Empowering Communities for Health and Wellness: A Conversation with Stacey Harden

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:04  
Hello, and welcome to Your Health Moment podcast. I'm your host Max Sturdivant better known as Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Now, whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, hydration, exercise, or even time management, you're in the right place, and I'm here for you. Now, let's dive right into this episode.

I'm really excited today, we have a phenomenal guest, Stacey Harden is here. She's a native of Jacksonville, Florida, a nurse practitioner, and a gym junkie. And you know, we love having Jim junkies on our show and nurse practitioners, everybody knows, they're much better than doctors. Okay, so she's created a platform for mirroring her philosophy of life, which is health and fitness, known. And it's her organization that she's created, called the Discovery Health zone. So DHZ for short, is a private gym, infused with a wellness clinic. So their mission is to empower and educate the community with essential tools to help sustain a quality of life, apart from empowering the community. What she also does is identify risk factors. So if you have a risk factor, some people aren't even aware of risk fast factors they have. So having a health expert, actually give help you to identify those risk factors can contribute to improving your health. So she's conducted some studies, I'm sure she's going to share those with us. And there's an event that's coming up. And Stacey is going to share about the event with us as well. So without me rambling on any further, I'm going to introduce you to Miss Stacey Harden. 

Stacey Harden  2:16  
Hello,thank you for having me. I'm very excited. I would like to first just tell you that along with what you've already said, I'm out here and I'm just trying to empower and educate as much as possible. I stand on the fact that yes, I do feel like we are much more personable than doctors, I don't take anything away from them. But our educational track is much more different. We had to start at the bedside, we believe in educating and I believe that that is where the gap is, especially with health care is in our community. A lot of providers we write prescriptions without explaining why and what it is that got us to that point. So we are, you're here now. So my job is to pretty much prevent that from happening, disease prevention, as well as promoting equality of health. I like to explain I like to go into interventions that could help you rather than just giving you a bandaid. So right now we're going to have a health event called health as well. What that means for me is that without health, you don't have anything, it doesn't matter how much is in your bank account. It doesn't matter how good you look, it doesn't matter what type of car you drive, if you don't have your health, you won't have much at all. So health is well, there's going to be a team of us we've collaborated with Florida Blue, and some other vendors UF one blood that are going to be great resources for the community. We want to help you to identify if there are risk factors or just have an idea of your overall health. With that being said, We'll do blood pressure checks. That's so important. So many people go without even knowing if they're hypertensive. And then you have a lot that do No, but they're in denial. And what happens is over a period of time, you're walking around and your pressures are high. And eventually your body can only take so much. So one or two things happen. You're going to either have a heart attack, or you can have a stroke and aneurysm each time your pressure goes up. You're damaging your kidney. So there's so many things that go with that and we can avoid that. It's awesome.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  4:36  
Oh, I'm sorry, Stacy. It's really interesting that you're taking this tact on healthcare because it sounds like you're spending a lot more time with the people that you're supporting. And since you've been in this community for a long time, is that what motivated you to pair healthcare and wellness and put together what was the motivating factor there?

Stacey Harden  5:03  
Well, I became a mother at a young age, and I was looking for job security. And for me, at that time, it was nursing. So I became a nurse, I found a joy in becoming a nurse, but I wanted a little bit more autonomy. So I became a nurse practitioner. And doing so I also needed a stress reliever. Some type of way I got into fitness, I didn't come from a family of a fitness workout background. And that found the passion, it allowed me to kind of get away from the family, I felt like I was killing two birds with one stone, not only am I doing something to help me, internally, but for me at that time, I was like, Well, I think I want to lose 20 pounds. But I realized after every workout, I felt better. So I believe it's safe to say, my career and my lifestyle, they complement one another. And you know, a lot of the times family and friends, they're going to go to the most convenient resource they can when they have a medical question. Or being that they know that I love to work out, they're going to always come to me. So I created that platform, just so that people could come to me,

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  6:15  
it's nice, because I noticed how open and how approachable you are, which is great. Um, we were at an event this weekend called Sister strike, and it's a breast cancer walk for women of color primarily. And you were there. And I could see like you have this energy, there were people that were with you, you're incredibly approachable. It's like everyone seemed to know you. And you spent that time on the stage doing like these great Zumba moves. So I mean, are you just naturally an extrovert, if this is something you just knew, this is what I'm, you know, I'm spreading the word.

