Ep. 161 When Your Body Finally Says Enough with Jen Germain

[00:00:06] I'm Michele Simms and this is The Beauty in the Mess, a community where people who crave a shift in mindset, personal growth, and connection to like-minded people come together to start rewriting their stories. Through engaging, honest, and insightful conversations, the show will help you embrace the mess to recognize the meanings and the lessons it holds and discover its hidden treasures to help you start making a mindset shift. Let's listen, learn, and reclaim who we were meant to be.

[00:00:33] Hi friend, welcome to The Beauty in the Mess. Today's guest is Jen Germain, a certified functional medicine health coach and founder of Compass Health Coaching. But Jen just didn't enter the world of functional medicine because she was looking for a new career. She entered it because she was looking for answers.

[00:00:52] In 2020, after becoming increasingly sick and eventually going to the bathroom as many as 22 times a day, Jen was diagnosed with both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. She was told medication would likely be a part of her life indefinitely. But Jen wanted to know if there was more she could do. That search ultimately led her to functional medicine, major lifestyle changes, and eventually an entirely new career helping others take a more active role in their health.

[00:01:20] In this conversation, we dig into what it really means to look for root causes instead of simply chasing symptoms. We talk about nutrition and ultra-processed foods, chronic stress and burnout, sleep, body image, the overwhelming amount of health advice on social media, and why what works for one person may not work for another. Jen also shares why she believes listening to your body and becoming an informed advocate for your own health can be incredibly powerful.

[00:01:49] Whether you're dealing with chronic health issues, trying to make sense of conflicting health information, or simply wanting to take better care of the body you've been given, I think this conversation will give you plenty to think about. Hi, I'm Michele Simms, your host. I'm just a regular person who, like so many others, has faced my fair share of messes. Life hasn't always been neat or easy, but it's taught me a lot, and somewhere along the way I got deeply curious. How do other people make it through their messes and not just survive, but thrive?

[00:02:18] That started my pursuit. I started searching for stories, wisdom, and real strategies, not only for myself, but for anyone looking for a better way forward. Maybe there is a faster way, a softer way, a more human way, and maybe we don't have to figure it out alone. I believe we grow through shared stories, lived wisdom, and the beautiful mess of being human. So welcome to the conversation. I'm so glad you're here.

[00:02:42] Please join me for episode 161 of the Beauty and the Mess, called When Your Body Finally Says Enough, with Jen Germain. So without further ado, let's get into it. Hi, Jen. Welcome to the Beauty and the Mess. I'm so glad to have you with me today. Well, thank you so much for having me today. It's a pleasure and honor to be here on your show.

[00:03:02] Oh, absolutely. Now, I know you're a functional medicine health coach and the founder of Compass Health Coaching, but before we dig into all that, I was wondering if you could tell us what your background story is, like what led you down the functional medicine path? Yeah, so it started about six years ago. Honestly, I was an addict for most of my life and thought I ate pretty healthy. I was also an athlete.

[00:03:30] But then in 2020, I got sick. And at first, I thought it was like food poisoning or something along those lines. So I didn't think too much of it. But then it just kept getting worse and worse. And me being stubborn as I am, didn't want to necessarily get to a doctor or anything. I thought I could just push through everything and it would be okay, like I would normally do. But unfortunately, that was not the case and got more sick throughout the summertime.

[00:03:53] And finally, when I started to have issues that were more than I could really tolerate or started to get more even more serious, I did go to a physician. So this started in May of 2020. I actually started going to a physician. In 2020, everything started. And then I went in August to a physician because of some of the issues I started bleeding and having all of these issues when I was going to the ladies room and I was going up to 22 times a day into the ladies room.

[00:04:21] And so I knew I needed to definitely seek out some help. I got blood work done, my sed rate and my HSCRP, which are both inflammatory markers were through the roof. I was pretty anemic, not needing a blood transfusion yet, but I was getting working my way towards that. And I all my other markers were showing some different things as well. So they knew I had something, an issue in me.

[00:04:45] And for me, it was understanding that what I had or what they were thinking I had, they tested for Crohn's blood test wise, and I came back negative, but they still sent me for a emergency colonoscopy. And I did come back with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. And really, when that diagnosis was handed to me, it was pretty shocking. It definitely set me aback because I've been relatively healthy my whole life. Like I said, I was an athlete and stuff.

[00:05:11] And while I was a sugar addict and things of that nature, I always tried to keep myself in pretty decent shape and in health. So for that, it really set me reeling and trying to understand what I could do because I knew I didn't want to be on pills the rest of my life or anything along those lines. But I went to a rheumatologist shortly after that. And he said, I asked him, is there any way that I could do it through like lifestyle changes, like through nutrition? And he said, no, you should be on biologics and you should be on medications the rest of your life.

[00:05:40] And for me that I just didn't accept that. So I was following this woman on Instagram and she was a cancer survivor and she talked about functional medicine. And I was like, Hmm, I'm not really familiar with that. So I learned more about it. And I said, you know what? There's a functional medicine practice, not too far from me. So I made an appointment with their health coach and you have to fill out when you go to functional medicine, they ask you a lot of questions because they really do want to get to the root cause of different things.

[00:06:05] And so I went to her, I went and had like an hour long session with her. It was the longest I've ever been like in a doctor's office where they were actually talking with you and understanding where you were coming from, what you wanted to do. And then she laid out a plan and saying, with everything that you have, we're looking at doing an autoimmune protocol diet or AIP. And so she gave me all the paperwork for it. I said, do you have any questions? Like, no, I think I should be good. So I went home then and threw out everything of sugar that I had.

