​Russ Johns 0:00
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast where we interview #Interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

It's another fabulous day of the #piratebroadcast. We are here interviewing #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Also, I want to thank you if you're here live, leave us something in the comments. So we know what you're doing where you are. And if you have any questions, please ask them. Also, if you're watching the replay, love to have your comments, your connections, like share all of the social things that we do with good content. Today, we have Susan in the room and I want to welcome you. How are you doing, Susan?

Susan Wheeler 0:49
I'm doing fabulous. How are you today?

Russ Johns 0:52
Excellent, excellent. I was looking at your book that you just Release thehe lemonade book. What's the correct title

Susan Wheeler 1:06
The lemonade diet

Russ Johns 1:07
The lemonade diet. I thought that was a fascinating title. I just wanted to talk about some of those things. Also the fact that you have jack Russell terriers, and then you have a farm up in Connecticut, up in the northeast.

Susan Wheeler 1:25
Yeah, the northwest corner

Russ Johns 1:27
The northwest corner of Connecticut, all awesome things, but tell us who you are and how you ended up getting to this place in your life.

Susan Wheeler 1:37
One of the things I like to say most is it's never too late to change your life. That's what I've done. I'm a mom of four. I have seven grandchildren, and I'm a mom to three jack Russell terriers. We have three goats too, but I'm just a surrogate mom. They're my husband is all that. So I've lived here in Connecticut. My whole life and I always wondered what I was going to be when when I grow up.

Russ Johns 2:05
Yeah

Susan Wheeler 2:05
It's got a little older I was I just decided that I wanted to follow my dreams and my passions and and I'm interested in nutrition and exercise and really just being spreading joy scattering joy and looking at the glass is half full and always finding the positive. I've kind of culminated everything I love and believe and stand for into into a career and now it's a book.

Russ Johns 2:37
Wow. Wow. It's interesting too, because we have some parallels in our lives that are when I was looking at your your bio and looking at it and it was like, This is interesting. You also had kind of a transition in your world where you were doing big things that everything else then all of a sudden you had an accident. That changed the course your life. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that did for you or what it prompted in your life?

Susan Wheeler 3:10
Yeah, absolutely. There's nothing in my life all the things that I've been through that were sad or tragic or very, very difficult, I would not change a thing. I don't wish on anyone, and I wouldn't really want to go through it again. I don't feel resentful about any of it because it definitely helped me grow and I think sometimes, gosh, if that didn't happen, I wouldn't be doing this right now.

Russ Johns 3:37
Right.

Susan Wheeler 3:39
That's what I love about it. That's what I want people to kind of take away from every lesson in their life is that they are going to look back someday and and see how this molded them in a good way. I had this so my life was going along pretty well and I Had a little business. I was cleaning houses. We live in a very rural weekend community. Well, a lot more people from New York live here now today, I'll tell you that right. The last three months, but it's always been sort of a place where people who live in the city have weekend homes.

My business really catered to the New Yorkers and they would come on the weekends and then during the week I would put their house back together so they could just come and enjoy it for the two or three days they were here. I had a house that the balcony railing had given way I was cleaning the house was no one there. It was midweek and the railing gateway and I fell headfirst 14 feet from a bedroom into a into a living room and broke. I don't want to say every bone in my body but it sure felt like it

Russ Johns 4:56
It felt that way.

Susan Wheeler 4:57
Yeah, I shattered my pelvis. broke my back broke all my ribs broke my arm. It was a struggle to heal from I lived. I wasn't paralyzed, but it took me quite some time to walk and years of limping to finally to finally, I'm a marathon runner now.

Russ Johns 5:24
I was just gonna say, yeah, you went from limping to marathons. That's incredible. That's an incredible and that's a huge part of the lemonade diet. Some of these things that came through in the parallel is that I was a musician. I played professionally and played music and everything else and I fell three stories off a billboard and shattered my arm. Fortunately, I didn't, I didn't break everything, however, and I'm here today so we have gravity in common. It's amazing to say that and it's something that I wouldn't wish upon anyone like yourself. Also it helped form who I am today. It's definitely part of who I am and it's part of who I ended up becoming as a result of the tragedy.

