Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello friends,
welcome back to the podcast.
I'm so excited to be here and Iam really excited to have you
here with me Now.
Today we're going to cover atopic that a lot of my clients
come to me with, and it'sfrustration after visiting the
doctor.
They go to the doctor, they'renot feeling well, something's
off with their body, andoftentimes they're met with.
(00:22):
But your blood work looks good,or they're met with.
If you take this medication,it'll help, you feel better.
Or if you lost weight, xyzhealth condition or problem
wouldn't be happening becauseyou're just overweight.
And it becomes very frustratingfor them.
And I've been in that kind ofscenario too, where I'm just
(00:46):
trying to heal at the root levelbut I'm met with just oh, this
will take care of the problemand this will take care of the
symptom, and sometimes it doeshelp.
But I am a firm believer thathealing happens at a deeper
level, right, and we're going tothe doctor to try and
understand what's happening andto try and get whatever's going
(01:08):
on to totally go away, not justmanage the symptoms.
Right, and there's a few blindspots that happen when we are in
these kinds of relationshipswith the doctor and this is not
a doctor bashing episode shipswith the doctor, and this is not
(01:28):
a doctor bashing episode.
What happens most of the time isthat they're not educated on
this, and by this I mean foodand lifestyle.
This is not somethingnecessarily.
They're taught in medicalschool.
They are taught how todetermine what your symptoms are
and then treat those symptomsso that you can start to feel
better, and this is like at atotally high level.
(01:48):
They're really not taught howyour lifestyle and how you eat
and your stress levels and theway you live your life impact
your health.
So here you are, you're onthree or four medication and no
one's talking to you about howfood can impact you and how your
(02:09):
lifestyle can impact you.
And it was just recently onInstagram.
I heard a famous doctor say thatwe have a lifestyle issue in
the United States, and it's true.
There's lifestyle issue,there's accessibility issue,
there's education issue.
There's just so many thingsthat is industry is creating.
(02:31):
And this is even more magnifiedfor women because women are not
(02:53):
studied as frequently.
We are seen as complicatedcreatures because we do have
hormonal shifts happening everymonth with our menstrual cycle
and perimenopause.
So it's not until recentlywhere there are female specific
studies happening and education,and medical professionals are
(03:13):
being educated on this.
So what happens is that weoften also get gaslit when we go
to the doctor, and a lot oftimes they say that it's in her
head or that it's not thatserious, it can't be that
painful, and there are a numberof articles just going around on
this where they're callingthese things out in the medical
(03:37):
field, especially when it comesto women.
So, because our bodies are sodifferent, because our hormones
are more sensitive and itrequires this symphony of a flow
our hormones really getimpacted by the way we live and
by the food we're eating.
(03:58):
So it turns into this managingthe symptom rather than creating
and nurturing our health.
And this is not bashing onmedication either, like
pharmaceutical medication overthe counter.
What have you?
I do think that they're allimportant.
There is a time and a place foreverything, and we are very
(04:21):
lucky to have this amount ofmedication accessible to us for
when it is needed.
However, what I do thinkhappens is that, because there's
really no guidance from themedical professionals as to how
to help our symptoms go away orwhat can be helpful, then
(04:42):
they're over-prescribed andthey're used for very long
periods of time, and then theybuild on each other and of
course, they have side effectsand things like that.
So if we learned how to live alifestyle like how to eat better
, how to manage your stressbetter, how to sleep, so on and
so forth maybe we would be ableto come off of those medications
(05:07):
with our doctor's approval, orwe might not need them at all.
To begin with and I can sharesome examples with you so that
you're understanding betterwhere I'm coming from I'll start
with myself.
I was pre-diabetic very earlyon.
I was 31 years old and my bloodwork.
(05:31):
I found this out years later,after I created a login for
Quest Lab and I saw my bloodwork results from years ago.
And then I was like, oh my God,my blood work results from
years ago.
And then I was like, oh my God,I was pre-diabetic.
The note that the nursepractitioner had written that
(05:53):
went along with this blood workresult was oh, you're doing fine
, nothing to worry about.