[00:06:32] If it was open, if it wasn't open, any of the gluten, the stuff I knew I couldn't have, I went to a food pantry of some sort, or I donated it somewhere because I knew I couldn't have that in my house. It was something that had caused me to be in the illness that I was in. And I knew I had to change the way that I was, the way I was living. And so six weeks on AIP in the first few days, I lost brain fog. I never knew I had.

[00:06:55] And then started to feel better energy wise. I started gaining back some of my energy that fatigue had really set in. I was still on my medications at that time. And then within six weeks, it was right around Christmas. I got my blood work done again. My anemia was gone. My sed rate and my CRP were normal and all of my other levels were looking good. And to me, it was just an eye-opening experience, not only by the things that I was feeling, but then also seeing the data in the lab work that I was healing myself through what I was doing.

[00:07:26] And so I kept continuing with AIP, start to add things back in and I couldn't add everything back in that I wanted that I had before. So like gluten stayed out and dairy stayed out for a little while. I have added dairy back in since then, some dairy. But the thing that I had to realize was I had to change the way that I thought about my lifestyle and had to make changes.

[00:07:46] And from there then, I knew I wanted to help other people because I knew what a difference it made for me having somebody there to help me to understand what I was going through, but then giving me a plan and helping me execute that plan. So within a few months, I was off all my medications in nine months and I have not been on them since I've not had a flare. And after I realized all of this, I wanted to become a health coach. And so I enrolled in Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, which is a partner of the Institute for Functional Medicine.

[00:08:15] And then after I got my certification, I opened Compass in 2022. That's awesome. That's quite a story. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. How do you like all I know about the autoimmune protocol is that it's extremely restrictive, right? Right. So how do you because a lot of us are addicted to sugar, we're addicted to every kind of food there is all this processing stuff. How do you deal with the mental aspect and not just the physical?

[00:08:45] So I think at least for me, I was in quite a bit of a lot of pain. And so for me, I didn't, the thought of not having sugar, I was like, you know what? I just, I can't have it anymore. Like I just have to get off of it because if this diet, if this way of eating is going to allow me to not feel this way anymore, and it's actually going to help me get healthy to where I'm at least able to take a shower and not be exhausted afterwards, or be able to get dressed and not feel exhausted afterwards,

[00:09:13] or having the pain in my gut or running to the bathroom for as many times of a day as I was, then it's worth it to me. And I think sometimes it's that mindset shift of what is it that is really important to you? Is it the foods that you're eating every day that have like the crunch or they have the chocolate or all of these different components? Or is it the sugar? And honestly, with the sugar, I've never gone back. Like I'd never, I've been off refined sugar for six years and I don't miss it because I know where it led me.

[00:09:43] And I think that's one of the biggest keys is I could see what all the habits that I'm growing up and in my adulthood and everything else, where it had led me. And I knew I had to make that change. And so it's that mindset shift that is really huge. And understanding that there are some things when you want to get healthy that you can't bring along for that ride. As part of that, because like I have two autoimmune diseases that I know of, but in some ways I can correlate it to sugar and diet, of course.

[00:10:12] But in other ways, it's kind of detached for me. So how do you get your clients to realize that that diet is a huge part of this? Yeah. So for any autoimmune issue or even just chronic illness in general, I think the beautiful part about functional medicine is that it takes in the whole person. So nutrition is a big, big key because nutrition is not just the food that we eat every day or the fuel that we burn. It's information for every single cell in your body.

[00:10:41] You have 37 trillion cells inside your body and all of them need different nutrients to turn things on and off or to do different processes and those chemical reactions that we have to create the electrical current energy of the ATP. And when you think about food in a different capacity and you understand that it's not just to have that growling belly, it's not just to settle that growling belly.

[00:11:05] It's to ignite the mitochondria inside your cells so that it can create the energy that keeps you alive every single day. And the one thing I try to tell my clients is to think about food differently. Don't think about it as just fueling that hunger or providing you with sustenance for the day. But really those cells need that information, those nutrients.

[00:11:29] And the one thing that we don't always think about are when we have the ultra processed foods, they don't really have a lot of nutrients in them. So our body, and that's one of the problems when we're eating them is that our body, yes, we're technically eating and filling our belly, but our body is like, I'm not getting my magnesium. I need some vitamin A. I need some more B vitamins in here. I need some manganese and I'm not getting it. Eat more. I need you to eat more food because I don't have these things.

[00:11:56] So then that's how we start to overeat on those processed foods. And if you think about it, we're really, when we're eating those foods, we're more malnourished because we're not getting nutrients into the body. So I really try to stress with my clients that to think about food differently, not just from the standpoint of filling your stomach and making sure you're getting enough calories in or anything like that, because it's not just about calories. It's about information for every single cell in your body so that they can function the way that they're supposed to.

[00:12:26] Yeah. I think another aspect of that too is protein, right? Especially as you get older, because like my doctor just told me, and I try to focus, I feel like I focused on protein and she's like, you're very low on protein. I'm like, what? Even though we think we're doing okay, the test can come back that you're not doing so well. So it's important to monitor, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the things when I speak with my clients is when we first start off with different things, I'll say, Hey, can you track some of this stuff for me?

[00:12:54] So I can see what your protein levels and stuff are like. And everybody's like, Oh yeah, I think I do really well. And then we look at the numbers and they're like, Oh my gosh, I don't even get the recommended daily amount of protein a day. And it's like, see what we think we have on our plates, we think is okay. But when we really look at some of the data and I know tracking food and journaling food is not maybe the most appealing part of the health journey, but it helps give data to understand where you are on your baseline.

