Experience the journey of Dr. Lucy Burns: a medical doctor, a mother, and a woman living with muscular dystrophy. Throughout the episode, Lucy offers unique insights into her life and career, along with her own personal discovery of living with a disability and ultimately using it to shape her professional path. The birth of her child also brought her impairment into focus, pushing her to innovate and use her skills to impact the digital education space.
The episode later moves on to an issue often ignored which is the lack of accessibility for individuals with disabilities in both business and public events. The conversation uncovers personal encounters of people with disabilities in spaces that are not fully accessible, the frustrations they endure, and the urgent need for change. By illuminating these everyday challenges, we aim to inspire a greater understanding and drive a shift in societal norms towards increased accessibility.
Finally, we delve into the complex world of weight gain and insulin resistance as Lucy opens up about her personal experiences and shares insights into the intricate relationship between hormones, brains, and diet culture. While at the same time, challenging the act of listening to our bodies and unpacking the guilt around food.
Whether you're eager to explore the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities or are interested in understanding the complexities of weight loss strategies, this episode offers a wealth of invaluable insights.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Experience the journey of Dr. Lucy Burns: a medical doctor, a mother, and a woman living with muscular dystrophy. Throughout the episode, Lucy offers unique insights into her life and career, along with her own personal discovery of living with a disability and ultimately using it to shape her professional path. The birth of her child also brought her impairment into focus, pushing her to innovate and use her skills to impact the digital education space.
The episode later moves on to an issue often ignored which is the lack of accessibility for individuals with disabilities in both business and public events. The conversation uncovers personal encounters of people with disabilities in spaces that are not fully accessible, the frustrations they endure, and the urgent need for change. By illuminating these everyday challenges, we aim to inspire a greater understanding and drive a shift in societal norms towards increased accessibility.
Finally, we delve into the complex world of weight gain and insulin resistance as Lucy opens up about her personal experiences and shares insights into the intricate relationship between hormones, brains, and diet culture. While at the same time, challenging the act of listening to our bodies and unpacking the guilt around food.
Whether you're eager to explore the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities or are interested in understanding the complexities of weight loss strategies, this episode offers a wealth of invaluable insights.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome to A Dog Called Diversity, and this week I have one of my favourite people who I've been wanting to get on the podcast, I think since March this year, when I met today's guest, dr Lucy Burns, in Palm Springs, which was the best place to meet, I think. So, welcome to the podcast, dr Lucy. Oh, thank you so much for having me, lisa.
Speaker 2:I'm wearing some sort of Palm Springs-esque tart top.
Speaker 1:You are, yes, a little bit of floral, a bit of bright, some colours, yes, yeah, we met at a conference run by Tina Tower through her Empire Builder, and one of the highlights of the conference for me was Dr Lucy sharing her and Dr Mary's business, I guess journey and seeing that it can be possible to run an online business. So we will talk about that a little bit later. But I wondered if you'd like to introduce yourself. Would you like to tell everyone a bit about you?
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely so. My name is Lucy, I am a medical doctor and I have a significant disability with muscular dystrophy. So in my family the muscular dystrophy has many, like a couple of varieties. There's many varieties. Most people, when they hear about it, think of the boys, little boys in wheelchairs, and that would be Duchens muscular dystrophy. I have a one called FSHD, which is got some really long acronym and it presents in usually in early adulthood, late teens, early adulthood, as it did with me, and so the segue for that is that I needed to be able to find some way in which I could use my skills that accommodated, I guess, my needs as a doctor with a disability. So enter the online course space.
Speaker 1:Tell me about how you knew that something maybe wasn't quite right when you were in your teens I guess your late teens or early 20s.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting. So my dad has the same condition, but the way in which FSHD it's quite variable in its presentation. So there are people with very obvious and severe disease at very young age and there are people who actually have almost no symptoms of it. So so negligible. They don't know, and so growing up my dad was in that category and so we didn't. I didn't know about it, but I do.