Eat more fruits and vegetables,exercise the typical response.
And it just rolls off theirtongue at this point, because
every single doctor would tellyou that and they don't know
exactly what that means, how todo it and most likely they're
(06:14):
not doing it themselves.
So at that point, if I wouldhave continued my lifestyle the
same way that I had been now at39 years old, I would have most
likely right this is allspeculation been diabetic or
been way, way deeper intoprediabetes.
They probably would haveprescribed to me some sort of
(06:39):
medication like metformin tohelp me manage my blood sugar,
and I would have just continueddown this rabbit hole of
inevitably getting diabetes.
However, what happened wasbecause I had switched my
lifestyle, my blood, my bloodwork, basically my eight of one
C, completely reverted back to aquote, unquote normal range
(07:03):
where I was no longer in thatwarning that warning, I guess,
range of pre-diabetes.
And that's the power of foodand lifestyle, because just by
changing a few things of the wayI eat and trust me, if you know
me or if you don't know me Ihave never given up my cultural
(07:23):
foods or foods I love and enjoy,like bagels and mango and
tostones and French fries andpizza and all these and ice
cream, right, donuts things I doenjoy, but I did learn how to
eat them in a different way.
I did learn how to meet mybody's needs in a different way.
(07:44):
I did learn how to meet mybody's needs in a different way.
I did learn how to incorporateexercise in my life.
So the lifestyle changes that Imade helped me reverse my
prediabetes, as I have supporteda lot of my clients in doing so
as well.
And it comes down to thelifestyle.
If I would have continued toeat and do whatever I was doing
(08:08):
years ago, then I would havegotten into real big trouble.
And looking back at my photosfrom college and my early 20s, I
know exactly why I waspre-diabetic.
Like I was downing those youknow Dallas BBQ, henny Coladas
(08:30):
and Pina Coladas with all thesyrup and the margaritas, and I
was just eating a crazy amountof I don't want to say carbs
because I don't want to demonizethem, but the way I was living
my life was not conducive tosupporting my body in not going
into prediabetes and thendiabetes All right.
(08:51):
So these are conversations thatare not happening in the doctor
.
Another example is that Irecently had a yeast infection
after like 17 years and I wentto the gynecologist just to make
sure that everything was okay.
She gave me, I used, monistaand then she gave me a
(09:12):
prescription.
I forgot what the name of theprescription was called, but
it's to kill yeast, basically.
But what I know also to be trueis that yeast feeds off of
sugar, right.
So she gave me theprescriptions and she was like
take one and then, two dayslater, take the other one and
(09:35):
goodbye, have a nice day.
Oh, no, no, no.
Then she goes you know, eatfruits and vegetables, eat
anti-inflammatory foods.
You know, exercise vegetables,eat anti-inflammatory foods.
You know, exercise.
And I started laughing becausethis was my first time seeing
this doctor and she doesn't knowme or you know my lifestyle or
anything like that.
Nor did she ask.
And then I was like I wascracking up because I said you
(09:59):
know, I'm that person thatsprinkles turmeric in my eggs
every morning and I do eatfruits and vegetables, and very
balanced, and I exerciseregularly.
And she stares at me and shegoes oh, I want to be like you
when I grow up.
And I'm like what do you meanby that?
And she goes I don't do any ofthose things.
(10:19):
She's like it's too hard for me.
I recommend it all the time tomy patients, but I don't do that
.
Okay, so again, you can haveall the information in the world
, quote, unquote, but you don'tnecessarily know how to use it.
It might be difficult, it mightbe out of the ordinary for you,
and instead of having thisconversation about around food
(10:43):
and lifestyle and maybe saying,hey, naomi, don't eat sugar
because that feeds the yeast sothey can completely die off, uh,
try having, you know, garlicand ginger, because those kinds
of foods are anti-inflammatory,none of that happened.
(11:10):
None of that happened becausethat's not their area of
expertise.
So what did I do?
Yes, I did take the medicationbecause I needed something to
support me ASAP.
I really did need relief frommy symptoms because it's
extremely uncomfortable.
