S8E31: Living in Alignment with integrative health coach Jose Segurado

Jose Segurado (00:00)

It doesn’t matter what happens in the world, or it doesn’t matter what happens in my life. I wake up, I take a coffee, and I go to the gym. And for me it’s like a routine, it’s sending me information that’s saying, Okay, everything is gonna be fine, go to the gym.

 

Geoff (00:15)

Welcome to the latest edition of the Living Well with MS Podcast. Joining me on this edition is Jose Segurado. Jose is an integrative health and life coach, author, and lived experience advocate specialising in multiple sclerosis, lifestyle change, and recovery oriented well being.

His journey incorporated nutrition, vitamin D, exercise, meditation, stress management, emotional awareness, gut health, and sustainable habit change.

Formerly a banking professional, Jose retrained in intricative health, gut health, mental health, and Ayurveda. He is the author of I Chose Life and now supports people living with chronic illness, stress, and major life transitions.

 

Gina (00:56)

Just a quick note to say that all opinions are those of the guest and do not constitute medical advice.

 

Geoff (01:04)

So welcome, Jose.

 

Jose Segurado (01:06)

Hi, it’s a pleasure to be here with you.

 

Geoff (01:10)

So to start off with, could you introduce yourself and your work?

 

Jose Segurado (01:16)

Well, my name is as you have said, it’s Jos Segurado. I’m now I’m forty-three years old and I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was thirty-one in two thousand fourteen. And well  I used to work in banking.

And my life was pretty different at the time. I was very, very stressed at the time. And well, I had the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis with more than 30 lesions. And the doctors told me that in about between six months, one year, I wouldn’t be able to walk anymore. And so, you know, at that very moment my life was like I I felt devastated because well all of my dreams, all of my expectations were like it was a disaster for me. But you know, I had like I had I I felt something inside of me. I had that that kind of hope of that kind of message inside of me saying that there is something else. There is something that is not going okay. There’s not going well in my life. You are not living the life that you want to live. And you must, you should change something. And well, at that very moment I spent like three days crying at home because I I thought that my life was over. And trying to to think what I’m gonna go with my life. If I’m gonna be in a wheelchair, I don’t want to go on. But still I had that message inside of me. You there is something inside of you that you can change. So I started like reading and reading and reading. For after three days of crying, I started reading a lot and I start finding cases of people who recover or regain their health and making changes in their lives. And I found interesting web pages like yours. It was one of the first one overcoming multiple scrolls that I found. And there I found a little bit of hope. And I started reading and reading and I started implementing these changes in my life. And well everything started to change little by little, step by step. And when I went back to the doctor, my symptoms were much better. And with time my lesions started to improve and I had no more, no more new lesions and in the MRIs. and the old ones that I had started improving, being smaller, smaller than before. And in this period of time, more than 12 years, I didn’t have more new relapses, you know, so I’m perfectly health now and well I said to myself okay you have to do something you need to explain your story and explain everything that you have done to improve just a little bit your health to other people just in case they need information because at the at the very beginning of my journey I was very lost.

 

And it was very difficult to find the information. when you Google, multiple sclerosis, and the first thing that you could find was the bad situations, wheelchair, disability, things like that. And then I changed my search and I started looking for cure or recovery and things like that. And I found I found web pages. So if people with the new diagnosis felt this strange situation of not knowing what to do, they could have certainty or a certain hope that they could do some things to improve their health.

 

Geoff (05:17)

And how is was your diagnosis in Spain? is it easy and quick or is it difficult?

 

Jose Segurado (05:23)

Not for me. For me it was not easy because I start feeling a lot of not being well with myself. I started feeling a lot of symptoms and I started going to the doctor so many times and they do tests and everything was fine and they said okay you have nothing, everything is fine, so relax or take this pill just to be without not being nervous at all. And well, you know, over months everything was a little bit better and then it came back and well it took a while. and then at some point when I felt very very bad I had a lot of symptoms. I was not able to read, to focus on something and when I was walking down the street I felt lost. I didn’t know where I was I couldn’t have sexual relationships. it was horrible actually. And at that and a specific time I went to the doctor, I went to the emergency room saying to the people there, to the doctors, okay, let’s do something. I’m really bad. No, there is there is something bad now in my situation. So do all the scans that you can do, all the tests and let’s see what happens. And as well, I had a family member that have multiple sclerosis for more than 30, 40 years. So I was looking at his symptoms and I said to myself, hmm, maybe there is some similarities and maybe and I was checking on the internet, of course, and I could see the similarities with my personal case.

And I said that to the doctors and then they started doing the all the tests and they found they did the the MRI and they found the more than thirty lesions of my brain, more than twenty lesions of my spanning cord, and one month later they did the punction as well. And the punction confirmed that I had multiple sclerosis.

