EP 10 | The Truth About Food, Stress and Healing with IBD

If you’ve been told that food doesn’t matter, stress is just something to “manage,” and medication is your only option—you’re not alone. And you’re not getting the full picture.

In honour of World IBD Day, we're sharing the truth we wish someone had told us after we were diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease. In this episode, we’re breaking down the critical—but often overlooked—factors that impact healing from inflammatory bowel disease: the role of nutrition, the power of nervous system support, and how adopting a healing mindset can shift everything.

Whether you’re newly diagnosed or years into your IBD journey, this episode offers hope, validation, and a starting point for something different—something deeper than symptom management.

Plus, we also created a free resource to go along with this episode:

Download the IBD Guide: 5 Steps to Reclaim Your Health

Get The Guide HERE

You are not your diagnosis. You are not broken. And you are not alone.

Transcript

EPS 10

Katie: [00:00:00] Welcome back to The Healing Chronicles. Today's episode is close to our hearts because May 19th is world IBD day A Day that shines a light on the millions of people living with inflammatory bowel disease. 

Amanda: And if that's you, we want you to know this. You are not alone and your diagnosis is not the end of your story. We know what it's like to live in fear of the next flare, to feel like your body is broken and to be handed a treatment plan that doesn't offer much hope.

 But we also know what's possible when you begin to address the root causes, support your body with what it actually needs, and believe maybe for the first time that healing is possible.

Amanda: so in honour of world IBD day, we are sharing more about our own journeys and what helped us move from constant flares to freedom.

Katie: And if you’re looking or a place to start, we've created a brand new free guide called the IBD Guide, five Steps to Reclaim Your Health. You can download it at the link in the show notes. It's gentle, practical, and filled with the exact we took to begin healing. 

Amanda: so happy world. IBD day.

Katie: yes. Happy world. IBD day. What does that mean to you?

Amanda: I was just thinking about that and I think that, I'm actually really glad that we're doing this episode and that we're creating, um, some guidance for people who may be suffering with IBD because I feel like so many of these chronic illness awareness days, besides creating awareness, what do they really do?

Like, I'd like to do something. I'd like to help people. Something a little more tangible, you know.

Katie: Yeah, I know what you mean. Um, I don't know if charities raise money for this day, do they?

Amanda: Well, I know that, um, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation I'm sure raise money and do different sort of work, but [00:02:00] it's hard I think, to feel like that. building awareness or raising funds is really impacting the person who is suffering from the illness.

I don't feel that it always reaches the people that need it.

and I think it is kind of used as a resource for people to express that they have the condition and to maybe feel like they belong in a group of people that are going through the same journey, but not necessarily Yeah. Able to actually take actionable steps from that. It's kind of just a Hello? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like maybe, hello, we see you, which is great. and spreading that message that you're not alone, that there are millions of people around the world that suffer from IBD. But I think that we need to do more than just say, hello. We see you. and that's what we're gonna talk about a little bit today.

I [00:03:00] think that spreading a message of hope and that you are not

Katie: Alone.

Amanda: just alone and destined for a life of symptoms and flareups and, medications and managing symptoms for the rest of your life. There is more available to you and we are both examples that that's possible.

Katie: And I think it's so important to not just have that community which we are building actually, um, but to also have actionable steps in order to genuinely like improve your health and improve your quality of life. So that's what we are doing today.

Amanda: Ya, a quick rundown of the information we've acquired over the past, what do you say? 20 years? Let's sum it up in 30 minutes if we can.

Katie: Oh my goodness. Now I, now I feel [00:04:00] old.

Amanda: I feel old pretty much daily. Uh, I have a 16-year-old at home. I feel old all the time.

Katie: You just look so young. I'm like, yeah. I dunno how that's

Amanda: Oh, thanks. Uh, yeah. Anyways, so I know that you, struggled with symptoms and manage, trying to manage your symptoms for a very long time before you started to shift and apply the knowledge that you, had learned over the years of learning about nutrition and, nervous system regulation and all of the things that we're gonna talk about today.

so if we were to. Kind of sum up the things that we know, the things that we teach, but that are not shared in the conventional medical system. Um, what would we say those things are?

