REWILD + FREE - 35. RECLAIMING HEALTH IN MODERN DAY MOTHERHOOD WITH KATIE GALVIN

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Generational conditioning is impacting our physical health as mothers, this episode sheds light on the importance of supporting our feminine physiology to reclaim health in the chaos of modern day motherhood. I'm joined by Katie Galvin who is a functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. Katie walks us through reclaiming vibrant health in motherhood through an ancestral and holistic lens of functional nutrition and nervous system regulation. We discuss how generational conditioning and conventional medicine is failing moms and some controversies around antidepressants, including why postpartum anxiety and depression need to be viewed as a symptom not simply a mental health diagnosis. As two former overachievers and recovering people pleasers, Katie and I discuss our shared experience of how good girl conditioning has impacted our physical health and why we've placed nervous system health as top of mind. Katie gives us tangible tips to start reclaiming our health yesterday including simple nutrient dense foods to swap out some modern day trends. Katie is on a mission to challenge the normalization of symptoms and raise the bar for optimal health for mothers. Taking care of ourselves as moms is not only essential for our own well-being but for the future generation we are raising. Meet Katie: Katie Galvin is a former speech therapist turned postpartum doula and functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. She specializes in postpartum health, but loves all things women’s health and hormones! She’s a wife, and homeschooling momma of two. Katie was diagnosed with postpartum anxiety and depression after having her daughter in 2016. After struggling with severe physical symptoms and mental health, she struggled to find answers and was able old that medication and therapy was her only option. Medications did not help her symptoms, and she felt that conventional medicine had completely failed her as a mom. She dove head first into the holistic health space and learned how to heal her body with functional nutrition and lifestyle strategies. Katie went on to become a certified functional practitioner and now helps other moms identify their root causes so they can self-heal and experience vibrant health in motherhood. Connect with Katie on IG (@katengalvin) >>Click here to check out Katie's awesome Black Friday offers happening until 11/28 🥳. . Connect with Nicole on IG (@nicolepasveer)Want to be a guest on the podcast?  Fill out this form

So most moms already go into pregnancy depleted and then it just gets further after we've had the baby. There's digestive system changes that have to happen after you have a during pregnancy and after you have a baby. And there's also hormonal changes. So it's kind of like this perfect storm where moms I hear all the time. Moms are like, but I was fine before I had babies. And now like it just wrecked me. And I'm like, well, we could also talk on like the medical metaphysical, like spiritual level motherhood. I honestly think is meant to break you down. It is meant to break you down to the most elemental parts of yourself just to build you back up so that you know what

it is that's no longer serving you and how to truly take care of yourself so that you can also take care of your babies. You're listening to rewild and free. This is the go-to podcast for conscious and holistic mother entrepreneurs who are ditch This is the go-to podcast for conscious and holistic mother entrepreneurs who are ditching society's to-do list for intentional living, freedom, and abundance while creating impact and legacy in their home and business. If we haven't met yet, I'm Nicole Pasvir, your light-hearted mom friend and biz bestie wrapped in one. I'm an ex-nurse turned matrescence guide and business coach leading women just like you into the new paradigm where thriving in motherhood is your birthright and so is a successful and sustainable I'm an ex-nurse turned matrescence guide and business coach, leading women just like you into the new paradigm.

Where thriving in motherhood is your birthright, and so is a successful and sustainable online business. Keep listening if you're ready to unsubscribe from patriarchal motherhood, bro marketing, and boss babe culture. Because in this space, we use nature as our framework as we move towards feminine embodied business development, cyclical orientation, and slow living. Together, let's rewild and remember as we break free from survival and reconnect to what truly matters. Okay friend, steep your tea and take the most loving breath you've given to yourself today and let's go. Hello, hello. This is episode 35 of the Rewild and Free podcast. Can you guys believe it? I barely can believe it. I can't believe that I have recorded now over 35 episodes,

and I'm honestly just blown away by the conversations with the guests I've been having, and today's episode is going to be no exception. I'm joined by not one, but two special guests. First, you're going to hear from Katie Galvin, who is a former speech therapist turned postpartum doula and functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. Oh, that's a bit of a mouthful. We'll just call her Katie. I'm also going to be joined by Aubrey partway through the episode. My dad was watching her, but she got pretty upset and so I brought her up to hang out with us for a bit so don't mind

the little bit of chaos that happens about halfway through the episode and well really for the rest of the episode it is what it is um thank you for listening to the end if you make it that far and not being too bothered by the chaos um there's some moments in there that just weren't easy to edit out slash um showing up messy guys like that's real life right now so I didn't I didn't feel like I needed to necessarily apologize or edit out how um chaotic this episode truly was. Anyways, Katie is awesome, as you're about to find out. In this episode, we talk about just the depths of how to actually reclaim health in motherhood. And I'm not just talking about kind of like superficial health, we are going deep, we are talking about like mineral and nutrient depletion we are talking about some of the generational dysfunctions for lack of a better word that are showing up culturally and

socially in modern day motherhood and of course we're going to dive into the nervous system on top of some of the more functional nutrition and root cause healing approaches that Katie is a wizard at. And we're really just going to dive deep into understanding what kind of safety our feminine physiology needs, especially in just this modern day world of the shifts in access to nutrients in our foods and the modern day stress and just all of it. It's a really good episode. As you're listening, you're likely going to fall in love with Katie and want to know how to work with her. She can be found online on Instagram at Kate N Galvin. Reach out to her there. She works virtually with moms, so it doesn't matter where you are in the world.

And she has some really incredible offerings including a pretty intensive one-on-one package and she also has a 12-week transformational hybrid group program that's designed to help you reclaim vibrant health and motherhood and reconnect to yourself. The first cohort starts in January of 2024 so depending when you're listening to this you probably want to get your eyes on that if not join the waitlist for the next cohort um I think that's it I'm going to press play so you can hear our episode the startup podcasts are always so awkward because we've already been talking and now all of a sudden like bam let's record so it's like hello again we've already been talking for half an hour hi Katie um oh I'm so happy to have you on the show you and I have been in each other's worlds now for almost six months um I think we

found each other because of Fierce Lizzie's podcast we were both on her like Mother's Day special um sharing our own wisdom and our own medicine, which is super cool. And you have been a part of the first cohort of my mastermind recalibrate, recalibrate, should pick a better word that's easier for me to say. I'm also on day 28 of my cycle. So words are very, very hard. But yeah, I'm stoked to just have you on the show and to allow everyone that's listening to hear more about you and the amazing work you're doing in the world. And I'm going to stop talking now so you can say hello to everyone. Thank you so much for having me, Nicole.

