How an Integrative Approach to Your Wellness Makes All the Difference
Apr 01, 2021
As a functional medicine health coach, I want to offer you hope, not hype. Hope that stirs up your courage to try again. Because there is a way for you to overcome illness, pain, chronic conditions, and yes, weight loss resistance. My approach doesn’t begin with a strict exercise program, guilt, or a long to-do list.
It starts with functional lab tests and scientific data.
When you can understand the state of your body’s health you can build a predictable plan for weight loss and to heal your body from illness.
In this case study, I’m going to share with you how I helped one of my clients achieve the health benefits she was after. This is Kathi’s story.
You’ll find it interesting because first, she’s an experienced fitness coach who was struggling with weight loss, and second because of what we discovered along the way.
Meet Kathi
Kathi is a go-getter. Anyone who knows her would tell you she’s energetic and fun to be around. She’s a wife, and a mother of five, an entrepreneur, and runs a mindset and fitness coaching business. She helps her clients reach their fitness goals by beginning with their mindset.
She explained why she uses this approach.
“It’s hard to commit to a fitness routine if your head is filled with negative thinking. Doubts will keep you from making progress. It’s like you are defeated before you even start.”
So her mission is to not only get you moving your body more, but also to shift how you think and talk about your body.
I have the same belief when it comes to healing the body and weight loss. You have to shift the way you look at the problem if you’re going to experience success.
Kathi has been helping men and women change their mindsets and achieve their fitness goals for over 30 years.
So by now, you may be asking yourself, well then - why did she need a health coach? It’s a great question and, as you soon will read, a great example of how taking an integrative approach to your wellness makes all the difference.
The Problem
Even though Kathi is extremely knowledgeable and experienced, she had some issues she could not find a solution to. While she had made some discoveries and progress to heal in the past, she was still struggling to find solutions for two particular health issues. The answers eluded her.
She was experiencing:
- Weight loss resistance
The pandemic of 2020 opened the door to a host of bad eating habits for Kathi. Too many chips, ordering out, and a glass of wine at the end of the day resulted in 10+ pounds she didn’t want. Even with walking 2-5 miles a day and hiking on weekends, she was struggling to release the extra weight and was frustrated.
- Painful skin rash
For years she suffered from extremely painful itching on her hands and feet. Her condition became so bad that she couldn’t even sleep at night unless she took an antihistamine. Sometimes, a double dose was needed.
After trying everything she knew how—she hit a wall.
That’s when she reached out to me. She knew of my health coaching background and functional medicine training and wanted to know if I could help her.
Solution: Find the Root Cause
Conditions like Kathi’s are due to something going on inside the body. The way to uncover these causes is through easy-to-do-at-home, functional lab tests. The lab tests give you the information you need about hidden stressors inside of your body and to help you understand how well your body is working on a cellular level. When you know what’s not working properly, you can fix it and achieve the results you want. Whether that is weight loss, getting rid of a monster rash that keeps you up at night, or other health conditions, functional lab tests are critical to finding a solution that will work for you.
There are three main types of testing that I like to do with my clients;
- food sensitivities,
- gut health assessment, and
- hormone testing.
Kathi wanted to start with the food sensitivities, ordered her test kit, and waited for the results. Here’s what we learned.
The results of Kathi’s food sensitivities indicated an overgrowth of candida. If you’re unfamiliar with candida, it’s a beneficial yeast that is found on our skin, in our mouths and our gut. But having too much of it in the gut creates health problems and illness.
The balance of candida can become disrupted by taking antibiotics, eating a diet high in refined carbs and sugar, alcohol consumption, and even elevated stress levels can cause an overgrowth of candida.
When there is an overgrowth of candida, symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain, frequent UTIs, skin or nail infections, sinus infections, digestive issues-including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, can develop.1
We also discovered that Kathi’s unexplained itching of her hands and feet was due to histamine intolerance. Her body was not breaking down histamine in her gut. Instead, it was leaking through the intestinal wall, entering the bloodstream and causing an allergic response in her hands and feet.
