68. How Our Mental + Physical Health Are Connected feat. Laura Martin

Jul 16

Today I am joined by the amazing Laura Martin—a Certified IBS Nutrition Consultant and founder of Healing to Happy (an online holistic, gut-brain focused company that helps women suffering from IBS and Anxiety to get back to eating normally without fear of FODMAP's).

Laura's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauramartin_h2h/

Laura's website: https://healingtohappy.com/

Laura and I dive into the following topics…

+ Laura's mental health journey and how it led her to helping others with both their physical and mental wellness

+ What happens to our body when we're chronically depressed and/or anxious

+ How hormone production in the gut vs. the brain work

+ Understanding why it feels like you get worse before you get better when you truly start to heal

+ How rewarding radical responsibility can be

+ Laura's tips and tricks for starting your wellness journey

This week's DBT Skill is the check the facts. Learn more here!

Mentioned In The Episode…

+ Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita A. Johnston PhD

+ Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

+ Think and Eat Yourself Smart by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Episode Sponsor

🍓This week's episode is brought to you by Sakara. Sakara is a nutrition company that focuses on overall wellness, starting with what you eat. Use code XOSADIE at checkout for 20% your first order!

About She Persisted (formerly Nevertheless, She Persisted)

After a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety, 18-year-old Sadie recounts her journey by interviewing family members, professionals, and fellow teens to offer self-improvement tips, DBT education, and personal experiences. She Persisted is the reminder that someone else has been there too and your inspiration to live your life worth living.

listen to this episode:

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a note: this is an automated transcription so please ignore any accidental mispellings!

Sadie: Welcome to she persisted. I'm your host Sadie Sutton. Every Friday, I post interviews about mental health dialectical behavioral therapy and teenage life. These episodes break down my mental health journey, teach skills to help you cope with life and showcase testimonials from individuals, including teens, just like you.

Whether you've struggled yourself or just want to improve your mental fitness. This podcast is your inspiration to live a life you love and keep persisting

This week on she persisted.

Laura: when I sit there and I'm like, okay, but I take responsibility for the thoughts that I'm having and how I respond to them. Right. And that's how we begin to show up for ourselves. And that's how we begin to make the changes because no, Knows what's happening between your six inches. And even if they did, they can't do it for you.

That's the thing, right? Like no one can make you healthy. No one can make you eat the right foods. No one can make you go for the walk. No one can make you seek help and collaborate or work with the people that are actually going to get there. That is only you. And for some people that could feel really crippling for me, that felt very crippling in the beginning.

Sadie: This week's DBT skill is the check. The facts, scale, many emotions and actions are set off by our thoughts and interpretations of events, but not by the actual events themselves these emotions can also have really big effects on our thoughts about the events, examining our thought patterns and checking the facts can help us change our emotions and emotional reactivity.

Here's what you do start by asking yourself, what is the emotion I want to change? What is the event that prompted this emotion? What are my interpretations, thoughts and assumptions about the event?

Am I assuming a threat? What's the catastrophe. And does my emotion and, or its intensity fit the actual facts of the situation. It's super helpful to write this out in a journal on a piece of paper, getting into a bunch of detail about your emotions, thought patterns and the event itself.

And a lot of the times I find that my emotional reactivity after this is a whole lot lower.

So with that said, let's get into this week's episode.

Hello? Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode, keeping this week's intro short and sweet and diving right into the episode, because this conversation is just so phenomenal and anyone and everyone can relate to it and find benefit from it.

This one next guest is Laura Martin. She's a certified IBS nutrition consultant, and she also is the founder of healing to happy, which is an online holistic gut-brain focused company. And she works with tons of women suffering from IBS anxiety, different gut issues, looking to overall improve their health.

She just has the most amazing philosophy and approach of tying together your physical health and mental health. So, if you guys want to follow Laura, you can follow her on Instagram at Laura Martin, underscore H two H you can also head to our website, healing to happy.com or check out her Instagram at healing to happy for her business account.

And all of that will be in today's show notes. You can go ahead and connect with Laura, follow up with what she's doing and have amazing health tips and your feet and your life, all of that kind of stuff. So with that being said, let's dive into this episode.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so excited to dive into this conversation because I feel like it's so versatile for anyone that struggles with depression or anxiety is experiencing mental health problems. And we all have both physical and mental health. So I feel like every single listener can relate to it, which makes it an amazing convo.

So yeah. Thank you for sitting down with me.

Laura: Thank you for having me. Of course,

Sadie: of course. So I want to start by hearing a little bit about you. What led you to working in nutrition and doing the work that you're doing now? And a bit about

Laura: your story. Yeah, so I was diagnosed with depression when I was 13 and at the same time I was diagnosed with IBS.

At the time had no idea that two were connected, the gut-brain connection. Definitely wasn't a thing at that time, because gut health is still very new. And just my whole life was told you need a medication or you need a diet. And so I had a really messed up relationship with my body, with food, with life around me, just thinking I was broke.

