[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile? It's a question we all need to answer for ourselves. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. As for me, it's building mind, body and spirit wellness. Let's ponder the big questions together as we seek peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: And a lot of the feeder towns, the smaller towns up in the mountains were also impacted and. And a lot of them were just completely wiped off the map entirely. It's just hard to imagine that kind of a devastation. But if you view photos of downtown Chimney Rock, it's a really quaint town. There's a Main Street. It's super cute. And if you look at it now, it just doesn't exist. There's just rubble there. We had National Guard, everybody, FEMA volunteers from out of state, from other parts of the state.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: Did it seem like they were playing well together?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, everybody was just coming together and just, like, being kind and understanding that we all just went through this traumatic experience and we just have to take care of each other right now. Even if you've never met someone before, it's just. Everyone just has this sense of connection because of what we all experience together.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Hey there. It's Ramsey here.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: That was Patty McCoy. Patty lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene hit in September of 2024. This discussion was recorded in mid November, so just about two months after the event. Patti is one of the instructors at the nta, which stands for the Nutritional Therapy association, where I'm studying. Patti missed her own first class that.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: She was teaching this semester because a.
[00:02:08] Speaker D: Big tree crashed through half of her house. Nevertheless, Patti and her family were fortunate and they are all safe and they are putting their lives back together. I really appreciated this conversation because I learned from Patti that when disaster strikes and times are hard, we can lean in to our pursuit for natural health and basic and fundamental human connections and community. See what I mean? Here we go.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Hey, Patti, how you doing today?
[00:02:36] Speaker B: I am doing great, Ramsey. How about you?
[00:02:39] Speaker C: I am doing well. Thank you for. Thank you for joining me on the podcast today. And just to start, gotta have full disclosure for everyone listening. You grade my assignments in the nutritional therapy program that I am in. So I really need to be on my best behavior and watch what I say.
But I wanted to. I really wanted to have you come on the podcast for a couple of reasons. Not only because you're a great teacher, but also a professional ntp. And you live in Asheville, North Carolina.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: And you were severely impacted by the recent Hurricane Helene. So I'm Eager to hear your story from all of those perspectives.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: And yeah, and I guess maybe I want to start is like, have people kind, you know, people kind of all over the country through the NTP program and stuff. Have people just been asking you constantly, like, oh, what's it like? What was the storm like? And if so, like, what do they think it. What it was like?
[00:03:43] Speaker B: No, not really.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: I'm just the only one.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: People's radar.
Because if it's not in the news nationally, then just. It. You tend to forget about it. Other things come up. Right. So we had this Helene storm. We were dealing with it, and then, you know, there might have been a really big event that happened at the beginning of November that had a lot of people's attention.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: So that.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: That. That news cycle just keeps rolling.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: It keeps rolling through. And so does that make sense? Yeah. Like, after the first few weeks, it just seemed to fall off people's radar. But those of us that live here were deeply embedded and are still in what happened.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Because it's not like it's okay now a couple weeks later.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: No.
In fact, we.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: How are you doing?
[00:04:36] Speaker B: We're. We're doing okay. We just got back, and this is like, the biggest news we all had was Last Monday on November 18th, we finally got potable water back after 52 days.
[00:04:50] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: So Helene significantly damaged the water system in our area. Like, broke all of the pipes. The flooding washed away the ground that the pipes were under, inside, underground, and they're just. They were just destroyed. The backup pipe was what they ended up replacing, and they worked with the army engineers to get things in to help reduce the turbidity. That is. That is a fun word that a lot of people didn't know what it was until now.
So turbidity is essentially sediment in the water. And it's supposed to be around, like, one or two.
After Helene, it was about 36.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: 36.
And that sounds quite turbid.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Yes, very turbid.
It looked essentially like mud water when it would come out of the pipes, so nobody used it.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: And this was kind of throughout, you know, like, the whole community, right?
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yes. The entire city of Asheville was impacted for the water.
Now, the reservoir that it's coming from is called Norfolk and North Fork Reservoir. And so that's the main source of water that is pumped into all the systems. In the city of Asheville, in the southern part of town, where my home is, actually, we have well water, and it's a different reservoir. So another county that was impacted is Henderson county, they didn't have any issues with water because on a different water system. So if you were north, you were. You were impacted. So. And a lot of the feeder towns, the smaller towns up in the mountains, were also impacted, and a lot of them were just completely water wiped off the map entirely.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Wiped off the map entirely. I mean, that's a bold statement. Is that like kind of a literal description?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yes, there's.
