Leigh Schoener is an Integrative Nutrition Wellness Coach who works with families, teens, and children to implement proactive and integrative approaches for those who have learning, social-emotional, behavioral, and /or physical health challenges or simply desire better wellness for their family.
Leigh earned a BA in Psychology and an M.Ed in Early Childhood, both from George Mason University. According to an August report by the Centers for Disease Control, more than a quarter of young Americans (aged 18-24) considered suicide due to the pandemic. In this episode, Leigh explains the power of the pause, why kids need permission to fail, the difference between EQ and IQ, the importance of routines, and why a healthy diet, physical fitness, and healthy environments are key to the success of kids and teens.
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- CDC: More Than A Quarter Of Young Americans Considered Suicide Due To The Pandemic
Narrator
How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts. Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.
Lisa Beres
Hi, friends, and welcome to today's show. Remember to visit us at www dot Ron and lisa.com to sign up for our free seven day healthy at home challenge and learn more ways to connect with us. That's Ron and lisa.com. Guys, I'd like to kick off this episode with one of my favorite quotes. We do not inherit the earth from our grandparents. We borrow it from our children. Moses, Henry Cass. Isn't that true? And today we're talking about something very important and Oh, so timely, natural solutions for Family Health and emotional wellness. In fact, according to an August 2020 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a quarter of young Americans aged 18 to 24. That's the teenage group considered suicide due to the pandemic. That's one in four young adults that say they've contemplated committing suicide in the past month because of the pandemic. And to add to that sobering statistic, deaths from suicides, and drug overdoses currently exceed deaths due to the covid 19 virus. And that was according to the CDC director, Robert Redfield. In addition, the CDC they published a report what's staggering statistics on the mental health of our nation. So, during the month of June 2020 40% of US adults, that's two out of five that reported having mental health or substance abuse issues. And in fact, 75% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24. Once again, the higher part of this teen group, they reported experiencing at least one adverse mental health symptom.
Ron Beres
The stressors these children are facing, will have a life effect on their mental and health. In fact, this is what the Director of Communications at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center had to say. A child's developing brain is heavily impacted by toxic stress. And the more a child's stress response is activated and prolonged, the more they suffer.
Lisa Beres
Guys, I think Whitney Houston said it best. I believe that children are our future. And someone who knows that all too well is our very special guest today, Leigh Schoener. Leigh is an integrative nutrition wellness coach. In fact, she's blended her passions for natural health and wellness with her professional knowledge of psychology, early childhood education, integrative health practices, and most importantly, her experience of being a mom for 17 years to two teenage daughters. Leigh's works with families, teens and children to implement approaches for those who have learning social, emotional, behavioral, and or physical health challenges or just simply desire better wellness for their family. Leigh earned her BA of psychology and a Master's of education in early childhood, both from George Mason University (Ron's alma mater) and she also earned a certificate of integrative nutrition health coaching from the Institute of integrative nutrition. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two teenage daughters and two furry friend dogs. Welcome to the show. Leigh, welcome.
Leigh Schoener
Thank you for having me on Ron and Lisa. This is such an important topic. Those stats are really sobering. And I hope everybody listening is paying attention to what we're going to go over today. Because this is real, this is important. So, let's just get started. What led you started off in early childhood development as a teacher What led you to become an integrative health nutrition coach in the first place? So, I've always been interested in Natural Health and Wellness as far back as I can remember, even in high school, I subscribed to a Natural Science magazine that got delivered. always been interested in nutrition and what it does for our bodies. So yeah, so as a teacher, I taught elementary school, and then I stayed home with my children. And when it was time to go back, I was ready to go do something, I decided to pursue my other passion, which is health and wellness. So, I went back to school and got certified as an integrative nutrition health coach. And between those times, I've read tons of books I was, you know, listening a podcast and just fed my passion on this. So, I love it. I love learning. I love continuing to learn. I love helping people. And mostly also being able to help my own family and starting there. And also, I had some of my own health issues as well. I was very tired a lot of brain fog. And it was always told that it was like a either college if it was then or after I had kids, I was told Oh, it's because you're a mom. And there was always something in me. And I just felt like there was a piece missing. And eventually, once I started connecting gluten and what it could be doing in my body, I did my own removal of gluten. And that was kind of my first aha moment of what food can do to your body. And within a couple days, I felt a difference. And so, then I went and met with a practitioner and graded practitioner, and he did tests and sure enough, I am highly sensitive to gluten. Are you gluten? Are you celiac disease? Or, are you just gluten sensitive? Gluten sensitive? Yeah. Which is so common today. Ron and I actually have met and listen to Dr. Amy Myers do presentations and she had said that the reason that we have so many gluten issues today is because it's a hybridized wheat and our body literally views it as a foreign substance. So, we haven't evolved enough to sort of understand our bodies don't take that in like a natural substance. It's literally a foreign agent. And so, some people think, oh, everybody just says they're gluten intolerant, gluten sensitive, but it is a real thing. And it's one of the first things she takes her patients off of regardless of their elements. She's she sees people from all over the world. And gluten and gluten and dairy are two of the things she tends to take her patients off of so that's not a surprise now did your daughters have any issues relating to this when you were getting into the integrative nutrition so not right when I got into it, but a few years later, my older daughter who was very healthy both of my girls very healthy, came down with or got diagnosed. I mean long story short, got diagnosed with a condition called POTS for short, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
EDS-H is hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos and they do go together and she has both of those. She has both and once she got diagnosed and I do want to say that I have been given permission for my daughter to be able to talk openly about this. She does want to be able to help other children that are diagnosed adults have it as well but of course the children part so she was one she was diagnosed things did come together that were kind of out there little missing puzzle pieces. She always had shortness of breath and got dizzy very easily and some other.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, so tell us so does POTS have its own set of symptoms. And then the other thing what was that called again?
Leigh Schoener
Ehlers-danlos. So, POTS is basically a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. It is under the umbrella of dysautonomia.
Lisa Beres
Okay, we talked about that on an on episode number four, because that's a very common effect from mold exposure, toxic mold exposure.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, yes. And actually, she that is one of the routes that we went and I can't definitively say that might not have contributed we don't know 100% hearts is highly mis-diagnosed and undiagnosed. So, she at nine got diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, so maybe she did but once she got diagnosed with pots, most likely that's probably really what those symptoms were from. So, the symptoms can vary from person to person, and then also the severity can vary. So, she started off pretty bad, but there are children who are on a spectrum that could be worse. So, it's a spectrum. So, some of the symptoms could be I hadn't come consistent headaches, dizziness, nausea, and affects your gut your stomach, definitely focus brain fog. But that's when that was one of her biggest symptoms, and the dizziness, shortness of breath. So basically, it is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system where her blood flow doesn't flow consistently and so it can get cool leg. Red blood doesn't go to the brain.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Interesting. We just talked about that and things that you can so you'll pretzel people will pretzel their legs, the doctor nausea, we had unexplained princeling the legs keeps the blood flow up closer to the heart. And so, if you, you know, and I actually used to do that a lot. But there's things you can do like compression socks, and she talked about even back things back brace kind of devices you can wear to keep that blood closer to the heart. Yeah, that's right. For the listeners. That was Episode Four with Dr. Nagy.
Leigh Schoener
Yes. That's wonderful. Because actually, because it's so highly Miss. And undiagnosed, especially in young children. Yeah, it usually comes on and teenage years. And so unfortunately, it's diagnosed often as anxiety. And I should say, too, I'm not a doctor. I don't treat I don't diagnose, but I am a mom with a lot of experience and with my background of an integrative nutrition health coach, but from my experience, from talking to a lot of other parents, I get gets misdiagnosed, and often as anxiety because it does cause anxiety, you know, it causes you're like, I don't feel that I want to go play with my friends. What's wrong with me, you know, their energy. And it can't I mean, Lauren was at one point, she couldn't even really get out of bed. So, in the mornings, you know, it was very, very challenging to get up and get going. And then in school, it affects your school day. But anyway, long story short, she, we are so blessed to have a local doctor here, who is one of the top in the country. So, she's under his care. And luckily, thankfully, he was very open to an angry approach. She did try medicine; I was very open to that for her. It just didn't work. It actually made her feel worse. And so, we did take an aggressive approach, but I knew it had to be her that had to be ready for that. Yeah, let's report so most of us have heard of integrative medicine. But can you explain what integrative means? And more specifically, what does an integrative coach actually do? Very good question. So integrative medicine, or integrative approach means that you are taking a full body approach. So, you're not just looking at one symptom. And China just that, because there's always an underlying reason for it. So, you're looking at the full body, you're looking at the mind what's going on the gut. I mean, the gut is a big one that often gets missed. I mean, 80% of our Oh, yeah, it's done is in our gut, but also the brain. There's the vagus nerve that runs from the brain to the gut, that if it's not functioning, right, it can just cause a slew of things. And actually, in parts, I believe the vagus nerve is related to it. So, taking an integrative approach means look at the whole person, what is their stress? What is their sleep like? Are they moving? How are they eating? What maybe there's a healthy food that affects them? So, you're looking at everything, their lifestyle, or you know what their job is? If you're looking at an adult, if they're if they're a child, what is their home life, like? What is their academic body, like a whole body, a whole body approach a mind body spirit, we have a health coach as an integrative health coach who mostly works with families, teens and kids? I look at all of that I look at how is the child sleeping? What does the child eating, you know, let's look at what they're eating. If they're having trouble in school, and they're not focusing there could be something that they're eating every single morning that no one's even connecting that to.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, food allergies are so big and even food sensitivities. So even if the person tests for you know, negative for an allergy, they still could have a sensitivity to a particular food that they're just constantly staying in that perpetual cycle of being, you know, agitated from the allergy, the allergic response, sometimes overlooked to like they'll get tested for allergy and meaning nothing comes back, but they're missing the sensitivity and sometimes even if they get tested for sensitivity and it comes back sometimes it gets dismissed. Yeah, food we're going to get into food and some of the things that you suggest as we go through the show, but going back to your daughter, so when she was first experiencing this, I'm sure there was a little depression, anxiety. Did any doctor say Oh, hey, she's depressed? Let's put her on medication. And how do you feel about teens going on these prescription mood stabilizers at a young age before even looking at diet and lifestyle and exercise?
Leigh Schoener
That's a great question. I really feel it is so important to first look at everything else. Now. I'm going to preface again saying I'm not a doctor and every situation is different. I do feel that there is a time and place for medication for you know different situations and medicine. I'm not dismissing that at all. But I do feel that there's not enough focus on this integrative approach and especially nutrition, especially with kids before we start medicating them, because what often isn't understood is all the side effects that can happen. And then so maybe you're trying to treat one symptom or you're just frustrated because the kids not focusing in school, which could be a first slew of reasons. And then you choose a medicine, then you don't realize that that can just snowball into other things. So, I do feel it's very important to dig deeper. And that is what we do is integrate of health coaches, and figure out what could be the root cause, you know, maybe something, even from their birth, or, you know, from younger years, I mean, there's so many things, and that's where you, you know, sit and you talk, and you're, and you listen to them, you listen to the family.
Lisa Beres
Look for those clues, pay attention to your children.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, I mean, your children are the best. I mean, if they don't, one of my favorite things to say is like if they're not eating a certain food and you're trying to force it down, then they actually could be telling you that they have a sensitivity to that. Right.
