Jeremiah 30:17 (a) NIV “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD,"

**Transcription Below**

Dr. Jill Carnahan completed her residency at the University of Illinois Program in Family Medicine at Methodist Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and her Bachelor of Science degree in Bio-Engineering at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She is dually board-certified in Family Medicine and Integrative Holistic Medicine. In 2008, Dr. Carnahan’s vision for health and healing resulted in the creation of Methodist Center for Integrative Medicine in Peoria, IL where she served as the Medical Director for 2 years. In 2010, she founded Flatiron Functional Medicine in Boulder, Colorado where she practices functional medicine with medical partner, Dr. Robert Rountree, author and expert speaker. Dr. Carnahan is also 10-year survivor of breast cancer and Crohn’s disease and passionate about teaching patients how to “live well” and thrive in the midst of complex and chronic illness. She is also committed to teaching other physicians how to address underlying cause of illness rather than just treating symptoms through the principles of functional medicine. She is a prolific writer, speaker, and loves to infuse others with her passion for health & healing!

Dr. Jill’s Website

Environmental Working Group Website

IQ Air

Austin Air

Dr. Jill’s Protein Smoothie Recipe:

Approximately 1 cup ice cubes
½ - 1 ripe banana (frozen and sliced works best; slice and freeze your ripe bananas for smoothies)
½ - 1 cup organic frozen berries or other frozen fruit
1 scoop protein powder (recommended protein powder: Thorne Vegalite)
2 tablespoon of ground flaxseed or Salba Seed
Handful of fresh spinach or kale (optional)
Liquid stevia drops to taste (optional)
Enough water or coconut milk (or other dairy substitute) to cover all the other ingredients – more or less depending on desired consistency.
For a lower calorie option use ½ water and ½ coconut milk

Process everything in a heavy-duty blender until you get a thick, velvety, and smooth milkshake and enjoy!

Thank You to Our Sponsors: Chewbeads Enter code “SAVVY” at checkout to enjoy 15% off your order!

Thank you to Our Other Sponsor: Night In Boxes Order your box here!

Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website

Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!

Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

**Transcription**

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.

[00:00:17] <music>

Laura Dugger: Have you been looking for creative ways to invest in your relationship with your spouse and with your family? You can do this from your home with zero preparation with Night In Boxes. For more information, visit NightInBoxes.com.

Do you have a teething baby? Our sponsor today can help. Chew Beads is the original teething jewelry brand for all your baby's teething needs and beyond. Mommy chic and baby safe. Visit them at ChewBeads.com.

Dr. Jill Carnahan has been on The Savvy Sauce previously, and time with her is gold. We recorded while she was in her office, so I do apologize if you hear some background noise. But you may not even notice because you're going to be so caught up in all the advice and tips she shares.

Today, we're specifically going to have her teach us more about the role of hormones and how to keep them in balance. Here's our chat. [00:01:21]

Welcome back to The Savvy Sauce, Dr. Jill.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thank you so much for having me back, Laura.

Laura Dugger: Well, it's always a pleasure. Let's just dive right in today to discussing how hormones impact our lives. So, first, will you just teach us what hormones are and explain what role they play in our bodies?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You got it. These are messengers that come from different glands in our body. And it's one of the ways that all the different glands, from the adrenals to the thyroid to the pituitary, to, for females, ovaries, and for men, testes, how they all communicate and kind of have... it's like the language, kind of like their email the way they communicate between one another. So a lot of different things affect hormone production.

Hormones really drive a lot of our physiology. The main things that I work with with hormones, with both men and women, are the thyroid. It's a big one for a lot of people. That runs our metabolism. It makes us have normal body temperature, normal metabolism to use calories and to burn up calories and to make and create energy. [00:02:22]

Another one that's real common that we deal with is adrenals. Adrenal glands are glands that sit just on top of the kidneys. They're a little triangular-shaped gland, and they produce mineralocorticoids, and they also produce steroid hormones like cortisol. These things will regulate our blood sugar. They will regulate our hydration. So if we drink and we stay hydrated, part of that is the function of the adrenal glands.