I am seriously so honored to be here talking to you. And I am so happy that I found you and I am just super excited to chat with you today about all the things. All of the things indeed. I've been meaning to ask all of my podcast guests what book they're reading. So I'm going to start with that. Are you reading a book or is there a book on your bookshelf that is top of list that you just haven't been able to open yet? On more of like the business side, I do have regenerative business on my list. I haven't had a chance to get to that one. And I am just now starting to read, which is really funny because I think they've been out for a while and they're really popular but the um thorn of or no the

what is it called throne of glass throne of glass series by sarah moss so fiction yes fiction like kind of fantasy i don't remember the last time i read a fiction book i am definitely a self-development business development book junkie like I cannot like I read they're like my bibles to me like I read them like they're a bible and regenerative business specifically is definitely going to be my go-to business bible I've been telling you and the other women inside recalibrate that that book has really put language on so much of my own truths around like business development and business creation so I absolutely love what Sam Garcia is writing in that book I love her message I am reading it for the second time along with you guys whenever you start to read your copy but it's a phenomenal book so anyways good for you for also

like reading fiction because I have a really hard time. Oh no, I have to. Like that's part of your like self-care. Yes, that is part of my self-care because I would definitely just do self-development and I have to be really careful because it's like sneaky. Like that is not truly productive,

like non-productive rest when our brain is still going and thinking about all the things that we could be doing better that we're gonna wanna want to do now so sometimes I definitely need just that mindless read just for the pure joy of it it's so true and I really should I mean as a teenager like I would read fiction books all the time I should actually like I don't even think I have any on my bookshelf but I should go back to some of my favorite books when I was quite a bit younger and see if they still have any spark for me. Or I remember like even like some of those like romantic novels, like what is it like Jodi someone? I used to read like those books.

I should get back into something like that. That sounds juicy. I bet that would feel so good to just go back and see like, oh, this book used to hold so much allure and magic for me and just see if it's still there and just play with it or add a new one. I should. I love that reflection back to me because, you know, part of my message is to just incorporate play and pleasure back into our life and to be doing things out of desire and not obligation

and to find joy and like the little things. And as you already said to make sure that you are doing like some not some some productive rest but like not yeah you said it better than I could um but so yeah this is a beautiful invitation for me to actually pick up a book that doesn't have like an agenda behind it okay anyways let's start talking about you. What led you to what you're doing right now? And I would love to hear like pre-kids, like starting back like when you were, take us back to like high school, take us back to like grade 12, Katie, you're about to graduate.

Like what's going on in in your head then where do you think you're going in the world what is your definition of success I want to hear that stuff okay so I love this question um we're gonna get real nostalgic over here um so high school Katie was very um overachieving veryistic, very by the book rule follower, I have to do all of the things exactly right. And, you know, most of our generation, like the millennial generation, we'll say like the late 80s to like, you know, 90s babies, you know, had that conditioning of you need to get really good grades and work really hard so that you can go to college and get like this really good high paying job. And then you get married and you have a house and babies and all of

that. I'm raising my hand because that's my story. Like I joke, but it's so true that like I was really just following society's to do list. And it was all those things. It was the college degree. It was the amazing husband. It was the dogs. It was the house. It was the dogs it was the house it was the retirement savings plan like we had it all yeah the white picket fence all of that um and it was funny because I really didn't realize until after I had my babies that that was not mine like that was not my wish list that's not what I would have done but I also realized now looking back that it had to be exactly the way that it was in order to get here. So yeah, I remember in high school, just being very high strung, I'd kind of

always struggled with some level of anxiety and like that having the shoulds and the people pleasing and all of that. But so I did what I thought I should do and went to a four year college for speech language pathology, went to graduate school at the same school for another four years. Graduated with my master's in speech-language pathology. I went on to work as a medical-based speech therapist in a hospital for two years. In addition to working as a school-based speech pathologist. In that meantime, I got married to my high school sweetheart. And yeah, life was going just as we had been told it should have been planned.

And I had always wanted children. I knew since the time I was 15 that I wanted kids. And I had kind of just always, I had always been, and I still am, but had always been in a very put together, competent, like independent woman. And I kind of just assumed that like after I had babies, like it was just going to be a continuation of that life things that it was going to be a natural transition, you know, all of those things. And when I actually had my daughter, it was like a reality check. Looking back now, I can see that the way I had been living my life, the way I had been,

you know, maybe not nourishing myself as well as I should have been while I was pregnant. And just the expectations and the stress that I had, you know, really gone through for years before I forgot to mention that I was in competitive sports for, you know, 12 years. So it was like that perfect high achieving, like get good grades, you know, straight A's always like work hard, go to work. And, you know, I was working out five days a week and just doing all these things that I thought I was supposed to be doing. And so after I had my daughter, my physical and my mental health really, really declined. So I had actually been diagnosed

with postpartum anxiety and depression. But I now know that that was an undiagnosed thyroid condition told by my OBGYN and all of my doctors that my labs were normal. And so I was kind of just written off as you know, nope, you're just a mom who has anxiety and depression. Here's your medication, go to therapy, you know, it happens come back in six months. And that did not work for me at all. So that really is like the quick and dirty version of how I got here is I felt like the conventional medical model completely failed me as a new mom. I felt like my body had betrayed me. I didn't understand what was going on. I just knew that before I had kids, I was fine. And that was very high achieving. And all of a sudden, I'm a wreck, like what is going on. And so when that didn't work for me at one of my last doctor's

visits, where one of the last visits I've ever had with a conventional doctor, she basically told me that if I didn't want to try another medication that she couldn't help me. And at the time I remember being like, what do you mean? You can't help me. Like you're a doctor. This is your job to help heal me. And I didn't realize that that is not the goal of conventional medicine. Um, and so I was like, well, fine, I'm not going to settle for feeling like this. You know, like I'm, I'm a mom. I just, you know, and even as a human, like I deserve to feel good, but feeling like this isn't an option, because I have babies now who are depending on me. And so I just decided, well, if she can't help me, I'm going to help myself.

So I kind of just dove all into the functional and holistic health space. I ended up seeing a naturopath who that was the first time I ever had actual like labs, functional labs run. And she was like, well, there's a huge difference between what conventional medicine says is normal and what actually labs should look like if you feel good and are healthy. That was the first time anyone had really ever mentioned diet to me in terms of like, there are certain foods and a way that you can eat that can actually help your body come back into balance and heal. It was the first time I really started taking, you know, lifestyle and looking at the way I was living my life into account. The first time I started looking at supplementation really seriously

and it just really inspired me. And so once I had made some of those changes and started realizing, wow, okay, like this is actually helping me start to feel better. I had my son and I felt better after I had him than I did after I had my daughter, but still had some of the similar issues. I knew my thyroid was still not happy after I had him. And so then I really dove all into it. And I ended up going back to get my certification as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. And so that's where I am now. I kind of basically became the person that I wished I had had when I first had my daughter and was really struggling and just wanted answers. I love all of that so much. And I think

your story is, there's a lot of parallels to mine. So I totally get so much of what you were sharing. And I imagine a lot of the women that are listening can also get it. Cause like you said, like our generation really did grow up with a lot of that conditioning and a lot of that, just this belief that in order to have success and in order to be happy that there is Yeah, this to do list this wish list. And then it's not until we realize that it's not actually our list. And it's not until we actually can detach from that list that what I've realized is how you can actually find happiness and success and probably just kind of living life in your early mid-20s. You say now that you were like anxious, but in the moment, were you identifying as someone that was anxious or did you just think that that was kind of a part of life?

