July 3, 2025 • 41 mins
Join me and my guest Amanda Hinman, who shares her holistic approach to helping women overcome hormone imbalances and reclaim their vitality through functional medicine, emotional intelligence, and nervous system support. In this episode, we discuss
• The connection between gut health, hormones, stress, and emotional intelligence
• How to identify the signals your body sends through symptoms
• Why you need to look beneath the surface of health issues to find root causes
• How you can avoid the "why bother syndrome" that prevents sustainable health changes
• The value in having a personalized approach based on your unique body's needs
• How to eat for hormonal balance rather than restrictive dieting
• Why a shift from a to-do list approach to an identity-based health transformation is vital to your health
• How to use the "alter ego" technique to embody your healthiest self
• How you can integrate emotional intelligence practices to support physical healing
• Why it's important to build proactive habits that increase your capacity to handle life's challenges
Amanda's links:
Join me and my guest Amanda Hinman, who shares her holistic approach to helping women overcome hormone imbalances and reclaim their vitality through functional medicine, emotional intelligence, and nervous system support. In this episode, we discuss
• The connection between gut health, hormones, stress, and emotional intelligence
• How to identify the signals your body sends through symptoms
• Why you need to look beneath the surface of health issues to find root causes
• How you can avoid the "why bother syndrome" that prevents sustainable health changes
• The value in having a personalized approach based on your unique body's needs
• How to eat for hormonal balance rather than restrictive dieting
• Why a shift from a to-do list approach to an identity-based health transformation is vital to your health
• How to use the "alter ego" technique to embody your healthiest self
• How you can integrate emotional intelligence practices to support physical healing
• Why it's important to build proactive habits that increase your capacity to handle life's challenges
Amanda's links:
Website: https://hinmanholistic.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hinmanamanda/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hinmanholistic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC24Q7hA6puPjBSyB9TtzOew
Free Assessment: https://hinman-holistic.squarespace.com/hormone-health-kit
Want to learn how to build your EQ? Let's meet to see if working together is good fit.
* Calendar: https://calendly.com/jami-carlacio/virtual-coffee
* Email: jami@jamicarlacio.com (mailto:%20jami@jamicarlacio.com)
* Find out more about my coaching services: https://jamicarlacio.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jami-carlacio/
* FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/jamicarlacioEQ
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamicarlacio1/
* YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/jamicarlacio1
* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jcarlacio
* Substack: https://substack.com/@eqmaven
* I'd appreciate your support the show by buying me a cup of coffee: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2167520/supporters/new
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I always like to invite people to like give your
alter ego like that next versionof you.
If you, if you, were to thinkof somebody who has like improve
their health to the best thatyou can envision for the next 12
months, what does that looklike?
Give that person a name, analter ego name.
My alter ego name is magic MandyRight, and every morning
sitting up and asking myselflike, okay, what does magic
(00:20):
Mandy do today that shifts youinto the perspective of being
the version of you who has thathealth, and how does she
navigate the daily experience,the 24-hour zone right?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the podcast Emotional Intelligence
your greatest asset and key tosuccess.
Welcome to the podcastEmotional Intelligence your
greatest asset and key tosuccess.
I'm your host, dr JamieCarlaccio, coming to you from
the Greater New Haven,connecticut area as an emotional
intelligence or EQ coach.
I'm committed to helping peopledevelop both emotional
intelligence and mental fitness.
That is, you'll come to regardproblems as situations that help
(01:07):
you learn and grow.
Eq is a way of being and doingin the world that enables you to
develop and sustain a positiverelationship with yourself and
others, at home, at work andeverywhere in between.
Please subscribe to thispodcast and tap the like button
so more people can enjoy thebenefits of EQ.
And now here's the show.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Hello and welcome everybody to the podcast
Emotional Intelligence yourGreatest Asset and Key to
Success.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
I have a fabulous guest heretoday.
Her name is Amanda Hinman.
Hi, amanda, how are youFantastic Excited?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
to be here with you.
Thank you, I'm glad you're here, excited to be here with you,
thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I'm glad you're here, so I want to tell our guests
something, but first I just wantto thank everybody for joining
us today.
If you are new to this podcast,thank you for tuning in, and if
you are returning, then thankyou for coming back and don't
forget to like and subscribe andshare this podcast with
somebody, because Amanda has agreat message.
(02:06):
And first I want to tell you alittle bit about Amanda and then
we're going to get right intoit.
Okay, so Amanda is a functionalmedicine health coach.
She's also a bestselling authorand the founder of the Hinman
Holistic Health Institute.
She specializes in helpingsuccessful women between the
(02:27):
ages of 40 and 60 who arestruggling with hormone, mood
and gut imbalances to healnaturally and gain back three
hours of energy so they feelfantastic again.
And that is something wedefinitely need to talk about,
because I think everybody wouldlove to get three hours back
from their day.
(02:48):
And what makes yeah so whatmakes Amanda's story so powerful
, is that her path to this workbegan with a personal crisis,
and oftentimes I think crisis iswhat creates change.
So probably a good thing thatthe crisis happened, because now
you're able to do this amazingwork with everybody.
So when her eight-year-olddaughter began experiencing
(03:11):
these unexplained seizures, andconventional medicine offered
very few answers.
Amanda dove into root causehealing, and along the way she
discovered her own hormone andthyroid imbalances, and
discovered just how connectedour physical symptoms are to
stress, trauma and emotionalsuppression.
(03:31):
And so today, amanda combinesfunctional medicine, emotional
intelligence and neuroscience tohelp women reclaim their health
from the inside out.
She's the creator of the Thyroidand Hormone Solution, a proven
five-step framework that hashelped hundreds of women
overcome Hashimoto's,hypothyroidism, anxiety, weight
(03:53):
gain, fatigue, insulinresistance and more, without
relying on restrictive diets andmedication.
That in itself is a miracle,and so Amanda's work has been
featured in media outlets and onstages across the country, and
her mission is to empower womento step back into their full
vitality physically, emotionallyand energetically, and I would
(04:17):
say maybe even spiritually,because oftentimes everything is
connected, including ourspiritual well-being and to
trust that healing is not onlypossible but sustainable.
And so, when she's not coachingor speaking, she enjoys
spending time with her husbandand four children and exploring
holistic living and helpingwomen transform their health
(04:38):
stories into legacies ofstrength.
So again, welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Thank you, jamie.
Yes, you know I.
Just.
Every time you share something,it really inspires me to think
about the lives, the women'slives, and the ripple effect.
You know, I can tell from myown journey when we can step
into a place of empowerment, orat least when I can step into a
place of empowerment and changethe trajectory of not only my
(05:06):
health, my family's health.
It, it completely, radicallychanged our lives.
So that's why you know I havesuch a passion for helping
others to feel good.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And you know, I think , a lot of people.
So I was at a retreat today andone of the things we talked
about was how much stresseverybody is under.
And you know, the stress iscoming from politics, it's
coming from economic insecurity.
You know it's coming from a notso healthy lifestyle.
(05:38):
You know, oh, you're in a hurry.
Well, let's just go grab aburger, right, let's just go get
fast food.
Or let's let's skip dinneraltogether.
Or I'm too busy, I'm going tosit and eat at my desk and I'm
not even going to take a lunchbreak, or I'm not going to go
for a walk, or there's so manythings.
And then if people are stressed,they're not sleeping well.
And if they're not sleepingwell, like you know, sleep
(06:00):
hygiene is the thing you knowthat you help people with.
So all of those things areconnected.
And if we're not feeling good,we're, you know, kind of
imbalanced, for whatever reason,we're grumpy, and then so we
have, like you say, we have thisripple effect.
So the ripple effect is foreverything.
Right, if you're feeling crummy, that ripples out into how you
(06:22):
interact with people and how youfeel about yourself, and then,
likewise, if you're feeling good, how do you feel about yourself
.
And then how are youinteracting and showing up in
the world?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Definitely, and it's funny, I was actually just
working with a client yesterdayand we were talking about the
same dynamic because we all havedifferent angles.
I think that we can create ashift around.
For some of us, it'sunderstanding the physiology
what's going on hormonally?
in my body, like.
You mentioned something veryinteresting, jamie, and it's so
(06:54):
relevant, about digestion andour gut health.
We know our gut health is soimportant but yet so often I
work with women who don't evenrealize when they're eating at
their desk or skipping lunch ormultitasking as they're kind of
picking up food throughout, youknow, the afternoon.
That experience from aphysiological perspective is
(07:17):
radically different to our gut.
We don't have adequatedigestive secretions to break
down the food thoroughly.
Chances are we're kind of justchomp, chomp, chomp, swallow big
, huge clumps.
We're not really using our teethand our saliva to liquefy the
food in your mouth beforeswallowing, which is what it's
intended to be, and all of thesethings seem insignificant or
(07:41):
kind of minor, you know, hereand there, but they have really
big ramifications when they'rejust done over and over again.
