#382 Transformation Through the Metabolic Approach to Health with Anqoinette Crowder-Jones

Subscribe on iTunes
Watch the full episode on YouTube

In this episode of Better Than Before Breast Cancer, I sit down with Anqoinette Crowder-Jones, a woman whose inspiring journey through breast cancer and healing has transformed her approach to life and health.

We explore her story, from being diagnosed with cancer at a young age while raising a young child to discover the power of the metabolic approach to health.

Anqoinette shares her struggles with conventional treatments, her transition from a plant-based diet to a low-carb, ketogenic lifestyle, and the deep emotional work required to support healing.

What’s most compelling is how she emphasizes the importance of self-worth, stress management, and emotional healing as critical pieces of her transformation.

We discuss how mindset plays a pivotal role in not only how we eat but also how we view ourselves and navigate our healing journey. Anqoinette’s vulnerability about resistance, frustration, and ultimately, her empowerment through self-love and grace, is sure to resonate with anyone seeking to deepen their connection to their body and health.

If you’ve ever wondered how the metabolic approach can fit into your life, or if you’re navigating the ups and downs of post-cancer treatment, this episode offers rich insights into the holistic nature of healing—far beyond just what’s on your plate.

Tune in to hear how embracing your body, mind, and emotions can truly make a difference in your healing process!

 

Referred to in this episode:
Work with Laura

 

Follow Q on: 

Instagram

Facebook

 

Follow me on Social Media: 

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

YouTube

 

 

 



Read the full transcript:

 

0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach, I'm your host, Laura lummer. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills on the insides and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis if you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started.