Speaker 2:I do remember that when I was about 16, I started having to do my ponytail by lying down on the bed. So I'd lie down on the bed so that I because I couldn't raise my arms above my head to do my ponytail. But I didn't know that that wasn't normal. I thought everyone did that, all girls had to lie on the bed to do their ponytails, and so I didn't even. I didn't even think about it.
Speaker 2:And then, when I was in first year medical school, they were talking about all that you know, the joints, the muscles, the bones in anatomy, all that stuff, all the things that you do. And I'm going I can't do that. What do you mean? You do that, I can't do that. And so I went home and said I can't do this and mum goes. Hmm, yes, we have been wondering and so, yeah, anyway, that was kind of, yeah, the on the, the, the entree. But interestingly I wasn't at all concerned about it because I just had my dad was the only other person I knew with it and he was fine. So you know, in some ways that was that was a blessing because I, I just didn't bother about it. It just meant, you know, back in the 80s when you were doing aerobics and you had to do that, that move where you have your arms in the air with your elbows and you do that elbow raising thing, yeah, I was yeah, yeah, yeah elbows to knee.
Speaker 2:Could you do that? Elbows to knees? Yeah, nothing, nothing, nothing with your elbows in front of your face, none of that sort of stuff. But you know again, it was just adapting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, would you talk a little bit about, I guess, how your version of muscular dystrophy has changed over the years as you've progressed in your career? Yeah, because it has had an impact, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:Totally, totally. And the thing was that I guess after I had my kids, that was when I realized that actually this is, this is not going so well. So after my first child, I had a huge just progression, which which can happen. I don't know whether it was pregnancy related. I mean, it makes sense that it probably was but that's when I realized that I had actually had some impairment prior to that. It was more of an inconvenience, but now I was actually going oh my god, I can't, I can't do stuff.
Speaker 1:And what kind of stuff couldn't you do because you've got a new baby now. So, yeah, yeah, I have new baby.
Speaker 2:So my hamstrings, so your hamstrings that normally when you use your hamstrings you can say, and it feels like it, like you wouldn't need to use this, but you can use your hamstrings, lift your, your heel up. So if you're standing and you want to use your hamstring, you will. It will lift your heel up towards your bottom, which of course no one needs to do just in everyday life really, except that that then becomes part of your functional movement. So things like kneeling. So kneeling was something I could no longer do. I sort of thought I could kneel, but I couldn't hold my body up to in that kneeling position which, when you're on the ground with a bubba, you know you kneel, you go to pick the baby up, and I couldn't do it. I thought what's going on here? Things like my walking. My gait completely changed and I felt confident using the pram, but not without the pram, and I realized I was using the pram like a walking frame. Yeah, oh, my god, would it like? You know I was. It was unbelievable to me because, you know, 12 months earlier I had been hiking around the place and you know, going up hiking, you know, in the bush, and we went to Ares Rock and I hiked around Ares Rock and all that sort of stuff, and now, yeah, then I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:Anyway, yeah, like everything, when you've got a progressive condition, it's interesting what your brain does. So my brain would come to the place where it would go ah, this is rubbish. I'd have this sort of mini grieving process. Then it'd accept it. Then I'd bargain with myself and I'd go you know what, if it stays like this, I'll be fine, it's fine, it's fine, I'll be fine. And then I'd be like that for a while. Then the next stage you'd come and I'd do the same thing and I'd get to the next bit and I'd go ah, oh, look, if it stays like this, I'll be fine.
Speaker 2:And of course, this happened over 20 years and I've got to the point now where I don't even I just know, no matter what happens, I will be fine, because every single time I've done this, I'm always fine. It's not that I love it, or you know. You know, I'm glad it's happened. Like people often say to me oh, you know, are you glad you've got it? I'm thinking actually, no, like no. I'm not into that idea that, oh, this has made me who I am. I think that's all just a bit of bullshit.
