Gut Health Reset: When Normal Labs Hide Real Problems

If your doctor says your labs are “normal” but you still feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, foggy, or stuck in a cycle of headaches and hormone chaos, you are not alone and you are not imagining it. We sit down with Colleen, a clinical therapist who shifted into functional nutrition and gut health work after her own long health mystery, to talk about what gets missed when care only looks for a diagnosis instead of asking what systems are struggling beneath the surface. 

Colleen shares her story from an early endometriosis diagnosis and years of worsening symptoms to a frightening round of “rule-out” labels that still produced no clear answers. Then a simple nutrition change, removing gluten for two weeks, flips on a light. That moment launches a deeper look at gut health and brain health, including how digestion, inflammation, nutrient absorption, and neurotransmitters can shape energy, mood, focus, and daily comfort. We also get honest about the ways women’s health is often minimized, why we normalize painful periods and miserable menopause, and how research gaps can lead to one-size-fits-all advice that does not work for many women. 

We dig into practical next steps: how to advocate for deeper labs, why chronic issues can require a broader view than standard testing, and why minerals matter as much as macros. Colleen explains HTMA hair tissue mineral analysis as a three-month mineral snapshot, and we close with simple habits you can start today like sitting down to eat, chewing thoroughly, and hydrating smarter with electrolytes. She also mentions a limited-time discount on her HTMA plus session for July and August. 

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Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day! 
In Health, 

Shelly

Transcript

Welcome And Wellness Overwhelm

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We are a culture that very much looks at the disease model. And so that's what we're trained to. Well, it's not bad enough. And my question is, what is bad enough?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing? What foods you should or should not be eating? How to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. To share tips, education, and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you. To bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness, and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will, we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives full of energy, happiness, and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.

Why Gut Health Affects The Brain

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Hi, my friends. Welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I will be your host. And I'm excited to bring my guest to all of you. She is a clinical therapist, and her focus is on nutrition and gut health. So we are going to dive in to the important topic of gut health, brain health. I cannot wait. She is also the owner of Mindfully Nourished Wellness. So welcome, Colleen. Thank you. So great to have you again. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And, you know, I just know this is such a pertinent topic nowadays, and it just has become so much more talked about as far as the importance of the health of our gut. And so I'm excited to dive into this. And I know you have a lot of great knowledge in the area to share with all of the listeners. But you had a very kind of tumultuous, I want to say, experience when you were younger with your health, right? Yeah. Kind of led you to what you're doing today.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah. So do you want to share a little bit of that with our listeners?

