Transform Your Health and Reclaim Your Well-Being | with Dr. Bryana Gregory

Michael: Hey, what's up, Unbroken Nation? Hope that you're doing well wherever you are in the world today. Very excited to be back with you with another episode with my guest and friend, Bryana Gregory, who is a pharmacist and wellness coach. So, I've been excited to do this with you again, oddly enough, you and I connected a few months ago. We recorded a show and the podcast, gods decided they did not like it, and so here we are, my friend. What's going on? How are you today?

Bryana: Hey, Michael, round two. I'm excited. I'm doing great. And some things have changed for me since we last talked, and so I'm always excited about new development. So let's go ahead and dig in today, I can't wait.

Michael: Yeah, I'm excited and a lot of things that have changed for you are a lot of things that I'm working on in my own personal life right now. So, we will definitely get into that today. As we do that, of course, I wanna know what is one thing about your past that I would need to know to understand who you are today?

Bryana: For me, I've been through a significant amount of health challenges and I've experienced that in my family too, and while it's happening, it's the most daunting thing. But what I'd like you to know is that I came back from that and I get to help other people because of it, and that is to need the biggest blessing.

Michael: Yeah, it's kind of that whole moniker of all of this is like transform trauma to triumph. I would love for you to go into that a little bit deeper. One of the things I think that helps people tremendously in their own healing journey is hearing other people's journey. What was the health problems with you personally? You don't necessarily have to go in the family, but, you know, what were you dealing with? What were you battling and what was that time in your life like?

Bryana: Sure. So for me, I was in my twenties at the time, so I was pretty young when I started struggling with some really confusing health issues. I was in college and at that time I was competing as an athlete, I played golf for my college team and I went on to play professionally for some time after that. And these health issues continued on that journey with me. I actually took a trip to Europe, when I was in my mid twenties, and while I was over there I got quite sick, but it kind of happened slowly, so I didn't know what was going on. I was really having a lot of gut issues, a lot of constipation, you know, for being real things that were not comfortable, especially when you're traveling. So, and then when I came home, I started feeling like I was having very low moods. I felt like I was being just stabbed in the gut with a dagger, you know, in the fetal position on my bed. And of course, as an athlete, you can't function like that. I literally have to lay on my bed in the fetal position with the lights off for most of the day. And for anyone who identifies with their sport or their career, whatever that might be, that really takes a toll on you because I wasn't able to do and be physically active doing what I love to do every single day for several hours.

And so, I really didn't feel like I was getting answers cuz I was getting bounced around from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist and I really wasn't getting much resolution for being honest, it was a lot of prescribing this med, prescribing that med, but then that med had this side effect, so you need another med, it was that type of journey for me. So, I learned a lot from that but I was blessed to come in contact with a functional medicine practitioner who looked at my whole body and said your gut is connected to your brain is connected to your cardiovascular system and the way that you detox and all this stuff that at that time was like, whoosh, way over my head, you know, and I was even, Pre-med at that time. So, I wasn't being taught this stuff and I was overwhelmed so imagine how everyone else is feeling I know I'm certainly not the only person that has gone through something like that, but when I met this functional medicine practitioner, which essentially looks at how the whole-body functions as one, my eyes were completely opened, I was never taught that. I didn't understand that you couldn't treat these systems in a segregated way. It's all connected. So there was an explanation for what was happening to me. Turns out that when I took that trip to Europe, I actually just got a bacterial infection in my gut and all of these other symptoms ensued that led me to, literally a heart surgeon told me that I was gonna have to have open heart surgery to have a vessel that wraps around my heart fixed, and then the gastrointestinal doctor wanted to do another surgery, you know? So unfortunately, this is a common story. I'm not the only one and several people get bounced around without feeling encouraged by the medical system instead, they end up feeling discouraged, you know?

