Latest / Harder Than Life / The Root Causes Behind Gut Health, Stress, & Burnout | Rachel Scheer

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The Root Causes Behind Gut Health, Stress, & Burnout | Rachel Scheer · Harder Than Life

0:00
Sleep, exercise, or diet.
0:02
Which one is the bigger needle mover?
0:05
I'm gonna pick sleep.
0:07
When sleep is gone, everything is gonna be gone.
0:11
And then I'd say nutrition, and then I would say exercise.
0:14
Brain fog is one of the most common symptoms of a leaky gut.
0:18
Sometimes skin issues can go hand in hand with it.
0:21
It could be eczema, it could be skin rashes.
0:24
Research has shown that when people eat really late in the evening time, so nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, especially right before bedtime,
0:33
They get way less recovered sleep.
0:36
At least two to three hours after dinner time before bed, HRV greatly improves, which is the body's recovery that night during sleep.
0:45
The more diversity with the different strains of bacteria in one's health, the better outcome in just overall longevity and mental health.
0:56
Most underrated daily habit?
0:58
Sunlight.
0:59
Health is?
1:00
Nervous system regulation.
1:02
If someone were to change one thing for their gut, what should it be?
1:06
I'd say the first thing was...
1:09
There's one of you listening right now in the best shape of your life on the outside and their body is quietly failing on the inside.
1:15
You're training, you're eating clean, you're winning, and something is wrong.
1:19
Every test comes back normal.
1:21
My guest was a competitive fitness athlete, training hard, eating clean, doing everything right.
1:27
And a surgeon told her the plan was to remove her entire large intestine.
1:32
She said,
1:32
Nope.
1:33
Then she went and found out why her body was breaking down in the first place.
1:38
Now she runs a practice, an institute, and a clinic built on one idea that should make you uncomfortable.
1:45
We do not have healthcare.
1:48
We have sick care.
1:49
And the discipline that built you can be the thing taking you apart.
1:53
Welcome Functional Medicine Nutritionist, founder of Rachel Shear Nutrition.
1:58
Welcome.
2:00
What a great intro.
2:00
Thank you, Kelly.
2:01
Easy enough for me to say, right?
2:02
You got it.
2:03
One thing before we get started, I'm not a doctor.
2:06
Neither is this show.
2:09
What you hear today is her experience and mine.
2:13
It's a conversation, not a prescription.
2:15
Talk to your own provider before you change anything.
2:18
Now let's get into it.
2:19
This one's going to sting before it helps.
2:22
We're not gonna talk about the bio.
2:23
You've been on the show before.
2:24
Thank you for making the trip.
2:25
So excited you're here.
2:26
You look great.
2:27
We have our little matching outfits today and I love it.
2:30
I wanna start with the part nobody puts in the highlight reel.
2:34
I kept performing for years when my body was failing and I want your bill.
2:38
What did it cost you to keep performing while your body was failing?
2:41
Not the diagnosis, the cost.
2:44
When I continued to push past and override my body's signals that it was giving me,
2:52
it cost me everything, right?
2:54
Health is something that we so easily take for granted, but when it's gone, we realize it's the most important thing that we have because when our health is absent, we can't spend time or be present with the people that we love.
3:12
We can't show up and pursue the things that we want to.
3:15
We can't dream.
3:17
We can't have adventure.
3:18
We can't have romance.
3:19
We can't,
3:20
We can't live our life when our health is absent.
3:23
And so for me, when my health began to deteriorate, I really was able to take an account for the places that I was operating from.
3:36
And it was so much of a lot of my inner wounds and operating even from a very masculine place that created a lot of the dysfunction in my body.
3:44
And I'm sure we'll get into that.
3:45
But yeah, it cost me my life.
3:48
Well, they say you have a million problems until you have a health issue and then you have one.
3:55
And so it set the stage.
3:57
How old were you?
3:58
Because you're a young lady now.
3:59
When was this?
4:00
I'm 33 now and I was around 23-ish.
4:06
It's hard to remember, but I think it was around that time as I was graduating from college.
4:12
Actually, no.
4:13
So that was 2015.
4:14
Sorry.
4:14
So 2015, I was graduating from Baylor.
4:17
My background was in nutrition and dietetics and I got into fitness competing.
4:22
And so doing bodybuilding competitions, I was a fitness model.
4:26
I was on the cover of a lot of
4:28
different magazines bodybuilding.com men's health and It was around that time where I was at the peak of my physical fitness that my body started to give me massive pushback and I had severe gut dysfunction where I would look like I was six months pregnant at the end of every single day I no longer had a menstrual cycle.
4:49
I had skin issues I went to the doctor of course because I
4:53
We know when something feels off.
4:55
And one thing that I think women do a little bit better than men is women are very in tune with their body.
5:01
Like men will wait until everything's like completely broken and then go into the doctor.
5:05
But women were like, hey, something just doesn't feel right with my body.
5:11
And that really led to a...
5:14
year-long journey of going to all these different specialists, endocrinologists, gastroenterologists, doing all the scans, colonoscopy, endoscopy, CT, MRI, the blood work, and put on a bunch of medication.
5:30
medication for me to be able to use the restroom, medication for my thyroid because I saw that I had hypothyroidism.
5:36
I was already on birth control, so my hormones were being suppressed and I was given synthetic hormones.
5:41
And then on these other prescription medications like Lexapro because of the depression.
5:47
And so, you know, it was...
5:49
a period of my life where I really was just in survival mode.
5:54
It was me trying to get through every single day and actually taking the action that I thought was the right action to take, right?
6:03
We're taught that something's off, go to the doctor, and as you should, right?
6:07
Because they're gonna rule out anything
6:10
major going on.
6:11
But for me with these chronic symptoms, that's where I really believe that conventional medicine misses the mark.
6:18
And that's where I was left just managing the symptoms on five plus medications and then told I needed to have my entire colon removed.
6:26
And so it wasn't what was going to help me heal.
6:31
21 or 22 years old and having to deal with that.
6:35
That's insane.
6:36
I didn't, I, you know, the last time you were on the show, I didn't even put two and two together that you were that young and you were a boss and you're like, that's, I'm not doing it.
6:44
Was your mom there with you during this whole time?
6:47
Yeah, my mom was.
6:48
My boyfriend at the time came with me to a lot of the appointments.
6:51
They all came with me when I went to the Mayo Clinic because I was desperate.
6:55
So I'm flying across the country.
6:56
I'm going to the top doctors in the United States and still getting nowhere.
7:03
And yeah, I remember the day vividly of...
7:05
sitting in the doctor's office of that colorectal surgeon and him saying, you know what, this might be something that you were just born with.
7:14
Some people genetically have something called a floppy colon or a descendant colon.
7:21
And the solution for that that he was offering was the full removal of my large intestine.
7:26
I didn't have a diseased colon.
7:27
This wasn't colitis or Crohn's disease, even though we work with that a lot of my practice.
7:32
But it was...
7:34
you know, the solution that was presented to me.
7:36
And when I tell that story often, a lot of people have a reaction of like, that's crazy.
7:43
That's insane.
7:44
Like, you must have gotten upset with the doctor.
7:47
But to be honest, Kelly, that was a moment in my life where I felt like I was finally given a solution for the amount of pain that I was in.
7:56
And I was so ready to get that surgery when the doctor told me that this was going to be the thing to fix all of my gut issues that was really costing my whole life.
