 ThinkTek Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. Oha Hawaii, I'm Wendy Lo, and I'm your new friend, actually by this point I'm your dear friend as we journey to take your health back. We are coming to you live from downtown Honolulu from the studios of ThinkTek Hawaii. Today our topic of discussion will be on the healthy living revolution in Hawaii. What we would like to take away from today's discussion is the idea that we can truly take healthy back through awareness, education, and with a community of like-minded people. So remember that now, that's very important. We got to stay with these like-minded people and if we can't find them we've got to educate them and gather them because it's so much easier. It's so much easier when everyone's on the same page and until we get to that point we got to work on it really hard with some people but other than that we just got to make sure that we're in the like-minded community of healthiness. Today we are very honored to welcome Pamela Su who is a dear friend. She has been a lifestyle coach for 20 years and markets and distributes whole food supplementation. She has committed to applying and teaching the principles of health through nutrition and sharing her life experiences lecturing throughout the United States and here in Hawaii. Aloha Pamela Su. Aloha, I'm Wendy and thank you so much for inviting me to this show. I just wanted you to come on because every time I hang out with you my health levels go up a notch two or three or four and so every time I stray away remember I told you about like-minded community every time I stray away from that I need doses of you because you just live it and it's your lifestyle and so this is what I want I want to reach this point and then I want to be infectious on a health journey to infect others with such greatness of knowledge and it just experience of how to live and take healthy back. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Okay, well I awakened to this healthy living revolution about 30 years ago, no 20 years ago. I was in my early 40s and I was a cleaning lady at the time and I was experiencing a lot of fatigue some inflammation in the muscles and the joints and I was thinking oh my gosh what am I going to be like 20 years from now and it really made me start to be concerned about my future and I thought about my parents my mom had had her first heart attack when she was 40 and my dad had died of cancer at the age of 62 so I started praying and asking for you know what's the answer to all of this and I received a teaching called health through nutrition by a Dr. Joel Robbins in Tulsa, Oklahoma and that was changed my life forever you know we had those events that changed our life forever and that was it for me and what I learned began my journey on this healthy living revolution and thankfully I found there were other people that wanted to come along on this journey like you Wendy and what I what we have woken up to is that we really do want to take responsibility and take our health back and it really is up to us to do that for ourselves and our family. Exactly you know we have one body one temple and only we know when it aches and hurts you know we know when we're happy or sad and we can put on a happy face and not be you know but we have to take healthy back by stewarding our bodies the way we know best and I tell you it's sure much easier when I hang out with you trust me you have no idea the impact you have had on my life so we are truly on a journey and right now it's you and us me and we're gathering the stones of healthiness and so I just remember back in the day how simple it was we didn't have all these trendy diets we didn't have all this super food you know these crazes that you have to do this and you have to do that and not do this you know life was so much simpler back then I mean we would just go out to the backyard pick food from Tutu's garden and we would eat it we didn't open cans and go to fast food places and you know do that so we were so blessed as kids we played outside I lived on the beach we swam until I was like Paul that was dark you know no sunburn but just having the time of my life we'd play out there until we were dirty I mean really dirty then we come home we change clothes and then we go to sleep right I mean of course we fit in a meal or two then here and there but you know it was just so much simpler today looks so different these kids they come home they go to the TV they play with their computers they play with their games family dinners are replaced by fast food let's grab a bite bring it home in a container sit down maybe as a family maybe not but just eating that way and it's just different sugary sodas that was a treat when I was a good girl maybe on a Saturday we got a sugary suit right but now that's the drink of choice exactly you know they're drinking these sodas and the soft drinks everything in a can everything in a bottle you know what I just I just don't understand it you know and all these sugary drinks they they they take away all of our our zest for life they spike us up with all that sugar that greatness of sugar and then they drop us down then we don't got no energy right and then we got to drink another drink those energy drinks yeah to pop us back up right you know families is there any hope for us oh yeah I think the the main thing is to remember that we're not alone you know and we can become a part of communities everywhere that are awakening to this