Stacey Harden  6:56  
I am an extrovert. However, there was a time that I only did workouts that I did a lot of lifting. It wasn't as inviting, especially for someone that had never worked out before. And so a lot of the times I will find myself inviting family and friends and no one would join me. So I decided to find a way that would be fun. That would be less intimidating. And that could kind of create a vibe, like within our culture. And one thing we love is music. And as long as we could have a good time and hear good music, I think they would forget about the working out part and it actually to see it materialize. It's been an amazing thing for me, I didn't think that we would have all that we have right now I started out outside under the bridge, we would step for free and so many people would join me I was like, Maybe I should just found a movie room where we could go no matter what the weather was doing. And that is how discovery Hillstone kind of came about because I said well, fitness is often on but what if I could can incorporate medical is well for those seasons, and they just kind of came together and intertwine. And I just I think it was just a part of the plan. I know that my steps have been ordered and it doesn't feel like work.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  8:28  
Oh, well. You know, when you hear that, you know you're on the right path. When you're doing what you're doing. It doesn't feel like work. You have tons of energy. I mean, you get up excited to do it each day. I mean, that's a real gift. We're in the city are you guys located?

Stacey Harden  8:45  
We are in Jacksonville, Florida. 101 West 48th Street for those that are from Jacksonville when the size of the harvest Plaza off of Main Street across from Jackson Street.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  9:00  
Ah, okay. Oh my God, that's a great neighborhood to have a center. It is, um, it I noticed Discovery Health zone. And I couldn't help but think the blue zone because you're doing a lot of the programming that they're pushing really hard like integrating wellness into a community that really would do well by having that additional services and support. So did that inspire you at all or you were ahead of the curve? You were doing this before? There was?

Stacey Harden  9:35  
No there was never a connection. I just recently learned about Amazon and I'm excited as we're trying to create a partnership. I believe that our visions and our mission are aligned. So with that being said, I just look forward to kind of bring in more awareness in the community. I think partnerships will be great with doing that we can never Have enough?

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  10:00  
I agree with you. You know, when I see other wellness people in the business here in town, I always think, oh my god, another partner right away. As some people go, it's competition. It's not competition. No, this is someone else, oh my god, I get thrilled. It's like, I just take the opposite approach to that, because I'm like, this is someone who's going to impact the population, I might not be able to reach. I'm so excited, right,

Stacey Harden  10:27  
we'll be stronger, we will be much stronger. I feel like a lot of things. As far as like, let's just say health conditions and risk factors. I feel like they're culturally motivated. I came from a family background that did not exercise we didn't watch, my family probably still doesn't understand the carbohydrates. The Count, just putting two starches and two carbs on the plate. That's how I was raised. So I had to unlearn a lot of that. And my my job again, is to educate and to help people that look like me that don't know the difference to understand that we still can eat good, but it's the way you do it. You pick and choose and you must work out.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  11:15  
They haven't banned you from family family gatherings yet, when it comes to their food. They look at you go oh, we invited Stacy to this.

Stacey Harden  11:26  
Family and friends. It looks like I'm having a good time. And I'm eating a slice of cake. It's like I know you're not eating a slice.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  11:36  
They love it right? Oh my god, that is so funny. Our families are like something else. I gotta tell you a quick story. I went to a Christmas dinner with my family in North Carolina. And I was curious, a lot of my family is overweight. You know, we are my family is really similar to your family experience and background. And and I said we're having like, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn, bread, potatoes, salad, all on the same plate. Right? Yeah. It doesn't say, Wait a minute. Does anyone here have like diabetes? Why my cousin said, Oh, I got diabetes? And then that like started to train right? Oh, so do I, I and they didn't even know each other had it? So all of a sudden, everyone's saying I got Oh, you got it. I didn't know you had it too. So almost everyone there had diabetes. And I'm like, Well, how do you how can you hear the stuff that we're we're eating now. And oh, and the consensus was, Oh, I know when to stop. When I start feeling funny. I know the Eat back? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, well, I haven't been invited back. I'm just saying that North Carolina continue, the family was not happy be bringing up diabetes. For Well,

Stacey Harden  13:10  
you know what, that's just it is that lack of knowledge. And I don't want to call it ignorance, but a lot of it is just not knowing. And so it's our job, your job, my job to bring that awareness to them. Something that I'll give you an example. I have, and I know a few patients and personal friends that waited to the point to where they were prescribed insulin. And for them, that was fine. It's like, okay, so I'll take my insulin and bring my sugars down, and I'll still eat how I want. And so myself, I said, You do realize insulin will cut your life time down by 10 years. Not only that, but in a little bit is taken a toll on your kidneys. So you can take this insulin now. But eventually, you're going to need dialysis. They didn't tell you that. So why not just do what you need to do so that you can get rid. But again, nobody is teaching, you know, it's easier for me to just tell you to take a pill and then we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So I'm just rather than just making it easy and convenient. I really have a passion in what it is that I'm doing. And I really believe like health is wealth again, I believe in the quality of life. I believe like the things you put in your body is definitely going to show up later. So the less medications that we can not conform to and just kind of do things. The right we will have like the longevity is there we have the recipe.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  14:54  
So that event you're going to be at this event. Can you give us the date of the event and location Because after hearing this, everyone is gonna want to be there, you're you really have a great way of motivating people and educating them. So please give us information on where we can be where can we come and see you,

