When Your Body Says Something’s Wrong: Faith, Hormones, and Healing with Heidi Cooper

🌟 Episode Summary

Many believers know the frustration of “doing everything right”—clean eating, consistent exercise, even regular doctor visits—yet still feeling exhausted, foggy, or unwell. Why does this happen? And what can you do about it?

In this episode, Coach Alex VanHouten sits down with Functional Medicine Practitioner Heidi Cooper, co-founder of Cooper Health Solutions, to uncover why conventional medicine often misses the root of the problem and how God designed our bodies to heal when we steward them well. Heidi shares her personal testimony of battling autoimmune thyroid disease, chronic fatigue, and weight gain—while being dismissed by traditional doctors.

Her journey of suffering not only drew her closer to Christ but also ignited her mission to help others overcome hormone imbalances, brain fog, and energy crashes.

Together, Alex and Heidi explore:
-Why “normal” lab results don’t always mean you’re healthy
-The crucial differences between conventional (branches) and functional (roots) medicine
-How toxins, stress, and lifestyle choices influence epigenetics and chronic illness
-The spiritual cost of poor health—and how it keeps believers from fully living their calling
-Practical steps to restore energy, balance hormones, and walk in freedom
-Whether you’re discouraged by your own health struggles or curious how faith and functional medicine intersect, this conversation offers both hope and a roadmap forward.

👉 Be sure to grab Heidi’s Brain and Hormone Optimization Guide (link in the show notes) for your next steps.

🕑 Episode Timestamps
0:00 – Welcome & prayer
5:40 – Meet Heidi Cooper – Her background & mission
13:30 – Heidi’s valley & testimony – From Hashimoto’s to healing
21:00 – Why you still feel crummy when “labs are fine”
28:15 – Pain to purpose – How suffering deepened her walk with God
33:00 – Stewardship, bondage, and health in the church
40:20 – Brain & Hormone Optimization Guide – Practical tools for listeners
43:30 – Starting with Cooper Health Solutions – Assessments & labs
49:40 – Conventional vs. functional medicine – Alex’s “tree” metaphor
57:10 – Stewardship costs & investments – Eggs vs. Lucky Charms lesson
1:01:30 – Living differently from the world – Joshua’s declaration applied to health
1:03:20 – Speaking to the discouraged listener – Heidi’s heartfelt encouragement
1:04:30 – Virtual coaching & resources – How to connect with Heidi 1:05:20 – Closing prayer & blessing

Show Resources:
 Visit https//:BetterDaily.live/devo to explore the Faithful Fitness Devotional
👥 Join our Better Daily community: https://betterdaily.live/invite
 Subscribe and share the Faithful Fitness Podcast with someone walking through suffering or looking to serve through their fitness

🙌 Connect with Heidi
Free Resource: https://get.cooperhealthsolutions.com/brain-and-hormone-ebook
Cooper Health Solutions: https://cooperhealthsolutions.com/
Follow Heidi on social media: https://www.instagram.com/skinsideout_heidicooper/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/faithful-fitness-by-better-daily--5150768/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for my Dad. Coach
Alex van Houghton helps you get stronger and mind, body,
and spirit. He believes that your body's a temple, so
taking good care of it is an actual worship. I
should know. I live with him every week. He brings
truth from the Bible, tool from science, and stories that
will set your heart on fire. May God bless you

(00:23):
to become everything He made you to be, just one
percent better every single day.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
What's up, guys, This is coach Alex van Houghton on
the Faithful Fitness Podcast. I am super, super excited to
be joined with functional health practitioner Heidi Cooper from Cooper
Health Solutions. Happy Thursday, Heidi, how you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I did fantastic, Alex, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm doing so good. Thank you for joining me on
this show. I had the distinct pleasure of getting to
hang out with Bruce just a few months ago on
the show, and I gotta say you strike me as
his better half. No offense to him, love Bruce, but
I'm super excited to be your Alex. I'm excited to
have you too, And for my listeners, if you want
to reference anything we talk about With regard to doctor

(01:06):
Bruce Cooper, you can check out our show about well,
we dove into Mitylchandria. He really likes to talk about Midelkandria,
So we dove into Mitolchandria and I'll make sure that
that links in the show notes. But we have our
own stuff to talk about. Ms Heidi, I really want
to start with with your own personal passion. You are
very passionate about helping your clients, your customers, your audience.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Find this.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I would say it's ineffable, but you'll probably articulate it better.
This ineffable freedom from feeling like my body is not
working well for me, and it comes from your own story.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
You experienced a.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Valley that well, I will let you speak to it,
that your body was disregulated on the inside that led
you through what it sounded like a year's long process
to find healing and transformation for yourself. So can you
talk to me a bit about where this passion for
helping individuals come from and what you experienced in your

(02:05):
own journey.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Gosh, such a long story, Alex that I'm going to
try to condense, but I hope that everyone out there
my heart and about sharing this story is that if
somebody's going through something difficult, how God can use that
pain to purpose. You know, I think a lot of
us in this health space, particularly in the functional medicine space,
we see that there's been a lot of different challenges

(02:29):
that people have experienced. In fact, ever was a joke
that I didn't like choose to be the weird one.
You know, God called me to this, and so you know,
it goes really really far back. I just I'm in
my fifties now, but I'm back as a teenager. It
started with skin stuff. They got me down this four
natural path, did all the conventional stuff, none of that

(02:50):
really fixed it. I was introduced to more holistic approach.
So that opened my eyes to what is possible in
that realm, I would say, from then on, and I
was just very open to creator and design, like there's
a way that God designed us, and if we support that,
it really works better. So it's a skin space for
a long time after that. And then interestingly, I would say,

(03:15):
probably about sixteen years ago, all of these things that
we were working with that were successful in that space
really weren't working as well anymore. And simultaneously, my health crashed.
So after I had my son, I was like in
our mid thirties and he I think by the time
he was about too my health completely crashed. And I
had always been this really you know, fit athletic person

