Brownies for Breakfast with Lynne Bowman

Lynne Bowman has lived a rich, full life, which she credits to a careful, healthy relationship with food.  She feels that food is more than fuel - it's a ritual, a sensory experience, and a social opportunity. 

Lynne's cookbook, Brownies for Breakfast, is full of simple, straightforward recipes for diabetics and their families as well as information on ways to be healthy in ways other than food.

Connect with Lynne:
Online: lynnebowman.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LynneParmiterBowman
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynneparmiterbowman/

Connect with Magic:

A Magical Life Podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amagicallifepodcast/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholisticnaturalhealth/

Online: https://wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au

A Subito Media production

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 1:00

Welcome back to a magical life, I'm your host magic Barclay. And this is your episode, 80 Brownies for Breakfast with Lynn Bowman. I'm actually going to get Lynn to introduce herself. She's a fascinating lady. And before I do that listeners, I've got Lynn on my camera and there is a sea of pears behind her, on her table. And I'm just in awe. They look so delicious. But before we get on to talking about pairs, let's talk about Lynn. Thank you, Lynn. Welcome.

Lynne Bowman: 1:32

Thank you. And it's so fun to talk to you magic from across the world. Uh, this is. I dunno. Um, I like to talk about how old I am, because people always want to know, and people are telling me that that's part of the story. So I'm 75 and I'm still completely awestruck that you and I can have this conversation and send each other pictures of ourselves. Through the internet and it's a 17 hour difference, which took me some time as you know, to figure out how to, um, coordinate with you. So I'm talking to you from yesterday. In many ways. I'm also talking to you from yesterday in that I had my first full time job in advertising in 1966. I've been at this a long time and it's crazy to be kind of from another planet, another time and other space, but what you and I share is that we see what happens to people when they eat well and take care of themselves and think about their health as a thing that they can choose or choose to ignore. So after a fairly long career in advertising and marketing, I started out with Redkin laboratories, which you may be familiar with. They're all over the world. Now. They were just a little tiny company in California when I went to work for them in the sixties. And, um, Showed up one Monday morning and everyone in the advertising department, but me had been fired. So as he age of 21, I, I was schooled, uh, in a very real way immediately in, um, cosmetic marketing. So I had trained to be an illustrator and I spent time in Europe and. Back and forth grew up. I was actually born in Hollywood and grew up in Southern California. So at the same time that the bus loads of starlets were coming in toward Hollywood. I couldn't wait to get out. I didn't want to stay there. So I took a job, uh, in the early seventies, in North Carolina, as a broadcaster, as, um, Um, whether a person with a promise of a news desk, but that didn't quite happen. You know, in those days we just, we took jobs. We women, we didn't plan careers and plan, you know, all this stuff. We, we did whatever we had to do to survive. And, you know, still, so many of the best colleges were co-ed. You know, jobs were listed in the newspaper as help wanted women and help wanted men. So when you talk to young people about that, now they go, wait. No. Yeah, it was a very different world. So, and along the way, I, um, Marriage are two and three fabulous kids and, um, kept on going in the advertising business. And then in 1996, my husband and I moved out to this funny little bitty town on the coast of California as an LA girl, to me, the most romantic wonderful thing in the world was a country town where people knew your name, you know, and they would say hi. I mean, it was just so exotic and wonderful. So we fell in love with this old farm, this old. Um, we're still here and the pears are still here the farm came with these beautiful fruit trees that had been neglected for a long time. And, uh, they're from another time too sweet like me, uh, and, uh, w some years you just have these bumper crops. So this is the year that every surface in my house is covered with pears, but. Great thing to have to give your friends we're going to dry them this afternoon. They're healthy. They just feel like a gift and we also have apples. We have blackberries. And so, the defining moment that we talk about in health circles is it goes back to my childhood and that my mother died when I was young. She died when I was 18 of a chronic disease. And. I understood then in that special way, that happens to us. That a chronic disease wrecks a family. In the United States, especially it absolutely wrecks your finances. It breaks a family. If a mother dies, you know, family tends to get broken in, in so many ways. And she couldn't have, she had a kidney disease that she couldn't help. But as I grew older I wanted to make a promise to my children, that I would never consciously choose to do that to them. And so, and I knew because I had gestational diabetes, I knew that I was likely to become diabetic. And so I kept asking, do you want to test me? No, no, no. You're you're not ever way. You're fine. It's okay. And finally I said, no, I'm in my forties. Shouldn't you test me? And they did. And sure enough, I was borderline. So as a result of that, I've spent these decades since my forties working to remain really healthy and guess what it worked, I'm healthy and my numbers are good, but, but my mission, what I really would like to do is share that. With everyone, because typically you're in your fifties or sixties, or sometimes seventies because diabetes, heart disease, these things don't have symptoms until it's almost too. By the time you feel symptoms and again, you know, all this, but by the time you feel symptoms, shortness of breath or fatigue or tingling, or you were having foot problems, there are decades of damages that have been done To your body, your internal organs. So I would like people to understand that you can eat your way out of all that you can eat an exercise and meditate your way out of all that. If you give it some time and energy, instead of just ignoring it. So, um, my. My life is a happy one. And I have spent time as a homeless, single mother, as many of us through our journey have. But, um, I learned some lessons from that too. and, uh, I've enjoyed working in community work here in Pescadero this little bitty town, but my. Main mission is this new book that, that I have out now brownies for breakfast, which it's in the subtitle is for diabetics and the people who love them. And that's a very specific choice because if you're trying to eat for your health, you need to not have everybody at the table eating different. You need to, to have a menu, a system that works for everybody at the table. And I also want you to have, if you possibly can arrange it, people at the table, I don't want people eating alone unless they have to or choose to really want to. Um, and I, in, in the book brownies for breakfast, I talk about how food is it just food. Uh, food is part of how you. And you can't just separate, oh, I'm on low carb. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. Your food is ritual and it's, it's sustenance in not just a physical way. So, uh, part of the problem, I think with the health problems that we, you know, they call it the standard American diet, the sad diet, um, is that people get so attached. To their food habits. If your food habit, as it is an often in America driving through, right. Everything is going to Mickey D's or RBS, or these places where you grab a meal and then you sit in your car and you eat it. But people don't want to be separated from the. Uh, barbecue or from their fried chicken or from their special treats that go back in their family or in their own history. it's a tough sell to get people I'm telling you, right? This is you're the queen of this. It's a tough sell to help people change habits.

