Unlocking Health Mysteries for more Business Success | EP271

Ever wondered why some goals remain elusive despite your best efforts? On this week’s episode of the Mindset & Action podcast, we explore the ebb and flow of goal-setting, sharing candid stories of both triumphs and setbacks. By revealing my personal encounters with unmet goals, I aim to shift your perspective—because missing a goal isn't a failure, it’s a learning experience. We also take a deep dive into my ongoing health journey, where mindset plays a pivotal role. Partnering with nutritionist Julie Clark, I've embarked on a quest to address unexplained weight gain and other perplexing health issues, underscoring the value of seeking professional guidance.

Learn the critical importance of understanding your internal health before making any significant lifestyle changes. I recount my journey through five comprehensive tests with Julie, including the Dutch test, DNA mapping, and microbiome analysis. These tests revealed imbalances and deficiencies that are sabotaging my health and weight loss efforts. For women, especially, such detailed insights can be life-changing. As we set the stage for the last quarter of the year, I share strategies for setting realistic goals that align with your health needs.

Julie Clark Nutrition
Far 2 Fabulous Podcast

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Chapters

• 0:00 Health and Mindset Journey Discussion
• 6:07 Understanding Body Through Comprehensive Testing
• 14:30 Optimizing Health Through Comprehensive Testing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody, for this mini Monday Mindset episode. Today I am by myself.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Conflicts with schedules mean that I wasn't able to record with Viv in time to get a Mindset episode up for this week. But this week is actually goal week, so we are at the end of quarter three, going into quarter four if you go by the January to December year or you know. Alternatively, we are at the end of a quarter, whatever sort of stage you take it, whether you're a tax year person or a January person. So, that being said, there is a lot to talk about in Thursday's episodes, where we're going to be going over my goals for the last quarter and setting goals for the end of the year, and I encourage you, as always, to take that time to look at your goals and things like that. So the reason that I do that, the reason that I share with you, is because sometimes I hit my goals and sometimes I don't, and sometimes things are on my goal list for quite a while before they get done and I'm just here to try and show you that you know, we're all human. We all have things that happen in our lives that take us off the path of what we were planning on doing, and things show up and it's not that you're failing, it's not that you're useless or any of those other derogatory terms that you want to throw at yourself when you look at your goals and think I didn't hit them. We're human, we're going through life. As long as we're putting one step in front of the other, I think we're winning, generally speaking. So today I'm going to use today's episode to talk to you a little bit about part of my mental health journey and my health journey in general, and how this kind of fits in with my goals. So one of the things that you will know that I have been doing over the last few years is focusing on my health.

Speaker 1: 2:50

If you've been somebody who's been around on the podcast for a while, I have been looking at my health. I've always struggled with my weight. It has been something that has been an issue for me in my head since I was about 11 years old, but physically since I was probably about 17, 18 years old, and it's just been an on-off struggle and it's one of those things where I have literally done everything. I've done the Slimming World, the Weight Watchers, the Rosemary Connolly. I've done exercise, I've done DVDs, I've done the gym. I've done the banana diet. I did the Cambridge diet. I did, you know, the blood type diet. You know all of these different. I've been there, done it. The blood type diet you know all of these different. I've been there, done it. I've even bought some stupid pills along the way that it said that they were, you know, to help you slim down the suppress your appetite, and things like. I've done the ridiculous things. I've done the more regular things. You know everything pretty much bar surgery, I think, and I have still struggled and I realised, probably, you know, maybe, I would say maybe five, five to seven years ago.

Speaker 1: 4:03

I realised that actually, the thing that you needed to get right when it comes to weight loss is your mindset around it, and I did lose weight back in 2015. I looked the best I felt I ever looked and I was really, really happy with the way I looked. However, my mind had told me you know, it was ingrained in my head that, according to the numbers, I was still considered overweight by the NHS by the NHS, and so I just desperately wanted to not be in that category and I just was just wanted to get seven pounds down, even though I looked great as I was, even though I could have very, you know, staying there would have been perfect for me. I had it in my head that I needed to be seven pounds lighter, and my body just didn't seem to want to do it. No matter what I did, what I tried, the weight just didn't want to shift. And so then, in you know, as has happened many times before, I kind of gave up on it, but I didn't focus on what it would take to actually maintain myself at that weight and the weight prep back on. And then the last sort of six months or so, my weight has increased and I haven't really changed anything about what I'm eating or the exercise I'm doing. So I had thought that I was going through perimenopause and I went to the doctors and they put me on HRT.

Speaker 1: 5:29

At the same time, just a little while after that, I started working with a nutritionist. Her name is Julie Clark. She is the co-host of the Far Too Fabulous podcast. I've spoken about her a lot as well, and what I wanted to talk to you about today was the testing that we had done. And the reason I am talking about this is because, even if weight is not your issue, if you are feeling lethargic all the time, if you feel like you're always behind, if your mood is low, if you just aren't feeling yourself or you just feel like everything's normal, but something isn't working for you and you can't work out what it is.

