Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:13 I can't let it this Paul cry.
Speaker 2 00:00:28 I like your little salt rock too.
Speaker 3 00:00:30 Yeah, they, you know, they say it purifies the room and everything. I don't know about that. Maybe it does, but I just like the color of the light.
Speaker 2 00:00:36 I like the vibe. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:00:37 <laugh>. Kelsey Kohler
Speaker 2 00:00:39 Great to
Speaker 3 00:00:39 Be here. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we go way back and I knew you had a really interesting story and you're doing awesome things around the city. So you're a natural guest to come on the podcast. So what's been up with you?
Speaker 2 00:00:50 Well, lately, um, we have started working with a couple veteran nonprofits and we we're doing is we're helping service the veterans as they come out of retirement and they need things like hormone replacement, their cortisol levels are all over the place, blood sugar. So we've been working with them to help facilitate their treatment after retirement.
Speaker 3 00:01:08 And when you say we,
Speaker 2 00:01:10 So me and then my dad is actually our MD on staff, so he's a veteran himself. He served in the Navy, he was a commander and he was actually a primary care physician for the military for about 10 or 11 years. Then he went and did his practice in dermatology and I actually was helping him through some of like his hormonal issues as he got older. And then he is like, oh this is so interesting. And he like started learning about functional medicine and then you know, he took a couple courses through if FM as far as like hormone replacement therapy goes. And now that's what we do. We have a license in I think 13 states now.
Speaker 3 00:01:41 So he crossed over to the dark side. He did? Or came from the dark side I
Speaker 2 00:01:44 Guess. Yes. And he's like, oh my gosh, I get to actually help people. This is great. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, it's a lot more fun. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:01:49 So for people who don't know you, tell us a little bit about what you do. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:01:53 So I have my undergrad degree in dietetics and my functional medicine master's degree. And so what I do is I help clients identify the root cause as to why they're experiencing symptoms or having trouble losing weight or having gut problems using lab testing. So primarily like blood test, but we also do like stool testing so we can look at their gut health. I do d N a testing, epigenetics. We can actually see how they're aging. So we can look at like your biological age versus your chronological age and then help you, I guess a lot of people call it biohack where you look at like their diet, their supplements, their lifestyle and help them achieve their results through those modalities too.
Speaker 3 00:02:32 I like the term biohacking. The first place I ever heard about biohacking was the Ben Greenfield podcasting. Yep. He might have been the first podcast I ever started listening to regularly. Me too. Probably 10 years ago. You crossed paths with him at some point, didn't you?
Speaker 2 00:02:44 Yeah, I've met him a couple times at a few conferences. He was my like initiation into functional medicine and the biohacking world too. I think I found him on YouTube or something.
Speaker 3 00:02:53 I like his podcast, how he talks like he talks in the microphone really soft, like one of the deep voice and he's, yeah, it's kinda interesting to listen to. I like it.
Speaker 2 00:03:01 Yeah. And I love that he tries all these things on himself before he promotes them. That's why I always respected him. I'm like, well I mean he tried it first before he tried to say it was great.
Speaker 3 00:03:09 So a hundred percent. Have you done any experimentation on yourself as far as things you recommend for your patients? Oh yeah,
Speaker 2 00:03:15 Just about everything aside from hormones and medications I've tried and whether it's supplements, different diets, you know, I started out in functional medicine like right after I had Ainsley and then I was doing like the Westin a price diet. So like very kind of like fermented foods, heavy fat and protein, raw dairy, you know, raw dairy. I was getting the dairy from the Amish people and making my own keefer and sauerkraut and I was like sprouting the bread and making my own flour. I was very big hippie. I guess I still am a little bit, but yeah, I've tried just about everything. I've tried cjc and Ipamorelin, the growth hormone peptide.
Speaker 3 00:03:49 I'm not familiar with that. What is that?
Speaker 2 00:03:50 So it's a growth hormone og. I actually tried it like back in 17 or 2018 and you just do like a subcutaneous injection and it helps stimulate growth hormone, which is like the longevity hormone. A lot of people consider it and it helps with like recovery, sleep, you know, maintaining muscle mass, maybe metabolism to some degree. But I didn't take it very long. I did like an eight week trial of it and I was young so I don't think it really did a whole lot for me. I think it works better in people that are maybe older than like 40 that maybe have a lesser production of growth hormone. It did make me sleep really well though.
Speaker 3 00:04:25 Yeah, you can basically kind of turn back the hands of time and decrease your biological age. Yeah. Can't decrease the chronological age. Right. But you can definitely change the way you feel. So you got started with Profi, what
Speaker 2 00:04:37 That was 2020, right? During the pandemic <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:04:39 Oh yeah. Did that happen because you know, patients were less willing to come into offices and going online made more sense at that point.
Speaker 2 00:04:47 It was kind of like a forced thing really because I had multiple contracting jobs. Like I was working for Beijos Ian out of um, California helping with like some supplement stuff. I was writing content. I worked for functional diagnostic nutrition for a little bit at that time. So I had like three jobs and then the pandemic hit and nobody, like I just lost all of them at once. And so it was kind of like a force thing where I was like, all right, well I've been doing Profi on the side. I hadn't really marketed it a whole lot. I was just kind of taking clients to help people and then I was like, all right, now it's time to do this. And so that's kind of what started it. I was working for Alexander Shaara at the time too, just like helping him around the office as an administrative assistant and he was a big part of pushing me out the door and being like, you really need to do this. You know? I
Speaker 3 00:05:30 Think you can. Yeah, I love him. He's so great. He's so cool. Yeah. You know tj? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I had lunch
Speaker 2 00:05:34 Today. I know TJ really well. Yeah, TJ's like a brother
Speaker 3 00:05:37 <laugh>. He's awesome. Everyone that works with or for Alex, they unanimously speak highly of him.
Speaker 2 00:05:42 Yeah, I mean he's just such an amazing mentor. He is a good friend. He cares a lot about like the people in his office and the people that he is around. I mean, he's a great person.
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Speaker 2 00:08:06 So before, oh I guess I've been in the healthcare field probably since college. I did dietetics work at a gym when I first got out of college. And then while I was in Memphis I met a religious group and actually got into a religious cult. So that was basically, I met them on campus and I was religious at the time, I was Christian and I was like, okay, well they're telling me that if I'm really a Christian, like I should follow these bible verses that say like, you shouldn't drink, you shouldn't partake in the things of the world. And that included the movies and the music and all that stuff. And I was like, well that makes sense logically in my brain. And then these guys could like spit back bible verses and like argue with you. And I'm like, you know, you're more intellectual than most people that I've heard with the Bible. And so it's a lot like, um, basic training in the military. They kind of like get you in, they make you fast, they make you pray. They kind of remove you from your family and your friends and they break you down psychologically. So they actually get you in that form of brainwaves where you're super easy to manipulate. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And how, how do we do
Speaker 3 00:09:08 That?
Speaker 2 00:09:09 It's from stress, you know, stress, not eating, not sleeping, um, just kind of bombarding you 24 7 with like guilt. A lot of it's guilt and shame. There's a, I dunno if it's Netflix or Amazon, but it's called Shiny Happy people. It's the Dugger documentary. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:09:24 Katie and I started watching that last week. Yeah, so as you were talking about it, I was like, this sounds a lot like what they were doing. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, like Christian fundamentalist kind of thing.
Speaker 2 00:09:32 It's exactly like that. Like I went to some of those conferences and so they teach that like as a single woman, like your covering is the eldest man in the church and not like your father cuz your father isn't a Christian in their eyes
Speaker 3 00:09:44 Covering
Speaker 2 00:09:45 Like a covering like um, have you seen that umbrella on the Dugger show yet? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Okay. So they have like, it's basically like an order of authority. So like God's at the top then if you're married it's the husband, then the wife and the kids. If you're not married then it's like your father and the elders of the church and then eventually when you get married it's your husband. But they kind of like bring you in as a single woman and they're like, well we're your authority as the elders of the church now because your family isn't saved. And so we're the authorities and I was in that group for like a really short period of time. I actually moved to Dallas and I was in Dallas for like a month or two working at like fresh market and finishing my degree, my bachelor's at the time.
Speaker 2 00:10:24 And they just like got progressively more controlling. First it was like just don't go to the movies, don't watch tv, like whatever. And then it became like you can't wear skirts and everything I would wear was like sinful because that's just my body type I guess. So they would be like, you can't wear tight clothes, you can't wear pants, you can't wear makeup. And it just got like a little bit more. So I just started hiding from them that I was wearing jeans to work and all that kind of stuff and just changing before they saw me. So
Speaker 3 00:10:50 What they wanted you to wear like a flowy dress or something?