There's some of the more prominent towns and smaller communities. So we have further up the mountain. So the issue was, is the amount of rain that we received. And it wasn't just from the storm. We had received a couple feet of rain in the days prior to the storm hitting us, which was September 26th through the evening and then into the next day, Friday, and those Tuesday and Wednesday that week, we had already received a lot of rain. So there were already areas that were flooding, and the amount of rain that was dumped into the area was just unfathomable. The main river here in Asheville is the French Broad river, and it crested at 30ft above normal, and it's permanently widened now by 40ft because of that. The amount of rain that we received. The issue is, is that the mountain towns further north up in the mountains, at a higher elevation, there's nowhere for that water to go but, like down. So in. There's smaller rivers and creeks, lakes like Lake Lore is a very popular location, or was. It's actually where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed back in the 80s.
Beautiful spot. Same with Chimney Rock. They're all kind of a part of the same area. But once the. The lakes filled up and the rivers filled up, there wasn't anywhere for them to go because they're. They're isolated. So they just kept widening, getting bigger, wiping out the roads, wiping out complete structures and buildings.
You know, it just.
It's just hard to imagine that kind of a devastation. But if you view photos of downtown Chimney Rock, it's a really quaint town. There's a main street. It's super cute. And if you look at it now, it just doesn't exist. There's just rubble there.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: And have those places to this point become accessible?
[00:09:17] Speaker B: They're doing their best to establish some sort of a roadway to help with cleanup, to help with resources.
The entire town of Lake Lure was evacuated by helicopter because they couldn't physically get to them any other way.
There were mule trains that were operating to get supplies to areas that just were isolated. You could not get to them. We lost all kinds of services. So there Was. No, I mean, people think about electricity. Yes, but there's also like cell phone towers were just gone, so we lost cell coverage, WI fi. All of those modern features that we have become accustomed to were just gone. So the inability to communicate was pretty terrifying in the first week because we just had no way to communicate with anyone at all.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Well, and at that point, you just don't even know like, what happened or who's up there. And, you know, I imagine that lots of people live up in the hills in North Carolina that are, you know, they keep to themselves. Right. That's part of the reason why they live up there is because they like keeping to themselves. So you wouldn't even necessarily know who was up there. And you know what. And so now people have. People were cut off. And so there could be. So lots of people just perished up there, right?
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Yeah, there's some people. There's still people that have not been found because there was approximately. The US geology determined that was there was approximately 200 landslides, individual landslides in the area. So a lot of people were just.
You just can't find them.
They were washed away. Their stories of families trying to escape and the, the, the ground beneath them just came undone and they were just washed away. People clinging to trees.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: It's like a nightmare.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: It really is.
And the, the, the aftermath of that is, yes, there was a lot of flooding. Yes, there's these landslides. But what a lot of people don't realize is the. What's in that mud? What's in the water. So if all of these things were flooded, like there's complete tanker trucks of gas that were floating in the river.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: So there's a lot of debris. There's a lot of toxic stuff that's in there. And so a lot of people that were trying to salvage what they could were not properly. They didn't have the proper PPE on. So there was a lot of reports of people coming into the hospital with a lot of bacterial infections, like MRSA dysentery was coming up for people.
Just, they, they weren't thinking that there was going to be a toxic impact. And there absolutely has been.
So. And there's still, like, even when everything dried off, like, we didn't receive rain after the storm for about 28 days.
So all of that mud turned to dust. Now the dust is in the air and it's just kind of swirling about.
So a lot of people, like myself, I have a history of asthma, so I, you know, it was, there were some areas that was Just difficult to breathe. And you would have to wear a mask and order to get through certain parts of town.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: So no additional rain for 28 days after the event. Which means that all the water is standing. You just said that it's toxic and you're not receiving fresh water that you can even collect on top of the water being turbid.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: So how and where do people get drinking water?
[00:13:15] Speaker B: So a lot of it was shipped in.