Susan Wheeler 6:23
You know, Ross, I think when something is taken away from you, really want to fight to get it back. The new normal, and I was never a runner before. The fact that I thought, wow, could I even run again, people, thought, Well, you can't have children you shattered your pelvis and I had two more babies. I really believed that I would have probably never pushed myself to run if I didn't have something to prove. Then I found out that I loved it. Then the rest is history. It makes me feel Better to be perfectly honest. I didn't get use to that pain and limping until I became a marathon runner.

Russ Johns 7:18
Wow.

Susan Wheeler 7:19
Movement is so healing I think we tend to, you can think of this as an analogy or in truth, but we lick our wounds, right? We coddle them and we comfort them and we baby them and if we actually expose them, and challenge them it would make you stronger

Russ Johns 7:44
yeah, I became a firefighter after my fall. It's one of those things that. Whats was that.

Susan Wheeler 7:53
Did a firefighter rescue you.

Russ Johns 7:57
Yeah, no, actually, well Maybe, possibly I wasn't exactly. Well, I was conscious, but not very alert. It's really about the idea that we can do things, when you say you remove the can't from your life and start putting in the can and how can I do this instead of I can't do this, it really changes your perspective on what you're able to do and accomplish in life in general. It's really amazing. I applaud you and applaud the effort to go through this whole process and just breathe into it and make sure that it brings you joy, you say you enjoy running. I'm not a runner. I like to I like a bicycle once in a while I got into bicycling, and mountain biking and things like that. It's really different activity. It's an activity that brings you joy is really what it's about.

Susan Wheeler 9:07
It's seeing things I know a lot of people like to travel by plane. I do too, just for the for time reasons.

Russ Johns 9:14
Mm hmm.

Susan Wheeler 9:14
If I have a choice. All the time I would rather get in a car because you see things and that's what I love about running is because you intimately can see, see things. I'm doing a lot of hiking right now. We live by the Appalachian Trail. So there's about 51/52 miles of trail in Connecticut. During this whole COVID thing, I have been out on the Appalachian Trail, doing all the sections here in Connecticut.

Russ Johns 9:46
Oh, wow.

Susan Wheeler 9:47
It's so cool because I've lived here my whole life, and I've never done it. There's things that I haven't seen or the other day I was on part of the trail and I knew where There's a racetrack of mine rock in Connecticut. I've heard these cars near the road, and then it was the racetrack. I thought, Oh gosh, it just sort of logistically you don't even realize like, Oh, this is where it is if I'm in the middle of the woods and just seeing things from a different perspective

Russ Johns 10:22
Yeah

Susan Wheeler 10:22
That's what I love about the slow down a bit and biking although biking for me, I did bike but I had a pretty severe accident. My two little feet. they're not really little but my feet are right on the ground and no more than six or seven inches lift.

Russ Johns 10:47
Oh, oh, man. It's also interesting that you have a farm and you have acrichd Are you growing crops? Are you? Are you developing that property in some way, shape or form?

Susan Wheeler 11:09
When we moved here will be 18 years ago, okay. It's a piece of farmland, but it had never been farmed. It was a cut off from the main farm. It was with field. It basically had been paid. And there were animals maybe, but they never actually farmed it. My husband Went to school for agriculture, and a friend of mine had gotten very sick with cancer, and we talked so much about diet and changing our diet.

When we were here, I said to my husband, I would love just to be able to eat here all summer plant, Let's plant a garden and where we lived before we had a little garden but not a lot. He began he dug up this huge area, just huge and I thought well I just want to some tomatoes. We had so much that it ended up. We found ourselves going to farmers markets and it turned into a CSA and at peak year we were feeding 20 families a year from April to September, sometimes til October

Russ Johns 12:22
Oh, wow

Susan Wheeler 12:24
just vegetables we have fruit, raspberries. We have peaches. Blueberries as well.

