Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep. 55: How to go stop eliminating foods and find GI and skin health relief with Samantha Kane, MS, RD

Transcript

Ep. 55: How to go stop eliminating foods and find GI and skin health relief with Samantha Kane, MS, RD · Love Your Gut

• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to the next episode of the love your gut podcast.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: So excited to be here with Samantha Cain.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: She is a registered dietitian.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: She is actually a former client and now business owner, and really excited to talk to her today about her philosophy of nutrition, her journey with her own GI and C.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Skin issues and just some insights she has about nutrition and kind of this like debate between conventional and functional world and kind of where she's landed herself.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: So Samantha, welcome.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: And Heather, I have to say you have a great podcast voice.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: You just turn that on.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I loved that.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, well, let's just get right into it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: So I'd love for you to just share with the listeners who you are, a little bit about your story and you know, you're a business owner now you went to NYU actually, and the thing that I forgot to mention, Samantha actually worked in our program as well.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: So she's a former client.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Turned actually employee that worked for me for about two years before she did her dietetic internship.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: So we've had quite the longstanding relationship.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: And it's been fun to watch your journey, but I know your journey was full of ups and downs with some of the struggles that you had.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: So give us just kind of the backstory of like how you got to where you are now.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: You just can't get rid of me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: You've really been with me through a lot of different life stages here.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: But definitely it, this has been a long journey and it started from when I was very young and it took me a long time to actually be able to put all of the pieces together.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: So I was actually just laughing at your post the other day when you said, how are all my type A overachiever athletes doing with their gut and hormones?
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Only until very recently and starting in your program was I able to put those pieces together with my lifestyle and how that was impacting my gut and autoimmune disease ultimately.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: So it really just started.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: I grew up on an ultra processed food diet.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Like I'm not exaggerating from age five to the moment I went off to college at 18.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: I started my day with pancakes and high fructose corn syrup.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Flattered in them every single morning.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: And I was a classical ballerina.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: I did that five to six days a week.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: There were no off seasons.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: And then when I went off to college, there was just a lot of talk about dieting and different types of foods.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Big raw salads were very in, going vegan, cutting out food groups.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: So me and my friends we tried all the things and I never just developed those cooking skills from a young age.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: And there was no access to it as well in college.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: And my GI issues, the chronic bloating and constipation just kept magnifying with time.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: It, I had a great life.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: It was just always lingering in the background and things really started to change when things migrated to my skin.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: So it was not only just this chronic bloating and constipation to the point where I would look almost six months pregnant at night and could barely button my pants.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: My skin now was having these massive welts, head to toe, truly.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: And it was humiliating.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: People would ask me on the street if I was contagious.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: And so I started going through the traditional medical route.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: And physicians, you know, at the very beginning for dermatology refused to run a biopsy on me.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: And I worked in health insurance at the time, and I understood that the payment models were changing.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: So that essentially incentivized physicians not to run tests because it saved them money in their bottom line.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: And so it took me three doctors just to get some basic biopsies done on my skin.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: And then in traditional medicine, I was handed a guy that said, cut out all these foods, go low FODMAP, you're probably lactose intolerant, maybe try cutting out gluten.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: Good luck.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: And it sent me down this spiral of food fear, and my weight started to fluctuate as well because I just started seeing food in such a mathematical type mindset.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: So the next step in my journey was the more functional medicine route, and I really felt like they were speaking my language of, let's get to the root.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Like, why are you having this bloating?
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Why are you having all these skin rashes?
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: What is really going on?
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: I was eventually diagnosed with a rare autoimmune skin disease called PLC as well as gut tape psoriasis.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: And then irritable bowel syndrome, which is not autoimmune.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: And from there, they did blood testing of food sensitivity analysis.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, Heather, as you know, everything comes out positive.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: I was allergic to everything, apparently, or intolerant to it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: So for everything from super healthy foods like eggs to, you know, random ones like oxtail showed up.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: I've never eaten oxtail in my life.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: So I was like, I don't know why that's on here.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: And the fact that was even on there is wild.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: It was very strange.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: So I developed just a lot of food fears and was on such a restrictive diet, a lot of supplements and my symptoms, the skin actually did ebb and flow during that time for the first time ever, which was wonderful.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: But yeah, my, my gut was just disastrous.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: So I saw you on social media and you were The stop of saying, Hey, you've done functional medicine.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Have you done the traditional route?
