Episode 132: Returning from Hiatus
After a mini-hiatus, I’m back with a new episode where you’ll hear me share my thoughts on:
Learning about racism
Exploring diversity in wellness
Simplifying health
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“What I always admonish and stress is taking it back to basics and simplifying your health.”
Read the Episode Transcript:
Hi my friend and welcome back to The Live FAB Life Podcast.
I’m happy and excited to be back here with you!
So it was back on June 9th, as the world starting this massive shift as a result of the murder of George Floyd, on top of COVID-19, that I shared that I would be taking the rest of the month off from this podcast.
It wasn’t appropriate for me to continue with the episodes that I had planned, which I already can’t even remember what those topics were. It didn’t feel right to just take a week off and then come back with regular episodes. That’s not my style and I wanted to take time to collect my thoughts.
Looking back on the past month, I am so glad that I did this. Because in addition to everything going on in the world, there was just a lot going on in my life too.
A little over a year ago, I released Episode 085: Avoiding Burnout By Pressing Pause, and a few months ago, I released Episode 114: The Reality of Burnout (and What To Do About It).
I share this with you because at that time, I was on the brink of burnout.
All the stress of COVID finally caught up to me, and at the time time, my work at my full-time job has increasingly become even more demanding. The level of intensity has gone through the roof.
So I desperately needed a break from creating podcast content and social media content. It was the best thing I could have done for myself.
So when I announced I was taking the month off, I said I wanted to explore diversity in wellness.
And I did, or rather, I’ve started to because there’s so many ways to approach it.
One thing that has helped me, as I’ve read and learned about racism, is to learn what terms actually mean, even words and phrases that I thought were obvious, or that I thought I already understood their definitions.
For example, white supremacy. What I perceived that to mean was blatant racist groups that harm black people and other people of color. I’m now able to recognize how its a mindset that is woven to every part of our society. Now I recognize how different things that I’ve come to think of as “just how things are” are actually acts of white supremacy.
I mean I went through a moment of questioning what is the definition of a person of color and wondering if I, as a person of Filipino and Japanese descent is considered a person of color. Because a couple of years ago, a white friend, told me that I wasn’t a person of color because I’m not black. I actually asked one of my cousins, who has been active in anti-racism for a while if we were considered people of color, to which she responded, “What a stupid question, of course, we are!”
But that’s what I mean by going back and revisiting definitions of terms to understand what they mean.
And I did the same thing with wellness.
According to the dictionary, wellness is defined as, “the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.”
So that’s broad and can encompass many things.
When I took a look at “diversity in wellness”, a couple of things stood out to me.
One - when talking about “diversity in wellness”, a large majority are yoga and energy-healing focused, which right on point, but there’s so much more to it.
Another thing that stood out to me came in a conversation with an Asian friend who also works in the wellness industry. She shared with me how this space is dominated by white people when a large part of wellness is based upon cultural practices of BIPOC (another term I’d never heard of but have recently learned).
That really struck a chord with me, because its another one of those things that I already knew but had just accepted as one of those things that’s “just the way that it is.” I’d never heard someone else vocalize this out loud and validate what I’ve always felt but just accepted.
I mean, my gosh, what does that say about me?
That’s a question I’ve asked myself over and over and over again.
If I can be a bit vulnerable with you for just a minute, and know that I don’t do vulnerability well, as a non-white and non-black person, I’ve struggled a bit to figure out where my place is in this conversation. Much of the dialogue is literally specified to either white people or black people, white women, and black women, so if you’re neither, where do you fit in?
This is one of the reasons I took a break from new episodes because I had to figure out if I even had a place to say anything.
And I do. Through my full-time employer, I had the privilege over the past month of hearing from leaders like Darren Walker of The Ford Foundation, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, and Helen Zia, who my goodness, I feel so fortunate to have heard them speak live to my company. Their wisdom and perspectives are invaluable, but for me personally, hearing Helen Zia speak on how important it is for Asians to speak up during this time, and even go as far as to acknowledge that the way Asians are discriminated against is that they’re invisible, well that really made me feel that I do have a place in the anti-racism conversation. So if you’re not clear on where I stand, Black Lives Do Matter. As do Native Americans and Native Hawaiians - which honestly, is the culture I identify with the most even more than my own, as do other indigenous cultures like the Maoris of New Zealand, the Samoans, Tongans, Fijians and other groups in Polynesia, as well as Asians.
