Paola’s RA medications failed her. However, she has reversed RA symptoms with the help of Clint Paddison and his coaching service.

We discuss in this interview:

• How Paola got diagnosed with RA, and the severe pain she suffered with her condition
• The ineffectiveness of medications in her case, and their side effects
• Paola’s discovery of the RA Coaching of Clint Paddison and his coaching staff after unsuccessful attempts with other programs
• Immediate results and the positive effect they can have on mood
• A lifelong commitment
• Hints for keeping a correct diet in the long run
• The importance of exercise
• Treat your body right!
• Reaching goals and playing drums again!

Clint – Welcome, everyone, to this podcast episode. Paola and I haven’t seen each other for about a month, and we’re here today to talk about her transformation and improvements with rheumatoid arthritis. She’s been part of our transformational coaching service during that time. It’s a really exciting moment for me to now not be talking to her about all her problems and so on, but talking about how far she has come. We started with a discovery call, let’s call it six months ago, and talked about where she was at. Then, her recent updates have been so great. I’ve invited her on to share today. So Paola, welcome.

Paola – Thank you.

Clint – Why don’t we start with a quick before and after, just to start us off, before we get into your background and the problems you were going through and stuff? Just take us back before with the problems that you were having when we first spoke. Then, describe those and then how you are today sitting here.

Paola – Well, I was really bad and I had a lot of pain, Even before I got a diagnosis, I was in a lot of pain for years. I spent three years trying to get the right diagnosis, which was awful. I didn’t know what to do or how to react to it. I couldn’t move and my neck was super stiff. My shoulders were like this all the time and my hands started to hurt. To be honest with you, it wasn’t until someone said to me, that I have an inflammation. Then I said, wait, what? We see ourselves every day and we don’t notice the little things. However, someone told me that and I asked the doctor and they were like, you do have a little bit of inflammation. However, they didn’t take it seriously at the beginning. I had pain and my joints started to hurt. I’m not going to lie about that. My knees started to hurt and I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t move. I was walking very funny because I was walking like an old lady.

Paola – I couldn’t jump or sit straight. My feet started to hurt as well. It was just painful because I was always this, like, a very healthy person. Out of nowhere, I got this. So after I got my diagnosis and all that, I finally knew what it was. We found your program and we started working on it. I feel great now. Like, I’m honestly, I’m able to play again. I’ve been playing a lot and I’ve been playing gigs, a lot of gigs. I’ve been playing piano again, which is awesome. Something that I couldn’t do before because at some point my fingers got stuck and I was like, I guess this is it. I’m not going to be able to play anymore. Now, I don’t have any pain whatsoever on my hands, knees, and feet that no pain whatsoever, which is great. I’m also working out, swimming, cycling, and playing basketball as well. I forgot to tell you this, but I started to play drums again.

Clint – That is awesome. Yes. At the end of our conversation, I’m going to bring up the six-month goal list that you and I created during our first 1 to 1 call together. We’re going to go through that at the end and tick off how many you’ve achieved. So on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad were you, do you think when we began? So like if ten was like, oh, this sucks so bad. Then, how are you today?

Paola – It was it was a big ten and it was completely bad. There were days when I couldn’t even get out of bed. I know I have no energy and my heart was always racing. I will say that it was a ten. Now, I mean, you’ve seen. I told you about the charts, so I feel like I have no pain whatsoever. Like me on that, on that side, I have no pain. I will say probably my pain is around like one sometimes. Sometimes if I get too bad, it goes to three. But from 10 to 3 is like a big difference. I’m like, I’m like and I can do this. I have it under control. Even if it hurts, I have it under control. It’s nothing that I cannot handle and it’s something that I’m like, I’m having a bad day today. I can just rest a little bit and it’s going to go away in like a couple of hours, you know what I mean? It’s not as it’s not bad before I couldn’t even get out of bed for days like that. Thus, I’ll say it’s a big improvement.

Clint – Now, what about the medication side of things? You were taking medications. Can you walk us through your journey with that? Where are you at the moment?

