EPISODE 039 | Decoding Your Body Through Functional Nutrition with Laurie Villarreal

Do you really know what your body is trying to tell you? In the unofficial part 2 of my journey synching my business with my cycle, I’m going straight to the source and speaking with the functional nutritionist who first gave me the idea.

Laurie Villarreal, an endurance athlete, and coach turned functional nutritionist, gives entrepreneurial women the tools and support they need to level up their health to play bigger in their lives and work. Her practical application of wisdom across a variety of healing modalities goes beyond the everyday advice and guides women to master their energy, mind, and mood, and take back control of their health and hormones. Extraordinary physical feats and leading a community of hundreds of athletes was Laurie's world until her health turned upside down because of lifestyle-related hormone issues.

Our conversation covers every step of our wellness journeys, so whether you’ve been in tune with your hormones for years, or you’re getting curious about what your body could be trying to tell you - you won’t want to miss this!

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER: 

• Why hormones are the secret catalyst for your performance in business.
• How I started my own wellness journey with Laurie’s guidance.
• What professional athletes and entrepreneurs have in common.
• The secret to being so in tune with your body you know what’s wrong before you feel it.

Could your hormones be affecting how you show up and lead?  Take Laurie's free assessment here!

Find out where you are on the blood sugar spectrum by taking Laurie’s free quiz HERE!

If this episode has inspired your own journey of wellness, leave a review and share your biggest aha moments & takeaways with me.

If you're a female entrepreneur that's worked with a health coach to optimize your performance as it relates to business. Please reach out to me through email or in my Instagram DMS @OTsGoneRogue and tell me more. I would love to hear your story and how this work is impacting your business.

And while you’ve got your phone out, don’t forget to connect with Laurie on Instagram @laurievillarrealwellness and at https://www.laurievillarreal.com/

Transcript

00:06 Melissa LaPointe

You're listening to the OTS Gone Rogue podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa LaPointe.

00:17 Melissa LaPointe

My passion is in helping ot entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm going to share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I want to see more OTS step up as visionary leaders, change makers and influential CEOs. So let's get started.

00:46 Melissa LaPointe

Hey, everyone, welcome back to the OTS Gone Rogue podcast. Today's episode is a follow up of sorts from Episode 43, where the focus was on syncing my business with a 28 day work cycle. During that throwback episode, I referenced the work I had been doing earlier in 2021, with a functional nutritionist and health coach. Well, a few months after recording that episode, I decided I wanted to share more of this experience with my listeners, where the focus continues to be on women's health and how it relates to optimal performance as entrepreneurs and high achievers. So here we are. My guest today is Laurie Villareal, a Board Certified Health Coach, functional nutrition practitioner, and fitness experts specializing in women's hormones. As you'll hear me mention during this episode, I had the pleasure of working with Lori last year in a 12 week intensive. And to this day, I am continuing to work on and implement some of the strategies that I developed under Laurie's guidance. Her focus is on helping active driven women to optimize their health and hormones, so they can perform their best and thrive in both work and life. She has a special interest in high achievers and female entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s, which is how we connected. So you're going to hear me talk not only about my own personal revelations from working with Laurie, but we'll also highlight different aspects of health and well being that every woman should be thinking about when it comes to their day to day living and optimal brain performance. So with that being said, let's roll out this interview with Laurie Villareal.

02:40 Melissa LaPointe

All right. Welcome back, everyone to another podcast episode. Laurie, super excited to have you here. Under these circumstances, usually our calls go a little bit differently.

02:51 Melissa LaPointe

This will be fine. I'm excited and looking forward to it. All right. So everyone, as you heard during the intro, so Laurie is a functional nutritionist and a health coach and her niche is entrepreneurial women who are very driven and who are looking to increase or enhance their performance. So I had the pleasure of working with Lori for three months earlier this year, I am still regularly referring to my health and wellness journal, Laurie, because and that's part of what we're going to talk about habit change how long that can take. It's not just knowledge and information, because while I certainly found that to be a big piece of the work that we did together, habit change. Oh my goodness, that's a mountain in and of itself, isn't it?

03:41 Laurie Villarreal

Absolutely.

03:44 Melissa LaPointe

Okay, so Laurie, first things first, let's take people to the beginning of the customer journey. So when somebody seeks you out, they discover the amazing work that you're doing. They are wanting to improve enhance their performance. What are some of the first steps how does that look like once people connect with you? Talk us through talk us through that experience? 

04:29 Laurie Villarreal

Well, usually when people connect with me, I have them go through one of my quizzes to kind of see like, what's the status? Where are you at? And from there, that gives me a good idea of like, what what are the areas that that seem like they need to be working on and of course, you just brought up habit change. That's one you know, that's one beast. And then there are the other you know, there's refining and optimizing nutrition and lifestyle which I really like to dig into in like helping people individualize it and personalize it for them. But it's first really just understanding where they're at. And then from there, I'm able to have a better idea of how we can best work together so I can support them. So it's, it's customize programs, customized packages, 

05:00 Melissa LaPointe

I think that was one of the things that I want to say surprised me but maybe I wasn't that surprised. But in terms of the level of intensity of the, I mean, I'm a health professional, who had a private practice, who had a clinical practice for a number of years. I'm no stranger to intake forms.

