341: Building Bonds Through Events: Creating a Strong Community of Wellness Enthusiasts

Maya Acosta  00:00

So 2023 Live is back. We are excited. We are ready to put a lot of this in practice and we're exploring the idea of having retreats again.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  00:11

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I enjoy them a lot. And, and who knows, maybe we'll even do one in Costa Rica.

Maya Acosta  00:17

This is the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast, and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me. Together, we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life, and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started. Welcome back to another episode. And today, Dr. Riz is Monday. Do you know what that means?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  00:42

Yes, ma'am. I do know what it means.

Maya Acosta  00:44

It's another episode of Doctor in the house. All right. Welcome back. Friends. We are so excited to have you once again here listening to us. And today Dr. Res. I thought it would be fun. To recap what we've been doing the last two weeks.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  01:00

It's been a busy month. Yeah, July, right. Yep. It has been so busy, maybe busy since the end of June.

Maya Acosta  01:08

Yeah, I can't even think anymore. But before we get started, I really do want to apologize to everyone. For us not having an episode of Doctor in the House last Monday, we were literally recovering from the last month and a half or so that has been like nonstop. The fact that we were able to pull off several of our events back to back is incredible to me, we came back from the National Health Association Conference. And we actually got a little bit under the weather as a result of that conference. And then we still had to plan for our events. So let's talk about some of those things that we've been doing. Okay, every third Saturday of the month, talk to risk walks with the community. It's part of Walk With A Doc. And we have a meetup group that, I'll add the link to the show notes. It's been growing. We are now at 288 members that have joined the Walk With A Doc Meetup group. And so you might want to join it as well. But we make announcements on the podcast, we have Eventbrite links, we post on Facebook, we put you know, information everywhere, but we never know where people get the information. So last weekend, the weekend before I can't even think but yeah, last weekend, you did your walk at Northpark Mall. Once again,

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  02:29

we've had our last two walks at Northpark mall because it's been so hot. And I think probably the next one will be there as well.

Maya Acosta  02:36

Right. And we have had people show up at our previous location, which is at a park at the village. And so people are still showing up even though we keep announcing that it's on North Park Mall. But make sure that if you are listening and your local you know anyone that goes to our walks, please tell them they're walking down North Park Mall, they meet inside the mall, by the Macy's entrance. And I'm going to put some video on top of this recording to show you where we're meeting. And it's still a great time. For this particular walk. I'm giving our WhatsApp members because we have a WhatsApp group for walkers. I'm giving them the opportunity to choose between whether we want to hear on now another health topic, or whether we want people to build community and get to know each other. So I'm giving them the option. What do you think? Oh, sounds

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  03:25

good. Let's see what they vote for. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I might mention that, you know, just think about it, when it's when it's 104 degrees outside, think we're probably not going to be walking outdoors. And if you join the WhatsApp group, that's how we communicate immediately before, so that we just reiterate to people where we're going to be

Maya Acosta  03:43

Yeah, it works out really nicely. Because if you're running late, if you can't find us, whatever it may be, just go to the WhatsApp group and message us. And also, if you are a walker, and you have not received a Walk With A Doc shirt, I now just place an order. And that's one of the things that I was communicating with at with our group is what size what color would you like, we want everyone to show up with a Walk With A Doc shirt. Because when we're wearing those shirts during our walk, we're representing of movement, a movement really in reality of encouraging people to be physically active.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  04:20

Yeah, it's, it's, it's fun for everybody be wearing the same shirts and it piques the interest of the others who are not, you know, not wearing the shirts and we have people asking this all the time. What are you doing

Maya Acosta  04:30

after the walk the next day we had we partnered with another pod and Anita and Meetha a fresco they go by green and fit fresco. We partnered with them to show a film at the Harrington library in Plano to show the movie from food to freedom.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  04:48

Yeah, that was a really nice event. I mean, it was a lot of people RSVP for it. We knew it was going to be a big event and we had well over 100 I think you Maybe 110 120 people showed up for it. It was very well received. It was a good movie. We had Dr. Laurie Marvis fly in who is the physician from the movie? Who managed all of the people in the movie she flew in and was our special guest.