Katie: So, yeah, we spoke about this, [00:05:00] uh, quite a bit and. We nailed it down to three things, which is nutrition, mindset and addressing your central nervous system. because these three pillars are so fundamental to getting you out of the starting block, but they're not discussed in any or form. with. GI or anyone, um, at the hospital. we thought that we would, not only make you aware of these things today, but also help you to understand what they mean and what you can do starting from today, from home that is actually going to yeah, help you work through this on a root cause basis, um, and not just applying different, Medicines, and different protocols in terms of medicines that are ultimately just putting a bandaid over. [00:06:00] Yeah, what's really going on? So we are digging deep.

Amanda: Yeah. So right out of the gate, I think the biggest one. To start with and that we are both most passionate about is nutrition. so I just want to say nutrition matters like full stop. if you have been told by your doctor, specialist, whatever sort of practitioner you're working with.

That what you eat does not have any bearing or impact on how you feel or how your symptoms, um, show up. That is false. It just is. Um, the food that we eat becomes the building blocks of our entire body. It becomes the building blocks of our cells, um, of our. Our brains of our muscles of every tissue in our body, and [00:07:00] I firmly believe that food can heal and food can also do harm if you are based on what you're putting in your body.

Katie: Absolutely. Yeah. Every single cell in our body is made up of protein. So if you're not even eating enough protein to start with, then there's no way that your gut is gonna be able to. Heal, uh, if you're not even hitting the bare minimum. So yeah, it baffles me when, um, when doctors say that nutrition has nothing to do with it, because nutrition can cause inflammation within the body.

And, uh, that's something that we don't want in someone who's suffering from a condition like inflammatory bowel disease to start with.

Amanda: Right, exactly. It's, it's right in the name. It's inflammatory, it's inflammation. Of the bowels. And so we know that we have tools that can help to alleviate or minimize [00:08:00] inflammation in the body. so why wouldn't we be using them and if we can use food as a tool to help decrease that inflammation, which.

Also has an effect on how we feel when we are inflamed. everything is worse. And systemic inflammation. Chronic systemic inflammation, which simply means we have inflammation not just in one spot in our body, but kind of everywhere. it can have an effect on. How we feel entirely, our energy levels, our, pain levels, our digestive system discomfort.

it really affects everything. So this is why starting with nutrition as kind of a foundational pillar is, is just so monumental.

Katie: exactly. And considering these conditions are gut specific, um, you have any ulcers or abrasions going on within, or inflammation going on within your intestines, [00:09:00] what you eat and therefore what is passing through those areas of your bowel to say that. Nutrition doesn't matter is wild. 

Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. Now that we've got that up. Out of the way.

Katie: Yes.

Amanda: That's step one. Yeah. So if we break down what it means, because this can be such a minefield of trying to navigate nutrition with a digestive illness, we were just speaking a little bit before we hit record about all of the conflicting advice out there.

Um, social media has. Everything you can think of, um, exists and people have opinions and I find that a lot of the time the people that are the loudest are the uneducated ones. so what would you say would be your primary direction for someone who's looking for nutrition guidance with IBD?

 [00:10:00] so going a little bit sideways here. I actually recommend people just going down the overstimulation route to just completely detox your social media. Um, If you're scrolling and you are feeling in any way uncertain or anxious about what someone is telling you to do, then I highly recommend you unfollow them, or you tell Instagram that you're not interested in this content because. Uncertainty when you're scrolling your feed is supposed to be liberating and informative, and educational. And if it's making you feel in any way confused or anxious, it is not doing its job properly. Um, and the trouble with Instagram is that it's not regulated in terms of Yeah. Wellness influencers. sprouting off about diet trends or whatever to boost their following. and it's this harmful information that is causing people [00:11:00] to then anxiety within their body and actually cause symptoms based on something that they have exogenously like taken in. So, yeah, I would actually say to.

Katie: Uh, completely detox your social media because there's a lot of, um, yeah. Harmful stuff out there in terms of diet trends. and what we don't want you to do is jump from diet to diet, um, that is not only harming your IBD, but it's not nourishing your body in any way, shape, or form. Um, and extreme dieting is not the way to go.

 Especially for someone that has IBD. So yeah, that's what I would, I would say to do first.