05:16 Melissa LaPointe

And then when you and I started working together, that was such a humbling experience. But in terms of oh, she needs to know more about nutrition and lifestyle, and then we went deep, you know, I was making jokes to people that you knew more about me than any other human on this planet at one point. And again, knowing the connection between early childhood development and where you know, our current level of functioning, this is not unfamiliar to me. And yet, the amount of time I had to carve out the reflection, and then when you started to help me put the pieces together, connect the dots, so many aha moments, is that typical for your clients? were even going through the intake process. There's a lot of Oh, wow, this is starting to make sense or Oh, my goodness, I thought they were totally not connected. But they are. Is that a common experience? Or was I one of the few who went through? 

05:57 Laurie Villarreal

No, absolutely. It's, it's 100%, I get that feedback that nobody's ever asked me these questions before, I didn't really understand that these things were connected. And that's why I really decided to go down the path that I did, because I knew that they were missing pieces. And when you're on your health journey, sometimes people aren't looking at the whole picture. That's why we go deep. That's why I ask lots of questions about all sorts of things. Because I want to know, like, what are the pieces that are important that maybe haven't been considered or, you know, I don't want to forget or leave out an important piece. But the intake is very thorough, I use like a functional medicine process, which is, which uses a timeline and a matrix. So it's really about getting as much information as possible to see the whole picture. And then from there, we have a better understanding of where to go, and what are the areas to work on. And it's a journey. It's a journey. And it's not something that usually somebody can like once you start going down that journey of fine tuning and refining and digging deep and maybe working on certain symptoms. It takes time. And then it's also built, you know, it's building in the habits as well. It's building that into your lifestyle.

07:34 Melissa LaPointe

And this idea of health, I think so often, we have these preconceived notions of what it means to be healthy. And going through this experience. It's tricky in that there are so many ways that I realized, Oh, I'm not as healthy as I thought.

07:54 Melissa LaPointe

And oh, things that I've been doing that I thought were contributing to my health actually were detrimental. So there were some tough pills to swallow, like, figuratively and literally,

08:09 Melissa LaPointe

you know, as you like, it's really opening up this Pandora's Box. Is that an experience that is common amongst your other clients? 

08:27 Laurie Villarreal

Yes. 100% I mean, this journey is really all about kind of rediscovering you and listening to your unique body. And that's something that a lot of times people haven't been doing for a while like they haven't been tuning in to their symptoms. So you think like you feel healthy you're just doing the day to day like everything that people think you know, eat healthy exercise, sleep, you know the basics, but that's who usually comes to work with me are the women who are doing that who are like, I'm feel like I'm taking pretty good health care of my health, like what's going on with me? Like, why am I having all these symptoms? Why am I having to brain fog? Why am I you know, like, feeling so tired? Or why am I not recovering from stressful events as quickly as I used to. And so that's where diving a bit deeper, and helping people really get a good understanding of how their symptoms are connected to their health and their signs like I call them like sign that your body is sending you signs.

09:15 Laurie Villarreal

And in the work that I do, I really read into the symptoms and try to match the symptoms with what that could be saying and, and, and what we could work on. And sometimes it's like things like digestion, like improving digestion, improving the absorption of your nutrients, it could be like we've we also did work around like living more within your with your menstrual cycle, because at different times of the month, the hormones are doing different things. And yeah, like when you push too hard at the wrong time at the moment that's going to set you back much further than it would at at a different time of the month. So it's just understanding these little nuances. 

10:00 Melissa LaPointe

Yes, which can be so helpful, and yeah, most people are like, Oh, wow, yeah, this. It just it brings you back into touch with yourself. Well, and I like how you worded that in terms of your body is sending you signs, and there is a,

10:11 Melissa LaPointe

it's like there's this different language happening, and you need an interpreter. And that was the role that you played was, you know, helping me to decipher and interpret what my body was telling me. Because often it was in a language that I wasn't understanding, I thought I was understanding it, but I wasn't and even going through your intake forms. It's interesting talking about symptoms, there were some things that I never thought of as symptoms, I just thought of this is inherently me, this is a quirk, this is a personality trait, this is who I am, this is how I will always be, and didn't even think about possibly changing that, or what my body was telling me until I filled out some of your forms. And I had this moment of, Oh, my goodness, this is a symptom. And I never saw it that way. You know, this is, this is my body telling me something, and I just become so used to it. That part of me has embraced it as this is what this is who I am. And then I saw potential for, oh, wait a second, we can change that. But then the pendulum swings the other way. In that, oh, we can change everything. Let's go. And change doesn't happen right away, you know, again, coming back to that habit change, or I could see how quickly it could go into overwhelm when it's like, wow, I could change everything. Let's do it.

11:36 Melissa LaPointe

So moderation, right, moderation is a big piece of that, as a health coach you certainly supported me with and it's something I can imagine a lot of people struggle with, especially high performing women who like to achieve and then dealing with the ramifications when we don't achieve all of our health goals in the first three months. 

12:32 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, and that's absolutely why I say it's a journey like this isn't that something that we shift in three months or one month, or we you know, like, there are plenty of, there are plenty of things you can do out there in one week or two. And this is like really refining and optimizing. And most of the women that come to me, they're not unhealthy. They just know they don't feel their best by not showing up their best or not performing their best. So it's really just about like, getting down to like that, that performance that they're looking for. And yeah, that takes some tweaking. 