8:06
And at that point, I was willing to do anything to just to get on with my life and to get past this amount of pain that I was living in every single day.
8:14
Walk me through when the doctor says this and you're like, oh, you just said it was relief.
8:21
And between the time that he said that to the time you went, uh-uh, what happened?
8:29
Yeah, I mean, I remember being in the doctor's office and actually...
8:34
trying to schedule that surgery as quickly as possible because I was that low and I was that desperate, but it was actually my mom.
8:42
And it was my mom who said, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, let's, let's pause for a little bit.
8:49
You can always get this surgery.
8:51
You can always get it, you know, but let's not jump to it.
8:54
Let's, let's consider other options.
8:57
And it was in that moment I heard my mom and I said, okay,
9:02
And this then lit a fire in my belly and this obsession with me trying to figure out what was going on.
9:10
I had got fed up with outsourcing my power to these physicians and just listening to what they thought I needed to do.
9:18
I did that.
9:20
I got nowhere.
9:21
And this is where I said, you know what?
9:23
I'm going to be the one.
9:24
I need to figure out what's going on with my body.
9:27
And I started to learn about the gut and the gut microbiome and different nutrition protocols to help heal the gut.
9:33
And this led to an entire journey of what started as a physical journey but really ended up being an internal and an emotional journey of healing.
9:43
the places that I was operating from.
9:45
And without going too deep into that, I was able to heal my body.
9:51
I was able to figure out that I had a ton of imbalances in my gut microbiome, which at the time, conventional medicine wasn't talking about SIBO or dysbiosis.
10:01
These are all terms to describe an imbalance in the microbiome.
10:05
And I was able to self-diagnose myself with SIBO.
10:08
And then from there, do various protocols to help eradicate it.
10:13
I would relapse a couple of times, but then eventually even dig a bit deeper.
10:18
Okay, why did this problem develop in the first place?
10:20
And that's one thing I love about functional medicine.
10:23
It's not what just is the root cause.
10:25
It's what's the root cause of the root cause.
10:27
And normally those things are going to trace back to one's lifestyle, their diet.
10:33
It's going to trace back to their environment.
10:35
And I mean this in terms of environment with, yes, toxins in our environment, living in a moldy home, things like that, but also the people that we surround ourselves with.
10:46
That definitely matters.
10:47
But I think one of the most overlooked areas is really –
10:51
the core wounds that we're operating from.
10:54
And when I really look back at where I was in competing and bodybuilding and fitness, I placed so much of my sense of worth in my physical body.
11:03
And I was operating from this force type mentality.
11:06
Like if I could control everything, if I could just achieve what I thought was gonna make me happy, then I would be okay.
11:15
And it's not like I had those thoughts, but this were the subconscious
11:19
Things that I've learned where I was really operating from in that time.
11:23
And so it was this energy of force.
11:25
It was an authentic power.
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And in that, when we look at how chronic stress, so when the body's operating from a sympathetic dominant place, and so the nervous system's in overdrive constantly.
11:37
And what happens to the entire body is, number one, the gut shuts down, stops producing digestive enzymes, stops producing digestive enzymes.
11:45
the motility begins to slow down.
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We start to see an increase in chronic inflammation throughout the entire body.
11:51
We see the immune system suppress.
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And so it's not that stress is bad, but when we live in this chronic, stressed, hypervigilant state, which can come from our core wounds or a lifestyle or whatever it may be, when the body lives there, this creates constant wear and tear that begins to ripple throughout every system.
12:09
leading to disease.
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And that was my core area that I needed to do a lot of work in.
12:14
And it was through the combination of all of these things.
12:17
Yes, diet.
12:18
Yes, working on my gut microbiome, changing my environment, but also really doing the inner work that I was able to heal my body.
12:28
So stress and core wounds, I'm gonna paraphrase what I just heard, that was long, thank you.
12:34
And I've gotten to know you, so I know a little bit more about your childhood.
12:37
So I'm gonna tread very lightly, and if there's anything that's off limits, just tell me.
12:43
What I heard was there was things going on in your childhood and or your upbringing that were left unregulated that caused dis-ease, which caused disease, which you had to go back and address that along with a bunch of other things.
13:00
But there were some things going on when you were growing up.
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I'm going to start with how did it feel to have your mom have your back?
13:08
It was incredible.
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My mom's one of my biggest cheerleaders in life.
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And even though there was definitely things in my upbringing that contributed to some of my wounds when I was older, my mom's been such an incredible supporter.
13:24
And I think she's one of the reasons why I'm also where I'm at today in life.
13:29
Yeah.
13:29
The reason why I was going is because you asked me before, am I still harder than life?
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And
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Harder than life meant dealing with the shit going on in your head.
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And up until very recently, I hadn't dealt with mine.
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That was why when I did the open with the panic attacks, I didn't know what I didn't know.
13:45
And yours, in many ways, is a blessing that you got it so young.
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Mine took until I was 50, and then it started coming out.
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And I have true body dysmorphia where I was like, okay, this meant by having this body meant protection.
14:03
So my stepfather used to beat me.
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And when I had this big muscles, nobody can beat me.
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And instead of going in and realizing that, hey, that's not normal.
14:12
He wasn't normal.
14:14
um i did all this and punished myself for years yeah what was the single thing that you did to address those core wounds not not the we're going to get into the root cause and the functional medicine and all that what was the mindset that you had to address could you share that with the
14:36
Yeah, it's not super simple to explain what was the thing because it really wasn't one thing.
14:44
It was a lot of different things.
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And we store so much of our wounds actually somatically in the body.
14:53
And so a big part of, I believe, healing even some of these core wounds that we carry, these identities really –
15:00
is somatically, number one, feeling everything that we need to feel.
15:05
But also I do find a lot of benefit in the physical healing of the body can also help lead to more of that mental and that emotional side.
15:15
But for me, I'd say the first thing was awareness.
15:20
I just had to become aware that I was operating from these identities that I had created.
15:28
Right.
15:29
Nobody else gave me these identities based off of different experiences that I had in my life.
15:34
And you hit the nail on the head, Kelly.
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A lot of these core identities that we carry as adults came from our earliest upbringing, from how we related with our parents and ultimately.
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As a child, we crave two things.
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We crave connection.
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We crave love.
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And we also need a level of authenticity.
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These are two things.
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But when those two come into competition, when we feel like we can't
16:07
receive love or belonging as a core need as a child will actually sacrifice our authenticity.
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So this is where we begin to put on this armor over time of if I show up in this way, if I'm beautiful enough, if I'm.
16:23
I achieve enough, if I'm successful enough, if I become the best athlete, if I do this, then I'll be worthy of love and belonging.
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And so we begin the compensation at a very early age.
16:36
And so for me, the first step was just becoming aware of what some of these identities were that I was operating from.
16:43
And then beyond that, it really was this journey of just noticing, just noticing when I could say that little girl, when little Rachel would come into the scene and she would be the one making the decisions.
17:05
Right.
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And I think so many of us are really operating from our little girl or a little boy who is
17:12
you know, just wants to be loved, who just wants to be seen.
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And so I think a big part of this is having the awareness of those identities that are really connected to that wounded little girl or that little boy, and then simultaneously creating enough awareness to be able to separate and know when we're operating from that little girl or that little boy, and then bring the adult self.
17:36
into the conversation and making decisions from that adult self, really.
