Latest / Two Girls and a Cup of Wellness / Healing Journey: Becoming the CEO of Your Own Healing with Julie Stevens | Ep 31
Transcript
- Crissy and Marie: Hey everyone, welcome back for another Two Girls in a Cup of Wellness. Today we have the beautiful Julie Stevens. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Julie Stevens: Thank you so much for having me. I am just so grateful to be here. Crissy and Marie: we are too. You are such a queen to watch on social media. I gotta say, right? Your your confidence, your energy, your enthusiasm, your color. Color, right? Love that. Yeah. Like the even the bio pictures that you sent over to us are like the headshots were so vibrant. And that is that's a really great word for you. I think you're very vibrant. And in the cancer world, that's hard to do, right? Because cancer can drag you down, but you gotta like kind of find your way. And I feel like you are doing that so beautifully. And I think that you're really inspiring a lot, a lot of people. Julie Stevens: Ladies, I I think that I understood positive psychology right out like from for I'm understood it for a long time, but I didn't actually choose me enough to deploy it for myself until I was diagnosed. And when I was diagnosed, I was like, I understood right away that my immune system would be weaker if I lived in fear. And so I did Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: things that were so far out of the ordinary when they came to me in the hospital and said, Your cancer is quite Bad, we got the path report back. My response was to go ask the charge nurse if I could have a disco stroll and invite everyone on my hall to come out to dance with staying alive to me. Or Crissy and Marie: my god, I love that. That's awesome. Julie Stevens: when I would go for my infusion parties, as we were just discussing, it's hard to be vibrant with cancer. So I would dress up in costume and bring gift bags and music and games because I could not stand the feeling of healing in in like death. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: And so it was wild that very first day someone walked up to me and said, Julie, I'm not going to commit suicide because I met you. And it was one of those moments Crissy and Marie: wow. Julie Stevens: where I was like, Whoa, okay. So being this weirdo that's not afraid to wave my freak flag, even though I'm healing, and actually choosing to heal in the frequency of joy and love and hope, it it it exactly, and it was resonant Crissy and Marie: Yeah. That's where healing happens. Yeah. Julie Stevens: to the people that were around me that couldn't feel it. And so it was wild even when I would walk in and people would be like, You freak show. And by the end of it they're like walking up to play Plinko on my Plinko board. So I'm laughing I'm like, you know, yeah. Crissy and Marie: Awesome. Who is that doctor that Robin Williams played? That's what I'm hearing right now. Julie Stevens: Patch Adams. So so funny you say that. So it didn't click with me until I watched the movie. And it hit me. I was obsessed with Patch Adams in college to the point where I actually went on like a speaking tour and kept hearing him speak because I loved how he would view Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: infuse this. And I had, you know, I mean, it was 20 years later when I was diagnosed, and it just it just snapped right in. Like it just became who I was. And so when I watched the movie later, I like started crying. Crissy and Marie: What movie is this? I've got to watch it. It's so good. Julie Stevens: Because I was like I didn't realize how much of an impression that movie had made. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: It's so good. That impact, that's amazing. Yeah. That's so awesome. Well, it's it is intro okay. First of all, what movie was that? Do you remember Patch I That's the name of it. Okay. Julie Stevens: Hatch Adams. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: And you remember Robin Williams, and he was a very happy doctor, and he dressed up like a clown and he wore a nose and he would make all his patients. He brought a lot of cheer in horrible health situations. Yeah. But you know. To your point, you know, 20 years later, you didn't know, but subconsciously you were picking up certain practices, tools, elements along the way that were ready to go into put into place for when you need it. I felt the same way about my breast cancer journey, right? Many years of yoga practice and breath work and learning about energy and meditation. And then it was like when I was diagnosed, I was like, okay, it's go time. This is my time to actually put it into practice. And practice what I preach, right? Julie Stevens: That was a, you know, I'm I in I was a 25-year veteran on industrial psychologist, which means I studied business strategy and looked at talent strategy and how to build teams and how to use data to predict outcomes. So it's exactly as you said, Chrissy, when I was they said 14%, I was like, cool, 14% of people did this. So I'm gonna figure out what those 14% did, and I'm gonna figure Crissy and Marie: You're gonna figure it out. Yeah. Julie Stevens: it out. So I called and figured out, use my network to find survivors across the globe. To understand what they did in China versus India versus Turkey versus UK. And it like it it was like the low hanging fruit. Of course I did that in my brain. But anyone else in the world would be like, You did what? But that's just what I was used to, you know? Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Do the research behind it. And and like Chris Work always says, you know, go and talk to the survivors. Go to talk to the people who've been through it and are still thriving many years later. Right. And it it really is like so, so important to do. But everything that I think that you learned from those 14% and more is the same thing. As like probably as like the blue zones, just longevity in general. It's not just cancer. The the changes that we make and the different things that we start to bring in and and our our new practices and our new routines are not just for so the cancer doesn't come back. It's how do we live long healthy and strong, right? And live a happy, healthy life. You actually ended one of your videos. I saw it the other day, and you said, may you live long, live long and lucky with strategy. I was like, ooh, okay, girl, like that. It's so good. Julie Stevens: You know, and I think that's it's what you're saying is like so wildly important. And for me, I had a couple of mantras that I follow, live long and lucky. And then I added with strategy because I had been saying that for a long time. And that's a song lyric of my favorite band that I have held with me through my journey. And then someone said, like, girl, you're anything but just lucky. Like you are the most like data-driven Crissy and Marie: Yeah, yes. Julie Stevens: strategy. Do it with purpose and intention. So you got to add something to it. And so I just added the and strategy because I'm