Karen:
Today's guest is someone who lives at the intersection of
leadership, health, creativity, and personal transformation. Krisna Hanks is
the director of employee wellness for Ovadia Heart Health, co-owner of Square
One Wellness, an author, an international executive coach, and a metabolic
health expert. Her journey from coaching global CEOs to healing her own
metabolic health gives her a uniquely powerful perspective. She believes, as I
do, that all of us must CEO our health, making it our number one priority.
Ladies and gentlemen, Krisna Hanks.

I think the best place for us to start this conversation is with a
definition of what is metabolic health.

Krisna:
Great way to start. It's a hot topic these days because we're trying
to broaden our knowledge about what it means to not only be healthy, but age
with vibrant health. Part of the definition is recognizing that there are
actually five official markers of metabolic health, and those come from the
National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and other organizations. They include
waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglycerides, and HDL —
the triglycerides and HDL being from the cholesterol profile. This broader
definition breaks us away from just looking at what used to be the category of
importance, body mass index or weight. We want to make sure we're talking about
how the body metabolically performs. People often think about metabolic rate —
how many calories do you burn. But these markers really do indicate whether
your body is performing metabolically, on the inside, at an optimal level. It
makes more sense when we talk about aging well and really looking at the body
performing.

Karen:
You've come from being an international leadership coach to now
being a coach around metabolic health. How did that journey happen?

Krisna:
To back up a little, I had a long and extensive career as a
professional dancer, which actually started at the age of 15. Fast forward to
my early 40s, and I transitioned into coaching. I'd always been teaching and
doing personal training, and I segued right into executive coaching. There was
something that always attracted me about the performance side. As a CEO, as a
top-level executive, you're performing all the time. It's a different level of
performance than the creative arts, but it's high-level performance. The
company I started working with was very interested in hiring people who had
performance backgrounds, because they were used to that intensity, that level
of training, and having to — I like to use the word — just be on. As you know,
Karen, being a CEO, the buck stops with you. That's the same with a performer.
I loved that, and I worked internationally for several decades.

Krisna:
Two things pushed me from the executive coaching level. One was my
own personal health journey. The other was seeing that many executives were
fantastic at what they were doing, and just awful — to put it bluntly — at
taking care of themselves.

I thought at one time that the
vegetarian nutritional lifestyle was the way to go, that this was the
air-quotes healthy way to eat. As a dancer, weight is always something you
think about. For me it wasn't something I had to really worry about, but you're
always wanting to be at the top of your game. I thought that was a lifestyle,
and I did it for about 20 years. Unfortunately, the reason I changed was health
concerns. I started having digestive issues, and some very strange joint and
inflammation issues. As a professional dancer, having limitations on my
movement was quite shocking to me, because I felt like I was doing everything
completely right.

I took what I'd call a two-year
journey in the medical hamster wheel — tested for this, tested for that, no
real conclusions. Everybody had an opinion, whether it was an autoimmune
disease or some rare form of lupus they couldn't diagnose, or rheumatoid arthritis.
At the end of those two years, nothing conclusive. Then I had dinner with a
good friend who's a physical therapist, and he said, this is beyond what I see
in my practice — have you ever thought about your diet? Gobsmacked. I thought,
no, my diet's perfect. Very bristly, very defensive. But I went home, and the
next day the first thing I did was call him and say, I'm sorry, I was a little
bit of a jerk, but I'm listening. Maybe what I've been doing for the last 20
years isn't working. What do I have to lose?

Long story short, within a few
months things started to improve — my skin issues, my joint issues. And then,
thanks to my husband, he found an article by science journalist Gary Taubes
debating the whole idea that nutrition is really a hormonal issue, not just a
calories-in, calories-out theory or eat less, move more. We went down that
rabbit hole, and we've been practicing some version of low carbohydrate, low
sugar, no processed foods for about 18 years, and it's worked out great for us.

Krisna:
So much of health in the US — and I'm thankful I had decades living
outside it for a different perspective — has been focused on weight only.
There's so much more. In my case, I was ill and I didn't have a weight issue,
and that happens to many people. Doctors will look at your reports and say,
your weight is fine, your blood looks okay, and yet you're not feeling well, or
your energy is low, or you're not sleeping well. All of that matters, and when
you apply the metabolic health lens, you can see it.

