336: NHA Conference Recap: Networking, Highlights, and Key Takeaways

Dr. Riz  00:00

What I really also thought I liked about the whole thing, it was just a well balanced, they gave you the opportunity in the morning to either do yoga or, or exercise, and then breakfast. And then it was, you know, there was a nice balance of lectures. And then, you know, and so not, it wasn't just information overload. It was a great balance for the day, and then they gave you plenty of time for meal breaks. And then they, they had evening, keynote speakers, and then they also had evening activities. This is the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast, and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me. Together, we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life, and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started. Welcome to another episode of the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast. I'm your host Maya Acosta with Dr. Is it's another episode of Doctor in the house. All right, friends, we are back with another great episode today we're going to be recapping the National Health Association conference that we recently attended. We're going to talk about that will be like the speakers, the people, we got to meet the mingling everything that we did over there. And then we're going to tell you also about some events that are coming up that we're hosting. But before that, let's start with some icebreakers. Okay. Okay. So I have I generated a list of questions. I'll pick one or two that are fun to ask one another. Okay, Doctor risks. If you were a professional athlete, what sport would you compete in? And why? Oh, my goodness. That's a tough one. Because I enjoyed a lot of sports. Growing up, I in fact, my dad wanted me to be a professional tennis player. So he actually bought me a tennis court. But I wasn't ever quite that good. So you know, when I think about it, you know, I love the National Football League. I love football, but boy, those guys get really banged up. And something you hear me talk about is how they have shortened life expectancy. So I think I'm gonna rule that one out. Okay, so then I love soccer. I grew up playing soccer. I think they're tremendous athletes.

Dr. Riz  02:19

So you know, and then I also played a lot of baseball, it was a very good baseball player, I actually got a scholarship to play at the college level, I'm going to go with baseball. Okay, okay, because that's a very, but that's a very calculated answer, because they make a lot of money. And their bodies aren't torn up when they're done typically. And they can have lengthy careers.

Maya Acosta  02:43

Okay. And this is in an ideal world. I think that would be the question. So you would pick baseball, do you have a favorite player? Now?

Dr. Riz  02:51

Let me just say, I think baseball is actually the most boring of the sports I just talked about. But you know, if I was going to be the athlete, that's what I would.

Maya Acosta  02:58

Why would you pick that? Why out of all the things that you could do, because it involves a little bit of running, but not necessarily Well, I enjoy

Dr. Riz  03:05

playing baseball. I just don't like watching it. It's relatively slow. Okay. That's why I enjoy the more faster pace sports like, you know, like football. But, you know, you I think the question was, what would I want to play or whatever? Yeah, an athlete. And that's, that's my choice.

Maya Acosta  03:21

All right. All right. You get to ask me a question now. Okay. Oh, well, this

Dr. Riz  03:25

is a good one. Because, I mean, I love this one because it would apply to me. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want to have with you?

Maya Acosta  03:38

The first thing that came to mind were was really books. Okay, but this is an island, so I would definitely need to read but that would not be my priority. I would want some underwater equipment, so that I could enjoy swimming and looking underneath maybe a snorkeling set, but I don't know how long that would last, but definitely would want to snorkel and then I have to have some kind of covering. I'm imagining it's deserted. Are there any trees there? One or two palm trees?

Dr. Riz  04:10

Let's just imagine it's a tropical deserted island. Oh to coconuts and palm tree. Okay, so

