I can’t believe this happened again.

Just last week, another client of mine who has been struggling with PMS symptoms and weight loss sent over her thyroid results, which revealed an underlying thyroid imbalance.

But this was the real kicker…

Her doctor said absolutely nothing to her about it!  

They were completely dismissed because her thyroid values fell within the clinical diagnostic lab ranges despite the fact that her symptoms correlate with a thyroid problem.  

And don’t even get me started with typical reference ranges – they don’t reflect optimal healthy ranges.  For example, the standard reference range on this client’s lab results for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) was 0.5 to 5.33. The optimal range is 0.5 to 2, and her result was 5.16 (pretty close to the high end of the standard range!).  Quite a difference right?

According to the American Thyroid Association, “more than 12 percent of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid condition during their lifetime. An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease and up to 60 percent of those with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition.”

Those are some alarming numbers.  You could be sitting here reading this right now and not even realize you could be a part of those statistics.

It’s Thyroid Awareness Month; so it’s time to check in and see if your Thyroid has been sending an SOS, asking you to pay attention to this important information.

Just about every client I’ve worked with has either been diagnosed with a thyroid condition, has a family history of it, or suspects that they have one.  

Whether you ask Dr. Google or an Endocrinologist about why you might be feeling tired all the time, struggling with weight loss, losing your hair, feeling cold when others don’t, or have menstrual irregularities, chances are the information you get will point to a thyroid condition.

These are the three most commonly overlooked and diagnosed thyroid conditions:

Hyperthyroid – common symptoms can include; weight loss, anxiety, intolerance to heat, hair loss, excessive urination, and panic attacks.

Hypothyroid – common symptoms can include; weight gain, fatigue, intolerance to cold, constipation, depression, and thinning hair.

Hashimotos – this is a more severe case of hypothyroidism with similar symptoms; a genetic component making it an actual autoimmune disease, meaning the body is attacking its own thyroid gland.

However, in most cases, thyroid conditions are a symptom of something else.

The body does not work in singular systems where organs are all minding their own business.  Each system of the body greatly impacts how all of the others are able to function.

To understand what’s happening with the thyroid, we have to start asking “WHY?”

Why is this thyroid epidemic happening?  Why are people’s thyroids all of a sudden “just not working”? – as most of my clients are told.

We need to start looking at our body as the complex system that it is.  Remember that song in preschool… ”the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone, la la la la…” – everything is connected!

Like I said earlier, in most cases, thyroid conditions are a symptom of something else because it’s all connected.  

If you have been diagnosed, know someone who has, or suspect that you have a thyroid condition, here are the Top 4 Things Throwing Your Thyroid Off.

#1 – Low-Calorie Diet
Calorie restrictions, for as little as a few days, can drop thyroid production by 38 percent!  That’s just over a “few” days; imagine if you’ve been dieting for weeks, months, or years, even if it’s been on and off.  Even if you lost some weight from calorie restriction, the long-term side effects are a slower metabolism from a famished thyroid.

#2- Clogged Liver
Your liver is responsible for converting a huge chunk of your thyroid hormone.  If your liver is clogged from chronic exposure to toxins, medication use, processed foods, and other things, then of course you wouldn’t be converting thyroid hormones as you should and this could look like a thyroid condition.

#3- Adrenal or Cortisol Dysfunction
The HPA-axis (Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenal Gland Axis) is one of the main control centers of the body – consider this the conductor of the train or orchestra.  The Hypothalamus links the nervous and endocrine system via the Pituitary gland, and your thyroid is part of the endocrine system.  If you have Adrenal or Cortisol Dysfunction going on, guess what?  There’s a domino effect causing an imbalance in the thyroid.  This type of dysfunction occurs with prolonged periods of stress and inflammation in the body, which most of us have experienced until we know what to do otherwise. 

#4- Amino Acid Deficiency
For the body to produce thyroid hormones, particularly one called free T4, it needs an adequate supply of amino acids obtained from proteins.  If you are not eating enough protein or absorbing it optimally, then your body is NOT getting enough amino acids to create thyroid hormones in the first place.  With Hashimoto’s, it is critical to support digestion and to consume plenty of protein for free T4-it will help manage the disease better.  Alternatively, those without Hashimoto’s but with impaired digestion or lacking amino acids in their diet could be showing low free T4 counts and be misdiagnosed with a thyroid condition.

There are high chances that one of these four things pertains to you in some way.  It’s rare to see someone who has never dieted, has optimal digestion and protein intake, who doesn’t have a clogged liver, or who has minimal stress and inflammation in their lifetime, making adrenal or cortisol dysfunction irrelevant. 

I want to help you avoid becoming part of this thyroid epidemic!

I’ve written a TON of blogs about thyroid health and thyroid-related health issues to give you all the resources, tools, and pieces of the puzzle you need to support and heal your thyroid naturally.

