Episode #56: Food Is Medicine with Dr. Shayla Nettey and Dr. Antoinette Williams
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Michelle Fox: Welcome to Nourish. I am Michelle Fox Culinary Nutritionist Health Coach, and your host for this podcast. I teach a busy professionals, how to get more nutrition in their bodies. And how to have more fun in their home kitchens. If you struggle with consistency. Or sometimes forget to make your needs a priority.
You, my friend are in the right place. Join me each week for inspiration to increase your energy. Strengthen your mindset, manage your hormonal woes and so much more. You have a lot on your plate, but that does not mean your nutrition should suffer. You deserve to live in a body and have a life that you love.
So let's dig in. my friend, today, you are in the right place because not only do I have one medical professional, I have two medical professionals on today's episode, and we are talking all about how food, is medicine. So if you've been with me for a minute, if you've been with me for the last 10 years, you know that that is my food philosophy.
So when I was introduced to this powerhouse team of black women doing very similar work that I'm doing, however; they're taking it to the next level with the degrees, with the medicine, working hard in their communities, oh my goodness, you can only imagine how excited I am to jump into this conversation.
So, before I introduce you to them, let me give you the official introduction by reading their bios. So first up, we've got Dr. Shayla Nettie. She is a board certified internal medicine and obesity medicine [00:02:00] physician. She is the co-founder of Cooking on Purpose Health. Ah, yes and amen. A virtual direct care preventative and obesity medicine practice.
She also serves
as chief clinical strategist at a healthcare design agency in Boston. She believes that food is medicine and is the foundation of a healthy life. She recognizes community barriers that contribute to food insecurity and hosts community events to speak about culturally relevant food.
She uses her love for cooking, medicine, and design to share health education in non traditional ways with patients directly via virtual care and social media. Before we hit the record button, I was giving her props for her Instagram page, which of course we will put the information in the show notes, but go check her out.
It's amazing. And so now next up, we've got Dr. [00:03:00] Antoinette Williams, who works as a board certified general public health and preventative medicine physician.
She is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where she learned the importance of community. Yes, our business number one value and is also a proud wife and mother.
Dr. Antoinette is a co-founder of Cooking on Purpose Health, a virtual preventative and obesity medicine practice with a lifestyle medicine focus. And yes, I said that twice because we're gonna get into this. She also serves veterans as a medical examiner and works in primary care as well. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and trained at both Rutgers University and Meharry Medical College.
So, Dr. Shayla, Dr. Antoinette, welcome to the show.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Thank you for having me, Michelle. So happy to be here.
Michelle Fox: So such an honor to have you [00:04:00] all be here with me to talk about food as medicine, to talk about how we can reach the community, to talk about how we can support other women. And so, you know, I've got like 10, 000 questions for you.
I will try to contain that all within 30 minutes, but before we jump in, I would love to invite you to play a rapid fire game. Are you open?
Dr. Shayla Nettey: We're open. We're ready.
Michelle Fox: I love it. Okay. So who wants to go first? This is going to be, I'll try to do. One, one to one.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: I'll go first. Oh, no, no. Dr. Antoinette, you go first. I love it.
Michelle Fox: Dr. Antoinette, bringing the heat. Yes. Okay. So when I say sweet, salty, or savory, what comes up for you?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: For me? Yes. Salty. Okay.
Michelle Fox: Salty is your jam. All right. And then Dr. Shayla, I would love to know, what's your favorite vegetable?
Dr. Shayla Nettey:
Oh, that's hard.
[00:05:00] Broccoli. Broccoli. Yep.
Michelle Fox: And actually, Dr. Antoinette, I would love to know your answer on that as well. What is your favorite veggie?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Cauliflower, probably. Oh, cauliflower in particular.
Michelle Fox: We just might become best friends. That is my answer. But I love that we all picked a cruciferous veggie. Exactly. Great.