Amanda: That's a very good tip. And as you were speaking about that, I was thinking about where I. Was years ago when I was trying to figure out what to [00:12:00] eat and I was taking in all this diff different information and social media wasn't as prevalent then, but I was researching and reading and looking on these forums.

And even that in itself was, you know, this one said Avoid carbs entirely. And then this one said. Go plant-based. And then this one's, you know, like they were all in direct conflict with each other. And you're right, it just creates so much noise in your head and, and that contributes to the anxiety that you might already be feeling about your, your diagnosis.

And that goes hand in hand with what we're gonna speak about when it comes to the nervous system and stress and Exactly. I totally agree. Why would you be adding more. Stress. we often think that we need more information, but I think the chasing information trap, can be more harmful because you might be telling yourself, well, I'm educating myself, I'm [00:13:00] learning.

But if you're just constantly seeking and you're coming across all of this contradictory information from people that maybe aren't qualified to speak on it, That just leaves you feeling way more stressed in the end.

Katie: it's super detrimental and this is why, uh, nutrition and. Your CNS the main pillars because they all feed into each other. Um, and a lot of people struggle to zoom out and take a different lens on what is actually contributing to their symptoms. Um, and most of the time you'll find that they're all linked together.

Um, which yeah, a lot of people don't. They can't see when they're in it and they're just over consuming in information and it gets totally overwhelming. And that's what we don't want, we don't want you to feel overwhelmed because actually accepting that you have IBD [00:14:00] is, is a big deal. You know? So adding more to that is, it's not, it's not gonna turn out well put it that way.

Amanda: Mm-hmm. And coming home and just sitting on the couch and scrolling and just seeking more information. I firmly believe you'd be better off to just put your phone on, do not disturb, and go for a walk. Maybe the walk isn't going to figure everything out, but you're taking one small beneficial action that's going to be good for your body versus sitting there seeking that information and just creating more stress.

Katie: Yeah, most of the time it's not actually what you need to add, it's what you need to take away. and that kind of goes hand in hand with psychologically learning how to slow down because we live in such a fast paced life, it's a real struggle for people to learn how to. Actually just be a human. [00:15:00] We're human beings, not human doings. And um, all of this overstimulation is, is super detrimental. I mean, why do you think so many people with IBD fall into the trap of like restriction over nourishment? I know this is kind of like off topic on what we're already talking about, but 

Amanda: 

Yeah, I think that a lot of that goes back to what we were just talking about, about all of the contradictory information that people receive and it, it really does create food fear for a lot of people and. I know I kind of fell into that trap for a little while when I noticed that removing inflammatory foods from my diet started to calm down my symptoms.

And that's great, but it can become a slippery slope where you start restricting and removing foods and then you think, okay, if I just eat in this way, I can feel better. [00:16:00] Um, but I think a lot of people don't. Understand that we need variety in our diet. That that's one of the primary things that feeds our gut microbiome is variety of, of different types of whole foods, and we need variety of nutrients.

So if you've narrowed down your food to a safe list of five to seven foods, and that's what you're eating every day, there's a really good chance that you're not meeting your nutritional requirements for. Vitamins, minerals, like you said, fiber, protein, all the things that we really need, those building blocks that we need, uh, for building our bodies.

So yes, I do believe that sometimes we need to avoid certain foods and we need to remove some foods for a time. So, for example, when someone's in a, a bad flareup, then moving to easy to digest foods and cooked [00:17:00] foods and, and things that aren't so hard on our system. And also removing those foods that contribute to inflammation for a time.

But people need to recognize that it's not, um, that is not the way to eat long term. 

Katie: Yeah, like the amount of people who I speak to on a weekly basis that say that they've been on a low FODMAP diet for years is wild. Mm-hmm. Like the low FODMAP diet should only be used as an intervention for six weeks.

And I'm just like, wow. You know? Rebuilding your gut microbiome needs to be your first point of call because you are probably, well without looking at their blood work, you are probably pretty malnourished at this point. Um, but then they get so used to eating. Yeah. Such little food. [00:18:00] Then they have this anxiety over going out.

For food. You know, they can't go out for a meal. Um, they can't eat anything that's not within these specific food groups. And that in itself creates going back to mindset, a huge amount of food anxiety and social anxiety, which is then contributing to their internal information. So again. A huge link. And following on from that, I'd love to know your thoughts on the importance when, when it comes, it comes to adding in supportive foods instead of sort of cuss cutting everything out.

