Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, my friend. We have another fantastic podcast
Speaker 1: for you today as we wrap up the first month
Speaker 1: of the new year and head into February. February the
Speaker 1: month of love, the month of romance, the month of
Speaker 1: all matters of the heart. And while I have dedicated
Speaker 1: my entire career, almost my whole life on radio, has
Speaker 1: been spent talking about the ups and downs, the highs,
Speaker 1: the lows, the hurt, the healing, the joy of our
Speaker 1: emotional hearts, falling in love, the love of our children
Speaker 1: and our grandchildren. Today, I'm going to be joined by
Speaker 1: a very special guest that's going to encourage us to
Speaker 1: build a better relationship with our physical hearts. Are actual
Speaker 1: blood pumping in the chest, that organ that we all
Speaker 1: need to live. Hearts. The month of February is American Heartment.
Speaker 1: And when the American Heart Association encourages us to go
Speaker 1: Red for women, the hope is that by wearing red,
Speaker 1: it will help to bring awareness to the fact that
Speaker 1: cardiovascular disease. Heart disease is a leading cause, the leading
Speaker 1: cause of death for women, number one, ahead of all
Speaker 1: other illnesses and injuries that's concerning. That's an issue that's
Speaker 1: something we need to pay attention to because there's a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount we can do for ourselves to increase our
Speaker 1: heart health and reduce our chance of leaving our loved
Speaker 1: ones behind premature ly. I mean, we gotta do what
Speaker 1: we gotta do to stay as healthy as we can.
Speaker 1: Write with us today on this podcast is a Force
Speaker 1: to be Reckoned with Katrina McGee, Executive vice president of
Speaker 1: the American Heart Association. She has been working to educate
Speaker 1: folks about women's health issues for a few decades. Now
Speaker 1: she knows what she's talking about. We're going to get
Speaker 1: to the heart of the matter right after I give
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Speaker 1: my friend, how are you? How are you? I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to get to talk to you today. I got
Speaker 1: to meet you years ago. I think we were in
Speaker 1: Dallas or Fort Worth. It would be in Dallas and
Speaker 1: you as my business partner. Craig says, Remember she is
Speaker 1: a force to be reckoned with. That was his description,
Speaker 1: and I laughed. I said, oh, I remember her. She's
Speaker 1: like energy plus energy. You're like the energizer bunny. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I would you know what I believe in Burton with
Speaker 1: gratitude and ending with grace. So I'm I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to keep it positive all day long. Though I was, well,
Speaker 1: if you start with gratitude and you end with grace,
Speaker 1: how can you go wrong? I learned years ago a
Speaker 1: little trick, well not a trick, but a little wisdom
Speaker 1: or a little truth that few people share or teach,
Speaker 1: and maybe they don't know it because I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: And that is that every time I've encountered a major issue,
Speaker 1: a major problem, something that I it was a major heartache,
Speaker 1: every time, without fail, God used that to push me
Speaker 1: to a much better understanding of grace, of mercy, of
Speaker 1: goodness and I stopped looking at problems as problems and started,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of reframing them as Okay, God, this
Speaker 1: is an opportunity. This is like back to college. This
Speaker 1: is the college of hard knocks. What are you trying
Speaker 1: to teach me? That is the truth? So it absolutely is.
Speaker 1: I believe that with all my heart. I asked out
Speaker 1: a long time ago to help me love people like
Speaker 1: God loves people. And I don't think I knew what
Speaker 1: I was asking at the time, because what does he do.
Speaker 1: He doesn't just like supernaturally cover us with that grace
Speaker 1: and love so that oh we're so happy and and
Speaker 1: and patient. No, he gives us those life lessons exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, that is so true. This is you know,
Speaker 1: this is my second time working at American Heart Association,
Speaker 1: and I told my team the first time I worked there,
Speaker 1: I wanted to change the world, like I felt like
Speaker 1: I could make a difference around the world, and this
Speaker 1: was so awesome. And now I just want to love people.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to make a difference to the
Speaker 1: person in front of me, because I have discovered when
Speaker 1: I focused on that, it totally just the atmosphere. If
Speaker 1: you really want to transform community, you really want to
Speaker 1: transform lives, you have to start with the people that
Speaker 1: got places in your path and just love them, just
Speaker 1: love them the life. And so that is that is
Speaker 1: my passion. Now. It's not about trying to change the world.