 

Geoff (07:30)

So I think that’s the case for a lot of people, isn’t it? But I think there must be lots of people who don’t have multiple sclerosis, and actually it is something completely different, everyone with MS, it seems to be at first the doctors say, no, it’s yeah, take this tablet.

 

Jose Segurado (07:46)

Yeah, so true. So true.

 

Geoff (07:52)

How did the overcoming MS program so you found it online and how did it give you a framework for taking a more active role in your well being?

 

Jose Segurado (08:01)

Well when I was reading different stories of people recovering from multiple sclerosis on your webpage as well, and I could see a lot of similarities in in the people with this diagnosis. it could not be a coincidence. There is something that is called the autoimmune personality or something like that.

People with this diagnosis used to be or are people with a lot of stress or people that want to help a lot of people and they want to be the best in their jobs, in their studies and things like that. they are super hard workers, they are always wanting to do and achieve more and more and more. And this is more or less the autoimmune personality and putting the needs of others before your own needs as well. This is something very common in us with this diagnosis. And I start reading and I saw that a lot of them started changes in their lives, like changing the diet, changing the supplementation, and then after doing this, which is the most easy part in a way, it’s not easy, but it’s easier than changing more personal things or more internal things, you know, because you just need to go to another shop and to another store and buy different things. So of course it’s very important, very, very important. talking about the diet, talking about the healthy fat, talking about the supplementations, vitamin D, the omegas, is super important. I started reading and having a lot of information about that and I started implementing everything in my life. And when I started changing my diet, more raw diet or more real food diet. So basically not buying something, anything that it’s inside a package. So you go for natural. You could be you could be vegetarian or you could be vegan or not. I am not vegan or vegetarian. I

 

eat meat as well. But if you whatever you choose to do, do it like good choices, like organic or real food, not buying something that is in a package or things like that. So start eating real food and start taking good supplementation like omegas like vitamin D. And this is really, really important. And just by doing small things and just with these changes, I started feeling much, much better. So I could feel more focused. I had less foggy mind. So a lot of things started to improve.

After that I started paying attention in more important or difficult or personal things like seeing inside my looking inside myself. I started meditating to be calm, to be more relaxed, to focus my attention in the important things, what I wanted to do in my life, if I wanted to be working in banking or not my answer was not to do it but at that very moment and I’m not against banking but it was not for me. It was not my job. And a lot of people with this kind of diagnosis and I think this is very important. A lot of people with this kind of diagnosis are doing things that they don’t like to do. They don’t want to do. They just do it because they think they should do it or the society or the system tells them to do it. And I think it’s very important to focus and to see clearly what you want to do, what is good for you.

 

Geoff (11:45)

Which of the overcoming MS pillars of the diet, lifestyle, mindfulness and so on? Which of those has been the most influential to you, do you think?

 

Jose Segurado (11:54)

It’s not just one thing you cannot be healthy if you are eating fast food every day. This is absolutely true for everybody. So you can eat fast food one day but you cannot be eating fast food every day. You need to be eating healthy and eating real food.

This is super important. The most important thing is to listen to yourself and start living the life that you want to live. Because if you are living someone else’s life, you are not living your real self. So there is a contradiction between your true self and what you are doing in your everyday life. So this is disease. The result of this has to be disease. So you cannot be a fake in your life. So for me, this is the most important thing. So be true to yourself, be real to yourself, find what you want to do in your life, what gives you happiness and where your gift is. Because I think all of us we have different gifts. And if we find our gifts and the things we are good at and the things that we are here in this world to do and the things that we like to do, our passions, we need to follow our passions.

 

For me many times illnesses is a lack of coherence with your life, with your inner self. And for me, this is the most important thing. And this is something that I found many, many times with my clients, with the people I work with, the lack of coherence in in the life. And it’s important.

 

Geoff (13:28)

And how did you turn these changes in your diet, exercise, meditation, supplementation? How do you turn that from being a temporary thing into a lifestyle, into everyday?

 

Jose Segurado (13:43)

I’m not perfect at all, so I make mistakes like everybody else. So for example, meditation, which is a really, really good thing to do, is the most easy to forget to do. So there is always something more important for you, for me to do every day. So I woke up every morning and for me meditation is the first thing to do before going to the toilet, even before doing anything else.

But there is always something more important like checking your phone or I need to send an email or I need to do whatever. So it’s difficult. It’s very, very difficult. And the life and system it always places in front of you more attractive things because eating, real food, it’s good for your health, but it’s not the more appealing thing in your life. It’s more appealing and more attractive, whatever else. There is a rule that it’s called the 2080 rule.

