Ep 1 - Meet the Dodds - Introduction

DODDPOD Podcast

In our introductory episode, discover the origins of our podcast and meet the incredible family team behind it: Dr. Shane Dodd, Dena Perry, the Roz Dodd, and Pam Nolan. From mental wellness to financial and spiritual support, we explore how the Dodd Pod has evolved from Facebook Live to Clubhouse, becoming a beloved community for heartfelt discussions and practical advice.

Journey with us as we dive into the therapeutic power of food and the joy of Southern cooking. Dena offers invaluable tips on food preparation, smoothies, and salads, while Roz shares her passion for New Orleans cuisine and the healing nature of cooking. Learn how to maintain a balanced diet, embrace moderation, and make your kitchen experience more enjoyable with a little music and a glass of wine. We also touch on the importance of being truthful with oneself and forgiving dietary slip-ups, promoting a sustainable approach to nutrition.

Finally, we emphasize the significance of positive habits, exercise, and self-care in enhancing your overall well-being. Whether it's the nostalgia of Southern rituals, the benefits of weight loss and stretching for knee pain, or the uplifting power of music and journaling, this episode is packed with strategies to improve your quality of life. Listen in for motivational insights and personal experiences that will inspire you to integrate healthier routines and maintain a positive outlook, even during challenging times.

00:08 - Dena (Host) Hi, happy, happy Sunday. Welcome to the Dodd Pod. We are super excited to be with you today. What up, what up, what up? So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the DOD pod and how we got here.

00:26 So you know how necessity is the mother of invention. You know it is most things that we do in our lives, and so we all started based on a need to connect with family and friends and we wanted to make sure that we could offer some level of support from a mental standpoint, financial standpoint, you know, just giving tips, spirituality. We kind of touched on all throttles and, most importantly, we did it as a form of entertainment and everybody likes to laugh. You know we love to have a good time. We also like to promote peace peace in our minds and our bodies and our souls. So just a little bit about how we kicked it off. It was Facebook Live. It was super wonderful. We had started off with maybe 200 to 300 views. It ramped up to about 5,000 views at its peak. We also transitioned and pivoted towards Clubhouse. Yay for Clubhouse. We did about five different episodes there as the three sassy sisters, and then we kind of figured, things opened up and we got really busy, everybody got busy, I know all of y'all. Wouldn't y'all say that Amen.

01:49 So we all got busy, took time off and we just started in 2024. Why not just kick this off with a big, big boom? And so we decided to reignite the Dodd pod in a different way, and so we have a new member of our family that's joined us, and you're about to hear about her. But we're just going to go in order. We got Dr Shane Dodd, mom, physician, md, forensic psychiatrist, mental health expert and motivational speaker, and to me, my big sister, and you got me. I'm a mom, I'm an investor, yoga instructor, author, award-winning biotech executive in academia, though you know, wish us luck. We're dealing with regulatory issues and hopefully we'll get that launched next year.

02:49 Also, we have the real Roz in the house from ATL realtor author, former host of the real Roz show, blog talk radio. She's also a customer service expert on first impressions and we have the glue that holds it all together, pam Nolan. So thank you. Yes, all you do it is a family affair for real Right. Yes, that's been so wonderful. So, basically, each talk is going to be mind, body, truth. Okay. So Doc Shane will handle the mind, dina will handle the body you know through the yoga experience and what you're feeling and the real Roz will handle the truth. Let me transition and kick it off and hand it up to Cousin Roz to talk about. Hey everybody.

03:48 - Roz (Host) This is the real Roz. I am going to share with you the family affair that we have, which is the Dodd Pod. We're going to embark on a family podcast of three voices into one truth. Let's make adulting fun again, especially during these chaotic times. Listen to a real shrink, Doc Shane. Work her common effect on every podcast and we want you guys to eavesdrop on our family conversation every Sunday at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time. We're going to be on YouTube. We're going to be on public Instagram, Facebook Live and other platforms, but we're going to make sure we let you guys know that as soon as we know what they are exactly.

04:23 - Doc Shane (Host) Yes, Well, thank you, roz, and why don't I take over now? I'm Dr Shane and I want to all of us to begin this session with something that I really like to do and I would hope our audience would do the same thing which is just taking a few deep, cleansing breaths through the nose and out of the mouth. One more, I always like to do that, you know. Just, I do it a couple of times a day because it puts you back, places you back in your body, you know, and it just brings everything together and so, anyway. So why don't, why don't we get started? I'm going to talk a minute about the, my part of the mind, body, truth, and that is the mind. And, dina, I thank you so much for giving us the history of the, the Dodd pod, and you know, you, you talked about how we started. I just want to add that we started during a very difficult time. It was during the shutdown and the pandemic, and it was a really hard time around the world. It. In all my training, it never became more clear to me just how much we are social creatures, and when we did not have each other and could not touch each other and be in each other's presence. It took such a toll on so many people. So that's where we started.