17:43
Make it sound so easy.
17:45
Yeah.
17:45
Now guys, I'm gonna tell you the audience how you identify what she just said is if you say something like, that's just the way I am.
17:54
And if unconsciously, you're making a same decision and the same outcome is happening that you don't wanna have happen, there's your sign.
18:02
What are some of the
18:04
modalities that you did to to address those wait before i ask that question let me say you're spiritual right have you heard anything about or read anything about how a rupture or a something could happen in another life that then follows and i read about this recently and i'm like really so something could could have happened in another lifetime and then you and then you brought it to this one and you're supposed to heal it do you know anything about that
18:31
Yeah, like karma from a past life.
18:33
Yeah, like your soul contract.
18:35
And it's like, hey, hello.
18:39
That's why you – I've only brought that up because you said to be aware.
18:41
So many people are unaware.
18:42
And it keeps happening to you.
18:45
That is literally –
18:47
your bat beacon saying, Oh, Hey, work on this.
18:50
But we get, we deny it.
18:53
We ignore it.
18:54
We avoid it.
18:55
And it just keeps raring its ugly head.
18:57
How are you able to just grab that at such a young age and say, gosh darn it.
19:02
Or was it mom?
19:04
You know, it was a journey and I can't sit here and say that I'm perfect or I'm healed.
19:11
I think we're always healing.
19:14
We're always evolving.
19:15
We are imperfect humans.
19:18
I'm perfect.
19:18
I don't know what you're talking about.
19:20
And what you were saying there about the awareness, so consciousness is awareness, right?
19:25
Yes.
19:26
And so when we're talking about somebody who is a conscious human, we're talking about somebody who has the awareness.
19:32
They're also present in their life, and they're also able to separate from the wounded inner child, the wounded little boy, and realize that consciousness.
19:44
Those are just wounds that are coming up.
19:47
And that's actually not the truth of who I am.
19:49
And then consciously make the decision that they need to make that is the right decision that is from their core truth in that moment.
19:59
And then the more we do this, the more we begin to actually...
20:03
And then we start to reprogram the mind.
20:05
And eventually, I think over time, what feels so separate, let's say we've been operating from this wounded inner child for most of our life.
20:13
And then we start to bring that highest self, the adult self, whatever you want to call it back on the scene, which is the awareness, which is the observer.
20:20
and observing.
20:21
And all we need to do is to create enough space from what is happening in our life and reality of noticing when this little child is coming on the scene and bringing that adult.
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And so it's that within that space that we actually get to consciously choose.
20:37
And the more we choose from this place, the more that we actually step fully into this identity.
20:44
So guys, remember the conscience makes up 5% of you and the subconscious makes up 95%.
20:50
So what she's saying is extremely difficult, but it's the key to happiness.
20:56
It's the key to healing disease.
20:59
It's a key to being your highest self.
21:01
So that you say made it sound so simplistic and you show it in life that it's so simplistic, but it took me to 50 to even get close to it.
21:09
It's not simple, right?
21:12
Well, it's not hard, but.
21:14
So I'll take that back.
21:16
It's simple to understand, but simple doesn't mean easy to do.
21:21
Yeah, it's so good.
21:23
Let's dig into this because I said into the sick care.
21:27
Unpack sick care versus health care.
21:29
Where does the standard system actually break and what does it break for?
21:34
Yeah, I call a lot of conventional medicine sick care and I call functional medicine health care.
21:42
And that's not a knock on conventional medicine.
21:45
I'm just calling it for what it is, right?
21:47
When you get sick, when there's disease.
21:50
we go to conventional medicine.
21:52
And what's typically done is we're treating the sickness.
21:56
And so how do we normally treat sickness?
21:59
Through medication.
22:00
Versus healthcare, it's an approach that is not only proactive, but it's also preventative.
22:09
And it's not meant to just get somebody out of a diseased state.
22:13
And so optimal health is not the absence of disease.
22:17
It's not just you're not sick.
22:19
That's not what health is.
22:20
Health is really when we feel our best, when we can move our best, when we are really operating from, in my opinion, our highest potential physically, emotionally, spiritually, that's optimal health.
22:36
And so it's not just, hey, when we're sick, let's try to treat something with medication.
22:40
We know that medication doesn't actually make somebody healthy.
22:44
But functional medicine, what we're actually doing is we're getting to the root cause of these imbalances.
22:49
And so what is happening with the gut, the microbiome, what is happening with one's hormones, thyroids, micronutrients, nutrition,
22:56
Let's bring it all the way back to one's lifestyle.
22:59
What does their circadian rhythm look like?
23:01
So sleep, sunlight that they're getting.
23:04
What do the relationships look like in their life?
23:06
Do they have connection and joy in their life?
23:08
That's an incredibly important part of overall health.
23:13
And so it's taking into account all of these things.
23:16
And then really what my team and my coaches do is we work with them on that lifestyle side.
23:23
So it's a lot of coaching, not just here, take the supplement or do this diet, although we do all of that too.
23:29
But it's really this holistic approach, which is how we create true health.
23:34
You said all of those things and their generalities, but what do you see is the number one that shows up in the most people?
23:43
Not number one for everybody, but what's the number one challenge?
23:47
Like, is it sleep?
23:48
Is it stress?
23:49
Is it eating?
23:50
What's the, what's the one showing up the most?
23:53
Well, there's a lot of things.
23:56
I mean, if you look at the population, most of the population is metabolically unhealthy.
24:02
And when we're metabolically unhealthy as a byproduct of our lifestyle, our diet, and our environment, this isn't just going to show up only metabolically.
24:10
It's actually going to show up in every system because the body is interconnected.
24:14
And so, yeah, we're going to see metabolic issues, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation,
24:19
maybe hyperlipidemia.
24:20
So we call that metabolic syndrome.
24:22
But we're going to also see a ton of issues with the gut because the gut's also connected to the body.
24:27
So we'll see dysbiosis.
24:28
We're going to see leaky gut.
24:30
We're going to see gut inflammation.
24:31
We're going to see then hormone suppression.
24:33
We are seeing right now the epidemic of low testosterone.
24:37
We see women... You're the second person in a couple of weeks that said everybody should be taking testosterone.
24:42
I was like, whoa.
24:43
See, I would...
24:45
I wouldn't argue against that, but that's a very narrow lens to look through is everyone should be on testosterone.
24:52
And that's based off of that most men are not low in testosterone, true.
24:57
But my lens would go a bit deeper of why is that person low in testosterone?
25:02
And we can look at things like environmental toxins.
25:05
We can look at their stress.
25:06
We can look at their nutrition.
25:07
And there's a big difference from a guy who's maybe in his 60s and he has low testosterone versus a guy who's in his 60s
25:14
20s and he has low testosterone.
25:16
We're not going to just put the guy in his 20s on testosterone.
25:19
Sure, that could make him feel better, especially if he wants to have kids one day.
25:22
Probably not going to be the best thing, but let's actually try to figure out the reason behind it instead of just throwing somebody on testosterone, which could be good for one person, maybe not for the other.
25:33
All right, so you went all doctor on me.
25:35
So I'm going to make it even easier, and I'm not going to let you get off this one.
25:39
Sleep, exercise, or diet.
25:42
Which one is the bigger needle mover if you optimize it at?
25:49
Hmm.
25:50
Sleep, exercise, or diet.
25:53
Actually, I'm going to pick sleep as number one.
