Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / When Your Body Says Something’s Wrong: Faith, Hormones, and Healing with Heidi Cooper

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When Your Body Says Something’s Wrong: Faith, Hormones, and Healing with Heidi Cooper · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for my Dad. Coach
0:06
Speaker 1: Alex van Houghton helps you get stronger and mind, body,
0:09
Speaker 1: and spirit. He believes that your body's a temple, so
0:12
Speaker 1: taking good care of it is an actual worship. I
0:15
Speaker 1: should know. I live with him every week. He brings
0:17
Speaker 1: truth from the Bible, tool from science, and stories that
0:20
Speaker 1: will set your heart on fire. May God bless you
0:23
Speaker 1: to become everything He made you to be, just one
0:26
Speaker 1: percent better every single day.
0:30
Speaker 2: What's up, guys, This is coach Alex van Houghton on
0:32
Speaker 2: the Faithful Fitness Podcast. I am super, super excited to
0:35
Speaker 2: be joined with functional health practitioner Heidi Cooper from Cooper
0:38
Speaker 2: Health Solutions. Happy Thursday, Heidi, how you doing?
0:42
Speaker 3: I did fantastic, Alex, how are you?
0:44
Speaker 2: I'm doing so good. Thank you for joining me on
0:47
Speaker 2: this show. I had the distinct pleasure of getting to
0:49
Speaker 2: hang out with Bruce just a few months ago on
0:51
Speaker 2: the show, and I gotta say you strike me as
0:53
Speaker 2: his better half. No offense to him, love Bruce, but
0:59
Speaker 2: I'm super excited to be your Alex. I'm excited to
1:01
Speaker 2: have you too, And for my listeners, if you want
1:04
Speaker 2: to reference anything we talk about With regard to doctor
1:06
Speaker 2: Bruce Cooper, you can check out our show about well,
1:09
Speaker 2: we dove into Mitylchandria. He really likes to talk about Midelkandria,
1:12
Speaker 2: So we dove into Mitolchandria and I'll make sure that
1:15
Speaker 2: that links in the show notes. But we have our
1:16
Speaker 2: own stuff to talk about. Ms Heidi, I really want
1:20
Speaker 2: to start with with your own personal passion. You are
1:24
Speaker 2: very passionate about helping your clients, your customers, your audience.
1:29
Speaker 4: Find this.
1:31
Speaker 2: I would say it's ineffable, but you'll probably articulate it better.
1:35
Speaker 2: This ineffable freedom from feeling like my body is not
1:39
Speaker 2: working well for me, and it comes from your own story.
1:42
Speaker 4: You experienced a.
1:44
Speaker 2: Valley that well, I will let you speak to it,
1:48
Speaker 2: that your body was disregulated on the inside that led
1:52
Speaker 2: you through what it sounded like a year's long process
1:56
Speaker 2: to find healing and transformation for yourself. So can you
1:59
Speaker 2: talk to me a bit about where this passion for
2:01
Speaker 2: helping individuals come from and what you experienced in your
2:05
Speaker 2: own journey.
2:07
Speaker 3: Gosh, such a long story, Alex that I'm going to
2:09
Speaker 3: try to condense, but I hope that everyone out there
2:13
Speaker 3: my heart and about sharing this story is that if
2:16
Speaker 3: somebody's going through something difficult, how God can use that
2:21
Speaker 3: pain to purpose. You know, I think a lot of
2:23
Speaker 3: us in this health space, particularly in the functional medicine space,
2:27
Speaker 3: we see that there's been a lot of different challenges
2:29
Speaker 3: that people have experienced. In fact, ever was a joke
2:32
Speaker 3: that I didn't like choose to be the weird one.
2:34
Speaker 3: You know, God called me to this, and so you know,
2:39
Speaker 3: it goes really really far back. I just I'm in
2:42
Speaker 3: my fifties now, but I'm back as a teenager. It
2:45
Speaker 3: started with skin stuff. They got me down this four
2:48
Speaker 3: natural path, did all the conventional stuff, none of that
2:50
Speaker 3: really fixed it. I was introduced to more holistic approach.
2:54
Speaker 3: So that opened my eyes to what is possible in
2:57
Speaker 3: that realm, I would say, from then on, and I
3:01
Speaker 3: was just very open to creator and design, like there's
3:03
Speaker 3: a way that God designed us, and if we support that,
3:06
Speaker 3: it really works better. So it's a skin space for
3:09
Speaker 3: a long time after that. And then interestingly, I would say,
3:15
Speaker 3: probably about sixteen years ago, all of these things that
3:18
Speaker 3: we were working with that were successful in that space
3:21
Speaker 3: really weren't working as well anymore. And simultaneously, my health crashed.
3:26
Speaker 3: So after I had my son, I was like in
3:28
Speaker 3: our mid thirties and he I think by the time
3:32
Speaker 3: he was about too my health completely crashed. And I
3:35
Speaker 3: had always been this really you know, fit athletic person
3:41
Speaker 3: and just had this severe energy crash, a lot of
3:47
Speaker 3: just crazy symptoms. I think, as you know, as an athlete,
3:51
Speaker 3: you know you're pretty in tune with your body. And
3:54
Speaker 3: when I was going to doctors, they were basically saying,
3:57
Speaker 3: you're just getting older. You're a working mom. I knew,
4:01
Speaker 3: you know, I had been able to get kind of
4:02
Speaker 3: performed at a certain level and had great energy, and
4:05
Speaker 3: that just was not the case anymore. I knew something
4:07
Speaker 3: was off, and so at that point I kind of
4:12
Speaker 3: asked for more lab work and kind of had to
4:15
Speaker 3: beg for that, and they did, like you know, the
4:17
Speaker 3: hormone library. They said, you're fine, but I knew, I
4:20
Speaker 3: knew deep down something was off. And so that started
4:23
Speaker 3: this quest of figuring some of these things out. And
4:26
Speaker 3: then simultaneously it was happening with clients. I was seeing
4:29
Speaker 3: a lot of the same patterns. So it was a
4:34
Speaker 3: very very long, long process I would say probably eight
4:37
Speaker 3: years of really just trying to figure some of these
4:40
Speaker 3: things out and I always joked that we spent probably
4:42
Speaker 3: the equivalent of purchasing a home on different practitioners, whether
4:46
Speaker 3: it was the medical conventional realm. Then we went the
4:50
Speaker 3: natural route with things, and I would say at best
4:53
Speaker 3: we got some kind of some minor relief, but wasn't
4:58
Speaker 3: really fixing the problem. And so that's for me on
5:02
Speaker 3: to go back to school for the functional medicine piece
5:04
Speaker 3: back in twenty sixteen. Okay, And so here we are
5:08
Speaker 3: today with all of these amazing answers. You know, I'm
5:11
Speaker 3: in my fifties now and feel way better than I
5:14
Speaker 3: did in my thirties, and it just kind of dial
5:18
Speaker 3: back a little bit. In my thirties, I did, finally,
5:20
Speaker 3: through functional medicine, get an autoimmune thyroid diagnosis, so I
5:23
Speaker 3: was diagnosed with hashimotives have been able to reverse all
5:26
Speaker 3: of that. And just I always kind of share with
5:29
Speaker 3: people now that as a believer, you know, we want
5:33
Speaker 3: to be able to radiate Jesus and be salt and
5:35
Speaker 3: light and be life to people and speak life to people.
5:38
Speaker 3: Feeling so crummy, it's really hard to do that. You know,
5:42
Speaker 3: I could barely smile, let alone, you know, be hands
5:46
Speaker 3: and feet of Jesus and radiate light. So that's really
5:51
Speaker 3: my purpose too, is just is just helping other people
5:54
Speaker 3: remove those barriers so they can really be intentional about
5:58
Speaker 3: the purpose that God has for them here too.
6:02
Speaker 2: Awesome, thank you for sharing that story. And so when
6:05
Speaker 2: did you receive your diagnosis for autoimmune hashimotives?
6:10
Speaker 3: So that was back in my thirties, I think probably
6:13
Speaker 3: closer to like late thirties. I got that diagnosis, and
6:17
Speaker 3: you know, along with it was you know, all of
6:19
Speaker 3: that chronic fatigue. I had always been super fit. I
6:24
Speaker 3: had gained forty pounds, like, eating super clean, still working
6:28
Speaker 3: out as much as I could. So I have a
6:30
Speaker 3: real heart for people that are doing a lot of
6:33
Speaker 3: the things right and still having a lot of challenges.
