Holistic Healing: Nourishing Body and Mind with Stephanie Harrington
Stephanie Harrington is a board certified nutrition specialist who holds a master's degree in the science of nutrition from the National University of Natural Medicine. She has specialty training in functional nutrition with a focus on digestive health and hormonal balance. Stephanie practices nutrition from a whole person approach, believing that together food, mindset, self-care, and connection play an essential role in wellness. She's passionate about utilizing nutrition science, mind body healing, and food relationship coaching to create individualized nutrition plans for sustainable changes.
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[00:01:39] Stephanie Harrington on what she is most passionate about
[00:02:16] Stephanie Harrington on how she got interested in the digestive healing and women’s health field
[00:05:48] Stephanie Harrington on what her areas of focus are now
[00:06:42] Stephanie Harrington on why people come to her
[00:07:39] Stephanie Harrington on why mindset is so important to physical health
[00:10:02] Stephanie Harrington on her process when someone comes to her
[00:12:07] Stephanie Harrington on things to do while waiting for the test to get back
[00:15:54] Stephanie Harrington on general rules and things we can do to make our sleep patterns better
[00:18:39] Stephanie Harrington on how connection is important for physical health.
[00:22:19] Stephanie Harrington on how to filter out the noise when focusing on your mental and physical health
[00:24:37] Stephanie Harrington on individualized approaches and the factors that play into these approaches
[00:26:43] Stephanie Harrington on examples of toxic exposure
[00:31:40] Stephanie Harrington on what her process is when working with someone
[00:34:38] Stephanie Harrington on recent medical discoveries that surprised her or was really helpful and important
[00:36:05] Stephanie Harrington on what we should be asking about but haven’t
[00:38:45] Stephanie Harrington on the type of clients she is working with and how people can find her
[00:39:16] Stephanie Harrington on who her role models were growing up
[00:41:34] Stephanie Harrington on her professional mentors
[00:42:36] Stephanie Harrington on what her best habit is
[00:43:35] Stephanie Harrington on lessons that she has learned that has stuck with her
[00:44:36] Stephanie Harrington on her number one piece of advice to women who starting on their health care journey
[00:45:23] Stephanie Harrington on her secret to a rewarding life
[00:46:03] Stephanie Harrington on a mantra that she lives by
[00:46:50] Stephanie Harrington on what her dream is for herself and for women
Passionistas: Hi, we're sisters, Amy and Nancy Harrington, the founders of The Passionistas Project. We've created an inclusive sisterhood where passion driven women come to get support, find their purpose, and feel empowered to transform their lives and change the world. On every episode, we discuss the unique ways in which each woman is following her passions, talk about how she defines success, and explore her path to breaking down the barriers that women too often face.
Today, we're talking with Stephanie No Relation Harrington, a board certified nutrition specialist who holds a master's degree in the science of nutrition from the National University of Natural Medicine. She has specialty training in functional nutrition with a focus on digestive health and hormonal balance.
Stephanie practices nutrition from a whole person approach, believing that together food, mindset, self care, and connection play an essential role in wellness. She's passionate about utilizing nutrition science, mind body healing, and food relationship coaching to create individualized nutrition plans for sustainable changes.
If you're joining us live here today, please feel free to drop any comments or questions for our guests in the chat, and we'll do our best to get them answered. Now, please welcome Stephanie Harrington.
Stephanie: Hi, thank you for the kind introduction.
Passionistas: Oh, our pleasure. We're always excited to meet a new Harrington.
So we sort of, we sort of mentioned it in your intro, but tell us, um, what are you most passionate about?
Stephanie: I'm most passionate about, um, and as you said in the intro to digestive healing and women's health and really just allowing and helping women feel more at home in their body and really understanding how to fuel and nourish their bodies and what works for them.
I believe that there's so much misinformation, especially now with social media, that it feels difficult to really tone it in, hone it into those internal cues. And so it's always a gift and an honor for me to be a part of different women's health care journeys.
Passionistas: So where does that passion come from? What first got you interested in this field?
Stephanie: I feel like this is the hardest question. It's like everything. Um, when I was really young, I watched my mom go through some, uh, health, both mental and physical challenges, and I always say that our house went from crunchy to like straight up granola, where we ended up I mean, a lot of uh really healthy lifestyle and holistic health, and I know you're both from the South of Boston, but where I'm from, we don't really, we didn't really talk about holistic health the way that they do out here in Oregon, it was very woo out there.