Russ Johns 12:33
Oh, wow. Yeah.

Susan Wheeler 12:37
Yeah.

Russ Johns 12:38
It's so fun. Yeah. We essentially did the same thing in the northwest is we had the, we started a farmers market supported the CSA and also grew or heirloom potatoes and we had lavender and a number Different things. It's a different way of living and going out and being active and always having something to do. There's no shortage of, of activities there. I'm sure that was probably very healing for you in terms of your accident I would imagine.

Susan Wheeler 13:21
So, I like to divide and conquer. It's not my favorite thing. Our farm was on a garden of farm tour one year. I remember for six weeks before the tour, I probably spent eight to 10 hours a day, because the weeds are there. They're not very obedient. Then two days later, you're like, I just did that section.

Russ Johns 13:50
Yeah.

Susan Wheeler 13:53
That part I don't love.

Russ Johns 13:56
Yeah, I'll just be honest. I don't love what I do love is going to out I love harvesting. I think I just love the growing part. I love to watch it. I love to be part of it out there and in it, but the weeding and all that. The other thing too is my husband makes it look so easy. What what he can do in an hour would take me a weekend, something like you do that. I'll pick the piece and I'll make a fabulous salad. How's that?

Exactly? Divide and Conquer, divide and conquer. Hey, we have some people in the room, Susan. I want to bring up a couple of folks here. I love it. Wendy says hey, she's in there. Tisha from Farmington Hills. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I can. Hello, Captain. Yes, musician. Susan, thank you so much. Then Edwin. From Brentwood, Tennessee, thank you so much for being here. And the LinkedIn user, not sure why they don't show up here. It's just as hard to hear.

Susan Wheeler 15:17
Yeah, I'm reading that right now. Am I not close enough?

Russ Johns 15:21
Yeah, probably not. I'm not sure. I don't know if you have a volume on your microphone or not So,

Susan Wheeler 15:30
Hear that out.

Russ Johns 15:33
Try to see if there's a I'm not sure what mic you have.

Susan Wheeler 15:41
I just know how to turn it on.

Russ Johns 15:47
You'll just have to lean forward then. I'll just talk into that a little closer. Good morning, Sherry. Everybody's here. Windy. Good morning. Oh and I love the conversation in the community here. Susan. It's amazing. A lot of happy pirates. And now that you're a pirate, you'd be part of the community and get involved in the conversation. So good morning all. But he's in Iceland. Good afternoon that I should say,

Susan Wheeler 16:20
That's on my bucket list to go to Iceland.

Russ Johns 16:23
Yeah. Yeah, he's saying Could you please speak up? And there's a Denar. I hope I'm saying that correctly. Kathy Spooner. Thank you so much for being here. Kathy. I really appreciate you. Then Arcot is here in the room. Hi, Russ and Susan, all of those that I know. I don't Hey. So, Russ and Leah hedge. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful morning. Okay, and then Wendy. Yeah, a little bit better talking. Keep talking.

Susan Wheeler 17:04
Okay. It's louder in my ears.

Russ Johns 17:09
Is it louder than yours? You're probably turning up your volume. Okay. Lori Knutson says I'm not sure Oh, it's Laurie isn't displaying my name? Laurie Knutson. I'm not sure why either.

Susan Wheeler 17:29
Is this better?

Russ Johns 17:31
Yeah, a little bit better a little bit.

Susan Wheeler 17:33
I found another one on Here I'm always so worried that my It's gonna be so loud and you're gonna hear my dogs.