25:58
And I wanted to say diet, but then when sleep is gone, like everything is going to be gone.
26:04
Like your nervous system is going to be off.
26:07
Metabolically, you're going to be unhealthy.
26:09
I mean, we're...
26:11
We're going towards a really bad place when we're not getting good sleep.
26:15
And that's not a medical term, bad place.
26:18
I just want to talk to the, listen, my audiences.
26:22
Yeah.
26:22
So I'd say sleep and then I'd say nutrition and then I would say exercise.
26:27
Yeah.
26:27
So when I say diet, I mean your diet, not, hey, we're going to be on a diet because I'm on a seafood diet.
26:33
When I see food, I like to eat it.
26:35
And you just made fun of my candy in the other room.
26:37
I'm still in great shape, but I love my candy.
26:41
I don't overindulge.
26:42
I don't eat it every single day.
26:44
But you give me a good chocolate cake and it's over.
26:47
Or carrot cake.
26:47
I'm like a carrot cake connoisseur.
26:49
I'm going to start doing that.
26:50
Carrot cake review is coming soon.
26:54
Having said that...
26:55
What's going on in the American, in the USDA that is causing all of this stuff?
27:03
It seems like there's more cancer than ever before.
27:07
There's got to be a correlation here somewhere.
27:10
It's not just our food, it's also the environment.
27:13
And so it's a combination of a lot of different things is why we're seeing disease continuously go up.
27:20
It's the amount of toxins that we're exposed to, herbicides, pesticides, which yes, can be found in food, but it's overall environmental toxins are higher than ever before.
27:31
This is gonna cause a massive amount of oxidative stress in the body, mitochondrial dysfunction.
27:37
This is gonna- Hold on a second, oxidative
27:39
Oxidative stress, yes.
27:41
What is that?
27:42
Oxidative stress is where essentially the body's total antioxidant activity.
27:49
So we have antioxidants, right?
27:52
That's beneficial, but over-oxidation, you can kind of think of it if you had an apple and you were to cut it in half, the apple would become brown over time.
28:01
So that's what oxidation is.
28:03
So oxidative stress, that's what's actually happening to all of our tissues and our cells.
28:07
And as we get older, we get more oxidative stress.
28:11
So oxidative stress isn't bad, but when we have excessive amounts of oxidative stress on the body, this leads to a lot of dysfunction.
28:19
It leads to cancer.
28:21
It can lead to premature aging.
28:23
It leads to a whole host of various diseases.
28:26
And so that's all environmental with toxins.
28:29
Of course, nutrition plays a huge role.
28:32
But yeah, our food, ultra-processed, ultra-refined,
28:36
And so high sugar, it's calorie dense, but it's nutrient poor.
28:41
And that's probably not how maybe you eat all the time.
28:46
I know you eat some good food along with the candy and all of that stuff.
28:51
So you're getting good nutrition, but we're talking about the average American.
28:54
So the average American is eating more of these ultra processed foods that are lacking a lot of the nutrition, which is really information for the body and for ourselves.
29:04
Along with that, it's full of a bunch of chemicals and herbicides and pesticides, which are then going to further disrupt the gut microbiome and then also impact the brain, so neurotransmission as a whole.
29:16
And so it's the food, it's our environment, and then you also stack that on with overall stress.
29:22
as a whole, which we know that's gone up exponentially with just, I think, our culture of being obsessed with perception and online and social media and this striving, this constant striving for more and more and more.
29:38
It's the accumulation of all of these things, in my opinion.
29:41
You and I are different.
29:44
We watch how we eat, we get prepared meals, we know where we're gonna go if we go out.
29:51
What does the average American do to eat better?
29:57
The easiest, simplest way.
29:59
What can they do besides go to Whole Foods and buy a bunch of greens?
30:05
What could they do first thing, simple and easy to get more nutrients and eat more healthy?
30:12
Yeah, it's really simple.
30:15
Do tell.
30:16
Real whole food.
30:18
So if somebody can just get rid of the food that comes in a bag or a box or has a long list of ingredients.
30:24
So focusing on one ingredient food.
30:27
So chicken is chicken.
30:28
Apple is an apple.
30:30
You know, just one ingredient food.
30:32
You can, of course, mix them together and create a full plate.
30:34
Right.
30:35
But I think if more people just ate real whole food and ideally if we can try to get more of the organic foods, you don't have to do with everything.
30:43
There's something called the dirty dozen and the clean 15, which is which fruits and vegetables you should always buy organic because of the amount of herbicides and pesticides.
30:52
Oh, I got to hear this.
30:54
Or the ones that aren't really worth it because normally the herbicide and pesticide content isn't super high.
31:01
And so it doesn't mean, you know, you don't have the money to buy everything organic, but you could just pay attention to some of those foods on the dirty dozen and make sure those foods are bought organic.
31:12
What are some of the common ones on the dirty dozen?
31:15
on the dirty tell me like bananas like lettuce no actually um bananas i think so but it is great someone's gonna come after me if i say this wrong um but i think that bananas are actually in the clean side of things i think someone can check for me and i'm sure the internet will correct me if i'm wrong um but yeah so ones to buy organic um usually berries um
31:40
Um, lettuce too is usually a really important one.
31:44
Like avocados, you can typically always buy, um, you don't have to buy that organic or bananas apples.
31:49
I think you should buy organic as well.
31:52
Really?
31:53
I'm going to have to.
31:54
And by the way, this isn't a plug-in.
31:56
This will get picked up on social media because it's Amazon.
31:59
You can go to Amazon Whole Foods and have it delivered now.
32:02
So when I get here to Fort Lauderdale, I have bananas and grapes and a whole litany of fruits delivered here.
32:10
So that's an easy one, guys.
32:12
So Kelly Siegel says, go down Amazon Whole Foods and order these.
32:18
I want to keep from eating so much sugar.
32:21
even though it is sugar, but the garbage sugar, the candies, I order fruits.
32:26
But I got them from Amazon.
32:27
That's an easy cheat, guys.
32:29
Just go to Amazon, Amazon Fresh, deliver it, and munch on some grapes that are organic instead of.
32:36
I do another thing, too, is I order organic coffee because the coffee has so much pesticide on it.
32:41
And it has a lot of mold.
32:43
Oh.
32:44
Yeah, coffee is very high in mold.
32:46
I'd forgotten.
32:47
We'd rescheduled this so many times that I did Rachel's whole blood test, and mine came back pretty normal.
32:53
There were some things that were out of scope, but she told me I had to eat more salmon.
32:58
Yeah, your omega-3 fatty acids were very low.
33:01
You will be happy to know that I have at least one, but mostly two a week.
33:07
Good.
33:08
And it replaced red meat for me on those days.
33:10
Good.
33:11
So I have been feeling fine.
33:13
So you said I have leaky gut.
33:15
That's one of your favorite things, and I think I'm going to start nicknaming you that.
33:20
What's leaky gut, and what is it about?
33:23
Yeah.
33:24
So our intestinal lining, it's only one cell thick.
33:29
And so it is semi-permeable, which means that water and certain nutrients can move from the inside of our gut into our bloodstream for absorption.
33:39
However, when someone has leaky gut called intestinal permeability, the gut becomes more permeable.
33:46
And this allows for more foods and bacteria and toxins to actually leak through the gut into that bloodstream.
