Anthony Masiello: Denied Life Insurance at 33: The Wake-Up Call That Triggered a 160-Pound Transformation

At 33, Anthony Masiello was denied life insurance because of his weight and related health issues. That moment became his wake-up call. Determined to change, Anthony embraced a whole food, plant-based diet, lost 160 pounds, and reversed high blood pressure, eczema, psoriasis, and migraines. Discover his specific strategy for making the transition to a plant-based lifestyle easy. 

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Transcript

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Hi friend. At 33 years old, Anthony Masiello was turned down for a 20 year life insurance policy. A professional actuary. Bet against this man living to be 53 years old. At the time, he weighed 360 pounds and had a 54 inch waist. Wait until you hear about this incredible transformation. In case you didn't know, you can also watch this interview on YouTube. And please subscribe while you're there so you don't miss any of my short cooking videos as well as the interviews. Like our guest today, I used a whole food plant based diet to reverse my heart disease and as a bonus, I lost 20 pounds. I dropped my cholesterol and lowered my blood pressure. Head over to my website. Well, elephant.com. After the show to grab my free Plant-Based cookbook as my gift to you. And if you're really ready to take control of your health and reverse disease like I did, check out my online class, Ace Plant Based Eating While You're There. I made the class super easy, I promise. Thanks for being here with me today. It's my honor to get to know you. Please keep in touch with me via social media. I will absolutely answer any questions or comments that you leave there. Okay, let's jump in. Hi friend, are you looking to age healthfully, confidently and vibrantly? Then this podcast is for you. Smart, slightly salty, irreverent, and thought provoking. I'm Lauren Bernick and this is age. Like a badass mother. Today's guest, Anthony Masiello, found his way to a whole food plant based diet and lost 160 pounds and reversed his health conditions. He is the co-founder of Lifestyle Telemedicine. Please welcome Anthony. Hello. Hi. Lauren. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on here. I'm really excited to talk to you. I've seen you around this space for many years, and so it's nice to be finally connecting with you. Well, so, you. Know, it's a it's a wonderful community to be a part of. And I love that we're all out there championing for, Yeah, longer and healthier lives. Yeah. That's that's a good one to be championing. We're champions. I cannot say that champions. Yeah, that's a tough one. So it looks like. So you're in New Clinton, new Jersey, is that right? Yeah. That's correct. It looks so pretty on your Instagram. It's like a picture perfect town. I think that people forget it's like the Garden State. It's beautiful. Yeah. New Jersey has some really nice areas. It has some congested area as well. But I don't think that's any different from any other state. Yeah. Just that most people think of new Jersey, they only think of those congested areas. But on our town's website, you know, it's this self-proclaimed, you know, quintessential small town. We've got a two block long Main street with shops and restaurants, and we've got a, you know, an old, grain mill along the river with a waterfall and a water wheel. And people play in the stream and, and, you know, enjoy. Kind of. It's almost like Norman Rockwell ask, so were you were you overweight as a child or to that come later? When did you kind of start putting on some weight? Yeah, I started gaining weight in between the fourth and fifth grades. So and I and I remember that and I know that because I left North Carolina, after the school year, the fourth grade school year ended, and I went up to my dad's for the summer. And when I came back to North Carolina, I hadn't noticed, you know, because, of course, when things happen gradually, they're hard to see. But I guess my friends who had not seen me in two and a half months, they started to notice. And and my one friend, he asked me, said, Anthony, how did you get so fat over the summer? And you know, by today's standards, I probably wasn't very fat. But by night or by early 80s, like 1981, 82, you know, like those standards, it was a little bit of a stand out. And there were actually two kids who were overweight in my grade, not even my class, but my whole grade. And we were kind of became known as the the fat Kids. And that's where the name massive Jell-O comes in. You know, like kids come up with all these creative ways to point things out. Yeah. What's shocking to me about that story is you saying that there were only two fat kids in your whole grade. I mean, how that's horrific when you think about all the kids today who are overweight, I would I would say the majority of children are overweight, don't you think? I don't know, I don't know the statistics. That's why that's why I qualify that by saying it was the early 80s and it was rare to be rare to be overweight, like, right. Like certainly by today's standards that that fourth grade Anthony would have been normal and I wasn't obese right away. You know, like I was just a little bit overweight. It's whatever weight I could have gained in two and a half months. Like so. So it's not like I, I ballooned up like ten pant sizes, you know, I gained some weight, so your top weight was, what, 360 pounds? Yeah. So then you just fast forward to, you know, through college, you know, things were. Well, actually, before I. Right when I was in college, I actually switched to a vegetarian diet, and that was in 1994. And that actually helped me quite a bit. That was the most successful that I had been in trying to lose weight at that time as a young adult. You know, by that time I was 21 years old, I think, or maybe, yeah, at 21 years old when I gave up meat and it was good because I just bought a walk. And the reason I bought a walk is because every single late night TV commercial was for a hand hammered walk, right? I remember that was hilarious. So, like, I wasn't unique in buying a walk, like everyone was buying these things. But yeah, but, and all I knew how to make in there was, was stir fried vegetables. So I bought some peanut oil and I bought some rice, and I would make a big batch of rice, and I would stir fry vegetables, and that's what I would eat. And and it worked pretty well. I lost some weight. I don't remember how much weight I lost, but I remember it was enough where I started to feel better and my energy level started to come