Common symptoms of histamine intolerance may include hives, facial swelling, headaches, migraines, fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles, nausea, sinus issues, and asthma attacks.2
A Science-Based Approach
Now that I had information as to what was happening inside Kathi’s body, I was able to advise a strategy for her to self-treat and overcome her health issues. In her case, a specific change in diet was an important piece. To correct the candida imbalance, she needed to stop feeding the candida the sugars it lives off of. For her, that meant giving up wine, dairy, grains, and other foods she enjoyed.
Candida also thrives on artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas, sugary desserts, salad dressings, protein and meal replacement bars, and yogurts. Fermented foods, legumes, starchy vegetables, gluten, and GMOs contribute to an overgrowth of candida, too.3
She stopped feeding the candida. She committed to a different way of eating (temporarily) to starve the candida. She began taking supplements and an antimicrobial protocol. Before long she noticed her symptoms improved and in just 24 days she had lost 9 pounds! We were amazed.
But then—she plateaued again.
Determined to get rid of the last couple of pounds, she wondered why couldn’t she lose the weight? And why on earth did her weight go back up when she was only eating salads?
“Kate, I’m up a pound and a half today just eating salad.”
So I asked her, “What’s in the salad?”
“Just some greens with a little broccoli and cabbage to spice it up a bit,” she replied.
“Stop the broccoli and cabbage,” I told her.
“What?!”
She thought I was crazy but agreed. The next day, the weight was down. Kathi could not believe it. You see, not all good foods are good for all people. Kathi’s body was reacting to the cruciferous vegetables she added to her salad. Remove those trouble makers and like magic, problem solved.
Another Interesting Discovery
The ‘monster rash’ as Kathi called it had improved, but then it returned. Having learned that broccoli and cabbage were an issue, she began to wonder what she may have eaten to bring the rash back.
She decided to cut out the Tai garlic chili cashews she recently purchased and the bone broth she had. They were the only thing she could think of as being the cause. The next night, her itching was even worse.
“Kate, the itching is back.”
We talked about what she had been eating and drinking. What she eliminated and the result. As I reviewed her case I suggested that she stop drinking tea. She was drinking plain, unsweetened black tea and chamomile tea. But I suspected that she was having a reaction to the tannins in the tea. Again, she thought I was a little crazy, but she agreed.
The result? No itching! No hives! She was so surprised.
And—she also lost another 2 pounds!
“The whole tea thing was like a portal moment for me. Kate walked me through a door I didn’t know existed. I would have stopped every food but kept the tea. It was transformational for me. I learned something totally new, I never suspected tea.”
This is exactly why you need a health coach. I can help you find out what your body needs so you can get the results you want too.
What Will Your Success Story Be?
I share Kathi’s story because I want you to know that it can be done. Whatever your issues are, there is a real reason and a solution. All illness and weight problems can be traced back to issues in the gut. Food sensitivities and allergies, hormone imbalances, and too many bad gut bugs disrupt your entire body.
If you find out what is happening in the gut you can heal your body and lose weight. All it takes to discover what you need are some very easy, do-at-home functional lab tests. You can start the process right now.
Download my free book Revolutionary Weight Loss. With it, you will receive links for book bonuses including guides and references to purchase the testing kits. It’s really that easy to get started.
Let me share one last thought from Kathi.
“There’s only so much you can learn from a scale. If you don’t dig deeper you can’t truly heal for complete transformation.” -Kathi
It’s not hype. It’s science. The science of your unique body.
If you’re ready to begin your transformation to wellness and you’re ready to work with a functional medicine health coach, schedule your first session here.
Endnotes
- “7 Symptoms of Candida Overgrowth (Plus How to Get Rid of It).” 24 Aug. 2017, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/candida-symptoms-treatment. Accessed 17 Mar. 2021.
- “Anaphylaxis: An overwhelming allergic reaction – Harvard Health.” https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/anaphylaxis-an-overwhelming-allergic-reaction. Accessed 17 Mar. 2021.
- “To Be or Not to Be a Pathogen: Candida albicans and Celiac Disease.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6906151/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2021.