Oh the whole time. And so I took that out on food. And then after unexpectedly losing my mom at 22, I ended up taking out that kind of trauma on my body. So I was controlling food. I was over exercising. It was just this whole. Trauma response because when the world is spinning so quickly around us, what's the one thing we control our plate or our body or something like that.

And so one day I was sitting down and it was the worst time Mike, the lowest I had ever felt in my life. And I reached out to a friend and we sat at the coffee shop. And I'm like, what am I going to do? Like at this time I was living in Asia, I had I'm like, what am I doing here? Like, what am I what's going on?

And she was like, well, you really like nutrition, like in a really messed up way. You really like, nutrition is a

Sadie: passion. There there's a fascination. So

Laura: yeah. She's like, you're, you're like weirdly obsessed with it. Like not, not in a healthy way. Like, it was definitely an orthorexic route. Yeah. So why don't you go learn that?

Because I did the same thing in college where like I had a really. Like really depressed. And so I went and studied psychology cause I was like, well, make peace with my enemy. And she was like, why not do the same thing you did? You did with your brain with food. And so I went back, I studied nutrition and still then they weren't teaching you.

I, I learned, I don't even know how many theories about food and all the kind of ins and outs of it. And they never really talked about, I mean, they talked a little bit about stress. They talked a lot about the gut, but not in this kind of way. And it wasn't until finally I had my own health issues. I would try to every diet there was to get rid of my IBS to manage it.

That I was like, I don't know anything else to do. I wandered into my natural paths office and was like, what am I going to do? Like, what else is there for me to do? And she's like, have you ever thought about how your depression is linked to your IVs? And I was like, what are you talking about? No, even though I was studying and I was like, I have no idea what you're talking.

And she's an, of course I ignored her, you know, as we do, I didn't want to look at myself. I was like, it's so much easier to look at food. I don't want to take responsibility for my emotions or my trauma. I don't want to do that. And then finally, after about a year or two, I was like, okay, I've literally tried everything else.

I've exhausted. All my options. Let's look at this gut-brain connection. And from there started to focus on the two together. Instead of separately. And that was able to not even just like relieve symptoms, like I put everything into remission. I came up with like, understanding how the whole body works. It no longer felt like a foreign entity.

It was like, oh, I got this, I got me. I can understand this. And from there have helped hundreds of women around the globe do the same thing. So it's. Accidentally on purpose. Yeah, it wouldn't happen.

Sadie: I'd love it. I love it. But in it end, it all is so connected, which I think we'll get into a lot more in this episode.

The first thing that I want to dive into, as you talked about how your depression was impacting your physical health specifically IBS, and I want to hear. More about that. What happens to our bodies? And we're struggling with depression for short or long periods of time, because that was something that I totally wasn't aware of.

I remember when I was struggling and this, our second recording because we had major audio issues, but I remembered how, when I was in residential and when I was in the hospital, my thyroid labs kept coming back, all messed up. And that I was even like on medication for my thyroid for a while. And then after like a year and a half of treatment, when my mental health stabilized, it did the test again.

And it was like, there was nothing going on. And same thing with the blood clotting issue originally got tested and they were like, yeah, like there's an issue here. You're borderline of having a problem with this. Year and a half later they were like, there's nothing, there's nothing wrong. You're totally fine.

And so I want to hear from you what happens to our bodies when we're depressed? Because that's something I don't think that's talked about enough. Yeah. And

Laura: so, and this is why I'm going to create a course on it later this year, because it's really not that spoken about when we are in fight or flight, which is what happens when we're either depressed or anxious.

Our body is like, we don't know what's going on our blood flow. Isn't going to work. And so we're going to deplete our others, organs of our bodies so that we can keep our survival Oregon safe. So the way the entire nervous system works, it runs entirely on its own. This is why we call our gut our second brain.

Well, this is one of the reasons there's two, one reason is it runs entirely on its own. We don't have to tell it to digest food, right? We don't have to do any of that kind of stuff. We don't have to tell our heart to beat our lungs, to breathe our food, to digest these things are all in part of our entire nervous system when we're done.

Because our body thinks there's a saber tooth tiger coming. There's a famine coming. There's some type of danger, right? Like just like in cave woman times back in the day, because that is what was happening. Our other organs are going to get the bloods. That's just the way it works. And so instead of our blood, going to our digestion to break down our food, to assimilate our nutrients, to give it to our other organs, like our thyroid, like our, which is our internal thermostat, like the thing that keeps everything running safely, like our adrenals, like our liver, like all these other things, it's going to go to our heart.

It's going to go to our muscles. It's going to go to our lungs because it thinks we need that blood flow to escape. The bear that is coming. Yeah. So the things that generally shut down. When we're depressed and when we're anxious, our digestion and hormones. So you'll see a lot of people that are really depressed or a lot a really anxious, struggling with digestive issues, either cramping, bloating, heartburn, diarrhea, all that kind of stuff.