Endometriosis And A Pill-Only Plan

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, I would love to. So yeah, my um, I mean, I could guess that my health history goes back to just even a baby, but um, I was diagnosed with endometriosis at around like 13, 14 years old. And the only option that I was given was the birth control pill. Um, and I remember very clearly sitting in the doctor's office and just sharing the severity of pain um that I was experiencing missing school for a week every single month, and the doctors being like, yeah, this is completely abnormal for your age. And what we want to do is fix the hormones, right? And the only way we can do that is to go on the pill. And she explained to us that if I didn't go on the pill, that there was a high chance that I would never be able to have children. So I was 14 years old, sitting in the gynecologist's office, you know, I've got like the annoying um paper over me, right? And my mom's there and we're having this conversation. It's basically like, do you want to have kids or do you not? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm 14. No, I don't want to have kids. Um, and at the same time, my mom feeling like I don't want to put my 14-year-old on birth control. No one asked about diet, no one asked about anything really, other than, okay, your cycles, cycles are a mess. You're in a lot of pain. Let's just give you the birth control pill. And also, no one told me any of the side effects. I was given literally no information. And I was probably in my 20s before I ever researched that part myself. And I didn't realize how severe those side effects are. Um, fast forward, you know, to college, and my health had pretty significantly declined from the age of 14 all the way through college. Um, I was experiencing really kind of bizarre joint pain to the point like I my knees were swelling. I played a lot of sports as a kid. So they the doc all of the doctors I saw just sort of were like, oh, well, you play a lot of sports, and that's what's happening. At 16, 17 years old, I was told that I was gonna need a knee replacement by the time I was 30. I was told that I have arthritis. Just things that I feel like I look back and I'm like, why did no one question that arthritis in a teenager is not a normal thing? Um and I became extremely exhausted as I got into my 20s. My last couple of years of college were unbearable. It was very challenging to get up for classes, to make it through the day, you know, and then it was let's go out, let's go do these, you know, go to the bar, go to the party, all of these things. And I couldn't. I just couldn't. And there were so many weekends that I ended up going home because I just didn't even want to be in that environment anymore. I was so exhausted, so drained. I was battling things like gut issues and eczema, migraines, um, brain fog, all kinds of stuff. And every single doctor that I went to said, well, we can run these labs, we can do these things. It's probably X, right? And then they would run the labs, do the things, and it would come back. Nope, everything's normal, which is great. But it really left me very clueless. Um, and it got to the point there was one New Year's Eve where my now husband, we were dating at the time, we had done one of these like hotel packages where it's like they have some radio station come in and they do this big party, and we had done it with a bunch of our friends, and then it's dinner and all include everything's all inclusive, right? And I woke up that morning with a fever and I had this massively swollen lymph node lymph node. And then I started noticing that I had all these lymph nodes that were swollen. Um, of course, I was in my 20s, so I was like, meh, whatever, right? We're still gonna go. And I couldn't go. We ended up at the hotel, and I was in so much pain and probably had, you know, when we tested my temperature the next day when we went home, it was around 103, 104. So it was probably around 104 plus at that time. Um, went to the doctors and they were like, Yeah, we'll run some blood work again. Couldn't figure anything out. That lymph node stayed swollen. They and the then diagnosis, now I'd already been told it's probably a brain tumor. Oh, it's not. It's probably MS. Oh, never mind, it's not. Maybe it's lupus, never mind, it's not. So at this point, they're like, well, we've ruled out everything else. Now you have swollen lymph nodes. This is probably some form of cancer. Okay, so what do we do from there? We did the biopsy, and I remember distinctly telling my mom, if it comes back and it's cancer, I'm not fighting this. I can't. I'm spent. I've been doing this for about 10 years already. I cannot do any more. And um we went to the oncologist's office and he said, Great news, it's not cancer. And I sobbed. And he was like, Okay, this isn't the response I typically get when I tell people they don't have cancer. And um I said, I just don't understand. I don't know what I don't know where to go from here. And this was back when now I'm getting into the point where I'm not on my parents' insurance anymore. I'm still like in that college grad school time, so I didn't really have insurance for a while. But I spent the next probably five years trying to figure out what was wrong. Um, I was in my mid-20s when I would think I was 26 or 20, mid to late 20s, 26, 27, maybe when I finally had somebody say, Hey, I think there's a diet connection here.

Years Of Symptoms With No Answers

SPEAKER_00 8:50

You should cut out gluten. And I was like, This is the strangest thing I've ever heard. This word gluten, like, what is it? Mind you, my diet, I was a vegetarian. Um, my diet was pretty much breads, pastas, right? So this really freaked me out because I thought, how am I gonna, what am I gonna eat, right? Um, so I said, fine, I'll give it a try for two weeks. And in those two weeks, my it was like a light bulb went on. My migraines went away. Um, my energy started to come back, the brain fog started lifting. Um, I was also diagnosed with ADHD in fourth grade. So I had been taking um different forms of like Ritalin and Adderall and different things like that for years. I didn't need that anymore. So all of these different prescriptions that I was taking, I suddenly didn't need anymore. And now, mind you, two weeks sounds like a miracle, and it was, but there was a lot of work that had to be done after that. But it really opened my eyes to there's a whole different world out there that I'm not getting answers. And I nobody's asked me about diet, nobody's asked me about sleep, nobody's asked me about stress, movement, nothing. And I was just told, your body's falling apart and you're in your 20s, and maybe you'll make it till you're 30. Who knows? So that I kind of, you know, it opened up like a rabbit hole for me, and I just started researching. Um, and I was working as a licensed clinical social worker in a hospital, and I started looking at nutrition programs, and I made a decision that I need to switch careers because while I I love clinical therapy, I love um helping people in that aspect, there was so much more that I was never taught, and I was seeing in the hospital setting with patients where they were experiencing the same thing I was. They were constantly coming in or they were constantly seeing the doctors, and they were just stuck. And so I went back to school for nutrition, um, study that for a year, went on to dive deeper in a different nutrition program where I learned clinical uh functional labs that I then introduced into care with clients, and it was just it was like everything kind of took off from there. Um that allowed me to test myself at a deeper level and get answers to really hone in on the remaining symptoms that I was still experiencing that completely transformed my life. Um and and that's what I do now. I work with people who really feel stuck. They're getting dismissed by their provider, they're being told everything is normal, but they still feel like trash. And um, then we do some testing and figure out well, there's a reason it's not normal to feel like garbage. So that sort of sums it all up.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

