Unusually for an entrepreneur, Dr. Reyzan Shali wrote her book not to grow her medical practice business or to get speaking gigs. Instead, her motivation was to honor her parents and help her patients. 

The physician, who is an internal medicine specialist in California, self-published Teaming Up Against Cancer: Simple, Powerful Ways to Beat the Odds and Take Your Life Back because her mother and father had been such great parents and encouraged her to get an education, which was somewhat unusual for girls from the Kurdishstan region of Iraq. She went on to study medicine at the University of Baghdad, College of Medicine. 

“The intent was not for me to sell 1000s and 1000s of the book,” she tells Published Author Podcast host Josh Steimle. “It was for me to share the knowledge that I came up from my research with as many people as I can possibly share.” 

Reyzan gifts the book to some of her patients, especially if  they have a family member directly affected by cancer.

Reyzan is a member of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians. As a primary care physician, board certified in Internal Medicine, she leads a medical practice in Southern California. Reyzan is a public speaker on the topics of intuition and nutrition.

DON’T BE CONSUMED BY FEAR OR DOUBT WHEN YOU WRITE

Reyzan tells Josh: “What surprised me about my book is why didn't I start this earlier? Why did I let the doubts and fears consume me so much? And, just like anything else in life, if I had stayed in my comfort zone and let the fears consume me, then I was not going to be able to do anything about it.

Published three years ago, Teaming Up Against Cancer has had a significant impact on readers. Reyzan has received some excellent feedback, and has also affected change amongst her patients.

“I’ve been able to divert some of my readers into a mostly plant-based diet and a Mediterranean kind of diet and lifestyle. So I have seen some, or at least I have encountered some readers and some patients, who have told me that they've totally changed their diet, and now they're mostly plan-tbased, and they go out for walks every day, and they connect with friends and family on a more regular basis. All that adds up to a healthier life,” she says. 

CREATIVE TIME MANAGEMENT

Reyan said her young sons were into soccer when she was writing her book, and so she employed creative time management to complete the research and writing. For example, when they were at a soccer game or practice, she would work on research and writing while waiting for them in her vehicle. 

The actual research for the book meant that she added to the reading and research time she does as a doctor. “That same effort, I multiplied it times 100 for the book, meaning I did a ton of research.”

Reyzan encourages anyone one who is thinking about writing a book to simply sit down and begin. “You don't have to be a perfect writer in order to write a book. You just have to start, meaning you just have to start the process.”

LINKS

• Twitter

• Shalmd.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Josh Steimle

Welcome to the Published Author Podcast where we help entrepreneurs learn how to write a book and leverage it to grow their business and make an impact. I'm your host, Josh Steinle. Today our guest is Reyzan Shali. Reyzan is a member of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians. As a primary care physician board-certified in internal medicine, she leads a medical practice in Southern California. Reyzan is a public speaker on the topics of intuition and nutrition and the author of Teaming Up Against Cancer: Simple, Powerful Ways To Beat The Odds And Take Your Life Back. Reyzan, welcome to the show.

Reyzan Shali

Nice to meet you, Josh. Thank you for having me.

Josh Steimle

So give us some background. Where are you from? Where did you grow up? How did you become a doctor and end up running a medical practice in Southern California.

Reyzan Shali

I'm originally a Kurdish woman from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. However, I was raised in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. I come from a wonderful family. I have wonderful parents, and I'm the youngest of nine. I was always inspired by other physicians in the family growing up, meaning I was inspired by their wealth of knowledge and how they were able to help others help people and ease their pain and comfort them. So I decided to go to medical school. And I did, and I did well. After graduation, I decided that I wanted to leave the country leave home. And that was probably the most difficult decision I made Josh because I come from a wonderful family I have I had great parents, I am the youngest of nine. So I was very well protected. And well, very well cared for. So for me to leave all that behind and decided to start all over again, in a very foreign environment was very, very scary. However, I always felt that I was a little different growing up, I felt kind of oppressed, meaning. For example, I remember always wanting to play sports and be active in sports and participate in sports. But I was always told no, no girls don't play sports. sports are only for boys. You're not acting very feminine. All of that. So I kind of felt disconnected growing up and kind of oppressed is the best way to describe it. So I kind of put all my fears and doubts aside and went for it and came to the US. I did my internship residency took the boards in Michigan, we located with my family to San Diego area. And I started my practice here. And here we are now.