Lisa Beres
You know, that's so interesting. I thought that I grew up in an environment where I was, I want to say forced. My parents were nice. But you know, we grew up on a meat and potatoes dinner every night at 5:30. And we sat around with meat and all the foods that I don't eat now, which would be like high carb white rolls and meat and we had a meat, fish or chicken at every meal, and I hated it. I hated it. My mom said when I was a baby, I hated the meat baby food. And the minute I left home to go to college, I never ate meat again. So that was like innately and I knew that you know, back then nobody knew about vegetarianism or veganism that would have been like, so bizarre, especially in my little town I grew up in, but yeah, paying attention to those clues. So, one of the parent's biggest concerns today is obviously the mental health and emotional well-being of their children, specifically teens, teen suicide rate that we talked about at the top of the show is at an all-time high right now.
Leigh Schoener
We hear about kids and depression, anxiety, even the opioid epidemic. So, give us some tips that parents can do as a proactive approach right now to help their kids. I would say the first one is what we just talked about is listen, we are we are such a busy, we glamorize being busy, that sometimes we just forget to pause the power of the pause and just slow down with our families. I would say, if there's something beneficial, I think there's some that that came out of these last several months, it has reminded us to pause and to slow down and to be with our families. I mean, what is more important than the people in our home, but prior and still Even now I think that that gets lost and in our lives. And so, it's very important that we connect with our kids, and that we listen to them and we talk to them we ask them questions and communicate with them. And you know, be aware of who they're hanging with and what they're doing and there's a difference between being a smother mother. I'm sure I'm guilty of that some laughter HELOC right, there's a fine line between a helicopter parent and then like a concerned parent, right? involved and connected to your kid. Because a lot of times the signs are right there that they just need, you know some of that attention and just the connectedness the connection with their own parent and family. That would be number one, of course. But what I would get into next in the tips would be to focus on that integrative part to be really focusing on nutrition and what are we eating as a family are, we eating together? There are studies out there that show that connect families that actually sit down have dinner together. More often those kids go off to have healthier relationships with themselves and with other people and more success in life.
Lisa Beres
That's why we have a good relationship. I ate dinner every night with my family. So even though it was meat, we ate dinner together. So, we did eat dinner, no TV, we had no TV. I mean think about it. All of us here on the call that we grew up in an era where there were no cell phones for the most part until later. And so, we didn't have that escape. I know we never had the TV on when we ate where there was no digital, you know distraction.
Ron Beres
I ate in front of the TV with my family.
Leigh Schoener
We are at any meal table whether we're out to eat or at home. devices are away.
Lisa Beres
Oh my god. I love that Leigh. If people take away anything from the show, please take away that because when Ron and I go out to eat, we see the kids on the phone. They're not even talking to their parents and you're like this is your time together.
Leigh Schoener
And that goes number one, you know Tip is the connection. And that is the devices that they're everywhere in our homes and everywhere, and especially with teenagers. And so, we have to create ways and we want to teach our teenagers healthy habits around their devices. So that's another one. I'm kind of going to name umbrella tips, but nutrition, sleep, we need to be looking at their sleep patterns, our kids, especially with devices,
Lisa Beres
And we'll get into that. So yeah, just give us some umbrella.
Ron Beres
So, I wasn't sure exactly was that three to three? How many do we have so far?
Leigh Schoener
So, I would say connection, their sleep, nutrition? Are they moving? fitness? Definitely emotional health. We want to be focusing on mindfulness. And also, just simple joy and laughing and having fun.
Ron Beres
Okay, great segue, Leigh. So, one of your focuses as you work on with children and teens is mindfulness and emotional intelligence. So, can you expand upon EQ versus IQ?
Leigh Schoener
Yes. So emotional intelligence, let me explain that first, in the very simple terms without getting very sciency means being in tune with your own emotions, and accepting your emotions, and being okay with that, but having the skill to be in the whereabouts and the knowledge to be able to do that and actually having the permission, because it goes back to the busy world. Sometimes we don't even recognize our own emotions. And it's so important to teach kids that from a very, very young age, and there's actually studies out there that show that children that have a higher EQ versus an IQ actually do go out in the world to be more successful, they're able to have better relationships with people. Um, then then looking at the academic achievement and IQ.
Ron Beres
Now are there ratings with EQ, like there is for IQ? Is there literally a rating like 100 you can take?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, there are there are tests out there. I'm not like I don't know a whole lot about that. But I know about just EQ and teaching children to be in touch with their emotions, teaching them to recognize their emotions, honor it. So, if you're talking like a younger kid, okay, and they are having a frustration over something and or temper tantrum. And you know, usually, a lot of times parents are kind of like, frustrated and they take on that emotion and no one's perfect. been there done that. But um, we actually want to teach kids that it's okay. We I see, you're frustrating. you're frustrated with that. What can I do to help? Can you can you tell me more about that? What's going on with that? So, we're honoring, we're telling the child it's okay to feel that way. acknowledge it. And then what are we going to do about it.
Lisa Beres
That�s such a great point, and I think this goes for adults, too. I know, we're really focusing on children and teens today, but we are you know, you talked about the busy I've heard a quote, stop the glorification of busy. And I think the busyness hides and cloaks a lot of our emotions. So instead of dealing with them, people just go into the next thing, the next thing and understanding that it's okay to be sad, even right now, during this pandemic, like of course, people are going through, we collectively as a consciousness are going through so much trauma, it's okay to feel sad, to feel lonely, to feel confused, to feel not focus. And just process that and let that go through. And then move on and like you said, get to like a good feeling thought and deal with it but not feel shame. I think there's so much shame around feeling bad shedding a tear, you know, having a day that you're off. It's okay, we have to understand that.
Leigh Schoener
And it's actually good because it teaches us also to have empathy for other people. So, if we recognize our own emotions, then I actually I am not a huge fan of that term. We hear the term negative emotion all the time. And it's because it's just kind of how it is you have negative emotions, you have positive emotions, but I, when you hear negative, you think it's bad. And it's just not bad to have a down day or to feel sad. We just want to equip our kids and teens with tools that they can use to be able to recognize how they're feeling. And maybe they're just having a fabulous day. This is another example. They're having such a fabulous day they rocked stuff at school, maybe they maybe they're really young and they come home and they're saying I'm making new friends. And if we're not if we're just so busy and on our devices and looking down and honoring these emotions of kids and teens, we are taking away from that connection and we're not honoring how they feel we need to celebrate that if kids are coming home and having that emotion and not okay, that's great. And then get back to you know, our work. We need to, because in the long run that is going to teach them to also connect to other people and have empathy for what other people are going through and do better in the workplace, do better with their friendships do better in their relationships.
Ron Beres
Is EQ more nurture versus nature? Right. So that's, that's the idea.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, I mean, I think, as an everything, I think it's always a little of both. I just, you know, in our house, we just feel that that, you know, of course, school education, everything's very important. But it's just something that my husband and I decided from the beginning that that is just what's more important for us as we want to make sure that we have very well rounded children that are empathetic and sympathetic and can feel their emotions, you know, as opposed to so much focus on academic achievement schools school.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. And even that is causing so much stress for the kids.
Leigh Schoener
We see it right here in our community. I mean, unfortunately, we have had suicides right here, and it's terrible.
Lisa Beres
Ron and I had a colleague a couple years ago, who had two little adorable daughters, and they created a meditation room in their house. And whenever one of their kids was stressed, or having a bad day, she'd say, go to your meditation room.
Leigh Schoener
They can be in tune with how they're feeling. At our house we use the essential oils a lot. And essential oils can be a wonderful tool for people to be able to have to be able to support whatever they're going through. So maybe they're having a great day, or they're approaching great day, and they're going to use a citrus oil to lift them up. Or maybe they're just having a really tough day. And they're going to use an essential oil to support their hormone balance. have always had that, when you said about your friend�s meditation room. One thing I always told my cousin when they were little is to pick either go outside on the front and rock on the rocking chair, or go outside and go on the swing set when we had a swing set, you know, just giving them tools and options to be able to just breathe. Yeah, and be able to be in their moment.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Okay, so we talked, we skated across nutrition, but obviously nutrition plays a huge role and children's wellness can what they eat impact their emotional health and their learning behavior.
Leigh Schoener
So absolutely, hundred percent. And again, this is something I feel that it's important for parents to be able to hear and give them permission to hear that wow, that that is something else that I can look at is nutrition. Many children that have challenges with focus, and learning challenges in school. A lot of times if we just sit down and look at what they're eating, a lot of times we can figure it out, I have helped parents that I've had kids that have had trouble with focus. And of course, the first initial thing that people want to do is medication, which like I said, has its place, but I think it's always better look at these things first. Anyway, we looked at what the child was eating and kind of what they were eating before school. And it turned out that once we did, we did an elimination of some foods.
Lisa Beres
There's a proper way to do or to call right for elimination diet. Yeah, there's a procedure to follow.
Leigh Schoener
But once we took gluten out, they did see a huge difference, like a remarkable difference. And quickly, it wasn't even you know, it didn't even take that much time. And so, you know what a great, you know, once they did that, they didn't have to do the medication.
Lisa Beres
Both of your daughters are now gluten free?
Leigh Schoener
No, my that wasn't about me. That was about one of my clients. Oh, so Lauren, when she was going through managing the peak of her health, she did go gluten and she is dairy free, just because she knows dairy doesn't sit well with her. I'm dairy free too. But she did remove gluten. And it played an incredible role. The integrative approach, all of it that we took played an incredible role in her health improving, but she is now a typical teenager and has their own thing, which is great because I need as hard as it is. Because I know it benefits or I have to sit back and also let her figure that out.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, that's a really good point Leigh, you cannot control but guide and encourage to a point but if you overdo that going back to that helicopter parent, then the children are going to rebel right and I used to eat at this vegetarian restaurant actually was a vegan restaurant. We ate there we like had our own table. And the woman had a daughter and the daughter grew up on this vegan vegetarian diet and then she really rebelled when she got older. And like, the pendulum swung so far, the other way so even though we're vegan, I totally get what you're saying. Like you have to let when they become a teen especially like let them experiment and let them come back. She'll probably come back to that decision when she's ready, but has to be on you know Their terms at some point.
Leigh Schoener
I�m glad you brought that up because one of my beliefs as a health coach is moderation, not deprivation, I believe that for everybody. And so, in terms of kids, you know, you'll hear about parents that won't have any junk food, no sugar, you know, in their house, and yes is a health coming from me as a health coach. I actually believe there's some benefit to having, especially if your kid is asking for it. So, if they're asked certain kind of cookie, let's say a certain brand, and you know.
Ron Beres
Is it a vegetable cookie, Leigh?
Leigh Schoener
And we're just like, No, no, no, no, you can't have that. Well, guess what? They're going to go to so and so's house and they're going to, yeah, or they can just have it in the pantry in your house. I guarantee you that they will have they will learn more control over their selves. If you were if you're no, then they�re going to rebel later and the last thing you want is for kids to leave the house and go to college and go out ever come home because you don't have cookies.
Ron Beres
The parents get punished.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah. And just binge eat and do you know get all the food.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Because they don't know how right? They go and binge eat because they don�t know how to eat right. It�s probably good Ron and I don't have children I would be so I would be like the crazed one who's like no junk food.