12:52 Melissa LaPointe

And looking at it again, so often, we can know something cognitively but to embrace it, and to practice it on a regular basis is such a different scenario. So for example, when you were supporting me around my monthly cycle, I thought that the information, you know, this is this wasn't my first rodeo in terms of this info in terms of this content. But now I had somebody to help me implement and execute a plan. And the first month. Again, I don't know what I was expecting, but I just thought, Okay, now that I have this info, when I have this plan, here we go. By month two, I'll be in a new way of doing things. It doesn't work that way, either. So this whole like I've Yeah, it's been something else really leaning into more cyclical work. And it's tracking your cycle is one small piece of that. It's, you know, really, so many changes in lifestyle in terms of leaning into the cyclical work. And it is a different way of being and it is still we started this in, I think I've been working on this for four months. And it's two steps forward one step back. And again, patients, I'm not very good.

13:56 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, I mean, some of these changes I've been working on for years. And, you know, I think I look back and think, yeah, wow, what a difference. What a difference I've made in five years' time, or 10 years, you know, like all the things that I've been working on over time, of course, when I started, it was a struggle. And then, you know, like, I wasn't where I am now. Right away it took a lot of time and a lot of patience, and then just kind of not giving up coming back to it when things don't quite work out and just come right back to it. Yeah.

14:29 Melissa LaPointe

And acknowledging that society, like we're doing something different that isn't necessarily supported in other ways in society. So there's that ongoing resistance to change, whether it's internally or whether it's externally and we're going against the grain, so to speak or going against the current.

14:48 Melissa LaPointe

So it's easier sometimes to just say, I'm just going to lean in and go with the way that dysfunctional society

14:57 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, but then again, it's like the, the women that I work with them that I love working with are exceptional, like they want to do. They want to be living differently and doing things differently. So it's it does require sometimes doing things differently like this, like shifting things up. And I think just remembering to like, Yeah, this is, this is what it takes to be at the level that I want to be at it takes doing things differently, such as you know, like organizing my life in a different way. from others. But yeah, you're absolutely right. It can be. It can be a struggle when everybody else around you is like, what are you doing? Like, especially when you're organizing your team around your menstrual cycle? You're like, like, when I'm on my period, we're slowing down team or I'm slowing down, right? I'm slowing down and you guys are speeding up or what however you work it. 

16:21 Melissa LaPointe

Yeah. And then when your team calls you on stuff. So I started working with a personal trainer, and she's lovely. And then we were doing a workout. And she said, Well, this is your best week? And I said no, it's not. And she's like, yes, it is. It's your best week I've been tracking. And I'm like, No, it's not because that means I started my period. And literally, I got home and three hours later, I started my period. And I had to message her and I'm like, Man, that's humbling, you know, my body better than me. Right? And just, oh, Melissa, get back on this Get Tracking again. And it's Yeah, it is a habit. Laurie, are there certain times in terms of? Are there certain age ranges that you tend to? In terms of your clients? are you attracting women at a certain age or stage in life? Or do you have across the board, all ages and stages. 

16:35  Laurie Villarreal

Now, I would say like 30s and 40s. In that time of your life where the hormones are really starting to shift, I mean, they it gets more drastic, typically around the end of your 40s for most women, but that can also be you know, like some women's every woman's different. And your hormones can start shifting much earlier. And I'd say most women come to me when things when those shifts start to happen, that's really an important time to start better understanding your body and how you can work with it instead of against it. And that was like the working with your cycle is one of those ways that you can work with your hands instead of against it that helps you feel better perform better. Okay. Tell me more about what it means to work with your hormones. Yeah, well, as your hormones begin to shift, will they shift, they shift somewhere in your 30s but even all throughout your life, like different periods of your life are going to have your hormones doing different things. Whether you're pregnant, if you're going through perimenopause, if you're going through menopause, if you're in puberty, you know that it's always changing. And even every day our hormones are shifting and in a 28 around a 28 day cycle with your menstrual cycle. It's it's also shifting. So just understanding where your hormones are at that phase that you're in of your life right now. Like where am I at in my life, and your hormones are going to be doing something particular then. So understanding that and how that affects you. So for example, when you're in when you're headed towards perimenopause, and that could be like, smack in your, when you're 40 That could be a little bit before. And those shifts will shift

18:31 Laurie Villarreal

how you would want to be eating, they will shift maybe your sleep, how well you are sleeping, they might shift

18:38 Laurie Villarreal

your resilience, how will you handle stress. So once you start to understand, okay, this is what's going on with my hormones right now at that phase of my life, then you can make shifts in your life to better support that maybe you need nutritional support, maybe it's like shifting your diet, maybe it's paying more attention to getting better quality sleep. So when you do get it, you know, you're restoring your body and, and being recovered the next day or,

19:02 Laurie Villarreal

or nutritional supplements, nutritional supplements, some of that kind of support, even it comes, it could come to hormone replacement for some woman that used to do that. Or, or sometimes you have to do that. And such as like thyroid replacement hormone replacement. But yeah, it's understanding where your hormones are and knowing what to do to better support them at that phase. And then also, knowing where your hormones are at in this cycle of the month. And what that means for your performance and how you can play and enhance that right you can benefit by knowing like where are you going to be at your best and plan the right things then and then not plan them at other times when it might take more energy so you're it's really about like better managing your energy and in a way to so and how do we know where our hormones are like should we be because there you can get different testing done to see what

20:00 Melissa LaPointe

Your hormones are doing and where is that something you recommend? Are there other ways to have an idea of what's happening with your hormones?