Josh Steimle

So what year was it that you left Iraq?

Reyzan Shali

Gosh, that was so long ago, I have to think about . . . that it was the mid 90s? Like 95 - 96.

Josh Steimle

Okay. So here in the US, I think a lot of us, myself included, have a distorted view of Iraq, and what it's like over there today what it was like in the 90s, because the news tends to only report the negative and accentuate the negative. And so you left in the mid 90s. But this is after the Gulf War. And, of course, there's a lot of stuff that's happened in Iraq since then. But what was it like growing up there? What are . . . Can you dispel some of the myths or illusions that people listening to this might have about what your childhood was like?

Reyzan Shali

So one of the myths that I encounter, or I get asked a lot is, how did they let you go to school? When you're a woman or go finish medical school and I, again, I had very supportive parents, parents, they promoted education, they pushed me actually to get higher education. And there were classmates of mine that were women. So that was, that is one of the myths that I always encounter from people around me is how did you go to school when you're learning? I'm not saying education is a priority for most families, where I come from, but for me in my immediate surrounding education was a major priority.

Josh Steimle

And so they were supportive. They helped you through those steps.

Reyzan Shali

Absolutely.

Josh Steimle

Now, is that a rare thing? Was that unusual interaction for a family to say, hey, yeah, you want to go to school, you want to get educated, you want to go to medical school, we're going to help you with that. Or would you say that around you that would have been what most families would have done.

Reyzan Shali

In my immediate community, meaning immediate family members, that was not only promoted, it was encouraged, meaning we all all boys and girls went to school and went to college and went to higher education. Now for the larger community, it is not such a priority, meaning the girls are not supposed to seek higher education, they're not supposed to be active in sports, they're not supposed to be vocal about their opinions and, and, and fight for their rights or demand their rights. And that was the major conflict for me, meaningI had my immediate surrounding that was very supportive. But the larger community felt me or made me feel a little inferior or made me feel a little disconnected. So I struggled with that, throughout the years of growing up, and I learned a lot from it.

Josh Steimle

I bet, you know, there's so much I want to dig into about your story, but it's kind of off topic for the podcast. So we're gonna have to leave this for another opportunity. But I sense that there's a lot of fascinating things that you could tell us about your upbringing and about Iraq, and about what you think about what's happened since you left in the mid 90s. But going back to your medical practice, so you became a doctor, you moved to Southern California. And then a lot of the people listening to this are entrepreneurs. And when we think about doctors, we usually don't equate a doctor with being an entrepreneur, but you've opened a practice. And so it really is an entrepreneurial venture. Can you talk to us a little bit about what it's like to open a practice and what it takes? How do you go about doing this?

Reyzan Shali

It's definitely an entrepreneurial practice. My practice has been built based on word of mouth, meaning my patients have recruited their neighbors, their cousins, their friends, to come and seek their medical care with me. So it's all based on word of mouth. And I've been very fortunate to build that kind of trust with my patient that they feel comfortable referring their family members to me, and I take that trust very seriously, I work very hard every day, I tried my best to serve them the best way I can, because that's how the practice was built. And that's what I'm supposed to do. That's what I'm here for them. I believe my role is to help take care of the community around me, meaning I don't even see them as patients of mine, I look at them as, as my community, my name, my neighbors, my friends, I need to take care of them.

Josh Steimle

So in entrepreneur speak, we'd say that's word of mouth marketing. So building your business, then at what point did you say I want to write a book? And here's why I want to do this. What was the motivation for that?

Reyzan Shali

My parents were the motivation. I had the thought of writing the book a few years ago. I wanted to honor my parents. I, for me, I believe I had the greatest parents in the world and I wanted to acknowledge their greatness with the readers. The problem just like anything else in life, I was kind of held back by fears and anxiety and how can I do this? And I never authored a book and English is my third language, how am I going to do this? So I let all that doubt and fear consume me. And didn't do it until somehow I managed to let my fear and anxiety kind of take a backseat and stepped out of my comfort zone and started the process two to three years ago.