Or they're struggling with horrible PMs. Or they don't have a period, which

Sadie: is what happened with me for five years. I didn't have a cycle.

Laura: You're going to get like really thick periods. You're going to have trouble clouding. Like you said, like it's going to be this whole thing inside of our bodies happening because our body's in survival mode.

It's I

Sadie: remember like exactly what you're describing because I had like, The worst. I don't want to say like the worst, because I know people will probably have had it worse than me periods in middle school, like when I was severely struggling and I've been on birth control, haven't gotten my period now, probably three or four years, because it was so bad.

Like that was the best option. Was to go on birth control when I was 14, 15, and just continue to take the extended cycle because I would have the worst cramps that would be nauseous. Like that was just so terrible. And so I've always been scared. I'm like, no, I'll just forever. Never have my period. This is a great solution, but it'd be really interesting to see now that my mental health has stabilized.

If my body is able to react in a more like, kind of like normal manner to that, because I, I totally, the timelines line up a hundred points.

Laura: Yeah. And I think with like birth control and it's a fake bleed, right? Like that's, it's a synthetic bleed. And so what comes after that is generally symptoms will get worse because your body is going to have to catch up to itself, which is like, usually why people come off and then they're like, oh my God, this sucks.

And I go back on. Yeah. But like it's sex because, and this is any health. When you start to go Oregon, Oregon, and you're actually doing the right thing. You're not like fasting or eliminating or doing that. You're actually healing your body with nutrients and doing it the right way. The only way out is through I'm sorry.

It's just the way it works. Yeah, exactly. Like with your mental health, you have to say. You cannot out run it. You can't do anything. You have to do pills,

Sadie: all that green thing.

Laura: Yeah. We have to be able to control the space. The six inches between our ears. That's just the way it works, you know, and we can't out, supplement out, run out Medicaid.

We, those things are fine for the time being don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, we got to face what is causing that, you know, and do the inner work and do what it is and walk through that process.

Sadie: So we talked kind of about how fight or flight mode is what's happening when you're struggling with both depression and anxiety.

But you say that there is the, it's the same symptoms for both when you're chronically struggling with anxiety or

Laura: what I see in my world, right. When it comes to gut health, when people, so the other reason why our gut is called the second brain is it is home to as many neuro-transmitters as our brain.

90% of our serotonin, our happy hormone housed in our gut dopamine or reward hormone. 50% of that housed in our gut Gabba, neuro pro-death and things that keep us called housed during not gut. Now, all the Instagram world and all that kind of stuff loves to make this a catchy little tagline. It does not correlate to your brain the night that the serotonin in your gut does not go to your brain, but it does control motility.

And because of the communication going through the gut and the brain gut brain axis, they communicate, but they don't. The gut, it's not your happy hormones. I go to your brain, but what does impact that is your blood sugar levels is your thyroid is all those kinds of stuff, which is impacted by the serotonin in your health, which helps to like squeeze nutrients out, basically.

Like it's a thing, if that makes sense. So what I see in my world is women that are struggling with depression. Right. They have low motility, so they have low neurotransmitters in their brain. That's what happens with depression. That's what it is. They also have low neuro-transmitters in their gut, so they're not pushing.

Toxins or anything eliminating. So they're constipated, right? That's what happens. And you can look at like the wound world where like holding on to things. We're not letting things go. Like, that's what depression is. We're holding onto the past, right? Where anxiety is like we're future tripping and we're really anxious and we're doing all this kind of stuff.

And so with anxiety is high neurotransmitters in the brain, high neurotransmitters in the gut. So we're eliminating super quickly. This is why, like, if you ever have to go give a speech and all of a sudden you're like, I know that there are many like, run and have to go like poop. And you're like, what the heck was that?

Because this body is just anxious and it wants to eliminate. So you'll see diarrhea, you'll see cramping, you see a lot of heartburn and indigestion and things like that because we're not assimilating the nutrients. We're just rushing to get it. So you see that. And then the other organs that can be assimilated that with anxiety, honestly, a lot of depression is anxiety induced depression.

So it's like our body going too quick and then it doesn't catch up. Anxiety is often hits the adrenals. So hits the thyroid hits the liver and the pancreas, like everything is just being stripped of nutrients. And this is where the body is going to start to show up where it's not just depression or anxiety, right?

Like we're, it's never that we also have other health issues that start to come up. When it's a chronic thing, you're going to go through a spell of like, you're going to be sad one day and it's not all of a sudden you're going to have these health issues, but when it's a chronic. State that it's day in and day out.

And I think it's like three weeks max or three months that you have to be in it and that's considered chronic that's when we start to see the body being like, I need new transplants, help me. Like, I can't keep pumping this to your heart, like what is going on? Cause it doesn't know. Right. And so it's different in the way that it works like depression, anxiety, but ultimately if you're in a chronic state of anything, your body is gonna start to slowly weak.