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: You know, let's chat.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: You spoke directly to my symptoms and I quite frankly, like you and your team did change my outlook on nutrition, health.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: I have not had a severe skin flare up in literally since working with you.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: So I'm approaching five years.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: And my gut, I feel like I can manage it.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: So like it, it does sometimes flare in times of stress, but I now have the toolkit to manage it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: And I really thank you and your program for helping me with that.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: That's amazing.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: It's already been five years.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: I feel like the time has blown so fast because I so distinctly remember talking to you and you were in school going back to study, to be a dietician because you wanted to, you change your career, which is so admirable.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: And so life was a little bit stressful when we first talked.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: And I remember you thinking do I have time to do this?
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: I remember you asking me, well, what elimination diet are we going to have to do?
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: And I told you we're not doing an elimination diet.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: And so walk us through maybe some of the things And I'm just curious about what kind of fears you had because you really had done your due diligence on the conventional side and the functional side in some sense.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, all the food sensitivity, testing, et cetera, probably created a lot of food fear with you.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Did you do supplement protocols and such with the functional doctor as well?
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: And then, yeah, what led you to keep reaching out to?
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Potentially find relief, even though you tried two very drastically different things.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: I just felt I don't take no for an answer.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: And I was like, there's no way I have to live like this.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: My world was getting smaller.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: I was more fearful to go out to restaurants.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: I didn't know what seasonings or oils they would be using.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: And during I'm a millennial.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: So growing up during that time of veganism, the China study came out with Dr.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Colin T.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Campbell.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: And things have that narrative around meat.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: protein complex carbohydrates.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: There was so much conflicting information.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: And so when the functional medicine group came in and that food sensitivity came in and sort of confirmed for me a lot of that that notion that those foods should be pulled out in order to heal, that they're inflammatory.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: That was what I came to you with that this list of foods in my mind that created just by Society by proven in research studies proven by these functional medicine practitioners That these are foods that are causing the problem But what changed in your program that narrative that changes the foods aren't causing the problem It's you have an unhealthy unbalanced ecosystem right now You from head to toe, starting with maybe digestive enzymes in your mouth to the stomach acid production as you keep moving down the body.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: That chain of events.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: I never put that together until I was in your program.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: So switching that narrative of Hey, food's not causing food might be, you know, flaring some things right now, but it's really about the ecosystem of your gut.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: And that was just a complete change in conversation and how we as a team approach approach the problem.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: And so tell us kind of a little bit more about maybe the biggest, maybe that was your biggest light bulb moment of okay, food is flaring my symptoms, but now I can actually address something that will make food, not flare my symptoms or what did that?
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: It wasn't a linear process.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: We're not going to beat around the bush.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: It's not You know, you started doing something one week and you know, in a week, your symptoms were gone.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: So walk us through what that process was like, maybe some of the setbacks that you had that were challenging and you know, some of the light bulb moments that you had along the way.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: So many,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: where
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: do I
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: start with this one?