Russ Johns 17:45
Oh, you're fine. Well, we've also had the shared experience of having jack Russell terriers

Susan Wheeler 17:51
I got one sitting right behind me and one on the floor somewhere. Do you have any now

Russ Johns 17:59
No, I don't. That's not what I'm doing right now my life and so it's I'm in Arizona here, I'm helping care for my mom. Yeah, different chapter different part of my life. It's all good. I want to talk a little bit about the lemonade diet. What prompted you to write this book because it's a fascinating book and I wanted to kind of talk about how that fits into what's going on around us today and how appropriate it is, for people to understand that you got to see things in a way that are productive and positive rather than all the negative stuff that's, that's happening around us. Talk a little bit about the positivity And the mindset that you need to, that we can have that we can open up in our lives and how we go about doing that.

Susan Wheeler 19:07
Sure. As we were talking before, you had said it was an unusual name, a cool name. A lot of people want to know what the diet is, right?

Russ Johns 19:17
Yeah.

Susan Wheeler 19:18
It's a mindset guy yet. That's what it is. Can you hear me better?

Russ Johns 19:23
Ah

Susan Wheeler 19:24
Is that better?

Russ Johns 19:25
Little bit, okay.

Susan Wheeler 19:30
That's why I called it the lemonade diet because I always say mindset isn't one thing. mindset is everything. So if you can get your mind in the right place, you can accomplish amazing things. Because it comes from making a decision. It comes from not living in your past. It comes from letting things go and I'm not saying dismiss things, but he'll get over it. Move on. We can't live in the past. Right. Oh, It's funny that this book was due to be published April 1. When everything shut down, so did our tours and our book signings and everything we had scheduled. We quickly got the book published a couple weeks early. Love and hate tie being published in a pandemic is just another chapter. Right?

Russ Johns 20:26
Right. Right

Susan Wheeler 20:27
Do one more chapter. But I've been through so many things in my life, that when I'm telling my story, people are like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe that. I can't believe that happened. That happened. Hearing miling me and doing whatever I'm doing. It really made me realize how many people and as I as I work in my business, and over the years, so many people are stuck in something that they can't control. That's it. In the past, there's nothing you can do except move on, and they can't get out of it. I wanted a lot of people that know me that know things. Then they hear something. And they always thought that someone actually and I wrote about this in the book. I was describing something on Facebook that was happening. He was like, Oh my gosh, I thought you were a superhero.

I don't want anyone to get that impression. Because most people that are successful, that are happy and healthy and doing whatever it is great things they come from not such a great place. A lot of people. I think the most amazing people have had struggles in their life. That's the story you need to tell but you also need to show the end result to so there were It's really my stories of things that I've been through how I've overcome fear and loss and physical ailments and how I've become successful. I just like everyone else, everyone's had something, and I feel like they were dealt a bad hand. That's their story. That's where they stay.

Russ Johns 22:28
Well, I think it's really, I like the analogy of the diet because you don't have to make all of the changes all at once. It's a gradual thing. I wake up with gratitude, and I wake up with the idea that I'm here for a reason I'm here for a purpose, and I may not do everything perfect. Far from it. If I can continue to stay positive, make progress. Every day, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be progress. I can actually improve my life by taking action and taking responsibility for my life, my own purpose, my own goals. I don't have to be a victim I don't have to fall down and say help me up, fix me, take care of me.

I have to take care of myself and I have to take care of my own future I have to control and manage what I do with my time in order to accomplish something. That's more important in the future. I think a lot of people they want to be taken care of they want someone to manage that for them. What you lose is the ability and the opportunity to know how you feel, know where you're going and what's right for yourself. I think That's a missed opportunity in so many people's lives if they don't take responsibility for what they're doing. I applaud you for that. I love the diet because you don't have to do it all at once. It's an ongoing thing. It's it's a process. Right?

Susan Wheeler 24:14
Right. It's it takes taken me years to be where I am today. I know that it's going to take me many more lessons in years to be where I am in 10 more years, right?