And then, on top of that, Iswitched up my food, how I was
(11:31):
eating, and I incorporated foodthat I know heals and helps heal
and kill off bacteria, or yeastrather.
And on top of that, I alsomanage my emotions because I
also work with holistic healersand when I spoke to the both of
(11:52):
them, they both recommended Iwork on my emotions and I didn't
go deeper into the story.
But it was yeast, or the rash Iwas having was tied to certain
organs in my body and certainorgans are tied to certain
emotions in the body.
That's really tied totraditional Chinese medicine.
(12:14):
So, in essence, I did go to myhealer to process emotions.
I really tried to help myselfbecome more regulated.
In addition to the foods I waseating, to starve out this
bacteria, the yeast.
I spoke to the doctor again andguess what happened?
(12:36):
She was like oh, your bloodwork came back, fine, you don't
have yeast anymore.
Meanwhile I had this mean redfever, very, very itchy rash on
my neck that was from this yeastthat was coming back to my body
.
All right, so again, it's notlike let's not go to doctors,
(13:00):
it's how do we combine howdoctors can help us understand
where their blind spots are andwe can fill in the blank where
their blind spots are and we canfill in the blank, or we can
help ourselves, on the other end, with the way that we're eating
and our lifestyle.
And just to quickly run througha few of my clients and their
(13:23):
stories, I had a client who hadbeen on IBS medication for many,
many years and she didn't havea clear understanding of IBS.
She didn't know that she hadceliacs.
The doctors had recommended inthe past to go gluten-free.
However, they didn't explainwhy or gave her any culturally
(13:47):
relevant solutions to help hergo gluten-free, because that's
not easy when you come from aculture where a lot of the foods
that we're eating or yourcomfort foods have gluten.
So that's also the differencebetween going to the doctor for
like five minute visit andgetting some notes on a paper of
(14:09):
what to do and actually havingsomebody support you make these
changes with cultural relevanceand supporting you through that,
where you get resources and youget different recipes or you
get to process your emotionsaround it.
(14:30):
You get to understand how youfeel.
That's the type of stuff thatyou do with me, versus just
going to the doctor and you'rejust getting this printout.
So, needless to say that after afew months of working together,
she was able to get off hermedication with her doctor's
(14:52):
permission.
This is always with yourdoctor's approval and permission
.
I want to make that extremelyclear.
I'm not like hey, friend, youcan get off your meds now.
That is 100% unethical.
Most of the time I am askingyou to go to the doctor and to
ask them questions andpermission for things, right.
(15:13):
So yeah, I just wanted to makethat super clear.
She was able to safely get offher meds and really manage not
feeling sick to her stomach,literally by changing the way
she ate and understanding foodand how it affected her.
I had another client who hadPCOS and she was on medications
(15:39):
as well to make sure that shewas getting basically a forced
period, just to make sure thatshe was cleaning out her uterus
and all of that every month.
And eventually, as we workedwith food and lifestyle and we
adjusted how she was eating, sheunderstood how to pair her
(16:02):
meals and all that.
Eventually she got her periodback naturally again, having
conversations with her doctor,her period back naturally again,
having conversations with herdoctor, and she was able to get
off of this medication becauseall of a sudden she was not
missing periods anymore, theywere coming naturally.
And surprise, surprise, shealso ended up getting pregnant
(16:23):
and having a beautiful baby afew months later.
Because food and lifestyle work.
Okay, food and lifestyle works.
I've had other clients who havereally bad acne.
They're going to thedermatologist.
The dermatologist offers themsteroid creams and what's it
(16:48):
called Antibiotics and all theseother things to try and support
them, and we never have aconversation around what their
food is like.
Okay, these things just it'sjust not their place of focus,
it's not something that they'reeven comfortable talking about,
(17:11):
unless your doctor intentionallygot another degree in nutrition
, which one of my doctors doeshave, and some of them do have
because they do understand howimportant it is.
So they do feel morecomfortable in addressing
certain symptoms and situationswith food and lifestyle, which,
(17:32):
again, it's part of the formula.
Sometimes it's not just theonly solution.