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: I think one, you were for the first time you were honest with me and you said, listen, You've had GI issues for about a decade, 10 years.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I'd say for every year, it would be one month of healing.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: And when you said that to me, I actually felt hope because I felt like that was so honest where sometimes we're thrown all these supplements and it's you should feel better immediately.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: And you were very honest upfront of saying, This is going to be a little bit up and down, but I do expect in about 10 months for you to really start to see some change.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: And that made me feel like it was possible, and that growth would happen, and that way too, like four months in when maybe I had like some flares or some symptoms coming back, I didn't panic that time.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is normal.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Heather said it was normal.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: This is part of the process.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: That was a big light bulb moment.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: I couldn't undo my diet and my stress and my overtraining for almost 20 years of my life in three months.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: It just was never going to happen, but it made me empowered and felt like I could take back this narrative and actually change incrementally.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: And so what you did, that was a little bit different than other teams was Put that out front didn't guarantee like any massive promises in two weeks and six weeks But then I still had your support the entire time.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: So the chats in between our appointments That even like on the messenger just knowing that your team was there was incredibly helpful Another big light bulb moment.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: I would say was the additive food approach.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: So that was the first time saying You Hey, we want to expand your diet.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of things that you're not eating that are protective of not only the gut, but your entire immune system, thereby impacting your skin and how you respond to environmental toxins.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Like you want to create a coat of armor for your body.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: And I never looked at myself as strong.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Like when I would go to functional medicine or traditional medicine, I was so fragile.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: I felt so fragile.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: If there was anything I did out of.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: that lane, I would be just in a position where I wouldn't heal, where you flipped again, that narrative of you can come from a place of strength with this, we're going to build a coat of armor around your body.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: And you do that by adding foods, not taking foods away.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: There were new foods.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: I was trying that I never had before in my life, like the fermented foods that wasn't.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: A normal part or regular part of my diet.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't know the difference between all the different types of breads that were out there Like sourdough was a whole new world for me and what that meant And the last thing that I think was a big light bulb moment and this one, this is a tough one.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: I had an ego, like truly being honest, like coming in, I was like, I ain't healthy.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: I eat healthy.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: I had a victim mindset of you can't tell me what to do.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: And if you actually think about this, when we're kids, one of the first ways we express our dominance, our autonomy, our independence Is through food, and we start to refuse food, you know, from a very young age.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: We drive our parents.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: I believe that never really leaves.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: And so when I or anybody is sitting on the other side of the table, you know, talking to a clinician or a dietitian about food.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: It's very natural to become so protective of that and a little bit of lying to yourself.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: And I was lying to myself.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: I didn't really ever take an honest inventory about what I was eating.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: And again, it was more about what I was not eating.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: It was more about what I was not eating.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: And so once I got very radically honest with myself and didn't feel threatened by you and your team, that you were going to take something away and you were really adding, it all just started coming together.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: And.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: Within about that timeline that you said, it took a probably about a year.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: I really did.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: Like I can, my life is much bigger.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: It's not smaller.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Gosh, that is so good.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: And that is such a good point.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Especially, you know, I have a six year old and a two year old you're right.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, they express their autonomy by well, I'm not going to eat that or I'm going to throw this on the floor.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: You know, we're a little bit past the throwing food on the floor stage, at least for now.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: But Yeah, it's so true.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: And we all do have an ego about our food because it's so personal.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And I think that's what we often forget.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: I remember when you were working on our team and every year we have a holiday workshop for our clients.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: And one thing that I so appreciated about you was that We were preparing for this holiday workshop and we each took a different part of it you know, how to kind of navigate the holidays, how to navigate food, how to navigate symptoms, et cetera.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: And one of the things that you did that we still have available to our clients is like all the different cultural recipes.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Like you brought in recipes from different cultures that incorporated different types of foods.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: And I think that's just such a good reminder of Nutrition is not just about food.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: It's also.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: personal, you know, there are family recipes that are a lot more than really what the food is itself.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Like it's about the memory.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: There's you know, we share so much with other people around food.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So when you go to somebody and you get a list of foods that you can't eat, you're not just taking away someone's autonomy.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: You're also potentially taking away moments and memories that they may have.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking about a client that we have right now who was working with somebody and she was going on a trip for two weeks and she asked the provider, well, what should I do about food?
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: And he said, well, you should pack your food for two weeks.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: And she's I am absolutely not going to do that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: But, and that's like such a good example of that's just not sustainable and that's not going to work.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: But I just appreciate that you, you brought that up because you're right.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Like food and nutrition is so much more than just eat this, not that.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I know we were talking about it a little bit before we started recording.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: So we can go off on that tangent if you want, but there can be kind of a stigma of being a dietician.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: I know my husband gets this a lot where.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: People at his work will hear like he's married to a dietitian and they'll be like, Oh, I'm so sorry.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: You must just eat salad all the time.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: And he's no, we actually don't.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Like I eat better than any person I've ever met.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: And I think you were sharing too, your fiance has had.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: A similar experience with just like some of the stigmas, I think that come with like food nutrition.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: We think that nutrition is about what we shouldn't eat and it really is about what we get to enjoy and get to nourish ourselves with.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's almost like when you go to see a physician or a doctor or a dietitian, like you expect them to just go right for cutting out abstaining.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: And that's a sign of perseverance and strength.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: But like the true strength is again, how you can integrate things into your everyday Life.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: And I will say that's been one of the greatest joys.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: Like my fiance is not in the healthcare field.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: He's in a completely different industry works in more corporate job.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: And.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: With that, he's been so open and excited and it's more like, Hey, did you remember to add the turmeric into my eggs this morning?