(03:41):
and just had this severe energy crash, a lot of
just crazy symptoms. I think, as you know, as an athlete,
you know you're pretty in tune with your body. And
when I was going to doctors, they were basically saying,
you're just getting older. You're a working mom. I knew,
you know, I had been able to get kind of

(04:02):
performed at a certain level and had great energy, and
that just was not the case anymore. I knew something
was off, and so at that point I kind of
asked for more lab work and kind of had to
beg for that, and they did, like you know, the
hormone library. They said, you're fine, but I knew, I
knew deep down something was off. And so that started

(04:23):
this quest of figuring some of these things out. And
then simultaneously it was happening with clients. I was seeing
a lot of the same patterns. So it was a
very very long, long process I would say probably eight
years of really just trying to figure some of these
things out and I always joked that we spent probably
the equivalent of purchasing a home on different practitioners, whether

(04:46):
it was the medical conventional realm. Then we went the
natural route with things, and I would say at best
we got some kind of some minor relief, but wasn't
really fixing the problem. And so that's for me on
to go back to school for the functional medicine piece
back in twenty sixteen. Okay, And so here we are

(05:08):
today with all of these amazing answers. You know, I'm
in my fifties now and feel way better than I
did in my thirties, and it just kind of dial
back a little bit. In my thirties, I did, finally,
through functional medicine, get an autoimmune thyroid diagnosis, so I
was diagnosed with hashimotives have been able to reverse all
of that. And just I always kind of share with

(05:29):
people now that as a believer, you know, we want
to be able to radiate Jesus and be salt and
light and be life to people and speak life to people.
Feeling so crummy, it's really hard to do that. You know,
I could barely smile, let alone, you know, be hands
and feet of Jesus and radiate light. So that's really

(05:51):
my purpose too, is just is just helping other people
remove those barriers so they can really be intentional about
the purpose that God has for them here too.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Awesome, thank you for sharing that story. And so when
did you receive your diagnosis for autoimmune hashimotives?

Speaker 3 (06:10):
So that was back in my thirties, I think probably
closer to like late thirties. I got that diagnosis, and
you know, along with it was you know, all of
that chronic fatigue. I had always been super fit. I
had gained forty pounds, like, eating super clean, still working
out as much as I could. So I have a

(06:30):
real heart for people that are doing a lot of
the things right and still having a lot of challenges.
In fact, there's a mentor in our space that says,
you'll never get well without changing the diet, but the
diet alone will never get you well. We were really
being in the most toxic time and history chemically, emotionally, physically,
and so you know, the stress bucket fills up and

(06:53):
all these things start creating gene expression getting turned on
in different areas for people. So there's us more to
the story.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Than just the diet, right, right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know, there's this very very common idea that our
bodies are like cars, right, And I speak about this
pretty often because in some ways they kind of are.
You know, they're the vessel. They get us from point
A to point B. You have to fuel it, you
got to take care of it, you know, all those things.
But there's a couple of distinct differences between our body
and a car. More than a couple, probably, but a
couple just high level. And you kind of mentioned one there,

(07:26):
and I want to drill in on it a little
bit because it's not something a lot of people understand
very well, or at least at a level that will
help them in their personal health and fitness.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
And that that is this idea that a car does
not build itself out of the fuel that you put
in it. It just goes from point A to point B.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
But in our bodies, what we consume becomes a part
of the system over time, particularly with regard to proteins
and fats, but there are some other chemicals that our
body can can incorporate in addition to that. Not only
does the fuel that we put into our body become
a part of the system, but it also affects how
the system works. You mentioned it's the buzzword is epigenetics.

(08:08):
But but you mentioned the idea that that what we're
consuming and what we're doing, and maybe even our environment
has effects on the genes that are turned on or
turned off.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
That's methylated or isolated in our body.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Right, And so so, I when I work with individuals
who are wrestling with an immune process, and I see
that very frequently in my line of work, it sounds
like you do as well. It's it's it's almost impossible,
not impossible, but it's almost impossible to completely understand how

(08:45):
the body has gotten to the point where it's fighting
with itself on the inside. And the feeling that somebody
gets is something's not right. That's the feeling, right, I
know something's not right. Of like you were wrestling with.
I know, Okay, I'm getting a little older, Yeah, I
got kids, Yeah, i'm a working mom. Yeah, but but

(09:07):
something's not right, something's off, and and that's something is
really hard to pinpoint. And that's something you're really passionate
about too. So, so can you can you help my
listeners understand when somebody feels like they're doing everything right.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
I'm exercising, I'm I'm doing better than I used to.
I'm I'm eating well, I'm meaning better than I used to.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'm I'm seeing some results. But still I know something's off.
I know something's not right.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
What is what's the what's at the core of that,
and how do we address it.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
It's a great question because I think so many people
are struggling with that these days. You feel like for
the amount of effort that they're putting in, they're not
seeing the results they should. The amount of effort, you know,
like you shared, they might see incremental improvements, but you know,
I think if you think back to like maybe somebody's
in there twenty and they're scarfing down to pizzas and

(10:02):
whatever else and they clean up their diet for a
week and they feel amazing, or you know, they were
able to see these remarkable improvements at one point and
now are at this point where they're eating really well.
And I remember at one point telling Bruce Man if
I didn't know better, I just started eating pizzas all
the time because I was feeling so terrible even doing
all the right things right. And so I don't ever

(10:26):
want to bash conventional medicine, but they're just not set
up in a way to support some of these chronic situations.
So I think that's that becomes a big barrier for
a lot of people because you I think there's an
assumption that you would go and have lab work done
and if there was anything that was problematic, it would