up. Did you, sorry to interrupt. Did you go vegetarian because of the animals or because of your weight? No, because of my health. You know, I remember it's so funny because I remember a phone call with my mom. You know, again, because at this time, then after high school, I moved in with my dad, and I lived here in new Jersey with my dad for a few years. And I was talking to her on the phone. I said, you know, mom, I just haven't been feeling well, and I don't know if she saw an article or something. She said, well, why don't you try giving up? Just try not drinking for a little while because I love to party and drink alcohol. And she said, why don't you give up alcohol for a little while and give up meat and see how that makes you feel? So she she does not remember ever telling me, that's great. As a mom who to this day still drinks alcohol and eats me. Right? But but, you know, she doesn't ever remember telling me that. But I did that, and I told my friends I was going to do that for a month, and, but I started to feel better. So then I started telling my friends I was going to do that for three months. And then my friends started asking me later on, hey, isn't three months up like, when are you going to say, when are you going to start drinking with us again? And, and, but I never did. Yeah. To this date, I have not had a drink or I have not eaten meat since that time. Really? 1994. Yeah. Oh, okay. Good for you. But unfortunately, what I did do is I probably stopped using the walk a little bit, and I started getting cheese pizzas, and I started, you know, I continued eating candy bars and I would still go out for ice cream, or I would get Ben and Jerry's and and, you know, I found, unfortunately, all of the vegetarian foods that I could eat that would basically bring me back to my, my heaviest weight and beyond. Yeah, I did that one, too. I absolutely went vegetarian. And not a good way either. Okay. And then so bring me to your your up call. What happened? So then you fast forward there from 1990 for, you know, going on through finishing college and is starting a career and then getting married, and then starting a family. My wife and I by now, October of 2005, I was, my wife and I had our son, Evan, who's our oldest, and she was pregnant with our with our second son who was on the way. And I applied for a life insurance policy. And, you know, I did that just to increase, you know, my, my life insurance so that if something happened to me as a dad, you know, I knew that my family would be able to take care of themselves, at least for some period of time. I used to joke until until Kathy found someone. Someone who's your beautiful wife? She is. I saw on your Instagram. She is lovely. Yeah. Fantastic. So. So, I apply for this life insurance policy, 20 year term life insurance policy. And I was denied. And that was my humongous wake up call. You were 33. I was 33 years old. And I knew how they determine these things. There wasn't someone there who was reading my application and who was saying, oh, you know, how much should we charge this guy for his insurance? No. They plugged in all of my health data. They had someone come to the house and do like a in person physical. They did a blood draw. You know, they weighed me. They measured my height. They did everything. And they also asked for all of my previous medical records. So I had to go to my doctor and I had to authorize sign a release form. And then they faxed over all my medical records. So I know that this insurance company basically plugged in all of my information. And the answer that came back from their algorithm was this this guy is not going to live for 20 years. Well, like a bad that they didn't put me in a high risk category. They didn't just try to charge me extra. They said, no, I'm sorry, we can't offer you 20 years of life insurance. And and they didn't say because we don't think you could live for another 20 years. But I knew what that meant. And the scariest part is, I didn't know if the machine spit out four years or 19 years or what. Right? Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. So, so the and the reason but because I have a share that is by this point I weighed 360 pounds. I was on medication for high blood pressure. I had high cholesterol. I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. I would get frequent migraine headaches. I was on a prescription medication to try to prevent migraines from happening, and then I had another prescription medication to take once the migraine did hit, even though I was on that other medication, and I had eczema on my fingers. I don't know if that factored into the life insurance, but it but it had been there for the majority of my 33 year life. Even as a kid. I was going to the dermatologist trying to get my fingers fixed, and then I had developed psoriasis on the back of my neck, which I later learned is an autoimmune condition I didn't even know at the time. I just thought I had these annoying, like, kind of scaly, you know, like things on the back of my neck that would sometimes itch, would often itch and would sometimes bleed. And and I guess they just put all this together. Combine that with my BMI and my in my, in my history and and it wasn't good. The the weird thing is, any one of these conditions I could talk to friends about, I had other friends who were on blood pressure medication in the in their 30s. I had other friends who were overweight. I had other friends with high cholesterol. I don't know if I had anyone, any friends my age with sleep apnea, but but certainly none of these things were completely unheard of. I think what happened to me was I had all of those things, and I had them all at the same time. And. Yeah, and and it was scary. And it forced me to take a look at like, what was my life really like, like kind of like, what the hell am I doing? Did you talk to your wife about this? Like, you know, I did you have a discussion? What happened after this? You know, she she's always very. She's very caring and very compassionate, and and she might have taken the position of. Oh, that insurance company doesn't know what they're talking about. Yeah. You know, I'm grateful that I didn't take that position. You know, she was always supportive. She's like, you know, we'll figure it out. We'll do something. And I just told her, I said, I have to do something. Like, I have to figure this out. I have to change. And. And what happened? Did you make change? I said, okay. Well. You know, but the things that were going on in my mind at that time are some of the most, most they're really the things that sparked my