Speaker 2 00:10:52 Yeah, just like the Dugger girls do. Okay. Yeah, like the longer skirts and the like flowier tops and stuff. I didn't like that very much. I'm not a very good person that listens to like rules I guess. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:11:03 You don't, you don't wanna be bossed around the same, I guess that's the Gemini thing we talked
Speaker 2 00:11:06 About <laugh>. Yes, it's the Gemini thing for sure. And so, you know, they started to take more influence in my life and I was impressionable. I was only in college, you know, then they introduced me to my husband or soon-to-be husband at that point. He's my ex-husband now. But it was like an arranged marriage situation where they're like, we're the elders of the church. Like God has told us this is who you're supposed to marry. Like you have to go marry him. And so he lived in South Africa and I'd never met him. So we like zoomed a couple times and then I went to South Africa.
Speaker 3 00:11:35 He must have been pretty photogenic.
Speaker 2 00:11:37 I mean he was a rugby player like you know, whatever <laugh>. Um, I was young and like Africa sounded fun and it was like at the time like they believed you could lose salvation. I think they still believe that. But they believed if you disobeyed God you could lose your salvation and God could at any time deem you like you'll never be a Christian. Mm. You'll go to hell. And so I was under the assumption that like okay well these elders told me that this is who I'm supposed to marry. Like I'm gonna go to Africa and meet him at least and see what happens. And then you know, we got there and he said a month later like, well I know it's God's will for me to marry you. And I was like, well okay. Like now these two authority figures that they've been teaching me are my leaders have said the same thing. So it's like confirmed by God kind of thing. Yeah. And you know, my family was all against it. Like none of them were at the wedding cuz it was in Africa. And we got married, I was there for almost a year in Africa, living in South Africa, set up Durban and then Cape Town for some of it. And um, we lived there, got the visa, came back and shortly after we got back I got pregnant with Ainsley.
Speaker 3 00:12:35 Wait, hold on. So was that part of their game plan is to get this guy married to an American so he could get a visa? So I think so. Cause I was, I was, that's the question I wanted to ask you is like what's their end game? You know, like what's the point of manipulating people? What's their big goal?
Speaker 2 00:12:50 Yeah, I mean it's hard to say because like what they do is they bring people in. Like my best friend from college also went and she was a pre-med student. So it's not like any of these people were not intelligent, you know, she was pre-med. There was another guy in there that was doctor, they brought us in and like what they do is, is you join the cult. Like everything you own is everyone's. And so I didn't have anything so it didn't really matter. But like there'd be families that would come in with like four or five kids and the dad would have a business and a good amount of money and all the money would then go into the church pile.
Speaker 3 00:13:19 So it had commune vibes. Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Speaker 2 00:13:21 Yep, definitely. And like when I lived there it wasn't really like that cuz it wasn't very big. Like I just lived in a house with three other girls, like a normal college person would. But eventually they moved outside of Wells, Texas and they started buying properties and so now they have like probably a couple hundred members and like, you know, six or eight houses all kind of in the same area and they start buying businesses based on the money they take from everybody else. Yeah. So it was actually on the Dr. Phil show. There's a whole
Speaker 3 00:13:48 Documentary. Yeah. You were on that, right?
Speaker 2 00:13:49 Yeah. But this was different. They did a whole Dr. Phil episode on the Colt like a few episodes
Speaker 3 00:13:54 Actually did the same one. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, what's it called?
Speaker 2 00:13:56 The Church of Wells.
Speaker 3 00:13:57 Church of Wells? Mm-hmm
Speaker 2 00:13:58 <affirmative>. It's in Texas. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 00:14:00 It's still going on. Oh
Speaker 2 00:14:01 Yeah. I tried to get like Texas Rangers involved. Like I tried to get upper level like government employees but because of freedom of religion they won't intervene. There was even a baby that died there like, you know, five or six years after I was out of it just because they started to get like really radical on their medical beliefs too.
Speaker 3 00:14:18 What was the final straw for you when you realized you had to get outta there?
Speaker 2 00:14:22 I was in Africa when I got excommunicated and um, my best friend was getting in an arranged marriage to someone she absolutely hated, like couldn't tolerate, was like the guy that just annoyed her, you know, like she didn't wanna be around him at all. And I just saw her turmoil and like what was going on with her and I was like, that can't be right. Like God would never do that. And so that was when they got on Zoom with my husband at the time, were like, you know, your wife is subordinate and she, she's causing trouble in the church. Like you guys are not part of the church anymore. And like nobody was allowed to talk to me anymore after that.
Speaker 3 00:14:57 So obviously you were being manipulated in a big way. Oh mm-hmm <affirmative>. But your day-to-day, did it feel like you were having to do a lot of things you didn't want to do? Or was it more like it just became your new normal?
Speaker 2 00:15:08 Well I was working a lot and I was going to school at the time so I was doing my last couple like bullshit classes for my undergrad degree online and then I was working so I, I wasn't around a whole lot but there was like all these mandatory church meetings, like church on Sunday would go all day. Mm-hmm <affirmative> like literally it would start in the morning and go all day long and I just hated that. Like I have a d d I can't, I can't sit and be quiet and like focus on something that long. Yeah a hundred percent. And so that was really hard for me but it was one of those things I just managed and then I left like you know, I was there, I probably moved there in August and I left in October so I wasn't there in that environment for a super long time. And then by the time we were ready to move back to America I was like excommunicated and I wasn't gonna be around them anyway.
Speaker 3 00:15:51 Was it one of those things kinda like you hear about in Scientology documentaries where once you left any friends that you had who were still in it wouldn't talk to you anymore? Mm-hmm
Speaker 2 00:16:00 <affirmative>? Yeah. You know, one friend she got out close to when I got out and she and I are still really close. Like I love her to death. She lives in Texas so I don't really get to see her that often. But she got out and then the other girl got out a few years later but I haven't really spoken to her since then.
Speaker 3 00:16:17 You got back here from South Africa? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And how long were you here while still involved with this organization?
Speaker 2 00:16:23 So when we got back I was already excommunicated so I was already out of it but I had a lot of healing to do cuz like I didn't really understand what was right and what was wrong and I wasn't happy in my marriage either. It was kind of miserable. And so, oh wait,
Speaker 3 00:16:36 So you stayed married to the guy? Mm-hmm <affirmative>, did he defect for lack of a better term as well
Speaker 2 00:16:40 Eventually? Yeah, it took him a lot longer and he still got some weird tendencies to be honest, <laugh>, um, you know, and so I was always just more a little rebellious I think, and not in a bad way, just like not listening to rules I didn't understand. And so we got back and then, you know, I got pregnant, unexpected and once I had Ainsley, you know, had her and then I was like, I'm not gonna put her in school. So we stayed married for a little bit longer and then, you know, by the time she was like one or two, he was getting another job here in Birmingham and I was like, all right, this is the perfect time for me to get a divorce and like get this all separated because I was like, I'm not gonna let her live in this environment where I'm miserable. And she sees us fighting all the time and like I'll just figure it out. And so I applied and got a job at Lifetime Fitness and I got like a management position as the dietician and then also like kind of overseeing the nutrition in the labs portion of things. So I got there and I, I did pretty good for my first year and a hundred percent commission job and I just told him it was a hundred percent commission. I wasn't making any money <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:17:43 Nice.
Speaker 2 00:17:43 And so I just saved up and got got
Speaker 3 00:17:45 You're building your nest egg.
Speaker 2 00:17:46 Yeah, I saved up and got my apartment and that was the whole situation going through that process cuz he didn't want the divorce. He made it difficult. And then I got through that. Thankfully one of my clients actually paid for the whole thing. She like brought me like cash one day to the gym and she's like, here's your legal fees. Wow. Yeah. And so got that taken care of, got Ainsley and you know, at that time she was really young so he let me have her most of the time. But we co-parent pretty good. We don't agree ideologically on a lot of things but we co-parent decent.
Speaker 3 00:18:16 When you were still involved, was it something that you would keep secret from people who were outside of it or were you pretty open about
Speaker 2 00:18:22 Oh no, I was like street preaching
Speaker 3 00:18:23 <laugh>. Okay. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:18:25 Like not me cuz I was a female but like I would go with them outside of like abortion clinics and like bars and stuff like that. I did that a few times. It was interesting
Speaker 3 00:18:35 You mentioned healing. How do you heal from going through something like that?
Speaker 2 00:18:39 Well I had PTs d I got diagnosed with PTs D through like a clinical psychologist and I had to relearn how to think cognitively. Like when you're in a cult it's kind of like a circular logic because it's like the elders answer to God and God's, you know, it's just kind of like this. There's no logic applied to anything. There's no other answers than what they say. And so I had to like re cognitively learn how to think and how to process just like A plus B equals C. And so I did a lot of that with what's called neurolinguistic programming. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3 00:19:09 Nlp, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:09 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so I like, I couldn't afford therapy really. I could do a couple sessions here and there, but I couldn't afford what it costs at the time.