6:37
Speaker 3: In fact, there's a mentor in our space that says,
6:40
Speaker 3: you'll never get well without changing the diet, but the
6:42
Speaker 3: diet alone will never get you well. We were really
6:45
Speaker 3: being in the most toxic time and history chemically, emotionally, physically,
6:50
Speaker 3: and so you know, the stress bucket fills up and
6:53
Speaker 3: all these things start creating gene expression getting turned on
6:57
Speaker 3: in different areas for people. So there's us more to
7:00
Speaker 3: the story.
7:01
Speaker 4: Than just the diet, right, right. Yeah.
7:03
Speaker 2: You know, there's this very very common idea that our
7:06
Speaker 2: bodies are like cars, right, And I speak about this
7:09
Speaker 2: pretty often because in some ways they kind of are.
7:11
Speaker 2: You know, they're the vessel. They get us from point
7:13
Speaker 2: A to point B. You have to fuel it, you
7:15
Speaker 2: got to take care of it, you know, all those things.
7:18
Speaker 2: But there's a couple of distinct differences between our body
7:21
Speaker 2: and a car. More than a couple, probably, but a
7:23
Speaker 2: couple just high level. And you kind of mentioned one there,
7:26
Speaker 2: and I want to drill in on it a little
7:27
Speaker 2: bit because it's not something a lot of people understand
7:30
Speaker 2: very well, or at least at a level that will
7:31
Speaker 2: help them in their personal health and fitness.
7:34
Speaker 4: And that that is this idea that a car does
7:38
Speaker 4: not build itself out of the fuel that you put
7:42
Speaker 4: in it. It just goes from point A to point B.
7:44
Speaker 2: But in our bodies, what we consume becomes a part
7:49
Speaker 2: of the system over time, particularly with regard to proteins
7:52
Speaker 2: and fats, but there are some other chemicals that our
7:54
Speaker 2: body can can incorporate in addition to that. Not only
7:58
Speaker 2: does the fuel that we put into our body become
8:02
Speaker 2: a part of the system, but it also affects how
8:04
Speaker 2: the system works. You mentioned it's the buzzword is epigenetics.
8:08
Speaker 2: But but you mentioned the idea that that what we're
8:12
Speaker 2: consuming and what we're doing, and maybe even our environment
8:17
Speaker 2: has effects on the genes that are turned on or
8:21
Speaker 2: turned off.
8:22
Speaker 4: That's methylated or isolated in our body.
8:24
Speaker 2: Right, And so so, I when I work with individuals
8:28
Speaker 2: who are wrestling with an immune process, and I see
8:30
Speaker 2: that very frequently in my line of work, it sounds
8:33
Speaker 2: like you do as well. It's it's it's almost impossible,
8:39
Speaker 2: not impossible, but it's almost impossible to completely understand how
8:45
Speaker 2: the body has gotten to the point where it's fighting
8:49
Speaker 2: with itself on the inside. And the feeling that somebody
8:54
Speaker 2: gets is something's not right. That's the feeling, right, I
8:58
Speaker 2: know something's not right. Of like you were wrestling with.
9:02
Speaker 2: I know, Okay, I'm getting a little older, Yeah, I
9:04
Speaker 2: got kids, Yeah, i'm a working mom. Yeah, but but
9:07
Speaker 2: something's not right, something's off, and and that's something is
9:11
Speaker 2: really hard to pinpoint. And that's something you're really passionate
9:15
Speaker 2: about too. So, so can you can you help my
9:18
Speaker 2: listeners understand when somebody feels like they're doing everything right.
9:22
Speaker 4: I'm exercising, I'm I'm doing better than I used to.
9:25
Speaker 4: I'm I'm eating well, I'm meaning better than I used to.
9:28
Speaker 2: I'm I'm seeing some results. But still I know something's off.
9:33
Speaker 2: I know something's not right.
9:34
Speaker 4: What is what's the what's at the core of that,
9:37
Speaker 4: and how do we address it.
9:39
Speaker 3: It's a great question because I think so many people
9:42
Speaker 3: are struggling with that these days. You feel like for
9:44
Speaker 3: the amount of effort that they're putting in, they're not
9:47
Speaker 3: seeing the results they should. The amount of effort, you know,
9:52
Speaker 3: like you shared, they might see incremental improvements, but you know,
9:56
Speaker 3: I think if you think back to like maybe somebody's
9:59
Speaker 3: in there twenty and they're scarfing down to pizzas and
10:02
Speaker 3: whatever else and they clean up their diet for a
10:04
Speaker 3: week and they feel amazing, or you know, they were
10:07
Speaker 3: able to see these remarkable improvements at one point and
10:09
Speaker 3: now are at this point where they're eating really well.
10:12
Speaker 3: And I remember at one point telling Bruce Man if
10:14
Speaker 3: I didn't know better, I just started eating pizzas all
10:17
Speaker 3: the time because I was feeling so terrible even doing
10:20
Speaker 3: all the right things right. And so I don't ever
10:26
Speaker 3: want to bash conventional medicine, but they're just not set
10:29
Speaker 3: up in a way to support some of these chronic situations.
10:35
Speaker 3: So I think that's that becomes a big barrier for
10:38
Speaker 3: a lot of people because you I think there's an
10:41
Speaker 3: assumption that you would go and have lab work done
10:43
Speaker 3: and if there was anything that was problematic, it would
10:47
Speaker 3: be flagged in lab work. But I'm sure you know
10:50
Speaker 3: this too, that it's that lab work is based on
10:54
Speaker 3: very unhealthy people and it's very broad ranges, and so
10:58
Speaker 3: throfully looking in the conventional realm to diagnose disease instead
11:02
Speaker 3: of fostering wellness fostering health. So it's just a different
11:07
Speaker 3: perspective from that point. Now, I want to give people
11:10
Speaker 3: hope that if you've had lab work done and it's
11:12
Speaker 3: checked out and you still feel crummy, it's because there's
11:15
Speaker 3: more to this story.
11:16
Speaker 1: You know.
11:17
Speaker 3: One of the driving factors for me going back to
11:20
Speaker 3: school for functional medicine was dealing with clients that literally
11:26
Speaker 3: alex one hundred percent of the time we're going to
11:29
Speaker 3: their conventional providers and having lab work done and they
11:32
Speaker 3: would come back and say everything checked out. Everything that
11:36
Speaker 3: was going on with them was not reflective of things
11:39
Speaker 3: being fine, So there is more to this story. There's
11:44
Speaker 3: just a different way to look at that. And with
11:47
Speaker 3: functional lab work, we look at optimal ranges that are
11:50
Speaker 3: based interestingly on the research in the conventional realm on
11:54
Speaker 3: advanced disease states and morbidity rates. So it's just a
11:59
Speaker 3: different a different perspective, a different approach. And so I
12:04
Speaker 3: think for a lot of people, once again, if they've
12:08
Speaker 3: gone down that path and had regular lab work done
12:10
Speaker 3: and it's checked out, that they still feel cremetor's just
12:13
Speaker 3: more to the.
12:13
Speaker 2: Story, right, And I think this is when I like
12:17
Speaker 2: to talk about second opinions, like, you know, because no
12:20
Speaker 2: offense to the general practitioner or the family practice doctor
12:26
Speaker 2: that you go into and you get your annual lab
12:28
Speaker 2: work and whatnot. But in general, what insurance pays for
12:33
Speaker 2: oftentimes is a very very ten thousand foot view, so
12:37
Speaker 2: to speak, of what's going on in your body and
12:39
Speaker 2: if you're normal, Like if you're normal on all those metrics,
12:43
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that there isn't something you could learn
12:46
Speaker 2: about what's going on on the inside. It just well,
12:50
Speaker 2: it just might mean you need somebody's opinion who has
12:53
Speaker 2: experience looking at more than just cholesterol, A n C, glucose, sodium, right,
13:00
Speaker 2: and not that those can't tell you anything, but they
13:02
Speaker 2: don't tell you a lot. They don't tell you a
13:04
Speaker 2: lot about what's happening on the inside. In fact, all
13:06
Speaker 2: those things that I mentioned have nothing to do with
13:08
Speaker 2: the immune system or very little. And so in your case,
13:12
Speaker 2: I'm sure that even before your diagnosis, you were getting
13:16
Speaker 2: all sorts of normal readings knowing you didn't feel good.
13:21
Speaker 2: And thereafter so I have howshimotoves great. What does that mean? Well,
13:24
Speaker 2: for some people, it means thyroid hormone replacement therapy, yes,
13:29
Speaker 2: to get your lab values normal, But your experience was
13:33
Speaker 2: that that wasn't what fixed you either, And you don't
13:37
Speaker 2: necessarily need to. I don't want anybody to hear like
13:40
Speaker 2: here's the magic sauce for fishing, frixing how shemotives on
13:43
Speaker 2: your own, But I do want people to understand the
13:47
Speaker 2: layers of investigation and guidance that are required to bring
13:53
Speaker 2: you out of something that you know is just not right.
