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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, everyone. I am so excited to be here to have this conversation with you today.
00:11This is one near and dear to my heart. But first, I'm Allison McEvna. I'm the deputy editor of
00:17Essence and Essence.com. And I am just this conversation is about to be so great. I'm really,
00:24really excited to talk to these amazing women about wellness. Our panel, the business of
00:29wellness, leading black women at the forefront is all about not just taking care of ourselves,
00:35but the women in the business of wellness. So let me get to these guests right away. First up,
00:40I have Dimetra Purnell, who is a chef, author and culinary expert who is just inspiring us with
00:48her incredible vegan dishes, transforming what we think it means to be vegan. So welcome.
00:57You're welcome. Next up, we have Koya Webb, who's an internationally recognized yoga teacher,
01:04holistic health coach, author, speaker and vegan activist. Welcome.
01:09Welcome. Thank you for having me.
01:12Of course. And last but certainly not least, we have Tanya Lewis Lee, who is a producer,
01:18entrepreneur, and advocate for women's health. And one of my favorite Instagram accounts,
01:23I just got the greatest smoothie recipe from her in all history recently. Thank you for joining us,
01:29Tanya. Hi. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited about this conversation.
01:35Me too. Well, you know, we can just, you know, wellness in general, I think has become something
01:41that everyone talks about. And everyone loves the idea of like self care Sunday and, you know,
01:48just the concept of wellness, but putting it into practice, as we all know, is really,
01:53really challenging. So I'd love to start just first, if you guys could tell me how you kind of
01:59got into and familiar with, you know, wellness as a business and what your journeys went from from
02:06there. So I'd love to start with you, Koya. Why don't you tell me about yours?
02:09I started wellness. I mean, I'm a country girl. So I was always running outside being in nature. I was
02:18a bit of a tomboy growing up. So that was kind of my background. But when I really started getting
02:23passionate about wellness was after a track injury, after running myself into the ground, competing,
02:30trying to be a student athlete, I realized that I was doing very well, but I was often exhausted.
02:38And one day after class, I fell to the ground in pain with a sharp pain in my back. And in that
02:44moment, not even being on the track, I got a stress fracture. So that stress fracture ended my track
02:50and field season, which I was on scholarship. So I was wondering, what am I going to do? There was so
02:55much uncertainty. There was so much fear. I went into depression because I didn't know what I was going
03:00to do with my life. So I was sent to a counselor and the counselor suggested yoga. And when I first went
03:07to yoga, like most people, I was like, this is not for me. I'm not flexible. I'm an athlete, but I'm
03:13tight. No one's here that looks like me. This, what am I doing here? And the teacher saw me frustrated
03:20and she was like, I just want you to breathe with me. And I took a deep inhale and exhale.
03:28And I felt these chills all over my body. And I remember feeling those chills before. And the last time
03:34I felt those chills was when I was in church and I was asking my parents, when am I supposed to get
03:38baptized? And they're like, you'll know, you'll know. And I was like, well, how am I supposed to
03:41know? And I remember feeling those chills and I knew that was my time. So when I felt these chills,
03:48I knew that I should stay in the room and keep practicing. Well, fast forward 12 years later,
03:55I am still practicing yoga and the mental, spiritual, and physical. It just benefits that I received from
04:03this practice has not only blessed my life, but it continues to bless the life of my friends and
04:08my family. And now my students, as I teach holistic health and yoga school, just hoping other people
04:14can benefit from the benefits of yoga and holistic health. Oh my God, what a beautiful journey. Thank
04:20you for sharing that with us. Tanya, tell me a little bit about how you came to the space.
04:27Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. It actually started when I was young in a way. I mean,
04:31I was a 13 year old kid, a little chubby and had to go to my doctor for weigh-ins once a week. And
04:39she started talking to me about how to eat better, to lose weight, to be a more appropriate size,
04:48I guess. And that really sent me off into dieting. For many years, I've been on every diet you can
04:54think of. And it wasn't until I actually started on a campaign with the U.S. Department of Health
05:01and Human Resources, Health and Human Services, sorry, here in the United States to raise awareness
05:07about the high rates of infant mortality. And when you talk about an infant's health, you're really
05:11talking about a woman's health. So I was really put into this world of women's health and just got
05:18amazing information. And I think at that point, I had gained a little bit of weight. I was thinking,
05:25oh God, I'm going to go on another diet. And I said, I can't do it. I can't do another diet.
05:29And I realized that it had to be a lifestyle. And so I was getting lots of information from my travels,
05:39wanted to create a platform for women to support, educate it and inspire, because I know personally
05:44how hard the journey is. And from there, as I was trying to raise funds for my website or blog,
05:53if you will, I had just started taking a multivitamin that was making me feel really good.