Maya Acosta  04:15

plenty of covering canopies and stuff like that already. Well, I you know, that would be my ideal fantasy. When I was little I enjoyed fantasizing about, you know, the Gilligan's Island kind of thing we grew up with so I always felt like I could create a shelter and survive and cook outdoors. So, but I'm vegan now. Right? So how would I make a How would I live but anyways, that definitely still would want to explore the water. And and then, you know, maybe hopefully some groceries. I wouldn't want to be stranded with food. I don't know how else I would survive because I don't fish. So how was that for an answer? Sounds good. All right. Okay, friends, we're gonna get started with telling you about the NHK. But before that, let's tell you real quickly about two things that are coming up. Immediately. Actually, we have a lot of things happening. So when you listen to this episode, it will already be Monday, July the 10th. Just think about how quickly the month is going. So this Saturday, July, the 15th is our next Walk With A Doc. And in case you haven't been keeping up, we are walking in a North Park Mall at 11am. We meet inside the mall, by the Macy's entrance, we just started doing that last month, have we done it two months in a row, or just this will be the second time but okay, it's playing hot out here in Dallas. It's just too hot. And we didn't want to have to get up at eight in the morning to do our morning walk. So you are more than welcome to join us. If you're part of our WhatsApp group, you would know we try to give you these kinds of updates. What are we going to be talking about this Saturday?

Dr. Riz  06:02

So I think I'm going to talk about sleep as our topic this time. And I've got to find a way to give that huge topic. Justice in just about five minutes. So yeah, we'll be talking about sleep.

Maya Acosta  06:16

Yeah, actually, just check out our social media because we try to include footage of the mall where we're walking out now and we try to go into kind of like what is like a courtyard, which is kind of a slight outdoor area where we could just have a little bit more of a quiet time and and I think we're going to have a very short topic, because it's nobody really wants to stand out there for a long time. This last time we were there. It was just overwhelming just walking back inside of the mall. But the remember that the whole point of us having this walk is to build community and to encourage you to walk and also if you are interested in ever just walking randomly. There are members in the group who want to do that on a regular basis, not just once a month, but regularly.

Dr. Riz  07:03

Yeah, I mean, I think the group is a good resource to make some friends and find people who are like minded and you can always set up your own routines with other people. Yes, I know I personally go out almost every day trying to walk and my dog has a good excuse to get out there and walk

Maya Acosta  07:21

right. Okay, so that was Saturday, Sunday. The next day is a big event we've been planning with Dr. Laurie Marvis, we're showing the movie from food to freedom. This Sunday at the Harrington library in Plano. I'll put a link to the Eventbrite link the rooms we have two rooms that are reserved to show the film can hold about 200 people and right now we are at about 145 people by have RSVP and remember that our goal is to get you to the library to watch this amazing film Dr. Laurie Marvis is in the film. She is flying in for the event. She's going to be answering questions that you may have about the film or about how she works with patients. And then we're going to even learn more about her more a medical her practice calm or a medical one of her practitioners. It lives out in the Frisco area. Her name is Christina Lazcano, she was also on the podcast, you'll be able to hear from her as well. And then we're partnering for this event with another pod called Green and fit fresco with Anita and Meetha Frisco and they will be there as well. We have a couple of volunteers that will greet you at the door. We'll have some tables with information. So if you want to sign up for our newsletters, you can do so and and really our goal is to remind you that there is support when you're making a transition to a whole food plant based lifestyle. And then you get to meet all these amazing people that are going to show up just like you that are just as interested in getting healthy. Or perhaps they they're bringing someone who is making the change or who can benefit from watching this movie. So we're really excited about hosting this event.

Dr. Riz  09:03

Absolutely. I think it's gonna be a very nice time. I'm excited that Dr. Marvis is coming. You know in the movie, it actually highlights how she takes people through intensive lifestyle changes and makes tremendous improvements in their life. And then that parallels you know what she does in her in her medical practice.

Maya Acosta  09:23

Yep. Okay, Dr. Riz, let's also talk about another event we'll have a week after hosting Dr. morphus July 22. We have what is called a culinary medicine workshop experience.

Dr. Riz  09:39

Yeah, so, towards the end of July, we're going to be hosting a workshop where we're going to have one of our friends and guest, Chef Colin Zhu. Come in. He's a physician and a chef.

