Welcome
Hello Friends.
Thanks for tuning in to Twelve Minute Health Bits. This is your host, Christen Hull, providing health and wellness support for the 21st century. We will be talking about using simple methods from today and centuries ago to keep our bodies healthy. Our goal is to daily stay “Above the Wellness Line.” In this podcast I will be giving you tips and tricks on how to daily make small changes to your life in order to keep your body well.
Episode 42 - Guest Speaker Nutritionist: Kimlyn Powers
Role of Food in Hormone Health Part 1
I am very excited to have a special guest on our show today. Ms. Kimlyn Powers from Arkansas is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and she is going to talk to us a little bit about supporting our hormones through nutrition.
So Kimlyn, tell me alittle bit about yourself and what you do to help people with their health?
Thank you Christen for having me, this is exciting, I am happy to be here! As you said, I am an NTP, and the focus of an NTP is to use the power of food to augment your health for the better. The focus of what I do also looks at the function of the body. So it is not just about food, but how well does that food interact with your body so that you can function optimally. And of course that comes into play with our hormones but really before we get to hormones, we need to look at other systems in our body like digestion, blood sugars, things like that.
Excellent, that sounds exactly like some people could really utilize this service and benefit from it. We talk all the time in this podcast and in groups with my team, that food really is medicine and it is so important.
Tell me more about what it means to support hormones with nutrition, and what does that look like?
Hormones are all throughout your body, it is not just your sex hormones. When you say hormones, most women especially, think of sex hormones, like estrogen and progestrone. There are a ton of hormones in the body, insulin is a hormone, you have thyroid hormones, stress hormones. So you have all these hormones and they all communicate with each other and they are all influenced by each other. So, we have to give them the proper nutrients and therefore, the tools they need to function. For example, the thyroid hormones, in order to convert T4 into the active thyroid hormone T3 you need things like selenium, B12, iron, which are micronutrients. So they have to come from the foods you eat. So you have to be able to one, eat a food source that has those nutrients in them, but you also have to digest and break them down to utilize them. You have probably heard this before, you are not just what you eat, you are what you absorb. So you have to say, yes the focus is on hormones, but you have to back track a bit and look at the digestive process to make sure the hormones are going to be able to utilize the nutrients you are digesting.
So if it is just flushing out, that is not going to be beneficial to people.
What results have you seen in some of the people you have worked with who maybe had some health struggles they wanted to overcome? Have you seen some success and how hard is it for people to stick with something like a nutritional plan?
My practice and work is very bio-individual. I cannot make overall broad statements that everyone should do this, because each body and each person are in a different place. Everybody has a different physical need. Every body requires different foods. We talk about digestive health being important. But it is also stress, because stress impacts cortisol, and cortisol then can impact the production of other hormones in the body, down play or up play, regulate, certain things that we may or may not want to happen. For each person it will be different. So food can be a stressor. Some people might have a reaction to even healthy foods like apples or bananas that may cause stress to the body. So, I really work with people to individualize and customize what they need and we do that through functional testing. We can do food sensitivity testing via blood draw, so we can get a very nice comprehensive picture of what food sensitivities are causing stress to the body. And then we can eliminate those, and let the body heal from that stress, and then reintroduce those foods to help the body not be so inflamed by foods that could be causing them stress.
What I see then is people improving their digestion, improving their stress response in the body, controlling information, and therefore their hormones become regulated and people sleep better. Melatonin is a hormone, they will rest better. Melatonin is also great for egg health so if you are having fertility issues melatonin can help. Overall, I meet people where they are at and figure out what are the main stressors that they are having and then they start to see things like their stress resilience improves, therefore they sleep better, think clearer with less brain fog, have more energy, and just feel better overall. And in turn, let’s say I am working with a fertility client, the body says “oh now I am ready to get pregnant, now I do not have all these fires going on and I can focus on fertility.” I do not want it to sound complicated but really if you focus on digestion and decreasing inflammation in the body, it is almost like an autocorrect process happens and this autoregulation the body knows how to do. Your body is not going to let you get pregnant if you are stressed out, not sleeping, not producing what it needs to sustain a pregnancy. So, to get back to your question it is individual for each person. But overall, everyone usually experiences those symptoms: improved sleep, improved clarity of thought, and stuff like that.
So my background is in special education. I worked in this area for several years and I also did administration within the school district. What I learned when I was in special education was how to write Individualized Education Plans for each of my students. Honestly, this way of educating students was great! Just like our bodies, every single student learned so differently. Having a one size fits all model for people when we are talking about their health does not work. We just cannot all take in, or be expected to do the exact same thing because it does not work. Just like in education, I was teaching kids where one needed work on vocabulary, another was great at comprehension but this student was not, and this student could not decode words. You really had to meet kids where they were at, and that kind of sounds like what you do. It is really exciting for me because I feel like we need to turn that individualized piece into our healthcare system.
When someone wants to start eating healthier, and they do not know the first steps, and get overwhelmed and panic, how do you help them through that panic?
