Empower Your Heart Health Series: How Nutrition Can Save Your Heart

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If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if there's stress in

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the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork. It's going to

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accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

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cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

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or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health

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picture. And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that

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what we eat has so much impact,

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whether it's a negative impact or a positive impact.

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Thank you so much for coming back for another episode of open heart

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surgery with Boots. If you've been with me this month, you know

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that Michelle and I have been doing this incredible almost

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deep dive really into a lot of really important topics of

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eating for heart health. And I've

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shared little antidotes each week of how Michelle has

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directly impacted my life and my husband's life. But I

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wanted you, Michelle, to have this last installment

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of our five part series. And I said to you, what is

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one thing you want to shout from the

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mountaintops, from the chair that you sit

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in? And I am just going to give you free reign now to

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like shout from the mountaintop. What do you need us to

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know? I want you to take your health in your own

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hands. I want you to be a active

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participant in your care and know you have more control

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than you think or that you're told you have.

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I want to share with you a couple stories because I think it

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would empower you to realize that you have

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a lot of control in your power if you really start

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implementing science based nutrition and taking it

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seriously and making it a part of your lifestyle and

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embracing it. Why do I say that? So I had a client who came to

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see me. She had cardiomyopathy and all of a

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sudden her ejection fraction went down to 20%.

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And the doctor said, I want to add on two more

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medications and I want you to consider a pacemaker.

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And she's young, she was in, she's 45

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and she decided to join my one on one

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program together. And she said to me, Michelle, my

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body doesn't do good with medications. I'm scared to go on to

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two medications and I really don't want to do a surgery

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that's really scary to me. I'm really young. Why is that what he's telling

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me to do? So she talked with me in a discovery call, which I do

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for all my one on one clients to make sure that I can help them.

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And she went back to the doctor. And she's like, listen, I want to try

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this with a dietitian. Can I retest it in, you

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know, a month and a half? And I said to her, you know, in a

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month and a half is your. I don't know if your ejection fraction is going

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to go above 20%. It may come up a little bit, but we can try

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and do our best. She's like, well, the doctor said that nutrition is not going

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to help that. He's like, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to put

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in the script for you. You can do whatever you want. When you're ready,

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you go pick up the script, and then when you're ready, we can come do

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the pacemaker. But if you want a month and a half, okay, fine. Do what

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you want to do. This woman was so motivated

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to help increase her ejection fraction, which is the pumping ability of

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the heart. We worked together very closely. She went back to get

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a cardiac MRI, and her ejection fraction went up

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to 48%. In one and a half months,

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it went from 20 to 48%. I'm like, I did not

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expect that to happen. Like, I'm impressed always by my clients. I'm like, how

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did that happen? The doctor says, we don't need to change your medication. He's like,

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I don't know how this happened, but whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And

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then I will repeat another cardiac MRI in

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maybe two years. She's like, two years? That's too

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long. She's like, she was advocating. She's like, I wanted in.

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Like, at least do an echo in, like, six months. She knew what

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to ask for, and she wanted to listen to her gut

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instinct. And I think that that's really important and

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empowering because we tend to go into this medical model of

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fear. You got to heart fill your diagnosis. That's

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scary. You look online, it tells you, you know, you

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have a low life expectancy. That's scary. You have a life

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you want to live. And I really want to stress the importance

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that you have more control than you think. Your body's

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resilient. Your body can recover. Your

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body, when we intervene as early as possible, yes, your chances are

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much higher. I can never guarantee that your ejection fraction is going to go

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up so quickly, and I never do. But what we can do

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is nourish our body to allow our vascular system,

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our arteries, to not be so stiff, to reduce the burden on the

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heart so that it can do its job. More effectively. And I

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see so many beautiful stories with the power of science based nutrition

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that I really want to give you hope. I want to give you hope that

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just because you have a diagnosis does not mean that you have to have health

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anxiety for the rest of your life. You need to understand your

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condition, what you can do about it, continue to monitor

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it, see that it's effective, and then you know, you have the

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actual plan for a long and healthy life. And that is

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the key. I want you to take an empowered approach. I'm going to give you

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one more story. Just because these stories shock me. I literally

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do a dance in my like, literally. They're telling me, I'm like, like. One of

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my clients was like, are you ready? Sit down. And I'm like, they know me.