Ron Beres
And then I would have had to go through the good guy.
Leigh Schoener
I do believe moderation not, and also teaching kids to be in tune again, with their body when they're eating something. So, if they're going to go and have a whole sugary meal or eat fast food a lot, you know, teach them well, how did that make you feel? Or maybe they're like, gosh, I got really sluggish lately and tired. Well, you know, you just had a whole cake yesterday or whatever, you know? Yeah. in tune. And well, how do you feel after eating your fruits and your vegetables, and also giving choices I'm very big on that, like, you know, giving choices at dinner, especially with younger kids make sure there is something on the plate that they want to eat. But having a very good variety of flavor and choices and getting them involved having them involved and helping with the cooking helping with the prepping is so important because the kids actually have a role and that they're more apt to eat what's for dinner?
Lisa Beres
Oh, that's a great, that's a great tip. So, get them about I really didn't know how to cook nor did Ron when we got married. We ate out a lot needless to say, going back to that table at our restaurant. And so, we had to learn together and I wish that I had learned a little more growing up you know, because I had to learn all this as an adult and I was like whoa, how do you do that? I mean I did little things like mac and cheese but I didn't really know how to cook so especially in your 20s when you're living on your own and you're you know you're going to go for low hanging fruits if you don't know how to cook healthy food.
Leigh Schoener
Another tip would be to teach kids about food labels there's nothing wrong with that you know teach them to read the food labels if they can't read you know three four of those ingredients then it's most likely just chemicals we don't need in our body. We also want to teach them about you know supporting local farms and going to the farmer get take your kids out I mean my kids go all the time to the local farm market and pick stuff out for the house.
Lisa Beres
Right? See where your food comes from. Ron bought home brussels sprouts because we love brussels sprouts. Ron bought them home one day and it was on the stem right it looks hilarious It looks like a Holly, like a Christmas Holly. And I was like what is that is like it's the Brussels sprouts and I thought they were just a little balls like the ground and the ground. No that come on this long stem and we are so removed from our food that that I love that idea. Take your kids to the farms get them involved, see how the food's grown pick the food even which is great.
Leigh Schoener
And educate them about what you know again, moderation, not deprivation, but what sugar does her body you know, teach them just to again be in tune with their body a fun experiment that I always do when I go present with kids. If it�s a can of soda and then I'm just a clear empty container and I fill it now I'm trying to remember I think it's 16 teaspoons of sugar that's in a can of soda. And I'll say would you eat this and it becomes very eye opening to them inside a can of soda. I mean, we want our kids to enjoy water that's what we want them drinking you know Yes, every once a while they they're going to go get something but we want them to enjoy water and make water fun. Put some essential oils in it if they're pure.
Lisa Beres
Or sparkling water. That's what that's what kicked our diet our soda habits many years ago.
Ron Beres
Gerolsteiner from Trader Joe's. Gerolsteiner is very good.
Lisa Beres
There's a lot of good brands, mineral water, you get the minerals and it feels bubbly like a soda so it's a really good way to transition.
Leigh Schoener
Fresh fruit and water and I call it Sassy Water.
Lisa Beres
Sassy, glam water.
Ron Beres
Your kids will always remember that? Well, so moving forward.
Lisa Beres
You know what else you know what else is really fun for water, you can get the edible flowers at the grocery store, put them in ice cube trays with of course filtered water and make these beautiful ice cubes. And then you put them in the water. And it's really pretty for summertime. And obviously for kids who like some color in that. So that's a really fun tip.
Ron Beres
Okay, ladies moving from nutritionally. So, we often hear about adults and how important it is to get a good night's sleep, and to implement, like a healthy morning routine. I know for me personally; I love having a routine in the morning helps get me going and helps me focus for the day. But you believe it's important to teach these skills to children from a very young age. Why is that?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, sleep is I think the I go back and forth between gut health being the foundation and sleeping the foundation, but they all go together, everything goes together. So, sleep is key, especially in our world of devices, you know, devices can affect our sleep tremendously. So, one of the things I work with families on are night routines and morning routines. And they really go hand in hand. I think in our world of on the go, especially with kids, we're on the go all the time, to be able to have about a half hour, even an hour, it would be nice before bed to be doing anything besides business. And being on even being on a device and saying within the morning. So, if we can end our day and start our day this way. So, some of the tips I have I mean, the first tip is that we should not have devices and our Rams. And I know that you spoke to an expert about that, and what the waves do to us to our whole entire body. And so, it's very, very important that we not have devices on our Rams. Very, it's important to start that at an early age. So, they carry that through because as they get to be teenagers, we do need to give them that independence. But we want to set them up with those healthy habits. So as a mom of teenagers, I will tell you, it can get challenging, but you got to just stick to it.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, because you're there, you're their parent, not their friend. And I think that or parent first I guess you're their friend too. But I think a lot of parents really blur that line. They want to be liked. They want to be the best friend.
Leigh Schoener
To make that to want to make that decision and giving them other tools and other things to do during that time so that they're not falling asleep with their computers in their? Yeah, in our heads. So, some of the things that I suggest are doing deep breathing before you go to bed. And going outside before you go to bed getting fresh air. You know, if you have a dog, have your kid go out with you and let the dog out. But it affects the circadian rhythms and just the hormones and just relaxes you right away. Doing gratitude journal. So journaling is a big thing morning and night. I am an advocate of not doing a big brain dump or to do lists before you go to sleep. Especially with kids, they can start thinking about their school day and the next day and what?
Lisa Beres
Yeah, get overwhelmed. Yeah.
Leigh Schoener
And that's going to cause anxiety and right there and interest in us right there, it's going to affect your sleep. So, doing a gratitude journal actually does the opposite to our emotions in our brain. And it relaxes you, and releases the hormones that are going to help you sleep better.
Lisa Beres
Ron and I are very big on gratitude. In fact, we call it let's do an attitude of gratitude. And we'll sit down and we'll just you know, list out all the things and it can be anything from the food you just ate to something big. And just acknowledging like when I first learned about it, someone said like even the sheets you sleep on, like get down and dirty to the everything in your life that you feel grateful for. So even if you don't want to write it in a journal, you can verbally do it and just the exercise of expressing that gratitude lifts your mood so quickly.
Leigh Schoener
Absolutely. And I actually when I work with clients, I try I teach them ways to go about their day. So, when they do get to that moment of doing their gratitude time that they can reflect on their day to go beyond like your typical top five things I would always be grateful for but we want to Yeah, some other things. So, and with young kids, you can if they're not writing yet, I mean you could definitely do verbally but they can also draw they can color out. Just that also just drawing is very soothing before you what color.
Ron Beres
What colors would you draw with is there specific colors?
Lisa Beres
Let's not limit colors. No. Okay. Okay. So, Leigh, as Baubiologists, Ron and I obviously say absolutely no to the tech devices in the bedroom, both for adults and children and your room, your room where you sleep should be a safe sanctuary with no tech devices at all that goes for phones, anything. And many people, I want to bring up this point because a lot of people aren't aware, this isn't just the psychological part of tech devices. The National toxicology program did a 10-year $25 million dollar study, it was the most comprehensive study to date, determining the effects from exposure from radio frequency, radio frequency radiation from cell phones. And what they found is an increased rate of cancer and male rats that were exposed to this radiation. So, this is really, really important considering we have about 5 billion mobile phone cell users on the planet. And the fact the World Health Organization classifies RF radio frequency radiation from cell phones, as a class to be carcinogen. I suddenly carcinogenic to humans. I just a lot of people don't know that. And they just say, Oh, it's just a phone. It's just their tablet. It's just their screen. It's just their game station. Well, this is all emitting wireless. It's hitting them on a lot of different right point.
Ron Beres
And children are the most susceptible due to developing brains, too. So that that's been telling as well. So, I know you're also an advocate for this, Leigh. So, what are some tips you can give parents and how to implement this? You know, especially as kids get older, they're using their screens more even with school. And it's in an all-time high now, because in today's world of distance learning and homeschooling, what can we do, Leigh?
Leigh Schoener
Okay, before I get to that I do want to talk about just really quick that morning, because it's just as important as that evening, that in the morning, we want to be able to do anything but grab our phones right away. Because right when we pick that phone up, studies have shown that our stress increases, so stressful. And so, doing those same kind of things that I mentioned, to end your day, you can guide your children and model, it's so important to model if you are asking your kids to plug their phone in your phone should be plugged in downstairs as right.
Ron Beres
What about the husband Leigh? How does that work?
Lisa Beres
They're the hardest ones to get on board.
Leigh Schoener
To teach kids that we want to be accountable to ourselves first, yeah, in the morning, so teach them to come out. And so that gets me to the point of what Ron was just asking some tips on how do we get kids kind of to take these breaks, and I call them not brain breaks. But Brain Boost breaks, we want to get off the screen so we could boost our brain and other ways.
Lisa Beres
There are studies that show that the phones are addicting. I read a study, Leigh, they�re actually designed like a slot machines witness to have this addictive behavior. I couldn't believe when I read that. I mean, it makes sense. But they were literally when they were originally designed. They were designed after that to just constantly, almost like that reward thing ding you know, it's like reward system that you get with the, with the slot machine. And I'm like, no wonder people have such a hard time putting their phone.
Leigh Schoener
So yeah, and it's scary. I mean, back to the science of it, there's studies that actually show that kids brains are showing early signs of dementia, because of what it's doing in the brain. And these are just things that people just don't even think about, you know, the weight, and how it's working in the brain, you know, because we just think we're holding this phone in our hands.
Lisa Beres
So when, and it's stifling their creativity, right, I've heard it does so much of the work for them that they're not thinking like when we grew up, oh, go up and figure out something to do. I mean, we were told, just go outside and play and figure out a game. You had to really tap into your creativity. You need to give kids time to be creative and to be bored. I mean, yeah, to be bored. Right? That's like a taboo word.
Leigh Schoener
I mean, creativity starts, as in boredom, you know.
Lisa Beres
And that's really powerful.
Leigh Schoener
Very important that we start that early so that kids you know, nowadays kids are, you know, this generation. I mean, they're born with this stuff in their hand. Yeah. And so, we need to limit that tremendously.
Lisa Beres
What do you say when your kids say, Oh, Mom, I'm bored? What do you say? What's up? What's a good response?
Leigh Schoener
To that? I just say, honestly, I say go figure out something to do.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, okay. That's great.
Ron Beres
Go to your meditation room.
Leigh Schoener
Just swing. Go on the swing figure. Some tips I have for, you know, with. with younger kids, it's a little bit easier because as a parent, you are kind of setting that the boundaries and the schedule on and all that kind of stuff. And I encourage you to do that if you're not doing it, you need to have some boundaries around device, teach them to plug it in on their own downstairs, make it fun, like have a fun charging center everybody's plugging in in there. You can use timers. For Kids, there's lots of fun timers out there that you can use to set timers for when they can be on their device and off their device. But also talk to your kids. And this is where teenagers also about giving them options. Okay, make a list, let's make a list of things that we can do off of the device. So of course, the younger kids list is going to look different than the older kids list. But sometimes they're so used to only having the device that they forget that they have other boys with orgasm, I'm working with teenagers breaking that habit of getting out of their room, and it is amazing to me how many teenagers keep their phones in the room. But when I start talking to them, and I say What did you like to do as a kid? even adults? What did you like to do as a kid? They're like, wow. Yeah, wow, I used to love to
Lisa Beres
Play hide and seek.