[00:13:23] So you can say, okay, where can I make improvements? Where can I, where can I step up in doing things and changing and tweaking my habits and to understand that protein is a huge part of your nutrition. It's a block for your body. Hair is protein, nails are protein. The bones in your body build off a protein, the muscles in your body. It is such a huge building block. It has the amino acids that we need to convert all of these different things and to create all these chemical reactions.

[00:13:50] And that's why I try to stress to people to understand how their bodies work and what that food really provides for you when you eat it. So do you feel like sugar is the true evil or do you think it's the processed foods or all of the above? I would say sugar is definitely a very inflammatory food, right? I think because of the damage that it can cause the oxidative stress that it can cause inside your body, it ages you faster on the inside.

[00:14:19] And I think sugar is something that's very highly addictive and it's very detrimental to the gut microbiome. That being said, the ultra processed foods as well carry a lot of chemicals with them. And those chemicals, a lot of times are not really tested on how they affect the gut microbiome or maybe even the way that your liver has to process them. Because remember your liver has to process everything that comes in, whether you breathe it in, you eat it, it's the filter and you can't live without your liver.

[00:14:48] And if it has problems with too much chemical toxicity, that's where you can have a lot of different issues as well. And I'm not saying that you couldn't have like one couple processed foods, but if you add up all of the chemicals, instead of adding calories for the day, look at all the chemicals that you're eating for the day and add those up and see what all of that comes to. Because when we process foods, most of them have probably maybe like 15, 20 ingredients.

[00:15:15] And if you add up every single processed food in your day, in your meals or in your snacks, how many chemicals are you ingesting into your body? And a lot of those chemicals do not have to be tested to see how they affect the human body either. So like you're saying, when someone were to track their food, they should also be tracking like how much of it is, I mean, do you just track that it is processed food or are you actually trying to track what's in it?

[00:15:43] First, it depends on what their ratio is. So let's say they're doing like, let's say they eat mostly whole foods, but they're only having a couple of processed. Then you might not have to do as much of the chemicals, but if they are having mostly a processed food diet and most Americans are, it's like between 60 and 70% of their diet is processed foods. I would encourage them to start maybe not looking at like writing down every single one, but I would say, look at it and tell me which ones you can actually recognize and what they are.

[00:16:12] And then maybe right to the side of it, say how many chemicals were in that one item. So like, if it was like a rotisserie chicken, how many ingredients are in there? How many chemicals, not some of the spices, but how many chemicals that you don't know exactly what those things are, write how many of those are down for cereal, for, for baked goods, for chips, for pretzels, for whatever you're eating. Take a look at all those chemicals in there and see how many there are because that has to be processed by your liver.

[00:16:43] And again, the, the body can only process so many things. And if it doesn't know what these toxins are, what is it going to do with it? How's it going to, how's it going to respond? And it's important for us to start looking at food a little bit differently so that we can make decisions that are going to lead us to the goals that we have for ourselves. How do you think with the 200 some clients that you've had already, do you see food intake as the, one of the biggest contributors to what's going on with them?

[00:17:11] I mean, is there a pattern with that? I would say the two biggest things that I see nutrition is definitely one of the bigger ones because most people come to me, they're like, Jen, I want to lose some weight or I want to do this or I want to do that. And nutrition is a huge piece because again, it does fuel us. And again, it gives us this information for ourselves to work right. But another one is really stress. And it's one, and that's the one that people don't talk about enough is how stress impacts the overall health and wellness of our bodies. And many of my clients will start off saying, Jen, I want to look at nutrition.

[00:17:41] But when I've read through some of their stuff, I can see like patterns with their sleep. I can see patterns with how overwhelmed they might feel. And it's like, we need to, we need to focus a little bit on stress first, because if you, you can eat the healthiest in the world and get all of your protein and all of these macros and everything that you need in the nutrients. But if you are stressed and chronically stressed every day, that HPA access controls your sleep wake cycle, controls your appetite and digestion.

[00:18:07] It controls the way that your digestion secretes different enzymes. It controls hormone balance. And if you are not in rest and digest or that parasympathetic nervous system, you won't absorb all of the nutrients that you're eating. So stress is a huge one with the nutrition. So this will probably sound like a crazy question, but if we're under chronic stress, like logically, I know I am at my job.

[00:18:36] I know I am, but I don't feel like I'm under stress most of the time. Now there's periods where I know I'm absolutely stressed out, but how do we determine that we're under chronic stress is number one, because I think it becomes so a part of everyday life that we don't even recognize it. And number two, how do you stop it? If it's part of your job, how do you control that? So those are really great questions.

[00:19:02] And I think one of the things that I talk with my clients about is, is I'll say, well, how are your stress levels? And usually I ask them to do it on a scale of like one to 10, like where are your stress levels at? And they'll say, well, I'm not really stressed. And like, well, let me ask you this question. Do you ever have racing thoughts? Do you ever have, do you feel like you're have overwhelmed? Do you feel like you have chaos in your day? Do you feel like you're rushing from place to place? Because if those are all part of your day, then you have stress and you're right. We have adapted to stress.

[00:19:30] Our bodies were never really meant to adapt to it. And I think that's why we have some of the chronic illness and stuff that we do have besides like the food and some of the other pieces of our overall wellbeing, but the stress impacts it so much because it's kind of almost like the silent partner that nobody talks about or knows about because we've become so adapted to it. If you sit there and think, oh, I have to be productive at least all my waking moments. And then when I go to sleep, I just have to think about what I need to do for tomorrow. You're stressed.

[00:19:59] Like when you have those racing thoughts, when you have those intrusive thoughts, when you can't take a break and be at rest, there's definitely an energy problem and a stress problem. And with that chronic stress, it is probably one of the harder things to turn off because we have been become so adapted to it. But that's where I try to encourage my clients to become more aware of their stress triggers. So we'll ask, what are some things that in your day really trigger you to a stressful situation?