Magic Barclay: 10:40

Totally. And thank you for saying all that and listeners, as I'm looking at lean, I need to tell you not just about the sea of peers on the table behind her, but there's an eclectic mix at this very long table of chairs. And it's very obvious that. Makes that food, that family mealtime or ritual, because there are so many chairs and they're just all different. It's just beautiful to see. So that's great.

Lynne Bowman: 11:08

Thank you. Thank you. And this is, this is a cool room that I added onto our old house, actually. Uh, and it's, it's kind of like an old timey garage. But it's my studio and my playroom. And it's a place where I can have 20 people if I want to around the table. And I like to do that sometimes. Uh, and I do have other tables in the house and, and actually they're in the book because to me, a table is kind of a holy place. A chair is an important thing. And I talk about. Thank you for bringing it up. I talk about how important it is to think about your table and to think about how you sit at a meal and who is with you and what you're asking of them. I don't know magic how this is in. It's been a while since I've been to Australia, I want to come back. I love it. Particularly Melbourne, uh, had such a nice time there. And you know, it feels very much at home. Melbourne is a lot like San Francisco in many ways. And I felt very at home there, but Americans are not asking their kids to do very much. These days they're giving their kids kind of a pass on the whole housework and cooking and all that sort of thing. And we've got two generations at least now. Of people who don't have a clue about how to put a table together or how to manage a kitchen or how to do some basic cooking. So in brownies for breakfast, I designed it to be something that your eight year old could use or your 65 year old husband. Who's just never, he can use it. Anybody. It's, it's simple. It's basic. It's very visual. I like to say fun. I think it's fun, uh, which you don't usually see the cookbook, but, um, I have a here. You want me to hold it up? It's, it's definitely a work of love because I want you to enjoy cooking and eating healthy food. And as soon as you say that word healthy, everybody goes, oh, thanks. I, you know, I don't think so. And in fact, healthy food. It's beautiful and better tasting and more interesting. You just have to put your student in it and start, you have to not drive through once or twice and try some of this wonderful. The one that, that I just talked about, um, Website was cowgirl caviar, which is a vegan take on a one dish meal that has every color in the rainbow. It's easy. Kids love it. And you know, there's some fun and having a name for a dish that people go, oh yeah, I'm not that I like Cal Calgary caviar. I want that. Um, food should be joyful. I know you believe in that too. And I know that happiness is a big part of what you talk about in your health coach.