Leigh Schoener
Whatever it is, or drawing or singing, or you know, whatever, um, and so that it gives them something else to do. And from there, they start making a plan of things.
Lisa Beres
And then they like for your girls, they obviously they like it now. They've embraced it. They're not like moms mean that she has this turn off our phone in the morning and at night. Like are they know now it's good for them. And they love that.
Leigh Schoener
I will be 100% transparent that my kids have never had a device in their room. I mean, they use in the room homework and stuff. But they've always plugged it in at night. Until my daughter, my older one was a junior. So, she's a senior now. So, about a year ago, the amount of homework that was given and always on the device kind of led into a little bit of slack there with plugging in, but sometimes she would. But then my younger one, honestly until recent times, when if you talked to lots of parents, where everything just kind of went out the door. It was weird. Right? Now that school is starting, and we're getting back into routines. Yes, they we are all plugging we are getting back into I got my husband on board, we're all plugging in at night. And, they do see the benefits, I think one of the benefits, the biggest benefit is actually in the morning that they don't have to go. If it's there, they're going to grab it, or you're going to grab it.
Lisa Beres
While they're getting ready. I think that's such a good point for adults too. Because I have been guilty of that. I know, we keep our phone on airplane mode all the time whenever we're not using it. But of course, the first thing you do when you wake up is you check your emails you check, you know, you go into your work mode, and then you go into reactive mode, right then it's like 50,000 people need a response. Whereas meditating for us, we meditate. So, meditating in the morning, before doing that sort of sets the tone, you're calm, you're more able to handle the crises or things that are being thrown at you go toward negative, you know, and you're calmer and more centered. And, you know, we've all met people, you can tell when someone's grounded and calm or if they're just not, you know, and a lot of that starts with how you start your day.
Leigh Schoener
Okay, so focus that is so important. If you have a kid that's going to get on their phone right away, most likely their focus is going to be affected. If you have a kid who's taking even 10 minutes to do that deep breathing, or stretching or going out for a quick run whatever it is that they want to do just to have that power of the pause. It like to set the tone for the entire day.
Lisa Beres
Power of the pause, good. Okay, so the CDC report that we mentioned at the top of the show revealed people are also attributing the mental health crisis to the closures of parks, gyms, fitness studios and other public places. And this is resulting in reduced opportunities for physical activity, especially for people who aren't able to exercise at home. And it's proven that we talked about physical activity is beneficial to your mental health as well as your physical health. So, leave the pandemic has made matters worse, what can people do to implement more physical activity into their lives?
Leigh Schoener
Absolutely, um, well, for kids and teens, it shouldn't be that hard because you go outside and you do what you love. So, I think it is very important for kids to figure out what they want to do. I don't think it's good to force kids to do it. They need to figure out what they love to do. So maybe they want to go on the trampoline. Maybe they want to go for a run. Maybe they're just really into doing yoga and stretching which is so important for mind and body. Giving them if they're not if they're struggling and they're not doing anything, then we want to give them choices. Maybe they want to do that with a friend safely right now but giving them choices. Also having some Find equipment in the house right now. Yeah, Horton so have you know the exercise balls, the stretchy bands. But again, like you don't even have to go out and buy you can use soda cans and do.
Lisa Beres
I saw someone do wine bottles and friends happy hour. And a chair. We have a video on our on our website, which is just using the chair for all kinds of exercises.
Leigh Schoener
A pro to having all this technology would be to get on YouTube and plug in what workout you want. And you're going to have it. I mean, we have workouts right at our fingertips there really is no excuse for that. I am a huge advocate though that if you can go outside and do it outside, even if you know if it's too hot or whatever, even if it's just for a little bit because you're going to get so many health benefits from that you're covered. Getting your vitamin, you know, natural vitamin D, you're covering the emotional part getting out in nature.
Ron Beres
Okay, sunscreen or no sunscreen, Leigh? So, what do you do there? Because does that?
Leigh Schoener
Put me on the spot? No, I actually think that if you are going out that this is me, I'm not a doctor, going outside for a very for short bet and you have to know your history and everything. I personally do not put sunscreen on if I'm going out for a little bit because I want the natural vitamin, I need the natural vitamin D. And I do tell my children that too. But if we are going to the beach and we're going to sit outside all day, I am an advocate of sunscreen but I think you need to watch the ingredients you need to look for a natural sunscreen.
Lisa Beres
We have a blog on our website Six Sunscreen Shockers. And these ingredients will blow your mind and you need to make sure you're avoiding likely said some of these really dangerous endocrine hormones disrupting ingredients that are in sunscreen. So yeah, not just any sunscreen. Okay, so moving on. Do you have three tips for teachers today? A lot of people are homeschooling and virtual schooling, what can teachers do to implement?
Leigh Schoener
Well, I'm so glad you're asked that that could be a whole other show. As a former teacher and as someone that has a lot of friends that are teachers, this is unprecedent time. So, I just want to say before I talk about this to everybody and just give teachers some grace around.
Lisa Beres
I know teachers rock let's give a shout out.
Ron Beres
Teachers are amazing.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, yes, yes. Um, so some three tips that I would say are to give kids that power of the pause the Brain Boost breaks, you know, during the day, especially it whether I mean this should be across the board, whether we're in school, the building, or whether we're all virtual, but even more so with virtual, we must give kids breaks, I don't care how old they are. So an example of that would be, um, you know, get up and let's all do 15 jumping jacks, or let's all if we want to do more meditative let's all take one minute and I set the timer, I want you to close your eyes, you can even get like tree pose, make it a little challenging. But just a power of the pause you can do. I actually just learned this from a friend who's a physical therapist. And ever since I learned it like four days ago, I have implemented it and its game changing. So, it's called 20 2020. Every 20 minutes, you look 20 feet ahead of where you are. So, you're looking off your screen. So, you can even she says put X's around the room maybe where you're going to look. And for 20 seconds. Look at that area.
Ron Beres
It�s not 20 minutes, it�s 20 seconds?
Leigh Schoener
20 seconds every 12 Okay, okay, for 20 seconds. Yeah. Okay, look at that.
Lisa Beres
So, could be anything could be outside the window at a tree or something?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, if you can that�s even the best, because t it takes the strain off your eyes. So, it's Yeah, have to remember and this this is all for the teachers to not just for the kid. Yeah. To take breaks. And then also in addition to that, just kind of if you're doing it still looking at a screen make sure you're giving them some breaks to just go get their water, go get a snack you know, not some of these classes are going to be like 80 minutes. I mean, they're long.
Lisa Beres
Oh, wow. Really? Okay.
Leigh Schoener
Encourage the kids. You drink your water as a teacher so that they can see that you're drinking the water. I think that especially as distant learning, when you're in the building, most kids carry it around. But sometimes that home they might forget like they're just no yeah.
Lisa Beres
And they get recess. They get recess in a school. Whereas at home, it's like now you've got to force that and kind of remind yourself it's easy for people to get complacent in their home because that's the place that they rest and sleep and watch TV. So, turning that into a school and having these disciplines definitely I can see that takes some hutzpah and some planning and, you know, just the intent that you that you're going to do.
Ron Beres
So, the final question, Leigh. I think parents actually overcompensate with buying their kids, gadgets, clothes, tech devices, for areas they struggle with doing better, such as like health and wellness, and even quality time together. So, if you were to create a wellness basket for children or for your teens, what would it include?
Leigh Schoener
I think that's great, especially in this time of back to school, we always shop for new clothes, and we shop for school supplies, which is lots and lots of fun. But we need to remember, what are we going to give to our kids to instill healthy habits. So, I would say one of my number one suggestion would be at old fashioned alarm clock with white noise. So that is always the excuse that I hear well, they have to keep their device in the room for their alarm and their white nice, no, no, just go buy an alarm clock.
Ron Beres
And one that is battery operated.
Lisa Beres
We�ll add that, as well. Biologists you want a battery operated so you don't get the magnetic fields from the electric clock.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, that would be more of a tangible thing. One more tangible thing would be a fun timer so that they can you know, for little kids or get just so that they are timing themselves, whether if they're doing fitness for a half hour, but something that they can have control of the time without again using their phone now for fitness, they might actually be using their device with the videos and music and, and that's when like, devices are part of our life, we don't want to take them away 100% we want to teach them healthy habits. So that is when maybe they'll use their devices when they're exercising. And another thing that I would say to equip them with is in terms of nutrition is lots of options. get them involved, take them to the store, let them pick foods eating, you know, eat the rainbow, pick the fun, the fun things, one of my favorite terms with kids because we want to focus on the inward lean benefits of food not necessarily what it's doing are outwardly is eat for energy we want to eat for vitality, we want to eat for focus. So, what are some foods that we can have to do that you can get each child if you have different children in the house, their own little fun basket and put some snacks in there.
Lisa Beres
Oh, that's a great idea, their own tailored basket with their snacks. Siblings cannot steal.
Leigh Schoener
Personalize it and make it fun and water. That would be my other one around nutrition. You know, make the water fun, add fruit to it your ice cubes, essential oils make it fun.
Lisa Beres
And I have heard kids are so dehydrated today. Because they really, really, really don't drink enough water and make sure that it is purified, of course. Get a good reverse osmosis or a great home filtration system, you can save a boatload of money. By doing that versus buying plastic, we don't want to be contributing to more plastic pollution. And also, plastic bottles do have endocrine disruptive activity. It has been proven all plastics. So even those disposable plastics, water bottles are not good. And so, I love that lead. And that's you know what a great like gift to give to a teacher. What a great gift as a housewarming gift. This is really cool a wellness basket for teens and kids. Not only just during this time, but all hope hopefully on the other side of the pandemic, we're still implementing it.
Leigh Schoener
It�s not all tangible stuff. I mean, one of the other important things that I would say would be for emotional health is that connection, just put your phone down and listen to your kids. You know, have those dinners together make that a priority. It might not be every night with activities, but create a schedule that's going to work for your family. And also, the belief in your kids and getting them to believe themselves. That's something I didn't hit on too much. But this in this day and age of social media, there's a lot of comparison. And we need to really work with especially our teenagers on believing in themselves, I do a whole activity. Instead of vision board. It's called a me board and they the teenagers create all the positiveness about themselves or their goal.
Lisa Beres
That is beautiful or even writing on the mirror I am.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, and all the positive things so that they see that in the morning. So, these are things that just in our lives sometimes can get overlooked that can be just such a huge difference in their emotional well-being.
Lisa Beres
All right, those are great points. I love the me board. And I think that kids are very, very challenged today in that with the social media bullying and the stresses and the Yes, they have more things and they have more advances in technology. But along with that comes like you said the constant need to keep up and, you know, when we grew up, we didn't see anything unless it was not a TV show. You know, we didn't have a lot to compare. Now it's constant. So that mental health gasoline This is fantastic. You it's so many good takeaways about mental and emotional health and wellness for not just kids and teens, but for families, adults, all everything. Everything we mentioned today applies to adults too. We hope you guys enjoyed this episode of healthy home hacks. If you're a parent, you can find Lea on Instagram or Facebook at Leigh Deborah Wellness that's l e i g h Deborahwellness. Leigh Deborah Wellness and she can help your kids stay healthier and happier. Stay tuned next week for another great episode and to find out what the hack is going on in your home.