Paola – Well, yes, I can tell you I had a bad time with meds. I didn’t work on meds but I tried the first one. I mean, I tried three different meds one, two, three, three. Yes, three different meds. None of them worked for me and they gave me a bunch of anxiety. They gave me digestive issues and we decided, me and my husband, we decided this is it. We are not going to try meds anymore. We are going to just do what we’re doing in the program, like just keep the program, we’ll see what we do. Then after seven months, I had my last appointment with the rheumatologist and she was like there’s no inflammation. What’s the point of giving you more meds? I’ll say, my body just didn’t like the meds. Even knowing we changed the meds, my body was like, we’re not doing this. Honestly, I cannot tell you. I spent months on meds because I couldn’t. I just stood with the program, the diet, the exercises, and all that I did what I had to do. Then the doctors say, well, you don’t need them anymore.

Clint – Which ones were they? For everyone to also understand, I know I believe Plaquenil was one of them but Sulfasalazine was another I believe.

Paola – There’s another one that I just can’t remember the name of it.

Clint – Methotrexate?

Paola – I think that’s the one, but I can’t remember. I swear that I can’t remember that one.

Clint – Awesome. What was one of the big reasons that you worked with us? What was one of those deciding factors?

Paola – My husband was the one watching a lot of testimonials. He found the program and he was like, I think maybe we need to check this out. Honestly, I was like, if it’s going to help, it’s going to help. Here’s the thing. I didn’t have a diagnosis. Like a complete or real diagnosis. Every single thing that I tried, I went through a lot of programs. I tried different things, physical therapy, diets, I tried this, and nothing worked. Once, I had the diagnosis and he started looking and he found the program, I had zero expectations. I’m not going to lie to you. I was like, I have no expectations whatsoever. I tried different programs and I will try them, but I don’t have expectations. Then, he made me watch all these videos about people talking. I was like, okay, let’s try it and it did work. For me, I say honestly, the reason it was that I wanted to get it.

Paola – I heard I was listening to this podcast that you had. I don’t remember her name, but it was a lady and she was telling her story about how she wasn’t taking medication. For me, that was a big thing. I was like, if I can do this without meds, then let’s try the program, and let’s see if it really works. It was kind of like the major reason why I decided, let’s do it. Also, I really didn’t want to be on meds.

Clint – Yeah. I think that came up in our early conversations as well on the group calls and stuff. Yes, it’s quite common. Like who wants to take medications that can have side effects if you don’t have to? I mean, we’re not saying anything controversial. The controversy arises if our symptoms are raging and the doctor says, to take meds. Then we say no, even though the symptoms aren’t controlled. They, something needs to be adjusted with that plan. But, we spoke okay, let’s go 100% with all the lifestyle changes. We went with everything, didn’t we? We worked on your stress reduction and persevered with the exercises, even though you and I had to troubleshoot a lot. The dietary side of things you were always really good at, you implemented all of the supplementation side of things and the mouth stuff. A lot was going on there. What do you think were some of the early wins that you got?

Paola – Early wins? My mood started improving, even knowing that I still had the stress, my mood started getting better after, like after the three months or so like that. I have my husband here who is just making signs. Kind of like telling me, remember this and remember that. Another thing that we noticed that improved a lot was, and I’m not lying about this, my facial features. My face was like all the inflammation that I had in here, it went away. We could tell like, we were like wait a second. My face looks it doesn’t look like puffy, it doesn’t look like weird. My, my features actually like I can tell you, I don’t know, like all my movements even like everything improved a lot. Those started at probably around three months into the program, I was already noticing those things. My gut health, I can tell you that I started having bowel movements and I started feeling better on my stomach. Also, just the fact that I didn’t didn’t notice what things were triggering me, or what foods were triggering me. That was like a big thing, because as soon as I got rid of some stuff. I was like, this is how it’s supposed to be. This is how I am supposed to be feeling and this is different. Another thing that I will say is my energy levels. They started to get better like I wasn’t at the beginning. I wasn’t able to do a lot of stuff. However, little by little, I started to get more energy. At some point, I was already playing, like I say, playing basketball and doing more cardio. I was like, this is awesome and I’m seeing progress. Yeah, I will say with my face, less inflammation. Also, my gut health, energy levels, mood, and everything started to get better. I will say I noticed a lot of improvements.

Clint – In our coaching portal, I was looking back before we had our conversation. You had a lot of struggles in those early weeks because you were carrying forward all this inflammation. You were struggling to get up and down off the couch, things like this. Certainly, the concept of playing musical instruments again was one of the big motivators for you to get beyond reach at that point. However, playing basketball now? I mean, come on.

Paola – Yeah, that was a big that was a big thing.