There's. There's the local hospital in town, Mission Hospital. There was just probably a dozen water. Just it all it said on the tankers was potable water. And so they were sourcing their own water.
They had water distribution areas where you could pick up water to, you know, take a camp shower. You know, they gave information about how to have dry toilets. So essentially what that is, it's a bucket with cat litter in it. And that's what you're using to go to the bathroom because you can't flush. You can't.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Do any of those things. So you have to. You have to modify your way of living and what's.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: There.
Was there kind of an exodus for those who were able. For those who kind of survived an exodus to get out of the hills and down into the city and. And people within the city, too, there you had all kinds of property damage throughout. Right. So where are people living?
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Well, there was a lot of shelters that opened up, like high schools, because there's. We couldn't. I mean, there's nobody that could go to school. There's no potable water. Like, we just pretty much the whole town shut down and everybody was just kind of coming together to support a lot of people who just didn't want to live like this, just left. They went to family members in other parts of the state or other states.
I've received offers from lots of people like, hey, you can come stay with us. And my husband is a veterinary technician and couldn't leave. They have animals to take care of. So at the hospital that he works at. So it was just really difficult for some people to leave. And other people were just like, we're getting out of town until it gets back to normal, relatively.
So, you know, and that happened last week with potable water. So a lot of people left town. And a lot of people just left town permanently.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: Yeah, unfortunately. And it got cold, right?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Yes, it did snow last week for a little bit, which they call it.
Yep, yep. So, you know, that. That we fortunately have a good community structure to support those individuals that weren't that are Unhoused that were in a shelter. So the, the, the city itself has provided a lot of resources for that support. So we have gotten support. I know that there was a lot of information out there that wasn't necessarily true.
Like I mentioned, some of the older, the higher uptowns, the smaller towns that are more isolated, that were harder to get to because there wasn't any way to get to them. It's. It just took longer to get the support and resources there. Admittedly, the focus was on the tourist areas. So downtown area, the Biltmore estate area, Biltmore Village. There's just buildings in that area that are just. They're not salvageable. They're completely demolished already.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: So what kind of recovery efforts have you seen and who has been doing them?
[00:16:51] Speaker B: We had, in the first week, we had support from at least 13 states that we saw coming in.
So as we were trying to navigate through town to get resources, my home was personally damaged. We had a tree fall in our house, so we had to evacuate to a friend's home and we lived there for five weeks. There was eight of us living in one house for five weeks because that's what we had to do.
My husband and I have found. We were able to find a rental property, which is where we're currently at, until our home can be repaired, which, you know, who knows how long that's going to take.
The roofers won't be able to get there until January, so it's just going to take time for a lot of people. But as far as support and resources, it was within the first few days. We started to see people come in to help us.
Because of the lack of communication, it was really difficult to know where to go for those resources. So once they were able to get some sort of a communication upload up online, then we were like, okay. People were listening to radio stations. Old school, I know, but that's how we were learning about the hardest part.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: About the hardest part about listening to a radio station is finding a radio.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: So batteries in it.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:18:17] Speaker C: Wind it up.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Yes. I'm a Florida native, so I have hurricane experience, but this is nothing like anyone has ever experienced. In my, in my opinion, no one was prepared for the damage and devastation that we got, especially in a mountain town.
[00:18:34] Speaker C: So in those first couple of weeks, the people who are coming in, were they, you know, was it a combination of like FEMA and state and county? Was it volunteers? Was it.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: NGOs, was, yes. You know, all of that.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: We had National Guard, everybody, FEMA volunteers from out of state, from other parts of the state.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Volunteers.
Did it seem like they were playing well together or was it.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, everybody was just coming together and just like being kind and understanding that we all just went through this traumatic experience and we just have to take care of each other right now. Even if you've never met someone before, it's just, everyone just has this sense of connection because of what we all experience together.
And that's, you know, something that anyone that wasn't here doesn't quite fully understand. So we have this unique connection with each other, even if we've never met.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Well, you are already in sort of the, the profession and mindset of working with others and helping them to, to be more healthy and to have, you know, lifestyles that support themselves. I wonder, what kinds of, what kind of perspective have you reached now? Like, how do you see things maybe more or differently? Because like you said, people's basic needs are now in question. You know, we used to have first world problems. Now you're looking at kind of third world problems. And I, I mean all respect when I say that to everyone, but. So I can only imagine that you have different perspective on things as a result of this continuing experience.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Yes, you know, yes, I am in the business of caring for others and helping other people find good health within themselves and their, their own world.