They regulate adrenaline. So if we get in a state of fear or fight or flight or shock, they will actually keep us alive in a situation of trauma or fear or anything that's really difficult, even just a surgery or a physiological stressor.

In women, the ovaries produce all the female hormones, estrogen to testosterone to DHEA and progesterone. And it's this big symphony where... like in women, we have a dominant part of our cycle when we're cycling, menstruating women, that is estrogen-dominant. And then the other half of our cycle, the luteal phase, is progesterone-dominant. That balance is just up and down like a wave for both of those hormones. And they're kind of in yin and yang. One goes up, and the other goes down, and the other goes up, and the other goes down. [00:03:26]

And if that balance is going well, women have no trouble with having children and conceiving and having normal cycles, and they don't have pain or cramping or heavy bleeding.

But so many women we know have endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome where they have acne or hair growth or irregular blood sugars, or they have trouble with uterine fibroids or infertility is a big one. All of these things stem from that symphony being imbalanced.

Then for men, it's a little bit more simple. I always joke because it's actually quite a bit easier to balance male hormones than it is to balance women's hormones. But men have a symphony too. They primarily have androgens, which are the DHEA and testosterone.

And it's interesting because something like autoimmune disease, which I'm sure a lot of your listeners either have or know someone who has, is partially related to, in women it's much more prevalent because they have lower testosterone. Testosterone is one of the things in men that actually helps them to prevent from having a lot of autoimmunity. [00:04:26]

So they have a much more dominant testosterone. They have a little bit of estrogen. In men, if the estrogen gets too high, they will tend to have man boobs and weight gain around the central part of their abdomen. They'll have a low sex drive, low ambition, just drive in general.

There's a lot of chemicals in our environment that stimulate estrogens in both men and women. Sometimes women will have heavy painful periods and fibroids and early breast development. I just talked to a family with an eight-year-old girl with breast development, and that's called precocious puberty. That actually comes from these environmental toxins that are like estrogens to the body.

Then men, the same thing. Some of these environmental toxins that look like estrogens to the body can cause the estrogen symptoms in men, which is no fun for them either.

Then there's pituitary and some hormones up there. Those are all the precursors to these. They're like the directors of the symphony. Those are things like ACTH, which stimulates the adrenal gland, and TRH, which stimulates the thyroid gland, and TSH. And then all of these precursors can actually stimulate the hormones. [00:05:29]

Even though that sounds complicated, that's a simplified version of this really beautiful complex thing that God created in us to direct the symphony.

Laura Dugger: That's amazing. It is so complex. But you mentioned environmental issues. Are there any common top killers of a healthy hormone balance?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah. If you don't mind, I'm going to digress a little because this puts it all in perspective. I grew up near you on a farm in central Illinois, and they're still in the U.S. used. There's a lot of pesticides and chemicals that are used that are actually banned in countries like in Europe. Some of those chemicals like atrazine and glyphosate and a lot of the organophosphate pesticides, they actually have a really strong estrogen-like and hormonal effect on the body.

I bring it up related to me because at 25 years old, very young, I had breast cancer. And there's no doubt in my mind it was the perfect storm of probable exposures as a young child, possibly in utero before I was born, to some of these estrogen-like chemicals. [00:06:31]

Then my body, genetically, was very poor at detoxifying. So it was kind of the perfect storm to give me a cancer at 25. And what people don't realize is when you have a cancer at 25, that means the hit on your DNA, the damage was probably done 10 or 20 years prior, which means I was a very, very young girl when these hormones and hormone-like chemicals were actually causing or wreaking havoc on my body.

We see that all the time. A lot of the environmental cancers, especially prostate and breast cancers in men and women, are related to this environmental toxic load. The most common things that affect hormones would be phthalates and parabens, which for women are in a lot of your bath and body products.

If you look for anything that says methylparaben or paraben at the end, you can actually look at the label and read this. And you should not be using things with phthalates or parabens in them on your body.