0:33
Hey there. Welcome to episode 382

0:36
of better than before breast cancer. With me. Laura lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach, you know, we are, gosh, more than halfway through October Breast Cancer Awareness Month, my four year metastatic diagnosis survivor anniversary, we had an amazing event last week, metabolic health day. I've heard so many great things about it. If you didn't get to check out some of the presentations that were made at metabolic health day. You can still do it thanks to all the donors and sponsors from metabolic health day. The recordings are going to be kept up for I mean, there's, there's no end date to how long you can watch the recordings. You just have to register for it, and then you can watch them all for free. And again, I will post link in the show notes for this episode so that you can register if you want to check those out. Lots of great information there. And as we go deeper into the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I think about what it means to me October, what it means to me, and as I've talked about so many times on this show, I have a very different perspective, but perspective of breast cancer awareness month than I did before I had breast cancer. And I think awareness is wonderful. It's super important. But what I really like to promote is options and empowerment. Because in my own experience of more than 13 years now, since my original diagnosis of living with managing, healing from cancer, I've found that the most helpful thing is understanding the tools that are available to me and what can empower me and what that means to me. You know, it takes away a lot of the anxiety, the fear, the confusion, the worry about if the meds are working or waiting from one scan to the next. I think stepping into our life and taking charge of the things that are available to us to take charge of is a game changer. It really, truly is. And so I want to share more than just my opinion, this week, I want to share with you the story of one of my clients, and this woman is very special to me. She is. I call her my daughter from another mother. I met her at a fundraising event. She and I were both on a panel a couple of years ago. I think it's been two years now, and it was through our local Cycling Studio, which we both did spin classes there, and grit cycle in Orange County. I don't know if there's any in Los Angeles County, but it's in Orange County in California, and they're very supportive of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and they get behind it and have a big program every year. So Ann quinette, who you'll be hearing from, and I, and quinnette is also known as Q, and so Q and I met at that event, and I say she's my daughter from another mother, because she's the same age with the same birth date as my oldest son. She's got a daughter who's the same age as my son's daughter, my granddaughter. And so it's just, it's kind of interesting. And, you know, she's just had a really amazing transformation. And when you meet Q, when you hear from Q, she's just one of those people who walks into a space and changes the energy in it, right? She just, she's a wonderful, amazing, huge personality, and it just changes the energy in a room. And when I met her, and we really started talking, and I got to know her story, I was so taken aback at the way that Q looked at herself, which was so very different from the way that I and everyone I know who knows her sees her. And I think sharing that as a part of her story is so important, because when we think about the metabolic approach to cancer, the metabolic approach to health or healing, when we think about supporting ourselves so many times, and I've said this before, we think about food, we think about food and supplements, and we miss a very big, very important piece of the healing puzzle, and that is self worth, self esteem, stress management, emotional management, and this, what I call intangibles, right? We can't see them, measure them, put them in a food diary. We can actually measure some of the effects of stress on us by using a continuous glucose. Editor to see how stress affects our glucose levels, or people use aura rings to see how sleep and stress is affecting their body. So there are some tools we can use to measure it, but knowing and understanding the way we view ourselves, the boundaries we have with ourselves, the way we're willing to speak or not speak to ourselves, it changes the way we're able to support ourselves through things like food and exercise. Because when we love ourselves, when we are really willing to be honest with ourselves and not ignore like there's this there's this gap, you know, between our head and our heart, where we know something. We really, truly know this to be true for ourselves, and yet we talk ourselves out of it. We talk ourselves into, I don't know, undermining ourselves, gaslighting ourselves things of that nature. And when I see that in someone, I know that it has to be addressed to support their healing, to support long term implementation of healthy practices into their lives that must learn to value themselves and see themselves as worthy. It's so critical. And so I asked Q, because I have seen her have such a huge transformation as we began to work together on the metabolic approach to health, and I'm just going to say to health, because it's really about focusing on getting our bodies to an optimal state of health. There's just been such a huge transformation in her mindset, which has made all the difference in her lifestyle. And I asked her to come on and share this with you, because I just think it's so important. And in this month of breast cancer awareness, I want to increase awareness of how important it is to love and support yourself, to embrace the practices that address everything in your life, take a holistic approach to your health. And I think when you hear Q's story, it's really going to resonate with you. And another thing that I think is very powerful about her is she was diagnosed very young. She was in her early 30s, which we'll hear about when we talk. And I see that happening more and more. I see more and more younger clients coming to me, and I think that there's just so much to explore there. But I love hearing her story. I think you're gonna love it too. So let me give you a little intro to this amazing woman, and then I'm gonna let her tell you all the rest of it. All right, so you are about to meet the amazing inquinet Crowder Jones. She's also known as Q and she was born and raised in Southern California. She holds double degrees in psychology and social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a master's in social work from California State University Long Beach. And she currently is a licensed clinical social worker, LCSW. She works remotely as a full time therapist, and she's the proud mom of her smart, beautiful, and I'm going to add talented, 12 year old daughter, avin. Q is the third oldest of six siblings. Again, so interesting, because I'm the third oldest of six siblings. It's just kind of weird how so many things are in common between the two of us. And she's affectionately known as the fun aunt by her numerous nieces and nephews. And I don't think you're going to have a hard time understanding that once you listen to Q, she's very passionate about travel, indoor cycling. She works out at grit cycle here, which is our local studio that I absolutely love as well. She loves working out, and she loves embracing adventure in spontaneity. She really cherishes her quality time with family and friends and outside of her full time job. Q is an event planner. This is her passion. She loves curating memories and moments with creativity and personalization, and she has the ultimate dream of being a full time planner. And I 100% support her in that because, well, I'm going to post the links to her social media, and when you see it, and you see the stunning events that she puts on, she's just so talented. And also, when we talk about the metabolic approach to health, living in alignment with your passions, living in alignment with the creation of your dreams and the things that bring you joy, and the things that that just fuel and ignite your passions, is also very important part of that. So I love it when I see her doing these events, posing about these events. They're absolutely stunning because she's so creative. And I always am so inspired by people that have such a creative flair, because I see these things, and I think, how do people envision how to decorate these things, or the themes they come up with? She's just so talented. So I could rave about Q forever, but instead, I'm gonna let you listen to her, and my hope for this interview is that she just inspires. You to get a deeper understanding of what a metabolic approach to life and health and healing means to you, and maybe some ideas of how you might implement these strategies in your life to support yourself and move closer to the amazing life you want to live and you want to create for you. So without further ado, here's the amazing Q. Q, welcome to better than before breast cancer Podcast. I'm so happy to have you here with me today.

10:27
Are you so happy to be here?

10:32
I'm excited, I'm nervous, but it's such an honor. Lori, you already know how how I feel about you, how I revere you, and so it is a absolute honor to to just sit here on your podcast with you, the one and only, Laura, so, oh god,