Speaker 1: It's it's one heart at a time for me. And
Speaker 1: I'm I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful, um to be
Speaker 1: in that position. And um yeah, even in the midst
Speaker 1: of all of our chaos, I just feel like they're
Speaker 1: such opportunity be and story And well, I wrote a
Speaker 1: book by that title a couple of years ago, just
Speaker 1: talking about that very thing that in order to change
Speaker 1: the world for good, I can't see any way to
Speaker 1: do it on a large scale except by doing it
Speaker 1: on a small scale, by starting with the people in
Speaker 1: your house, and then expanding to the people in your family,
Speaker 1: and then the people in your circle and the people
Speaker 1: in your community. And if we can do that, if
Speaker 1: we can be kind and loving and generous and patient,
Speaker 1: we can change the world for good. Yeah. I believe
Speaker 1: that too. So I'm going to send you some copies
Speaker 1: of my book that you can share with whoever you're
Speaker 1: inspired to share them with. But today Katrina McGee. I
Speaker 1: want to introduce you to my audience who have not
Speaker 1: had the pleasure of meeting you, because you are such
Speaker 1: a beautiful woman. God has graced you with external beauty
Speaker 1: and internal beauty. But the thing that I love most
Speaker 1: is that you have spent your entire career helping women
Speaker 1: to love themselves and take better care of themselves. And
Speaker 1: that's not a message we hear often enough. It is
Speaker 1: absolutely true. I believe when women band together and passionate purpose,
Speaker 1: there nothing we can't do. And it has been my
Speaker 1: life's pleasure to teach women, equip women, empower them to
Speaker 1: take care of themselves, of their health, to live their
Speaker 1: lives with grace for themselves and for each other. And
Speaker 1: so I am honored to meet your audience. And it's
Speaker 1: been some time with you today. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about a lot of things. First off, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: February is American Heart Month and you are with the
Speaker 1: American Heart Association. And I read a fact before I
Speaker 1: interviewed you that blew me away. And this is something
Speaker 1: that my podcast director, my my executive producer shared with
Speaker 1: me that one out of three women will die of
Speaker 1: heart diseases. That could that possibly be correct? Yeah, heart
Speaker 1: disease is the number one killer of women. But the
Speaker 1: challenges most of them don't know it. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: really crazy because we think it's all these other things
Speaker 1: and yet it's heart disease. And so part of what
Speaker 1: we're doing this February in particular is founding the alarm
Speaker 1: to younger women, to more diverse women. Um that heart
Speaker 1: disease is the number one killer and we kind of
Speaker 1: lived dear, We've got to get into driver's be of
Speaker 1: our own health. How can that possibly be? When I
Speaker 1: think of heart attack, If you say the word heart
Speaker 1: attack or heart disease and I closed my eyes, I
Speaker 1: see uh an elderly or middle aged man sitting in
Speaker 1: front of a TV set with a beer in his hand,
Speaker 1: you know, having a heart attack. That's what in my
Speaker 1: mind heart disease is. And when I'm reading these statistics
Speaker 1: and the number of young women, the number of women
Speaker 1: my age and younger that are leaving us premature lee
Speaker 1: because of heart disease, how can that speak a trita? Well,
Speaker 1: part of it is that we just don't know and
Speaker 1: we think it's something else. Sometimes the symptoms for women
Speaker 1: manifest differently, so we're misdiagnosed or we missed accused ourselves.
Speaker 1: Many of us have uncontrolled hypertension, and they call it
Speaker 1: the silent killers, so you don't know you have it,
Speaker 1: and things just get progressively worse. And then there, of course,
Speaker 1: you know the things that we can control, like our
Speaker 1: diet and exercise, which have been so hard lately in
Speaker 1: the middle of the pandemic. We prioritize everything else for
Speaker 1: and our health is the thing that gets pushed to
Speaker 1: the thigh for I'm raising my hand and giving you
Speaker 1: an amen, because that's me. That's me. I have high
Speaker 1: blood pressure. I know I need to walk every day.
Speaker 1: If I walk two or three miles a day, my
Speaker 1: health is good, my heart is strong, blood pressure is
Speaker 1: under control that with my medication. If I don't, and
Speaker 1: because I'm home schooling the kids now and they're out
Speaker 1: of school in the pandemic and work, I can't even
Speaker 1: tell you the last time I had a chance to walk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I mean, women wear a lot of hats
Speaker 1: and so this is definitely not a judgment. This is
Speaker 1: not a you should be doing better type moment for me,
Speaker 1: because I believe in embracing grace and so that you
Speaker 1: know the things that we prioritize, they're important, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: They are still things we have to do. And yet
Speaker 1: we have to find moments, moments that we can take
Speaker 1: the kids out and go for a walk together, or
Speaker 1: take thirty minute time out. You know. I tell people
Speaker 1: scheduled joy breaks in your day. The other thing that
Speaker 1: exercise does for you, oh my goodness, it releases those
Speaker 1: positive Endortman. Then you just you would be so amazed
Speaker 1: how much a walk outside or just a little bit
Speaker 1: of exercise will change your mental faith for the better. Amen.