Speaker 2:I agree yeah, I would like nothing more than to not have this condition, but I can't change that. So acceptance has been my superpower, because only by accepting it can you then move forward with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. My son is vision impaired and people will often say to me oh, you know, don't worry, you know, medicine is amazing these days. You never know what can happen in the future and he'll be fixed. And I really struggle with that because I don't. Of course I would love him to be able to see. Well, yes, I mean like it would be great for you to be able to walk and be mobile independently. Of course everyone would want that. Yeah, but I don't want to change him.
Speaker 1:I don't want him to be different than who he is right.
Speaker 2:So it's a really hard thing, I think, to deal with and yeah, it's a fine line and I think, interestingly, in this day of things like preconception decision making, where people can decide whether they, you know, want to keep an embryo, for example, that is affected by a condition, I think that's different. Like I look and I go. You know, if my choice in my life was no life versus this life, and they basically are the two choices that I've got, then I'm choosing this life, absolutely choosing this life. Yeah, the other life, the life without this condition, is currently magical thinking and we can go into that and create this fantasy life of what your life would be like without it. But that's not reality and so it's like, well, there's no point actually even thinking that, because that's not going to happen at this stage. Well, it's not going to happen for me, and probably not for your son, and it's not actually helpful. It's not helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You are who you are, and the biggest impediment to people with disability is external factors. You know, the biggest impediment for me is a shop that has stairs with no handrail or a shop that has stairs with no handrail. Yes, In fact, a step in fact can be an impediment and yeah, when the external world is accommodating, then actually my life's pretty easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me about your career in medicine as your condition has progressed. How has that worked for you or against you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, look, I originally chose general practice as my career, which I'm grateful for, because my other choice was going to be obstetrics, and I'm so glad I didn't choose that, because obstetrics is actually a very physical job.
Speaker 2:You really have to do a lot of things and I certainly wouldn't be able to do that. I look at all the things, the jobs I wouldn't be able to do. You know I wouldn't be able to do hairdressing, I wouldn't be able to. There's lots of jobs. You know they don't have to be very hard physical labor, but things that involve your physical body and for me, part of going into the online course world was working out that, okay, I'm not going to be able to do this general practice job because things like holding an ear I call them the ear looker in a row, holding the odoscope that looks in ears what's the name of that? Yeah, the ear looker in a row, holding that into little, into children's ears the physical act of doing that become more and more difficult. You know things like I mean, you know general practice has some physical aspects to it. You know doing cervical screening for women, for example.
Speaker 2:Listen, you know, up and down, there's a lot of walking around, there's a lot of sitting, but there's also a lot of walking around, and so I just got to the point where I thought, okay, what I need to be able to do is find a way in which I can still communicate, give to the world. And that's when, you know, I created real life medicine with Dr Mary looking at. I basically did what my icky guy kind of was. So I looked at going right, what am I good at? Good at talking, I'm good at explaining, I'm good at communicating, I'm good at relating to people. I like doing that as well. So it's all very well to be good at it, but I like it.
Speaker 2:I like helping people with their health in a way that I think and hope is non-judgmental and feels like, rather than telling people off, it's about giving people options and then supporting and empowering them with the choices that they make. And you know, does the world need this? I think so, and can I make a living from it? So I looked at all of those and thought, well, that's where my icky guy is. It's helping people. And particularly, you know, I work in the weight loss area, which is a difficult area because it's fraught with that walking that path between people needing to make changes for their health and certainly weight loss can be part of that but at the other extreme are people that are focused solely on weight loss at any cost and is actually detrimental to their health. So you know it's navigating in that space, for which I think there is a lot of need, and so you know that's how we work. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:How did you come across online courses Like? How did you work out that could even do that, that there were software systems out there to be able to manage your businesses this way?
Speaker 2:So I actually started the whole kind of weight loss area when I was still working in clinical practice, one-to-one, and I designed it's holistic. So it's a holistic looking at all of the factors, not just, you know, there's nutrition is obviously massive, but the other things that impact people's ability to manage their weight are things like their sleep, stress management, gut health, all of those factors. So I thought, well, there's lots of people who do one element of those, but there's not many people who are doing the whole, the whole Kitting Gavoodle. So I originally upskilled in some areas. I learned hypnosis as a tool, I learned tapping, breath work, meditation, all as part of my toolkit, if you like.