So with this kind of rule, I try to eat healthy like 80 or 90% of my time. And there is always a 10% of 20% of my time where I do kind of bad things because I’m alive as everybody else and we go with friends outside and we go to eat. And a lot of days I forget to meditate, but you know, I try to do my best. And exercise is another amazing thing. Strength training for me is very, very important for several things. Well, I think everybody should choose the kind of sport or activity they want to choose. But for me, going to the gym and doing strength training as well as pilates or dancing as well is really important for me because it’s good for my focus. It’s something that I do every day or almost every day. It doesn’t matter what happens in the world, or it doesn’t matter what happens in my life. I wake up, I take a coffee, and I go to the gym. And for me it’s like a routine, it’s like it’s sending me information that’s saying, Okay, everything is gonna be fine, go to the gym.

And you feel much better after going to the gym than before going. So for me it’s a an amazing thing as well, going to the gym every day or almost every day.

 

Overcoming MS (16:10)

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Geoff (16:24)

And what did you learn about the connection between stress and your emotional well being and your physical health?

 

Jose Segurado (16:33)

It’s completely connected when you have stress in your life, stress is part of life. You cannot remove completely stress because stress gives us the energy, the emotion to do things in life, to follow our dreams, to do the things that we have to do. And this is the healthy stress what that we need to have in our life. But in our society, stress is almost never like this. It’s almost never is healthy. So we need to put a lot of attention be and because many, many times we live with a level of stress that is much, much, much higher than healthy. But we believe that it’s the normal thing to have in our life. So we need to pay attention to that.

So I used to live in that kind of stress, super high stress, every day. Working in banking, I had I had very high standards or to achieve different goals in my job and it was very stressful for me. And well I tend to do this to stress myself, but I placed much more attention, focus in that.

So every time that I see myself having much stress than what is healthy, I do something to cut it. So I go for meditation, even just for three minutes, something to cut the high stress, or I go dancing, or I go out and scream, the word that can cut this stress level and do something different. But if you maintain this in time, it could be really, really dangerous for you. And we live in this kind of constant stress. We need to do something against that.

 

Geoff (18:16)

And I think you mentioned about gut health and also the the gut to the brain connection and that that deserves more attention for people with MS. So can you describe the connection between the gut and health?

 

Jose Segurado (18:32)

Of course there’s a very, very strong connection between our emotions, our digestion, and we don’t pay a lot of attention to our gut, to our digestion, and it’s giving us information all of the time if we are bloating and or you have stress, pain, a difficult digestion. It’s giving us information all of the time and if we focus on that, if we listen to that we could see the relation with our emotions. I don’t know what it’s first, El huevo o la gallina. Yeah, the chicken or the egg.

 

Geoff (19:05)

The chicken or the egg? I’ll just yeah. Yeah, yeah.

 

Jose Segurado (19:08)

 I don’t know what is first or the emotions or your thinking, your feelings, or the or the bad functioning of your gut system. But if you see one of  them, the egg or the chicken, put attention on that and start making changes. Start making changes in your health, in your stress level, and start making changes at the same time or on your diet. Because there is an almost instant correlation between all of them. So start making changes. It’s not that difficult to find the changes that you need to implement. Now we live in in a time when there is no lack of information at all.

The difficult thing sometimes is to implement it in our life.

 

Geoff (19:56)

And so you mentioned strength training. So how did your strength training and dancing and other things help you to get confidence in your body? Because I think a lot of us maybe have bad balance, our bodies become weaker, it’s harder.

 

Jose Segurado (20:13)

Well I used to go to the gym, but when I had the diagnosis I felt very weak, I had problems, difficulties to walk. And I was very sad and I was at home crying and crying for three days as I told you. But after the third day I said to myself, Okay, let’s go back to the gym. Let’s go back to the gym and maybe you could do one two three sets of propositions. I don’t know. Just go for it. Go there and do whatever you can do it. So I did it and I didn’t feel really good but I did just a little bit, just a small workout. And I started like doing more, more, more and I felt much better. And I felt the strength back in my body and in my health.

And it gives you a lot of confidence. When you beauty is important. You know, when you look yourself at the mirror and you see yourself in a good shape, or you see yourself much better, or you can see yourself walking much better, it’s important. and beauty and strength, it is important because it gives you confidence. And with this confidence you could do more things and different things.

 Just go for it and you can adapt your training to your situation. There are many different situations. We are all different and we can do more things or less things or different things, but there are always a kind of activity of exercise that you can do, a kind of sport, a can a kind of modification that you can do.

So go for it and find your way, because there’s something that you can do.

 

Geoff (22:00)

And I would say if you go to the gym, I think that I’ve always found people at the gym understand as well. They will say, Okay, yeah, maybe that exercise isn’t for you, but you could try this or they’re very understanding. I’ve not found any criticism or anything from the instructors at the gym.

 

Jose Segurado (22:18)

many times we think worse things about people than the truth. The truth is in reality, so they don’t behave in a bad way, they treat us in a very positive way and they help us to modify the exercises.