Speaker 1: That's so so true for me. I have to give
Speaker 1: myself a time out sometimes because I'm getting fussy with
Speaker 1: the kids, and then I just have to go out
Speaker 1: and stand outside and breathe deep. So let's I don't
Speaker 1: like statistics because I think a lot of people tune
Speaker 1: out or get lost with statistics. But this is important
Speaker 1: stuff to share. Uh. The number one killer of women
Speaker 1: is cardiovascular disease, claiming the lives of one in three.
Speaker 1: One woman dies every seventy five seconds in the world
Speaker 1: from cardiovascular disease. Yeah, it's crazy, right, and yet you
Speaker 1: don't really hear about it. And that's why our Go
Speaker 1: Red for Women movement is so important because it is
Speaker 1: you know, women having a conversation just like you and
Speaker 1: I think, girl, are you taking care of yourself? When's
Speaker 1: the last time you check your blood pressure? Let's go
Speaker 1: out and walk together. Let's take the kids and just
Speaker 1: go out for a walk. You know, it is woman
Speaker 1: to woman standing with each other and for each other,
Speaker 1: challenging us to take better care of ourselves. I mean,
Speaker 1: we we have to do it, because if we don't
Speaker 1: remind each other be each other's accountability partner, you know,
Speaker 1: encourage each other to to see the doctor, to take
Speaker 1: our blood pressure metagin, to do all the things we
Speaker 1: know to do, we could so easily set it to
Speaker 1: the side. Here's another fact that blew me away. And
Speaker 1: because of my eight daughters, six of them are black women,
Speaker 1: Black girls that are growing into black women. And I
Speaker 1: read a statistic more than half fifty seven of women
Speaker 1: of color and close to of Hispanic women have some
Speaker 1: form of cardiovascular disease. Yeah, that's that's right, not only
Speaker 1: to have some form of cardiovafter disease, but to have
Speaker 1: lower outcomes from it. But you know the good news
Speaker 1: about that is there are things we can do, and
Speaker 1: so you know, I go back to sharing the words,
Speaker 1: telling each other, you know, we have to take care
Speaker 1: of ourselves, ensuring that you know, as as African Americans
Speaker 1: and Latin active women, that we participate in critical trials,
Speaker 1: that we speak up, that we get involved in our
Speaker 1: own health care, because it is possible to survive. You know,
Speaker 1: most strokes are preventable, and people don't know that. So
Speaker 1: when people when you think about it, there is so
Speaker 1: much that we can do to be healthier, that we
Speaker 1: can do to take care of ourselves. And I really
Speaker 1: like to focus there because the statistics can be overwhelming, right, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm gonna get it anyway. But the
Speaker 1: truth is there's a lot that you can be to
Speaker 1: reduce your risk. So obviously walking, um, being healthy, making
Speaker 1: healthy eating choices, uh, saying no to the extra Cuba
Speaker 1: butter that I put in the mash but potatoes, Oh man,
Speaker 1: I made, Katrina, I made the best sour cream mashed
Speaker 1: potatoes last night. But I know they're they're not hard healthy.
Speaker 1: I know that. You know what the funny thing is,
Speaker 1: I tend to look at our diet and say, you know,
Speaker 1: overall balanced diet. You know, everything in moderation, and so
Speaker 1: if you are eating lots of leafy green vegetables, lean meat,
Speaker 1: if you're not having the sour cream masctates every night,
Speaker 1: you're probably okay. I think that we have to approach
Speaker 1: our nutrition from a balanced perspective. And it's one of
Speaker 1: the things that I love about American Heart Association is
Speaker 1: they don't generally operate an extreme You know, um, there
Speaker 1: is the balance to everything in life, and so part
Speaker 1: of it is making sure that you see your health
Speaker 1: care provider regularly, your doctor and nurse practitioner or whomever
Speaker 1: takes care of your health with you, and that you
Speaker 1: be a partner in that, like you ask questions about
Speaker 1: how to take best care of yourself, that you challenge
Speaker 1: things that you don't agree with and not just take
Speaker 1: things for granted. That you take the medication um that
Speaker 1: is prescribed, and do all you can make sure that
Speaker 1: you're following an overall healthy lifestyle. You know, moderation in
Speaker 1: our food, diet and exercise. And I don't mean exercise
Speaker 1: like ready to fall out every day. You don't have
Speaker 1: to go to a jam like you said, a great
Speaker 1: walk of thirty minute walk every day will be wondrous
Speaker 1: for your health. Okay, So what would you say if
Speaker 1: you if you lived here closer in my area and
Speaker 1: we were being safe, you know, taking all the precautions. Uh.
Speaker 1: Should we get together once a day, once a week.
Speaker 1: How can we assisters, friends, encourage one another, help one
Speaker 1: another to stay healthy and build those stronger bonds of
Speaker 1: heart love the emotional kind. What what would we do,
Speaker 1: like paint a picture for me? What you would suggest
Speaker 1: for women who are listening right now and men, because
Speaker 1: you know we all we all need to have healthy hearts.