05:57 But the reason I, like you know, I've committed my life to dealing with issues related to the mind. I've committed my life to dealing with issues related to the mind. I was talking to some Howard University pre-med students and I was just telling them they were like, how did you get to this? Because I was always interested in the mind, the brain. But let's talk a bit about the mind. I've committed my life to educating people about mental wellness and how to gain it emotional wellness, well-being, and also in the quest to battle stigma related to mind and mental illness. And why should it matter? It's really important. Because it should matter? Because good health is wealth, and you don't know it until it's gone. And when you don't have it, that's when you realize just how much you had it in the wealth category, when things are going well.

07:00 - Pam (Host) And mental health is a part of overall health too.

07:04 - Doc Shane (Host) That's exactly right. That was my next statement. See, that's why we're sisters, cause that was my next statement and that is mental health is wealth.

07:13 Okay, mental health is wealth. Physical health is wealth. Okay, I subscribe to the mind, mind, body dichotomy, meaning the, the mind, what. What affects the mind affects the body and vice versa. What affects the body affects the mind. Okay, so I ascribe to it and the truth that I mean you can see it in your everyday lives. If you have, say, a physical condition and you're in pain, that's going to affect your wellbeing up here and your emotions, okay, and if you are stressed out, you could have more physical aches and pains and headaches. I can't tell you how many people I see that that is the case, that they're really stressed out and it shows up in their body, okay.

07:55 So there's this, this link between the mind and the body, and I like to explain in that realm of of, of, of why it's important is that we have this thing called a body that everybody has, that's sitting here, okay, and inside this body we have a brain, okay, and it is the brain that can lead us to our behaviors.

08:16 Okay, the brain leads us to our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Our thoughts are basically the act of thinking or mental processing. Our feelings is our beliefs or our reaction to an emotion and our behavior is the way we choose to conduct ourselves. Okay, so I always say that you know we have a brain and, as a result of it, it affects our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and when things go wrong is when it goes into the realm of mental illness. But mental illness, too, can happen to anyone, and I always say my tagline is hashtag If you have a brain, it can happen to you. Okay, so that's my introduction to the mind and how I got to be so attuned to the mind. And I think, dina, you're next to talk about your commitment to the body.

09:08 - Dena (Host) Yeah, so I've been teaching yoga for about 10 years and I must say it started in unfortunate situations. I had a fragment stuck in my L4, l5 vertebrae so I had to get that corrected through surgery and the neurosurgeon you know. We became, you know, buddies. He was very nice. His mother went to my alma mater for university, so it was sort of the buddies. He was very nice. His mother went to my alma mater for university, so it was sort of the exit conversation. He was like you know, I don't want to see you again. I was like of course I don't want to see you again either, you know. So he said you know, keep your weight down and stretch. And I said what about yoga? He said that'd be great.

09:49 I had no idea there were so many mindful, really, really positive mindful aspects of yoga. So it's really, in a nutshell, the journey of your own truth. A lot of times it's posted on social media or your asanas, but it's a way to look inwardly along the eight limbs. It includes everything inner principles, external principles, the poses themselves, which you see more of, but also concentration, meditation and overall enlightenment. So there's all these different components that we focus on as teachers over throughout the year, I would say, and what I found is just, yoga is a gift that I can share with other people to stretch their bodies, to heal and just live your best life.

10:45 So that's a little bit on my background. It's just opening up your heart space, the mind space, the spiritual space, to where you are in life and figuring out, you know, the best path forward. So it's been a wonderful journey and I love teaching others how to do that. So that's what we'll be talking about and I will highlight as we move along and just offer up any business advice, having been an entrepreneur for about 10 years as well, you know, also in the same vein of the body, the scope of the body.

11:20 - Doc Shane (Host) I mean, you are an author to teach people how to put clean, healthy foods in their bodies. Do you want to say something about that?

11:29 - Dena (Host) Yeah, exactly Exactly. So you know, I love that you mentioned that, because many people assume life is monolithic or there's just one answer. What I tried to do in the book called Detoxalicious it's on Amazon, it's got great real reviews with real people and we got five star rating and it's a real triad book with three components mindfulness, food and fitness. So I'm a big believer that eating more plants is going to help you throughout your entire body system. So it's not just, you know, just doing fitness for the sake of it, but it's also what you put inside of yourself. It has a big, big. I really have to work hard on.