It's it's so amazing. I mean, I'm just in awe, seriously listening to you share because all that you went through, I can't even fathom, especially at such a young age, to be sitting there in that doctor's office and well, you might not be able to have children someday. And here you are, like you say, 14 years old. Well, what is what? Like it and also I I like to think that it's a little different now when a doctor might be prescribing birth control pills to be talking about the potential side effects. I don't know, but that's alarming in itself. Yeah, and then it's just the awe of going, oh my gosh, something maybe not so simple. I don't want to make it seem like it's easy, but shifting something in your nutrition literally make all the difference in the world. I mean, that's just so amazing to me. And I just I don't know, Colleen, I just give you so much credit for what you like. I just feel like, oh my God, I want to give your like younger self a big hug and just like everything that you went through. And I just I love hearing you share though, because I think that this is so critical for listeners to hear this story for anyone out there who might be experiencing the same. And I can't tell you how many people I hear, especially when it comes to like hormones more in that area and menopause and such being dismissed by their doctors. I mean, it's and honest to God, I know it's not to bash doctors, like there's so many incredible ones out there. And I have a very fortunate, you know, I have a functional practitioner who is amazing. However, if there's such a theme, an underlying theme. Yeah. And I don't know how you feel, but I almost feel like it's because the lack of knowledge. They just don't know. So they just kind of, oh, you're fine, rather than let's dig deeper and see what's going on. Do you feel like that's part of it?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Absolutely. Yeah. And I've had, you know, uh, we're really lucky too, where the the physicians that we have for our family will say, um, you know, that's outside my expertise. I don't know the answer because I wasn't taught that. And it's such a powerful thing to say because instead of saying everything's fine, it's yeah, maybe there's a connection there. I just don't know it because I wasn't taught that. And a lot of physicians don't say that. And that's unfortunate. And I've had, you know, to really advocate for some of my clients to say, you're you're running an iron panel, but you're only running ferritin and total iron and saturation. But there's all these other things that contribute to whether or not iron's getting utilized. So this person that's experiencing fatigue and exhaustion and hormone issues, can we look at something that's a little bit different? And I've had people say there's no point. And I'm like, okay. So my client will pay out of pocket for those labs because their doctor refuses to order it, and we get them, and it's like glaringly obvious

Cutting Gluten And Rapid Relief

SPEAKER_00 14:50

that their iron is not being utilized properly throughout the body. Same with the stool test, you know, the stool test that I run isn't covered by insurance. Doctors won't order it. Um, and so, you know, I tell people when I'm going through them, like this first page of the four pages of the stool test that I that you get results on, this first page is what you're gonna get when you go to the doctor's office. They're looking at things like Salmonella, E. coli, you know, things that are more acute. But when we're looking at chronic issues, we want to see a chronic picture, right? And so, and they just aren't taught this. And they don't get nutrition training in school. Maybe they'll get in about an hour. Um, they're not taught to look, you know, aside from pharmaceuticals can solve this problem. They're not really looking for something outside of the disease box, which again, if I get in a car accident, I want to go to the ER, I want somebody to take care of me, right? But growing up, what I needed was a me to say, let's take a deeper look. And that's really where I'm at. Like if there's something very serious, please go to the hospital, doctor to OR. Right. But if you're getting dismissed, it's it's time to take a deeper look. And a lot of times we say, well, you know, it's expensive. I can't do that. But I had somebody recently come to me and said, I've spent the last five years going from doctor to doctor to doctor. I've had lab tests, CTs, endoscopies, colonoscopies. I've spent $10,000 on co-pays and deductibles and all of this stuff. And she's like, I just wish I had started with you because I would have saved myself thousands and thousands of dollars. And that's the key thing that we forget is even though something's covered by insurance, it's not necessarily free.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