Right, it affects even theimmune system, because it will
then have these huge chunks offood that it can't break down
and it's unrecognizable.
So it kind of puts the immunesystem on hypervigilant alert
and that can lead to a cascadeof autoimmune dynamics and
(08:05):
different sorts of differentthings that seemingly are
unrelated.
Go back to exactly what yousaid simple practices done
repetitively, you know, and Ithink the deeper you know this
is what I was talking about withmy client the deeper core is
really getting to the what arethose underlying, maybe even
(08:25):
unconscious beliefs that we havenot enough time?
You know, it doesn't reallymatter anyway, what I call like
why bother syndrome is somethingthat's pretty chronic for the
women I support, you know, andthere's no fault.
But it's like, yeah, maybeyou've tried to change your
health and made a little bit ofstrides but it didn't stick.
So it's like why bother?
(08:46):
It's not going to besustainable, right?
Or you've worked with afunctional practitioner and got
a list of supplements and aftera while it seemed like this is
just me popping a bunch of pillsand I'm not noticing a big
change.
So why bother?
Like I'm not saying why bother,as in you know, people are just
(09:07):
throwing up their arms, butit's more of like you've tried
some things and it hasn't beenable to be like tuned, finally
tuned into a way that createshabit, where it just happens,
where it doesn't require extraefforts and energy and your
brain.
Just it kind of like you brushyour teeth, right, you brush
your teeth every day and itdoesn't require a efforts and
energy and your brain just kindof like you brush your teeth,
right you brush your teeth everyday and it doesn't require a
(09:28):
ton of energy and effort, it'sautomatic.
That's what we get to create islike.
What can that, what can thatlook like in the nervous system,
to help you put in someroutines that don't require a
tremendous amount of effort butthat are in support of your
unique body's balance?
So I think it comes down tolike finding some customization
and some simple, repeatablestrategies that will work for
(09:52):
each individual.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Right.
So you said a lot of stuffthere and I was, I'm back.
I'm still back on gut healthbecause I know that.
You know you see commercials onTV or you see ads for women who
feel bloated and so they wantto give you a suppository or
they want to sell you somethingto help you flow, but ultimately
(10:17):
that seems like a band-aidapproach and what I'm hearing is
that there's a systems approachand partly the way to get our
system working again is a toreally look at the interlocking
variables.
And also, you know, like you say, we have to develop different
habits and so things take time.
(10:39):
But you can't sort of fix onething and expect everything else
to get fixed, becauseeverything is working.
So you could start eatingsalads, and but if you're not
exercising and you're notdrinking enough water and you're
not sleeping and you're stillfeeling stressed, or you know
emotional intelligence comesinto play here with resilience,
and you know really handlinglife in a more equanimous way.
(11:03):
You know all of those thingsplay in.
So you might be eating right,but if there's something wrong
and you have insulin resistance,or if there's something wrong
in in, say, your personal lifeor your work life, then one
thing might not be the quick fixand there is no quick fix, but
(11:24):
it sounds like you're saying itdoesn't have to be super hard
either you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
You are spot on, jamie.
It doesn't have to be overlycomplex.
In fact, I think sometimescomplexity is a disadvantage.
It's oh, it can be overwhelming, it's.
I think one of the keys ishaving a systematic approach
that can be customized to yourspecific body, the the needs of
(11:51):
your, your body and your lifenow, because what your body
needed when you were in yourthirties is going to be
different than when you're inyour forties.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Your body changes right.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Even thinking about our roles change right.
Our roles as a mom toelementary school kids is
different.
Your, your son's, going off toprom.
It's a different role thatyou're playing in his life right
now.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Jamie.
So, yes, I think the key hereis to having some type of a
almost like a curriculum, right,we think about like anytime
we're growing in education, it'svery easy to relate to like a
curriculum.
But when we think about maybeeven a career or an
entrepreneurial journey,sometimes you have like stages
of okay, I got to learnmarketing and then I've got to
(12:35):
learn sales, like you kind ofknow the key steps.
I think when we approach ourhealth it's similar.
It's like how can I know from aroot cause perspective, how can
I kind of peel back the layersand understand the signals that
my body is telling me?
Yeah, I'd like to share, youknow and I'm happy to share with
your listeners.
Yeah, I'd like to share, youknow and I'm happy to share with
(12:56):
your listeners my free hormonehealth assessment, because it
has you kind of map yoursymptoms against the top six
metabolic hormones to say like,oh, this is what is my body
trying to tell me.
What am I trying to say withoutwords right Through symptoms?
So kind of looking and gettingcurious about the signals from
your symptoms.
Then, taking a look atnourishment we all know food is
(13:17):
important.
So what nutrients specifically?
Right, rather than having kindof a general broad sense of the
paleo diet versus the keto diet,versus all these different
things.
Well, if I look at my body,what specifically does my body
need now in this season so youcan kind of be more streamlined?
Then we look at the digestionand the capacity to be able to
(13:40):
break down those nutrients soyour cells get the full benefit
of them.
And then I do a wholecomprehensive look at what I
call reset your thinking,Because, just as you talked
about Jamie, that emotionalintelligence piece really drives
the nervous system, whetherit's going to be in that fight
or flight or thatparasympathetic and roasted heel
(14:03):
.
So we look at what are the kindof underlying relationship with
stress.
Right, stress isn't necessarilya good thing or a bad thing.
It's what's your relationshipwith the circumstances?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, right, I, I was again at this retreat and I
went to a breathwork session andyou know we were all literally
talking about stress.
And then how do you respond tostress If you're always in the
fight, flight, bond, freeze modeand you're, you know, releasing
(14:35):
all of these hormones orcortico you know cortisol and
and your body's constantly likefeeling like it's there's an
onslaught of danger.
Then you can be eating well, butthe rest of the stuff is still
imbalanced.
And I like how you talked abouthow, just listening to your
body and getting curious.
(14:56):
And then I started thinkingit's kind of like when the check
, you know the check enginelight comes on in your car, it's
like you know you need to takeit in.
You're not exactly sure, butyou know that there's a signal,
is that something's not right,and so if we listen to our
bodies and we actually just paycloser attention, then maybe you
(15:20):
know you can start playingdetective on some level, right,
and kind of like you say,uncovering those root causes.
So tell me how you help womenwith hormone, hormonal imbalance
, because a lot of women,especially our age, you know,
especially in the 40 to 60 rangeand even older, all these
hormonal changes are crazymaking and how do you help
(15:44):
people with that?
With with a holistic approach.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, I'll give you a prime example.
So I'm thinking of a woman,darlene, and we were just
talking today.
So she started working with meabout two months ago and at the
place when she, when she firstconnected, she was really
struggling with sleeping throughthe night.
She would wake up early aroundshe's like between two and 3 AM
every night and have her mindjust kind of like go into the
(16:12):
day, go into like all thethoughts of what was on her
to-do list, what she needed toremember, kind of that swirling
you know fast paced, wired buttired type of sensation.
So that was insomnia.
She also had put on a couple ofextra pounds in the last 12
months, like five pounds, andshe's like I just see my body
feel less.
And she's like I just see mybody feel less, you know, less
(16:35):
light and toned.
It was just that I can see thesechanges happening and the
overall anxiety levels haveincreased.
And we know that there arecorrelations with the levels of
estrogen, especially as comparedto progesterone, that can
affect neurological emotionalstate.
So like, for example, whenwomen have changes, it makes a
(16:56):
difference.
So sometimes we were blamingourselves because we think like,
what's wrong with me?
Sometimes it really is aphysiological shift that's
having a changing effect on thebrain chemistry.
So part of it was reallyempowering for her to get some
more information and data.
So we did some testing.
We look at micronutrient testing, we looked at some hormone
(17:16):
testing and I like to use someof the functional labs where it
actually looks at like, forexample, a micronutrient urine
test can actually tell whatnutrients are making it to
yourself to have an effect, soyou can find a metabolite that
you then excrete through urine.
That's a little bit differentthan testing blood, because
blood will show what nutrientsare circulating around the blood
(17:40):
supply, which can be useful forsure.
But sometimes things can becirculating in our blood but not
actually get inside the cell tohave a chemical reaction, just
like insulin resistance.
Right, the insulin can't getinto the cell or bring glucose
in.
That's what insulin resistancemeans Same thing can happen with
other hormones or with othernutrients.
So when we test with afunctional kind of looking at
(18:02):
what's actually getting intoourselves and having an effect,
now there's some usefulinformation to look at for her
to again be a little bit moretargeted.
And this, this woman, darlene,it was interesting because we
were very clear of some keyfoods and nutrients for her to
start to build into her plan toreplenish her cells capacity.