And just going into a little bit more detail there. 'cause I know you touched on it a minute ago. 

Amanda: Yeah, I, I think that, I think that, um, food reintroduction, so if we do remove foods, like you mentioned FOB maps. For a period of time, understanding that the [00:19:00] purpose of that is to give your body a bit of a break while it's in that period of struggle.

But then ultimately the goal is to reintroduce foods and get back to as much variety as. Possible in the diet. And sometimes people can trip up with this as well because they will, you know, be really good and remove a bunch of things, especially if they're doing like an elimination diet and they're say removing dairy and gluten and fob maps and, and several different things at once.

It's like they'll, they'll try really hard to adhere to that for a period of time. And then once they've done that, it's like. The floodgates open and they're like, I can, I'm gonna just eat all the things again and. That can put your body into a position of like, whoa, that's, it's too much. It's too soon.

Right? So reintroducing has to be done in a gentle way, [00:20:00] slowly, systematically testing foods to see what we can tolerate and what we can't, and also understanding that sometimes it's not about the food. Itself, but it's about the dosage. So this is something that I see often. Um, we talk about, I think fiber is, is a burning topic in the world of IBD because I remember.

Being told, the only sort of nutrition advice that I was told by my doctor early on was eat white bread and crackers, things that were low in fiber because fiber can be irritating when you're in a flare up. And that didn't make any sense to me at the time because I was like, well, you know, people tell you you have to eat more fiber.

So which is it? Am I supposed to eat fiber? Am I not supposed to eat fiber? And. Uh, that's another situation where it creates stress because you have conflicting advice. And [00:21:00] so if a person's being told you need to increase your fiber intake to support your gut, yes, I agree. But sometimes maybe adding in too much fiber is gonna be detrimental to you.

It can create actual. You know, more symptoms, more bloating, more irritation, and so it's, it's not necessarily as simple as the social media world makes it out to be. It's not this food is good, this food is bad, or eat this, not that. It's, it's very nuanced and it's very personal. 

Katie: Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Because ultimately.

High FODMAP foods are just, just foods that ferment in your bowel and can cause bloating and gas. So removing high FODMAP foods and going on a low FODMAP diet is essentially just just giving your gut a chance to breathe and a chance to heal a little bit, and then [00:22:00] incorporating different types of carbohydrates at different times.

When we are coming out of the elimination phase, um, is strategic and like you said, like super subjective. So it's a lot more complex than people think. And there's not like anything like an IBD safe food list or anything like that because. What might, might trigger one person does not trigger another, and it's about self-compassion and establishing what those foods are, removing them, so, so that your body has a chance to heal and, and rest.

Um. Rebuilding your gut microbiome using fiber manipulation, and then reintroducing these foods back in when, in when you're in a much stable position. Mm-hmm. And that in itself is complex. You know, it's not, it's not, you know, a one size fits all approach. Yeah. And again, that's where I think social media is great, [00:23:00] but it can, can also be not, not so great in terms of, um, like using this blanket approach to things.

Yeah. 

Amanda: Yeah. And I think that anybody who is speaking in a way that is very black or white does not understand what they're talking about. Um. Mm-hmm. And unfortunately, those are the headlines or those are the hooks that draw people in, you know, the mm-hmm. The hooks that say, um. Eat these five foods and, uh, lose 10 pounds this week.

You know, it's like, ooh, I wanna know what those five foods are, right? It, and that's what it's intended to do. It's intended to draw you in, but anybody who speaks in that matter, anybody who approaches something that is so highly nuanced and so highly individual from a black or white perspective, do this, not that this is good, this is bad.

Just doesn't [00:24:00] understand what they're talking about and, and doesn't understand. I think that they can be creating more harm than good. Absolutely. Yeah. 

Katie: And, and that moves into the gut brain axis quite nicely and exploring nervous system healing because CNS regulation alongside nutrition and interlinking them even when it comes to feeding.

Your body and your brain appropriately to give you a really good chance of learning how to relax your CNS. Using things like Exercise two is such a crucial pillar to the multifaceted approach that people need to start taking. Um, and from your experience, why do you think. Nervous system. Supporting your nervous system was such a crucial part to your gut healing journey that [00:25:00] often gets completely ignored.

