I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
100: 20 Year Colon Cancer Thriver on Healing Through Forgiveness, Faith, and Natural Medicine | Chris Wark REPLAY
It's too good not to replay to celebrate 100 episodes, so here is our dear friend and supporter again, Chris Wark.
Have you heard of the Beat Cancer Mindset? This episode with our guest, Chris Wark of Chris Beat Cancer, discusses the profound impact of adopting lifestyle changes, maintaining a positive attitude, and making informed diet choices. Our guest, initially overwhelmed by his diagnosis, shares how he turned his life around with the help of God leading him to resources like George Malkmus' book "God's Way to Ultimate Health."
Listen in as Chris shares his transition toward healing and what he found to be core principles like juicing, exercise, and the crucial act of forgiveness. Faith played a pivotal role, and we dive into how personal motivations and a strong will to live can turn adversity into an opportunity for personal growth and intentional living.
We also discuss the creation of the "Beat Cancer Kitchen" cookbook, the emotional and spiritual journey of facing a life-altering diagnosis, emphasizing the importance of a support system, and the impactful work with the HealingStrong organization.
Whether you're currently facing cancer or looking to prevent it, this episode offers practical advice, encouragement, and a wealth of resources to support your healing journey. Tune in for stories of hope, resilience, and the powerful mindset that can help you beat cancer.
Connect with Chris Wark:
Blog: www.chrisbeatcancer.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/chrisbeatcancer
Facebook: www.facebook.com/chrisbeatcancer
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.
When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.
To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:
My situation may be my fault. It's probably my fault. I'm okay with it being my fault, right, I'm okay with it. I forgive myself for my mistakes and I'm going to change my life. I'm going to do everything in my power to help myself get better. And so, doing everything in your power and not making any excuses and embracing the journey these are all these again components of what I call the B Cancer Mindset Just embracing this new season of life. It's a healing adventure.
Speaker 2:You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. The number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week, we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host, stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 3:Everybody I've ever talked to that is dealing with cancer. I said have you ever read Chris Wark's book? Oh yeah, they all know about you. I can't tell anybody about you that doesn't already know about you, other than people who don't have cancer.
Speaker 1:Well mission accomplished. In the cancer world, sort of. You know, there are thousands of people diagnosed every day, every single day, and so it's a big mission really to reach those people who are newly diagnosed and they're lost and they're confused and they need encouragement and hope and they need to understand that their choices matter. The choices that they make can affect their future, can mean all the difference between survival and death, and that's, you know, regardless of the treatments they do, it's the choices they're making in their personal life, their diet and lifestyle choices, and their attitude and their, their spiritual choices. All of these things are so powerful. Most of them cost nothing. You just have to be willing to change and make different choices right, break your bad habits and start doing things that are really good for you. So it's a big, it's a big mission.
Speaker 1:I'm I I love hearing that. It makes me feel really good when I hear that someone said, hey, I told somebody about your book and they already knew about it. You know, whatever it's like, that's great. You know, I'm reaching the people that I'm trying to reach, but it is, you know, it's just a constant stream right of newly diagnosed people every single day, and then, of course you got the whole, the whole other group of people that don't have cancer, but they're on the path. You know what I mean they're. They're they're headed down cancer road with their diet and lifestyle eating too much junk food, too much fast food, processed food, meat, dairy, sugar, salt, smoking, cigarettes, taking pharmaceutical drugs, drinking too much alcohol, living in a state of bitterness and anger and resentment, envy, jealousy, prejudice All of these things right. All of these things contribute to disease and a short life. So I'm trying to reach that group of people too, right People?
Speaker 1:who do not have cancer, but one out of every two men, one out of every three women are predicted to get it in their lifetime. So if you're not serious about cancer prevention, boy, you should be.
Speaker 3:When I got my diagnosis that I had stage four melanoma, I did what every good American does you Google about it. It was not a good thing. I found out I had just a month or two to live. So I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I've got to make all these videos for my kids for their wedding day or graduations or whatever it is. It's a little bit overwhelming. You've been tagged, you've got cancer, and what are you going to do about it? So I went through the operation, got that taken care of, and they were shocked that it hadn't spread. But then, after that, I started Googling. You know some answers and of course, you came up with the Square One program that you've got, and so I went through that. And that's quite amazing. You're a researcher by nature, I take it.