Magic Barclay: 14:28

Very much so. And in the podcast I've discussed with many people about the Epicurean academy, where Epicurious. I said to the people in his township, if you want to be part of my academy, you have to bring food and you have to be happy and you have to sing and dance. As soon as you start an argument, as soon as you're unhappy, or you bring your troubles to the table you're at, and that's what the Epicurean lifestyle was. It was about sharing positives from your day about joy, about happiness and about food being nurturing, not only for the body, but for the. So I really learned,

Lynne Bowman: 15:05

we have a generation of kids who don't know how to talk. They don't know how to have a conversation because they've got their phones and this goes to, you know, adults too. They're just, they're completely stumped when it comes to a personal conversation because that starts at the table that you teach them. At the table, how to take turns talking and how to pay attention to what the person next to you is doing and all that the food is part of it. Absolutely. But it's, it's the ritual of. And, um, so thank you. Yes. Perfect. And those are the rules here at old dog farm to no whining. Right. We just don't allow whining. We don't. And if you bring something lovely and if you don't, that's lovely too. That's all right. Um, and I try to always send something away with people because I feel like we have such an abundance, as you can see from the pairs. Um, we also, at a certain time of the year have blackberries just all over the place and what a wonderful thing to be able to share with people. Um, so yeah, it's not just food. It can never be just food. Happiness is about. Being healthy. And it's very hard. You can be happy when you're unhealthy, but it's a lot harder. Is it not? Then if you're healthy,

Magic Barclay: 16:37

very true. Now we talk here about. Health being just not just the physical, but the emotional and spiritual. And so we've talked about, uh, you know, the, the table and being joyous around your food and having healthy food. What else can your expertise do to help people accelerate their.

Lynne Bowman: 16:59

Uh, thank you for asking, because what I talk about in the book, you'd go, wait, it's a cookbook. Well, yeah, but you can't really talk about healthy food without talking about two other essential things. One of them, this might surprise you is sleep. If you're not sleeping well, you can't eat well. And if you're not eating well, guess what? You can't sleep well. They go together. It's all part of one system. So one of the most amazing, surprising bits of advice that, that people get from me. And I got a lot of head shaking is I advise people to work toward being finished, eating at four or five in the afternoon. Latest. If you can do it at three better, no eating at night. Nothing. No alcohol. No snacks, not even a little vegans. Nothing stop eating, uh, four or five in the afternoon and let your gut do what it needs to do. Let it go to work. If you continually feed your gut, it keeps going. Wait, no, wait. She's no, now it's some chips. Oh my God. Okay. It can't manage unless you finish and let it do its work and likewise, your sleep. The only time your body, any part of your body can heal is when you are in a deep sleep state. And there's tons of research about this. This is I'm not making this up. And when I learned that I was really stunned, it's like, I am this old and I'm just now learning. That you cannot heal unless you're sleeping and sleep has become a terrible problem with people because they're eating crap. You can't eat crap and sleep well. You can't eat late and sleep well. And if you're not sleeping well, your hunger will be. Off what happens if you get on a nice schedule of eating, basically what you want, assuming that it's decent, healthy food during the day, and then you stop eating at four or five, you will not be hungry. Your body goes, oh, thank goodness. You finally figured this out. It's fine. Another thing that I've learned in my research is that your saliva actually changes its chemistry. Because people often say to me, don't you want sugar? I'm don't, you know, I don't, and I'm now a pescatarian. I eat some fish for a long time. I just was eating vegan. There's a story about that too, but, um, it's in the book. Um, but do I want a pork chop now? Because I used to love. No, it just doesn't sound good to me. And that's my body chemistry talking to me and that's my saliva talking to me because it's adapted. Am I not right? You're the, the medical expert here. Uh, but our bodies adapt to this.

Magic Barclay: 20:21

Exactly. Part of the process of digestion is the saliva glands. So you have to see the food, smell the food and people all too often cook the food, put it in front of them and start diving in. But you actually have to let all your senses take in the food before you even put it in your mouth. So right. And your eyes, we eat with our eyes to exactly. And when we eat dead food, like the drive-thrus.

