Holistic Health for Women: How to Listen to Your Body & Take Control of Your Wellness with Holistic Nutritionist Heather Hanson

Hi, friends, and welcome back to the show.

I have a great guest on Today.

We are going to talk about our health.

We're going to talk about how we can and should be advocates for our own health.

We're going to talk about asking questions such as how do I want to really feel?

What do I want out of life?

And giving ourselves permission to feel better by understanding what is going on with our bodies.

It's a great episode and I think everyone should listen to this and share it because it's so important that we are our own best health advisors.

So that's it.

I can't wait to share it with you.

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Hi.

Today on the show, I would like to welcome my guest, Heather Hansen.

And I want to welcome her to the show.

Welcome, Heather.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

So, first of all, I just want to say I'm so happy that you're joining us because it is a conversation I feel like I'm in often with friends, with family in my own life, trying to uncover, discover and understand the path forward to feel our best, you know, both inside and outside.

And so I love that you're helping people on their health journeys, their wellness journeys, and I think both your own journey through this and your background of being a nurse and then stepping in as a nutritionist.

You just have so much to offer.

So thank you for being with us today.

Well, thank you.

I'm so glad to talk with people because there's so many people out there that don't understand that they can feel better, that they really need someone to bring awareness to the Fact that they don't have to feel awful on a daily basis.

Absolutely.

Oh, I love that you're doing that work.

So can you start off a little bit by telling us about your own journey and health and then what you're up to now?

Sure, absolutely.

So, you know, it's been a long and windy journey.

I was, you know, growing up in.

As a teenager, I had an autoimmune disease that no one could actually fix or do anything about, which led to a lot of health struggles as far as headaches and fatigue and bloating and constipation and just feeling awful.

But I was one of those people that growing up, you can't be sick, so you're going to school, you're going to work, you're going to do whatever you need to do.

So it's really about ignoring all that and just pushing through and pushing forward with what you had to do in life to get through the day.

But that led me into my career as nursing because I really wanted to take care of people.

I wanted them to feel heard and taken care of, and I wanted to help them with their sickness.

And that's truly what I thought at the time that I went into nursing.

Right.

Is I was going to help all these sick people through that.

But, you know, through my early 20s and going to all these doctors, doing all these things, getting surgeries, having a hysterectomy at 25, because that was to fix my problem, and it didn't.

I got very angry with one of my doctors who I went in to have an ultrasound.

And he.

He looked at the ultrasound and he said, well, I'm going to tell you that your left ovary has a lot of cyst on it and your uterus and your right ovary look.

Okay.

I said, really?

Because are you looking at my ultrasound?

Because I don't have uterus or an ovary.

And he immediately, his face was just like, oh, my God.

He turned around, he's like, I'm sorry.

I have a lot of patience.

I'm just so super stressed.

I. I don't know.

I'm going to have to go back and look.

And I.

What is going on here?

So he said, well, the only thing I can do is put you on in your.

On, which is an immunosuppressant, because I don't know what else to do with you.

And that was not good enough for me.

So I left that appointment very, very angry.

And I thought, you know what?

I'm throwing all my medicine in the trash.

I'm going to figure out a different way.

And what I realized sitting and reflecting was I felt so much better when I did not eat because I had this eating issues.

I was a teenager where I would go a couple of days without eating, I'd feel really good, then I would go and binge and eat and eat and eat and eat and everything else, right?

So it'd be years of time in my life where I wouldn't eat, I feel really good.

Then I would go eat a cake for dinner or some cinnamon rolls for dinner and then I would feel awful for days.

And it really ebbed and flowed and I really had to sit and say, you know what, there's something to this.

I don't know what it is, but somehow food is making you feel bad with this.

And it was really driving body image issues as well because when I didn't eat, I was.

All the inflammation came down.

I would eat again and then on then I was inflamed, right?

I had all these hormone problems and just headaches and all of the things that were going with that.

So I took a couple, it took me a couple years in doing this, right?

I went on an elimination diet.

Finally, when I was finally ready, because I didn't want to hear it before, but I was finally ready and I was tired of feeling bad and I practiced and I cheated.

You know, my husband be like, this is all in your head, this is really not bothering you.

So I would try eating something again and then realize, oh, I feel awful, right?

I feel awful.

So it took two years worth of trial and error and determining.

I don't want to feel awful anymore.

And I was working in the same family practice for nine years, right?

So all my patients knew me.

I did all the things for them.

I did their exercise, did all their lab.

I knew them very well.

We took care of them like family because that's how we wanted to be taken care of.

And they're all watching my transformation and as you know, I'm.

I'm feeling better and all these things are much better.

I'm not on any medications anymore.

I started recognizing that all these 30 year old patients, 40 year old patients that would come in and like, oh, I'm just tired.

Oh, I'm just getting old, you know.

And they just thought that they were going to be resigned to living this life of feeling tired because they were 30, which is absolutely ridiculous, right?

And as I'm seeing, you know, okay, now we have people, they're fatigued and now their blood sugar is going up and now they're on cholesterol medications and now they have all of these things that are compiling upon themselves.

So I had the brilliant idea and I told the doctor that I worked with for nine years and I said, you know what?

I'm going to teach everyone how to eat and exercise.

It worked for me.

That's what I'm going to do.

And he promptly said, no one is going to listen to you.

I tell, tell people all day, every day, decrease your fat, increase your exercise.

No one listens.

And when I told him, I said, well, that means something different for every single person that hears that, right?

That you're going to get a different answer.