Speaker 1: Just give me some simple tips you said, green leafy vegetables.
Speaker 1: My husband and I have been making salads every night
Speaker 1: for dinner since COVID hit because we thought, wow, we
Speaker 1: really need to have a strong immune system, so let's
Speaker 1: get more green leafy vegetables into ourselves and the kids.
Speaker 1: So that's one change that we've made. We have a
Speaker 1: green leafy vegetable with every meal now. But what are
Speaker 1: some other little simple things we can do to help ourselves?
Speaker 1: And so let me just say, you gotta have some
Speaker 1: fun with it, right because we've been in the house
Speaker 1: for a while now, or you know, we've kind of
Speaker 1: gotten in a rut. So my girlfriends and I at
Speaker 1: the part of this year decided to be like this
Speaker 1: little recupe slap thing. So every week we have a
Speaker 1: group text and we're posting in their new recupe. Because
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I got tired of
Speaker 1: everything that I could cook, so I needed to inspiration
Speaker 1: and um, the latest thing I've had, I noticed is
Speaker 1: so corny. But I made the best kale style of
Speaker 1: the praisings and little raisins, and then I roasted the
Speaker 1: ponds and oh my god, it was so good. And
Speaker 1: I had this brilled case and kicking on top of it.
Speaker 1: It was so yummy. It was so yummy. Um. But
Speaker 1: it's about eating different things and finding things that appeal
Speaker 1: to your palette, because it's not just one thing. You know,
Speaker 1: I love Brussels sprouts. Some people hate Brussels sprouts. So
Speaker 1: you won't know unless you try some things that you
Speaker 1: haven't tried before. So that's the first thing I get
Speaker 1: out of the food rut and try something. News. Do
Speaker 1: you have a website or something where you can post
Speaker 1: those recipes from your girl friends for all of us
Speaker 1: to enjoy. Do you know what I don't have a website,
Speaker 1: I can post those recipes, but I can give you
Speaker 1: hundreds of recipes from the American Heart Association. There was
Speaker 1: a great one I tried that had spaghetti splash in
Speaker 1: it with some spaghetti us on top of it, so
Speaker 1: instead of the noodles, you put the spaghetti sauce in there,
Speaker 1: and it was really super yummy. So we'll have to
Speaker 1: send you some links to some of those great recipes
Speaker 1: so we can try something different. Well, we love we
Speaker 1: We raised spaghetti squash at our farm, so we love
Speaker 1: doing that. That's when we've been doing for years, is
Speaker 1: using the spaghetti squash instead of noodles. But I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking for my listeners, if they go to the American
Speaker 1: Heart Association website, will they find a plethora of fabulous
Speaker 1: recipes that they can start incorporating. Absolutely. If you go
Speaker 1: to heart dot org, there's a healthy Living cab and
Speaker 1: it will have recipes there for you. Uh. There is
Speaker 1: a wonderful meditation on there called Calm Abiding when you're
Speaker 1: feeling anxious or overwhelmed. I'm learning how to do this
Speaker 1: little five to seven minute meditations is a beautiful thing. Um.
Speaker 1: There's also some quick, simple exercise videos on what our
Speaker 1: YouTube and our website, so really anything you need, I'm
Speaker 1: a like overall healthy lifestyle perfectives can be found our
Speaker 1: healthy for Good Things. Okay again, that address is heart
Speaker 1: dot org. Heart dot org and that's so easy, especially
Speaker 1: since the month of February is all about the heart,
Speaker 1: so heart dot org and then Healthy Living and Live
Speaker 1: Fierce are places people can go just for some some
Speaker 1: tips to get started, because that's the hardest part. I
Speaker 1: mean for me, once I get started, it's like a
Speaker 1: ball rolling down the hill. Once the ball gets rolling,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good about follow through. It's the getting started. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the getting started, and part of it is just
Speaker 1: sticking with it. That's why I love that I have,
Speaker 1: you know, girlfriends who are walking with me during the
Speaker 1: path during the month of January, just to try different
Speaker 1: things and get out of my comfort zone, and you know,
Speaker 1: just to even introduce myself to new foods that I
Speaker 1: don't normally eat. I mean, I know, you have a
Speaker 1: firing growth fresh vegetables, but some people don't, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always surprised when I talk to people who don't
Speaker 1: really try a variety of vegetables because there's so much
Speaker 1: yummy stuff out there. I would have insured to state,
Speaker 1: there's probably something for everyone. We picked even though it's winter.
Speaker 1: We picked Swiss shard. I still have Swiss shard that
Speaker 1: grows in the garden. I picked some the other day
Speaker 1: and cooked it up for the kids and put a
Speaker 1: little vinegar balsamic vinegar on it, and they loved it.