Clint – But yeah that’s amazing. What are the plans for you now? What are you working towards now? There’s going to be you mentioned that on some bad days, it’s a three. Generally, it’s only a one compared to it used to be a ten. What are the things that you’re still working on? I can say this for myself and I probably speak for everyone. When you have RA, there’s always something you’re working on, whether it’s expanding your diet, or eating out at restaurants more easily. It could be getting even stronger at the gym or it be, just trying to eliminate some the improve the range of motion of a damaged joint or something. There’s always something, right? What are the things at the moment that you’re focused on, say, over the next year or so?

Paola – I will say I am getting some strength back. Even knowing that I’m already at a very good point right now. I want to get stronger and I’ll say that one. Keeping the energy levels, because that’s a constant thing. I mean, if I stop, I feel I can’t stop and I have to keep on doing it. It’s not something I’ve noticed during this time. It’s not something that you are going to just stop doing and you’re going to feel better just because you did it one two weeks. No, you have to keep on doing it. It’s a life thing, commitment. Like, honestly, with the food I’ve been doing great, I’ve been able to go out and eat at a restaurant. I don’t have flare-ups, but then as well, I’m eating always well. Once in a while, I have my cheating time. Like when I can go to a restaurant and eat whatever. However, I’m always eating well at home. I’ll say kind of like to keep the energy levels and like the getting stronger. As you say, the movement on my joints, the ones that have been affected, that’s something that I’ve been working and I’ll keep working forever if I have to. It is because there are days, like I say, I’m a little bit stiff today. I guess I just have to do my exercises. I guess I just have to move a little bit and that’s something that I will continue doing. Like, I will say that pretty much. I think. My husband is telling me, like, I think you’re missing something.

Clint – Do you want to check with him for a second?

Paola – What am I missing something and he’s just laughing. Sorry. Well, that’s true. He’s just saying that even when we go outside. Another thing and that’s a very good point, is that I don’t go outside and eat greasy stuff. If we have to, we talk to the people in the restaurant and we are like, can you do me a big favor, please?

Clint – Just go back to where you said. The way that you order at the restaurants so that they do the right thing.

Paola – I just tell them, excuse me, can you do me a favor and take this out, please? I have dietary restrictions and can you help me with this? They usually do when you explain stuff to them, they are very easygoing. We were at a restaurant and my husband did. He was like, can you do me a favor? Instead of putting this in, can you just grill it without anything to the point that the cook or the chef just came out of the kitchen and he was like, so you just wanted like plain like with nothing? Then he was like, yes, she cannot have all those things. He was like, that makes sense, and don’t worry about it. They did it and I realized that talking to people in a very nice way helps a lot because they understand. They do understand and whenever you go out, if you have to you can of course pick the healthy thing and ask for the healthy stuff. They help you with that and that’s something that we’ve been doing. As we go out pick the healthy stuff.

Paola – I’m not talking about just vegetables I’m talking like sometimes fish and sometimes I’m like oh well they have fish and I’m like can I have the fish, please? They bring the fish and I don’t have flareups.

Clint – You’ve been able to increase your range of foods to the point where you can have some foods that don’t support the microbiome, and yet you still can get by just fine.

Paola – Once in a while.

Clint – Fantastic. That’s it. It is because if we go back, even if we try and eat those foods cleanly, we are then poking the tiger and living the life of Pi, waiting on some problem to arise. Here are some things that people often raise as concerns or objections to wanting to get help. Then, wanting to get on top of their health once and for all. They say I couldn’t eat a plant-based diet, which we use. Of course, we use a very unique, specific, original approach to this. Let’s bat down some of these objections. If someone said I couldn’t eat that way, how do you do it? What would you say?

Paola – I’ll say I had the same problem at the beginning. I didn’t think I could do it. It was very hard for me to try and make it as tasty as you can with what you have. I know it’s hard, but there is so much you can do. If only you can get on Google and look up for little things. I swear that if you can start adding little stuff, little by little, you can get so much delicious food. Then, you will not miss meat because I don’t miss it. I have my piece of fish once in a while, I don’t miss it. I can live without it and I don’t need it. I moved to a different place maybe that will help. Sorry about that, I don’t know.

Clint – No problem. Let’s have a look. It’s not showing signal strength at the moment, but it seems to already be a little bit better.

Paola – I hope so.

Clint – Yeah. Now, it’s showing all white, which is the maximum.