This brings me back to where can I help diversity wellness.
Well, just being active and continuing to share my voice is one, for starters.
But beyond having a voice, leaning into my expertise and sharing my education. I spent a solid four years in active study of Integrative and Functional nutrition and I feel like I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on everything I can share.
But what I want to do is to educate people, especially BIPOC, on how they can take a leadership role in their health. How they can advocate for themselves.
We’ve seen with COVID that its disproportionately affected black and other minority communities. And many of the people in those communities have underlying health issues - things like high blood pressure, diabetes, autoimmune diseases.
And guess what friends - those are so common in my own family.
Its practically expected that when someone in my family reaches a certain age, high blood pressure medication is a given. And some in my family truly believe that once you’re on it, you can never get off of it.
I know that’s not true, and you know that’s not true, and I mean, this is largely why I decided to pursue this line of work and become a health coach.
So here in America, we know that the health care system is a disaster. It truly is, as some call it, not a healthcare system, but a “sick care” system.
I, as one person, can’t fix that broken system, but what I can do is to educate you and guide, support, and even hold you accountable, if you want me to, on how you can take ownership of your own health.
As I shared, my own family is riddled with poor health, and what I’ve observed is that although they want to be healthy, they don’t really know what that means, and they truly lack the skills and know-how to live a healthy lifestyle!
They don’t know what real food is. They think that eating healthy is losing weight - and we know that’s not the case for everyone, every time! They think that eating healthy is eating less! They think that Keto is the answer for everyone!
Now here in San Francisco, right when you off the 101 freeway onto Van Ness Avenue you’re greeted by a huge billboard that says, “Healthcare is a right.”
And yes my friend, it is. But it’s also a personal responsibility.
So if we have a broken healthcare system, how can you become a leader in your own health?
For starters:
If you drink soda - stop. Seriously. Just by doing that alone, you will find a massive improvement in your health. If you can’t quit, well that’s a sign of addiction and that’s something that we can work on together.
Another way? Stop eating fast food. Seriously. Its not even real food.
Just doing these two things alone can literally save your life because its literally killing people.
If you’re not already familiar, there’s a book I want you to read. It’s by Chris Kresser called, “Unconventional Medicine.” In this book, he details how diabetes alone will bankrupt the healthcare system, along with the country, if our society doesn’t take steps to avoid diabetes.
And how do you do that?
You start with your diet - get off fast food, get off processed food, get off of soda and sugar, and start eating real food.
Its really about getting back to basics and this my friend, is what I realized has been my overlying message all along.
As a health coach starting out, and even now, five years later, I’ve struggled with what my “niche” is. For some people its “Paleo” or “keto”, or others its “hormones” - that one thing that you specialize in.
Well, I don’t subscribe to one specific way of eating, other than eating real foods that are right for your unique self and having a plethora of my own health issues, and knowing how they’re all interconnected, focusing on one thing has been hard for me too.
But what I have always admonished and stressed is taking it back to basics and simplifying your health.
If you’re still on the standard American diet, you really have no business trying a really advanced diet like Keto, especially if you’re doing to do it right, until you actually learn and are able to eat real food and lay off of sugar.
Equally, I’m not going to be the person to spout off a laundry list of supplements you should be taking or and lab tests you should have done because these are advanced things. They’re also extremely individualized and I will never make those kinds of recommendations unless I’m working with someone in a one-on-one capacity where I’m intimately familiar with your health and your health history.
So this is what you can expect from me.
Free education through this podcast and resources that I have available for you on my website, as well as my paid coaching services, that will take you back to the basics on how to simplify your health and take a leadership role in it, leaning more into serving the minority community.
Leaning into my Human Design profile as a Projector, this is how I can START to add my voice to the Diversity in Wellness community.
So thank you for sticking with me through my break.
As I mentioned, my Human Design profile, I’ve also spent a lot of time learning about what it means to be a Projector, and how I can lean more into it. That might mean more breaks to come, but for now, I’m back and excited to continue our conversations together.
See you next week!
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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