Speaker 3 00:19:16 What's like an example of how that be something you need to use?
Speaker 2 00:19:20 TBIs, high levels of stress and cortisol issues.
Speaker 3 00:19:23 I mean like N L P.
Speaker 2 00:19:24 Oh N L P? Yeah. Yeah. Like brain injuries. Um, ptsd. D So like same thing if like the military kind of presents the same way when they have ptsd. Like sometimes they'll lose their train of thought, they'll have foggy thinking. But I feel like in any application of PTSD or brain injuries
Speaker 3 00:19:40 For sure. So you say certain phrases in certain ways to kind of rewire your brain or what?
Speaker 2 00:19:45 Yeah, it's kind of like not just speaking but also like your thought processes. Like it kind of walks you through your chain of thoughts. Have you ever had like a ruminating thought where you just keep obsessing over the same thing? Sure. Yeah. What kind of teaches you strategies of like when that starts to happen? Okay. Catch yourself and then re-engage yourself out. So like I would wear a rubber band and I would like snap it or like when I would start to feel like stressed out I would be like, okay, when's the last time I ate? Um, what have I done today? That's like benefiting self-care.
Speaker 3 00:20:13 Yeah. Like what can you control?
Speaker 2 00:20:14 Yeah. So it's just goes back to like what can you control? And then also like critical thinking. Like I had to kind of learn to think for myself again.
Speaker 3 00:20:21 It seems like that organization and, and a lot of others who consider themselves to be Christian, they really just use the Bible and they spin the words and they use those things to manipulate people into getting what they want into controlling them. So I would imagine that you were tempted to throw the baby out with a bath water mm-hmm. <affirmative> and just like throw everything aside and say oh it's all bullshit. Yeah. But I mean is that something that you still have a part in your life or not so much?
Speaker 2 00:20:46 I mean that's pretty much what happened. Yeah. Because there was a lot of resentment built up and there was a lot of control and then you know, I would go to church and like I couldn't even listen to church music listening to bible verses. Especially like the ones where it's like wive submit to your husband's. Yeah, yeah. Made me wanna like beat somebody up, you know? Sure. Yeah. Like I can't listen to it now I have kind of a more healthy and balanced approach to it. Like I don't attend church but I'm not opposed to Christianity. You know, if something came in my life and I was like wow, this is God, then I would acknowledge it as that. But I don't really live by any religion necessarily. I just kind of try to do the right thing and treat people good.
Speaker 3 00:21:21 You know, there were several different pillars of health. Mm. It was the physical, the nutritional, the emotional and the spiritual. Mm-hmm Would be another component. So do you help your clients with a spiritual aspect of health or do you kind of let them handle that on their own or how, what does that look like?
Speaker 2 00:21:35 I don't really help them too much with it. Like if there's something they're really struggling with, I'll help them like find resources or help them like kind of walk through it cognitively or like if they need to talk about it. Obviously we talk about that in my sessions cuz I feel like a lot of my sessions are more like therapy sessions Absolutely. Than anything. Um,
Speaker 3 00:21:51 Same with personal training. Yeah. Matt, that's what Matt Crane and I were talking on the last episode.
Speaker 2 00:21:55 Yeah. Yeah. It's like all kind of like just helping them get to the next level. And so if somebody's really struggling, like I've had people come to me that are like me, which is something that's common too I think in functional medicine where they've had like some kind of religious trauma and with those people I'll talk to them specifically about it if it relates to what I went through. But I don't like advise on it necessarily. I try to let people make their own conclusions. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:22:17 Obviously I could sit here and talk to you about cults all day because it's something that I'm naturally fascinated with. Yeah. I love all the documentaries and everything, but let's shift gears and talk about healthcare in general. Natural healthcare, you know, functional medicine and what you do as a functional medicine practitioner. How that differentiates from maybe the conventional medical system.
Speaker 2 00:22:36 Yeah, so with functional medicine, like we're, like I said earlier, we're really based on the root cause approach. And so when a new client comes to us, like we're like looking at their entire health history from the time they were born up until now, any relevant like surgeries they've had, I ask people about trauma obviously from my background. Um, we look at like their medications they've taken in the past, their symptoms and then we select lab testing, whether that's like a comprehensive blood panel, the gut test, um, genetic testing, organic acids, dutch testing. I really kind of customize that to the person. And then once we have their lab results back then we're like, okay, now everything makes sense. You know, if you're struggling to lose weight, let's look at your sex hormones, let's look at your blood sugar, let's look at your thyroid, your micronutrients, your gut health and then see like where the issue is STA is stemming from. And then we can build out a custom protocol. So when I'm doing nutrition with people, it's not just like here's your calories and macros. It's like okay, what foods are we eating and why? What's our meal timing look like? Are we doing a blood sugar monitor where I actually can put like a monitor on their arm? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:23:39 Have you like a nutri sense? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, have you ever worn one?
Speaker 2 00:23:41 I've never worn one, but I've used them a lot with clients.
Speaker 3 00:23:43 Yeah. I really wanna wear one. I, I just haven't gotten around to it but I follow this account on uh, on Instagram, what's his name? Jason Whit Rock, something like that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And he wears one and he'll eat a food and just show you the results is actually really surprising how, you know a straw strawberries is different than a blueberry and all that. Right. So I can see why that would be really beneficial for your clients to wear one. So you can see how their blood sugar is responding to the foods they eat.
Speaker 2 00:24:07 Yeah. And some of the medical brands like Signos, they can actually give me a dashboard access where I can like look at their food they ate, look at what the glucose response was and then we can really customize their diet based on their carb tolerance. Which is really different for everybody. You know nowadays everybody wants to be keto and carnivore cuz you know, they think it's cool but it's not what's healthy.
Speaker 3 00:24:26 Totally. So functional medicine is kinda like the opposite of a one size fits all approach, right? You say it's truly customized to that patient. Mm-hmm <affirmative> with that in mind when you hear and you see people on maybe YouTube talking about this is the end all be all diet, you know, this is the diet that you need to be eating, this is the diet that's right for you. What do you have to say to
Speaker 2 00:24:46 That? They're uneducated. There's no diet that's right for everyone because it's individually, biologically based on you. It's individual based on your training, your goals, what your lifestyle is useful for. Like there's a lot of people and they can't eat six meals a day or there's a lot of people that'll never tolerate keto and carnivore because of their digestive system or their family history with cholesterol problems. So yeah, I just feel like they're uneducated and they have almost like a cult-like mindset around those food dog mus. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:25:14 I mean some of the, you know, not to call anyone out, but some of the vegan people, some of the keto people, some of the new carnivore people, they get a little bit militant with it and they're like, it's my way or the highway, that kind of thing. And it's a little bit judgy against people who don't want to eat that way. I've, but what I have noticed over, over years of paying close attention to nutrition is that the one thing that all of the popular diets have in common, whether it be vegan, keto, paleo, carnivore, it's all having you avoid processed fake foods. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? So there's not gonna be any peppered farms. There's not gonna be anything in the middle aisles of the grocery store. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's having you avoid all of the fake food. So that's why, you know, if a diet works for you, that's a big part of the reason. Right?
Speaker 2 00:25:57 Yeah. And I mean ultimately like if you're trying to lose weight and you have a significant amount of weight to lose, you probably need to be in a calorie deficit. And a lot of people don't know what that looks like. And so sometimes it has to be a process of learning what calories and macros are, having them identify and track their foods and seeing like, oh wow, I'm only eating 1700 calories or 1200 calories. Like there's people that need to be in a deficit and there's other women, specifically women that come to me and I'm like, you're only eating 1200 calories. Like that's what you burn if you laid in bed and didn't move all day. Yeah, exactly. You know, like how do, how do you expect to have a good metabolism if you're eating 1200 calories?
Speaker 3 00:26:33 What are some common conditions that mainstream medicine would have you believe are either incurable or you have to take medications for mm-hmm. <affirmative>? What are some of those conditions that can be addressed through functional medicine?
Speaker 2 00:26:46 The two biggest ones that come to mind are hypothyroidism and insulin resistance. Diabetes. Yeah. Yeah. You know hypothyroid, like I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's after I had Ainsley, which is the autoimmune form of hypothyroid and a lot of that was from the cortisol and PTs D like the stress makes autoimmune conditions worse. Um, and then pregnancy, you know, you lose a lot of your micronutrients to the baby and I breastfed for two years so Wow. You know, like a lot of my vitamin deficiencies were probably pretty strong at the time cuz I wasn't really taking a whole lot of supplements. Like I was taking maybe a prenatal but not like really paying attention to my blood or anything yet. And I went to six different doctors before I actually found someone that was like, look, what test do you want? And I was like, I want all of these.