Michael: Yeah, I mean, I actually relate to that a lot because when I was 28, 29, um, I got incredibly sick. Now here's what I'll say about that, it's probably, it is my fault because of the diets, the lifestyle, the way I was consuming coffee, alcohol, drugs, food. I mean, my average dinner back then, and you're talking about 10 years ago, like I would just eat a frozen pizza with a half a bottle of wine, and so I started getting sick, right? I will say this, growing up in the Midwest, no one ever taught us about nutrition. I probably didn't have a salad for the first time till I was 20. I would be willing to bet somewhere in that window, right? And one of the things that I discovered quickly, like I had been sick as a kid, right? I had obviously a handful of skin graft on my finger. I had asthma as a child, so I had a couple of trips to the hospital I actually coded once, which was really crazy. But I had been healthy for like, 20 years at this point, right? Where nothing major, some injuries, some broken bones from playing sports, you know, that's a part of the game. But I started having this tremendous gut pain like everything I eat made me feel crippled. I had massive brain fog. I felt sick all the time. I started losing all this weight and I was malnourished, and I was going to doctors gastro after gastro after gastro after. This test and that test and from, you know, from in everything that one would do under that circumstance, continually just filling left without answers. And it was like, throw this drug at it. Try this motility thing, do that. And it wasn't actually until I went to see a functional medicine doctor who actually she had a functional medicine doctor, and then she became an immunologist. And of all people, she was like, oh, I know exactly what you have. And on the first try, she, her name was Dr. Guggenheim. Go figure. It's like, yeah, of course it was. And so, she figured out in the first time that I saw her, she was like, oh wait, you have SIBO and you have c-diff, and you have all these other things and I was like, well, how do we fix this? And I think so many people, they just feel so unnerved, right? And as someone who is always moving towards health, especially if you're an athlete or if you are a person who's a high performer and you're trying to figure out how to navigate your life, being sick takes everything from you. And so how were you managing just the day to day when you were being that sick? Like what was going through your head? What was going through your mind? How were your relationships? Like what was a picture of life during that time?

Bryana: It was literally dark, like I said, I was sitting in the dark, you know, curled up, my energy was constrictive literally, I was not socializing that much because I'm an extroverted person, being around people gives me energy and so not being able to be around people cause I wasn't feeling well, was not helping that, and because I didn't feel well, I couldn't be my extrovert itself. Right. So my relationships, they were suffering and I was isolating to a certain extent. I think the biggest thing for me was that I felt like my identity was compromised because I was not playing golf well either, I still had to practice, you know, at at, I got to a certain point where when I was playing professionally, my paycheck depended on that, and not being able to practice and put in the time and show up fully, not being able to do that was crushing my identity, compromising my identity. So, I think that was the hardest thing, coupled with not having answers, which is overwhelming so, it's frustrating and it's discouraging, and that's kind of the picture of how I felt. I felt like a number, or the picture that's coming to my mind is like a, like a pinball machine, right? Between all these different doctors, but no answer, just getting bounced around, that's how I felt. I felt lonely.

Michael: Yeah, I resonate with that a lot and it makes me think of that old adage that asick man only has one wish. And you know what's interesting too is like looking at the fact that you had spent all of this time in school, like learning pharmacology and trying to understand human biology and still not having answers. And I think so many people suffer through this where they're like, I don't have any answers, I don't know what to do and it feels like giving up. Did you ever have that moment? Did you ever feel like, why am I even bothering with this? Why not just give up? Like how were you managing the thoughts in your own head?

Bryana: Where I really felt the most discouraged was on the athletic front. And, you know, it doesn't matter if someone's an athlete or it's their career, right? It's whatever they're identifying with starts to get compromised. And that's how I really felt the place in my life it was taking the most toll was that, and I felt like, well, there's so much competition out there, speaking golf wise, I don't know how I'm gonna perform. I don't know if my performance is gonna be adequate and that's actually where I felt like giving up, like it was too hard, it was discouraging like every day going to practice is an uphill battle.

And for those people that think that you don't have to run and train for golf, that's not true. You do, there is a lot of demanding physical training involved in golf, and so there's that portion, but there's also a big mental component. People will say that the most of the game is played between your ears. There's such a psychological component to your performance that was starting to take a toll on my psyche, my dipping health was taking a toll on my psyche, and I think that was the biggest thing. I was still going through school, I was still getting my degree, that's what it was. And at that time, I was almost, you know, naive in the fact that you're drinking from a fire hose with what you're learning. So, you're just doing as much as you can to perform well on tests. You know, at least if that's how it was for me, I wasn't necessarily second guessing my career at that time. I was second guessing, or my medical career. I was second guessing my career in golf and my physical performance ‘cause I wasn't physically performing well, I didn't feel well.

Michael: Yeah. I mean, how could you? What was the resolution like? How did you, cuz obviously this starts to play a role in what you do now, which we'll get into, but what was the resolution like as you're sitting with this functional medicine doctor and they're like, okay, we figured this out. What was the protocol from there?