05:59I met a gentleman who was the CEO of a vitamin company to talk about funding my platform. He said,
06:05why don't we come together and create an organic supplement for here, for the U.S. market,
06:11specifically for targeting black women. And so I would say my journey has been really personal
06:18all my life, sort of struggling with this weight thing, what I look like. It was always about what
06:23I look like, not about how I was feeling until I got older and discovered that it's really about how
06:30you feel and finding one's purpose and taking care of one's biology, your physical biology of your body,
06:38your mind and spirit, so that you can live out that purpose you're supposed to be doing.
06:45And what I discovered is it's a lifelong journey. You know, it's not easy. It changes throughout your
06:52life. What you do at 20, you're not necessarily going to do when you're 50. And you're not supposed
06:56to, but you're not going to do what you do when you're 70. And so I am still in my journey of health
07:04and wellness, even as a health and wellness entrepreneur, right? Because I'm listening to
07:09women about what works. I mean, for me, I love yoga. I'm new to yoga. It's been a year and I'm so happy.
07:17Why was I so resistant? I don't know, but I guess it shows up when it's supposed to, right? And it's
07:24here now and I love it. And I'm mostly plant-based. I threw fish back in. I was vegan for many years and
07:31threw fish back in because it's working for me, right? And who knows, maybe I'll throw fish out
07:37if I feel like I don't want it for a while. But it's an ongoing journey that never ends for all of us.
07:44Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's a perfect segue into, Dimetra, your incredible work that you're
07:50doing and your beautiful dishes. Tell me how you came into this space.
07:56Wow. So it's kind of 360 for me. Originally, I was a chef and had my own catering company
08:04and was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. I was headed to type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
08:12And the doctors kept telling me, they basically diagnosed me as being fat,
08:15you know, lose weight, just lose weight. So I lost weight. Yet the blood pressure was still there.
08:20And the type 2 diabetes was still there. Well, I was working with a doctor in Atlanta who told me,
08:25listen, you can lose all the weight you want. But if you don't change your lifestyle,
08:30you're never going to be able to change those numbers. And so he challenged me to go vegan
08:34for 30 days. And at first, I was like, how am I going to do this? I have a business selling
08:39chicken and ribs and gumbo and all of these things. And I couldn't really figure it out. But I said,
08:46you know what, I want to live. So I decided to do the challenge for 30 days. And literally,
08:51I said, I'm going to challenge myself to do it for 60. Well, by the time I'd gone back to the doctor,
08:57blood pressure had normalized, no more type 2 diabetes, my A1C was like 4.8. And then I had
09:02to ask myself a question. Do you really want to go back to doing the things that brought you here
09:07in the first place? And the answer was no. So I decided to go vegan. But not just that. It was such
09:13a revelation to me that food was medicine, that I decided it was time for me to like hang up my apron
09:18and go back to school to get my doctorate. So I could teach other people how to heal themselves,
09:23especially people in our community, because so many people in my own family have passed away from
09:28complications of diabetes or high blood pressure, or all of these things. And I continue to see it
09:32plague my friends and family. And I said, enough is enough. If God gave me a second chance, what better
09:38to do than to figure out how to empower myself to help others. And went back to school, got my doctorate
09:45and then started practicing as a doctor. Well, of course, your passion and your gifts never really leave you
09:51for too long. In the process of eating vegan, I really got sick and tired of not being able to have the
09:56things traditionally that I would eat, which was like ice cream, sweet potato pies, pound cakes, all these fun
10:01things. So I decided to get back into the kitchen and figure out how to make these things. Once I did, I had a few
10:07people taste them and they went nuts. I decided to test the idea. And it was something that caught on
10:13like wildfire so much so that I literally had to leave the practice and go back into culinary. And so
10:19here we are. Wow, that's amazing. And you know, what's so interesting to me hearing all of your
10:25incredible stories, really, you know, there's a there's a common denominator here when we talk about
10:31wellness. And so many of the wellness experts that I follow talk all the time about how truly, you know,
10:36food and moving your body is truly like the foundation of it all. And I think we all know
10:42that. But you know, it's hard to put it into practice. That said, you know, I do see I did read
10:48a statistic that black women are the largest growing and most rapid growing population of vegans.
10:54So talk to me just a little bit about, you know, why you guys kind of made that decision and truly,
11:01you know, why we don't as a as a culture and a society understand that food truly
11:06is medicine. Anyone can can jump in on that. I'll just say, and I think this is a question
11:13for Demetria. But I think, you know, for me, it was, it was a lightbulb moment. Similarly, when I
11:20when I really began to understand that food nourishes my body, like understanding that there
11:27is a biological connection to what happens. It's not just about what tastes good. It's not it's and by the
11:34way, a lot of those other foods, when I gave up the dairy, dairy didn't make me feel good. Actually,
11:40I would eat things, and then I wouldn't feel so good. And, you know, I discovered that I can eat
11:46food that actually makes me feel good. That gives me energy. I mean, my smoothie that you mentioned,
11:52like that, that that makes myself happy in the morning, like it gets me going. And it's so tasty and
11:59delicious at the same time. So I think for me, it was really about discovering that food can either
12:07aid in healing, it can, it can kill cancer, or it can feed cancer. So I'd rather be eating the foods
12:15that get rid of the bad things. And, you know, eat the foods that are going to make me feel good.