33:56
And so when food and bacteria are now in the bloodstream where it's not supposed to be, this can actually lead to a full body immune and inflammatory response because that's what the body is supposed to do when there's foreign things that are there that's not supposed to be there.
34:10
And so that can then show up in a multitude of different symptoms.
34:14
Brain fog is one of the most common symptoms of a leaky gut.
34:18
Really?
34:19
Yeah, actually even beyond just gut symptoms, brain fog.
34:22
That also is going to show up majorly with your number one thing about sleep.
34:26
I noticed that if I don't get a good seven hours of sleep, I have the worst brain fog.
34:32
But so both of those, the leaky gut plus not sleep, oh man, that's a rough day.
34:37
So I was diagnosed with the leaky gut.
34:39
I don't know.
34:40
You told me.
34:42
How was the average, besides coming to you and knowing, is there something that they can see day to day to know if they have it?
34:49
Symptomatically, yes.
34:51
Somebody who's experiencing a lot of brain fog, maybe some GI symptoms, sometimes skin issues can go hand in hand with it because the body's immune system is usually reacting a bit.
35:03
So it could be eczema, it could be skin rashes that are pretty common.
35:08
But normally where we see leaky gut, we also see dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of the good or the bad bacteria.
35:14
And so maybe we see an overgrowth of more
35:16
pathogenic opportunistic bacteria so we call that the bad bacteria and then we're usually really low in a lot of the probiotics so the good bacteria and so that's pretty common most people i see who come into my practice i'd say nine out of ten times they have leaky gut and they have dysbiosis and so if we look at the average americans and their diet and their lifestyle they probably have it
35:41
I get the feeling, especially since you said I had it, that everybody has it.
35:47
Majority of people.
35:48
You know, I've definitely ran testing on people who don't have it.
35:51
But also most people that were coming to me are coming to my practice because they have gut issues.
35:57
And so it's pretty common for them to have it.
36:00
If someone is running on adrenaline right now, what is the like me?
36:04
What is the first thing you would ask them to change?
36:06
And what will they say to you when you ask them?
36:10
When you ask.
36:12
I laugh because you said this to me and I want to share.
36:16
Well, okay.
36:16
So somebody who has a lot of chronic stress in their life.
36:21
So it's not going to be the same for each person.
36:25
It depends on where the stress is really stemming from.
36:29
I'd say most important thing though is making sure that that person is getting in enough sleep.
36:35
Really?
36:36
Yeah.
36:36
So sleep first and foremost, but unfortunately for a lot of people who are in burnout and so burnout is where the body's been operating and stress for so long and sympathetic overdrive, actually the body forces everything to down regulate.
36:52
So you've been in up regulation, we're going to down regulate everything.
36:55
And so that's what burnout you're, you're tired, but you're also wired.
36:59
Um, but it's not just because you're calm and you're, you're rested
37:06
like I got nothing left because I've burned through all of my cortisol and I've burned through all of my adrenaline.
37:12
And so, um, oftentimes when that happens, sleep also goes along with it.
37:18
And so for that person supporting circadian rhythm, making sure they're getting sunlight in the morning, making sure we're minimizing caffeine, making sure we're getting to bed at a good time and we're prioritizing good sleep hygiene.
37:31
I'd say that would be the first,
37:35
You shared with me that you've stopped working out early in the morning and you kind of just get your day started very, very casually.
37:44
By the way, I think it's the greatest thing in the world.
37:46
I still can't do it.
37:47
My lifestyle is still conducive that if I don't get up and get my workout done right away, there's a good chance I'm gonna miss it.
37:54
And then if I don't get my workout in, my whole day is off.
37:57
Yesterday I had a terrible day and I missed my morning workout so I went in the afternoon, I got there.
38:02
I said all that to say,
38:04
How I'm now getting my rest is I'm supplementing with like sleep, not gummies, but different sleep aids.
38:13
What, first of all, is this smart?
38:16
And if it is, what do you recommend?
38:19
Well, it depends on what the sleep aids are.
38:22
It ranges.
38:23
I've been trying a bunch of different things like the, not the THC, but the
38:28
Oh, that's what you mean by gummies.
38:29
Okay.
38:30
Yeah, because I don't know cannabis.
38:32
CBD.
38:33
Yes, that's it.
38:33
Okay.
38:34
I'm trying a different – I've tried different modalities of them because I don't want to feel loopy or high.
38:41
I don't want any kind of weed or cannabis.
38:44
But I still – since I went through your test, I'm like, I got to sleep more.
38:48
Yeah.
38:48
You just described me.
38:50
The only way I sleep is I worked so hard I pass out.
38:54
And it's like, okay, first of all, my lifestyle backed off a little bit.
38:58
And, but I still go to bed and my mind is a little bit.
39:02
So I give it a little bit.
39:03
And then once in a while I'll supplement when, if I'm really wired, I'll take a trazodone.
39:09
So I don't like it because I don't like any kind of drug.
39:13
Not that it's a drug, it's a prescription, but it's still, I just don't like it.
39:16
So what would you recommend if someone's listening going, oh my gosh, just describe me.
39:21
what is it okay to do this kind of stuff am i crazy i know i am but no i mean the cbd i'm not an expert in all of that but i know activating the endocaminoid i'm not saying that right we don't even know what you're saying anyways
39:37
So that whole system can be really beneficial for sleep and recovery.
39:43
And so I'm not against that.
39:45
I'm not going to really comment on the medication side.
39:47
But in terms of sleep, I think lifestyle still has to come first.
39:52
So that's sunlight, that's supporting the nervous system, that's trying to minimize caffeine intake.
39:57
And then outside of that, yeah, supplementation can be pretty good.
40:00
And so I love L-theanine.
40:03
And so I use that quite a bit in my practice.
40:06
Personally, I've taken that for a long time.
40:08
So actually L-theanine, if you notice it, it's also in a lot of energy drinks.
40:13
And so it helps to inhibit sometimes, not sometimes,
40:19
L-theanine helps inhibit some of that caffeine effect that can make somebody super wired.
40:26
And so actually, if you've ever taken or drinking too much caffeine, one of the best things you can do is maybe take 200 milligrams of L-theanine to help
40:34
counteract that a bit but it's gonna really help bring the nervous system down and so doing 200 milligrams of l-theanine before sleep i find that to be beneficial sometimes melatonin can be good if we compare those with lifestyle i think the
40:51
Mine literally is just a placebo effect.
40:53
Literally.
40:54
I take something and I tend to go to sleep better and sleep more.
40:58
Kind of like a hot tea.
41:00
So I just basically told people what I do.
41:03
It works for me.
41:04
I'm not a good patient, as you saw, as you said, because I listen, but only halfway.
41:12
And that's probably what most American people are.
41:15
What would be the proper...
41:17
sleep hygiene step by step.
41:19
What should they do?
41:20
What should they not do?
41:22
Like me, I make sure that I don't have any caffeine over two past two o'clock, except for today, by the way.
41:28
Yeah.
41:28
And that's very helpful, but sleep hygiene, it really starts in the morning.
41:33
And so for supporting our circadian rhythm and actually supporting melatonin production.
41:39
So we need to make sure we're getting at least 30 minutes of sunlight every single morning.
41:45
And so that's going to really help with the body's natural circadian rhythm.
41:49
And so we have a cortisol spike in the morning and then it goes down until the evening and then melatonin picks up.
41:56
And so that sun line is going to prime the body for later in that evening.