Bryana: So the first thing was to go through an elimination style diet, which I'm sure you've went through and you're very familiar with because by the time that you end up to the point where you're, you're just really feeling like trash if we're being honest it's because you do have trash build up on your body, so you gotta get it out. Right. So there's typically some sort of an elimination or detoxification stage that we start with. And that's where my functional medicine practitioner started with me. She started weaning me off of some foods that aren't bad for you. For example, like tomatoes, right? If you're not in the right state, physically cause a lot of inflammation or your body might not respond to it. So, she was taking me off these foods. I didn't really understand why. But now I do. So, she was peeling me off a few at a time, definitely took me off of gluten, that was like a non-negotiable. Again, hadn't even heard of gluten at that time. No one told me it was inflammatory, that it wasn't digestible, all this other crap, you know? So, I was like, oh, okay, so I have to come off gluten like what? Do I have to do that for like five days? No, you're gonna have to completely cut that out. And I think at that time she was making me commit to one to three months, something like that, of cutting out gluten. We found out later that because I had that H. Pylori infection, which is a bacterium that is pretty commonly takes over our lungs and our gut and things like that had completely grown out of control, which is what was causing me the pain, cuz no one was looking for it.

So, all these months I was bouncing around. No one was testing me for a bacterium. All I had to do was breathe in a bag that she sent to my house, send it back to the lab, and she called me and she said, this is one of the worst H. pylori infections I've ever seen, because this is so far out of control, the entire mucosal lining of your gut has now been stripped, and this is why you have to come off gluten completely. So I didn't know I was gluten sensitive. I'm highly gluten sensitive. I've been off gluten for 15 plus years now, and I even recommend that the majority of my patients come off of it and you still have to enjoy what you eat, right? But there was a lot of food elimination on the front end, and then I had to go back in and repair my gut and repair the damage that that bacteria had done to my gut by healing it with certain foods. At that time I didn't know a lot about a lot of the modalities that I do now that are more natural approaches to healing it. But because that bacterial infection was so outta whack at that time, I did have to go in with antibiotics and treat it which if you get in a pinch, absolutely I recommend it. But as you and I know, we both feel like they're highly over-prescribed and they can cause a lot of problems down the line. So, it was rous of medication, it was food elimination, and it was a lot of patience cuz I didn't get there overnight, so I wasn't gonna heal overnight either.

Michael: Yeah. And it's discipline too, right? Because it's like everybody's eating chocolate cake and you're like, I'm just gonna sit over here and not do that.

Bryana: I'll just watch you. I'll live vicariously.

Michael: Yeah. And that might be the hardest part of it too, right? Especially in like social circumstances. And I agree with you on the antibiotic front, I mean, we come from the generation of every single time you got sick, here's an antibiotic and that does not play a very good role in gut health. And even now, today, I think about it if I have to even get remotely close to antibiotic, I'm like, that is last ditch effort, keep that shit away from me. Right. But then again, that comes from, because I had an antibiotic resistant experience with c-Diff. And that almost, you know, that kills 500,000 people a year. Right. And it's like, sh*t, like I was very concerned, I was like, man, I might actually die on this health journey. And it messed with my head so badly because what happened is I started developing like almost a psychosis around food, around everything I would eat, around everything I would be, around the everything I'd put into my body where I was like, I was so fearful.

And the thing that really I leveraged that I think played a great role in this journey was I was just like, I'll be able to get through this, you know, in Buddhism there's a phrase, this too shall pass. And I think about that a lot because it's like, you know when our bodies get sick or they get out of balance, they wanna heal. Right? And I don't think people are patient enough with themselves where it's like, it's been a year or two and look, and obviously we know there are autoimmune disease, there are things that happen, there's nothing we can do. You look at something like a ALS or Alzheimer's, there's not a lot we can do. Right? When it happens. But there are certain things that we can do where we can try to change the trajectory of our future just by looking at food and ultimately, as you know, is like food is medicine. But I think so many people get so far gone or so down the path, they struggle with the idea that it's even possible for them to feel better. When you're working with people, cause obviously now one of the big things that you work with is around wellness like what are some of the things that you're sharing with people from your own journey to kind of give them permission to go down this path?

Bryana: That's a great question and because I work in the health and wellness space, I fortunately, get to try most of the things that I put my patients on, if we're talking about prescription medications, which the prescription medications I work with are not, you know, quote unquote pharmaceutical drugs, they're compounded medications because I'm a compounding pharmacist. And so, what we're doing is we're replenishing what the body's deficient in so, that's why I kind of get to try a lot of these things. When we're replenishing what the body's deficient in, then the body sees those as its own. So, for example, let's just say a hormone or a peptide or something like that, our body makes those. So, for me to try that and see how I react and to see how I do on it, and to see how I heal, to see how my energy changes, to see how my brain fog lists, to see what side effects I have is tremendous and relatable for my patients. And I say that because a lot of times I will talk to patients on the phone who are on board with a more, you know, whole or holistic or functional or integrative method of healing, but they're still apprehensive, they still wanna know why they haven't seen this commercial on TV for this medication that I'm recommending.