Speaker 2:And then what was happening was that I had designed this little eight-week program that I was running one-to-one in my clinic, and I thought, god, this is exhausting, saying the same thing every day. Surely I must be able to replicate it. And then, to tell you the truth, I don't know exactly how I came across the idea. I think the idea, well, I must be able to replicate it. I need to make this online. I probably Googled, and then I spent some time looking at various platforms, deciding which ones, and in the meantime I'd also met Dr Mary, and so we you know we're doing a lot of discussion and that's when we went. Let's just do this and see. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool, I know I'd like to you talk. You spoke a bit earlier about that. Well, and I've learned from interviewing lots of people on this podcast that often people are disabled by the environment that you're operating in. It's you know you were saying before, for the most part I can operate fine, but if I go to a shop in their stairs that's a problem. I know you've had some experiences that have been eye opening and ridiculous, Maybe with travelling, and also I know you ran a roadshow in Australia, which I was like you guys are brave, because that is so tiring. Could you talk about some of those examples about how the environment disables you?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely so one of the. Yes, you're right, we ran a roadshow which was a speaking event. It was great, it was fabulous. It was a full day like a conference with speakers.
Speaker 2:The stage getting onto the stage was something that some function centres facilitated easily, without any fuss. Others wanted, you know, $1,500 for a ramp. Others wanted, you know, in fact, 1500 was sort of cheap. Some of them wanted $3,000. One place just didn't get a ramp. I talked to them and said, well, and then they just said they couldn't get one. So that just became problematic.
Speaker 2:The response from many of the hotels was oh, yes, we are an accessible hotel, we have accessible toilets, we have accessible rooms, and it's like, yeah, but your stage isn't accessible. So the idea you know the subtext to that is that people with disabilities are, you know, not speakers, they're not thought leaders, they're not getting up in front of the stage. Why would we need accessibility for somebody with for a stage? Fine, they can have their toilet, but they can't get on the stage. No and yeah.
Speaker 2:So that that was really frustrating as a small and I also just thought as an organisation. Basically, if you're running an event and you've got two speakers who are both experts on a topic, but one has a disability, and so as an event organiser you will need to accommodate that and sort out a ramp or some way for them to get on the stage. If that's going to cost that function, that that event next to $3,000, then they're not going to necessarily pay that, and so that means that people's voices with disability are never heard and perpetuates this idea that if you have a disability, you're, you haven't got anything valuable to say yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is pretty appalling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's lots of stuff that happens just with and I mean I'm sure you've, you've heard lots of the stories on, you know, airlines airlines in particular really inconsistent with their way they manage people who have, you know, needs with assistance. The other day I landed and I have, so I have a scooter. It's a little scooter, weighs about 12 kilos for travelling. It's awesome, I love it, you know. So it's no bigger than a pram, but the hullabaloo to get this onto a plane is is enormous. And then usually what happens is I like them to bring the scooter to the the door of the plane, so I can walk to the door of the plane, but I can't make the distance. I can't walk far enough to get from the door up up the the aero bridge.
Speaker 1:It can be a long way right.