Yes, my community, most of the women who listen to this show, we tend to be between 40 to 60, and we're in that perimenopause to menopausal period. And so I'm always promoting the cruciferous veggies to help us balance our hormones. So I love that we're walking our talk, talking our walk, however that goes.
All right. And then last but not least, this one, I actually would love to hear from both of you as well, which is, would you be willing to share a childhood memory in the kitchen?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Yes, let's see. Let me think. To be [00:06:00] honest, for me, the kitchen, childhood memories in the kitchen, I mean, mostly it was just us kind of microwaving things. It wasn't a lot of cooking, as far as like, as much as I do now as an adult.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Yeah.
Michelle Fox: Fair enough. What about you, Dr. Shayla?
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Well, I would say for me, it's just gonna show how greedy I am.
My, my memory is my great-grandmother, she would bake cakes, you know, every now, and actually she did it quite often. And, so the part everybody liked is like when she would do the, the whipping of the cake. That the batter that would hang off of the whisk at the end. And so I'm like the oldest of four and I have cousins and it's like three or four of them.
So it's seven of us waiting for that. So what I started to do instead of waiting to the end, I would volunteer to help her at the beginning. So that way she would just hand it to me before she called everyone else. Hey, so I would, you know, that was my career product. Like I come. With her in the kitchen, and [00:07:00] then I'd wait for that mixer to come up.
And I know it's, I probably shouldn't admit that, but I love that part. And even to this day, it's my favorite part about baking. Yeah,
Michelle Fox: That is brilliant. And I have children who do very similar tactics to try to get in there to make sure that they're number one for the taste testing.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: So that's right. They got to listen to this podcast to get the real tips.
Start from the beginning when everyone else is outside. There you go.
Michelle Fox: I love that. Oh, well, thank you guys for playing. Of course. I am so curious. How, one, how did you all meet and then two, how did you realize that you had so much in common that you wanted to bring this message of food as medicine into the world?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Yeah, well, we just met initially in medical school. We both went to more high school of medicine. and we studied a lot together and just became friends really and just kept in touch afterwards. [00:08:00] Later on about a year or so ago, we actually started to talk about, I mean, in general, we had already had a lot of discussions about just the health care system and how it's more of a, we kind of just treat the illnesses instead of trying to spending a lot more time taking care of things on the front end.
And so, about a year or so ago, Shayla came to me with her thoughts on,on just starting this business. And it's kind of why it just kind of broke down why, she thought that was important to her and those things aligned with me as well. Getting into preventive medicine, that was definitely a big part of why I got into preventive medicine and wanted to do a practice lifestyle medicine as well.
So it just aligned that way. And then we just decided to work together.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Mm hmm. Yeah, it's funny because it's like me and me and Antoinette, we've been pretty much aligned since medical school. So we've been each going through the different seasons of life. So after medical school, we both went our separate ways.
She went up north, I stayed down south. And then when we got [00:09:00] back in the same region, we both had our kid at the same time. So that was another thing I think that connected us trying to learn how to be married, raise a child, and be a physician and you're caring for all these different areas in your life and you're trying to figure out how do you balance it?
And for me, and that's what she kind of hits on for me, the hardest part was, man, if I really want to spend the time that I think is important with patients that it makes a real impact without sacrificing the time that I have with my family and for myself, something has to change. It can't, it can't happen in this traditional model.
And it took some time to figure that out. But being able to share it with her as my friend, just in a friendly conversation, honestly, it wasn't, the initial conversation wasn't, Hey, you want to start a business? It was, Hey, wouldn't it be a cool idea if you could do something like this? And I wanted to share it with her because I thought she'll tell me the truth, that this is not a good idea
and then I could just go my separate way, but she liked the idea. And we said, okay, let's keep, let's keep building this and making it [00:10:00] something that people can have.