transformation. Because having this, this third party is just a validation of what was really happening in life. Right? Like at 360 pounds, there are simple things that I couldn't do, like sit in armchairs. You know, it sounds so simple, right? But but I was at work and I was working, trying to be a professional. And I would have meetings in conference rooms. And you go in meetings in conference rooms and most of the chairs around the table are armchairs. And I would have to go to the meeting rooms early and I would have to look, you know, they usually had a stack of regular chairs in the corner in case they overflowed the room. And but I would go early and I would switch out 1 or 2, one of the arm chairs for a regular chair so that I could arrive at the meeting and just sit down and not have to do that, like it's this kind of behind the scenes, you know, stress that was going on. And, in my mind and wondering, you know, like, like, how long am I going to be able to do that? And what kind of person am I going to am I going to be? And what kind of father am I going to be for, for my kids who I'm so excited to bring into the world that I want to make sure that they're okay if I'm not around? Well, I might not be around, you know, like that, right? That was not a good it wasn't a good thought process for me and it wasn't a good option. I can't imagine that. I just can't even imagine that. Like. And you were so young and so what? What did how did you find your way to whole food plant based eating? Yeah. So so I set a New Year's resolution because it was close enough to the end of the year. You know, October it's it's right around the corner. And I said that I was going to figure out how to lose 50 pounds in the year of 2006, and I chose 50 pounds because I figured a guy my size should be able to lose 10 pounds a month. And you're tall too, right? Yeah, I'm six foot four. Yeah. So I should be able to lose 10 pounds a month. But why don't I give myself a couple free months just in case, you know? So. So I didn't say I was going to lose 60 pounds. I said I'm going to lose, 50 pounds and wait. No, 5 pounds a month, right? Right. Yeah. I'm sorry I said I was going to be able to lose 5 pounds a month, not 10 pounds a month. I'm sorry. Okay. And and, and but I didn't know how I was going to do that, so I knew I was going to give up sweets. I knew they weren't helping me. That included ice cream and cookies and birthday cakes and everything. And I was going to give up sodas, and I started with that, and I was going to kind of see how that went. So I. I stuck to it. I didn't have any sweets. I didn't drink any sodas for the first three months of 2006. And I kept myself hungry. And when by doing that, what I mean is I ate, I tried eating less. You know, I didn't necessarily make a big change in what I was eating, but I tried eating less and I didn't lose any weight. And that was almost as devastating for me, like just watching the scale not move, even though I thought I was making some some positive changes or some things that would help. Was almost as frustrating as being denied that insurance policy, but, I kept searching. I was determined, so I started searching the internet for vegetarian weight loss. And Doctor Joel Furman's book Eater Live popped up for me on Amazon. And what was really cool about that for me is that on the front cover it says fast and sustained weight loss. So I was like, hey, that's that's. Pretty good for me. Exactly what I'm looking for. Right? But the best thing was when I read the comments, you know, that the reviews that people wrote, almost no one talked about weight loss. Everyone there was talking about getting healthy. People were talking about getting off their medications and reversing diabetes and and reversing heart disease. And, you know, their blood pressure coming down and all of these other things. And it made me think I was like, wait, I don't really want to just lose weight. Like I wonder what the insurance company would do if I just lost weight. If I still had all these medical conditions, they might not even care that I lost weight. What I really want to do is I want to get healthy, and that really locked it in that that was the right that was in the book for me. Was that it to live? Well? Yes it was. Yeah. That was it to live and it was the first edition. And, you know, spoiler alert, I'm super proud that the, the second edition that came out a few years later than featured my story, because. Oh, that's so cool. That's very exciting. I thought that was yeah, I thought that was the coolest because, you know, the the, I just bought that first book and I just read it and I kept rereading it, and I read the frequently asked questions that were in the back of the book, and I would go to Doctor Furman's website and I would read the success stories from other people who had been doing, you know, following, his method and, and, it was also it was all perfectly written, like it was written towards me. He debunked all of these other diets that I had tried, but the core message that I took from the book was, eat more fruit, eat more vegetables, eat beans, some nuts and seeds. And, and and you. Just eat everything else. Right. And oils. Yes. Right. And but also it had, recipes in it. And did you just start cooking the recipes every day or. I. Didn't. What did you do? Recipes. I started with adding fruits and vegetables because my. Okay, tell me specifically what you did I will. Oh yeah, I'll tell you exactly. So my take home message was I needed to eat more fruits and vegetables every day than I ate the day before, and that's what I concentrated on. I didn't start by giving things up. In fact, I still went out to lunch with my friends at work and I had pizza. But instead of just having pizza, I would order a large entree side salad sized salad with no dressing because again, it was the fruits, the vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds that I was eating. It wasn't salad dressing. Salad dressing was also a highly processed food. As you're saying. It contains oil and other calorie dense things. So I was getting dry salads and I would eat the whole dry salad first, and then I would still have some pizza. This is very early, right? I never really used to eat breakfast, but at work they had this cafeteria and they had all this chopped fruit on this, on this bar, and you could just put it in a container and then you pay by weight. Right. So, so if my goal was to eat more fruits and vegetables every day, I started having fruit for breakfast and I was walking to the cafeteria. I always used to walk with a friend, Mike, to the cafeteria, and