Speaker 1:Well, I know, I didn't used to be. I was not a researcher before cancer.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:I was not. You know, I was in real estate and I'm a musician. And so you know, in the daytime I was out working on houses and renovating houses and trying to build a business in the real estate investing world, you know, sort of being a landlord and a maintenance man and everything. And then at night I was spending two or three, four nights a week, you know, writing music and playing shows and going on tour and playing in other cities. You know, it's just that's what I was doing, I wasn't researching anything.
Speaker 1:But then the cancer diagnosis, you know, just completely derailed my life. And I read one book, god's Way to Ultimate Health, by George Malcomus, that was sent to me by a friend of my dad. George Malcomus, that was sent to me by a friend of my dad, and that book completely, you know, sort of set me on a new path because it opened my eyes to this world of health and healing, natural healing, holistic health and raw food and juicing and the concept that I call overdosing on nutrition, which is taking massive, radical action and just flooding your body with as much good stuff as possible every day and trusting that in that process you are facilitating life and health and healing and vitality. And so it started with one book, and then it was another and another, and another and another, right, because I was just wanting to learn more and more and more, because now I actually had a reason to research, because my life was at stake, right, and I also was dealing with fear. You know, like, is this right? I want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:So I was looking for more confirmation. You know that it wasn't just some quack dude and made up story about healing cancer or something you know. But I found, yeah, just tons of books and resources. Back then the Internet wasn't helpful. Back then there was no social media, there was no YouTube, so it was just books and some cassette tapes and some VHS tapes Dr Wayne Day and Dr Richard Schultz, you know, and some of these old school cancer healing folks that were very well known in the community, in the alternative cancer community, which was very small and it was mostly just a word of mouth type community, right?
Speaker 3:Most people thought of them as like tree huggers and just kind of crazy people, right For sure, I thought of them as like tree huggers and just kind of crazy people, right For sure.
Speaker 1:And when I converted to a raw food diet which I did overnight after reading George's book I found a raw food support group in Memphis. Someone told me oh, there's a raw food group. You know, they meet once a month. It's like raw people that eat raw food. And I'm like, oh, wow, okay, and I went to that meeting and I went a few times, but it was just weird. The people weren't friendly. It was just very awkward and not very helpful or encouraging.
Speaker 1:But I quickly realized that the raw food diet was a diet for weirdos and sick people. It wasn't hip or cool. Like I said, there was no. Like I said there was no instagram or facebook. There were no. Like beautiful, you know young people on the beach showing off their you know raw food recipes and bikinis or whatever. You know what I'm saying like that's, that's what it is now, now that you know it's just been all polished up and it's much more attractive.
Speaker 1:But back then it was like, yeah, fringe, weirdo diet for sick people. So I loved the idea and I was so curious and excited to see what would happen if I radically changed my diet and just started eating whole food, unadulterated, straight from nature, organic of course. And if that's all I ate, what would happen? So that part was kind of easy. I felt like, I mean, I had the motivation because I had cancer and I was sick, but I also was really curious and excited because it just seemed so different, like a sort of a fun experiment. So that's where it started and the research started there, right, and it was just me reading more and more. It started and the research started there, right, and it was just me reading more and more and more. And then there was a certain point where I researched enough that I felt like, OK, I'm good, you know, like I know what to do, I'm doing it, I'm doing as much as I can each day and I really can't do any more than I'm doing. And I have to be OK with and comfortable with the fact that I'm doing enough. Right, like I go to bed at night, I know I've done enough for today and I can't worry about, oh, what if I'm not doing enough? Doing enough, you know, because that's a common fear.
Speaker 1:And again, there weren't that many resources back then too, and I kept finding the same information, like, from book to book to book, it would just be like raw foods, juicing, right, exercise, uh, lymphatic massage or skin brushing, rebounding, you know, and forgiveness, right. And so it was these themes. They're just recurring themes from all of the survivors books that I found and, uh, doctors and experts in the holistic health world. They're all saying the same things. So eventually it was kind of like, ok, I've got the common threads are obvious here. I just, you know there's little opinions and little different ideas here and little supplement ideas and different things you know, out there in the therapies there. You know I can still learn about it, maybe try. But I had the core foundational principles of health and healing. That's what I focused on. So from there, you know, I just created a plan. I worked the plan, I stuck with it, just took care of myself and, day by day, worked on changing my life and the diet and the exercise is the easy part.