Michelle Fox: How powerful. And of course we'll link your website and our show notes, but I just want to highlight as I'm looking at the page here on my second screen, the mission you said, our mission is
to provide lifestyle and preventative health specialist services to those that would otherwise not have access. And that just really touches my heart because Obviously you all were given a gift and you followed this gift to get your medical degrees, but then you are bringing this work back into the community and making it accessible.
So in practical terms, can you just break down how that works like how could somebody come and work with you to get services if perhaps they're feeling a little lost. Thank you. Yeah,
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Definitely. So the main thing as far as individually, a person can obviously go to our website and sign up for services there.
We do have it set up where we are going to do [00:11:00] it based on tiers. So some people could afford the full price of the services and that's great. We definitely want you all, you know, to contact us as well. And then also, there are some people who may have some difficulty are uninsured. Maybe they just are,have less funds.
And so we're going to actually have a sliding scale as well for them to be able to participate and apply. What makes it unique is the money that we're, we're getting from those who are part of our services actually goes to help people who otherwise couldn't afford these services at all.
So that's what allows us to bring that access to this to everyone. To anyone really who can't afford it and those who just may not be able to pay anything. We have a scholarship set up for that. And then another aspect of our, organization is really us going into the community and teaching these same concepts in a very truncated session.
Maybe just two to three sessions at a time, depending on the situation. But we'll have a cooking class and then we'll also go through like these aspects of lifestyle medicine as well. So those are the two [00:12:00] main parts of our, organization that kind of allows us to, to, to bring this information to everyone, not just those who can afford it.
Dr. Shayla Nettey:
It's funny because when we tell people what we do. And we say, yeah, we're doctors. We use food as medicine. Most people nod their head and say, oh yeah, that's great. But then when they come to the cooking class and they see what it looks like, how approachable it is and the advice we're giving, and then that we make room for the conversation at the end.
That's my favorite part. At the end of those classes, we sit down, we eat the meal together, and we just talk. We ask them what are the things they're struggling with. They tell us what things we need to hear to make sure we're Speaking to people in their need and not just what we think needs to be talked about.
And that just helps inform us to make sure we can then share that on our social media platform too. So whether it's YouTube, Instagram, all the different things, we're trying to figure out multiple ways to reach people, whether they want to work one on one in a group setting, or they just want to get that education and take it and use it on their own.
Michelle Fox: And as you've been doing this work [00:13:00] together, have there been any common questions that have come up? From the community. Like are you, I know you said that you specialize in the obesity work, which I imagine diabetes issues can come up with that as well. But maybe would you be willing to highlight two or three of the topics that typically come up that you're really trying to address on a larger scale?
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Well, actually we just had a recent class. and the topic was about stress, stress and food. And really, it was about how we use food. Yeah, it really is about how we use food to cope with our stress. And so one of the common questions, or really comments that people were making during the session, like we did the class, we made the, we actually made a homemade hummus, which is super fun.
And we did some veggies with that. It was great. And one of the questions or comments people gave us at the end or during the conversation, they were saying, you know, this is great. I could definitely see myself doing this on any given night. The [00:14:00] comment that we've got that was a little different, that was, well, you know, I like to do things different.
I don't want to have the same thing over and over. And so, yes, this is great in a silo. But how would this look in my real life when I get tired of eating that same meal over and over and mind you, these are a group of people who we've worked with and they mentioned that they may have, you know, may have some history of High blood pressure in their family or even diabetes.
And so they already have that motivation. To make the change. But when it comes to like practically, how does that look in my life? So that is something that I keep doing. That's probably been the most common thing. Because in a vacuum, this all makes sense. Yes, I should eat more fruits and veggies. Yes, I should shop more and go grocery shopping and plan out my meals.
But how do I do that when I get home from work and I'm tired? How do I prep for that? And so what we spend a lot of time doing in that class in particular was asking a person, what works for you? Because for one, one of those people, they wanted to eat the same thing every day. And so for them, they do best cooking that same meal, but for the other person where they say, Hey, I need some variety.