we would get coffee. Right? So now as I walked, I was walking with him one day and I said, hey, I'm reading this book. And it said, the more fruits and vegetables that you eat, the healthier you will be. And Mike said to me, he looked at me. He said, duh. Like he acted like everyone knew that. But like, yeah. He saw me. That was like. That was like revolutionary. Like we all I have to do is eat more fruits and vegetables. Like, wow, that's sad that that was a revolution. But but, you know, I was kind of normal, you know, at least in some part of the world. But. So I started getting fruit and I would get, you know, about a pound and a half is what I could fit into this, you know, this little clamshell container that they had there in the cafeteria, but it would be cut up pineapple. It would be cut up melons. Sometimes they had berries. I would always feel like I got a good deal when, when they had berries, because they're kind of light and weight, you know, and they're expensive. But but I would just mix it all up and I would put it into the container and I would eat that. And eventually I started, you know, I took the cream and sugar out of my coffee. Then it was black coffee. Then I switched to tea because also, Doctor Furman talked about caffeine and the roller coaster that it puts you on and how it promotes cravings and other things. So I eventually ramped off the caffeine, but I stuck with having that fruit. Did you enjoy it? Were you enjoying having the fruit? Yes. Yeah, it was still it. I mean, fruit is delicious. Fruits delicious. And and in the past, I would feel guilty if I ate something for breakfast because my mindset was I shouldn't be eating. I should be trying to figure out how not to eat. But the problem with that was and I was so starving by the time I got in front of some other food is I overslept. Yeah, I know that one too. Yeah. So now I just started eating fruit for breakfast. It was delicious. It was refreshing. It was hydrating, you know, all of that. So then I added fruit for breakfast. As I mentioned before, I would add a huge salad at lunch. And then sometimes, you know, then the pizza became it went from being cheese pizza to vegetable pizza. Then it went to being vegetable pizza without the cheese. You know, you probably know we can get like the pizza places here that have slices available at lunchtime. They'll make a bruschetta pizza, which is basically just the crust with some diced tomatoes and some oregano and basil on top. And then they just put little spots of like fresh mozzarella cheese on it. But it's very easy for them. I would just ask for that without the cheese. So they could just take those those chunks off before they heated my slice. So then I was having a salad and pizza with no cheese, and then I got to the point where the salad was just as satisfying as anything else. And then I could just not get the pizza. So it was a it was kind of a transition. So then my, my breakfast became what fruit? My lunch became salad. And then, you know, just right where they had the fruit in the cafeteria at lunchtime. They had the salad bar, you know, so, so I could make my own salad and they would have black beans and they would have chickpeas and they would have stuff that I could put on there that would make it feel very filling to me. Filling to me, even though I wasn't eating anything else with my salad myself. Then became a meal and then went. And then when I went home in the evenings, you know, once in a while, my wife and I would cook one of the recipes from Doctor Furman's. You know, I remember specifically a roasted red pepper and broccoli soup that I used to really like. And, we made some of his eggplant dishes and stuff like that, but really, I would just have kind of like that salad, but with some more cooked vegetables with it. Did your wife eat this way once you started doing it? No. It does. She eat this way now? Yes she does. So it was very much I was sick, I needed to change. So I was doing this. And I think it's good because I was doing what I had to do to take care of myself. And she was supportive in that. But she wasn't looking at it as something that she had to change, because really, if she was going to do it with me. And then she decided she wanted to, quote unquote, cheat or something, I might have felt like I was entitled to cheat. Right? Like so it was so much better that I was just doing it to take care of myself. Yeah, I kind of had the same experience that way too. Yeah, yeah. But then when when did she come along on the transfer? When did she get on board? So then after doing this, after I was doing that for almost a year, then I decided I wanted to start exercising and I wanted to become a runner. And my wife was a runner. She. But when did I just want to know quickly, when did she start eating whole food? Plant based diet? Probably a year later. Oh, a year later. And I was, I guess, just telling the long version of that. So. So she was a lifelong runner. She was in, in, high school and then afterwards and she ran a marathon the year we got married. But after I was eating whole food plant based for a year, following the new territory and diet, then I decided I wanted to start running and I started beating her at races. That's incredible. And I was beating her at races while I was pushing two kids in the stroller and and she that's what made her want to switch. She's like, wow, there must really be something to this because because Anthony's never ran in his life, right? Like the the once or twice she tried to take me running as a, you know, 300 plus, you know, up to 350 or 60 pound purse. And, you know, I could run maybe like a 13 minute mile. And, I remember once there was a woman walking a dog who walked right past me while I was out running, you know, like, I never really tried to, you know, become a runner. But now, honestly, it was easy and it was fun for me. And the fact that I was faster than her, as someone who actually trained regularly and had been running since high school, she was like, there must really be something to this. Must be something to these fruits and vegetables. Exactly. So then she switched and and then she got faster than me again. Yeah. Which is really just a testament to the lifestyle. Exactly what works for everyone. It does, even though. She's never overweight. How like how what were what were the changes you saw in that first year. Yeah. So so that first year of 2006, I lost 90 pounds. Wow. So I blew away that goal of losing 50 pounds for the year. I got off, I was off all of my medications and even though I was still had quite a bit of weight to lose, my doctor