[00:20:28] What could some of those be? And then say, okay, when those things happen, what are you going to do to balance that? Or what are you going to do to release that pressure on that pressure cooker, on that pressure valve? What are you going to do? And that could be like with some breath work. It could be like humming is great for vagal tone to bring down that stress response. Things like listening to birdsong outside, just taking a walk or go sitting outside. It doesn't have to be the grandest thing in the world.

[00:20:57] It could just be taking a short walk to just like get all of that energy out or just to relax and have your brain shut down. No phone when you're doing it because that's stimulant. But working on the things, every person is different. So you kind of have to find what they want to do. But the stress release is very important because if you are at an eight, nine or 10 and stress every single day, you're going to have major problems in your overall health because your body takes in all of this energy and it can't release the emotions.

[00:21:27] It can't release that stress. And so then that is going to be kept inside the body where it can manifest in different ways. And I kind of feel like society trains us to think that if we function under stress, it's a great thing. At least that's the ideology I had for a long time because I'm like, hey, I knew I was under a lot of stress. My husband had some major health problems. So we were dealing with that, but I was functioning and I was proud of myself. I was like, hey, I'm doing this.

[00:21:57] And then all of a sudden your body will be like, hey, I'm doing so good. You know what I mean? Yeah. Your brain, you think you're doing fine, but the body tells you differently. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the things that I tell to my clients that when your body starts to talk to you, it'll start with a whisper. It'll be like, hey, I got a pain here. I got this there. And then all of a sudden it'll get a little bit louder. It's like, hey, you might want to check on this. It's not feeling so good.

[00:22:26] And then all of a sudden it'll start yelling like, yo, you need to listen to me. I'm talking to you. And then when it's finally done, that's when you usually like have a really big issue and you could like go down and it's like, hey, I told you. And then it's like, all right, we're done here because I can't take anymore. And so that's where you want to get. You don't want to get to that point of when the body says I'm done because it's been yelling and screaming the whole time and you just weren't listening.

[00:22:55] And because our culture really does. And that's a great point that you bring up is our culture does kind of glorify almost over pushing and burnout. Like it's a badge of honor. And really it's not what it's really doing is running down your overall health. And it debilitates you to a point that you can't even function the way that you should or the way that you could. And to understand that our energy is very precious and our health really and truly is our wealth.

[00:23:24] It's more important than anything. One of my favorite quotes is a healthy man wants a thousand things, but a sick man only wants one thing and that's his health back. And it's true because when I got sick, that's all I wanted. All I wanted to do was not have pain. All I wanted to do is be able to take my dog for a walk and not be able to win some pain or even go like a few feet. Cause that's all I could really was a little bit, but now I can take them for a mile or two miles

[00:23:49] or however long he's going to last because I changed my perspective and I changed the way that I did things and I realized that pushing only gets me into a procedure or into a hospital room or into a doctor's office. It doesn't get me to where I want to go. And that's where you have to come to that realization. And everybody has to figure that out kind of for themselves, but that pushing is not going to take you to the life that you really want.

[00:24:19] Because if you're burned out and you can't feel good and you can't do the things that you want to do, then what was the point of doing it? Do you feel like most of us put like unrealistic expectations on ourselves? I guess what I'm asking is if we have that high stress job, do we have to start thinking of maybe it's time to move out of this high stress job or can we actually make a balance? And it's just that we've put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. Maybe. I think it can be a little bit of a combination of both.

[00:24:45] I think if you are in that high stress job and you're saying to yourself, I really think I need to slow down a little bit so that I can catch myself. You have to ask, will this job allow me to do that? And if it allows for you to put up boundaries and to create a different structure, then I'm not saying you have to necessarily quit the high stress job. You just have to find the things that could relieve that stress so it's not chronic.

[00:25:10] But if you are in there and you say, I can't do this without being this way, then you might want to consider leaving or doing something else that is going to bring down those stress levels because stress does a whole host of things to the body that people don't really realize what it does. Yeah. I think, and over time, it takes a toll that I can't, I'm not going to say that we can't dig ourselves back out, but there, there comes a point where you've created so much damage that

[00:25:41] you can't get back to where you were before. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a pretty picture. And I tell a lot of my clients to don't wait till you're sick because when you're sick, then you have to, I always use the rung of a ladder, like rungs on a ladder. If you think about climbing up a ladder. So if you're at this level and you get knocked down because you're sick, then you have to go up to where you were. And then you have to go up even further to get healthy. But if you do it right from where you are right now, you only have to go up those few pegs

[00:26:10] versus the six that you'd have to go up when you're sick. So if you take that, that analogy and understand, okay, if I don't get sick or wait till I, my body drops and I fall down, but instead, if I do it right now and start making changes and it doesn't have to be drastic, it could just be small changes every single day, just consistently done. And that'll start getting you on the road to where you want to go. So even like stress management is like, if you know that you're chronically stressed

[00:26:38] saying, okay, maybe I need to take a few micro breaks throughout the day. And maybe it's just like five minutes a piece. So after this meeting that I usually have in the morning, I'm going to take five minutes. I'm going to go sit outside and just get some fresh air, get some sunlight on my face and then go inside. It can really be that simple. Just giving yourself five minutes to take a break and rest. Don't take a phone. Don't think about your meetings because your brain can't tell the difference between reality and what you imagine. It can't tell the difference.

[00:27:07] So if you're stressing about a meeting that you have later today, it's the same as if a bear was chasing you. It's the same thing. Your mind cannot detect the difference between the two. So you will be in that chronic stress then all the time until that meeting. And it's just, our mind can either be our greatest asset or it can be to our greatest detriment and using it and understanding and being aware of the stress that we have is very critical.