So I went home and I thought about it, and then I came in the next work and I, the next day at work and I said, you know what, I understand that you don't want me to do it here in this practice, but that's what I'm going to do.

I'm just going to do it somewhere else.

And he said, fine, do whatever you want.

Because he knew I was a hard worker, as a good employee, I connected with all the patients.

I was critical to that practice.

So he did, he let me do whatever I wanted.

So I brought in a 12 week cardiometabolic program to help all of our diabetics and high blood pressure.

And I knew them and people were like, oh, yeah, I'm going to do this right.

So we would, we would get kind of situated with all their visits.

They had six visits through this 12 week period of time.

And they were getting off of their diabetes medicine, they were getting off their blood pressure medicines or decreasing their cholesterol medicines.

And he looked at me and said, have no clue what you're doing, but just keep doing it.

Something's working.

So we knew we were on to something.

Talking to people about food now, talking to people about stress, that wasn't a thing.

And so what intrigued me through this whole period of time is I actually realized that my oldest son actually had celiac disease.

He was me, he, he had all these problems that no one could solve.

And then we figured out he had celiac disease through this process, which made me examine all of my people that I was seeing at this time.

And I would see, okay, this group of people got better with what we did.

These ones did not.

And it was a smaller subset of people that didn't get better.

But I wanted to know why.

So I started getting into digestion, absorption and the immune system and going into holistic care instead with nutrition and then getting board certified in holistic nutrition and really trying to understand what in the world makes the body work or not work, function or not function.

Right.

And if you feel bad, there's dysfunction within your body.

And so that led me down this long windy path and a lot of different classes, a lot of different certifications on really getting to root cause with people.

Because I want people to know they don't have to feel bad, right.

I used to have the conversations in nursing where someone would come in and oh, you have lupus.

Well, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do.

You're going to be on these medications when they stop working, we're going to give you other medications.

I'm so sorry.

Now here we are 20 something years later and I watch people reverse autoimmunity by really getting to root cause, which is complicated.

There's a lot of work in it, right?

It is not easy when people come to see me.

They have a lot going on and there is a process that we have to go through in doing it, in restoring function.

And so it's down this long and windy road.

And the biggest things that I have taken away from that is, you know, people would tell me I couldn't do something or I wouldn't do something or people weren't going to listen to me.

And I was dead set that I was going to prove them wrong, that it would work through that.

And so I had, I had started my own little hobby practice, but I still had a full time job as well in a medical practice.

And I kept that, right?

And I kept hitting roadblocks with different employers or trying to do this or merging me with someone else and kept hitting all these roadblocks with that.

But what I finally realized, all the roadblocks were there for me to get to where I really needed to be, which is in my solo practice taking care of people the way that they needed to be taken care of.

And it was hard to step back from the traditional medical realm just a little bit, or having that comfort there, because there are times when you absolutely need traditional medicine.

So I'm not bashing traditional medicine at all, but it needs to be a blend on, let's get to the root of things and then use traditional medicine when we have to.

So when I went to leave my last practice that I had with a whole staff and everything, I sat down and I said, you Know what?

I'm not going to have all this stuff anymore.

I'm not going to have all the IV infusions, I'm not going to have these.

I'm not going to have the prescription medicines.

What do people really need?

And when I sat and thought about it, I said, the first thing people need is a connection.

They need a connection with that person that's going to be able to help them, that really understands what they're going through and.

And meets them where they're at.

So they need that connection, and then they need hope that they're going to get better.

If you don't have hope that you're going to get better, you don't think you're going to get better, you will not get better.

But if you believe you will, you will.

You may not know how, but there's going to be a way to get there, right?

Bringing that clarity around that.

And then people need a plan.

They need to know, okay, what's the plan?

The plan may change, but, you know, where are we starting and where are we trying to go with that?

So I can definitely tell you that being in almost 50, I'm almost 50.

I can't believe I'm saying I'm almost 50, but I feel so good.

Like, I feel like I am in the prime of my life right now.

But had I not been so stubborn in saying, I am going to find a different way, when my doctors would say, there's nothing we can do for you, I'm like, no, I don't believe that.

I think there is something and I want to know how to fix this.

But I had to have that desire to say, I'm going to find a solution.

I don't know what that solution is going to be, but it's out there, and I'm going to find someone that, that can help me get that.

Oh, my gosh, I. I love that you shared, you know, that journey through finding out what all was going on with you and how you could learn to work on, you know, what your body was doing and telling you to feel so much better.

And you're so right.

I think so many people are not feeling well.

And one of my girlfriends who some years ago was having health issues, and so she kind of, you know, she changed her nutrition, did lots of things, sees different doctors.

She said, when you feel bad enough, you'll do whatever it takes to change.

Now, not everybody's that way, but that's what she was talking saying to me in a personal conversation.

And I love the quote it's an old quote, but it's by Herophilus.

Phyllis.

I probably said that wrong, but it's.

When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.

Right?

Everything sits on the crux of health or wellness and feeling good.

Because otherwise, how can we show up in our life and truly live right?

Fully live, you know?

And so I love that you're able to help people in this way.

And I think you said a couple of things.

One is, I think in our culture or society, we were raised to think we didn't have to really do much about our health.

Because when you're very young, a lot of people feel, okay, right?

And then we're taught, oh, well, if you need something done differently with your body, you go to the doctor, right?

So that's how a lot of us back at some time were raised.

And so we just think, oh, well, we'll just go to the doctor.

And they know.

But as you can tell us, most doctors are not trained.

More are now because they're doing additional certifications, but they're not trained in nutrition, they're not trained in holistic medicine or holistic nutrition.