12:18 - Pam (Host) That is something I really have to work hard on, you know the type of food you're eating, that you're talking about. What I eat and making sure that I do eat right, because in the society it's so easy to just pick up something you know. So I'm glad you brought that up, dina.

12:34 - Dena (Host) Yeah, we fall off the wagon and what we do, we offer forgiveness to ourselves and everything and we get back on the wagon. That's the whole process. You know, a lot of yoga is just processing the journey. You know, trust the journey. You're going to have ups and downs. It's a part of life, right?

12:52 - Doc Shane (Host) And in that book.

12:55 - Dena (Host) I'm a big proponent of fixing it and applying it in whatever way you can and doing a lot of prep, food preparation, a lot of smoothies, a lot of soups and, of course, salads.

13:08 - Doc Shane (Host) Thank, you, and I'm sure we're going to be delving into a lot of food related issues with you, as well, as our cousin the real Roz, one of the things that was and Roz can throw down by the way New Orleans. Are you kidding?

13:26 - Roz (Host) me, but I will tell you. But I will tell you, my throw down is not like detox. Delicious recipe. I'm just being honest.

13:32 - Doc Shane (Host) But I think that's the whole point A lot of shrimp gumbo. That's the point. It's about balance. It's about enjoying life but also just sort of reeling it back and watching what you take into your body and one of the things that, when we were talking about switching over from three sassy sisters to MindBodyTr truth, Cousin Roz had said you know, you get out what you put into your body, and I was like isn't that the truth? So now we're going to move on to the truth.

14:01 - Roz (Host) Yeah, the truth, the truth. You know, hey everybody, I'm Roz. I have been a very outspoken person from the time that I remember being here on this earth. I've been told by many others and I've grown to realize. You know, you do say what's on your mind in a nice way, but it's just the truth. Because the truth has set me free in many instances about just being honest with myself, because a lot of times we can get on social media and share whatever story that we choose to share, for whatever we want to get from that.

14:28 But so many of us are not being truthful with ourselves and our own journey in life. And I've been through so many challenges, as many of us probably have, and the most challenging ones have been my truth with myself, and it has been very painful, it has not been a fun process, but it's a necessary process. So being real and being truthful with yourself is the most important thing and I'm a very big supporter of positivity and optimism because I go through many things that many others go through. But just being honest and expecting greatness from every experience is what I live by and it really does work because if he has bought me from where he's bought me from. He's still going to keep doing it.

15:08 - Dena (Host) I'm just passing through this phase, whatever it is whatever it is, we're like this energy living inside these bodily systems.

15:17 - Roz (Host) Yeah, and food is my friend. Food is my friend. I'm from New Orleans, so you know everything in my world is about good, flavorful food. I want to have a party in my mouth. So, because I've been going through so much stress as a realtor, it's a very rewarding career. But let me just tell you this to you, it's very stressful. So when I have a stressful situation I found food was my friend, and not just the food, but cooking. So I didn't allow the food to be my friend to gain the weight, but I've learned to portion my food so I can still enjoy everything I want in a small portion, right, so cooking. I got my first cookbook called Southern Cuisine, homegrown Happiness.

15:56 So it's not a book about how to be healthy with your food, but just make yourself happy with a mature sense of portion control. You know you can enjoy it all, but it's about balance. Like Dina said, it's all about balance because I've tried many yo-yo diets in my past but I always fall off. Why? Because during that time I was depriving myself of something and at some point I just said you know what? I'm just going to go crazy and I lost my way. So now I don't really deprive myself. I do whatever I want to do moderately and it's working for me. So it's always about finding your balance and knowing it's not a one size fits all.

16:37 - Doc Shane (Host) What works for you may not work for me, and and one of the things I recalled you also saying to me was that it's therapy. You, you thought, you thought it's big time for me cooking. Cooking is therapy. I like to see other people delight in what I've created it makes me happy yes, yes and some people get stressed out when it comes to food because they don't know how to.

16:49 - Roz (Host) They don't know. They don't know what to do, they don't know if it's going to taste right. They're. They're just uncomfortable about the joy of cooking and I don't have those words. It's your own creation. Even when I look at a recipe, I'm not going to follow that thing play by play, because I don't like certain things they put in. I'm going to put my own little stuff. I want cilantro and everything, garlic and everything that's me.

17:06 - Pam (Host) You know it's so funny. You talk about the joy of cooking. I don't have that at all.