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Or Oh, I could taste that.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: We forgot the cinnamon in our coffee.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: Like these are additive, wonderful things.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: And using herbs and spices is not only what adds flavor, but it's medicinal.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: And I remember one time he actually said to me, he was like, I assumed herbs and spices were bad for me because it tastes so good.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: And I, it's again, wow, no, these foods taste good too because they are medicinal for us.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: They heal us, they protect us from chronic preventable illnesses.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: And so using just a little bit.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Most days over time and reframing that again is what really protects your gut and ultimately the rest of your immune system.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: So that's been really eyeopening.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: And then watching him to flip that narrative when he's talking with people, you tend to get two different responses.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: Oh my God, you have the cheat code at life.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: I'm so lucky you are marrying a dietitian or the other way around.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: The big raw salads.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: That is a very American thing.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: My sister lives in Tokyo and my brother lives in Paris.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Both for work.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: And my sister, one of the first things she said when she moved to Tokyo, which they have some of the lowest rates of autoimmune disease and chronic GI issues.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: One of the things she said is one at every primary care appointment, they run a GI map school test.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: I was blown away annually.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: And she was so upset by it, by the way.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: She was like, this is disgusting.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: I was like, I immediately texted you.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: I was like, Japan just does this automatically.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: But she also said they don't consume these massive smoothies with protein powders or these large raw salads.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: Like everything is cooked.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of small amounts of fermented foods spread out throughout the day.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: But they also, they have dessert everywhere.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: They have bakeries and pastries everywhere, but it's because their relationship with food and cooking is so much more nourishing and starts at a very young age, it's not restrictive.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: They're able to moderate in, in a different way.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: And it's really such a fascinating culture.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: And she said, it's talking to me here and watching this journey and then moving to Tokyo and experience what that actually looks like in real life when it's on such a societal level.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: It's just, she said, it's fascinating going back and forth between the U S and Tokyo.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: My brother has said similar things.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: So my brother.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: is in the air force and he lives in Italy just for context.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And he's lived there for almost two or yeah, about two years now.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: And interestingly enough, you know, this is a guy that's never had GI issues, like never had, you know, any of the either of us have dealt with.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: And now he told me last time he was in the U S he's Heather, it's so crazy.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: Every time I come to the U S I get sick.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: He's like I throw up.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Because he's so used to eating a wide variety of foods.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: He's so used to the town that he lives in.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: He can walk and buy fresh food every day.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: And you know, they lack nothing.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Like He eats like you said, it's not like he's eating the super restrictive diet.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: He's eating really delicious Italian food.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: And loving it and it, but it's all fresh and it's also enjoyed very slowly.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: And with people and it just, again, kind of reiterates the whole, it's so much more.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: than just what the food is.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: There's the experience of it.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: There's the whole meal hygiene thing which we talk about a lot in our program, like chewing your food, taking your time, et cetera.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Like all of these things really matter.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: So much and when I actually that was a
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: roadblock for me when I first joined your program and you started talking about that I was upset.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: I was like, No, this is I am in so much pain.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: I look, I was so humiliated about how I looked with my skin and you were like, telling me to chew my food and I was like, Oh, come on.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: That's not work.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: And it was a Really important piece to the puzzle.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: I can confidently say that.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: What was it?
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: Everything did it solve all my problems?