explained that I went from being one of her least healthy patients to one of her most healthy patients. And I was just going to the, you know, the local family medical practice, you know, whatever was closest to my house. But, my doctor was supportive. She had me logging my blood pressure three times a day, and each time I took a reading, she wanted me to take three readings. So when I woke up in the morning, I checked my blood pressure three times, and I wrote it down so that she could average it. Then when I came home from work, I did it again. And then before I went to bed, I checked my blood pressure again, and she was using that information to see how it was trending over time. And she had me coming in every week because she cut medications in half. And then she removed one, and she left me on one medication and then got to the point where I didn't need medication. And then my blood pressure still kept going down. You know, it went down into and it went down from, from over. It went down from being too high even on medication. So almost like uncontrolled but still unmedicated to being, well controlled on medication to then being normal without medication to then becoming like ideal. You know, like it wasn't just that 120 over 80. It was down in like the, you know, like the low one hundreds over like the 60s or something like that, which you just said is fantastic. And I was so overweight, you know, I was still had not finished losing the weight. So, so she had no choice but to, take me off those medications. And then my cholesterol started dropping. You know, I stopped having headaches, but that's not really the kind of thing that you notice. What day that stopped you just. Right. I would just be like, I haven't had a headache in a while. And that also happened to me that, I also had headaches and I didn't know where they came from or what. You know, triggered them or whatever. And that was I had that same realization somewhere down the road that, like, man, I haven't had a headache in a while. I used to buy, like, bottles of Advil and Tylenol, like they were just, you know, my job. And that same thing happened to me. It's so crazy. So you. Yeah. Do you think, like, did you think like, oh, I shouldn't even say that out loud. Yeah. Exactly. You're scared. Of course. Yeah. So then so is that something that you completely got over or you know eventually. You know I probably still had one occasionally but again I don't I stopped remembering and they certainly stopped becoming a disrupter in my life. They were no like something where I had to leave work and go lay in my dark bedroom until until this headache would pass or until I could hopefully, thankfully, fall asleep and then wake up. You know, feeling okay. Right. So they just they just kind of stopped being something that disrupted my life. And I had so much energy, you know, in all areas. I just and I continued to do better every day. You know, we did start using more recipes. And, you know, now that my wife had switched. Then we started eventually switching our kids as well because. And how they react. They were young. They were still probably only two and four when we started them. That's good. By the time I would say by the time they were like, you know, probably, maybe like three and five or maybe four and six, they were fully, you know, whole food plant based themselves. They didn't they didn't really know. They didn't even notice. Right. They were just trying different foods anyway. And they were just trying all these healthy, you know, these healthy, even muffins and cookies and things that we can make with oats and oatmeal and bananas and, and and the vegetable meals that we were making were really good and, you know, plenty of guacamole and avocado. They, they always really like that. We would send them to school with an avocado sandwich. Right. You know, like they wouldn't think anything of it. You know, other people might be eating peanut butter and jelly or something like that. Right? Kids are eating an avocado tomato sandwich and yeah, you know, they're young. They didn't know. They didn't know what. And so what, how how did your life change after, you know, you got healthy and you lost weight and like, what ways did your life change from the way it was before. I became much more physically active? Meaning even little things, like I would come home from work and the kids were practicing jump rope for jump rope for heart. You know, they did that in their school. And I would park my car and I would jump rope with them, you know, we started taking family vacations that centered around things like, you know, skiing or snowboarding or going on different hikes or even running different races, you know, like like, you know, as a as they got older, we would just do all of those things. After school, we would take the kids canoeing in our, you know, along the river in our little town. And, you know, we just became much more physically active. The other thing that changed is my confidence changed and my my whole attitude and my whole demeanor. You know, I was much more relaxed in situations. I wasn't so self-conscious, always thinking that, you know, I that, you know, people would be judging me. I was just more kind of at peace and, and confident. And that was a little more. I became more outgoing because I used to think people would be intimidated. You know, when my wife went to introduce, my wife and I moved into our new house and we went to introduce ourselves to the neighbors, I wanted her to be there. And I wanted her to be standing, like in front of me because, you know, six foot four, 360 pound Anthony comes and knocks on someone's door. You know, I feel like I could intimidate. So. So yeah, for sure. But but with, you know, with, with five foot two Kathy with me and who. Sparkly. Yeah. She just love sparkles. It's just the neighbors next door. Not like, what's this big guy doing on my porch? Right. So. So, but that kind of went away because now, you know, I felt like I could be more friendly and. And I'm sure all of that existed in my head, even if it didn't exist in the real world. But but those are the things that were noticeably, that noticeably changed. For me as I went through and, you know, ultimately kind of completed this transformation. And what do you think like, well, you know, I know that there's probably people who are listening who are like, wow, this all sounds good. I don't know if I could do this. Like what what would you say to somebody like that. Yeah. So so change is really hard. But but that's what you have to think about. It's the change that's hard. Living this lifestyle