(18:24):
Right, jimmy, you talk aboutour ability to kind of come with
agency, to come with a curiousperspective or inquiry instead
of a reactive, emotional thattakes energy, that makes it
worse, yeah, well, and thattakes energy so ourselves.
our body has to be able tocreate a unit of energy, or
(18:45):
what's called atp, in order forus to even have the wherewithal
to have curiosity in certainsituations, right.
So she knew what she needed tonourish herself with and then we
kind of had a simple recipeplan for her to start to build
those in and practice that habit.
And she found that after twoweeks she was really struggling
(19:06):
because she's like I just, I,you know, I just don't feel good
about this and she kind of wentback to her old way of eating,
which was not adequatelynourishing, that she was
definitely undernourished, butthat felt safer for her and so
we had a conversation.
It was really interesting forher to tie back the deeper and
I'm like, well, tell me morewhat was going on.
And she's like, actually I hadbeen sleeping and I had a really
(19:28):
bad kink in my neck and cause Iwasn't sleeping well, and then
I started Googling what if it'sa brain tumor, Like?
again the anxiety, estrogen andprogesterone levels were really
skewed.
So she's struggling throughanxiety and she's like what I
realized is, and I'm like, well,your nervous system didn't have
the capacity at that time foryou to start to make changes to
(19:49):
your foods, because it washaving this physical pain kind
of the mental, emotional,anxiety, wandering thoughts of
like what if it's a brain tumor,what if it's something worse?
So like we get to start beforewe even really dive in on making
these nutritional changes andgiving you a full meal plan to
follow which is what a lot ofpeople do when they think of oh,
(20:11):
I want to change my health,Give me the meal plan and I'll
go do it.
Your ability to execute on thatsuccessfully depends on the
state of your nervous system andyour capacity to handle kind of
those little bumps and, youknow, curve balls in life.
Once you get the curve ball ofstiff neck and sort of Googling.
She didn't have the capacity tokind of stick with this meal
(20:33):
plan.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Does that make sense?
Yeah, and you know, I hear youtalking a lot about anxiety and
it's very easy when you don'thave enough knowledge and not
every right.
I mean you, you study this.
It's not like we're all bornknowing our, knowing our
neurobiology and knowing youknow our intestinal system and
knowing everything.
So you know our intestinalsystem and knowing everything.
(20:55):
So you know.
A lot of people understand thefight, flight, freeze, spawn,
and people understand rest anddigest.
Maybe you know the differentways in which our nervous system
is like on a teeter totter.
Right there's.
I got to be careful, there'ssome danger here and oh, I can
be calm, it's okay.
But all of that plays into thefood, the sleep, the emotional
(21:18):
intelligence.
You know how are we thinkingabout and responding to things.
If everything's a knee jerkreaction and if I'm not getting
the results, I want what's wrongand a lot of times and this is
sort of a thing for a lot ofpeople, not just women, but you
know we automatically go withwhat's wrong with me.
I must have been doingsomething wrong or I'm going
(21:41):
crazy.
Well, we might not be goingcrazy, but there are things that
are going on that are crazymaking.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes, absolutely.
So.
It's helpful to kind of havesome of.
That's why I say let's look atthe data right.
The data is these experiencesare happening physiologically in
the body.
We know these hormone levelsare in a different, shifted
place.
So what can we offer the bodyand support and then also build
in some like?
(22:10):
So for her, before we reallyfocused on the food changes, it
was like let's get theseprogesterone levels in a
balanced place to bring theanxiety down and let's also make
sure the first system we'regoing to build in is to support
the nervous system, right.
So for her it was to support.
What are we doing in terms oftaking breathing breaks a couple
of times a day?
(22:31):
How can we be listening to,even just like from a
reinforcing positive beliefs andpossibility, listening to?
She found that, like we foundtogether an audio book that's a
spiritually oriented audio book,one of one of Wayne Dyer's.
I love his.
Oh, I do too.
Change your, change yourthoughts, change your mind.
So it's like have that be thenarrative that's playing in the
(22:54):
background when you're washingthe dishes or when you're, you
know, doing some errands or inthe car.
Like these are consciouschoices that sound simple, but
yet they really go a long way toreinforce this holistic picture
of what's going to set you upfor sustainable, healthy habits.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, and so it's a choice.
It is a choice.
I was just having aconversation with someone who's
very uncomfortable and wants tochange everything, but she's in
a reactionary mode.
So she doesn't like her hair,she doesn't like her job, she
(23:31):
doesn't like her car, shedoesn't like her apartment.
Those are all external things,and I tried to remind her that
there's something going oninternally that you need to look
at, and changing your hair orgetting a different car or
getting a different job.
Those things are external towhat's really happening, and so
(23:54):
it is about really kind oflooking deeply within.
So it is about really kind oflooking deeply within and I had
mentioned earlier the spiritualcomponent, because for me, that
is a core part of who I am andit's how I start and end my day.
And I love that you brought upWayne Dyer he's one of my
favorites.
But just the idea of you know,at night, what are you doing
(24:16):
before you go to bed at night,right, what are you putting?
What are you going to bed atnight?
Right, what are you putting?
What are you going to bed with?
A?
Going to bed with a good book?
Are you going to bed with youknow doom scrolling?
Or you know TikTok videos orsomething you know.
So what do you you know?
So there's putting things intoour mind, putting things into
our body, and then it's likeinput, output, right?
(24:36):
So whatever we put in, it'sgoing to come back out.
And it's going to come out asstress and anxiety and insomnia
and poor gut health or, you know, stress related weight, right?
A lot of women, when they arestressed, the stress goes into
our stomachs and so we gainweight in our stomachs.
It's like, but wait a minute, Idon't even eat pasta.
(24:57):
Why am I getting all thisweight around my midsection?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And unfortunately, then sometimes what happens is
especially over age 40, womenwill calorie restrict back on
foods or calories, and that'swhen it's the easiest to lose
lean muscle tissue which is themost metabolically healthy.
(25:22):
So instead of especially ifyou're in that place of you know
stress and overwhelm and fightor flight state when the body's
going to hold on to what'scoming in, because it's
perceiving that there is athreat and a danger and I don't
know when my resources are goingto run out.
So I need to hold on toeverything that has a caloric
(25:43):
perspective.
So it will hold on to thatfatty adipose tissue because
that's the most caloricallydense, but it will sacrifice
your lean muscle mass tissue,which is the exact opposite of
what we want to have happen froma metabolic health longevity
standpoint.
Right?
I often tell women it'sactually, it's actually
(26:07):
important for you to eat more inorder to release the weight
you're seeking, becausemetabolically we need to retain
that lean tissue.
And again, but this is where,like education and knowledge,
coupled with some specificity ofwhat's happening in your body
now and some inspiration, canreally go a long way to help
women make that different choice, right we do talk about it is
(26:28):
choice sometimes we need alittle bit more context and
reminders to make the choicesthat are advantageous for our
goals.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, and you know sometimes, you know, we live in
kind of what I call a quick fixsociety, so we want to see
things change right away.
But it didn't get this wayovernight and so it isn't
necessarily going to changeovernight.
But if you can just kind ofkeep with it, and then I would
(26:57):
say and I'm sure you say thistoo if you, if you are on a
different kind of meal regimenand you're on a little bit of an
exercise regimen and you aretaking care of all of the other
parts of your system withwhatever you know, meditation
and exercise, and you've got thehormones in check and you go
(27:22):
off your diet or you dosomething, that's okay, right,
because you're still buildingthe habits.
And so you know, because I canhear the why bother coming out
like, well, it's not changedfast enough, I'm still not
sleeping right.
And you know your client whokind of went back to the thing
she knew.
It's like you go to.
And you know your client whokind of went back to the thing
she knew.
It's like you go to the devilyou know versus the devil you
(27:43):
don't know.
So there's a little bit oftrust that has to happen maybe.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Absolutely, and that's why, in that kind of that
fourth step, we reallyintegrate into what I call a new
identity.
It's like it's you wouldidentify as somebody who's a mom
and you will always identify asa right.
It's not like that will everchange or be gone for from how
you see yourself.
Well, when we think aboutmaking a health change, my goal,
(28:10):
my objective for my clients, isalways to have that be a
permanent change.
It's not like, oh, I feltbetter for six months and then I
kind of things went back towhere they were before.
It's like no, if we want tochange, it's identifying as a
woman who is now consistentlyconscious of our food not
(28:30):
perfect, but thought intentionalabout how I eat.
You know, I live my life in away that set myself up for the
routine and for the habits andfor the lifestyle.
That's going to be buildinghealth instead of tearing it
down, right, right.
So that's where we get reallyclear of like okay, what is I
always like to invite people to?
Like give your alter ego likethat next version of you.
(28:53):
If you were to think ofsomebody who has like improve
their health to the best thatyou can envision for the next 12
months.
What does that look like?
Give that person a name, analter ego name.
My alter ego name is MagicMandy.