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: No, of course not.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: It was still like a 10 month long journey and I was in flows in that.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: But it is the way that you sit down and approach your food actually activates your digestive system and your brain and your gut constantly are in communication with each other.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: And without those moments, it's like you start eating and nothing was activated in order to properly both digest and absorb your nutrients.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: A hundred percent.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: So let's shift gears just a little bit.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: You know, you worked with us at a really interesting time.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Like I mentioned, you were on your way back to school, had just left your career in, it was in healthcare, but in a different side of healthcare.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: And Then worked on our team for two years as a health coach.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: So you did a lot of kind of the food and symptom log reviews for our clients, which was amazing.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: And then right when you started your dietetic internship obviously you left our team to go focus on that.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: And now you are starting a business.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: And so you've had this crazy kind of, you know, Five year journey of, you know, going from really debilitating GI and skin issues to then working on our team to then doing your dietetic internship, becoming a dietitian, and now starting a business.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: How has all of this, so like all the things that you've struggled with and learned impacted your work?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: As a dietitian and like how you think about food, how you approach food with your clients, how you navigate your life now and all of that.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's so much to unpack here.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: I'm so grateful for the corporate experience that I had because I have a lot of clients now that I see that are coming from that corporate world where They might not have a lot of autonomy over their own schedule or are relying on certain foods around them.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: That's just available to them and maybe have uncomfortable kitchen skills.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: And so, because I came from that, I understand and.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: Can speak their language and say it is possible to still make it all work, even with your schedule that you have going on right now.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: But I can also say it's so loaded, all of those experiences, all of the setbacks.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: As corny as it sounds, putting it all together is what led me here.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: So it's just like having a greater amount of empathy and looking at it from a holistic lens.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: It is absolutely never ever the one thing.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: So I will never be able to help somebody in one session and say, this is why your gut is a train wreck.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: This is why your skin is flaring.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: The body is an entire system.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: So maybe some stress and trauma that you had as a young adult and then lack of cooking skills and having that relationship with it and your family in combination with.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Diet culture and dieting in combination of just never learning, never having this information that those initial sessions that you have with the client to actually get to know them on a deeper level is the only way to actually put what is a holistic plan together.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: The biggest thing too, I think the brain is so involved in this and that took a long time to click It's not I don't love the word mindset because that made me feel like it was my attitude but like actually talking about the way our brains Learn and seek out new information.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: It's so true that it's a lot harder from a neuroscience standpoint to actually remove something out of your life.
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: It is a lot easier to add and to build.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: And you introduced me to habit stacking.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: And so I think.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: With that understanding of the science and the mechanisms of it and being able to build new habits incrementally over time, I think all of these experience experiences just in general show that different things need to come together in order for it to work.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: And then leveraging that part of your brain of how can we keep adding things and building things in a way that's Long term and sustainable, essentially.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: So those I think are like the biggest things of putting all of those worlds together and just being able to have better empathy with clients at the other end of the table and making it actually work in their life.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: I think it's so cool to have watched your journey and I'm sure anybody listening to this right now, you know, they hear, okay, this was five years ago that you started this journey and you haven't had a major flare since then, but your life doesn't feel restricted.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: So walk us through maybe what can you do now that you couldn't do before?
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: And What are the biggest needle movers for you?
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Not that they're going to be the same as the person listening to this episode, but I think it also is important to recognize that gut health, skin health, all the things that people see us for energy, hormones, whatever it is.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: It's not like you complete the protocol.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: And then you're just done and you never have to do anything again.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Like the fact that you've had five years of, you know, pretty unremarkable symptom flares, despite being in grad school, doing an internship, getting engaged, planning a wedding, starting a business, like a lot of stressful things, you know, is pretty remarkable and an, and a testament to the fact that you likely are.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Putting in the work and being consistent with things that make you feel good.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: And so would you be willing to share what are the biggest, most important things for you that you think kind of keep everything stable and not flaring?
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: And then on the other side, like, how is your life better now that you aren't dealing with flares, even amongst having to maybe be consistent with some things that you weren't consistent with before?
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think intentionality and pause as again, some of this sounds ridiculous, but the reason I brought up at the beginning of this, that I was a ballerina first, you know, six days a week with no off seasons up until I was 18.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: That's an integral part of the story.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: And so again, going back to picking and choosing what you choose to partake in.
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: And that goes for exercise and activity.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: Like it's not my personality is a little go big or go home.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: And I was doing that with everything.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: And with exercise, I was a big one.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: So it was like five to six days a week, sometimes like running hit training.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: If I wasn't in the gym for, and it wasn't even from a body perspective.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: I just thought that's what you.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: did.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: I thought that's what was best.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: And it was true, just misinformation.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: And so one of the biggest things that has helped kept me healthy is transitioning to very intentional strength training a couple days a week.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: I add some cardio at the end.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: It makes me feel really good.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: And I do it in the morning because I like it.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: I'm out with the sun in the morning and It's not coming from a place of, I got to go full throttle, 10, 000 miles per hour.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: And if I am sweating and exhausted, I got a great workout that it's an entire, not only mental shift, but your body, again, it keeps the score.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: It reflects that and your gut and your vagus nerve that is always communicating between your gut and your brain.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: It reacts.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: to that type of lifestyle accordingly.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: And so if you're prioritizing all of that really hard workouts and exercise all the time you're not going to prioritize.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: Digestion, how can you, how can your body do that?