(10:47):
be flagged in lab work. But I'm sure you know
this too, that it's that lab work is based on
very unhealthy people and it's very broad ranges, and so
throfully looking in the conventional realm to diagnose disease instead
of fostering wellness fostering health. So it's just a different
perspective from that point. Now, I want to give people

(11:10):
hope that if you've had lab work done and it's
checked out and you still feel crummy, it's because there's
more to this story.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
One of the driving factors for me going back to
school for functional medicine was dealing with clients that literally
alex one hundred percent of the time we're going to
their conventional providers and having lab work done and they
would come back and say everything checked out. Everything that
was going on with them was not reflective of things

(11:39):
being fine, So there is more to this story. There's
just a different way to look at that. And with
functional lab work, we look at optimal ranges that are
based interestingly on the research in the conventional realm on
advanced disease states and morbidity rates. So it's just a
different a different perspective, a different approach. And so I

(12:04):
think for a lot of people, once again, if they've
gone down that path and had regular lab work done
and it's checked out, that they still feel cremetor's just
more to the.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Story, right, And I think this is when I like
to talk about second opinions, like, you know, because no
offense to the general practitioner or the family practice doctor
that you go into and you get your annual lab
work and whatnot. But in general, what insurance pays for
oftentimes is a very very ten thousand foot view, so

(12:37):
to speak, of what's going on in your body and
if you're normal, Like if you're normal on all those metrics,
it doesn't mean that there isn't something you could learn
about what's going on on the inside. It just well,
it just might mean you need somebody's opinion who has
experience looking at more than just cholesterol, A n C, glucose, sodium, right,

(13:00):
and not that those can't tell you anything, but they
don't tell you a lot. They don't tell you a
lot about what's happening on the inside. In fact, all
those things that I mentioned have nothing to do with
the immune system or very little. And so in your case,
I'm sure that even before your diagnosis, you were getting
all sorts of normal readings knowing you didn't feel good.

(13:21):
And thereafter so I have howshimotoves great. What does that mean? Well,
for some people, it means thyroid hormone replacement therapy, yes,
to get your lab values normal, But your experience was
that that wasn't what fixed you either, And you don't
necessarily need to. I don't want anybody to hear like
here's the magic sauce for fishing, frixing how shemotives on

(13:43):
your own, But I do want people to understand the
layers of investigation and guidance that are required to bring
you out of something that you know is just not right.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yes, it can be very complex, you know, Like I
always will share that you can have ten people with
thyroid issues for ten entirely different reasons. And also I
think we've been conditioned from the medical perspective. Basically what
you shared, like, you go in, maybe you get a diagnosis,
and everybody gets on the same you know, basically the

(14:17):
same medication or the same protocol if they're displaying like
the same diagnoses. And so just going back to how
God made us very bio individually, there are different things
influencing how some of that gene expression gets turned on
and how we support that other thing I wanted to

(14:37):
share with you too when you said that I bet
your labs look great. Something I always like to share
is that during this period of time when I felt
my absolute worst, I had life insurance lab work done right,
and they said basically, yeah, you'll probably be in like
a good category or whatever. And I was in this
elite status. And I think even the people doing all
of this insurance stuff like only only like elite athletes

(15:02):
are in that category. And here I ended up with
this elite status, elite athlete status lab work and felt
the worst that I had ever felt in.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
And so I was like to share that that this
is this is what can happen. So it's it can
be very confusing for people when they're not feeling well,
and they get this feedback from the medical realm that says, well,
I mean you're doing great and you're really not feeling
great at all, that there is more.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
To the story there mm hm.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
So I want to dig into the pain just a
little bit, the suffering of that process. I call it
the Valley of the Shadow of Death after Psalm's twenty three.
But it really is a true feeling if you're hiking
through it, because to hear you speak it now with
a big smile on your face, is not that you're
smiling at it. You're smiling knowing where you've come from.
That's the that's the goodness of God you're smiling about,

(15:55):
which is wonderful. But can you can you describe what
it looks like on a data day basis to seek
both the Holy Spirit's help but also to look at
the next step in front of you and know something
needs to shift, something needs to change in me to
make the most out of the body God's given me. Here,

(16:16):
what was that process like? If you could give us
a day in the life of Heidi when she was
wrestling through that season, for sure, and I.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Will tell you God used that is a catalyst to
really draw close to him. You know, I grew up
in a Christian home, I went to private Christian school,
all the things, and really honestly saw a lot of
hypocrisy in that space. So by the time I was
a young adult, I wanted nothing to do with it.
So all through my twenties I rebelled against that. I really,

(16:50):
I think at that point would call I have called
myself a spiritual person, but not a religious person or whatever.
You know, I never denounced knowing the Lord, but I
was just, I think, very disenchanted with what I had seen,
and so kind of went away from that very much
all throughout my twenties and even after. You know, when

(17:13):
I met Bruce, I was away from all of that.
And I think our son, like I shared, was a
couple of years old, and I think he really used
this very painful time as a wake up call for
me to really draw close to him. And so it
has just created this man. You know, nothing, nothing really

(17:33):
has you seeking the Lord like those tough times, and
so I'm so grateful for them now. So terrible during
that time, you know, I think he used it to
humble me. I think I was using some of the
fitness and athleticism and all of that. It was, it
was it was very very prideful about that, and it
was really humbling to have that taken away and and

(17:56):
all of the efforts that I had put into things
just it was not having the same outcome. And so
he really used that painful, painful time to seek him
and really pray for answers. And that's really the amazing
thing now, is all these years later, to have these
answers that were prayed for and watched him fulfill through

(18:17):
different hardships, you know, some of these answers that we
now share with people. So I feel so purposeful from
that standpoint, just knowing that there are other people struggling
with these sorts of things and they're praying for answers too.
And you know, when we can support our physiological and