Amanda: Yeah, I think that. I think that we don't necessarily want to see that or address it at the beginning. I know what I know now. When I look back at my situation, I very clearly see that the dysregulated nervous system state that I was in was what contributed to my illness. And I think that we're, mind you, this was 15 or so years ago that I was first navigating my symptoms, my diagnosis.

So there was very little talk about nervous system regulation and things like that. And even when I did start working with alternative type practitioners, that started bringing up the stress response, stress. Even that was done in a way that was, um. You know, I, I remember being handed a sheet of paper basically saying.

You [00:26:00] need to manage your stress better try meditating. And where I was at at the time I was, had, had left my military career and being in that setting, everything is stressful and very little is supportive in that, in that situation, right? So, um, yeah, you're taught to just push through and there is no talk of.

Stress management. And so I didn't throw the piece of paper out, but in my mind I did. It was like, manage your stress, try meditating. Oh, okay. Like what does that even mean? Right? Like, how do we manage our stress? And I think that, yeah, that the beginning of understanding this is understanding stress, understanding what it is and how it's many forms and how it shows up in our body and in our lives.

So, I know we've spoken about this before, but I think so [00:27:00] many people believe that they are not stressed or that they don't have stress in their life because they manage it well. I. Um, you could take a person who has a very busy life who say runs a business and has children and, and all the things, and then you add in an illness and symptoms into the mix, and it's like they're juggling all these balls and they kind of think as long as they keep the balls in the air, then they're good.

Mm-hmm. But it's not just a matter of how well you are managing the stress, it's, it's starting out by understanding these are all stressors, like all of these aspects that you have in your life. Like you said, we're, we're human beings, not human doings, but we spend so much of our time like, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this.

And it's just an ongoing list from day to day to day, [00:28:00] and. Unless we. Acknowledge that. Start to learn about stress and start to learn that, yeah, maybe we need to, like you said, let go of some things. Maybe we, we need to remove things from our plate or delegate to other people, or set some boundaries or say no.

Um, and stop the people pleasing tendencies and, and the feeling like you have to do everything for everyone. That is such a huge part of this process and in my personal journey, learning that. That I couldn't be everything to everyone all the time that I needed to put myself first and my health and start prioritizing that.

Yeah. 

Katie: Yeah. And, and a good subtle sign to know that you're not, your CNS is dysregulated anyway, even if you're doing like everything right with food, um, is, you know, when you go on holiday and after about three days, you feel like absolute crap. [00:29:00] Have you ever had that? Yes. Yep. But like, you go on a beach holiday for two weeks and after like yeah, like third, fourth, fifth day, you just feel, feel like horrendous, like super fatigued.

Like you just wanna sleep all the time and you're like, oh my God, I want a holiday. Why do I 

Amanda: feel like this? Yeah. Um, almost like a hangover. You are like, why do I feel like I have a hangover? 

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. And it's 'cause you're actually giving your body that time to. To breathe. Breathe and to rest, rest and to relax.

And you're not used to it because you're so busy all the time and you are almost like just chucking more fuel onto the fire. You never give your cha your body that chance to really just be. And when you go on holiday and you actually allow it to just relax and rest and you feel horrendous. That should be a good sign [00:30:00] to, to really show some evidence behind the fact that your CNS is Yeah, super dysregulated and you need to give it some TLC.

Amanda: Yeah. You can't heal if you are in a constant state of hypervigilance. 

Katie: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And chronic stress and chronic stress 

Amanda: and trauma, 

Katie: all of these things affect digestion. So this is again, where we need to come back to how nutrition is linked to this. Because if you are in a super stressed state, say, you know, life happens.

You know, say you've lost a loved one or something, pretty traumatic has happened in your life. You need to tune into your body and then manipulate your nutrition based on what is happening with your stress responses. Because a lot of the time we have something big happen in our life, um, whether that be, you know, relationships or financial whatever, and we'll find ourself in a flare up that people will be like, oh, what did I eat [00:31:00] the night before?