or eating a healthy diet or, or is so easy and and it's just as enjoyable as anything else. You just have to get through that period of change. And in some ways, I think I'm lucky that I had, 160 pounds to lose because it took me a long time and I was motivated every, you know, every single month. I was still motivated to to kind of finish and to and to complete my weight loss. And by the time I was done, it was easy to continue this way because all of my bad habits were gone. You know, it took me a total of 20 months to lose 160 pounds. And over that 20 months, I kind of forgot, like what cake tastes like and what ice cream tastes like. Like I knew what my, my smoothies, you know, my my banana smoothies taste like. And they tasted really good, you know. So I already had replacements for everything that that I would have wanted to eat. And I had replacements that helped me to lose weight over this 20 months. And those are the same foods that are going to help me to maintain this now. I mean, we're coming up on October of 2025, right? So we're coming up on 20 Years later. Wow. It's this I'm eating the same foods that I ate to lose away. And now those are the same foods that help me, me to maintain that weight loss 20 years later. Yeah. And it's easy. I don't wake up and say, oh, man, you know, I have to eat fruit again for breakfast. It's like, no, it just happens. Like it's just normal. Like it takes zero effort or thought at all. But but when someone is starting, you know, they need to honor. And anyone who's supporting them needs to honor how hard and how challenging it is during that period of of change. And for some people who are really good at it and they're really discipline that that period of difficulty of of making that change might be 3 or 6 months. Right. And for somebody who's not as as kind of, you know, flip the mental switch as that, that period of change could take a year or two. But in the grand scheme of things, it's an investment that's worth making. Even though it's only hard, it's hard. It's going to be hard for a year. Like let it be hard for a year. But just know that when you get on the other side of that year that it's going to be it's going to be easy and it's going to be fine, and you're going to you're going to love it. Yeah, I, I feel like for me it was only hard for like, well it was hard for a while, but like the first month was really difficult because, I was scared to leave the house. I was like, oh, my God, if I, if I don't have my food, what am I going to do? And, you know, so there was some mental gymnastics around that. But I mean, and, and figure that stuff out. Exactly. Every first is hard, right. The first time eating out the first time going to a neighbor's barbecue, you know, the first time you go to see, you know, relatives that you haven't seen. The first Thanksgiving is hard. The first Christmas, sorry, the first Easter, you know, like, right, the first birthday party, you know, the first your own birthday, you know, like. Yeah, all of these things are hard. And I, I say that not because it's to overwhelming or to intimidate, but to kind of honor and respect the effort that it takes to get through those the first time. But the second one is a little bit easier, and the third one is a little bit easier after that. And then by the time you get to the fourth or the fifth one, it's just normal. And it takes no effort and it doesn't feel like you're making any kind of sacrifices or even compromises. It's like, yeah, this is this is how I live. And and it works great for me. Yeah. And I love and and and you develop strategies like for me when I go somewhere to a party or whatever, I ask the hosts what they're making and I kind of bring something that's the same. But just like, that's what I love about this, you can eat anything you want. You just have to reimagine it. You can make the same kind of even barbecue. I make it with soy curls, but, you know, if I'm going to barbecue, I bring my own. I bring my own potato salad that doesn't have, you know, mayonnaise or oil or what? I just bring my own thing so I never feel left out. But everybody develops their own strategies. And so that's. Fantastic. And, and and I'm sure you've done this as well. But, you know, I even, I usually bring a big portion of whatever I'm giving. Yes. And I just put it right next to everybody. Right. And yes. People always enjoy mind just as much as they enjoy the, the rest. Right. And exactly. And, my wife and I, over the summer, we've been going to these pickleball, picnics and they always have tons of fresh like it's zero problem figuring out what to eat. There's always cut watermelon where there's, you know, there's fruit or something. We just eat that. But then at the last one they have, it's like a pizza party and they have this. This guy brings a trailer that's a pizza oven, and he makes pizzas. So we just asked him if he could do some with vegetables and with no cheese. And for sure, we are not the only ones who are eating those pizzas, you know? In fact, they come out, they get put right next to all the other pizzas that have cheese and other toppings on them, and everything goes for them evenly, you know, like there's plenty of other people who eat the pizza with with vegetables and with no cheese on it. It's not just like, you know, like I'm, I'm a, I'm the weirdo or something in the group because it's delicious. It's good. Everyone enjoys it. It's shockingly delicious. So I want to talk a little bit, about your wonderful business lifestyle, telemedicine. So can you just tell me, like, a little bit what? What's the difference between this and a traditional doctor? Yeah. So. So, you know, after you after my own transformation, I'm trying to think about how I could help other people. Right? Like, what can I do? And I did some health. I fell in at first. I just shared my story as much as I could, with the hopes that it would help to inspire or inform or motivate others to do something for themselves. So I still love doing that. And then I was doing some individual kind of support and health coaching, you know, for some friends and for other people who have reached out to me and that was even more fun. You know, to actually help people to experience these things and to get over their own kind of obstacles and hurdles. But then I realized that even the people I was helping and others, you know, they were going back to their to their doctors and everyone was like planting seeds of doubt. They're like, oh no, you're not going to get off your your medications. You know, you're not going to I'm not going to be able to lower your blood pressure