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: But in the same notion, I don't feel fragile.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: Like I used to, the strength training is really powerful.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: Like your muscle composition increases muscles and metabolically active organs.
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: So I feel stronger than I ever had in my life.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: It's like working smarter, not harder.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: I think that is one of the most instrumental ways that I have kept myself healthy in these last couple years and not overtraining but still pushing myself like where needed more with more intentionality maintaining a lot of the foods and like sometimes I need a gentle reminder to if I'm starting to eat a lot of the same foods over and over again, just Little gentle swaps, even still for myself and it is okay to be lazy.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: So sometimes I buy the chopped vegetables already chopped because I worked that whole day or had an exam that night.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: I don't have to go and buy everything like right out of my friend's garden, you know, in Wisconsin or something.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: I'm in Chicago for reference, but it's okay to get some of those.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: more ready prepared meals and it doesn't have to be pretty.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: It doesn't have to always be Instagrammable.
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: And that was another rabbit hole that's easy to go down.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: That like every meal has to be this food porn essentially and look like the most dramatic thing ever.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: You see that all over social media.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: And those are a lot of the accounts that gain the most traction.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: But sometimes The best, most nourishing, filling meals can be quite ugly, but taste amazing.
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: They look like slop.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: They look like slop.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: So just being okay with that and just rotating out small foods.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: One of my favorite foods is the AeroFarms micro greens because you don't have to wash them at all.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: And it's just pure laziness.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: Like I go in, I grab a handful and all of a sudden I added greens onto every plate within two seconds.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: And so it just doesn't have to be.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Complicated.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: I think those are the biggest things.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: And then also symptoms.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Are your body's way of communicating with you.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: Your body has no other way to talk to you.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: And I actually look now at any type of symptom.
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: I, I take this moment to listen to it and not in an obsessive way, but instead of taking the Advil to shut it down, or instead of let me just run through it, let me just push past it.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: Let me just take Excedrin for this migraine.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: I'm very pro medicine if you need it, of course, that's in no way saying don't do that.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: But it also was like, hey, maybe my body needs a little bit of rest right now.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: And I find with autoimmune issues, It's a lot of suppression and it's a lot of just hustling and pushing through and you can develop immense mental strength, but still listen to your body.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: It's, you're not choosing one or the other lane.
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: And so I think that's also kept me healthy in these last couple of years of just knowing when to pull back on the reins a little bit, loosen up, sleep in.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: It's okay.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: That's so normal.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: And then I'd say Protein like animal protein.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: I wasn't eating any of it when you and I started working together and there was so much misinformation I see that all the time for women now.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: There's two ends of the protein world that i'm seeing where it's in everything like protein water and protein bars And I'm like, okay, that is very different micro nutrients than a grass finished, you know, raised paddle or bison.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: And these are meats that I never ever ate because I thought that they were bad for me and raise my cholesterol, but like they're filled with zinc and Millennium and omega three is that it's really hard to get in just like big raw salads.
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: And so adding real animal foods, not just, you know, protein bars and powders has been one of the most instrumental things I think has actually moved the needle the most in my health.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: So it's like you're listening to your body.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: You're using symptoms as a cue to prevent you from backsliding so far back into symptoms.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: You're finding sustainable, easy ways to nourish yourself and not overcomplicating it where Every meal has to be Instagrammable or anything of that nature.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: And, you know, not over complicating.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: And I feel like that's the biggest kind of underlying message is like, it doesn't have to be Hard, which makes it almost seem too easy, right?
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: But it's not, you know, if you can truly address your symptoms, then it shouldn't, it has to be sustainable.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: And if it's so restrictive and so challenging to maintain, you'll never be able to be consistent with it.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: So consistency is kind of what we're going for.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: And.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: You know, I do.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: I want to be a mom one day.
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: So, I've been thinking about this.
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: What can I do for my kids to maybe try to prevent some of these health issues that I was told by physicians I'd have to live with for the rest of my life?
