So excited to share the latest episode of the Over Forty Wellness Podcast, where I was interviewed by Vincent Hiscox, who is also a health coach with a slightly different focus than I have.
Vincent has his own coaching business and as part of that, interviews people in the health and wellness space. In his own right, Vincent is also a super story-teller. On his podcast he takes the interviewer's seat and helps others tell their stories. With his questions, and most importantly, his listening abilities he coaxes others into telling their stories, helping them them find and talk about the interesting tangents of their life experiences.
"I was born in Milwaukee, Wi, in the northern part of the US and Milwaukee is known as The City of Festivals."
From Milwaukee to China
Having the opportunity to reflect on my own journey from the heartland to Asia is something I don't really take time for. It's difficult to believe that so much time has past. It seems only yesterday I was getting on the flight to Beijing.
Since then so many adventures, and so much growing and learning. Meeting so many fantastic people and I'm truly grateful for all the opportunity that I've had. Not to mention that I've met Dalip, my best friend & partner in life while here in Hong Kong!
I've also learned more about so many different places and cultures. And for me, getting to know people always started at the table. Food was always the ice-breaker. No wonder the first things besides hello and thank you that I learned to say in Mandarin and Cantonese were "hao chu" and "ho sik"; "tastes great"!
Our Health & The Health of the Planet
During the podcast, I have the opportunity to talk about where I'm at now. Helping people improve their health and the health of the planet - one plate at a time. I think the two are explicitly tied together and interdependent.
"A hundred years ago, it used to be that people were starving....now we live in an age of abundance."
The human species, in general, no longer has difficulty finding enough food to eat. We now have difficulty avoiding food. A big reason for that is how our taste buds have been exploited and desensitized to the taste of real and normal food. Over salted, over sweetened and too much added fat dulls our taste buds to real food that hasn't been overly processed.
At the same time, as industrial agriculture grows, more harm is done to the planet. More than a third of the world's fresh water goes to animal agriculture and 40% of the world's arable land is used by animal agriculture. Most of that is used for food that the animals eat.
Changes in the average person's diet and becoming more plant-based improves the health of people firstly, AND also improves the health of the planet. Simply, the more plants the better. However far each of us is able to move to eating fewer animal products will be better for our health, vitality and longevity. It can also make a big difference to how the Climate Crisis will impact our everyday lives.
I hope you enjoy the podcast!