In a broader sense, you definitely learn to appreciate the little things.
And some of the things that really changed for me was the appreciation of running water, the appreciation of, you know, I'm just going to take a shower. Well, that wasn't really possible for all of us. So we were using bath wipes from the hospital. That was a real thing that happened. So just having the, the, the opportunity to take a shower, to feel like a human being, some positives that came out of that was because there were so many of us living in one space, we all contributed to the survival of each other. So we, you know, sourced all of our, our food, all of our resources together, whatever water we had. We made meals together every night. We sat down at a table and ate dinner together, all of us.
And we talked about our highlight of the day, because in those moments, there might not seem like a lot of good is going on. So in order to improve that, we all talked about our highlight of the day. And sometimes it took some time to think about it, but we did it. And I genuinely, I miss that. I miss that a lot. I miss having those family dinners and talking with each other and just having that connection without any, you know, without Cell phones on the table because they weren't working without, you know, a TV in the background that wasn't working either. So it was just, you know, you're. You're able to like, engage in thoughtful conversation with the people in your community and again, some insight into what they're going through and just talking through the overall experience and how we're feeling. Because everybody processes trauma differently. And so the fact that we all were through it together, we were able to understand what the other person was saying and really feel their, their perspective of what happened.
[00:22:52] Speaker C: I want to, I want to lean into a lot of that, but first I want to ask about the flip side.
Did you see, did you experience anger and people losing it? Like, was that also a very natural thing? Like, in addition to what you're already describing as a natural thing of pulling together? But it's, you know, I'm sure it was not sunshine and roses.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: No, it was not.
The biggest issue happened within the first about four to five days because a lot of people were not prepared for the type of storm that we received.
As an experienced hurricane person, I was, I went to the store, I got lanterns, batteries, water, non perishable food, and I was at the grocery store seeing people buy like milk and ice cream and all of these things. I'm like, that is not, that's not what you need right now.
I filled my car up with gas. So a lot of people weren't prepared. And so there was a lot of panic, especially since there was no water.
There were. I can't even tell you. There were miles of lines at gas stations, at convenience stores, hoping to get water.
There were some violent incidents where people were shot at gas stations because of, you know, because they, they all wanted to get gas and people were freaking out. If you had a generator, you needed gas. So even if you had a generator, if you couldn't get gas, then it wasn't going to work.
So, yes, in the first four to five days, there was a lot of fear, a lot of panic.
[00:24:39] Speaker C: It was kind of turning point. Like, what, what sort of drove the turning point that things began to get.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Better when we started to get more resources in. So after the, the first five days, they were able to open up some of the roadways into town so we could get the resources.
So some of the interstates were just completely blocked off. Big trees, power lines, and so they were able to get those cleared so we could get resources quickly. A lot of people were in Charlotte, which is about two hours east, and they were just filling their Cars filling up gas tanks, water buckets.
We had someone in our group that was there, and it took him four days to get to us because there was just no way into town. We couldn't come in.
They said people showed up. Yeah, people showed up. People showed up. And, and like, look, we got water on the radio. You can go to this school, this Ingalls parking lot. You can go. This is where you can get water. And then eventually they had showers and laundry stations just in the parking lots of grocery stores, of Walmarts, so you could just feel like a human being.
But it, It. It didn't really take that long, but it felt like forever in those first, first few days.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's really encouraging to hear that even though it took a few days, people showed up. You know, people from outside showed up.
Both volunteers as well as authorities showed up.
And this is. And, you know, the people within your community showed up for each other.
And, you know, it sounds like it was a nightmare, but it also sounds like, you know, that it's. It's so funny how things like this, they bring out the worst and the best. And it. What I hear you describe is that in many ways, the. The best of people really shone through.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think one of the things that, you know, you think about now, and so, you know, in our culture, we're like, hey, how you doing? And you don't really think about what the answer is going to be. And as the person receiving the question, you're not really, hey, I'm fine. Everything's fine. But now when you ask someone in, in town, how are you doing?