And so there's always going to be a disconnect if you're going to your doctor to seek help for your body that might need something different.

So what would be the first thing you just tell people about?

How do we start changing our mindset around that it's our body and that we need to be advocates for that.

So, you know, this is interesting, right?

Because if you would have asked me this a couple years ago, I might have had a different answer with that.

So when.

When people.

People really need to sit and resonate on how they actually feel, like, where is their life at, right?

And really thinking forward of where they want to be.

Like, where.

Where do they want to be in six months or a year?

How do they want to feel?

Who are they going to be with?

Like.

Like envisioning who they can be.

But a lot of people get lost in the fog, right?

They have no idea.

Like, no one's been able to help them.

They feel a little bit lost.

They hit walls and doors and they just.

They're more in this closed sense of guarding themselves versus opening themselves up into really that thought and belief pattern.

So it really has to be a. I don't think I should feel this way.

I want to feel this.

I want to feel like when I wake up in the morning, I have energy, I can go to the Gym, I can hang out with my family.

I can do my work without struggling.

I don't have brain problems.

Like, you need to really think about how you want to feel, right?

And then say, okay, well, where are you?

Are you there?

You know, what, what is, what is going on, right?

What are the things that people are really struggling with?

And the other thing to do is, you know, when you, you go into the doctor, you know, I feel so bad for the medical community too, right?

Going to the doctor, they have eight minutes and you get one problem in that eight minutes does not matter that you have 45 problems.

You're going to talk about that one thing for eight minutes.

And they don't have any time.

They.

I really feel that the people, doctors, when they went to medical school, school, this is not what they intended to do with their career.

And they're in this management of sick care.

They only know how to manage sick things because that's what they're told to do is manage these sick things.

And thinking outside the box, right?

When you think outside of the box and thinking, well, oh, well, every body system is connected one to another, right?

So, you know, some people have a really, a good doctor that's really wants to know more, but they still have this little, little bit of time with them.

So they cram so much and the person still doesn't know the plan, right?

So I think, you know, one of the, the biggest things people need to know when they go to the doctor is, you know, they need to have a heart to heart.

It's like, hey, I am, I'm 30 years old and I, I feel exhausted all the time, right?

I'm not enjoying my life.

What are the things that I can do there?

And if they say, oh, your lab looks good, it's like, did you dig deep enough?

Did you dig deep enough?

You know that basic lab that's drawn, it doesn't tell us a lot about our bodies, right?

They're not digging deep enough and the doctors may not have time.

So it's really about seeking someone out that really does have the experience, right?

That knows, okay, we understand this isn't going right with your body.

And it has to be a customized plan too.

Every person is very different, right?

So one person has a plan in my practice, someone else may have a different version of that plan.

Just being there.

So just knowing how you want to feel and then we got to figure out how we're going to get that person to feeling that way.

So just bringing awareness to how you want to feel and Then how you feel currently?

Yeah.

Well, so for people that maybe have never used anybody in alternative or holistic or whole type care or nutrition, where would someone even start?

Right?

Because I think some people, I know lots of people that have, are doing lots of alternative, alternative therapies or working with other practitioners.

And I know other people that don't have any idea where they'd even start.

So my guess, first question is where do people start if they feel like, okay, my doctor's trying to help, but I can tell maybe I need something beyond that.

I am a big proponent of science, so I always feel there has to be a big science background on where anyone else is seeing.

So people can start looking for practitioners that really understand and that are board certified and things like holistic nutrition can find people through the national association of Nutrition Professionals.

They have a whole directory of people.

The Institute of Functional Medicine has a whole directory of doctors that have taken their certification course.

And so I think those are good because those are both science grounded programs.

Right.

Where you're not just picking someone off of Facebook or Instagram.

Right.

Because it's really hard to know do you really know what you're talking about or are you really good at marketing your practice?

So you have to do that.

So looking at those really good sources.

Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.

And what about, I know one of the things that you're more recently doing is you're helping people.

Of course you're helping them with their nutrition and how, how they're, what's going on with their bodies so that they can have a plan to feel better.

But I know you were saying about there was that one group that you worked with and now you worked with so many more people that a lot of it, there's the component of mindset in the belief.

So what might you just share with us about that that might help us all in our own health journeys or in our lives in general?

Really?

Absolutely.

So our mind can get in our way of everything and it will if, if we allow it to get, get in the way.

So you know, recently, because some struggles that I was still dealing with some old limiting beliefs that I had some old trauma stuff that I never fully dealt with because just pull your big girl pants up and move on, right?

Someday all those things have to be unpacked.

So with, you know, thinking about mindset is we are either going to stay in a powerful, happy, joyful, curious, celebrating state or we're going to be in a primal state.

Right?

There's only two Two states of being there.

So if you're in the primal state, you're upset, irritable, angry, and just frustrated with the day, right?

And you're going to be in one state or the other and you'll go in and out.

The goal is to stay in more of the powers powerful state more often than that primal state.

So some of the philosophy and methodology that I'm studying now is really thinking about bringing awareness to that, right?

Well, where am I spending all my time?

Like how am I feeling during the day?

Or what, what are, what am I doing?

Right?

And when you're identifying, you know, I'm stuck in this book, the state, I'm irritated, nothing's going right.

I don't have enough time.

You know, all of those things that when you start thinking about that, right?

There's a belief around it, right?

Somewhere.

That belief that is probably ingrained in you, that's a core belief that you grew up, someone told you something that wasn't quite true, you believe something and then you have a feeling, thought about it, like, I'm not good enough, I don't have enough time.