Then it's okay. How do we figure out what recipes or [00:15:00] what food items to have already in place? So that way it's easy. You have it set up for you to make the right choice. I think that's probably the missing piece in a lot of these conversations. Education is for sure necessary so people know why we make the food choices that we do, not just in the sense of why does this food, why is it nutritious, but why are we choosing the food.
So why is it that when I get home from work, I'm choosing to grab something that's very sweet or something that's very saucy. And that's where we step in and say, okay, what happened before that? Did you get good sleep the night before? Are you tired? Is that why you're having those cravings? Is your cortisol level high because of that increased stress?
How is work going? How are you coping with stress outside of food and introducing techniques of meditation or taking a moment just to take a breath? Not even something that's really big where you have to spend money, just small steps. That's our motto. Small steps over time lead to big changes. And so, you know, that will that will be my long way of saying that's the most comforting.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: I see. Yeah, I mean, that that and then also just helping [00:16:00] people understand the variety that that is out there because kind of like what you were saying initially, like, kind of either you're eating the same things every day to kind of stick to your plan of action and you eventually get bored.
You may fall off of eating healthy and just kind of get used to going to fast food and things like that. And so a lot of the conversations that I have are about access, not just access, but the variety of fruits and vegetables and how I can use those fruits and vegetables. So that's why what we're trying to do with social media and then also our group sessions with the cook and then with the cooking sessions is really just give information about the variety of different foods and just helping, helping our community understand that it's easy to make too sometimes. A lot of times the barrier is just not
having that muscle memory or just not having the experience with making it. But when you're in the group study, and you just kind of see someone else making and you see how easy it can be, it kind of helps you kind of get over that mental barrier and just kind of do it yourself and just put your own little thing to it, whatever, you know, [00:17:00] is to your liking.
So. That's been a big thing we discussed a lot.
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Michelle Fox: Over here in my community, I talk a lot about meal planning. And so to your point, to keep a variety of fruits and vegetables, a variety of flavors. I often encourage my community to go out to what I call Dr. Google. Like you just type in,
you know, gluten free, dairy free, and a million, if not more, recipes are going to pop up. And so I like to encourage people to just have fun with it. Like, I think it's really easy for a listener to look at the three of us and be like, Oh, well, they're lucky because they love to cook. But... I'll be the first to tell you, I don't love to cook.
However, I love to eat. [00:19:00] Yeah, Dr. Antoinette agrees. So we love to eat, right? And I'm like, when I cook, I'm going to have more control over the ingredients. And so that's the value slash priority for me to be willing to cook. And then also I love to cook a little bit extra so that I'm only cooking, you know, three to four times a night and then I'm eating leftovers for lunches and the other dinners.
And so I just love to highlight that point because it doesn't have to be hard.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Yeah, we can make it what we want it to be.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Exactly. I love that you said that because I don't like to cook at all. To be honest, it's more of a necessity thing. And my husband cooks a lot. but it really is like doing this even for myself has kind of just helped.
Like I've talked about getting over that mental barrier of like, just do it, like just do the sheet pan meal. It's healthier.You'll have it in your refrigerator and, you know, it's for you to easily grab as opposed to going to grab something that, you know, some fast food or something. So.[00:20:00] yeah, I definitely I'm not a cooker either, to be honest.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: And you know what the other part too. So, like you guys, so I love to cook, but I also I love love love love love eating. I love eating, like so much. And what I what I have found and I think other people, other people who've been in our classes, or even in our who work one on one with us will say, once you start making a few of your meals,
and then you start to go to restaurants and eat, it's different. The food tastes different. You start to pick up on, wait a minute, this is, this is not what I was expecting. And so you, it's almost like it takes away that, that, that strong pull to say, Oh, you know what? I want to get that burger from that fast food place.