You genuinely want to know what their answer is, and they want to tell you, well, you know, it's been a little hard, but we're doing okay. And then you start to engage in further conversation as a result, and you really get to know people.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: On a deeper level. And I think that human connection, we. We forget about that through all the technology we have in our world, we forget about that personal human connection that can be so valuable.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Well, in the, in the nutritional therapy practitioner program that we're in through the nta, we talk a lot about the value of traditional practices and about gratitude and about community and living well together.
How has this experience sort of reinforced or reflected your professional kind of beliefs around lifestyle and, you know, way people treat each other and way people treat their bodies and that sort of thing?
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we were forced to eat healthy because, you know it was gonna go bad. Right. Like, you have to eat it there Wasn't outside noise in what was happening, so there wasn't a lot of distraction. So like I was talking about, you can engage with people fully. You can, you know, we're, we're doing a lot throughout the day just to survive. So you're moving a lot more. You're, you know, engaging in different activities that keep your body moving, that support what you're eating. I mean, we were, we were having like eggs and greens all the time because it was just the easiest thing to, to make, you know, because we couldn't, couldn't use a stove. Fortunately we had a gas burners, but we were lucky.
So there's no microwaves, there was no, none of that air fryers or anything that you could use. It was just old, old school cooking. Just, just very simply, if you had a grill, you know, you could put something on the grill so you get really creative about cooking methods.
But it's, you know, it just brings to life all that we talk about at the nta. And I have to shout out the team there because I get emotional every time. I never felt so supported in my entire life at any job I have ever had. The people at the NTA are the most genuine, authentic, caring, kind, thoughtful people you will ever meet. And they took care of my students, they took care of me and they never pressured me to come back to work. They just said, whenever you can, you can, you know. And for me that was really important because it brought some sense of normalcy to my day to day to be able to engage with my students, with our team. And it felt like, oh gosh, these are my people. I'm finally get outside of this little bubble that we've been in. And so that took, that took a few weeks for me to be able to do that. And they're still just, just awesome.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: Well, and that whole thing happened, you know, just a couple of weeks after we started our 12 months.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:45] Speaker C: Program. So we were getting ready for, you know, the first sort of small group cloud class meetings and, and you know, then, then it was.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Oh, well, that was the day the storm hit.
[00:30:57] Speaker C: Yeah. And at first it was like, oh, the power's out.
No. Then we find out that our instructor had some gigantic tree like smash through her house.
But yeah, from the perspective of a student, the, the other teachers and professors, administrators there were just like, you know, she's going to be here soon. Like we got somebody else who's going to cover.
And you know, it all went forward just fine. And here we are.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: We are.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
What brought you to the nta.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: Well, like many of students and even students staff, we. I was going through my own health journey. I worked a very stressful job as a Starbucks store manager for 17 years.
And over those years, that stress compounded, and I started to really experience a lot of digestive issues, a lot of fatigue, a lot of, you know, I started to get, like, chronic eczema that I had never had before.
You know, bloating and, you know, aggravation. And I would go to the doctor and I did have tests, and they would say, no, you're. You're fine, you're healthy. Because, you know, I have a small frame body. But just because you are a certain size, it does not dictate your health.
So that's one thing that, you know, I definitely learned in the NTA is that your body size is not indicative of health for a lot, for a lot of people. And so it was assumed that I was a healthy person because I wasn't overweight.
And the tests showed that I was fine. Everything's fine. And I was frustrated because I wasn't fine. I didn't feel fine. I knew something was wrong. And so with my own research, I looked into and discovered the Paleo diet.
And I was like, wow, that sounds pretty good.
Also, preface that. I also used to smoke cigarettes. And so once I quit that, things changed.
[00:33:19] Speaker C: I hear those are not. I hear those are not actually very good for you.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the rumor, right?
So once I quit smoking, that was like, wow, this is what food tastes like. And I was enjoying food. Food more. And that led to a passion about food and learning about food and how it can be healing. And I did my first Whole30, which is an elimination diet. For those of you that don't know, it's an elimination diet where you're literally just eating whole foods. You remove alcohol and caffeine and all of these things, and it's just whole foods, no grains or dairy. And that, like, changed everything for me. I was like, wow, this is what it feels like to feel good. And of course, when you feel good about something, you want to shout it from the rooftops and tell everybody about it. So I became more engaged in that type of a community.