And so it changed a lot of how I looked at my day to day and I started to It really influenced how I fuel myself, as well as just thinking about my mindset and how that really contributes to my overall well being. As a teenager, it was a little bit out there, and so it was a little strange to really connect with other teenagers, too, who really resonated with this type of thinking and holistic health.
I was lucky that I had a lot of close family friends that were influential in the holistic health world, such as acupuncturists, Reiki masters, massage therapists. So there was a lot of talk about just Where your energy goes, um, how your healing follows, as well as how food and lifestyle plays a major role in your overall well being.
And so I knew I wanted to be a part of the holistic health world, I just wasn't exactly sure where my place ended up and was going to be. I started my undergrad with psychology because I was really curious on just behavioral change because back then I thought well if everyone knows they should be doing quote on quote the right things or these healthy lifestyles why aren't they doing it when we have these chronic diseases in our society and really focusing on just psychology behavioral change and later on post grad I ended up dealing with my own health struggles.
And I was kind of, it took me for a little bit of, um, a term because I was so involved in the holistic health world for so long in my head. I had the psychology and research background. I, um, knew a lot about this world for a long time and yet I was dealing with a lot of both physical and then what turned into from physical, uh, mental conditions and I was trying to learn how to really fuel my body and it felt like everything I was doing wasn't working out too well.
Um, and this led me to go and visit a, uh, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and she kind of turned me onto another way to look at fueling my body the way that, um, It was really right for me and gave me a new look onto how important it really is to take an individualized approach onto health and well being.
And so, what I was really using a lot of my research on was different books and scientific research that may have worked for other individuals, but it wasn't healing me and where I needed to be. And that all brought me to go, to further education to get my master's degree in the science of nutrition and continue on into functional nutrition.
So then to really look at what's happening underneath the hood by looking at functional testing to really understand that individualized approach for different people and to support them on their health journey.
Passionistas: That's fabulous. What a great journey that you went on and so I hope you're feeling better these days.
Um,
Stephanie: Oh, yes. Thank you.
Passionistas: And, uh, so, so talk about what you're, what, where you've landed. What are your areas of focus now?
Stephanie: A lot of my areas of focus is digestive health, um, women's health, hormonal balance, as well as mental health. I feel like they all end up going hand in hand together. So much of our western look on medicine is that we, we box everything out.
Like we have our endocrine system, we have our digestive system, our neurological, but they all really work together. And so that's why it's important that, that if we're feeling something like digestive, um, you know, digestive inflammation or hormonal imbalance, we really need to look at the whole picture onto why that's happening.
So typically if someone's coming to me for one of those reasons, we're going to be addressing several things all at once.
Passionistas: So what, um, what does kind of drive someone to come to you? Do you find there's common issues that are the main focus of, of why people come to you?
Stephanie: Yeah, um, I see. Like I said, a lot of digestive health.
So, things like small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, IBS, IBD, Crohn's, um, I've had some autoimmune conditions. I work actually quite a bit with autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's, and then hormonal balance, um, for fertility as well as perimenopause, menopause, um, and then mental health as well because as I kind of spoke about with my own health journey, when we have a lot of inflammation in the body, it's not only going to affect us physically, but we also see an increase in anxiety, depression, and other attributes that can be, um, really supported through diet and lifestyle.
Passionistas: So talk a little bit about more, talk a little more about that. What, how is, why is mindset so important to physical health?
Stephanie: Oh gosh, you opened up a can of worms. I think I'm like, where do I start? Um, I think that I'll start with more of the sciency aspect of it because we have something that's called a gut brain connection. And so we have this two way highway where if we have any type of inflammation in the gut, it's going to send a signal right up to our brain and vice versa.
For feeling any anxiety or stress, it then signals, uh, signals back to our gut. And so this is going to affect how we digest our food and our nutrients, um, which then in turn affects our hormonal balance, our energy production, and if we're able to create neurotransmitters. We also have something that's called the gut microbiome, which is super on trend.
We hear probiotics in everything nowadays. Um, but we see that, um, about 95 percent of our serotonin, which is our neurotransmitter that really helps with feeling relaxed and calm, is actually created by these microbes in our gut. So we need to make sure that we're having a lower inflammation, but also supporting, um, the health of the diversity of our gut microbiome so that we're able to make these neurotransmitters.
They're also responsible for making things like GABA. So same feeling reward, um, being able to stay asleep as well as some of our vitamins. And so there's a huge connection just with the nerdy sciencey part of it. But I also believe that as more of a holistic approach and kind of just thinking about where your mind goes, your energy follows too.