It's crazy

Sadie: because I have like two different things that pop into my head. The first is being that like you, when you're experiencing depression, like you really do feel like you're, you're deteriorating emotionally, mentally, but your body is as well, which is just crazy to think about, because I think the way that we live.

Depression and mental health as a society right now. It's okay. It's in your head. It's your emotions. It's managing that, but it really is a physical thing too. You're when you're struggling with depression, your, your mind is not only struggling, but your body is too. And you're literally deteriorating the longer that you're experiencing those emotions, which.

I'm sure this is different for everyone. But for me, when I was struggling with the emotional side of things, I was like, well, I can deal with this. Like, of course there was tons of suicidal ideation and all of these, this pain that I just wanted to be over, but the emotion side of things, that was my normal.

That was my baseline. I could deal with that. And what I cognitively think through it being like, well, my body suffering as well, it'd be easier for me to kind of get over that hump and be like, okay, I need to change something because it's not just like mind over matter in that situation. It's like, there's, there's a physical problem here too.

And it's not going to go away overnight because I think. That was just an easier mindset for me to sit in where it's like, this is what I'm experiencing, I've experienced before, and I can do it for another three, four months a year, however long. But then when you really, really think about how it's physically impacting you, that's almost more motivating when I think about it.

Because you're, you can again, get out of your head. You're not stuck in these emotions that you're constantly constantly wrapped up in. So it's, it's a really interesting thing to think of.

Laura: Exactly. And it's hard, right? Like when you're swimming in your swamps of sadness or it's like, it's, you're just there.

And it's like, honestly, you don't, maybe you can relate to this too. Like when you're depressed, you don't do it for your mental health. But then someone says that like, oh, like you're getting physically ill or like, this is what's happening in your life. Okay. I'll make a green smoothie or like, I'll have something like, it's not even a green smoothie.

I think it was like, I will just eat something. Right? Like it's not even nothing of major thing, but it's paying a little bit more attention because when it came to like my brain, for some reason that wasn't important, but my physical body. That I was a little bit more intrigued by it. And then as I started to take care of my physical body, my brain started to get better.

And I was like, isn't that interesting? Like that's, I didn't start for my own brain. It was just, oh my body's starting to actually not like that. Like, it was like the vanity metric of it, which whatever it is, it just gets the ball rolling.

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I've been toying around with this idea, which I know is totally not clinically active.

But the, the concept that depression in a way is just a huge, huge lack of self-compassion and self-care and I know that it's so much more complex than that and the behaviors that come with it and the emotions are against so much, there's so much more nuance, but I think that's a way that I can really.

Shift my actions and then help my mental health is being like, there's so much compassion lacking here that I don't want to get better. I don't feel like I deserve to get better. I don't feel like that's possible for me as a person. Like what on earth? Why would we think that about ourselves? Like you would never say that to someone else that, oh, you're not deserving of getting better.

You're not deserving of being happy, but for ourselves that's, that's really easy. And I think. With, with the physical side of mental health struggles, you can really, from an emotional perspective, just get in your head and be like, well, I deserve this. This is okay. Like this, I've done this to myself, because again, it's kind of how we're viewing it as a society.

That's how we see, we see our mental health is that it's, it's caused by us and it's emotions. We need to manage them. We need to fix them. We need to solve them. And so if, if you can cultivate that self-compassion, which is sometimes easier to do around your physical health and then, and then see the change in your mental health as well.

I think that's a really, really powerful school of thought and way to kind of initiate that change.

Laura: I love that. And that's so the post I had today on Instagram, one of my mentors yesterday said I treat myself in the way of someone that I love. Right. Because we often don't do that because when we're physically in pain, right.

Like for me, when my gut was like inflamed, like, it felt like there was a fire inside of me or like when my hair was falling out or like my peer housing, it's fine. It's fine. And then if that was my little sister, like, and then in my head, I'm like, it's fine. Tough it out. Do this, do it, do be more strict, do this kind of stuff.

Like it's your fault. But if it's my little sister. Holy pickles. I would have her on the first class flight out. You're going to find the best person to fix that for her being like emergency do right now. Do you need, do you need all the organic food? Here's all the organic food. Here's the way we're eating.

We're preparing all our foods. Like I would be in it for her, but because it was me, it was like, nah, tough it out, rubs it. Like, who cares? Like just fast, longer. And it's like, why would you do that? And so now it's like a constant mission. Asking myself, like in the highest vibration, if I loved myself, how would I respond to this?

Because I'm not for this whole, like, self-love woo. Kind of I'm very woo. But like that whole thing of like, I'm just going to love it. I'm, I'm more for like that neutrality. Like I'm not going to love myself every day. I'm not going to freaking lie about that. Right. Like I'm going to, yeah, I'm not about that.

But I do like myself. Right. Like, or actually have that backwards. I love myself. I don't like myself every day. So that's the difference, right? Like I love myself every day, but like, I don't necessarily wake up, liking everything about it. So if I act in the vibration of, oh, I love myself today, how am I going to act?