Josh Steimle

So I want to dig into this a little bit because you're coming from a unique position of speaking other languages as first languages prior to English. What are the other two languages that you speak?

Reyzan Shali

So, originally Kurdish, so my parents are Kurdish. So we spoke Kurdish at home. But I grew up in back that so I went to school in Baghdad, meaning I learned Arabic through school and through friends and neighbors. And then the medical school I went to is actually a medical school that was set up by the British during the colonization years right after World War One. So education in the medical school was English. So I went from Kurdish to Arabic to English.

Josh Steimle

Did you speak any English growing up learning anything beyond the basic words or was it not until you went to medical school that you started really learning it?

Reyzan Shali

I did. I did have some English in growing up, meaning I did learn some English growing up but obviously, the majority English was after I started medical school and after I moved to the US.

Josh Steimle

got it. Yeah, I speak Portuguese fluently. I lived there for two years in Brazil, but I think about writing a book in Portuguese. And I think, oh, that would just be so hard. I mean, I know I can read it, and I can write it. But to write a book, it would just be it would be kind of terrifying. And I know it would just be a lot of work. And so I can only imagine what you were confronting as he thought about writing a book in English. Did you write the original draft in English? Or did you think about writing it in Kurdish first, and then translating it to English and cleaning it up? Or what were your thoughts as you started writing your book?

Reyzan Shali

I wrote everything in English. The reason why I wrote everything English was because I wanted the book to be conversational, meaning it's like me having a conversation with my patients in my practice in my office. And obviously, these conversations are usually in English. And I actually, the way I outlined the book is I wrote down many questions I get asked from patients and their family members, the more common questions so I wrote them down. And I translated that into kind of a few chapters of the book, how to answer these questions the best way I can, and write it in a book.

Josh Steimle

So that's also interesting, because a lot of people, a lot of other authors, they start a book because they get asked the same question over and over and over again, and they say, you know what everybody wants? The answer to this question I should write a book about this was that the original idea for the book was hey, I'm getting all these questions, I should write a book about it, or was there other motivation as well behind the scenes.

Reyzan Shali

The original idea was about my parents, meaning my parents were the motivation and the inspiration behind my book. My father passed away from lung cancer, which was a result of many, many years of smoking. So I wanted to share his story. And by sharing his story, I was hoping that people can learn about how smoking is linked to lung cancer and how you can avoid lung cancer. So that was the biggest motivation for the book. I also was motivated by all the questions that I was being asked by patients, family members, friends, and I, again, I made a list of the more common questions I get asked. And that's how, like I said, that's how the book was evolved.

Josh Steimle

Mm hmm. So tell us just a few of those questions just to give us some background on what the book is all about? What were some of the most common questions that you were getting asked?

Reyzan Shali

So women would ask me, should I do mammograms? Should I follow the recommendations of mammograms? should I worry about radiation exposure when I'm doing mammograms? Should I take this vaccine or not take this vaccine? Why are we doing pap smears? Or are we? Why are you encouraging me to go for colonoscopy? What's this? We heard things about pharmaceuticals out there promoting vaccines for their own benefits and not for the health of mankind, and similar questions. Some of them are myths that I wanted to clarify, or I felt that I needed to clarify, why do I have to put SPF 50 when I go to the beach, or I grew up in California, and nothing happened to me. So I still have patients who tell me I go to the beach and put olive oil on my skin to get a better tan, which, again, these are all things that I needed to kind of discuss on a larger scale.

Josh Steimle

Mm hmm. Interesting. So were you also thinking about the marketing side of things that hey, if I write a book, this is going to help me in my practice and help it grow, give me more credibility as a doctor, or was that not really something that was forefront in your mind?

Reyzan Shali

It was not. Meaning I had zero budget for marketing and I still have zero budget for marketing. Again, my practice grew on its own. I feel very honored that patients have trusted me with their own family, their own parents and grandparents and other family members. That's how they practice the practice group. So the book was not intended to help the practice grow. The book was intended to kind of put the information out I have in my head, do more research to learn from, and put that in a book where I can kind of like make my parents be proud of it out there and make my parents be proud of it.

Josh Steimle

So now that the book is out, well, let's go back. Let's talk a little bit about the process then. So you said you were outlining it based on questions that people were asking you. Talk to us a little bit more about that process of getting an outline down and then filling in the blanks? What did that look like for you? How did you work on this? How did you schedule your time to get this work done?