That's such a valid point. Like, and I'm so I'm in it like right now. I was literally on the phone with my insurance company a couple days ago to see about some coverage of some some other testing I want to have done and some blood work, some hormone work. And I thought, um, and you're you're so correct. You're like spot on on that because we think, oh, yay, it's covered under insurance, but it doesn't mean it's free, you know. And you know, my nurse practitioner was very upfront because when we were talking about having this done last week, she says, I don't know. I'm gonna let you know, I don't know what insurance covers. I don't know how much they cover. And it turned out they could like covered it, like it was like a minimal charge for me, but still not free, right? Right. And I also feel like for what we do in the in our profession, right, we are more inclined to dig deeper and research more than the average person. So I keep thinking, how, and this is a reason why we were doing this having this conversation, to educate you know, people to be proactive and advocate for yourself and your health because nobody else is gonna do it. And even well-intentioned doctors or nurse practitioners, there might be something more that you're going, okay, something I need something more tested, or something doesn't feel quite right. And then even in a case where things might feel right, you might go, yeah, but I I really want to have this, this, and that checked. And being able, being able to go to your doctor or primary care provider and ask for those things and have them done, I think is wonderful, but not everybody is going to be forward to head with with let's find out what's happening here and to dig deeper, right? And so I think it's such a gosh, it's it's it's just kind of a crime where we just have been taught to accept what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Exactly. Well, and like what you're saying with hormones too. I mean we are taught from an early age, you get your period, it's gonna suck, you're gonna have cramps, it's gonna be awful, you're gonna grow up and you're gonna then go into menopause, and that's gonna be awful, you're gonna have hot flashes, and you're gonna be crabby and you're gonna be crying randomly, and your hair is gonna fall out, and all of these different things. And what we are doing is we're normalizing something that's not normal. It is not normal to have awful periods, but that was normalized for me where I was like, Well, this is just what it is. But then when I fixed the underlying cause, there's so many times where I'm like, Oh, got my period today, didn't even know it was coming. Have sometimes I'll forget, right? I'll be two, three days in, and I'm like, oh, right, that's that's a thing that's happening today. Um, because we shouldn't know, we shouldn't have our body screaming at us. It should just be this is the next stage of our cycle, right? We're just moving through these things. And then the same thing goes for parametopause. I hear so many women, you know, I the only option is HRT. Well, it's un, it's definitely an option, it's one option, but the bigger question is why are we seeing all of these symptoms for something that is a natural transition, right? But the the things that we need to see in place, like our adrenals take over. I tell women this all the time: like when you go into menopause, your adrenals are taking over hormone production. Well, I thought all of our hormones stopped. Nope, they're still there. They are still there, there's just a different organ because we don't need as much of it. But, you know, the the lower belly fat that so many post-menopausal women experience that are they're like, I'm doing the crunches, I'm doing the running, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Well, that is something that

