We discuss in this interview:

• Eshita’s transformational story
• How Eshita used to barely walk but now she can run thanks to the Paddison Program for RA
• Her quick and aggressive RA onset, and how she tried different therapies for 6 years with no results
• Dealing with Methotrexate and other drugs
• How she came in touch with the Paddison Program through the Rheumatoid Solutions Summit
• How oils affect RA patients
• Omega 3 supplements
• Indian cuisine’s health benefits
• Plank and mobility exercises
• Building the right mindset to heal

Clint – We love to share inspirational and uplifting stories on this podcast. And today I’m really looking forward to hearing the journey of my guest. Her name is Eshita and she’s based in India, she was diagnosed seven years ago, she’s now 35 years old and she has had very aggressive, debilitating rheumatoid arthritis. She’s one of our members, and so she gets our monthly live calls. She’s got access to all the Paddison Program materials and of course, the video library, which covers all the troubleshooting techniques that have been put together by myself and my rheumatologist friends covering over 700 problems that people with RA face. With those materials and with those calls and resources, she has a transformational story to share. I only know 1% of it because she has an Instagram account that I follow and recently shared a video of herself running for the first time in I want to say 6 or 7 years and will go into that in just a moment. But first, Eshita welcome. Give us a quick snapshot of like a situation where you were in a very bad way and a situation of how you are now and we’ll go from there.

Eshita – Sure, thank you for having me here. I would love to share my story. I couldn’t wake up in the morning without pain. I wake up and I the first thing I see in the morning is pain. The first thing I feel in the morning is pain. So now it’s absolutely transformational. I mean, I’m actually able to walk on the sand, walk on the road pretty fast and walk and even run on the sand. So I think that is a big, big achievement for me. I mean, I haven’t been able to do that in the past seven years. So I think it’s awesome for me.

Clint – It’s amazing. Congratulations. And I mean, what are the emotional states that you’re going through when you realize that you can now also now do that again?

Eshita – It’s extreme happiness. I’m actually kind of proud as well because I have been able to help myself do this, and I’m not dependent on someone else to actually give credit. And because no one has actually been able to help me till now to make me what I am today. Except for your program. So I think that is amazing how I feel every day. The happiness with which I wake up and feel, yes, I can do this, I can squat down, I can stretch my legs, I can, I can walk, I can run. Because even walking was quite questionable at one point. I couldn’t walk properly, I couldn’t walk down the stairs. Like normally I would do it one step at a time because my knees are severely damaged. So because of that, I cannot do a lot of things. But now I can do a lot of things because I’ve been walking them. So I think that’s huge.

Clint – Oh, I love it. Two things I want to highlight there. One is that you’re proud and we should be proud. This program becomes personalized, once you start on this journey, you find aspects of it that really sort of don’t really fit with you. Maybe you don’t have a juicer, so you just can’t do that. Or maybe you just find in your instance, like, for example, that knees are a problem. So maybe you need to focus on that and you make the whole thing your own, you tailor it to your own needs. And then the other thing you said, which I love at the last moment, you said, and the reason I can now do my squats is because I think you said I work to them and that is huge. If we stop the episode right now, there’s enough to take away and learn from. You must work the areas that are afflicted with the disease. Inflammation is a cry for help, like a baby crying. It says, I need help, I need attention. And the attention that you give it is to support the connective tissue and the surrounding muscle mass, to take the load off the joint, and put the joint through reps. And so well done. Well done, Well done. Okay, So can’t wait to learn more here. You and I just spoke for like 5 seconds about this prior, but you had an aggressive disease. Was it a rheumatoid factor positive, anti CC factor positive. Were you all of these you know you know as they say sero positive, diagnosed?

Eshita – Yes, it was positive and very aggressive, and it took off like a rocket. I was diagnosed like two weeks before my wedding, so I started having symptoms about two months before that. And I obviously ignored all the pain and I slowly started getting pain in all my joints one by one. I was like, Oh no, that’s all right, I’ll be fine. Because I used to go to the gym every day. I was like super active person. I used to deadlift 90 kilos, I was perfectly fine. Yeah. So because of that I thought maybe I enjoy the joint or I’m going to be fine if I kept working out. So I ignored that. Finally when I was diagnosed, it hit me really hard. I didn’t even know there was something called rheumatoid arthritis. I thought arthritis is an old person disease and I didn’t know the seriousness of it. So it took me some time to even grab a hold of the fact that I have this because it took me some time to even understand what’s going on in the body. I saw several doctors, each of them had their own theory, and I wouldn’t say they misguided me. But I think there was some kind of you know, they are obviously doctors, they are not going through this. They just know the information about the disease. So obviously, first I went to a normal Western medicine doctor, and he put me on tons of medicines and I was on steroids and all the painkillers. I had to because I had to go through my wedding so I had to have all the medicines to stay and stay upright on my wedding day.