need to shift back to the basics of whole food plant-based nutrition because that really does matter going back to those basics you know it's so much more important than looking good in our yoga pants wouldn't you agree and we have started a healthy revolution right here in Hawaii we're taking healthy back I know we're trying really hard families and you know the goodness is that people are listening and we do we we have some help from different documentaries that are coming in but people have to discern what's right and what's not and so by hearing it from you and I and gathering the stones of health more of us can get the word out so that when we see the the truth we know that that's the truth and that's what we should be doing and living and taking healthy back so how are we taking health back Pamela? Well it all starts with seeing how important it is to take care of ourselves you know if we aren't taking care of ourselves we can't be the best version of ourselves right so we need to all ask ourselves how are we doing in this area and these things and I mean really doing how are we doing with eating real food you know are we eating real food or are we eating stuff out of a package that's processed how are we doing with our exercise are we exercising most days at least five days a week and what about water and that doesn't mean tea and coffee and sodas and wine and all those beverages that we seem to drink but water is so important 75 percent of our body is water and our bodies need water and then sleep I really like to talk about the sleep our society is very sleep deprived and we get so many benefits from a good night's sleep our body cleanses it detoxifies we have healing that takes place while we're sleeping and hormones are replenished even so we need proper sleep to be healthy absolutely okay so I'm guilty I don't get enough sleep but I function but I know as I'm getting older I need to get more sleep and so I'm working very hard on that and I will admit right now that I get about four hours of sleep and it's a bit not enough by stand other standards but as I'm retired I'm trying to hit five hours and if I'm up at the fifth hour I'll stay on the bed and just be still and meditate so I'm learning so you can teach this old dog new tricks okay we're gonna work on that yes you need seven to eight I know but oh my gosh first so I'm working on that and I also wanted to throw a trivia question I'm always going to do this how much water does our body really need I mean you say our body's about 75 liquid so the rule of thumb for water the basic rule of thumb don't hold me to it but what I've learned is that you take your body weight and you divide it by two so if I were 100 pounds divided by two that's 50 50 ounces of water is what my body needs a minimal yeah and from there I can drink more than that but try not to drink less than half your body weight is that correct Pamela I think it is um you know we don't want to overdo it but it's always a challenge to get more water you know and whatever it takes I like to infuse the water with fruit and and put it on the counter and drink infused water just that little taste of fruit in there makes it really delicious and really helps with that so the next slide talks about two startling trends in our world so we need to be aware of these startling trends in our world Pamela Sue tell us about it well um we do have we do need to be aware of these two startling trends and awareness is the key right right being aware being aware and that's that's the way how we start making these healthier changes so let me see would you agree that we are living in a chemical world now not like Madonna who says we live in a material world so I don't know what's worse is that a material world is worse in a chemical world but I remember just um from some taking a step back into my childhood we lived in Waipahu and I remember on Friday nights talking about chemical worlds on a Friday night what did we do because we didn't go out to the movies and we didn't have a lot of access you know to social life but I do remember there were a lot of mosquitoes in Waipahu because we live by the sugar plantations and there was a mosquito truck I remember that you remember okay so this truck would shoot out the smoke and we thought whoa look at this just like those rock stars with all the smoke coming out of the truck right and we used to change don't tell me you got on the bike and went after oh hey we were doing that in Michigan oh you weren't you guys had them there too we did oh okay so not just Waipahu okay I grew up in Michigan and this is what I did come from I know but that's what we did I know right and it was fun and yes and in and our parents encouraged it yeah well they didn't stop us they didn't stop us and they thought wow they didn't know Friday night that's the whole they just didn't know but now we know different right so would you agree that we are living in a chemical world yeah we're bombarded with toxins from every every everywhere you know we're breathing them you know they're in our cleaning supplies when I was a cleaning lady I was breathing that you know Hawaii has pretty nice clean air when the volcano is not going off and when the trade winds are blowing right but we breathe them we put them on our skin with lotions and all the things that we put on did you know that our skin absorbs toxins just as if we're eating them exactly to be aware exactly what we're putting on our skin right and then