Speaker 2 00:27:27 And I wrote 'em down and they finally ran it and my thyroid antibody numbers were like in the six or seven hundreds, which it's supposed to be below like 10. Yeah. And so they were like, oh okay, this is a problem. You know, my T3 was low, my TSH was low. And she was like, well what I would put you on is a thyroid compound medication and you'd be on this the rest of your life. And I was like, no. Like I'm gonna find something else. And so that's when I actually got into functional medicine. I found like a couple of podcasts talking about it and I was like, this is really interesting and
Speaker 3 00:27:57 It makes sense. Yeah. Once you hear it, it totally checks out.
Speaker 2 00:28:00 Yeah. And so I got my first certification in functional medicine before I had my master's and I started healing myself. You know, like I did the gaps diet, I did like basically Western a price, like heavy fat, good proteins, a lot of fermented foods healed my gut cuz I had a lot of gut issues too. And then I was like, okay, this makes sense, like I can do this. And so that's when I went and got my master's in functional medicine so I could really like learn more in depth of how I can help people. Yeah. But um, back to the insulin resistance like or you know, diabetes, like if you can just fix your metabolism and your glucose disposal by gaining more muscle mass, moving more throughout the day, like getting your steps scanning muscle mass and then just not eating your carbs by themselves, then that makes a huge difference in the majority of people. They just aren't properly educated on it.
Speaker 3 00:28:46 But yeah, like you were saying about uh, when you were breastfeeding for two years and how so many of your micronutrients were going to your baby, Katie and I were talking about that and I learned throughout her pregnancy about that and I thought it was so interesting. And she used the analogy of a flamingo turns from pink to white when it has babies because it gives away all of its nutrients. And the reason the flamingo is pink is because of, you know, their diet turns their feathers pink, so when they have the babies it transfers all those nutrients to them they turn white temporarily. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I thought that was so interesting.
Speaker 2 00:29:18 Yeah. I mean that's why a lot of women have thyroid conditions after pregnancy other than like the immune system being kind of lowered on purpose to facilitate the pregnancy too.
Speaker 3 00:29:28 We've talked about Hashimoto's, we've talked about, we've talked, we've touched on insulin resistance. So something I used to always hear people say is that diabetes is genetic. Mm-hmm. And I used to say, I used to joke, I would say, yeah, diabetes runs in your family because nobody runs in your family. Yep. You know, <laugh>. Yeah. But what I would always say is that it's not so much that diabetes is genetic, it's that diets are genetic, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> oftentimes you'll end up eating kind of the same way that your parents would eat. So what have you seen with diabetes?
Speaker 2 00:29:53 That's definitely the case. I mean it's, it's more of a learn behavior if it's type two, obviously if it's type one, you're born that way and it's, it's an immune system disorder. But with type two a lot of it is learned behavior, lack of activity, poor diet. You know, you don't get type two diabetes from just eating healthy food. Like you're most of the time over-consuming carbs and sugar and then underdoing your exercise and activity level. So in my opinion, like a lot of it is just because the majority of Americans don't move anymore. Like we go to work, we sit at a desk all day, we go home and then they eat and then they watch tv. Maybe that's the majority of the population right. Before that we were all outside.
Speaker 3 00:30:31 Yeah. So as a population we've gone totally sedentary. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That's why I think I read the stat recently that we finally tipped greater than 50% mark that over 50% of the population is now considered at least overweight. Yeah. Maybe obese. I forget which one it was.
Speaker 2 00:30:45 Yeah. And I mean a lot of it is like you mentioned earlier, like eating the processed foods like the vegetable oils and like the fried foods and the, you know, not real foods. You know, our bodies aren't meant to digest those things and those kind of chemicals get into us and cause all kinds of inflammation problems and inflammation is the root cause of all disease. So it's kind of, that's including like diabetes, heart disease, dementia and Alzheimer's. You know, autoimmune conditions like MS and ra. So yeah, a lot of it's preventable.
Speaker 3 00:31:14 You know, I used to always think about how to fix one person. You know, I wouldn't really think that much about how to fix the country. Is that something you've ever thought big about? You know? Oh yeah. Like how do we fix the population as a whole?
Speaker 2 00:31:25 I joke about it a lot that I'm gonna be in the White House with my friends <laugh>. Okay. Specifically just because I've worked in like I've gotten kind of close with some politics on the Republican side and so I always kind of joke like I'm gonna make America fit again. Especially if like a certain president gets in the office
Speaker 3 00:31:40 America fit again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:31:42 I really look at it as like we just need the proper education. A lot of people just don't know. And then if they do have the education, maybe they don't have the financial access or resources to food. And so a lot of it is like just teaching them, okay, let's get you outside of moving two or three times a day. Let's get you eating higher protein, higher amounts of veggies, healthy fats and then carbs based on your activity level. You know, if you can just get people doing those basic things then I think it would make a huge difference. And I think a lot of it is due to the big pharma company and big food are all about money. So nothing is about like the actual health. And so if you can get somebody in office that is prioritizing health, then it would be pretty easy. You just gotta knock out the big money bags that are in the way. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:32:25 I mean it does have to be something totally outside of the box because what we've been doing, you know, if you look at the food pyramid mm-hmm It's an absolute joke. It's a joke. If you follow the food pyramid, you're likely gonna get diabetes.
Speaker 2 00:32:35 It's like 60% carbs. You're gonna get fat. Especially if you're not not moving
Speaker 3 00:32:39 <laugh>. What are some things you do in your personal life to make sure that you have a nice healthy long life?
Speaker 2 00:32:45 And the big thing is I move every day and so I have an aura ring and so I track my steps and I really strive to get at least 10,000 steps a day and I have a dog. So a lot of that's usually like walking him multiple times a day. Yeah. That helps. It helps a lot. And then, you know, I go to the gym, I lift weights probably five or six times a week and I do pretty heavy. I think muscle is the organ of longevity. I think the more muscle you have, the less disease you're gonna have because it is an immune organ so your muscle actually modulates your immune system. Really. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it releases like um, enzymes that help like increase your immune system in a healthy way. And then you know, there's hormetic stress which is like good stress and the muscle tension is good stress. It's not like the stress of like, you know, something with work or something like that. And then muscle also is gonna increase your glucose disposal so your muscle will eat up your glucose, which helps with diabetes. And so lifting weights would be the big one. Getting your steps in and then really looking at then the content of your food. So I eat like organic grass fed meat only. You know, there's the occasional time I'll go out to eat a restaurant. Obviously you know, it's different.
Speaker 3 00:33:54 What's your source for that meat? Do you do one of the online shipping orders or do you have a local source for that or what?
Speaker 2 00:33:59 Sometimes I'll go to the farmer's market and try to get something local. I've done ButcherBox in the past but I just like, I got a couple packages that weren't like the greatest so I didn't do ButcherBox anymore. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 3 00:34:10 You tried wild
Speaker 2 00:34:10 Pastures. There's wild pastures. I kind of rotate. I get bored. Like I'll either feel like doing frozen stuff or I'll just go grab something at Whole Foods. Yeah. I go to Whole Foods like a couple times a week. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so it's
Speaker 3 00:34:21 Probably they know you by name. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:34:22 They're like, oh here she comes again. <laugh>. But yeah. And then veggies like veggies are really important especially nowadays when people keep promoting like the keto carnivore diet. Like you need to eat veggies to feed your gut bacteria and if you don't have good gut bacteria then you're prone to all kinds of different diseases because your gut bacteria actually help modulate your immune system as well. And they release something called short chain fatty acids and short chain fatty acids. We cannot produce on our onus humans at all and we completely rely on the bacteria. So if you're not feeding the bacteria, you're not getting short chain fatty acids and they primarily go systematically throughout the body and decrease inflammation whether that's in your heart or your brain or your joints. And so a lot of people that don't eat fiber or don't eat enough veggies will have a lot of, you know, inflammatory diseases later on too.
Speaker 3 00:35:09 Gut bacteria could be an entire episode on its own. Oh yeah. I think my old podcast we had one called the Gut Microbiome Spectacular and we just talked about microbiomes the whole time. What would you say are some of the foods that people commonly eat or drink that is just detrimental for your gut bacteria?
Speaker 2 00:35:24 So drinking sugary calories is never a good idea. Whether that's soda or juice, like a lot of people think like it's healthy to have a big glass of orange juice where they'll give their kids apple juice. I would never give my child juice. It's sugar that goes straight into the blood and that's gonna either make them hyper or gonna make them less sensitive to to insulin later on. That would be the big thing drink wise. Eating wise would be like fried foods. Things with oils like sunflower and safflower oils, the omega six oils from plants are gonna be proinflammatory whereas like fish and grassfed beef have higher omega threes which are anti-inflammatory. Yeah. So you wanna keep that balance. It's really important.