And so, you know, I listen them out and I tell them, Hey, you know, at the end of the day, it's your choice and you have to feel confident in your treatment because if you don't get behind your own treatment, it will inhibit your treatment. But what I do want you to know is that I'm also on this medication that's been prescribed for you, and here's what it's done for me, and I don't always have to go into my whole story, but for them, that gives them a tremendous amount of faith and trust in me. And honestly, one of the biggest drivers for me and what I do, building trust with my patients and encouraging them to be informed and to understand what they're taking because I always felt like when I was getting ran through the system, no one was explaining anything to me. It was symptom drug, symptom drug, symptom drug. And I want my patients to be informed enough that when they go home that they know how to recognize their symptoms or recognize side effects or adjust their dosing if they need to. But I'm in a very privileged space where I get to take a lot of the things that my patients do, and so I get to share my own personal experience with them. And then they say, wow, you take it. Oh my gosh, yes, please feel it. Feel it, you know? And that makes me feel good because then I do feel like they trust me.

Michael: Yeah. And given the fact that we live in one of the very few countries in the world where pharmaceutical ads can be played on television, it's like, I saw something the other day and it was like, take this if you're depressed, but if you get suicidal, stop taking it immediately. I was like, what the f*ck are we even talking about right now? Right. And I think that's so true of the medical system in this country as a whole, where it's like, here's a symptom, try this medicine probably actually isn't going to work. And so much of it can if you find the right thing. But a lot of times I feel like we're lied to and we're just being marketed to consistently in a way that is actually detrimental and when people, you know, food is medicine. I'm gonna say that probably multiple times today when I look at my life, when I will say I was depressed, I was anxious, I had massive brain fog, and I look at my diet, there is no question why, between the processed foods, the alcohol, the sugars, the high fructose corn syrups, the colors, the caramelizes, the all of the things, the lack of whole and nutritious foods, it's no wonder. And it's like obviously, this isn't necessarily a conversation about food, but a huge part of this is because wellness starts there. I believe this, I believe that wellness starts with what you put in your body. And when I was at my least, well, it was when I was putting the worst shit in my body.

One of the things, and it's funny, like, and on Monday nights I have my coaching group. And I am always pushing whoever's in this group, and we have a very solid community. I'm like, go look at your pantry. Go look at your refrigerator. Go look at the way that you're eating while you're traveling or on the road or while you're at a restaurant. And it's like, we are willing, I don't know why we do, maybe I wanna know your thoughts on this actually. I'm gonna ask you this question. As humans, why are we willing to suffer through eating shit that we know makes us sick? What is it that we're doing? Like why do we poison ourselves? Why do we put toxic food and chemicals into our body and we have this moment it's a satiating mouth pleasure. Like I used to eat f*cking chocolate cake for breakfast, right? And it's like, yeah, you're 350 pounds. I wonder how that happened, dude. Right. What is the relationship that people need to have around their wellness? What is the starting point?

Bryana: Yeah. So, wow, that's gold, what you just said, to back up just a second. I think that yes, it absolutely starts with food because that's the number one thing that we have control over, right? We have to eat to live, we have to eat to have energy and it's actually really hard to stay sick, and yet at the same time, it's easy because we live in a really toxic world and environment. But what's shocking is that our body is so good at keeping us alive. I mean, we come in contact with a so many different bacteria and viruses and things every day that our body fights off and we're fine. But we'll put that food in our body. We'll put that nasty lotion on our skin. We'll put toxic makeup, you know, we'll use toxic household products that make it feel like an uphill battle to heal. So, that's what makes it kind of easier to be toxic is we're surrounded in a toxic environment, even if we're putting healthy food in our body, right? So, it's everything. It's not just what we put in our body, what's in our environment, what touches our skin, everything that our body comes in contact with.