Speaker 1:The hard part is your mindset. You know, catching yourself when you're thinking negatively and choosing to think positively, catching yourself in a state of fear and stopping and giving your fear to God and saying I'm not going to be afraid, I trust you, right, just like laying your fear down at the feet of Jesus Right, he's on the throne Like I was doing that and that took time. That's. That is a mental discipline, right, it's a habit. And negativity and pessimism and being judgmental and critical these are all bad habits, right? They're bad thought patterns, they're bad thought habits and I had to really work to break those and even today I wouldn't say that I've totally broken them. I still am tempted to think negatively and critically and things like that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I got a lot better. And then choosing to forgive everyone who hurt me was a big part of it too is just combing through my life and giving all of my hurts and all of that to God and, just one by one, forgiving every person from my past who had hurt me in some way, whether it was a big way or a little way, it didn't matter Like there was no one, no person was off limits. I decided on forgiving everyone and I worked through that one by one. You can't do it in one sitting. You can get a lot done in one sitting, but daily, in prayer or just as I was going through my day, and I would remember a person or an event or whatever, I would just deal with it and say God, you know what they did.
Speaker 1:You know how I feel about it and I'm choosing to forgive them because I never have I've never actively said I forgive Jack or whatever, right for this. So now I'm saying it, I'm making it official, because we often think that just moving on is sort of like forgiveness. But it isn't. You know, we all move on sort of and try to forget when people hurt us, so we just kind of forget it, move on from it. You know whatever, but the pain is still there, it's still lingering and the bitterness is still lingering. The resentment may still be lingering and forgiveness is an active choice. You know you have to choose to do it. It's not a feeling right, it's a choice. So you know, one by one, I forgive everyone who'd hurt me.
Speaker 3:That Jack. He offended me too. He's something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a real jerk. So those are the things that take time, that you have to work on every day. And you know, shameless book plug. That's what this book's about. Beat Cancer Daily.
Speaker 1:It's about working through the daily changes, the mindset, the attitude, the faith, forgiveness and the practical stuff like diet and lifestyle changes, like that's a daily devotional that I wrote. You know the person that reads that book. You just read one page per day and every day I'm trying to do my best to encourage you and inspire you and give you practical information to help you survive and thrive. So that came, you know, as a sort of companion to the first book and I wrote it just because I realized, you know, somebody can read my book and they can take a lot of notes and they can do, you know, get busy, but they're not going to read my book every day and the cancer journey is it's just one day at a time.
Speaker 1:You know it's like every day you need a little bit of encouragement. You know it's, it's easy. You got to remember to surrender your fear to God. You got to remember to choose to think positively. You got to remember to. You know it's more that your thought life and your emotional life. That needs constant monitoring. Right, you can lock in on the diet and just repeat it every day. That's like I said. That was the easy part was changing my diet, and so the hard part is everything else. You know, the physical stuff's easy, that's the mental, emotional, spiritual stuff. That's the hard stuff.
Speaker 3:Well, let's speak to the three people who don't know who you are. Perhaps they just got diagnosed with cancer and of course they're facing the fear now and the unknown, because they haven't done all the reading of the books and the research and stuff. But can you go back to when, just before you were diagnosed, you were kind of flying high, things are going great. And then all of a sudden you were kind of flying high, Things are going great, and then all of a sudden you get the diagnosis. I mean I want people to know that you're also human. I mean they see you as having all these answers now, but you had to go through that same journey and you faced the fears and all kinds of stuff. Can you kind of speak to that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it was terrifying. I'm not a superhero guy. I have a lot of information in my brain now because it's been 17 years, right, 10 years of really intensive research and then living through it, and all that leading up to the starting of the blog and writing my first book. So, yeah, I think when people find me, they think, oh, I can never be like Chris or whatever, and you don't have to be Like, you don't have to become me, you don't have to write books or start a blog or be a public figure, you just have to get well. Right, that's all you need to worry about is getting well. What all I'm trying to do is bring information and the resources and encouragement, inspiration and hope to people, to patients especially, and the right resources that they can use to help themselves survive and thrive, and so I think it's so important that you number one, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You have to believe that you can get well. You have to want to live. You have to get very clear about why you want to live. Do you want to live, yes or no? Do you want to get well, yes or no? Why do you want to get well? Why do you want to live? You've got to be very clear about these things.