Eshita – So I kept doing that for about six or seven months and I switched to Homeopathic. And I really there’s nothing that I haven’t tried. And then I went to naturopathic and I mean, by then my progression was pretty harsh. I had several deformities and several or most of my joints were damaged. So yeah, for 6 years I tried different kinds of therapies. There’s nothing I don’t think there’s anything that I haven’t tried. There’s ozone therapy that I’ve tried acupuncture, massages, medicines and massages. Nothing was long-lasting, nothing was long-lasting. It was all just temporary, and sometimes things made it worse for me. Most of the time, things made it worse. So I can say that nothing has helped me this much till now. And none of the doctors actually emphasized the importance of movement. They said if something is hurting rest it, which is the worst. And even I kept it rested because, of course, I didn’t want to feel any pain because I’m already in tremendous pain and I didn’t want to feel more pain. So I just kept them rested and the immobility made it much worse. The joints, my hands, my fingers, they are all deformed. So back then I started questioning Why me? Why me? Why did this happen to me? So I think in the past 1 year, I’ve gone past I’ve come past that. Why me? And I want I am now realizing how I can make myself better. Because we’ve come a long way. There’s no point in asking why me now? It’s happened, now I think it’s action time.

Clint – Hmm. Wow. Okay. Well, you’ve piqued a lot of my curiosity. What medications, Western medications did you try? Did you ever go on a disease-modifying drug or a biologic drug?

Eshita – Yes, I did. Methotrexate has always been there and was when I recently, I think in 2021, he added that medicine as well because the pain wasn’t coming down. I was also on a break from allopathic medicine for about four years. But in the beginning of 2020 I was on medicine which, which I got transported from another city where my parents live. But because of COVID, I couldn’t get it here because everything was shut. So that is what pushed me into going into Western medicine again because I had no option. By then the pain had reached my neck, which is when I panicked because my route, my, entire route was getting affected. So I couldn’t be as in my neck. The pain in my neck was so bad that I couldn’t sit, I just couldn’t sit. I couldn’t lie down, I couldn’t move my neck, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t do anything because my neck pain was oh, it was horrible. I can still think of the pain, it was so bad. So that’s when I thought, okay, fine, I have to go back to Western medicine just so that the pain comes down a bit. So that’s when I started in the beginning of 2020 is when I started allopathic medicine again.

Clint – I caught the methotrexate. I didn’t catch the second drug. Can you just mention?

Eshita – Yeah. It’s actually a tofacitinib. That’s the drug.

Clint – In fusion?

Eshita – A tablet, I was on 10 mg.

Clint – What’s the brand name for that? Because I just can’t connect the dots in my mind right now, I forget. Is that a rinvoq or is that xeljanz?

Eshita – Oh, the medicine is tofacitinib, but the brand name itself is TFcitinib. That’s what it says on the packet.

Clint – Okay. It’s great now, compared to when you started those medications, are you taking the same dose today as what you were at the time?

Eshita – No, I was on 10 mg a day for five days a week. Now I’m just five in just one tablet in the morning and that’s it. And the methotrexate 5 mg during the weekends. That’s my dose now.

Clint – Just 5 milligram?

Eshita – Yes.

Clint – And what was that before?

Eshita – Oh, It started with 20, 2 years ago. And it’s now at 5 a day. I mean, sorry, 10 mg a week, so 5 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday.

Clint – Okay. So that’s halved from 20 down to 10. You’ve halved both drugs.

Eshita – Yes. Yes. And I don’t take anything else, no other drugs.

Clint – Yes. But you were loaded up on painkillers and things in the past weren’t you?

Eshita – Oh, yeah, lots. I couldn’t walk without a painkiller. I couldn’t walk without a steroid. So I had to be on them to be able to do anything.

Clint – Wow.

Eshita – I couldn’t lift up my head without a painkiller, basically.

Clint – Okay. Wow. Okay. Well, now, what are we going to do for the rest of this episode? If people are wondering what our plan is? Very simple. We’re going to just nut out a few more details of your journey and then you’re going to share with us all the things that have helped you the most. And we’ve got half our audience don’t know all the details of our membership because they haven’t started yet and the other half know it intimately and they want more specifics and they want that little aha moment where they can emphasize something a bit more or place more time into a certain area. So that’s where we’re going. And I also want to ask you about your neck, what help most for the neck? I want to ask you about your knees, so let’s go there in a moment. I also want to find out what your rheumatologists did with regards to these medications. Can you tell me that first, have they been supportive of the tapering process? How did it go with the doctor?