Speaker 3 00:36:04 Katie was reading the other day and she was shared this with me, that the omega three versus the omega six and your meat depends on whether it's grassfed and finished or not. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So a piece of grassfed grass finished beef has an omega-3 to omega six content of one to one just like salmon. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So it's amazing that that red meat cannot have just as much omega-3 as salmon could or at least the same ratio. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:36:30 Yeah. I mean steaks one of the most healthy foods you can get as long as it's a good sourced one and we can actually test that omega3 to omega six ratio. That's one of the markers I sometimes add to a blood test. And we can see like in your blood, your omega three to omega six ratio. And I have a lot of people, especially my veteran community, like a lot of the Navy seal guys, the special operators that have PTSD and TBIs, they're on like a gram of fish oil a day, like a lot.
Speaker 3 00:36:54 What are you doing with the veteran community?
Speaker 2 00:36:57 So, um, we do a lot of hormone replacement with the veterans because I
Speaker 3 00:37:00 Mean in what capacity are you working with them?
Speaker 2 00:37:02 I have individuals that come to me just like on their own. Then I work with two different nonprofits that send us veterans specifically for healthcare. And what that looks like is they want to facilitate the holistic treatment, so functional medicine. And so we run the lab tests on them, we help them with their hormones. Ozempic, the BOGO drug a lot of people talk about is really great for veterans at a very low dose. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, we like microdose it almost. And what that does is it helps with their cortisol blood sugar response. Like one of my navy seals that actually works for me now, his name's John. When he first retired he got medically retired. He had I think 11 TBIs and he would wake up at 3:00 AM just ravenous. Like the only thing he wanted to do was eat and there was nothing that would satisfy his body other than eating.
Speaker 2 00:37:46 And it was that cortisol fight or flight response. Like cortisol goes up, blood sugar dumps into you and then you're like I gotta do something, I gotta, and so for him it was eating and so we looked at his hormones, his testosterone was also super low, which is very common in veterans just because the TBIs obviously when you hit your head that's gonna affect your pituitary land and then your testosterone production. But then PTSD and stress really lowers testosterone too. So we got him on testosterone, a very low dose of um, Wago semi glide, he's about to come off of it now. He completely changed his eating habits. He no longer had the bing feeling. He no longer had the fight or flight panic attacks obviously we're doing a lot nutritionally too, changing a lot of the consistency of his diet macro wise and protein and stuff.
Speaker 2 00:38:30 He's gone down, I think he, he had to throw away his belt like he went down like five belt loops. Wow. And then he, then he is like, I can't even wear this anymore. So his body composition's completely changed like muscle to fat ratios. His life is completely different. Like he just looks like a different human being even in his face. And so that's super rewarding to me to be able to help them. But that's a very common story with veterans is the VA doesn't do <inaudible>. They definitely aren't gonna do things they consider not medically necessary like hormones. And oftentimes that's what makes them feel the best is like when they have more testosterone.
Speaker 3 00:39:02 We've talked about how there's no one size fits all diet, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So any population, there's not gonna be one diet that's right for them. With that in mind, are there any differences that are kind of across the board in the way that men should eat versus women?
Speaker 2 00:39:16 Women shouldn't go low carb. Most women are not gonna respond well to low carb because of their adrenals and their sex hormones. And that's just something that I've seen over, you know, 11 years of practice and then lab tests. A lot of low carb females are not gonna respond well mood-wise, hormone wise, thyroid wise and they're probably not gonna feel that great energy-wise throughout the day or at the gym. Now men, I've seen men be able to do a little bit more fasting, like intermittent fasting, probably a little bit more low carb and still tolerated. Okay. Not all of them, but that's one generalization that I can say it's pretty consistent.
Speaker 3 00:39:51 So in general, men do better with intermittent fasting than
Speaker 2 00:39:55 Females, than women. I don't have women do intermittent fasting at all. Interesting. Because a lot of the times it depends on the time of the month, like their cycle, their menstrual cycle. Like when you're going through certain phases of the month, you actually need to eat a little bit more or you need to rest to kind of depending on where you are. And so I feel like because of the menstrual cycle, fasting's probably not good for most women.
Speaker 3 00:40:15 That's funny. That's kind of the way that Katie and I end up eating anyway even though I don't think that either of us were aware of that. I end up oftentimes not eating anything in the morning and just eating lunch and dinner and she is every two hours she's on it. I mean she's, you know, and that way she won't get hangry and it's great. And she's also a drink gremlin. Mm-hmm I don't know if you know anything about that but she's always got a coffee, she's got a juice, she's got a water. Yeah she's got a, a mixture of all of her supplements. She's got like four, five cups from her any one time. She's like always the drink gremlin.
Speaker 2 00:40:43 I have that too. Yeah. I always have like something like my magnesium or my electrolytes or it's my aminos if I'm going to work out.
Speaker 3 00:40:50 Yeah. Speaking of supplements, what are, okay I guess maybe we could make some more generalizations there. Mm-hmm <affirmative> as far as supplements that pretty much anyone should take. Like the absolute basics. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, what are some of those things that you recommend?
Speaker 2 00:41:02 Probably a fish oil for sure. Especially if it's a medical grade. Fish oil, you don't wanna just go buy it at Walgreens or over the counter. I use all pharmaceutical grade products because they're not regulated by the fda. So they've done studies where you buy a supplement at GNC or at Target. There was actually ground up Christmas tree decorations, <laugh> as an ingredient on PubMed. What it's on PubMed. And I was like this has to be unreal. Like as a filler I guess. Um,
Speaker 3 00:41:28 It's funny you say that cuz I used to manage GNC when I was all throughout college. Mm-hmm <affirmative> <affirmative> and something they would mention is fluff. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Well yeah, you know some of these contain fluff but the standardized products, they don't contain as much fluff. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But some of the other ones they do contain a little fluff. So I guess in retrospect they were talking about ground up Christmas tree decoration. Yeah. It's just wild.
Speaker 2 00:41:47 I couldn't believe it either. <laugh>. Um, but fish whale's a pretty good one. Unless like somebody's on a blood thinner then maybe that's a con contraindication for um, fish oil. I'm trying to think. There's not, I don't really do supplements with people unless I do a test. Yeah, sure. Like vitamin D is pretty common for people to be low in. But again, you don't wanna take it just assuming you're alone. Vitamin D's best to just test and then say okay, do I actually need this? A lot of people benefit from a multivitamin depending on their diet and their levels. Like most of my clients come back low with several micronutrients. So I'm just like here's a really good all-inclusive multivitamins. You have to take 10 different supplements. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:42:23 It's not gonna be like a Centrum silver. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, something like that though.
Speaker 2 00:42:26 Yeah it's gonna be pharmaceutical grade. So I order all my supplements for my clients so that way they can get direct what I can get. So a lot of people are on a multi, a lot of people are on Omegas vitamin D if they're actually low digestive enzymes is another common one. Kind of depending on again, what their diet's, like how frequently they eat, if they, they're on any kind of medications for like GERD or stuff. You don't want to take the digestive enzymes with those. But those really help with like bloating and gas and like as we age we decrease our production of digestive enzymes. So starting around the age of 30, your body just kind of gets lazy with making some of them. So especially like people once they get into their forties and fifties, those can really be helpful. You know, especially cuz you have to increase your protein intake as you age. And digestive enzymes are gonna help you absorb more of the protein that you're eating.
Speaker 3 00:43:13 Say I came to you as a patient, you ran labs, you got me on supplements, you got me eating the right diet. Is it just kinda like, all right, good luck now or is you run programs where I would be coming back to you? What does that look like?
Speaker 2 00:43:24 Yeah, so when I built Profi my big goal was to make this accessible to everyone. And so I kind of allow people to come in wherever they're at and wherever their budget is and we just figure out what works best for them. So I have a lot of people, like my firefighters here locally in Vestavia, they'll come to me like every three months or every six months to get their blood panel, but they don't necessarily need coaching, you know, they kind of know what they're doing. Yeah. But then I have people that come and they maybe have never experienced like nutrition coaching or they don't know how to eat. And so they'll work with me on like a one-on-one setting. And so that's just kind of a month to month thing. Like as long as they need me, they can work with me. I don't like lock people into expensive contracts and charge them stupid amounts of money. I charge them what I think is fair in the industry and then let them kind of work with me until they feel like they can graduate and do it on their own. So my ultimate goal is to get them to learn how to facilitate a healthy lifestyle. And I teach them, I'm educating them, A lot of them are doing like modules that I've built. They can learn as we go through the process and then they can come back to me whenever they need lab redraws or supplement refills.