Check out some of my most popular and insightful blogs about your thyroid so you can prevent or potentially reverse any thyroid issues you might encounter….

Think You Have A Thyroid Problem? Read this
I dive into details about how having a sluggish liver can greatly impact your thyroid function and what you can do to promote optimal thyroid hormone conversion!

What If It’s Not A Thyroid Problem
This blog explores other factors impacting thyroid function that make it look like you have a thyroid problem when it’s really not your main issue.

3 Steps To Support & Heal Your Thyroid
In this 3-part blog series, I share with you the major steps I took (also the steps I guide my clients through) to support and heal the thyroid naturally.

My mission is to support busy, health-minded people like you in getting your hands on the right lab tests and resources so you can have a super healthy thyroid, or so you can simply get back to feeling like yourself again.

If you want to explore the missing pieces of your health puzzle on a deeper level so you can actually fix what is wrong and feel your best, then click here to get on my waiting list for an Ideal Health & Weight Discovery Session with me (and get an awesome list of practitioner referrals if you want to take action now)!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a magical pill or food you could eat that would stop cravings in their tracks, would give you long-lasting energy, and promote weight loss all at the same time?

There actually is, and it’s called Fat.

Contrary to what you might believe or have been told, new research is showing us how consuming healthy types of fats can be beneficial not only for curbing cravings, boosting energy, and supporting weight loss but also for preventing chronic disease and cognitive disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Before we dive into this fat conversation, let’s set the record straight on what types of fats are beneficial for your health.

Fat gets a bad rap, but not all fats are created equal.

There are 4 major categories of fat:

1. Saturated fats
2. Monounsaturated fats
3. Polyunsaturated fats
4. Trans fats

All foods with fat contain various amounts of the different types of fat; saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated.  Some fatty foods can also have naturally occurring or artificial trans fat.

Each type of fat is essential for bodily functions and each comes with its own list of health benefits.

Saturated fats are commonly found in butter, lard, milk, coconut oil, and milk.  They serve as a primary source of energy in the body; as the preferred fuel for the brain, as signaling agents for cells, and can even encourage weight loss.

Monounsaturated fats can be found in avocados, olives, certains meats, and types of nuts. This type of fat is known for its positive impacts on cardiovascular health by reducing LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammation, and blood pressure, and increasing HDL cholesterol.

Polyunsaturated fats are mostly found in fish, some nuts and seeds, and oils such as flax, corn, safflower, and soybean. This type of fat plays a critical role in forming cell membranes, cell function, and regulating gene expression.  Omega-3 and 6’s are a type of Polyunsaturated fat.

Though Trans fats are most controversial, even some of these are healthy for you when they are naturally occurring.  Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is a natural type of Trans fat that reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, and autoimmunity. It can also improve glucose tolerance, which can prevent or help manage type 2 diabetes.

On the other hand, artificial Trans fats are highly inflammatory and have been shown to increase the risk for cancer, heart disease, obesity, and other chronic inflammatory-related conditions. 

Without dietary fats, or adequate amounts of them (for you), the body can’t function at its potential.

The quality of Fat is what counts.

Aside from the different types of fat, the quality of the fats you are consuming is what counts.

Fat is not only how the body stores energy, but it’s also where the body stores toxins and excess hormones to protect itself from those harmful particles circulating through the system.

If you eat sources of fat that have been exposed to pesticides and herbicides or injected with hormones and antibiotics such as non-organic, grass-fed, free-range meat and eggs, then guess what?  You’re consuming those toxins, hormones, and antibiotics too.

The same goes for fat derived from plant sources such as avocados, olives, and oils.  

To really reap the benefits of dietary fats, you’ll want to avoid all the additives.  Aim to consume them from natural, clean, organic, hormone-free, grass-fed, pasture-raised, free-range, humanely-raised, and minimally-processed sources.

Look for your fats to be:

• Cold-pressed organic oils
• 100% Grass-fed and finished organic hormone-free beef and related products
• Free-range organic hormone-free poultry and eggs
• Organic avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, and coconut products
• Wild-caught fresh fish or packaged in non-toxic containers

Now that you know about fat, its direct health benefits, and what sources of fat to focus on, let’s get to the important stuff- how it can help you lose weight and boost your energy!

In this week’s video and blog, I dive into more detail about why you should eat fat for weight loss, more energy, and better health!

Did you know that 80% of the population is estimated to do better on a higher fat and protein diet and only about 20% thrive with higher carbohydrates?

Yet the dietary guidelines for Americans suggest that your daily food intake should consist of 45-65% carbohydrates.