Eshita – Yes, thankfully, he’s open to reducing my medication, though he believes that his medications are working, which I’m okay with. He doesn’t ask me anything about how your pain has come down. Are you doing anything? Nope. He just believes that his medicines are working. And I’m like, okay, fine, it’s fine. My work is done.

Clint – That’s it.

Eshita – My neck was so bad, he said, go get an MRI, go meet the physical therapist, and nothing helped. The MRI just scared me even more, that’s it, iIt didn’t do anything. At least I’m happy he’s open to tapering down my medicine.

Clint – Yes, that’s good. And frankly, I mean, if we’d be very sort of ruthless about this, that’s the best way to utilize our specialist. As the CEO of our own health, they are part of our personal collection of advisors. And those specialists can advise us on medications that are appropriate. For example, you’re at childbearing age, I don’t know whether or not you’re looking to start a family at some point in the future. So that’s a consideration as well as the degree of your symptom, severity, joint degradation, all these different things, they’ll look at all of that. They can help us with our imaging for X-rays, and MRIs, as you mentioned a moment ago, and help us get our blood tests, referrals, and analysis, all the data collection. Data collection, and as you say, allopathic medicine, referrals, recommendations. And then we’ve got to go away and tie that into our big picture of health and minimizing symptoms using all the strategies that we know and we’ll talk about in just a moment. Now, tell us how you incorporated the lifestyle changes that we recommend, and then we’ll go into specifics around Knees, neck and other areas. Okay. So how was the transition from your existing lifestyle into the new sort of rheumatoid solutions system?

Eshita – Okay. Actually, it was last year in October is when my life changed when you had the rheumatoid summit that I attended. It just popped into my phone one day like a blessing in disguise. And I just watched all of the videos and followed it every day that’s what inspired me to just start it off. I was on a relatively clean diet from the past seven years. I ate Millets and I ate vegetables and relatively clean, but I never eliminated oil. And different doctors said various theories about, don’t eat potatoes, don’t eat starchy things. It’s all the the wrong information about food. So I think the knowledge and the correct information about food from the program is what has helped me come so far. And the way you have explained things, the way you have said things about the food and the movement, I think that guided me right to actually follow each step and get where I am. To start with, I started with millet and vegetables and all, but I think within a month or two I could transform the rice. I thought rice was the enemy, which was so wrong. So once I started eating rice and sweet potatoes and potatoes, that’s when I felt so liberated. I felt like I have more choices now than before, it’s the opposite. I felt like, you know, I can do more with potatoes. Somehow potatoes and rice are kind of you’re done, you’re set, you don’t need anything else. It’s so satiating that you don’t need anything else. So I think just the introduction of those vegetables and the rice was a big game changer for me and the elimination of oil. And I didn’t eat that much processed food, but I a little bit did when I went out and there was quite a bit of oil in my diet. Now that there’s absolutely no oil, I think that has been a huge leap for me. The elimination of oil has been huge and being mindful about what I’m eating and intentional about what I’m eating. I cook my food every day, every day I cook my own food, and it’s a different food for my husband. So it’s like two meals a day. So I cook my food every day. And I think I’m more than happy with that. I connect with my food now, I connect with my food, which is a big difference right now.

Clint – We cannot understate the crucial intervention of oil elimination. If you’re watching this or listening to this and you’re thinking it’s not that big a deal, or I’m just stir frying something and I’m using a little bit of oil. This is like saying, I’m Superman and it’s only a little bit of kryptonite, I don’t mind that little bit of kryptonite that I have every day. No, it literally is the difference between progress and misery and knee pain and neck pain and higher levels of drugs. It is the breakthrough moment is no oils. Now people say, well, what about olive oil? What about avocado? There’s a lot of what about, what about, what about. And here is the simple summary, no oil is optimal. Olive oil in its raw state uncooked on a salad is not too detrimental, but still best to avoid. Likewise, avocado oil on a salad little bit, is not too detrimental, but best to avoid. Any seed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil all these different oils that are used in deep fryers and stuff on their own without heated is terrible, avoid like the plague. And then finally, heat any oil, any of the above if the oils are heated, nightmare, as soon as you heat them. nightmare. Doesn’t matter if it’s olive avocado, a nightmare. And then the final piece of this puzzle is that if it’s a tiny bit of unheated olive oil in the zinzino Omega three supplement that I take, which some people have also taken because it’s my favorite one, it’s perfectly fine. Okay. Because it acts as a chaperone and protects the Omega three as it’s being absorbed in the body.