I think that one of the main reasons why people will continue to eat that crap, right or drink a lot these types of things, smoke is because we get a dopamine hit and we get a sugar high and our body, after doing that, our mind after doing that several times in a row says, I really like how that feels right, right after I do it. So, I'm gonna keep going back for it and going back for it. And going back for it. And now you've created a habit and that reward is a dopamine surge or a sugar high, it's almost like you forget what happens when you crash after that, right? So, you asked a really complex question, you know, just by asking where do you start? But my blink on that, my first thought when you asked that question is that we need to focus on the toxins because even if someone spends tens of thousands of dollars and years trying to clean up their diet and do all this other stuff, work out all the things that you quote unquote should be doing, they're gonna reach a point where their body is stubborn and says, I can't do anymore because there's only so much that you can do, right, without having offloaded the toxins. And what I mean by that, is it when I was talking about my journey in the beginning not understanding how all of these systems in the body are connected, like the central nervous system and our blood vessels and our lymphatic system, which is another vascular system that goes throughout our body and basically cleans out the junk. When I didn't understand that, I didn't understand that toxicity and detoxification was important. So, all of these systems have a very, very intimate relationship in the fact that they're intimate because they sit really close in proximity together in the body. So, a lot of times patients will come to me and they say that they've tried everything, and then I ask them certain questions about kind of their environment or what they're putting on their skin or the toothpaste, you know, things like this that they're using or describe to me, do you ever feel like you're toxic? Oh yeah. I feel nauseous all the time. I mean, I have brain fog. I can't remember where I put my keys. You know, it's this type of narrative and I say, well, we need to have a conversation about detoxification because the blood vessels and the lymphatic system, the lymphatic vessels, which is like the sewage highway of the body, is required and important for pulling toxins out of the tissues and then getting it out of the body. But if we have blockages throughout that lymphatic system, it's what I call lymphatic jam, nothing's moving. So, to make this more understandable or relatable, imagine if you didn't go number two for a week, how would you feel? Extremely toxic, right? Because the toxins are backing up, that gateway out is being backed up, and so those toxins have to go somewhere. And what's interesting about this is that a lot of times it's the people that have really stubborn weight loss issues like they've done everything, but they're still struggling to lose weight. I usually find that they struggle with toxicity because their body, for one, can't get the toxins out, which we have methods to kind of push it out, but their body at that time is not equipped to push it out.

And so again, the body's smart, it's number one job is to keep us alive. So a lot of times what it will do first is it will pack on water or water weight to dilute the toxins so that we don't get directly exposed to those toxins, that's why a lot of times when you go on a weight loss journey, you might drop a lot at first because you're losing water weight, and that's first what's dropping off.

So, always focus on the toxins around you because I mean, we live on planet Earth. Doesn't matter where you live, you're gonna be exposed to a lot of toxicity. Again, in the form of the environment or what you're eating or where your food's coming from or you know, the lotions, the toothpaste, cleaning household products are just a few examples of where those can come from and they can be very detrimental and a permanent roadblock to your healing until you simply remove them from your daily routine or environment.

Michael: Yeah. So, I remember one time, this actually really changed the way I think about a lot of just products in general. My girlfriend's mom, I was ex-girlfriend I should say I was like, I don't know, 26 or so. And we were at her house and they had like all these like natural products, things I'd never seen before. And I remember using her lotion and it was like a coconut-based lotion, I was like, that's weird cuz again, I grew up in Indiana, I lived in Indiana. We don't have f*cking coconuts in Indiana. Let's be very clear about that. And I'm like, tell me about like, what is this about? And it's like all natural ingredients and all these, and I asked her, I was like, why do you have this in your house? And her mom said to me, because it's as natural as you can get, it was just like coconut oil lotion. Right. It was like the ingredients was coconut, that's it, that was the ingredients, and she said something to me that was so profound it has sat with me and it influences everything that I do in terms of what I put on my body every day. She goes, if you wouldn't put it in your body, why would you put it on your body? I thought to myself, that's really incredible because I'm probably, I'll put coconut oil in my body, but when you start looking at some of the ingredients and chemicals and some of these things, it's like you would never dare swallow that. So, why would you put it on the largest organ that you have? Most people don't recognize or understand that the skin is actually the largest organ, and they are kind of nonchalant about it, but it's like, you have to be very cautious about this.

One of the things that you talked about that I think is highly underrated in the conversation around physical health is detoxification because there are heavy metals, there are heavy metals in our food, heavy metals. And again, I'm not a doctor so don't take my advice ever, by the way, disclaimer. There are heavy metals in our food, heavy metals in our fish, heavy metals in our meat, heavy metals in our vegetables, most even organic stuff is poisonous now like we're finding that more and more people are getting sick. We're seeing that more people are consuming sugars at a level that is leading to what is now being called type three diabetes and dementia and Alzheimer's. We're seeing people like, at all times highs consuming processed foods, and one of the pivotal cornerstones of my health journey was moving into detoxification, like really getting into various coconut charcoals and cleanses and detox and juices and jams and jellies and the whole nine. And I'm a person ‘cuz I'll try everything like if it makes me feel better, I'm willing to do it. But one of the things that really, really changed for me, like when I was getting healthy, and really coming through the backside of this illness was just getting all the poison out. And so, I'm wondering, and again, we're not giving medical advice here. We're just simply having a conversation. Consult your doctor, don't f*cking sue us. How does somebody detox? Like what do they need to be doing? What do they need to be considering? What does a detox protocol look like?