I remember, again, after breast cancer, I realized the toxic load from my bath, my beauty, my cleaning products. It took me a couple of years, but I really went through one by one and tried to get rid of all the toxic chemicals that were being used in my house and on my body. [00:07:37] And it's literally hundreds of things that most of us women use every day.

One resource for your listeners, there's a website that's nonprofit called Environmental Working Group. It's just EWG for EnvironmentalWorkingGroup.org. They have a lot of resources on toxic chemicals. You can look up cosmetics and beauty products and see their rating and see how clean they are. So that might be really helpful if your listeners are looking for ways to clean up that routine because that's actually a lot of where we get our exposure, is the things we put on our body and in our mouth and clean our house with.

Laura Dugger: Wow. That's really helpful to know what to avoid. And then on the other side, are there any proactive lifestyle choices that have been proven to support a healthy endocrine system?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah. I always say super simple. Even when I'm teaching physicians, I go back to the root. And that is clean air, clean water, clean food. Sounds so basic that you're like, what? But clean air, 80% of our environmental toxic load is from the air we breathe. [00:08:39] And so a lot of our chemicals, mold in particular in houses and different workplaces and things, can cause a really bad problem with the endocrine system. And it's everywhere in a lot of homes that people don't know it, and they have mold from water intrusion. So that's a big one.

Like I mentioned, pesticides. So things as far as clean food, you want to eat organic as much as possible. A lot of people say they can't afford organic, but I'm always apt to say, well, you could pay the farmer or pay the doctor, but I'd rather pay for good food and prevent the hospitalization later on.

There is ways to prioritize. You can look at that same Environmental Working Group. There's a dirty dozen they put out every year, and these are the top 12 produce like celery or strawberries that are sprayed with pesticides. So those, if at all possible, you absolutely want to eat organic. So the food that we eat, organic if possible, non-GMO if possible, because the genetically modified corn, soy, and wheat are heavily sprayed with glyphosate. [00:09:35]

Then the clean air. So having an air filter in your home or workplace, something with a HEPA filter and then also a BOC or volatile organic solvent filter. My two favorites are IQ Air and Austin Air. They make great air filters. I have like four in my office and two at home. So clean air.

Clean water. So just making sure you have a filter at home or that you're drinking pure, clean water. A lot of the well water that I grew up on is contaminated with pesticides and things, and so just making sure you're drinking clean water. And you think, well, let's just go buy bottled water, but the plastic bottles that the bottled water is in is a problem as well. They can contain BPA, which is another endocrine disruptor. So if at all possible, filtered water is great to have at home whenever you can.

Then clean food is just making sure organic. Local if possible, as close to the ground. So as far as if you have your own garden or you have a farmer's market, those are great places. Sometimes I would choose locally grown without pesticides, you know, fresh produce over organic just because it's got so much nutrient density.[00:10:37]

Typically the farmers at the farmer's market, they don't always have certified organic, but they usually do not use a lot of pesticides. So you can just ask those things. Those are really basic, but that alone will help the hormone balance quite a bit.

Laura Dugger: Now let's take a brief break to hear a message from two of our sponsors.

Sponsor: We want to say thank you to our sponsor, Night In Boxes. They do all the work and research, fun activities, and then ship you a box each month so that you can invest in your most meaningful relationships. Each Date Night In Box includes interactive activities with ambiance and a tasty treat to bring couples together in meaningful ways.

For families who order a Night In Box, you will also receive a box with interactive activities and a tasty treat all centered around life lessons.

Night In Boxes hopes to bring children together with an influential adult in a creative, fun, and meaningful way. We first tried the Faith Family Box and our children were giddy when our box arrived in the mail. I loved having an intentional family night to look forward to that took no preparation from me. [00:11:43]

In addition to receiving a custom-curated experience each month, you will also become part of a community that allows for an experience to be enjoyed beyond the box. So gift your loved one with a subscription today. Visit nightinboxes.com. Thanks for your sponsorship.