Speaker 2:Oh smiles. So the other day they got me off the plane and then I had to stand on the tarmac while they were waiting to bring my scooter and instead they'd brought a wheelchair. That was too low for me. So once I'm down low I can't get back up. So I said I can't use that wheelchair. It's too low. I also don't want to use a wheelchair. I've got my own mobility device which allows me to be completely independent. I don't need someone to push me. If I decide to go to the toilet, I can do that. If I want to pop into a shop, I can do that. I don't want to be pushed by essentially a stranger if I don't have to be. Yeah, it's hard to explain that to somebody who doesn't get it. They think what are you talking about? Just get in the chair, I'll push you. So I don't want to. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, it's, it's tricky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think I mean for airlines who are dealing with members of the public and all of the diversity that exists in the members of the public. They don't always get it right. And I'm like when are you going to start doing this, Like when are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I know, and you're often. You know individuals. There's systemic errors within airlines, but there's also individual factors where an individual person can make you feel like you're a pain in the ass, a burden away, oh my God, really Like you've got to do more work, or they can be, you know, just beautifully respectful and empowering and accommodating and just make you feel like you're special rather than a pain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to hear more about your business because I'm so in awe of what you and Dr Mary have created. Tell me a bit about, I guess, what it means to you to have a business that is viable and successful. That means that you can participate fully in it. Yeah, tell me a bit about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it is one of the things I have often spoken about is I don't want to be defined by my disability. It's tricky, I get it. People, you know, I used to get annoyed and upset and hurt and angry when people would go oh you know, she's the lady with the limp, thanks. And you know I'm thinking can't you say she's the tall lady? Or you know the doctor, which doctor do you want to see? The one with the limp? So it's hard. It is hard and it's interesting. People, when I first, you know first, so you know, in the past I used to walk, you know, like a standard person and I was active and exercised and ran and did all of those things. And then I developed a bit of a limp and people would say, oh, have you got us all full? Or you got us all leg or something, and then I'd start creating stories about on our shark bit me or whatever, just for a bit of fun. But now it's got to the point when nobody asks, it's like, oh my God, what's wrong with her?
Speaker 1:And there's a bit of the kind of goes don't you want to know? Is that worse or better? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know, and again it's that sort of thing of trying to work out. What it is I've worked at is. I am very happy to talk to people for whom I know I have a genuine relationship with, who care about me. What I'm not happy for is for people to come up in the public If I'm, you know, standing at a counter or something go. So what's wrong with you? What do people do all the time they go, oh, what's going on with you? Nothing I wouldn't have made Like it's. I don't have a relationship with you, it's none of your business, like you know, yeah, but anyway it's a long way of saying how to.
Speaker 2:For me, I guess, running a business that is, you know, by all accounts and measures, successful. We run programs that people seem to love. They refer their friends, I feel like our program is, is good, helpful, worthwhile. So that's number one I'm not interested in. I mean, you know there's plenty of ways to make money. You know, if I, if I, all I want to do is make money, I'd go and you know you can go and sell gambling ads or something Like it's not not interested in making money just because you know you can.
Speaker 2:For me, it's about helping people. But the interesting thing I've realized is that I I look at our, our business, as and people often call it, oh, it's my baby, but it is it's an entity, it's a thing that it's growing. It feels like it's a living, dynamic thing and I'm very proud of the fact that it it's. It works that we now employ other women so we are able to give an income and a livelihood to other people, which I'd never really thought of as being a bonus for running a business. So for those sorts of measures, I feel very proud of it. It feels, you know, really like yeah, like, like well, I've created something from scratch, which is what I used to say about breast milk. Women can create, creating something from scratch. So maybe that you know in some ways, that's you know, not that the business is like in some ways, because it's, you know, it's nurturing, nourishing, it's looking after other people, it's creating, it is.
Speaker 2:It's lovely to have an entity that that does that for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I often think of my business as creating something out of nothing. Yeah, but I think your analogy is better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I think for me when I look at your business, you know I've sat with you at numerous meals and dinners and heard how you explain things, which is so relatable and easy and kind of cuts out all the crap that's out there in the community. I've sat at breakfast with Dr Mary and she is exactly the same and you know, I think your success is around. You're just incredible people that relate well to other people. Thanks, lise. And yeah, I just, and I I think the other thing there is so much crap out there about weight loss and do I want to be spruced weight loss by a 22 year old Jim Money? I mean I'd love to have a body like some of these people, but but really, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And I think the interesting thing is that, yes, everyone thinks they know how to lose weight and that's been. The problem is it's actually a bit more. There's a bit more science, but there really is some science behind what it is. There's physical sort of science biology and then there's the psychological stuff that really, for a lot of people, they have been damaged by people who say you know, there are plenty of people out there with you know, who are genetically blessed, with long, lean bodies, who then go to the gym, post pictures of themselves and say do what I do and you'll look like me.