We do need support frommedication every once in a while
.
So this particular client shewas going to the dermatologist
and she was just so tiredbecause she had really really
(17:52):
bad periods and she had reallyreally bad acne to the point
where she couldn't show up towork.
She was exhausted, she wasembarrassed to show herself and
I have like two clients kind ofalong these lines and she came
to me and she's like, well, Ijust don't know what to do.
(18:13):
And we started again workingwith how she was eating when she
was eating, what kinds of foodshe was having and, guess what?
Her acne started to improve,her acne started to go away.
She then started working with aesthetician to help clear out
(18:35):
the scarring, to help clear outthe bacteria that was already at
the surface level of her faceand she stopped getting painful
cystic acne because sheimplemented the food and
lifestyle changes that wouldsupport her and she did not have
to continue going back forsteroid treatments and
(18:57):
antibiotics.
All of that start to affectother areas of your body, like
your gut health and your gutbacteria and your liver and all
these other things and all theseother things.
So what if we can reallysupport the body in feeling
optimally with the food thatyou're eating and how you're
(19:18):
treating it?
And I'll give you one lastexample, because I can just go
on and on about these kinds ofthings, because food really does
make such a big impact.
It can help you with autoimmuneconditions.
I had a client who wassuffering from Hashimoto's
thyroiditis.
Her numbers pretty muchreversed, it went into remission
(19:44):
.
She again going to the doctor,doctor was testing her Going to
the doctor, doctor was testingher endocrinologist and
throughout our work together shewas able to reverse her
Hashimoto's so much that itwasn't even being like
highlighted in her blood workAll right.
(20:04):
So it's just so beautiful tosee.
And the last one I'm going toshare was one of my clients
really wanted to have a baby.
She was already havingconversations with her doctor
about fertility treatments.
She decided to work with me asa last straw, as like vamos a
(20:29):
ver lo que pasa.
Work with me as a last straw,as like vamos a ver lo que pasa.
Just, we'll see.
And within the first threemonths of us working together,
she got pregnant.
Okay, we worked so much withfood and her lifestyle.
She had a demanding career.
She's also an entrepreneur, aserial entrepreneur at that.
(20:51):
So I'm going on and on withexamples because I hope that
you're able to feel seen and notthink that you need to be tied
to your, to your medications,and every single time you go,
there's a new one, there's a newone forever, like, maybe, maybe
, right, we don't know, butmaybe not.
(21:12):
And that maybe not, I hope,gives you hope that you are able
to make changes that feel good,that are simple, that you can
keep up with and that supportsyour health.
Okay, I want you to know thatmost of the time the symptoms
(21:36):
that you're experiencing is yourbody asking you for something.
Is your body communicating withyou?
It doesn't hate you, it doesn'twant to ruin your life.
It's just literally screamingfor help.
That is all that is happening.
It is really screaming for helpand we're not taught to listen
(21:58):
in that way, right, and we dowhat we think we're supposed to
be doing, which, yes, we go tothe doctor and we try and figure
it out, but they don't offer usthe solution that inherently we
actually are looking for.
However, when we work togetherright, when you start to
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understand that lifestyle is afactor, that the food you're
eating is a factor, that maybeyou don't know how to read your
body symptoms and you feel likeyou're at a total loss because
you've been doctor hopping foryears now and you still feel
like crap and you don't have theanswers that you need, that's,
(22:46):
getting the information andgetting support in adjusting
your lifestyle can actually helpyou heal.
The founder of the nutritionschool I went to has a famous
quote that says given half achance, your body will heal.
Half a chance, your body willheal on its own.
(23:07):
So oftentimes it's not themedication healing you, it's
your body healing you, it's justgiven the opportunity to do so.
So starting to understand yoursymptoms, starting to address
them, to listen to them, tostart to nurture your body with
(23:28):
food that will actually give itthe tools to help you heal, so
that these things hopefullydon't come back Again.
Speculation we're human, thingshappen, we also need to keep
that in mind Can be mind blowingand life changing.
It really gets to me when I seeyoung people, older people with
(23:51):
a gallon size Ziploc bags ofmedications upon medications,
upon medications.