Sponsor: I would like to thank today's sponsor, Chew Beads. Chew Beads is the original teething jewelry brand for all your baby's teething needs and beyond. Chew Beads offers innovative, chic, and safe teething items for ages 3 months and up. Check out their line of silicone feeding products that are microwave and dishwasher-safe, not to mention super cute.

Do you have an older kid with sensory issues or are you just looking for fun and safe kids' jewelry? Junior Beads by Chew Beads is a line of safe and cool jewelry for kids ages 3 and up. With styles and products to choose from for every member of their family, Chew Beads helps keep little ones distracted, soothed, and entertained while at home or on the go.

Shop online at Chewbeads.com and enter the code SAVVY at checkout to enjoy 15% off your order today. Again, that's Chewbeads.com and enter the code SAVVY at checkout and then you get 15% off your order today. Thanks for your sponsorship. [00:13:05]

Laura Dugger: On that topic of food, are there any other foods that we should be aware of that either have hormones in them or that will greatly affect our hormones if we consume them?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yes. Great question. Soy is a lot of controversy over. And I found that for most people, especially processed soy, so soy proteins, soy products, fake soy foods, not a good idea. The studies in China and Japan where they should benefit for prevention of breast cancer were solely using fermented soy. And that would be like miso and tempeh.

So those alone would be a decent source of soy, probably safe. But any other processed soy should really be avoided by most women if at all possible and especially by men.

Broccoli, cauliflower, cruciferous vegetables contain a special thing called sulforaphanes and these are really powerful to protect against breast cancer. So I'd actually recommend consuming leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables as protection for breast cancer and for the hormone effects as well. [00:14:07]

Laura Dugger: I know I've heard you give examples like, have a nutrient-packed smoothie every morning and put leafy greens in there. Are there any other ways that we could incorporate these healthy foods into our diet in an easy way?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh, such a great question. First of all, cooking with fresh spices, so I literally buy the herbs raw. Like whole. I do have some dried spices in my cabinet, but if you can buy the packs or grow your own, it's super easy. I don't have a whole garden, but I have a balcony with a flower box and I put my herbs on my balcony.

These fresh herbs, oregano, thyme, rosemary, rosemary has a wonderful breast protective effect, are actually really powerful for protection against hormone-related cancers. And they're delicious. Other things you could do is of course the teas and things.

And you mentioned a smoothie. So let me just talk for those of you who aren't used to making a smoothie. How would you do that? The reason it's so powerful is number one, it's easy. Number two, it's something you can put a ton of nutrient-dense things into and consume it all at once and get a lot of nutrition and a lot of bang for your buck. [00:15:08]

There are so many people who want to lose weight and be more healthy and the best science shows that weight loss occurs when we do some sort of a meal replacement. So this works really well as a breakfast meal replacement. And if you start your day with something that's a really good protein, fat mix, and not a lot of refined carbs, it will affect your blood sugar throughout the whole day.

So what you eat for breakfast is going to affect your cravings for the rest of the day. So if you have a bagel and orange juice, you're going to have the blood sugar will rise up, insulin will follow. Two to three hours later, you'll be starving hungry. And if you're at the office and there's brownies, you're going to have one. So you're following the cravings and that insulin and glucose surge all day long.

If you instead have either something like eggs and turkey and spinach or a smoothie, you're going to be much more stable through the morning. You won't have a spike in glucose or insulin. Then later in the day, you'll have lunch but you'll be very controlled. You won't have a lot of cravings. [00:16:06]

So back to smoothie. Basics are get a good blender. I love my Vitamix for this. But not everyone has to have a $500 blender to do a smoothie. You can do a basic blender. You can even buy those little Nutribullets and things that are quick and easy.

Bottom line is you want some leafy greens for sure. There's a lot of powerhouse. Probably one of the most powerful nutrient-rich foods is things like kale and spinach and other leafy greens. So that's one of the basics, a couple handfuls of that.

I like to have people find a clean protein powder. A lot of people hear about whey protein. Not a bad idea but a lot of people are sensitive to dairy and cannot use whey. And I don't recommend soy. So your alternatives are rice and pea proteins and most of the patients I see do some combination. Some of them are on a grain-free diet and so they'll use a collagen powder or a bone broth or some sort of a protein that's from an animal source. And any of those are okay.