13:56
Speaker 3: Yes, it can be very complex, you know, Like I
13:59
Speaker 3: always will share that you can have ten people with
14:02
Speaker 3: thyroid issues for ten entirely different reasons. And also I
14:07
Speaker 3: think we've been conditioned from the medical perspective. Basically what
14:11
Speaker 3: you shared, like, you go in, maybe you get a diagnosis,
14:14
Speaker 3: and everybody gets on the same you know, basically the
14:17
Speaker 3: same medication or the same protocol if they're displaying like
14:22
Speaker 3: the same diagnoses. And so just going back to how
14:27
Speaker 3: God made us very bio individually, there are different things
14:30
Speaker 3: influencing how some of that gene expression gets turned on
14:33
Speaker 3: and how we support that other thing I wanted to
14:37
Speaker 3: share with you too when you said that I bet
14:39
Speaker 3: your labs look great. Something I always like to share
14:42
Speaker 3: is that during this period of time when I felt
14:44
Speaker 3: my absolute worst, I had life insurance lab work done right,
14:48
Speaker 3: and they said basically, yeah, you'll probably be in like
14:51
Speaker 3: a good category or whatever. And I was in this
14:54
Speaker 3: elite status. And I think even the people doing all
14:57
Speaker 3: of this insurance stuff like only only like elite athletes
15:02
Speaker 3: are in that category. And here I ended up with
15:05
Speaker 3: this elite status, elite athlete status lab work and felt
15:09
Speaker 3: the worst that I had ever felt in.
15:11
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
15:13
Speaker 3: And so I was like to share that that this
15:15
Speaker 3: is this is what can happen. So it's it can
15:17
Speaker 3: be very confusing for people when they're not feeling well,
15:21
Speaker 3: and they get this feedback from the medical realm that says, well,
15:25
Speaker 3: I mean you're doing great and you're really not feeling
15:29
Speaker 3: great at all, that there is more.
15:31
Speaker 4: To the story there mm hm.
15:33
Speaker 2: So I want to dig into the pain just a
15:34
Speaker 2: little bit, the suffering of that process. I call it
15:38
Speaker 2: the Valley of the Shadow of Death after Psalm's twenty three.
15:41
Speaker 2: But it really is a true feeling if you're hiking
15:44
Speaker 2: through it, because to hear you speak it now with
15:46
Speaker 2: a big smile on your face, is not that you're
15:49
Speaker 2: smiling at it. You're smiling knowing where you've come from.
15:52
Speaker 2: That's the that's the goodness of God you're smiling about,
15:55
Speaker 2: which is wonderful. But can you can you describe what
15:59
Speaker 2: it looks like on a data day basis to seek
16:02
Speaker 2: both the Holy Spirit's help but also to look at
16:06
Speaker 2: the next step in front of you and know something
16:09
Speaker 2: needs to shift, something needs to change in me to
16:14
Speaker 2: make the most out of the body God's given me. Here,
16:16
Speaker 2: what was that process like? If you could give us
16:19
Speaker 2: a day in the life of Heidi when she was
16:21
Speaker 2: wrestling through that season, for sure, and I.
16:25
Speaker 3: Will tell you God used that is a catalyst to
16:29
Speaker 3: really draw close to him. You know, I grew up
16:31
Speaker 3: in a Christian home, I went to private Christian school,
16:35
Speaker 3: all the things, and really honestly saw a lot of
16:39
Speaker 3: hypocrisy in that space. So by the time I was
16:41
Speaker 3: a young adult, I wanted nothing to do with it.
16:44
Speaker 3: So all through my twenties I rebelled against that. I really,
16:50
Speaker 3: I think at that point would call I have called
16:52
Speaker 3: myself a spiritual person, but not a religious person or whatever.
16:56
Speaker 3: You know, I never denounced knowing the Lord, but I
16:59
Speaker 3: was just, I think, very disenchanted with what I had seen,
17:06
Speaker 3: and so kind of went away from that very much
17:09
Speaker 3: all throughout my twenties and even after. You know, when
17:13
Speaker 3: I met Bruce, I was away from all of that.
17:15
Speaker 3: And I think our son, like I shared, was a
17:17
Speaker 3: couple of years old, and I think he really used
17:20
Speaker 3: this very painful time as a wake up call for
17:23
Speaker 3: me to really draw close to him. And so it
17:26
Speaker 3: has just created this man. You know, nothing, nothing really
17:33
Speaker 3: has you seeking the Lord like those tough times, and
17:36
Speaker 3: so I'm so grateful for them now. So terrible during
17:39
Speaker 3: that time, you know, I think he used it to
17:42
Speaker 3: humble me. I think I was using some of the
17:45
Speaker 3: fitness and athleticism and all of that. It was, it
17:48
Speaker 3: was it was very very prideful about that, and it
17:51
Speaker 3: was really humbling to have that taken away and and
17:56
Speaker 3: all of the efforts that I had put into things
17:59
Speaker 3: just it was not having the same outcome. And so
18:01
Speaker 3: he really used that painful, painful time to seek him
18:05
Speaker 3: and really pray for answers. And that's really the amazing
18:09
Speaker 3: thing now, is all these years later, to have these
18:12
Speaker 3: answers that were prayed for and watched him fulfill through
18:17
Speaker 3: different hardships, you know, some of these answers that we
18:21
Speaker 3: now share with people. So I feel so purposeful from
18:25
Speaker 3: that standpoint, just knowing that there are other people struggling
18:28
Speaker 3: with these sorts of things and they're praying for answers too.
18:32
Speaker 3: And you know, when we can support our physiological and
18:37
Speaker 3: our physical bodies, how much more we could be used
18:40
Speaker 3: for His purpose instead of just feeling crunny and you know,
18:46
Speaker 3: not having the energy and the health to really facilitate
18:50
Speaker 3: some of what God has designed for us to do here.
18:53
Speaker 2: M hmm, yeah, Yeah, there's a there's this There's an
18:56
Speaker 2: amazing passage in Matthew where Christ says, if any man
18:58
Speaker 2: wishes to be my disciple, he would deny himself, pick
19:02
Speaker 2: up his cross and follow me. Now, a cross can
19:05
Speaker 2: mean a It's a symbol of a lot of different things.
19:07
Speaker 4: Right.
19:08
Speaker 2: Obviously, the crucifixion and what he did on the cross
19:12
Speaker 2: is a redeeming picture. But the cross is also like
19:15
Speaker 2: no joke, man, that's like a symbol of human mortal suffering.
19:19
Speaker 4: It's like the.
19:21
Speaker 2: Crisis of the day. You know, I'm gonna I'm going
19:23
Speaker 2: to pick up this thing and I'm going to carry
19:25
Speaker 2: it forward. What's what's powerful about that is each of
19:27
Speaker 2: us have a cross to carry as as disciples. Each
19:31
Speaker 2: of us have that, and if we'll pick up ours
19:34
Speaker 2: forth rightly, not only may we learn it's not as
19:37
Speaker 2: heavy as we thought it was, which is cool.
19:40
Speaker 4: That's that's a process.
19:41
Speaker 2: But but also when we're gathered together in that process,
19:44
Speaker 2: if I see you carrying your cross well, and you're
19:48
Speaker 2: you're learning things through your journey, that's that that you
19:51
Speaker 2: can share with other people to help them with theirs.
19:53
Speaker 2: If I see you carrying your cross well, that that
19:55
Speaker 2: gives me an inspiration and a and a desire to
19:59
Speaker 2: keep moving forward.
20:00
Speaker 4: That's what Paul called the encouragement to the.
20:03
Speaker 2: Brethren, you know that we would continue to encourage each
20:05
Speaker 2: other and support each other in the faith. And so
20:08
Speaker 2: so for me to you thank you for carrying your crosswell,
20:11
Speaker 2: I really appreciate that. And I also appreciate that you've
20:13
Speaker 2: taken that as an impetus to help other people carry
20:18
Speaker 2: there as well too, because it sounds like you've learned
20:20
Speaker 2: so many lessons through that process that has allowed you
20:24
Speaker 2: to step into other people's cross carrying journey and help
20:29
Speaker 2: them lighten the load a bit.
20:31
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think especially you know, we kind of
20:34
Speaker 3: look at what's going on in the world these days,
20:37
Speaker 3: and we kind of briefly touched about some of the
20:40
Speaker 3: things that we're having exposure to, whether it's you know,
20:43
Speaker 3: chemical toxsins, emotional things, you know, physical stressors, all of
20:48
Speaker 3: these different things that people are dealing with. And I
20:51
Speaker 3: even feel like I see so much suffering in the
20:55
Speaker 3: church that I don't think really needs to be there
20:58
Speaker 3: if people really worked with Creator and design, you know,
21:03
Speaker 3: I think that there are a lot of answers there
21:06
Speaker 3: that I feel very purposeful about getting out to everyone,
21:12
Speaker 3: but particularly I have a heart for the church, for
21:16
Speaker 3: people within people that are believers that aren't fully able
21:21
Speaker 3: to live in their purpose because they're not They're not
21:25
Speaker 3: physically where they could be.