I think I knew that I had some leveling of anxiety. Like when I was in high school, I was taking AP classes. So like the advanced honors classes that would transfer over to college and all of that. And I remember just realizing like, this is a lot like being actively stressed and wondering if everyone else felt like that, because I knew that there were other kids loved high school and were like, this is great. Like, it's just here to have fun, like school classes easy. And like, they just, you know, we're going to parties and weren't doing a ton of extra. That was not me. It was not me either. And I also recognize that now I recognize that there was also such a deeper layer of that

anxiousness that I didn't identify, but like I had so much, um, stock in like looking a certain way, like meeting like the beauty standards and like every, like just that perfectionism was so deep and that people pleasing was also so deep that good girl conditioning. Yes. That part, I did not realize how deep that truly went until, you know, more of like my 30s. And I can relate to that as well. And like, the anxiety piece, like I, the reason I asked is because I've, I've kind of realized that in my own story, I've always been like borderline, not borderline, I've totally been anxious. I've been that person that is always worrying about things. I'm always trying to make a plan I'm always trying to like do loads of research and like that has been praised by society as like oh

cool like you are you I don't even know like you have an attention to detail and like you don't you don't mess up and like you really work hard and you um all the things right like I've been praised for those those qualities but I've realized now that like those aren't actually things that I want to be praised for those were like survival mechanisms to keep myself safe and to like you say like the people pleasing the good girl conditioning to to keep myself pretty perfect and pleasing so that I could fit in with the tribe, the tribe of like the high school popular, and I wasn't even a high school popular kid, but you know what I was trying to fit in with like, for us, maybe we're trying to fit in with the smart kids. We're trying to get the best grades in like our peer group. We're trying to get into the college program that we want and not get that rejection letter.

Like it's all those things. And we are constantly creating this list that is society's to-do list and allowing it to be a measure of our self-worth. Yes. And that I did not really dive into until after I had the babies. Yeah, me too. The other piece that I was going to share just around like anxiety. I remember having friends that were, I guess, like clinically diagnosed with like anxiety, depression and potentially on medications or like going to therapy.

I went on to pursue my career in nursing and end up working in mental health. And so because I was around people with actual diagnoses of these mental health conditions, I always wrote off my own anxiety as like, this isn't actually anxiety, because like these people have it way worse, like these people literally have to be medicated in order to function. I'm totally functioning. In fact, I'm like, according to society, I am killing it. Right. So for me, I really didn't, I never allowed myself to identify with that, that anxiety piece until much, much later. And I think part of it was because I saw it as a sign of failure. Yeah, I mean, there is a real stigma of like having a diagnosis with something like that, but that is also something that I could talk about forever, which is why I don't put weight on

diagnoses because they're just a label for a cluster of symptoms, right? It's kind of like a cop-out because instead of like, it's just a name, it's a label for something. It's not looking at why you're having that. Like, are there some physical things that maybe you've been neglecting? Like you're just not taking care of your physical body in the way that it needs to, in order to function properly. Like anxiety is, you know, it's just a symptom. It's our body trying to get our attention saying, Hey, like we have some needs that are not being met. And it's literally trying to just keep you alive. And so that's a kind of my view on diagnosis is I don't care what you've been diagnosed with. I want the why, like, I want to figure out what is causing

that for you, whether it is, you know, more on the physical side, you're just not adequately nourishing and nurturing your body, or whether it's more on that mental emotional side, like maybe you are not connected with what you actually want and you desire, you've been living your life for someone else, and your body is just so like knows it's not in alignment. And so it's giving you anxiety, because it's not something that you actually want to be doing, like that's not actually bringing you joy and nourishing you in the ways that are so important for for for fulfillment and purpose. And so I just look at, you know, anxiety is not something to be ashamed of, not something to be stigmatized.

I definitely am not someone that, you know, would ever want to see someone just get labeled with anxiety or depression and put on medications because while, and again, I'm not shaming people for that. Cause I have been in that situation where I was so desperate, and like it was debilitating that I just needed something and I didn't know what the other options were. And I just knew like, I couldn't continue this way, I needed something. But I want to see like, hey, like, what are some things that we can do to help bring your body back into balance? You know, and so that's kind of just like my general take on on the diagnosis pieces,

I don't look at it as it's something to be stigmatized for or shamed for. I also think that the diagnosis piece is a huge disservice, especially to moms, because as soon as the words anxiety, or depression, or anything like that, leave your mouth, it basically gives the conventional doctors leeway to say, Oh, all of these physical things you're experiencing, that's the anxiety and depression. You know, like, we're not even going to look for what might be causing these physical symptoms, because it's all in your head, you're just anxious, or you're just depressed. So that's one of the other huge issues I have with that. When I think if we Yeah, zooming into mother motherhood I've heard people their understanding of postpartum

is literally that oh that must mean you have depression and it's like no like postpartum is like the period after birth and it's for life right like it never ends once you've had a baby you are always postpartum but it's become such a big like postpartum depression has become such a common thing that now it's just lumped into this word of like postpartum and oh that makes me like cringe thinking about it because it's so messed up and then it just perpetuates like this idea that there's something wrong with you or that you are like lacking something or like you said that it's all in your head and that you need something outside of yourself to fix you when really it's just

your body's communication of like everything you already just mentioned. But what ends up happening is anxiety stops becoming just a symptom and instead becomes this like excuse. I also want to say that I can totally appreciate that people do need medication to bring them out of like the acute crises, let's say, of true like anxiety and depression, but it's not the solution. And I think that's why the work you're doing is so important because you are really helping women empower themselves to reclaim their health and find that solution instead of just slapping band-aids on these symptoms, these labels. Yeah, I feel that. And we could totally talk about that in depth as well,

because I have done so much research when I was going through it, because I had been on at one point, a handful of medications. And because they weren't actually addressing my problem, which was a thyroid condition, they were supposed to be addressing the anxiety and the depression piece, they actually ended up making me feel so much worse. Because they were basically, you know, affecting the chemicals in my brain when my brain was not the problem. My body was trying when I can, I can attest to that as like a mental health nurse, understanding literally, like from a pharmacology perspective, what that medication is doing. So like an anti anxiety medication is literally like numbing you out. And then, and I've heard from patients, I've heard from

friends, I've heard from people that when they're on these anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants, they literally just feel not themselves. They're completely disconnected from their body because that's what the medication is supposed to do. Yeah. well, and I look at it as like you said, like there are some people that benefit from medication, but on the research side, there, I feel like I need to give a voice to the other side of the people that it doesn't help, because even the research admits that antidepressants or SSRIs, whatever, you know, variation of those medications don't help up to 50% of people. Or like you might start on one medication and then over time it becomes less effective and you need more.

But it also is still, regardless of whether they're helping you or not, it's still not addressing the root cause for why you were having those symptoms in the first place. And so the reason why you're having those is not going to go away. So over time, you're going to have to address the reasons for those symptoms. And I also look at it as there is a huge and I'm sure you can probably speak to this too. There is a huge lack of true informed consent. Those medications are handed out like candy, I had no idea, long term consequences of what can actually happen when you're on some of those medications. And also from the research, it is fascinating. All of those medications are tested against placebo effect. And when you look

in the research, the amount that they like, they basically can't account for the placebo effect. So I as like a, you know, functional practitioner, who's very holistic, looking at the mind body spirit connection, and knowing that our thoughts have chemical effects in our body. And like our thoughts can literally create our reality that maybe the medication is helping 50% of people because they are convinced that it is helping them. So that's really the power of your mind and the power of positive thinking, because when you look at the research, they really can't account for why those medications are working. I'm going to pause for a second. I need to go check on Aubrey. I tried to message you on Voxer,

but I think your phone's probably still off. Hi. Yeah. Hi, Aubrey. My dad is living with us right now, which has been awesome because he's like built in childcare, but he isn't super helpful if Aubrey like is getting tired or like starts crying or anything like that so I heard her crying for quite a while I'm like I better go down and check and of course I feel like she's ready for a nap so I just tried to see if I could put her down quickly of course it didn't work so I think Aubrey's gonna be joining us on the podcast I work with mamas. So this is like normal for when I have one-to-one clients. So I'm good if you're good. It's just, it's just funny because we tried to plan the time to be around nap time and that's totally fine. So we're

just going to roll with it. Um, I feel like I'm still recording. So all of that was recorded. So yeah, Aubrey is here joining us on the podcast. I had to take a quick break um yeah Katie so you were just kind of explaining your perspective on the pharmaceutical use in terms of like anxiety and depression why don't we jump right into I guess your your approach and your philosophy in your own coaching and how to actually like combat some of that. And I know like it's a root cause approach and all of that, but I guess like actually explaining what that. Yeah, no. So as a functional practitioner and taking like a holistic approach to health, like it really truly is like a body mind spirit approach. Because the way that we are living our life day in day out, and kind of like we talked about earlier, like going back

to high school, I knew that there were things that I had been doing for decades, before I ever struggled with my my health after I had children that were contributing to some of those simple symptoms that I had after children being even more amplified. I want to interject for a second because I'm curious if, so just looking back on my own holistic journey and like back when I thought I was naturally minded and that basically just meant like not using gross chemically induced candles and like swapping out some of my laundry detergent and skincare. Like back then, I thought that was what it meant to be holistic. And I realize now that it is a part of it, but I realize now it is so much more than that.

And it really is like that mind body spirit connection and even in my own my own journey right now like I am very much focused on um like the mind and the body connection and like the mindset stuff but also like the somatic stuff and really tuning into my body and all of that thing all of that stuff but it can be so easy to forget that it also includes food. It also includes like the toxins in our environment. It also includes all of it. And it can get really, really overwhelming. So it's like, well, where do you even start? Especially if you've been living a life kind of on autopilot and just following the norm. Yeah, no, I totally understand that. So the way that I start with my clients is first, like, which sounds novel, but it really shouldn't be. Like, typically,

you would go to the doctor, and they're just kind of like, all right, what's going on? Like, here's your, you know, this is what it is. Here's your medication, off you go. I look at it as one of the most important things that I do with clients is I actually listen to them. I ask them about their life. I ask what that's currently looking like for them. Like, how are they feeling day in and day out? What does a typical day look like for them? Just because that's going to give me so much insight into the things that they're probably thinking day in and day out, how they're currently living their life. So it really does start with just gleaning so much information based off of their lifestyle, how they're currently living their life, like in terms of, you know, what

they're eating, how often are they eating? How much are they eating? What is their stress look like both like at home and outside of the home, if they're working or, you know, if they're an entrepreneur, like, what does that look like for you? How are your relationships? Do you have community? Do you have somebody that, you know, that helps you out? Like what do all of these different things look like? So always start there. And then we are looking at too, like from a foundational perspective, like you're, it all comes down really to your nervous system because your nervous system, your brain is constantly scanning all day, every day, making hundreds of thousands of decisions in terms of that safe. Like, is this a bear that's going to eat me? Like, what is this thing that like,

you know, it's trying to keep you safe. And what we can communicate with the nervous system in so many ways, and a huge way that we can communicate with our nervous system is through nutrition, through the foods that we're eating, how much we're eating, the quality of the foods we're eating, the, the, I want to say like food pairings, like how we're actually balanced. Are we balancing our meals or are we not? So we do look a huge piece of what I do is functional nutrition, which also I do see. Cause I do get a lot of clients who come to me, you know, they're like, they've already figured out that conventional medicine is not for them. It's not helping them. And they've had experiences with either naturopaths or other like function doctors of functional medicine.

And they're still missing that huge educational component. Like in a lot of cases, it's still that model of diagnosis, but instead of a pharmaceutical, here's your green supplement, or, you know, they'll maybe tell you like, oh, you need to eat better and you need to eat more, but they won't tell them exactly how. And when we're looking at like moms who are already feeling really stressed and really overwhelmed, they need that follow-up piece. They need someone to help them troubleshoot and actually figure out what this looks like in a realistic doable way into their current lifestyle when they're not feeling great. So that is also a huge way that how I work with moms is different is I am basically guiding them. I'm giving them like the roadmap, like the blueprint and helping them figure out how

to put these things into their day in a more manageable, realistic, simplistic way, letting them know that, yes, there are all of these ideals, maybe long-term, this is what we want our lifestyle to look like. But in the meantime, what's the net, the first small step we can take? What are like the, the small action steps that are going to move the needle the farthest, the fastest and help you start feeling better? I love all that. And I'm so glad you brought up just the language of the nervous system, because I think that really is a missing piece. And I know myself, as I started to actually understand and learn my own nervous system, that really was the catalyst to everything else kind of clicking into place. And I hear it kind of in the, in the naturally minded, holistic, crunchy mom nervous

system, Aubrey's just throwing markers everywhere. But like in the community, like you hear, like you can't supplement, you can't out supplement your nervous system. And I think that's really important to bring to the surface here, because I think that's often what ends up happening is you, like you said, you kind of detach from conventional medicine. You know that there's some more naturally holistic ways to start caring for yourself and to start taking care of your own health. But that often looks like supplementation.