10:53
okay, you're so sweet. Well, you know when we met, so I gave a little introduction about you, but I want to talk about this now. When we met, we got together for an event for local cycling studio, grit cycle, and they do a lot to support breast cancer and breast cancer awareness. And I will never forget this. I was standing outside the studio with my daughter and a friend who had come to ride with me that day, and you came up, as you do, and lit up the space. And hi, I'm Q and Leslie, if we known you our whole lives. And you started to share your story, and you said, Yeah, I was diagnosed when I was is it 32 or 3333 33 and my daughter, who was standing next to me, and who is going to be 33 this Halloween, she was 32 at the time, or 31 maybe literally turned ghostly white, and I could see the shift in her, like she just broke out in a cold sweat. And after and she literally sat down, like she had to take a breath and sit down. And afterwards, I said to her, are you okay? What's going on? And she said, when she said how old she was at her diagnosis, I thought, my God, that could be me. She goes, Oh, my thought I was going to pass out, right? So much fear, and especially when we're young, you have a young child, right? You're a single parent. You have so much going on. So I want to talk about what that meant to you, because I do believe, I mean, it's scary no matter what stage of life you're in when you get a cancer diagnosis, but it's also very different. Like me, I'm 60 years old, I'm married, I'm not dating, right? I I've already built and raised kids and done all that. It's a different stage of life to be in, even managing your thoughts around a disease. So I would love for you to share with people, so they can hear no matter what age they are, but especially those who are diagnosed younger. Like, how did you manage that? What stage were you diagnosed at, originally, then, what happened? Where are you at now? And how did you come to be where you are following the metabolic approach to health and healing. So that's a mouthful. It's a big question, but go with it. I know you can run with it, right?

13:09
Who 33 had a three year old at home. Was still married at the time, and to hear those words attached to your name is a feeling that words cannot describe, um, but the I had a word. It was just fear, fear of death, fear of losing my daughter. Um, not losing my daughter, but my daughter. My daughter losing me fear of getting sick, because, as we know, society tells us that cancer is a death sentence. Society tells us that cancer makes you frail and bald and helpless and and unhealthy and sickly and all these things. And so that was everything that was rummaging through my mind. And then, of course, the why me comes in, and it's just a snowball effect after that. Um, I was unhappy. I was mad. I was angry again, scared, bitter, angry some more. Um, and it just I felt propelled into even how my mind and my body responded to the conventional treatment. Um, it's been a up and down roller coaster for the past eight years. I was initially diagnosed in January of 2016 I'm 42 now. Um, dang, I'm 4240

14:41
almost one on nine years.

14:43
So you're my daughter from another mother's name, my daughter's age, my granddaughter. It was her stage of diagnosis. It was, it

14:52
was stage two with a positive lymph node. And so I. The, of course, conventional treatment approach was chemotherapy with double mastectomy and hormone replacement therapy. I'm not going to lie, I was, I was very resistant, resisting the the approach, because I just

15:17
want to clarify real quick hormone replace as an HRT, or talking about aromatase inhibitors and tamoxa like, hormone blockers. Hormone blockers, okay? Because we were like, I don't want people like, oh my god,

15:29
excuse me, hormone blockers. Um, the pathology of the cancer. And I, I now refrain from saying mine, because I don't own it. It is the um, the cancer was stage two ductal carcinoma, carcinoma, excuse me, um, her two positive and estrogen positive. So being the researcher that I am, and also angry still, I'm like, You're telling me being a woman and it's going against my body. So I start dumpster diving into understanding estrogenic cancer and just what the hell her two was, and all these things. So I would go back to the doctors, kind of like, explain to me why you want to give me this. But this is saying this, and so it was a lot of this. Because for me, I can look back now and say that I was resisting because I just felt like there was something more. Felt like there was something more to do than just what the oncologist said. But of course, you got family in your ear. You got fear on both sides of your shoulder, then you got your heart, then you got a little three year old at your feet, then you got the thoughts. It's just a whole lot going on at one time. So of course, I went through with what they recommended. I actually started growing more tumors while on the treatment, which is why they stopped it, and I went into a double mastectomy with 19 lymph nodes. We moved one was only positive six months later, now after the mastectomy, and I'll try to just make this short, after the mastectomy, they wanted for me to take tamoxa tamoxifen and continue with the her two regimen. I was reluctant to take the Tamoxifen because I said one of the side effects is ovarian cancer and hell, you just I thought I just got rid of this one, and I might take something and get rid of something else, which again, started to spark my curiosity in which stuff I was already reading but probably not fully understanding, which is what you put in your body has an impact on it. And it's like, you want to give me this medication, but one of the big side effects in big red lights is ovarian cancer, the risk of that. And so I take it. I'm okay. I'm stubborn. Um, that's, that's part of my

18:02
and that's different for everybody, right? It's not like you're recommending don't take it. It's just that for you, it didn't feel like the right thing. It didn't feel