[00:27:34] So like if you were to take that five minute break, does that have lasting effect? Because to me, if you're in high stress and you go take a break for five minutes, but then you're right back into it. Does it really help? I'm asking. I don't know. It'll help to a degree. Again, that's where you have to kind of understand how your body's reacting to the stress itself and what it's costing you. But it will help at least relieve some of that stress.

[00:27:59] So instead of being like a nine or a 10 all day long, if you're taking multiple five minute breaks throughout the nine down to like a six or a seven, that's at least better than being at a nine or 10 all day long. Again, it's being consistent and having and making small changes. Now, if you are more of a person that's like, you know what? But I can't do that because it's just, it's not working for me. Like I'm not going from a nine and a 10 down to a six or seven. I'm still staying at that nine or 10.

[00:28:28] Then maybe you do really need to find another line of work or really clump down on your time management and boundaries that you have for your work so that you are decreasing those stress levels. Yeah. And I know you've talked about, or at least I believe you have like our image of our own body can affect our health too. So could you explain that a little bit? A lot of us have body image problems. Yeah. I think women honestly populate that more than men.

[00:28:57] There are some men out there that do too. I don't want to say that they don't, but I do think it's more, I see it more in women clients than I do in my men clients. And we do have poor body image for a lot of us. And one of the things I tell my clients is you can't heal a body that you hate. You can't hate your body and want it to heal. Because your body, we talked about those 37 trillion cells. Every single one of those cells listens to how you think and what you say about yourself.

[00:29:24] And if you talk meanly or badly about your body, how do you think those cells feel about themselves? How do they think that you view them? And are they going to want to, like, if somebody was yelling at you or saying mean things to you, how would you perform at work? You wouldn't perform very well. And that's the same thing with our cells. There was a professor out in Japan, I believe it was in Japan, and he did a water study with his students.

[00:29:52] And they took one group with water and another group with water. And the one, you talk really nicely to it and you say loving things. And they froze it, put it under electron microscope. And the water produced beautiful geometric shapes. And then when they, the other group, they talked really meanly and nasty to the water. And then the, they froze it, put it under electron microscope and it was jagged. It was ugly. It didn't look good.

[00:30:19] So what it shows is that water holds energy. And we kind of know that from, if you look at hydroelectric dams and that kind of stuff, it holds energy, right? And if we are 60 to 70% water, we hold energy within ourselves. And if we're talking negatively to ourselves through that, what does that do to those cells and the water that we have within us? It doesn't look good. So you have to have a better positive image of yourself.

[00:30:46] If you want to heal, you can't think, oh, well, I'm always going to be this way, or I can't heal, or I hate my body. I hate that it looks this way. One of the things that I had to do was that I looked in the mirror and said, I love you. I love this body. It's taken me as far as I am right now. You've had it your whole life and you're going to have it for the rest of your life. We only get one. And why not love the body that you're in, love it for what it is and know that as you're healing, it's going to make changes.

[00:31:15] It's a beautiful biological machine that can change and adapt with the inputs and the signals that we give it. And that's why making those lifestyle changes are so impactful because your body's like, wow, okay, I'm getting all the nutrition I need. I can do this. I can do this now. I can do that. Now I'm getting all this exercise. I can drop this and I can do that. Or this is really energizing me so we can go further and do more things.

[00:31:41] And the more that you love your body, the more you're going to value and see the worth in it. And it's going to make that healing journey easier. And it's going to make the things that you're doing and the goals and objectives and the vision that you have for yourself better and sustainable. Because if you don't love your body, how are you going to have a vision of being in health and get there? If all you're doing is degrading yourself and talking down to yourself, you won't get to where you want to go.

[00:32:10] So for the people that have body image issues and they don't love their body, do you think the start of that is just being grateful? Like what you were saying, just grateful that your body's been functioning for you as well as it has and try to grow it from there? Or I know some people that I'm aware of couldn't go directly to body love. Yeah. Yeah. It's just not. Yeah. Yep. Just starting off small.

[00:32:39] So it's just saying one of the things that you could do is maybe looking at your hands and saying, you know what? Thank you for being able to carry the things that I need to carry every day. Thank you for stopping me if I fall that you catch me. So little things like that. If you can't start off at the whole of your body, looking at the small things. So even like your feet saying, hey, feet, thank you for taking me where I needed to go today. Thank you for allowing me to walk to where I needed to walk to.

[00:33:06] And just recognizing that every little thing makes a difference. So you don't even have to start off big. Maybe it's just your eyes. Like, wow, I have beautiful eyes. Maybe it's my ears. Or it is. You can start off small. Because I realize some people, it may be harder to accept the whole of who you are. But start small and then keep working from there. And just being grateful that it's brought you to where you are and say, you know what? We're going to go even further. And I've got your back. You've got mine.

[00:33:36] And we're just going to keep working this thing called life together. Yeah, I think it's interesting. I am grateful for my body, just for the record. But I know I had a friend tell me to look in the mirror and say, I love you. And it was a man. And he does this all the time. And that is the hardest thing in the world to do. I don't know why. But it is so hard to look yourself in the mirror and say, I love you. It's just not natural. Well, I think it can be hard.

[00:34:02] Because we have been looking at our body in a way that isn't maybe as lovingly as we could have done in the past. But that's one of the things, if you say that to yourself, and I've had some clients who are like, Jen, I don't know if I can do it. And I'm like, well, give it a try. And I'm like, and even if you don't mean it, just say it. Because again, it's the way your words matter. The way that you talk to yourself matters. I've said to my clients before, I'm like, if you talk, tell me some of the things that you said about your body.