What if we can cut that in half?
What if we don't need to getthere in the first place,
because we honor our bodies sowell while also experiencing joy
?
Cultural relevance is somethingthat's super important, right,
(24:12):
you don't need to give up thestuff that you love most of the
time, right, unless you reallyneed to go gluten-free or
dairy-free or something likethat.
But how still can you find joy?
How can you find alternativesfor the foods that you love?
When you really understand howfood impacts your specific
(24:36):
conditions?
You can work with your body'shealing capacity instead of just
masking those symptoms, andthen you can reduce the need for
medication over time.
Right, this is a medical teamor a wellness team where you are
at the helm of it and then youhave support systems around you,
(24:59):
but really throwing up yourhands and thinking that you
cannot do anything or that youmust rely on these specific
medications forever.
I want to give you hope thatthat's probably not the case and
you can really support yourselfwith food and with your
(25:19):
lifestyle.
Understanding how it works isexactly where I can support you
in one-on-one coaching.
That's exactly what I teach myclients we start to understand
food past the calories.
I know there's always talkabout calories, but we start to
understand food past calories,past sodium.
(25:41):
I think that those are the twothings that people always focus
on, forever and always.
But understanding food at adeeper level, always.
But understanding food at adeeper level, what it's
providing you, what kind ofhealing can it have for you?
Where does it work?
Where does it support you Canreally have the changes that you
really want to see, the healingat the root level.
(26:05):
Okay, so we start to understandfood and that gives you more
freedom, because we don't like,I don't work with a meal plan.
You cannot take a meal planwith you everywhere you go on
vacation, to your familybarbecue, on to Christmas, to
your family gatherings, like no.
But we can learn how to makethe best decision possible if
(26:29):
you have the knowledge to do so,with whatever resources that
you have.
So that is the difference whenyou are actually learning and
learning learning about food andlearning how to implement this
into your life in a way thatfeels good.
You understand the process ofwhat it looks like to become
(26:52):
that person who understand foodsdeeply and who makes choices to
keep yourself feeling good inyour body.
There's obviously with anyjourney.
There is a range of emotionsthat we go by.
There is unsolicited advicethat people like to give without
(27:13):
asking right.
There's so many things thathappen along the way.
So, understanding the culturalnuances, understanding the types
of food that are around at ourfamily gatherings, understanding
how busy life can get being amom, having a corporate job,
being an entrepreneur those areall things that need to get be
(27:36):
taken into consideration andaddress when you are actually
making a lifestyle shift andbecoming that girl, that woman
that you really want to be,where you're in more in control
of your wellness than you thinkand you get to heal at a root
level instead of consistently,every single day trying to
(27:58):
handle a new symptom or a newache or a new pain that you
don't know where it's comingfrom.
So if you want support withthis, I am happy to be that
coach for you that understandsyou at a deeper level and that
puts and helps you compile allthis information together.
(28:20):
That is, supporting you whenyou go to the doctor with what
questions to ask, what kind ofthings to request, and really
get you on the path to heal andthen bringing this back to your
doctor and being like, hey, do Istill need to be on this
medication or not?
What are your thoughts?
What do you think of where myhealth is now?
(28:44):
So I want to invite you to booka free consultation, call or
send me a DM via Instagram sothat we can get the conversation
started.
All right, I want you to reallyhold on to that little bit of
hope and be like okay, if I juststart implementing learning how
(29:07):
to implement what I know aboutfood, what I like to eat and a
few other lifestyle shifts,maybe I can get out of the
situation that I am in, and Ican promise you you most likely
can.
So let's have a conversationabout it so that you can share
your challenges, you can shareyour goals, you can share what
you've done before, theconversations that you've had,
(29:30):
and then we can piece that alltogether so that you can
actually start to heal at theroot level, right, and know that
you can actually reduce themedications that you're using
over time.
Maybe not get there in thefirst place, but we need to
start implementing how, oraddressing how, you eat and your
(29:54):
lifestyle.
All right, I'll see y'all nextweek.
Bye.