Speaker 1:If you're not sure, then spend some time thinking about it right. Figure out what do you have to live for. Is it your kids, your grandkids, great grandkids? Is there a mission in life you haven't accomplished? Are there goals or dreams that you haven't even started working on? But you gotta figure that out. You gotta get real clear, because that's going to help you. That will propel you forward. That'll be your motivation and determination, like why do you want to live? What do you have to live for? And then, once that's established, you also have to believe you can get well. Those two things go hand in hand. If you have a strong will to live and you believe you can get well, that will propel you right. That is the fuel in your engine that will keep you on track, because there's a lot of temptation and there's a lot of discouragement and frustration along the way. That can easily get you off course. If you're not really clear on why you're doing what you're doing, why you're eating so much frickin broccoli, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah so you got to, you got to know why you're doing it. And so what I'm talking about I call it the beat cancer mindset. It's a personal responsibility mindset where you accept full responsibility for your life and your health and your situation and you're willing to look in the mirror and say you know what? This may be my fault, my situation may be my fault. It's probably my fault. I'm okay with it being my fault. Right, I'm okay with it. I forgive myself for my mistakes and I'm going to change my life. I'm going to do everything in my power to help myself get better. And so, doing everything in your power and not making any excuses and embracing the journey these are all these, again, components of what I call the beat cancer mindset Just embracing this new season of life. It's a healing adventure. You know, here we go All right, we are on an adventure.
Speaker 1:There's a funny expression. It's like you know, vacation plus catastrophe equals adventure, and it's the same kind of thing. Right, you're not on vacation, but you can. You can shift your mindset to any catastrophe in life, any tribulation, obstacle. You can look at it negatively and say this is bad, this is going to be hard, I don't want to do this, or you can just flip a switch and say you know what, here we go. This is an adventure. It may be tough, but we're going to do this thing, we're going to get through it.
Speaker 1:And believing that you can get well means seeing yourself well on the other side of it. And there's something that's even more important not only believing that you can get well, but believing that your life will be better after cancer than it was before. I mean, that is huge, and I can tell you, if anyone is looking to me for inspiration, I can tell you, without a doubt, my life is much better, infinitely better, after cancer than it was before. So cancer was not a life ender for me. It felt like it at the time. The diagnosis felt like the worst thing in the world and my life is over. But it wasn't. It was just a massive wake-up call, the divine tap on the shoulder.
Speaker 1:By the way, this belief was rooted in Scripture. Romans 8, 28 says God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. So if you're, if you are willing to exercise your faith and believe that that promise from scripture is true, that God works everything for your good. That means he works the bad things for your good, right? He takes the bad thing and he twists it and he uses it to produce something good out of it.
Speaker 1:Like you know, when a tree dies and you know a plant dies, it drops all this seed on the ground. You're like, oh, the plant's dead, but the seed will take root and grow and then you've got a new harvest the next year. That's just one of the laws of nature. I had a very shallow understanding of these things in 2004 when I was first trying to figure out how to survive, but I did believe that God was going to work it for my good. I didn't know that my life would be better after cancer, but I believed he would work it for my good.
Speaker 3:One thing I noticed that people have in common who have had cancer and are thriving is it's almost like their life is in color now, as opposed to black and white before, because you realize I mean anybody their life could end before the sun sets from all kinds of stuff. But once you have cancer it becomes more real and you're like my gosh, I got to do everything on purpose. I have to be intentional about what I do and you start thinking about not just wasting your days, but how can I give back, how can I make life better for others? So it's like been across the board, I've noticed that's such a great analogy.