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But now they're like, sit down. Are you ready? One of my

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clients, he came to me after his third heart

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attack. He's like 46. He's like, Michelle, I don't know

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what I'm doing wrong. The doctor told me to lose weight. I went on the

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paleo diet, I lost the weight, I got a heart attack. Like he told me

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then to, you know, lose 10 more pounds, they'll be

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fine. So I tried it a car, like, I tried all keto

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diet, I tried the vegan diet, I've tried every diet, nothing's working. And so he

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had his third heart attack and when the doctor was inside him and said, I

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can't put a stent in, there's too much inflammation. He's like, come back in

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three months and I will put a stent in in three months because I just

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can't. There's not enough like I unable to do it right now. We worked

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together for those three months. He goes back to the doctor,

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they go inside and the doctor's like, I don't need to stent you anymore. Like,

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that stuff is not seen in the research. And I'm like, wait, what? He was

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like, yeah. The client goes to me, why didn't you just stent me? I'm

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like, do you realize what just happened? You allowed for

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your arteries and that plaque to shrink and open

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up. Like that is science based nutrition at its finest. And I

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don't think people are sharing these stories enough because you're

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not going to get a randomized control trial where people are having personalized science

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based nutrition, optimizing all these values and then someone going

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inside of them and looking at their arterial health. It's just not what

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research looks like these days. It's just undoable but

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when you hear these impactful stories, it makes me want to continue showing

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up in my work because I love what I do because it's

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really impacting people's lives. And doctors

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literally call me and they're like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I

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didn't do anything. I guided my clients to optimal health

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and the body's resilient. And this goes in from aortic

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root dilation. There was a guy who had a huge aortic root

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aneurysm that they wanted to do surgery on. It shrunk. Nowhere in

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the research shows that you can shrink it, not even with medication. I'm like, wow,

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I didn't think that was possible. Right. But you just think

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about it. If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if

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there's stress in the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork.

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It's going to accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

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cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

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or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health picture.

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And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that what we eat

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has so much impact, whether it's a negative

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impact or a positive impact. And so

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I don't want people to be eating only to protect

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their heart. I want it to nourish their entire body. But when you

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understand why certain things do certain things, and

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you know how to make it delicious and palatable and

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enjoyable, it makes your life so

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much better in terms of reduction in health,

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anxiety, increasing confidence. And also, you're

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like, man, I kicked this in the butt. Like, I did

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that. And you should pat yourself on your. On the back for doing

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that. Like, it is a big feat. And I think a lot of times we

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hear. And I hear clients say, my doctor told me that this is what it

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is, or this is, I have to take these medications for life. And I ha.

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I'm going to have another surgery soon, or I'm going to have this, I'm going

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to have that. And you kind of just say, okay, well, that's what the doctor

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said. So you almost become complacent in your. In your

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plan of care. I want you. And I'm going to screen this to take an

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empowered approach. You got this. You have more control than you

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think. You just have to be proactive and really take

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charge in your health. Love it. Nothing else to be said.

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That's. That's the. The best truth bomb we can end on. So

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thank you Michelle for your time. Thank you for

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being with us this month. I will play us out

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with you explaining your course that

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folks can sign up for. It starts in

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November. I cannot recommend it enough. I have

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directly benefited from one on one with her. I didn't take the course

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because I knew I needed like a lot of help and I needed a lot

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of focused help and so I elected to do one on one.

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But do do consider working with Michelle.

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And I want to know, I want to hear from you listeners if you have

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found this series helpful. If you would like more of this in the new

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year. Yes, this podcast is about open heart

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surgery, but part of that is how to thrive after open

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heart surgery, maybe even how to avoid it. Michelle has given

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us so much to think about on how to even avoid open heart

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surgery and so you will find find her in all the

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show notes through all of October. Thank you so much.

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And up next on Open Heart Surgery with Boots, I will be

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highlighting past heart patients that I've interviewed

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here. We'll be going into a new series called Hope for the

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Holidays, so be sure you tune in for that. Thank

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you so much. This podcast is not able

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to be what it is without you listeners and so remember, I

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love you. Remember that you are worthy of

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thriving even with your heart journey and

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I am here to be your heart buddy. So

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please come back for November, December for our next series

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of Hope for the Holidays. Thank you.