Wellness

  • Life, Wellness

    How to fit wellness into your busy life

    • Comments Off on How to fit wellness into your busy life
    • by

    Let’s be honest, women are the busiest people on the planet. You’re waking, dressing, breakfast making. Coordinating school snacks, backpacks, drop-offs, pick-ups, locating lost sippy cups. Long commutes, deadlines, multitasking, handshaking, deal-making. Managing meetings, paperwork, projects, and people every damn day. No wonder you’re so tired (and probably wanting a glass of wine!)

     

    You know you should probably workout, meal prep, drink green juice, take vitamins, meditate, do yoga, get a massage, read, etc.. etc.. etc.… but it’s already bedtime, and you have to get up early and do it all again tomorrow.  Who has time for wellness, when you barely have time to breathe?!

     

    I get it, and I’ve totally been there. Health may not be your top priority right now, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

     

    When you feel better, everything else gets easier: career, motherhood, school, you name it.  As a bonus, you look better, too (Think glowing skin, a lean body, decreased signs of aging).

     

    Um…yes, please! Am I right?

     

    To get you back on the healthy track and on your way to feeling great, I’ve outlined a simple process below that will help you clarify and implement your wellness goals. You will soon find that you can make substantial improvements without sacrificing a lot of time.

     

    Step one

    Choose one thing, do that often.

     

    There are so many things you can do to improve your health, and the internet has a beautiful way of sending us into overwhelm. We think we need a morning routine, a personal trainer, perfectly portioned and photo-ready meals, a solid meditation practice, and ten hours of sleep per night under our weighted, sustainably crafted bamboo blanket. While that might be ideal, it isn’t realistic for the busy modern life of the majority of the population. So, what can we do? Start small.  Do one thing at a time until it has become a solid habit and then add in something else. While you may not have time for all the things, you can certainly make time for one thing.

     

    Take action: Set a timer for 5 minutes and do a quick brainstorm of all the healthy habits/activities you would like to incorporate into your life. Write down everything (and I mean everything!) that comes to mind. After five minutes are up, review your list and choose the top five or so habits that feel the most realistic to you, given your current time constraints and circumstances.

     

    Next, decide which one you are going to implement first and set a goal for the next month of how many times you will complete that action.  (Bonus points: add the habit to your calendar each day you plan to achieve it)

     

    Be sure to track your completion stats along the way. If a month isn’t long enough to make the habit feel like second nature, then practice the same habit for another month until it becomes something that you do without thinking. When this happens, you are ready to incorporate another healthy habit.

     

    After you have decided which healthy action you want to incorporate, you want to find a way to make it as easy as possible for you to complete it.  Enter step two in the process…

     

    Step Two

    Remove the friction

     

    Make being healthy as straightforward as possible by removing obstacles coming between you and your new habits.  The easier something is, the more likely you are going to actually do it. For example, you could sign up for a fitness class that requires you to change clothes, drive five miles in the opposite direction you are going, sweat your buns off, take a shower, change clothes again, and then drive some more.

     

    -or-

    You could sign up for an on-demand workout service that streams to the TV in your home, leave your pajamas on, workout and then get ready for the day. With this option, you’ve removed the obstacles of commuting, buying/wearing special workout attire, and taking an extra shower. You are saving yourself a lot of time, making your workout a lot more accessible, and probably saving money as well. Win, Win, Win.

     

    Other ways to remove friction might be

     

    • Keeping junk food out of the house. If it isn’t there, it’s easier to resist.
    • Carrying a water bottle with you at all times, so hydration is always accessible
    • Keeping vitamins and supplements in a highly visible location that you frequent
    • Hiring a massage therapist/acupuncturist/healer to come to you
    • Buy pre-washed, pre-cut fruits and veggies to cut down on prep time
    • Sign up for a meal kit or meal prep service to take the guesswork out of meals

     

    Take action: Going back to the first habit you decided to implement, make a list of all the obstacles that could possibly get in the way of completing the action. Next, come up with ways you can remove the friction around completing your activity. For example: If time is your biggest obstacle, think about things that take up a lot of your time and see if there is anything that is totally unnecessary, or that you might be able to outsource to free up your schedule.