12:22I think that's so powerful as well, because I wrote a book in 2008 called foods you love that
12:30love you back. So you're saying, yeah, I ate it, but I didn't really like it. It didn't make me feel
12:35good. And I think a lot of times in our culture, we have foods that we say we love, but the food
12:40doesn't love us back. So we have a bad relationship with food. But when we think about fruits and
12:45vegetables, nuts and seeds, all the foods that give us the most nutrients, that are the most nutrient dense
12:50without the toxins, we actually are feeding ourselves and all those preservative foods and
12:57foods that are more toxic. If we start, you know, slowly taking those out of our diet, we're going to
13:02feel better. And I think for me personally, as a girl coming from the South, I like flavor. So if I
13:08can, you know, do you like to meet there and put that curry and that barbecue and all those things on
13:13my food? That's what made me stay. And I think honestly, when we have great chefs making amazing food,
13:18and we can still get that flavor from our culture, we're going to stick with it because we know we're
13:23going to feel better and we're going to look better if we eat foods that love us back.
13:27You know, I love what you said. And it's so interesting to me because I think a lot of times
13:34in our grind culture, you know, we just keep going and going and going. And sometimes, you know,
13:38you're waiting for the sign of like, if your blood pressure is okay, or your blood sugar is okay,
13:42that that means you're okay, right? But a lot of us, there are a lot of things happening
13:46internally that we're not aware of. So I would love to hear, you know, just from your expert
13:51opinions, you know, what are some ways that we can really look out for that and also be thinking
13:56preventatively, so that we are taking best care of ourselves. Demetria, why don't you start with that?
14:02I think from a food perspective, there's a thing called an intolerance test, a food intolerance test,
14:07which basically teaches us which foods we eat that actually begin to cause the inflammation and
14:12things that begin disease or cancer. So taking a food intolerance test, and as Ms. Lewis Lee stated
14:19earlier, paying attention, when you eat something, it could be blueberries, but if you don't feel well,
14:25then it's not good for you. And so we first have to sort of, I believe in, you know, bio-individualism,
14:31so bio-individuality. So I think it's very important that we understand exactly what foods work well for
14:36us, which foods don't, and then have the discipline to put the fork down for those things. In my
14:43practice, the things that we see over and over again are the things that we eat traditionally as
14:46a culture are things that cause lots of inflammation and things that cause us to become sick. So it's
14:52time to start tearing down those walls and social norms of, you don't eat some pork chops? Oh, come on
14:58now, you're not going to eat my food? And learning how to say no, and then explaining to grandma,
15:03auntie. Well, auntie, it's not that I don't love your food. It's just that it makes me sick. And
15:07I want you to eat better too. So why don't we try some dishes together? Yeah, absolutely.
15:14I think that's great. And the only thing, other thing I'd add too, is like, we do have a culture
15:17where people are working hard, right? So people want it quick and fast. And, you know, fast food came
15:24into our lives and really has wreaked havoc, trying to be helpful. And I think it's about how we think
15:32about preparing our food, how we approach it, right? I mean, I must admit that Corona has forced
15:39me into cooking every night. And I've sustained it because I have found joy again at being in the
15:48kitchen and cooking for myself every night. It's planning. Yes, I have to plan it though,
15:53because I don't want to get slammed at five o'clock thinking, oh my God, when am I going to cook for
15:56dinner? That's the worst. But if you take the time and plan it out and get your groceries in the
16:04house and the things that you need, when it comes time to actually doing the actual cooking, it's
16:11actually an enjoyment and not a chore. Absolutely. Ladies, I am so sad. Can you believe that our time
16:19is, I mean, it's up already. I feel like we're scratching the surface. So what I would love to say
16:24is just thank you all so much for joining us for this very brief conversation that I'm sure we could
16:29talk for hours on. But I would love to also just ask, you know, where we can, you know, find you
16:36guys and how we can, you know, just very briefly, how we can make sure that we're following you for
16:41the best info. So my name is Demetra Purnell. I'm the owner of First Batch Artisan Foods, and you can
16:48find us on Instagram at First Batch AF, or at our website, www.firstbatchartisan.com.
16:57And my name is Koya Webb. I'm a holistic health coach and author of Let Your Fears Make You Fierce.
17:02And you can find me on Instagram at Koya Webb, K-O-Y-A-W-E-B-B, and KoyaWebb.com.
17:09And I'm Tanya Lewis-Lee. I'm the founder of Moveda Organics. And you can find me at Tanya Lewis-Lee.
17:17Tanya spelled with an O. Wonderful. Thank you, ladies, so much. Thank you for just a great
17:23conversation. Take care of yourselves. Thank you. Pleasure. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye, ladies.
17:28Bye.
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