Let’s talk about what’s wrong with this recommendation…

Carbohydrates are the easiest macronutrient for the body to metabolize. They are instantly converted into glucose (aka sugar) that floods the bloodstream.  Your blood sugar goes up for a period of time, and what goes up must come down.

This is why you may have noticed that you get an instant energy boost after eating a meal higher in carbs, followed by an energy crash –  feeling like you need to take a nap or feeling hunger within 30 minutes to 2 hours after.

As your blood sugar comes crashing down after eating a higher-carb meal, your body loses its energy source and starts craving food to bring your blood sugar back up.

Proteins and fats, on the other hand, require a much more complex and lengthy process to be metabolized and converted into glucose.

Thus, if you eat a meal higher in fat and protein, you’ll have a nice and steady release of glucose over a longer period of time, keeping your blood sugar balanced, energy even, and curbing those cravings.

In fact, fat can’t be converted directly to glucose.  It has to go through an even longer process of conversion before it hits your bloodstream.  

When you eat a diet higher in fat, as your body works to metabolize the fat you ate (which is a long process) it will tap into your existing fat stores for immediate energy, thus promoting weight loss!

In addition to keeping your blood sugar in balance, eating more fat (and therefore less carbs) promotes weight loss and more energy by:

• Increasing your feelings of fullness to curb cravings
• Decreasing appetite-stimulating hormones such as insulin and ghrelin
• Increasing calorie expenditure due to the complex process of metabolizing fat
• Boosting fat loss versus lean body mass due to decreased insulin levels
• Balancing your hormones with essential nutrients needed to make hormones
• Maintaining cell structures for energy production and body efficiency

If you don’t believe me, then I challenge you to try it, just for one meal.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Experience it and challenge yourself to eat one meal higher in fat, with moderate protein and a small amount of carbs.

A great example meal would be a ribeye steak dinner with a side of leafy greens or types of vegetables that grow above the ground (asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc.) sautéed or cooked with olive or coconut oil.

Remember, you just want your fat sources to be clean, as previously discussed.

Notice after eating this type of meal how you can go 3-5 hours, or possibly longer, without feeling hungry.  Your energy is even, and when you cut the cravings or need to snack between meals, it becomes easier to manage your weight.

So don’t fear fat.  It does a body good.  Use the right fats to get the results you want!

If you need help figuring out what fats and other foods are right for your body so you can lose weight, have more energy, and get back to feeling like yourself again then, click here to check out my Food & Body Language Log.

P.S. If you are a part of the 20% who don’t do as well with a higher fat and protein diet, you’ll know right away.  Within 30 minutes to 2 hours you’ll experience the opposite effects; you’ll feel sluggish, have a heavy stomach, and want to take a nap while your body is trying to digest.

I’m grateful for you!

I wanted to pop by your inbox really quickly today to share two messages of gratitude with you in celebration of Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and the holiday season as we wrap up 2020.

My two messages for you are…

1. Why I’m grateful for you specifically
2. How you can find gratitude in your health and life experiences to create better health, more wealth, and happiness

Watch this quick video to hear my messages for you today.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season wherever you are in the world!

Let’s be honest, changes in daylight savings time can be challenging.

Does it take weeks for your body to adjust to the time change?

These annual changes used to be really rough, leaving me feeling super tired in the late afternoon or dragging my ass when getting out of bed.

I often wonder why we still do them at all.  And if we were to stop daylights savings, how would we adjust the time to align with the actual time of day during the specific times of the year?

Modernization has given us a lot of conveniences in life, but it doesn’t always take into account what your body needs to feel its best.

Take the light bulb for example…

It’s so much easier to flip a switch or set a timer to turn on your lights from your phone these days instead of fumbling through the dark lighting candles.

However, did you know that artificial lights such as the ones in your very own home can trick your body into thinking the sun is still up and negatively impact your ability to fall asleep or get a good night’s rest?

It’s true.

The same is true for your central heating.  If your home is too warm at night it can also trick your body into thinking the sun is still up.

Your body has an internal clock aligned with the sun and the moon cycles.  

When the sun rises, light and temperature increase, signaling your body to release cortisol hormone which gives you energy to get going in the morning and throughout the day.

When the sun sets, light and temperature decrease, signaling your body to lower cortisol hormone and release the sleep supporting hormone melatonin along with other hormones to restore and repair your body at night.

This internal body clock aligned with the sun cycle is a big part of why it’s so tough to adjust to daylight savings time changes.

But you don’t have to be on the struggle bus over the next few weeks while your body adjusts because there are ways to support your body during this transition. That way, you can have more energy, sleep great through the night and feel your best.

In this week’s video and blog, I’m giving you my top tips to get through daylights savings like a health boss so you can have more energy, feel great, and even lose weight!

Let’s first point out that feeling tired or sluggish after daylight savings isn’t your fault.  It’s the result of a natural response your body has to light and temperature.