But that's your protein source. And usually, you want 20 to 30 grams of protein. It's usually in one scoop of that protein powder and that will keep you full. [00:17:04] Then you want to use some alternative milk. I typically don't recommend cow's dairy because most cow's dairy has a lot of hormones. That's another source and a lot of people are really sensitive to regular U.S. dairy. So I recommend coconut, almond, hemp, some alternative milk that you're not sensitive to.

Then other things you can throw in there are parsley, cilantro, chia or flaxseed are great fiber sources. And then berries are one of your best low-glycemic fruits. So I usually recommend people buy a bag of organic frozen berries or raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry. That would be your best source of fruit.

If you do like a mango, banana, smoothie, all fruit, all high-glycemic, you end up having a big sugary drink. So it's pretty important to choose low-glycemic fruits and then make sure you have the leafy greens. Make sure you have the protein powder.

Some people will add a little bit of MCT oil which is a fat that's really good for the brain and metabolism. Some people will add a banana to make it a little bit more of the texture. When you put a banana either frozen or fresh in there, it makes it much more creamy. [00:18:05] If you put a frozen banana in, it's going to taste more like ice cream. But the banana is higher glycemic. So if someone has a real problem with blood sugar, then I would do without the banana.

Then literally you can throw cumin, that orange spice, ginger. And for me, I'll buy those fresh whole – they're like roots at the store and I'll grate them into my smoothie. So literally fresh turmeric, fresh ginger, whatever flavors you like. I actually love cinnamon and cinnamon is good for blood sugar regulation. So I will often put a teaspoon of cinnamon in there and it's just delicious with that. You can say vanilla, strawberry, cinnamon, spinach smoothie. It's really good.

Laura Dugger: This is awesome because just knowing what step to take can be really motivating. So if somebody is maybe a little bit overwhelmed with this conversation and they want to know why would I make all these lifestyle changes, can you just sell us on what they'll experience if they do incorporate these ideas?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You got it because it is hard to start. [00:19:05] What I would do is don't feel like, okay, tomorrow I've got to do this, and you don't have anything you need. Preparation is the key to success. They always say if you want to succeed, the prep and the thought out, the plan is going to make you successful.

So if you're thinking, if you're listening today and thinking about it, it sounds like a good idea, it sounds a little bit overwhelming, what you can do is frozen berries will last a long time in your freezer. So first of all, stock up on a few bags of frozen berries. Really the only ingredient here that's going to go bad or that you have to get every week is your fresh leafy greens. But even those will probably last in your fridge a week.

So you stock up on leafy greens. You get some frozen berries. You get some coconut milk or almond milk. And most of these things are easy because it's not going to require a trip to the grocery store every day. So you get the basics there. I could certainly give you my smoothie recipe to share with everyone. Would that be helpful?

Laura Dugger: That would be awesome. I'll link to that in the show notes.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You got it. And then get a blender. Again, you do not have to invest in a real expensive one. If you find you love this and you want it, you can ask for your birthday or Christmas and get a Vitamix because it's really amazing. [00:20:06] But you don't have to have a big old, you know, fancy blender.

You can even use a shaker cup if you're using protein coconut milk. You just can't blend up the spinach and strawberries. So a really basic version would be a shaker cup, a scoop of protein powder. You can buy powdered wheatgrass juice.

So if I'm on the go, I'll do a scoop of protein powder, plant-based protein powder, some coconut milk, some chia seed, and a scoop, like a tablespoon of wheatgrass juice. And it's in a powdered form. And that way you don't even need a blender. If I'm in a hotel or traveling, I can do a smoothie just in a shaker cup really easy.