And then you create all of these feelings around it, right?

And it gets wired into the brain.

So I always tell people, okay, if you're feeling that way, you're feeling stressed, I don't have enough time.

When you're feeling that way, that thought that you're having at that moment is not true.

That's really not true.

It may be ingrained in your brain, it may have been wrapped around, may have some neuroplasticity around it, but it's not true if it makes you feel that way, right?

And so I always tell people to try to find some form of the opposite of that thought.

So let's just say I don't have enough time to get well.

Okay, well how does that make you feel?

If it makes you feel irritated, upset, that's not a good feeling.

So let's just think about it.

We're not creating or making up anything or thinking, okay?

If the true thought is.

If we have that thought, we have that feeling and it's not true in some form, what could be true?

And then, you know, for.

Just to make it easy, I do have enough time.

And then you need to go find evidence through your life or where you thought you didn't have enough time and you actually had enough time, you have plenty of time, right?

You have plenty of time.

And just that whole transition and thought processing and realizing that you actually had enough time, it changes your state Right.

You're like, thought I didn't have enough time to do my work, but I really do, right?

I can get it all done.

I have enough time to take care of my health.

Right, you take care of your health, you're going to have plenty of time to do other things.

So it's really just about realizing if you have a belief that does not make you feel good, that's creating these thoughts, and those thoughts are creating these emotions, some form of the opposite is true and it's really identifying it, right?

So it's taking a little pause and going, okay, why am I feeling this way right now?

Right?

And you may not have time to work through that whole thought process right then and there, but bringing awareness and going, okay, I'm just going to do this right now and I'm going to come back to this later and really work through that thought process.

Yeah, I, I agree with you wholeheartedly there.

And I think if we recognize that we're in that state a lot, right, of something that feels anxious or overwhelming or frustrating, like you said, are there moments.

So while we need to recognize what's going on there and what are we, what's being, what are we telling ourselves, I think we also have to recognize when are there moments that we feel, like you said, really good in the other state, right.

Calm, joy, all those things peaceful.

And what, what is that?

In other words?

I think if we don't pay enough attention to our bodies to even say, sometimes I feel really great.

Like in the moment I'm calm, I'm taking my time through something that feels so different than this other, you know, like you said, when I'm in this other place, more negative, right?

Primal energy.

What.

How do I want to feel?

Like you said, sometimes I don't even think some people recognize that they ever feel not stressed, frazzled, and maybe some people don't.

But so I think if you start to feel sometimes in the good, that better state, you realize, wait a minute, I want more of that.

Right?

So I think if you can recognize both, you start realizing, if I can be like this sometimes, why couldn't that be more, right?

So that we can start doing the work tip, like you said, replace some of those, the times or how much time we're in that I guess, you know, like you call it primal state.

Absolutely.

And you know, I think, you know, people are so busy these days, right?

They always think they have to be busy from the time that they wake up.

The time, been there, done that.

You know, I used to work 16 hour days.

Not because someone told me I had to, because I was trying to prove something to me, right?

So I was putting all this pressure on myself to do it, but I had very little body awareness of what I really needed to do, right?

What a normal, calm life is.

And I had to be told many, many times by people that would witness what I was doing.

If I was at the gym and I was on my phone, I had a man come up to me and say, hey, put your phone down.

And I'd seen him so many times there, he's older than I was, he was a CEO of a major corporation.

And he goes, I know you're on a work call.

And I was like, maybe 6 o' clock in the morning, if it's an emergency and someone's dying, they will call you.

If they're not calling you, put your phone down.

And what he had to remind me of, he said, I'm in this, this group of 40 CEOs.

What we do right now is we are practicing being, being a human being instead of a human doing, right?

And what they have done is they do not open their computers until 9am they get up in the morning, they do their workout, they do their journaling, they do whatever they're going to do.

And at 7pm they close their computers, they're done, they're walking away from their office.

And he said, each and every one of us actually watched our revenue go up by doing this, right?

And so it bringing in the practice and it takes work.

You have to remind yourself, I'm not supposed to be doing something all the time.

I can sit, right?

Sometimes it's very uncomfortable to sit with yourself and do nothing because then you have to think about all those thoughts, right?

All those limiting beliefs.

We've been with that.

And so I really do think it's, we've gotten into this culture of human doing instead of human being.

And we really need to be okay with allowing all of us, right?

Not to be lazy, but just to be.

I don't have to do that right now.

And then you bring a lot of awareness about, oh well, how did that feel?

How did that feel to do nothing at that moment?

And another layer on top of that is bringing gratitude into the day, right?

Of, gosh, there's so many things that we should be grateful for, but we forget about.

And when we bring in that gratitude into the day, where it might be just a couple things that you say in the morning, hey, I'm grateful that it's sunshiny today, right?

I'm grateful for my husband.

I'm grateful for my grandchildren.

I'm grateful to be able to have this person in my life.

I'm grateful to work for myself.

Right.

Those are all amazing things.

But that sets up the day of going.

I just set off on a positive note because things are going well for me.

The universe is truly working for me right now.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And so I love that you brought up that example, because so many people that I've talked to, they, you know, of course they have some sort of morning, you know, practice, but they also set really clear boundaries.

And not the.

They always did, but they've learned that that's how we.

And it's not balance.

Right.

I know they say you can't really.

Have work, life balance.

It's setting boundaries around what you need or what's going to be good for you.

And so that's the whole, like, getting stuff done in the morning and not feeling like every second you have to be beholden to your email or a text message or whatever it is.