And that's almost just like another, it's another bandaid. And I love what you know, I love what you said, like, you will never out supplement out biohack, you definitely won't ever out medicate poor nutrition, lifestyle and your nervous system. Like you cannot do it. Um, you can't do it. And so that's why the huge, the two foundational pieces of the work that I do with moms comes down to functional nutrition, because that is a huge way that you communicate with your nervous system and the nervous system regulation, which is, you know, like you said, it's kind of a buzzword. Like everybody's talking about it right now, especially in like the, you know, crunchy or holistic spaces, which is amazing. it needs to be talked about. And it's

not something that's just like a buzzword, like there's so much science behind it. But we also need to understand what that actually means. It's basically just a fancy term for too much stress over too long of a period of time, you are not adequately managing your stress. And when I say stress, I also mean that in a very different way than a lot of people maybe think about it. Like most of the time, when we hear someone say stress, we think of the mental emotional stress, I also mean that in a very different way than a lot of people maybe think about it. Like most of the time when we hear someone say stress, we think of the mental emotional stress, right? Which is definitely a huge component. It's the thoughts you're thinking all day, especially if you have like negative self-talk or unrealistic expectations. It's that mental load of motherhood piece that everyone talks about, which is absolutely draining. But then there's these

other stressors that so many people are not aware of when I talk about stress and what affects your nervous system. So I'm also talking about physical stressors, like are you under or over eating? Are you over or under exercising? How is your sleep and your rest two very different things that are both very important. You know, I'm also talking about, do you maybe have like, unhealed injuries, either from, you know, maybe like a physical trauma, like a car accident, or maybe birth, like, have you ever gone to see a pelvic floor physical therapist, maybe you have some things in there that are constantly telling you're sending signals to your body and your nervous system that you're not safe. Those are the physical things that moms often don't think about when we're talking about what's your stress really like. And then we have those

chemical biochemical stressors that for the most part are completely unseen, but are still affecting our cortisol and still triggering your nervous system, maybe unbeknownst to you. So those might be things like hormone imbalance, they might be things like, you know, gut issues, like if you have any imbalance in your gut bacteria, or, you know, you have leaky gut, quote, unquote. So those are all the things that I talk about when I'm talking about what's actually affecting your nervous system, and causing that that chronic stress. Those are the things that are contributing to the anxiety and the depression, because that's just how your body is communicating to you.

That's something in that huge umbrella of things needs to be addressed. Yeah. And again, like circling back to high school, Katie and high school, Nicole, because it's really the same story. Like back when we were overachieving, we were trying to perfect everything we were doing. We were really focused on the way our body looked and probably our weight. We likely were undernourishing ourselves. I can probably speak for both of us on that one. Maybe over exercising because we thought we had to exercise to make our body look a certain way. And then like on top of the nervous system response to try to keep us safe so that we fit in with our group of people. And so then comes in like the fawn response or fitting in. And like those are nervous system survival responses that our body is doing to keep ourselves safe.

Like it's not a personality. And I think that's something that, again again has been a big kind of light bulb moment in my own journey is realizing that like those parts of me are there's there's a purpose there um that need and that desire to want to fit in and that need and that desire to want to do my best and not fail and not let anyone down is because of like this primal need to fit in and be accepted with my community and once I could understand that that was a nervous system response and part of the way out of those patterns was actually to start 10 okay now Aubrey's ripping the box of markers part of that was to start tending and soothing to my nervous system and start like showing my

body and my nervous system safety that's when things actually started to change for me yes um and then yeah I love that you are just bringing in also like the importance and the intricacies of nutrition and mineral like balance and I feel like we are all collectively um probably like mineral and nutrition depleted whatever the correct word is for that because I know like our food sources are so different than they used to be say like even 50 years ago right the carrots that you buy from the store now the strawberries you buy from the store they don't have the same like nutrient density that they used to. And so even if you think you're eating well, quote unquote, it's still not the same like nutritional

profile that it used to be. And again, I think this is where people start to over supplement, because I think people are learning that people are knowing that and maybe even realizing that, okay, I can't actually afford the foods that I need. So I'm just going to supplement myself. And it's like, again, that's not quite the answer. You said so much there. I'm going to try and go back and remember because there were so many things that you said that I was like, yes, right there. I love how you said you had to show your nervous system safety and this idea of safety because it's so important. It's a huge piece of some of the things that I've been working on that we can kind of chat about later, but we have to build safety, rebuild safety inside of

our body. When it comes down to it, female physiology is based on safety because again, at the end of the day, like your body's number one goal is survival at all costs. So if you have all of these stressors, you're Britain, that's the thing too, is this is like primal lizard brain, right? This is like our caveman brain. So it doesn't know that sitting in rush hour traffic, having deadlines, you need to get kids in and out of the door, having like bills and things like that aren't a bear actually trying to eat you. They don't know that you skipping a meal is not actually going into famine and causing starvation. I also want to throw in like the other things that we don't know that you skipping a meal is not actually going into famine and causing starvation. I also want to throw in like the other things that we don't realize, like sending emails to our email list and like growing our Instagram audience and like all those moments of like allowing ourselves to be visible.

Those are all also potential threats to our nervous system. And so for the other entrepreneurs that are listening to this, like it's, it's, it's everywhere in your life. Like it's why all of this is just so important. And if you actually do consider yourself to be like holistically minded, the nervous system really does need to be top of mind for you. Your brain here is bare for all of these things when there's no bear. And so it's all about rebuilding safety in your body and your nervous system, because female physiology comes down to safety, it is not going to prioritize your like, nothing else is more important than running away or, you know, surviving that bear.

So other functions like your thyroid function, like your reproductive function, so your periods and getting pregnant, like your brain says, this would be really bad for us right now, because we're running from this bear, if we get pregnant, we are not going to make it we're either going to get eaten, or we just, you know, we got to run like this is not the time to be making babies. So everything that is not essential to immediate survival slows down when we are in this state of chronic stress. And so female physiology is based on safety, we can rebuild safety through nutrition, through supporting our cyclical cycles with like our hormones, through cultivating relationships and being in community and, you know, making sure we're resting and sleeping.

These are all ways that we communicate with our nervous system. So I love that you said that. And I think too, going back to that, our foods are depleted and I, you know, we're going to say it again, like you will never out supplement nutrition, lifestyle and nervous system. Like you just can't. And I see so often, again, what we kind of talked about is replacing, you know, the need for pharmaceuticals, maybe which is like a green natural supplement. And I see so many women actually supplementing in a way that we're going to talk about this in a second too, which is why like, I always recommend

testing and not guessing. Like you need to know what your body actually needs and not just throwing pasta at the wall, seeing what's going to stick with these random supplements. Because so often I see women coming in with these supplements that some of them are like, indeed like good quality. And they might be supplements that I would recommend to my clients if they had specific needs, but they actually end up making their underlying their unique personal imbalances worse, or causing something else that they didn't intend. So supplements are a whole new bag, like I'm kind of a little bit of a supplement snob too, like I only recommend whole food supplementation the vast majority of the time, because again, that comes down to safety as well, like our body is not going to recognize synthetic chemical