From Therapist To Functional Nutrition

SPEAKER_00 20:40

we want to take take into account into consideration before we go into menopause. Because if your adrenals are tapped and your ovaries stop working, something's got to pick it, pick up the slack there. And your body is really smart, and it will lay that fat tissue right over your ovaries and use that as another hormone producer. So, but nobody teaches this, right? Like, I feel like sometimes I say this to women and they think I'm psychotic, but it's we know this, and why our OBGYNs aren't sharing this information, maybe they're not taught this. I don't know. I feel like they should be. But there are reasons, and hormone replacement therapy is one, it's a great option if that's kind of where it leads you, and there's no shame in that, but it shouldn't be our first choice, and that drives me bananas.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Well, and I think two things, you know, in response to your talking about going through all these symptoms is not normal. What is normal are these phases that we go through. That part's normal, right? Right. It shouldn't be a struggle or be treacherous going through it. It's it is a part of our cycle, is a part of the female body, but there are ways to go through it and not have to go through all of These symptoms, and that's the thing that's so tough that so many women again think it's just normal, right? And I think the other thing that I've really come to learn over the last year or so is such the lack, and I didn't even understand this, and maybe it's just because I've gotten a little bit more into like researching learning hormones the last couple of years, but and you already know this the lack of information or studies or research when it comes to women, like it's all it's been all basically done on men, right? So it's like so little that we really truly know about women's bodies. I mean, we know from what we're going through and from you know, when we get educated in the ways that we are educated in things, but as far as the science and the research, yeah, we have a, I feel like a long ways to go to catch up.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Oh, absolutely. A hundred percent. I mean, and just the from a gut perspective, I mean, our hormones are so intricately intricately connected to the gut. But because so many gut studies were done on men, that link was kind of missing. And to kind of go back to the birth control pill, just as a fun little piece of information, and um your listeners probably know this, but um, the original birth control pill was tested on men, but there were like two side effects, and they said, nope, too many. We can't deal with this. So now women navigate um birth control pills that have far more side effects, including death, which was not on the male form of birth control. That was not a side effect that was for theirs, but it's okay on ours. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of this is we have research, but we don't have good research. We don't have good research, particularly for women. Um, so there are things like medications. I mean, there's prescriptions that are given to women that have never been tested on women. Um, there are recommendations that are made, you know, like intermittent fasting. I hear all the time. Well, like I'll just intermittent fast. Well, there's far more research for men than there is women. And the research that we have for women shows that a lot of women don't do well with intermittent fasting, and it really causes imbalances with hormones, um, which we're kind of passing over. It's just here's a blanket diet that works for everyone. And this is why what works for your your brother, your dad, your husband is not working for you. It's because you have different bodies, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Well, it's even like even it makes me think too, even from from from one woman to another, everybody is completely different, right? Oh, yeah. So you can't even you can't even compare that. So then when you go and try and match what's what a male is doing, it's it just it makes no sense, but yet that's what we've been doing.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Oh, it drives me. And I tell people all the time because they're like, What's you know, I'll be on a uh I do like free clarity calls and I'll be on a clarity call and they're like, So here are my symptoms, what do you typically do? And I'm like, I can't answer that. I mean, I can give you very vague information, but you are a unique being, and what's causing your bloating for you is gonna be different than what's ca causing Sally's bloating

Deeper Labs When You Feel Dismissed

SPEAKER_00 25:10

over here. There's not just one reason these things happen. Your cycle doesn't go crazy for the same reason for every single person. There's all these very nuanced things that are happening inside the body, and we got to figure out what is happening for you, um, and then address that. But that's where diagnostic one solution of prescription really drives me nuts because it's not, it may not work a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

I just it makes me think of just when I get into the coaching and doing like doing nutrition and longevity coaching. It's it's you have to do, you have to take that intake form and get those questions answered, get the information from the client. It makes me think when you said you went to the appointment and they didn't ask you about your lifestyle, your nutrition, your fitness, your sleep, your all these things that contribute to our overall wellness, as you know, and are such critical pieces to the puzzle. And they don't even ask about it.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah, I mean, I saw a lot of specialists and not one. Well, that's not true. The ortho, um, the orthopedic surgeon that I saw asked me about my movement, you know, because I was an athlete, and so what was I doing? That was the only doctor that asked me, but no one asked me about my diet. Uh, no one asked me about stress, sleep, nothing. Um, so it is pretty mind-blowing. And I still, you know, I don't know. I'm not really in the conventional world much anymore. But the the clients that come to me, I'm hearing the same story, right? I went to my doctor. I've had women come in with very obvious to me um thyroid dysfunction. And they've said, well, my doctor already ran a TSH and everything was normal. And I said, Well, did they run deeper markers? Did they run antibodies? No, but my therapy, my TSH was was normal. I said, Okay, let's run that. It's it always breaks my heart when I open these labs and I see that this person is full-blown autoimmune Hashimoto's because it's something that just adding an extra marker can be discovered so at such an earlier stage than we're catching it when your antibodies are over a thousand, right? And we can look at some of those precursors. We can see through labs like how is your body utilizing minerals? Are we digesting the food so your body has minerals? And from that mood perspective, you know, are you making neurotransmitters? There's so many ways to dig in and get the answers to these things before it becomes full-blown disease. And that's the piece that I find probably the most frustrating because then we're trying to to kind of band-aid, and I don't love that word, but we're trying to like let's calm the system down so we can then go in and fix it up, right? Um, and that's much harder than I have these symptoms and things seem okay, but I want to get ahead of it. That's a much easier thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