Clint – That leads us then to the final part of this, which is what about Omega 3 supplements, Omega 3oils. Yes, they are recommended if you cannot optimize your omega 6 -3 status using food alone. And they have to be chaperoned with antioxidants because omega 3 supplementation because it’s an oil. If you’re in an inflamed environment, which is a rheumatoid arthritis body that has a high CRP, then your body will oxidize those fats very rapidly and you will not benefit from the oil. So you need to consume the supplement with a very antioxidant-rich meal, one that’s rich in leafy greens or fruits and vegetables or the one that I take comes with a little bit of olive oil. And studies show that olive oil has a protective effect on lipid peroxidation, which is what we’re trying to avoid. So thank you for allowing me that little interlude, because I think it’s imperative that everyone understands the oil dilemma, and I think I’ve covered that in detail there enough for everyone to feel satisfied that we’ve got to get the oils out unless it’s an omega three supplementation. In which case if we’re going to do it, protect those oils from oxidation in the ways that I’ve explained. So thank you, Eshita, for letting me share that little bit of training. Now you’ve got the oils out, you’ve hit the potatoes and rice and you’ve used that as a foundational basis for a lot of your meals. Are you using Indian spices and lots of different flavorings that are traditional?

Eshita – Yes, of course. I forgot to mention the celery cucumber, that was amazing, that was huge as well to get my inflammation out and the pain out. And I have spinach every single day, like one full bunch of spinach. So that does also help me huge leaps. And Indian spices Yes, I use about some cinnamon and, of course, onion, garlic and ginger, those I include them all because they add taste and they so good for the pain. So and ginger is definitely anti-inflammatory. Turmeric pepper, those things. Yes. Those have been very helpful adding to the food. Yeah, I think that way being Indian, I think getting access to those things and using those things have not been new to me. So I think I’m conscious about adding them to my food every day.

Clint – Yes. And let’s not skip over this to everything you’re saying contains these nuggets of value and people think, oh, it’s just onions or garlic, for example. Yeah, I’ve heard about the antiviral, and antifungal effects of these. However, they have specific prebiotics, meaning there are preferred food for our healthy microbes. So if we’re eating those, these foods have specific benefits for repopulating or re-emphasising certain strains of bacteria that excrete short-chain fatty acids that heal leaky gut. So they’re literally medicine taking onions, garlic, leafy greens, turmeric has these properties as well. Potatoes are a resistant starch. You’re eating all of these things that on the surface just sound like, oh yeah, they’re just grocery foods, but there’s so much science behind this. So congratulations on these great strategies. Now how long did it take to see improvements, and as you saw improvements, did you expand your foods more?

Eshita – To begin with. It took me about less than a month to actually sit cross-legged on the floor. I could do that within a month’s time.

Clint – Wow. That’s cool.

Eshita – I couldn’t sit on the floor, I needed help every time. And actually, I forgot to tell you that I’m a photographer. And I need to move my body, squat down, squat, and I shoot animals, so I need to literally be on the floor to take pictures. So every time I squat down, my husband would pick me back up and put me back down, it was that bad. So now I can do it all on my own. So it took me a month to actually sit on the floor, which was awesome. That was a first step, and within about a month or two I could see a huge improvement with my neck. I think that’s what gave me hope to keep going because my neck was horrible. As I saw improvement in my neck, I think that kept me going. It just pushed me to keep doing what I did and be consistent with what I did. So I think moving, moving my entire body and staying put with this diet was amazing. I didn’t add too many foods for a few months, actually, quite a few months. I didn’t add anything new because I was happy with what I was eating. And for me, getting rid of the pain was bigger than the choice of food or any other thing, so I think not being in pain was bigger for me than anything else so I continued the same diet. With my neck, I think the main movement was basically forced to start with was the neck exercises, moving it all around. And the planking helped me quite a bit because of the posture. And when you are pushing against the floor, the position actually helped me get rid of the pain quite well. And also I have a trampoline, I started doing the trampoline every day for about 15, 20 minutes. I think that was also a huge liberating thing for me to actually be able to move and do some cardio and sweat out a bit. Doing the trampoline actually helped me a lot to actually get into position and align. I feel it kind of aligned my spine, I don’t know what really happened inside, but me jumping up and down kind of. I feel like it aligned my spine and made me stronger. And also the position on the floor with the planking has helped me a lot.

Clint – And now the trampoline is a conventional size one, right? For an adult, it’s not one of those mini rebounders that you get on the floor.

Eshita – It’s not the huge one. It’s about 3 feet in radius that you will get in a sports shop, which is enough for one person to do it. It can take about 100 kilos.

Clint – Right. But is it an indoor thing or is it like a backyard sort of scale?

Eshita – You could keep it anywhere though It’s quite mobile, but we don’t have a backyard, so it’s inside the house. Yeah. Gotcha. So, yeah. Yeah. So I think the movement created the magic in me.

Clint – Yeah. And let’s just explore why the planks worked a little bit. Good, because this is just one theory, and it doesn’t even matter if I’m on the mark or not. But the concept behind it is one that’s valuable. That engagement of the muscles that are sore is the therapeutic approach. And so in a plank position and if people are unsure of it, what we’ve basically got, if you imagine if you’re lying on the ground face down, and then you push the sort of the front part of your body up with your elbows so that your elbows are then supporting your front part of your body. You’re up on your toes at the other end, and you keep your body like literally like a plank, a stiff as possible. Then in this position, your back, your neck muscles are engaged because they have to support the heavy weight of your head. These neck muscles are being used in a way they probably haven’t been used before because most of the time they’re only being used by just sitting on top of your shoulders and becoming weak. Weakness is where inflammation loves to go, and so you’re defeating the weakness and replacing that with anti-inflammatory molecules that come with working out soft tissues.

Clint – That could have been part of it. And obviously, your mobility exercises are fantastic up and down, you’re getting compression through your spine. There’s no science that comes with Anthony Robbins’s recommendations on rebounding because he has a rebounder, but he just says that he does it every day, like this is the motivational coach. So Anthony Robbins rebounds every day, gets on his trampoline up and up and down. And he describes benefits around the lymphatic movement, the waste system of your body because the lymphatic system only operates through movement. And so if we’re inactive, our waste system is also inactive. That’s one aspect that we can think about as we’re going up and up and down. So that’s tremendous. Tell us about the knees. So many people have knee problems. What did you do for your knees?

Eshita – I started with your video on the program, I started stretching my knees and I even simultaneously, I followed the yoga movements done by your wife, and I did them both side by side because I couldn’t do anything with my knees. I couldn’t bend them out of question, bending was out of the question. So I started stretching and slowly started moving my knee towards me, like lie on the floor and slowly try to move it towards me. It was it was stuck right there like it wouldn’t move down. And I could see the progress, how I could like, fully push it again, like towards me and bend it. That took about a few months to actually do it, completely fold them, that was huge. I started stretching and doing exact exercises that you have showed of you in the gym. I just followed them every day and I slowly started doing the squats like slowly and every squat would hurt my knee. So now it doesn’t hurt, now I’m able to do burpees as well.

Clint – Burpees. Are you doing burpees? You’re crushing it.

Eshita – Yeah. With the handle of course, because I can’t place my hands on the floor because of my wrist, so I hold the handles that you get. But I do not jump, I don’t do the jump, but I do the movement and then coming up and squat back down and the movement. Yeah. So the burpees are also recently introduced Burpees. So that is fantastic.

Clint – Awesome. You mention the little handles. People might want to get us out of those if their wrists hurt. I’m picturing what you’ve got, but can you just describe it for everyone?

Eshita – I could show you, is that all right?

Clint – Yeah. Please.

Eshita – This is the handle, you just sit on the floor and hold on here?

Clint – It’s a little sort of push-up hack thing.

Eshita – You just keep it on the floor and just hold on here. It has good grips as well.

Clint – Fantastic.

Eshita – Good.

Clint – Okay, so for people listening, what it is, it’s it’s something you could get on Amazon. It’s just a way of having a small bar that’s only a few inches off the floor that’s portable that you can use to give yourself a much more safe and painless way of getting up and down off the floor. Particularly if you’re doing exercises like Burpees, where it’s up, stand up, get back down the floor, up off the ground, back down again. And so that’s really cool. Okay. I want to hear about your first run because I saw it on Instagram, I thought, wow, you know, underneath you’ve said, this is the first time I’ve run in like seven years. Was that spontaneous or had you been building up to that?

Eshita – I was building up to that. I kept pushing, saying, it’s okay, let me try after a month, after two. Because I didn’t want to injure myself doing something which I’m not ready for. One day I think I just took the leap and just said, okay, let me try. What’s going to happen? It’s okay, I’ll hit myself. So I just went for it. So I kind of ran for about back and forth for about 10, 15 minutes. And yeah, I don’t do it too often, but I do it once in a while, probably once in two weeks or something like that. So yeah, I want to be able to do it at least two or three times a week. That’s what I aim for. But yeah, that felt awesome. I told my husband to record me. Of course I wanted to record that, that’s huge for me. So I think that was one of my tips. I think that was one of my happiest days.

Clint – Were there any consequences from that run or any subsequent runs? And are there any things that you do after you do your runs to make sure that your knees feel Consistently good again?

Eshita – I keep doing my movements every day. Of course, after the run it’s a bit throbbing, the knees and the ankles because it’s a lot on the ankles as well. And my ankles are also deformed like quite badly, because they go outward, they don’t go straight. They go this way. So I have to work both of them every day to keep it going. I move them every day so that it doesn’t get worse, and there’s enough blood flow and it is always moving. So I do it before and after. Whenever I go for a walk or run, I made sure I stretch myself a bit and warm up so that there is no serious consequence.

Clint – Yeah. Fantastic. I’m just I’ve just uploaded a brand new set of upper-body and lower-body workouts to the member’s area. So this is going to be now moving forward my recommendation complete across the board, this is the exercise routines I recommend. And so check those out because you might want to take a look at incorporating more calf strengthening exercises which can potentially assist with your ankles. The ankles I’ve found over the years the best recommendations for ankles are don’t irritate them by rolling in on them, that’s number one. Again, no irritation because, a setback is going to be ten times more negative than the positive impact of any exercise. Right. So it’s the avoidance of irritation. And then secondly, to just build leg strength, the stronger the leg muscles, it seems to have a therapeutic effect on the ankle without necessarily having to target the ankle. We just benefit from long, stronger legs.

Eshita – Yes, that’s true. That’s true. Actually, the more it hurts, the more you have to do it. You know, it’s so ironic when I have when I feel a little bit of pain or when it’s stiff, I actually move it. I actually kind of work my ankles like I stand on one ankle and then shift and then do that. And that actually helps immediately, it’s immediate, it’s it’s so unbelievable. Actually, healing is pretty simple, like the food you eat is simple, the movement is simple. Simple is what heals, which people don’t understand. They feel it needs to be complicated, that’s when it’s believable. But I think it’s the other way around. It’s simple, it’s how you put it to action and take action. I think that’s what changed my life. Actually the intention to heal is what changed my life because I had befriended the pain. I thought, it’s my best friend, it kind of had become my identity. I thought me a shooter and rheumatoid arthritis, it comes together. But now that I have unfriended it is when I can see a lot of changes. I have become my own best friend, but I have unfriended my pain. So I think that’s the difference. That switch has helped me change my mindset like leaps. So I think that’s been a game changer for me.

Clint – Yeah, that’s tremendous insight. What other along the same lines insights have you gained? I think this is really, really valuable, I love the unfriending. What else do you tell yourself? What else does Eshita say to herself or believe that has helped you so much?

Eshita – I think if you have the intention and if you believe you can do it, I think you can do it, it is what it is. I don’t think you should step back saying there’s a limitation on food, I have to move my body I don’t think so. I think being in pain is bigger than all this. For me, as in not being in pain should be the number one priority. I don’t think you should be thinking twice to implement all these things. I think that should be number one. I think you have to do anything to not be in pain. I think that was my motive. I took it up as a challenge, saying, yes, I have to do this. I was in misery, I thought just before the summit and during COVID, after I got my vaccination, and second vaccination, my neck got horrible again, my neck was aggravated. And that’s when I was like, rock bottom. I hit rock bottom. I was helpless, and hopeless, I didn’t know what to do about the pain. That’s when I was like, No. After that, I watched the summit and I was like, No, I have to help myself. Nobody is going to come to my rescue, I have to help myself. That’s when I realized, No, I am there for myself. No one’s going to come to my rescue. So that’s when I shifted in mindset and actually changed my life, that I can only do it for myself. No one’s going to understand my body, better than I do. And I started implementing one by one and nothing was putting me off saying, No, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. I said, No, I can’t do it. Why not? Why? Why can’t I do it? What is stopping me from doing it? I will do it. I have to move. Yes, I will move. I will move my knee, though with tremendous pain, I will move it. I shouldn’t eat that, fine I will not have oil. I will not have deep fried stuff. It’s okay. I’m not missing anything. In fact, I’m doing my body your favor.