Narrator
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Narrator
How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts. Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.
Lisa Beres
Hi, friends, and welcome to today's show. Remember to visit us at www dot Ron and lisa.com to sign up for our free seven day healthy at home challenge and learn more ways to connect with us. That's Ron and lisa.com. Guys, I'd like to kick off this episode with one of my favorite quotes. We do not inherit the earth from our grandparents. We borrow it from our children. Moses, Henry Cass. Isn't that true? And today we're talking about something very important and Oh, so timely, natural solutions for Family Health and emotional wellness. In fact, according to an August 2020 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a quarter of young Americans aged 18 to 24. That's the teenage group considered suicide due to the pandemic. That's one in four young adults that say they've contemplated committing suicide in the past month because of the pandemic. And to add to that sobering statistic, deaths from suicides, and drug overdoses currently exceed deaths due to the covid 19 virus. And that was according to the CDC director, Robert Redfield. In addition, the CDC they published a report what's staggering statistics on the mental health of our nation. So, during the month of June 2020 40% of US adults, that's two out of five that reported having mental health or substance abuse issues. And in fact, 75% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24. Once again, the higher part of this teen group, they reported experiencing at least one adverse mental health symptom.
Ron Beres
The stressors these children are facing, will have a life effect on their mental and health. In fact, this is what the Director of Communications at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center had to say. A child's developing brain is heavily impacted by toxic stress. And the more a child's stress response is activated and prolonged, the more they suffer.
Lisa Beres
Guys, I think Whitney Houston said it best. I believe that children are our future. And someone who knows that all too well is our very special guest today, Leigh Schoener. Leigh is an integrative nutrition wellness coach. In fact, she's blended her passions for natural health and wellness with her professional knowledge of psychology, early childhood education, integrative health practices, and most importantly, her experience of being a mom for 17 years to two teenage daughters. Leigh's works with families, teens and children to implement approaches for those who have learning social, emotional, behavioral, and or physical health challenges or just simply desire better wellness for their family. Leigh earned her BA of psychology and a Master's of education in early childhood, both from George Mason University (Ron's alma mater) and she also earned a certificate of integrative nutrition health coaching from the Institute of integrative nutrition. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two teenage daughters and two furry friend dogs. Welcome to the show. Leigh, welcome.
Leigh Schoener
Thank you for having me on Ron and Lisa. This is such an important topic. Those stats are really sobering. And I hope everybody listening is paying attention to what we're going to go over today. Because this is real, this is important. So, let's just get started. What led you started off in early childhood development as a teacher What led you to become an integrative health nutrition coach in the first place? So, I've always been interested in Natural Health and Wellness as far back as I can remember, even in high school, I subscribed to a Natural Science magazine that got delivered. always been interested in nutrition and what it does for our bodies. So yeah, so as a teacher, I taught elementary school, and then I stayed home with my children. And when it was time to go back, I was ready to go do something, I decided to pursue my other passion, which is health and wellness. So, I went back to school and got certified as an integrative nutrition health coach. And between those times, I've read tons of books I was, you know, listening a podcast and just fed my passion on this. So, I love it. I love learning. I love continuing to learn. I love helping people. And mostly also being able to help my own family and starting there. And also, I had some of my own health issues as well. I was very tired a lot of brain fog. And it was always told that it was like a either college if it was then or after I had kids, I was told Oh, it's because you're a mom. And there was always something in me. And I just felt like there was a piece missing. And eventually, once I started connecting gluten and what it could be doing in my body, I did my own removal of gluten. And that was kind of my first aha moment of what food can do to your body. And within a couple days, I felt a difference. And so, then I went and met with a practitioner and graded practitioner, and he did tests and sure enough, I am highly sensitive to gluten. Are you gluten? Are you celiac disease? Or, are you just gluten sensitive? Gluten sensitive? Yeah. Which is so common today. Ron and I actually have met and listen to Dr. Amy Myers do presentations and she had said that the reason that we have so many gluten issues today is because it's a hybridized wheat and our body literally views it as a foreign substance. So, we haven't evolved enough to sort of understand our bodies don't take that in like a natural substance. It's literally a foreign agent. And so, some people think, oh, everybody just says they're gluten intolerant, gluten sensitive, but it is a real thing. And it's one of the first things she takes her patients off of regardless of their elements. She's she sees people from all over the world. And gluten and gluten and dairy are two of the things she tends to take her patients off of so that's not a surprise now did your daughters have any issues relating to this when you were getting into the integrative nutrition so not right when I got into it, but a few years later, my older daughter who was very healthy both of my girls very healthy, came down with or got diagnosed. I mean long story short, got diagnosed with a condition called POTS for short, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
EDS-H is hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos and they do go together and she has both of those. She has both and once she got diagnosed and I do want to say that I have been given permission for my daughter to be able to talk openly about this. She does want to be able to help other children that are diagnosed adults have it as well but of course the children part so she was one she was diagnosed things did come together that were kind of out there little missing puzzle pieces. She always had shortness of breath and got dizzy very easily and some other.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, so tell us so does POTS have its own set of symptoms. And then the other thing what was that called again?
Leigh Schoener
Ehlers-danlos. So, POTS is basically a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. It is under the umbrella of dysautonomia.
Lisa Beres
Okay, we talked about that on an on episode number four, because that's a very common effect from mold exposure, toxic mold exposure.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, yes. And actually, she that is one of the routes that we went and I can't definitively say that might not have contributed we don't know 100% hearts is highly mis-diagnosed and undiagnosed. So, she at nine got diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, so maybe she did but once she got diagnosed with pots, most likely that's probably really what those symptoms were from. So, the symptoms can vary from person to person, and then also the severity can vary. So, she started off pretty bad, but there are children who are on a spectrum that could be worse. So, it's a spectrum. So, some of the symptoms could be I hadn't come consistent headaches, dizziness, nausea, and affects your gut your stomach, definitely focus brain fog. But that's when that was one of her biggest symptoms, and the dizziness, shortness of breath. So basically, it is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system where her blood flow doesn't flow consistently and so it can get cool leg. Red blood doesn't go to the brain.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Interesting. We just talked about that and things that you can so you'll pretzel people will pretzel their legs, the doctor nausea, we had unexplained princeling the legs keeps the blood flow up closer to the heart. And so, if you, you know, and I actually used to do that a lot. But there's things you can do like compression socks, and she talked about even back things back brace kind of devices you can wear to keep that blood closer to the heart. Yeah, that's right. For the listeners. That was Episode Four with Dr. Nagy.
Leigh Schoener
Yes. That's wonderful. Because actually, because it's so highly Miss. And undiagnosed, especially in young children. Yeah, it usually comes on and teenage years. And so unfortunately, it's diagnosed often as anxiety. And I should say, too, I'm not a doctor. I don't treat I don't diagnose, but I am a mom with a lot of experience and with my background of an integrative nutrition health coach, but from my experience, from talking to a lot of other parents, I get gets misdiagnosed, and often as anxiety because it does cause anxiety, you know, it causes you're like, I don't feel that I want to go play with my friends. What's wrong with me, you know, their energy. And it can't I mean, Lauren was at one point, she couldn't even really get out of bed. So, in the mornings, you know, it was very, very challenging to get up and get going. And then in school, it affects your school day. But anyway, long story short, she, we are so blessed to have a local doctor here, who is one of the top in the country. So, she's under his care. And luckily, thankfully, he was very open to an angry approach. She did try medicine; I was very open to that for her. It just didn't work. It actually made her feel worse. And so, we did take an aggressive approach, but I knew it had to be her that had to be ready for that. Yeah, let's report so most of us have heard of integrative medicine. But can you explain what integrative means? And more specifically, what does an integrative coach actually do? Very good question. So integrative medicine, or integrative approach means that you are taking a full body approach. So, you're not just looking at one symptom. And China just that, because there's always an underlying reason for it. So, you're looking at the full body, you're looking at the mind what's going on the gut. I mean, the gut is a big one that often gets missed. I mean, 80% of our Oh, yeah, it's done is in our gut, but also the brain. There's the vagus nerve that runs from the brain to the gut, that if it's not functioning, right, it can just cause a slew of things. And actually, in parts, I believe the vagus nerve is related to it. So, taking an integrative approach means look at the whole person, what is their stress? What is their sleep like? Are they moving? How are they eating? What maybe there's a healthy food that affects them? So, you're looking at everything, their lifestyle, or you know what their job is? If you're looking at an adult, if they're if they're a child, what is their home life, like? What is their academic body, like a whole body, a whole body approach a mind body spirit, we have a health coach as an integrative health coach who mostly works with families, teens and kids? I look at all of that I look at how is the child sleeping? What does the child eating, you know, let's look at what they're eating. If they're having trouble in school, and they're not focusing there could be something that they're eating every single morning that no one's even connecting that to.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, food allergies are so big and even food sensitivities. So even if the person tests for you know, negative for an allergy, they still could have a sensitivity to a particular food that they're just constantly staying in that perpetual cycle of being, you know, agitated from the allergy, the allergic response, sometimes overlooked to like they'll get tested for allergy and meaning nothing comes back, but they're missing the sensitivity and sometimes even if they get tested for sensitivity and it comes back sometimes it gets dismissed. Yeah, food we're going to get into food and some of the things that you suggest as we go through the show, but going back to your daughter, so when she was first experiencing this, I'm sure there was a little depression, anxiety. Did any doctor say Oh, hey, she's depressed? Let's put her on medication. And how do you feel about teens going on these prescription mood stabilizers at a young age before even looking at diet and lifestyle and exercise?
Leigh Schoener
That's a great question. I really feel it is so important to first look at everything else. Now. I'm going to preface again saying I'm not a doctor and every situation is different. I do feel that there is a time and place for medication for you know different situations and medicine. I'm not dismissing that at all. But I do feel that there's not enough focus on this integrative approach and especially nutrition, especially with kids before we start medicating them, because what often isn't understood is all the side effects that can happen. And then so maybe you're trying to treat one symptom or you're just frustrated because the kids not focusing in school, which could be a first slew of reasons. And then you choose a medicine, then you don't realize that that can just snowball into other things. So, I do feel it's very important to dig deeper. And that is what we do is integrate of health coaches, and figure out what could be the root cause, you know, maybe something, even from their birth, or, you know, from younger years, I mean, there's so many things, and that's where you, you know, sit and you talk, and you're, and you listen to them, you listen to the family.
Lisa Beres
Look for those clues, pay attention to your children.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, I mean, your children are the best. I mean, if they don't, one of my favorite things to say is like if they're not eating a certain food and you're trying to force it down, then they actually could be telling you that they have a sensitivity to that. Right.