Russ Johns 24:25
Yeah. I think if we enjoy the journey, rather than, if you learn how to embrace the experience, good or bad, it's just an experience, right? It's a lesson that we can learn. It's like, what do we take away from this experience right now? And it could be a good experience. It could be an average experience, but find joy in the moment findthe experience to be meaningful in your life. There's things that are going to change tragedies that are gonna take place and experiences that are gonna be happy, like walking the Appalachian Trail. That's a small thing, but you can find joy in that that experience.

Susan Wheeler 25:14
Yeah, and I do a little talk called the American mindset, because you can really take so many analogies from running and training for a marathon in your life. Like you were just saying the the joy is in the journey. Because the race is for four hours, right? If it's a good day,

Russ Johns 25:37
yeah

Susan Wheeler 25:38
If it's not for me that that's just a little tiny bit, but you're training for four or five months to get to that point.

Russ Johns 25:51
Yeah

Susan Wheeler 25:51
Well, the training is the best part. The different places we go to run the people we run with the experience. Is that you feel the things that you see along the way, the noticing that you're getting stronger or faster. It really is the journey and so many of us are focused on the end goal that we're not even enjoying anything.

Russ Johns 26:18
Yeah

Susan Wheeler 26:18
You're thinking my daughter graduated from high school a couple weeks ago. My last one. I've had I have four children. My first graduated in 1999. So I've been attending high school graduate. I was really just reflecting on when our kids are growing up, we're so busy, right? We just going in 20 different directions and if you have more than one, you're going in 100 different directions and I'm thinking about how many of us and me included, would sit on the sidelines, save a soccer game. We would be filming the soccer game.

Russ Johns 27:10
Yeah,

Susan Wheeler 27:10
When you're doing that you're kind of missing everything, right you're just focusing on what you're looking through the lens app. when you really think about it we don't look back much at those videos ever I have a whole box of videos that need to go be converted into something so I could actually watch them if I wanted to. or so what instead of really enjoying everything joining the people around you the sights, the sounds, you know, you're you're filming something so you can remember it. I can close my eyes and remember so many things now that so it really is just enjoying the journey, we're so focused on the goal, I want to have these videos, so when my kids graduate or whatever, right? So,

Russ Johns 28:10
it's so amazing that when we, we cherish those moments and we look at them. And it's like, when you're in a car like you're talking about traveling and you're in a car and you listen to a certain radio station or you listen to a song. It immediately takes you back to a place where you were when you were first. Enjoying that song for the first time. Right? Just that, that feeling you received, by hearing that song and what it meant then, and it's just an experience that you can live over and over again like the lemonade diet. Sometimes we like it and sometimes we don't.

We just have to appreciate Life for what it is, and not get stuck and not get stuck on the things that are negative gets look forward to the things that you can improve on and look forward to the acceptance, I think acceptance I am worthy you are worthy for this experience, you're worthy for this, this opportunity that's presented for you. Then he asked the question, like, would you be a runner now, if you had not fallen? The question becomes, I don't know, maybe, maybe not. So all of these decisions, these micro decisions that we take it's like okay do I eat this? Do I consume that? Or do I move on and do something else

Susan Wheeler 29:49
We talk a lot in my business about what finding your why and I think everyone should find their why because if you have a compelling why, then you're more likely to go for it. I just heard on a podcast not too long ago someone describing their why, as what hurts you, why what hurts you. If you can have a why that that. That is so you can get so passionate and strong about because what hurt me when I became a runner was my friend who also prompted me into nutrition that had cancer. When she was going through her chemotherapy. She was pregnant at the time. What could I do she she is going through a really tough time right now what could I do to support her and a lot of girls will shave off their hair. I know it'd be no big deal for you