It's so much easier. It's the whole preventative, take preventative measures now. I just was having a conversation with on one of my other episodes with with my friend Lisa, who you are two and the same, and she was her focus. We were talking about thyroid and being tested and the importance of going not just you know, just chuck your thyroid, there's much more that gets is involved. And we're just having that exact conversation about let's let's discover what's happening before it becomes full-blown diabetes or whatever the case might may be. And of course, like for me personally, my family history is really not very good. And so I but I've always been very much involved in health and wellness and nutrition. So I I know that I feel confident in that. And I also know that our genetics just make up a very, very, very small percentage of our overall health and wellness, right? And longevity. However, when it's in your family history, it's always in the back of your mind, right? Like I feel like I know my dad had diabetes, he had high blood pressure, like all these different metabolic issues. And again, to your point, catching it before it turns into any of that. Like, I'm like, oh no, no, no. If there's any like inkling, I'm like, okay, what do we need to do? What what further things do we need to do here, you know? Because I'm like, uh-uh, no. And that's the thing that just like you're saying is so concerning, something that could be prevented before it even starts. And I think that's I don't know, that's such a big message. I feel like we need to shout from the you know rooftops on that one.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And and I just yeah, it's it's a hard one. Um, because one, we are a culture that very much looks at the disease model, and so that's what we're trained to. Well, it's not bad enough. And my question is, what is bad enough? Like, if you're struggling to get out of bed in the morning, if you are bloated by 2 p.m. and your pants are uncomfortable. Like, I remember going to work and specifically picking out a shirt that would cover my unbuttoned work pants because like I worked in a hospital back in the day when we didn't have stretchy pants, that was not a thing. So we had actual pants that actually buttoned that had actual zippers. And when you were bloated, oh man, it was so painful. Um, so and it's so funny when I see all these like stretchy work pants now. I'm like, oh, what a gift that would have been back in the day, right? Wish we had those back then. Oh man. But but really, I mean, that's what I was doing is I was getting home and I was immediately putting sweatpants on because I was so uncomfortable. I was driving home and I was like hunched over the steering wheel in so much pain. And it was miserable, but it was like they were waiting for things to get so much worse before you know, we don't have anything that we can diagnose you with, so we don't know how to help you. And again, that's their training. I totally get that, but that's where functional nutrition is different because we're not looking at diagnose, we're not diagnosing, we're not treating. It's what is going on with your body and what is not working correctly, right? Like burping after meals, having gas, um pooping, you know, only a couple times a week, not normal.

Hormones Menopause And Normalized Pain

SPEAKER_00 31:40

But we've normalized it with peptobysinal commercials and anti acids and all of these things, but it's not normal. It's not, it's not, and that's you know, if you're feeling like I am uncomfortable, I don't feel comfortable in my clothes, I don't feel comfortable in my skin. That's the time that you want to start doing this work and not waiting for you to get to the point where now we have something really serious that we're navigating.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

So true. I oh, I love that. It's so, so true. I was gonna say too, going back to for you for you making that shift in your nutrition, I can still relate to that because I even though you know my husband and I have been healthy, we eat healthy and clean for the most part. I mean, it's never perfect, and you have to enjoy yourself, so it's not 80-20. Totally 80-20. So I'm not saying it's like clean all the time. No, no, for the most part, right? Eating pretty healthy. And when I made a shift almost 12 years ago and added some higher quality nutrition into my day-to-day routine, and I would started receiving probably minerals that I wasn't getting enough of prior, everything shifted for me. So I was healthy for the most part. However, I did, um I was had been diagnosed with an inner ear disease. So with that, I was having symptoms. I was having like really bad vertigo. I was having things go on that it just it got to be really bad. And like you say, it's not about diagnosing or curing anything. But that was a again, like you said, you had that light bulb moment. That was a light bulb moment for me because I went, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how much better I could actually feel. And now I'm feeling so good. And my symptoms disappeared. I mean, I was dealing with that for like eight years. Oh, that's awful. It was awful. And within a matter of just weeks, it I was like, I am good. I'm so, and I've and I thank God too had an incident since. So it's just again, to your your original point, like the nutrition and making adjustments can make all the difference in the world. And we're just not taught that. Like I'd share that and you share that, but the average person doesn't understand that, and also to understand that we're just not getting the nutrition that our body needs from our food so much anymore. So that was a that's a whole other podcast episode. And that was another big issue, like for me, that was a big aha moment where I went, guy, wow, I didn't realize it, you know, like yeah, we're doing this, we're eating this, and we're having spinach and we're having this and this and that. But to know that, okay, well, that's great and all, but the level of nutrients you're getting is probably negative, you know. So such a that was just to to learn that and to experience it, it it was huge for me.