17:13 - Roz (Host) And I know that.

17:16 - Pam (Host) And it's okay, right, and I mean, you know, like you said, it does make me feel good when I cook and people tell me how good it is, but I cook because I have to eat. I cook because my family needs to eat, yes, but it's not a joy for me.

17:33 - Roz (Host) But you're not going to the kitchen skipping to your loose shaking and happy about it, because it's not that kind of joy.

17:37 - Dena (Host) No, what about playing music while you cook? Have you tried doing that?

17:43 - Roz (Host) And a glass of wine girl that works every time. Let me tell you something.

17:47 - Doc Shane (Host) My mom was a good Southern cook from Selma, alabama, and one of my memories of her was Sundays cooking in the kitchen with WJZZ, which was a historic jazz radio station here. Yeah, in the background, that's my memory of my mom, so. I love that I like. I just turn it up and get it done.

18:09 - Roz (Host) Pam say, music or not, I just it is not my thing. I go in there because I have to go. I get it because that's what it's about. Cooking is not for everybody, but for those of us who find joy. Hey, I love it, yeah.

18:20 - Pam (Host) And I mean up until recently. I prefer cleaning over cooking. But you know I don't want to do that anymore.

18:27 - Doc Shane (Host) So, oh my God, I'd rather rather, I'd rather cook any day than clean.

18:31 - Roz (Host) Girl. Please. What's the cleaning lady's phone number, Please?

18:35 - Pam (Host) I'm all about the cooking.

18:37 - Roz (Host) But you know we grew up. My mother was a hotel manager for many years, so you know we didn't. It was a non-negotiable. We had the house like it was a five star hotel because it was a non-negotiable.

18:46 - Doc Shane (Host) with three girls, but look at that. You know that reminds me of something you know in our communities or in some of our households. You know as kids growing up, saturday was cleaning day and I raised my kids like that, and I think did anybody else Raising kids like that.

19:03 - Roz (Host) Yeah, I didn't do that.

19:04 - Pam (Host) I didn't either no-transcript.

19:12 - Doc Shane (Host) And I'm still threatening them to clean their bathrooms. I mean, you know, but it was Saturday, you got up and you clean and don't ask to go nowhere because don't ask to go nowhere, because this house hasn't been cleaned.

19:23 - Roz (Host) We didn't have a washing driveway to go to the laundromat. So, child, don't ask to go nowhere. It's cleaning day. Oh yeah, I remember.

19:30 - Doc Shane (Host) Yeah, yeah, it's just in our discussion. I heard all of us talk about something that we could do better. I heard all of us talk about something that we could do better, okay, or something. And I think you know let's just talk about positive habits, and you know what is it? A positive habit is anything, something that you can do, and you do it, you know, repeatedly, that will improve the quality of your life. Okay, and the thing about all of this is to choose something or reflect upon something or improve upon something. Like I said, that will improve the quality of life but will not necessarily stress you out. So it could be something small, but it could be a grand kind of thing as well. Ok, it could be something you say I'm going to commit myself to this daily or weekly or even monthly, this daily or weekly or even monthly.

20:20 But the point is is that you know there's a lot of research about positive, well, how to create positive habits, and, as usual, it has some kind of impact in the brain. Okay, and? And so then, when we do activities, when we choose to do repetitive things, that will improve the quality of your life, studies have shown that it does have an impact on your brain. It affects the blood vessels and vasculature, the electrical circuitry and things like that, and that can lead to different changes positive changes in your brain, and the more it's well documented that, the more you do something repetitively, it changes again the brain structure and that eventually becomes what we call a habit.

21:06 And a habit is something you just do without thinking about. Okay, so there's sometimes a process and then I just tell people it's like, stick with it. And usually our brains have to be tricked. I can't say trick, but we have to be exposed to it for 90 days before it shifts over into a habit. And so I think, and then during that process your brain goes through rewiring kind of process where you're just doing it, you don't even think about it, it's just a habit. Now, no-transcript, pam and I were working out with a trainer and everything I haven't worked out all year long and my knees are starting to, you know, get a feel the impact that you know. So that's what I'm putting out into the universe and I'm going to in my own mind. I got to think about a little more how, um, I think I'm going to commit to four or five days a week to do it and what I like I said, knowing that the more I train with this, the more my mind and my body will respond to it.

