Karen has been without alcohol for one year and 167 days.
Karen has been without cigarettes for one year and 164 days.
But who’s counting?
(Karen and I are!)
And that’s just the beginning of Karen’s story.
In August 2020, Karen’s endocrinologist sent her my way.
Karen arrived at our first virtual appointment with a few “must-have” health outcomes top of mind:
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Relieve debilitating pelvic pain
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Karen experienced excruciating pain during sex and for days after. This made the prospect of intimacy with her beloved husband a source of anxiety.
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Periods lead to worsened pain and pelvic floor tightness that irritated her bladder. Karen felt like she spent half her days urinating around her period.
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Karen suspected inflammation was a barrier she needed to address on her road to relief from pelvic pain.
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Set self + body up for a healthy pregnancy
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Karen saw her first step towards a healthy pregnancy as addressing pelvic pain so that she could actually enjoy the act of making a baby! (LOL)
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Karen was aware her lifestyle was not a good match for a healthy pregnancy and healthy child but was struggling to make necessary changes.
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Based on over a decade of evidence, Karen knew she would continue struggling to make essential changes without customized guidance and an empowering partnership.
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Cultivate new habits given by a commitment to vitality (VS an obsession with the scale)
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Karen had spent over a decade living the broken, inherited “all or nothing” approach to nutrition and exercise.
She knew how to sustain the latest fad deprivation diet for months.
She knew how to use self-aggression as a strategy for getting to the gym regularly and working herself to the bone.
And she was DONE with this approach.
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Karen was certain there was a different way to approach her health – one that would leave her empowered and with access to sustainable outcomes.
An approach that would leave her with mastery of her Middleground vs more failed “all or nothing” attempts to elevate her health and vitality.
And she was correct!
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First stop…gather data.
In Karen’s first 90-minute virtual appointment, I began gathering puzzle pieces on her current health, her health history, her lifestyle and her family health history.
I learned about the supplements she was taking and reviewed her recent lab work.
There were a few key pieces of information missing, so we sent Karen to Quest to complete specific blood tests before our second appointment.
We also had Karen complete a Comprehensive Microbiome Assessment, affectionately known as a “poop test”, to unearth any connections between the microbes in her gut and the chronic pelvic pain she experienced.
What did we learn?
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Karen’s hunch that inflammation was elevated was correct! Inflammation, as measured by a lab test called “high sensitivity C-reactive protein” (hsCRP), was off the charts at 9.8.
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High inflammation = more pain
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High inflammation = reduced fertility
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Omega 3 Fatty Acids – severely deficient
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Low omega 3’s = more pain
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Low omega 3’s = reduced fertility
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Omega 3 fatty acids are required to build the brain of a developing fetus. Addressing this severe deficiency was foundational to Karen’s commitment to have a healthy child.
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Zinc – lower than optimal
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Lower zinc = more pain.
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Lower zinc = hormonal imbalances = reduced fertility
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Karen’s microbiome was a hot mess.
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Your microbiome (bugs living primarily in your digestive tract) plays an important role in pain perception and in regulating inflammation.
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What did we do with this information?
We got to work!
NUTRITION:
Karen tracked her nutrition on a shared google document between our first and second session.
I identified Karen’s “low hanging fruit”, educating Karen on targeted nutritional shifts that would measurably reduce pain and prepare her body for a healthy pregnancy.
Nutritional shifts focused on:
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replenishing nutrients
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reducing inflammation
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fueling a healthy microbiome
But we did not start with a complete nutritional makeover.
We both knew that shifting from a “SAD” (standard American diet) to a “GLAD” (growing, living, antioxidant-rich diet) would take time.
Through our collaborative partnership, we would build Karen’s toolkit of nutritional solutions that worked for her taste buds and her busy life.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Between sessions I researched the three supplements Karen was taking.
Much to my chagrin, these were well-marketed, low quality options. Simply put, the supplements Karen was taking were not fulfilling their proclaimed miracle outcomes.
I educated Karen on the “what, how + why” of specific supplements that best served her body’s needs – ones that focused on replenishing nutrients, breaking the vicious cycle of inflammation, preparing her body for a healthy pregnancy and supporting detoxification (more on that later).
Because we had data – lab work, my research and clinical experience – I was able to customize Karen’s supplement prescription based on her body’s unique needs.
Some supplements she required more of than the generic instructions on the bottle. Some supplements required less.