Minerals Fiber Protein And HTMA

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Well, and it is very much, you know, like we said, an 80-20 rule. But I love how you mentioned minerals because this is one of the areas that I feel like is really overlooked. Um, is we, I mean, there's such a huge focus on protein right now. And again, like you definitely need to get a ton of protein in your diet. Um, the the thing that people forget is we also need fiber, right? We need we can't just have protein and we can't just have fiber. We really like to isolate um the macronutrients and be like keto, only fat, right? And like only fat protein, like cut out the carbs or like whatever trendy thing is right now. But the we need it all. Our minerals are so important from a macro level. Um, you know, we really need our sodium, our potassium, our magnesium, right? Like these are incredibly important. Um, but we forget this. And this is one of the things, like uh one of my absolute favorite lab tests is the HTMA Heritage Mineral Analysis because it actually looks at, I don't know if you use this, but the three-month snapshot of our minerals. And it's like I say it's like the mineral test, like we test A1C for blood sugar, right? We get a three-month snapshot of what is going on and how your body is used utilizing these minerals. So we can look at like how is your thyroid functioning? What is your blood sugar looking like? Um, and it's not testing like my blood sugar is 80. It's looking at how are the systems functioning from a mineral perspective? What's going on with your stress, your adrenal glands, um, your metabolism, so many different things, your immune system, your digestion. It's such a cool test, and it's the most inexpensive test out there that gives you as much information as it does. It I it's just so amazing. But we do, we forget like minerals are spark plugs for the body. They literally kick off every single system reaction conversation inside the body. And if our minerals, if we're struggling from that, which most people are, we're gonna feel like garbage. So that's when I do that stool test in the HGMA all the time. Um, blood work is great. I love blood work, I love using blood work, but I feel like when we combine those two tests, we get so many answers on digestive issues, mood, thyroid, metabolism, stress, all of it. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

That's so amazing. That's huge. That's just huge. I I don't want this conversation to end. That's why I'm hesitating. I really don't want to stop talking because this is so fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

We just have to do another episode.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I would, yes. I I would love for you to share and I will put it in the show notes, but where can people find you, Colleen?

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah, so Instagram is a great place um at Colleen underscore mindfully nourished, and there's my website, which is mindfully hyphennourished.com. Um, those are probably the two best ways to reach me in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

I have a feeling people will be reaching out. And I think too, if you could share maybe your top three tips. I mean, I know for you cutting out gluten was the huge, huge component in your life. And I guess for some people, that's what they have to do, and obviously you needed to do that. What would you say for to listeners right now who might be struggling? What would be the top three things they could do for themselves, like right now?

Three Practical Steps To Start Today

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Yeah, the biggest thing is give yourself a break. Because you're probably trying all the things, and usually we're overwhelming the system. And so the number one thing is our body cannot work when it's completely stressed out. So even just like little things, sit down instead of standing while eating a meal. Um, chew your food more than two bites, right? Like we don't want to like put food in our mouth and like chew, chew, swallow. If you're feeling like I'm swallowing an entire piece of steak, you have not chewed your food enough. That makes such a big difference in how our body responds because now we have food that's broken up more that your stomach has to do less work. So that decreases bloating right off the bat. Another is water. Most of the women that come to me are they think they're drinking enough water and they're definitely not. Um, so for things like constipation, headaches, anxiety, water is actually or dehydration um is one of the things that's happening there. So when we can upper water intake, particularly just like adding a pinch of sea salt into your water to get some more of those electrolytes can help absorb the water a little bit better. Um, but you want to drink it away from meals, sips during meals so that it's not um impacting your digestion and things like that. But that would be a big thing. Goal is half of your body weight in ounces daily.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yeah, that's so good. So good. And again, something that's so simple, right? Can make such a difference. Yeah, which is which is exciting, right? We just we always think it needs to be complicated, and we tend to complicate things when many times it doesn't have to be that way.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