Speaker 1: 6:07

My biggest thing was I do not want to go on another diet when I do not know what is going on inside my body. I do not know what my body needs from me and without doing tests, I'm not going to find that out. So I asked Julie to do some testing with me and I did five different tests and I'm going to touch on them today. So today's episode is probably going to be a little bit longer than the 10 minutes, because I want to make sure that I cover all of this, because I think it's really important. My results have been very shocking to me and I think knowledge is power, so knowing what is going on is really important.

Speaker 1: 6:51

So the tests that we did we did the Dutch test. Now, the Dutch test is quite a famous one. It may be one that you have heard of, but in this test and I'm not going to go into all the ins and outs of everything that is in each of the tests, because I can't even remember what's in which test to be honest with you in some cases, but the Dutch test shows up what your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels are, and I only had one of those in the normal range, which was the testosterone. My estrogen and progesterone were way out of whack, and when I say way out of whack, I mean you couldn't have got higher on the estrogen or lower on the progesterone, and what that means is that basically, my body had been put back into puberty and that, I believe, is because of the HRT. So I didn't actually need HRT. I've got way too much estrogen in my system already.

Speaker 1: 7:45

I wasn't given progesterone because I already have a device that contains some progesterone, but I was told that actually it doesn't contain enough progesterone for what I need and my balance is out of whack. So I need to come off the HRT, which is something that I am doing slowly so as not to put my body in any more shock. But I didn't need it, which is why, actually, the spots on my face which I've been complaining about for the last year have exploded and are now on both sides of my face. So too much estrogen causing spots, causing all of those sort of teenage temper tantrums, like you know, short temper, uh, fuse, that's really short, um, because I'm sort of in that puberty mindset internally in my body, um. So that was so important for me to know and the nhs cannot do, will not do this test to see what your levels of estrogen are for the purposes of giving you hrt. They will do your blood test test, but blood tests don't always show up whether you need it or not, so they just it's a trial and error and I'm not going to go into that today on how I think that that is really bad, that the NHS have got tests that they can do and they don't do them and they just give you a let's see what it does when that could be really damaging you on the inside.

Speaker 1: 9:07

So that side, the dutch test we did. We did also did a dna map which obviously looked at my dna and what I was kind of prone and susceptible to. It went over quite a lot of different things. We did a mineral test. So that was a hair test to test what my minerals levels were like and in there we found that I was low in the core four, which Julie said we need to address that core four, because anything else you do isn't really going to make much of an impact if those core four aren't up to their levels. So that was shown on the mineral test. Then we did a microbiome test which showed that I actually have low diversity in my microbiome, which means that my gut is not, you know, doing its job as well as it could be doing in terms of digesting and filtering.

Speaker 1: 9:59

My food test and this one was probably the sort of scariest results for me because it showed that my nervous system is in crisis really, and that was kind of scary. But I wouldn't have known any of this if I hadn't done the tests. So it wouldn't have really mattered what exercise regime I did or what food regime I did, because I have the fat gene, which doesn't mean that I'm destined to be fat, it just means that my body holds on to it easier. So that's why I usually struggle with weight loss. My adrenals are completely out of whack, so they're trying in fight or flight survival mode. So they're trying to hold on to everything again, making it more difficult for me to lose weight. My dopamine, serotonin, melatonin all low, practically non-existent. So it's no wonder my mood is low. So all of this to say that this stuff is stuff that I just didn't know was happening inside my body and you can't always tell from the outside. You know, basically I've been in fight or flight for a very, very long time, so this has become my normal. What I am going through is my normal.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So one of the things that Julie said was somebody with your test results, I would make certain assumptions on the type of person that they would be, the type of lifestyle that they would be living. And it's not you. I can't work out how you're actually, you know, functioning, and that, to me, is just proof that it's been a long process over a long period of time and it's become my new normal. But one of the things that really concerns me is my anxiety, and that to me, I've now realized, is my adrenals. This is the panic that I get in my chest and that has increased a lot in the last few weeks, and I'm aware of the reasons for that, but it's just more top of mind that actually, this is really not good for me because of the fact that my system is in that fight or flight and survival mode and I need to work harder on trying to keep calm and balance myself. And so this all to say.

Speaker 1: 12:25

When we are in business for ourselves one and when we are parents and when we've got other people relying on us, we are often at the bottom of the list when it comes to priorities and we often allow our boundaries to be overstepped a lot because we're just trying to cope, we're just trying to get through the day. And it's not to say that you all need to rush out and be worried about what's going on inside your body. You know I have been through a lot of trauma in my life and I think it does really show up in these tests. To be fair, but knowledge is power and I think, before you consider starting another diet or going on different types of drugs, that there are these tests out there and yes, they cost money.