Reyzan Shali

I wanted a big part of a good portion of the book to be about diet. I'm a big advocate of the Mediterranean diet, I promote Mediterranean diet to everyone I speak with, there is a ton of research out there confirming that it's a healthy diet. So I knew that I wanted a big portion of the book to be about the Mediterranean diet. I also wanted a portion of the book to be regarding the story of my father and his struggle with smoking and his struggle with lung cancer. And unfortunately, towards the end of writing the book, my mother also passed away from cancer. So the latter part of the book was me listening to my mother's voice telling me what she wants me to write or how she wants me to describe her journey. So. So that's how the outlining mostly worked, meaning it kind of evolved, day by day, week by week.

Josh Steimle

Mm hmm. Did you set aside time to work on this on a daily basis? I mean, you're busy, you're running a practice. You're a doctor, you've got so many things to do, how did you make sure that you could spend enough time on the book to get it done?

Reyzan Shali

sleepless night, many sleepless nights. I do struggle from insomnia a lot of times, which in some cases has been a blessing because I can get things done. But yeah, I after practice, and I have two children. They're a little bigger now. But at the time, when I started thinking about it in the book, I was chasing them and driving them everywhere. So it was basically me sitting in a parking lot waiting for my son to finish your soccer game or soccer practice while I was doing my research on my iPad, so I kind of managed to find time in between taking care of other things.

Josh Steimle

Gotcha. So whenever there was any moment to spare time, you just jumped right into the book and started working on research for that or writing it.

Reyzan Shali

Absolutely. And both my boys were heavily involved in soccer at that time, and I was at that time, I was driving them a lot. So basically, I'm sitting in a parking lot, waiting for them to finish their practice, I go for a walk, and then come back to the car and do a little more research. So it was creative time management. We got it done.

Josh Steimle

What did your research process look like? For your book, I suspect you had to do more research than some other people might do. There's some people who will write a business book, and it's just their ideas. They're just coming up with things out of their head. There are other people that have to do a medium amount of research. But in your case, where you're talking about medicine, you really need to have the facts straight. So how did you go about doing the research? How did you make sure . . . how did you know when you had done enough research on something?

Reyzan Shali

We physicians, we have to read on a regular basis, because we have to keep up to date with the research. So that same effort, I multiplied it times 100 for the book, meaning I did a ton of research. And like the Mediterranean diet, there is plenty of research out there. I pick the ones that I feel most comfortable with, that I feel that not only me, but every everyone. We all can understand it, we all can feel comfortable with that research. I remember asking the publisher that no research will be used for that book, unless I read it. I understand it. I feel comfortable and confident in it. So there was plenty of reading plenty of staying up late at night studying and that's how the research was done.

Josh Steimle

Was there anything that surprised you during the research that you were doing that changed your mind on something?

Reyzan Shali

I think what surprised me is why didn't I start this earlier? Meaning Why? Why? Why was I so fearful of embarking on this journey? Why didn’t I let go of the doubts and fears that consume me so much? There is plenty of research out there for all of us. And I, just like anything else in life, if I had stayed in my comfort zone and let the fears consume me, then I was not going to be able to do anything about it. So I think what surprised me is, is my own fears and my own doubts, why did I let them consume you so much for so long?

Josh Steimle

So doing the process of research to help you to gain the confidence and feel like, Hey, I can do this, and in fact, I should have done it sooner?

Reyzan Shali

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Josh Steimle

So you just mentioned your publisher, so you work to traditionally publish this right?Versus self-publishing?

Reyzan Shali

Actually, I, directly worked with a self-publishing company, because I didn't think that I was going to be able to publish it the traditional way.

Josh Steimle

Okay, so which company did you work with for self publishing? Was it Amazon? KDP? Or was it a different company?

Reyzan Shali

So it's a company that works with Amazon KDP.

Josh Steimle

Okay, like Ingram spark or something? Because there are traditional publishers. And then there are hybrid publishers that kind of help you self publish the book and sounds like maybe you worked with a hybrid or an Ingram spark or something like that?

Reyzan Shali

So I work with a publisher in San Diego named Author Bridge Media, and they work with Amazon KDP.