Maya Acosta  05:16

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. You know that I was sharing these things with you. I put together a group of volunteers, while it included Anita and Meetha. And then two other people Rosie and Tiffany Bukhari. That's her last name. We were all in a WhatsApp group planning this event for quite a while. And we thought of different scenarios, you know, I don't know, I felt like we covered different areas, you were part of that group in the sense that you held possible technical difficulties that we would have. We had people you know, working out the door, making sure that people were able to find a see if they arrived late, like we worked out all these details, having the food. And yet we still had technical problems. And despite the fact that there were six of us that were making sure that this event ran smoothly. The movie kept shutting down. And it was really more related to problems as a result of the wiring or something related with the associated with the library.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  06:19

Yeah, well, you can plan and plan and plan but you can't always plan for everything. And probably one of those plans is for what you know, what you do when you can't, if something happens that you can't plan for, right. But it but it was fine. You know, fortunately, we had an extra cable and I was able to hook that up. And finally we got the movie going without interruption.

Maya Acosta  06:38

Yes, people were not really interested in coming back to even our walks last year, people were still very hesitant or afraid of getting sick didn't want to be with all the restrictions. And so now the momentum has started where we are having people joining our various groups and showing up and that's really exciting. Oh, right. So like the log doctor has said, many people RSVP doesn't matter of fact, we had 180 People that RSVP and the large amount of people actually showed up, we had a couple that gave testimonial and we had delicious food. And so that was a great event. I can't wait for the next movie.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  07:19

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think this was a good sign that people are eager to get back together and participate and just get together with the community.

Maya Acosta  07:29

Yeah, I'm so excited about that. Okay. And then finally, I want to touch on another event that we offered a was a paid event in collaboration with Dr. Colin zoo, who flew in from California. This was a culinary medicine workshop. It was supposed to be a five hour workshop. And it turned into six and a half hours.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  07:50

Yep. Our friend, Colin, also known as the chef doc. And that's why we had him join us is because he's also a certified chef, and a physician. So yeah, I mean, I we already knew that we was just going to be packed full of good stuff. And I think when we when we were planning it, we were first talking about four hours. And then we said now we need to make it five hours. And then well it turned out to be longer. And the good thing is everybody was flexible. No one wanted to leave and everybody stayed a long time and and had a great time.

Maya Acosta  08:24

Yes. And from that. So I'll give you a little bit of of a pain, a little bit of a picture of what happened. So the day before, the actual workshop, Colin zoo, Dr. Colin zoo flew in and we went immediately to the grocery store, we went over the recipes, and we went to the grocery store and purchase all the food that we were going to need, which was for me, very difficult. I am not used to entertaining large groups of people. So I actually don't know how to multiply a recipe that is designed, for example for four people. Because typically recipes are designed that way for four people. And so we were in the grocery store trying to figure it out at the same time we were filming video so that we could then package that for future things, you know if people are interested in learning how to navigate the grocery store, so we spent a lot of time in the grocery store. Then we came home and had to prep all the ingredients for the next day. So needless to say, do you remember what time we went asleep?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  09:32

No, but it was late. I'm pretty sure it was after midnight. Yeah,

Maya Acosta  09:36

I went to sleep at three in the morning. Oh wow. It's so caught between myself and Colin he was preparing the cauliflower sevi Chad because we knew that needed to marinate overnight. And then he also prepared the chia seed pudding because we also knew that that chia seed needed to soak in the almond milk overnight. And so we were preparing those things on top of The other things that needed to be stored, you know, when you come home with groceries, you have to sort of repackage things. You have to organize the foods in such a way to come out of plastic, put them with paper towels, for example, separate this abrade that, see if you have the right cooking pans and pots, and then prepping bowls everything.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  10:21

Yeah. And also just having enough space in the refrigerator for everything. That's right.