Lynne Bowman: 20:52

You're not starting that process. So you're not even digesting it from the outset. No. And of course the, the other thing that some people are shocked by is learning that the drive-through food and packaged foods are designed chemically by people who sit in buildings and they engineer these foods for craveability. That's the word? Industry and they don't care. What's in it. All they care is that when you taste it you'll go, oh, I got to have more of that because they can do that chemically. And so when the ad says you can't eat just one, guess what? They're right. They've done the work and scientifically you cannot eat this one. It's designed to give you eating. So when you start, if you haven't already, and I hope you will, when you start eating great whole food, plant-based whole food. What you find is okay, I've had a pair and I've had two of the, I've had enough. I I'm, I'm good. I'm satisfied. And that satisfaction is something that most people struggle with. They don't get to it because they're eating pizza. And guess what? Pizza is the most addictive food you can eat. I'm not making this up. Peer reviewed studies, sugar, as you know is addictive, but pizza is addictive. You can't quit and you can't eat just one piece. And of course it depends on the quality of the pizza, but you're probably, I see you out there. You're not eating the best pizza. Right. You're, you're eating that pizza that you could grab in the box or have someone drive to your house or that out of the. Uh, this is not the pizza that comes out of the stone oven in a certain place in Italy that you're eating.

Magic Barclay: 22:53

And it's funny. Wait, Lynn, we actually have a local guy here that is from Italy, the stone oven. And unless we're making our own pizza here at home, we had to get Palo to make the pizza.

Lynne Bowman: 23:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's wonderful. But. If you have a guy like you do magic, who makes beautiful know I'm, I'm imagining that that pizza also has some vegetables on it and some really wonderful vegetable sauce on it.

Magic Barclay: 23:25

And totally does it has his homemade sauce. It has fresh vegetables that he's grown or sourced locally. Just amazing. And that's the way. Food should be, it should be locally sourced, seasonal produce. None of this, you know, kept in storerooms and refrigerators. Like that's just crazy.

Lynne Bowman: 23:46

It is just crazy. And, and because several reasons I live out in the country and COVID another one. Um, I had not been in an actual supermarket in a year and a half. Yeah. Everything that we grow our own food and we have a farmer's market where we buy food. And then my husband would make occasional forays into our closest decent sized town. And there's a health food market there where he. Nice things. But the other day I was in a hurry and I was out. And so I, I stopped into one of these great, huge supermarkets that we haven't, uh, the states and you walk in and you walk through bakery. For three Isles before you get to any other food. And then you walk through the liquor section before you get to end, and then you walk through the package snacks. It's like, where are the vegetables and fruits and what? Well, they're way back in the back there past, you know, I mean, and the amount of cellophane and plastic and paper and. Stuff. I, I wasn't used to it, you know, I've sort of, I've not been a part of that world and it's, it's pretty shocking once you step away and start thinking more carefully about what you're eating and why. And of course, the other thing we always have to talk about is how good for the earth is what you're eating. Because if it's not good for the earth, then you might not be poisoning yourself badly right. At the moment, but you're not doing the planet any good at all. And if you haven't got the memo, please it's time. We all need to get that memo.

Magic Barclay: 25:37

Totally. Now we also talk about wealth here and we're talking not the financial only, but the emotional and the personal we've discussed the importance of sharing a meal with people. So that's obviously one tip to creating personal wealth. What else would you suggest?

Lynne Bowman: 25:55

Personal wealth? To me it's usually boils down to beauty, um, creating as wonderful and environment for yourself and your family as you can, or your friends, people appreciate beauty when they see it and when they feel it and again, bringing it back to food. But when you invite people over. And I learned this as a young adult. I didn't so much learn it as a child, but I, I realized that when someone set a place for you with a cloth napkin and a candle, you feel very rich, you feel loved and valued and wealthy because what more do you need than a beautiful table? And it can be very humble. It doesn't need to be fancy. It, you know, it, I always appreciated people who could take some fabric and turn it into something and, you know, find stuff off. And I'm still kind of guilty of dragging things up the gutter, painting them and using them love doing that. Uh, but if you're, if your space is small, It can be just as beautiful or more. So we've all been most of us in homes that were overlarge maybe over expensive. That's not wealth at all. What's wealth is appropriateness and beauty. So what you do in your own kitchen, in your own house, in your own apartment to make. Uh, a great space for you and for your friends and family that's wealth to me.