Speaker 1:It's like the Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 1:You know when it goes from black and white to color. Yeah, it's true, there's a richness to life that manifests after a cancer diagnosis. Sometimes it doesn't, and that depends on the patient, right, it depends on their mentality and their outlook. But I'd say, most of the time it's like a hard reset and when you reboot you realize how precious life is. You know how much you have to be thankful for in the middle of the scariest adversity, right, you realize how good your life is and how much you had taken for granted. That is transformative. You just realize, yeah, oh my gosh, you know, I like to say that cancer just cuts your life in half. Right, and you got the BC and the AD. You got BC before, d after diagnosis.
Speaker 1:And you realize that your priorities are completely different after diagnosis. And everything you cared about before the diagnosis, most of that you stop caring about. You know. You stop caring about fame or fortune or success or material stuff, and all you care about, really you know this the the healthy person has cares about everything. The sick person only cares about one thing and that's getting well, right, you know. And then, beyond that, your family and and just basic, just getting your basic needs met, and everything else is like who cares? Who cares, I just want to get well, and so that's that's definitely the mindset that I was, that I had for sure. I just let a lot of things go. I was like I don't care. You know what's the point. What's the point in holding on to resentment or bitterness or anger. Let it go, it's just going to drag you down anyway. And so I focused on gratitude and joy, and gratitude is a superpower. If you understand how to harness gratitude, it's just so powerful. You know it's all throughout the Bible. You know it's just like give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. I mean, if you're just constantly giving thanks to God for the good things in your life, you got to identify the good things and say thank you, thank you that I can get out of bed, thank you that I can feed myself, thank you that I can get out of bed, thank you that I can feed myself, thank you that I can see.
Speaker 1:I had a friend, dear friend, who has passed away now, that I used to go to church with, and he played guitar on the worship team with me. His name was Billy Littlejohn and he was blind. He was a blind man and an incredible lead guitar player and he was blind. Blind and I would often go pick him up and bring him to church or to practice for the team and I just got to be very close with him and he was just such such an incredibly enthusiastic and grateful and joyful man. He was blind, you know. I had to lead him, lead him by the hand, up the stairs in the, the door, through the sanctuary onto the platform to his chair.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean, like, just think about just one thing that you have to be thankful for is your eyesight, and there's so much more. So I can spend all day counting my blessings and when something happens that I don't like, in just a moment I can stop and start counting my blessings and I'm over it. You know, whatever was making me angry or frustrated, or irritated or unhappy, I can just stop and be like wait a second. Let me just take stock real quick of all the good stuff I've got going in my life and it outweighs the bad. A thousand to one. You know, probably more than that who loves me. I've got a home, you know, food, money to pay the bills, on and on and on, even if I have a health problem. I. That's one.
Speaker 1:One of the many lessons that cancer taught me, and I think a lot of people do learn that uh is how to focus on the good things in their life and not dwell on the bad things and the scary things. In some cases certain patients will, uh will really go down that that um wormhole of discouragement and despair and depression, and it's really hard, it's really sad to see and it's hard, it's heartbreaking, but sometimes they just become more angry and more bitter and um more unhappy. I don't know how to snap somebody out of that condition. Yeah, but it is, you do see it sometimes, especially when the doctor gives them a diagnosis bitter and more unhappy. I don't know how to snap somebody out of that condition. Yeah, but it is, you do see it sometimes.
Speaker 3:Especially when the doctor gives them a diagnosis of you know, six months or something, and that's all they think about, and of course, the body just starts shutting down because it hears your mind.
Speaker 1:And treatments are so brutal that a person who is really optimistic and and is in the right mindset in the beginning of the cancer journey can get worn down over time. They're just tired of suffering, and I understand that. I really do. I understand that there's only so much suffering that one person can endure and still stay positive and hopeful, especially when it's suffering accompanied with bad news constantly and a bleak, hopeless outlook for medical professionals. And so I'm trying to reach those people too, because I've interviewed a number of patients who've healed against the odds.
Speaker 1:Dozens and dozens of patients who healed against the odds all types and stages of cancer, some after they were sent home to die right in the worst possible position to be in. Gone through all the treatments, they failed, gone, you know, get your affairs in order and people got well. So, chris Beat Cancer if anybody doesn't know anything about my website, it's not just a bunch of me I've interviewed tons of doctors, tons of experts and researchers. Interviewed tons of doctors, tons of experts and researchers and, in holistic, long-term survivors who have healed against the odds and have incredible, inspirational stories, and a lot of them better than mine. Right, I had surgery. So people can say, oh, you had surgery, but there are people who yeah, who've had no treatments and healed.