Maya Acosta  10:25

Oh, my gosh. And then one of the things that I want to mention, I'm gonna have the chef from whole harvest come on the podcast, I'm very excited about that. They ahead of time, send each of our participants to meals, that is part of their program. And so they send all those meals ahead of time. So that was also very tricky to store all that food.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  10:48

Yeah, we had a lot of stuff. Yeah, it was.

Maya Acosta  10:51

It was really exciting. I'm not gonna go into detail about everything. But I will say that I developed a nice partnership with the manager of the store we visited, which was sprouts,

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  11:03

right? Yeah, I think they I think that they would want us to do some more grocery shopping tours, yeah, at that place. And that would be a good opportunity for us to reach out to the community and bring people over and help them learn how to shop from a nutritious and plant based standpoint.

Maya Acosta  11:20

Yeah. So it was, I think it's a really nice partnership. He asked us for photographs. He wanted to put the photographs in a community board for for other patrons to see that this is what he advocates for. And he gave us gave us some tips on things in terms of reading labels that sprout employees put up for people to know, for example, what foods are gluten, which foods are plant based, there was so much information that we learned as a result of that tour. And that was a lot of fun. Yeah,

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  11:51

I learned a couple of new things about organic versus non organic how to tell from the label and then very impressed with how sprouts labels are foods so that you can quickly identify what's you know what you want?

Maya Acosta  12:04

Yeah, exactly. So that was a lot of fun. And then we returned to the venue where we did everything now aside included a lecture a couple of lectures by you, you did biometrics you were in we kind of described biometrics in a previous episode. But do you want to briefly go over it? And do you want to share how beneficial it was for participants?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  12:26

Yeah. So biometrics by me, Bio means biology, your body metrics means measure. And so quite simply, it's just anything that measures something in the body. And it could be something as simple as a blood pressure and heart rate. Or it can be lab values. And we did both. And we did some very specific stuff, which is really good for assessing cardiovascular health and health in general. We checked blood pressure, we checked heart rate, we checked hemoglobin a one C, which is a measure of diabetes, we checked glucose. And we checked a lipid panel, and that lipid panel included cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. So we had a lot of good information. I thought it was, you know, I think people were really excited about it was very well received, it was just done with a little finger stick, and one finger stick, and you got all that information. And, and people were able to get immediate feedback from me, first off immediate results. You know, so you're not waiting days for your lab results. And so we had immediate results.

Maya Acosta  13:27

I think that's incredible that someone just sits there in the office waiting for the results, and boom, there you have it.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  13:32

And we weren't waiting, we were talking about their health, a lot of people brought their other labs, and we sat there and discussed those, and then we were able to talk about their previous labs in context with the new findings. And so we talked, you know, some people had some, you know, very normal findings, others had some abnormal findings, where we were able to discuss, you know, potential strategies for rectifying those problems.

Maya Acosta  13:55

I was coming in and out, I was monitoring everything that was happening. So you and Dr. Xu were very busy the entire time. So I was in between monitoring what was going on in the kitchen, meaning everything I was really observing as sort of like, what would you call me risk event met planner manager, program director, I don't know what you would call me but let's just say that I was in between everything watching how the participants were receiving the information, seeing how busy Dr. Xu was in the kitchen, then I'd come to your your station and I would see you nonstop busy. I was also filming and photographing. However, I guess I'd like to know how well received that was what you offered. And you know, was there a little bit of a personal counseling and guidance about lifestyle changes? Yeah,

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  14:51

I mean, I think everyone really loved it. It was a great addition to the to the workshop. Because the workshop was about on how to cook healthy food. And then along the same lines, we were talking about a healthy lifestyle and nutrition and, and how these healthy foods can help improve your medical issues and medical conditions. And so it was very well received. And like I said, we got immediate feedback, I was able to talk with people right away about the findings and what they might be able to do. So I think it was a big hit.