Speaker 3 00:44:28 So Profi is, is not just you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you've got some other people that are in the organization. So who were some of those people?
Speaker 2 00:44:34 So the first person I hired was my assistant Shelby and she does all the admin stuff for me. So she does all the scheduling, all the lab orders, the communication with the clients and kind of like keeps me sane, you know, helping me with my schedule and stuff. And then Hannah was the next one, Hannah Griffin or Collier. Now she's married. Um, she, I met at Lifetime and she's a personal trainer. She's got her degree in kinesiology from Alabama. She's just an amazing coach. Like I, I know a lot of really good trainers, but Hannah, in my opinion, is one of the best. She's very personable. She cares a lot about her clients and she does a little bit of nutrition like sports nutrition as well as the training. So she's got clients in person that she goes around locally with Birmingham and trains them in person, but
Speaker 3 00:45:19 She, and she lives it, you know, she, she lives it. I mean she's in the gym working on herself a lot too. Like I know, I know a few trainers, not gonna name any names, but it's obvious that they're not focusing on themselves the way mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's like never trust a skinny chef. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:45:33 <laugh>. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, she's a powerlifter, so she's so strong. Um, but she's very good at like doing the virtual training too. So the majority of our clients are all over the us. I mean, I have clients all over the world. I have a Mexican senator, I have a clients in the UK and Saudi Arabia and Canada. So we do have a lot of clients that she facilitates virtually where she programs their workout into an app and basically says like, here's your rep range, here's your sets, here's your weights. And then she meets with them on like a biweekly or a weekly basis, depending on the person. And then just checks in and see how everything's going. Then we have Katrina, she's an rn, I think she's been an RN for almost 20 years now. Um, she's in functional medicine as well, certified functional medicine. And she's going back to school to do her nurse practitioners and mental health. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, with the idea of helping a lot with the veterans since that's kind of become a big niche that we're working in. And um, ultimately with medical cannabis for her too. And then we have John Richards, who's Navy Seal. He was in the SEAL teams for I think 10 or 11 years as a, um, instructor and a breacher.
Speaker 3 00:46:34 Yeah, I bet he's got some stories. Maybe I'll have to get him on. Oh
Speaker 2 00:46:37 Yeah. I mean he's in Virginia Beach, but he could do it for Zoom. Yeah, he's amazing person. He's got a great story. Like when I met him I was like, you're not like what I would think a Navy Seal is like, because you look at him and he's huge and he's tatted and you know, he's like got that like look to him. But he's super emotionally intelligent and intuitive and can really help people. Like he works with NFL guys. Um, he does a lot of like private protection work. Hmm. And then he also works with profi, like we do business coaching together. So he and I will collaborate on a business coaching client and usually there are people like me that wanna do functional medicine or health related services and he, we kind of do calls together and separately where we're helping them through the business, like practical stuff with me.
Speaker 2 00:47:20 But then he's kind of helping with the execution side, like, well what's the emotional blockage? Like, why are you limiting yourself or what kind of belief is in the way of you achieving your goals? He works with Greg Berry. Oh really? Yeah, so Greg's doing coaching with him locally. So yeah, he does that. He does the private protection work. So one of our partners that I have is a bespoke luxury travel company. So they have clients that'll pay like $6 million for their one week vacation. And included in that cost is an Navy Seal that goes overseas with you, is like private protection. And so that's who I was actually in Tampa with a few weeks ago, was that luxury travel company. And we're working with like a three letter agency and special operators to build that wearable device. And I was talking about,
Speaker 3 00:48:05 And what's the wearable device?
Speaker 2 00:48:07 So it's kind of like gonna be an or ring a Garmin, a VO two max, a glucose monitor, all of those things in one. Mm. And so it's gonna be about the size of your finger. We haven't decided if it would be like on the arm or where we're gonna put it yet. Um, they're doing beta testing. There's actually cameras kind of the size of your ring light and the cameras are AI intelligent cameras. And so we can detect like a change of velocity up to a 10th of a second. So like say you're at a football game and you wanna know how your favorite player is doing exertion wise or effort wise or his heart rate or his glucose, then eventually you'll be able to hopefully see all this stuff and like use it.
Speaker 3 00:48:46 So you can see all that from afar.
Speaker 2 00:48:48 Yeah, like, like you could have an iPad or like whatever software. Yeah. Like the coach could have it or eventually maybe it'd be like consumer focused too.
Speaker 3 00:48:55 That'll be a game changer for fantasy football. That's
Speaker 2 00:48:57 What I'm thinking. Like you'll be able to bet like crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:49:00 Wow. I mean, what else could that be used for? It could be used for a lot.
Speaker 2 00:49:03 So we've, we're gonna use it in sports teams. We're also gonna use it with our clients at Pro Fit and use it for like, you know, like Grip strength and VO two max are two one of the most important markers for longevity. So we're gonna use it for things like that. So with our clients, I kinda wanna keep it that way for a little while and then eventually let other providers use it too. We hope to use it with government agencies. You know, the three letter agency that's helping us has probably got some personal, I'm sure they do investments in that. And then maybe even like the SEAL teams and the elite teams like that would use it for training purposes. I mean, it would really help them prevent injuries and maybe help the guys before they get to that RDO stage of where they're really gonna break down and have problems, maybe detect that early.
Speaker 3 00:49:44 That could also be used for maybe like drunk driving detection and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. It feels like the implications of that could be really far reaching.
Speaker 2 00:49:52 Yeah. Yeah. Cuz then, I mean you, everybody has a device. Like this is a device, you know, it's one of those things where I think a lot of people that are in that kind of world of biohacking would really love to know that information. And we, we might make it direct to consumer at some point, but that's kind of like later on I'd rather sell it to the big teams first. You
Speaker 3 00:50:09 Know? Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 00:50:10 Oh, there's one more person. My dad, he is the MD on staff and so he does all the hormone replacement thyroid medications and then the weight loss and peptides. Alabama Board of Pharmacy likes to make things very difficult for P peptides in this state.
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Speaker 3 00:51:46 As a moxie member myself, I can tell you that I choose to support other businesses that also accept moxie. In fact, I've discovered some of my very favorite restaurants, healthcare practitioners and home and auto service businesses through Moxie. I'm talking soho, social heavenly donuts, nothing but cakes, just to name a few. Go to moxie birmingham.com. That's M O X E Y B H A m.com to learn more. Moxie, it's the smarter way to barter. All right, now let's jump back into today's episode of the Discover Birmingham podcast and highlight the best parts of our awesome city. But something that you mentioned earlier that I wanted to talk about, I think it might be kind of interesting for people to learn a little bit about Weston a Price mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that diet and everything. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, do you remember the kind of the story with him?
Speaker 2 00:52:45 Yeah, so he was a dentist initially and he traveled all over the world studying like facial structure and like how diet affects like their overall health. And he found the people that consumed like animal products, raw milk, fermented foods, had like a different bone structure which overall led to better health. Like have you ever heard the term like a mouth breather? Yeah. And you see like their, their chins kind of sunken in and they don't really have a jaw line. Yeah. It's because they're breathing through their mouth and like structurally your body is made for you to breathe your nose. And so he found that people had like less vitamin deficiencies and they were overall healthier if they were eating full fat animal products, healthy proteins and fermented foods. So the diet's kind of based a lot around like making your own keifer sauerkraut. When I was making bread, I would like buy the wheat kernels organic and I would put them in a big jar and I would sprout them on the counter. Oh, interesting. So you sprout them for like two weeks. They come with little sprouts and then once they've done that you dry them out and then I would ground them into flour and then make flour from that bread. So it's like a lot of the bad parts of wheat are kind of fermented out through that process.
Speaker 3 00:53:51 That kinda reminds me, I mean that's obviously next level. Mm-hmm. But I think one maybe practical way that people could, could eat healthier wheat if they don't want to do all that would be maybe like iron corn flour. You familiar with that?
Speaker 2 00:54:02 Yeah. Or like the Ezekiel bread is sprouted. Yeah. If you get at the um, like whole foods in the freezer section. But I'm pretty gluten free now. Mm-hmm. Just because of my thyroid condition. And nowadays we have access to all that stuff pretty easily. But yeah, the fermented products are really great for gut health and I think that was a big emphasis with West a price too. But that really helped me with my pregnancy and breastfeeding. Like I never had any health problems, you know, breastfeeding, I never had trouble with supply or anything like that, so, and Ainsley's like never really been sick. Like she had covid, but it was like a cold, you know? Yeah. But she hasn't had really any health issues at all. And I think a lot of it was because she was smashing sauerkraut into her hair when she was like three months old or no, she was like nine months old I guess.