Paola – Okay, good.

Clint – Well, do you want to run that one more time?

Paola – Yes. Then again I will say just like it’s hard, but try and look for ways to make it good for you. For example, make it tasty. One more thing that I will say, once you rewire your brain into thinking it’s good for you, you start noticing the difference. Instead of thinking, I hate this and it doesn’t have taste. I hate it so much and start thinking, I’m feeling better and it’s helping me. Once that happens, you realize how much you love the food and how much you don’t want to eat the rest of the food. It is because you start noticing all those changes and you are like. As you told me once, try and remember the good things instead of all the things that you don’t like. I will say that’s the most like the major stuff to do. Rewire your brain, train your brain to start thinking positively instead of all the negative stuff about the food, and have fun with it. Like getting in the kitchen and trying different things. If you don’t like to cook, honestly, there are always ways to make it fun. I don’t like cooking, I don’t like it. It’s not my favorite thing, but my husband does. He’s been having a lot of fun and he’s been like, if you do this, I promise you it’s going to it’s going to taste good. I’m like, okay, I’m gonna try it, do it and it’s amazing. He’s been kind of like showing me and sending me stuff. Then, he’s like, just try this, try that, a little bit of this, add a little bit of that. It’s just it makes the difference. However, I swear the main thing is for you to change your thinking.

Clint – That’s right, I couldn’t agree more. Wonderful. What about physical exercise? Some people may watch this and say, but like you mentioned before, I can barely get out of bed. I can’t get off the couch. Some people that we’re helping right now, when they started with us couldn’t walk out of their house. Now, they’re lapping the block and everything’s great. But at the start, what if that’s a barrier? They think, well, maybe you’re young and I can’t get off the couch. How could this help me? How did you get through that? It hurts a little to exercise. Should I keep doing it? Problem.

Paola – I’m going to tell you exercise cannot make it worse, that’s the only thing. Exercise cannot make it worse. Like, you are not going to get worse because you are moving. Movement is a great thing for your body, and it’s a great thing for your mind. In my case, I’m very blessed to have someone by my side who is always pushing me to get a better version of myself. For example, whenever I don’t want to wake up in the mornings, he’s like let’s go and we can do it. He makes me wake up at 5 a.m. every day or 5 -30 a.m. and he’s like, let’s go work out. At the beginning I was like, I don’t want to do this. It sucks, I hate waking up early and I cannot move. However, little by little, I noticed that just lying in bed for a long period made everything worse. Like, when I move, my pain starts to get better. It’s less pain and it’s less frustration as well. Honestly, just the fact that you have to spend all the time in bed and on the couch is very frustrating. It’s like you get sad or you get depressed, and that’s not helping. I will say, even if you cannot lift weights, even if you cannot swim, and even if you cannot do all that. Be grateful for the fact that at least you are alive, that’s the first thing. Then just try and remember that you are working on a goal. I feel like this is a very important thing that my therapist. It is because I had to work with a therapist through all this. Tell me, your goals and you told me this once as well. Remember your goals and your goal is to get better. You will probably never be as good as you were before, but that was before. That’s in the past and the past is the past. If you keep living in the past, you will never get out of bed. It’s just a sad thing to say, but it’s true. I will say that the exercises, for me at least personally. It’s making everything better and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move, I was in bed and I stood in bed for like probably nine months with a lot of nerve pain with a lot of stiffness. It was way before I got diagnosed and even after I got diagnosed. My neck was like this most of the time and I was already very stiff and everything. I was doing all the exercises that I’ve been doing that are in the program, all the little exercises at the beginning. I was just doing that.

Paola – I followed this is what I did. I took it a little bit hard on me because I was like, I’m gonna do something for myself. I’m going to spend five weeks doing the exercises. If I reach six weeks, I’ll get myself a book, toy, or whatever I want. I’ll just get something for me and I did that. It did the work because I started noticing the difference in my joints. Then, I can move and it doesn’t hurt when I start to play, and I’m starting to play. If there’s something that I can tell you, all those little exercises that I was doing that were in the program made me at some point realize. This is getting too easy for me and I had to start doing something more. I started with bands and now I’m doing weights.