Bryana: So first I wanna say that detox in general should be gentle because I know a handful of people personally who have really gone just from zero to a hundred on the detox journey and I'm getting it out, and then they get themselves into a very, very bad downward tailspin where they feel worse because my analogy, I use is that, if your body's detox pathways, that lymphatic system again, is not ready. Well, there's a lot of different systems, so your lymphatic system, your urine, your bowels, your sweat, these are all avenues where we avoid toxins every day naturally to get it out. If those are not mobilized or they're not moving or flowing well, then if you try to detox, it's like taking your kitchen trash to the living room, all you did was move it to a different location. So, you'll move your toxins from your tissues to the bloodstream, which is what makes you feel really, really bad. So, you know, you always wanna take your trash all the way out of the house, right? So, we have to be sure that the detox pathways are supported. And so, what I mean by that is most of these things are free, that you can be doing. For one movement is free, you know, especially for someone that's overweight, running is probably not an option if they're significantly overweight. So, walk walking is one of the best things that you can do for your cardiovascular health. But also, to get your lymphatic system moving, to get that flow starting so that when you do start detoxifying with supplements or medications or whatever that might be, that then your body's prepped to do that. Other options would be something like castor oil packs or red-light therapy or dry brushing is a really good one, which you don't have to have anything fancy, although they do make these dry brushes, which kind of kind of rough bristles, but soft enough to be rubbing on the skin and you can rub them over the lymphatic areas, which you should be under the supervision of a healthcare professional that knows how and when to do this. But it's very easy you can do it at home every single day, and that physically mobilizes those toxins. So, just like when you go get a massage, Right, that's some sort of a manual manipulation that is getting things going, which is why they say when you come out of the room, they have that little cup of, you know, cucumber water. Be sure you drink a lot of water after this massage ‘cuz they wanna help you flush it out.

So it's really important to utilize your free resources, always stay moving, but it's also important to focus on liver detoxification because the liver is one of the biggest organs that is so crucial in our detoxification process and breaking down medications, breaking down other toxins, breaking down supplements, breaking down food, really breaking down anything into a form that can get it out of the body. But if the liver is jammed, it's not doing its job to appropriately convert and break down, you know, you name it, X, Y, Z in the body to a form that we can get it out. So, I like to use supplementation that supports liver detoxification again, that's gentle. But you always have to be sure that you have a method to get it out as well and I think movement is one of the best things. We are in a very stagnant world where we get a lot of screen time and we're very sedentary, so we're not really sweating as much as we should be. You really wanna get that stuff out, you know? And your sweat might smell when you start detoxing because unfortunately that's what the inside of your body smells like too.

Michael: Yeah, a hundred percent. You have to just deal with it. If your sweat is making your eyeballs burn, you might be telling you something about your lifestyle. I remember, I spent a lot of time in hot yoga that was really kind of the pivotal beginnings of this journey for me, where I would go do Bikram like five, six times a week, I was just like, I'm going to just get all of this out of me, and I'd lay on that mat and some days that f*cking mat smelled like somebody had poured ammonia all over it. And that is so much what it is, where it's like, yeah, you've gotta sweat this out like you've gotta get these poisons and these toxins out. This is the same reason why when you look at longevity studies, you see that people who are active typically live longer, that's not by accident. When you look at people who live in the blue zones, their diet is the key indicator of whether or not they're gonna be centenarians. And it's like, I always go back to one of the things Tony Robbins says that I really try to bring home for myself, it's like success leaves clues. It's like if you see all these people having this thing over here, when are you going to allow yourself that as well? And I think one of the really difficult parts about this, Bryana, is like most people feel like they don't deserve health. Right. And I think a lot of it's indoctrination, I think a lot of it's the way that they witness their parents beyond. Our parents are the unhealthiest generation ever. Period. I don't care what anybody says, they all smoke cigarettes, they all drink f*cking paps blue ribbon every single day, they put us on, you know, hot pockets and coke and whatever nonsense we were eating as children ‘cuz we're latchkey kids and nobody and so it's like what I love.