21:28
Speaker 2: So I have a picture in my mind. I'll share
21:30
Speaker 2: it with you. I haven't shared this anywhere else, but
21:32
Speaker 2: I have a picture in my mind. It's it's something
21:33
Speaker 2: like this. So Jesus heals the paralytic right like, his
21:37
Speaker 2: friends drop him through the roof. And you know, lucky
21:40
Speaker 2: for him, he's got people in his life who care
21:42
Speaker 2: enough about him. You know that he's not the guy
21:45
Speaker 2: who you call to move a couch like. Somehow God's
21:47
Speaker 2: put people in his life who befriend him even though
21:49
Speaker 2: he's a paralytic.
21:50
Speaker 4: So that's interesting. But anyway, so they.
21:52
Speaker 2: Lower him through the roof to spend time with Jesus,
21:55
Speaker 2: and Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees
21:57
Speaker 2: get all bent out of shape about that, because who
21:59
Speaker 2: can forgive sins? But God and Jesus perceives that and
22:02
Speaker 2: says to the man, pick up your mat and walk.
22:05
Speaker 2: And his point to the Pharisees is like, which is
22:07
Speaker 2: easier to say your sins are forgiven? Or get up
22:10
Speaker 2: and walk? And so he heals the man of paralysis,
22:13
Speaker 2: and the guy walks out right. But I always think
22:15
Speaker 2: about that thereafter. So the guy is healed of paralysis,
22:18
Speaker 2: But what happens in his life if he puts on
22:20
Speaker 2: his shoes on the wrong feet every day for the
22:23
Speaker 2: coming days, right, Like, he's gonna walk weird, He's not
22:25
Speaker 2: gonna be able to dance well. And it's not because
22:27
Speaker 2: there hasn't been something powerful and good in his life
22:30
Speaker 2: that's given him freedom from the Lord. But that well,
22:35
Speaker 2: he had a part to play in walking normally and
22:39
Speaker 2: dancing and doing something productive in the community, now that
22:43
Speaker 2: he can have use of.
22:44
Speaker 4: His legs right.
22:45
Speaker 2: And I think about that very frequently in the church
22:48
Speaker 2: setting when I see, for instance, a believer wrestling with diabetes.
22:54
Speaker 2: Diabetes is very hard. There's all kinds of things that
22:57
Speaker 2: make diabetes difficult. However, there are things that we can
23:00
Speaker 2: do that make diabetes better on us, and we can
23:04
Speaker 2: even in some cases heal diabetes if if we're willing
23:08
Speaker 2: to to disciple our bodies well, to move and to
23:13
Speaker 2: eat well, and to rest well, and to care for
23:15
Speaker 2: ourselves well, if we're willing to learn those skills, we
23:18
Speaker 2: can in fact make progress of diabetes and there's a
23:21
Speaker 2: lot of things that make diabetes way worse. You know,
23:24
Speaker 2: donuts in the church lobby come to mind. I know
23:29
Speaker 2: there's there's a large incidents of diabetes in Arkansas. Let
23:32
Speaker 2: me just say, the churches love their donuts.
23:34
Speaker 4: And the lobby, right, And and unfortunately I see believers
23:39
Speaker 4: regularly making their physical situation harder on themselves.
23:46
Speaker 2: And then well it has spiritual implications. Lord, why do
23:52
Speaker 2: I want to feel like this?
23:53
Speaker 4: Lord? Lord? Why are you letting me go through this? Lord?
23:57
Speaker 4: You know what gives? Why don't you heal me already?
24:00
Speaker 2: And and so there's there are these these deep spiritual feelings, prayers, dispositions,
24:07
Speaker 2: even even beliefs that come from I see very often
24:12
Speaker 2: that come from things that we actually have agency in
24:16
Speaker 2: and we actually could improve if if we were seeking
24:21
Speaker 2: God's design for our body and caring for this vessel
24:24
Speaker 2: He's given us to stewards. So when I say that,
24:27
Speaker 2: what kind of spiritual things do you see coming out
24:31
Speaker 2: of an individual when their health isn't right?
24:36
Speaker 3: So many things just to kind of, you know, expand
24:40
Speaker 3: upon what you were sharing there too. I think that
24:43
Speaker 3: a lot of believers are held in bondage over some
24:46
Speaker 3: of the decisions that they're making. I had a client
24:49
Speaker 3: that said this one time to me, and it just
24:51
Speaker 3: it's stuck. It really stuck. She said, how can how
24:56
Speaker 3: can we expect God to use this when we're held
24:58
Speaker 3: in bondage over ea, something as simple as Kochs, you know,
25:03
Speaker 3: like if it's if something's having a power over us
25:05
Speaker 3: like that, it's a bondage. And I don't think a
25:09
Speaker 3: lot of the church looks at it that way. You know,
25:11
Speaker 3: it's it's like the one area for some reason that
25:16
Speaker 3: that's really overlooked, that caring for our vessels, working with
25:22
Speaker 3: Creator and design for physical bodies. There's not a whole
25:27
Speaker 3: lot of emphasis on that, or the importance of that,
25:29
Speaker 3: or understanding that there's such a spiritual component to that,
25:32
Speaker 3: like you address, there really is, you know, I would
25:37
Speaker 3: say that there are so many believers. I don't know
25:43
Speaker 3: what the right term for this would be because I
25:45
Speaker 3: don't necessarily think that a I don't believe that a
25:48
Speaker 3: believer can be possessed by an evil spirit, but I
25:53
Speaker 3: do think that there are attachments. There are evil attachments
25:57
Speaker 3: that happen and create bondage for believers, and it really
26:00
Speaker 3: blinds them to what God has them capable of in
26:04
Speaker 3: their purpose and fulfilling that. So I would say that
26:09
Speaker 3: that's a big, a big thing that I see often
26:13
Speaker 3: is that there's a lot of societal conditioning. I mean,
26:16
Speaker 3: the Bible talks about that too, you know, like really
26:19
Speaker 3: seeking the truth from a scriptural standpoint, But there's so
26:22
Speaker 3: much societal influence sometimes that believers, I think have a
26:26
Speaker 3: hard time separating that, recognizing how much societal influence is
26:31
Speaker 3: impacting them negatively. I mean, we could talk about the
26:35
Speaker 3: food piece, the stress piece, the pace of life, all
26:38
Speaker 3: of that's not God designed us to rest. He designed
26:42
Speaker 3: us to eat the foods that He provided, not all
26:45
Speaker 3: this like engineered stuff, right, you know, So there are
26:49
Speaker 3: all of these different elements that He really designed for
26:52
Speaker 3: us to work and operate best and really live in
26:54
Speaker 3: our purpose that society doesn't support. So it makes it
26:58
Speaker 3: very easy if societ he's not really supporting all of that,
27:01
Speaker 3: to kind of have that fall by the wayside because
27:04
Speaker 3: there's so much influence. I think a lot of times
27:06
Speaker 3: people don't even recognize how impactful the societal influence is.
27:11
Speaker 2: Mmmm mm hmm, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's definitely a
27:14
Speaker 2: it's definitely a conscious decision to do things differently from
27:20
Speaker 2: the world, so to speak, through exercise, nutrition, lifestyle habits
27:24
Speaker 2: and whatnot. It's definitely a you're not going to fall
27:27
Speaker 2: into an on accident, Like it's not oh oh, I
27:30
Speaker 2: just walked around in Walmart and bought whatever. It turns
27:32
Speaker 2: out it's really healthy, Like it worked out great. You know,
27:35
Speaker 2: it doesn't. It doesn't happen that way. You know, even
27:37
Speaker 2: in the exercise world. I searched around on YouTube and
27:39
Speaker 2: found a great workout program and it's it's going like,
27:42
Speaker 2: now I'm in the.
27:42
Speaker 4: Fittest shape I've ever been in my life.
27:44
Speaker 2: I've never heard anybody ever say that it doesn't happen
27:46
Speaker 2: that way, because because the conscious process of a believer
27:51
Speaker 2: walking in the freedom and life abundant that that Christ
27:55
Speaker 2: offers and promises us is a daily thing. It's a
27:59
Speaker 2: daily process of learning how to care for ourselves well,
28:02
Speaker 2: how to steward our body well, and then how to
28:05
Speaker 2: use this thing in a way that's powerful and good
28:09
Speaker 2: for God's glory. Do you have anything that you'd like
28:11
Speaker 2: to add to that before I move on a bit.