18:09
like the right thing, logically. And so six months later, I end up finding a lump under, all on the right side, underneath the armpit area, not in the armpit, but just right below it. And so guided biopsy came back that it was the same pathology as the original diagnosis. So they started a systemic treatment, a more targeted approach versus, you know, with conventional chemotherapy, it attacks the whole body and all your healthy cells as well. This particular one only attacks the cancerous cells. They'll been on the up and down roller coaster with like three different approaches. The most recent which occurred in 2021

18:58
is when they put me on zolota, um,

19:02
and so I've been on that since the only thing that lights up during PET scans are lymph nodes in the chest wall, um, however, last PET scans showed a significant, exciting decrease in activity that I contribute to the metabolic approach. I'm just saying because that's good stuff. That's the stuff I want to talk about. But that's kind of the a quick story to kind of where I am today. And, yeah, yeah, why

19:40
do you so? So let me clarify at this point, are you still considered stage two, or what is yes, the

19:48
oncologist says, I don't. She said, there's no stage. There's no stage. She just said it's it shows activity in your lymph nodes. And so there. Is nothing shown in any other or in and then speaking of that, remember, what is it about? When was it January? Yes, no, November of last year. I contacted you crying because the PET scan at that time showed activity in the left hip that was suggesting potential bone metastasis. And that's the first time in this long period of time that I've ever heard of you know, something like that happen. So when I reached out to you is when they had that, that suspicion, and then further test ruled, ruled it out. Um, but that's also when we jump started the metabolic approach. So she says, because it's not in a distant organ, but it is outside of the original place in the lymph node. She doesn't, she doesn't comfortably use a stage four. She just says the original diagnosis, which is stage two with a positive lymph node. So that's okay. Okay,

21:02
so let's talk about like, what made you decide you've been going through cancer treatment for a long time, and had you ever even heard of other options or the metabolic approach, and why did you decide to change the approach you were already following? Never

21:20
the metabolic approach, but other things, right? There's, you know, Chris work, who has beat cancer his his whole regimen with plant based and growing raw and juicing and things like that. And let me kind of take a step back. I had the mastectomy, June of 2016 August of that same year, I adopted a plant based approach. I don't say vegan, because plant based and vegan, I feel are two completely different lifestyles. So I applied the plant based approach. So I juiced, I went raw. I only ate Whole Foods in which I personally feel that it has helped get me to a certain point, but I'll get to that point later when I talk about the metabolic approach. But it it had is, is great benefits, especially from other things outside of the the cancering process. It helped with digestion and just allow a lot of other things. But I never heard of the metabolic approach until I met you Yeah, and, you know, and I've seen things you know, take CoQ 10 and take dim and take, you know, curcumin and take, you know, fish oil. Take black seed oil, like I've, you know, the the doctor Sadie approach, you know, the eat fruit at this time. Don't eat it at this time, like I've seen, and I've read a lot of different things, YouTube and listening to people and how they say, Oh, this killed me. This, this, this, that, and I've always been drawn to things outside of what conventional tree. Again, no everything I feel has is proper place, and everything, if done synergistically and holistically, could have a beautiful outcome, never going to knock it for anyone or that this is just my experience. I've always felt more drawn to something outside of just what the conventional community has to say about the cancering process for not just me, just in general. And so when I reached out to you through fear of what does this mean? And of course, I know your story, and I follow you, and I've gotten a chance through the great community to hear your story outside of what is you know provided to the public. I got to know you, and so when I heard that you were the first person that I thought about, because I knew what you experienced, and I'm just like, Okay, I gotta do what she's doing, because I don't know what this means, and I'm scared, and wouldn't it, and I'm going to be dead tomorrow. And it was understanding what the metabolic approach is, and was not only from your perspective and how you teach it and and your immense knowledge about it, but it's also me having to understand what it meant to me. Because when you think of metabolic you think of metabolism, you just think of energy. And I'm like, Well, what the does that have to like? I don't get what this means, you know. And I'm dumpster diving Doctor Nasha winters, and then Doctor seafree, and then all of these different people and trying to understanding, and the overload of the information was a lot, but it wasn't until it was broken down so simplistically, in regards to one, understanding what a cancerous cell is. Two. How metabolism relates to that, and three, just the overall understanding of just the metabolic approach to health in general. And that's when it was like, this makes from out of everything that I've read, everything that I've listened to, I've watched. This makes sense for the this makes sense to me, yeah. Why

25:30
did it make sense to you? Like, what was different than what you thought before? Cancer