Maya Acosta  09:56

And in addition, before we go into detail about what you can expect We want to announce that we have Dr. Michael clapper who who will be our guest of honor, he will be here at the five hour workshop that we're hosting. It's five hours, if you go to the link, the Eventbrite link, you're going to see the agenda, we're going to start in a grocery store, we're all going to meet up there, and Dr. Xu is going to lead us in the in the grocery store, basically giving us tips on how to navigate the produce section, what to look for, when you're transitioning to a whole food plant based diet, we'll come back to the venue. And we'll introduce ourselves go over the agenda, tell you know, our guests what to expect, by the way, we're only keeping this to 10 people, no more than 10 people, we really wanted to make it a personal, small, intimate experience, everyone will have a hands on experience. And then we're going to sit together after prepping the meal and dining together. And that's one of the things that I'm looking forward to I've actually been working on the decor part of it, to make it a memorable and photographic experience for people who want to capture those moments. And then after that, you'll be doing biometrics, you're going to do a presentation as well, you can talk about those details. And then at the very end, we're going to take video testimonials. And I mean, it's going to be a very intense five hours, in terms of all the content that people are going to receive. We have a couple more spots available for anyone who is in the Dallas area who's interested. Again, the link is in the show notes. I haven't publicly announced that Dr. Michael clapper will be here, you're the first one to hear about it, which is really exciting. So tell us what do you what are you looking forward to Dr. Risk?

Dr. Riz  11:48

Yeah, so I'm very excited. It's going to be a, a very packed five hours. But I think very informative and fun. We're going to have Chef Colin zoo, doing some presentations. And then I'm going to also be doing biometrics for our clients who are coming and being able to discuss their individual results with them, and what they might be able to do to improve things if there's some things that need work. I'll also be giving a talk on food as medicine, which I think will be very interesting.

Maya Acosta  12:22

Yeah. So in case you don't know what biometrics are, because I don't know if those words are used when you go to your office, your doctor's office, you probably get your blood work done once a year or so tell us what biometrics looks like. And now we're going to be doing blood pressure as well.

Dr. Riz  12:39

So Biometrics is just it's a kind of a really generic term, but it just means data about our body. And I'm a real big believer in data. Without data, we have no idea what's going on. And with the data, we can assess what's going on in our bodies and and then make changes in order to effect positive change. So biometrics can be anything. So for example, your heart rate is a biometric so as your blood pressure, and we'll be doing those, but and we're going to be also doing a lipid panel, looking at cholesterol, LDL, and HDL and triglycerides. We'll also be doing a hemoglobin a one C and a glucose as a part of all of that, Oh, wow. And so I think that these are, these are very important. Biomarkers or bio bio data, which tell us a lot about our health. And so with just these very few things, we can learn a lot about our health and then and then make some changes,

Maya Acosta  13:35

do people need to be fasting to do the 801? C, the only one

Dr. Riz  13:39

that's really going to be impacted by not fasting is the glucose and so no, I don't, I don't want people to fast I want us to, you know, just be a normal part of our day, the hemoglobin a one C and the lipid panel are not markedly affected by fasting, and therefore we can get good data and make some good assumptions from that.

Maya Acosta  13:58

Okay, cool. And then so we have a presentation that you'll give us well, so it's gonna be very packed, very busy. And I'm so excited about it. So anyway, look in the link below, look in the show notes, because we'll have links to our walk, which is, again, July 15. Our event with Dr. Marvis July 16. And then our culinary workshop, which is July 22. So lots of things going on, we're basically going to recap the NFJ conference to give you an idea of what our experience was like. It's the first time that we went, I think, you know, definitely after I spoke with Mark Huberman last year, had him on the inner on the podcast. And then we interviewed Wanda Huberman and all of that after all those interactions, we decided that you know what, maybe this conference is for us. Let's give it a try. And so we're going to do sort of talk to you a little bit about some of those speaker highlights that really stood out we're not going to go in detail About everything. There was a panel discussion on fasting that I found fascinating. And then I want to talk about just what it was like networking with other people. You know, whether we were having a meal or whether we were manning one of the tables for pod leaders, we have plenty of opportunities to connect with people. We also we did a hike before the Vitamix tour and had the opportunity of mingling with some of the people, the attendees again, so plenty of opportunity to connect with other people, we flew into Cleveland, we stayed at the Holiday Inn. What I liked most about the accommodations is that convention, part of it where the conference happened is connected to the Holiday Inn, which made everything easier. One of my biggest pet peeves I think, when I go to conferences, is when I just want to take a break and go upstairs and I always say upstairs to the room to relax, to downshift, because things might be too intense and too busy. For me, that can always be a little bit of a headache, but not in this case, it was very comfortable and a short walk.