[00:34:32] And they would tell me. I said, would you say that about my body? And I'm like, oh my God, Jen, no way. I would never say that about you. I'm like, well, then why do you say that about yourself? You will be with you 24-7 for the rest of your life. And you are a beautiful person. And you have to understand the worth that you have in yourself. And I know at first it may be hard. But you have to look at the beauty that lies within you. And it takes some time.

[00:34:59] Because a lot of us, our brain does have like a negative bias. It will always kind of drift toward that negativity. But find those things to be grateful for in yourself. Like, hey, I have, again, we talked about it. I have beautiful eyes. Oh, I love the way my cheeks light up when I smile. Oh, I love the way I do this or the way I do that. It just has to start with the small things and then it can snowball. But saying I love you, I know it's hard. But the words that carry it, your body still hears it. Even if at first you don't mean it. That's good advice, really.

[00:35:30] I know you're big on getting to the root cause, which of course anyone should be. But with all of these different, if you look at food could be an issue, of course. And even beyond food, what we drink, I think, could be an issue. Yep. Is it sleep, exercise, body image? How do you get to the root cause? I mean, because there could be so many factors. How long does it take you to work with a client to get to a root cause?

[00:35:57] So it kind of depends on what they're looking to do and what their goals are and what they are dealing with. So as I said, when you go to a functional medicine doctor, they'll have like almost like a book of stuff that you have to fill out. Like you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize I was gonna have to write a novel today. But the reason that they do that is so that they can understand where you're coming from, what has preceded all of these things, how you deal with things. And they look at you from a whole person.

[00:36:24] So they'll look at you from the physicality, but also the mental, even emotional and spiritual, while they won't like go into like talking about your spiritual habits or anything, but they want to know about those things because how that all of that stuff impacts your overall health. And so for people to understand that root cause, when you're looking and you're filling out all that paperwork, it's not just for, oh, this is going to tell them that I had this health condition or my parents had this health condition.

[00:36:52] Because what it can also show is what kind of patterns did you grow up in? So if your parents were diabetic and they had certain foods in the house, that is why you eat a certain way or why you do this or why you do that. And what you can start to do is when you look over some of those, some of the things that are written down, you can start to see a bigger picture of what that person is either looking for or what they've been dealing with. And while as a health coach, I can't like treat or diagnose anybody.

[00:37:21] The thing that I can spot are the patterns and to say, okay, so here we have a person who has not been eating as much in nutrition value and they don't really exercise, but they want to do this, this, and this. Their sleep has been off and their stress levels have been okay, but their sleep has been really very distorted throughout most of their life. So understanding that one of the key elements to help with like, if they're looking for like weight loss, nutrition is huge, but so is sleep.

[00:37:50] Sleep is a very big deal for weight loss. And if we don't look at that too, as part of the overall plan, you're kind of doing yourself a disservice because so many like of the fad diets and stuff, we'll just look at nutrition and exercise, like eat less, move more, but they're not talking about sleep and they're not talking about stress. And that's why all of those come into play. They're almost like pillars of your health, but some of them, if you almost think of like little dials, some of them are going to be higher that you have to work on.

[00:38:19] And then others will just have to be at the lower end. But when you're looking at a cohesive plan, you're trying to bring out all of those different aspects of the pillars to say, okay, which one is the highest that needs to be addressed first? And then we start tweaking the smaller ones then later. Yeah. You brought up a good point of like the fad diets and with social media these days, like you said, it can be addictive. You start scrolling and you see all these 30 second clips of, Hey, try this.

[00:38:48] Hey, do this. Hey, I cured myself with this. And how do we not get caught into that trap? Like buying every supplement there is. And what are we really doing to ourselves when we do this? Well, I think a lot of people it's overwhelming. It's so overwhelming because it's like, okay, well, I heard this person said that coffee's really good, but then this person said coffee's really bad. And then this person said I should be doing one meal a day. And then this person says I should be doing six meals a day. What should I be doing?

[00:39:17] And I think one of the things is that you have to stop and look at yourself as an individual and realize that works for what works for one person may not work for you. Like what I did and how I eat and how, and what the things that I do aren't necessarily going to work for all of my clients or for even one of them, because I'm an individual. Genetics are only about 10% of your overall health. The 90% is all of the daily choices that you make in your lifestyle.

[00:39:46] And so when we put that into perspective is to realize we still are individuals. So we can say, but then we have to take into account, it's like, all right, just because this person lost 20 to 30 pounds on this diet doesn't mean that is going to necessarily work for me because I have different, my body responds differently to different things than theirs does. And so with that, you kind of, I think you should seek out either a practitioner, a trainer, or

[00:40:14] a health coach that resonates with you to help you sift through some of that stuff, because it can be very overwhelming to understand which one is more founded in evidence-based science. That's looking at studies. Like I look at studies for my clients, I'll send them stuff so that they have that knowledge and they'll usually come in and say, Jen, I saw this. What do you think of that? So then we'll talk through it. And if I haven't seen it, then we'll watch it together and be like, okay, what is this saying? But I will always say, try to make sure that the studies, if you're looking at things,

[00:40:44] the studies are good studies and also where are they getting funded from? Because that can make a difference too. Yep. That's what I was going to say, who paid for. Yep. You have to watch out and making sure that the studies were done accurately. I saw a thing the other day, one of the people, one of the doctors that I follow said that they were, there was a study done on something and they didn't even actually include the diet that they were talking about in the study. And I was like, well, how is that even possible?