 

Geoff (22:35)

And so how could people who’ve got MS take responsibility for their well being without blaming themselves for their diagnosis, for their symptoms or for their progression?

 

Jose Segurado (22:46)

Yeah, it’s important. You have said two really important words. For me, a responsibility is the first one, is the most important thing because you have a responsibility in your life. Maybe you don’t have all the answers, may maybe you don’t have the cure, But we don’t have all the answers, but we have a responsibility to live our life in a better way, to make the changes that we can do. And there are things that all of us are not doing properly. We all know that we are doing things that are not good for us. So take responsibility on that. So take the things that you are not doing properly and change them. And this is responsibility. And the other thing is blaming. sometimes people think that when we are talking about responsibility, we are blaming ourselves. you are the responsible of this disease or blame on you for having this disease. You have done something bad. No, it’s not that. It’s not blaming. We are who we are and we have the situation that we have. So what are you gonna do with what you have right now in your life? do you want to sit and cry all day long? Of course if you need to cry, sit down and cry, but cry for a while. Don’t be all day long crying or complaining about your situation. You can complain about your situation for a while, but just for a while. And after that, do something, do something for you. Yes, you don’t have to go for the one hundred percent, but just for a little bit better than what you where you are right now. And it’s like compound interests in economics, you know, when you earn a little bit of interest it generates more money and from that more and more and more so this is compound interest with your health as well. So if you make just a small change, good change in your life, you see a benefit and from that you go to another thing and from that to another thing. And it’s increasing, increasing, increasing. And sometimes it’s wow, it’s wonderful how it’s the this increase in your life of your health. So just give yourself the try. Just do it. Give yourself a chance to do it. And maybe you are surprised.

 

Geoff (25:05)

And so talking about compound interests of banking, how did MS change you, change your identities, your priorities and your career from working in banking to writing I choose life and supporting other people?

 

Jose Segurado (25:21)

Well, identity is an important thing. So a lot of people with the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis changed his or her identity. Now I’m a patient of multiple sclerosis. I always refused that from the very first moment. So I didn’t recognize myself with this label of being a patient of multiple sclerosis. Now everything it’s surrounding this multiple sclerosis. So I never say I have multiple sclerosis. This is my choice. I always said I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis like 12 years ago. And for me, my identity is to improve my life and to live a better life.

 

I start creating or reconnecting with my true reality or my true identity. And my true identity was more creative. I was an actor as well, so I started doing more acting work and it was really frustrating and frightening for me because you know in the acting career you all you don’t always have a lot of work and a lot of money from that. So it was like very scary for me. But I felt that I needed to do it. I needed to reconnect with my creativity. And another way of reconnecting with my creativity was writing this book, explaining my story of recovery in order to help maybe one, maybe two, maybe three people in the world to improve their lives. So I did it and I and it was really amazing for me. I found pleasure from that. And as well I found a new identity in helping people, in coaching people and being with them, helping them to be in in their process, in their way of changing their lives, not saying what they need to do or what they have to do because it’s very personal, but being with them and being their coach. So this is very creative as well. So I found a new and super pleasant identity and I’m really proud of it. I’m really proud of myself changing all of my life and all of my working life or working identity into something that is really creative and really helpful for other people.

 

Geoff (27:43)

And so if there’s someone who is newly diagnosed or even someone who’s lost hope after years of living with MS, what guidance would you offer to them?

 

Jose Segurado (27:54)

I work with them to improve their lives in one way or another. When I work with people, I don’t I never know what we are gonna do together. I cannot make promises because I don’t know what’s gonna happen. But when we start seeing their lives and we start focusing in their lives, in the good things, in the bad things, we take the things that are goods and that work well for them.

And we make it even greater and we take the things that are not working good for them and we start taking action on them, making small or big changes on them. and when you do that, you start seeing things changing in your life. It has to happen. something has to change. I don’t know to what degree.

I’m not a magician, I don’t know anything. So let’s see what’s gonna happen. But changes happen and people improve their lives in one way or another. Yeah, when I work with people recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, they generally they make great improvements in their health. With people with more years with the diagnosis and maybe they have disabilities and things like that.

Maybe the changes or the improvements are not as dramatic as the first ones, but they see things changing in their lives. So they are all happy and I’m happy as well. Yeah. There’s always a good change to be seen.

 

Geoff (29:24)

And with that, the first thing I’d like to say, you have a look at the show notes because your book, I choose life, is it’s available in Spanish but also in English as well. and it’s you can find it if you just search for Jose Segurado on Amazon, you’ll find it straight away.

 

So yeah, I’d recommend checking out your book. And thank you very much for joining us.

 

Gina (29:47)

You can read the show notes for this episode at overcoming ms.org slash podcast, join our newsletter at overcoming ms.org slash newsletter, or send us a question at podcast at overcomingms.org. All links are in the description.