And so I'm glad that you brought up that example, because that was a really good one.

But what else can you tell us about that?

We aren't really listening to what our bodies need or our minds just to kind of have that quiet, that shutdown time.

So would you add anything else to that?

Just about what you're seeing with people that we're not paying attention to our bodies, whether it's how much we're eating or whether we're just.

We eat and we know it doesn't feel good after we eat the food, but we still do it.

So what can you tell us about that?

Okay.

Absolutely.

So that goes back to people not really knowing they can feel good.

Right.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've gone out to dinner with friends and they're looking at the menu, they're saying, oh, I'm going to order this pasta.

And I know I'm going to have heartburn later, but I'm going to eat it.

I'm going to eat it.

I'm going to eat it.

All right.

I'm going to stuff it in.

I'm going to feel bad.

Right.

So it's really bringing that, you know, some clarity to your day.

Well, how do I want to feel?

Right.

I want to have a lot of energy.

I really want to feel good.

What are the things that I do daily that make me feel weighed down?

Right.

Does eating that bagel for breakfast make me feel kind of icky and weighted down?

So it's really identifying through the day on pieces of.

I feel good here.

I didn't feel good when I did this.

Right.

A lot of times what I'll do, and people can find this on my website too, if they wanted to do it, is do an elimination diet for 30 days.

30 days is 30 days.

It's not forever.

And no, it's not fun.

And yes, you will cheat.

But it forces you to bring awareness to food.

Right?

You're taking the things out that are probably causing problems.

You're eating this, this type of food and you're identifying, hey, this is how I felt before and this is how I feel now.

And when I don't eat the birthday cake, what happens?

Right?

I'm really learning.

Okay?

That's how my body's reacting to that.

But why, Right?

There's a lot of whys around it, right?

Is there this function?

Is there something going on?

Do you have some microbial imbalance?

Right?

Were you super stressed?

You know, something's usually going on that's not causing your body to function well.

Right?

There's a break in the function.

Right?

And if you can't digest and absorb, I guarantee you, you will not have energy, your hormones will not be balanced.

So it's really about taking.

Take the time.

Take 30 days.

Right?

You deserve 30 days to take that time to bring some awareness.

So if I just change my food, how do I feel?

Like, what goes away?

Right.

Feeling good is very addictive.

You just have to put awareness around it.

Yeah.

And I think earlier you sort of brought up the point that you didn't say this exact word.

Maybe.

But I think in order for us to take better care or charge of our wellness, our health, we have to be curious and we have to be.

We want to.

Have to be a seeker.

Right.

In other words, we have to be somebody that's like, wow, I want to learn more about this.

I want to learn, like you said, I want to be curious about what makes me feel good, what makes me feel bad.

And so do you recommend that people keep a record or journal of how they're feeling, what they're eating, what they're doing, what tests they've done?

So in other words, if we aren't doing those things, are we then not able to really talk to somebody when we go to see somebody with information?

Right, right, right.

You know, taking.

Taking that time to bring awareness around, that I think is very important.

Right?

Because if you can go to someone and say, hey, I noticed already that when I do this, I don't feel good.

And then I notice, you know, that I feel a lot better when I'm doing those things.

And I am a huge proponent for journaling.

Even through my medical records, I have, you know, a lifestyle journal.

And you can track how.

What you're eating, how you're feeling, whether you're bloated, whether you're tired, you know, what kind of valument that you have that day.

Right.

You can track that.

People don't like to track it.

People get tracking things.

Just one more thing to do.

I'm like, it's 30 days.

Come on, 30 days.

You can do anything for 30 days, right.

It's temporary with that.

Because what you will learn about your body, just doing that is huge.

Right.

And then you'll be able to say, okay, I got 30% better.

So now we need to figure out root cause.

Right.

Of things.

Right.

And really dig down.

And, you know, there may be some advanced testing that's needed.

Right.

There may be some true mindset work that really has to be done to be able to allow the body to heal.

People have to give themselves permission to heal.

They have to give their themselves permission to spend the time on themselves.

Right.

It's okay.

But you do have to give yourself permission a lot of times.

Moms especially think they have to do everything for their kids and their family first.

But when mom falls apart, the whole family falls apart.

So you really, if you want a strong family and you want your children to grow up witnessing what those health benefits give to them.

Yeah.

If they pick up everything, kids pick up everything.

They are very aware.

I was asked by my children when they were younger, mom, do you ever eat?

Oh, they really are paying attention.

But I was shocked, Right.

I was shocked that they actually noticed I wasn't eating, which is something that I never wanted them to know.

But I wasn't eating around that.

Yeah, so, so true.

You're right.

I mean, like they say, it's not what you say, it's what you do.

So they.

People are paying attention.

Right.

Especially children.

So, yeah, that's so true.

So tell us a little bit.

Just so when you went through your own health journey, as you were learning or realizing, gosh, I can change so much more when I have the information.

Right.

About what was going on in your own body.

But what might you just share about?

Well, either yourself or.

It could be a patient example.

But what kind of.

So obviously you talked about elimination diet.

I know obviously there can be all different types of testing depending on the person's challenges.

But Is there just anything you'd tell us about that?

Like you said, you've talked about hormones and about, you know, blood work and about nutrition.

So is there just any overall information you can share with us about that on, you know, maybe what people could expect that they might step through in order to come, you know, get into their best health state?

Oh yeah, absolutely.

If they were going to do, do things.

So everything starts in the gut.

Everything starts with digestion, absorption, right.