Maya Acosta  15:24

Yeah. Okay, wonderful. You also had Marla ablin, who's a registered dietitian and a friend of ours, she volunteered for this event, and she actually stayed fairly busy. But one of the things that she the role that she played in terms of this workshop was that she was sort of your right hand during this. This entire thing.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  15:45

Yeah, she was very kind and came out and helped and not only helped do the assessments, but was also there to help discuss the findings with people because Marla is a registered dietitian and works very closely with a lot of patients and clients as far as nutrition and, and improving their biometrics.

Maya Acosta  16:03

Yeah, the purpose of those workshop was really to nourish our health using food as medicine. So the culinary medicine portion of it. So what was happening is that Colin was actually Dr. Xu was he was really cooking with whole plant based foods. You were checking to see how people's biometrics, you know, what the biometrics were saying about their lifestyle and what they eat. And then you follow it up with a workshop, prescribing food as medicine.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  16:33

Yeah, I thought it would be very interesting. Normally, I talk about cardiovascular disease and nutrition. And that's a very detailed and involved talk. But I thought I would change it up this time. And I talked about food as medicine. And very specifically, I went through different foods that can be used very specifically to address different health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart rate, and cholesterol and lipid issues. So we went through a lot of different foods that affect those and improve those. And then I turned it around. And so we've not only we look at specific foods, but then I turned around and looked at Okay, what about these disease processes like cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension? And what is a plethora of foods that you can eat or focus on in your diet that then impact those? Yep. So it i And again, people were just, they were just taking notes frantically and I was like, Well, no, it's okay. We're gonna give you the presentation. So you don't have to take notes,

Maya Acosta  17:34

right. So I thought it was a very rich workshop, we actually had to turn three people away that just cannot be part of the workshop because we wanted to keep it at 10 with Dr. Michael clapper being participant number 11, who came all the way from Austin, and that was really excited. He exciting. And so he did address the group.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  17:59

Yeah. So yeah, we wanted to keep it you know, we wanted to honor that we were going to keep this to be a small intimate group. And so we we capped off the number of tickets that we sold, even though there were more people who wanted to come and and then of course, having Dr. Klapper as our guest was like icing on the cake. And he participated. He was there to talk to people, he gave a short little talk. And so it was just a really added a benefit and value for everyone else. That does not happen very often. That's right.

Maya Acosta  18:32

Yeah. So we were really blessed. The other thing that I wanted to throw in there is that one of the representatives for our whole harvest was also in town. She wanted to participate for herself. She is transitioning to a whole food plant based lifestyle and wanted to learn more about it. And so we gave her a few minutes to really talk about the food, the company and her involvement. And then, so we talked about possibilities for the future. I know that she put me in contact with a chef that prepares all these meals. And like I said, he'll be coming on the podcast pretty soon. So that will learn his story and his inspiration behind these meals.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  19:11

Yeah, so that was a very good fit because they are a whole food plant based meal prep company. And they are SOS salt, oil and sugar free. And so it's a it's a it's a great opportunity for our listeners to get healthy food delivery service. And so I was very happy to have them not only, you know, present some information, but you know, give us samples for our participants. Yeah. Which by the way, I sampled myself and it was very good food.

Maya Acosta  19:44

Okay, yeah. So as I sit back and reflect on this workshop, and like I said it was a paid workshop and we have to in some, you know, some of our events will always be free and then of course, people need to be compensated for their time. And so we had three physicians in the house as part of this program, we had a registered dietitian. And, and then we had these wonderful lectures and content. And the other thing that I thought was very meaningful about the whole thing was just a sense of community. There. Like I said, one of the individuals came from Kansas City, one came from Austin, along with Dr. Clapper, who also came from Austin, one individual that we know flew in from New Mexico. And so the and so we created a WhatsApp group to allow people to stay in touch. And we're hoping that as we do more of these programs, we can bring those members to sort of continue to support one another. For me, what was really meaningful was that sense of community of people coming together of mingling of getting to know each other a little bit more. You can't do that in a big setting, like the event we did with Dr. Laurie Morbus, which was 110 or so people, it was just crowded, a lot of people talking, and we stayed till the very end till Dr. Marvis left, we were like the last four people with my mom there, too. So five of us. Were there. And what do you think? What was the what did you take away from this overall workshop?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  21:19