And through social media, I learned of the NTA program. And I sat on it for a couple years because I'm like, it's a big investment.
You know, is that something that we can do?
And yes, we pulled the trigger. And I started in September of 2019, and the functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner program that we have As a side program now is an. Is an add on the functional clinical assessment.
And that's where you're doing a lot of body work. Palpations, you're doing lingual neural testing. It's fascinating. If you ever want to learn more about that, I think you should definitely research that. It's a really cool tool to incorporate.
But we had workshops. We were meeting, and then In March of 2020, the world shut down while we were at a workshop. And then we ended up changing the program.
Changing the program entirely. And we.
We shifted.
Sorry about that.
[00:35:34] Speaker C: Okay, you're back. You dropped out there for a second. It's not like you. It's like, amazing that you even have anything resembling Internet after what we've been talking about for the last half an hour. But how has your. How has your services been lately? Internet, electricity, that sort of thing?
[00:35:55] Speaker B: It's spotty. It's very spotty. It really just depends on what service you have, what provider and where they're located. So where we're currently at is not super consistent, unfortunately.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: Got it.
Well, we'll just have to add that to the list of things to work on, but.
So I think you were. You were telling me about. We were talking about the Nutritional Therapy association and sort of how you got to be there and. And some of your story. And you got your certification in 2000, right?
[00:36:31] Speaker B: 2020.
[00:36:36] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 2020.
That's really funny. Like, time. I don't know, like I said.
So I. I meant to say 2020.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:54] Speaker C: And what has sort of the last four years been like for you? I mean, it seems like the world has changed a lot in the last four years for all kinds of reasons. But what. What has that been like for you?
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it was definitely interesting. Navigating a pandemic and also being certified in a. In a practitioner role in which you touch bodies. So that definitely shifted.
And so I learned. I had to learn a lot more about social media and virtual practice that I had no familiarity with. Yes, I have a business degree. But that does nothing for you when you're starting your own small business, right? Especially when you're. When you're working for yourself and having to sell yourself, essentially. And I'm the type of person who. I don't really like to talk about myself that often, but here. Here's a job in which I need to tell my story and get people to. To join me.
I was offered an opportunity. The Nutritional Therapy association in a previous program had course mentors in which I was given the opportunity to participate in that. I applied and I got it. And I was a course mentor for several of our classes. So we have classes three times a year, three different cohorts. We have February, May and September. And so I signed up for all of them as much as I could.
One of our amazing instructors sent me an email to let me know that the NTA was hiring for assistant instructors and she thought I would be good at it. And I was like, oh, really? Okay. So I applied, I got the job, and I've been, I've been doing it ever since. And that wasn't, that was only a year later, a year after I. About a year and a half after. So the first course, first cohort I was an instructor was September of 21. And so I have been with them ever since. And they're not going to be able to get rid of me very easily.
[00:39:01] Speaker C: So, you know, and you also, you, you have a business that you provide services through nurture by nature.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: Nurtured by nature, nutrition. Yes.
[00:39:14] Speaker C: Yeah. So tell me more about that. What kinds of, what kind of approach do you take? What kinds of clients do you work with? How do you work with them? Tell me more.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah, so I, I tried to have a niche, I tried, but I'm kind of a go with the flow kind of a person and I try to accommodate the environment around me, the people around me. So while I wanted to work with older individuals, the senior community that just wasn't within my vicinity, especially post pandemic when we're, you know, surrounded by a certain amount of people.
So that really encompassed 20 somethings. And I was learning a lot about their diet and lifestyle. And working at Starbucks, you see, you see a lot of different perspectives. One of the stores I worked at was directly, and I still worked at Starbucks while I was going through the program and even after I graduated.
So one of the stores I worked at was directly across the street from a high school. So that gave me another perspective on the diet and lifestyle of younger individuals. So that's kind of the audience in which I was engaged with the most.
And what I am most passionate about and what I still am most passionate about is the education of the foundations in which we learn through the NTP program. I think they can change anything.