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: And It really is like just teaching them basic cooking skills like propping them up I see you posting this sometimes on your instagram like where your Kids will be just kind of propped up at the counter with you They see you they watch you doing this and getting active in the kitchen and I think it's even more than just sitting down At meals with them.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: It's like actually getting them involved in like picking it out either at the store or at the farmer's market and having that conversation of what it's doing to your heart, your brain, your skin.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: And so they don't have to undo a lot of things in their twenties or in their thirties.
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: Like a lot of what we had to do together was undoing, unraveling, relearning, It would be great if you could start a little bit from scratch and just not it's more about building with kids.
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: And so I think like just looking forward, that's what I would do more with my future family.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: Which is amazing because yeah, they learned kids are watching every single thing that you do, whether you like it.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Or not.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: And, you know, some meals you make are a total flop and nobody eats it, but most of the time it's okay.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: It's it's exposure is kind of the biggest thing, but I would, at least what I've noticed with my own kids is they, Although maybe they might not eat it or throw it on the floor.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Eventually they'll try something and maybe not the first time, but the more that you get them involved, the more willing they are to try something.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: So like we went to the farmer's market, we go almost every weekend and there's a guy that I buy mushrooms from now.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: They know the mushroom guy and they're way more likely to eat a mushroom because they know, They were involved in the process, you know, and it's yeah, that takes time, but it's worth it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: So
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: it goes back into playing into that autonomy factor.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: Like you're giving them that autonomy and they feel a part of that process rather than you just projecting what you want them to eat on their plate.
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's instrumental.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: Well, this has been amazing.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: I think it's just going to be so insightful for people to hear your journey and that it's possible, especially if you've tried so many things, any last minute thoughts, words of wisdom, advice, et cetera, that you would give to somebody listening to this thinking maybe Like that they relate to you a lot or how nice for her, that's not going to be the case for me.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: Maybe some of I, I liked what you said about mindset, how it is like, Oh, you know, it's not just that you have a bad attitude.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: But someone may be struggling with like the thought of that they could actually find relief from really severe symptoms.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: You're your own best advocate and nobody can tell you what to do and you have every right to shop for the dietician or the practitioner that works for you.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: And I always say that.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: So interview people, see who jives with your personality.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: What style of practice?
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: I think if I could give some advice in that realm, a group that actually is going to check in on you because it's not a one and done.
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: This is progress over time, so if you're looking for a practitioner to be your ally and have your back, you know, looking for somebody that's going to be with you through the journey, and it is a journey, it is not a one and done appointment, so it Again, taking advantage of having your own back, being your own best advocate, shopping for the right care team that works for you and understanding it's going to be a journey.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: That's my biggest advice, but it's doable.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: Well, because this is called the love your gut podcast.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: What is one way that you're going to love your gut today or this week?
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: Okay, I've been very into this Atlantic Seafarm Seaweed all the time.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: But, like a little, it's fermented, so it's really good for your gut.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: But, one little serving of it has 300 percent of the recommended daily value of iodine.
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: Or the minimum, I should say.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: Amazing.
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: And iodine is one that we don't talk about often, but it's so good for your thyroid and your metabolism.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: And Thanks to you.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: I'm learning that, you know, minerals are often depleted in our soils and how we're growing our foods, but the ocean it's so pretty rich in it.
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: So getting it from sea vegetables is a great one.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: And I've.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: Really made it a mission to continue adding that to my diet now.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna have to check that out Atlantic Farms.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna check it out.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Well, thanks so much for joining us Tell everybody where they can find you learn about you, etc.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: I have an Instagram account With some free information and also you can just get to know me and my tone a little bit So that's just cane dietetics, and i'm so excited.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Hopefully I get to meet some of you Yeah,
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: well, thanks so much for joining us and thanks everybody for tuning in
• 41:31
  Speaker: I'm giving you a thumbs up because you just finished another episode of the love your gut podcast.
• 41:36
  Speaker: I am so excited because black Friday is just around the corner.
• 41:40
  Speaker: And honestly, Thanksgiving and black Friday are some of my favorite days of the year.
• 41:45
  Speaker: The buzz on Instagram has been wild with questions about our black Friday specials.
• 41:49
  Speaker: And guess what?
• 41:51
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• 41:53
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• 41:59
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• 42:04
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• 42:06
  Speaker: I promise the link to join our email list is in the show notes below.
• 42:10
  Speaker: And as always remember that when you love your gut, it'll love you back.
• 42:13
  Speaker: And that's what we're all about.