Well, yeah, so there, I mean, I think they both were very unique and different, and they serve different purposes, but they were both wonderful and excellent. And so the workshop, though, really, you know, I had certain expectations, and I was excited about it. And I thought we were gonna just have this great event. And it actually exceeded my expectations. In every way, as far as the food and the people and the community, and all of the things that went on, and how exciting everyone, you know, excited everyone was to be there. And so it was, it really was a great event. And I'm looking forward now to maybe creating more events like this, or maybe even longer workshops, like weekend retreats, where, you know, maybe we can increase the size a little bit, but still keep it where it's, again, I like to use that word intimate, where it's small, and everybody gets to know each other, and there's a lot of interaction and, and, and also, so that there's a lot, a lot of opportunity for the people who come to interact with the hosts, you know, and that was, you know, again, think about this, you know, the, the 10 guests got to interact with you, and, and Marla and three other physicians, and so they had those people, you know, again, it was supposed to be a five hour workshop. And it turned out to be a seven hour workshop. And, and so they had direct access for seven hours. And, and, you know, we were just happy to be there and participate and answer everybody's questions. Yeah. Yeah, it might, it might have been as simple as something about my sailing, which is, you know, not medically related, or, in fact, we even talked about more detailed health topics.

Maya Acosta  23:01

Yes. And at the very end, I was able to record some testimonials. So I pulled people aside and asked them to kind of tell us what they liked most about the, the workshop and if they would recommend it. And so stay tuned for those because we will be releasing them. But overall, I really had a great experience.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  23:21

Yeah, and actually, I thought I would mention without violating anybody's privacy, we did have a couple of people who had some issues that they wanted to delve into more deeply. And I'm putting them in touch with the right resources, some health issues, okay. And I'm gonna put them in touch with the right resources in order to further pursue those and work on them.

Maya Acosta  23:43

Yeah. Okay. That's great to know, because that was part of when you were doing the biometrics, I'd wondered what kind of feedback you got when you were doing one on one kind of counseling? Is, were there people that, you know, got the results and said, Wow, you know, I'm glad that I know this. Now, one of the reasons that I did the movie screening and had Dr. Marvis there was because we are always asked in our city, do you know a plant based physician that I can work with, and we go in circles about this? It's actually really frustrating. But here, were the participants with three physicians with different specialties, who were able to speak with participants about using food as medicine and then send them to the right specialists if they want to continue to receive support.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  24:34

Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of what I wanted to offer. I wasn't just doing their biometrics and saying goodbye, here's some numbers and goodbye. You know, I was giving them good, valuable information, feedback on the findings, what they can do about it. And then if they need further help, I tried to make sure that we can connect them with the right people.

Maya Acosta  24:53

Yeah, that's the benefit of about having that smaller support. It's almost like concierge medicine. but with a lot more specialists to support the person, so that was good. Other another thing that you just touched on that I'm really excited about is that we are exploring the idea of having retreats. And it's been for a long time that I've had this vision of retreats. As a matter of fact, I don't know if I've ever shared but before I met you many years ago, I went to a hot springs, in Fortuna, Costa Rica near the volcano, they have these hotels that are sort of around that are set up around this volcano that then releases these wonderful hot springs. And they have various polls, and I have have had all that experience. And you don't have to necessarily stay at the hotel you can pay to just have a day experience at the hot springs. And I remember one day I was having this kind of meditative moment where I was in the hotsprings. And what I visualize was a retreat center in Costa Rica, where people this is before I knew about lifestyle medicine before I met you, I visualized people going there to do yoga and meditation and to heal and to have delicious food. And I always thought of it as a week retreat. At least I was back then. And it's always been with me this idea of having a retreat. And so here we are, we know about the Blue Zones, we know about lifestyle medicine. And we tried launching a retreat early 2020. It was supposed to happen in April, and we had participants I had already subscribed and we had the location. You know, so we had the program set, and then it just, you know, got shut down, and we had to reimburse people. So 2023 Life is back. We are excited, we are ready to put a lot of this in practice. And we're exploring the idea of having retreats again.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  27:01