Speaker 1:Calorie deficit Mary Calorie deficit.
Speaker 2:Yes, could not be further. Oh sorry, lucy. No, that's all right. You just need to eat less, move more and you'll look like me and, honestly, is the biggest load of bull. I think you know our business is called real life medicine because, at the end of the day, mary and I real life people obviously neither of us have a 22 year old gym body.
Speaker 2:Mary has, you know, background in insulin resistance, which is common and predisposes people with insulin resistance to to gain weight easily. It's not, you know, it's not her fault, it's genetic. However, there's stuff she has learned to do that can be done easily with the right tools, and those tools involve the physiology of looking after your hormones, your body, your health, but then, combined with understanding your brain and its psychology and why it wants to do the things it wants to do, which is sometimes, you know it, you know that we call it the stuff at button. People press it all the time where they've been on it, you know, and again, it's what they've been taught. They've been taught to follow a meal plan or counts and points or do whatever it is that you need to do, and then they, you know, use words like they break their diet or they have a cheat day and then they just go all out and just eat everything in sight because it's like oh well, I've ruined it. Now Mars will go the whole hog and start again tomorrow, and that that would have to be the biggest myth ever start again tomorrow. It doesn't. You know, our body actually doesn't care about night time. You can just start again right now. You don't have to go.
Speaker 2:And you know, one of the stories I tell is I say to people imagine you've decided to clean out your garage or your shed. So you've decided and you start cleaning it all out and you're piling stuff out, you're off to the tip, you're getting rid of it all, it's great. And then you go, you open your door and you realize it's something that you've got rid of. Just pop back in. It's like oh weird, that shovel, I thought I'd got rid of that. You don't then think oh god, well, that's got back in. Our motors will just put everything else back in. You don't go around to your neighbors, get all their junk and pile it all back into your shed. You just get that shovel out and keep going. But that's what we do, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll get it up, oh well, not as late, everything in sight.
Speaker 2:So basically, yeah, you've just piled all the stuff back into your shed, so learning those it's people do it all the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm going on a diet on Monday, I'll eat everything in sight before I do it. So it's again. It's the same concept. If you've decided to clean out your garage and you're going to start on Saturday, do you go around to the neighbors and ask them for all their junk first? You don't. You know, you don't start piling stuff into your shed so that you can clean it out on Saturday. No, but that's diet. Culture has taught people that it is? It's so great.
Speaker 2:It's like eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet yeah yeah, oh yeah, but that's and so yeah, anyway, I mean I just love helping people unpack those stories, unpack some of the really deep stories. The other big one that's that is tricky for people is food wastage. It feels really like an mortal sin to waste waste food and by wasting it I mean putting it in the bin. So people would rather eat it than waste it. Even if that food doesn't serve them well, even if it's not helpful, even if it's some sort of process cake that got left over, instead of throwing it out they'll eat it. And that's because, you know, for decades we all heard that you have to eat everything on your plate because there are children starving in Africa oh true, so true yes yes, so we now teach people that your body is not the bin?
Speaker 2:okay, you are not. You know it is no different to put it in the bin than to put it in your body. If you're trying to get rid of it, you don't need to eat it to get rid of it. You are allowed to throw food out if it doesn't serve you.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah so I have tried really hard not to say that to my kids. Yeah, like each a dinner, because there are kids who don't have a nice dinner like you. Like, I try not to say that yeah, oh look, I get it.
Speaker 2:It's coming from a place of well meaning. The original phrase was trying to teach people gratitude. You know there are people that don't have any food. You need to be grateful for the food that you've got. I get that, but then it's like also, what you're teaching people is if you're not hungry, you have to eat it anyway. So we're teaching people not to honor their, their hunger skills, and you know it's, and again it's, it's tricky. If you're a parent, you've spent time, you know, creating and producing a meal and your kids sit there, and that I want to like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't like it. I just want to eat barbecue shapes. Then you're trying to use different means to cajole them into eating, but guilting won't work and I think it sets us up for long, long-term issues with our relationship with food yeah, would you tell me where people can find you, because I know there's a few places.