like, you're Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: right. It's it is about. Lute finding the opportunity out there, but also using your strengths to give yourself every advantage. Crissy and Marie: Yeah, absolutely. And really trying to shift the mindset. Our medical world is fear-based driven. End of story. And so many people give their power over to the doctors. But what they don't understand is that we have to create a harmonious inner environment in order for the healing to happen. And that is our job. You can take all the medicine, you can do the surgeries, you could do the radiation, right? I'm not saying anything about that because I did it. But you also have to show up for yourself and be your own advocate and start to make some changes so that you're not living in fear. Julie Stevens: So that's when I called the interview. So like I call this in my old professional world be doing a job analysis interview. So I decided being a patient is a job. So what you just described with me doing those survivor interviews was like, okay, what are what's the key performance indicators? Okay, you listen. Okay, you do your research. Okay, you communicate with your doctors, you build a team. Like I literally went through and built a job description for how to be an ideal patient. So you're exactly right. Like figuring it Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: out and embodying it, that gave me so much energy because I was like, all right, I know how to play this game. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. You feel more empowered doing it that way, right? Rather than like being Julie Stevens: Hundred percent. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: drug around in your own diagnosis. But there are thousands of people that go along with that fear-based mentality. And there's probably so many people listening to this podcast today that are gonna be diagnosed or currently in treatment that are just like moping around and not wanting to take accountability and make any changes. And what would be some some practices or some inspiration that you can give to somebody right now that is going through it and can't see the vision of an an outlook like you did. Julie Stevens: You have so much more power than anyone's ever told you. And you have power in what you think, you have power in what you eat, you have power in what you drink, what you do, who you surround yourself with, the energy you choose to give yourself. And when you align that, I felt I it's insane for me to say this. And I know it's how crazy it is, but I felt the strongest I've ever felt going through cancer treatment. Cause there was no, Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: no cell in my body that wasn't aligned in what the purpose was. And I used my energy, my time. I mean, it was so beautiful in that way. Crissy and Marie: Before your diagnosis, were you already kind of living like a positive, let's just call it a positive mindset type of life? Julie Stevens: So I lived a vibrant's probably a good word to say the life I lived before. I was pretty successful at work. I was constantly on the road, visiting new clients. I was, you know, literally a a rolling stone that gathered no moss. I was I was constantly living my best life, traveling, going to concerts, seeing friends, and I worked wild hours. So the idea of stillness, of choosing me, of cooking food that was nourishing, now I. I ate soup because it was faster to swallow while I was walking to my next appointment. Like, Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: so I had to really shift everything. Now, the positiveness, I was voted friendliest in high school. That that's been forever. Crissy and Marie: I love that. Yeah. Julie Stevens: But the idea of using that as a healing tool, that I mean, I I I had to really understand that very quickly after I was diagnosed. Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. It's it there you look at some people sometimes who are currently in it that are the woe is me type of people. And they're like, my gosh, I'm gonna I'm dying. I I'm not gonna get through this. I mean, I have talked to so many people that are like that. And it's like, at what point do you realize that that outlook is not serving you? And so if again, if you're listening right now and that is your outlook. How do we shift that for people that are that heavy and low? And I think it's getting out of your head and getting into your body, right? More of the body to mind awareness and healing and learning the power of our bodies. So what do you do now for that? Julie Stevens: So I think it it's two I like I like love what you said. And I think it's two things. so I I wanna say one, I intentionally ground as much as I can. And for me, that's through movement. And I figured out that's not I don't intentionally ground doing burpees. I intentionally ground through dancing. So if I wanna actually allow my mind freedom to think, put on some music in the kitchen, I can dance away, like I can go, I can go to live music, I can go anywhere, but the freedom of movement. I swear it's like qi gong to me, the way that my body can release Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: so I think one is I really try to ground and I ground through movement. but I I just want to say, I also to the woe is me folks, I wanna just say, and I I'm actually take off my glasses because I think this is really important to look straight in the camera and say this. You can choose to allow this disease to take you from the moment you're diagnosed or not. And when I chose that I was going to live my very best life until I couldn't, everything changed. Crissy and Marie: Hmm. This is so powerful. This is so powerful. I felt back to the the dancing thing. So you know, all of our cells are connective. And like I always feel like when I sing and you're a dancer, your body and your cells are they're jamming, they're feeling it too. There was there's a lot of research in Parkinson's patients, and you've probably heard of this, Julie. I'm not sure if you have, but they've taken Parkinson's, they have Dopamine issues. So they can't make that next movement, right? That cellularelease isn't happening and the reuptake is all impaired. They took Parkinson's patients and played music and they could walk. Wow. And it's like amazing. So instead of like like movement all jagged, all of a sudden they put music on and they can walk and it's excellent. I'll have to send you some of the videos. Fascinating. That is fascinating. That's how powerful it is for ourselves. Yeah. Julie Stevens: It is. It I I mean, I do think and and one of the biggest things when I look at when I think of my journey is I didn't understand joy in play. I was high productivity. And I believe as you know, our culture, it that's what we value. It's money and productivity. Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Stevens: And when I was able to shift to I'm purposeful about play, like I got Crissy and Marie: Mm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Julie Stevens: crafty. I got I have a she shed down in my basement now. Like I was like, Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: what can we do to allow and sp for me it was like The divine feminine, I lived in masculine energy where it was like productivity, Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: bh money, like and again, doing good work for the world, but it still was all about pleasing other people. So it's been cool to really Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Which is crazy because when you're down when you're dying on your deathbed, you're not gonna be like, Think of all the money I made and think of how mm pr you know, you're thinking about those moments in life, those good relationships, those wonderful times. That's what you're lying in bed and thinking about. It's crazy. Julie Stevens: It it's like the world gets so clear, and that was the thing I said about like feeling the best I had during cancer. It was so clear what mattered and what didn't. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. End of story. And just movement in general, all of the benefits that it brings. I mean, it releases your your endorphins and you're physically moving your body. So guess what? Your lymphatic system is happier, your fascia is happier, which in turn is gonna make your immune system happier and your cardiovascular system happier, right? So just movement in general, and to your point, it doesn't have to be burpees. I mean, who really loves burpees? Not I, as you saw in the one video through my Julie Stevens: Yeah. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: yoga studio that I teach at. There was a really funny reel that we did. but but it's just it could be just simple as walking, you know, or just dancing in your kitchen and just this sense of levity sometimes and not being so hard all the time and strict and just finding play, just finding some playfulness. And it's hard for somebody who's going through cancer right now. It's hard to see it, but Allow yourself that. It's a gift. It's a gift. Julie Stevens: I when I went from going to my infusion to throwing my superhero party or throwing my clue party or throwing my Elvis party, everything changed. Like Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: my feelings about the experience changed, what I thought to prepare for the event changed, how I left the event changed, everything changed when I allowed joy and play into my experience. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So mindset, movement. You change your diet. Julie Stevens: I, okay, so let's think about this. I, you know, I looked at cancer as my invitation to change. And I knew data well enough where when they said your cancer wasn't genetic, I understood it was epigenetic or what we eat, drink, think, do, and breathe. And so I went Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. One hundred percent. Julie Stevens: to my oncologist and I was like, okay, shoot me straight. I can accept any feedback. What do I do to build a body that's less hospitable to cancer? And he's like, honey, I got it with the chemo. You don't need to worry about any of that. And I was like, Wait a minute, I am part of the epigenetic crowd. I'm not the genetic crowd. I'm epigenetic. So what I ate, drank, think, do, and breathe created a situation that allowed my body to be more cancerous. And so Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: I want to hold myself accountable and look in the mirror and say, I'm gonna willing to do anything it takes to live another day. And so I really studied from the experts I could to say, okay, I don't know much about, you know, we I knew more what not to eat, but I didn't know what to eat. What's gonna Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: clear my liver? What's gonna support my microbiome? What's gonna help? So I got. purposeful and studied the natural health defense systems and what were the decisions I could make to strengthen my immune system, to strengthen my microbiome, Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: to have stronger stem cells. And now when I don't want to walk, I'm like, girl, your stem cells get 200% stronger when you're out there walking, start, you know, start hustepping. Yeah. So Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: I can use data to be like, okay, no, I want my body to be here. This is how you do it. So I Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: broke down the decisions and the energy into what I could do to give myself an advantage. And so it was eating, it was sleeping, it was shifting the way I work. I had to curate Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: my environment. I stopped watching the news. I can't I can read the news and it doesn't physically impact me. But hearing the news, man, my I So okay, I don't need to hear the news ever. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Girl, I I I'd the same way. I'm the same way. There's actually a study that said some people who watch so many hours of the news every day have this much percentage of increased blood pressure. Wow. And that was done Julie Stevens: Yeah. That's Crissy and Marie: like fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. Julie Stevens: But I also curated social media. Like if I you Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Julie Stevens: know, I I had to curate relationships that just really hurt me. Like I did really big dark shadow work and therapy work and all of that through this because I was like, I gotta release what does not serve me. And so I did think about, and I'm kind of a weirdo that I think about my energy differently. And so I was like, if I have an hour to invest, what's the w what's the biggest investment I can make right now? And then the Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: next hour I'd be like, I've got the next hour to invest. What's the investment I can make right now? And so I would try and go through my day thinking about the advantages. Because Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: I think we oftentimes with cancer, we're like, I just did this and it was a disadvantage. Well, I tried to count the advantages versus the disadvantages. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. It's awesome. and so you talk about how to build a body that's less hospitable. And you have your eight natural defense systems. Can we talk about that? And then talk about some of the foods that you started to incorporate because and then we'll get back into like the energy and stuff like that. But I wanted to come back to that. Julie Stevens: Sure. So, you know, again, I have a mix of I'm a pretty analytical person and I I like to create data gangsters. So the real you know, the the takeaway from my journey is not only joy and flow, but it is also how I harness data. And so the very first, the only reason I went rogue from a typical conventional cancer journey was I asked my oncologist when she came in to tell me your cancer spread and here's what this is gonna look like. She goes, We'll do six months of chemo. And I said, What will we do to measure efficacy? Now. That was my question I would ask any client, any ever like this was my meeting, every meeting I'm looking for, how are we measuring efficacy? So I just simply asked that question. She looked at me and she flipped her hair and she goes, honey, that's not how we do it. We'll do a PET scan at the end. And it was so condescending and belittling that I was like, Crissy and Marie: Wow. Julie Stevens: girl, you don't know who you just said that to. And so Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: I ripped through and started to learn and started, I wanted to know how could I measure efficacy? But then I learned about, mutations and that that's the new way of tumor of treatment matching by looking at these mutations. So I became very deep into understanding and harnessing my data. So you know when I think about your question about the eight natural health defense systems, I had been tracking these data markers for cancer, but I knew that there was, that was reactive. I wanted to figure out proactive. Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: And so I'd been studying for years, like who out there is who like who can teach me what I cannot learn? And it was a doctor named Dr. William Lee who's kind of started this thinking. And he taught me the idea of, and I don't know if you hear have heard of him, but if not, I would look at Crissy and Marie: I haven't. No neither. I was about to write. Julie Stevens: he is a pretty smart, he was a cancer medicine researcher. I have his book somewhere, but I can't find it right now. he was a medicine developer. He actually owned companies that developed cancer treatments. And his mom was Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: diagnosed. He recognized the opportunity that laid when you're a cancer patient versus a recipient, you know, and he got to work and he started to figure out what he could do. Now he names five natural health defense systems. So he names our angiogenesis and our stem cells, our microbiome, Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: our immune system, and I'm forgetting one right now. but immediately when I looked at those, I was like, I I agree a hundred percent with those, but we're missing our hormones, which we know if we don't can't communicate, our body's gonna be out of out of, you know, in dis-ease. Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Out of whack. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: if we're not looking at how we're detoxing, we're also going to be in dis-ease because our body's going to be toxic. And if we're not looking at our intuition and helping our understand that mind-body connection, that's actually, I knew everything before it happened. Like, why did I ask to measure the treat the C A n like the way to measure treatment efficacy? Well, that was one of the things that unlocked my journey. I knew the day I had to have surgery. And when they called and said it'll be July 21st, I was like, I really feel strongly the 14th should be it. What can we do about that? Guess what? I'd have emergency surgery because my colon closed on the 14th, 14th of July. Like it was wild the amount Crissy and Marie: Mm. Wow. Julie Stevens: of things I knew. But I didn't have confidence to seek data to prove or disprove. So Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: I try and teach people to listen to what they're he what they're feeling and then go validate it, you know? Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. But that's people don't want to listen to that inner voice because they think for so many years they've looked outside of themselves for the answers. So if something's coming up, they're like, most people are, well, let me go to the doctor and go ask them, right? Rather than really going inward and and and then you get pressured too by the medical system. And like when I tell my patients, I'm like, listen, this is this is what I think. Like I want to explain all these labs out to you, but I also want your feedback and I want you to be comfortable because the relationship that I want to have my patients, it's fifty fifty. I'm trying to like shift the mindset away from that conventional, traditional mindset said this is a relationship between me, the provider and the patient. And I I think I get really good feedback. You know, but I want people to be comfortable with the decisions and make them together. Yeah. And that's where even like for me when my I teach yoga, right? And how I help empower people is not just by mind body healing. It's mind, body, heart, and soul, right? That's gonna bring in the the the gratitude and the compassionate part from the heart. And then the soul part is Really listen listening to your intuition and that inner voice and also knowing that there's something greater outside of us that's n orchestrating things, whether it's it's God or Buddha or whoever, universe, angels, whatever it is that you believe in, all of that is kind of like that soul part of healing. And that to me felt so much more balanced and complete rather than just mind body. I felt like it's more well-rounded and it it feels like it's very similar to what you're saying. Like That just those five didn't feel like enough. I've I wanted to add more. Julie Stevens: That was exactly, and I DNA was the one I forgot before. But yes, that's exactly. When I looked at it, I was like, these are great, but but there's more that's that we can do. There's more opportunity Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: that we have to build a body that's less hospitable by dialing those things in. So Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: Chrissy, then you asked, okay, what are some of the things we can do to power up those systems? And each one's a little different. So let's start with food. There's a couple foods we can eat that are what I call multi-system superstars. These are the things that I try and Crissy and Marie: I like it. Julie Stevens: have in my grocery cart every single week because these are the things like broccoli and cruciferous vegetables. That helps your DNA, your immune system, your detox, your hormones, your angiogenesis. Like that is a winner winner. So I'm going to choose broccoli over asparagus almost every time because I get more benefit from broccoli. Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Absolutely my favorite. Julie Stevens: yeah, berries, any any type, DNA, immune, microbiome, detox, stem cells, angiogenesis. Crissy and Marie: Antioxidants, yeah. Julie Stevens: Leafy greens, green tea, pomegranates, watercress, which I didn't realize before. Crissy and Marie: interesting. Julie Stevens: Garlic and onions, fatty fish like salmon, turmeric, you know, fermented foods. All of those are things that I I mean, I I didn't eat olives to save my life, but I heard her too could be im I was her too positive could be impacted by olives. So all of a sudden I eat a Greek salad every day. You know, I'm gonna I can evolve. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: Yeah, interesting. I've never heard that because I was also I was triple positive breast cancer. So Julie Stevens: Ooh. Crissy and Marie: I was ERPR in her too. So and I don't like olives, but maybe I want to have to talk about Go to Barcelona. They're excellent. I'm hoping next year I'll be going to Barcelona. So So Julie, did you where when you collected your data? Because I love all I'm like a data geek too. Books, PubMed, like where did you go? Like evidence based research, all sorts of trials. Julie Stevens: Yes, yes, yes, and yes. So I was like Crissy and Marie: Yes, yes, yes, yes. And there's so much out there. Like I just I read a lot about mushrooms and I'm like, I can't believe this. Why don't we why don't they teach us this in school? Like you know what I mean? There's so many benefits to different foods. And we're not taught that. They go right to the algorithm of the medication. Yeah. That's where the money is. Julie Stevens: You know, it's it's interesting you say that because I one of the things I've done is I built this team and then I asked my team, where do you go to learn? So I didn't just stop with I'm gonna find an herbalist. I went to the herbalist conference. I didn't stop with I'm gonna find an oncologist. I go to ASCO every year. I'm gonna go Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: to where they where their Mecca is to go learn and I'm gonna go see what I can pick up. And what I learned at ASCO was so different from what a doctor learns because I don't know the mechanisms of action. I understand how to apply the different technologies at what point. So I laughed at I Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: can walk away from an oncologist and I was like, hey, what'd you learn? And he named what he learned. I was like, well, that's none of the things I learned. What I learned was how to apply Crissy and Marie: Right. Julie Stevens: this data, how to sh you know, measure this efficacy. So it's Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: cool that I haven't just stopped at learning, you know, from from books or whatever. I'm gonna go go to their Gemba, go to their source and try and see what I can learn. Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. it's that's you're showing up for yourself, right? You're making yourself the advocate. And unfortunately, a lot of people want to take the easy way out. But I find that with every conversation that we have, whether somebody is either healing through disease or cancer or trying to take that pro proactive approach in their health, all of the underlying things are the same. And you have to take action. You have to do things that may feel a little hard because they're unfamiliar. And you mentioned before, like you had to do some of the shadow work and right. And try to really take a real look at your life and what you were doing. And you have to make changes. It just there's no way around it, people. There's not an easy button. There's not an easy button to go through. Julie Stevens: You know, I love that you say that because I actually thought I'm one of the people that I I have an easy button in I immunotherapy worked for me. But it it that would have treated my disease. It would not have healed why my body was welcoming to disease. And the whole point is so cool, then I might have, you know, worked through colon cancer, but then we're gonna see heart disease or stroke or whatever it's because the root of the root of the root of all disease is the same. So Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Julie Stevens: I finally when I was studying with all these greats, I was like, whoa, I It doesn't matter what I want to avoid. If I wanna live, this is the path to living my best Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: life. Crissy and Marie: Cancer's just a symptom. Cancer is just Julie Stevens: It a hundred percent. Crissy and Marie: the symptom of the root cause. And we it we have to figure it out on our own. We have to narrow and boil down to where what's the root cause? Why is this happening? And nine times out of ten, it's the energy, right? It's the energy. It's that's it's the that's the that's the start of it. And then everything starts to accumulate and then things get out of balance and out of whack and then the disharmony and then the dis-ease and then boom it's the cancer. Right. That's just like the last part of it, you know, when you look at it from more of a Eastern mindset, right, rather than just Western. Western like, it's it's a tumor. That's that's the problem. And we'll take the tumor out and then you'll be fine. Right. But Julie Stevens: Which I literally, ladies, went back and studied medical school curriculum. When did it change? Understood the in 1909 exactly what happened to move the medical system from root cause analysis to allopathic. Like, I went back and studied the timeline and then apologized to my doctor. I was like, I am so sorry that you don't know vr herbs and supplements and you don't know diet and lifestyle Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Julie Stevens: and environment and you don't know the rest of the healing team. I appreciate you are the master of pharmaceuticals. So I'm gonna put you in the best place so that. Crissy and Marie: But you all started with like the penicillin movement, right? That allopathic mindset, right? Julie Stevens: Well, it started in 1909 with the Flexner report. And but in that time this is really interesting because then schools divided where we had naturopathic schools and medical schools. But in what Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: exactly when you said with the antibiotic, the naturopathic schools lost all their credibility. So while they were still there neck and neck in 1940s, in 1950s, they became passe. So you're like Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: it's but it's interesting to see how like the the division happened in 1909. And then in 1950s it was almost canceled out as if it didn't matter because we had this, but Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: The reality is is we still needed both. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Have you heard of Linus Pauling? Julie Stevens: yeah. Crissy and Marie: I mean, he was he won two Nobel Peace Prizes, but at the beginning, they thought he was crazy, a quackerjack, and that was not that long ago. And he was just trying to bring back that old concept. Let's just replace what your body's missing. If you're low in vitamin C, let's give you back some vitamin C. We don't need to do some synthetic stuff that's based on an algorithm by pharmaceutical companies, all for profit. Yeah. Julie Stevens: This is part of the cool part about where I'm trying to go is I have, you know, to go back to the eight natural health defense systems. The next piece of research I did was, well, what are the markers we can use to predict the strength of each of these systems? So now I'm trying to actually validate Crissy and Marie: Right. Yes, what are they? Julie Stevens: this to say, and the data that I show showed that we could potentially predict disease two to 10 years before it happens by looking at the drop in vitamin D, by looking at the drop in magnesium, by Crissy and Marie: And yeah. Julie Stevens: so this is where I am trying to validate this list of like these are the power data points. And you track Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: in your annual physical outside of what your you know your doctor wants to see when there's a Crissy and Marie: One hundred percent. Julie Stevens: change. Crissy and Marie: And it's like I do a lot with insulin resistance, which is building fifteen years before your hemoglobin A1C or even your fasting blood glucose is blood glucose is elevated. And I have to fight with insurance companies to get them to cover a fasting insulin because it's not recognized in the medical community. Yet if you pay cash, it's like fifteen dollars. But if you push it through insurance, they want like two hundred dollars if insurance refuses to pay for it. It's it's ridiculous. I I get so mad about this stuff, but we can see things happening. You can see Elevated cholesterol markers years before your LDL, your trichlycerides are elevated. That's the proactive approach. Mm-hmm. Yep. Julie Stevens: Those are lagging indicators. Yeah. But and that was one of the things of like I learned leading versus lagging indicators. And when I recognize doctors are only taught data to react, to pred to to Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Julie Stevens: diagnose, not to predict what could be if we know that's that's that's art. They they want they want science, black and white. And this, yeah. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. It it's nuts because it'd be I'm getting really, really can you feel my energy here? Julie Stevens: Hmm. Crissy and Marie: I went to SeaWorld the other day, right? I took my kids and it was mortified and I hate saying this out out loud, but by what people were eating, because they have these extra food plans there so that they can go in and eat a lot in the sheer size of people. And I just sit here and I think, why are we doing this to our society? And when you work in primary care, which I did, it is all about the numbers. It is all about the ICD codes. It is all about how much I can bill. If I teach somebody to eat a flipping salad, we can't get paid for that. You can't you can't charge for that. And it makes me so angry. I have to take a breath because I'm ruining my energy. But Julie Stevens: I Crissy and Marie: it's so frustrating because you are we have we do. If you if you have a heart attack, you want to be in America. Don't get me wrong. But if you want to be healthy, it's not, it's not the best country to be in. You're not proactive. Julie Stevens: That opportunity, and I was at an herb conference and they were talking about, and it wasn't even cancer, they were talking about dementia and what could be done to predict and support dementia with natural tools. And I walked out and I like started screaming into the forest because I'm like, why don't people know this? Like people like everywhere have this issue. I mean, the the next generation, the boomer generation is I mean, dementia and Alzheimer's is everywhere. Why aren't we spreading this like wildfire through the news? And then I recognize Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: because it's not profitable. Crissy and Marie: No, there's no money. And you know, unfortunately. They're looking for the next drug that they can patent and charge $20,000 a month. It's the greed. It's the greed behind everything. It's just nuts. Yeah. So that's why we do this podcast. That's why we bring on amazing people like you to start the conversation. Right. Just think outside of the box. Yeah. And get people really starting to think about this and then pick and choose. What are they going to do and how are they going to implement implement that into their world? And first of all, they have to love themselves enough to want to do it, to mut to want to make these changes. And that's key. Yes. I I think more people are waking up. You hear more people talking about, my gosh, look at the chemicals on our food. Why is the Skittle so red? And I was like, have you not thought about that for 20 years? So something is getting out there, which is great. But you know, I think I think there's more change. There's some people who don't, and there's nothing you can do about that. But The awareness and Julie's Instagram. You're like fifty one thousand now followers. It's awesome. I love it. Like getting that message out there is key. Yeah. For sure. Julie Stevens: It I've been saying, you know, I studied business for forever and I'm like, the first time we hold a CEO accountable for the crap that they put in their products, it will change. And until Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: that happens, I don't know that it'll change. So we've got to become Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: the, the, the advocates and understand there's technology enablers. Crissy and Marie: Right. The consumers need to Julie Stevens: There's, you know, I I go through the grocery store and I scan SKUs and I figure out what's in those products. And but Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Julie Stevens: it's figuring out those tools you can use to make it hit the easy button because it's too hard Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: to do it all on your own. Crissy and Marie: Right. Well, coming back to again how you were before cancer, BC is what I call it. You were kind of like in autopilot in go mode all the time. You're eating your lunch as you're going to the next meeting. And that's part of huge part of the problem is that autopilot. People are quote unquote used to doing things or used to picking certain foods and they don't they don't just don't want the change, you know. They're not open enough, open-minded enough to choose differently and to Julie Stevens: Absolutely. Crissy and Marie: live more consciously. Yeah. So people, wake up. Wake up. And I think everybody that listens to this podcast, they're starting to, right? And but share it out with your loved ones. That's what we need this movement to be is this consciousness movement, right? And again, not just physically, but energetically, emotionally. Really making making emotions not so looked down upon if you have to cry or scream or, you know, punch something, not a person, but a punching bag, right? But like knowing that there are so many emotions that are meant to be felt. And I said this, I think a couple weeks ago, is you know, emotions are energy in motion. And if they stay stuck in our body, well then guess what? That starts that starts the ticking talk of the disease in our body. And we need to let it out. We got to get that energy out of our bodies. So Julie Stevens: Chrissy, I love what you just shared. And it's actually one of the things I'm working on now is I believe all boats rise together. And so I've been wildly vocal on Facebook and Instagram and all the, and as you said, I've over a hundred