Paola – Your body is a machine that learns, that’s how I feel. It is like your body is a machine and it will learn. If you treat it right, it will learn the right things. If you treat it badly, it will learn the bad things. Like you have I heard this once. You have two options; staying in sick is hard or waking up early, doing exercise, and being able to move is hard. I feel like that’s a very true thing that you got to understand. Just keep that in mind and if it doesn’t work for you and you’re like, I’m not doing it. It’s just something that I’m not going to do. Honestly, get some affirmations and record yourself. Just record yourself with affirmations and put them on your bed every single night. Just let the affirmations be telling you I’m strong, I can do this, and I can work through the pain. I can take my meds if I have to, I can do this. As soon as you rewire your brain and start doing those things, you’ll realize its benefits. All those little things or all those little exercises are worth it, are completely worth it.

Clint – Love it, great information in there. Thank you, that was just really cool. Let’s shift across now and talk about these six-month goals. I’m going to read them out one at a time. Before I do this I want everyone to know you don’t have to get up at 5 a.m.. That’s only if you’ve got a hardcore husband who won’t let you sleep because he wants you to get well, just as much as you want to get well.

Paola – Yeah, I agree don’t wake up at 5 a.m. just don’t do it.

Clint – Yeah, the exercises can be done at any time. Okay, it’s something I wanted to mention. Now, let’s get into this. Okay, here are your six-month goals and we do this with everyone. When we kick off the coaching, we do a complete review, build six-month goals, and build a strategy to get people out of pain as quickly as possible. Often it involves deploying physical therapy. Rolling out the diet, sending you the care package, and getting everything in place now. These are the six-month goals that are sitting here in your success journal. I’ve got them here and let’s go through this. Let’s talk about these first of all. Number one, so much more active again. Number two, open the window behind the couch.

Paola – Yes, I’m strong enough to open that window and I can do it.

Clint – I can walk smoothly.

Paola – Yes, I don’t need a stick and I don’t need anything. Yes, I can finally walk.

Clint – Feel proud of my achievements and my progress.

Paola – Definitely, I’m very proud of everything I’ve done.

Clint – I no longer feel guilty about not doing things now.

Paola – Now, if I have to rest, I take the day and I’m like that’s it.

Clint – Open doors without having a pain setback.

Paola – Yes, I can open the doors.

Clint – I can make the bed again without pain.

Paola – I don’t make the bed, but yes I can, but I don’t do it.

Clint – All right, there’s only four more. I can squat down to a chair and back up again without pain.

Paola – I don’t need a chair.

Clint – What do you mean, you can?

Paola – Yes, I can do squats and I don’t need chairs or I don’t need any aids.

Clint – Wow. I can play drums once a week for practice without pain.

Paola – I play drums three times a week, around like 20 minutes.

Clint – Amazing. Now, we had two stretch goals. One was able to run in 12 months and that was beyond our plan together.

Paola – I don’t run long distances, but I do run if I have to. Like, whenever I’m playing basketball and stuff like that. I count that as running because this bike is pretty much it’s kind of like the same thing, but it’s not. Whenever I go out with my dogs, I run probably one block and that’s it. I’m saying I’m getting there. I’m still working on it, but I’m getting there.

Clint – Well, that fits exactly what we said. We said 6 to 12 months and here’s the last one on the list. Do a pull-up.

Paola – Yes, I can do one. If I have a very good day, I can do two. However, don’t ask more because I can’t. I need aids and stuff, but I’m still working on it.

Clint – Amazing. What does it feel like to go through that list of things that we set out for you to achieve? You’ve done all of it.

Paola – It feels awesome because I have forgotten most of them. It feels really good like I forgot about the window. I forgot about the doors and the little things that we did. We just take them for granted until we cannot do them anymore. Now, you just made me realize that I can do all those things again and that’s something to celebrate.

Clint – Yes, I want a video of you please to insert at this point. At the end of our conversation about you playing drums, could you get one and send it to me?

Paola – Yes, I can do that.

Clint – Amazing. Let’s go out on you playing drums that will put at the end of this. Paola, thank you so much for sharing your progress. I’m so grateful that we got to connect and go through your journey together. It’s been very uplifting for me and very enjoyable for me to work through what was a lot of stuff that you had going on. This process we should let everyone in on as well. We had those days where you would come to the calls and I would say you would share that. You had frustrations and there were lows. However, we kept at it because you’d put these goals in place and we knew that it was worth it. Doing things is worth it and there’s nothing more important than getting your health back. Thank you for sharing this time with me.

Paola – Thank you for all the help and all the patience as well.