[00:41:11] But it came out that it was that this diet did something to increase like a risk for people, but it wasn't even a full version of that diet. Oh, wow. It's like, well, then how can that even be a real study? So that's why you have to be careful when you're reading things and go a little bit deeper than just the surface. And I think a lot of people don't even think about who paid for the study and that we all want to believe that everybody's honest and forthright. And yeah, but they're not, not everybody is.

[00:41:41] Yeah. And so you really have to look and say, what did this group or these people have to gain by paying for this study? So that, yep, yep. Absolutely. That seems like a hard one for people to really digest that. Oh, they weren't honest. Well, no, they weren't. Yeah. Cause you think, and you think that they are. And even like when you go to the grocery store, we think that all sitting on the shelves have been tested and approved and that kind of stuff.

[00:42:11] And it's like, they really haven't. Like those things haven't been. And a lot of them have been called under what's gross. So it's generally recognized as safe as the chemicals and stuff that are in there. They're just kind of almost like grandfathered in. But we think, oh yeah, all of that stuff has been approved by the, no, it hasn't. And that's where we just have to be a little more diligent and do our duties when we're looking at what we're putting into our body. Yeah. That's kind of scary.

[00:42:38] All the different factors that go into everything we're eating and drinking and wearing even how you hear stuff on clothes now. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Putting on your body. Yep. Makeup. Yep. And even like lotions, powders, personal care products, makeup. Women have the highest toxicity level. They usually have like, I think the number is like 186 different toxins because of all the personal care products that they use.

[00:43:03] So women are walking around more with those toxicity levels than men are. And so that's very important to understand. If we look at also with women are also the highest number for like autoimmune issues and chronic illness and like all that kind of stuff. So it's really important to kind of realize that what we put ingest, what we drink, what we put on our skin, what we're exposed to every day, the environmental factors make an impact on our bodies as well. Yeah.

[00:43:32] And I think even what you ingest mentally, right? Like all the scrolling and this and that can have an impact too. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I even catch myself because I like to get, I'm a avid learner. Like I love to learn and I'll catch myself. Cause I'm like, Ooh, that's an interesting study. Let me read on that. And then, Ooh, this is, and I'm like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I got to stop. I got to stop. Cause I'm scrolling. I'm starting to scroll and you catch yourself and that's the awareness, but yeah, people

[00:44:02] will lose themselves in it. And that's because of the dopamine and everything else, because it, it gives that reward system for you. I do have to ask, like, I'm hearing a lot about parasite cleanses. Do you think that there's something with, like, I especially hear, and you know, your phones listen to what you talk about. So I especially hear autoimmune paired with parasites. Do you believe in that or, or not? Yeah.

[00:44:28] I do think there is some belief or there is some truth to the parasites because I don't think we've paid enough attention to it in the U S I think in other countries, you'll hear people talk about parasites, but in the U S it doesn't get touched on enough that and maybe like mold toxicity, like those kinds of things people don't think about. So they'll think about everything else, but they don't think about some of those environmental things. I will say that parasites are part of the nutrition. So you do have to be careful cleanses.

[00:44:57] I would say you want to watch out for some of those. You want to go to somebody who's very reputable, reputable. There's a few doctors out there that do have some good cleanses, or they'll at least test you of what you have. And then they can help bring those things down. I would say, be a little bit careful. It might just be, Hey, yeah, I did this parasite cleanse and it worked. And remember, you want to be careful of what you're putting into your body and what works for some people may not necessarily work for you in the same capacity.

[00:45:25] So you just want to take it a little bit with a grain of salt. And I would always say, if you can test for the parasites, I would do that first. So you know what you're dealing with before you just go and do just a cleanse off of social media. Yeah. And for the record, the more I hear about it, the more I believe that you need some kind of professional guidance if you do a cleanse, because there's these things release toxins into your bloodstream as you kill them and all kinds of stuff.

[00:45:52] And I just don't think the average person's aware of all that they're doing. So yeah. Well, and they could have multiple things too, that they're not aware of. Right. And that's why like, if you test and say, okay, yeah, you have this, this, and this, and then you can go on a little bit of a protocol. And it may be the exact same protocol that that person had said will work. But if you don't know that, like maybe you have like, you don't know that you have liver flukes, but you do, and you're, and you're doing parasite cleanse for something else.

[00:46:22] Well, then that can make a difference in what happens with it. So I think the more you can test versus guess makes it a little bit easier because then you have the data to say, okay, this is how we can go after this. And this is what we can do to make sure that it's targeted. And then that way you don't have to keep redoing it over and over again or not, or doing it. And then being like, I still don't feel good and having to do even more stuff. Right. Exactly.

[00:46:47] So if someone's listening and they're not ready to take the deep dive into a professional yet, or what's the first steps you think, or they don't have the money or whatever the reason is, what would be their first steps to try to help themselves? Because it is overwhelming and there are so many factors. Where do you even start? So I would say sometimes it depends on what their needs are, but I would say nutrition, try to go more as many whole foods as you can, can get versus processed foods.

[00:47:17] If you can start to switch that over. So like, let's say right now you're on a 50% ultra processed food diet versus 50% whole food. Try to get that percentage of processed food. Try to get that down. So you don't have to go and throw everything out and go for all whole foods right away, because that doesn't always work for some people. So what the way that you can start to make it easier is to say, you know what, I'm going to take my dinner and instead of having some processed foods with my dinner, I'm going to

[00:47:47] have that. So it's all whole foods. And then just do that for a while and be consistent with that. And then say, okay, maybe for my lunch, I'm going to do, instead of all processed foods, I'm going to do 50% processed foods, 50% whole foods, and then do that. Plus then the dinner. So you're starting, you start with a foundation, you're starting in there with a small thing, and then you're adding onto it. It'll make it a lot easier to stay with it and to stick with it. And it won't be as overwhelming.