Right and every morning sittingup and asking myself like okay,
what does Magic Mandy do todaythat shifts you into the
perspective of being the versionof you who has that health, and
(29:16):
how does she navigate the dailyexperience, the 24-hour zone
right.
It's a very different place thanjust seeing it as a to-do list
of things to do that I'msupposed to do or should do to
support my health.
But it's not about doing, it'sabout who might be yes, yes, yes
, yes.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Oh, my gosh, I love what you just said.
So, in in terms of positiveintelligence and emotional
intelligence, one of the sagepowers that Shirzad Shamim talks
about in positive intelligenceis, you know well, there's the
empathy power, there's theexplore power, there's the
innovate, and then there's, youknow, the navigate and the
(29:57):
activate.
So when we're in the navigatepower, the sage power of
navigation, you look at yourolder self, your older wiser
self, or the self it's 20 yearsdown the road, and when you're
looking at where do I go fromhere, what kind of decision will
be in my highest good and forthe highest good of those around
(30:17):
me, in my highest good and forthe highest good of those around
me, you ask that older self andif you can sort of envision who
that person is and most of uscan, if we just take a moment
and really reflect.
What would that older self sayright now to me with regard to a
career shift, or with regard toan emptiness syndrome, or with
(30:38):
regard to whatever?
You know my body and my dietand, and you know the way that
I'm, you know living or notliving up to my full potential?
What would she tell me rightnow, or what would he tell me?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, yes, very similar.
It's that who am I being and amI?
Am I taking that, like you said, that 20 year experience,
experience and perspective,future self to really step
through that lens?
It's so important and it's agame changer.
Honestly, that's when things,like I said, we go back to the
(31:11):
root of health transformation.
That's when you're reallychanging things at a systemic
level for, yeah, a new normalfor decades to come.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah, yeah, I love it .
I love it.
So we didn't talk about thecrisis that precipitated all
this.
Would you like to tell us justa little bit about what exactly
happened that even got you onthis path, because that
obviously was a huge gamechanger for your entire life and
your family, right?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, and actually it's funny that I love that this
is kind of coming as afollow-up to what we were just
talking about, jamie, because Iin my mid to late 20s always
identified as somebody who wasvery healthy.
I was a group fitnessinstructor, I taught cardio
kickboxing classes.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I had 13% body fat, I ate salads and smoothies, so
like I'm going to be candid andjust be cavalier here, but I
thought I was kind of invinciblewhen it came to health, like
I've got this buttoned up anddialed in I know what health is
right and kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Of course that's when life's going to slap you upside
the head.
Yeah, then I was pregnant withmy fourth daughter and
discovered I had an autoimmunecondition called Hashimoto's
thyroiditis and I was kind ofjust burning through life.
I mean admittedly I was, youknow, not sleeping well after
having three little kids.
I was definitely kind of go, go, go.
(32:35):
Always that one like jetting tothe next thing or the next
activity, trying to balance, youknow, work and kids and all of
the things.
Also was happening in myextended family or my family of
origin at that time was somereally overwhelming situations
with a sibling who was goingthrough alcohol addiction and a
(32:55):
divorce, and so I was veryintimately involved because I
was very close with his ex nowex-wife.
At the time we did a wholeintervention.
So I can see now at the time Ididn't recognize how this had
any effect on my health, but Ican see now the stress was a
huge factor in precipitating theautoimmune dynamic.
(33:16):
But I remember being at thedoctor and being told oh yeah,
you'll just have to take thismedication for the rest of your
life and you know once you haveone autoimmune condition, you're
at a much greater risk formultiple conditions over the
coming decades.
And I was like what, wait, wait, this isn't.
This can't be the case Again.
Still no correlation to thestressors in my life, to the
(33:38):
pace of the lifestyle that I waschoosing and to my body
actually being completelydepleted.
It wasn't giving enoughnourishment to handle the demand
that I was being placed on it.
And then, a few months after, myoldest daughter, who was eight
at that time, had always beenhighly sensitive.
She was a very sharp, wittygirl, but she started to develop
(33:58):
really severe anxiety to thepoint of 10 to 15 seizures in a
day.
And, jamie, nothing brings youto your knees more as a parent
to see your child inlife-threatening situations.
Absolutely Right, I mean, I was.
I remember waking up multipledays like talk about cortisol
(34:19):
and adrenaline.
I was literally shaking withfear because usually within the
first 15 minutes when hercortisol levels would spike
because it was a hormone surgeshe would start to seize and so
it was such a scary time.
And then we were working withamazing pediatric neurologists
and specialists down at LurieChildren's Hospital and they ran
all the tests and they weresaying you know, sometimes these
(34:40):
things are hereditary.
Just like I was told with myautoimmune condition, she you
know, there's no tumor, there'sno discernible like source of
the seizures.
We will, we can manage thiswith with medication.
She was on four differentbenzodiazepines, 12 pills a day.
A lot of medicine, a lot, yeah,to the point where she was like
(35:02):
not my child, like very, verymentally like comatose and like,
yeah, and I knew and we weretold she would never be able to
drive a car.
This was just to make itthrough a 24 period and every
fiber in my being is like therehas to be another path forward,
like this cannot be her future.
That's when I went back toschool to study functional
medicine, science and spent acouple of years really
(35:22):
understanding the interconnectedfactors of the digestive system
and the endocrine system andthe immune system and the
cardiovascular, all the systemsin the body, physiology, how
they work together and what arethose upstream root cause
drivers and mechanisms thatcreate the symptoms that are
displayed.
So her seizures are just thesymptoms of imbalance in her
(35:44):
body, right, just like myautoimmune, the thyroid being
attacking itself with thoseautoimmune antibodies.
That was just the symptom ofimbalance and dysfunction in the
body, right.
So that led me on againinspiration, new knowledge.
That was like empowering.
(36:04):
It's like oh, wow, now I canmake different choices because I
understand the ramifications ofsome of the lifestyle factors
and responses to what washappening.
Right, the cool thing is inunder nine months she completely
healed.
I mean we literally changedfrom a lifestyle perspective,
from stress management and kindof you know how she was
(36:27):
interpreting and understandingthings in her life, and then
also nutrition, like kind oflooked at all the buckets that I
do with clients, right, thewhole like kind of comprehensive
approach to healing.
She, we know from all of hermedication, has been seizure
free ever since now.
She's just completed hersophomore year on a full ride
scholarship at the university ofNotre Dame, so she's thriving
(36:49):
in life and very well.
She's very emotionallyempowered, right?
She has a skillset tounderstand, to listen to her
body signals, to really tune inand recognize and give her body
and her life what she needs tothrive, right?
Yeah, so same approach thatallowed me to put my autoimmune
condition into remission andreally navigate a path that
(37:12):
allowed.
Of course, there's always bumpsand you know challenges that
come up, but now we have theskills and the tools and the
choice to navigate through thoseand maintain health, maintain
really good, high peakperformance, so that was.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I kind of feel like it was a divine redirection God
had to show me like it's notjust the food, it's not just the
exercise.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
There's more to the story, to live with truly
vibrant health.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Right, and I think the key thing is empowerment.
Yes, it's really aboutempowerment, and I have to say I
don't want to.
We don't necessarily need tojettison Western medicine and
Western you know,pharmacological approaches,
because medicines have theirplace.
But when somebody's on thatmuch medication at eight years
(38:02):
old, it is time to take a lookat what's going on and say
you're, you're, you'remedicating something without
actually looking at the rootcause.
And so, by getting to thoseroot causes, not only did you
get off the meds but, like yousay, you empowered your daughter
, and your daughter feels selfdetermined and, you know, you
(38:25):
are able to make differentchoices and I just, I just love
that and I think it's a really,you know, it's a message of hope
.
And so, before we close, let'sjust bring in emotional
intelligence, because I knowthat's part of your whole system
.
So we've got the gut healthgoing, we've got the hormones,
we've got, you know, we've gotthe endocrine system going.
(38:45):
And so how can we also shiftinto a place of you know, having
all you know, really relying onour sage powers again they, you
know, we want to be empathic.
Relying on our sage powersagain they, you know, we want to
be empathic, empathetic toourselves and others, and when
(39:07):
something happens, we have toget curious, right?
Oh, what's going on here?
And maybe I need to read thetea leaves a little bit and then
innovate, right?
So this is a time of thinkingoutside the box, and the box
often is Western medicine, andso outside the box is let's look
at these bigger things going on.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Absolutely.
And I think it's about taking aproactive approach.
Because if we, that's exactlywhat they teach in positive
intelligence, right Is to do thereps, to do the PQ reps
proactively, because that's whatgives you bandwidth, that's
what gives you the capacity torespond with curiosity or
(39:46):
empathy.
If we don't take that proactiveapproach, it's it's really
difficult, like I said, whenyou're, when your tank is on,
running on empty, it's reallyhard to then expect that extra
capacity to think in a differentway.