So stop beating yourself up and start loving up on your body to get your bounce back.

The key to feeling great, no matter what time of year or timezone you’re in, is to honor your body’s internal clock that is ruled by the sun cycle.

As humans, we are wired to be diurnal, aka day dwelling, meaning our energy is best used during the day and we are meant to sleep when it’s dark.

Opposed to our feline friends or other critters who are nocturnal and enjoy romping around at night.

Based on this internal clock our body does some really important things during certain times of the day.  For example:

• Sunrise: cortisol is released giving you the energy to get up and get going
• 5 – 6 am: the large intestines get moving leading to a bowel movement upon waking
• 11 am – 1 pm: circulation is emphasized to nourish organs and optimize digestion 
• Sunset: cortisol lowers to lower energy and prep for bedtime
• Evening: darkness promotes the secretion of melatonin to prep for sleep 
• Midnight: the largest amount of human growth hormone is released to repair cells
• 1 – 3 am: the gallbladder, liver, and lungs do their major detox work

When we recognize and adhere to this internal clock it can produce huge results relating to your energy, sleep, hormones, and weight balance.

When we sleep too far past sunrise or stay up late, it interferes with the body’s natural rhythm and can leave you feeling tired, sick, or fat all of the time.

With this knowledge in hand, now you can take action like a health boss to support your body when traveling across different timezones or when daylight savings takes place. 

Here are my top tips to get through daylights savings like a health boss so you can have more energy, feel great, and even lose weight!

#1 – Rise with the Sun
This might be the most challenging but effective one for shifting your energy, improving sleep quality, and ultimately supporting weight loss and feeling your best.  You’ve got to get up when the sun rises or just shortly after.

Remember, according to your body’s natural rhythm when the sun rises so does cortisol which gives you the energy to get up and get going.  Cortisol then peaks about 2 hours after sunrise. If you’re sleeping through this critical moment not only will you feel groggy all day long but you’re also messing with the rhythm of your other hormones.

With the recent daylight savings shift, it’s now lighter earlier in the morning making it super essential to honor this part of your body’s clock.

Don’t hit the snooze button.  Get up, even if you’re slow to get moving.  After doing this for a few days along with the other tips it will get easy.

#2 – Move in the Morning
With cortisol peaking in the morning, this is your best time to move your body.  Most people know of cortisol as the stress hormone, but it’s also what gives us the energy to do things.  

The morning rise in cortisol allowed our ancestors to get out early in the morning to hunt while prey was active, and do most of their “work” while it was bright outside, and before it got too hot.  

While we don’t have to hunt for food, build shelters or migrate, we do want to honor this natural circadian rhythm that has evolved and even leverage it to get better health results.

You can leverage this morning cortisol peak for performance, to get in a more productive workout because you’ll have the natural energy to do so.  Plus, moving your body in the morning will help to improve your sleep quality and routine for an overall balanced sleep-wake cycle.

You can’t out diet, out supplement, or out exercise a poor sleep-wake cycle so get moving in the morning to put results in motion.

#3 – Mimic Sunset
When the sun sets, both light and temperature decrease. But the modern luxuries of life allow us to create an artificial environment that tricks the body into thinking the sun is still up, interfering with our feel-good balance.

When the sunsets, mimic it in your house by dimming lights and temperature.  This will signal your body to lower cortisol, aka energy, and start prepping for bed with the release of melatonin, your sleep hormone.

When you do this, you should feel naturally tired into the evening time instead of wired or getting a “second wind”, which will set you up for a great night’s sleep. This will make  it easier to wake up with the sun in the morning – see how that cycle works!

On average, the optimal sleeping temperature is about 68 degrees so set your thermostat to start working towards that at least 30 minutes before bed.

Turn lights off around the house that you really don’t need, swap light bulbs for softer lighting, or my personal favorite is to use the soft light of salt lamps around the house in the evening. 

#4 – Be Asleep by 10 pm
This step is what makes the whole rhythm work.  According to your internal body clock, it’s critical to be asleep by 10 pm so your body can do all of its major detox and repair work at night.

If you’re not asleep by 10 pm, you’re not in a restful state for these critical actions to take place, thus you’ll wake up feeling exhausted no matter how late you sleep in.

So in order to wake up feeling rested and to have the energy to move your body in the morning, you’ve got to be asleep by 10pm.

This creates the foundation for you to have more energy, balance hormones that are dictated by your cortisol rhythm, lose weight and feel great.  

Every one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of rest for your body.  In the winter months, it’s totally normal and ok to be asleep earlier than 10pm because the days are shorter.  

So don’t fight feeling tired when it’s dark outside, let yourself go to bed and wake up with an abundance of energy to get things done like a health boss!

These are the exact steps I take daily to feel my best every day of the year, despite daylight savings, and they have made a HUGE impact on my client’s health and wellbeing too.