Speaker 1: So introducing more vegetables, more green leafy vegetables in their
Speaker 1: diet has definitely been a good thing. And again I
Speaker 1: did that when COVID hit because I thought the best
Speaker 1: thing we can do is be proactive, and so I
Speaker 1: just started looking up the things that we need to
Speaker 1: build our immune system, and it always came back to green,
Speaker 1: leafy vegetables. Yeah. Yeah, you know, nature gives death virtually
Speaker 1: everything we need for healthy living. And we've come so
Speaker 1: far away from eating fresh fruit and vegetables on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, and most of us have a lot of
Speaker 1: processed food in our diet. But I find that the
Speaker 1: more that you eat from the earth, the more you
Speaker 1: shop on the outer rim of the supermarket in general,
Speaker 1: the healthier you are. And so if you practice when
Speaker 1: you go to the store, go a ring around the
Speaker 1: grocery store first, shot the outer aisle of the grocery
Speaker 1: store where all the fresh fruit and vegetables are, the
Speaker 1: fresh meats are, the fresh Jesus are. If you can
Speaker 1: shop the majority of the time there, you're probably eating
Speaker 1: pretty healthy. Yeah, don't even go down those aisles with
Speaker 1: the processed food. Don't even go down because if you
Speaker 1: go down, you're gonna be tempted. A bag of chips
Speaker 1: is gonna jump off the shelf into your cart, and
Speaker 1: before you even get home, it'll be half gone. So
Speaker 1: don't even go down those aisles. So true, at least
Speaker 1: us in my house. I mean, a bag of chips
Speaker 1: might last a day, day and a half, and I
Speaker 1: can have little kids that live here. See that's a
Speaker 1: problem with having little kids, as you always have an excuse, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm getting this for the kids. No you're not. No, No,
Speaker 1: When you see me going through the line and I
Speaker 1: have one of those little little debbies in the cart,
Speaker 1: or I got one of those little Bama pies, the pecampie,
Speaker 1: don't let me lie through my teeth and tell you
Speaker 1: these are for the kids. Uh huh. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: try and live in healthier lifestyles. We're gonna wear red
Speaker 1: on the fifth of February to get everybody talking about
Speaker 1: this and thinking about this and how can we reach
Speaker 1: the minorities, the population that is underserved and has no
Speaker 1: clue how important this is. How can we help our
Speaker 1: sisters to live longer, live healthier, and be more blessed.
Speaker 1: What can I do? I mean, as a mom, I
Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna do, and I know a conversation
Speaker 1: I'm going to have with all my girls, But what
Speaker 1: else can I do? Well? I think one of the
Speaker 1: things we all can do is to help spread the
Speaker 1: words were read on February fifth, but then actively talk
Speaker 1: about it and share the information that the Heart Association
Speaker 1: puts out, you know, communities around the country. The American
Speaker 1: Heart Association has um partnership with faith based organizations, with
Speaker 1: organizations that serve African American and Hispanic community, and we
Speaker 1: need volunteers all the time. So if this is your
Speaker 1: passion point to help spread the word and under resource communities,
Speaker 1: definitely reach out to your local American Heart Association and
Speaker 1: find out how you can get engaged. If you're active
Speaker 1: on social media where read post about it, continue to
Speaker 1: share it with your friends that elevate the word and
Speaker 1: then finally, you know, reach out to your circle personally.
Speaker 1: I really feel like reaching out to the women in
Speaker 1: your life that you love, reaching out to the women
Speaker 1: you work with, those you care about, and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: have you you know done? Have you seen your doctor
Speaker 1: this year? Are you trying to eat healthy? Can we
Speaker 1: do something together? I want to help women survive and
Speaker 1: thrive during this time and be sure that we are
Speaker 1: safe from cardiovascular disease. You know, I find that the
Speaker 1: personal touch and really genuinely caring about those people around
Speaker 1: you and opening the conversation helps you be able to
Speaker 1: spread the word. I have a young woman who is
Speaker 1: not one of my adult children. I mean I did
Speaker 1: not adopt her. She has a family, but she is
Speaker 1: a daughter of my heart, a beautiful African American woman
Speaker 1: who went to see her doctor and her doctor said,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to lose a few pounds because
Speaker 1: your numbers are going up. And she came over and
Speaker 1: I had made something, you know that that was not
Speaker 1: very hard healthy, and she said, Mama, I can't. I
Speaker 1: really want to take better care of myself and I
Speaker 1: want to stop the problem before it starts. And I'm
Speaker 1: so proud of her because she did it like, she
Speaker 1: followed her doctor's orders and she started changing her diet
Speaker 1: and she lost the weight. And she not only looks fabulous,
Speaker 1: but I can tell she feels so much better. Um,
Speaker 1: and she's like, get those mashed potatoes away from get
Speaker 1: thee behind me, Satan with those mashed potatoes. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love to hear those success stories. You know. I
Speaker 1: think during COVID a lot of us are feeling challenge.