Right, that's when the bodykind of just goes neurologically
, it goes into old patterns andold, old habits.
So I'd love I mean I personallyhave gone through the positive
(40:09):
intelligence program becausethat approach is so effective to
proactively give you a contextof understanding and
inspirational pathway to follow,a curriculum and then that
proactive practice that willgive you increased capacity in
all areas of life.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, and so we're basically training our bodies to
to be different in the world,right, you know you talked about
who do you want to be, who?
What is this self?
You know?
Who do you want to be?
How do you want to show up inthe world?
And for me, that's the questionwe need to be asking ourselves
is how do you want to show up inthe world?
Who is that best self?
(40:48):
And guess what?
You're in charge, right, you'rein charge.
Yeah, oh, it has been apleasure getting to know you and
knowing a little bit more abouthow you help women, and all of
Amanda's information will be inthe show notes if you wanted to
reach out and find out how youcan get a new roadmap to life.
(41:10):
And, as always, I'm availablefor emotional intelligence
coaching and whatever else youmight need.
And so, thank you everyone fortuning in and, again, like and
subscribe to this podcast andAmanda and I will see you at the
EQ or the PQ gym.
Yes, I love it.
All right, take care ofeveryone.
Bye.
I always like to invite people to like give your
alter ego like that next versionof you.
If you, if you, were to thinkof somebody who has like improve
their health to the best thatyou can envision for the next 12
months, what does that looklike?
Give that person a name, analter ego name.
My alter ego name is magic MandyRight, and every morning
sitting up and asking myselflike, okay, what does magic
(00:20):
Mandy do today that shifts youinto the perspective of being
the version of you who has thathealth, and how does she
navigate the daily experience,the 24-hour zone right?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the podcast Emotional Intelligence
your greatest asset and key tosuccess.
Welcome to the podcastEmotional Intelligence your
greatest asset and key tosuccess.
I'm your host, dr JamieCarlaccio, coming to you from
the Greater New Haven,connecticut area as an emotional
intelligence or EQ coach.
I'm committed to helping peopledevelop both emotional
intelligence and mental fitness.
That is, you'll come to regardproblems as situations that help
(01:07):
you learn and grow.
Eq is a way of being and doingin the world that enables you to
develop and sustain a positiverelationship with yourself and
others, at home, at work andeverywhere in between.
Please subscribe to thispodcast and tap the like button
so more people can enjoy thebenefits of EQ.
And now here's the show.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Hello and welcome everybody to the podcast
Emotional Intelligence yourGreatest Asset and Key to
Success.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
I have a fabulous guest heretoday.
Her name is Amanda Hinman.
Hi, amanda, how are youFantastic Excited?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
to be here with you.
Thank you, I'm glad you're here, excited to be here with you,
thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I'm glad you're here, so I want to tell our guests
something, but first I just wantto thank everybody for joining
us today.
If you are new to this podcast,thank you for tuning in, and if
you are returning, then thankyou for coming back and don't
forget to like and subscribe andshare this podcast with
somebody, because Amanda has agreat message.
(02:06):
And first I want to tell you alittle bit about Amanda and then
we're going to get right intoit.
Okay, so Amanda is a functionalmedicine health coach.
She's also a bestselling authorand the founder of the Hinman
Holistic Health Institute.
She specializes in helpingsuccessful women between the
(02:27):
ages of 40 and 60 who arestruggling with hormone, mood
and gut imbalances to healnaturally and gain back three
hours of energy so they feelfantastic again.
And that is something wedefinitely need to talk about,
because I think everybody wouldlove to get three hours back
from their day.
(02:48):
And what makes yeah so whatmakes Amanda's story so powerful
, is that her path to this workbegan with a personal crisis,
and oftentimes I think crisis iswhat creates change.
So probably a good thing thatthe crisis happened, because now
you're able to do this amazingwork with everybody.
So when her eight-year-olddaughter began experiencing
(03:11):
these unexplained seizures, andconventional medicine offered
very few answers.
Amanda dove into root causehealing, and along the way she
discovered her own hormone andthyroid imbalances, and
discovered just how connectedour physical symptoms are to
stress, trauma and emotionalsuppression.
(03:31):
And so today, amanda combinesfunctional medicine, emotional
intelligence and neuroscience tohelp women reclaim their health
from the inside out.
She's the creator of the Thyroidand Hormone Solution, a proven
five-step framework that hashelped hundreds of women
overcome Hashimoto's,hypothyroidism, anxiety, weight
(03:53):
gain, fatigue, insulinresistance and more, without
relying on restrictive diets andmedication.
That in itself is a miracle,and so Amanda's work has been
featured in media outlets and onstages across the country, and
her mission is to empower womento step back into their full
vitality physically, emotionallyand energetically, and I would
(04:17):
say maybe even spiritually,because oftentimes everything is
connected, including ourspiritual well-being and to
trust that healing is not onlypossible but sustainable.
And so, when she's not coachingor speaking, she enjoys
spending time with her husbandand four children and exploring
holistic living and helpingwomen transform their health
(04:38):
stories into legacies ofstrength.
So again, welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Thank you, jamie.
Yes, you know I.
Just.
Every time you share something,it really inspires me to think
about the lives, the women'slives, and the ripple effect.
You know, I can tell from myown journey when we can step
into a place of empowerment, orat least when I can step into a
place of empowerment and changethe trajectory of not only my
(05:06):
health, my family's health.
It, it completely, radicallychanged our lives.
So that's why you know I havesuch a passion for helping
others to feel good.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And you know, I think , a lot of people.
So I was at a retreat today andone of the things we talked
about was how much stresseverybody is under.
And you know, the stress iscoming from politics, it's
coming from economic insecurity.
You know it's coming from a notso healthy lifestyle.
(05:38):
You know, oh, you're in a hurry.
Well, let's just go grab aburger, right, let's just go get
fast food.
Or let's let's skip dinneraltogether.
Or I'm too busy, I'm going tosit and eat at my desk and I'm
not even going to take a lunchbreak, or I'm not going to go
for a walk, or there's so manythings.
And then if people are stressed,they're not sleeping well.
And if they're not sleepingwell, like you know, sleep
(06:00):
hygiene is the thing you knowthat you help people with.
So all of those things areconnected.
And if we're not feeling good,we're, you know, kind of
imbalanced, for whatever reason,we're grumpy, and then so we
have, like you say, we have thisripple effect.
So the ripple effect is foreverything.
Right, if you're feeling crummy, that ripples out into how you
(06:22):
interact with people and how youfeel about yourself, and then,
likewise, if you're feeling good, how do you feel about yourself
.
And then how are youinteracting and showing up in
the world?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Definitely, and it's funny, I was actually just
working with a client yesterdayand we were talking about the
same dynamic because we all havedifferent angles.
I think that we can create ashift around.
For some of us, it'sunderstanding the physiology
what's going on hormonally?
in my body, like.
You mentioned something veryinteresting, jamie, and it's so
(06:54):
relevant, about digestion andour gut health.
We know our gut health is soimportant but yet so often I
work with women who don't evenrealize when they're eating at
their desk or skipping lunch ormultitasking as they're kind of
picking up food throughout, youknow, the afternoon.
That experience from aphysiological perspective is
(07:17):
radically different to our gut.
We don't have adequatedigestive secretions to break
down the food thoroughly.
Chances are we're kind of justchomp, chomp, chomp, swallow big
, huge clumps.
We're not really using our teethand our saliva to liquefy the
food in your mouth beforeswallowing, which is what it's
intended to be, and all of thesethings seem insignificant or
(07:41):
kind of minor, you know, hereand there, but they have really
big ramifications when they'rejust done over and over again.
Right, it affects even theimmune system, because it will
then have these huge chunks offood that it can't break down
and it's unrecognizable.
So it kind of puts the immunesystem on hypervigilant alert
and that can lead to a cascadeof autoimmune dynamics and
(08:05):
different sorts of differentthings that seemingly are
unrelated.
Go back to exactly what yousaid simple practices done
repetitively, you know, and Ithink the deeper you know this
is what I was talking about withmy client the deeper core is
really getting to the what arethose underlying, maybe even
(08:25):
unconscious beliefs that we havenot enough time?
You know, it doesn't reallymatter anyway, what I call like
why bother syndrome is somethingthat's pretty chronic for the
women I support, you know, andthere's no fault.
But it's like, yeah, maybeyou've tried to change your
health and made a little bit ofstrides but it didn't stick.
So it's like why bother?
(08:46):
It's not going to besustainable, right?
Or you've worked with afunctional practitioner and got
a list of supplements and aftera while it seemed like this is
just me popping a bunch of pillsand I'm not noticing a big
change.
So why bother?