medication over time. And I would never I wasn't telling people that, but I was expecting it that once you get healthy, your blood pressure comes down, your doctor is going to take you off your medication. So I would, I would I started going to conferences and stuff and I met a lot of doctors actually, who really wanted to practice lifestyle medicine and help people to use plant based nutrition specifically to treat, treat diseases. And I met a whole bunch of people who wish their doctor would practice this kind of medicine with them. And you know, eventually it took me, I think it took me 15 years, you know, to to to kind of put these puzzle pieces together to say, wouldn't it be fantastic if there was a telemedicine platform where a doctor could be licensed in several states, enough states so that they could find enough patients who wanted this kind of care to to build a viable practice? And wouldn't it be great if a, if a doctor who had experience helping people to get off medications and to make healthy lifestyle changes in a way that would specifically treat their disease, could practice, you know, to, to a broad audience. So that's where the the idea came from. And what the doctors do is they practice lifestyle medicine. And I say lifestyle medicine specifically because that there is an American college of lifestyle medicine. You can, you know, look up that website. You can see this is real evidence based practice that has been proven over time. You know, with, with, many publications and it's been validated that you can treat so many chronic diseases and other health conditions with lifestyle changes. And those lifestyle changes include dietary changes. They include exercise. Sometimes it includes carefully planned timing of exercise. You know, around meals, you know, depending on, you know, for diabetics, for example, it includes, getting adequate sleep, avoiding toxic substances, you know, having the right social connections and support systems in place. But how you can use all of these things to create an environment where the body then heals itself, which is what I learned my body did, you know, without me knowing it, you know, by by changing my diet and accidentally making these other positive lifestyle changes. Yeah. Well, this is we're going to come back to lifestyle home telemedicine. I just want to ask you, did your eczema clear up? I didn't ask you that before. It did. So I mean, and your psoriasis. These fingers are scarred. I don't know if you can see it on there. No, I can't see. But these think my fingers were scarred. For a period of time, that even the scars are kind of cleaning up now, but wow. I used to be able to kind of shave my hands. The itch. So much like with a razor. Oh, God. Top layers of skin. That's kind of gross and then totally gross. And then what? I mean. How do you shake someone's hands when your hands are scarred up? You know, that's so sad. So they're not like that anymore. That's dramatic. Really. They're beautiful. Your hands are lovely. And your psoriasis cleared up. Rises on the back of my neck. Yeah, it cleared up as well. Incredible. And the psoriasis, you know, used to flare up and come and go. So it's. I was never on medication for that. I had a steroid cream that I used to rub my when it was bothering me, but it was kind of like those headaches. It's like I just never. You know, they just went away. Whenever I just one day I realized, hey, that hasn't bothered me in a long time. Well. Yes. So if we want to just wrap that up, you know, like so. Yeah. So 20 months after I read the book Eat to Live, I had lost 160 pounds. I was off all my medications. My bloodwork was all then ideal. And I reapplied and I got the 20 year life term life insurance policy from the same exact company. That was going to be my next question. And I got it in the preferred category. Oh my God, I didn't. Want to apply to someone else. Like I wanted this. Yes. And I honestly didn't think they would ensure me right away. I thought that they would say, okay, you've done really well. Let's see if you can maintain this for a year or two years, and if you do, then will insure you. But that didn't happen. They put me into the preferred category right away, even though they had my whole history. You know? So they remembered me. They they looked at your whole history and knew, okay. So they knew they denied you. Yeah. And that's such an incredible, inspiring story. And I mean, and just the fact that now you're helping people and you have incredible doctors at this, like, I know, you know, they really are like, we've had Doctor Nikki Davis on I know she's there. And, you know, just the fact that you could see these doctors and and they spend time with you. Right. It's not like your typical appointment when you go into your doctor and they rush you out and you come out with ten bottles of medication, they're taking, what, an hour to see you and running all kinds of it's deep. I mean, the first the new patient appointments are one hour. There are a couple of doctors who are willing to do a shorter new patient appointment. If you really if a patient isn't ready to commit to a one hour appointment. But they're, they're asked to focus on like kind of 1 or 2 issues. But even that the shortest appointment is 30 minutes. And that's a full 30 minutes with your doctor. And also that's 30 minutes with your doctor after you filled out our intake form, which of course ask you about your family medical history, your personal medical history, it asks you about your current condition, but then it also asks you all questions about your lifestyle. You know, it includes a three day food diary. They want to know what you're eating. They want to know where you know where you're, have where you're finding joy in life, what your social connections are like. What do you do for exercise? How long do you typically sleep at night? How ready are you to change? Are you interested in changing your diet? Are you interested in changing your exercise? Are you interested in sleeping better? So you answer all of these questions ahead of time. We require that that form is filled out at least 24 hours before your appointment, because the doctor reads all of that and studies all of that, including any lab work that you might upload into your patient portal, they do all of that before they before they sign on to your appointment. So by the time you're here talking with the doctor, they already know a lot about you, and they're ready to start asking you clarifying questions and hearing from you. You know what kind of things? What are your health and wellness goals like? They can start