20:08 Laurie Villarreal

Um, well, if you're talking about the phase of your life, you can, like, if you're a practice, it's pretty easy to know what your hormones are going to be doing at that time if you're breastfeeding.

20:18 Laurie Villarreal

And if you're going a few, you've had kids, or maybe you haven't, and you're in your 40s, early 40s.

20:27 Laurie Villarreal

And then you know that like the shifts that are coming are like Peri menopausal shifts. And then if you're in if you're already into menopause, that's going to also be different. So it's knowing where you're at. And then from there, you can also find some testing that helps you check in, a lot of doctors don't want to do these type of tests, because the woman's menstrual cycle is like every day of the month is going to look different. So when if you're testing estrogen and progesterone, every day of the month is going to be different. So if you are working with somebody who knows a bit more about hormones, and not saying that your doctor or your gynecologist or whatever, your endocrinologist doesn't know a lot about hormones, but they're not looking at your hormones from a performance perspective, or from a like an optimization perspective. And a lot of times, they don't want to look at it unless you're pregnant, or they think maybe you have thyroid issues or that sort of thing. But you can do testing like such as there's a Dutch test that you can do. And you'd really want to do it at the right time of the month. To know you can check in on like certain balance we say are you know where certain hormones compare to others, like what are the different levels compared to each other, because of those different levels, you can have different symptoms, so you can check in there. And there is also some blood testing you can do it depends on what you are looking for.

21:48 Laurie Villarreal

And as well as being able to do like saliva tests, if you wanted to test

21:56 Laurie Villarreal

your cortisol, for example, there's a saliva test that you can do. And that's something that you would test over a 24 hour period to see what because that's one of the hormones that has a 24 hours cycle, to be able to know what that's looking at. And that's when to me, that's a pretty valuable test, especially for people who are high performers and have a lot of stress. So that's one hormone you can check. And then there's also like DHEA, which is an important buffer for cortisol. So if you know that you live kind of a more high-stress lifestyle. Do you have the DHEA to support that? Where is that at? And can you bring in more support to help you there? And it's? So yeah, there are lots of options to go check in and see where you're at. And it really depends on what we're looking at, are we looking at the state of our female or sex hormones, we're looking at the state of our stress hormones, or we're looking at our thyroid hormones.

22:50 Laurie Villarreal

There are plenty of tests. And I would say if you are somebody who's like gonna go to your doctor and be like, I want to test my hormones, it's helpful to have a specific test in mind. And the reason why, you know, because you tried going with specific reasons and tests, and they're more likely to say yes, instead of just saying blanket, I want to test my well, 

23:05 Melissa LaPointe

And let's talk about that for a moment, in terms of optimizing health and well being in terms of being proactive with our health. The reality is, our current healthcare system does not support that way of thinking in that you really have to advocate, which sounds ridiculous to say, but you do you really have to advocate for some of this. So when I saw my doctor, and wanted bloodwork done, why? I said, Well, you know, what's going on, what are you worried about? And I had to say, I'm not worried. I'm working with a functional nutritionist, and this is, you know, we're trying to be proactive. And I was ready. And I was like, Whoa, how is this gonna go because I'm requesting bloodwork and lab work, and there's no medical reason, but that is why I want it so that I can be proactive and preventative in terms of, you know, down the road.

24:09 Melissa LaPointe

And there were some things, you know, again, it's so hard for me to not acknowledge the privilege that comes with this in terms of I have my phone appointment with my doctor. I am a university-trained health professional. I know the lingo. I know the language I had talked to you. I had, like I was ready, and how many people don't have access to that. So it is certainly a privilege level, you know, and I didn't end up having I never did get billed for anything because we were questioning I'm in Canada, it's covered by my health care provider. But I was asking for things that she said you're most likely going to get billed for some of this because there's no reason for us to be asking. And like well, all right, I'm fine with that paying out of pocket but again, it comes back to some of the things them, you know, as we go further into the health and wellness industry, there's certain level of privilege that comes with this level of care, isn't there?

25:00 Laurie Villarreal

 Absolutely, yeah. And I mean, that's a big part two of why I help my clients is also to better work with their practitioners, their other practice their doctors, and to best get them get the most out of the health care system. But the health care system isn't necessarily there to look after, you know, your optimal health or your performance.

25:33 Laurie Villarreal

So sometimes we have to remember that too, and recognize that like, it is our job to be looking after that sort of thing ourselves. And sometimes it does require paying out of pocket to checkup, check in and see how you doing. And maybe if you have some symptoms that your doctor passes off as normal, and you know, like, well, I don't feel and show up my best with these normal symptoms,

25:55 Laurie Villarreal

that you can explore deeper and you can do more on your own. And sometimes it's just, that's, it's a privileged position, like you said to, to be in the place to be able to afford to explore that further. But 100% Because it healthcare is not cheap. Well, and it depends on the country you're in. But it's, it's not always cheap. And to then go outside of that and be spending money on your own. Yeah, that's also can be a lot, but I do I recommend to my clients to have that budget to like, the hour after working with me, you know, like, I personally have, within my monthly budget, like what I'm going to spend to take care of my health outside of the health care system like so this is my budget for looking after me

26:46 Melissa LaPointe

In terms of the work that we're doing, you know, that was another aha moment. So when I did have my bloodwork, my lab work came back, and they told me everything in levels or in terms of you know, here's the high, here's the low, and if you and their levels were different than your levels. So in terms of if you are high or low, you get flagged. And what I discovered was that my doctors levels were more conservative than yours. So can you speak to that? Sorry, their range was smaller. So I came out like something got flagged by you that did not get flagged? But yeah, after? 