Speaker 3 00:54:46 You know, you mentioned raw milk, that's another one. So that's illegal. Right? Right. You know, it's legal for pet consumption. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But you know, if you wanna, if you wanted to wanna to Yeah. Make sure your pet is drinking something healthy, you could try it a little bit yourself. Right? Yeah. But it's so interesting that they pasteurize and homogenize store-bought milk. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the pasteurization process while, no, it doesn't heat it up to boiling, it does heat it up enough to kill the enzymes. Right. So when you're drinking store-bought milk, you're drinking milk that contains dead enzymes. It's like
Speaker 2 00:55:18 Mucus,
Speaker 3 00:55:18 It's like mucus and it, it stimulates mucus in your body and then you have to process all these dead enzymes and that ends up causing, you know, gastric distress. Mm-hmm. And that's why some people think they're lactose intolerant. Is that really nobody should be drinking store bought milk cuz it's a dead substance. But raw cow's milk that hasn't been pasteurized is almost like drinking yogurt. Oh yeah. You know, it ta but it tastes just like milk, but the enzymes are alive so it's not gonna cause that same, those same gastric issues. So that's really important to know.
Speaker 2 00:55:47 Yeah. Yeah. I mean we'd get raw milk from the Amish in Kentucky and I would take like the fat off the top and I'd make butter. So I would just put it in a blender with some salt and it would be butter. It was so good. Yeah. But then I would take the, the raw milk and I would make keefer.
Speaker 3 00:56:00 But there is a farm in Alabaster called Hallelujah acres. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> where, and of course you know, you're only getting it for pet consumption. Right. But they do sell raw cows milk for uh, for your pet. So you can get raw cows milk, you can reach out to hallelujah acres through, I think they have a Facebook page, maybe a website and there's a wait list. Yeah. You have to get on a wait list. But they just got two new cows so they're pumping out an extra eight gallons a week. Yeah. So we go every Saturday, pick up a gallon and and give that to Henry. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:56:29 I bet he
Speaker 3 00:56:29 Loves that. Oh, he loves it. Yeah. Yeah. He's
Speaker 2 00:56:31 Like, this is the best day
Speaker 3 00:56:32 Ever. Yeah. He drinks it every night before bed.
Speaker 2 00:56:34 That's why he's so strong.
Speaker 3 00:56:35 Exactly. <laugh>, you know, we've been introducing food to Charlotte recently. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Oh my gosh, that is so fun to watch. It's so, so far we've introduced sweet potatoes, zucchini, avocados and pickles. And the pickles.
Speaker 2 00:56:51 I saw that video. That was funny. That was hilarious.
Speaker 3 00:56:53 Yes. She had the facial expressions that I thought she might, you know, like whenever babies try. So the sour, it's pure comedy. Oh yeah. But she just kept going back for more. She liked it, but it would just give her that sour face. It was really, really funny.
Speaker 2 00:57:06 It's really interesting to watch Ainsley. I think her first food at one year was she had an egg yolk that was her first one. Hard bowl egg yolk. And then I think it was blueberries, like smashed up blueberries and then sauerkraut and she was drinking bone broth out of her sippy cup.
Speaker 3 00:57:21 Nice <laugh>. We actually, we did try scrambled eggs and she really likes eggs. Yeah. Big fan.
Speaker 2 00:57:27 Yeah. I mean it's pretty, pretty easy to tolerate, you know? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 00:57:31 <affirmative>, it seems like some babies have, you know, so many allergies to foods that are, that are just common. You have any thoughts on what that might be? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:57:38 <affirmative>
Speaker 3 00:57:39 <laugh>. If you don't wanna go into that, we don't ask
Speaker 2 00:57:42 To. It's fine. It's a loaded question. Um, I think there's a few factors and I don't wanna offend anyone from my answer, but I think, I think whether or not you have a vaginal birth or cesarean makes a big difference because the gut microbiome is given to the baby. If you do a vaginal birth, I think vaccines play a big role. Not necessarily that I think vaccines are bad or that you know they're causing disease. I just think that the dosages that they're given in are not good. Like there's too much and our mercury levels, even as mothers are higher now than they've ever been. And so then you kind of add that mercury burden at a young age. I think that contributes to a lot of it and making the babies and kids too clean. Like we've gotten, especially since Covid to where everybody's doing antibacterial soaps all the time and like cleaning the babies all the time. They need bacteria. They need to touch the dirt. They, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:58:35 You can't live in a bubble or else your immune system won't develop.
Speaker 2 00:58:38 Yeah. Like I said, Ainsley never gets sick, but she's also outside playing all the time. I never restricted her from being outside. I didn't clean her with antibacterial soaps all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:58:48 Bathing her in hand sanitizer
Speaker 2 00:58:49 Or So yeah. And I did a lot different strategy when it came to vaccines than most parents do.
Speaker 3 00:58:53 Let's shift gears just to kind of Birmingham in general mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what are some healthyish restaurants or at least restaurants where you can find healthy options that you could recommend to people?
Speaker 2 00:59:03 I think one of my favorites is probably Ellie's Jerusalem Grill. Yep. Um, when I want something in a pinch because his chicken is organic and I think his beef might be too mm-hmm. <affirmative> and he like slow cooks it.
Speaker 3 00:59:14 Um, and they use iron corn flour like I was talking
Speaker 2 00:59:16 About. Yeah. And he uses Bosma rice as one of the big carbs and that's one of the lower glycemic rices. It's healthier for you than brown rice.
Speaker 3 00:59:24 Yeah. One thing that I learned about white rice and white potatoes is the, you know, they call it the potato hack mm-hmm. <affirmative> where if you, uh, you know, you cook it and then you let it get cold mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the cooling process turns it from a starch to more of a, uh, prebiotic. Yep. So that feeds the healthy bacteria in your gut and you don't have to eat it while it's cold, but you need to let it get cold and then you can reheat it. Yep. And then that cooling process, whatever, for whatever reason, it turns white potatoes and white rice into a healthier, lower glycemic carbohydrate. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:59:56 It makes it more of a resistant starch. That's
Speaker 3 00:59:58 It. Resistant starch.
Speaker 2 00:59:59 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that feeds the good gut bacteria. And I think a part of it is similar to like a fermentation process where it just breaks it down a little bit to let it cool back down. Mm. But yeah. Um, Ellie's Urban Cookhouse is decent. Like you can always get like a very good salad. They have there like the chicken feasts where it's like chicken salad and rice eating Out wise, I love El Barrio. I don't know what oils they use, but they're so good. So good. Any kind of steakhouse is usually pretty safe because if you just tell them like, I don't want my steak cooked in oil, I want it cooked in butter, they're pretty consistent with that. So I always try to get like my protein, my veggies, and then if I am working out that day, I'll do carbs. And the fats are pretty easy. You can just put butter on your veggies if you're out to eat. Have you been to Kava yet?
Speaker 3 01:00:42 Where's
Speaker 2 01:00:42 That? I don't know. I've ordered it. I haven't been there.
Speaker 3 01:00:45 No, haven't. What
Speaker 2 01:00:45 Is it? It's like kind of a Mediterranean type thing. So like you can build your own bowl and so there's like a Greek salad bowl and I'll add a bunch of more veggies and like some protein, some avocado. So I like stuff like that too. Nice.
Speaker 3 01:00:58 Have you tried Joyful Foods? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, joyful Foods. Oh my gosh. They have so many good desserts, but it's all gluten free, all dairy free. It's all made with all almond flour and it's all super clean. They also have to go meals, so they have, you know, food. They specialize in cakes and cupcakes and cookies and all my favorite things. Yeah. So that's been a go-to. Actually Katie's brother worked there for a while, so that was a great hookup. There you go. Yeah. Discount refrigerator stayed full of,
Speaker 2 01:01:26 That'd be dangerous for me. Yeah, totally. I have sweets. I don't eat them very much, but, but yeah. You have a sweet tooth. Oh yeah. Yeah. I love dark chocolate, so that's usually what I stick to. And then I make this little like protein yogurt thing when I really want something sweet.
Speaker 3 01:01:37 What's that recipe?
Speaker 2 01:01:38 So I use, um, the Siggis mm-hmm. The Icelandic yogurt that's got like 20 grams of protein and then I'll add a scoop of protein into it. So that's like 40 grams of protein at that point. And then have you ever seen those Ste Mexican chocolate cookies? Yeah, I like crumble a one or two of those over the top. It's
Speaker 3 01:01:55 That sounds real good.