In business we accept that you
need coaches — there's a whole market of executive coaches. In sports, look at
any team, how many coaches are on the sidelines. In education you'll get
mentors and coaches. We also need that when it comes to our health. A 15-minute
visit with your doctor or nurse practitioner on an annual basis is not really
going to help you become vibrantly healthy.

Karen:
This idea that focusing on our health as leaders is good for our own
lives, but can also have a ripple effect on those around us and on our
companies — can you talk about that?

Krisna:
Lead by example. There have been countless business books written
about that for decades, and that's the true way. We know from coaching that
intrinsically, people are only going to change when they're ready to change.
However, if the CEO is CEOing their health and leading by that, there's a
trickle-down effect. We're working with a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania
with the Ovadia Heart Health team. We also finished up working with a small
dental practice in Oregon. In both cases, it's not only the people working
there, it's the family members — a parent or a child — and that ripple effect
then goes out into the community. CEOs say all the time that your employees are
your biggest investment. Well, if they're not healthy, that investment is of a
lower quality. And the absolute best way is when you can model that.

There's no perfection. I think
that's one of the hardest things for someone in a leadership position — you
have that goal to be perfect. And health is a little messy, that's for sure. If
we can embrace that ourselves, that it's the journey and it's all about
practicing. Having had a career on stage, some of your performances are going
to be dynamite and some are going to be less, but hopefully with each one you
learn something and take it forward.

Krisna:
People highly respect vulnerability. Health is a great bridge. We
had a how-to-quit group at one of the manufacturing companies we've been
working with — it could be anything you wanted to quit. Smoking, vaping, sugar.
We had people wanting to quit processed food. We had one person wanting to quit
gaming on their phone. It was wonderful because everyone was a little bit
willing to share their vulnerability. When it comes to our health, that can be
a good bridge for people to see that it isn't perfect. You're not going to hit
all your markers all the time, but we can move forward together as a group.

Karen:
Why does it take a catastrophic health event to get us to change?
That's what happened for me — my father had a health scare and I had
calcification show up in my heart, and I was in my early 40s thinking, I'm on
my way to a heart attack. What causes that?

Krisna:
Yes and no — maybe it's the human condition, continually evolving.
We have quite an all-or-nothing mentality, particularly in the US, and I think
a lot of that is also in the global workspace. My European friends will say
America revolves between crisis and complacency. Sometimes we just have a
bucket of energy, we can only put so much into it, and maybe we've put it all
into the work, and we keep thinking, well, once I get to this hurdle, then I'll
go to the next one. Unfortunately, for many people, it will take that crisis.
There is a growing awareness that that's not a great philosophy. I had a client
who talked about the lifespan of someone who works for UPS — a terrible record
of heart attacks and stress later on. So the newer ones are at least paying
attention to that. It is changing. But for many people, it still might take
that crisis moment, and hopefully we can do something about it then.

Krisna:
Those individuals who think differently, critically, and maybe
challenge you are really important people to have around you if you're in a
leadership position. If you go back historically to the concept we talk about
with Abraham Lincoln, he put some of his adversaries in his cabinet. We need
those. Oftentimes people will surround themselves with the people who say yes.
But we need those who say, well, have you thought about that? That's where
coaching and getting people who challenge you about your health is important —
whether you have a wellness program, or maybe you just have a mentor who keeps
reminding you, prioritize your health.

Karen:
Is there a practical step one or two on how to think differently
about workplace wellness? A lot of us have wellness programs, but maybe we need
to be thinking differently. Challenge us.

Krisna:
First and foremost: is your wellness program working? Are people
getting healthy? If it's the same model you've been doing for years and the
answer is no, we need to rethink. There's opportunity cost in business — if
you're spending money and not getting a good investment, it's time to think
differently.

Step one is how we started this
call: look at metabolic health. Step back from the fact that over the last 10
years or so, much of workplace wellness has been in the medical insurance model
of disease management — let's identify the individuals in your company who have
diabetes or pre-diabetes or hypertension, and focus on them. Well, you have a
whole workforce. What about focusing on the metabolic health of all the
employees, not just those you're tagging with a disease label?

