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Is there more to wellness than a healthy diet? Dr. Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman’s new book Wellness to Wonderful is down-to-earth with relatable guidance and practical advice for a healthy and vibrant life. Drs. Pulde and Lederman bring the book’s principles to life in WeHeal, a virtual healthcare model built on their book’s nine fundamental pillars of health: self, nutrition, activity, play, sleep, family & friends, work, spirituality, and the natural world. As evidence of the model’s efficacy, the Florida-based physicians point to results showing reversal of chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, weight loss, and increased overall well-being. With chapters dedicated to each of the model’s core pillars, Wellness To Wonderful aims to guide readers from the stress and chronic illnesses arising from living in survival mode to a dynamic, thriving, and optimized life that is truly Wonderful.
Drs. Pulde and Lederman join us from Florida.
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Bios
Alona Pulde, MD & Matthew Lederman, MD
Touted as doctors of the future by Dean Ornish, MD and with their work supported by many experts including Sanjay Gupta, MD, Dr Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman combined conventional Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Lifestyle medicine, Nonviolent Communication, Polyvagal Theory, and Trauma-Informed, Somatic Principles & Pain Reprocessing to create their groundbreaking health paradigm. They have been successful corporate leaders, starred in the life-changing documentary Forks over Knives, lectured for eCornell, served as adjunct medical school professors and corporate medical advisors, and are NY Times bestselling authors.
Together they have co-authored six books, including The New York Times Bestseller Forks Over Knives Plan, Forks Over Knives Family, and Keep It Simple, Keep It Whole. They co-authored The Whole Foods Diet and The Whole Foods Cookbook with John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. Most recently they co-authored, “Wellness to Wonderful,” interweaving medical science, psychology, spirituality, and life wisdom to help people achieve lasting health, vibrancy, peace, and joy. They consult for companies such as Whole Foods Market and serve on advisory boards for various organizations.
Alona Pulde, MD is a board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine & Family Medicine Physician. She is particularly passionate about supporting clients with nutrition and women’s health.
Dr. Matthew Lederman is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician & CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. He is particularly passionate about integrating mind-body health treatment and providing second medical opinions for patients with persistent chronic disease.
After ten years of serving Whole Foods Market as corporate Vice Presidents, helping launch their national comprehensive medical & wellness centers, coaching and retreat programs, and integrated hospital and insurance networks, Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman moved on to co-found their new venture, WeHeal, which is the culmination of decades of learning and practical experience organized into an easily accessible program that does everything just short of guaranteeing lasting health, joy and satisfaction in your life.
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For More On Wellness to Wonderful
WeHeal website
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Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In
The Power of Fun – Catherine Price
Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff
Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy
How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco
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Mentioned in This Podcast Episode
Forks Over Knives documentary
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Wise Quotes
On Wellness to Wonderful
“As a blessing and a curse, Matt and I are always maintaining curiosity around how to optimize our lives. And that’s what led us to nutrition and lifestyle medicine in the first place. Focusing on diet and activity and sleep and a lot of the areas that we generally associate with optimal health. But what we noticed along the road is even in optimizing our diet, even in getting enough sleep, even in being regimented about activity, we still weren’t feeling optimized. We were – well maybe – but we wanted our life to be wonderful. And you know, we say that in the book and it really resonates with us. But in a world of infinite possibilities, why can’t our life be wonderful? And so that kind of sparked the journey to what would make it wonderful. And we came upon the nine different pillars that we share in the book. And we feel like each one of those is a key element in taking your life from chronic disease to wellness and way up to wonderful.”
The We Heal Model
“So the essence of WeHeal model is based on these nine fundamental pillars. We call them our pillars of practice. And it really starts with a self in a discernment around what am I needing? What am I feeling? What am I needing? It’s an authentic connection with yourself to even have awareness that things aren’t working the way you’d like them to. And once we have that discernment, that awareness, then we can start tending to these other pillars. Things like activity and nutrition and sleep and play, which is something that is so important and we have completely forgotten about as adults – at least most adults have. Then our connection, not only our connection to family and friends and work and our coworkers, but a connection to spirituality or something bigger than us. We are not alone. And so many of us feel alone and isolated. So just that notion of connection to something greater than us and then to our natural world, to the world around us, to the animals and plants and the environment that we live in on a day-to-day basis. And what’s helpful about the nine pillars is that you don’t have to get ’em all right. You just have to tend to them and care about them and, and use that as a guide. In fact, it’s a lifelong journey.”
On Play
“I think one of the most beautiful gifts that play provides us is presence in that moment. You are so absorbed in something that is bringing joy and that you are having fun doing. And it’s really, it’s almost impossible to be stressed and mobilized and play at the same time. And that’s a huge benefit. You see children and children’s natural desire is to play. They also are naturally inclined to be very present. And that is something that allows us to have that discernment as well. When we are able to look at this moment, we’re so many of us are involved in kind of getting through the day, getting through our lives, and we don’t look back and say, Oh, what did I actually enjoy about today? What didn’t I enjoy about today? What would I like to be different tomorrow? Play gives us that opportunity to practice presence. Which is the definitely one of the keys to experiencing life as wonderful. Being present with what you’re feeling, being present with what you’re needing, being present with your connections, being present with the experience of eating and, it’s just even the activity. When you’re present with it, it’s just a different experience versus checking up the box and worrying about all the stuff you gotta do an hour from now. So if you really want to experience that, play – it’s fun. It also usually brings connection with other people. And that’s really essential also to experiencing a more joyful and satisfying life.”
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About Retirement Wisdom
Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?
You’ll need a different portfolio.
I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.
Schedule a call to see if a 1-on-1 program or a small group Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.
Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.
About Your Podcast Host
Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