Like I'm not saying why bother,as in you know, people are just
(09:07):
throwing up their arms, butit's more of like you've tried
some things and it hasn't beenable to be like tuned, finally
tuned into a way that createshabit, where it just happens,
where it doesn't require extraefforts and energy and your
brain.
Just it kind of like you brushyour teeth, right, you brush
your teeth every day and itdoesn't require a efforts and
energy and your brain just kindof like you brush your teeth,
right you brush your teeth everyday and it doesn't require a
(09:28):
ton of energy and effort, it'sautomatic.
That's what we get to create islike.
What can that, what can thatlook like in the nervous system,
to help you put in someroutines that don't require a
tremendous amount of effort butthat are in support of your
unique body's balance?
So I think it comes down tolike finding some customization
and some simple, repeatablestrategies that will work for
(09:52):
each individual.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Right.
So you said a lot of stuffthere and I was, I'm back.
I'm still back on gut healthbecause I know that.
You know you see commercials onTV or you see ads for women who
feel bloated and so they wantto give you a suppository or
they want to sell you somethingto help you flow, but ultimately
(10:17):
that seems like a band-aidapproach and what I'm hearing is
that there's a systems approachand partly the way to get our
system working again is a toreally look at the interlocking
variables.
And also, you know, like you say, we have to develop different
habits and so things take time.
(10:39):
But you can't sort of fix onething and expect everything else
to get fixed, becauseeverything is working.
So you could start eatingsalads, and but if you're not
exercising and you're notdrinking enough water and you're
not sleeping and you're stillfeeling stressed, or you know
emotional intelligence comesinto play here with resilience,
and you know really handlinglife in a more equanimous way.
(11:03):
You know all of those thingsplay in.
So you might be eating right,but if there's something wrong
and you have insulin resistance,or if there's something wrong
in in, say, your personal lifeor your work life, then one
thing might not be the quick fixand there is no quick fix, but
(11:24):
it sounds like you're saying itdoesn't have to be super hard
either you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
You are spot on, jamie.
It doesn't have to be overlycomplex.
In fact, I think sometimescomplexity is a disadvantage.
It's oh, it can be overwhelming, it's.
I think one of the keys ishaving a systematic approach
that can be customized to yourspecific body, the the needs of
(11:51):
your, your body and your lifenow, because what your body
needed when you were in yourthirties is going to be
different than when you're inyour forties.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Your body changes right.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Even thinking about our roles change right.
Our roles as a mom toelementary school kids is
different.
Your, your son's, going off toprom.
It's a different role thatyou're playing in his life right
now.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Jamie.
So, yes, I think the key hereis to having some type of a
almost like a curriculum, right,we think about like anytime
we're growing in education, it'svery easy to relate to like a
curriculum.
But when we think about maybeeven a career or an
entrepreneurial journey,sometimes you have like stages
of okay, I got to learnmarketing and then I've got to
(12:35):
learn sales, like you kind ofknow the key steps.
I think when we approach ourhealth it's similar.
It's like how can I know from aroot cause perspective, how can
I kind of peel back the layersand understand the signals that
my body is telling me?
Yeah, I'd like to share, youknow and I'm happy to share with
your listeners.
Yeah, I'd like to share, youknow and I'm happy to share with
(12:56):
your listeners my free hormonehealth assessment, because it
has you kind of map yoursymptoms against the top six
metabolic hormones to say like,oh, this is what is my body
trying to tell me.
What am I trying to say withoutwords right Through symptoms?
So kind of looking and gettingcurious about the signals from
your symptoms.
Then, taking a look atnourishment we all know food is
(13:17):
important.
So what nutrients specifically?
Right, rather than having kindof a general broad sense of the
paleo diet versus the keto diet,versus all these different
things.
Well, if I look at my body,what specifically does my body
need now in this season so youcan kind of be more streamlined?
Then we look at the digestionand the capacity to be able to
(13:40):
break down those nutrients soyour cells get the full benefit
of them.
And then I do a wholecomprehensive look at what I
call reset your thinking,Because, just as you talked
about Jamie, that emotionalintelligence piece really drives
the nervous system, whetherit's going to be in that fight
or flight or thatparasympathetic and roasted heel
(14:03):
.
So we look at what are the kindof underlying relationship with
stress.
Right, stress isn't necessarilya good thing or a bad thing.
It's what's your relationshipwith the circumstances?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, right, I, I was again at this retreat and I
went to a breathwork session andyou know we were all literally
talking about stress.
And then how do you respond tostress If you're always in the
fight, flight, bond, freeze modeand you're, you know, releasing
(14:35):
all of these hormones orcortico you know cortisol and
and your body's constantly likefeeling like it's there's an
onslaught of danger.
Then you can be eating well, butthe rest of the stuff is still
imbalanced.
And I like how you talked abouthow, just listening to your
body and getting curious.
(14:56):
And then I started thinkingit's kind of like when the check
, you know the check enginelight comes on in your car, it's
like you know you need to takeit in.
You're not exactly sure, butyou know that there's a signal,
is that something's not right,and so if we listen to our
bodies and we actually just paycloser attention, then maybe you
(15:20):
know you can start playingdetective on some level, right,
and kind of like you say,uncovering those root causes.
So tell me how you help womenwith hormone, hormonal imbalance
, because a lot of women,especially our age, you know,
especially in the 40 to 60 rangeand even older, all these
hormonal changes are crazymaking and how do you help
(15:44):
people with that?
With with a holistic approach.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, I'll give you a prime example.
So I'm thinking of a woman,darlene, and we were just
talking today.
So she started working with meabout two months ago and at the
place when she, when she firstconnected, she was really
struggling with sleeping throughthe night.
She would wake up early aroundshe's like between two and 3 AM
every night and have her mindjust kind of like go into the
(16:12):
day, go into like all thethoughts of what was on her
to-do list, what she needed toremember, kind of that swirling
you know fast paced, wired buttired type of sensation.
So that was insomnia.
She also had put on a couple ofextra pounds in the last 12
months, like five pounds, andshe's like I just see my body
feel less.
And she's like I just see mybody feel less, you know, less
(16:35):
light and toned.
It was just that I can see thesechanges happening and the
overall anxiety levels haveincreased.
And we know that there arecorrelations with the levels of
estrogen, especially as comparedto progesterone, that can
affect neurological emotionalstate.
So like, for example, whenwomen have changes, it makes a
(16:56):
difference.
So sometimes we were blamingourselves because we think like,
what's wrong with me?
Sometimes it really is aphysiological shift that's
having a changing effect on thebrain chemistry.
So part of it was reallyempowering for her to get some
more information and data.
So we did some testing.
We look at micronutrient testing, we looked at some hormone
(17:16):
testing and I like to use someof the functional labs where it
actually looks at like, forexample, a micronutrient urine
test can actually tell whatnutrients are making it to
yourself to have an effect, soyou can find a metabolite that
you then excrete through urine.
That's a little bit differentthan testing blood, because
blood will show what nutrientsare circulating around the blood
(17:40):
supply, which can be useful forsure.
But sometimes things can becirculating in our blood but not
actually get inside the cell tohave a chemical reaction, just
like insulin resistance.
Right, the insulin can't getinto the cell or bring glucose
in.
That's what insulin resistancemeans Same thing can happen with
other hormones or with othernutrients.
So when we test with afunctional kind of looking at
(18:02):
what's actually getting intoourselves and having an effect,
now there's some usefulinformation to look at for her
to again be a little bit moretargeted.
And this, this woman, darlene,it was interesting because we
were very clear of some keyfoods and nutrients for her to
start to build into her plan toreplenish her cells capacity.
(18:24):
Right, jimmy, you talk aboutour ability to kind of come with
agency, to come with a curiousperspective or inquiry instead
of a reactive, emotional thattakes energy, that makes it
worse, yeah, well, and thattakes energy so ourselves.
our body has to be able tocreate a unit of energy, or
(18:45):
what's called atp, in order forus to even have the wherewithal
to have curiosity in certainsituations, right.
So she knew what she needed tonourish herself with and then we
kind of had a simple recipeplan for her to start to build
those in and practice that habit.
And she found that after twoweeks she was really struggling
(19:06):
because she's like I just, I,you know, I just don't feel good
about this and she kind of wentback to her old way of eating,
which was not adequatelynourishing, that she was
definitely undernourished, butthat felt safer for her and so
we had a conversation.
It was really interesting forher to tie back the deeper and
I'm like, well, tell me morewhat was going on.
And she's like, actually I hadbeen sleeping and I had a really
(19:28):
bad kink in my neck and cause Iwasn't sleeping well, and then
I started Googling what if it'sa brain tumor, Like?
again the anxiety, estrogen andprogesterone levels were really
skewed.
So she's struggling throughanxiety and she's like what I
realized is, and I'm like, well,your nervous system didn't have
the capacity at that time foryou to start to make changes to
(19:49):
your foods, because it washaving this physical pain kind
of the mental, emotional,anxiety, wandering thoughts of
like what if it's a brain tumor,what if it's something worse?