supplements, even if it's quote unquote, vitamin C, the same way it's going to recognize vitamin C from food. So we kind of have these unintended consequences. I feel like there was something else that you said that I wanted to go back to because it was just so good. But yeah, going back to how we lived our lives in high school, like you mentioned before, like we had so much pressure, like on our bodies, and I know I was over exercising for sure. And I would go as far as to say like I had an eating disorder when I was in high school because I was so hung up on, you know, needing to have that. I don't know if this is a thing in Canada either, but like the Victoria's Secret angel model, you know, standard of beauty or like what they said on Cosmo, the Cosmopolitan magazines, like, you know, how to eat to lose 10 pounds quick for summer to get into that teeny bikini or, you know, whatever it is. And so we look at that and like the decades of stress that I knew I was aware of, even in high school, stress is the number one depleter of our minerals. And if your minerals are imbalanced or depleted, none of the other

functions like your cells in your body will not function, it's going to affect everything else. And so we come down to this pattern of moms when they are all humans that we're talking about moms, it really does all come down to at the basic level, nervous system dysregulation, and nutrient depletion is what's causing these symptoms. And so many of the things that moms are struggling with for years after they have kids in the first place and no supplement, no medication, no biohacking, you know, shiny sparkly thing is going to outweigh that you've got to address the imbalances and the root causes. Yeah. Yes. Let's talk about kind of like the average mom. So I feel like let's just say the average mom had a similar high school and like early adulthood experience to us. So we can kind

of assume that she's undernourished. She's overexercising. She's probably not sleeping enough. And then she somehow miraculously gets pregnant, even though she's already in depletion. Like that's a miracle in itself. So if you're wondering why there's a rising rate of fertility, like ding, ding, ding, like it makes perfect sense when you actually zoom out a bit. But so, yeah, we take this mom, she's undernourished, she's underslept, overexercised. She's now pregnant and now she's fueling and giving up energy to create life within her. Again, another miracle. How cool. Baby comes out. Birth is, let's say traumatic because again, unfortunately that's becoming the new normal. So let's say she now has this traumatic birth and she can't breastfeed so

quote-unquote can't breastfeed she's told she can't breastfeed and I don't know you kind of finish the story from here and help us understand like why this picture is becoming so common and then like what happens in the years to come with the cultural standards of like bounce back and like getting back to pre-pregnancy weight and going back to a life of potentially working like a nine to five. physiologic need for safety plus we're dealing with a body that is completely under everything completely like under under nourish the word like under nurture under everything yeah it's depleted it is depleted and i would go as far as to say so many moms especially in the modern day if they were raised like a lot of us were that like you know you got to go to school go to college get like that that good job work that nine to five, contribute, you know, kind of do all the things that like super mom ideal that we're all told, like, you should be able to do all the things. Be selfless.

Like, you know, you should be able to work a full time job and contribute financially to your family and then come home and cook the meals and be happy and spend all this time with your kids and also fit in. But don't be a martyr. Right. Don't complain about it. No one wants to hear you say that, right? And I get like this picture in my mind too, even though what they were dealing with then was even like, we have so many pressures, like, yes, living in a modern society has benefits. Like we have so many tools and things that are fingertips and so many things of convenience that they didn't have. But I go back to that stereotypical picture of like the 50s housewife where she's like, got her dress on and she like looks like all gorgeous and sexy and she's vacuuming and making dinner and like they're like advertising like little yellow pills like on you know,

all of their, you know, newspaper ads and things like it was just typical. So I'm like, even then when they were dealing with arguably far less things than we are now, it was clearly still a struggle. Like moms were not, we're not loving life. And it's because we have come so far out of alignment with the things that like, just are, we need to just basically survive. Like, I can't tell you how many moms I talked to. And I experienced it too. After I first had my daughter where it was like, okay, well, between being sleep deprived, between being home by myself until either my husband got home or, you know, my mom could come over and, and help me out and even talked about the community. So thank you for going. So between being sleep deprived between, you know, I was one of those moms that couldn't breastfeed,

which now looking back, I'm or, you know, quote, unquote, couldn't breastfeed. You know, I was so undernourished, like I would, I would literally feel like, oh, my gosh, I had this whole day. And what did I do? I did nothing. But I would realize like, I was not drinking enough water, I was not eating enough food. And I almost looked at like, when someone came home, it was a luxury that I could sit down and eat a meal. And I'm like, no, like when you are postpartumum the amount of energy and nutrients that you need is even more than it was when at that point it's almost like thank goodness you couldn't breastfeed because if you were breastfeeding from that state like who knows what your body would have had to do in order to survive oh I was already struggling like that. My thyroid was

that was why I had had so I really struggled so, so severely with so many debilitating physical symptoms. And also like the anxiety after I had my daughter, and I know now it's because my metabolic health, I was so depleted, I was definitely nutrient depleted. My hormones had already been out of balance, because I had been in this decade long cycle of stress. It just that stress low level maybe wasn't as apparent to me until I crashed. It was like my body had done it for so long that the amount of energy and healing and all of it that goes into having a baby and postpartum, my body just couldn't do it anymore. And so I feel like that's where a lot of moms are because postpartum, we are more susceptible to changes in our nervous system. If we, there are too many stressors, if we're not able to rest, we're not adequately nourishing

ourselves. We're already, you know, more than likely sleep deprived, um, with a newborn. So like that is affecting our nervous system, we are already more likely to be nutrient depleted, because on average, you lose 10% of your total minerals with every pregnancy, which to put that into a little bit more of a perspective, that's the equivalent of four pounds of minerals. Four pounds is on average, how many minerals a mom will lose it with one pregnancy that does not take into account where she started even going into pregnancy. So all those decades of stress before maybe, you know, eating like more of a modern lifestyle where she's not intentionally

focused on eating nutrient dense foods, eating enough and eating specifically enough minerals. So most moms already go into a pregnancy depleted, and then it just gets further after we've had the baby. There's digestive system changes that have to happen after you have a during pregnancy and after you have a baby. And there's also hormonal changes. So it's kind of like this perfect storm, where moms I hear all the time moms are like, but I was fine before I had babies. And now like it just wrecked me. And I'm like, well, we could also talk on like the medical metaphysical, like spiritual level motherhood.