Speaker 2:Tell me all the places well, everything is really real life medicine. So real life medicine. And we always just again, we always bang on real life. Marina, turn up in real life. We're not fancy, I'm not a, I don't do. There's no filters, so I'm not up there. You know, it's just. You'll see me in my sometimes my pajamas. My hair is not brushed, I don't care, because what I want to do is just keep presenting how it is in real life. Yeah, but it's not always perfect. So it's all about real life medicine. So you can find Instagram, facebook, all of that's real life medicine. Our website is rl medicine. Okay, some bastard bought the real life medicine domain and wants us to pay 10 grand for it, so we're not doing that.
Speaker 1:So it's rlmedicinecom and, uh, that's it brilliant and actually people should watch your Facebook lives or your Instagram lives.
Speaker 2:They're, yeah, amazing, oh, thank you oh, actually we do have a podcast and, of course, here you are podcast. What's your podcast? It's called real health and white loss okay. Love it. Yeah, and honest, and yeah that I reckon, if anyone wants to start listening to what we've got to say, that that would be the easiest place to start. And yeah, we just basically give you some no bullshit, real life advice on how to lose weight without compromising your health and how to do it the right way.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, yeah. So final question what are you? What are your plans for 2024 in the business? Is there anything you can share? You know, yeah, yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 2:We normally launch, we run a 12 week program, which is great, it's wonderful, we love it, it's really. But it is intense for Mary and I to, you know, launch and deliver it, which is great. Well, what we might do, instead of running at three times a year, we might just run twice a year, which sort of feels like I'm feeling brave putting it out there because. But for us it's about wearing this for the long haul, like I don't want to be a flash in the pan, I don't want to be. I remember that business, yeah, that ran for a couple of years and then, you know, then they can't, they're conked out. So for us it's about finding that balance between being in business and resting and recovering and basically, you know, taking our own medicine. So it may well be that we reduce that to twice a year, which would be fine, but we also now have a four week program. So, like the first part of it and we're going to be and we've sort of put that out there, but not much, so people don't know about it.
Speaker 2:So, really, for us it's about creating that and the low carb roadshow which we ran, which was fantastic. However, it was massive. It was seven events over seven weeks. We traveled around the country. It was, it was very, it was very energy depleting. We would like to run that again, but in a different format, more like a workshop so that people, rather than just a lecture style conference where you just walk off, we actually want people to be implementing on the day. So, looking at creating a slightly different event with cooking, actually cooking, food prep as well, as you know, like doing hypnosis with people, meditation with people for the day. So, yeah, more like the. So we're going to call that the real health and weight loss roadshow.
Speaker 1:Sounds great. And are you going to space out the cities? Because I was watching you on social media for that that right the what you did this year and I was like I bet they're exhausted. Yeah, we were having a good time, but yeah time.
Speaker 2:And it's also, again, you know, taking into account, like everything, it's about taking into the account the holistic nature of us as humans. So Mary has smaller kids. For her, it's a much bigger ordeal to either leave them, because then her family look after the children, which is, you know, and again, one of them is only one, one's 10. So there's, you know it's a lot, it's a lot of work, or we bring them with us, which is also a lot of work and it's a lot of upheaval. So just trying to manage that, again, it's it's looking at everything holistically rather than just through one micro lens, and I think that's, you know, that's the key with with really life, isn't it? Whether looking at, and again, just to bring it back to people with disability, the interesting thing, I think, is that people who have disability often are higher performing, harder working, because they're absolutely determined to prove that they are more than their disability. And if I, if people ask me what drives me, it's often that because I don't want to be just the woman in the chair.
Speaker 2:I, you know I want to be oh there's yeah, yeah, the one with the limb I am, you know. There's Dr Lucy. She's amazing, successful, incredible business woman. Oh, by the way, she's got disability, isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, thank you so much, lucy.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:It's been an absolute pleasure. I've been looking forward to it for so long, so thank you.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. You're welcome.