So I think those kinds of small changes have actually helped me a lot. Now, I don’t miss all those food, I don’t want to eat fries, I don’t want to eat a burger, I’m absolutely fine. My tastebuds have changed, and my body has changed. I don’t feel hungry every 2 hours. I just need two meals a day and I’m happy with that. I don’t get hungry, the unnecessary hunger where you crave for sugar or something, nothing junk? Absolutely nothing. I’m happy with my fruits and vegetables, I’m absolutely fine with that. So I think the acceptance that you have this and actually want to do something about it and heal yourself is something I think we should all realize and work on ourselves. Nothing is impossible.

Clint – Hmm. Gosh, this is absolutely wonderful. You know what? When my friend and I go and do our stand-up comedy shows that we’ve gotten back into, it’s been a lot of fun in the last sort of few months, I’ve gotten right back into it and touring with him. Whenever we go out for dinner, preshow before our show, we’re going to have dinner together. We always eat Indian food. I mean, the Indian food for us is the go-to because of my limitations. I don’t want to be going out to, fast food chains. I want to have Indian meal because I know when I go there, I’m going to eat a delicious like my favorite food in the whole wide world. And it’s so good for me and it’s available all you know at most towns that we travel to and always find a great Indian meal and we have some kind of like yellow daal and I, I eat a nonbread without, without butter. I have a little side salad of my onions as we talked about, and tomato sometimes cucumber slices it’s just amazing. And you’re in an environment where you’re living also that can support you to eat the most wonderful traditional Indian food and lack nothing.

Eshita – Yes, exactly. That’s so true. I don’t need anything else, I have potatoes, which are fine if they’re not deep fried and they’re delicious as they are. So I don’t think I need all those, I think it’s just the conventional way of people have kind of spoiled our minds that we have to undo ourselves. We have to undo our minds and get on track.

Clint – Very good. Very good. Okay, so we’ve covered a lot of different things. You’ve halved your drugs, and you’ve completely changed your mindset. You’ve transformed the way that you eat and exercise. You have gotten rid of lots of pain in your body. Have you ever had a C-reactive protein or SED rate tests since all this has been transformed?

Eshita – Yes, I do my CRP tests every three months, and for the past four times it’s been less than 0.50 which is awesome.

Clint – Okay, so confirmed by the data. Okay, sensational. Now, what about any specifics that you’d like to share that are your favorite things about this lifestyle and the things that you do that work the most? So that if people listening say, well, what else? I want to learn more? What else do you emphasize and focus on to get the best results?

Eshita – Probably eat simple. I would say that eat simple and give large gaps between your meals, I think those have helped me a lot. I eat fruits in the morning and then lunch in the afternoon and that works great for me, that works great. So I think keeping the meals simple and without oil I think has worked wonders. And you’re either helpless or you help yourself. I think that’s huge. Yeah. You instead of being in pain and misery, you can help yourself take action. So I think that we have to implement and not miss the regular food that you eat, there’s no missing food. Make your food delicious, you’re not lacking anything. You have everything around you to make your food delicious. So now I’m happy with this pepper and salt on my food. It’s just that your tastebuds change for the good, you don’t need all those extra spices. I mean, I’m not saying that bad, but you don’t need a lot of things once you’ve discovered this kind of food system, you do not need a lot of things. I think with just a few things you are happy. At least that’s how I have changed a lesser variety. I think I’m happy. I have more things to worry about. I have more energy to worry about other things. And this is simplified. I think the other things that I have more energy for them and my life has changed. Like, honestly, if even I’m a photographer, I’m an artist. So I think my work has changed. I can see how I’ve improved in my work. I kind of more connect with my subjects when I’m shooting, when I’m sketching, I sketch a lot as well. So the way I see things and the way I connect with things has a big change in me. It’s not just my pain or anything, I think my overall I’ve started feeling more, and my life has improved. My work has improved. I mean, I’m kind of attracting more opportunities in my life. The manifesting is helping, so I think this manifesting about this has worked so much. Last year, the same time I kind of thought that, yes, in one year I’m going to talk to Clint on the podcast and it’s happening now. So I think working on yourself and manifesting things have really worked for me. So I think your life improves that’s what I’m trying to say. Once you change yourself for the better, you feel better, your pain is gone. Of course, your life is going to improve. So it’s huge. In one year my life has changed inside out.

Clint – Love it, love it. The only cautionary thing that I would add is just continue to look to be able to add a few extra foods to your diet to make sure that we have more than 30 plants a week, 30 different plants. The reason for that is it’s just linked with microbiome diversity. With those of us on this journey, it’s actually not that hard to come up with 30 plant foods a week. It surprises me that people think that’s very difficult because if you’ve got a mixed leafy green salad of three or four different leaves, they all count. Then you’ve got onion, garlic, you throw in some turmeric powder that counts, right? And then you’re up to eight things and you haven’t even sort of put your meal together yeet. So I don’t think it’s a concern but just keep it in mind, because I totally get it. I did 12 months of just baseline foods because I thought I’m in the groove, I don’t want to mess with this. And so that stage one is get inflammation way down and stage two is to keep it there whilst adding more foods. So that’s the two parts of the process.