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I enjoy them a lot. And, and who knows, maybe we'll even do one in Costa Rica.

Maya Acosta  27:07

Oh, that's like my dream really. And then just to give you a little bit of a background, because I have been sharing with other people is that I have some training and being a facilitator for workshops, and I share that a lot with my coach, my life coach, because one of the things that I was doing when I was living in San Diego is I was under training with a therapist who had put together these incredible weekend workshops. As a matter of fact, the way that I learned about her is that I went to one of her retreats, transformational retreats, very cathartic. It was a whole weekend. And they actually conclude with a ceremony on Sunday at where you're encouraged to bring loved ones, as you're going through this healing experience. What ended up happening is that she offered additional training for people that have always been interested in this kind of work like myself, like I wanted to do therapy at one time to train to become facilitators in her work, really her her content. And when you met me, I was very much into doing personal work that was like the journey that I was on. And I facilitated her workshops. And so because I have that experience of what a weekend workshop looks like, and how you guide participants, and it's always more effective if you have like 10 people, not more than that. And then as a participant, I've worked with other people who do offer weekend workshops, as well. And I have gained so much and then you gain this connection with other people that go through these cathartic experiences. And so I say all of that to say that you and I are now working towards bringing some of that work to Dallas. Yes. So I'll start off first by announcing you probably have seen me do all sorts of promotions. But my life coach who has worked with both of us, Michelle and her husband, Dean Yasuda, are putting together a webinar. And we're facilitating that, that'll be August 6, from five to 6:15pm. central time, and I'm going to put the link in the show notes. And so they're going to talk about building healthy relationships.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  29:27

Yeah, that's going to be nice. The it's going to be what about an hour hour and 15 minutes long anybody can join. It's, they're doing this for free. And they are a lovely couple and our, you know, have a lot of good stuff to share.

Maya Acosta  29:43

Yeah, and as a matter of fact, if you look at the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, one of the pillars is about having healthy relationships. We know that one of the things that can contribute to deteriorating your health is being in a toxic environment and You know, toxic, toxic relationships. And so Michelle has been so good in terms of helping me and helping us to get on a better page. And this webinar is titled getting on the same side. And so it's about working as allies. And it doesn't have to be with a romantic partner, a lot of the things that she teaches can be in any form of relationship. It's more about the language, and the practices and the mindset, so that you can have healthy relationships, healthy boundaries, and all of that. So that's one. The other thing that we're working on with her is a retreat, a Couples Retreat here in Dallas, that's going to be October 13, through the 15th. So it's a three day from Friday to Sunday afternoon workshop. And we're only taking up to 10 couples, no more than that.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  30:51

Right. So, again, we're limiting the number of people, again, to keep it to a a manageable size, and a an intimate size where everybody gets to participate. You don't feel like you're getting lost in the crowd. And I have, we have been to some other things too, which were very nice, but they were quite labor larger. So they were a little bit more impersonal. This is going to be a very personal event.

