll be sharing some resources. And also some of the things that maybe we wouldn't do. Let's say, mean, oncology yoga, for example, you might not do downward dog, where somebody else might be in a regular yoga class. They might. So what I like to say is it's more than just a pose. It's really an opportunity to give people power back. instead of feeling helpless, maybe feeling like there's hope, instead of feeling hopeless, maybe that there's feeling like there's hope, and that they can influence. Eligo is a Latin ⁓ word I love, and it means I choose. And so it gives choice, and with choice becomes agency and some of power. Stephan Esser: some good stuff I think that people are going to be able to experience and encounter with you ⁓ at the So excited for people to join in that. As we get the end of our time, a couple thoughts that you want to leave everybody with. Maybe some thoughts or reflections for our viewing audience, our listeners here about how they can achieve the more healthy them Luanne: Yes, again, thank you for asking. I tend to have kind of these guiding principles by which I live my life. And one from La Coma and Angel is, I am a part of all that I have touched and all that has touched me. NHA conference ⁓ one an opportunity to touch and connect with others in a way that they maybe ⁓ never considered. And it goes beyond the fitness side and the movement side, and that's absolutely critical. But looking at things holistically, thinking about the foods that we eat and how they us or nourish us, the people with whom we surround ourselves. There's quote from Henry Ford, and some people like him and some people don't. But he was asked by a journalist, and the journalist said, Henry, to what do you attribute your success? And he stopped, and he thought about it, and he said, I surround myself with the best people. So see that as an opportunity to connect with others. ⁓ managing with our stress that so many people are under so many demands right now, right? That decision fatigue is real. Things are shooting at us all the time and so being able to really kind of take back and espousing the principles of the NHA, ⁓ which believe is really fundamental to our physical our community health, our planetary health is really critical. And thank you so much for the opportunity to share today. And ⁓ thank you, Dr. Esser, and all of your peers and all the wonderful things you do to, again, you bring the care and health care. So we appreciate you. Stephan Esser: Well, thank you for coming on the podcast today and sharing your passion with us. And I know we're all looking forward to seeing you at the conference this summer. for more information, yeah, ⁓ those of you who watching who want to learn more about the conference, please go to NHA's website and learn more there. And thank you again, Luann, for joining us. Luanne: Likewise. Thank you.