27:36 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, that's typical. Yeah, so I call this like the pathological range and the functional range. So the pathological is like, is there a diagnosable condition or not? And usually, the surprising thing is, is that you, you know, you just have to jump right over that line to be in a diagnosable condition to where they can say, like, oh, there's this and we can treat it with that. But you could be right on the other side, and still be suffering from lots of symptoms, and they don't recognize it yet. Because it's not in the pathological range. So I work in the functional range, just like, Okay, here's that big giant range where people could be feeling not they could be having a cumulating system symptoms that are getting them to that pathological point.

28:24 Laurie Villarreal

But they're not there yet. And so we can see where you're at within that functional range, and dial that in and bring you back to what I call the optimal zone, like the sweet spot. And yeah, it's again, like they're the health system is really, in a lot of countries. It's really there to take care of you when you're sick. You know, like, yeah, sick care. Yeah. Bandaid treatment. Yeah. 

28:36 Melissa LaPointe

So what are some other common approaches that you take so working with women in terms of improving their performance, so helping to connect them to their cycles and understanding the ebbs and flows that come with that? What are some other common approaches that you use to help women be rockstars? 

29:26 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, well, really getting, getting a better understanding of how your body responds to all the stressors that are around us. Because you know, when we think of stress, a lot of times we are thinking of like mental, emotional, and maybe even sometimes physical stress. But what I've seen over the years is that, like, we all respond differently to different things. And so you might find out that something you're doing on a daily basis is actually adding to your stress levels, instead of you know, taking away what maybe you thought it was doing. So balancing that getting a better understanding of what's right for your body because the better handle you have on that and your recovery from the day-to-day because we're we can avoid it and stress isn't a bad thing. But we what we don't want is to not be having enough recovery from our exposure.

30:00 Laurie Villarreal

There's, so it's balancing out the recovery. So being able to turn that dial up to make sure you know that we're recovering. And every day we're recharged. And that's part of the work and being able to turn the dial down in the stress. So understanding what stressors there are, and can we turn those down. And, and that can be so many things like,

30:24 Laurie Villarreal

there are so many things that could be influencing that from sleep to blood sugar to the hormones, like who you're talking about to mindset thoughts, nutritional deficiencies, gut health, there are so many things going on, that we could work on, that are contributing to the stress, and that also could be helping play a part in recovering and better recovery. Because really, actually, it's really about the recovery, because anybody that's living like a, an active driven,high performance lifestyle, you know, you're going to be exposed to these stressors, and you get stronger and better when you're exposed to this and, and you have that recovery time. And you can build and grow and not go backwards. 

30:52 Melissa LaPointe

Yeah, I remember that. So clearly, when you were talking to me about my cycles, and you had mentioned taking two weeks off. And that triggered my anxiety. I'm like, What do you mean? And the lesson you gave me in terms of, you know, high performance athletes, what do we need to focus on rest and recovery, and then their training gets stronger, gets better when we focus on rest and recovery? Because often, it's so Oh, work hard. And then the rest and recovery automatically happens. It's just a phase we go through, as opposed to the work you were having me do, which was very hard work, to focus first on rest and recovery. So against my nature, so against because rest and recovery was a byproduct to working hard. And you were asking me to put it front and like first, you know, front and center. And it was, you know, just it went against everything that like I'm like, what, what do you mean, and it's still something I have to work on. Because there's this inner voice that when I'm resting or when I'm focusing on recovery, you're lazy, you're a slacker like that voice starts chirping again. And working on No, this is important, too. Is that a common roadblock for the women that you're working with? I can't imagine I'm the only one who struggles.

32:32 Laurie Villarreal

You are not the only one No. Like, this is one of the hardest things to learn. I think and, and prior to working in, in functional nutrition, I was working with athletes, endurance athletes. So yeah, I would always teach that breast comes first. Like, whenever we'd work on training plans, we make sure the rests had its place, before we build in the training, you know, like so any that has to exists that has to be in place for the training to work for you to get to the goal. And you're not the only one because every it was it's so hard. I see it over and over again. And this is part of the journey, it takes time, you know, like, I can give you the plan, we can come up with a plan together. And the first time it's probably not going to be or you know, sometimes it isn't the second time. It's like, oh, God, like did it once. And now it's hard to do it a second time. Like it's, it's a journey you get better at as you go. But everybody's everybody struggles with this scaling back because you because the idea is that you want to perform you do and you're active. And Part A big part of that is the scaling back and the recovery and the rest, because that's like you can't build without it.

33:40 Melissa LaPointe

And even the connection to new nutrition digestion. So you had mentioned in terms of absorption. I never thought of myself, when I was filling out the intake forms when you and I started working together. I at that point had no concerns about digestion, I didn't have any symptoms related to digestion. And that was that until you know one of and this ties into the stress piece. But when you had me fill out my tracker on how I feel when I'm eating and recognizing, you know, there there was a lot of talk about getting into that parasympathetic state and flipping the switch so to speak, when I am eating. And as a mom who works from home with an interesting history with a relationship with food

that really snuck up on me as well in terms of well until I talk to my sister and realize she's she's like, Oh, I struggle with that too. But I was always either eating on the go, you know, I eat my breakfast when I make my son's lunch. or I eat my lunch when I'm on a zoom call or not when I'm facilitating but when I'm able to listen, and eating on the go, I am drinking a smoothie on my way to town to do errands on.