Here's what I love about the access to information that we get with the internet. People are actually starting to finally really, truly understand how to take care of themselves. But there's a mental component to this and this is kind of what prompted my question a few minutes ago, and it's like, how does someone give themselves permission to be o be okay with being healthy?

Bryana: Yeah. Well, I think that for one giving yourself the permission and the space to understand that specifically if you have a long ways to go until healing, that it's gonna be a journey so understanding that, and sometimes it is important to work through those childhood blueprints or traumas that literally manifests as a physical block to healing. And it's interesting that you kind of asked that question preemptively because a lot of times when we have multi-step regimens to heal people and they can be doing really well, but there's one linchpin at the end and what it is if they have unresolved trauma, typically, which comes from childhood, for a lot of these adults that we're treating, they can't fully heal.

And so, you know, addressing that on the front end is extremely important, and understanding that you are not your parents, every human is completely deserving of encouragement and healing and living a high vibrating, energetic, vivacious lifestyle. And I'll bet if you ask the majority of people that you know, if they know what that feels like, they would probably say no. Because just like you said, they haven't given themselves the permission because they haven't been given the permission that it's okay to heal and to be well. I mean, what if we lived in a world where our positions were flipped, and instead of looking at someone and saying, wow, they really have a lot of energy, what if we said, wow, that person really doesn't have a lot of energy. You know? Instead, the people that are actually feeling well, and they're energetic and vivacious, those are the ones that stick out. I wish that the world was flipped on its head in that way because most people, when you run into them, you're walking down the street, whatever it is. Oh, hey, how you doing today? I'm okay. Are you really, okay? Well, I didn't sleep well last night. My back still hurts. This is aching. I don't feel good after anything I eat. You know what I mean? Like we just get accustomed to it because like you said, we don't give ourselves the permission and we have to take responsibility and ownership for our own healing because for one, it stops with us and starts with us, and two, no one else is gonna heal our body for us we have to do that work, but there's nothing that feels as good as feeling well. Would you agree with that after all the decisions that you made? Right. The tradeoff for feeling well, it's unequivocal.

Michael: Yeah, I mean and also because of my schedule, because of the podcast, cuz of speaking on stages and masterminds and events and running my own events and writing the next book and constantly navigating the ins and outs of life and trying to take care of myself. It's like I can't do that sh*t if I'm sick. I can't do that if I feel unwell. I can't do that if I'm inflamed. I can't do that if I'm full of toxins. And so, it's really, I think it's imperative to a lifestyle that you wanna live. And I'm not saying, look, if I want like junk food, I literally will just make it myself and that's something that I've become really like if I'm like, I want chocolate chip cookies. I go in the kitchen with almond flour and the non-toxic chocolate and coconut sugar and I make some f*cking chocolate chip cookies. Okay. And it's like, because I had to work for it, it also makes them taste better. And so it's like I'm human, am I gonna have a cocktail on the occasion? Yeah, a hundred percent. Am I gonna stay in the bed and like sleep in sometimes? Yeah. I'm definitely gonna do that. I'm still a human. I'm not a freaking robot, even though people would argue that with me. And ultimately, I think it's really about like, it has to become the occasion not the norm.

And again, for me in going through a huge transformation physically to be at one point 350 pounds, wearing a size 48 pants and a size four XL shirt, and today be like a large shirt and size 33 pants. I also know that my chances of dying from a fucking heart attack when I'm 50 are exponentially smaller. And so, I think one of the really, really difficult parts about this is that people who have had traumatic experience don't feel like they are worthy of health. And my hope is that they can find the space to feel that way, but it's only gonna happen by them showing up for themselves by making the small incremental changes ‘cuz this wasn't an overnight journey for me. I didn't go from smoking two packs a day to zero just ‘cuz I was like, I'm not gonna smoke anymore. It was like, f*ck. All right. I need to figure out how to get to this place to love myself enough to not want to kill myself. And like, really, if you think about it, the food you put in your body, the liquid you put in your body, the cancerous causing tobacco products and vapes and bullsh*t like that, you're making a cognizant decision or even an unconscious decision depending on where you're at in your journey to poison yourself and that is killing you. And I think that if you can find the willingness to love yourself just one step at a time, it's like, don't eat french fries because they're f*cking carcinogenic. Instead order the baked potato. You can still like, and I would even say sometimes baked potato even better. Anyway, that's a diet trip. My point is this, it's like get to this place where you just make the little small changes because in the nuances where you grow.