So like we get to start beforewe even really dive in on making
these nutritional changes andgiving you a full meal plan to
follow which is what a lot ofpeople do when they think of oh,
(20:11):
I want to change my health,Give me the meal plan and I'll
go do it.
Your ability to execute on thatsuccessfully depends on the
state of your nervous system andyour capacity to handle kind of
those little bumps and, youknow, curve balls in life.
Once you get the curve ball ofstiff neck and sort of Googling.
She didn't have the capacity tokind of stick with this meal
(20:33):
plan.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Does that make sense?
Yeah, and you know, I hear youtalking a lot about anxiety and
it's very easy when you don'thave enough knowledge and not
every right.
I mean you, you study this.
It's not like we're all bornknowing our, knowing our
neurobiology and knowing youknow our intestinal system and
knowing everything.
So you know our intestinalsystem and knowing everything.
(20:55):
So you know.
A lot of people understand thefight, flight, freeze, spawn,
and people understand rest anddigest.
Maybe you know the differentways in which our nervous system
is like on a teeter totter.
Right there's.
I got to be careful, there'ssome danger here and oh, I can
be calm, it's okay.
But all of that plays into thefood, the sleep, the emotional
(21:18):
intelligence.
You know how are we thinkingabout and responding to things.
If everything's a knee jerkreaction and if I'm not getting
the results, I want what's wrongand a lot of times and this is
sort of a thing for a lot ofpeople, not just women, but you
know we automatically go withwhat's wrong with me.
I must have been doingsomething wrong or I'm going
(21:41):
crazy.
Well, we might not be goingcrazy, but there are things that
are going on that are crazymaking.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes, absolutely.
So.
It's helpful to kind of havesome of.
That's why I say let's look atthe data right.
The data is these experiencesare happening physiologically in
the body.
We know these hormone levelsare in a different, shifted
place.
So what can we offer the bodyand support and then also build
in some like?
(22:10):
So for her, before we reallyfocused on the food changes, it
was like let's get theseprogesterone levels in a
balanced place to bring theanxiety down and let's also make
sure the first system we'regoing to build in is to support
the nervous system, right.
So for her it was to support.
What are we doing in terms oftaking breathing breaks a couple
of times a day?
(22:31):
How can we be listening to,even just like from a
reinforcing positive beliefs andpossibility, listening to?
She found that, like we foundtogether an audio book that's a
spiritually oriented audio book,one of one of Wayne Dyer's.
I love his.
Oh, I do too.
Change your, change yourthoughts, change your mind.
So it's like have that be thenarrative that's playing in the
(22:54):
background when you're washingthe dishes or when you're, you
know, doing some errands or inthe car.
Like these are consciouschoices that sound simple, but
yet they really go a long way toreinforce this holistic picture
of what's going to set you upfor sustainable, healthy habits.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, and so it's a choice.
It is a choice.
I was just having aconversation with someone who's
very uncomfortable and wants tochange everything, but she's in
a reactionary mode.
So she doesn't like her hair,she doesn't like her job, she
(23:31):
doesn't like her car, shedoesn't like her apartment.
Those are all external things,and I tried to remind her that
there's something going oninternally that you need to look
at, and changing your hair orgetting a different car or
getting a different job.
Those things are external towhat's really happening, and so
(23:54):
it is about really kind oflooking deeply within.
So it is about really kind oflooking deeply within and I had
mentioned earlier the spiritualcomponent, because for me, that
is a core part of who I am andit's how I start and end my day.
And I love that you brought upWayne Dyer he's one of my
favorites.
But just the idea of you know,at night, what are you doing
(24:16):
before you go to bed at night,right, what are you putting?
What are you going to bed atnight?
Right, what are you putting?
What are you going to bed with?
A?
Going to bed with a good book?
Are you going to bed with youknow doom scrolling?
Or you know TikTok videos orsomething you know.
So what do you you know?
So there's putting things intoour mind, putting things into
our body, and then it's likeinput, output, right?
(24:36):
So whatever we put in, it'sgoing to come back out.
And it's going to come out asstress and anxiety and insomnia
and poor gut health or, you know, stress related weight, right?
A lot of women, when they arestressed, the stress goes into
our stomachs and so we gainweight in our stomachs.
It's like, but wait a minute, Idon't even eat pasta.
(24:57):
Why am I getting all thisweight around my midsection?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And unfortunately, then sometimes what happens is
especially over age 40, womenwill calorie restrict back on
foods or calories, and that'swhen it's the easiest to lose
lean muscle tissue which is themost metabolically healthy.
(25:22):
So instead of especially ifyou're in that place of you know
stress and overwhelm and fightor flight state when the body's
going to hold on to what'scoming in, because it's
perceiving that there is athreat and a danger and I don't
know when my resources are goingto run out.
So I need to hold on toeverything that has a caloric
(25:43):
perspective.
So it will hold on to thatfatty adipose tissue because
that's the most caloricallydense, but it will sacrifice
your lean muscle mass tissue,which is the exact opposite of
what we want to have happen froma metabolic health longevity
standpoint.
Right?
I often tell women it'sactually, it's actually
(26:07):
important for you to eat more inorder to release the weight
you're seeking, becausemetabolically we need to retain
that lean tissue.
And again, but this is where,like education and knowledge,
coupled with some specificity ofwhat's happening in your body
now and some inspiration, canreally go a long way to help
women make that different choice, right we do talk about it is
(26:28):
choice sometimes we need alittle bit more context and
reminders to make the choicesthat are advantageous for our
goals.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, and you know sometimes, you know, we live in
kind of what I call a quick fixsociety, so we want to see
things change right away.
But it didn't get this wayovernight and so it isn't
necessarily going to changeovernight.
But if you can just kind ofkeep with it, and then I would
(26:57):
say and I'm sure you say thistoo if you, if you are on a
different kind of meal regimenand you're on a little bit of an
exercise regimen and you aretaking care of all of the other
parts of your system withwhatever you know, meditation
and exercise, and you've got thehormones in check and you go
(27:22):
off your diet or you dosomething, that's okay, right,
because you're still buildingthe habits.
And so you know, because I canhear the why bother coming out
like, well, it's not changedfast enough, I'm still not
sleeping right.
And you know your client whokind of went back to the thing
she knew.
It's like you go to.
And you know your client whokind of went back to the thing
she knew.
It's like you go to the devilyou know versus the devil you
(27:43):
don't know.
So there's a little bit oftrust that has to happen maybe.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Absolutely, and that's why, in that kind of that
fourth step, we reallyintegrate into what I call a new
identity.
It's like it's you wouldidentify as somebody who's a mom
and you will always identify asa right.
It's not like that will everchange or be gone for from how
you see yourself.
Well, when we think aboutmaking a health change, my goal,
(28:10):
my objective for my clients, isalways to have that be a
permanent change.
It's not like, oh, I feltbetter for six months and then I
kind of things went back towhere they were before.
It's like no, if we want tochange, it's identifying as a
woman who is now consistentlyconscious of our food not
(28:30):
perfect, but thought intentionalabout how I eat.
You know, I live my life in away that set myself up for the
routine and for the habits andfor the lifestyle.
That's going to be buildinghealth instead of tearing it
down, right, right.
So that's where we get reallyclear of like okay, what is I
always like to invite people to?
Like give your alter ego likethat next version of you.
(28:53):
If you were to think ofsomebody who has like improve
their health to the best thatyou can envision for the next 12
months.
What does that look like?
Give that person a name, analter ego name.
My alter ego name is MagicMandy.
Right and every morning sittingup and asking myself like okay,
what does Magic Mandy do todaythat shifts you into the
perspective of being the versionof you who has that health, and
(29:16):
how does she navigate the dailyexperience, the 24-hour zone
right.
It's a very different place thanjust seeing it as a to-do list
of things to do that I'msupposed to do or should do to
support my health.
But it's not about doing, it'sabout who might be yes, yes, yes
, yes.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Oh, my gosh, I love what you just said.
So, in in terms of positiveintelligence and emotional
intelligence, one of the sagepowers that Shirzad Shamim talks
about in positive intelligenceis, you know well, there's the
empathy power, there's theexplore power, there's the
innovate, and then there's, youknow, the navigate and the
(29:57):
activate.
So when we're in the navigatepower, the sage power of
navigation, you look at yourolder self, your older wiser
self, or the self it's 20 yearsdown the road, and when you're
looking at where do I go fromhere, what kind of decision will
be in my highest good and forthe highest good of those around
(30:17):
me, in my highest good and forthe highest good of those around
me, you ask that older self andif you can sort of envision who
that person is and most of uscan, if we just take a moment
and really reflect.
What would that older self sayright now to me with regard to a
career shift, or with regard toan emptiness syndrome, or with
(30:38):
regard to whatever?