(18:37):
our physical bodies, how much more we could be used
for His purpose instead of just feeling crunny and you know,
not having the energy and the health to really facilitate
some of what God has designed for us to do here.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
M hmm, yeah, Yeah, there's a there's this There's an
amazing passage in Matthew where Christ says, if any man
wishes to be my disciple, he would deny himself, pick
up his cross and follow me. Now, a cross can
mean a It's a symbol of a lot of different things.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Obviously, the crucifixion and what he did on the cross
is a redeeming picture. But the cross is also like
no joke, man, that's like a symbol of human mortal suffering.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
It's like the.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Crisis of the day. You know, I'm gonna I'm going
to pick up this thing and I'm going to carry
it forward. What's what's powerful about that is each of
us have a cross to carry as as disciples. Each
of us have that, and if we'll pick up ours
forth rightly, not only may we learn it's not as
heavy as we thought it was, which is cool.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
That's that's a process.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
But but also when we're gathered together in that process,
if I see you carrying your cross well, and you're
you're learning things through your journey, that's that that you
can share with other people to help them with theirs.
If I see you carrying your cross well, that that
gives me an inspiration and a and a desire to
keep moving forward.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
That's what Paul called the encouragement to the.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Brethren, you know that we would continue to encourage each
other and support each other in the faith. And so
so for me to you thank you for carrying your crosswell,
I really appreciate that. And I also appreciate that you've
taken that as an impetus to help other people carry
there as well too, because it sounds like you've learned
so many lessons through that process that has allowed you

(20:24):
to step into other people's cross carrying journey and help
them lighten the load a bit.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Absolutely, And I think especially you know, we kind of
look at what's going on in the world these days,
and we kind of briefly touched about some of the
things that we're having exposure to, whether it's you know,
chemical toxsins, emotional things, you know, physical stressors, all of
these different things that people are dealing with. And I
even feel like I see so much suffering in the

(20:55):
church that I don't think really needs to be there
if people really worked with Creator and design, you know,
I think that there are a lot of answers there
that I feel very purposeful about getting out to everyone,
but particularly I have a heart for the church, for

(21:16):
people within people that are believers that aren't fully able
to live in their purpose because they're not They're not
physically where they could be.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
So I have a picture in my mind. I'll share
it with you. I haven't shared this anywhere else, but
I have a picture in my mind. It's it's something
like this. So Jesus heals the paralytic right like, his
friends drop him through the roof. And you know, lucky
for him, he's got people in his life who care
enough about him. You know that he's not the guy
who you call to move a couch like. Somehow God's
put people in his life who befriend him even though

(21:49):
he's a paralytic.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
So that's interesting. But anyway, so they.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Lower him through the roof to spend time with Jesus,
and Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees
get all bent out of shape about that, because who
can forgive sins? But God and Jesus perceives that and
says to the man, pick up your mat and walk.
And his point to the Pharisees is like, which is
easier to say your sins are forgiven? Or get up
and walk? And so he heals the man of paralysis,

(22:13):
and the guy walks out right. But I always think
about that thereafter. So the guy is healed of paralysis,
But what happens in his life if he puts on
his shoes on the wrong feet every day for the
coming days, right, Like, he's gonna walk weird, He's not
gonna be able to dance well. And it's not because
there hasn't been something powerful and good in his life
that's given him freedom from the Lord. But that well,

(22:35):
he had a part to play in walking normally and
dancing and doing something productive in the community, now that
he can have use of.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
His legs right.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
And I think about that very frequently in the church
setting when I see, for instance, a believer wrestling with diabetes.
Diabetes is very hard. There's all kinds of things that
make diabetes difficult. However, there are things that we can
do that make diabetes better on us, and we can
even in some cases heal diabetes if if we're willing

(23:08):
to to disciple our bodies well, to move and to
eat well, and to rest well, and to care for
ourselves well, if we're willing to learn those skills, we
can in fact make progress of diabetes and there's a
lot of things that make diabetes way worse. You know,
donuts in the church lobby come to mind. I know

(23:29):
there's there's a large incidents of diabetes in Arkansas. Let
me just say, the churches love their donuts.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
And the lobby, right, And and unfortunately I see believers
regularly making their physical situation harder on themselves.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
And then well it has spiritual implications. Lord, why do
I want to feel like this?

Speaker 4 (23:53):
Lord? Lord? Why are you letting me go through this? Lord?
You know what gives? Why don't you heal me already?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And and so there's there are these these deep spiritual feelings, prayers, dispositions,
even even beliefs that come from I see very often
that come from things that we actually have agency in
and we actually could improve if if we were seeking

(24:21):
God's design for our body and caring for this vessel
He's given us to stewards. So when I say that,
what kind of spiritual things do you see coming out
of an individual when their health isn't right?

Speaker 3 (24:36):
So many things just to kind of, you know, expand
upon what you were sharing there too. I think that
a lot of believers are held in bondage over some
of the decisions that they're making. I had a client
that said this one time to me, and it just
it's stuck. It really stuck. She said, how can how

(24:56):
can we expect God to use this when we're held
in bondage over ea, something as simple as Kochs, you know,
like if it's if something's having a power over us
like that, it's a bondage. And I don't think a
lot of the church looks at it that way. You know,
it's it's like the one area for some reason that

(25:16):
that's really overlooked, that caring for our vessels, working with
Creator and design for physical bodies. There's not a whole
lot of emphasis on that, or the importance of that,
or understanding that there's such a spiritual component to that,
like you address, there really is, you know, I would

(25:37):
say that there are so many believers. I don't know
what the right term for this would be because I
don't necessarily think that a I don't believe that a
believer can be possessed by an evil spirit, but I
do think that there are attachments. There are evil attachments
that happen and create bondage for believers, and it really

(26:00):
blinds them to what God has them capable of in
their purpose and fulfilling that. So I would say that
that's a big, a big thing that I see often
is that there's a lot of societal conditioning. I mean,
the Bible talks about that too, you know, like really
seeking the truth from a scriptural standpoint, But there's so