If you focus on the foundations which are nutrient dense diet, digestion, blood sugar regulation, stress and sleep, you can make an impact in someone's overall health. And so for me, it was educating. And I found that's where I thrived the most, is teaching people how to do things like I'm very much of the opinion, you know, don't give someone the fish. Teach them how to fish so they can be independent and. And do it for themselves. And so I found that a lot of the people I worked with, a lot of the people in my immediate vicinity, were asking me a lot of questions about that. And so I began to develop almost like presentations because I found that easier because you can do it just one time, and then you can kind of replicate it with multiple audiences.
And then, you know, moving here to Asheville, I was engaging in the holistic community significantly through, like, acupuncture and chiropractors and other community resources like the ymca, even, you know, believe it or not, even a cider company. I'm like, well, the way that you're producing this is actually old school, that you're fermenting fruit. Like, this is a great thing.
And I learned a lot about the community in general, and that's when I discovered that, wow, this is one of the most biodiverse environments in the world.
And what a great thing. And so learning about a lot of different things, about food, about health, and just kind of bringing it all together through what we teach in the NTP program and sharing that with the broader community. So I've done several workshops educating about just diet, certain lifestyle factors like stress and sleep, and people are surprised. It's, you know, you find yourself in this bubble of information when you're in it, and you don't really understand how many people don't know what we. What we teach and what we learn at the nta.
[00:42:53] Speaker C: Do you feel like we've built some momentum? You know, here we are, 2024 is wrapping up, 2025 is on, on the way.
Do you feel like we're in a good spot? I mean, it seems like we. There's a lot of people in the program in my cohort.
What do you see in the future for the next four years for, you know, the ntps out there, but also more specific, more generally, health and wellness and nutrition and that kind of stuff. What do you see coming up?
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. I think you can definitely feel a shift in the culture of health.
You can definitely see it and feel it, and people are starting to. To take control of their own health and advocating for themselves instead of just taking whatever somebody says.
So, like, my experience, you know, doctors are telling me I'm fine, but I'm not. And a lot of people experience that where they're. They're get shut down, they're not listened to, and I think the holistic realm is becoming more normalized and people are trying to understand how the body works and how the food and, and nutrients that we put into it are a huge factor about how we feel and the body systems that are working or not working. So, you know, if someone, you know, as has their family, has a history of diabetes, that's just one aspect. And so it's really the environment that pulls the trigger on that gene code from being released. So it's really just understanding our bodies more, understanding our food more, where it comes from. People are asking more questions. They're educating themselves more. I think Generation Z is going to be a game changer for all of us because they're not taking the status quo as it is. They're. They're asking questions, they're pushing the boundaries. They are not accepting what some of our older generation has been told. They are saying, no, that's not what we want to do. We're not going to accept that. And so I think we can learn a lot from that generation and really kind of hold onto it and, you know, be guides on that journey and really experience that. Because I think there is a shift. I think we're going to start to see more advocacy for alternative care that's not pharmaceutical or prescriptive and really engaging in those traditional practices that we've talked about.
[00:45:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel it. I think there is, too. I completely agree with that.
So, you know, Patty, I just really appreciate you taking the time and, you know, you've gone through and. And you're still going through a really tough time in your community.
You've been a steady voice for us within the program and you really speak well of your community and those who came to help in many ways. And, and while that's difficult, I really love how you pointed out that in many ways it's getting back to the basics within and between people and within the community and sort of how you need to live and how you look at things like where you're getting your fresh water and your food. And that's really also reflective of the values that we're looking at with nutritional therapy and getting back to the basics and clean food and clean water and a solid lifestyle. And, you know, I think we. I certainly. I have been known to make jokes about cold showers and how, yeah, okay, cold showers are good for my mitochondria, but it doesn't mean I enjoy them. And, you know, I think what. What you have been living through and experiencing just, you know, wipes that right out of right out of the way. So thanks for taking this time. Thanks for coming on.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been awesome chatting with you, Ramsey. And you know that's not going to get you a better grade when you're ascending.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: Oh man.
Oh well, see you in class.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: I have to be fair.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: Thank you for asking. What's worthwhile visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsay Zimmerman, Government. And please provide your name and email to become a supporter. I'm asking for prayer, advice, feedback and connections. The what's Worthwhile Podcast is on Spotify, Apple, Iheart, and Amazon. You can also
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