Oh, okay. I'm going to eat something that actually will nourish my body. I'm going to go for a walk. Even if I don't feel like going to the gym, I'm going to do these micromanagement steps. And as a result. Yeah. Our brain catches up. There's science behind it, right? Like, you know, inflammatory markers, things like that.

Our home, our neural pathways start to open up. There's actual science behind it. But like from just a central standpoint, it does feel good because you're keeping yourself accountable for something, you know? And when you're like, okay, this is good. I can do that. And you just keep it. It's

Sadie: it's so crazy to me.

Like there's the whole nature versus nurture debate, and I'm sure everyone is familiar with that. And it's like, you're saying, talking about a lack of like self-like or self love or self compassion or confidence, whatever it is. That's a very shared and common experience. Do not believe that we're born with that.

Like at some point we're at we're experiencing messaging, we're experiencing some interaction that causes us to all, not all, but many of us to experiences, emotions and experiences, belief systems. And I don't know what that is. I don't know what the answer is, but it's, it's, it's crazy to me. And just like you're saying, if it's your younger sister, if it's someone you love, you're like, oh my gosh, I would never, ever, ever want that to happen to them.

Like why on earth would. What's going on in their life to make them feel that way and think that way and experience life through that lens. And it's the craziest craziest thing. And, and we're also doing it to ourselves. Like we're continuing this messaging. It's not like I'm going up to people and speaking to them the way that I would have an inner monologue, like that would be so rude.

But I don't, I don't know what it is, why we, why we speak that way to ourselves. Why we think that, why w why we hold ourselves to these expectations. And I don't think it's something we're innately born with or created with, or that we inherit. It's, it's really, really strange. Yeah. And that's,

Laura: and that's the thing.

When we start to take radical responsibility for our life, things change right. When we stopped sitting there and like, The things that are going to go on between the six inches between your ears is going to be bananas the rest of your life. Right. Especially sorry, sorry to burst. Anyone's bubbles. It is like, but the power is that we hold is when we sit there and we're able to identify the thought is not our own, right.

When we're able to sit there and be like, Hey, yeah, that one wasn't mine. Like, I, my highest integrity, I wouldn't say that, but like, W I can't out process that thought, it's not like it's, I'm going to wake up everyday and I'm going to be like, you'll read champion and like sing that every day. That's not going to happen.

But when I sit there and I'm like, okay, but I take responsibility for the thoughts that I'm having and how I respond to them. Right. And that's how we begin to show up for ourselves. And that's how we begin to make the changes because no, Knows what's happening between your six inches. And even if they did, they can't do it for you.

I was stuck in that like victim mentality where I was like, no, like I'm not doing that. I'm alone in this dah, dah, dah. And soon after that, when I was like, oh wait. Nature versus nurture, right? Like I can surround myself with the right people to carry that vibration with me, to hire the best people, to surround myself in it, to listen to the podcast, to watch the YouTube, to do all that kind of stuff, to bring up that vibration so that I can change my surroundings.

Like it's still, my brain is still going to work the way that it does, but the way I respond to it is going to be entirely different than how I was.

Sadie: Yeah, it's it's I really love what you said about radical responsibility, because we're so often tasked with taking responsibility and solving problems that we haven't necessarily created for ourselves.

And that's one of the most terrible experiences. I remember when I was struggling, the only thing I wanted to do is blame it on my parents. It was like, well, you raised me, like, this is your fault. What did you do wrong? What happened on during this the last 15 years? No matter what they did, even if it was their fault, which it definitely wasn't like they never would have been able to solve or help me recover or take on the burden of healing.

Like it doesn't matter, like. Care so much. And they could love me so much and they could want more than anything for me to get better, but they, you are the only person that can do that healing process for yourself. And sometimes that really sucks. It's one of the most terrible things to realize. And that doesn't mean you're alone because you shift from.

Wishing that other people were there to solve your problems, to realizing that you can have a lot of people in your corner and you can have so many people rooting for you and using their, their vast amounts of knowledge about mental health or whatever it is that you're healing from to support you on your journey and give you tips and tricks and advice and, and emotional support and all of these things.

And I feel like when they. To that role of being in your corner rather than solving your problems. It's, it's so much more helpful to you, which doesn't necessarily make sense when you haven't gone through that, but it's, it's totally true.

Laura: And we're going to get well, it's enabling, right? So yeah, so like, so my mom was an addict, right?

And so it would be like one of those things where it's like, you can sit there and you can enable someone, or you can sit there and be like, you either rise or you fall. Like, this is how that works. And, and to be in that situation. More difficult, but like, that's the same thing with our mental health. We have to be able to sit and go, okay, no one can come in here.

And sometimes like, people aren't going to be there. Right. Like with my rise, I was in the middle of Asia. I knew no one there wasn't you have to be able to pick yourself up, know that you're strong, it's going to suck. Right. Like in, hopefully we do have these people around us and we have these systems and, but the best feeling in the room.