25:35
seems so complicated in the beginning. Why did I get it? How did I get it? What does this receptor mean? What does that mean? All these terms I did I don't understand. Well, why do this? What it was just complicated. It was inundated with so many complicated nuances that it just didn't it didn't make sense. But when you turn around and you understand that a cancerous cell derives from a damaged mitochondria. Mm, hmm, you told me it just that simple that my mitochondria got now, again, the damage of the mitochondria is not just the damage from a physical level, it's also understanding the different pathways as to how it got damaged, but just that basic understanding, that core input is intended, the core of a sale being damaged, and understanding that the concept of damage can you there's the juxtaposition of that repair. It's like, wait a minute, that got damaged. Yes, things got out of whack. But there's things to that I can implement, that I can do, understanding the basics of this. Understand the basics of different pathways, the basic pathways of how cancer is fed, and then understanding from a holistic standpoint, because when we think of the metabolic approach to health, wouldn't we just talk about, okay, what you eat, what you drink, turns into energy and helps to, you know, optimize your health, but it's like no your thoughts, your feelings, all of that plays a part into how that, as you would so eloquently and beautifully say, how our beautiful sales internalize that and how they use it to either promote health or to promote disease. And when I understood that, I said, Excuse me,

27:38
the phones are tolerated, okay,

27:41
like, really, this is, this is, and that's when the work began, is, I understood it. It made sense to me. I didn't care if it made sense to anybody else. I didn't care if it made sense to to to the oncologist, to my mother, to my sister, to the neighbor, to to to anybody. It made sense to me, and from that point, don't get me wrong, difficult in the beginning, you know it, yeah, yeah. But that is awareness, that awareness alone was just like, you know what they say, when you know better, you do better that that's when I really begin to implement that saying, because it makes so much sense. Yeah,

28:30
I think that's a really important thing to talk about, is that a lot of people think that supporting your ability to heal is all about food, and that's just such honestly, I think about it as a small piece of the puzzle. And if you don't address the way you think, then you really cannot change the way you feed yourself long term either, because you're trying to get through it on willpower and force yourself. And that doesn't work, right? And the way we think about, like, oh, I have to miss out on that. Like, what did you first think when you first started a low car program and we looked at, how do you get into ketosis, and what did you struggle with the most? And why did you everything?

29:20
Again, understanding the logic is making sense. But in the beginning, everything right? It's it was, again, like I said before, alright, how, from a scientific standpoint, you know, how the body processes energy and, you know, understand, okay, your emotions and your thoughts and lifestyle impact your overall health. And yes, it's not just improving digestion and energy production and cell repairing and but it's also understanding how stress and emotions and just your mental well being influences your metabolism in general. So I got that right and so, but when it started to. Come to the implementation of manifesting this very approach. Yeah, from, okay, it's one thing to reduce your carbohydrates. It's another thing to even go below that and not under fully understanding what that looked like for me and what that felt like for me, because I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to be hungry. First thing I said was, then, what do you eat? Because everything is so carb heavy, right? I even as as plant based, I ate a lot of beans, a lot of garbanzo beans, a lot of nuts and seeds. Which of getting nuts and seeds are low in carbohydrates compared to other things. But I did a lot of avocado toast. I ate a lot of wheat, you know? I ate a lot of rice and quinoa and and so to say, I can't have any of those. It's like, what am I going to eat? So you're going from being plant based, which is carb heavy, to 20 grams of net carbs a day. Where am I getting protein that? Remember that was the first question, yeah, yeah. Then where am I getting this and that, like, it just didn't make so it was very difficult. And then on top of that, your body is withdrawing from, you know, all the things you used to eat. And then it wasn't until we did the three by four and found out which again you went before we did the three by four. You were educating me and and I was educating myself, you know, through reading various books, you know, the metabolic approach to cancer by Doctor Nasha winters, and picking up other books that I'm reading, um, and just talking about, you know, wild caught fish and poultry and eggs. And you suggested, well, maybe start to incorporate eggs, slowly but surely. And I'm just like, but I had it, and I just felt like it was going to be, it was a mental block. It was a full mental block because I was plant based for so long, and I was so committed, and I believed in it, which I I again, I believe part of where I have, where I was prior to adopting a metabolic approach. Again, not saying that you can't be a adopt this approach and being plant based, you can, but through furthering, through further investigation of, you know, this beautiful body that's been carrying me for 42 years, my body does not thrive off of fully.

 

 

Close

50% Complete

Two Step

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.