22:16 - Dena (Host) Favorably. You'll never believe this, but last night at a paddle birthday party, a friend of the family's you've met her before but I won't mention her name but she just we were all just giving each other all kinds of tips, like some of the guys have had their first stress test, cardiovascular stress test, so they were talking about who they go to and you got to get a script to get that. And then my friend was just like, yeah, and did you know? There's a new stat that you will get rid of your knee issues if you lose one pound. Yep, one to five pounds. Right, it's like scientifically studied. So I said you know, I'm gonna do that. I was just starting to get knee problems, you know, traveling and not really exercising every single day, so I'm getting back on that You're a runner too, yeah, so stretching is very different and I'll be waning back the running and doing more stretching.

23:11 - Doc Shane (Host) Stretching is everything. For anybody, it is everything.

23:15 - Roz (Host) Yes, ma'am, it is, and I'm going to tell you, exercising, just like cooking, is my therapy. Exercising creates the space for me to deal with life, and so that's why because I'm an early riser, it is my way to say this is my time no phone calls, no text messages. It's the most, it's the best part of my day, really, because with arthritis, you know, my body does what it wants to do unless I say no, we're going to do it this way. So I have learned how to control that with some of the foods and some of the stress that I do not allow to penetrate into my world, because stress is not my friend. And so exercising is my way of mentally doing something for me, and I don't do it to be on the front of a magazine cover. I do it because mentally, it really it's beautiful for me.

24:01 And, of course, the side effects it makes you feel your personal best Personal best and it's improving me. You know, today I have on a size 12 pants. I'm like 12? Where's my 16 W's and my 14 W's? I don't want them, but it just tells me I wasn't doing the exercising for this. But it's a part of the that happens, you know.

24:18 - Doc Shane (Host) So I would have never chosen you to be a morning exercise person, I wish.

24:22 - Roz (Host) I could. Oh girl 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, because it's my world. Nobody is operating like that. They sleep and try to hug the bed and I'm like the bed is not my friend. Bed means go to sleep and that's it.

24:37 - Pam (Host) You know, so it does help me. I'm so thankful early riser and you all have have have been working out for a long time, so you all have your routines and all of that and, like shane, that's what I need to um work on for for myself, um, in addition to sleep yeah, sleep is everything important for a whole lot of things, and I find out that, as I'm getting older, if I don't get a good night's rest, this isn't working.

25:07 - Roz (Host) Yeah, it needs a regenerator.

25:09 - Pam (Host) You know, and probably neither is the body as well. So you know, but I mean it's nice, that's nice that you know we, we got things that you know are already there and we're working on and so um.

25:25 - Doc Shane (Host) I have some other tips too, sort of go. You know we're talking in the realm of creating healthy habits that are that are right.

25:33 - Pam (Host) I'm sorry. No, I was just saying go ahead. You know, we got some, we got a timeframe.

25:38 - Doc Shane (Host) Yeah, no, uh, healthy habits. Um, a couple of things, real quick stuff. Get outdoors, go outside, okay, stop pause, get out there, take a minute and notice God's beauty. I mean, sometimes that's really a beautiful thing and it can be really, really grounding Other than, get out there when it's sunshine, get out there, get that vitamin D in your system, vitamin D associated with your mood. So get out there, make it a habit. If you choose to pray and meditate, okay, it also allows you to just slow down, okay. So that's just one of the things that's important to pick a motivational quote or Bible verse every day, ok, that can help out. To Dina, you talked about listening to music. Pick a song. If it's something that you need to get pumped up, do it in the morning. If it's something that you want to go out, I mean you decide. But again, it's even if it's show tunes. She made me drive in the car with her the other day listening to show tunes. I had my head out the window.

26:43 - Pam (Host) I love, especially from the greatest show ever, the greatest show on earth, okay, the best musical. And they have the best soundtrack. Do you boo?

27:05 - Doc Shane (Host) Anyway, all right. Okay, the best musical and they have the best soundtrack. Do you boo? Anyway, all right. Um, another thing reach out to a friend or a loved one, check in on people, okay, just to see how they're doing, you know. Yeah, also, journaling, writing stuff down, you know, write your history, write what you want your future to be, okay, um, those, those are all really important things. Sometimes, put that darn phone down. I'll tell my kids that Sometimes, just put the phone down, okay, especially at night. You don't want your brain to be all lit up before you go to bed.

27:28 Okay, one of the things we were talking about and I think really we Roz, I think, had mentioned, and Dina too, it's just the, you know, the power of being a positive person and a positive thinker. My dad was a motivational specialist, so we grew a speaker, we grew up with the power of positive thinking and things like that. But you know, sometimes it's important, when life is really going wrong, just to say something positive or smile or laugh. Now, you know me and laughter, that's, that's my thing, you know, peace.