I’d love to hear which step you are going to focus on first.

Comment below to let me know

It’s officially Fall here in the northern hemisphere and that means allergy, cold, flu, and V season is upon us.

(Side note: V is that thing going around right now that everyone is talking about, but if I mentioned by name would impact the ability for you to receive this information)

Not only are we facing allergies, the common cold, and the typical flu, but the pandemic is still a thing too.

However, have no fear, because I’ve got some solid tips to help you fight allergies, colds, the flu, and V’s naturally. 

There are actually a lot of simple things you can do daily beyond hand-washing or mask-wearing to boost your immune system and prevent these health hijackers from taking you hostage.

Years ago, I suffered from seasonal allergies, the occasional common cold, and nasty sinus infections.  I would load up on symptom relievers, such as DayQuil, NyQuil, throat lozenges, Mucinex, and Tylenol or Advil for my painful earaches.

Now I take nothing.

No, really. I no longer have to take any over-the-counter symptom relievers because I don’t suffer from seasonal allergies anymore, and I haven’t had a cold or the flu in so long that I can’t even remember the last time I did (keep reading and I’ll tell you why). 

I’m not superhuman or anything.  I still occasionally feel the shift of the seasons in my body – my energy is lower some days, I get a slight runny nose or tickle in my throat when Spring or Fall brings about new allergens in the air, and I even feel the onset of what might be a cold from time to time.

BUT my symptoms are tolerable and I can stop them naturally.

When we take over-the-counter (OTC’s) medications, we have a false sense of healing our body in some way. What we’re really doing is just masking the symptoms until our body is able to make a slow and full recovery.  This is why over the years, allergies, colds, and the flu can become more intense, frequent, and longer in duration.

When we mask symptoms with OTC’s, we’re ignoring our body’s call for help.

As annoying as a runny nose or postnasal drip can be, it’s your body’s way of saying, “Hey, something is really stressing me out right now, or I’m under attack. I’m trying my best to fight it off, but I could really use your support and help. 

We’ve been taught to “push through it” when we get sick or feel under the weather.  We use OTC’s to numb the pain so we can still go to work and take care of all our responsibilities, instead of ourselves.  But what’s the price we pay in the long run for continually doing this?

Nobody ever reads the warnings or the side-effects list on an OTC medication.  I mean, they’re over the counter so they must be safe, right?

Wrong.

OTC’s come with a laundry list of negative side-effects that can occur acutely or chronically over time.  Here are just a few OTC’s side-effect highlights that we commonly overlook: 

• Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) – liver damage
• Ibuprofen (aka Advil or Motrin) – peptic ulcers and kidney damage
• Decongestants – high blood pressure or blood pressure spikes
• Antihistamines – damage to the heart muscle and the central nervous system

Large or small, long or short, any usage of OTC’s impacts the body’s ability to function normally and disrupts its homeostasis (balance).  They do not boost our immunity, they block it.

OTC’s also are one of the number one contributors to leaky gut, aka a damaged digestive tract.  Guess what happens when you have a leaky gut?

A leaky gut increases your risk for allergies, colds, and other V’s.

The gut is where 80% of your immune system lives. So if it’s dysfunctional, guess what else is going to be dysfunctional?  Your immune system, and your ability to fight off allergies, colds, or other V’s. 

When the intestinal lining is compromised, you’ve lost your first line of defense internally. Foreign invaders such as allergens, bacteria, and V’s are able to cross the gut barrier and get directly into the bloodstream.

In this week’s video and blog, I’m sharing natural ways to boost your immunity so you can fight allergies, the common cold, flu, and V’s naturally.

One of the first health improvements my clients usually notice very quickly in our work together is that they don’t get sick anymore, or when something starts to brew, it doesn’t fully develop and they make a very quick recovery.

It’s not magic, it’s just allowing the immune system to do its job. 

The very first thing I focus on with ALL of my clients is digestive support and repair for 3 very important reasons:

1. To boost the immune system, which lives in the digestive tract
2. To increase nutrient availability for the body to improve its defenses 
3. To reduce inflammation and stress so the body is at less risk for illness

Healing your gut is the key to long-term sustainable health success, but healing the gut is a process that requires consistency.  It can take months or even years to fully recover in some cases.

In order to heal the gut, you have to consistently:

• Avoid common inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, alcohol, and others specific to you
• Get rid of gut bugs such as parasites, bacteria, and yeast (candida) that disrupt nutrient absorption and cause internal stress
•  Add in foods and supplements to help repair the integrity of the gut, such as digestive enzymes, fish oils, L-glutamine, probiotics, collagen peptides, bone broth protein powder, and fermented foods

Healing my gut is what has made my seasonal allergies virtually non-existent and has given me the superhuman powers to fight off a cold or V before it even really gets started.