Speaker 1:There's others that have had all the treatments and they failed and they still got well, and so if that doesn't give you hope and inspiration and show you that healing is possible, I don't know what else to do. You know it's like I think we need to believe each other. You know it more now than ever in human history. Do we actually need to listen to each other and stop listening to authorities who are, you know, have perverse incentives, and those incentives are almost always money and control and power Under the guise of we are, we have, you are protecting you, we have your best interest at heart. We are the health authorities and the reality is we just need to listen to each other and believe each other and trust each other and share information. That's that's helping and working, and we can get through anything as humans, you know. As people.
Speaker 3:To me it sounds like I mean, you're a man of faith, you believe in jesus as your savior, but like before you had cancer, before you had the diagnosis, it's like most of us you believe in god, but you kind of have the reins and then all of a sudden, when the cancer hits, suddenly you give the reins over to God and it takes it in a whole different direction. Now you're a spokesman and changing people's lives for health and helping them to think better about things, and you're basically saving lives is what you're doing, because God's in control. Now, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's Jesus take the wheel, which is funny because the guy who wrote that song is actually marrying my cousin. No, he and I. His name's Brett James and yeah, so he's actually getting married to my cousin Melody very soon, so he and I will be related, which is kind of funny and cool. But yeah, but that's true for sure.
Speaker 1:I was a believer before I got cancer. I was really. I'm really thankful that I was really plugged in and to church and had a lot of credible people disciple me and speak into my life and really strengthen my faith in the years leading up to my cancer diagnosis I'd say about four years before my diagnosis. In that time I really grew a lot as a believer in my faith and so it really prepared me for what was coming. But then when it happened, then I had to really get you know. It was a major faith test Because you know, faith's pretty easy when your life's good.
Speaker 1:You know and a lot of people, they don't even really need God, right, they don't think they need God because they've got food and clothing and shelter and friends and you know loved ones. So like what do I need God for? Like everything's going good. It's only when you run into it. You know when your circumstances get out of your control, then human nature is to be like reach out for help. You know in your soul, in your spirit, you know there's, you desperately need help and it's out of your control. And that's when you find people who are not believers or who are just maybe they believe but they don't really act like you know, they're not really actively pursuing a relationship with God. That's the big wake-up call for them to be like okay, if God, if you're there, I need help. Like no, I need help. Bad, I'm willing to do anything. I'll change everything. Like you know, help me.
Speaker 3:We find it in the valleys, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so of course, that was. It was really intense and I just had to really surrender in a deeper way and decide do I believe all of this for real? Right, do I believe it for real? And I was living my life like I did, but it was just another level of faith that was required. You know, like, am I really going to cast my cares on him, like it says to? Do I cast your cares on him? Give god your fear and your worry, am I?
Speaker 1:really going to do that, yeah, I'm going to do it. You know, am I really going to quote scripture over my life and and search the bible right and read and research the bible and find the promises of god and grab a hold of them, say these are for me? You know, I'm claiming these promises. You know, one of my favorite verses that I quote all the time is Psalm 34, 19,.
Speaker 1:Righteous may have many afflictions, but the Lord delivers them from them all. Some versions say the righteous may have many troubles, you know, but when I found that verse I was like, yes, this is my banner over my life right here. This is the verse for me right now and I'm going to believe that it's true, that he is going to deliver me. And I had to just dwell on that and meditate on it and just repeat it and remind myself constantly. This is a promise for me and that's something that anyone can do. I don't have any special gift of faith. There are things in my life that I'm thankful for that prepared me for the diagnosis that anyone can do. I don't have any special gift, you know, of faith. You know there are things in my life that I'm thankful for that prepared me for the diagnosis, but one of them was being an only child helped.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it helped Because when you're an only child, you know you're independent, yeah, and you don't have siblings, you know pressure from siblings to do things. You don't feel the need at least me, I don't feel that. I never felt the need to conform. So I've always been a nonconformist, always charted my own way in the world and was never interested in fitting in, and so when it came time to say no to chemotherapy, it was hard, but it wasn't that hard. Right, because I was. I was comfortable doing it alone, without people understanding.