Everyone can so easily become overwhelmed with food because we have all been taught good and bad foods, and right and wrong foods to eat. On the flip side, we are bombarded with it has to be easy and not too difficult to prepare. I really focus on changing one thing at a time. I am not going to come to you and say “throw away everything in your pantry.” We really focus on simple things. I like to start with one major food group and that is the fats group. There is a lot of education that needs to come into play when it comes to what are fats, what are healthy fats, and what are bad fats. I am not a big fan of labeling things good or bad, I kind of got away from labeling something. However, when it comes to fats there are bad fats and things we do not want in our bodies. I would say, just focus on switching out some unhealthy fats for healthier ones. Because fats are satiating, fats are flavor, and fats do a lot when it comes to stabilizing blood sugar. It takes away a lot of fat phobia. People are really scared of the word fat. So there is a lot of education needed when it comes to this macronutrient alone. So that is where I usually begin. If someone has no idea where to start and they have had no education about what food is, we start with fat because it is a powerful nutrient that can change your life. If you do not change any other food group right away it will probably change your life.
I agree with you 100%! In my journey of figuring out fats I thought “I do not want to eat fats.” In school I learned about the food pyramid and you only need a teeny tiny amount of all fats every day. But I learned that healthy fats feed our brain and that is so important for you!
Can you give us a couple examples of some good fats and not so good fats?
Healthier fats are going to be ones that come out of your food. Fats that are naturally in eggs, meats, including chicken with the skin, you really need the fat of the whole animal to help all of that work synergistically. You need fat to absorb certain nutrients and help hormone functions. So look at foods that naturally include fat such as grass fed pastured bacon, it has a good source of protein and vitamin D. Look first for fats that are included in foods. Second, look at cooking fats. Get away from lab made fats such as margarine, Crisco (run from Crisco), do not buy anything sitting in a supermarket in a clear plastic bottle under the supermarket lights. It is already rancid, it is going to cause inflammation in your body. Look at nature’s fats, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, lard from grass fed animals, sesame oil, olive oils, and nut oils. All are natural and all can be used differently which is the next layer of education. Some fats are great for hot uses and others are best as cold. It is a broad topic and we could probably talk about it for a long time.
That is a great overview and I am really glad you focused on the sourcing. Grabbing avocado oil that has been refined, making it not what it should be, is so different from cold pressed avocado oil. When we look at eating beef or chicken, animals need to be treated well, they need to be grass fed, they need to be in their natural state in order to give us the healthiest meat possible. The intention that was there when we were meant to be meat eaters. I am really glad you talked about sourcing.
If someone was interested in starting a consultation with you, could you do that via Zoom or long distance? Can you go into what that would look like for people and how they would get started with your services if they are feeling like this may be a way they want to go?
I work with clients both locally and long-distance. We can meet via Zoom or the telephone. It is very simple, if you go to my website vibrantgoddessnutrition.com on the front page is a link to click on to get a free 20 minutes consultation. I call it a “discovery call” where you ask me questions and I find out if my services and abilities will help you. It is a nice introductory way to chat and find out if I can help you.
I love that and I love how you said connect to see how what I have to offer will help you. I am so big on not selling something to someone that they cannot utilize. I think that is so important.
Kimlyn Powers was our special guest today. Is there anything else you want to add about what we were talking about? I really hope that it is okay that we do a part 2 about this to talk about pregnancy and hormones next week.
I can talk about food and the power of food all day long. I think we are coming into an age where people are starting to realize that their bodies are innately powerful and when given the tools they need it does not need to be difficult to find some balance and vibrancy in life and I am all about getting to the root cause of your issues, if I am able to. I like to definitely stay in my lane and if there is something I am not versed in, I have other contacts and colleagues I would refer you to. I try to keep it simple, lifestyle modifications that you can do now that are free and easy and that will help guide you to find yourself and vibrancy. I want it to be easy but it takes intention, making a commitment, and realizing you are investing your body in long term health. If there is any investment in life you can make right now, I believe health is one of them.
More and more people are learning that how we take care of our health is so vital for everything. Not just because of what is going on right now, but for everything.
I want to know Kimlyn, what is one major wellness activity that you do on a daily basis that you think is vital for your health?
For me, it is protecting my rest, protecting my energy in what I commit to. It is hard for me to slow down. So for me, I could get up and go exercise and do it, that would not be a problem. Saying no, limiting myself, protecting my rest is just as important as my movement. So, I would say that I am very picky about bedtime, getting to bed on time, doing certain things before bed to make sure I rest well, protecting my energy, and knowing my rest is important.
That is an incredible wellness tip and so many times we just overlook it. I will be fine with six hours of sleep or if I stay up late and do this. I know I do that, I have not gotten much work done so I stay up late and I compromise that sleep. Yes, that is a great wellness tip, thank you so much!
Kimlyn, thank you for being on and I look forward to hearing from you in the future. It was wonderful chatting. Yes, I loved it, I could do this everyday!
I hope this information from Kimlyn Powers was beneficial for you. If you wish to seek out some services to help you nutritionally, please go to her website. I would love to hear about it so I can cheer you on and help you out also. We are going to hear more from Kimlyn Powers in the future, and she is going to have some information specifically on women and pregnancy.
Conclusion
Hey Friends.
Thank you for tuning in to this resource from Twelve Stones Health and Wellness with Christen Hull. If you have an idea for an upcoming episode, send it my way, I would be happy to explore the topic. If you are interested in more information on becoming a member of Young Living and receiving the benefits of synthetic chemical free living in your home, please talk to the person who shared this podcast with you or, visit my website at www.twelve-stones.net. If you find this resource helpful, I encourage you to enjoy and share this podcast. Please do not alter the content in any way or charge for this resource.
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