However, my immune system obviously wasn’t always able to do this.  I suffered for years before I started to take action on healing my gut, and when I did, the results weren’t immediate. It took time.  During the in-between time of healing, I still had to find ways to lessen the pain and suffering without using OTC’s because they would only set me back gut health-wise.

I began to slowly transition away from gut-damaging OTC’s and introduced more natural therapies to boost my immune system and my body’s own defense system.

Some of my favorite natural remedies for allergies, colds, and V’s include:

• Taking a supplement with quercetin and/or nettles leaf for allergies – I’ve done this in the past to reduce allergy symptoms when seasons change
• Combo of peppermint essential oil (diffused or topically) and arnica (ingested or topically) for tension headaches, migraines, or aches/pains
• Vitamin C, D, and Zinc to fight off V’s and the flu – taken preventatively or acutely
• Oil of oregano and/or garlic as a supplement for anti-microbial properties to kill off bacteria and prevent colds or sinus infections
• Ginger or peppermint tea and bone broth for upset stomachs

And feel free to reach out for specific product recommendations for these natural remedies if you want to give them a try to ensure they are of the highest quality for the best results.

We forget that OTC’s haven’t always been around, yet our ancestors found natural ways to ease pain, suffering, and symptoms.  Natural remedies are still relevant and still work in our modern-day world. We just have to seek them out.

Aside from using natural remedies and healing your gut, there are a few other really important things when it comes to having the strength and stamina to fight allergies, colds, and V’s naturally.

The single most important thing you can do to fight off V’s naturally, that also helps ward of allergies, colds and the flu is…

BALANCE BLOOD SUGAR!

As more research is emerging about the recent pandemic, sugar is being identified as one of the primary risk factors for contracting the V and the severity of symptoms. 

In fact, a recent study “suggests that prolonged uncontrolled hyperglycemia, and not just a history of diabetes mellitus, may be important in the pathogenesis of the disease.”

Hyperglycemia is when an excessive amount of glucose aka sugar is circulating around in the bloodstream. Essentially, what is being found is that high blood sugar levels can increase the number of receptors on a cell making it easier for V’s to enter and replicate.

PLUS, elevated blood sugar levels:

• Fuel inflammation weakening the immune system’s ability to respond adequately
• Disrupt your cortisol rhythm and restful sleep cycles that protect against illness
• Leave you craving more sugar and stuck on a blood sugar roller coaster

Any apparently healthy person can have high levels of blood sugar.  I see this all the time in health-minded clients I work with, even the ones who are “eating healthy” and exercising regularly.

How could this be?

Foods that impact blood sugar goes beyond the well-known added white sugar used in baking cookies, cakes, and other sweet treats. Eating too many carbs, even the so-called healthy ones, for what your body can tolerate can also lead to blood sugar imbalances.

There’s a difference between eating healthy and eating right for your body.  Eating right for your body will include healthy foods but not every healthy food is right for your body. 

Globally, we could all agree a banana is a healthy food, but if you have an allergy or sensitivity to bananas, OR they contain too many carbs and sugars for what your body can tolerate, then they aren’t a healthy food for you. 

When you eat something like said-banana that has these negative effects on you, it spikes your blood sugar and inflammation, making you susceptible to potential V’s, and leaves you craving more sugar to get another energy bump – the vicious cycle continues!

It’s possible to encounter these issues even if you’re eating a Paleo, Whole30, Autoimmune Paleo, or any other type of healthy diet. These diets deal more with food elimination than they do macronutrient (carb, protein, and fat) or blood sugar balance. 

When you eat the wrong ratios of proteins, carbs, and fats for your body, it can lead to blood sugar imbalances making you feel:

• Tired, anxious, irritable, or needing to nap
• Snacky, bloated, heavy, or craving for sweets
• Brain foggy, wired but tired, or physically full and still hungry
• Worn down and vulnerable to V’s!

Figuring out your food ratios to balance your blood sugar, boost immunity, and energy is actually pretty simple.  All you need to do is:

1. Tune into your body 30 minutes to 2 hours after eating
2. Notice how it’s responding to what you ate
3. Adjust your food ratios until you get the perfect response!

To help you figure out what ratios are right for your body to balance blood sugar, click here to get my Food & Body Language Log.

Next, let’s address sleep as another natural and incredibly impactful tool to help you fight off allergies, colds, the flu, and V’s.

We must learn to value sleep as much as we do diet and exercise.

When you get optimal and restful sleep, the body is able to restore and repair itself, your hormones can rebalance and nutrients can be absorbed and converted into useful tools.

Staying up late at night or not getting a good night’s sleep not only robs your body of critical recovery time. It also disrupts your cortisol balance and energy, leaving you searching for energy via food, queueing the food, and sugar cravings! 