If we want people in the
workplace to perform well, we have to look at all those issues. Are they having
time to focus on the things they want to do? Is the nutrition in the workplace
actually fueling good performance, or is it exacerbating what we call the blood
sugar roller coaster? What do you have in your vending machine? What's in the
break room? Are we teaching them about good protein and healthy fats? Are we
helping people learn how to delegate and outsource instead of micromanaging
everything?

The last piece is helping your
workforce understand why they want to be healthy. I like to say: elevate your
why. Every company has a mission. Your mission now is to make yourself healthy
and strong for as long as you can, and to encourage the rest of your workforce
to prioritize their health. But we have to know why we want to be healthy. I'm
one of those people who wants to be independent — that's very important to me,
and it motivates me. Just like when I was a performer, I wanted every person in
the audience to see the best they could that night, so I wanted to give 100%
every night. Tying into the why helps people understand that it's more than
just the scale you're standing on.

Krisna:
It's very refreshing — for some people it'll be mind-blowing —
having a cardiac surgeon tell you, enjoy that piece of steak, and look at your
metabolic health. Dr. Ovadia is a perfect example of someone who hit that
crisis moment and made a complete revelation in his health, lost close to 100
pounds, and took a 180 away from current standard dietary advice. He wrote
about his own personal journey in Stay Off My Operating Table. We're trying to
keep as many people off his operating table as possible. That's why we're now
doing our programs in the workplace, because not everyone has the means to work
privately with a cardiac surgeon for preventative care. We can reach more
people in the workplace.

We have clients of all ages,
across the country — Dr. Ovadia is now licensed in all 50 states, which is
really exciting. I have an 89-year-young client right now who's doing
fantastic, been with us three years. We also have younger people in their 30s
who are not waiting until that crisis moment. One couple I've been coaching
recently — he lost around 45 pounds, she lost around 25 pounds, but more
importantly they both got their health back together.

We have multiple people over
the age of 80 who have reversed their diabetes, taken their fasting insulin
from double digits down to single digits. Not everything is about weight. We've
had individuals switch from a low-fat diet to a more protein-focused approach
and start competing again in their favorite sports — cycling, running, or
competitive pickleball. I didn't know that was a thing, but I found out it is.
Through my own company with my husband, Square One Wellness, we had someone
recently complete her third New York City marathon after revamping her
nutrition and coming through a burnout phase. We've also had spouses see their
cancer markers improve through dietary changes. Those are the stories that
really touch your heart.

Krisna:
If anybody would take anything away, it's this: think about
everything in a performance lens. You want to perform well in your work, you
want to perform well with your loved ones and your family and life, and you
want to perform well when it comes to your health. That takes looking at all
the lifestyle pieces. The medical system is great for some things, but when it
comes to vibrant health, it's those lifestyle factors — your nutrition, your
exercise, your sleep, getting sunshine, managing your stress. Those are all
equally important, and those need your performance attention.

Karen:
How do you keep yourself motivated, and what is lifting you right
now?

Krisna:
I have an amazing partner — he's an incredible cook, so I'm lucky in
that. I love being active. Obviously I had a long career as a professional
dancer; I'm not dancing on stage anymore, but I love hiking. We live in Arizona
where you can get outside pretty much all year round. And I love what I do. I
had a father who was a very successful basketball coach for a long time, both
at the high school and collegiate level. When I said at a young age that I
wanted to be a professional dancer, he said, you know, it's a very risky
career, you're not going to make any money — you better love it. In fact, he
said, you better love anything you want to do as work. And he said, I love to
go to work every day, even though some days it's more challenging than others.
That's stuck with me. I can't imagine doing something I didn't wholeheartedly
believe in.

Karen:
Thank you for sharing your wisdom today and reminding us that
leadership, health, and creativity are inseparable. They're not things to be
put in separate buckets. We need our health to be creative, to be leaders in
our businesses, to be leaders in our lives. Your journey really shows that when
we CEO our health, we create ripple effects for everyone around us.

Krisna:
Thank you so much, Karen. And I have to say, the title of your show,
Always Lifting, is inspiring in and of itself. So keep doing what you're doing.