Russ Johns 30:58
I'd be happy to

Susan Wheeler 31:01
It wasn't about doing that it was about I didn't want people to think I was sick. So I thought what could I do? That could make a really strong why for that would hurt me, right? So that was that was running because I walking was tough for me at the time. That's why I did it. I thought, okay, I'm casting my knees. In honor of Lisa. She was there she was cheering me on. She had a pregnant belly and a bald head and she was going through the unimaginable, and, okay, my body has really shouldn't be running seven miles today, and I had no training three weeks prior to that I decided to do it. I did it and it wasn't pretty and it wasn't easy, but it was with

Russ Johns 31:54
But you did it

Susan Wheeler 31:55
It was hands down the best feeling in the world. world that I account, I could cry even just thinking back how I felt coming down that finish line. having accomplished that for so many for so many reasons.

Russ Johns 32:12
Yeah.

Susan Wheeler 32:13
Yeah. And then that started me running. But it did take I didn't think my body was up for it and I thought what could I do so sometimes that's what it takes don't like to go the easy route. It's not as rewarding. It's just not it's not earning a million dollars or winning the lottery, it'd be cool to win the lottery, but most people don't appreciate a million dollars when it's just handed to them.

Russ Johns 32:45
Yeah, when you when you have to go through the journey yourself. It's I think you can really understand what it takes and what it means. Like you said your why, it gives you a purpose it gives you almost this feeling of, I can do this. If I can do this, I can do anything. Confidence is is really key in that part of just acting out and taking action. It's really important for us to understand that.

Susan Wheeler 33:21
Yeah.

Russ Johns 33:22
Well, Susan, I really appreciate I cannot believe it's July already and we're moving into the second half of 2020. Any thoughts or lessons you've learned that you want to share with #thePiratecommunity now that you're a pirate?

Susan Wheeler 33:39
Well, first of all, I'm excited to be here. I love this platform. I will be posting in the comments and on your shows because I think this is so cool. I didn't know what to expect here today. excited for that. I really like to give this advice going forward a lot because I think it's important for people to realize it's never too late to change your life. If you really think about it, and don't just take it as a few words that I just threw out there, it really is never too late to change your life. Many people will stay in relationships or jobs, or situations that don't serve them. Because they've got so much time invested.

Maybe people went to school to study for something and then they get out of school and realize they absolutely hate it. It's never too late to change your life. I think that freedom and joy and happiness really comes in those changes. Because if you can do one thing you realize you can do another thing and another and then your power is limitless. I really urge people to really think think about that. Think about what what doesn't serve you. You don't have to do that for the rest of your life. It doesn't matter how old you are. I mean, at age 57, I wrote a book. Was it too late for me to become an author? No, it's never too late.

Russ Johns 35:17
Never too late. I think, to your point, I think it's really important to understand that removing things from your life are just as important as placing things in your life.

Susan Wheeler 35:34
Absolutely all change?

Russ Johns 35:36
Yes, excellent. Thank you so much. Now that you're a pirate, welcome to the community. I love the fact that we're here. We're here together and I love the message today. Kathy Spooner, thank you so much for being here. Wendy. I am I worthy? Yes, yes, the jack Russells are here. Oh, how cute Oh, that is so wonderful. That's a perfect perfect way to wrap it up. So Wendy thank you so much and are caught thank you so much Wendy. It's everybody here is thinking of archives thinking of my childhood days since it's tomatoes onions, coconuts, lemon custard apple mango pink, edible ones that I had green fingers.

I mean, I still have a missus days growing up at a time when the Farmville just come out and added more fun to the family. It's a tough job to take care of the garden, but happy and nice. What a wonderful message. Thank you, everyone. Please like comment and share. I'm on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, wherever you happen to hang out LinkedIn. I love the fact that we're here in the pirate community and we're sharing a little bit of kindness because #kindnessisCool, #smilesarefree. We want you to #enjoytheday. Take care. Thank you, Susan, so much for being here.

Susan Wheeler 37:08
Thank you.

Russ Johns 37:09
Appreciate you. Bye, everyone.

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