35:14 Melissa LaPointe

And then there would be times that I would finally work on making a meal and then sit down and my son is a picky eater. So then I would be irritated because he wasn't eating what I had worked hard to make. So there was very few, just sitting with food in front of me felt like a waste of time to slow down, I was always, oh, I'm sitting, I'm quiet, I shouldn't be listening to a masterclass or planning out this or doing that there should always be some level of doing because this is valuable time that I am wasting. And then you highlighted there's only so much work we can do if you're not absorbing things. And if you're not absorbing and there's a good chance you're not because of the way that you are managing your meal times. And again, I know this stuff, but to put it into practice is such a different, you know, it's really going deep into the psychology of why we are the way we are, you know, there's some stuff that we have to process and it was really eye opening as well. Oh, wait a second. You know, I'm I'm not showing symptoms of digestive problems yet.

36:21 Melissa LaPointe

But the way know the direction I was going, it was only a matter of time and realizing Wow, slowing down chewing, being present, being mindful bringing my stress levels into this parasympathetic state during meal times. Holy moly, that in and of itself was a mountain, it's still a mountain I'm working on, you know, I don't want to say if I can get one meal a day where I would be at the level Laurie wants me to be, that would be great. But it's tough. It is tough. It takes time. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. And it's, again, humbling when it's stuff that you know, when you realize that you haven't done practicing it. As health professionals, I think we carry such a different level of we have a different standard that we expect for ourselves. And it's hard when we don't need it. Yeah. And then too, were too often caring for others. And so then it's like really having to turn in and recognize, you know, like, Where can I better care for myself?

37:27 Melissa LaPointe

And how, how do you support your clients in terms of knowing that? Okay, where's the checklist? I want my gold star, I'm going to do everything, let's do this, let's go. I can imagine that's the mentality of a lot of the clients that you're attracting. But that's not the reality when you're going into functional nutrition and health coaching. So how do you help them to slow down or put the brakes on or even to develop realistic expectations for the changes to expect knowing when they come into this, it's going big go home mentality, because it sounds like that's the clientele you're attracting?

38:02 Laurie Villarreal

Right? Well, it really it's just about explaining that, like, it takes time. First of all, it takes, like, it'll take time for some of these results, there are like immediate results. But then there are the longer term, when you can really put this stuff into action over a longer period of time. And then in addition to that, like I, I try not to make too many shifts at one time, because we're optimizing here, and, and it's so personal. So we could try to do 100 things at once. But then how are you going to know which one of those things is really having the impact for you, because that might be the thing that you're gonna hold on to. And I want to give that like, to me, that's the gift that I give the client is finding those things that are having the, the real impact for them. And then and then being able to see it. And I know so many times like I've been through and clients have been through programs where you like just kind of like, for one month, you're like, I'm going to do all these things. And you know, I'm going to remove all the foods that are bothering me and do my exercise program and do all of these things. And then you might feel better, but then you drop, you know, drop a lot of those things that you were doing. And I think sometimes that's because you don't you don't recognize necessarily which one of those are the bigger needle movers. And if you did, then you would probably want to hold on to it. So yeah, that's my method of really taking it one step at a time so we can refine what's working for you, because it's not a one size fits all program or method or approach. Yeah.

39:22 Melissa LaPointe

And tell us a little bit more about the work that you're doing. So in terms of blood sugar levels, because that's something we had started to explore. Tell me a little bit more about how you are utilizing that knowledge to support your clients. 

40:00 Laurie Villarreal

Well, I've been using continuous glucose monitors to work with blood sugar to have a deeper look at what's going on there because In the relationship to strap like there's a direct relationship to stress, stress is going to influence your blood sugar levels, and your blood sugar levels are going to influence your energy. And most of the time, the women that come to me are wanting better energy, better focus, better concentration, better creativity, all this comes with better blood sugar, because your blood sugar has a major influence over all of those. And on top of that, it's going to influence the other hormones in your body. So like having a better, more stable, blood sugar is one of the things that are important to showing up your best. And in the work that I've been doing with clients, I bring in continuous glucose monitors, from time to time, and now I'm really shifting to like, we're just going to use these because they are, they're great. They're great, and really getting an insight into what's working for you to what's influencing your blood sugar. Like today, I was talking to a client that just had the vaccine. And she was like, Whoa, like her, her blood sugar was crazy for a couple of days, she was really seeing on top of that we use HRV. So like and both of these tools, she was really getting a good understanding of like, the effect that it had on her body, the stress that her body was under and then on top of that how much time it takes to recover from it. Because you can see the effect that it's having, and how much time it took to get back to baseline. So she was recognizing that, where I normally would have just thought like, Okay, I'm recovered. The next day, I feel better and recovered. She was recognizing like, No, I'm actually not, I can see that. And then you make that connection. Well, like, do I really feel 100%? No. So it's just a recognition, recognizing