42:00
Number two, caffeine.
42:02
And so I'm not against caffeine, but for the person who's doing five cups of coffee a day and believe it, I've seen it.
42:10
Minimizing caffeine.
42:11
So I like what you're doing, cutting it out past two o'clock.
42:16
Some people they need to earlier.
42:17
Some people need to cut it off at noon.
42:20
So minimizing that caffeine consumption, but if somebody is really struggling with sleep, they're dealing with insomnia, I would say try to just limit caffeine as a whole for a period of time, because that's definitely gonna influence one's sleep.
42:33
And then I would say in the evening time with sleep hygiene, it's making sure that we're really calming that nervous system before bed.
42:42
And so we don't want to go immediately from working on our computer or watching TV or really where the nervous system is really activated to laying down in bed and trying to go to sleep.
42:53
And so we can do things like limiting technology.
42:56
Also, light in the evening time is really important.
43:00
All of the fluorescent lights or the blue lights that we're exposed to inhibit melatonin production.
43:07
And so someone can get blue light blocking glasses.
43:10
They can get these red lights, these incandescent red lights to actually install in their bathrooms.
43:17
I love my red light machine at nighttime.
43:20
I'll actually turn off all of the lights and I'll have my red light on.
43:23
And I swear when people are like seeing my condo from the outside, they're probably like, what is this girl doing?
43:29
But it helps my nervous system wind down.
43:32
Let me tell you my routine and you say yes, no.
43:36
For the most part, I get good rest.
43:38
Much better now after working with you.
43:40
I go to bed every day at the same time and I wake up every day at the same time.
43:46
So that's good.
43:46
All right.
43:47
And then I stop my caffeine two o'clock.
43:50
A lot of times, guys, I also, if I'm really craving caffeine, I will just drink water.
43:55
And sometimes it's just a nervous thing.
43:58
Like I just want something.
43:59
Like I didn't need this cup of coffee.
44:02
But I just wanted something.
44:03
And the cuff looked better than the glass.
44:05
So I took the cuff.
44:06
Also, I make sure that when I have a whole morning routine and a nighttime routine.
44:12
The nighttime routine to me is huge.
44:14
So when you say to wind things down, I meditate.
44:17
I journal.
44:18
That's great.
44:19
I get that stuff off of my head.
44:21
And it doesn't even make any sense.
44:22
I just do, do, do, do, do, do.
44:24
And that's a big thing.
44:26
And I do that in the morning too when I start my day.
44:28
And then I set my day.
44:29
I prime the day of what I expect is going to happen.
44:34
And then I eat.
44:35
I eat right at the right times.
44:37
And I exercise.
44:37
And I go out and walk.
44:39
And one thing I do when I'm here is I open this and I watch the sunrise.
44:43
I just sit outside and watch the sunrise.
44:45
That's the best thing in the world.
44:47
That's great.
44:47
If I could get the sunset when I'm here, I get it on the other side.
44:51
But today it's raining and I couldn't get any of that stuff.
44:54
And then I supplement once in a while.
44:56
The only time I ever take the Trazodone is when I know I absolutely have to sleep.
45:02
And I'll do that as a nervous reaction because what will happen is, and usually when I have to sleep is when I'm doing a keynote in the morning, when I have five podcasts, or I got to catch a flight because I'll get in bed and my mind will start working on it.
45:16
yeah and then i got i got i learned a new thing i haven't done it yet and let me tell you what you what you think about this eye mask oh yeah i sleep with an eye mask do you i sleep with an eye mask i sleep with earplugs i mouth tape at night take my mouth close right oh that's cool and then i make sure i'm in a very cool environment so we want the body to feel like it's in a cold cave
45:40
That's ideal for sleep.
45:41
Do you have one of those eight sleep things?
45:44
No, I have before, but I don't currently.
45:47
Did it work?
45:48
Yeah, it works.
45:49
I had a friend that told me, you have to get this, and you get the eye mask.
45:52
I'm like, it seems so.
45:53
I got it.
45:54
Really?
45:55
They eat sleep?
45:55
I've tried it.
45:56
They definitely help.
45:58
Yeah, if you sleep in a warm environment, you're not gonna be able to get into deep sleep.
46:02
And sometimes it's not just, you know, am I asleep, but what's the quality of the sleep and is the body actually recovering?
46:09
And then something else is blood sugar regulation.
46:12
And so research has shown that when people eat really late in the evening time, so nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, especially right before bedtime,
46:22
they get way less recovered sleep.
46:25
And so that deep sleep and then REM.
46:28
And so when we can adopt something like circadian rhythm fasting, which typically people who do fasting, they do it the opposite, right?
46:37
So they fast until noon, which is actually not ideal because cortisol spikes in the morning.
46:42
I'm not saying that it can't work for some people.
46:45
Men can do it a bit better.
46:46
But if we're trying to mimic circadian rhythm and try to prime the body for optimal recovery,
46:52
The research has shown a much greater reduction in HRV, heart rate variability, which is a key tool that measures the state that the nervous system is in.
47:01
So the greater the variability in the heartbeats, right?
47:05
The body's calm.
47:07
So the less space between heartbeats or irregular heartbeats, that's the body in a stress state.
47:12
And so when we can have at least two to three hours after dinnertime before bed,
47:19
It's been shown that HRV greatly improves, which is the body's recovery that night during sleep.
47:25
Yeah.
47:26
Lately, I've been getting hungry in the middle of the night.
47:29
And I know you pop in my head.
47:32
What I do, I go grab a protein bar, which is sugar.
47:36
But I'm telling you, I eat and pass right back out.
47:40
No problems whatsoever.
47:41
And I don't feel anything about it.
47:43
The opposite is true for me.
47:45
If I don't eat something, my stomach will just turn and turn and turn and I won't sleep.
47:50
Yeah, it could be blood sugar then, right?
47:52
So probably even adding a bit more fats to your diet and even having a bit of some fats before bed.
47:59
What do I get fats in?
48:00
What would it be in?
48:02
What would fats be in?
48:04
Well, there's fats in a lot of protein sources.
48:07
You know I eat a lot of protein.
48:08
Well, I'm naming one of them.
48:10
Yes, I do know that.
48:12
But it could be adding in some more avocado.
48:15
Coconut oil can be really good.
48:16
I love coconut oil or actual MCTs, which there's some MCT in coconut oil, which is really good for supporting ketone production.
48:27
And so sometimes ketones before bed are coconut oil.
48:30
One tablespoon, you can actually mix it and maybe like a tea before bed.
48:34
That could possibly help you stay asleep all night.
48:37
Yeah, that's another thing that you've got me on.
48:39
There's avocados.
48:41
I order everything.
48:43
I love avocados.
48:43
I know.
48:44
Let's go back to the gut health because we were talking about leaky gut and I got away from it.
48:48
If someone were to change one thing for their gut this week, what should it be and what should they expect to notice?
48:55
By when?
48:56
So I already gave the tip earlier about real whole foods.
48:59
So I'm gonna go for an interesting tip that most people probably haven't heard before, which is something that I give to a lot of our clients and it's called the microbiome mashup.
49:11
And so the microbiome mashup is where somebody goes to
49:16
the grocery store, and they pick out 15 different herbs and vegetables.
49:21
So it could be things like turmeric, it could be ginger, it could be oregano, it could be vegetables, bok choy.
49:29
Ideally, we want to buy organic with all the different herbs and vegetables.