Josh Steimle

Okay, got it. But they kind of helped you through that process of writing and publishing the book. So it was kind of a hybrid situation, it sounds like. So how was that? How was that experience? What were some of the things that they were most helpful in doing for you as an author?

Reyzan Shali

I think it was a wonderful experience, the most help was from the most help I needed from them, is to fix my English to be quite honest with you, edit the book and fix my English and not be horrified by my spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes. So their editor was wonderful. She worked very hard with me, we she kind of fixed many, many of my mistakes and did not make me feel bad about my mistakes. And that was the biggest role.

Josh Steimle

Yeah, this is interesting. This comes up with a lot of first-time authors that for some reason, we, as authors, we feel like we have to be a good writer to be an author. And yet to be an author, we don't actually have to be a good writer. In fact, we don't even have to write the book. There are a lot of authors out there who go and hire a ghostwriter. And they just talk to the ghostwriter. And the ghostwriter does the writing, writing is really a technical skill that takes a lot of training and a lot of practice to do well. And yet, we assume that, Oh, I'm going to write a book, I got to do it all by myself. Otherwise, I'm not a real author. And one of the messages I try to get across to people is, you don't have to write the book to be the author, you just need to come up with the idea in the meat of it, but the technical writing side of it, you can outsource that to somebody else. And there's no shame, there's no, that doesn't take anything away from you as the author. So it sounds like you had that experience that you had a great editor who worked with you on that process and made sure that the final result was good, but of course, it's still your book. It's your ideas. So now that you've published the book, and it's out there, what has the reception been like? What kind of feedback have you gotten from your audience, the people who are reading it?

Reyzan Shali

Overall, very positive, overall, very positive. Again, the book was meant to be conversational, and storytelling, stories about my parents, their struggle, their health issues, story about what I see from my environment, health questions, health struggles. And again, it was meant to be conversational, meaning, it's like me, you sitting, sitting and talking. So overall, the feedback has been, surprisingly very positive.

Josh Steimle

And I suspect as time goes on, you'll get more and more testimonials. Because this is a book, you want people to change their behavior to invest in changing their diet, changing their mindset, changing their habits, so that they can be healthier, getting screened, things like that. And so these are life saving changes that you want people to make. And of course, it takes time for people to change their behavior, and then come back and say, Hey, this book changed my life or this book saved me in some way. Have you had any of that type of feedback already, though, or is that the type of feedback that it's probably going to take a little bit longer to get?

Reyzan Shali

I have seen some of that feedback, meaning I have been able to divert some of my readers into mostly plant-based diet and a Mediterranean kind of diet and lifestyle. So I have seen some, or at least I have encountered some readers and some patients who have told me that they've totally changed their diet, and now they're mostly plant based, and they go out for walks every day, and they connect with friends and family on a more regular basis. All that adds up to a healthier life.

Josh Steimle

You know, I don't normally interject personal stuff in this, but I have a personal interest in this, I have three out of my four grandparents died of cancer. My father is a cancer survivor, my brother, my mom, my dad have all had skin cancers removed. And I recently just went through a polyp removal that should have been removed about three years before it was and had progressed a bit. And the doctor told me, Yeah, five - ten years, you'd be dead, if you hadn't come in to see us. So it's a good thing you came in. And I had to go through this during COVID, as well going and having procedures during COVID, and everything, and it was kind of a nightmare. But over the past decade or so I've changed my diet and lost 60 pounds and feel so much better. And so everything you're talking about, I'm just saying, This is great. I want to get this message out there. And I'm so glad that you've written this book and got it out there. Because I know that this is the information that changed my life. And I hope that your book is able to change many other people's lives as well. Do you give this book to your patients when they come in as well? Is that something that you recommend to them that they read? Or how does that come up as you work with your own patience?

Reyzan Shali

I do gift donate in the book to my patients, meaning I don't expect them to go on Amazon, I don't want them to go purchase it. That's not the intent of the book, meaning the intent was not for me to sell 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of the book, the intent was for me to share the knowledge that I came up from my research with as many people as I can possibly share. So that was the intent of the book, meaning I do give the book to my patients. Not all of them. I don't have that many to give but people who are directly impacted by cancer, or they have a family member directly affected by cancer, I give them the book, and I hope they learn from it.

Josh Steimle

That's fantastic. So a lot of people once they write one book, they kind of get addicted to and they say, Well, you know what, that wasn't that bad? I think I could do that again. Have you thought about writing another book or any follow up to this one?

Reyzan Shali

Absolutely, absolutely.

Josh Steimle

So what would the next book be?

Reyzan Shali

The next book is going to be mostly about Mediterranean diet, meaning this, this first book had a chapter about the Mediterranean diet, the next book is going to be mostly or all the book is going to be regarding Mediterranean diet, I already have the chapters in my mind. I've outlined some of the chapters meaning I've already done the research, the research. So I want to talk about Mediterranean diet and the link to bone health, I want to talk about Mediterranean diet and it's linked to immune health and Mediterranean diet aAnd it's linked to heart health. So I have few chapters in mind already, started doing a ton of research. And I'm excited. And like I said, Now that I know that writing a book is you don't have to be a perfect writer in order to write a book, you just have to start meaning you just have to start the process. And then you're going to notice that you have a team who's going to work with you. Just like you mentioned earlier, a lot of people want to write a book and . .. but they think they have to be perfect at everything in order to write a book. That's not my experience. I still struggle with writing and speaking in so many different ways. But I realized there was a whole team around me that helped me make it happen.

Josh Steimle

It's great advice for aspiring authors to put a team together that can support you in your venture. So now that you're thinking about writing your second book, what are some of the primary other lessons you've kind of you've given some here, but what are some of the other lessons learned from writing your first book that you're saying, okay, on the second book, I'm going to do this different or I'm going to do this the same because it worked really well on my first book?

Reyzan Shali

So I'm definitely going to use an editor just like I used an editor for my first book, and it probably will go back to the same editor because we. . . she and I worked very well together. So that is one thing that I think I'm gonna continue to do the same way because it worked very well for the first time around. What I'm also going to focus on is not not be as stressed about it, meaning, going back to the process of writing the first book, I realized that I kind of consumed myself with stress, I worried a lot about the outcome I worried about a lot about the final product, I think I'm going to focus on enjoying the process a little more next time around. There is a lot to be learned from writing a book, there's a lot of personal growth that comes from writing a book. So it's not just about the product, it's about, I think I'm going to focus on my own personal growth also.

Josh Steimle

That's, yeah, absolutely. There's so much to be learned. And there's so much fun in writing a book, as you're doing the research, one of the things I love is doing the research and saying, Oh, this is so fascinating. The hardest part is not knowing what to cut out what to not include, because there's so many things you come across that you say, Oh, I want to include this too. So with that book, the next book coming out that talks about Mediterranean diet and such. Do you have any ideas for books beyond that? Or is that as far as you're thinking right now is that next book.

Reyzan Shali

For the time being, that's as far as I'm thinking.

Josh Steimle

Great. So now for people who want to connect with you. They can of course, go buy your book on Amazon, is there anywhere else that people can find you conveniently online?

Reyzan Shali

Twitter, I started Twitter, I started social media after the book. So I'm relatively very new to social media I had spent zero minute on social media before the book, I created social media for the book. So what I'm trying to say I'm relatively new, I'm still trying to understand the science of social media. And it's, it's very complex. But I find I find Twitter is more interesting for me so. So yes, we can, people can find me on Twitter at Reyzan Shali.

Josh Steimle

Really great. And we'll put that link in the show notes. Well, thank you so much for being with us here today to talk about your book and your journey to it. This is . . . are some great advice for aspiring authors, first-time authors out there, and will point people to your Twitter profile Reyzan Shali so that they can connect with you there. And once again, the book is Teaming Up Against Cancer: Simple, Powerful Ways To Beat The Odds And Take Your Life Back. Reyzan, thank you so much for being with us here today. And being a guest on our show.

Reyzan Shali

Josh, thank you for having me. And, Josh, I want to say I'm happy we went for the colonoscopy and had the polyps removed. That's actually one of the questions I get asked a lot. Why am I going to go for colonoscopy when I'm feeling fine and having normal bowel movements? And you're, you're the answer to that question, meaning had you not gone for the colonoscopy, you would not have realized the polyps or you have not realized that you had a follow up that needed to be removed.

Josh Steimle

You know, we'll make this the bonus part of the podcast here for the people who want to get the too-much-information-side of things. But the reason I didn't go in was because number one, I felt great. I felt perfectly healthy. And I thought you know, I'm doing triathlons, I'm running ultra marathons. I had gone on a quasi-vegan diet for years. And so I thought, you know, I'm doing the green smoothies and everything, like I'm healthy. And if I'm not that green smoothie is killing anything bad in my body. So I thought, you know, anybody who's going to get something this young, and I was 40 years old. So I'm thinking, you know, I'm young and everything, I'm healthy. So I'm great. But there were signs in my bowel movements. This is the too-much-inflammation-part for some of our listeners. But there were signs that something was wrong. And I just thought, Oh, you know, this will go away with time. And it wasn't. But also I was living overseas, I was living in China. And I had heard all these nightmare stories about the Chinese medical system, people going in and getting the wrong limbs amputated, or the wrong thing operated on. And I'm living in China, and I was like, I don't really want to go to a doctor here about this. And I do not want to get operated on here. So I thought, you know, I'll be back in the states in a few years and I'll just get it checked out then. Well, that's what I did. And so I waited about three years after I started having signs that something was up. And when I finally went in and talked to the doctor, he was, he wasn't, he didn't make me feel bad or anything. But he was kind of like, This has been happening for three years, and you never want to talk to a doctor about it? And it's like, you know, in retrospect, that does sound kind of stupid. Yeah. And I actually shared my story on social media, and I had a bunch of people say the same thing. They're like, I don't know what kind of person would be. I'll just be graphic here pooping blood in the toilet every time they go and not go to a doctor immediately. And I'm like, Yeah, I just thought, I thought it would go away. And it just didn't go away. And so finally I went in. Well, yeah, and I went in, and there was a pretty large polyp in there. And I had to go through three different procedures to actually get it out, they went in the first time, they couldn't get it all out, then they had to go in the second time to investigate. And then I had to go to a separate doctor and have a more invasive procedure where they actually cut part of the colon out and went all the way through to make sure that they got it and that it hadn't spread anywhere else. And, you know, the doctors are nice and everything, but they're, they're talking to me, and they're saying, Yeah, five years, you could have been dead. I mean, who knows, maybe it would have gone away. But there's also a good chance 5 - 10 years, you would have been dead from this. And to get that feedback, it's a little bit sobering. It kind of wakes you up. And that's why when I see your book, I think this is needed. People need to read these types of books. Because it's so easy to fall into that and think, Oh, I'm fine. Everything will be okay. It's gonna go away. You hear these stories on the news. You see the guy who likes, smoke cigars till he's 110. And he eats bacon and eggs every day. And you think, Oh, yeah, I mean, I'm okay. I mean, look at that guy. But we need to get these things checked out when we see the signs, if not before.

Reyzan Shali

Absolutely. So. And now on a Monday. I'm personally on a mission to get rid of bacon from every plate, if possible.

Josh Steimle

There are a lot of people who are very sad to hear that. But yeah, because one is so would you say bacon is the worst of the worst when it comes to meat?

Reyzan Shali

Well, processed meats in general, processed meats are, we need to get rid of processed meats. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm on a mission I have so far failed my mission, but I'm still going to work on it. And people are still consuming bacon. Yep. It tastes so good. That's the problem. You know, I've never tasted it. I never know. I never had bacon, so I'm not. I don't think I'll care to try it.

Josh Steimle

Yeah. See, it's easy when you've never tried something. I mean, like, I've never drunk alcohol. I've never smoked a cigarette. And so when people tell me like, Oh, it's so nice to mow the lawn, you're hot, sweaty, you go drink a beer. It's so good. I'm like, I don't know what I'm missing out on. And I don't want to know what I'm missing out on. I would prefer to never know. And so it's easier. So you're like, you're one of the lucky ones who have never tasted bacon, because once you've tasted, it's like, it'd be hard to give up. So it's a struggle. Well, thank you again, for being with us here and talking to us about your book and your journey to authorship. Really appreciate it so much.

Reyzan Shali

Thank you so much, Josh. Thank you for having me.

Josh Steimle

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