No, it really doesn't. One of the ways that I have women track or anyone really track their water is do you put a rubber band? So, like I have my fake Stanley and so 40 ounces. So I know because I drank two cups of coffee every single day, that I know I need to get, you know, around 16 ounces more, depending on how big that coffee is, around 16 ounces more daily to account for that um diuretic and dehydrating beverage. So when you're looking at, okay, here's 40. If I drink two of these, that's 80. I usually make sure that I'm a little bit over that to account for coffee and stuff like that. But that's a really great way to track. Every time you fill your water bottle, you take a rubber band off. And then at the start of the day, you put them back on. So you should be taking all of them off at the end of the day. And then you know, okay, I've had all of my water for today.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

I love that. I know I fill up one of those two, like at night. And I I keep telling myself, I need to fill it up. I end up drinking it throughout the night and in the morning, but then I'm thinking I want to fill it up again for the day. I end up just filling up a glass of water and continuing drinking through that. But for measuring purposes, I'm like, I really should just fill that up two different cycles, like what you're doing. Just make sure you're getting that water in because it's so important.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah. I mean, I usually have a glass of water sitting next to me too. But that's I do. I you forget when it's a smaller amount how much we're drinking. So if you're really not sure how much you're drinking, get a water bottle. I have one that's 22 ounces, I have the bigger one that's 40 ounces, and then you can just kind of pay attention to how many times you're refilling that throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Such such a big tip and just something that's so simple that we all can do. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Colleen. This has been amazing. I I really appreciate you taking the time, and it's just been such a great conversation. And again, I want to just encourage our listeners, reach out to Colleen, you know, if you're looking for some testing or maybe you've experienced some of the similar symptoms that she's gone through. Obviously, you know, she's here to help and gone through it herself. So I just, you're amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Well, thank you. Oh, and one more thing. Um, I for the rest of the summer, so July and August, I'm actually discounting that HTMA plus single session because I do believe in it so wholeheartedly that I'm taking $50, $50 off. Um, and that's a 60-minute session. We're doing it's including the lab test. We're going through um all of your symptoms, your health history, getting on a call, going through that lab review and giving you actionable things that you can walk away and be like, I know exactly what I need to do for diet, lifestyle, and you know, targeted supplementation if the test shows that that's needed.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Oh, that's phenomenal. And here I am. I mean, I'm I'm I feel like ooh, I might have to do that because I'm always open to anything and trying anything and learning. And I and I think there's a point to what you're saying too about the blood work. I mean, I've had a ton of blood work done these last few months, just normal physical stuff, checking hormones and such, but you know, there is over and above that things that we can do.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

So thank you for really cool test. I've run it on one of my daughters, I run it on myself regularly. Um, it's and it's so it's such a great test because you can get so much information. And most of these lab tests are like four or five hundred dollars. This one is way below that, so it's something that can very easily be combined at a discounted cost, too, with um a session. So you're not spending like you know a thousand dollars just to have one test and um one session. So right, yeah. I'll and I'll send you the information on that so we can add it to the show notes. Oh, awesome! Yeah, if you could send a link and the information, that would be great. Of course. Thank you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Oh my goodness. And to all of our listeners, I hope you feel empowered and as excited as I do right now. This is so informative and really educational. And as always, take time for yourself and your wellness. And I would say take Colleen up on her offer. I mean, we can always when it's something that's doable and reasonably priced, to me, it's a no-brainer. The more we can find out about our bodies and our health, the the better we are off, not just now, but for the future, as we talked about earlier.

Discount Offer And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Doing all that the preventative measures that we can take to be healthy now and into the future is huge. So, with that being said, take time for yourself on your wellness on this day and have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week. And we'll see you next time on Words and Wellness. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed weekend.