So what I'd recommend is you prepare. Think about what you want to do. And most of the time when we cheat on ice cream or cookies or whatever, it's one of two things. Most of us, many of us have families. And so people in our house that aren't really eating the same as us. And if we have teenagers or kids, there's going to be stuff in the house that maybe we wouldn't consume but it's going to be there. And you may not be able to control that. [00:21:00]

But one of the really success tips is go through your pantry. If you have a choice to get rid of all the junk, the stuff that you don't want to be tempted with... I live alone with two puppies. So it's really easy. I don't have any gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, alcohol. I don't have any of that in my house. I can't even cheat if I want to. I don't have ice cream. I don't have any of that. My fridge is literally teas, waters, sparkling waters, leafy greens, fresh berries, fresh fruits, and vegetables, sometimes like chicken or fish. That's it. So it's super easy.

Nuts and seeds are in the cabinet. So that's my snack. But it makes it so easy because if I have a weak moment, I don't have to worry about it because I would have to drive to the store in order to get something.

What you'll find with these smoothies if you're just starting out is it really satisfies you and your cravings are going to change. What I'd recommend, if you're like, new year, new ideas, I want to do this, commit to 30 days.

With your plan to do the smoothies, I would actually recommend that you take out three things that are going to sabotage you. That's gluten, cow's milk, dairy, and sugar. I can almost guarantee you this is... you're getting about $1,000 of advice for free here. Because when my patients first come in, this is one thing that I do for almost everyone. [00:22:10]

Go off gluten, dairy, and sugar for a month. Try the smoothies in the morning. Just that alone, you will feel so good after 30 days that it will be motivating for you to continue. Many people will have brain fog gone. They've lost eight pounds. They're sleeping better. They have no joint pain. They have no muscle pain. There's amazing things that happen when you clean up the diet.

Laura Dugger: Wow. You are such a wealth of information. So if listeners do want to learn more, Dr. Jill, where can they find you online?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thanks, Laura. You can just visit my website, which is my name, Jillcarnahan.com. I have lots and lots of free resources. If you want to look up an elimination diet or the smoothie recipe, you can actually go to my blog and search. And those will all come up. They're all free.

Laura Dugger: For our team, it makes our day to read a new five-star rating and review on iTunes. Here's one that came in recently from HLS2006. They write, "I love Laura's ability to draw fascinating people and perspectives around her, then use her excellent interview skills and questions to provide practical, thoughtful applications to transformative ideas. She's not afraid of big topics like money, sex, and purpose, but she handles them with grace and curiosity that invites the listeners' private fears and questions into open conversation. Fantastic podcast." [00:23:30]

Wow, that was humbling to read, but you have no idea how grateful our entire team is that you took the time to share those nice words. When HLS left this review, that person was actually responsible for helping The Savvy Sauce podcast go around the world because iTunes seems to promote our podcast more when we get more ratings and reviews.

This reputation has provided us the opportunity to bring some amazing guests your way, and we hope you continue to leave positive feedback. Thanks for your help.

If this is anyone's first time listening, we're called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so I have one final question for you today, Dr. Jill. What is your savvy sauce?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: This is going to maybe sound out of context, but it's something I've recently learning and reading. I'm someone who all my life has been a pleaser, and it's a really good thing trying to make people around me happy and comfortable. But what I found is this savvy sauce that we're talking about, I just heard the phrase clear is kind, unclear is unkind. [00:24:33] And I thought that has hit me so deeply in the last week or so because I think, oh, I don't want to burden them. But when you think about clear is kind, and that's with your expectations with your spouse, with your children at work, clear is kind, unclear is actually unkind.

And some of us who are a little bit more empathetic and we feel deeply and we want to make sure everybody's comfortable, I'm just speaking for myself, that ability to be clear is a little harder. But I was so touched this last week with clear is kind because it really helps to be more clear with the people in our life about our expectations. And I think in general, that's actually a way more kind way to live.

Laura Dugger: That's an awesome and challenging savvy sauce. Dr. Jill, it's always such a pleasure to interview you. Thank you for making yourself so accessible. I really enjoyed our time together today.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thank you, Laura, and I hope to talk again soon.

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. [00:25:35] Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him.

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. [00:26:37] Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John. [00:27:45]

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time. [00:28:40]

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce

Practical chats for intentional living

A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.

They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!