Maya Acosta  31:14

Yeah. And as a matter of fact, in next week, Dr. Riz and I are going to recap, basically revisit the couple's retreat that we went to in Ojai, California, we're going to go into detail about that what that was like, so you can get an idea of what you can experience here in Dallas. So I'm really excited that we're going to be facilitating and supporting the life coaches in bringing this to Dallas.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  31:38

Stay tuned for next week, you'll hear a lot more, I'm going to put a link

Maya Acosta  31:41

to our Eventbrite page. So you can follow all the things that we'll be doing. So I'm going to be offering more free online live recordings and interactions. And so two that are coming up are with Dr. Colin Zoo. So the same chef that came here to participate in the culinary medicine workshop is now also moving into the coaching space. So the company that he hired to facilitate this coaching is going to join the call, and I'm inviting all of you to join in, I'll put the I'm not going to release the link, the actual zoom call link. I'm going to release the Eventbrite link so that you can join us and basically, if you're interested in knowing how Dr. Zook can support you in your health, we're going to do a q&a with him and hit and the company that's facilitating this, we're just going to answer all sorts of questions.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  32:36

Yeah, that'll be a very nice event. And it's free,

Maya Acosta  32:39

and it's free. Yeah. The other thing that's free that I'm also doing online, this is going to be IG Instagram Live is I'm bringing Dr. Laurie Marvis back. This is going to be on Instagram, we're going to do a live call. And we're going to talk about her new project. It's a cooking show that she has that she signing with Brittany to Rudy, and the doctor, Dr. Laurie Marvis. They have this wonderful relationship that they've created. And she's going to come on to talk about what to expect. And I really want you guys to join me on Instagram for this wonderful live call that I'm going to have with her. And it's going to be again, a q&a session. And keep in mind, all of this that we're doing is for you. It's really to give you more resources and more support so that you can find the right people that can support you.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  33:29

Yeah, I think Dr. Marvis is live events also going to be fun. What she's doing with Brittany Durruti is I think they're cooking together, the doctor and Brittany virtually, and then. So after the cooking, then and I think I think they invite the participants to also cook with them. And then this is relatively new, but I think that's what they do. And then and then you have the opportunity to ask questions and answers.

Maya Acosta  33:56

Yeah, afterwards. Oh, my gosh, that is so much fun. I've always loved those partnerships. Where is someone who is comfortable in the kitchen partners with a doctor? There's just so much value? I think maybe you and I should have a show. We have so much going on

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  34:13

to the list of things going on.

Maya Acosta  34:15

Yeah. So that's basically what we wanted to share with you today is that we are starting we're kicking it off this year, even though you know it was hard last year getting people just to come and join us outside for a walk. People are coming back. People are eager and excited to connect. We partner with other people that are doing events as well. So we just want to encourage community and networking and coming together. And so we just wanted to recap what we have been up to so much more to come in the future. Make sure you join our meetup group, follow our Eventbrite page and join our Facebook group because I upload recordings there that I don't necessarily share everywhere else and And of course, that's also another sense of community, anything else you'd like to share?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  35:05

Just that, you know, I'm really encouraged and excited that the walks or the attendance on the walks is there. They're getting bigger every time. And there's a lot of interest. And so people are just eager to get back outside. And that's a lot of fun. And it's the thing we have regularly every month, so everyone knows that we're going to do it, we pretty much do it without fail unless there's like, you know, unless we're going to be out of town or something like that. But that's pretty rare. And sometimes we even move the date so that we can continue to have them regularly. But that's our regular event, in addition to all the other stuff that we throw in from time to time.

Maya Acosta  35:41

Yes. And so the next walk is August 19. At 11am at Northpark mall, like we said, I'll put the link it'll be below so you can RSVP. Let us know if you're interested in joining. Other than that we're really excited friends that you tune in every Monday to listen to the segment of Dr. In the house with dr is Yeah, and so make sure that you check out I'm going to add another link and that's to all the episodes. If you only want to listen to Dr risks or when he's a guest on Mondays. I'll put the link below. Thank you so much for tuning in. Bye bye. You've been listening to the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast with your host Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this content, please share with one friend who can benefit. You can also leave us a five star review at rate this podcast.com forward slash H L S. This helps us to spread our message. As always, thank you for being a listener