Stacey Harden  15:14  
October the 21st, it starts at nine o'clock, we're gonna have free workout classes for all levels, we'll have a step class or intro. So I'll break down every step for you. We're going to have health screenings, which will include a one C testing, cholesterol testing, we'll get your BMI, we'll check your blood pressure, we'll provide you with resources and just kind of educate you on what everything means. from nine to one, the event is free. We're at 101, West 48th Street, Suite six and seven, you won't be able to miss us we're going to be outdoors indoors, we'll have some food we'll have refreshments, a DJ a jump house, a really, really, really excited. So anyone that has not had a checkup anybody that especially our meals, get them over here, let us help. I'm excited you can follow my page as discovery helps on on IG as well as face

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  16:11  
wow, I cannot wait to go it is going to be really exciting. So if you if you don't have healthcare, and you may have not seen a doctor in a year, would that be okay for you to go? Yes. Okay.

Stacey Harden  16:30  
We're encouraging everyone to come out

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  16:32  
whether you have insurance or not, you can go. Right? Wow. Oh my gosh. Okay. So that's really fantastic. So it's a way of really getting people to be seen that don't have the sometimes means to be seeing a lot of people bleed off. And insurance is a big part of our jobs. Now. That's not like a separate thing. So when and

Stacey Harden  16:58  
we do offer, we offer a health care plan, where we can do some medication management, some acute care, some hypertension, diabetes, where I can treat you it is not insurance is supplemental, but you'll have access to me telehealth and will at least be able to just kind of keep a overall picture of what is happening. And if you know, God forbid, but if we have to write referrals to send you out elsewhere, we will I just want the people to know that I do have a plan here, where they can be seen by me is under $70 a month. Wow.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  17:36  
That's amazing. It is wow. Oh, wow. So if you don't have coverage right now, because the marketplace is really expensive. And the the sad thing about I think we what we had that we don't have the Medicaid waiver that some states have. So I right here in the income bracket that so we

Stacey Harden  18:02  
could middle me is just you went

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  18:04  
Oh, wow.

Stacey Harden  18:07  
I one of the reasons why like we're discovering Hillsong that I pride myself on is that we hate the doctor's office in a sense. So I always wanted to create an atmosphere that was less intimidating. That was inviting, where you felt like you can talk to me without feeling shame. And so that's what we have here. I'm hoping to get as many people out that we can spread the word and just kind of grow our community into living a healthier life.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  18:39  
Oh, that's fantastic. So thank you for doing this. I mean, I see it as another amazing person doing their best to make the city a better place to live for all of its citizens. And so Stacey. I mean, seriously, thank you so much for this event on the 21st Is there anything that you'd like to share that we may have missed?

Stacey Harden  19:04  
Um, I can't think of anything that we may have missed, but I do want everybody to at least try one of our classes out that day. We'll have three classes. Julissa is going to join us and host a free Zumba class. I'm going to host the step class and then we'll have our other training. We're doing a Full Body Boot Camp. So we have three varieties there. There is no excuse

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  19:32  
is going to be live. So thank you again Stacy. I'm really looking forward to the event. And I'm telling you if if you're not sure what's going on with your healthcare or even if you are definitely come support and really have a great time. And the address one more time, Stacy

Stacey Harden  19:50  
101 West 48th street that is Jacksonville, Florida 32208. We are in suite six and suite Seven, we have a clinic and we have the studio in.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  20:03  
Nice. Thank you very much. And if you have any other thoughts or questions as you're listening to the show, be sure to look at the show notes. Stacy has put information about her practice and the event coming up on the 21st. There on the show notes if there's something you miss listening to feel free to go to the show notes and read it. Have a really great day. 

Thank you for listening to another episode of Your Health Moment. I'm your host, Dr. Fitness and we had our amazing guest, Stacey Harden. God bless. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Health Moment podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can visit our website, yourhealthmoment.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources that we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me on social media to send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes that you've been listening to. And don't be shy about requesting any other show topics that you might like to explore.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai