Episode 12: Health and Fitness in Nursing

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Cara Lunsford

Oh, okay. NEUSTADT Listeners, are you ready to tie your laces and support an incredible cause? The emergency nurses Week five K is coming to you virtually from October 8th to the 14th. This annual event is here to celebrate the extraordinary work of emergency nurses worldwide. All you need to do is walk, run or push your way through a5k route of your choice during Emergency Nurses Week.

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Ready to join visit DNA dot org forward slash end week five k now. Oh hey nurses welcome to the nurse dot podcast Giving nurses validation resources and hope one episode at a time. Oh today on Nurse Dot podcast, I'm your host, Kara Lunsford, registered nurse and VP of community Ed nurse dot com.

Georgina Villarreal

It is my vision to collaborate, especially with communities and organizations like NASSCOM, to help get the word out and help our nurses because the hospitals are not taking care of them. They see us tired. They know we need breaks. The organizations and the leaders, they're not giving us wellness benefits. So we have nurses, any situations. They need resources, they need support.

Cara Lunsford

Joining us today, Georgina Villareal But you probably know her better as Nurse Georgie. Georgie is not only a nurse but also a trailblazer in the startup scene with her newest venture, Health Care Strong, a robust platform aimed at giving nurses the tools they need to achieve optimal health and wellness. Oh, well, hello, Georgina Villareal.

Georgina Villarreal

How are you? Where are you right now?

Cara Lunsford

I'm in North Carolina. I'm actually at the Hyatt House in Morrisville because this is like my little home away from home. I've been here all week, and then tomorrow I fly out to New Orleans.

Georgina Villarreal

Mm hmm.

Cara Lunsford

Yes. And good, because I'm going to be speaking at the nurse power brunch.

Georgina Villarreal

Yeah.

Yeah, That's exciting. And you're going to be at Nurse Summit, right?

Cara Lunsford

I am.

Georgina Villarreal

I'm speaking.

Cara Lunsford

And so are you.

Georgina Villarreal

So she wants me to, like, do the opening on Saturday, and she's like, George, I need you. Bring your energy. I need you to get people to just, like, get excited and shredded. I was like, Don't worry, it'll be fun.

Well.

Cara Lunsford

That is what you do best, My love, is you have an enormous amount of energy. If I could bottle it, I would sell it. Yeah, I would drink it, injected whatever I had to do. But you've got an enormous amount of energy because you have, like, changed your life and the lives of others, I might add, including myself.

You've empowered me with a lot of solutions to health and fitness and opened my eyes to the fact that it's doable. You don't have to be a gym rat. You don't have to do some crazy, crazy diets. It's like you really have made this something that is accessible to people who are very busy and don't find that they can make a lot of lifestyle changes sometimes.

So, you know, for obviously, I know you and lots of other people know you, but for those who do not know you. Tell us a little bit about just who you are. You've been a nurse, You know, give us a little history and just like what you're working on right now.

Georgina Villarreal

I will. So my name is Georgina Vogel, also known as Nurse Georgie. I've been a nurse for already six and a half years. I didn't always want to be a nurse. I wanted to be a health educator. I was an athlete most of my life. Gymnast, soccer. And I did health, my health education degree and San Francisco. And I actually thrived.

And just all the workshops and working in the city and San Francisco. So multicultural. What happened was after doing so many seminars, I got a little bored and I was like, How can this be more fun? How can I be more hands on? Like I want to be in the field doing the actual work? So it was actually during my health education, a bachelor's degree.

I was like, I think I want to do nursing. And so that's how I found my entry level nursing program. And with nursing, I had this idea that I would not only save lives, but be able to make drastic change within my community. Right in the hospital, I imagined myself being like the director of all these educational programs, and that wasn't the case in the hospital.

It was a business and I saw it as a business and I had a hard time finding my community there and making changes on a unit. I saw that a lot of nurses were burnt out, were struggling, were stressed, and depressed. They were overweight, fatigue coming to work, and so including myself. And after working as a nurse for so many years, I also got tired and the pandemic didn't help.

And so from there is when I looked into health coaching and I now use my health education background with my nurse background to make educational easy educational meal plans, fitness plans, wellness plans for my nurses. They are specifically for nurses or also for other health care workers. And I love it.

Cara Lunsford

It's so amazing. I mean, I've known you. My God, Now, how many years is about, I don't know, five, six arrow. You were kind of a new nurse. You were a newer nurse when I tracked you down. When I stalked you. Really? Let's just call it what it is.

Georgina Villarreal

I tell the story all the time.

That I.

Was. I was speaking at a nurse demo event in L.A., and I remember at that event, it was one of my first speaking engagements and I froze on stage during one of the questions.

And.

Nurse like help. And she's like, You got this. And then after we had the workshop and you were asking all the questions and you recruited me for this amazing startup called Holly Blue, and I look back at it now and I was like, I froze on stage and I still wanted me.

Cara Lunsford

I did. I was like, You just bring such an infectious amount of joy and passion and charisma and people just want to be a part of whatever you're doing. I think for me was a no brainer. Being somebody who was a founder, had a vision, but also knew that it was going to take a team of people who were very good at what they individually did.

And you know, you were an influencer, I mean, in the best way, in all the best way of using the word influencer. You were a creator. You were someone that just really got people excited about their jobs. You make people laugh. You're an incredible content creator. I've never I don't know how to make a reel to save my life or a TikTok for that matter, but you always seem to make it look just effortless.

And I know it probably isn't, but you just make it look that way. But I think that that's that's your superpower in a way. So I was really excited to have you join me on this podcast because we are specifically wanting to talk about health and fitness. You know, the NRA is having their marathon, their I think it's a5k, it's the DNA, five K, and they were really excited that I was going to be talking to you about health and fitness and all the things because they were like, Oh, that's the perfect episode for us to also be able to talk about inviting people out to join in their five K It's.

Georgina Villarreal

Good for your health. You know.

I've been sitting on this for a while because I've coached over the last year and a half, almost 100 nurses and health care workers, and I can't do it alone. I need a lot more giorgis going around doing online nurse health coaching. Nurses are the perfect online health coaches, but we have to do the work ourself first. I can not tell people to drink more water, get more sleep, eat healthy and get their workouts in.

If I'm not doing the work myself and seeing the benefit, I think that's how health care from blew up because I was sharing my journey. The nurses were seeing my transformation, they were living it with me and I was doing the work. I was doing the workouts and I was showing my meal preps and I was actually sleeping for once.

And so it is my vision to collaborate, especially with communities and organizations like Nurse dot com to help get the word out and help our nurses because the hospitals are not taking care of them. They see us tired, they know we need breaks. The organizations and the leaders, they're not giving us wellness benefits. It's insane. I've asked so many nurses, does your organization or does your hospital offer any wellness resources?

No, or I have no idea. Travel nurses as well. You know, they're doing these assignments. They're doing crazy shifts. They're highly stressed. They don't have their gym access. I had one travel. I have one travel nurse right now who her Airbnb host is not giving her kitchen access, so she only has a little mini fridge in her room and an air fryer microwave.

She can't use the kitchen. She can't use the stove. How is someone like that supposed to be healthy over the next three or four months? So we have nurses, any situations. They need resources, they need support. And so it's truly my mission to collab over compete so that we can help more health care workers. And I see a vision already with health care strong and creating more online nurse health coaches and you're starting to see this pop up on Instagram now where people are online fitness coaches, but a lot of them this is all health care.

Strong was founded because I had many health care coaches or health online health coaches, but they were in bodybuilding telling me to eat six times a day, telling me to workout 3 hours, five days. We can't tell a nurse to eat six times a day. They barely have time to pee and drink water. We know this. And so that's truly what health Care Strong is about, is about customized personal plans that work for health care workers, nurses and people that have 12 hour shifts and very busy lives.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, and I think that that's exactly why you hit the nail on the head. It's not a one size fits all. Each person has a little bit of a challenge. You know, maybe they have someone at home who cooks and that makes it a little easier for them So they can do some meal planning, but maybe they don't.

Maybe they're a single mom who's working in health care, working these long hours and then having to come home and prepare meals. You know, it's like we have to meet people where they are. And that's what you're doing by creating these very customized plans, really encouraging people to invest in themselves, to invest in their health, because we we invest in all kinds of things.

We buy a house that's an investment. We invest in our education. These are things we even and we invest in our children.

Georgina Villarreal

We put ourselves in debt, in our education. I have $130,000 in student debt that I invested in my education, you know, and so in my models, me that we can't say I'm going to invest, you know, even my clients pay anywhere from 4 to 1200 a month, depending on what they need, but that they wouldn't be willing to invest in their health to optimize their performance, optimize their energy, increase their dopamine, make them feel better, increase longevity, their lifespan, decrease burnout, all the things that are just going to help us in our relationships and our job and our career.

Cara Lunsford

I'm going to get philosophical here with you. Why do you think people in general, nurses are pretty bad about this, but venture to say people in general are not always great about investing in their health. Do you change their dietary habits to exercise more? Why do you think it is?

Georgina Villarreal

My coach told me this, but cost is only an issue in the absence of value. And isn't it scary to think that, like, nurses don't value their health or themselves first? We're so used to giving to everyone else. Everyone else. I need to take care of my family first and you take care of my patients first. I need to make sure my boss at work, everything's good, everything's good everywhere else, and they're just leaving themselves for last.

And it pains me to say that we just are putting ourselves last and we don't find value in investing in ourselves. A lot of women that I talk to say I need to ask my partner if I can invest in this, you know, and for me as a woman.

I like you, make.

Your own money. You spend your money where you want and feel the need, you know. And so that's something that I'm trying to really show the value and ask the hard questions for people on what's important to you. You know, how important is your health to you and what happens if these things don't change? Because a lot of people do reach out to me and that's what they want.

They want change. They feel that by getting healthier, X, Y, Z will happen. And so I truly feel that some people were just putting it on the back burner when it should actually be number one. Our health should be our number one priority.

Cara Lunsford

If somebody had to pick one thing that they could do, let's say they could only pick one thing that they could do every day, that would make a huge impact, or at least like a measurable impact in their life. It's just one thing. What would you say?

Georgina Villarreal

I would have them do an audit on how much protein they're eating. There's so many nurses that are under eating protein. I do nutrition audits with all my clients. I have them do an audit with me for five days. And in all of their diets, it's, you know, and generally you want your diet to be like 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat protein is like 10%, 15% carbs are 60%, or fat is 60% of their diet.

And a lot of people don't know that all of this food that the increase in carbs and the increase in fat is just adding to the fatigue or the weight gain. And they're not getting enough protein, which is going to keep us lean, which is going to keep us feeling fuller longer, which is going to actually help burn fat when we start eating enough of it.

So protein, I would say, is one of the things that everyone can do now is, one, increase their protein in their diet. And there is a formula for this because I know nurses love formulas, but you put your weight into kilograms and then you multiply that by 0.8. And so that's the amount of grams that you should be having as far as protein.

Cara Lunsford

Wow. See, this is the step is that people need small bite size, digestible things that they can do. And that's a great example of just like one thing, if you gave away everything on this podcast episode, you gave away one free thing. Okay? Because what I'm hoping that people will get from that one free thing is that, wow, I did this and within two weeks or maybe even a week, how quickly do you think somebody actually feels some kind of change once they start adding more protein to their diet?

Georgina Villarreal

I would say within the first week you're going to start feeling the difference. It's an overall approach, though, right? Because just imagine your diet is 40% protein. You're getting all the protein in, but you're sleeping 5 hours a day, you're chugging bang energy drinks, your calorie consumption is maybe twice as much as what it would be. You're highly stressed because life, all of those things are going to cause weight gain or not help you reach your goals either.

So that's why it's an all around approach or Oh.

Cara Lunsford

Hey there, Nurse Dot Listeners, before we dive back in, let me tell you about an extraordinary event that you can be part of the Emergency Nurses Week 5ka virtual event bringing us together to celebrate and support the work of emergency nurses worldwide. Mark your calendars from October eight to 14th and virtually walk, run or even push a5k any time during that week.

All proceeds will benefit the Ayana Foundation, supporting continuing education, research and professional development. To participate simply visit any dot org forward slash end week five K and sign up. Oh.

Georgina Villarreal

You said something like the one free thing and I think this is what I had an epiphany of recently is I want all the education to be free. Like as a health educator, I just want and this is why I love you in there so calm because you guys have such a huge community. I want all the nurses to know all the things, how to calculate your macros, why they're important, how much protein should you have, what's the formula for water, how much sleep should you be having, how to optimize your schedule, how to have like a circadian rhythm that actually works for your body and your lifestyle.

And so what I'm now figuring out is all of this education should be free. I should be sharing it always. But the application is what people can come to me for, because we all have different body types, we all have different body chemistries, we all have different lifestyles, we all have different goals and so the application is actually what you need a coach for, but the knowledge is out there.

And as a nurse, I want to be able to share that knowledge and I want people to know these things like these are things that we can all be applying now. And honestly, it will save jobs and save nurse lives because we all know that nurses are leading the field. But why? Because they feel burned down, because they feel that they're not taking care of and they feel like they can't keep living in that high stress, resentful feeling.

Right? I remember feeling that that at work, like I was mad. I was mad at my manager because they didn't listen or they never approved my time off. I was mad at my coworkers because they were always so negative. No one wanted to be at work. I was mad at upper management because I was always left with too many patients and I was always understaffed and I was always in like fight or flight.

And then I was just thinking about my health. I was like, This isn't good for my mental health, you know? And that's how I feel. A lot of people leave. And it's funny because I'm seeing nurses that are I see E.R. nurses going into like esthetics, you know, and it's cause y esthetics is a nice stress. Like there's a less stress in that job and you can get to make your own schedule and make your own personal brand and hang out with women all day.

So it's interesting.

Cara Lunsford

Who doesn't want to do that?

Georgina Villarreal

I know.

What?

I don't want to be injecting people's faces all day.

Cara Lunsford

No, no, I don't either. Yeah, I don't either. I it's definitely not my cup of tea, but I'm glad other people like doing it. So, I mean, I think what you said is really important that making that information available is really well, it's a very nurse thing to do. First of all, wanting to make that health education available.

I also think that you should probably write a book that is available on Audible and any other format so that.

Georgina Villarreal

I'm praying that Chatty Betty is going to help me write this. But the Seven Habits to Health Care Strong are in the works. Let's see if I can.

Cara Lunsford

You know.

Georgina Villarreal

I can remember them right now because I just wrote these down in the last month. But after coaching so many clients, I realize that there's seven habits that you really need to live strong mentally, physically, emotionally. The first one started for me and a lot of my clients with growth mindset. Having that vision and clarity on what you want, knowing that the path is not linear, your weight, your goals, your progress will go up and down, but believing that you're going to succeed and you will.

So the growth mindset was habit number one. Number two was eat smart. So learning what superfoods work with your body type. There is a gut intelligence test that I give all my clients Now. I didn't use to do this, but I do this now. And so that stool test that comes back and all the nurses can do a soul test so they get a stool test, they send it to the lab.

And the report is a very thorough report and it comes back with the food that your body best absorbs with and foods that your body might do have sensitivities to, or allergies too. And now we can start eating smart because now if we are allergic or have sensitivities to gluten and we don't know about and we're eating gluten every morning, guess what?

We're causing gut inflammation. So really focusing on the gut microbiome is something that I've changed and has helped my clients drastically and including myself, because a lot of us have gut inflammation and bloating. And then the third habit was meal planning. Meal planning is such a game changer. If you don't want to cook every single day, you don't have to.

One of the things that I've helped my travel nurses do that's changed their lives is getting an automated meal prep service delivered and having it just every two weeks. It's getting delivered. So some of my nurses get food deliveries once a week or once every other week and they don't cook any of their lunches ever. Lunch is handled by the meal prep company.

There's local meal prep companies and there's national meal prep companies. And so that's something that's helped so, so much. And then the fourth habit is obviously moving more. Anything, you don't have to be a gym rat. You can do stretching and mobility, you can do functional patterns, you can do.

Cara Lunsford

What's the functional pattern? Explain that. Explain what that is.

Georgina Villarreal

Functional patterns is not using weights and using your body, moving our arms and moving our legs. And almost like the lunges, you know, we're using your own body weights to strengthen yourself. And so have you ever seen those guys with weights and they're kind of at the beach and they're like holding this weight and they're moving in this like crazy way.

There's like, how do they. Well, they're so ripped. How do they do that? Like, that's functional patterns. Those people that are using weights to kind of open up their range of motion, that's cool. So there's so many different things. You just have to find what works for you. Some people like yoga, you know, some people like swimming. So moving more is the fourth habit.

And then the fifth habit that I have is supplements and minerals. So finding the different supplements and minerals that you can add to your diet, I feel like a lot of us are deficient in supplements and minerals. A lot of us could have a lot more magnesium that would help us sleep and help us with recovery. You know, different multivitamins and fish oils and d threes and even adaptogens and things to have instead of all these energy drinks.

Because I feel like so many of our nurses are just caffeinated all day long. So finding where we can give them like natural energy again, there's just so many things. I love that you said that because that's been something that I've been wanting to put out. There is all of these different habits that people can really start with now.

Cara Lunsford

And I think that that's what you know, and I want to tie it back really quickly to what you said earlier about people want to pay for something of value, right? And sometimes it's a tangible thing. Sometimes it's a book. You know, it's just like this simple guide that they feel like they can carry around with them or that they can thumb through or they can easily feel like, okay, you know what?

Today I'm going to focus on number two. This week, I'm really, really going to focus on the whole meal planning thing. That's where I'm going to put my focus, because sometimes it's hard to focus on all seven. It's tough.

Georgina Villarreal

Sometimes you have to do it step by step. So right now I'm building the MVP for the health Care Strong app, and that's actually the section that I'm on right now. We're calling it the Beginner's Guide to Health Care Strong, so that when someone on boards in the app, they don't get overwhelmed by all these tabs, right? Because there's a fitness tab, a nutrition tab, a wellness tab.

And so the Beginner's Guide was actually week one. Let's start with something really simple, like what can you do to get a little bit more movement in this week? What one healthy meal can you eat? Let's start small and then we work our way.

Cara Lunsford

We have to remember you probably remember this time that I went through a couple of years ago when my wife and I separated for a whole year. And at the beginning of all that I was in fight or flight. I was just, you know, barely picking up the pieces of my life, trying to keep a business running, trying to make sure I was taking care of my son, trying to keep a roof over my head, dealing with a pandemic, all the things.

So I had to start with. And when I say the basics, I mean the basics. I was like, did you water yourself today care? And that's how I treated. That's like how I treated myself. I was like I treated myself like a houseplant. And I was like, did you just like, give yourself some water today? Did you put food in your mouth?

Did you actually eat or did you do some form of an I'll use exercise, I'll use air quotes to say exercising, because the very first thing that I, I did was a plank that was the first form of exercise and self-care that I did for myself to pull me out of what felt like I was just in the lowest, lowest place of my life.

And so I was like, just baby steps, literally baby steps. And I did a plank and I was like, Just just hold yourself up, girl. Just that's it. That's all you got to do. Just hold yourself up. Do a little child's pose after that, you know, a little place of receiving and letting go, letting go and receiving. And that was it.

And I think I did that for a solid few weeks, and that was it. That was all I had in me to do.

Georgina Villarreal

Yeah.

Cara Lunsford

But then I ordered from Home Chef, and that was like the next thing I did, I was like, All right, we got to go beyond just a little bit of food and water and a plank every day. Let's move it up a notch. Let's move the needle. And so I did. And I ordered from home Chef, because, you know, I'm a terrible cook, so I needed somebody to send me the food to cook and a recipe.

Georgina Villarreal

And.

Cara Lunsford

But that worked out. But I think, like, what you're saying is that, you know, you start out with just sometimes one thing, the one thing like, what's that one little thing you could do this week, today.

Georgina Villarreal

And you may me when you said plank So right now I'm doing the plank challenge on Instagram and it's you have to do one minute of a plank for 30 days straight but you just gave me so much meaning behind it. You can plank away your pain. People do fitness for different reasons. Some people punish themselves for what they eat and they feel they have to work out.

Some people are trying to get themselves out of a funk, so they work out for me. I need it to feel sane. I workout to let out all my energy and all my stress and just feel sane. Some people need me to work out. Some people despise working out, but there's meaning. I feel like behind every and everyone's attention and meaning is different.

And so that would be so cool. With the next plank challenge is to talk about and share like what you're moving through. Right? Because of fitness and a workout can mean so many things and you hear it all the time. Like fitness changed my life and it's like, that's the stories that I love. Like I behind. Why is it because it gave you structure?

Is it because it gave you a purpose? Is it because it helped you with a mental or physical transformation or it helped move you through a really painful, hard time in your life?

Cara Lunsford

I think for me, like with planks, if you think metaphorically about it, I'm holding myself up. I am the only one, meaning I don't need anybody else. I just need me in my own strength. Something to push against. I interviewed for me not too long ago who said, you know, the reason he works out and the reason he does like weight training is that for like once a week, he needs to push against something that's pushing back at him.

And I thought, what a profound statement. Yeah. And the strength mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually that comes with that and how a plank, you know, Is that right? You're pushing against gravity. You're grounded.

Georgina Villarreal

There's symbolism there.

Cara Lunsford

You can do it anywhere. Yeah. There's literally, you know, any place you go, you can do a plank.

Georgina Villarreal

And not easy. I crumble like it looks like I'm having a seizure when I'm planking sometimes. And what I love about it is if you do it consistently, you'll get better and better and better. You might start off doing a plank for 20 seconds and then, you know, at the end of my bodybuilding prep I was able to do it for minutes.

And so that's beautiful to see your progress of having that consistency.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah. And how much stronger as a person you are and you get to walk around in the world knowing that you don't really need anyone other than you. You don't need anything else or anyone else other than you. And I think that is the power of something like, you know, a plank. And maybe that's why I gravitated to it almost in a in an intuitive way.

There was no I didn't have any reasoning. There was no one telling me to do it. It's just like I have to do this because this the only way through. And so I love that you're doing the plank challenge. I didn't even know because I'm never on social, because I'm not great when it comes to the social.

Georgina Villarreal

Fact that we're.

Only on day five at a 30.

Cara Lunsford

Five. So I've only missed five days. Well, that's not too bad. You know, we you're not on day like 25. That could be.

Georgina Villarreal

Like.

Cara Lunsford

I can do the other 25 days. Perfect. I'm definitely down. I wanted to go back really quickly and tell you that if anyone's interested in the INA five K and if you in some way want to be part of this, that it is October 7th through the 14th and so people can do their five K anywhere, apparently anywhere.

Georgina Villarreal

Okay, perfect. That was another question.

Cara Lunsford

So from what I understand, it's like a virtual thing. And you, you know, you raise money for the NRA and you go and you can do your five K anywhere.

Georgina Villarreal

I will run the five K, I can.

Run.

Six miles before my knees start my meniscus starts irritating me.

Cara Lunsford

I'm not a runner. I'm not a runner. I definitely would have to walk it or bike.

Georgina Villarreal

Like it.

Cara Lunsford

Like, can you bike? You could bike a5k right?

Georgina Villarreal

Yes.

Cara Lunsford

I mean, or does it mean you have to run it or walk it?

Georgina Villarreal

I wouldn't say you can bike.

Cara Lunsford

Just goes to show you how little I know about five ks.

Georgina Villarreal

But it's not triathlons though.

Cara Lunsford

But I swam. I only did the swimming leg of the triathlon. I let everybody else do like the bike and then the run. But yeah, I mean, you got to play to your strengths.

Georgina Villarreal

Another thing, I was watching a video of Taylor. She's a founder of an app called Sweat, and it's really a movement of moms and women who use an app. It's a fitness app that has fitness and nutrition and wellbeing. Huge inspiration for health care, strong as well. But she was having.

Cara Lunsford

Huge.

Georgina Villarreal

Events. That's how she grew. The actions, having huge fitness events and thousands of women's would come almost look like concerts that she would be having. But they were fitness events.

And I was like, This.

Is so cool to have fitness events like this that nurses are at and all the nurses are like doing jumping jacks and getting a workout and learning about nutrition and learning about how they can take better self care and almost like a wellbeing event, kind of like the one we did for Nurses Week where there is I.V. hydration and this is how to do, this is what a sound bath is.

You know, I didn't even know what sound bath and Reiki was until honestly last year. And breathwork I did Breathwork for the first time a year ago and I've never felt euphoria like that. I did the Wim Hof. It was for like 20 minutes, but it put me in this like, you know, like over and over again and I kid you not.

We have the ability to manipulate our state at any point, but you have to know these different modalities. You have to know about working out, you have to know about breathwork. You have to. And it takes a while to put yourself in there, especially if you have A.D.D. like me and you're thinking about what's for lunch, what you have to do later.

But you can do it. Everyone can do it. You just have to learn. And so that's why I absolutely love all of these different wellness modalities. And if I'm.

Cara Lunsford

Third year on to something.

Georgina Villarreal

Yes, I'm 30 and I barely heard about Breathwork and all of these other things. What about everyone else? You know, I take for granted the things that I do know now that I have learned in the last year and a half, because when I'm on calls with people, I forget that a lot of people don't know the first thing about picking up a weight or how to cook.

There are I see, I tell this all the time. I have ICU nurses who literally save lives that don't know how to cook eggs or make oatmeal. They are just like I never learn jorgie I burned my eggs and I burned my oatmeal every time. And it's just literally sometimes the basics that I can.

Cara Lunsford

And I really think you're on to something with the whole event because and I'm going to go back to value because sometimes you have to create that value. You have to create that community, you have to create that environment for people so that they have a jumping off place. Like sometimes they have to go and be with other people and do that so that they can take all those tools and those learnings and the modalities and all that stuff.

But they took the time to step away, which is an act of self-love and self-care right to step away from their life and immerse themselves in a different type of environment so that they can truly, like, understand and feel and appreciate. I know that that's how it was for me when I went to a salon. Have you ever heard of one?

A salon is like this beautiful, beautiful place, like up in Big Sur, and they have workshops and they feed you these meals three times a day and they're all super healthy. And there's yoga and there's meditation, and there is just all these different types of workshops You can take and learn. And they have these hot springs that look like you're in some Roman, you know, on the cliffs of Big Sur.

It's, I mean, unbelievable school. And you can go there for two days a weekend or a week if you want. And I think the reason why people go is because you don't have any cell reception. It's really kind of crap. And they only have wifi for like a little period of time where people connect to Wi-Fi and then it's off.

And so people are just disconnected and they have nothing to do except for connect with other people, learn, grow and just live in this environment, and then they can take a piece of that with them when they leave. So I just think because you are a queen when it comes to events, party planning, you know, just doing that kind of stuff that I see you and nurse dot com, you know, being able to create something like a really awesome retreat.

Georgina Villarreal

100%. And it's unfortunate that our culture because we know a lot of hospital nurses mostly work in hospitals. Obviously there's a lot of other places that they can work, but majority work in hospitals still there. There's no culture of wellness like that in the hospital right? I've worked at maybe 15 hospitals and we travel nursing and there was one hospital and mind you, was in Compton, which is so funny.

And California that had an actual wellness room where there was massage chairs and there was music and there was essential oils, there was headphones in there, there were affirmations on the wall. And I was like, Imagine if every hospital put a small budget aside for this room that nurses could go to on their lunch break to just step out of the chaos and the trauma that happens in the hospital.

Yeah, I think that's where we take a stand and we say that just like there's an annual conference is an annual meet ups. There's annual wellness events that nurses where nurses feel safe and where nurses.

Cara Lunsford

Maybe where they get the news, maybe doesn't get to use it. Those conferences, I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud for sure.

Georgina Villarreal

I need to get a you know, if they were able to make a curriculum of beyond say, I think we can.

Get sea for some health and.

Wellness events or seminars.

Cara Lunsford

We'll call them the Queen Bee. See is, Oh my gosh, wouldn't that be awesome? Well, I'm just really excited for everyone to learn a little bit more about what you're doing with health care Strong. I know you and I know your tenacity. I can only imagine where you're going to be in five years. I just feel like, oh, God.

I remember when back in the day.

Georgina Villarreal

You will be.

There along the way. I actually want to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me my first chance at working with the start up and believing in me, because it really takes that first person to believe in you and see your vision. And I was a very young nurse, but I had this huge vision and you gave me that only platform.

But I grew so much in that year that I was working with you in Holly Blue, and I learned so much about marketing and working with a dev team and and being a lady boss and growing a community. During the pandemic, we grew that app to almost 20,000 users. I don't know how, but nurses were needing a platform and a community, and we couldn't have done that without our fearless leader, which is you.

So I do.

Georgina Villarreal

Feel like, is that me?

Cara Lunsford

I had seems like a blur sometimes.

Georgina Villarreal

Nurses.

Nurses. You inspired me through your story and I had only hope that my story inspired other people. And that's what it's all about. Their stories and help another nurse along the way.

Cara Lunsford

Well said my friend, while sad. Well, I love you. I am deeply grateful for your time that you spent with me and for anyone that is looking for you, where do they find you? Where did they find you?

Georgina Villarreal

You can find me at Nurse Dot Georgie or at We are health care strong, honest room.

Cara Lunsford

Perfect. Well, don't forget to follow her. Check it out. Do a plank or 25.

Georgina Villarreal

Or 30 day plank challenge.

Cara Lunsford

25 more. You have 25 more opportunities to do planks.

Georgina Villarreal

It's really fun. I've seen some nurses get their family members involved and it's hilarious. See, there are two year olds that can do the plank. It is insane. It's so it's so cute and so fun. So.

Cara Lunsford

Well, they don't have much way to hold.

Georgina Villarreal

Up because their whole life is.

Cara Lunsford

Just their full diapers. All right, love, I'm going to have everybody check you out. We're going to put links on the podcast landing page so that people can go to nurse dot com for XYZ podcast and they'll be able to check it out and find all your links and all your bio and everything about you. And until next time, my love.

Georgina Villarreal

The next time love. You think you know Starcom by.

Cara Lunsford

If you are a nurse who enjoyed this episode and you have an idea for future episodes, you can connect with me by downloading the nurse dot com app. Nurse dot is a nurse dot com original podcast series Production music Sound Editing by Dawn Lunsford, Production Coordination by Rhea Wade, Additional editing by John Wells. Thank you to all the listeners for tuning in to the Nurse Dot podcast.

Until next time, keep spreading the love and the care.