41:43 Laurie Villarreal

what's actually going on. And being more honest with yourself, like, this is really what's going on with me. And these are the things that I can adjust like so for her that moment, let her know that like, Okay, I need to scale it back, maybe another day, and maybe another two days, because I'm still recovering from this. And then some other insights might be like, hey, like when we bring in. Sometimes we bring in supplements to help improve sleep, or sometimes it's just a matter of improving sleep. And then you see like, oh, things start to improve. And now the different foods that I'm eating are not having the same response to my blood sugar. And there are my blood sugar is not responding the same to those foods. And then because of that, like my energy is better, my concentration is better I feel, you know, like, all the things are feeling better, because your body is responding better. And so it goes both ways. It's one like, first we want to see how your body's responding. And then we can see what adjustments we can make. And then it's like, and then how is your

42:45 Laurie Villarreal

what's the response to any adjustments that we try to make to get you back in balance. And then like once we can stay there so that what's really cool about the continuous glucose monitors, you see what's going on 24/7. So you know, like, Okay, I had that snack in the middle of the day, my blood sugar shot up, and then it crashed down. And then it was really low. And then I felt hungry again and had another stack. And then like all afternoon it was like moody and unfocused. And I couldn't write that blog post that I was wanting to write. And then you're like, Oh, I get it.

43:17 Melissa LaPointe

I get why, because I could see on my blood sugar like things were going wacky. And I connect the dots with why I wasn't feeling and performing my best. So yeah, that's why I'm bringing that in. Because it's really, I find that for the ones who like data. Because I do I like seeing the data. And I like seeing the real time data to you. That's quite fun. And it works. And it can be really, really good insight into what's going on and what your adjustments, what kind of influence they're having for your body and your health. And having that data is so important. Because so often so much of this can be subjective, how we are interpreting what our bodies are telling us. And that in and of itself can be dependent on our mood on our energy. Now, there's different times I'm much harder on myself than others. And it's nice to have that data where the numbers don't lie. It is what it is. And it gives you a different level of understanding where you don't have to second guess, you know, is this a hypothesis, a hypothesis? Is this something that I've dealt with before? Is this something I make it up? Is this all in my head? Am I really feeling this way, especially when we are really busy and have a lot of things going on? And we're not necessarily taking the time to tune in and really listen as often or as closely as we should? That data can be a lifesaver?

44:57 Laurie Villarreal

Yeah, definitely. And I'm, I'm a big big believer in our own wisdom, you know, like, we should be able to tune in and know and connect the pieces but we've we've just gotten so far away from that like you were saying before, like society doesn't really doesn't really there's not really this culture Are of living in that way where we really are tuning in, it's like, you just get up, you go to work, no matter how you feel, or you just do the day to day. And this process is really helping us get back in touch or helping the women that I work with, get back in touch, because they're being able to see it and then say, oh, yeah, you know, like, now I get it. And I should, you should, we should. But it that comes back with this type of learning and experience.

45:00 Melissa LaPointe

Yeah. And it is a lot of relearning. You know, so many of us, when I was attending a course on eating disorders, and children and teenagers, and one of the so was with my pediatric mentor for many years ago, Kim Barthel. And a lot of the OTS would recognize that name. And one of the sections, I just remember, my eyes bugging out, because she was talking about how often especially the people pleasers as young, you know, when we were little at some point, early on, we recognize the importance of disconnecting and tuning out of our bodies, so that we could be more in tune with other people and more aware of what's going on for them. And in order to do that, we have to disconnect, we have to shut things down, we have to quote, you know, stop listening to what our bodies are saying, and going through the course of the different cycles in terms of growing up and going through, you know, into your 40s into your 50s. It has a lot of relearning, because going through puberty going through so many changes. We were taught to disconnect, we were taught to block we were taught. So it is a lot of relearning and relearning with baggage. There's a reason why we were taught to disconnect in the first place. No, so there's a lot of that that comes up. 

46:32 Laurie Villarreal

Absolutely. And I get often I get comments of like, why weren't we taught any of this? Like, especially as women like why weren't we taught like, how our hormones influence our bodies and our moods and our money? And our mind and how we feel and like how to better work with it. Like, why aren't we taught any of this? Or you know, like how the foods we eat or different things influence our hormones and the impact that it has. And too often we're just like, things are too often normalized. And the fact that like you were talking earlier about how you just start to say, oh, like that's just who I am. That's just normal, and you accept it. But yeah, there's a lot of unlearning to do.

47:37 Melissa LaPointe

There. So is. Laurie, as we start to wrap this up? How else are you supporting your clients? So yeah, I know you're working one on one. Do you have? Are there other? You've talked about running groups? Where are you with us right now, in terms of how you're working with clients? 

48:00   Laurie Villarreal

Yes, I'm doing one on one programs, I do sometimes small group, like the one-on-one sale in a very small group. And that just depends on whose context and who wants to work together. But I'm, I'm introducing soon and probably coming up in this in the next couple of months, a program where we're working specifically on blood sugar balance. So in the and bringing in more blood sugar balance to understand like, just what I was explaining before, to understand how that has an influence over how you feel your energy and your, your mind and your mood and all of that. So you can show up at your best. And so it is just it's just an experience to like look in and see and then see what kind of things we can adjust and tweak to bring you back to the optimal place. 