     

     

    Even if this process doesn’t resonate, I encourage you to do something (anything!) to work on improving your health.  The greatest gift you can give yourself, your family, friends, and the world is a you that feels good.

     

    If you want to improve your health, but implementation is where you struggle, I’m always here to help. Schedule a free consultation here.

     

    Talk to you soon!

     

    Leah

    [interact id="5e7cee0960eebb0014b3beb0" type="quiz" mobile="false"]
  • Life, Wellness

    Hormone Imbalances are Sneaky

    Here’s the thing about hormone imbalances…They are sneaky little bastards sometimes. Why, you ask? Because we often don’t know they are there at all, or they give us vague symptoms that we can easily write off as being stressed, tired, busy, hungry, thirsty…female. They’re all the things we’ve come to accept as “normal” or just a part of getting older. Here are some of the things I’m talking about:

    • Weight gain
    • Fatigue
    • Insomnia
    • Indigestion
    • Irritability
    • Headaches
    • Muscle pain
    • Dizziness

    I can attest to this more than anyone. There were so many things that I was experiencing that I didn’t even count as symptoms. I would often feel dizzy, get terrible brain fog (Like, “are my synapses even firing today?” kind of brain fog), my body would hurt all over for no apparent reason, and I would get so tired in the afternoon that it felt like if I didn’t lay down immediately, I would certainly die. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic because lying down wasn’t always an option, and I’m still here, so I guess it wasn’t that bad.  But you get what I’m saying, right? 

    Here’s the funny part… I 100% attributed all of my symptoms to dehydration. Which would be a totally viable explanation if I wasn’t already drinking a TON of water (with added electrolytes, no less).  It never crossed my mind to explore other causes, and certainly not my hormones, because my periods were like clockwork, and PMS wasn’t really a thing (at that time, anyway!)

    The thing I think many women (myself included) forget is that hormones are involved in a lot more than our periods.

    Truly, they are responsible for telling all parts of our body what to do, when to do it, and for how long. They communicate with every organ, tissue, and cell, upregulating and downregulating functions to keep the body in balance. When we look at it this way I think a better question is:  How could they not impact the way we feel?

    Although annoying, the symptoms of hormone imbalance probably aren’t enough to stop you from doing your daily activities, but they definitely warrant your attention. Think of your body as an infant child. It doesn’t cry just to cry (at least for the most part).  It cries because there’s something causing discomfort or because it needs something. Do you know what happens when you ignore a crying baby? The crying gets louder and louder until you can’t take it anymore! The same thing happens to those nagging little symptoms. They cry louder, get worse, and turn into bigger problems.

    You know your body better than anybody else, and if you are feeling “off” don’t ignore it.

    Seek out a professional (*cough* me) to help you get to the bottom of your symptoms and get you back to feeling like yourself.

    Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and with age comes wisdom, but I only wish someone would’ve told me to have my hormones checked back then. To be fair, though, I didn’t really tell anyone about my symptoms because…dehydration.

  • Life, Wellness

    The Riordan Clinic Experience Part Three: The Follow Up

    • Comments Off on The Riordan Clinic Experience Part Three: The Follow Up
    • by

    Update:  I wanted to give a quick disclaimer on this series.  It was originally written and posted in Aug/Sept of 2019.  I was hired as the Education Coordinator for Riordan Clinic in June of 2020.  All of the information in the series is reflective of my experience as a patient, pre-employment.  I did not make any changes to the original posts after being hired and is a true reflection of my experience as a patient there. 

    It’s been a few weeks since I had my follow-up appointment and I wanted to wait to post about it until I’d spend a little time on the supplement protocol prescribed by Dr. Anne.  

    First, I want to recap my appointment and then tell you what I’ve experienced since then. A few days before my follow-up appointment day, I received a notification that my lab results were available in my patient portal. I promised myself that I wouldn’t try to interpret them, but of course, I couldn’t wait to check them out.  Remember back to this post when I said they took a lot of blood? Well, now I totally get why because all that blood yielded 12 pages of lab results.  Twelve pages, y’all! That’s a lot of information from a few vials of blood.

    As I mentioned, I didn’t try to interpret them myself, but some things were glaringly evident like a vitamin D deficiency (and I was taking a D supplement at the time), So despite my utter lack of daily sunshine, I was a little bit surprised by this one. When I went in for my visit, Dr. Anne literally went through every single item on the 12 pages. We’re talking almost 200 measurements of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.… My head was spinning by the end, but luckily, she sent me home with a guide to help explain the role of each of these things in the body and how to correct imbalances.