Dr. Riz  16:08

Yeah, you know, what I really liked about this was that they kept the conference to a really nice size. And they do they do that on purpose, they limit the number of attendees, so that it doesn't get too huge. And I think the number of attendees was 350. And they were sold out. And I think they get sold out every year. So if you ever intend to go, don't wait to the last minute to get your tickets. And then, but the nice thing about it is it was all kind of all it's an all inclusive included all the meals, the Convention was on site. So it was very easily accessible. And so it was a very complete package. And also they had a tremendous lineup of speakers. They're very well recognized organization, and draw very good speakers on an annual basis. And then also small enough that you got to see people talk to them interact with the speakers on a regular basis. So I really had a great time.

Maya Acosta  17:04

Me too. So one of the benefits of going to NHS that we have access to the virtual content, I'm looking forward to just revisiting some of the content because I didn't go to everything there were times when I needed to rest. So that's one of the things that I'm looking forward to, is having access to the Keynote or the speakers that I didn't see. And then there was a table. So Wanda, the executive director gave us pod leaders a table. And she really worked hard at highlighting us at this conference. So she gave us a table, a group of about seven or eight of us collaborated and worked behind the scenes via zoom on, you know, being organized and available to support anyone that came to the table asking either questions about how to start a support group or how to join one. And so the very first night that we arrived, which was Thursday, Wanda's showed the film from food to freedom, the same film that we're going to show here in Dallas. And at the end of the film, she invited us pod leaders to the stage to introduce ourselves and talk about why we started our group.

Dr. Riz  18:16

Yeah, I thought that was wonderful. Wanda and Mark, the humans do a great job of making you feel welcome and a part of the organization. And they offered us a great platform to share information. And so

Maya Acosta  18:29

after that we had actually I took some photos, we had a group of people that approached you and had questions specifically for you. So that was a huge plus, the amount of time that we were able to mingle with people was really nice. Our meal times I think we're about two hours at a time. And so and that really was very helpful because the lines were long, buffet style. And so you would stand in line, grab your food, and then, you know, sit with people randomly or sometimes deliberately. And I really enjoyed those times where I was able to sit with people that I've met online and enjoy conversations.

Dr. Riz  19:10

Yeah, I thought this was interesting that there was a lot of people that we had known virtually, but we had never met in person. So this was a great opportunity to see them in person. And then also when we sat down to meals, we did also get to sit down with some new friends and meet them and talk to them.

Maya Acosta  19:26

Yeah. And so there was another time when we were able to arrange to have lunch, I think it was her dinner with anyone who is interested in becoming again a leader in their community. And so we put several tables together and squeezed in but was able we were able to sort of come together and that was really gratifying. So that's about networking and connecting with people. I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was able to tell people about the podcast, just whenever I was at the pod leader table and then it. Is there anything for you that stands out any speaker panel discussion, anything that was meaningful for you?