our lawn right and our pools and we're even eating them I know and I know that if you can't pronounce the word that means we better not touch it and I remember families you were the funniest thing when I was hanging out with you we'd go to the store I think it was like a store called Blue Hawaii or something they had all these natural products Japanese girl the poor girl you asked her she's what she was telling us to try the products natural honey products and you kept asking her can you eat it and she goes hi hi hi can you eat it and she said yes yes and so you are putting it on your tongue and she goes don't eat it do you remember poor thing she just didn't understand she didn't but those products are edible yeah those are they are and so I remember that every time like right now all I put on my face is coconut oil or coconut oil or grape seed oil yeah because you see so I'm listening to what you say and you have influenced my and you have saved a lot of money for me but because coconut oil I mean I can buy a big jar I drink it I gargle with it I do all the great things with our hair yes good for the dogs when they get itchy skin yes you rub them down with it it's great for our memory because it's a fat that our body and our brains need along with avocado oils right so heck right so if you can't pronounce the ingredients in our foods and you're in trouble so have you ever heard if you can't pronounce it that means it's not going to be the best for us yeah exactly and so we have to live with that thought in our head the ingredients this is what we want to look at and they're going to be very tiny but you've got to read them because that's your future if you agree yeah right so the less you see in the ingredients list the better yeah so if there's only like coconut oil what do you see in the ingredients this coconut oil and that ingredients list is very tiny and you have to search for it sometimes and that's by design right they say on the label is not what's in there right right but we got to find that ingredients list and the less words that are in that ingredients list the better that food is right and then the closest to the source I mean like if you have apple sauce you want to make sure that the apple is the first ingredient there yeah right right yeah I know we work with Dr. David Katz and he has a whole website designed to teach kids how to read labels and if we just take some time to go out and look at these sources of information we ourselves will be I mean just growing healthier longer but don't forget your glasses yes because it is hard to read it is hard to read so the whole idea is but first of all taking the time to read but then yes bring your glasses or a little magnifying sheet that you can go ahead and source it yeah but then again if it's that many and that small maybe it's not the right product for us yeah so let's see we're going to take a break right now and we've covered a little bit about the healthy living revolution and the journey and how important it is to just hang out with like-minded friends like yourself and if anybody wants to come and hang out with us and just learn and understand more this is what we're doing this is a revolution a healthy revolution that we're trying to start so we'll be right back in 60 seconds I'm Jay Fidel think tech think tech loves energy I'm the host of Mina Marco and me which is Mina Morita former chair of the PUC former legislator and energy dynamics a consulting organization in energy Marco Mangostorf is the CEO of provision solar in Hilo every two weeks we talk about energy everything about energy come around and watch us we're on at noon on Mondays every two weeks on think tech aloha when I was growing up I was among the one in six American kids who struggle with hunger and hungry mornings make tired days grumpy days that kind of days but with the power of breakfast the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more we're not hungry for breakfast we're hungry for more more ideas more dreams more fun when kids aren't hungry for breakfast they can be hungry for more go to hunger is dot org and lend your time or your voice to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood here we are again with Pamela Sue and she's with the starting up or working with the healthy living revolution and what we discussed earlier in the show is just sticking around like-minded people and when you find this core of friends our lifestyle becomes a greater lifestyle much easier because everyone's thinking the same way because I remember so clearly and even till today when I was trying to start off eating healthier and I try to eat less you know of the bad things and trying to go more plant strong and so I would just kind of say I'm not going to eat that today I'm not going to eat that go Wendy that's your favorite why don't you just eat it it's just one one naughty meal and I go yeah but they don't understand I had a naughty meal yesterday and the day before because the other friends said it's okay so as I grow grew my nucleus of healthier friends it became easier because they were encouraging me to yes Wendy good job good job you're doing a great job just keep eating healthy I'm so you know excited that I get encouraged versus slammed or slapped because I want to do the right thing so Pamela Sue you know the the trends that affect us are so out there can you just tell us a little bit about these trends these two trends that really really affect us so we just talked about them we talked about the chemicals in food and the toxins in the environment and our foods are deficient we have deficient foods and we how do these two trends affect us well it all contributes to oxidative stress and that is at the cellular level the toxins the unhealthy ingredients it's stress just from life you know anybody like that yes everybody outside of this office yeah so the bottom line is oxidative stress causes aging and disease but the great news is we can reduce oxidative stress with antioxidants every single day we need to get them in have you ever squeeze a lemon on lemon juice on an apple and noticed how it protects it from turning brown it's that's the aging process that it's slowing down the lemon has very powerful antioxidants in us and the only in it and the only way we can get those antioxidants is from fruits and vegetables and they protect us and they slow down the aging that's why eating seven to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables is so important because we need lots of antioxidants to protect us so what i'm hearing you say is if i wasn't just on a health journey for my body and just to feel good but if i changed up my diet and my lifestyle it'll help me look better is that what you're kind of saying sure right because it's going to reduce the aging process in the oxidative stress exactly and you know pamela so i've known you for many years and i will just tell you that every time i see you you're looking younger and younger and i'm so excited about that and when i work with all the different young ladies entering in contest and all that i continue to share this idea with them because i simply tell them you know you are 22 and 23 years old you look great you're in your prime and getting to your prime but when you're sixties what do you want to look like then do you want to look like you're in your sixties or seventies or do you want to look like you're in your thirties or forties and you know what the answer to that is well well if they start younger i tell you the journey becomes even sweeter smoother more beautiful and that's what we want for all and i think it needs to be even younger than that because in the 20s they're gonna they're not really open to hearing that but we can get the children when they're young and start feeding their cells their body will start craving more of the same so eating lots of fruits and vegetables will help with this because they contain powerful antioxidants and let me just show you so i always want to talk about my apple because you know you hear the saying and apple day keeps the doctor away and pamela so i mean this apple contains about like 10 000 nutrients and vitamins is this important is this what you're talking about yes yes so yeah i want you to tell us about all the greatness in fruits and veg okay well i think he's going to show us a slide right okay yeah he's going to put up one another slide there it is there you go so this isn't this is really amazing right these fruits and vegetables that are um that's pretty fascinating they're packed with thousands of phytonutrients which are plant nutrients they have vitamins minerals antioxidants and everything else that helps prevent disease and reduce the aging process so this list is only 400 of the 10 000 that scientists believe are in a fruit in one fruit or one vegetable and the different colors of fruits and vegetables will bring even more variety of phytonutrients or plant nutrients to them as well so we need these plant nutrients in all the colors of the rainbow you ever hear about eating the rainbow diet so what a great what a great concept right right and why do we need to do that because they these nutrients will cleanse and detoxify and protect us from these two trends that we're all facing fruits and vegetables give us the right balance and the synergy of nutrients that our body needs so if you compare the list of that many fruits and vegetables the nutrients that are in just in the apple there's only 400 of the 10 000 compared to 20 on a vitamin label doesn't it make more sense just to go ahead and eat the apple we really can't replace the apple yes and so that that's so true in apple day keeps the doctor I mean imagine right 10 000 nutrients and vitamins imagine if you had to take that and consume it and if you did word you end up right I'd have to call ER and you would go there to pump out your gut because of all that stuff that that you just consume but when you do it in the natural form it's delicious it's delicious and you know what to me guys this is fast food at its best right I mean you barely you just have to wash it you don't have to even cut it you don't cook it you just wash it and you eat it so then this is a natural way so tell us a little bit about vitamin supplement the supplementation well yeah so we don't have a vitamin deficiency we have a whole food deficiency in our diets so again it's consciousness and awareness and and being aware of this and our revolution is all about going back to the basics of being clean local and mostly plant-based okay so now Pamela Sue now I know what you put on your body it's all going to be natural and organic it's all going to be the things that we can eat so tell me what do you eat what about animal products um are you considered a vegan vegetarian pescatarian what would I say that's so funny people ask me that all the time I don't want to be labeled any of those exactly because you never know where I'm when I'm going to