I honestly think is meant to break you down. It is meant to break you down to the most elemental parts of yourself just to build you back up so that you know what it is that's no longer serving you and how to truly take care of yourself so that you can also take care of your babies. Yes. That's perfectly said. Yeah. But so like motherhood is meant to do that, but it's also a beautiful opportunity to look at how you've been living your life,

what has no longer been serving you. And yes, like what you need to do to take care of your body because your body is not the same anymore. Your body is never going to be the same again after it is pregnant. And after you have a baby, it's going to be different same again after it is pregnant and after you have a baby it's going to be different and so the way that you need to nourish yourself and nurture yourself after that is going to be different I'm hoping I answered your question I don't even know what I asked but like I'm just loving all of this because I think like this is stuff that I think a lot of women are waking up to, but they don't necessarily have the understanding or like the context of the why. And so a lot of what you're sharing right now is kind of explaining that context. And I think knowledge is power, right? When we start understanding this stuff, that is truly when we can start to feel empowered and take back control over our health um

oh gosh Aubrey is pressing things on my headphone now can you hear me I can't hear you talk about my nervous system getting activated there oh my gosh oh well I'm all good over here I don't know what you guys could hear I muted myself so I don't think anything would have got recorded and I don't think the recording would catch my computer sound but yeah Aubrey somehow got a hold of the I only have one headphone in my ear so she got a hold of the other headphone and somehow pressed something that made like music start playing and it was loud whoo and then I was panicking because I didn't know how to turn it off and because I'm recording the zoom window wouldn't let me minimize it and it was just this whole thing

see bear your brain is like there's a bear there's a bear bear yes bear bear bear okay so I'm just gonna drop back in and come back here where there is no bear whoo um I don't remember what I was saying but I know I wanted to circle back to something that you haven't actually said yet and I think it's really important I don't think we oh I know what I was saying I was just saying that like so many women um know some of this but they don't actually know the why so the fact that you are shedding light on some of this and helping to explain it really is empowering because then we can start to understand like what's actually going on in our bodies and it it just makes us feel more in control when we have conversations with our practitioners and when we're making decisions about what supplements we might decide to take or just all of the things but what we haven't

talked about yet is birth control and I don't think we necessarily need to go in that direction but I just want to name it because that is also a huge thing that again, going back to high school days in our generation, we were all on birth control. Many of us still are. I am not. I haven't been since having Aubrey, but I was literally on birth control basically from like 16 to let's just say 26 to make it an even 10 years and the compound effect of that is not talked about enough and then sprinkle into postpartum like if you are back on birth control and now you're dealing with this

perfect storm as you called it whoo bear bear bear um so I don't think we actually need to talk about birth control I think there's lots of resources out there to help someone understand why I'm yelling bear. But oh, this conversation is just so helpful in the sense of education and empowerment. And I'm curious, for the women listening that are like, yeah, Katie, like,'m totally buying everything you're saying, but I can't. Obviously, the solution is to work with someone like you, but that's not necessarily a tomorrow event. So what are some things that women could be doing like yesterday to help all of the things we've been touching on? Well, it honestly comes down to those two main things that we talked about, which is, and it's a huge thing because it's all those stressors. But it comes down to reducing your stress, which is also part of regulating your nervous system and really focus on replenishing your nutrients. You are eating a nutrient dense diet. You are eating enough food and you are doing whatever you can that's in your power to really

first be aware of all of the different stressors that you have going on. And then coming up with a plan to either get support to help take some of that stress off of you, take things off of your plate that don't need to be there. Like things that are not absolutely necessary for your either immediate survival or joy or fulfillment or the survival and joy and fulfillment of like your immediate family, your kids, your spouse, you know, they can go, they are not definitely not more important than you and your health. And then replenishing the nutrients, those would be the two main places to start. In terms of a nutrient dense meal, I'm assuming that means more than just making sure you have like, fat, protein and carbs. What are you actually referring to in that? Like,

if I'm going to become more intentional about what I'm eating, what are the first things that I can start either introducing or maybe excluding in my diet. Yeah. So you want quality of the foods that you're eating. So again, like is your protein like a Slim Jim and your fat is a Reese's peanut butter cup and your, you know, your, what did we say carbs, your carbs is maybe a donut. You do want yourselves running on those types of nutrients? Or do you want yourselves running on, you know, grass fed ground beef, and an avocado, and maybe quinoa, or a piece of fruit, or something that actually comes from nature. So that is usually the most the most minimally processed, whole food type diet

that you can get, that is what is ancestral. That's what our body recognizes. And again, I go back to this piece of food is literally communication with your nervous system on so many different levels. Like you need enough of it to convince your body that you're not in starvation mode. So I would definitely start there.

Even like if that is where you're at and you're like, no, I definitely don't eat enough food. focus on eating enough food and then worry about, okay, how many macros am I getting with protein, carbs, and fat, and then refine down to the quality of foods. Cause the most important piece is getting enough food into your body to be able to even function for yourselves to have enough of the raw materials to even do the thing. And then focus on refining from there. So you need to be eating enough food that is part of building safety in your body. And then also focusing on like new more nutrient dense foods. So again, like grass fed red meat is incredibly nutrient dense. It's also more what we call bioavailable. We do need a mix

of plant foods and animal foods. If you're eating primarily, you know, raw fruits and veggies, those things have a time and a place, but they are very hard for your body to digest and break down. So the nutrients in them are not as available to your body as something that has been cooked, that is warm, and that has more bioavailable nutrients in it. I'm laughing over here because I feel totally called out because I eat a lot of donuts and I get that like, that is not the perfect source of a carb, but I'm also just realizing like, again, music is playing again. Well, and on my end too, I'm not saying don't eat the donut. I'm saying before you eat the donut,

have some good quality protein and some fat and then have your donut. I love that. This is the most chaotic podcast episode ever. I feel like everything that could be going wrong aside from this recording not actually being recorded is happening so hopefully this recording is actually being recorded what I was about to share though is how going back to like high school days I don't know about you but I was brought up in a home where we didn't touch butter butter was like a no-no we always had a tub of margarine in the house um and I mean that's just one example of where I think I'm not going to say culturally generationally I guess is the better word

at least for like North American culture there's always these like constant pendulum swings and so our parents generation really thought that some of those like animal fats were bad. And so again, when we're looking at the whole picture here, we are becoming mothers from an entire lifetime of living off of the wrong kind of fats. I call them in the wrong. I call them, I call them the frankenfoods. They are they most of them were made in the lab. And it's the same thing. I love them in the wrong. Yeah, I call them. I call them the foods they are they most of them were made in the lab. And it's the same thing. I love how you go back to that generational thing. Because not only was it don't eat the butter, you're gonna have high cholesterol and have a heart attack and die. It was don't eat full fat, fat, all fat is bad. Like, you know,

it was like the fat free potato chips. And then it was, you know, what else did we have? Then we had like the Atkins diet, right? Like we had slim fast, we had all of these things, we had crystallite, all of or even like our milk, right? Like our milk isn't even nutritious anymore, because it's so processed. And yeah, yeah. Anyways, like I think, like you said, like, it's not about excluding the donut, it's about making sure that some more nutritionally dense things are incorporated into your diet first. And so like, I know, for me, some really easy swaps that I've incorporated into my diet are like making sure I'm eating like good

quality eggs. And I'm not like, not abiding to like, I feel like, again, my parents generation is like, don't have more than like three eggs a week so it was only like bacon and eggs on Sunday no I'm having bacon and eggs every fucking morning thank you very much and I'm gonna eat all the fat on the bacon and I'm gonna cook my eggs in butter grass-fed butter and I feel like saying all that like it's almost laughable because it's like yeah you're just like a crunchy mom. And it's like, no, like this is primal. This is ancestral. This is what our bodies need.