And my mind, what stops me is not necessarily. That it's not convenient because it is, but I'm so disappointed when I take that bite and I'm just like, this is not what I wanted. I could have just did this at home and I wouldn't have waited for 20 minutes and spent as much money. You know what I [00:21:00] mean? Now some people, you know, they may hear that and go, you're crazy.
There's no way your burger tastes better than McDonald's. But what I mean is the more you just like anything in life, the more you. You you you try it and you start tasting these things differently. You'll love it.
Like when we made that hummus with our cooking class, they could first. The first question someone said is, this kind of looks different than what I expect.
Because they were thinking about how it looks in the grocery store because of all the preservatives that keep it a certain color. And they tasted it. This is creamier than what it is in the grocery store. And so now when you go back to that grocery store version, it's going to be different. Now, I'm not demonizing the grocery store version.
If you need to get it, you can. But the point is that as you start to experiment, to you guys' point, and get over that barrier of, Oh, I can do this. I can try this. This is not, it's not as hard as I thought it would be. It makes it easier to continue to make that choice. It's really the initial momentum to start.
Once you start, it just builds from there and take a super, super small step. Don't start making gourmet meals from scratch. You know, you never go to the store, like pick one meal or pick [00:22:00] one item that you want to try and then build from there.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: And time saving meals to like that's a big thing. We understand everybody's busy.
We're busy, you know, so we're wanting to make things that don't take as long, and that you can make a big batches to freeze and save and take out later.
Michelle Fox: And Dr. Antoinette you mentioned that your husband does some of the cooking as well and so I want to highlight and encourage our listeners to bring the people in our household into help, whether it's with the veggie prep up front and or the night of cooking dinners and, reading your website again.
The next thing next to your mission is your values, which is together, expanding our culture's health legacy for generations, which again, just makes my heart expand. And so with that, have you all tried to bring your children into the kitchen yet with you?
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: It's actually one of my son's chores, like to kind of help, help cook.
Michelle Fox: [00:23:00]
Nice. And how old is he?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: He's five.
Michelle Fox: Oh, I love it. So does he have like a little step stool to be able to reach things?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Yep, step stool and his own little, we got off Amazon, these kids friendly and kids safe knives and cooking utensils, yep.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, my, my daughter to pivot off of Antoinette.
My daughter, she cooks with me too. I actually got the idea to get the chef's knives from, from Antoinette. But, that's really the only reason I'm able to get my daughter to eat what she likes to eat, like her mom. But a lot of the new things that I try, She tries them because she sees, sees us making it together.
So she loves being, sometimes I have to tell her to get out of the kitchen so that way I can finish on time because she loves being in the kitchen that much.
Michelle Fox: That is fabulous. Yes. I have three teenagers right now and. They have kind of shifted more over to the loving to eat part, not necessarily loving to cook part.
Dr. Shayla Nettey:
I remember those days.
Michelle Fox: They all grew up [00:24:00] cooking in the kitchen and loving it. And now, you know, things have shifted a bit. And so, yes, to your point, Antoinette, we call them contributions in our house. Once a week now their contribution is to make dinner and sometimes they make mom approved culinary nutrition approved meals.
Sometimes I do not. And I have learned, you know, as long as they're getting the protein, the healthy fats and the What do I like to say? Protein, healthy fats and the fiber in there. Then I'm like, okay. And they've been trained on these rules ever since. And so I feel confident that they can take care of themselves.
However, there's still that inner part of me. And especially looking at two doctors right now, I'm like, I just wish we could have like no sugar, no dairy, no wheat in the house a hundred percent of the time. But you know, It's also I'm real and so I like to share that with people to that there's, there's no such thing as perfection in my household, at least.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: [00:25:00] Michelle this conversation was meant to be. On our social media page we just posted a video that was about choosing purpose over perfection, choosing progress over perfection, and it's something that I have to constantly remind myself because you're saying this about your teenagers.
I have that conversation with my husband. My husband is this is that I hate to put him under the bus, but he'll come home from the store and he has like bags of chips. And he's like, Oh, yeah, and I got I got these gummy bears and I got this.