Tuning into your body and listening to the cues and regulating it in these moments in real time is when the hard work starts. Because teaching your brain to recognize these kind of things is in real time, is something that I. A lot of people struggle with, um, because they don't have the awareness, you know?

Mm-hmm. And awareness is the first step to any behavior change. Yeah. And all of this, it, it super contributes to inflammation within the body. Big time. Yeah. So, shifting. From nutrition and CNS, the last pillar that we wanted to talk about was mindset and really diving into your, your healing identity and psychological flexibility.

So on that topic, um, how does someone's mindset impact impact their ability to actually [00:32:00] stick to a healing protocol, would you say? 

Amanda: Well, I think that first off, your belief and your mindset is probably the most influential because, and, and this is my biggest problem with our medical systems, way of diagnose and give this prognosis so.

I remember coming across project years ago called the Spontaneous Remission Project. Have you ever heard of that? 

Katie: I haven't, no. 

Amanda: It's really interesting and it's basically, uh, a researcher that started compiling where a person achieved spontaneous remission and. She started doing some research, I believe she was, um, writing a book and she started compiling this research and basically found that for [00:33:00] every condition that we have given a name to every disease.

Or diagnosis. There was at least one case of someone achieving spontaneous remission. So I think about a person being handed a cancer diagnosis, a stage four cancer diagnosis, and being told you have, you know, a year to live and then having that person achieve remission. And it brought up the question for this researcher of the role of belief in our body's ability to heal.

You can take two people with the same illness and tell them both the same thing. You, you have this, um, illness and this is your prognosis and you have this long to live, and you have, you can have one person who takes that and is absolutely crushed and devastated and is like, well, I guess I'm gonna die.

And then you have another person who takes that diagnosis and [00:34:00] says, no, I do not accept that. And so the difference being the physical diagnosis is the same, but the difference is their mindset and belief and yes. How does that change the outcome? And so the Spontaneous Remission Project basically was taking data and, and showing examples of cases where a person.

Healed despite being told they were not able to heal. And so learning about that got me really interested in the role of belief and the role of mindset. And I've continued to kind of research this and, and learn about this. And I think that it kind of goes hand in hand with the role of spirituality in the healing journey as well, because I think our beliefs.

Play a huge role in how we end up feeling and if we believe, if we just take that diagnosis [00:35:00] and we are told you are going to be sick forever, you're gonna be on medication forever, nothing's gonna change that. All you can hope for is. To stay the same or to manage these symptoms, and you just believe that and you wholeheartedly believe that that's your fate and you adopt that identity of a sick person who's never gonna get better.

I believe that is going to be your fate too, because you're, that's what you're signing up for. That's what you're subscribing to. But there are a lot of people out there, and we've already had quite a few of them on our podcast who said, no, I don't accept that, and I'm going to try different approaches and I'm going to learn as much as I can and I'm going to refuse to just live in this limited.

Way, just because some, mm-hmm. Somebody told me that that's all that is available to me. 

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. And that's, and [00:36:00] that's like a perfect example of even on a smaller scale, going into the danger of identity statements. So it could even be when someone says, oh, you know, I'm just broken. Or when they're like, oh, you know, nothing works for me.

Mm-hmm. Um, I've tried this. Nothing, you know, I just, I just, I just can't, I can't do it. And. It is how you speak to yourself that is so important. Even when it comes to like, you know, putting labels on these things like you've just said. Um, when people look for a label to help them identify what's going on within their body, but even the way that we talk to ourselves is so, so important when it comes to cultivating a growth mindset and.

Starting that healing process because once you've identified what areas. You have a fixed [00:37:00] mindset in whether that be, you know, using labels as kind of like the foundations of that, then everything will start to change once you, once you turn that fixed mindset into. A growth mindset within these areas of healing.

Um, so yeah, that's such a valid point. I I love that. 

Amanda: Yeah. And if I think back to my journey, it was really the first two years post-diagnosis that I just accepted what I was told, just took the medications and didn't seek out alternatives. And if I think about that now, I really was just in a holding pattern.

For that period of time. And so that was definitely a fixed mindset. That was, this is my fate. This is all I can hope for, and this is where I am. Yeah, and I'm not saying that that's. Necessarily a bad thing or someone should feel bad if they're in that [00:38:00] phase because I think we moved through phases and 

Katie: Yeah, 

Amanda: eventually I just got sick of being there and decided to try something different.