(26:22):
much societal influence sometimes that believers, I think have a
hard time separating that, recognizing how much societal influence is
impacting them negatively. I mean, we could talk about the
food piece, the stress piece, the pace of life, all
of that's not God designed us to rest. He designed
us to eat the foods that He provided, not all

(26:45):
this like engineered stuff, right, you know, So there are
all of these different elements that He really designed for
us to work and operate best and really live in
our purpose that society doesn't support. So it makes it
very easy if societ he's not really supporting all of that,
to kind of have that fall by the wayside because
there's so much influence. I think a lot of times

(27:06):
people don't even recognize how impactful the societal influence is.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Mmmm mm hmm, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's definitely a
it's definitely a conscious decision to do things differently from
the world, so to speak, through exercise, nutrition, lifestyle habits
and whatnot. It's definitely a you're not going to fall
into an on accident, Like it's not oh oh, I
just walked around in Walmart and bought whatever. It turns

(27:32):
out it's really healthy, Like it worked out great. You know,
it doesn't. It doesn't happen that way. You know, even
in the exercise world. I searched around on YouTube and
found a great workout program and it's it's going like,
now I'm in the.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Fittest shape I've ever been in my life.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
I've never heard anybody ever say that it doesn't happen
that way, because because the conscious process of a believer
walking in the freedom and life abundant that that Christ
offers and promises us is a daily thing. It's a
daily process of learning how to care for ourselves well,
how to steward our body well, and then how to

(28:05):
use this thing in a way that's powerful and good
for God's glory. Do you have anything that you'd like
to add to that before I move on a bit.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
No, just that you're exactly right, and I think it
requires being intentional, being mindful and intentional about where we are,
assessing where we are and where we're headed.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Mm.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yes, yes, that's very true. So kind of on that note.
On that note, when you start working with a client
and they come to your practice, there's probably a number
of ways they can get involved. In fact, you've given
my listeners a guide to help them that I'm putting
in the show notes. Can you tell us a little
bit about this guide you've given us to work with?

Speaker 3 (28:50):
So we have a little bit of a brain hormone
optimization guy. So just a really great overview of some
ways to support or some ways to think about how
the brain connects to hormones. We do a lot to
support hormone health because so many people are dealing with
energy issues and brain fog and mood swings and maybe

(29:14):
maybe some depression or anxiety and all of that brain stuff.
Some really foundational components to support that that we have
in that brain and hormone optimization guide. So awesome hid
support there.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yes, Yeah, if we can improve the relationship between our
brain and our hormones, we generally will feel much better
really fast. It's not like it's not like some sort
of magic pill or anything. It's just if we can
improve the relationship between how our brain and hormones are
talking to each other, the feeling of moving forward is

(29:48):
palpable relatively quick, you know. That's why that's why energy
drinks are so popular. And I'm not saying they improve
the relationship between our brain.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
And our hormones system.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
It tricks our brain into thinking the relationship between our
brain and our hormone system is hunky dory, right for
you know, briefly and with some repercussions. But so I
would encourage our listeners to jump in check out that guide.
It's in the show notes. You don't want to miss
out on that, Heidi. If somebody is.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Starting with you, guys, where do you usually.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Like to start for them? What's like ground zero? What's
the first step in kind of combating this idea? Hey,
I'm wrestling with this issue. I've had a bunch of
different opinions. My blab works are fine, I've improved my
nutrition and exercise, and I know I'm not okay.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
So what's like, where do you guys start with that?

Speaker 3 (30:47):
We have this really cool clinical assessment form that we
use that connects maybe some of the symptoms that somebody
might be having two either different could be different toxins,
there's different different health challenges that might be connected to
those sorts of things. And once we have them fill

(31:08):
this out, it's pretty comprehensive. I want to say. It's
close to thirty pages long. It's pretty long, but it's
awesome because when people are dealing with some of these symptoms,
it helps us dial in maybe where we could dig
deeper with either functional lab work or at least at
the very least functional blood chemistry to help connect the dots.

(31:29):
Just in a blab review this morning, on somebody who's
just done like conventional medicine, they always check out fine,
but she knows some stuff is off, and you know,
through just blood work alone, we were able to see
that there's some pretty serious gut issues. There's probably some
sort of viral infection that she's dealing with, So just
a number of different things, lots of inflammation and oxidative stress,

(31:51):
and some blood sugar issues, some insulin issues just from
blood work. So I think we really tried to use
a targeted stride once we have the definitive information from
the lab work and and show them like, hey, this
is really what's going on. It was much more comprehensive
than anything she's seen at her conventional provider's office, and

(32:13):
then it gives us a roadmap of how to approach
that strategically based on her specific situation.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
So yeah, yeah, so you start with assessment like you're
You're like, hey, let's let's understand you well. And you know,
I hate So I recently went to a new primary
care because I'm you know that in that space that
I want to make sure that me and my wife
and my boys we have we have somewhere nearby. This

(32:40):
is the longest I've ever lived in one place in
my whole life. I'm an army brat, so like we've
set down roots, you know, and I don't have to
change my address every few years. So it's it's very
strange to me. I'll go to the grocery store and
like see people I know, which is very weird because
I used to live in Dallas.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
In fact, I met Bruce and Dallas.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
And and like you walk in and you walk out
and you're anonymous, like you never even see the same
cash year twice. Probably, but anyway, so I was finding
a new primary Karen spent some time with them, and
their intake form was was basically a page that was like,
do you have any of these diseases?

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yes or no?