49:33
And then they put all of the herbs and vegetables into a Vitamixer.
49:38
blend it all up, spoon them into ice cube trays, freeze them.
49:42
And then every single day you can have one or two ice cubes.
49:46
And what I like to do is I'll actually take some ghee and I'll melt the ice cube, the ice cubes into a pan and then I'll cook my eggs in it.
49:56
or they can add it to soup like bone broth.
49:58
And so one of the best ways to create a diverse microbiome, which we've shown that the more diversity with the different strains of bacteria in one's health, the better outcome in just overall longevity and mental health and really all the different departments when we're looking at one's health is improved.
50:20
And so how do we create a diverse microbiome is we have to eat a diverse diet with different vegetables and fruits and really different fibers and these phytonutrients.
50:31
But when we tell one person to eat more vegetables, what do they typically do?
50:36
Get them out of a can.
50:38
Well, they go to the grocery store and they're like, I'm going to eat more vegetables and they buy broccoli or something.
50:44
And they just eat a lot more of that one vegetable, a broccoli or maybe two.
50:49
And so yes, is that better than no vegetables?
50:51
Of course, but if our goal is to really optimize the microbiome, we need diversity.
50:56
And so the hard part too, with a lot of the fitness competitors, the people are really disciplined is they really don't eat a lot of variety.
51:04
They eat very simple foods that are always the same.
51:07
And so having low diversity is pretty common, but if you do the microbiome mashup, you're now getting 15 different herbs and fibers that are feeding different strains of bacteria in your gut every single day.
51:20
Do you have these little...
51:22
things on your website or in your community where you can get this stuff?
51:25
Cause I think in my head, like if you just had an Amazon list that said here, order this, you can get that.
51:33
I have that of course for some of our clients in our practice, but I have shared the microbiome mashup on my Instagram.
51:40
And so if anyone comments mashup on that post, they can actually get the full recipe.
51:44
Cool.
51:45
That's awesome.
51:46
If you're thinking about if you like microwave or you cook vegetables, can you lose some of the nutrients?
51:52
And in that case, yes, you can.
51:55
But when we're blending something early, what we're doing is we're breaking it down a lot of the cellulose and a lot of the fiber, especially for somebody who maybe has issues with digesting large amounts of fiber that actually can be more beneficial for them.
52:09
So there is no it's it's fiction.
52:11
For blending, yes.
52:13
For heating the vegetables, yes, we do lose some nutrients.
52:17
There's something.
52:18
I don't even want to get into the microwaves.
52:19
There's got to be something weird about that.
52:21
So that's just not normal.
52:23
That's going to be some Elon Musk something.
52:25
So I say this all the time.
52:26
Winning is boring.
52:27
Discipline compounds.
52:29
I really believe it.
52:31
I also drank scotch every night for 20 years and called it winding down while I was the hardest worker in the gym.
52:37
So I know discipline has a dark side.
52:39
What's the difference between perfectionism and excellence?
52:42
Because we talked a little bit about that.
52:44
And how do you tell which one is driving on any given morning?
52:48
Yeah.
52:49
I think perfectionism operates from the core wound of not enough.
52:55
And so there's this belief that if I am beautiful enough, if I am talented enough, if I achieve enough, if I'm successful enough, if I have the perfect partner, if I'm perfect, then I'll be worthy of love.
53:12
But the unfortunate part about that belief is it's a never-ending goalpost.
53:16
Yeah.
53:17
Where excellence, although it may look similar from the outside, the core place that it's operating from is completely different.
53:28
Excellence says, I'm going to give my best always.
53:32
But there's a place for compassion.
53:35
There's a place for empathy within it, which means that my best might look different on different days.
53:42
My best might look one way when I've gotten great sleep that night and I've been in all my exercise.
53:50
And you know what?
53:50
I don't have kids in my life.
53:52
versus my best may look completely different on a night where someone has kids and they wake them up all throughout the night and they don't get a good night of sleep.
54:02
And maybe they didn't have time that morning to exercise.
54:05
But doing one's best based off of that is excellence, right?
54:10
So it's this pursuit for always doing my best, but also having compassion and grace for oneself.
54:17
That's a great answer.
54:18
And I just thought of a very simplistic barbarian answer.
54:21
Excellence is achievable.
54:23
Perfectionism isn't.
54:24
Yeah, true.
54:25
Literally.
54:26
You're not your story.
54:27
The part that got you on stage is the part that put you in front of that surgeon.
54:31
I want the moment you saw that.
54:34
When did your own discipline stop serving you and start hurting you?
54:39
Was there a day that you could point to specifically or a time?
54:47
Yeah, when I had my first panic attack.
54:51
How old were you?
54:53
This was four years ago.
54:54
I just had my first this summer.
54:59
My first and only.
55:01
So actually, I'm literally about to put up a post today of me sharing that story for the first time publicly because there was so much shame and just difficulty with me putting that story out there.
55:16
I needed to create it.
55:18
enough distance away from it because it was a really dark period of my life.
55:22
And I had actually done a lot of the healing.
55:25
I had done a lot of the inner work.
55:27
I had actually healed my body physically.
55:28
Now I'm an entrepreneur.
55:30
I'm making millions of dollars.
55:32
I'm running these businesses.
55:34
And it was actually at one of these moments where I was, you could say, very successful that I didn't feel it, I wasn't fulfilled.
55:44
And one day where I was just in burnout, I laid down to go to sleep.
55:50
And, yeah, I felt my breathing kind of slow down and become a bit more shallow and then pick up more and more and more.
56:01
And then before I knew it, I had completely lost control of my entire body and I went into a full blown panic attack.
56:09
And it was actually one of the scariest moments of my entire life.
56:13
I thought I was dying.
56:15
I actually at the time told my boyfriend, call 911, call 911.
56:19
I'm having a heart attack.
56:21
I tried to run away, but it's hard to run away when what you're trying to run away from is actually in your own body.
56:29
And so I was in a hotel at the time, and I ran to the patio, and I got into the corner.
56:35
And thank God he was there because...
56:37
I had no idea what was happening, and there was that ledge there.
56:40
I don't even know.
56:41
I just was so scared, and I thought actually I was dying.
56:45
And he just said to me, you're not having a heart attack.
56:50
You're having a panic attack.
56:51
And I remember him saying that.
56:53
I'm like, no.
56:55
I couldn't even talk at the time, but I'm thinking, no, no, no, there's no way this is not a heart attack.
57:01
It was so intense in my body.
57:03
I never had so much convulsions and shaking and just zero control of anything that was happening to me.
57:11
Um, but yeah, over time I realized that, okay, I'm still here.
57:16
I'm not dying.
57:18
And slowly my body came out of it and it was a really big wake up call.
57:23
And that's when I realized, you know what, I can't, I can't keep operating this way.
57:28
There has to be a shift.
57:30
I wasn't going to ask this, but what did you have to unlearn about life and being a leader and a boss that, uh, how we're supposed to show up and how do you protect your own health to avoid having a panic attack again?
57:49
Yeah.
57:49
I had to unlearn that strength means that I have to hold everything.
57:55
And again, you don't have to carry everything.
57:58
You don't have to hold everything.
57:59
And it was actually realizing, you know what?
58:01
I can hold everything, but just because I can doesn't mean that I have to.
58:07
And there were so many things that it was just this weight that I was holding.