I'm like, What? Why are you bringing all this? Oh, I got it for our daughter. Like, she's not going to eat all these bags for grown people. It's a family size. And I had to just take a step back and go, you know what? Like most of our meals are health promoting meals. But then to your point, the balance of it, because if she never sees these things in our house, when she sees it, when she goes to school, she's not going to know what to do.
And she might, you know, go overboard because it's like, Oh, I'm never going to get this at home. So I think, I think you're right. It has to be something where they know the foundation and they can always go back to that. They need to, but I'm with you. I have that struggle. Really, it's about [00:26:00] me because when he brings those chips and those cookies and stuff, I'm just like, oh, now I gotta keep saying no.
Michelle Fox: Well, and you also, that kind of leads into another point, in the medical profession, I will, I don't know you all well enough, so, you know, you can't take it personal. I will just say most of my medicine related friends are some of the worst eating people. Like I'm always like, you guys make the worst patients.
Like how do we change that part? Cause I mean, one, and this is going to lead into the actual question, but one, I know when you are in a traditional setting, like you guys are booked back to back to back. But then too, I wonder if it has to be hard that you're like giving this great information to your patients, but then you realize, well, I don't always have the time to take care of myself at home.
And so I guess this is a two part question. Like one, how have you found a way to take care of yourselves? And then two, I would love to hear your story, how [00:27:00] you pivoted from that traditional medical model into what you've created today.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Yeah. I mean, that's exactly right. So the model and the system is created in such a way that it's so busy.
Everything is back to back to back to back. You stress like from medical school on, it's just constant. It feels like constant stress. And it is beyond a lot of times. And so it is, it's a lot of hormone changes that are happening. It creates a lot of unhealthiness. like emotional eating, stress eating. A lot of those things can happen.
So you really got to kind of push back and fight against it in a way and create that time and space for like physical health, mental health. Like you said, while we're learning all of these things, and we're also teaching all of these things to our patients, you know, recognizing we have to work, hard as well to maintain it in our own lives.
And so for me in general, I actually started in pediatrics, you know, very hospital based medicine. and then I just sort of pivoted to wanting to get more into health education and health advocacy as well for underserved [00:28:00] and just, people who don't have a lot of access to education and health in general.
so that's why I pivoted to preventive medicine, as a, as a whole. and which led me, you know, on this path to talk more about lifestyle medicine and cooking on purpose health. So, a big part of that balance for my life was pivoting to that, something one that I had more passion for. I mean, I love working with kids for sure, but it's just specifics of hospital medicine that was kind of like a lot of stress and draining as well.
But like actually working in a field that I have more passion for, and then also creating time, as I choose jobs, even now. Fortunately, we're able to do to be in a situation where I can, like, choose jobs and kind of work part time here and there. And then also with creating this business, be able to make sure that I am being intentional about setting time to, take care of myself, you know, especially after so many years of not doing that, It's like there has to be a point where you have to either choose to do that or not, because it's not gonna like [00:29:00] other people aren't going to make it happen for you, you know, that was a big part of it.
And then just being a part of cooking on purpose and, working on this has also helped me to continue being that mindset of working towards health and,taking care of yourself, intaking.
Michelle Fox: Yeah, I love that the two of you have each other to hold each other accountable as well.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That is a blessing. Yeah. And what about you, Dr. Shayla? Yeah,
Dr. Shayla Nettey: no, it's interesting because everything Dr. Antoinette said, I 100 percent agree with and I have my own version of that same of a similar story, you know, that our training from medical school onward. Really what it is is like people.