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Basically, And then in the time that I spent with him,
I spent seven minutes. So he walked into the room.
Everything looks good, you look like a pretty fit guy.
Thanks for coming in, you know that sort of thing.
Call me if you need anything, that sort of thing.
And it was seven minutes. And I'm not not justing
the guy. That's the realm of medicine that he's practicing.
But at the same time, I have a deep desire

(33:40):
to have a partner in this process of stewarding my
body well. And I know that my partnership, I'm not
going to find that in the conventional medical world. He'll
be really helpful if I get strep throat. And because
I've got, you know, jeremy children, six year old and
ten year old, they're in public school. They're gonna they're

(34:01):
gonna come home, bring in whatever streplo caucus. You know,
it's it's gonna happen. And and if that happens, and
I've got these big white masses.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
On my throat, and I can't swallow.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
I'm going to my primary care and I'm gonna get
an antibiotic, and I would be so grateful for that process.
But but I wrestle with elers Dan Lows. If I
have a flare up in my intestinal track that that
has me so debilitated that i can't eat without pain,
and so I'm rapidly losing weight. My poor primary care
can't help me. I had to. I had an experience

(34:32):
where where that was the case, they wanted to do
a GI scope. I got a call from the specialist
two weeks later for an appointment six months from now,
and I'm like, dude, if I don't fix this before
six months from now, I'm gonna I'm not. I'm not,
I'm gonna waste a weight in nothing like so so
in in that uh, I speak that frustration and concern

(34:54):
because because I know that in the world we live in,
having a partnership with somebody who knows you very well
is paramount to dealing with that issue that I'm doing
everything right and I know that something's not right. Can
I ask you a question as a practitioner, of course,

(35:15):
do you like it better when somebody comes to you
at square zero? Meaning they have done zero things to
get better so far, or do you like it better
when somebody comes to you at square twenty, Hey, I've
cleaned up what I know to clean up in my diet.
I've been exercising for twelve weeks. You know, I'm resting regularly.
I'm taking some epsom salt baths because i have a
very stressful life. I've gotten a couple of massages. But hey,

(35:38):
I'm seeing some progress, but I know something's not right.
Which client do you prefer to deal with? And obviously
I'm not trying to diss either of them, but I'm
very curious from a.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Practitioner's perspective, who do you prefer to connect with?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, I would say, first and foremost, it is the
one that's committed to change. So that is the most
important to me because I've seen both ends of the
star sectrum that have been committed, and it's amazing, like
you can really, you can really do some amazing things.
I do have a special heart for because I was

(36:10):
that person that was seeking all of these different things
and really trying to do a lot right. I do
have a special heart for that person who's committed to Hey,
I've done all of these other things and none of
this is working. So like, what do I need to do,
I'll do I'll do whatever.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
You know.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Either way, it's really difficult to work with people that
kind of have are just dipping their toe in and
not really fully committed to the process. Because not that
it has to be like a we're making all the
monumental changes overnight. That's not what I'm saying. It's it's
more just a commitment to Bruce always says one percent

(36:50):
better every day, and I love that, you know what
I mean, just taking one step in front of the
other and making progress. You know, when I have people
that are, you know, kind of kind of halfway doing it,
it's frustrating for me because I'm really committed to seeing
to their success and it's just a kind of a

(37:13):
you know, not the best use of anybody's time, resources
or energy if they're not committed. So I would say,
I really the commitment is number one. But I do
have a special heart for people that have tried many
different things. And to your point about the conventional medicine piece,
I always say, listen, if I get into a car accident,
don't take me to whole foods right, Like, there's just right.

(37:36):
There's just a time and a place right for all
of those things. But I also like to explain to
people that there is a completely different board certification for
conventional medicine than there is for the functional medicine realm.
So not to discredit anything that conventional medicine does, they're
just not trained in these things. And I think a
lot of people, because we're dealing with health, would assume

(37:59):
that if they're there were answers that actually work, they
would be using them in the conventional realm. However, that's
just not their their education. They're just not trained that way.
And so functional medicine just looks at all of that differently,
and so there's a there's a time and a place
for both, but there are very few situations where a

(38:21):
practitioner has both of those backgrounds. And then, unfortunately, what
we have found to be the case is that even
if a conventional provider does have more of that education,
insurance unfortunately just does not pay for right things that
actually work in the wellness realm.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
There's that there's that can of worm.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
So so I have a picture that comes to mind
while you're speaking, I like to garden and and well,
so my wife likes to garden. I like to support
her gardening, and I enjoy being in the garden. But
generally my job is more like the intensive labor part,
like the turning over of the soil and the building
of the beds and the and the you know, dealing

(39:01):
with the fence and that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
So I do all those things. I'm very happy to
do them. But I love gardening as a metaphor.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Christ was actually very I don't know if he was
much of a gardener, but I know that he really
loved plant metaphors too, the parable of the sower, the
parable of the mustard seed. Right, So the picture that
comes to mind is something like a tree and you
have the branches, and you have the fruits, and you
have the roots, right, and I think of the conventional

(39:30):
medical system. You've got these branches and one of the
branches doesn't look so good, and you can see the
fruit on that branch is hurting, and so you examine
the branch and you find there's this annoying little grub
that's gotten in the branch of this plant.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
And so you pull the grub out.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
And lo, behold the fruits get better, right, whereas functional
medicine tends to look under the soil and see where
the roots are and the nutrients that are feeding the tree,
and whether or not there's any rot down there, and
blah blah blah. I'm not going to carry this meta
for too far, but I think of those things as
distinctly important and distinctly different. So to wrestle with the roots,

(40:09):
so to speak, is the philosophy of the functional medicine practitioner.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I
think of it. And then to deal with the branches
which need to be dealt with. To deal with the branches,
both of those realms are uber important for the fruit
and for those who aren't following my metaphor or the
fruit of your life being things like the energy you

(40:31):
have available to you, whether or not you're in pain,
your dispositional mood. Is that in keeping with your personality
or is there something keeping you from being the energetic,
vivacious person that we all know you are right and
you know you can. Whether or not I can jump
on a twenty inch box happens to be one of
my fruits. But anyway you can label those fruits however

(40:53):
you want. But the branches and the roots are important,
and I think that for many individuals they go to
the branch doctor for root problems regularly. And so I
want to know what you think about that metaphor because
I describe it to my clients frequently. But I imagine
that you have an opinion.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
I love it. I've never heard that before, and I
think that it's a really really really great visual for
people to understand a little bit more about the There's
differences there, right, but they're both important, There's no doubt
about it.