To balance your energy, blood sugar, avoid cravings, promote weight loss, and boost your natural immune defenses, it’s ideal to be asleep by 10 pm most nights of the week (5 out of 7). 

When you do get sick, don’t you always feel better faster when you sleep it off?

This is because your body can only heal in a relaxed state, so if and when you are fighting something off, sleep is critical to your recovery.  Sleep is when human growth hormone is released to repair and replenish cells, and when the body performs other important functions to boost your immunity.

Bottom line is, you don’t have to suffer or mask your symptoms with superficial remedies.  You can become your own health boss and thrive in this world any season of the year!

If we all committed to eating the right foods for our body to prevent blood sugar issues and building a great sleep routine this allergy, cold, and V season, I bet we could put this pandemic behind us faster. 

Are you up for the challenge?

Comment below and let me know what steps, no matter how small, you can take to fight allergies, colds, and V’s naturally 🙂

P.S. For even more ideas on natural remedies to relieve your symptoms and support your immune system in defending you naturally, check out some of my favorite resources:

•  Wellness Mama’s Natural Remedies for Illness – she even makes her own cough syrup
•  Chris Kresser’s How To Prevent Colds & Flus Naturally  OR The Truth About The Flu Shot & What To Do Instead – how to prevent and treat colds or the flu naturally

It’s that time of the year …. a month that is notorious for “Pinkwashing”.

Last year my friend and breast cancer survivor, Naomi Damask, called me to say she didn’t want another month of just awareness. She wanted women to be educated about how to live a preventative and healthy lifestyle.

You see the facts are the facts:

• Every 2 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer
• 1 in 8 will be diagnosed in their lifetime
• And less than 10% is genetic

Here’s the good news….. we do have the power to do something about it.

And this month I will be one of over 25 experts doing something about it by addressing topics like sleep, gut health, understanding hormones, detoxification pathways, mindset, nutrition and so much more to empower women during the Pink Ribbons event happening October 17th-20th. 

Step aside AWARENESS….

And bring on EMPOWERMENT!

You can register to attend this FREE event with me to empower yourself and others here!!!

By attending this event, not only will you get access to the tools and resources you need to empower yourself, but you’ll be a source of support for others attending the event, AND for women who need access to hormone education and resources.

This year’s Pink Ribbons event will be donating a portion of its proceeds to my non-profit: H.E.R (hormone education and resources) for Women for Life

I don’t know about you, but the health education I received growing up was sub-par, to say the least.

Only one semester of health education was required during middle school and high school, but there were countless requirements for other courses – most of which I’ve hardly used post-high school, if ever in some cases.

Health is a topic critical for everyday life, so why isn’t more education being provided or required?

Knowing how your body works is life-changing.  It takes the guesswork out of living your best life.  It puts you in the driver’s seat and gives you the ability to create a life full of freedom instead of possible life-threatening limitations.

Think of how many breast cancer cases could be prevented with better health education.

It wasn’t until my 30’s did I really start to understand how my body worked as a woman.  

Reaching rock bottom with my long-time hormone imbalance battle led me down the road to higher health education.  Had I known as a teenager what I know now, I could have prevented the 17+ years of irregular periods, chronic fatigue, weight gain woes, allergies, brain fog, waves of depression and anxiety, Hashimotos, disrupting the precious balance of my body with birth control and experiencing numerous scary breast lumps. 

A recent survey of 2,000 women (age 30 to 60) found that nearly half of them have experienced one or more symptoms of hormone imbalances that can increase the risk of breast cancer or other health issues, and 72% only later understood the causes of their hormone issues.

Some of the most common symptoms they experienced included:

• Low energy
• Weight gain
• Mood swings
• Sleep disturbances
• Urinary incontinence
• Memory loss and brain fog
• Anxiety, depression, and loss of interest in daily activities

I can only imagine how much money, time, and angst those 72% spent trying to find a fix for their health issues, not even realizing it was all related to their hormones because they don’t fully understand how their body works.

How many of those symptoms have, or do, you experience?

Just think what life would be like if we all received more education about health and hormones at a younger age, or had access to better resources throughout our lifespan.

In my functional health coaching practice, I’ve worked with too many young women struggling with the same issues I had; some fearful or frustrated about not being able to get pregnant.  

Then there are the numerous pre and post-menopausal women I’ve worked with who are trying to untangle their hormone issues so they can prevent breast cancer, gracefully get through menopause, or restore the life they had once before their hormones got out of whack.

Something has to change.

We all deserve easier access to hormone education and resources so you can live your fullest life, and so you can give the generations to come a better quality of life too.