Lisa Beres
You know, that's so interesting. I thought that I grew up in an environment where I was, I want to say forced. My parents were nice. But you know, we grew up on a meat and potatoes dinner every night at 5:30. And we sat around with meat and all the foods that I don't eat now, which would be like high carb white rolls and meat and we had a meat, fish or chicken at every meal, and I hated it. I hated it. My mom said when I was a baby, I hated the meat baby food. And the minute I left home to go to college, I never ate meat again. So that was like innately and I knew that you know, back then nobody knew about vegetarianism or veganism that would have been like, so bizarre, especially in my little town I grew up in, but yeah, paying attention to those clues. So, one of the parent's biggest concerns today is obviously the mental health and emotional well-being of their children, specifically teens, teen suicide rate that we talked about at the top of the show is at an all-time high right now.
Leigh Schoener
We hear about kids and depression, anxiety, even the opioid epidemic. So, give us some tips that parents can do as a proactive approach right now to help their kids. I would say the first one is what we just talked about is listen, we are we are such a busy, we glamorize being busy, that sometimes we just forget to pause the power of the pause and just slow down with our families. I would say, if there's something beneficial, I think there's some that that came out of these last several months, it has reminded us to pause and to slow down and to be with our families. I mean, what is more important than the people in our home, but prior and still Even now I think that that gets lost and in our lives. And so, it's very important that we connect with our kids, and that we listen to them and we talk to them we ask them questions and communicate with them. And you know, be aware of who they're hanging with and what they're doing and there's a difference between being a smother mother. I'm sure I'm guilty of that some laughter HELOC right, there's a fine line between a helicopter parent and then like a concerned parent, right? involved and connected to your kid. Because a lot of times the signs are right there that they just need, you know some of that attention and just the connectedness the connection with their own parent and family. That would be number one, of course. But what I would get into next in the tips would be to focus on that integrative part to be really focusing on nutrition and what are we eating as a family are, we eating together? There are studies out there that show that connect families that actually sit down have dinner together. More often those kids go off to have healthier relationships with themselves and with other people and more success in life.
Lisa Beres
That's why we have a good relationship. I ate dinner every night with my family. So even though it was meat, we ate dinner together. So, we did eat dinner, no TV, we had no TV. I mean think about it. All of us here on the call that we grew up in an era where there were no cell phones for the most part until later. And so, we didn't have that escape. I know we never had the TV on when we ate where there was no digital, you know distraction.
Ron Beres
I ate in front of the TV with my family.
Leigh Schoener
We are at any meal table whether we're out to eat or at home. devices are away.
Lisa Beres
Oh my god. I love that Leigh. If people take away anything from the show, please take away that because when Ron and I go out to eat, we see the kids on the phone. They're not even talking to their parents and you're like this is your time together.
Leigh Schoener
And that goes number one, you know Tip is the connection. And that is the devices that they're everywhere in our homes and everywhere, and especially with teenagers. And so, we have to create ways and we want to teach our teenagers healthy habits around their devices. So that's another one. I'm kind of going to name umbrella tips, but nutrition, sleep, we need to be looking at their sleep patterns, our kids, especially with devices,
Lisa Beres
And we'll get into that. So yeah, just give us some umbrella.
Ron Beres
So, I wasn't sure exactly was that three to three? How many do we have so far?
Leigh Schoener
So, I would say connection, their sleep, nutrition? Are they moving? fitness? Definitely emotional health. We want to be focusing on mindfulness. And also, just simple joy and laughing and having fun.
Ron Beres
Okay, great segue, Leigh. So, one of your focuses as you work on with children and teens is mindfulness and emotional intelligence. So, can you expand upon EQ versus IQ?
Leigh Schoener
Yes. So emotional intelligence, let me explain that first, in the very simple terms without getting very sciency means being in tune with your own emotions, and accepting your emotions, and being okay with that, but having the skill to be in the whereabouts and the knowledge to be able to do that and actually having the permission, because it goes back to the busy world. Sometimes we don't even recognize our own emotions. And it's so important to teach kids that from a very, very young age, and there's actually studies out there that show that children that have a higher EQ versus an IQ actually do go out in the world to be more successful, they're able to have better relationships with people. Um, then then looking at the academic achievement and IQ.
Ron Beres
Now are there ratings with EQ, like there is for IQ? Is there literally a rating like 100 you can take?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, there are there are tests out there. I'm not like I don't know a whole lot about that. But I know about just EQ and teaching children to be in touch with their emotions, teaching them to recognize their emotions, honor it. So, if you're talking like a younger kid, okay, and they are having a frustration over something and or temper tantrum. And you know, usually, a lot of times parents are kind of like, frustrated and they take on that emotion and no one's perfect. been there done that. But um, we actually want to teach kids that it's okay. We I see, you're frustrating. you're frustrated with that. What can I do to help? Can you can you tell me more about that? What's going on with that? So, we're honoring, we're telling the child it's okay to feel that way. acknowledge it. And then what are we going to do about it.
Lisa Beres
That�s such a great point, and I think this goes for adults, too. I know, we're really focusing on children and teens today, but we are you know, you talked about the busy I've heard a quote, stop the glorification of busy. And I think the busyness hides and cloaks a lot of our emotions. So instead of dealing with them, people just go into the next thing, the next thing and understanding that it's okay to be sad, even right now, during this pandemic, like of course, people are going through, we collectively as a consciousness are going through so much trauma, it's okay to feel sad, to feel lonely, to feel confused, to feel not focus. And just process that and let that go through. And then move on and like you said, get to like a good feeling thought and deal with it but not feel shame. I think there's so much shame around feeling bad shedding a tear, you know, having a day that you're off. It's okay, we have to understand that.
Leigh Schoener
And it's actually good because it teaches us also to have empathy for other people. So, if we recognize our own emotions, then I actually I am not a huge fan of that term. We hear the term negative emotion all the time. And it's because it's just kind of how it is you have negative emotions, you have positive emotions, but I, when you hear negative, you think it's bad. And it's just not bad to have a down day or to feel sad. We just want to equip our kids and teens with tools that they can use to be able to recognize how they're feeling. And maybe they're just having a fabulous day. This is another example. They're having such a fabulous day they rocked stuff at school, maybe they maybe they're really young and they come home and they're saying I'm making new friends. And if we're not if we're just so busy and on our devices and looking down and honoring these emotions of kids and teens, we are taking away from that connection and we're not honoring how they feel we need to celebrate that if kids are coming home and having that emotion and not okay, that's great. And then get back to you know, our work. We need to, because in the long run that is going to teach them to also connect to other people and have empathy for what other people are going through and do better in the workplace, do better with their friendships do better in their relationships.
Ron Beres
Is EQ more nurture versus nature? Right. So that's, that's the idea.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, I mean, I think, as an everything, I think it's always a little of both. I just, you know, in our house, we just feel that that, you know, of course, school education, everything's very important. But it's just something that my husband and I decided from the beginning that that is just what's more important for us as we want to make sure that we have very well rounded children that are empathetic and sympathetic and can feel their emotions, you know, as opposed to so much focus on academic achievement schools school.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. And even that is causing so much stress for the kids.
Leigh Schoener
We see it right here in our community. I mean, unfortunately, we have had suicides right here, and it's terrible.
Lisa Beres
Ron and I had a colleague a couple years ago, who had two little adorable daughters, and they created a meditation room in their house. And whenever one of their kids was stressed, or having a bad day, she'd say, go to your meditation room.
Leigh Schoener
They can be in tune with how they're feeling. At our house we use the essential oils a lot. And essential oils can be a wonderful tool for people to be able to have to be able to support whatever they're going through. So maybe they're having a great day, or they're approaching great day, and they're going to use a citrus oil to lift them up. Or maybe they're just having a really tough day. And they're going to use an essential oil to support their hormone balance. have always had that, when you said about your friend�s meditation room. One thing I always told my cousin when they were little is to pick either go outside on the front and rock on the rocking chair, or go outside and go on the swing set when we had a swing set, you know, just giving them tools and options to be able to just breathe. Yeah, and be able to be in their moment.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Okay, so we talked, we skated across nutrition, but obviously nutrition plays a huge role and children's wellness can what they eat impact their emotional health and their learning behavior.
Leigh Schoener
So absolutely, hundred percent. And again, this is something I feel that it's important for parents to be able to hear and give them permission to hear that wow, that that is something else that I can look at is nutrition. Many children that have challenges with focus, and learning challenges in school. A lot of times if we just sit down and look at what they're eating, a lot of times we can figure it out, I have helped parents that I've had kids that have had trouble with focus. And of course, the first initial thing that people want to do is medication, which like I said, has its place, but I think it's always better look at these things first. Anyway, we looked at what the child was eating and kind of what they were eating before school. And it turned out that once we did, we did an elimination of some foods.
Lisa Beres
There's a proper way to do or to call right for elimination diet. Yeah, there's a procedure to follow.
Leigh Schoener
But once we took gluten out, they did see a huge difference, like a remarkable difference. And quickly, it wasn't even you know, it didn't even take that much time. And so, you know what a great, you know, once they did that, they didn't have to do the medication.
Lisa Beres
Both of your daughters are now gluten free?
Leigh Schoener
No, my that wasn't about me. That was about one of my clients. Oh, so Lauren, when she was going through managing the peak of her health, she did go gluten and she is dairy free, just because she knows dairy doesn't sit well with her. I'm dairy free too. But she did remove gluten. And it played an incredible role. The integrative approach, all of it that we took played an incredible role in her health improving, but she is now a typical teenager and has their own thing, which is great because I need as hard as it is. Because I know it benefits or I have to sit back and also let her figure that out.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, that's a really good point Leigh, you cannot control but guide and encourage to a point but if you overdo that going back to that helicopter parent, then the children are going to rebel right and I used to eat at this vegetarian restaurant actually was a vegan restaurant. We ate there we like had our own table. And the woman had a daughter and the daughter grew up on this vegan vegetarian diet and then she really rebelled when she got older. And like, the pendulum swung so far, the other way so even though we're vegan, I totally get what you're saying. Like you have to let when they become a teen especially like let them experiment and let them come back. She'll probably come back to that decision when she's ready, but has to be on you know Their terms at some point.
Leigh Schoener
I�m glad you brought that up because one of my beliefs as a health coach is moderation, not deprivation, I believe that for everybody. And so, in terms of kids, you know, you'll hear about parents that won't have any junk food, no sugar, you know, in their house, and yes is a health coming from me as a health coach. I actually believe there's some benefit to having, especially if your kid is asking for it. So, if they're asked certain kind of cookie, let's say a certain brand, and you know.
Ron Beres
Is it a vegetable cookie, Leigh?
Leigh Schoener
And we're just like, No, no, no, no, you can't have that. Well, guess what? They're going to go to so and so's house and they're going to, yeah, or they can just have it in the pantry in your house. I guarantee you that they will have they will learn more control over their selves. If you were if you're no, then they�re going to rebel later and the last thing you want is for kids to leave the house and go to college and go out ever come home because you don't have cookies.
Ron Beres
The parents get punished.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah. And just binge eat and do you know get all the food.
Lisa Beres
Yeah. Because they don't know how right? They go and binge eat because they don�t know how to eat right. It�s probably good Ron and I don't have children I would be so I would be like the crazed one who's like no junk food.
Ron Beres
And then I would have had to go through the good guy.