The entire health.

So I always tell people, you know, we can go off of symptoms that you're having, but I'm a big fan of having a targeted approach if we have data to look at.

Right.

So having.

There's a lot of, there's two or three different stool studies out there now that are really good and technology wise that use a whole genome testing.

So that means if they identify the microbe, it is 100% that particular microbe.

Where the old ones weren't really good with doing that, but now there's a couple on the market that are really good about doing that.

And I'm a big fan of a test from Genova, it's called a Nutrival, it's a blood in urine test.

And what that evaluates for you is what nutrients are you actually deficient in?

Are you creating digestive enzymes effectively?

Do you have bacterial and fungal overgrowth?

Are you maybe exposed to mold?

What do your detox pathways look like?

Have you been exposed to heavy metals in the last 30 to 45 days?

And shockingly enough, myself included, when I did mine, my lead levels were very, very high at that point.

So looking at what, you know, looking at a clear picture, okay, this is what's happening right now and then defining a clear path on how to restore the function of the body, right?

And that's going to be a lot of things.

Food number one, right?

You can't eat a crappy diet.

You can't out supplement a crappy diet.

If you can't eat good whole food, you might as well not even worry about supplements at that point.

But when you're using supplements to really target and heal and restore a process, right?

And you use them temporarily and you're using the right things in the right way, you can really get a lot of healing that happens.

As I'm testing food supplements and then working on the mindset and making sure that are you moving?

Are you getting out and, and walking?

Are you out in nature?

Are you bringing gratitude into your day?

Are you sleeping?

Right.

All of those things are important.

If you don't if you don't address them all simultaneously, you really miss some big pieces of the puzzle.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That was a good overview, like you said.

And I think one of the things, and you sort of alluded to this at the beginning is, you know, while some people may be able to work with their doctor and different doctors.

Right.

Have different focuses, I mean, I've seen more doctors recently, although it's still less, have now functional medicine component.

Right.

In certification.

And they might be an md, but that's obviously not most of the doctors.

So some of the tests you were talking about, often they may not be standard ones that doctors are prescribing.

Correct.

So you normally have to work with a functional medicine or a holistic medicine or a practitioner, is that right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So if you have severe fatigue and your doctor does a CBC and they do a comprehensive metabolic piano and they do your TSH and they tell you nothing's wrong with you all, everything looks good, nothing's wrong, and you still don't feel good, something is wrong.

Right.

Do just be an advocate for yourself.

Right.

If you don't feel right, if you know intuitively something is going on and you could feel better, there is something going on and it needs to be it, you need to dive into a different way.

I mean, I have doctors that I don't know personally, but I work with.

I work with their patients, and they're very receptive to having drawing lab work.

You know, for instance, I had one woman who actually had a call right before this.

I know her mom, and her mom is a nurse, and I know all the autoimmune stuff that her mom has and all of her mom's history, I know it all, and I know how her daughter was feeling.

So I sent her with a whole list of blood work to her doc, to her doctor.

She was seeing him new, and she picked him because he had a membership model with more of an integrative approach.

Now, I'm going to use that term lightly because integrative means a lot of things.

Right.

But things that just meant he liked to spend more time with his patients, basically.

Right.

Because he was stepping outside the insurance model a bit and he wanted time with his patients, which is good.

That was a good first step.

So if you're finding someone like that, even though they may be in the traditional realm, that's probably a good step step as well.

Right.

Without having to dive into functional medicine, because that can be really, really expensive.

So if we can do a blend of both is really good.

And he reluctantly did all the blood and guess what?

She had three autoimmune problems.

She had Hashimoto's, she had rheumatoid arthritis.

And then she is starting with lupus numbers, right.

Which were trending high.

And then all the other things like the iron and everything.

And when he saw those, he's like, oh, you know, I didn't really want to draw all these, but I'm glad I did.

Right.

And he was able to see that eye opening thing.

So some doctors are really willing to work with someone else.

Right.

You know, for instance, me being in the medical field, some of them, you know, they might be reluctant at first, but then they're a little bit more open.

So I think just exposure, exploring a.

Little bit and I'm guessing I finding someone that is willing to work with you, you know what I mean?

So if you find that they're not, it may be over time you can find someone else to be part of your team.

Right.

Like, so I have two questions for you.

The first is so.

So anybody that's struggling with autoimmune, which there's lots of autoimmune diagnosis, which as we know, that means that they don't know the cause.

Right.

That that's sort of how they define those.

What might you just share with people from just giving them hope, perspective and what you found, you know, people are able to do when they.

And I get.

There's lots of different ones.

So they're.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, even for me, I had autoimmune thyroiditis that would fluctuate from hyperthyroid to hypothyroid.

I had that.

And when I went back and looked at pictures from when I was a teenager, I had the biggest thyroid goiter that you can.

It was huge.

I couldn't believe my doctors didn't do anything about it because they didn't know what to do.

Right.

But I, you know, I was able to, because I said, I need a solution, I want to feel better.

I was able to create a plan that worked for me to be able to resolve that.

Right.

So you have to know that there's a way to feel better, but then it has to be identified.

Right.

And it can be a little bit complicated, Right.

Because you have to think about your environment.

I've had plenty of people living in mold and when they are in mold, they are sick.

Right.

Mold drives the immune system crazy.

And if you have DNA for autoimmunity, mold can allow that to trigger, to turn on.

Right.

So you have.

Right.

Then we have Covid Right.

That created a mess for a lot of people with turning on some autoimmunity because their mast cells got all upset and they don't know how to turn off.

Right.