Speaker 1: I bet if everybody was honest and we talked about
Speaker 1: how much weight we've put on during COVID, we we've
Speaker 1: probably gained enough for a football team. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I'm raising my hand over here too. Right, Definitely,
Speaker 1: we all have. It has been a struggle to stay
Speaker 1: active and to eat right. You want comfort food, you
Speaker 1: feel like comfort food when the world around you is
Speaker 1: in chaos. And again, you know, I I try to
Speaker 1: handle that all with grace, which means that, you know,
Speaker 1: if I feel myself game, whether I feel myself pluggish,
Speaker 1: I used that as a reminder to get up and
Speaker 1: get moving. I used that as an incentive to say, Okay, tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'm going to eat a salad and I'm lean chicken. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I ate Mexican food last night and it was yummy,
Speaker 1: And you know, I just can't beat myself up about it.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, it is that continuous pursuit
Speaker 1: of good health that we're most after because you know,
Speaker 1: none of us are going to be perfect all the time.
Speaker 1: But Delilah, I believe if we if we keep good
Speaker 1: health pop of mind, it will always bring us back
Speaker 1: to those behaviors that we know are in our best interests.
Speaker 1: And you know what, what your daughter did would make
Speaker 1: a courageous choice to live fear to do with what
Speaker 1: was in her own best interests. And it was not
Speaker 1: easy because she's got you know, three kids at home
Speaker 1: and her husband and she loves to bless them with food.
Speaker 1: Our love language is sharing food. So it was very
Speaker 1: courageous and very fierce for her to say, no, I
Speaker 1: am going to take care of me. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. And when we see people doing that, I mean,
Speaker 1: how wonderful it is that she has you to encourage
Speaker 1: her and stand alongside her. That's what we have to
Speaker 1: do for each other as sisters, right, It's just when
Speaker 1: somebody is trying to affirm that effort, and um, I
Speaker 1: be't what go red for women is all about to
Speaker 1: keep for us all encouraged, to keep us all um
Speaker 1: on the path in pursuit of good health. Uh, and
Speaker 1: to share ideas and tips and what's working for each other.
Speaker 1: So tell me about your loving on me academy. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So I started loving on me because I was really
Speaker 1: passionate about helping women love themselves and each other more.
Speaker 1: I had just come out of this um anxiety filled,
Speaker 1: overwhelming um burnout really and I said, you know, I
Speaker 1: gotta find a way to do what I love, but
Speaker 1: to do it differently and paint a picture for us,
Speaker 1: like what was going on in your life? What were
Speaker 1: you doing, what choices were you making, or what was
Speaker 1: your circumstances, Because there's there's two things in life that
Speaker 1: we have to deal with. One of circumstances that are
Speaker 1: visited upon us that we have no say over. We
Speaker 1: have no say over the family were born into, our
Speaker 1: ethnicity or height, are any of that. And then the
Speaker 1: second thing is is things that are visited upon us
Speaker 1: like circumstances of of betrayal or divorce or jobs that
Speaker 1: are abusive. So what was going on in your world
Speaker 1: that was leading you to this stressed out situation. I
Speaker 1: was working at what I thought was my dream job
Speaker 1: and we had a huge blow up with another nonprofit
Speaker 1: while I was working at through the g Common, and
Speaker 1: I started to get in this cycle of every day
Speaker 1: trying to control everything and everybody. You know how we
Speaker 1: see something and we feel like, no, don't do that, no, no,
Speaker 1: say this that You're trying to control everybody, trying to
Speaker 1: manage situations that are often out of your control, where
Speaker 1: you've developed codependent relationships and where you want things to
Speaker 1: just go along as you perceived they should be. And
Speaker 1: I finally hit a wall where I thought the lot
Speaker 1: of I was having a heart attack and the struck
Speaker 1: at the same time, my face was getting numb, my
Speaker 1: chest was tight, and I instead of going to the
Speaker 1: doctor right away, I doubled up on my blood pressure
Speaker 1: medicine because I thought, Okay, I'm in a stressful situation.
Speaker 1: I know what this is. I'm just gonna take care
Speaker 1: of it. And finally my son said, listen, I need
Speaker 1: you to go to the doctor because I only have
Speaker 1: one mom and I need you to take care of you.
Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you, I've met so many women
Speaker 1: who have symptoms who were their body their spirit is
Speaker 1: telling them something wrong, that they're having a life interrupted moment,
Speaker 1: but they won't stop and take care of themselves until
Speaker 1: something catastrophic happens. And so, you know, my son said,
Speaker 1: I don't want them to be to you. So I
Speaker 1: went to the doctor. He said, you're not having a
Speaker 1: heart attack. You're having an anxiety attack. And you're having
Speaker 1: it all day, every day, and when you feel lightheaded,
Speaker 1: it's because your body is not getting enough there. And
Speaker 1: I didn't I wasn't even sure anxiety attacks were real
Speaker 1: until I had them myself. And he said, you have
Speaker 1: two choices. I can either put you on medication or
Speaker 1: you can be courageous enough to change your circumstances like
Speaker 1: this is not healthy for you. And so I took
Speaker 1: some time off. In a way, I was suffering from exhaustion,
Speaker 1: I was having the anxiety attacks, and it really was
Speaker 1: a life interrupted moment. I just believe, you know, God
Speaker 1: can use your life interrupted moments and take you from
Speaker 1: what you know best to get to know him better,
Speaker 1: like to really focus on what the spirit is saying
Speaker 1: to you. And that's what happened to me. And I
Speaker 1: started telling my story of what happened. I realized there
Speaker 1: were so many other women around me who did not
Speaker 1: understand how to love themselves enough to make the hard choices,
Speaker 1: and so I ended up writing this book to take
Speaker 1: people on that journey with me from being a hot
Speaker 1: mess suffering from anxiety attacks to unconditional self worth. And um.
Speaker 1: It was along that journey that I've met a lot
Speaker 1: of women from around the world actually who had experienced
Speaker 1: the same thing. And it became this movement, this loving
Speaker 1: on Me movement, UM. And I realized, I can help
Speaker 1: you learn to love yourself more, um, but you really
Speaker 1: needed help, honestly on how to manage your advice in
Speaker 1: your career too. So I set up a Loving on
Speaker 1: the Academy, first to help people get in the driver's
Speaker 1: seat of their life and to set priorities, and second
Speaker 1: to learn to do what you love, to find a
Speaker 1: career in what you love, or be curateous enough if
Speaker 1: you're not doing that, to do something different. And that
Speaker 1: that became my work for many, many years. And you know,
Speaker 1: I really still do some element of that even though
Speaker 1: I'm at American Heart now, because I have always been
Speaker 1: in love with helping women take charge of their health
Speaker 1: and their life and to do the things that they
Speaker 1: are most called to do. So do you have teachers
Speaker 1: at this Loving On You Academy? I mean, do you
Speaker 1: have classes at the academy? What does it look like?
Speaker 1: I do. I have online classes. I have three classes
Speaker 1: that are out there currently. I'm working on another class
Speaker 1: because you know, COVID has been a master class for
Speaker 1: us on many things, and so I want to set
Speaker 1: up a couple of more classes for that. And I
Speaker 1: put it online because I found that so many people
Speaker 1: did not have access to what they needed, and so
Speaker 1: I wanted to give it to the broadest audience possible. UM.
Speaker 1: So I set up online courses and occasionally a couple
Speaker 1: of times the year, I also do group coaching because
Speaker 1: I believe in women helping women. Uh, And that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's my passion. I love putting women in charge
Speaker 1: of their lives. I just believe it is so liberating
Speaker 1: to be who you were created to be and who
Speaker 1: not who you thought you had to be because somebody
Speaker 1: else that priorities for you, or you're trying to live
Speaker 1: up or down to somebody else's expectation. Amen. So if
Speaker 1: somebody wants to take a class that the Loving on
Speaker 1: you are Loving on Me Academy. How do they do that,
Speaker 1: Contrina out? Where do they go? They go to Loving
Speaker 1: on Me academy dot com and they will find all
Speaker 1: of the classes there. You know what, I bet probably
Speaker 1: of my collars every single night are women that would
Speaker 1: benefit from that because they call me because they're stressed out.
Speaker 1: They call me because they're trying to control their adult
Speaker 1: children's addictions, or their partners philanderings, or they're trying to
Speaker 1: control the finances of their household and it's out of
Speaker 1: control right now out and they just they call me
Speaker 1: because their heartbroken, because they're exhausted, because their life is
Speaker 1: a hot mess. I have been there, and I can
Speaker 1: so relate, you know. I talk about that in Loving
Speaker 1: on Me, my first book, because it's so easy to
Speaker 1: slip in a codependent relationship where we are trying to
Speaker 1: control another person or live that other person's life for them,
Speaker 1: And the truth of it is, you know, we think
Speaker 1: that we are helping people, we think that that's the
Speaker 1: right thing to do, but you are not called to
Speaker 1: live anyone else's life but your own, and in truth,
Speaker 1: those people don't love you. For that. They actually resent
Speaker 1: for that. And so it is healthy and liberating when
Speaker 1: you learn to break codependent relationship. But it is not easy.
Speaker 1: It is not easy. And the minute you you try
Speaker 1: to set those boundaries, I will tell you, the minute
Speaker 1: you try to set those boundaries, the minute you start
Speaker 1: saying no, no, no, that doesn't work for me, Nope,
Speaker 1: can't do the Nope, not paying that, Nope, you're not
Speaker 1: taking my car. Sorry, they get really mean because they
Speaker 1: don't want they don't They don't want you to stop
Speaker 1: being codependent. They don't want you to take care of you.