Yeah. And in that, trying something different, I started to adopt a growth mindset. It was like, okay, I'm gonna try this dietary approach or supplement or working with this practitioner and see like. Yeah, it, it wasn't, uh, okay, I need to figure this all out. I need to do it perfectly. It was like being curious.

I'm gonna try this and see was this, did this make it better or worse? 

Katie: Yeah. And 

Amanda: then taking that data and moving forward, and that's really what a growth mindset allows you to do is to. Take that data, do some experimentation, and then move forward. 

Katie: Yeah, definitely. From a psychological front, it's very much a case of thinking about it realistically and thinking.

'cause a lot of people are scared to make decisions because. They don't [00:39:00] want to fail or they are scared of what will happen. But a lot of the, but a lot of the time we forget that the worst thing that could possibly happen is we will end up in exactly the same position that we're in now, and they're living in the present and they're, they're reality isn't, you know, detrimental, but.

Trying something is not going to set you back anymore than where you are at right now in the present moment. And a lot of people really struggle to have that mindset and that view on it because, yeah. Yeah. They think, think if they try it, they're gonna get a million times worse, which is just not the case.

Or they're afraid be 

Amanda: disappointed. Like they, they don't wanna try something and fail because of what that will feel like to them. They don't want that disappointment. 

Katie: Exactly. Um, what would you say to someone who feels like they've tried everything and is [00:40:00] actually starting to give up? Mm-hmm. 

Amanda: Well, I know what that feels like because when you've reached a point of wanting to give up, it's because you've reached a point of exhaustion and so, mm-hmm.

I think that often that comes from trying to always do more. So when we talk about the nervous system, our stress response, and we are always so busy and go, go, go from thing to thing. If you are adding in, if you're just trying to add in more, do more, and that's your approach to. Trying to heal. That goes back to that, that conversation on stress and trying something different.

So if you're exhausted because you've been trying to do more, maybe the approach is to try actually doing less. To try calming things down from a nervous system perspective, actually taking things off of your plate, and [00:41:00] like we said, giving your body that ability to feel what it feels like to just. Rest or just look after yourself for a little bit and see.

Um, and I think that often when I get overwhelmed and life is too busy and I feel like I have too many things on the go and I get, um, to that state of overwhelm in that state mm-hmm. We think we have to just do more. And usually I can kind of solve that feeling by going for a walk or taking a nap.

Because in that state, the answer isn't to do more. The answer is to do less, is to honor your body in the exhaustion, in the overwhelm in the state that you're in and recognize what it's actually asking for. 

Katie: Yeah. And remember guys, these. These different protocols that we're talking about are gonna feel super uncomfortable for [00:42:00] you at the beginning.

Mm-hmm. You know, I bet when you started to take a nap instead of continue going a million miles an hour, it felt awful. Like it felt like you were probably being super unproductive. But we want you to remember that healing is about building safety within the body, and safety doesn't come from. Anxiety or moving a million miles an hour or crazy elimination plans or anything like that.

Safety comes from the, the thing, the natural things that you would do if we weren't in such a fast paced world. And just grounding yourself and bringing you back into the moment is a really, really fun first little step that you can take. Mm-hmm. Um. When it comes to actually beginning to heal your body for long-term disease prevention, um, not just remission.

Amanda: Yeah. And the things that. Actually are going to make the biggest impact are [00:43:00] the things that feel like they're not like it, it does bring up feelings of discomfort and it can feel like, oh, I'm just, like you said, I'm, I, I'm not productive. Or I could have been doing this. Mm-hmm. But really, it's like you're giving a gift to your body that has been mm-hmm.

Crying out for that for so long. 

Katie: Mm-hmm. Exactly. 

Amanda: Yeah. Yeah. So if you are in a place where this is sounding familiar and you've been struggling, and maybe you feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do next, we have created a guide to kind of give you a start, a place to start learning more. Um, with some more tangible steps that you can start applying, uh, in the realm of nutrition and mindset and stress management or nervous system regulation.

So you can find that in the show notes and download that guide and have a place to get started 

Katie: and let us know how [00:44:00] you get on with it as well. We'd love to hear from you.