Karen ditched her old supplements and began her new, targeted supplement regimen.
In addition to monitoring Karen’s symptoms over time, we agreed on a cadence of checking our progress with follow-up blood work every 10 weeks.
LIFESTYLE:
Karen started smoking at 17 and at the time of our first appointment was smoking 10 cigarettes daily.
Karen was also drinking up to 10 alcoholic beverages weekly and was struggling with her relationship to alcohol.
Karen didn’t wake up wanting to drink, and alcohol wasn’t interfering with her work or relationships. But Karen felt the negative impact nonetheless:
weekend days wasted away from hangovers, increased anxiousness, increased pelvic floor pain and poor food choices that impacted her digestion, her mood and her self-confidence.
Karen wasn’t yet ready to tackle cigarettes and alcohol, so we focused on two actions that she felt were much more achievable:
Normalizing her sleep schedule and walking on her treadmill before work.
INTENTION:
It is my experience that getting crystal clear on your intention for your health and your life is as essential as the data (vitals, blood work, research, etc) in producing transformative health outcomes.
Let’s face it – making changes that measurable impact health is challenging for most people or the diet industry wouldn’t be the multi-billion dollar industry it is.
Besides, cookies and pizza and ice cream are delicious.
You may be able to beat yourself into submission for a few weeks or months, forcing yourself to abstain from lower nutrient foods and beverages. But history tells us that deprivation is not sustainable.
Because only sustainable actions will produce sustainable outcomes, cultivating a new relationship with how you:
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eat, drink, move, sleep and relate to your body
…is essential.
Transforming your relationship with food, beverages, your lifestyle and your body starts with your intention for one simple reason:
“You don’t buy what you do. You buy why you do it.”
Through a process I call “creating your Vision of Vitality”, I guided Karen in giving words to her intention for her health and her life. She got crystal clear on her truth:
Honoring her health and creating resilience within her body is access to fully experiencing the wonders of this life and fully being a contribution.
Karen got into action.
Over the course of the next months, Karen and I met weekly. Karen completed assignments between appointments (readings, blogs, podcasts) chosen based on her unique journey “crossing the monkey bars of change”.
Yes, Karen fell off the monkey bars sometimes, but she always got back on. And rather than engaging in conversations grounded in shame, we used Karen’s challenges to fuel her forward progress. We used Karen’s challenges to learn more about what works for Karen. Together we built Karen’s customized toolkit of information, insights and strategies.
REAL + MEASURABLE OUTCOMES
Karen gave up drinking and smoking completely in January 2021. While their are obvious benefits related to longevity in these choices, there are benefits that are less well-known:
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Increased toxins = increased pain
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Increased toxins = drastically reduces chances of conception
Karen’s work has resulted in a major reduction in inflammation. (Inflammatory marker hsCRP was initially 9.8 and was 3.9 at our last read!)
And what has all of our work made available?
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Pelvic pain – a few times a month will hit a high of 4/10 (previously was regularly 8/10 on the low side and frequently increased to “off the charts”).
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Karen can now actually *enjoy* sex with her honey.
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Karen stopped experiencing worsened pelvic floor pain and tightness during her periods. The irritation of her bladder coupled with frequency of urination disappeared.
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Endocrinologist managing her thyroid reported in early 2021 Karen’s labs look the best they have ever looked.
AND…
Karen is now expecting her first child!!!
Karen is proud of herself for how she cares for her body and her health. She is living aligned with her intention for her health and her life.
Through our Well Empowered partnership, Karen has revamped her nutritional habits and her lifestyle. What she consistently eats and drinks looks nothing like it used to look. When Karen chooses to enjoy a cookie or a bite of macaroni and cheese, she does so in moderation, giving her access to both feeling human and feeling proud of how she is caring for her magnificent body and her health.
Karen protects and honors her sleep schedule, seeing how sufficient, restful sleep plays an important role in pelvic pain levels and gives her emotional resilience in life.
Karen gets up early and walks and stretches most weekdays and tracks her steps diligently, seeing how this supports her mood and how her body feels.
As you can imagine, a lot has happened between Karen’s early appointments and today. But one thing has remained steadfast:
Karen has been *fierce* about honoring her health and vitality as foundational to authoring a life of love, contribution and joy.
And Karen’s fierceness has paid off.
Ready to get fierce about your health and vitality?
Schedule a complimentary virtual consultation today to explore working together!