28:14
Speaker 3: No, just that you're exactly right, and I think it
28:18
Speaker 3: requires being intentional, being mindful and intentional about where we are,
28:24
Speaker 3: assessing where we are and where we're headed.
28:28
Speaker 4: Mm.
28:28
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's very true. So kind of on that note.
28:32
Speaker 2: On that note, when you start working with a client
28:35
Speaker 2: and they come to your practice, there's probably a number
28:38
Speaker 2: of ways they can get involved. In fact, you've given
28:41
Speaker 2: my listeners a guide to help them that I'm putting
28:45
Speaker 2: in the show notes. Can you tell us a little
28:47
Speaker 2: bit about this guide you've given us to work with?
28:50
Speaker 3: So we have a little bit of a brain hormone
28:53
Speaker 3: optimization guy. So just a really great overview of some
28:58
Speaker 3: ways to support or some ways to think about how
29:01
Speaker 3: the brain connects to hormones. We do a lot to
29:04
Speaker 3: support hormone health because so many people are dealing with
29:08
Speaker 3: energy issues and brain fog and mood swings and maybe
29:14
Speaker 3: maybe some depression or anxiety and all of that brain stuff.
29:19
Speaker 3: Some really foundational components to support that that we have
29:23
Speaker 3: in that brain and hormone optimization guide. So awesome hid
29:27
Speaker 3: support there.
29:28
Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, if we can improve the relationship between our
29:31
Speaker 2: brain and our hormones, we generally will feel much better
29:35
Speaker 2: really fast. It's not like it's not like some sort
29:38
Speaker 2: of magic pill or anything. It's just if we can
29:40
Speaker 2: improve the relationship between how our brain and hormones are
29:43
Speaker 2: talking to each other, the feeling of moving forward is
29:48
Speaker 2: palpable relatively quick, you know. That's why that's why energy
29:54
Speaker 2: drinks are so popular. And I'm not saying they improve
29:56
Speaker 2: the relationship between our brain.
29:59
Speaker 4: And our hormones system.
30:00
Speaker 2: It tricks our brain into thinking the relationship between our
30:04
Speaker 2: brain and our hormone system is hunky dory, right for
30:07
Speaker 2: you know, briefly and with some repercussions. But so I
30:11
Speaker 2: would encourage our listeners to jump in check out that guide.
30:14
Speaker 2: It's in the show notes. You don't want to miss
30:17
Speaker 2: out on that, Heidi. If somebody is.
30:20
Speaker 4: Starting with you, guys, where do you usually.
30:24
Speaker 2: Like to start for them? What's like ground zero? What's
30:28
Speaker 2: the first step in kind of combating this idea? Hey,
30:32
Speaker 2: I'm wrestling with this issue. I've had a bunch of
30:34
Speaker 2: different opinions. My blab works are fine, I've improved my
30:38
Speaker 2: nutrition and exercise, and I know I'm not okay.
30:43
Speaker 4: So what's like, where do you guys start with that?
30:47
Speaker 3: We have this really cool clinical assessment form that we
30:51
Speaker 3: use that connects maybe some of the symptoms that somebody
30:54
Speaker 3: might be having two either different could be different toxins,
30:59
Speaker 3: there's different different health challenges that might be connected to
31:04
Speaker 3: those sorts of things. And once we have them fill
31:08
Speaker 3: this out, it's pretty comprehensive. I want to say. It's
31:10
Speaker 3: close to thirty pages long. It's pretty long, but it's
31:15
Speaker 3: awesome because when people are dealing with some of these symptoms,
31:18
Speaker 3: it helps us dial in maybe where we could dig
31:22
Speaker 3: deeper with either functional lab work or at least at
31:25
Speaker 3: the very least functional blood chemistry to help connect the dots.
31:29
Speaker 3: Just in a blab review this morning, on somebody who's
31:32
Speaker 3: just done like conventional medicine, they always check out fine,
31:34
Speaker 3: but she knows some stuff is off, and you know,
31:36
Speaker 3: through just blood work alone, we were able to see
31:39
Speaker 3: that there's some pretty serious gut issues. There's probably some
31:42
Speaker 3: sort of viral infection that she's dealing with, So just
31:47
Speaker 3: a number of different things, lots of inflammation and oxidative stress,
31:51
Speaker 3: and some blood sugar issues, some insulin issues just from
31:55
Speaker 3: blood work. So I think we really tried to use
31:59
Speaker 3: a targeted stride once we have the definitive information from
32:03
Speaker 3: the lab work and and show them like, hey, this
32:07
Speaker 3: is really what's going on. It was much more comprehensive
32:10
Speaker 3: than anything she's seen at her conventional provider's office, and
32:13
Speaker 3: then it gives us a roadmap of how to approach
32:15
Speaker 3: that strategically based on her specific situation.
32:18
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, so you start with assessment like you're
32:22
Speaker 2: You're like, hey, let's let's understand you well. And you know,
32:26
Speaker 2: I hate So I recently went to a new primary
32:31
Speaker 2: care because I'm you know that in that space that
32:35
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that me and my wife
32:37
Speaker 2: and my boys we have we have somewhere nearby. This
32:40
Speaker 2: is the longest I've ever lived in one place in
32:42
Speaker 2: my whole life. I'm an army brat, so like we've
32:44
Speaker 2: set down roots, you know, and I don't have to
32:46
Speaker 2: change my address every few years. So it's it's very
32:49
Speaker 2: strange to me. I'll go to the grocery store and
32:52
Speaker 2: like see people I know, which is very weird because
32:55
Speaker 2: I used to live in Dallas.
32:56
Speaker 4: In fact, I met Bruce and Dallas.
32:58
Speaker 2: And and like you walk in and you walk out
33:01
Speaker 2: and you're anonymous, like you never even see the same
33:04
Speaker 2: cash year twice. Probably, but anyway, so I was finding
33:08
Speaker 2: a new primary Karen spent some time with them, and
33:10
Speaker 2: their intake form was was basically a page that was like,
33:14
Speaker 2: do you have any of these diseases?
33:15
Speaker 4: Yes or no?
33:16
Speaker 2: Basically, And then in the time that I spent with him,
33:18
Speaker 2: I spent seven minutes. So he walked into the room.
33:21
Speaker 2: Everything looks good, you look like a pretty fit guy.
33:24
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming in, you know that sort of thing.
33:26
Speaker 2: Call me if you need anything, that sort of thing.
33:30
Speaker 2: And it was seven minutes. And I'm not not justing
33:32
Speaker 2: the guy. That's the realm of medicine that he's practicing.
33:36
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I have a deep desire
33:40
Speaker 2: to have a partner in this process of stewarding my
33:43
Speaker 2: body well. And I know that my partnership, I'm not
33:48
Speaker 2: going to find that in the conventional medical world. He'll
33:51
Speaker 2: be really helpful if I get strep throat. And because
33:54
Speaker 2: I've got, you know, jeremy children, six year old and
33:59
Speaker 2: ten year old, they're in public school. They're gonna they're
34:01
Speaker 2: gonna come home, bring in whatever streplo caucus. You know,
34:03
Speaker 2: it's it's gonna happen. And and if that happens, and
34:06
Speaker 2: I've got these big white masses.
34:09
Speaker 4: On my throat, and I can't swallow.
34:10
Speaker 2: I'm going to my primary care and I'm gonna get
34:12
Speaker 2: an antibiotic, and I would be so grateful for that process.
34:17
Speaker 2: But but I wrestle with elers Dan Lows. If I
34:20
Speaker 2: have a flare up in my intestinal track that that
34:23
Speaker 2: has me so debilitated that i can't eat without pain,
34:26
Speaker 2: and so I'm rapidly losing weight. My poor primary care
34:29
Speaker 2: can't help me. I had to. I had an experience
34:32
Speaker 2: where where that was the case, they wanted to do
34:34
Speaker 2: a GI scope. I got a call from the specialist
34:37
Speaker 2: two weeks later for an appointment six months from now,
34:39
Speaker 2: and I'm like, dude, if I don't fix this before
34:42
Speaker 2: six months from now, I'm gonna I'm not. I'm not,
34:45
Speaker 2: I'm gonna waste a weight in nothing like so so
34:49
Speaker 2: in in that uh, I speak that frustration and concern
34:54
Speaker 2: because because I know that in the world we live in,
34:58
Speaker 2: having a partnership with somebody who knows you very well
35:03
Speaker 2: is paramount to dealing with that issue that I'm doing
35:06
Speaker 2: everything right and I know that something's not right. Can
35:11
Speaker 2: I ask you a question as a practitioner, of course,
35:15
Speaker 2: do you like it better when somebody comes to you
35:18
Speaker 2: at square zero? Meaning they have done zero things to
35:22
Speaker 2: get better so far, or do you like it better
35:25
Speaker 2: when somebody comes to you at square twenty, Hey, I've
35:27
Speaker 2: cleaned up what I know to clean up in my diet.