58:11
And it was like, Rachel, you can put this down.
58:13
You can put all of this down.
58:15
You don't have to carry it anymore.
58:17
And also realizing that some of my greatest strengths as an entrepreneur actually come from the deeply feminine parts of myself.
58:24
I'm highly intuitive.
58:26
I'm a visionary.
58:27
I'm deeply compassionate and empathetic.
58:30
And it doesn't come from just this drive and pushing harder and overriding these things that are speaking to me within my own body.
58:38
And so, yes, do I have masculine energy within myself?
58:41
100% I do.
58:43
But it's actually these core feminine aspects that I believe make me a leader.
58:49
And it's what allows me to actually go the distance in business and in my life and why I think so many people have the success and they achieve it.
59:00
but then it all crumbles within their hands is because they just solely operate from this core masculine place of push harder, go achieve.
59:08
And there's a time for that.
59:10
But unless we can integrate more of these feminine aspects of ourself that aren't just for women that actually exist in men too, where we can bring forward the slowness, fulfillment, play, we can bring forth the need for rest and we can...
59:25
we can balance these energies within ourself.
59:28
That's where I think we can go further for longer and actually leave a greater impact in the world.
59:36
You just lit up and took another octave when you said that.
59:39
And do more of that, Rach.
59:41
That's your speech.
59:42
That's lean into that.
59:45
That was awesome.
59:46
And I love that you mixed in the meds because I've been doing that.
59:50
I've been leaning into my feminine way more because I don't...
59:55
That's a true alpha is having the 60% masculine, 40% feminine.
1:00:00
And that's when you're in balance.
1:00:02
So what she just said is just as true for men as it is for women.
1:00:07
And I've also learned the art of counterbalancing these energies within me because I operate in a very masculine space.
1:00:14
I'm a leader.
1:00:15
I'm a CEO.
1:00:16
I have to run this entire team.
1:00:18
I'm helping all these people.
1:00:20
It's actually that much more important for me to lean into these feminine energies as well.
1:00:27
So the more I push harder, the more I actually need to lean into rest and play and prioritize sleep and recovery and,
1:00:34
And by being able to really counterbalance these energies within myself, I've been able to avoid burnout.
1:00:43
Last question, and then we're going to do rapid fire.
1:00:45
This one has teeth, so just be careful with it.
1:00:47
Somebody is listening in a body that they do not trust, and that's what you just explained.
1:00:54
So you say we create our own reality.
1:00:57
What does that mean for someone who feels trapped in their body they can't trust because it sounds like blame, and then that means shame?
1:01:08
So we're talking about the energetic side of this, where they don't trust.
1:01:12
When we say the body, are we saying they don't trust themselves or they don't trust?
1:01:18
Probably their feelings, their nervous system is what I would believe.
1:01:22
I think it's, I can only speak for me.
1:01:24
When you just lit up when you said that.
1:01:26
So what did you have to learn to trust in your body?
1:01:30
Is it the nervous system?
1:01:32
Is it you?
1:01:32
Is it your feeling?
1:01:34
What was it?
1:01:35
I had to let go of trying to control everything.
1:01:38
So you had to trust.
1:01:40
I had to surrender.
1:01:41
There it is.
1:01:43
I had to surrender to, it was a trust in myself, but I had to learn that trust in myself.
1:01:50
It was something that I had spent a lifetime really breaking that trust.
1:01:54
I'd been abandoning myself my entire life.
1:01:57
There it is.
1:01:58
And so I needed to learn to trust again, which meant I needed to really get quiet and I needed to learn what that truth was within myself
1:02:09
and moving from a different place, moving from what the soul wanted, not just what the wounds wanted or the ego wanted.
1:02:17
And so that required me to get really quiet and also required a full surrender and release of trying to control the outcome, trying to control how,
1:02:27
My life is going to look.
1:02:28
So it's a trust for life.
1:02:30
It's allowing the natural unfolding of life to take place.
1:02:35
It's trusting God.
1:02:37
And I think the more I began to surrender to this and to get quiet and really listen to that quiet voice within myself, which the way to know if it's your intuition versus your ego is with your intuition.
1:02:50
It's quiet.
1:02:51
It's consistent.
1:02:54
And also there's peace after.
1:02:58
That is a great place to stop.
1:03:00
And what you're really saying, and I've been wrestling with, trust the unknown.
1:03:04
Trust that you're going to be okay no matter what.
1:03:07
And that's really the unknown.
1:03:08
We talk about unfamiliar.
1:03:10
We talk about uncomfortable.
1:03:11
We don't talk about the unknown.
1:03:13
And we don't know.
1:03:14
We could go to bed tonight and die.
1:03:16
We don't know.
1:03:17
So I love that.
1:03:19
Those last two answers, I want you to re-listen to those and give yourself a speech on that because you lit up.
1:03:26
Your eyes changed.
1:03:28
Your octave thing.
1:03:29
Your confidence jumped in.
1:03:30
Not that you're not on any of those things.
1:03:31
No, I know what you're saying.
1:03:32
I know what you're saying.
1:03:33
But I can see it.
1:03:33
So rapid fire.
1:03:35
One sentence to one word answers.
1:03:38
Coffee or no coffee?
1:03:39
Pick one.
1:03:40
No coffee.
1:03:42
Matcha.
1:03:42
Matcha.
1:03:43
Okay.
1:03:44
Most underrated daily habit.
1:03:46
Sunlight.
1:03:47
One thing you believed about health five years ago that you no longer believe?
1:03:51
That health is just about macros.
1:03:54
It's calories in, calories out.
1:03:56
Best money you ever spent on your own health and how much?
1:04:00
I've spent a lot of money on my health.
1:04:04
The best?
1:04:05
How much?
1:04:06
Yeah.
1:04:09
I don't know.
1:04:09
I can't think of something specific, but I would say that it's been investing into working with the different coaches on my mental health.
1:04:19
Yeah.
1:04:20
I'll spend any amount of money on that.
1:04:22
Yeah.
1:04:22
Any gym membership, anything.
1:04:25
The book you recommend most often?
1:04:27
Sovereign Love by Danae Logan.
1:04:30
It's actually about masculine and feminine within.
1:04:33
I've read a ton about that.
1:04:34
Finish it.
1:04:35
Health is...
1:04:37
Health is nervous system regulation.
1:04:41
Love it.
1:04:42
Where do people find you?
1:04:43
We talked about it earlier.
1:04:44
Website.
1:04:45
Follow you on social media.
1:04:46
Rachel Shearer.com.
1:04:48
It's my website.
1:04:49
Practice.
1:04:50
We certify coaches in my functional framework.
1:04:53
And then we just launched our HRT and peptide clinic in Florida called Origin Med.
1:04:59
Nice.
1:04:59
And I've been through her testing.
1:05:02
It's extremely thorough.
1:05:07
You busy CEOs, I will tell you, pay attention.
1:05:11
Schedule it on your calendar.
1:05:12
Yours was pretty good.
1:05:13
Her team is relentless to get this done for you.
1:05:16
And it's fast.
1:05:17
And they make it so easy.
1:05:18
It's well worth it.
1:05:19
We just need to fix your hormones now.
1:05:22
Guys, until next week, be harder than life.
1:05:24
Please rate and share this podcast.
1:05:25
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1:05:29
Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity.
1:05:41
Visit TrustNTM.com for more info.
1:05:44
Until next week, be harder than life.