Leigh Schoener
I do believe moderation not, and also teaching kids to be in tune again, with their body when they're eating something. So, if they're going to go and have a whole sugary meal or eat fast food a lot, you know, teach them well, how did that make you feel? Or maybe they're like, gosh, I got really sluggish lately and tired. Well, you know, you just had a whole cake yesterday or whatever, you know? Yeah. in tune. And well, how do you feel after eating your fruits and your vegetables, and also giving choices I'm very big on that, like, you know, giving choices at dinner, especially with younger kids make sure there is something on the plate that they want to eat. But having a very good variety of flavor and choices and getting them involved having them involved and helping with the cooking helping with the prepping is so important because the kids actually have a role and that they're more apt to eat what's for dinner?
Lisa Beres
Oh, that's a great, that's a great tip. So, get them about I really didn't know how to cook nor did Ron when we got married. We ate out a lot needless to say, going back to that table at our restaurant. And so, we had to learn together and I wish that I had learned a little more growing up you know, because I had to learn all this as an adult and I was like whoa, how do you do that? I mean I did little things like mac and cheese but I didn't really know how to cook so especially in your 20s when you're living on your own and you're you know you're going to go for low hanging fruits if you don't know how to cook healthy food.
Leigh Schoener
Another tip would be to teach kids about food labels there's nothing wrong with that you know teach them to read the food labels if they can't read you know three four of those ingredients then it's most likely just chemicals we don't need in our body. We also want to teach them about you know supporting local farms and going to the farmer get take your kids out I mean my kids go all the time to the local farm market and pick stuff out for the house.
Lisa Beres
Right? See where your food comes from. Ron bought home brussels sprouts because we love brussels sprouts. Ron bought them home one day and it was on the stem right it looks hilarious It looks like a Holly, like a Christmas Holly. And I was like what is that is like it's the Brussels sprouts and I thought they were just a little balls like the ground and the ground. No that come on this long stem and we are so removed from our food that that I love that idea. Take your kids to the farms get them involved, see how the food's grown pick the food even which is great.
Leigh Schoener
And educate them about what you know again, moderation, not deprivation, but what sugar does her body you know, teach them just to again be in tune with their body a fun experiment that I always do when I go present with kids. If it�s a can of soda and then I'm just a clear empty container and I fill it now I'm trying to remember I think it's 16 teaspoons of sugar that's in a can of soda. And I'll say would you eat this and it becomes very eye opening to them inside a can of soda. I mean, we want our kids to enjoy water that's what we want them drinking you know Yes, every once a while they they're going to go get something but we want them to enjoy water and make water fun. Put some essential oils in it if they're pure.
Lisa Beres
Or sparkling water. That's what that's what kicked our diet our soda habits many years ago.
Ron Beres
Gerolsteiner from Trader Joe's. Gerolsteiner is very good.
Lisa Beres
There's a lot of good brands, mineral water, you get the minerals and it feels bubbly like a soda so it's a really good way to transition.
Leigh Schoener
Fresh fruit and water and I call it Sassy Water.
Lisa Beres
Sassy, glam water.
Ron Beres
Your kids will always remember that? Well, so moving forward.
Lisa Beres
You know what else you know what else is really fun for water, you can get the edible flowers at the grocery store, put them in ice cube trays with of course filtered water and make these beautiful ice cubes. And then you put them in the water. And it's really pretty for summertime. And obviously for kids who like some color in that. So that's a really fun tip.
Ron Beres
Okay, ladies moving from nutritionally. So, we often hear about adults and how important it is to get a good night's sleep, and to implement, like a healthy morning routine. I know for me personally; I love having a routine in the morning helps get me going and helps me focus for the day. But you believe it's important to teach these skills to children from a very young age. Why is that?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, sleep is I think the I go back and forth between gut health being the foundation and sleeping the foundation, but they all go together, everything goes together. So, sleep is key, especially in our world of devices, you know, devices can affect our sleep tremendously. So, one of the things I work with families on are night routines and morning routines. And they really go hand in hand. I think in our world of on the go, especially with kids, we're on the go all the time, to be able to have about a half hour, even an hour, it would be nice before bed to be doing anything besides business. And being on even being on a device and saying within the morning. So, if we can end our day and start our day this way. So, some of the tips I have I mean, the first tip is that we should not have devices and our Rams. And I know that you spoke to an expert about that, and what the waves do to us to our whole entire body. And so, it's very, very important that we not have devices on our Rams. Very, it's important to start that at an early age. So, they carry that through because as they get to be teenagers, we do need to give them that independence. But we want to set them up with those healthy habits. So as a mom of teenagers, I will tell you, it can get challenging, but you got to just stick to it.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, because you're there, you're their parent, not their friend. And I think that or parent first I guess you're their friend too. But I think a lot of parents really blur that line. They want to be liked. They want to be the best friend.
Leigh Schoener
To make that to want to make that decision and giving them other tools and other things to do during that time so that they're not falling asleep with their computers in their? Yeah, in our heads. So, some of the things that I suggest are doing deep breathing before you go to bed. And going outside before you go to bed getting fresh air. You know, if you have a dog, have your kid go out with you and let the dog out. But it affects the circadian rhythms and just the hormones and just relaxes you right away. Doing gratitude journal. So journaling is a big thing morning and night. I am an advocate of not doing a big brain dump or to do lists before you go to sleep. Especially with kids, they can start thinking about their school day and the next day and what?
Lisa Beres
Yeah, get overwhelmed. Yeah.
Leigh Schoener
And that's going to cause anxiety and right there and interest in us right there, it's going to affect your sleep. So, doing a gratitude journal actually does the opposite to our emotions in our brain. And it relaxes you, and releases the hormones that are going to help you sleep better.
Lisa Beres
Ron and I are very big on gratitude. In fact, we call it let's do an attitude of gratitude. And we'll sit down and we'll just you know, list out all the things and it can be anything from the food you just ate to something big. And just acknowledging like when I first learned about it, someone said like even the sheets you sleep on, like get down and dirty to the everything in your life that you feel grateful for. So even if you don't want to write it in a journal, you can verbally do it and just the exercise of expressing that gratitude lifts your mood so quickly.
Leigh Schoener
Absolutely. And I actually when I work with clients, I try I teach them ways to go about their day. So, when they do get to that moment of doing their gratitude time that they can reflect on their day to go beyond like your typical top five things I would always be grateful for but we want to Yeah, some other things. So, and with young kids, you can if they're not writing yet, I mean you could definitely do verbally but they can also draw they can color out. Just that also just drawing is very soothing before you what color.
Ron Beres
What colors would you draw with is there specific colors?
Lisa Beres
Let's not limit colors. No. Okay. Okay. So, Leigh, as Baubiologists, Ron and I obviously say absolutely no to the tech devices in the bedroom, both for adults and children and your room, your room where you sleep should be a safe sanctuary with no tech devices at all that goes for phones, anything. And many people, I want to bring up this point because a lot of people aren't aware, this isn't just the psychological part of tech devices. The National toxicology program did a 10-year $25 million dollar study, it was the most comprehensive study to date, determining the effects from exposure from radio frequency, radio frequency radiation from cell phones. And what they found is an increased rate of cancer and male rats that were exposed to this radiation. So, this is really, really important considering we have about 5 billion mobile phone cell users on the planet. And the fact the World Health Organization classifies RF radio frequency radiation from cell phones, as a class to be carcinogen. I suddenly carcinogenic to humans. I just a lot of people don't know that. And they just say, Oh, it's just a phone. It's just their tablet. It's just their screen. It's just their game station. Well, this is all emitting wireless. It's hitting them on a lot of different right point.
Ron Beres
And children are the most susceptible due to developing brains, too. So that that's been telling as well. So, I know you're also an advocate for this, Leigh. So, what are some tips you can give parents and how to implement this? You know, especially as kids get older, they're using their screens more even with school. And it's in an all-time high now, because in today's world of distance learning and homeschooling, what can we do, Leigh?
Leigh Schoener
Okay, before I get to that I do want to talk about just really quick that morning, because it's just as important as that evening, that in the morning, we want to be able to do anything but grab our phones right away. Because right when we pick that phone up, studies have shown that our stress increases, so stressful. And so, doing those same kind of things that I mentioned, to end your day, you can guide your children and model, it's so important to model if you are asking your kids to plug their phone in your phone should be plugged in downstairs as right.
Ron Beres
What about the husband Leigh? How does that work?
Lisa Beres
They're the hardest ones to get on board.
Leigh Schoener
To teach kids that we want to be accountable to ourselves first, yeah, in the morning, so teach them to come out. And so that gets me to the point of what Ron was just asking some tips on how do we get kids kind of to take these breaks, and I call them not brain breaks. But Brain Boost breaks, we want to get off the screen so we could boost our brain and other ways.
Lisa Beres
There are studies that show that the phones are addicting. I read a study, Leigh, they�re actually designed like a slot machines witness to have this addictive behavior. I couldn't believe when I read that. I mean, it makes sense. But they were literally when they were originally designed. They were designed after that to just constantly, almost like that reward thing ding you know, it's like reward system that you get with the, with the slot machine. And I'm like, no wonder people have such a hard time putting their phone.
Leigh Schoener
So yeah, and it's scary. I mean, back to the science of it, there's studies that actually show that kids brains are showing early signs of dementia, because of what it's doing in the brain. And these are just things that people just don't even think about, you know, the weight, and how it's working in the brain, you know, because we just think we're holding this phone in our hands.
Lisa Beres
So when, and it's stifling their creativity, right, I've heard it does so much of the work for them that they're not thinking like when we grew up, oh, go up and figure out something to do. I mean, we were told, just go outside and play and figure out a game. You had to really tap into your creativity. You need to give kids time to be creative and to be bored. I mean, yeah, to be bored. Right? That's like a taboo word.
Leigh Schoener
I mean, creativity starts, as in boredom, you know.
Lisa Beres
And that's really powerful.
Leigh Schoener
Very important that we start that early so that kids you know, nowadays kids are, you know, this generation. I mean, they're born with this stuff in their hand. Yeah. And so, we need to limit that tremendously.
Lisa Beres
What do you say when your kids say, Oh, Mom, I'm bored? What do you say? What's up? What's a good response?
Leigh Schoener
To that? I just say, honestly, I say go figure out something to do.
Lisa Beres
Yeah, okay. That's great.
Ron Beres
Go to your meditation room.
Leigh Schoener
Just swing. Go on the swing figure. Some tips I have for, you know, with. with younger kids, it's a little bit easier because as a parent, you are kind of setting that the boundaries and the schedule on and all that kind of stuff. And I encourage you to do that if you're not doing it, you need to have some boundaries around device, teach them to plug it in on their own downstairs, make it fun, like have a fun charging center everybody's plugging in in there. You can use timers. For Kids, there's lots of fun timers out there that you can use to set timers for when they can be on their device and off their device. But also talk to your kids. And this is where teenagers also about giving them options. Okay, make a list, let's make a list of things that we can do off of the device. So of course, the younger kids list is going to look different than the older kids list. But sometimes they're so used to only having the device that they forget that they have other boys with orgasm, I'm working with teenagers breaking that habit of getting out of their room, and it is amazing to me how many teenagers keep their phones in the room. But when I start talking to them, and I say What did you like to do as a kid? even adults? What did you like to do as a kid? They're like, wow. Yeah, wow, I used to love to
Lisa Beres
Play hide and seek.
Leigh Schoener
Whatever it is, or drawing or singing, or you know, whatever, um, and so that it gives them something else to do. And from there, they start making a plan of things.