eat some dairy or I'm going to eat some and that's okay we just don't want to make it a habit of every single day so I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian but I do eat animal products um but I am careful to be aware to be sure they are fed or eating clean food because we are what we eat and they are what they eat so we don't want to be eating animal products that have antibiotics or hormones or any of those things that could damage our health as well because they're toxic right so I'm really careful about that um you know like grass fed beef they have omega threes in that grass fed beef corn fed beef is omega six we want the omega threes from the grass fed beef did you know the big island is the pioneer in the grass fed beef movement yay that's great that's fabulous that's amazing I love it I love it right right and so I eat them sparingly because they are more expensive because there's more work that goes into raising a calf you know on grass and there is into getting them fat on corn so I eat animal foods sparingly but I like to follow Michael Pollan's advice and he says to eat food not too much mostly plants so I eat lots of salad local fruits and vegetables smoothies with frozen berries I love fermented foods like kimchi cultured vegetables and kombucha those are rich in in probiotics and enzymes that help the digestive system and I supplement with whole food plant-based supplementation to bridge the nutritional gaps because I don't always always eat right so this way I can afford to do the 80-20 rule you know 80 percent of the time eat healthy clean plant-based nutrition 20 percent of the time go ahead and splurge whatever that may be including an order of french fries yes amen and so guys okay remember now 80 percent healthy 20 percent the other things slurge have fun okay have a glass of wine enjoy your life eat the birthday cake when you go out right and the key is not to let food become an issue right you know don't let it become an issue and don't talk to people about it just eat it that way and I'll start to see you because a lot of times people are afraid what they're going to think about you according to what you eat but don't make an issue out of it exactly make the changes and set an example and you'll watch people will follow you and they are watching they are they are watching because they knew you 20 years ago and they're gonna like you're doing you're doing something right girl so I want to watch you and figure it out and so yes they are watching us very closely yeah you know they always said oh when you eat plant strong or you know this kind of diet healthy it's so expensive to eat healthy you know and so I I yeah it may cost a little bit but you eat less but you're eating better so you're going for quality right right so I always say is that when you eat better today you're not going to be going to the doctor as much and so what does that mean saving in medical bills yes means that yes I get to eat better quality of food get sick less and I can enjoy my life yes right in a helpful way and isn't that the way we want to grow as we grow older because I'm like our age is just a number yeah it's just a number but how do we approach 60s and 70s and 80s matters to me right and so by making the right choices today will matter on that journey and so what are your thoughts about that about eating and paying for a better quality today and not having medical bills so your thoughts on that well we can invest or we can stop so we can invest in our wellness or we subsidize our illness we get to choose right so I prefer to invest in my wellness and it's either pay now or pay later so I would rather pay now and enjoy all that healthy delicious food because it really truly is healthy and delicious to eat that way and rather than to feel sick and to have to pay the medical bill and is insurance going to cover it and go through all of that you know I'd rather invest rather than just my wellness and subsidize my illness I go for that amen you know we're going to wrap this up because our talk is coming to an end but you know 20 years ago you weren't this full of vitality and you were hurting a little bit and so how do you feel today well I'm in my 60s yes and I have more vitality in health today than I did 20 years ago and it's going to just keep getting better because people like you are going to partner with me and we're going to bring more people in and have fun with this as we build community the main how do we do this the main thing is to become educated and stay educated there are so many documentaries and books available and just that will inspire you and to educate you because we have to change the way we think about food right and once we see how powerful it can be and how wonderful it really is it's really amazing support the local eat local movement go to the local health food stores and attend educational seminars that are available in the community and be brave try new foods don't be afraid and just have fun with that wow that's great information so if everyone you didn't get it the first time you're going to find the link that we're going to send out and you're going to listen to this and make healthier choices and join the healthy living revolution because you too can look and feel as good as Pamela Sue in her 60s and she did not feel this way in her 40s so we want more of this for everybody so from Pamela Sue and myself Mahalo for listening and just take your health back guys aloha everyone