Speaker 1:I had very little support in the beginning. That's why I love Healing Strong so much, because it's like the support group that I wish I had had when I was diagnosed, because I didn't again. I just didn't have one. I had my mom and eventually my wife came around and I found a naturopath and I found an integrative MD and that was about it. I didn't have any cancer buddies at that time. So it was just a very, very small little group of support, but it was mostly just every day, just me and jesus. Okay, he's pretty good support. Yeah, that was it. I mean, that's how I felt, like it's just me and you, jesus, I ain't got nobody else. Yeah, everybody thinks I'm crazy, so I need a little help. I need some direction. You might have to carry me across the beach like the footsteps call. That's right.
Speaker 3:I can relate a lot to you because I grew up in church and I believed in God and in fact I played bass on the worship team and things are going great. No big deal in my life. They make me stress out or anything, and I was always happy. And then, of course, the diagnosis. And suddenly God was more real to me, even though I thought he was extremely real, but then he came even more. So he kind of humbles you when cancer hits. Not that I didn't think I was a proud person, but I was. Yeah, well, obviously I was too, because I got more humble. And the thing is I was yeah, well, obviously I was too because I got more humble. And the thing is, I was on radio at the time and I thought you know, all I do is just make sarcastic jokes. People laugh, I'm breaking their day a little bit. I don't really have a lot of value.
Speaker 1:But then when I?
Speaker 3:was talking about my cancer and I joke about it. I even had a little segment called Tumor Humor. I can laugh at my have cancer and I was giving up until I saw, you know, jim Mann was, you know, making fun of his own cancer and had a great attitude. And so he was, you know, as one guy goes on. So I decided to have a good attitude and now he's thriving. I'm like I can use just about anybody. Obviously, you can use a donkey, you can use any of us, and in fact I think I sold at least 200 of your books because people are constantly calling and saying what is that book? I do forgive you for not giving me royalties, because I have to.
Speaker 1:Believe me, my royalties are very small. That's what you get when you do a book deal.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you taking the time out. I know you do interviews all the time.
Speaker 1:Where do you go from here? Well, I've got a cookbook called Beat Cancer Kitchen and, yeah, we're really excited. It's full color, beautiful, 125 recipes all plant-based, whole food, plant-based recipes. We're really excited about it. I mean, there's just so many incredible delicious recipes. My wife and I are she's a co-author, we worked on it together and yeah, that's exactly what I need.
Speaker 3:I need someone to tell me exactly what to do in the kitchen, because I'm not yeah, we are.
Speaker 1:My audience has been begging for a cookbook for years. I'm just like, oh, I don't want to write a cookbook.
Speaker 3:You know, it just seemed like a lot of work and but we got it done Well I time and I'm I'm really glad that you are closely related to healing strong. It's a great organization and it's it's kind of the way I'm giving back. There was not a group in my area so I thought I'm not really a leader, but I jumped in and became a leader and I'm actually learning from the group probably more than they're learning and we've always worked, yeah, yeah, and of course, they all know who you are. They've all read your book.
Speaker 1:And look, can I just say you're making my point like we learn from each other. Yes, you know, that's the thing. It's like we don't need leaders telling us everything we need to know and do Right, we just need to get together Right. Everybody brings a level of experience and expertise to the table. Yeah, I mean I've learned so much. I mean everything that I know. I didn't just learn it from the trees, I learned it from other people. I learned it from other survivors and doctors and scientists. That's where I learned from, and I didn't learn it from politicians. I didn't learn it from the CDC, so I learned it from real people who care and have no motives other than helping others. And so thank you for being a Healing Strong leader, jim. It's just so awesome that you do that, and I just love the organization. I love everybody involved with it. It's just such a great thing and I'm excited. We're talking about Susie and I have been talking about, you know, expanding Healing Strong and doing something that serves people on an even higher level.
Speaker 3:And so you got a beautiful family, two little daughters, right? How old are they now? Man?