35:29
Speaker 2: I've been exercising for twelve weeks. You know, I'm resting regularly.
35:33
Speaker 2: I'm taking some epsom salt baths because i have a
35:35
Speaker 2: very stressful life. I've gotten a couple of massages. But hey,
35:38
Speaker 2: I'm seeing some progress, but I know something's not right.
35:40
Speaker 2: Which client do you prefer to deal with? And obviously
35:44
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to diss either of them, but I'm
35:46
Speaker 2: very curious from a.
35:47
Speaker 4: Practitioner's perspective, who do you prefer to connect with?
35:50
Speaker 3: Well, I would say, first and foremost, it is the
35:52
Speaker 3: one that's committed to change. So that is the most
35:57
Speaker 3: important to me because I've seen both ends of the
35:59
Speaker 3: star sectrum that have been committed, and it's amazing, like
36:04
Speaker 3: you can really, you can really do some amazing things.
36:08
Speaker 3: I do have a special heart for because I was
36:10
Speaker 3: that person that was seeking all of these different things
36:14
Speaker 3: and really trying to do a lot right. I do
36:17
Speaker 3: have a special heart for that person who's committed to Hey,
36:21
Speaker 3: I've done all of these other things and none of
36:23
Speaker 3: this is working. So like, what do I need to do,
36:26
Speaker 3: I'll do I'll do whatever.
36:27
Speaker 1: You know.
36:29
Speaker 3: Either way, it's really difficult to work with people that
36:31
Speaker 3: kind of have are just dipping their toe in and
36:34
Speaker 3: not really fully committed to the process. Because not that
36:38
Speaker 3: it has to be like a we're making all the
36:43
Speaker 3: monumental changes overnight. That's not what I'm saying. It's it's
36:46
Speaker 3: more just a commitment to Bruce always says one percent
36:50
Speaker 3: better every day, and I love that, you know what
36:52
Speaker 3: I mean, just taking one step in front of the
36:56
Speaker 3: other and making progress. You know, when I have people
37:01
Speaker 3: that are, you know, kind of kind of halfway doing it,
37:06
Speaker 3: it's frustrating for me because I'm really committed to seeing
37:08
Speaker 3: to their success and it's just a kind of a
37:13
Speaker 3: you know, not the best use of anybody's time, resources
37:17
Speaker 3: or energy if they're not committed. So I would say,
37:19
Speaker 3: I really the commitment is number one. But I do
37:22
Speaker 3: have a special heart for people that have tried many
37:25
Speaker 3: different things. And to your point about the conventional medicine piece,
37:29
Speaker 3: I always say, listen, if I get into a car accident,
37:32
Speaker 3: don't take me to whole foods right, Like, there's just right.
37:36
Speaker 3: There's just a time and a place right for all
37:39
Speaker 3: of those things. But I also like to explain to
37:41
Speaker 3: people that there is a completely different board certification for
37:45
Speaker 3: conventional medicine than there is for the functional medicine realm.
37:48
Speaker 3: So not to discredit anything that conventional medicine does, they're
37:53
Speaker 3: just not trained in these things. And I think a
37:55
Speaker 3: lot of people, because we're dealing with health, would assume
37:59
Speaker 3: that if they're there were answers that actually work, they
38:01
Speaker 3: would be using them in the conventional realm. However, that's
38:05
Speaker 3: just not their their education. They're just not trained that way.
38:08
Speaker 3: And so functional medicine just looks at all of that differently,
38:13
Speaker 3: and so there's a there's a time and a place
38:16
Speaker 3: for both, but there are very few situations where a
38:21
Speaker 3: practitioner has both of those backgrounds. And then, unfortunately, what
38:26
Speaker 3: we have found to be the case is that even
38:27
Speaker 3: if a conventional provider does have more of that education,
38:31
Speaker 3: insurance unfortunately just does not pay for right things that
38:35
Speaker 3: actually work in the wellness realm.
38:37
Speaker 4: There's that there's that can of worm.
38:41
Speaker 2: So so I have a picture that comes to mind
38:42
Speaker 2: while you're speaking, I like to garden and and well,
38:46
Speaker 2: so my wife likes to garden. I like to support
38:49
Speaker 2: her gardening, and I enjoy being in the garden. But
38:52
Speaker 2: generally my job is more like the intensive labor part,
38:56
Speaker 2: like the turning over of the soil and the building
38:58
Speaker 2: of the beds and the and the you know, dealing
39:01
Speaker 2: with the fence and that sort of thing.
39:03
Speaker 4: So I do all those things. I'm very happy to
39:05
Speaker 4: do them. But I love gardening as a metaphor.
39:08
Speaker 2: Christ was actually very I don't know if he was
39:10
Speaker 2: much of a gardener, but I know that he really
39:12
Speaker 2: loved plant metaphors too, the parable of the sower, the
39:16
Speaker 2: parable of the mustard seed. Right, So the picture that
39:19
Speaker 2: comes to mind is something like a tree and you
39:23
Speaker 2: have the branches, and you have the fruits, and you
39:26
Speaker 2: have the roots, right, and I think of the conventional
39:30
Speaker 2: medical system. You've got these branches and one of the
39:34
Speaker 2: branches doesn't look so good, and you can see the
39:37
Speaker 2: fruit on that branch is hurting, and so you examine
39:40
Speaker 2: the branch and you find there's this annoying little grub
39:43
Speaker 2: that's gotten in the branch of this plant.
39:45
Speaker 4: And so you pull the grub out.
39:47
Speaker 2: And lo, behold the fruits get better, right, whereas functional
39:50
Speaker 2: medicine tends to look under the soil and see where
39:53
Speaker 2: the roots are and the nutrients that are feeding the tree,
39:56
Speaker 2: and whether or not there's any rot down there, and
39:58
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. I'm not going to carry this meta
40:00
Speaker 2: for too far, but I think of those things as
40:03
Speaker 2: distinctly important and distinctly different. So to wrestle with the roots,
40:09
Speaker 2: so to speak, is the philosophy of the functional medicine practitioner.
40:15
Speaker 2: And correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I
40:16
Speaker 2: think of it. And then to deal with the branches
40:19
Speaker 2: which need to be dealt with. To deal with the branches,
40:23
Speaker 2: both of those realms are uber important for the fruit
40:27
Speaker 2: and for those who aren't following my metaphor or the
40:29
Speaker 2: fruit of your life being things like the energy you
40:31
Speaker 2: have available to you, whether or not you're in pain,
40:34
Speaker 2: your dispositional mood. Is that in keeping with your personality
40:38
Speaker 2: or is there something keeping you from being the energetic,
40:42
Speaker 2: vivacious person that we all know you are right and
40:46
Speaker 2: you know you can. Whether or not I can jump
40:47
Speaker 2: on a twenty inch box happens to be one of
40:49
Speaker 2: my fruits. But anyway you can label those fruits however
40:53
Speaker 2: you want. But the branches and the roots are important,
40:56
Speaker 2: and I think that for many individuals they go to
40:58
Speaker 2: the branch doctor for root problems regularly. And so I
41:04
Speaker 2: want to know what you think about that metaphor because
41:06
Speaker 2: I describe it to my clients frequently. But I imagine
41:09
Speaker 2: that you have an opinion.
41:11
Speaker 3: I love it. I've never heard that before, and I
41:13
Speaker 3: think that it's a really really really great visual for
41:17
Speaker 3: people to understand a little bit more about the There's
41:20
Speaker 3: differences there, right, but they're both important, There's no doubt
41:24
Speaker 3: about it.
41:26
Speaker 4: You know.
41:27
Speaker 3: I think for a lot of people, the challenge becomes,
41:30
Speaker 3: you know, they invest so much in insurance premiums and
41:34
Speaker 3: they want to be able to utilize that, and that's
41:36
Speaker 3: completely understandable. Yeah, However, because all of the root system
41:42
Speaker 3: work is not the focus of the branch system work,
41:46
Speaker 3: it's not you know, it's not supported in that way,
41:49
Speaker 3: and so I think it's difficult sometimes for people to
41:52
Speaker 3: wrap their head around having to make an additional investment
41:57
Speaker 3: in what they would consider like the same what they're
41:59
Speaker 3: looking at is the same plant, right, the same category,
42:03
Speaker 3: instead of really looking at these being separate components and
42:09
Speaker 3: you know something that Bruce and I have really tried
42:11
Speaker 3: to do a better job of educating people, you know, societally,
42:15
Speaker 3: like we're always you know, encouraged to like invest in
42:20
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's the stock market or your FRO
42:23
Speaker 3: and K or you know, like from that standpoint, but
42:27
Speaker 3: not there hasn't it's we're kind of a reactive society.