I’ll never forget what my client Dee (name concealed for privacy purposes) said about receiving her DUTCH hormone test results and data-guided recommendations for diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, and supplements…

“It was like Christmas.  I was so excited to hear the results because we tested for things no one else was interested in…how amazing would it be to give this gift to every woman.”

She had been on a diet her whole life trying to lose weight with limited success; trying everything from Beach Body to Weight Watchers and Keto. She even explored Cross Fit for a while.

As she entered her 40’s, she gave up on weight loss as her focus shifted to how she felt with menopause kicking into gear – which led her to uninsured hormone replacement therapy, expensive acupuncture treatments, and various other hormone therapies.  None of which fully resolved her health issues and got her back to feeling like herself again.  She felt helpless when it came to her hormone health.

For the longest time, it felt as though I didn’t have control over my hormones either; dating all the way back to my adolescence as my body shifted and my hormones seemed to rip through me emotionally and physically.  A feeling both Dee and I shared, as I’m sure most women do.  

A false feeling conjured up by a lack of understanding around our hormones.

I’m happy to report that after working together and getting access to the right lab tests and resources to better understand her body and hormones, Dee has lost weight, her hormones are balanced and she feels great!

Dee’s comment sparked an idea that could change the course of women’s hormone education forever. 

What if every woman regardless of income, insurance coverage, demographics, or social status could have access to the right lab tests, resources, and education to:

• Gracefully get through menopause or any stage of hormone change
• Advocate for themselves and collaborate with their health professionals
• Formulate a lifestyle and health plan that worked for their unique body

Women all over would stop suffering, and start living fuller lives.  They would be better daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, moms, partners, leaders, and teachers – and the men in their lives would greatly benefit from this too.

This is the mission of H.E.R! – Hormone Education and Resources for Women for Life.

So this month, don’t just wear pink, join me and hundreds of others to do something bigger.

Attend the Pink Ribbons event to empower yourself and others, and support H.E.R all at the same time.

Click here to register NOW.

Looking back, it’s now clear my entire life has been a journey in the pursuit of health. This is probably true for all of us. The journey for some can be a struggle to survive and for others a drive to thrive. I was stuck in survival mode for a long time, and now I’m glad to say I’m thriving. 

But I’ll be the first to admit it’s been a work in progress.

Armed with the knowledge I have now when I look back, I can clearly see that my health issues didn’t happen overnight, but that they were an accumulation of things that happened throughout my life.

As I tell my clients, your body doesn’t wake up one day and decide to be dysfunctional.  What you’re experiencing today is a compilation of events that have happened over time, sometimes starting as early as the point of birth.  

For example, if you were born c-section or weren’t breastfed, then you didn’t get exposed to all the beneficial bacteria needed to develop a strong immune system. It’s like starting life with a health handicap.  

Combining a situation like that with childhood trauma, the standard American diet, environmental toxins, and the daily stressors of our modern-day world – it can easily lead to a state of poor health over time.

One of the earliest, most significant signs of my health status going haywire emerged a few years after starting my menstrual cycle.  

I was plagued with extremely painful and irregular periods, but I didn’t think much of it then.  I simply tried to ignore the issue.  I thought it was great when I didn’t get my period because I didn’t have to deal with it.  And when I did get it, I would load up on some kind of over-the-counter pain killer and go on my way. 

My mom left 7 years before all of this started to happen, so I didn’t really have a female figure in my life to turn to with these kinds of lady issues until my dad happily remarried around the time I turned 16.  By then, my period was so painful I would find myself sitting on the toilet bent over a trash can in pain and vomiting.  

That’s when I started the pill.

I mustered up the courage to tell my stepmom what had been going on and we took a trip to the gynecologist together.  That day started my 17-year codependent and destructive relationship with birth control.  

I’ve never been addicted to any substances, but sometimes when I look at how I used birth control to abuse my body and control my life, and how many other women I’ve known to do the same, I wonder if one day we’ll identify an addiction to this little hormone and health stealing pill.

Having a painful and irregular period from the get-go was an insight into what was to come down the road with my health. It served as a clue about the dysfunction that had already been occurring in my body probably for years leading up to that point, resulting in such drastic hormone imbalances. 

It kills me that our culture has normalized period pain, and how ignoring it or putting a pill bandaid on it is leading to other health issues down the road.

It’s time to recognize that just because something is common doesn’t mean it’s normal, and women don’t have to live this way. 

It’s time for women and our loved ones to come together.

Let’s end women’s suffering from hormone issues and encourage them/us to live fuller lives so they/we can be better daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, mothers, partners, teachers, and leaders in the world – striking change for the generations of women to come, as well as positively impacting the men in their lives.

Join me TODAY at 4pm PT / 7pm ET when I host a fire-side virtual chat as part of the Menstrual Love Challenge.

And click here to catch my talk tomorrow about using food to obtain the perfect period during the final day of the Menstrual Love Challenge.