48:50  Melissa LaPointe

Awesome stuff. Tell people before I share your contact info, or perhaps we can do both. But you have a quiz that's very helpful that I wanted to let people know about. Yes, well, I have a brand new quiz called the blood sugar quiz. I don't know if you've taken that one. I've never taken that one.

49:02 Laurie Villarreal

Thebloodsugarquiz.com Or your blood sugar quiz, blood sugar quiz.com www dot blood sugar quiz.com. And then I also have

49:14 Laurie Villarreal

ah, I just fudged that up. It's your blood sugar quiz.com Because I also have your hormone quiz.com. Both of those will lead you to my website where you can take either of those quizzes. So your hormone quiz.com will just give you kind of like oversight of what's Where are your hormones are at what are they looking right now? What's the priority to work on and then your blood sugar quiz.com will tell you where you lie on the blood sugar spectrum. And if your blood sugar can use a tune up, or reset. Awesome, I will put those links directly in so we don't have to worry about people mixing that up. Where Solari Where are you hanging out these days in terms of social media, or are you like, Are you like me and not

49:57 Laurie Villarreal

I wish

50:00 Laurie Villarreal

I actually, I love being on Instagram. I'm not there as often as I, as I would like to be. But I do actually enjoy being on Instagram. So that's where you can find me. And I do also

50:13 Laurie Villarreal

almost on a weekly basis have people joining me for chats like we're doing right now.

50:18 Laurie Villarreal

On your Instagram channel on my Instagram channel. Nice. Yeah, so you can find me there. And you can also find me on my website. Yes, I will. So I'll tag you or not tag you. Oh, my goodness, I will definitely add that in. So that if people have any questions,

50:35 Melissa LaPointe

and I hope you do, everybody, you know, that's part of it. I hope that as we are moving forward, and certainly the theme of this podcast has been helping to support OTS to think outside the box to do things a little bit differently. And in order to do that, in order to the right to rise to the occasion, so to speak, we have to really lean into our performance. No, we're ODS, occupational performance is a big deal. And there's ways that we can understand this on a deeper level. So finding somebody's for myself, finding somebody such as Laurie to add to my team has certainly, it's taken things to a different level in terms of the ripple effect in a number of practitioners that I'm continuing to work with. So you and I developed a really strong foundation, really strong game plan. And now I see the spokes kind of going out, you know, oh, now I'm, let's tackle it. And so my personal trainer is loving this info that I keep bringing her she's like, this is fascinating. And yeah, so it's something that I strongly encourage everybody to really lean into. And I know on our last, not our last episode, but the podcast episode that I did do on my cycles. And it was really well received. And a lot of people had some pretty big aha moments. So hopefully, this will be a nice follow up to that. And, you know, I invite everybody to not be judgmental, but to be curious about your body to be curious about the language that it's speaking. The whisperings even if you don't understand them, find an interpreter before your body is screaming at you. Because, you know, this is a lifelong journey, getting to know ourselves and getting to know our bodies. And I feel like I'm just starting to get there. And I'm sure something will happen. And I'll realize that it's a foreign object and I know nothing. But it's you know, it's something Yeah, I think it's really important to find people to bring onto our team and to be proactive about this stuff. And yeah, I'm very grateful that you were on my team and that you helped to empower me through education and knowledge. And

52:34 Melissa LaPointe

on the flip side, I'm sure I've told you this before, but I'll tell it again, you have an amazing way in terms of being non judgmental, because often, I was hardest on myself. And you know, it's like, oh, Lori's gonna Oh, she's gonna be so disappointed. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. And you were just all of us. So like, that's not the point of this, Melissa.

53:00 Melissa LaPointe

You know, you were never, because some of our sessions I would go in Oh, I didn't get all my homework done. Oh, what am I doing? Oh, and yeah, so I can imagine that that's a skill that serves you well, in your line of work, and you're very good at it. So thank you for that. Thank you. And thank you for this. This has been such an amazing conversation as always, like, the time goes by so fast. Yes. Well, it's I mean, we could be talking for years on

53:26 Melissa LaPointe

isolated, there's so much to say, oh, my gosh, so much. It is something else. It's a different chapter in my life as I continue through my health coaching and work on my own stuff. And then, you know, bring it into my practice in some capacity. So yeah, goodness. All right. Thank you so much for joining me. Hopefully, people found this to be informative. And again, we've helped to inspire them to be a little bit curious. And everyone if you want to take any of Lori's quizzes, or check out some of the great stuff that she's sharing on Instagram, check out our show notes, and I'll be sure to link everything up. Thank you. It's been wonderful chatting with you. And hi, everyone. You're welcome. We'll talk to you soon.

54:05 Melissa LaPointe

We covered so much good stuff in that interview. I hope you had some aha moments and takeaways related to your own journey of wellness. If you're interested in taking any of the quizzes Laurie mentioned, go ahead and check out the links in the show notes. And if you're a female entrepreneur that's worked with a health coach to optimize your performance as it relates to business. Please reach out to me through email or in my Instagram DMS and tell me more. I would love to hear your story and how this work is impacting your business. This is such important stuff for us to be talking about. And I'm always looking for other women who are on a similar journey as myself. If you have a friend or colleague who might benefit from this episode, go ahead do us both a favor and share it with them. And of course we always love reviews of the podcast. That's the best way to help us get this content out to more

55:00 Melissa LaPointe

People. All right. Take care everyone and we'll be back in a couple of weeks with another episode of the OTS Gone Rogue podcast.