Speaker 1: 13:13

But if I add up how much I've spent on the gym and slimming world and weight watchers and silly diets and things like that over the years, I can tell you it cost me an awful lot more than actually getting to what I see as the root cause of the issues being able to see these levels in my body and being able to address that and balance them and make a real difference, rather than just trying to eat less and move more, which, yes, that obviously the whole calories in versus calories out. Yes, you need a certain amount of calories to live. If you eat more than that, you'll gain weight. If you eat less than that, you'll lose weight. But it's not that simple and there is so much to understand inside you. So, like I said, this is not just a weight thing, this is a mentality thing. This is how is your mental health? You can really see the difference, like I can see from my results, that when I am sitting here feeling low and thinking I might have to go back on my antidepressants, I can see why there's a reason for it. I can see that my body is not doing what it needs to do.

Speaker 1: 14:30

But now I know that I can work with Julie to actually help my body put back in place those systems that are currently, you know, not working to make that work for me and my body. And so I would say to anybody and I just think that in general, especially women of around my age so I'm 43. So anywhere you know from my age upwards, you know from 40 upwards, whatever if and just if you're feeling not quite right in yourself, get these tests done. Work with somebody who understands how to read them, because I tell you what, if I hadn't had Julie, I wouldn't have understood anything I was reading. Read them because I tell you what, if I hadn't had Julie, I wouldn't have understood anything I was reading. Work with somebody to really get your body back in balance. And it's not about having this protein and having that carbohydrate. It's about having these minerals, having these types of foods to fuel this hormone and things like that that are just so much more technical. And you may find that these tests come back and you're fine, but you don't know what you don't know and we really can't tell. And if you have been somebody who is like me, who has been in survival mode for a majority of their life, then what you think is normal potentially isn't and your body could just be adapting to what it's gone through and it's putting extra stress on your system that doesn't need to be there. So I found it absolutely fascinating.

Speaker 1: 16:06

I am working with Julie on a 12-week program. We are two weeks in. I am taking some B vitamins that I'm low in. I'm taking some zinc. You know my magnesium is low. Lots of, lots of things to work on over the next 12 weeks.

Speaker 1: 16:23

But what I loved about Julie's approach is she said I want to make it easy for you. There is a lot to do and we will take it one step at a time. And that to me was just music to my ears, because I am somebody who goes full throttle into things. When I get like I've got a plan, I'm going to do it, I go headlong into it. And she already knew that about me before we started working together and said, look, I'm going to make it easy. Before we started working together and said, look, I'm going to make it easy. It's going to feel like you know, too easy for you because you want to do all the things all at once, but we're going to take it slow because that's what your body needs. So I am working on that. There is lots to sort of go through, lots of stages. As I say, we're working together for 12 weeks. I hope that this has inspired you. I'm going to leave Julie's details in the comments in the show notes for you.

Speaker 1: 17:20

Please, if you are looking to find out what is wrong, why you're feeling certain ways, what you know, your energy levels are low, you're struggling to get up in the morning, you know any of this stuff please consider doing the tests and paying for those tests, because, yes, it is expensive. You know, in my world it's expensive. To people who are in higher income brackets than me, it might not be anything, but I know that it is an expensive anything, but I know that it is an expensive option. However, it is going to be the thing that tells you exactly what is right and wrong within your body system. It's going to tell you exactly what it is you need to change in able to enable you to bring your body back into balance. You're not going to be able to just do that by choosing the good foods over the quote-unquote bad foods. And, yeah, you might. You might lose weight, you might feel a little better because you are getting those extra vitamins and minerals, but it is so hard to know what you're actually deficient in and what you've got too much of without doing the tests. So I would highly recommend it. Not an affiliate, not sponsored.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Just wanted to sort of tell you where I am in my journey and how this is affecting me, because this is actually impacting my work, because I am feeling very overwhelmed and very much like I'm juggling all the plates and feel like I'm not doing anything to the best of my ability, and then, in the personal life, impacts there as well. So it is one of those things that, once you know, you can have some sort of sense of of control, in that you can say, okay, I understand why this is happening, so I can give myself a break when it comes to the fact that I'm not getting xyz done, because that's the thing for me is like I'm like why aren't you getting this done? You should be out, you've got the time, you should be able to just do this. Why are you quote-unquote failing so miserably and beating myself up about things? And I'm not very kind to myself, which I need to change. But having this information, knowing that actually my body needs me right now and needs me to sort it out so that I can show up better, so that I can be there and be more present in you know what it is that I'm doing, has really been an eye-opener for me. So that is where I'm at.

Speaker 1: 19:57

On Thursday, we're going to be talking about my last quarter goals and then we're going to be setting some goals for the next quarter, which may be impacted by the fact that I've got these results and that I'm going to be doing my last 10 weeks or so with Julie during that time. So my goals are going to reflect the fact that I am doing this work. So come back on Thursday and listen in for more information on that. Julie's information will be linked below. Highly recommend doing the tests and finding stuff out. You know it's, it's amazing, the things that you just don't know about your body when you live in it on a daily basis. So that is it for today, guys. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next one. Bye for now.