Is when you rise for yourself and it's not a circumstantial rise and that's

Sadie: what makes it last. If you does anyone else it's going to be short, short,

Laura: like for me, with my mental health, like when I was in the pits of it, I literally decided to stay on this earth because of my brother. Right. Because I couldn't think past myself, but I was like, who the heck is going to call my older brother.

Right. But then in those moments, it was like, that helped me rise, but I got out of it. Right. It was like, because we're so warped and like, we don't think we're worthy yet, but we believe there's something else. We hold onto this feeling of her family, of a friend of work of whatever it is that you're holding to that then we're able to rise.

And then after that, we're able to see our own self-worth and we start to sit there and it's not circumstantial because. There's going to be a point in time when things don't work out. And if our happiness in our control in our, all of this stuff is situated on the perfect moment with the purple perfect surrounding and our cheerleaders on the side and all that.

Like, that's great for them, but we have to be able to stand when things shake and know that we have our unwavering support of our own journey, because we created the resources around ourselves to learn what that is. And that's where the radical responsibility comes into play.

Sadie: Yeah. And it's still stuck.

This sucks all the time or responsibility is one of the worst experiences. Like I remember I got a terrible grade in my math class and I, in the back of my head the whole semester, I was like, I'm doing this to myself.

Like no one else can do anything else here. And you just have that, that feeling, that realization that you've done this to yourself and you have to face all of the consequences 100% and there's no one else to blame. And that really, really does. So. And it's, it's so empowering in the future because on the other side of things, when you reach a goal that you've had, or you, you see your growth, you have no one to give credit to, except for yourself, you are 100% accountable.

All of that, that progress and that growth. And so it's not easy. It's not easy to take that responsibility. It's probably one of the most uncomfortable and, and scary things to do because you're the one that takes the fall for all of that kind of stuff. But, but it's very worth it. And you get to be the one that, that feels the joy and the pride and all those positive emotions when you're on the other side.

Laura: A hundred percent and that's the way it works. As you figure out whatever your outlet is that will help you get one step higher in your vibration. Right? Whether it's studying more for a test or taking control of your health or whatever that outlet is, it's like, okay. Like I saw where I shook a little bit, there what's the one step forward I can take so I can rise up from there and keep taking those steps.

And soon you're there and you're like, I'm here lately. It's been Anna's, it's crazy.

Sadie: So taking radical responsibility over your physical health, whether you're motivated because of where your mental health is at, or because you're, you're not physically feeling your best, whatever it is, what are your basic tips and tricks that can help individuals create a more balanced, healthy lifestyle?

Kind of counteracting these symptoms that we talked about when you're experiencing long-term depression, anxiety, and all these things. Yeah. So

Laura: the first one, when it comes to my clients that struggle with anxiety and depression is first figure out your foundations. So what is your nutrition routine?

Right? Like before we start to tweak anything, like, what is it like, when do we breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. How has that routine, is it consistent day to day? What does that look like? Over a week's time. And then from there you can start to make minor tweaks. Like what do you not feel? Right. Like where do you look at it?

And you're like, eh, that's not my hottest moment. Like that pint ice cream at night. Yeah. That's my jam. Or like skipping my meals, like for hours on it, not my jam. And making tweaks with my clients. I start with breakfast. So this whole fasting thing It's just another term for an eating disorder, really.

And so when I, I

Sadie: see so many people on social media that are talking about the benefits of fasting, even doctors, and I'm like, are you kidding?

Laura: Yeah, no. The thing about fasting is it does have medical backing, but the studies that are done on are done on post-menopausal women, men, and women. Of which we are neither here.

So thank you. And it is beneficial because it does wipe things out and clean things out. But what is way more beneficial with people that are struggling already, right? Like they're speaking to people that are already healthy, which is like maybe 2% of the world. Like, I don't know who they are talking to.

And I'm like, who has a normal relationship with food? I would love to meet them. I don't know that

Sadie: I'm right. Like I'm like,

Laura: who is that? So when I work, my clients through is focusing on a protein rich. Healthy fat fiber breakfast. That could be an online. I personally, I just like smoothies easy starting with that, cause that will balance our blood sugar from the start of the day.

So what happens with anxiety? Depression is it's a blood, usually a blood sugar problem, right? Like we dip really low. Depression. We go really high. We're like we have anxiety we're freaking out. So we want to figure out how to stabilize that. And that comes from a nutrition routine that helps to balance that.

So we focus on metabolic restoration, which is like what my gut recharge program is all about. And so we start with breakfast and then from there we're eating every three to four hours and we're staying consistent with those times throughout. And I know this sounds like work, but think back to when you were a kid,

Sadie: you woke up, you had breakfast, you went to school, you had lunch, you had snack, you came back, you had dinner, you had

Laura: staff, it was consistent.

We never questioned it. And even on summertime that your body was in a routine, it was unwavering. So it's going to be work, getting back to it because right used to it, we don't have that same rhythm yet with our body, but just figuring that out and keeping it because it's one less stress that our body has to maintain.