Speaker 4 (41:26):
You know.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
I think for a lot of people, the challenge becomes,
you know, they invest so much in insurance premiums and
they want to be able to utilize that, and that's
completely understandable. Yeah, However, because all of the root system
work is not the focus of the branch system work,
it's not you know, it's not supported in that way,

(41:49):
and so I think it's difficult sometimes for people to
wrap their head around having to make an additional investment
in what they would consider like the same what they're
looking at is the same plant, right, the same category,
instead of really looking at these being separate components and
you know something that Bruce and I have really tried

(42:11):
to do a better job of educating people, you know, societally,
like we're always you know, encouraged to like invest in
you know, whether it's the stock market or your FRO
and K or you know, like from that standpoint, but
not there hasn't it's we're kind of a reactive society.
So we're not really going to do anything till there's

(42:33):
a problem with health, you know, right you go to
a doctor when there's something wrong, or you know, you
go in and you have lab work and they see
some things off, then they'll do something. But to have
more of that proactive approach has historically not been the case.
So really trying to to plant the seed of the
value in doing that. And you know, I'm sure you've

(42:55):
used this before too. Either pay now or you pay later,
you know, and we kind of share. If you invest
in this now, not only do you you have a
completely different quality of life in general, you feel better.
You you know, you could live in your purpose like
what we've shared and talked about, but you're not building
some of the other challenges down the road where you're gonna,

(43:17):
you know, eventually run into challenges there too, and be
paying for things. But now you might be sick and
still having to pay for things. Like we just ran
into somebody recently that was building disease for a very
long time, not really making a lot of the you
know a lot of the the changes that we would

(43:38):
hope in order to change the trajectory of where their
health was going. And now they're on a medication indefinitely
that costs twenty thousand dollars a month. Wow, and they
have amazing they're double and shored and their copay is
two thousand dollars a.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
Month forever paying the price right.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
So there's just a different way to look at that.
I think a lot of that's, you know, bankruptcy. The
number one reason is medical bills that people have, and
eighty percent of them are insured. So I think a
lot of times people don't They think that they're safe
because they have insurance, so they're not going to run
into some of these issues. And that's just really not
necessarily the case. And the bigger issue from my perspective

(44:19):
is just, hey, God knows how long we're going to
be here. We don't know how long we're going to
be here, but we want our time here to be
vibrant and purposeful, and it gives you the opportunity to
do that when you make that sort of investment too.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
So I have a very strange anecdote, but it'll come together,
I promise.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
So I was.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
I was sixteen years old, and I grew up under
the poverty line. So I remember at the time my
mom was on food stamps. We got wick for my
younger siblings and so on that program you get milk
and you get cereal and that sort of thing. Well,
I was in this phase of I'm like lifting weights.
I'm a young athlete. I kept getting injured. I didn't
know I had eelers downloasts at the time, but one

(44:59):
of the the things I read about injury was I
needed to increase my protein intake. So I'm looking at
Lucky Charms, which I was eating three bowls of in
the morning as a sixteen year old young man eating
three bowls of Lucky Charms, and I'm like, I'm getting
twelve grams of protein in my breakfast in the morning.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
Like that's not going to cut it.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
So I started eating eggs, and I remember I could
buy a dozen eggs for eighty eight cents, and I
would eat three in the morning, and I'd eat a
few other things throughout the day, tuna and whatnot. But
I remember having this conversation with my mom. She's like, al,
eggs are eggs are more expensive than cereal? And I'm like, Mom,
I'm doing the math, and what I see is I

(45:40):
can pay fifty cents more a week to get twelve
more grams of protein for breakfast. And I didn't know
enough to say and photo nutrients and omega three fatty
acids blah blahlah. I don't know enough to say that.
But I'm going to get this much more and it's
only fifty cents a week. You know what, I'll buy
the eggs.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
That's so. I mowed lawns and I did the things,
and I bought my own eggs in my own house.
And I'm not justing my mom here, Mom, I love you.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
She listens to the podcast, and she was doing her
best as a single parent to raise four kids up.
But at the same time, I remember making that decision
in my head and in my heart at sixteen, that
the fifty cents a week was worth it, like that
it was worth that, it was worth buying the extra

(46:27):
good for me food. Then the I didn't again, I
didn't have the language to speak it, but the food
that I knew wasn't doing the job for me right.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
And I feel like a.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Lot of a lot of the conversations about health and
fitness boil down to the same question. It's like, Okay, yeah,
there's a cost difference, Yeah, one hundred percent. There's a
cost difference between going to do lab work with my
primary care which my insurance pays for. Okay, great, and
then getting a deeper dive, an investigative look with a
functional medicine practitioner that my ins ands won't pay for it.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
There's a cost difference a hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
But the question is am I willing to pay that
in order to be a better steward of my body?

Speaker 4 (47:10):
And I think that for me, that's the that's the
core core thing.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Jesus said. Jesus said something really interesting. He says, where
your treasure is there, your heart might be also, meaning
that that you know, if you have to make an effort,
if you have to if you have to make a sacrifice,
so to speak, if you have to make an investment.
What's interesting is is your your time, your energy, your

(47:35):
your heart, your focus starts going in that direction. In fact,
if you have to pay a little extra money to
get an investigative look at your health and fitness, you
actually might go do something with it.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
It's not going to be Fridge Art.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
And so I say that out loud to say that
that I believe there's something complicated about how we make
our decisions here.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
But it's really simple and the simple the simple question is.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Do I believe that I'm being the best steward of
my body that I know how to be right now?
And if you feel like the answer is no, if
you're like, no, I'm missing something, there's something I don't
know about taking care of me, then then it's going
to require some of your treasure, whether it's your time,
your energy, your finances. You're like, it's going to require
some of your treasure to make a shift in that direction.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
And I believe it.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
It pays off dividends in the future. That's what stewardship is.
But but that, but that, it's it's well, it's sixteen
year old Alex's question. Lucky charms are eggs. One costs more,
but it's better for you. So what do you do
about that? Any thoughts on that?

