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Getting a Second Lease on Life – and Using It in a Big Way with Paul Chatlin: PYP 199

At age 55, Paul Chatlin was a few minutes away from surgery on a 100% blockage in his right coronary artery when his cardiologist asked him out of the blue, “Would you consider a nutritional change instead of bypass surgery?”

Turns out the cardiologist's mentor was a dude named Caldwell Esselstyn, which is the only way this story makes any sense.

Paul, tired of his severe angina, terrified of the life that followed bypass surgery that he witnessed in his father and three uncles, and in agony from the “elephant sitting on his chest,” agreed.

“I'll do anything.”

He left the hospital at 3 in the morning; by 8am his phone is ringing. “This is Caldwell Esselstyn. I want you to read my book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and I'll call you again in two days.”

And Paul has been whole food, plant-based ever since.

Two months of bed rest, during which time he devoured every plant-based book, documentary, YouTube video that he could get his hands on. A terrible cook, he took a course with Ann Esselstyn, Caldwell's wife, on preparing healthy food.

And he got better. Much better. So much better that he made a promise to himself and the world: “I will take the rest of my life and make a difference.” He wasn't sure how, but he would.

His mission clarified after his $700 receipt for the cooking class was rejected for reimbursal by Blue Cross Blue Shield. The same insurance company that was ready to fork over 130 grand for bypass surgery wouldn't consider paying 1/186th of that amount on a life skill that could prevent heart disease before it even started.

Their hands were tied, they explained to him. You'll have to take that up with the state legislature.

This, he decided, was his calling: to change the culture, to shift the conversation from medical management of disease to true prevention and healing.

Before tackling the political machine, Paul needed allies. He needed to know that he wasn't all alone, that he wasn't the only plant-based person in the entire Detroit region. He took out a $25 ad in a local paper, saying that he had lost 50 pounds, got off all his meds, dropped his cholesterol, and never felt better. Who wants to know what I've learned in the past four months?

Twenty people responded, and Paul was up and running. Fast forward a few years, Paul founded and runs the world's largest plant-based community, 3200 members strong and counting. He and his staff and volunteers have utterly transformed the culinary landscape around Detroit, and are now taking on the entrenched behemoth that is medical education.

I met Paul when I was invited to speak for his Plant-Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG) in July, 2016. They got me onto a live morning TV show (luckily, I had brought a clean shirt), put me up in a very classy hotel, shuttled me here and there, served me dinner at Dr. Joel Kahn's Greenspace Café, and got several hundred people in an audience to hear me talk about how to change bad habits.

Very impressive!

Paul and I talked about his journey, his mission, the obstacles, and the goals. I hope it uplifts you as much as it has me. We covered:

  • what Paul thought was a healthy diet pre-Essy
  • “I'd rather be healthy than full”
  • the broken medical system, and the responsibility of doctors to take care of us in a better way
  • the 150 doctors who had no interest in being involved in PBNSG: “we didn't learn this in school”
  • how come the veterinarian asks about diet, but the primary care physician doesn't?
  • that part of the Hippocratic oath where prevention is preferable to treatment
  • how to get doctors to prescribe nutrition rather than pills
  • getting PBNSG kicked out of Beaumont hospital for challenging their business model
  • meeting Dr Joel Kahn
  • the plan that can be replicated anywhere
  • if it can happen in Detroit, it can happen anywhere
  • inspired by Rosa Parks: “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

The Plant Based Nutrition Support Group

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, by Caldwell Esselstyn, MD

Dr. Joel Kahn on the Plant Yourself Podcast

My talk at PBNSG (video)

My first appearance on the PBNSG podcast (audio)

My second time on the PBNSG podcast (audio)

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Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons
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for your generous support of the podcast.

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Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive amazon gift certificates from your actions on such links.

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

1 comment on “Getting a Second Lease on Life – and Using It in a Big Way with Paul Chatlin: PYP 199

  1. Neal Haber says:

    I have come to know Paul Chatlin during the past few years, as a result of my association with his Plant-based Nutrition Support Group. Not only is his personal health turnaround remarkable but it’s amazing all that one determined person (Paul) has accomplished! He’s had such an incredible impact with the health of so many, spreading the message of healthy eating and a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet! On top of that, Paul is a very caring person, sincerely interested in getting to know others and their personal issues. A great humanitarian!

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