    Remember that I was going in with no severe symptoms.  I did have mild fatigue and got headaches more often than I was used to, but nothing that was a red flag to alert me that there was a significant imbalance.  Let me just say that I am SO GLAD I got this done. Dr. Anne said that functionally my labs looked good, meaning there weren’t any serious issues going on, BUT there were some areas that could potentially become a concern. Namely, my thyroid function.  I definitely was not expecting to hear that because aside from occasional fatigue, I had zero symptoms of low thyroid function. This is such a good lesson because often we wait until symptoms arise to seek out help, but in this case, I caught it before it became a problem. This alone was worth the cost of the program. She said that the low thyroid is likely linked to some other key nutrient deficiencies that showed up on my profile so we would try to treat it by supplementing and diet first.

    After we went through all of my labs, Dr. Anne gave me a treatment protocol of supplements to take and foods to eat to help address the nutrient deficiencies that showed up. I’ve been on the protocol for about one month, and I have definitely noticed some positive changes. For starters, my sleep is so much better.  I honestly didn’t think my sleep was that bad except for the nights that Alex wakes up. Well, sometimes we don’t know things are bad until we know what really good feels like. My sleep has definitely changed for the better, I sleep deeper and feel more rested in the morning.  This, in turn, has helped my energy levels throughout the day. I feel more even-keeled. I’m a pretty easygoing person, but I did start to notice that I was super irritable more often than ever before. I definitely feel like my moods have stabilized over the last month. I don’t know if it’s the supplements or just better sleep, but I will take it! I’m starting to feel like myself again.

    I like to think I am a pretty self-aware person, but I honestly did not know how out of balance I was. I thought I knew better, but I had adjusted to a new “normal.”  A “normal” that included a need for caffeine to get me through the day and wine to wind me down at night. A normal that meant worse-than-ever PMS. A normal that blamed a lot of aches and pains on getting older. A normal that is widely accepted by most people but isn’t really normal at all.

    So, If you’ve caught yourself saying “that’s just me,” “I’ve just gotten used to it,” or “It must be because I’m getting older,” take a moment to reflect and truly ask yourself if you feel as good as you think you should.  That is what started this for me. I knew I was busy and tired, but I also knew that with everything I was doing to try to live a healthy lifestyle, I should feel better than I did. And I was right! 

    Don’t sell yourself short and settle for being tired all the time, in pain, or just really out of balance. You can and deserve to feel better. I’m sure by now you can tell that I can’t say enough good things about the Riordan Clinic.  If you are considering some testing or just trying to figure out what is going on inside, I recommend it so highly. 

  • Life, Wellness

    The Riordan Clinic Experience Part Two: My First Appointment

    • Comments Off on The Riordan Clinic Experience Part Two: My First Appointment
    • by

    Update:  I wanted to give a quick disclaimer on this series.  It was originally written and posted in Aug/Sept of 2019.  I was hired as the Education Coordinator for Riordan Clinic in June of 2020.  All of the information in the series is reflective of my experience as a patient, pre-employment.  I did not make any changes to the original posts after being hired and is a true reflection of my experience as a patient there. 

    In my first post, I shared some of the reasons I decided to become a patient at the Riordan Clinic. I didn’t get into the details about the program I’m doing, so I want to dive into that a little bit before I talk about my first appointment.  In order to establish yourself as a new patient and have access to all the different therapies provided at the clinic, you must start with one of their new patient programs. You can select a program based on your specific needs.  You can learn all about the new patient programs here. I opted for the Essential Program, which is best for people that want to maintain health, prevent illness, and treat everyday concerns (like my own fatigue, stress, etc…).  They do have another program called the Living Well program which would also be good for this demographic, but the Essential program includes hormone testing which I have not had done before, so I wanted to include it.   Before you go to the page and get sticker shock (No, it’s not cheap, but it’s also not outrageous considering what you get) I want to share some insights with you. First of all, labs are expensive…period. If you are getting multiple panels done (which you should if you want a true picture of what is going on inside) it’s going to cost you no matter where you go. Insurance may or may not cover it based on your plan.  I’ve looked into ordering my own labs and would not be able to do it for any less than what I was charged at the Riordan Clinic. Second, the program also includes two extensive visits with the doctor, a Vitamin C infusion, a treatment plan, an online portal where you can communicate with the doctor and view your lab results and then access to all of the therapies available at the clinic. Trust me when I say this is not your normal doctor’s visit and I feel like it has already been 110% worth the cost. Note: I am submitting some of the bills to our HSA to see if it can be reimbursed.