Lisa Beres
And then they like for your girls, they obviously they like it now. They've embraced it. They're not like moms mean that she has this turn off our phone in the morning and at night. Like are they know now it's good for them. And they love that.
Leigh Schoener
I will be 100% transparent that my kids have never had a device in their room. I mean, they use in the room homework and stuff. But they've always plugged it in at night. Until my daughter, my older one was a junior. So, she's a senior now. So, about a year ago, the amount of homework that was given and always on the device kind of led into a little bit of slack there with plugging in, but sometimes she would. But then my younger one, honestly until recent times, when if you talked to lots of parents, where everything just kind of went out the door. It was weird. Right? Now that school is starting, and we're getting back into routines. Yes, they we are all plugging we are getting back into I got my husband on board, we're all plugging in at night. And, they do see the benefits, I think one of the benefits, the biggest benefit is actually in the morning that they don't have to go. If it's there, they're going to grab it, or you're going to grab it.
Lisa Beres
While they're getting ready. I think that's such a good point for adults too. Because I have been guilty of that. I know, we keep our phone on airplane mode all the time whenever we're not using it. But of course, the first thing you do when you wake up is you check your emails you check, you know, you go into your work mode, and then you go into reactive mode, right then it's like 50,000 people need a response. Whereas meditating for us, we meditate. So, meditating in the morning, before doing that sort of sets the tone, you're calm, you're more able to handle the crises or things that are being thrown at you go toward negative, you know, and you're calmer and more centered. And, you know, we've all met people, you can tell when someone's grounded and calm or if they're just not, you know, and a lot of that starts with how you start your day.
Leigh Schoener
Okay, so focus that is so important. If you have a kid that's going to get on their phone right away, most likely their focus is going to be affected. If you have a kid who's taking even 10 minutes to do that deep breathing, or stretching or going out for a quick run whatever it is that they want to do just to have that power of the pause. It like to set the tone for the entire day.
Lisa Beres
Power of the pause, good. Okay, so the CDC report that we mentioned at the top of the show revealed people are also attributing the mental health crisis to the closures of parks, gyms, fitness studios and other public places. And this is resulting in reduced opportunities for physical activity, especially for people who aren't able to exercise at home. And it's proven that we talked about physical activity is beneficial to your mental health as well as your physical health. So, leave the pandemic has made matters worse, what can people do to implement more physical activity into their lives?
Leigh Schoener
Absolutely, um, well, for kids and teens, it shouldn't be that hard because you go outside and you do what you love. So, I think it is very important for kids to figure out what they want to do. I don't think it's good to force kids to do it. They need to figure out what they love to do. So maybe they want to go on the trampoline. Maybe they want to go for a run. Maybe they're just really into doing yoga and stretching which is so important for mind and body. Giving them if they're not if they're struggling and they're not doing anything, then we want to give them choices. Maybe they want to do that with a friend safely right now but giving them choices. Also having some Find equipment in the house right now. Yeah, Horton so have you know the exercise balls, the stretchy bands. But again, like you don't even have to go out and buy you can use soda cans and do.
Lisa Beres
I saw someone do wine bottles and friends happy hour. And a chair. We have a video on our on our website, which is just using the chair for all kinds of exercises.
Leigh Schoener
A pro to having all this technology would be to get on YouTube and plug in what workout you want. And you're going to have it. I mean, we have workouts right at our fingertips there really is no excuse for that. I am a huge advocate though that if you can go outside and do it outside, even if you know if it's too hot or whatever, even if it's just for a little bit because you're going to get so many health benefits from that you're covered. Getting your vitamin, you know, natural vitamin D, you're covering the emotional part getting out in nature.
Ron Beres
Okay, sunscreen or no sunscreen, Leigh? So, what do you do there? Because does that?
Leigh Schoener
Put me on the spot? No, I actually think that if you are going out that this is me, I'm not a doctor, going outside for a very for short bet and you have to know your history and everything. I personally do not put sunscreen on if I'm going out for a little bit because I want the natural vitamin, I need the natural vitamin D. And I do tell my children that too. But if we are going to the beach and we're going to sit outside all day, I am an advocate of sunscreen but I think you need to watch the ingredients you need to look for a natural sunscreen.
Lisa Beres
We have a blog on our website Six Sunscreen Shockers. And these ingredients will blow your mind and you need to make sure you're avoiding likely said some of these really dangerous endocrine hormones disrupting ingredients that are in sunscreen. So yeah, not just any sunscreen. Okay, so moving on. Do you have three tips for teachers today? A lot of people are homeschooling and virtual schooling, what can teachers do to implement?
Leigh Schoener
Well, I'm so glad you're asked that that could be a whole other show. As a former teacher and as someone that has a lot of friends that are teachers, this is unprecedent time. So, I just want to say before I talk about this to everybody and just give teachers some grace around.
Lisa Beres
I know teachers rock let's give a shout out.
Ron Beres
Teachers are amazing.
Leigh Schoener
Yes, yes, yes. Um, so some three tips that I would say are to give kids that power of the pause the Brain Boost breaks, you know, during the day, especially it whether I mean this should be across the board, whether we're in school, the building, or whether we're all virtual, but even more so with virtual, we must give kids breaks, I don't care how old they are. So an example of that would be, um, you know, get up and let's all do 15 jumping jacks, or let's all if we want to do more meditative let's all take one minute and I set the timer, I want you to close your eyes, you can even get like tree pose, make it a little challenging. But just a power of the pause you can do. I actually just learned this from a friend who's a physical therapist. And ever since I learned it like four days ago, I have implemented it and its game changing. So, it's called 20 2020. Every 20 minutes, you look 20 feet ahead of where you are. So, you're looking off your screen. So, you can even she says put X's around the room maybe where you're going to look. And for 20 seconds. Look at that area.
Ron Beres
It�s not 20 minutes, it�s 20 seconds?
Leigh Schoener
20 seconds every 12 Okay, okay, for 20 seconds. Yeah. Okay, look at that.
Lisa Beres
So, could be anything could be outside the window at a tree or something?
Leigh Schoener
Yes, if you can that�s even the best, because t it takes the strain off your eyes. So, it's Yeah, have to remember and this this is all for the teachers to not just for the kid. Yeah. To take breaks. And then also in addition to that, just kind of if you're doing it still looking at a screen make sure you're giving them some breaks to just go get their water, go get a snack you know, not some of these classes are going to be like 80 minutes. I mean, they're long.
Lisa Beres
Oh, wow. Really? Okay.
Leigh Schoener
Encourage the kids. You drink your water as a teacher so that they can see that you're drinking the water. I think that especially as distant learning, when you're in the building, most kids carry it around. But sometimes that home they might forget like they're just no yeah.
Lisa Beres
And they get recess. They get recess in a school. Whereas at home, it's like now you've got to force that and kind of remind yourself it's easy for people to get complacent in their home because that's the place that they rest and sleep and watch TV. So, turning that into a school and having these disciplines definitely I can see that takes some hutzpah and some planning and, you know, just the intent that you that you're going to do.
Ron Beres
So, the final question, Leigh. I think parents actually overcompensate with buying their kids, gadgets, clothes, tech devices, for areas they struggle with doing better, such as like health and wellness, and even quality time together. So, if you were to create a wellness basket for children or for your teens, what would it include?
Leigh Schoener
I think that's great, especially in this time of back to school, we always shop for new clothes, and we shop for school supplies, which is lots and lots of fun. But we need to remember, what are we going to give to our kids to instill healthy habits. So, I would say one of my number one suggestion would be at old fashioned alarm clock with white noise. So that is always the excuse that I hear well, they have to keep their device in the room for their alarm and their white nice, no, no, just go buy an alarm clock.
Ron Beres
And one that is battery operated.
Lisa Beres
We�ll add that, as well. Biologists you want a battery operated so you don't get the magnetic fields from the electric clock.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, that would be more of a tangible thing. One more tangible thing would be a fun timer so that they can you know, for little kids or get just so that they are timing themselves, whether if they're doing fitness for a half hour, but something that they can have control of the time without again using their phone now for fitness, they might actually be using their device with the videos and music and, and that's when like, devices are part of our life, we don't want to take them away 100% we want to teach them healthy habits. So that is when maybe they'll use their devices when they're exercising. And another thing that I would say to equip them with is in terms of nutrition is lots of options. get them involved, take them to the store, let them pick foods eating, you know, eat the rainbow, pick the fun, the fun things, one of my favorite terms with kids because we want to focus on the inward lean benefits of food not necessarily what it's doing are outwardly is eat for energy we want to eat for vitality, we want to eat for focus. So, what are some foods that we can have to do that you can get each child if you have different children in the house, their own little fun basket and put some snacks in there.
Lisa Beres
Oh, that's a great idea, their own tailored basket with their snacks. Siblings cannot steal.
Leigh Schoener
Personalize it and make it fun and water. That would be my other one around nutrition. You know, make the water fun, add fruit to it your ice cubes, essential oils make it fun.
Lisa Beres
And I have heard kids are so dehydrated today. Because they really, really, really don't drink enough water and make sure that it is purified, of course. Get a good reverse osmosis or a great home filtration system, you can save a boatload of money. By doing that versus buying plastic, we don't want to be contributing to more plastic pollution. And also, plastic bottles do have endocrine disruptive activity. It has been proven all plastics. So even those disposable plastics, water bottles are not good. And so, I love that lead. And that's you know what a great like gift to give to a teacher. What a great gift as a housewarming gift. This is really cool a wellness basket for teens and kids. Not only just during this time, but all hope hopefully on the other side of the pandemic, we're still implementing it.
Leigh Schoener
It�s not all tangible stuff. I mean, one of the other important things that I would say would be for emotional health is that connection, just put your phone down and listen to your kids. You know, have those dinners together make that a priority. It might not be every night with activities, but create a schedule that's going to work for your family. And also, the belief in your kids and getting them to believe themselves. That's something I didn't hit on too much. But this in this day and age of social media, there's a lot of comparison. And we need to really work with especially our teenagers on believing in themselves, I do a whole activity. Instead of vision board. It's called a me board and they the teenagers create all the positiveness about themselves or their goal.
Lisa Beres
That is beautiful or even writing on the mirror I am.
Leigh Schoener
Yeah, and all the positive things so that they see that in the morning. So, these are things that just in our lives sometimes can get overlooked that can be just such a huge difference in their emotional well-being.
Lisa Beres
All right, those are great points. I love the me board. And I think that kids are very, very challenged today in that with the social media bullying and the stresses and the Yes, they have more things and they have more advances in technology. But along with that comes like you said the constant need to keep up and, you know, when we grew up, we didn't see anything unless it was not a TV show. You know, we didn't have a lot to compare. Now it's constant. So that mental health gasoline This is fantastic. You it's so many good takeaways about mental and emotional health and wellness for not just kids and teens, but for families, adults, all everything. Everything we mentioned today applies to adults too. We hope you guys enjoyed this episode of healthy home hacks. If you're a parent, you can find Lea on Instagram or Facebook at Leigh Deborah Wellness that's l e i g h Deborahwellness. Leigh Deborah Wellness and she can help your kids stay healthier and happier. Stay tuned next week for another great episode and to find out what the hack is going on in your home.
Narrator
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