42:31
Speaker 3: So we're not really going to do anything till there's
42:33
Speaker 3: a problem with health, you know, right you go to
42:36
Speaker 3: a doctor when there's something wrong, or you know, you
42:39
Speaker 3: go in and you have lab work and they see
42:40
Speaker 3: some things off, then they'll do something. But to have
42:44
Speaker 3: more of that proactive approach has historically not been the case.
42:48
Speaker 3: So really trying to to plant the seed of the
42:51
Speaker 3: value in doing that. And you know, I'm sure you've
42:55
Speaker 3: used this before too. Either pay now or you pay later,
42:58
Speaker 3: you know, and we kind of share. If you invest
43:02
Speaker 3: in this now, not only do you you have a
43:05
Speaker 3: completely different quality of life in general, you feel better.
43:09
Speaker 3: You you know, you could live in your purpose like
43:11
Speaker 3: what we've shared and talked about, but you're not building
43:14
Speaker 3: some of the other challenges down the road where you're gonna,
43:17
Speaker 3: you know, eventually run into challenges there too, and be
43:21
Speaker 3: paying for things. But now you might be sick and
43:24
Speaker 3: still having to pay for things. Like we just ran
43:26
Speaker 3: into somebody recently that was building disease for a very
43:30
Speaker 3: long time, not really making a lot of the you
43:34
Speaker 3: know a lot of the the changes that we would
43:38
Speaker 3: hope in order to change the trajectory of where their
43:41
Speaker 3: health was going. And now they're on a medication indefinitely
43:45
Speaker 3: that costs twenty thousand dollars a month. Wow, and they
43:48
Speaker 3: have amazing they're double and shored and their copay is
43:51
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars a.
43:52
Speaker 4: Month forever paying the price right.
43:56
Speaker 3: So there's just a different way to look at that.
43:59
Speaker 3: I think a lot of that's, you know, bankruptcy. The
44:02
Speaker 3: number one reason is medical bills that people have, and
44:05
Speaker 3: eighty percent of them are insured. So I think a
44:08
Speaker 3: lot of times people don't They think that they're safe
44:12
Speaker 3: because they have insurance, so they're not going to run
44:14
Speaker 3: into some of these issues. And that's just really not
44:16
Speaker 3: necessarily the case. And the bigger issue from my perspective
44:19
Speaker 3: is just, hey, God knows how long we're going to
44:22
Speaker 3: be here. We don't know how long we're going to
44:24
Speaker 3: be here, but we want our time here to be
44:27
Speaker 3: vibrant and purposeful, and it gives you the opportunity to
44:31
Speaker 3: do that when you make that sort of investment too.
44:33
Speaker 2: So I have a very strange anecdote, but it'll come together,
44:37
Speaker 2: I promise.
44:37
Speaker 4: So I was.
44:38
Speaker 2: I was sixteen years old, and I grew up under
44:41
Speaker 2: the poverty line. So I remember at the time my
44:43
Speaker 2: mom was on food stamps. We got wick for my
44:46
Speaker 2: younger siblings and so on that program you get milk
44:50
Speaker 2: and you get cereal and that sort of thing. Well,
44:53
Speaker 2: I was in this phase of I'm like lifting weights.
44:56
Speaker 2: I'm a young athlete. I kept getting injured. I didn't
44:58
Speaker 2: know I had eelers downloasts at the time, but one
44:59
Speaker 2: of the the things I read about injury was I
45:01
Speaker 2: needed to increase my protein intake. So I'm looking at
45:04
Speaker 2: Lucky Charms, which I was eating three bowls of in
45:07
Speaker 2: the morning as a sixteen year old young man eating
45:11
Speaker 2: three bowls of Lucky Charms, and I'm like, I'm getting
45:13
Speaker 2: twelve grams of protein in my breakfast in the morning.
45:17
Speaker 4: Like that's not going to cut it.
45:18
Speaker 2: So I started eating eggs, and I remember I could
45:22
Speaker 2: buy a dozen eggs for eighty eight cents, and I
45:24
Speaker 2: would eat three in the morning, and I'd eat a
45:27
Speaker 2: few other things throughout the day, tuna and whatnot. But
45:30
Speaker 2: I remember having this conversation with my mom. She's like, al,
45:33
Speaker 2: eggs are eggs are more expensive than cereal? And I'm like, Mom,
45:36
Speaker 2: I'm doing the math, and what I see is I
45:40
Speaker 2: can pay fifty cents more a week to get twelve
45:44
Speaker 2: more grams of protein for breakfast. And I didn't know
45:48
Speaker 2: enough to say and photo nutrients and omega three fatty
45:50
Speaker 2: acids blah blahlah. I don't know enough to say that.
45:52
Speaker 2: But I'm going to get this much more and it's
45:55
Speaker 2: only fifty cents a week. You know what, I'll buy
45:57
Speaker 2: the eggs.
45:58
Speaker 4: That's so. I mowed lawns and I did the things,
46:00
Speaker 4: and I bought my own eggs in my own house.
46:04
Speaker 4: And I'm not justing my mom here, Mom, I love you.
46:06
Speaker 2: She listens to the podcast, and she was doing her
46:09
Speaker 2: best as a single parent to raise four kids up.
46:13
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I remember making that decision
46:16
Speaker 2: in my head and in my heart at sixteen, that
46:20
Speaker 2: the fifty cents a week was worth it, like that
46:22
Speaker 2: it was worth that, it was worth buying the extra
46:27
Speaker 2: good for me food. Then the I didn't again, I
46:31
Speaker 2: didn't have the language to speak it, but the food
46:33
Speaker 2: that I knew wasn't doing the job for me right.
46:36
Speaker 4: And I feel like a.
46:38
Speaker 2: Lot of a lot of the conversations about health and
46:41
Speaker 2: fitness boil down to the same question. It's like, Okay, yeah,
46:46
Speaker 2: there's a cost difference, Yeah, one hundred percent. There's a
46:48
Speaker 2: cost difference between going to do lab work with my
46:51
Speaker 2: primary care which my insurance pays for. Okay, great, and
46:54
Speaker 2: then getting a deeper dive, an investigative look with a
46:58
Speaker 2: functional medicine practitioner that my ins ands won't pay for it.
47:00
Speaker 4: There's a cost difference a hundred percent.
47:02
Speaker 2: But the question is am I willing to pay that
47:07
Speaker 2: in order to be a better steward of my body?
47:10
Speaker 4: And I think that for me, that's the that's the
47:12
Speaker 4: core core thing.
47:14
Speaker 2: Jesus said. Jesus said something really interesting. He says, where
47:18
Speaker 2: your treasure is there, your heart might be also, meaning
47:23
Speaker 2: that that you know, if you have to make an effort,
47:26
Speaker 2: if you have to if you have to make a sacrifice,
47:29
Speaker 2: so to speak, if you have to make an investment.
47:31
Speaker 2: What's interesting is is your your time, your energy, your
47:35
Speaker 2: your heart, your focus starts going in that direction. In fact,
47:40
Speaker 2: if you have to pay a little extra money to
47:42
Speaker 2: get an investigative look at your health and fitness, you
47:46
Speaker 2: actually might go do something with it.
47:50
Speaker 4: It's not going to be Fridge Art.
47:53
Speaker 2: And so I say that out loud to say that
47:55
Speaker 2: that I believe there's something complicated about how we make
47:59
Speaker 2: our decisions here.
48:00
Speaker 4: But it's really simple and the simple the simple question is.
48:04
Speaker 2: Do I believe that I'm being the best steward of
48:07
Speaker 2: my body that I know how to be right now?
48:10
Speaker 2: And if you feel like the answer is no, if
48:12
Speaker 2: you're like, no, I'm missing something, there's something I don't
48:14
Speaker 2: know about taking care of me, then then it's going
48:17
Speaker 2: to require some of your treasure, whether it's your time,
48:20
Speaker 2: your energy, your finances. You're like, it's going to require
48:24
Speaker 2: some of your treasure to make a shift in that direction.
48:27
Speaker 4: And I believe it.
48:28
Speaker 2: It pays off dividends in the future. That's what stewardship is.
48:32
Speaker 2: But but that, but that, it's it's well, it's sixteen
48:36
Speaker 2: year old Alex's question. Lucky charms are eggs. One costs more,
48:40
Speaker 2: but it's better for you. So what do you do
48:41
Speaker 2: about that? Any thoughts on that?