Magic Barclay: 27:45

Totally. And the final thing we talk about here is weight loss. Now you're quite a thin person and I'm a little bit more fluffy. Let's say what.

Lynne Bowman: 27:59

Okay. I'm I'm just a person. Yes. Um, and I'm people accuse me sometimes of being small. Hi, I'm told all the time I'm short. It's, it's all how you define that. Right? I think of myself as huge, but, um, there have been times I gained 60 pounds for all of you who, who have had kids with my first child. Um, and w the, the weight loss part of this magic is when you eat really well, I I've lost about 10 pounds this year. Actually, uh, because I was being more and more conscious of this time thing that we're talking about and I was making it just very considerable effort to stop eating at four in the afternoon or three in the afternoon. I also cut back my alcohol consumption, California, wine guilty. Um, so I cut it back to maybe once a week and you know, what. That's a great way to lose any weight that you need. I don't diet, but if you are eating consciously and, uh, and I don't eat meat, I eat some fish once a week, twice a week. Um, if you're eating a plant based whole food diet, uh, and I don't eat any dairy. Uh, dairy is a real weight gain problem for people like many. I loved my cheese, but dairy is not good for. It's, I don't know what you tell your patients, but, um,

Magic Barclay: 29:50

I always told them dairy is not good at so inflammatory and selling behind so many conditions.

Lynne Bowman: 29:57

Yes, yes. Yes. So if you are cutting out there, And cutting down your alcohol and you're stopping your food intake at four or five in the afternoon. And you're basically eating whole food plant-based foods stuff. Your face enjoy make, uh, apple Gunza you know, the, the title be abundant in don't. Don't worry about eating little bit, eat what you need. The weight will drop off. It absolutely will drop off. And we talked about sleep food. The last thing yes, you have to move. You have to move. Uh, I work out with a trainer three days a week. Um, so when you say skinny, I want to say, okay, but I'm pumped up, but you can't see it. Cause I have a jacket I'm totally pumped. Uh, but I highly recommend that that's a social fun thing for you to do. I do a lot of Pilates, which is, you know, becomes a little bit of a Hollywood joke, but it's wonderful. Movement system, especially for a person of a certain age, you don't want to be bouncing around and, and, you know, trying to keep up with the 25 year olds in a yoga studio, if you can help it. Um, so I'm fortunate that I have a little class of other ladies, various ages, but some of them close to my age and a trainer who is smart. Very well-trained herself, so she doesn't hurt anybody. So I get to do that in my neighborhood two miles away, three days a week, and she kicks my bungs. Um, I come away sweaty and tired, you know, it's, it's a real workout, but it's true that you feel immediately better. You do feel better. And if all you can do is walk. Just do it every day, every day you can, and don't just drag yourself, but really walk and get a friend to walk. We have a walking group here in town, uh, and if you want to hear all the latest, that's what you'll be doing, they'll be walking with them. And I think a lot of towns have something like that. So I highly recommend it. So those are the three things you got to move your bonds, you got to sleep and you have to eat sensitive. And listeners, we'll be talking more about the importance of all these things in episode 83, coming up, which is a morning routine and why it's important to have one Len, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on. People can find you on YouTube at Lynn Bowman. That's L Y double N E B O w M a N. You're also on Instagram at Lee. Palmer to Bowman and on Facebook at Lynn parameter, Bowman, people can find you@lynnbowman.com. And on Amazon, they can find brownies for breakfast, a cookbook for diabetics and people who love them.

Magic Barclay: 33:08

Thank you so much for coming on. It's been an absolute blast talking to you.

Lynne Bowman: 33:12

It's been so much fun. Magic. Let me come back one day. Okay, please do, please do it. I'd like to be irregular. Yay. Thanks

Magic Barclay: 33:23

listeners. This was your episode, 80 of a magical life coming up in episode 81. We have, uh, the symptoms of mold and what you can do to beat them.

Lynne Bowman: 33:34

And I think you're going to find that quite surprising. And, uh, in episode 82, we have Dr. Travis Fox coming to talk to us. So a lot coming up episode 83 of course, is your morning routine and the importance of having one. But for now, listeners, thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.