Speaker 1: They want you to fix them. Right. Yes, that is
Speaker 1: so very true, and yet it is completely unhealthy for
Speaker 1: you and them for things to stay the way they are.
Speaker 1: This is why I believe so much in sisterhood. This
Speaker 1: is why I believe in women helping women and understand
Speaker 1: the need to have a good group of girlfriends and
Speaker 1: connections who can speak truth to you and love because
Speaker 1: often we can't see this in ourselves. And this is
Speaker 1: whether this is our health. Are like our physical health,
Speaker 1: our mental health, our spiritual health. You know, we are
Speaker 1: doing things that we would tell our friends. Don't do that. Now,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, girl, you don't have to live it
Speaker 1: that way. Of Course, you don't have to pay his
Speaker 1: rent every month. Of Course you should take time for you.
Speaker 1: But it sometimes takes somebody outside of your circumstances to
Speaker 1: say those things to you. Because people see us based
Speaker 1: on how we're living, how we're showing up the good
Speaker 1: things that we are doing. We are constantly judging ourselves
Speaker 1: on what we perceive we should do or it could
Speaker 1: have done or didn't do, and and it often takes
Speaker 1: that outside perspective. Today it really is okay, it. This
Speaker 1: is a good thing that you are not doing that anymore.
Speaker 1: It is a good thing that you're taking time for yourself.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Katrina. Thank you for spending some time with
Speaker 1: us today. Thank you for being passionate about women's health
Speaker 1: and women's hearts and women's sisterhood. And any time you
Speaker 1: want to share a healthy recipe call me. Okay, I
Speaker 1: absolutely will do that. Now. I'm gonna see you when
Speaker 1: you're red on February right, oh yeah, oh yeah. And
Speaker 1: you know what, Red is one of my favorite colors.
Speaker 1: I decorate with it. My house has got red accents,
Speaker 1: and I am gonna wear red. But more importantly, I'm
Speaker 1: really going to make it a point to talk to
Speaker 1: my daughters, my friends, especially women of color, about the
Speaker 1: importance of paying really good attention to their heart. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. It's so important and I so appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Let me spend some time with you today. I loved it,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll talk to you soon, Okay. Take here.
Speaker 1: You know, for more than forty years, for more than
Speaker 1: four decades, I have tried to be a comfort to
Speaker 1: those suffering from a wounded heart. I've tried to encourage
Speaker 1: people to live from their heart, to love from their heart.
Speaker 1: I was a champion. I've been a champion. I've tried
Speaker 1: to be for the healing heart, a celebrant of the
Speaker 1: happy heart. I try to pass on all the great
Speaker 1: advice I can a lot from my own personal experiences.
Speaker 1: I've been around the block three times maybefore, and I
Speaker 1: like to share stories other people's stories. Katrina McGhee does
Speaker 1: the same. The only difference is that my work, my
Speaker 1: show is about the emotional heart, the joy, the love,
Speaker 1: the tears in our heart. Katrina's work is about the
Speaker 1: physical heart, our cardiovascular health. Each of us, me and
Speaker 1: Katrina wants you to live your best life. Live your
Speaker 1: life to the fullest, with joy, with purpose, with intent.
Speaker 1: Please take her advice. Do I dare say it to heart,
Speaker 1: Live fearce, prioritize your health, live purposefully, live passionately. I
Speaker 1: encourage you every single day to love someone. That's my motto,
Speaker 1: my slogan in life. And perhaps I don't say it enough,
Speaker 1: but the very first person that that applies to is you.
Speaker 1: You can't love others if you're not taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1: So take care of yourself, take care of your heart
Speaker 1: so that you will have the strength and the energy
Speaker 1: to take care of everyone else that you love. Valentine's
Speaker 1: Day just around the corner. You know where to tune
Speaker 1: in for the greatest love songs, the greatest love stories
Speaker 1: of all time. I share those with you every night
Speaker 1: this year. When you're making your plans for the loves
Speaker 1: in your life, your sweetheart, your partner, your children, include yourself.
Speaker 1: The month of February is a great time to kick
Speaker 1: start some healthier habits. Where read on February five to
Speaker 1: help bring awareness to women's heart health and visit where
Speaker 1: Red day dot org to learn more and to donate
Speaker 1: to go Red and Ladies. If you're looking for tips
Speaker 1: and inspirations to take the next big steps in life,
Speaker 1: in your careers and managing your health, you should visit
Speaker 1: Loving on me academy dot com Loving on me academy
Speaker 1: dot com, where you will find amazing, empowering tips and information.
Speaker 1: Join me next time I Love Someone With Delilah, We're
Speaker 1: going to have a fabulous podcast season, a fabulous year,
Speaker 1: and I am excited looking forward to sharing it with you.
Speaker 1: My friend m