thousand followers across the platforms now. And what I've found is people want to share. So I just created a Facebook group recently called Data G Nation, where it's designed for what I call us citizen scientists, us patients who go beyond, where we can go and say, here's an article I just read. Hey, what do you guys think about this? And other people who are in it can actually respond to research, not these emotional pleas of like, what can I do? No, let's let's teach each other. When I learn something about how Lodos, Neltrexone, and mistletoe can work together in combination to give you different outcomes. I'm gonna share that podcast so that everyone can watch it. So this is the piece Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. I love that. Julie Stevens: of like, okay, let's all add what we know and what we can do and what research we've done and the and the people, that's how we change the game is by survivors. Lifting up other survivors. Crissy and Marie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I love that. I love that. Data G's. I wanna join that. Data gangsters. I know, can we join? I'm like Julie Stevens: Please it it's crazy. I started it last week because I was like, this is insane that we this doesn't exist. And so it was like 500 followers within like two days. So it's been Crissy and Marie: That's awesome. Julie Stevens: such a cool conversation so far as people are like, hey, does anyone know about this? And people want to share their research and their knowledge for the benefit of others. Crissy and Marie: That's great. That there's no use in keeping everything to yourself, right? Right. But to your point, to your point, Julie, the people don't want to keep it to themselves. For the people who have the who are doing the research are already that type of person that like they want to make the healthiest version of themselves and they and their loved ones. So of course they're gonna share it out. So we need more people like that. Yeah. Data gangsters. I love talking about research. I don't know if other people do, but I'm like, look this. I love learning about it. I I'm I have to say I'm not one that was just like crazy into research, but I love learning about it and I love trying things and seeing if it works for me and I'm open for for sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: So, Rant, I think you're gonna get a kick out of this research because I re one of the issues I had when I looked at the average research was you re it required a ton of money to validate something. There's no research on hot lemon water in the morning and the benefit. So I recognized the bar Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. No. Julie Stevens: for medical school is different from my bar because practical use and outcomes was a good enough metric for me to consider. Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: So part of my past is I worked for a company called CEB or Gartner, and they do a lot of research on companies to understand. Crissy and Marie: This is hilarious. You might know my husband. He he talks at Gartner conventions. He doesn't work for Gartner, but he Julie Stevens: that's funny. That's so so you underst yeah. Crissy and Marie: well, I kinda understand him like he's supply chain. Julie Stevens: Yeah. Yes. Okay. So yes, applied to but this is it. So every single, every expertise has their own council at at Gartner and they Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: go and they learn from other experts, and it is like the playground for that knowledge. And I recognized Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: patients don't have that. So Crissy and Marie: Right. Julie Stevens: I am actually in the process develop of developing this right now, and it's just been funded for me. So this is what's so cool. Where I'm gonna Crissy and Marie: This is awesome. Julie Stevens: start doing research with patients by patients to benchmark the experience. So Crissy and Marie: Hmm. Julie Stevens: Listen, everybody out there is talking about hey, are you doing ivermectin or hey, are you doing this or hey, are you doing that? Let's start to actually count and look at this. And can we measure over a three month period people who are doing it X way, do they see any change in their blood markers? The answer is we can, but it hasn't been done before. But we just launched on the Crissy and Marie: It hasn't because doctors used to be murdered for this stuff not that long ago. Twenty years ago. So this is Julie Stevens: Well, yeah. So so now I'm Crissy and Marie: great. I love it that people are doing stuff and they're they're doing things on their own 'cause they can get stuff and then they're they're requesting. You can go into platforms now and order your own labs if you want. It's excellent. Julie Stevens: That that's exactly so we're building this process where the average patient will be able to understand the benchmark experience of others. So that's the piece Crissy and Marie: That's amazing. Julie Stevens: of my my background of as an industrial psychologist. I'm like, whoa, we don't we need to know way more data before we decide on what our approach is. So Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: that's where I've I've just left the career of industrial psychology and I've gone full force into I might be a patient union rep that wasn't ever elected, but like we need someone to say, what is the story here, you know? Crissy and Marie: Yes. Yeah. That's excellent. Yeah, absolutely. And then once you start to get that data, because the but the problem is with the all of this research from a lot of research that we're looking at in these trials, okay, where who's funding those, number one. And are we really getting the fullest answers and version of this, right? 'Cause I have heard that some You know, looking at some psychoticals or f or finding stuff. I love it when an article I just read one the other day on actually cinnamon, Saleon Cinnamon, they were actually trying to prove that it lowered LDL and it didn't in the study. And I was like, this is cool. It Julie Stevens: Yeah. Crissy and Marie: worked better for blood glucose control. And I'm like, they actually admitted that because a lot of times they'll scratch it or maybe start over because it's just gone because they didn't get their answer or the scientist was dead. Julie Stevens: Or it's never published and it's just yeah, ignored as if that research didn't happen. But and that's but that's exactly what I recognize. I'm like, this answer is not coming top down. I have a a note on my computer right here that healthcare is 17.3% of our GDP. They don't want it to be less because then China can supersede us as the global superpower. So they don't want oncology revenue to go down. So this isn't coming top down. This is going to come bottom up. Crissy and Marie: Mm. Yeah. Julie Stevens: So it is going to be a by the patient for the patient, which is why the data set has to be built by us for us. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: Love it. Yeah, that's amazing. That's not to say, like sometimes it's like we look back and we ask, why me? Why did I get diagnosed? We know why Julie Stevens. But I mean, but literally, like gives me chills. Like everything that you're doing, I I am like I can feel it in my bone. I literally have the chills right now. And it's so amazing and so empowering. And I'm just so excited to be on this. This journey with you and to watch you now from here on out. It's really spectacular. You should be very proud of yourself. Julie Stevens: I I went out in the forest right the day after I was diagnosed and I c you know, of course cried. And then I sat on what I call my rock and I, you know, basically prayed to the universe and I was like, okay, I 14% people did this. So there is a path and I'm gonna figure this out. And if you let me figure this out, I will spend the rest of my day sharing people the secrets I've learned. So make me a conduit of the knowledge. And so I feel Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Julie Stevens: like this is only my payback because it took me nine months with no side effects, no suffering. I mean I had the dream for stage four cancer that anyone would ask for. So I feel it's Crissy and Marie: Mm. Julie Stevens: only my my my obligation, my duty, my right, my privilege is the right word, Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: to share this knowledge. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're not only doing all of that for yourself to live as long as you can and healthy as you can, but now it's like, I'm gonna put this forth out into the cancer world and I'm gonna help as many thrivers as I can and help them truly thrive and not just survive through a cancer diagnosis. But how do you just fully, fully live to the capability that we're all supposed to? Julie Stevens: Exactly it. Crissy and Marie: I love this. I know. Thank you so much. And I want to join the the data club. Data G's. We will make sure that we drop that in the show notes and how you guys can follow Julie because her her post and reels and information that she shares. Amazing. Yeah. It's really, really awesome. And I'm so grateful that you are here with us and a part of our community now. Yay. Julie Stevens: Well, I'm so grateful. And you know, it just keeps getting cooler and cooler. Today, just this week I've gotten to spend time with Dr. Tony, who started Hope for Cancer. And I'm on the phone with Natha Winters later today and Don Mooseylem Crissy and Marie: Hmm. Nice. Julie Stevens: tomorrow. And so I'm getting to really learn from the experts of the experts of the experts and figure out the piece of the puzzle. And my goal is, I mean, what I've been funded is to figure out if we can figure out a formula for a miracle. And what is Crissy and Marie: yeah. Julie Stevens: it between energy and hope and and and nutrition and all of these things. What can we do to really put ourselves in the best possible position? So a very Crissy and Marie: Yeah, yeah. Julie Stevens: amazing family was like, listen, I see your energy and passion. Go. We'll help you. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Beautiful. Well, let me know if there's anything that I can help from a yoga standpoint, body energy, the mind, body, heart, soul healing, how it helped me. And I know it helps some of my clients. Just let me know. I'll be happy to help too. Julie Stevens: Yeah. I absolutely. And that I again, I'm trying to learn everything I can from any everywhere because I believe the magic is in a little bit of all the things we're doing, but really Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: it's in understanding the options and choosing what you want to be empowered as the patient. Because once someone says, Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Isn't that great? Julie Stevens: you gotta take vitamin C, guess what? That vitamin C is not gonna be as powerful as when you walk in saying, I want a high dose of vitamin C and that's gonna support my immune system, you know? Crissy and Marie: Right. I always say an educated patient is the best patient. Yeah. Knowledge is important to be educated. Julie Stevens: I have we have more data on our light bulbs than we do on our cancer treatments. And so one yeah. One of the things I just wrote for colon Crissy and Marie: I bet. That's nonsense. Julie Stevens: cancer is what I call a heel smarter guide. And we're just about to launch one later this month for prostate cancer, where I'm going through with a 24-year veteran oncologist and I'm saying, okay, from my perspective, here's the latest and greatest data. Here's what you can use at this point of your journey. Here's the technology you leverage to understand it. So I'm walking through building these cliffs notes of cancer. And then I have this veteran oncologist actually reviewing that to make sure it's the latest and greatest. So people who need that check box, they've got it well checked. But Crissy and Marie: Mm. Mm-hmm. Julie Stevens: man, the foreword he's written to explain to you why you need to be your own power, that's enough to w rock you on your socks and be like, all right, I got it. Here's what's really driving Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Julie Stevens: an oncologist recommendation and why I really need to understand my body. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. And get out of your brain, right? Stop we need to stop our brains from making every decision. We got to get our bodies on board and let the the voice of the body be louder than the voice of our brain because the brain just wants to keep you safe and it only wants to deal with the familiar, right? And not the unfamiliar. But you have to step outside of your zone and what feels comfortable to help in your healing and incorporate a lot of these new practices and rituals and tools. Awesome. Julie, this was amazing. Yes. Thank you. And we I have a feeling you're coming on again. Sorry. Lucy's excited too. Her dog. Julie Stevens: I love it, I love it. Crissy and Marie: I have a feeling you're gonna come back on because you are going places and you're just yeah, we gotta we gotta share all of your amazingness with with our crew. So keep up the good work. I love it. Julie Stevens: I so appreciate you helping to share because I I laugh that I'm, you know, they say be the change you want to see in the world and gosh knows I'm trying to do that, but I don't have a PR budget. I don't have a team. Like it's Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Julie Stevens: just me trying to create this swirl. So it's when people like you invite me to share my message and what I'm working on. This is how we actually create the sustainable change. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. This is the ripple right here. Julie Stevens: Exactly. Crissy and Marie: Yep. Absolutely. Well, I'm grateful for the ripple and I'm grateful for you. So thank you so much. Thank you, Julie. All right, guys. Julie Stevens: Right back at you. Thank you. Crissy and Marie: Yes. All right, guys. Until next time. One love. Thank you.