They don't know how to calm down.

So when you're looking at, I have autoimmunity, you really need to think some things, you know, first things first, Clean up your diet.

Make sure you're identifying stressors.

Make sure you're sleeping, make sure you're hydrating, make sure you're moving.

Like, make sure you're doing all those things.

And then you may have to look into your environment and uncover, is there any water damage in my house?

Is there any mold that's there?

Did I grow up in those?

Right.

Some people grow mold in their intestines because it's nice, warm, and it's nice and warm right in there and it's dark.

That's where fungus loves to grow.

Right?

And if, when you're stressed, you don't create enough stomach acid, so that will happen.

So identifying all of the environment, right?

When I have someone who has done nothing, right, they're eating McDonald's, they come in great diet, usually cleans it up when someone's like, I've tried everything.

I've tried everything.

I tried this supplement, I tried this diet.

I went on ip, you know, and get better.

There's usually, usually something environmental that's going on.

A lot of people with rheumatoid arthritis actually have Lyme and they don't know it.

They've had it for years.

Lyme can travel in utero from mom to baby.

So if mom has Lyme, mom can actually transfer Lyme to baby.

And I have, I have people that are in that situation right now.

So there's a lot of hope.

And there's a lot of books out there right now.

There's a lot more people.

You know, when I did this, this is not popular.

It was not popular to do this.

Like, people are like, oh, you can't do that.

There's not.

There's no way.

But I did it without doubt.

But it took me saying, I'm not okay feeling this way.

I need a partner to help me figure out what is wrong so that I can live the life that I want to live.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I'm going to ask you a different question a second.

But on the note of autoimmune and what, what did you find with very specifically, like celiac, were you able in some cases to really help the person so that wheat wasn't the trigger or it's just that they had to keep it out because of what you know, that it's, it's causing it, obviously.

So interesting enough, celiac disease is one of those ones that can cause the most damage, right?

And it causes damage now.

So when someone has celiac disease genes and even people that don't, there's actually celiac disease that is not genetic tells you how much the environment's change, right?

So with, with someone that has celiac disease genes and they eat wheat, what happens is there's gliadin that's in wheat, right?

That gliadin, which is a wheat protein, that's not gluten.

That gliadin causes a lot of zonulin to be secreted in the intestines.

And so what happens is when you have this one cell thick gut barrier lining, right, it's almost that we were designed in a flaw, one cell thick for our small intestine.

And the window to our immune system into our bloodstream is one cell.

So if you eat gliadin, liadin triggers zonulin, zonulin breaks the glue, right?

So it basically damages the intestinal lining.

So it's over time.

What happens is gliadin, zonulin, zonulin damages the lining, gluten gets into the bloodstream, and the immune system goes, ooh, high alert, high alert, high alert.

And just the nature of celiac disease, the immune system will attack the villi indirectly, right?

So it's not that directly the gluten is harming, it's indirectly by the immune system reacting to it, right?

And then when you have that and you have your villi that are not able to absorb the nutrients anymore, then you have a whole slew of other problems.

So oftentimes, celiac disease is not even tested.

Genetics are not tested until it's way down the line, right?

You have other things going on.

Because in the case with my son, his bowel habits were the last thing, right?

It was his, his skin, his hives, his anxiety that he had that I didn't even know it.

He had rashes all over his body.

He felt fatigued.

He would get dressed in the dark because the light hurt his eyes.

And then the other stuff came on, right?

So, you know, it's very different.

But with autoimmunity, there has to be a process that you work on, digestion and absorption and healing and repair of the small intestine, because that is the window to the immune system.

That's how food particles get into the bloodstream.

Like with hashimoto's there's quite a bit of science showing that gluten protein and casein from dairy look similar to thyroid tissue.

Right.

And that's when the breakdown starts to happen and then those antibodies are released into the bloodstream and then we can measure it.

That can happen years and years and years before thyroid function is actually changed with that.

So it's a whole process, a whole body process.

But I would tell you, with any of my clients with autoimmunity, there is always a gut healing process.

Always.

So probably the last question is.

So you brought this up and I have a book, I can't remember the name of it, you probably know it, but it's a husband and wife team, but they started a clinic and they have a process, right.

For I think it's reversing heart disease.

But the crux of that is very similar to what you're talking about, right?

It's of course nutrition.

But it's also it talks about that you have to have good healthy relationships or connections.

And then it might talk about getting outside or exercise movement.

But I guess my point of saying that is there.

I mean, they actually have studies that they have it paid through insurance, meaning that it's that far researched and documented.

Right.

But what would you just tell us about that other piece?

You know, you brought up exercise and you brought in nature, but the connection to other people.

In other words, we're not going to be our healthiest if we are staying at home by ourselves.

We're lonely and we're thinking, I'm just going to address this.

But we're not actually having meaningful connections.

Absolutely.

I mean, that's a huge piece of it.

It's not a good thing.

Humans were meant to live in community.

Humans were meant to share things.

Humans were meant to help each other through problem.

Right.

But people are in fight or flight like they're like tunnel vision.

They're not seeing anything else.

They're afraid to help somebody else.

They're growing overwhelmed.

Right.

So it's really about be a human being, not a human doing connect with people.

Right?

Connect with your spouse.

Right.

How many people just live the live the day and get through the day living in the same house?

You may not be fighting, but are you actually finding joy in your life?

And that's where I always find that finding the clarity piece of how you want to feel and where you want to be, you want to Be with.

If you're very clear about who you want to be, where you want to be and who you want to be with, the universe will deliver those things to you when you're ready.