with that. And if the goals are to, you know, to to get off your diabetes medication or to or to get off of your blood pressure medication or to lower your cholesterol, they've already know what questions to ask you because they've read your whole entire history. So it's a really productive, either 30 or 60 minutes. And, we hear from patients all the time that they've never had a doctor ask them where they find joy in their life. You know, they, they like and it's I, I'm sure it's not because those other doctors don't care. It's because the system isn't set up to give them enough time to talk about those kind of things. They have to ask them, you know, what's your what's your, lab report say? And what am I going to do with your medications? And then I'm on to the next person. Yeah, it's really kind of sad. And you probably don't take insurance, do you? Yeah. We don't take insurance directly. So it's patient pay, but we try to keep it as affordable as possible. Sure. So a 30 minute appointment is $175, and a one hour appointment is $350. Okay. And after the appointment, we provide what's called a super bill. And we have to provide that after the appointment because that's a receipt. But it also includes all the diagnosis codes from the, you know, from the appointment, everything that the doctor recorded during your visit. Then it includes the treatment codes, and then we give that to you so that it's all ready for you to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement on your own. Yeah, we have we have some patients that are fully reimbursed. We have some patients who aren't reimbursed at all, but it's still counts against their deductible. And then it depends on your out-of-network benefits and all of that. Yeah. How much your insurance company will reimburse you. The other thing people do is they use their FSA accounts and their FSA. So so some people plan, you know, I want to have two appointments. They'll put, you know, $350 onto their FSA. And then throughout the year they can use that card to pay for their appointment directly. So at least in those cases, they're using pretax dollars because we're fully qualified. These are licensed and board certified physicians who are practicing, you know, real medicine. They can order labs through quest and LabCorp just like everyone else. Your labs will be covered by insurance, just like they would if any other doctor ordered them your prescriptions. If you require medication, you know, maybe decreasing medication. There are some times where we're, the lifestyle telemedicine doctors will put patients on medication, always with the intention of doing it for a short period of time. But they're really responsible doctors. They just want to lower everyone's risk of prolonged, you know, illness or disease. But the prescription orders go straight to your pharmacy and you go there, it's in a bag waiting for you, just like it would be from anyone else. And, but the the, the biggest difference, I think, is that these doctors are all living the lifestyle that they're prescribing for their patients. So you're not getting, you know, like I had my whole life, I had overweight doctors telling me, yeah, I needed to. Oh, wait, wait. Yep. Oh, but they. Couldn't help me. They couldn't tell me how. But now you've got doctors who have been through it themselves. You know, many of them have had a health condition that they that they worked through on their own, similar to what I have them like. But you have but, some of them have just studied this and now they've seen hundreds and hundreds of patients and they've changed because of the way that the, the recommendations they've suggested for their patients have changed their patients lives. And then those patients become role models for their doctors. But everyone also knows how to handle the social situations. They understand how to, you know, how to deal with eating out at restaurants, you know, because they live this lifestyle also. So you're getting much more than just a medical, medical care. You're also getting all of that kind of social support and the encouragement because they're not practicing this kind of medicine because logically, they thought that this would be better their practice in this because they're so passionate about it and they've seen the changes that have come and they can share with their patients, other patients stories. They can say, you know, I have another patient who is in a similar situation, and it took us, you know, x number of weeks or months or days to, you know, to get off their, you know, to make their condition. So they have a lot of real evidence and real information that they can share with their patients to help them. Well, beyond, you know, just, just, telling them to eat more fruits and vegetables, like. Just like. Yeah, like you did. That's it. It's that's an incredibly beautiful, full circle story. It really is. And, so I just want to ask you. So how old are you, Anthony? Now? I'm 53. It's okay. That was 20. Oh. That's right. That's kind of. This close to to have that first assessment wrong. I just have to make it through the month of October, or else they were right to not. I think. Well, they probably would have been right, unfortunately, if you hadn't made those changes. I'm so glad you did. But, So you're 53. What's your what's your best piece of advice for aging? Well. For for aging well is, is, you know, get the basics right. You know, there are a lot of really advanced things that people can do to, to extend their life and to and to live well in the future. And I truly believe that those things are wonderful. But if you're doing that on top of a shaky foundation, then you're not getting the most that you can out of out of, out of life. So what I mean is make sure you're exercising regularly. Make sure you're eating a very healthy, I would suggest a whole foods, healthy, whole food plant based diet and, and doing those things first and, Yeah. And just use that as the foundation to live a really wonderful, happy, thriving life. Thank you so much for for being here and for sharing your story. It's really incredibly inspiring. And I hope that, somebody will hear it and start to eat more fruits and vegetables. At the very least, I. Hope so too. Thank you so much. For having me. Thank you. Love the way you you share so much incredible information that really is helping people to live healthier and happier. And I'm just happy to contribute a little bit. Thank you. You really did I you really did contribute I appreciate it. Take care. You okay? Bye bye. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well. Until we meet again.