Speaker 3 (48:44):
Isn't it interesting? If you look back now you may
not even realize this at sixteen, but you were. You
were fostering creator and design. You know, he designed for
us to have the eggs, not the lucky terms. But like, inherently,
I think we know on some level that some of
these things aren't the best for us. This goes back
to the societal influence thing. It's everywhere. Everybody does it,

(49:08):
you know, everybody. Well, we don't have lucky terms of
our house. I'm sure you don't either, but you know,
like a lot of people do, and that's societally acceptable.
So it would seem that that's okay. But if we
really dial it back and take a step back and look,
we know that that's not the best we know, you know,
we know that's not how we were designed to fuel ourselves.

(49:30):
That's not really the best the best resource for us
in order to you know, optimize our health. So, yeah,
think you're you're right about that.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Well, I think I think this is where we have
the Joshua ethos. You know, you can look around, or
it's even the Daniel ethos from from the Old Testament.
You look around and say, Okay, the world's doing this,
but as for me and my house, Joshua says, as
for me and my house will serve the Lord. I
tack onto that, not that I'm adding to the Bible,
but as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord with our bodies. We're like, we're going to

(50:02):
take good care of this thing and do the best
we know how. Doesn't mean we do it perfectly. You know,
my kids have had lucky charms, by the way, but
they just do it on leg day.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
I'm just kidding. But navigating that space and.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Doing it well for yourself, I believe is an impetus
for doing it for your family, maybe even doing it
well in your community, and in our case, doing it
well for clients. Heidi, I feel like we've talked a
bunch about a lot of things so far, and I
really feel like I continue talking to you for quite
a while. But I'm looking at the time and I'm like, oh,

(50:38):
we only have three minutes, So I'm so sorry. I'm
so sorry that we can't keep talking. But at the
same time, I want you to have the opportunity to
address the listener right now, a very specific listener, the
listener who resonated with your story and said, you know what,
I've been in that position. It could be a dude
or a lady. But I see this a lot, especially.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
With young mom. Uh.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
I feel like I'm doing everything right and I I
know something's not right and I'm discouraged. I've talked to
God about it. I'm not really sure where to turn.
I feel like giving up a lot, like that's that's
where I'm at, That's where my headspace is at. Heidi,

(51:22):
if you had the opportunity to look at that listener
in the eye and speak life into them, what comes
to your heart and mind to speak?

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Ah, you know, I actually prayed about this before I
came on your podcast and we get choked up.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
Oh, because it has been such a pain to purpose
that if there's one person that I can reach that's struggling,
I just hope that they know that there's hope.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
There's hope, there are answers out there, you know, just
to seek just to really listen to what God has
for you, you know, steward things the best way that you can. Obviously,
I'm here as a resource. I've got social media trying
to provide a lot of information for people to be
able to understand that there are different options and choices

(52:10):
for them to make.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Thank you for that, Heidi, I appreciate your heart. And
if somebody is not local to you, do you guys
still work with individuals who aren't right there in your area, Yes.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
And we in fact really do the majority. But we
work with now virtually because we've found there's so much
ground that we cover during our sessions that when we
can record them on Zoom, that they have the ability
to review that and that's been very helpful for our client.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
To help you.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Awesome, very good, very good. So final call to my listeners.
If this conversation resonated with you, you can find a
guide in the show notes below with Heidi, and then
I'll make sure that the links to Cooper Health Solutions
is below as well so that you can get a
deeper look. I do not offer as an institution or.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
As a coach.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
I do not offer this level of functional medicine testing.
So if this is something that you want and you
want to work with a functional medicine person, it's not
like you're bypassing me. It's like you're getting to the
you're getting to the people I would recommend to you.
So that said, Heidi, I want to I want to
make sure that I get to pray over you and
pray over Bruce and your enterprise and the good work

(53:21):
that you guys are doing in the world. So if
you would bow your head with me, thank you, Father, God,
thank you so much for this day. Thank you for
the opportunity to spend time with my sister Heidi, and
for the way that you have blessed her and Bruce
to be on this journey to help individuals carry their crosswell. God,
I pray that you will care for their hearts, give

(53:41):
them good guidance and answers in order to help their
clients well.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
I also pray that.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
The sincerity of their mission shines through and every conversation
they have and every person they encounter. Lord, I also
pray that you'll bless them as they carry a lot
of burdens for other individuals. It's not easy to hear
the struggles that individuals are going through, especially when you
love hard and well. So I pray Lord that you'll

(54:06):
give them fresh vision and fresh energy to operate well
and they're in the space of health and fitness that
they're operating, and I also pray a special blessing in
favor over each person that comes across their path, help
them to have healing in their hands and in their
eyes and mouths in Jesus' name.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Amen.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Amen, thank you so so much.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Thank you Heidi, And to the listeners guys, thank you
so much for tuning in to Faithful Fitness. This has
been coach Alex vn Houten And until next time, train hard,
pray harder.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Hey, if this episode help you, chare it with someone
who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe
and leave us a raving review so more people can
find Faithful Fitness. Oh and my dad's new devotional is
almost out now. You can grab a copy for you
and then join our free community at Better Daily by

(55:04):
clicking on the links in the show notes below. We
all have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when
we do it together, so check out both links in
the show notes. Don't be a big well Bob, just
do it. Until next time, don't forget, train hard and
pray even harder.