This is how to create safety in the body. Yeah, I love that. And the whole thing too is because diet is a very touchy subject, like even among functional and natural practitioners, like we could all fight amongst ourselves till the cows come home on which diet is the best. There is honestly no best diet for everyone. Everyone is bio individual. we have different ancestry, we have different, you know, different needs in terms of calories, and all of this, some people are going to respond better to more proteins and fats

and less carbs. Other people are going to respond better to more carbs and more fat than they are protein. So there is no one size fits all ever. And we also go back to this is a reason to have why I individualize things, because I want to know like where your body is at someone who has very low cholesterol across the board, because they've been avoiding fats and protein animal proteins is going to need a lot more of that than someone who maybe has been regularly eating those things, you know, and so I just look at it as like all things in moderation, right? There is no, you know, perfect, or right diet for everyone. We could also talk about to though that with the way foods have been, you know, modernized and the way things are, you know, with

modern agricultural practices, there are some very real, um, concerns like in the research, like should anyone really be eating gluten? Now, does that mean that I tell every single one of my clients that you have to be 100% gluten-free or you're not going to feel good? No, but we at least give them the facts and let them really, that is another huge piece of what we focus on when I work with clients is reconnecting to your body. What happens to you when you eat certain foods? Do you notice more brain fog? Do you notice maybe that you're having anxiety after you eat that? Do you get energy crashes after you eat that? That is communication from your body that this particular food that might be fine for other

people doesn't love you back. So it really is, it does need to be customized for each individual. And it always is going to go back to no one else is the authority on your health. Like, you know, your body, I can give you the information and the guidance and, you know, the research behind it. But at the end of the day, you are gonna have to be the one that decides this is what works for me and this is what doesn't because it's your life. It has to feel good for you. It has to work with your lifestyle.

Totally. And I'm just thinking back to like how you said that you start every session with a client with just hearing what their life looks like. And I think that's so important because it could be so easy for someone to say oh yeah like I ate I eat I eat healthy and like I sleep good at night it's like they might not actually know what's going on up they might not actually know what like healthy or like the right amount of sleep is so for you to get those details

that's just really important because it's healthy to them looks like margarine and like no fat and whatever else that looks like no you get to kind of be that that person holding the flashlight and be like no actually this is this is what your body needs and this is likely why you're feeling the way you're feeling. We have to tease out like the programming of like you said, like, what have you personally been programmed to think of as a healthy food? Yeah. And also just going back to Oh, I just had that thought and it went away. I don't know what happened. What was the last thing that you said? Who knows? I don't know. It's gone. It's all good. Is there anything else coming up for you that you would love to share with the world? I mean, mostly just coming back to that symptoms,

even minor symptoms are communication from your body and they really are. I don't look at symptoms as a bad thing. I look at them as signs that your body is working correctly and it's trying to communicate something to you. So to really just get curious about your symptoms and view them as opportunities to kind of just explore what it is that may need

to be healed. And also to just have moms walk away from this, knowing that like those symptoms that you're probably normalizing or that you joke about in like your mom groups that, you know, people are kind of just saying are normal because everyone experiences them no matter how subtle they are, like whether it's, you know, like you just tend to be a little bit more overwhelmed, like during your day, you have a hard time calming down or something like, you know, um, having like being constipated or having like headaches or like bloating or, you know, whatever it is, things that have just been normalized just because they are common does not mean they are normal. Your body is communicating something to you. And so to not ignore those things because you deserve to feel

good. And as you know, in the world and as a collective, like we need moms to feel good. Like we are literally raising the future generations and we cannot expect moms who are exhausted and depleted and unread like dysregulated to raise children that are like happy, healthy and thriving and also regulated. And we shouldn't expect ourselves to. So if you take care of yourself and you focus on putting yourself first, even though we've probably been conditioned that that is a selfish thing to do. That is really what we need. And at the end of the day, you just deserve to feel good. Like that is truly your birthright. You should not be walking around dealing with these symptoms. You give so much to everyone else that it really is time to take a look at whether you need to pour some of that dedication and time and effort back into yourself because my

guess is you probably do yeah this is just so good and like I'm hearing you say like normal common doesn't mean normal and we hear that a lot in like other online spaces too like in the birth world and stuff but the the other thing too, is that normal doesn't mean optimal. And like, we are allowed to raise the bar for ourselves. We are allowed to want more than just merely surviving just because merely surviving has become the new norm. Yeah. And I look at it too. It's, I don't know exactly what it's like in Canada, but in the United States, like normal is becoming 30 to 40% of moms being diagnosed with postpartum mood disorders. It's looking like one in seven women developing a thyroid condition.

Like that is becoming normal. It's looking like, you know, like in the United States, only 12.2% of our population is actually metabolically healthy. Like that is sad. Like that's the normal, like normal is not good enough. Like I want to feel good. I want to have vibrant energy and not just enough energy to keep up with my kids. Like I want to have enough energy left over to do the things that I love. Like, you know, I want to feel good. I don't want to be only focusing on my body because things don't feel good. Yes. Preach like a big part of my message and my work is creating offers and

helping mother entrepreneurs build a business out of it in service of like words are not working let me literally try to say that again um wow helping other entrepreneurs like build a business where they're serving from a place of overflow. And I think a really big part of that and a missing piece that is being overlooked is everything you just shared today. So thank you for sharing your wisdom and your insights and your compassion and your energy like it's contagious and your your, and your compassion, and your energy, like it's contagious, and your passion for the importance of this optimal health, and being able to reclaim health in motherhood, and the importance of the safety piece to female physiology, like that is so important, and I wish that conversation was happening in more

spaces. Yeah, it's the information that we should should have been taught somewhere at some point, that I think now that so many more women are and moms are becoming so much more conscious, we're just now starting to kind of dive back into that, like ancestral knowledge and the traditions and getting back to, you know, less of a modern lifestyle in a lot of ways, like lifestyle wise, things like homeschooling and, you know, mini homesteading or like growing your own food. And, you know, all of these things are becoming a little bit more, you know, kind of quote unquote trendy, but I'm like, they really weren't a trend. These used to be ways of living.

And because we've gotten so far away from that, this is why so many of us are struggling. Yeah. This is rewilding y'all rewilding our health. Um, where can people find you online? Um, mainly on Instagram. I am at Kate in Galvin on Instagram. And that's the majority of where I'm hanging out currently. Yeah. I love this conversation so much. Thank you, Katie. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your energy. I will make sure to leave any applicable links or resources in the show notes for listeners to easily reach out and connect to you. Yeah, I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Nicole. This was great. Okay, before you go, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode.

If you were thinking of anyone while listening, please send it their way. And if anything resonated with you, or you love these conversations conversations please subscribe and leave a review this really helps the podcast algorithms put my show in front of more people just like you and the last thing I would love nothing more than hearing from you so say hi dm me on instagram and give me a follow at nicolepasvir until next time