Bryana: Perfect. Absolutely. And to be clear, social media, although, you know, you and I both have social media and we needed to promote our businesses, and some people have it ‘cuz they wanna stay in contact with people across the world, whatever, I'm not dogging social media, but social media is toxic to a high extent, right? So, for some people that might look like, Hey, you get rid of your Facebook or your Instagram because there's no way you're gonna heal if you already don't give yourself enough permission if everyone else around you on their perfect little lives, on social media looks perfect, because their journey was not easy either, right? So, eliminating that type of false information or those type of triggers is also really important, that's also a form of toxicity. Giving yourself permission to one heal, setting a really intentional goal. Like, I wanna take a trip to Mexico in eight months and I wanna lose 20 pounds, that is totally doable. Set an intentional goal, and that's typically helpful too. But I like what you said about small baby steps. I call 'em bite-sized steps because you know, if I'm looking at a patients full chart I could technically make probably 50 recommendations, but their chance of failing on that regimen is probably a hundred percent, it's like what are the top three concerns right now? Let's focus on that ‘cuz everybody lives a busy life and it has to make sense for them the choices that they're gonna start implementing first. And some people find it easier to tackle the hardest ones first, if that makes sense. So totally agree.

Changes have to be bite size, so, they have to be simple, they have to be realistic. You know, for some people that's literally just getting outside and walking a little bit every day. But the connection that your brain and your body make together when you're healing is not a mistake because our body wants to keep us alive, that's its main goal. And so, every time that we make a little success, every time we have a little win, every time we get out and we sweat a little bit our brain says, good job. You did great today. You made a little bit of improvement. You know, you made a little bit of success. So, keeping in that habit, allowing your brain to do the work, to cue up your body, to keep healing is actually very powerful. The brain is very powerful in encouraging us and continuous on that journey. So listen to what your mind is telling you. When you get that positive reinforcement, please stop and take the time to celebrate the wins. I don't think we do that often enough. I don't care how small it is, but you deserve to celebrate that win.

Michael: Yeah, for sure. I mean, for me it was like, and I'll wrap it here, but it was like I didn't smoke a cigarette this hour and now it's been almost a decade. So, it's kind of looking at that and just going, all right, be where you are, recognize that the path to whatever you're about to step onto is gonna take longer than you can even understand. Be patient in the process, but also be rigid. Be f*cking disciplined. Be relentless. Stop quitting on yourself and do it, especially when it's hard, because that's how you create change in your life, because you're gonna fall down and guess what? And when you do you get back up and you keep going and you keep doing it, you keep showing up and on a long enough timeline, those places between falling down, they become exponentially longer. It's like, man, okay, if I made it 10 years and I haven't had a cigarette, and if the probably will not happen, and I was like, I'm gonna smoke a cigarette. Well, what happens next time I have a cigarette? It's 25 years from now. And so, it's like just be where you are and understand this is an incremental process. Right? So that said, this has been an amazing conversation, my friend. If people wanna work with you, learn more about you and go down this wellness journey with you, how can they find out more?

Bryana: So they can come to my website, which is bryanagregory.com, and I talk about a lot of the services that I offer there, which is, if anything, in general, it's personalized that's what I offer. I wanna work with each individual as their own person because everybody deserves that. So, they can find me on my website. I'm also on Instagram @dr_bryanagregory and I talk about a lot about what I do there, I offer genomics guided wellness, which is extremely important because everyone wants to understand why, what's happening to them, it's happening to them. And in my opinion, it doesn't get any more personalized than that. So, I love hearing, you know, people's journeys when they contact me that way and helping them feel heard.

Michael: Yeah, I love that. And of course, we'll put the links in the show notes. Guys, go to thinkunbroken podcast.com. And my last question for you, my friend, what does it mean to you to be unbroken?

Bryana: To be unbroken is to remain resilient and informed because we have the opportunity to stay informed with good information that impacts our health. And when you were talking about giving yourself the permission to heal, to me that's actually resilience because we're gonna fall off sometimes because, hello, we're human, it's gonna happen. But retaining an attitude of resilience and giving yourself permission to fall into your most genuine self. To me, that's what it means to be unbroken.

Michael: Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for being here.

Unbroken Nation, thank you for listening. Please like, comment, and subscribe, falls on YouTube and iTunes. And again, I'm on social media at Michael Unbroken. And remember, every time you share this content, you're helping other people transform trauma to triumph. Breakdowns to breakthroughs and to become the hero of their own story.

And Until Next Time.

My Friends, Be Unbroken.

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