48:44
Speaker 3: Isn't it interesting? If you look back now you may
48:47
Speaker 3: not even realize this at sixteen, but you were. You
48:50
Speaker 3: were fostering creator and design. You know, he designed for
48:54
Speaker 3: us to have the eggs, not the lucky terms. But like, inherently,
48:57
Speaker 3: I think we know on some level that some of
49:00
Speaker 3: these things aren't the best for us. This goes back
49:04
Speaker 3: to the societal influence thing. It's everywhere. Everybody does it,
49:08
Speaker 3: you know, everybody. Well, we don't have lucky terms of
49:11
Speaker 3: our house. I'm sure you don't either, but you know,
49:13
Speaker 3: like a lot of people do, and that's societally acceptable.
49:16
Speaker 3: So it would seem that that's okay. But if we
49:19
Speaker 3: really dial it back and take a step back and look,
49:22
Speaker 3: we know that that's not the best we know, you know,
49:25
Speaker 3: we know that's not how we were designed to fuel ourselves.
49:30
Speaker 3: That's not really the best the best resource for us
49:35
Speaker 3: in order to you know, optimize our health. So, yeah,
49:39
Speaker 3: think you're you're right about that.
49:41
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think this is where we have
49:43
Speaker 2: the Joshua ethos. You know, you can look around, or
49:45
Speaker 2: it's even the Daniel ethos from from the Old Testament.
49:48
Speaker 2: You look around and say, Okay, the world's doing this,
49:50
Speaker 2: but as for me and my house, Joshua says, as
49:53
Speaker 2: for me and my house will serve the Lord. I
49:55
Speaker 2: tack onto that, not that I'm adding to the Bible,
49:57
Speaker 2: but as for me and my house, we will serve
50:00
Speaker 2: the Lord with our bodies. We're like, we're going to
50:02
Speaker 2: take good care of this thing and do the best
50:04
Speaker 2: we know how. Doesn't mean we do it perfectly. You know,
50:07
Speaker 2: my kids have had lucky charms, by the way, but
50:09
Speaker 2: they just do it on leg day.
50:11
Speaker 4: I'm just kidding. But navigating that space and.
50:16
Speaker 2: Doing it well for yourself, I believe is an impetus
50:20
Speaker 2: for doing it for your family, maybe even doing it
50:24
Speaker 2: well in your community, and in our case, doing it
50:26
Speaker 2: well for clients. Heidi, I feel like we've talked a
50:31
Speaker 2: bunch about a lot of things so far, and I
50:34
Speaker 2: really feel like I continue talking to you for quite
50:36
Speaker 2: a while. But I'm looking at the time and I'm like, oh,
50:38
Speaker 2: we only have three minutes, So I'm so sorry. I'm
50:42
Speaker 2: so sorry that we can't keep talking. But at the
50:44
Speaker 2: same time, I want you to have the opportunity to
50:48
Speaker 2: address the listener right now, a very specific listener, the
50:50
Speaker 2: listener who resonated with your story and said, you know what,
50:55
Speaker 2: I've been in that position. It could be a dude
50:57
Speaker 2: or a lady. But I see this a lot, especially.
50:59
Speaker 4: With young mom. Uh.
51:01
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm doing everything right and I I
51:08
Speaker 2: know something's not right and I'm discouraged. I've talked to
51:13
Speaker 2: God about it. I'm not really sure where to turn.
51:17
Speaker 2: I feel like giving up a lot, like that's that's
51:20
Speaker 2: where I'm at, That's where my headspace is at. Heidi,
51:22
Speaker 2: if you had the opportunity to look at that listener
51:24
Speaker 2: in the eye and speak life into them, what comes
51:27
Speaker 2: to your heart and mind to speak?
51:30
Speaker 3: Ah, you know, I actually prayed about this before I
51:32
Speaker 3: came on your podcast and we get choked up.
51:34
Speaker 5: Oh, because it has been such a pain to purpose
51:39
Speaker 5: that if there's one person that I can reach that's struggling,
51:43
Speaker 5: I just hope that they know that there's hope.
51:47
Speaker 3: There's hope, there are answers out there, you know, just
51:53
Speaker 3: to seek just to really listen to what God has
51:56
Speaker 3: for you, you know, steward things the best way that you can. Obviously,
52:00
Speaker 3: I'm here as a resource. I've got social media trying
52:03
Speaker 3: to provide a lot of information for people to be
52:05
Speaker 3: able to understand that there are different options and choices
52:10
Speaker 3: for them to make.
52:12
Speaker 2: Thank you for that, Heidi, I appreciate your heart. And
52:14
Speaker 2: if somebody is not local to you, do you guys
52:17
Speaker 2: still work with individuals who aren't right there in your area, Yes.
52:21
Speaker 3: And we in fact really do the majority. But we
52:24
Speaker 3: work with now virtually because we've found there's so much
52:27
Speaker 3: ground that we cover during our sessions that when we
52:30
Speaker 3: can record them on Zoom, that they have the ability
52:34
Speaker 3: to review that and that's been very helpful for our client.
52:38
Speaker 1: To help you.
52:39
Speaker 2: Awesome, very good, very good. So final call to my listeners.
52:43
Speaker 2: If this conversation resonated with you, you can find a
52:46
Speaker 2: guide in the show notes below with Heidi, and then
52:49
Speaker 2: I'll make sure that the links to Cooper Health Solutions
52:52
Speaker 2: is below as well so that you can get a
52:54
Speaker 2: deeper look. I do not offer as an institution or.
52:59
Speaker 4: As a coach.
52:59
Speaker 2: I do not offer this level of functional medicine testing.
53:04
Speaker 2: So if this is something that you want and you
53:06
Speaker 2: want to work with a functional medicine person, it's not
53:08
Speaker 2: like you're bypassing me. It's like you're getting to the
53:10
Speaker 2: you're getting to the people I would recommend to you.
53:12
Speaker 2: So that said, Heidi, I want to I want to
53:16
Speaker 2: make sure that I get to pray over you and
53:17
Speaker 2: pray over Bruce and your enterprise and the good work
53:21
Speaker 2: that you guys are doing in the world. So if
53:23
Speaker 2: you would bow your head with me, thank you, Father, God,
53:26
Speaker 2: thank you so much for this day. Thank you for
53:28
Speaker 2: the opportunity to spend time with my sister Heidi, and
53:31
Speaker 2: for the way that you have blessed her and Bruce
53:34
Speaker 2: to be on this journey to help individuals carry their crosswell. God,
53:38
Speaker 2: I pray that you will care for their hearts, give
53:41
Speaker 2: them good guidance and answers in order to help their
53:44
Speaker 2: clients well.
53:45
Speaker 4: I also pray that.
53:46
Speaker 2: The sincerity of their mission shines through and every conversation
53:50
Speaker 2: they have and every person they encounter. Lord, I also
53:53
Speaker 2: pray that you'll bless them as they carry a lot
53:56
Speaker 2: of burdens for other individuals. It's not easy to hear
54:00
Speaker 2: the struggles that individuals are going through, especially when you
54:03
Speaker 2: love hard and well. So I pray Lord that you'll
54:06
Speaker 2: give them fresh vision and fresh energy to operate well
54:09
Speaker 2: and they're in the space of health and fitness that
54:12
Speaker 2: they're operating, and I also pray a special blessing in
54:14
Speaker 2: favor over each person that comes across their path, help
54:18
Speaker 2: them to have healing in their hands and in their
54:21
Speaker 2: eyes and mouths in Jesus' name.
54:23
Speaker 4: Amen.
54:25
Speaker 3: Amen, thank you so so much.
54:28
Speaker 2: Thank you Heidi, And to the listeners guys, thank you
54:30
Speaker 2: so much for tuning in to Faithful Fitness. This has
54:32
Speaker 2: been coach Alex vn Houten And until next time, train hard,
54:36
Speaker 2: pray harder.
54:41
Speaker 1: Hey, if this episode help you, chare it with someone
54:45
Speaker 1: who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe
54:48
Speaker 1: and leave us a raving review so more people can
54:51
Speaker 1: find Faithful Fitness. Oh and my dad's new devotional is
54:57
Speaker 1: almost out now. You can grab a copy for you
55:00
Speaker 1: and then join our free community at Better Daily by
55:04
Speaker 1: clicking on the links in the show notes below. We
55:08
Speaker 1: all have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when
55:11
Speaker 1: we do it together, so check out both links in
55:14
Speaker 1: the show notes. Don't be a big well Bob, just
55:17
Speaker 1: do it. Until next time, don't forget, train hard and
55:22
Speaker 1: pray even harder.