You know my body and my dietand, and you know the way that
I'm, you know living or notliving up to my full potential?
What would she tell me rightnow, or what would he tell me?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, yes, very similar.
It's that who am I being and amI?
Am I taking that, like you said, that 20 year experience,
experience and perspective,future self to really step
through that lens?
It's so important and it's agame changer.
Honestly, that's when things,like I said, we go back to the
(31:11):
root of health transformation.
That's when you're reallychanging things at a systemic
level for, yeah, a new normalfor decades to come.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah, yeah, I love it .
I love it.
So we didn't talk about thecrisis that precipitated all
this.
Would you like to tell us justa little bit about what exactly
happened that even got you onthis path, because that
obviously was a huge gamechanger for your entire life and
your family, right?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, and actually it's funny that I love that this
is kind of coming as afollow-up to what we were just
talking about, jamie, because Iin my mid to late 20s always
identified as somebody who wasvery healthy.
I was a group fitnessinstructor, I taught cardio
kickboxing classes.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I had 13% body fat, I ate salads and smoothies, so
like I'm going to be candid andjust be cavalier here, but I
thought I was kind of invinciblewhen it came to health, like
I've got this buttoned up anddialed in I know what health is
right and kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Of course that's when life's going to slap you upside
the head.
Yeah, then I was pregnant withmy fourth daughter and
discovered I had an autoimmunecondition called Hashimoto's
thyroiditis and I was kind ofjust burning through life.
I mean admittedly I was, youknow, not sleeping well after
having three little kids.
I was definitely kind of go, go, go.
(32:35):
Always that one like jetting tothe next thing or the next
activity, trying to balance, youknow, work and kids and all of
the things.
Also was happening in myextended family or my family of
origin at that time was somereally overwhelming situations
with a sibling who was goingthrough alcohol addiction and a
(32:55):
divorce, and so I was veryintimately involved because I
was very close with his ex nowex-wife.
At the time we did a wholeintervention.
So I can see now at the time Ididn't recognize how this had
any effect on my health, but Ican see now the stress was a
huge factor in precipitating theautoimmune dynamic.
(33:16):
But I remember being at thedoctor and being told oh yeah,
you'll just have to take thismedication for the rest of your
life and you know once you haveone autoimmune condition, you're
at a much greater risk formultiple conditions over the
coming decades.
And I was like what, wait, wait, this isn't.
This can't be the case Again.
Still no correlation to thestressors in my life, to the
(33:38):
pace of the lifestyle that I waschoosing and to my body
actually being completelydepleted.
It wasn't giving enoughnourishment to handle the demand
that I was being placed on it.
And then, a few months after, myoldest daughter, who was eight
at that time, had always beenhighly sensitive.
She was a very sharp, wittygirl, but she started to develop
(33:58):
really severe anxiety to thepoint of 10 to 15 seizures in a
day.
And, jamie, nothing brings youto your knees more as a parent
to see your child inlife-threatening situations.
Absolutely Right, I mean, I was.
I remember waking up multipledays like talk about cortisol
(34:19):
and adrenaline.
I was literally shaking withfear because usually within the
first 15 minutes when hercortisol levels would spike
because it was a hormone surgeshe would start to seize and so
it was such a scary time.
And then we were working withamazing pediatric neurologists
and specialists down at LurieChildren's Hospital and they ran
all the tests and they weresaying you know, sometimes these
(34:40):
things are hereditary.
Just like I was told with myautoimmune condition, she you
know, there's no tumor, there'sno discernible like source of
the seizures.
We will, we can manage thiswith with medication.
She was on four differentbenzodiazepines, 12 pills a day.
A lot of medicine, a lot, yeah,to the point where she was like
(35:02):
not my child, like very, verymentally like comatose and like,
yeah, and I knew and we weretold she would never be able to
drive a car.
This was just to make itthrough a 24 period and every
fiber in my being is like therehas to be another path forward,
like this cannot be her future.
That's when I went back toschool to study functional
medicine, science and spent acouple of years really
(35:22):
understanding the interconnectedfactors of the digestive system
and the endocrine system andthe immune system and the
cardiovascular, all the systemsin the body, physiology, how
they work together and what arethose upstream root cause
drivers and mechanisms thatcreate the symptoms that are
displayed.
So her seizures are just thesymptoms of imbalance in her
(35:44):
body, right, just like myautoimmune, the thyroid being
attacking itself with thoseautoimmune antibodies.
That was just the symptom ofimbalance and dysfunction in the
body, right.
So that led me on againinspiration, new knowledge.
That was like empowering.
(36:04):
It's like oh, wow, now I canmake different choices because I
understand the ramifications ofsome of the lifestyle factors
and responses to what washappening.
Right, the cool thing is inunder nine months she completely
healed.
I mean we literally changedfrom a lifestyle perspective,
from stress management and kindof you know how she was
(36:27):
interpreting and understandingthings in her life, and then
also nutrition, like kind oflooked at all the buckets that I
do with clients, right, thewhole like kind of comprehensive
approach to healing.
She, we know from all of hermedication, has been seizure
free ever since now.
She's just completed hersophomore year on a full ride
scholarship at the university ofNotre Dame, so she's thriving
(36:49):
in life and very well.
She's very emotionallyempowered, right?
She has a skillset tounderstand, to listen to her
body signals, to really tune inand recognize and give her body
and her life what she needs tothrive, right?
Yeah, so same approach thatallowed me to put my autoimmune
condition into remission andreally navigate a path that
(37:12):
allowed.
Of course, there's always bumpsand you know challenges that
come up, but now we have theskills and the tools and the
choice to navigate through thoseand maintain health, maintain
really good, high peakperformance, so that was.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I kind of feel like it was a divine redirection God
had to show me like it's notjust the food, it's not just the
exercise.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
There's more to the story, to live with truly
vibrant health.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Right, and I think the key thing is empowerment.
Yes, it's really aboutempowerment, and I have to say I
don't want to.
We don't necessarily need tojettison Western medicine and
Western you know,pharmacological approaches,
because medicines have theirplace.
But when somebody's on thatmuch medication at eight years
(38:02):
old, it is time to take a lookat what's going on and say
you're, you're, you'remedicating something without
actually looking at the rootcause.
And so, by getting to thoseroot causes, not only did you
get off the meds but, like yousay, you empowered your daughter
, and your daughter feels selfdetermined and, you know, you
(38:25):
are able to make differentchoices and I just, I just love
that and I think it's a really,you know, it's a message of hope
.
And so, before we close, let'sjust bring in emotional
intelligence, because I knowthat's part of your whole system
.
So we've got the gut healthgoing, we've got the hormones,
we've got, you know, we've gotthe endocrine system going.
(38:45):
And so how can we also shiftinto a place of you know, having
all you know, really relying onour sage powers again they, you
know, we want to be empathic.
Relying on our sage powersagain they, you know, we want to
be empathic, empathetic toourselves and others, and when
(39:07):
something happens, we have toget curious, right?
Oh, what's going on here?
And maybe I need to read thetea leaves a little bit and then
innovate, right?
So this is a time of thinkingoutside the box, and the box
often is Western medicine, andso outside the box is let's look
at these bigger things going on.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Absolutely.
And I think it's about taking aproactive approach.
Because if we, that's exactlywhat they teach in positive
intelligence, right Is to do thereps, to do the PQ reps
proactively, because that's whatgives you bandwidth, that's
what gives you the capacity torespond with curiosity or
(39:46):
empathy.
If we don't take that proactiveapproach, it's it's really
difficult, like I said, whenyou're, when your tank is on,
running on empty, it's reallyhard to then expect that extra
capacity to think in a differentway.
Right, that's when the bodykind of just goes neurologically
, it goes into old patterns andold, old habits.
So I'd love I mean I personallyhave gone through the positive
(40:09):
intelligence program becausethat approach is so effective to
proactively give you a contextof understanding and
inspirational pathway to follow,a curriculum and then that
proactive practice that willgive you increased capacity in
all areas of life.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, and so we're basically training our bodies to
to be different in the world,right, you know you talked about
who do you want to be, who?
What is this self?
You know?
Who do you want to be?
How do you want to show up inthe world?
And for me, that's the questionwe need to be asking ourselves
is how do you want to show up inthe world?
Who is that best self?
(40:48):
And guess what?
You're in charge, right, you'rein charge.
Yeah, oh, it has been apleasure getting to know you and
knowing a little bit more abouthow you help women, and all of
Amanda's information will be inthe show notes if you wanted to
reach out and find out how youcan get a new roadmap to life.
(41:10):
And, as always, I'm availablefor emotional intelligence
coaching and whatever else youmight need.
And so, thank you everyone fortuning in and, again, like and
subscribe to this podcast andAmanda and I will see you at the
EQ or the PQ gym.
Yes, I love it.
All right, take care ofeveryone.
Bye.
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