Eshita – I have added a lot more vegetables now, cauliflower, yellow pumpkin, lot of root vegetables, and watery vegetables. There are a lot of local watery vegetables available in India, so I explore with them all, all of them. So I have added a lot of vegetables.

Clint – Alongside your fruits as well, right? So yes.

Eshita – Yes.

Clint – Yes, yes. So you’re good.

Eshita – Papaya is my stable. Yeah, Papaya is my staple and my favorite.

Clint – It’s the ultimate. All right. Let me ask you two things. Has your husband been supportive of all this? And I imagine the answer is yes, because you wouldn’t have achieved this if your partner isn’t. But just confirm his level of support quickly and then have you got any sort of family planning kind of thoughts or Around the future?

Eshita – Yes, right from day one my husband is extremely supportive. He’s come to all of my photoshoots. He’s the one carrying me and the bags, so he’s always been there for me. Yes, he’s always been there. Every day I have support with whatever I do. He was so happy that I’m talking to you today. He’s so updated with my life, he’s my best friend. So, yes, he is with me every time. And no, we are not going to have children. I think that’s something we plan long back. Yeah, we are happy. Just the two of us. Yeah. We want to keep all the money. Yeah.

Clint – I love it. Well, I tell you what, it takes a lot of pressure off. It takes all the pressure off your timeline, the medications that you take, the focus of lots of attention. And you have jokingly mentioned the money. There’s also a big aspect there as well. And so given that you’ve made that decision in the past, I can definitely say that it makes life simpler for you and with comfort in that area, then you can focus all your attention on getting as well as you possibly can.

Eshita – I’m really going through a lot. So maybe I don’t want to put my body through a lot more.

Clint – Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then have we missed anything? Is there something that you wanted to share that you haven’t yet? Or do you think that we’ve forgotten one aspect or two?

Eshita – Only thing I guess we’ve covered, quite a bit. Yeah. I don’t think there’s one thing is that there is no cheat day at all. Every day you eat right and you move. So there are no two ways about it. There are no cheat days because you cheat yourself for which you pay the next day. So. Yeah. And one more thing is that I used to be very fearful about if this food is going to affect me or is it going to flare me up? And what if it causes pain? And now my fear has come down a lot. I’m like, yes, I can deal with it as much as possible, 90% of the time I eat safely. Actually, 95% of the time. I’m always safe eating. I don’t eat out at all, probably very like once a month or something. And even then I make sure that I not eating any oil or that I’m extremely careful. I have one or two restaurants that I go to and they know the drill.

Clint – That just doesn’t cheat.

Eshita – Exactly. Yeah, don’t Cheat.

Clint – Love it.

Eshita – Yeah.

Clint – Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure to watch you on Instagram. And now to have you here as a guest on our podcast. If people want to reach out to you on Instagram, what is your handle?

Eshita – It’s actually my full name. Eshita Prasanna that’s my handle. Actually, since I’ve started posting all this and talking about Paddison Program, so many people write to me saying, Wow, this is nice. What do you do? Give me your recipe. What do you do when there’s been hope in this kind of become? So I already feel that is helping a few people from my experience helping them out. So that’s brilliant.

Clint – It’s great because we are we need more representation, particularly in India. Big population of people struggling. Yeah. And they really do like to connect with other people in India. So thank you very much for helping out in that area. And thanks for sharing everything you’ve done today. I’m going to have the rest of the day feeling really happy hearing your story and knowing how well you’re doing and all that, all that you’ve overcome, and where you’ve gotten to. I’d like to, look forward to continuing your progress in the next year ahead and the year ahead of that. And that it never stops. So for me, I’m trying to like set new pull up bar records and I’m now we just today I’ve just been finishing up an enormous hedging job in our backyard which has been lifting huge ladders and using hedge trimmers and all sorts of equipment and just using my body in a way that that would be a challenge for anyone who’s trying to do such yard work. So, you know, it never stops. We’re always pushing ourselves, trying to get it build more strength, more resilience and live the best possible life well done. You’re doing so well. I’m so happy.

Eshita – Thank you. Thank you. I’m going to be happy today after talking to you.

Clint – It’s wonderful. Thanks, Eshita so much and we’ll talk again in the future.

Eshita – Sure. Thank you so much.