Dr. Riz  20:07

Well, I mean, I think that actually, I mean, it was just really a, a great conference. Again, they attracted a great panel of speakers. Really well known and good at what they do. So they were enjoyable talks, and I enjoyed Dr. Kim Williams talk a lot. But then anything that has to do with cardiovascular disease oftentimes is, you know, I enjoy it. And then, but what I really also thought I liked about the whole thing, it was just a well balanced, they gave you the opportunity in the morning to either do yoga or, or exercise, and then breakfast, and then it was, you know, there was a nice balance of lectures. And then, you know, and so not, it wasn't just information overload. It was a great balance for the day, and then they gave you plenty of time for meal breaks. And then they, they had evening, keynote speakers, and then they also had evening activities. So it was, you know, it was a very full schedule, but really nicely balanced.

Maya Acosta  21:14

Yes. So Thursday night was the film. That's the night that we arrived. So we arrived in within an hour, we were watching the film had dinner on our own, and then watch the film did the whole panel NOPAT Well, I guess you could say that we were all there as panelists. And then Friday morning, we started with a morning hike. And Russ and I were asked to be part of the hikes to kind of just walk along with other guests. And that was a lot of fun. So I thought that was a great way to kind of officially kick off the conference, because the conference didn't really officially start until I think Friday. And so we started with the hike. Right after the hike, we went and did a Vitamix tour. And there were multiple buses rotating between the hike and the Vitamix tour. And so we had the opportunity to actually go to the Vitamix headquarters.

Dr. Riz  22:08

You know, I kind of smile when I'm saying this, but who would have thought that a Turing a blender factory would be so much fun? Yeah, you know, but it was very interesting, you got to see the history of the family who ran it. And there were two museums, one was actually a cottage reproduction of where some of the family grew up. And then the other one was actually a tour of the museum in the factory. And you got to see a lot of industry information, and then they made us some smoothies to try out. So it was a really interesting tour,

Maya Acosta  22:41

Sunday morning might have had maybe like a panelist or something, I think what really stood out was a panel discussion on fasting, with Dr. Gold hammer, Ellen Goldhammer, from true north there, and some of the other speakers and some excellent, excellent questions. And I think, you know, one of the things that I try to highlight on the podcast is that I don't promote fasting, because I have this awareness of diet, culture and disordered eating that is prevalent among many, many people of different ages, and more specifically, women. And I remember that one of the questions was, do you prescribe this, you know, fasting to some of your patients? And then the individual that answer the question, I want to say, as Dr. Joel Furman said, I don't prescribe fasting for my patients, because I deal with addictions, food addictions. So if you're an individual, and he said, you know, if you're dealing with obesity, and if you're dealing with food addictions, fasting is not an option, because it just kind of reinforces the obsession with weight loss. And if you're dealing with food addiction, you're gonna have a hard time just not eating period. And so he said, for him, he's very deliberate about his approach, which is to help people develop a healthy relationship with food. And maybe in the future, you can move towards fasting. But But definitely, fasting has been a topic of ours that it's been very interesting, fascinating. And we'd like to have like exposure to and try someday. But I thought that was really good. And I think you had a couple of questions for during the conference that we posted on your social media. And but anyway, I don't know if anything else stands out for you.

Dr. Riz  24:37

No, I think we pretty much covered it. It was a great conference overall on I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to going back.

Maya Acosta  24:43

Yeah, for the most part. I really enjoyed it. It was a smooth flight back home. But as always, I get really exhausted from conferences. So I'm just I came home and try to take a long break from all of that. But anyway, so that It was a recap of the NHI conference, you can always go to their website if you're interested in learning more they offer plan based travel. We've planned a trip to Tahiti in 2025. We've now have known several or have met several people that are also going on that trip in 2025. So lots to look forward to.

Dr. Riz  25:20

Yeah, I can't believe I have to wait so long for the cruise.

Maya Acosta  25:23

Yeah. But all right, friends. So that's it. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. Until next time, thanks again for listening. Bye bye. You've been listening to the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast with your host Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this content, please share with one friend who can benefit. You can also leave us a five star review at rate this podcast.com forward slash H L S. This helps us to spread our message. As always, thank you for being a listener.