We're very, we're social beings, right? So whatever we see the group do, we're going to do. And so in medicine, they won't, we won't, I mean, it's, it is what it is. It's kind of this group thing, right? So you, you come into medical school, you want to be a doctor, so you're going to do whatever it takes to be a doctor.
you got to get certain grades, [00:30:00] you have to get certain recommendations, you have to hit certain marks. And so something has to fall off in order for you to be that focused. And for myself, what fell, was really any attention to my physical, my mental, my emotional well being. It was mainly just kind of me thinking only about my career.
Now, it was maybe towards the end of my medical school career as we're getting out of that mindset. I started to somewhat change because I was, I was about to get married. Now, you know, everybody does that. Okay, I got to fit the dress. And so, you know, I started, we, we had a group, it was a group of us, Antoinette was in that group too, we had a group where we were doing this, it was P90X, we were doing that, together in the gym, and I was, I was more intentional about what I ate, but I was following kind of like that bodybuilder diet, you know, rice, broccoli, chicken, nothing else, that's, that's healthy. And that's, and just think about that, I went to medical school, and that's what I think is healthy, right? And so you fast forward once I'm in my medical residency training, you add more stress in there. You drink coffee so you can stay up late because you have to have 24 hour calls.
You know, there's a [00:31:00] Chick fil a here. There's a subway there. You know, you get something from there in between seeing your patients and then you go home and you figure out what you can from there and you don't get much sleep because you got to wake up early enough to get back to the hospital. And you do that for three years, sometimes more depending on your specialty, but that's how many I did it for.
And so, and it was normal. I didn't like it all the time, but it was, it was just everyone else was doing it. So I was like, all right, we just got to do this until we get out. And it was really this mindset of, I just got to keep doing it until I get out. And then I can go back to being my regular self again. It'll be fine.
It's been seven years of me being like this, but I know how to go back. And the truth was, I don't, I was different. And so when I came out of it, after I finished my training, what pivoted me would help me make the shift in my mindset or how I thought about my health and even really thinking about my health, because I would have conversations with patients about their diabetes, about their depression, anything. And I would say the things that were supposed to be said. And I believed it, but I did not think it really applied to me. And I [00:32:00] know that sounds kind of warped thinking. And I think the reality was that I thought I was okay, because everyone else looked like me in my field.
It's like, well, you know, I'm better than that. You know, I know how to, I can walk around, you know, I'm fine. I'm not hurting anywhere. It'll be fine. and so when I had my daughter, that's what, that was the pivot for me because my daughter, number one, just being pregnant. But then number two, she was diagnosed, she was diagnosed in my 18 week
ultrasound with a chronic heart condition. And there's a, there's a long story in there. And I, and I don't want to take away what this podcast is about. Maybe we could do that. We could talk about that another time. But essentially it was a, it was a pretty devastating diagnosis because, it's not, not a curative condition.
And so it made me start to shift in how I thought about life, not just being a doctor. And I, you know, I, you know, my faith informs a lot of what I do. And I felt like God was trying to show me I, like Antoinette said, making better choices with what I have, being a better steward. And it took time.
This didn't happen [00:33:00] right then and there. This is five years ago, because my daughter's five now, and she's doing well health wise. But her life is really what changed me, like really seeing, number one, I have to make better choices with not just with what I eat, but how I steward my body and what I'm consuming, whether it's what I'm watching on television, the words that I hear.
And when I'm giving back to other people, and I, the other piece of that I would say is, it helped me see the medical system from a different lens, where I didn't just see it as, oh, patients come to the hospital, or patients come to the clinic, I give them information, and they're going to be okay. I saw it from the other side.
Wow, like, this is hard waiting for a doctor to come in, and I don't know when they're going to come in when I'm in the hospital. And really having that, anxiety, that fear about what is it that they're going to say? People have that most of the time when they think about going, they don't most people don't have positive thoughts when they think about going to the doctor, especially in our underserved communities.
And I remember, I think what it was for me is that when I had my daughter, it kind of helped me remember how I [00:34:00] thought before I got into medicine, because what what inspired me was not necessarily being a doctor, it was being able to go back into the community as a doctor looking like myself and saying, hey, we could do better.