    My First Appointment

    Before I even set foot on the Riordan Clinic campus, I was sent my new patient paperwork via Fedex and the new patient coordinator was in contact with me via email.  He provided a visit itinerary and checked in to make sure I had everything I needed. To say the forms were extensive would be an understatement, but after my visit, I can understand why. They covered everything including my main health concerns, health history, family health history, daily diet, exercise habits, sleep habits and supplements I’m taking. I was even asked to bring all the supplements and medications I am currently taking with me.  Interestingly enough, on the day of my appointment, I wasn’t feeling great.  I had a raging headache, my back hurt and I just didn’t feel good. This happens to me on occasion inexplicably.  I’m actually really glad that it did that day because it reminded me that some of the things that have become my “normal” may not be normal at all. It reminded me that maybe I really don’t feel as good as I could and it’s something that needs to be addressed.  I arrived at 9:00 AM for my appointment and checked in at Dome 1.  I was taken back to another dome (8, I think) shortly after for all of my lab draws.  I was so grateful they did the labs first because I was borderline hangry at this point and definitely ready for some coffee! Amanda, the phlebotomist took me back to the lab and we got to work.  I provided a urine sample, a saliva sample and like 8 vials of blood (I didn’t count, but it was a bunch!). After the blood draw, she gave be a bottle of juice and a small bag of roasted almonds that at that point in time was worth the cost of the visit, Ha!  After my lab work was completed I was taken yet another dome that housed the office of Dr. Anne Zauderer whom I would be seeing that day.  I checked in with Taneisha, a medical assistant, who took my vitals and a few notes before I saw Dr. Anne.  One thing I really want to note is that the staff members are so helpful and friendly and I had the chance to speak with them quite a bit. Everyone I spoke with had been there for quite some time (which can say a lot about any company) and they all said how much they loved working there. They were truly passionate about their jobs. This was such a big switch from some of my usual doctor visits where I was lucky if I even got acknowledged by the staff and it felt like they were just going through the motions.  After my vitals were taken, I had a few minutes before my appointment so I sat in the waiting area on a small couch. It was weird, but I started to feel really emotional.  Being there for my own health made me realize just how long it had been since I really asked for or sought out professional support for anything. It also made me realize just how important it was.   Dr. Anne came out to get me in a matter of minutes and took me back to her office. Dr. Anne is a true gem. She is extremely knowledgeable, instantly makes you feel at ease, and explains things in a way that makes it so easy to understand. I spent over an hour with her going over all of the information that I filled out on my intake forms. She asked a lot of questions and provided a lot of insights as to why I might be experiencing various symptoms.   I’ve been to so many doctor visits where it’s a 10 minute (if that) conversation (and by conversation I mean the doctor talking at me the whole time), a quick diagnosis based only on boxes checked on my paperwork, and a prescription for something to make my symptoms go away. My experience with Dr. Anne was the exact opposite of that and was so refreshing in so many ways.  After my appointment, Dr. Anne provided me with some lifestyle hacks to help with my hydration and a prescription for an adrenal support formula. She said that she doesn’t like to do any nutrient supplement recommendations without the lab results so we will go over a full treatment plan during my next appointment in a few weeks.  A Vitamin C IV was included with my appointment and Magnesium and B vitamins were added to it for extra support.  I headed back to Dome 8 where I spent about 30 minutes hooked up to an IV and then I was good to go. After my time there I feel like this is the way that medicine should be practiced. There is a time and a place for the conventional model, but for true healing (not just symptom suppression) it takes time, individual attention and a customized plan. Every person is different and therefore requires different therapies and interventions.  My next appointment is in three weeks and I am so anxious to see what my lab results show and how I feel after incorporating my recommended protocols.  Until next time,

    – Leah