Speaker 1:they're not even little anymore, no, 16 and 13. Oh no, so 13. Oh no. So the 13 year old still got some growing to do, but the 16 year old she's like full grown man. Yeah, I mean, she's just a young lady now and it's like I love her so much. They're both just such great kids and fun and funny and beautiful and smart and they're just.
Speaker 1:You know, and when I had cancer I had no children. Yeah, and that's really one thing that kicked my butt into gear was I wanted to be a dad. I didn't know how much time I had left right, and so I asked my wife if we could start a family, and she made the courageous decision to say yes, she loved me so much. You know it gets me teared up, but yeah, she loved me so much that she was willing to start a family, not knowing if I would be around to help, you know, raise this child. And then our, we got pregnant, like right away. Her family is fertile, and so, a year after my diagnosis, I was back in the hospital holding this beautiful baby girl wow, yeah, that probably helped you mentally that.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, to be around.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, that's how I got something else to live for. Yeah, and I'll close this loop too, because I know we're about to wrap it up. But what I had to live for in the beginning was my wife, my mom and my dad. That was it, right. I got very clear I have to live for these three people. I've been with my wife for six years. We dated for no eight years, because we dated for six years and we were married for two at that time. So it was like I'm a pretty big deal to these three people. Right, I couldn't say that about anybody else, but I'm a pretty big deal to my parents I'm their only child and to my wife and we've been together eight years. I've got to live for these people. I couldn't bear the thought of them putting me in the ground. It was just the pain of that was so, oh my gosh, it was heartbreaking to think about that.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, maren, our firstborn, came along and I was like, okay, now I've got four people to live for. So people to live for, you know. So you know, full circle on the uh, find your reasons to live. Those were mine, those were mine. And then we had mckenzie. Uh, three and a half years after that and by that time I was, you know, pretty close to being out of the woods, you know, because that was four and a half years after my diagnosis, mckenzie, so I was almost at the five-year mark at that point, so the stakes were much lower when she came along. But yeah, those were the two biggest blessings of the cancer journey was the kick in the pants to be a dad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have a McKenzie too. I have a McKenzie, Michaela, Michael and Mason.
Speaker 1:Oh, look at that All the Ms. We've got three M Micah is my wife and then two, Maren and Mackenzie are the daughters. Yep, I'm the oddball.
Speaker 3:Well, for people to get a hold of you, obviously they just go to crispycancercom and you can spend days there listening to videos, different things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a free site. There's tons of articles and videos and the very first post on there is how to get started, like where to start, because it's a lot of information to navigate. So I try to give people a sort of a straight path to kind of get to the most important information first and get through that and get busy changing their life. And of course, the books are there for that and I have a course called Square One that's there for that too. To help people really change their life. You can do it Again, I'll say it I said at the beginning help people really change their life. You can do it Again, I'll say it I said at the beginning.
Speaker 1:I'll close with it the most powerful things you can do to change your life, to affect your future, to drop your risk of dying, to increase your risk of survival, the most powerful things you can do are almost all free. They cost you nothing. You just have to be willing to change your diet. Cost you nothing. You just have to be willing to change your diet, exercising faith, forgiveness. These are things that cost most. Most of them cost nothing. Eating healthier doesn't really cost more money If you don't, if you stop eating out and stop buying, you know, sugary drinks and all this kind of stuff, and coffees and all that you find you have. You have enough money to buy organic produce. So that's uh, that's uh, I think, a really powerful revelation that I hope people will get a hold of is the most powerful things that you do cost you nothing, and healing happens at home.
Speaker 1:So, whatever therapies you choose, it's what you're doing between between the office visits, between the treatments that's going to make all the difference in survival and healing. So I'm here we, you know, I'm here to encourage people to do that. That's going to make all the difference in survival and healing. So I'm here to encourage people to do that. That's what our community is. We're just encouraging people and loving on them and supporting them. It doesn't matter if they do chemo or don't do chemo. It doesn't matter If you're going through cancer. We just want to give you tools and resources and encouragement to get through it, survive and thrive.
Speaker 3:Chris, thanks for being on this podcast. And thanks for being on this podcast and thanks for all you do.
Speaker 2:Thank you, jeff. You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
Speaker 2:It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.