Because everything else is a stressor lights, camera action. Everything's a stress, right? And so the sooner we can eliminate it, the better it is. And that's my first step is just focusing on what is your nutrition routine?

Sadie: How can you get that to a consistent

Laura: routine starting with breakfast and every three to four hours.

And then the other things like. Everyone knows, drink more water, go for walks. Like people know that kind of stuff. So I like to sprinkle different ends where it's like, just eat every three to four hours and keep that consistent. And then, you know, the base, we all know the basics, drink water, go for a walk, eat some vegetables, hug someone you love.

Like those are basic things that we need to be getting more of. Yeah.

Sadie: Something that I've noticed recently I do, which I like wasn't really realizing was problematic was I was being very, very ambitious with the goals I was setting for myself. I would sit down and I would plan out my calendar and I'd be like, I'm going to edit an entire podcast.

I'm going to. 40 pitch emails. And I'm also going to clean my entire room and put my laundry away and eat dinner at like all within a three hour period. And so I was talking to my therapist about it and she was like, this is like really common with people with anxiety. And I was like, wait, other people have this problem.

And for some reason in my brain, like, even from a health perspective too, I can go on a six mile walk together, easy, no problem. And then I immediately go to avoid and do less than like a very small goal than I would have sat for myself. And it's a really, it's, it's a very ineffective pattern to get into, but it is.

It's helpful to be observant of and notice, and then really scale back on the ask and be like, I'm going to set this small goal for myself and meet this and then we'll go from there. But I, I wanted to flag that because that's something that totally recently, whenever I'm setting these kinds of goals for myself, Ever, and for myself, multiple with me, myself happens and pops up and it just, I totally go into that avoidance and, and not thinking about it and wanting to block it out because it becomes uncomfortable.

And I don't want to do it because I've set these crazy goals. Exactly.

Laura: So I use my sticky notes here. This is like the main thing. So anything that I can keep on a sticky note, that's going to be my schedule for the day, because otherwise, if it is going like my, if I put it on my board, like in my office, it will, it will be like 14 things we need to do in a day.

And I'm like, Laura, what are you doing? And especially now that I learn about like human design and I'm a projector and I'm only supposed to be working four hours a day, like,

Sadie: I'm like, how's that going to get done?

Laura: Like. And then by the end of it, you're sitting there and you're like, I'm a failure. I didn't do it.

And then like, you're struggling to stay awake and you're like, I'm going to crush it. And you're working for 14 hours and it's like, that's not good for anyone. Like, what are you doing? And so the city, like on a S plus like habit building, if you don't have habits already, it's going to be harder to build them.

So like, when my clients, when I'm working with my clients, I'm building habits. If they don't have a baseline, yet we pick one thing, like making sure. Literally, that is what we start. And we do that because it takes 63 days to make it habit, not 21. It's 63. And so once you build one stable habit, that becomes a non-negotiable.

Then it's easier and faster, your synopsis fire a lot quicker that you can start building habits on top of it. That's why you see like high functioning people like highly w whatever, entrepreneur, all that kind of people, they can pick up habits very quickly. They already have that baseline frustrated.

They already have that baseline. So once you get the baseline, it becomes easier and easier, but like coming to, I mean, we're the middle of the year now, right? So we're checking in with, where are we at? Don't come into this and you were gonna run a marathon, like be like, I'm just going to make my bed. I'm going to eat more vegetables.

I'm going to eat every three to four hours, like pick something small. And then from there, move forward, like set yourself up to be your biggest cheerleader, not your biggest. Right like that. So that's what we move

Sadie: forward. Yeah. So is your advice to do one habit for 63 days and then add something? Or is it like you start for a couple of days?

Laura: No, I do it for a full 63 days where it's like just making mid six series. I'm like people, when we first start working together, they're like ready. They're like, oh, I just, I invested all this. Like I'm going and I'm like, go make your bed. They're like, yeah.

Sadie: 10 year progress. They're like,

Laura: and then like within three weeks, like holy pickles, those were like adding in micro things, but it's not really habits. Your brain is just so when you're in a learning state, your brain is way more susceptible. So say when you're traveling or something, your brain can actually take in new habits a lot quicker than cause your receptors are you're in a new environment.

So it's easier to learn something new. So same thing when you're starting a new program, it's just like these different environments that we level ourselves into. We're able to actually take in and retain, retain more information, which is actually like the human brain is absolutely fascinating. When we sit down and look at it, we don't have to fear it.

We're like, oh, I get you. I get how you work. Like that's so cool.

Sadie: Yeah. Totally notice what you're talking about, about not being in like a learning mindset or a learning process, especially with COVID. I noticed like I was in. Junior and senior year when COVID happened. And then I like school kind of took a, not, I wouldn't say like a backseat, but like second semester of junior year, we didn't have classes.