[00:48:16] And what I would say is like, you have to prioritize which is the biggest key for you. If it's sleep, then it's coming up with a good morning routine and good bedtime routine. If it's exercise, maybe start off with some walking. You don't have to run marathons. You don't have to do sprints or even do deadlifts. Maybe it's just going to the gym and doing some, some machines and just starting off maybe once or twice a week with that. And then going up from there.

[00:48:42] So really starting small and building on top of that can make it a lot easier and less overwhelming. So with your clients, and I know you said you see patterns, what's the difference between the ones that sustain and maintain versus the ones that can't? What have you seen? What the magic formula is? Mindset. Mindset is one of the biggest keys. Having, making that mindset change and understanding what your vision is of who you want to become

[00:49:11] and understanding where you are and to love who you are at that point. So you can look at yourself and say, you know what? Yeah. Yeah. I may have made some mistakes along the way, but I'm here where I am. I know my baseline. I love who I am. And I know the vision of myself that I want to do. And she's technically inside of you because if you didn't have that vision, she wouldn't be there. Right? So you have that vision within you of who you want to become.

[00:49:38] And you have to take that and say, okay, to get to that person, how do I have to be? Who do I have to change into? What are the non-tribbles that I have to be that person? And then say, okay, which one of these is the easiest for me to start with? If it's too over one, if it's too big, say, which is the easiest for me to start with? Well, maybe it's just starting with a walk in the morning. And then I started doing that. And then maybe it's working on my nutrition. So it just depends on the person. But mindset is the hugest key for sustainability.

[00:50:08] That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I don't know who said it. But the other day, I heard someone because a lot of us think, but I don't have the discipline to do this. And I heard someone say the other day that discipline is just a decision. It's just making a decision. And I was like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. That puts it in a whole different frame. Yeah. So yeah, it really is. It really is. It's the decision to say, okay, am I going to eat this? This cookie snack? Or do I want to do an apple with some cheese?

[00:50:37] It's that it really is that easy. If we think about it that way, it's that decision to say, okay, do I want this? Or do I want this? Which one do I want to do? With the vision that I have, the apple and the cheese is going to work better than the cookie snack that I have in my in this hand. So I'm going to put that down. I'm going to take this because that is going to get me to where I want to go. It's those moment to moment decisions and doing them consistently every day. That is what will take you in the momentum builds. And then that creates the motivation.

[00:51:07] And then that creates the results. That's awesome. Thank you. And I want to take the last few minutes and let you talk about Compass Health Coaching. If you'd like. Oh yeah. Let us know more about that. What your programs are like. Yeah. So you can find me at compasshealthcoachingllc.com. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram. You can find me on LinkedIn. And the way that I do my programs, I actually have a really great new one that I call Reset and Rise. And it actually brings in different facets of what we've been talking about today.

[00:51:36] So the first core part of it is mindset. And then the second part is really looking at the pillars of health and then talking about practical application. So it's in like three pieces. It's a 12 week program, but it also includes genetic testing. And this is where I'm really excited about it because we talk about that 10%, but when you have that 10% to tell you what your body responds best to, then it really kind of makes you almost unstoppable because it's saying, okay, this is how my body responds.

[00:52:03] If I create a program that responds to what my body really loves, I'm going to get better results as I'm going forward. So I've started encompassing that in my signature programs that I've been doing and Reset and Rise is the first one, but I also have a gut microbiome one gravity program as well. But you can also do one-on-one sessions if a signature program isn't something that you necessarily want to do or can afford to do because they are a little bit higher ticket with the

[00:52:32] genetic testing and how deep we go. But even doing one-on-one sessions. So if you just have a few things that you want to work on, we can do that too. So that's definitely something that we can do. And I love what I do every day and helping people figure out what's going to work best for them because you can't always go off of what everybody else is doing. Personalization will get you there faster and it will also help you sustain it longer. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. And you can tell that you love what you do. You beam, you glow. Well, thank you.

[00:53:04] That's neat. But thank you for coming and sharing your wisdom with us today. And it's been a fascinating conversation. I appreciate it. Oh, well, thank you so much for having me today, Michelle. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. As we wrap up this episode, one thing that really stayed with me from my conversation with Jen is something so many of us are guilty of. We wait until our bodies force us to pay attention. Jen described how the body can start with a whisper, then get louder and eventually begin

[00:53:33] yelling when we continue to ignore what it's telling us. In a culture that often treats pushing through exhaustion and burnout like a badge of honor, that's a reminder I think many of us need. I also loved our conversation about learning to appreciate our bodies for what they do for us rather than constantly criticizing them for what they aren't. Jen said something incredibly simple but powerful. You can't heal a body that you hate. I hope this conversation encourages you to ask better questions, do your own research,

[00:54:03] work with qualified healthcare professionals when appropriate, and most importantly, start listening when your body whispers instead of waiting until it has to scream. If you'd like to learn more about Jen, her work, or Compass Health Healing, you'll find all of her information in today's show notes. If this episode encouraged you, would you take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little hope today? Every share helps me reach someone who may need to hear that taking ownership of your health

[00:54:32] can begin with something as simple as paying attention and asking better questions. Until next time, remember, even in the middle of life's greatest struggles, there is still beauty to be found in the mess. As always, I hope this episode helps at least one person, and with that, I hope you have a blessed week, my friend. Thank you for listening to The Beauty and the Mess. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share it with a friend.

[00:55:00] And if you haven't already, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite pod player. If you have any questions or comments, any topic ideas you would like to hear about, or you think you would be a great guest on the show, you can reach me directly at thebeautyandthemess.com. Thanks for listening.