Hey, it's okay. You could trust me. Hey, let's have this conversation. And so they would trust me because I look like them.
And so I owe my daughter a lot. I can't wait till she gets old enough to really have that conversation because she's five now. I mean, she's pretty wise. I do think she was here before, but she's not that wise. I gotta wait a few years before we have that conversation.
Michelle Fox: That's so powerful. Thank you for sharing that journey with us.
And that's so human. What a gift that she brought you that kind of did snap you into, Oh, this is what my clients might be feeling like I imagine that just informs and makes you that much better of a physician.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: So yeah, I hope so. That's the plan. And everybody doesn't need that. I get that. But I needed it because I was kind of in a daze.
[00:35:00] Hmm.
Michelle Fox: So now the Cooking on Purpose Health community, I know there are listeners who are like waiting, like, tell me how to get involved. How can, how can I join some of these cooking classes? How can I get a medical consultation? Like, where can we go? Yeah.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: So, you can definitely head to our website at cooking on purpose health.com. There you can sign up for a free consultation where we'll kind of go over the plans with you and discuss what works for you. That's where you can do like the individualized plan. And then if you join one of those plans, then you can be a part of the group cooking sessions that are virtual.
As far as the community cooking events. Anyone who has an organization that would like to reach out to us definitely go to our website as well so that we can collaborate and figure out how we can get that done. Those are things that we do out in the community and we'll have those, depending on the timing and in collaboration with other organizations.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Right. And we're right right now in terms of the community events [00:36:00] since those are, you know, since we're actually live in those spaces right now, that's really Georgia, North Carolina, that we're doing that. and the same is true for our virtual practice. Most of our, our clients patients, are in those two states.
The plan is eventually to expand out. We just gotta get our, get the licensing for that .
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Yep. Yep. and if you're not in Georgia or North Carolina, you can definitely still come to our website. We have a starter kit you can, purchase, but then also you can go to all of our social medias and get information that way as well.
Yeah. Yep.
Michelle Fox: I cannot wait to witness you all expanding because, oh, I'm telling you, your message just makes my heart expand and I'm excited for more people to be able to plug in so that we can continue to build healthier communities. Is there anything else you want to add before we close?
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Well, I did want to say like our social medias are all under the same name, the cooking on purpose health.
So you can find us everywhere with that. [00:37:00]
Dr. Shayla Nettey: And I'll probably add to that one to encourage the listener. Small steps over time. Take small steps. You know, don't try to go for the big changes. What you're hearing right now is over the course of 5 to 10 years, you know, truncated into a 30 minute session, right?
And so I don't think it has to happen all today or tomorrow. Take your time. Give yourself grace. If you don't do the thing that she said you would do, that's okay. Take the next step. As long as you're still moving. That's all that really matters. And you could do this. If we could do this, you can too.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Exactly. I agree with that. Like just keep going. That's the biggest thing is to don't stop and don't get discouraged, but to keep going for sure.
Michelle Fox: How powerful. With that, I just want to say thank you both for spending this time with me. I have been enriched and I know our listeners will have been enriched by hearing this conversation.
So thank you.
Dr. Antoinette Williams: Thank you.
Dr. Shayla Nettey: Thank you for having us. Thank you so much for having us. You're awesome. Yeah.
Michelle Fox: Thanks so much for listening to Nourish. Have [00:38:00] you been driving, doing laundry or walking around the neighborhood? Sweet. I've got show notes for you. Hop on over to michellefox.com/podcast. When you are ready. I will let you know that on the page, you will find resources to support what you just learned on today's show. And then of course you can grab some health supportive freebies as well.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would be honored. If you would leave a review on whichever podcast platform you are listening on. It will help me with my mission to build healthier communities. One person at a time and it will help you because you will be part of that mission.
I'll be back next week and I encourage you to keep showing up for yourself and know that you and your health matter. Big love!
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