He just did some assignments. And then senior year it was almost all zoom. And so I really have gotten out of that process of, of being in that learning mindset and picking up new habits. And I used to have a crazy schedule and now it's like, I'm what's like, like what's a goal that I'm working on recently.

I'm trying to think. I'm like, I'm going to go on a walk every day. And that's so hard for me to do because I have no habits that I'm maintaining. I'm out of this, this process of continuing to learn and grow every single day. And I totally missed that. I totally noticed what you're talking about and it's definitely, I think something that a lot of teenagers are struggling with

Laura: it is it's.

I mean, Again, it comes back to the radical responsibility, right? Like when we, at that age, right. Like we that's, when we start to learn how to parent ourselves a little bit, right. Like that's the stepping stones and then we get to college and then we get to these arenas of our life where it's like, oh my goodness.

Sadie: You all of a sudden, like, hear your mother's voice in your head. And you're like, oh my goodness.

Laura: And it's like all these things. And it really is. It's a learning opportunity because in each step in each movement that we're making, we're learning, how do we parent ourselves? How do we move forward? How do we get through these processes too?

We all have that blueprint of the person we want to be right. Like, how do I get there in the, in the cleanest, squeaky, clean and best energy kind of vibe. How do I get there to hold myself accountable? And it's like, I had to take responsibility. I had to do one small thing today that will get me there. It doesn't have to be, you know, writing a novel and running a marathon, but it does have to be like going in doing something.

That's probably going to feel a little bit uncomfortable at first. So that for the betterment of the future. Yeah.

Sadie: So we've touched on a couple different like reading and podcasts and TV shows and all that kind of stuff. And I wanted to dive into that and hear your recommendations for like your top three things that you're consuming recently, content wise, that you're really enjoying, whether it's a book podcast, show, movie, anything like that.

Laura: Yeah. So I actually don't watch TV. Cause I was raised in a household where real only allowed an hour of technology. So I'm just not. Gotten into it.

Sadie: I feel like that's the, yeah. So I was like very similar growing up. We didn't have a TV when I was little. And so this past week I also was doing no TV because I was like, I am watching so much love island and it's just so bad.

I feel like I've gone in the opposite

Laura: direction. It's not even a thing. They'll like me with my boyfriend. Like, he'll be like, oh, Hey, let's watch a movie. And I'm so gung ho, cause I'm like, great. Let's turn off my brain. But then I sit there and yeah. On board. Yeah. And like, I, I'm just not this isn't my simulation.

So books that I'm reading, I love eating in the Moonlight. I just finished that one for anyone that's struggling with an eating disorder, highly recommended. It is all about full coattails in a way of, I mean, the best we've been learning through storytelling, the hundreds of thousands of years since the world has walked.

And so she taught me. Eating disorder through folktales. And it's just this beautiful way that, you know, no science book that I've read has touched like that. I just finished reading Matthew McConaughey's green lights, so good. So unexpectedly. Good. I did. I wasn't expecting that. What else do I love?

What else do I got? Oh, thinking eat yourself. Okay. So that has to do with just different foods that we eat to balance our brain and do that kind of stuff. And then I haven't been listening to as many podcasts because I am deep into self development right now with my mentor. So you know, is

Sadie: he busy?

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's funny because I don't listen to a crazy amount of podcasts. I feel like that's something that would be expected, which is that I'm constantly listening to podcasts and I've met a lot of other hosts that are that way they'll post on their stories and be like, listen to 12 podcasts this week.

And I'm like, bye, listen to one podcast. That's like a good week for me. And sometimes I like to tell myself, I'm like, okay, this is good because I have the blinders on. I'm not getting influenced by other people's. Creative newness or production. And I can kind of have my own voice, my own narrative, but it's, it's funny for sure.

So I'm totally with you on the minimal podcast thing? No, it's a little bit ironic,

Laura: but that's like, when I first started out, it was like, that was me. I was like 12 bucks a day and doing the stuff and I'm like, yeah, You're ever leaving and taking anything in at that point. Like,

Sadie: you're just, you're just listening.

Like it's like

Laura: you're watching TV,

Sadie: like you're not

Laura: taking it. Yeah. And I'm like, I like to sit, I like to write my notes. I pull up a bubble bath. I'm like absorbing the whole thing and sitting in my bathtub and taking these notes and like, it's a luxury experience. I

Sadie: love it. I love it. It's it's amazing.

Well, thank you so, so much for joining me for today's episode. I literally think anyone and everyone can relate to it. Everyone has to take radical responsibility. They don't have to, but at some point in your life, it's most it's, it's likely that you'll you'll navigate that everyone experiences, challenges, mental, mentally and physically.

And so I just. Adding one and everyone can relate to it. So thank you.

Laura: Thank you so much for having me and yeah. Anyone that's struggling or anything like that. It's not that we, you know, we don't have to do anything, but when we want to see change, we have to be the change because no one else is going to control the six inches.

When we got to start one foot, the simplest things. And so sending everyone

Sadie: loud,

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