Speaker 2 01:01:56 It's pretty good. It's like 40 grams of protein
Speaker 3 01:01:59 Solid. Yeah. I'll have to share that one with Katie. And then another go-to Healthier restaurant would be, um, for just like a lunch spot me crazy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> kill Me Crazy in Homewood. Yep. It's good. They have, they have healthier wraps and they have, they make juices and they have, they have pretty good stuff. And there's a clean juice in Mountain Brook, which is the only certified organic restaurant in the state I think. Oh wow. Portions are small and you'll pay, you know, a thousand dollars for it, but it's pretty good. <laugh>
Speaker 2 01:02:28 Real and Rosemary is really good too.
Speaker 3 01:02:29 That's another good one. Yeah,
Speaker 2 01:02:31 They're good. Um, taco Mama, if you want Mexican, you can order like a build drone salad and that's pretty good. I don't know about the meat quality obviously, but if you're just trying to eat out,
Speaker 3 01:02:40 It's pretty good. Their meat quality, because I went to a, a small business meetup in, uh, at Aldridge Gardens mm-hmm. <affirmative> over last weekend. And the people speaking were the owners of Taco Mama Corporation. They have like 25, uh, locations now. They're having them in Athens, Georgia, but they were talking about, you know, how they source their meat and stuff and they do a pretty good job with it. I was happy to hear that. Yeah. Cause Taco Mama is a favorite.
Speaker 2 01:03:02 Oh man. It's so good. Yes.
Speaker 3 01:03:04 And something I think, you know, I used to always tell my patients that, you know, you can't expect perfection mm-hmm. <affirmative> with your diet. Uh, and I think that it's, it's been kind of a slippery slope for me over time. I think by now I'm down to like 80 20 <laugh>. Yeah. 80 20 healthy. Yeah. Uh, it used to be 90 10 at one point it was probably, you know, almost, um, what do they call it, orthorexic, where you're eating like too healthy. I've there too, like bringing my own foods to birthday parties and stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's no fun. That's just not sustainable and it's not a fun way to live and people give you funny looks. So I, I think by now I'm about 80 20 and that's a sustainable
Speaker 2 01:03:37 Number for me. Yeah. Cause your mental health matters too, you know? Absolutely. You know, and now that you're a parent, like priorities are a little bit different than when you could have just done everything when you're married too. I mean, you have a wife, like that's that a whole different change of when you're a single guy and you can just meal prep one day out the week.
Speaker 3 01:03:52 Absolutely. But Katie's the healthy one out of us now. Yeah, she is. Um, I mean, she's on it so she, I think you'd be proud of her. She, um, you know, it's pretty much all gluten free for her. She's not a big dairy person and she's just all grass fed. So our dinner every night pretty much consists of, uh, a meat, broccoli, asparagus, maybe avocado, uh, every now and then, maybe like a bean or something like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but it's always just pretty much that and it's, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 01:04:19 Yeah. That's what I pretty much do too. Um, it's easy to make. It just can pretty basic and then just change the flavor profile a little bit.
Speaker 3 01:04:26 That's, that's exactly right. I have the same, you know, eight or 10 staples and just kinda have 'em in different, uh, different combinations. Kinda like Mexican food, you know? Yeah. There's like Mexican food is really just what, five core ingredients all in different combinations.
Speaker 2 01:04:38 Yeah. Like you can make taco bowls instead of tacos. Exactly. Pretty easy.
Speaker 3 01:04:42 Do you know Chewy?
Speaker 2 01:04:43 I do. Yeah. I, I met him through Ryan Deo at, at the gym.
Speaker 3 01:04:46 That's right. Yeah. I had Chewy on recently. He's such a good guy, but he um, have you ever been to Uno's Tacos? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or Aios?
Speaker 2 01:04:53 I've been to both, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:04:56 He's, he is opened up some good spots around
Speaker 2 01:04:57 Here. He opened up a coffee shop too recently. That's right. Or he is working on it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:05:01 In Edgewood honest Coffee roasters and also I think they're having a location downtown. Are you crush? Are you a big coffee drinker?
Speaker 2 01:05:09 Uh, I mean I will drink it occasionally. I don't have it every day. Um, I really like to make it at home as much as I can, just cuz of the mold content. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but I'll have Starbucks if I want it occasionally. It's just kind of like, pick and choose your poison, you know, like 80 20 is pretty reasonable for most people and if I feel like I wanna have a Starbucks, I'll have a Starbucks, I just am more cautious about what I put in it and I just kind of change the ingredients. Yeah,
Speaker 3 01:05:33 Definitely. I, uh, I definitely am not a coffee connoisseur, but what I have learned more recently is that that coffee shops that roast their own beans, I can notice a difference in how good the coffee is. So I've got two favorites there. Baba Java right here in Hoover. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and June Coffee downtown. Have you tried that place? I haven't have to try it. It's a little bit newer, but they have really excellent cup of coffee there and I learned that it's because they roast their own beans and, um, I have a love hate relationship with coffee. I would say that I do better when I don't drink it every day. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I've gone, so it's almost like all or nothing for me. Yeah. Either I'm not gonna drink it at all or I'm gonna drink it every day, but I don't go overboard. It's not like I'm having cup after cup mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but I'm a slow coffee, a slow caffeine metabolizer, so it hits me hard and it'll Yeah. You know? What about you?
Speaker 2 01:06:20 You have, you crash afterwards?
Speaker 3 01:06:22 Yeah, absolutely. And what it does for me is that, you know, it gives you a good dopamine rush <affirmative> for a few hours, but then you don't just go back down to baseline, you go down below baseline. Right. So then you're looking for other things to get you just back up to baseline and feeling normal again. So that's where my sweet tooth comes in. Yeah. I know there's a direct correlation between my coffee intake and the amount of sugar that I want.
Speaker 2 01:06:44 Yep. When I did coffee f you know, more regularly, I always did it in a protein shake. Mm. So I would do like the cold brew as like part of the base and then I would do like coconut milk, couple scoops of protein and then collagen and then like one of those like flavored coffee creamers that are like almond milk or something. Yeah. Like a nut nut pod. I think it's what it's called. They don't have very much sugar at all, like couple grams per serving and that tasted really good to me.
Speaker 3 01:07:07 That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. I think also taking an l thine with coffee mm-hmm. <affirmative> is supposed to help kind of balance out that caffeine.
Speaker 2 01:07:15 Yeah. The nootropic world is really interesting.
Speaker 3 01:07:17 Yeah. Do you dabble in that
Speaker 2 01:07:18 Much? I do. I'm really into the science on psychedelics as well right now. It's very interesting to me since I deal with a lot of PTSD patients with the veteran community, what microdosing and psilocybin can do for ptsd. Especially since I have PTSD myself. But I have a good friend out in Austin, Texas, and she is an educator as well as she has a lab where they produce it and she's the one that facilitates a lot of the care with the veterans with, you know, things like psilocybin.
Speaker 3 01:07:45 I saw, uh, Harrison's clinic, Southern Ketamine mm-hmm. <affirmative> post an article that Elon Musk says that he micro doses ketamine.
Speaker 2 01:07:53 Yeah. A lot of people do that for depression and PTSD too. So I've talked to Harrison about doing like ketamine treatments for some of the veterans too. And, um, a lot of veterans are doing like IV through a doctor, obviously I don't suggest getting it off the streets. Right, right. Um, but going to a facility like Harrison's is really beneficial for people with ts D or, um, you know, brain injuries and, and chronic pain. Like there's a lot you can do with ketamine. I don't know as much about that as I do psilocybin, but I know there's a lot of research that supports for depression and ptsd. Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:08:26 So if someone was listening to this episode and they, you know, something might have resonated with them, whether it be diabetes or Hashimoto's, thyroid issues, weight loss, anything like that, how can they find you and how can they maybe get in with Profi?
Speaker 2 01:08:39 Yeah, so my Instagram is Kelsey, k e l s e y, Kaler, K O E H L E r. And in my bio on Instagram, they can schedule a free consult. So I offer free consults to anyone coming in. And on that call we just kind of go over their symptoms, their goals, what they're looking to achieve. And then I usually suggest a lab test for them kind of to get them started and figure out what's going on that. Or they can find our website@profithpm.com and they can also book a free consult on the website too.
Speaker 3 01:09:07 Very nice. I will link to all of those in the show notes. Awesome. Well, Kelsey, uh, is there anything else you wanna go over?
Speaker 2 01:09:14 No, I think we covered a lot <laugh>. I
Speaker 3 01:09:15 Think so too. Yeah. It's been, uh, it's almost like drinking out of a fire hose sometimes, but, uh, yeah, I think it's really valuable and important information that you're not just gonna get from your average doctor. So I th thank you for coming on and sharing that with people and we'll have to do it again.
Speaker 2 01:09:28 Absolutely. Thank you for having me. And it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 01:09:44 No, this the.