If you're shut down and not thinking about that and you're not connecting with anyone, it's really hard for the universe to deliver something when you're not willing to receive it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I, you know, I think, like they say, I mean, one, you brought this up, but, yeah, people, we have to have hope, right?

Hope for the future.

You know, that the future is going to be as good or better than now.

Right.

And we.

We just have to be open to, like you said, or we have to have a vision.

You know, what, like you said, what do we want for our lives?

What do we want for ourselves?

And because if we don't, if we're not thriving or moving towards flourishing, then we're probably stagnant, right?

Or we're.

We're like a tree that's wilting or dying.

And so I think, you know, if we think about that visual, I want to be the tree that's growing and, you know, has my seasons, but I'm going to hopefully be continuing to thrive.

Right.

If I get the things I need.

Just like the tree.

Exactly.

If you get the things you need and having the clarity of where you want to be and giving yourself permission to be there and do that, give yourself permission to think that.

Right?

If you wake up in the morning and you're like, life sucks.

Everything bad always happens to me.

Nothing ever goes right.

Your day will reflect that.

Right.

Your health of your body will reflect that.

Right.

We're energetic beings, Right.

Energy is flowing within us.

Our heart is energetic, and we need to bring energy to that.

And when we can actually sit and think that life is always working for us, no, it will not always be fun.

Yes, there will be challenges, and that's part of life.

But when we reflect back in our life and we can think, oh, wow, that major struggle that I went through, like, let's just say my autoimmunity, right?

And I had having a hysterectomy at a very young age when I wasn't done having children yet, you know, I really determined, you know, that was awful.

It's horrible.

You know, nothing good is going to happen.

But now when I look at that, I mean, that can completely reshaped my career.

And what I have brought in with that is the amount of people that I am able to help, right?

If I'm just meeting Someone where they're at and I can help them just a little bit live a better life.

I mean, that's very rewarding to me to be able to help them through that in a way.

Right.

And it's on, on their terms.

They give themselves permission, I help them, guide them through it.

But all of that is really important on doing it.

Right.

And yeah, the world, we can sit and talk about how bad the world is all the time, but we can also sit and talk about how good the world is.

Right.

And all the good things that have happened.

And the human brain can get really wired around that negativity.

Right.

And that belief that's not really true.

And now we've just created all these thoughts and now we have all the emotion and we really need to go back and do that with the good things in the day too, right?

The good things in life that are there.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I've heard so many things about that.

Like you said, just because there's things in the world that maybe aren't how we'd want.

Our job is to the way we feel good still is by doing good.

Right.

In other words, yes, we need to have positive thoughts because that does help fuel our day.

It does help our body heal.

Right.

Because they've shown what we think can impact outcomes of our body and things.

So yeah, I think it's so important to make sure we're not focusing on the spinning out of control with all the bad or negativity in the world because we can do that and it can be easy to focus on.

And I've definitely been guilty of that, even though I'm a pretty positive person and I've had to catch myself after a while realizing, wow, I'm reading these news articles or these things that are making me feel a certain way.

And so I had to limit how.

Much I did it or I had.

To read it without feeling how I was feeling.

Like, okay, I'm just getting informed and then I'm getting off.

Right.

And then I'm not going to take it into my day.

So.

Absolutely, you're right.

And we can change it or we can be aware that it's happening and then try to shift out of that.

So I think that's really important.

Absolutely.

The awareness.

And it's amazing how if you just take a little bit of time, the awareness happens, right.

And it builds and then it becomes a really natural part of what your body does.

Right.

Just like shifting it from a primal to a powerful state or you know, stress to non stressed state, like you can allow your body, if you get into a just a breathing pattern.

Right.

When you're in that stress state, autonomic nervous system will take over for you once it's in the habit of doing it.

So you can be in that stress state, but your body can be completely calm.

Right.

And then you get through it.

Right.

Get through the stressful situation, but your body was able to remain calm.

And that helps your body heal, too.

Right.

If it always thinks it's in fight or flight, but always thinks it's out running a lion or a tiger, nothing will be balanced with it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, Heather, thank you so much for being with us today.

Can you share with everyone, how can people learn more about how you're working with people and find you online?

Oh, absolutely.

So I have a new website that's coming out.

I still have the old one, but it's@flourishnutritionaltherapy.com and so there's some information there.

If you join the mailing list, then you'll get all of my emails and freebies that I send out with different types of nutrition plans there.

And then at Instagram, it's just flourishnutritionaltherapy.

Wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for coming on today, sharing your journey in health and wellness and also sharing all those really great tips and tactics and just mindset of how we can step into, you know, living our best, fullest lives from a place of health and wellness and from a place of possibility.

So thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

I enjoy being here and I hope I help some people.

Thank you so much.

Okay, as I wrap up today's episode, I just want to encourage you to take control of your own health journey.

And there are people out there that want to help us discover what's going on with us, how we can literally have, you know, the best health, how we can feel our best by really optimizing what we're doing and what makes us feel better and what things are making us feel worse or maybe we need to work on.

So I hope this episode will encourage you to really take control of your health so that you can feel better and you can do all the things that you've been wanting to do in your life so you can connect with the people you love so that you can find more joy, more happiness, and just feel better and have the energy you want to have.

So I encourage you and I would love to hear from you if this episode helped you or if it allowed you to start going in another direction with your health and kind of your Health journey.

I also wanted to let you know, if you aren't already subscribed to my newsletter, head over to KristinFitch.com and you can grab one of my free downloads.

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Until next time, have a great week.