And so if, especially when we're going through chronic conditions, it can be really difficult to, Remember what it feels like to feel good, um, and really see that future. And I think that having, really making sure that when I'm working with clients, focusing on those sustainable changes and those small wins can be just so monumental to overall, um, growth and really meeting their goals.
Because when you're dealing with chronic conditions that you've been dealing with for, you know, 10, 20 years, it can be really difficult to feel like, There is an other side of this as well.
Passionistas: So what's the first step if someone is noticing that they're having these issues? How do they, um, how do you kind of take them through the process?
Stephanie: Yeah, so the first step is my initial consult. Typically, we'll meet. I always offer a discovery call, too, just to make sure we're a great fit, because I always think that you need to make sure that you're working with a healthcare practitioner that you resonate with, and that, because not every single person is meant to work together, too, and that's completely okay.
Um, and it also takes a team. You can't just have one person that fits all. So, I start off with a discovery call to learn a little bit more about what my client is looking for to work with a nutritional counselor, what their health goals are, a little bit about their history, as well as to answer any simple questions that they have about working together.
Our initial consultation is typically about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes, and that way I can have a really great understanding of their foundation, where they've come from, because a lot of these health conditions didn't just start overnight. We don't just have pain or digestive distress, hormonal imbalance from things that happened a month ago or so, it's years in the making for a lot of the times.
It's really trying to understand what these triggers are slowly as we work together, beginning with the foundation of nutritional care and then getting to that root cause of what is actually contributing to these symptoms as well. Um, so we'd have the initial consultation, that's an hour and 15 minutes ish, and get to those foundations, start a really, a nice foundational, um, Uh, planned that set someone up for success.
So what is the low hanging fruit that they can start to implement that they can start feeling as good as possible in just a short amount of time as we may be ordering some extra testing, we may be referring out for extra testing, um, before we meet up for our, our follow up consult, which is usually about four to six weeks.
So then we have time for that testing to come through as well.
Passionistas: So what is that low hanging fruit? Is it, is it mostly like diet and exercise? Are those the things that we can start doing immediately while we're, while you wait for the tests to come in and get to the root?
Stephanie: Yeah, it depends on the human and their lifestyle.
And so I work with a lot of very high functional women. And so it's really making huge changes right away. They don't typically have the capacity because we're running a business. They're taking care of their family. They're taking care of their parents and everyone else around them. And so a lot of times we're working one on where can we add in pockets of self care.
And so I say pockets, because I think typically when I say what brings you joy or what brings, what do you do for self care? The initial reaction is always, I don't have time to go get a massage. Like I don't have time for a bubble bath. I'm like, no, no, no, it's not. We don't have to have these large amounts, but where can you find five or 10 minutes out of your day to possibly breathe, do a body scan, take a short walk, just really connect with yourself.
Because a lot of times as women, we're just giving our entire selves to everyone else in our lives. And I think that a lot of that foundation is really tuning back in into ourselves. Um, second, I would say is a lot of what I work with is blood sugar balance to begin with. And so that comes in many different aspects. For nutrition that's going to be starting to balance your plate and for every single human that looks very different because we want to see what your dietary intake is.
You know, are you eating one meal a day, three meals a day? Do you have the capacity to cook? Like what, what is happening in your day to day ability? Um, and then also where is your energy dips throughout the day as well? So really just once again, set it low hanging fruit by how can we support your energy throughout the day as soon as possible by supporting that blood sugar balance.
And when I talk about blood balance, it's really making sure that we have an equal amount of, um, protein, healthy fats, and fiber at every meal and snack, and that way we don't have a really high rise and fall in our blood sugar, so we have sustained energy throughout the day. Um, another thing that we need to think about too is just our sleep, because once again, as high functioning women, that's the first thing that goes out the door.
We don't put a priority on our sleep a lot of times, and when there's studies that show that just having six hours of sleep per night Increases our inflammatory markers. And so I think that most humans out there, we're probably getting somewhere around that five to six hours of sleep. So it's really making sure that we're prioritizing not only having consistent sleep, but staying asleep as well.
So that may be adding in some supplementation, working on a nighttime routine, um, talking about just sleep hygiene too. What is the temperature of the room? Are you looking at screens? Really supporting that overall aspect. Um, the other thing with sleep is if we don't sleep enough, we are then going to disrupt our blood sugar regulation for the rest of the day.
And so even if we're balancing our blood sugar through our dietary intake, we're less insulin resistant. So we're going to increase inflammation throughout the day. We're also going to increase anxiety and stress throughout the day because when our blood sugar regulation is off, that increases that inflammation response and then it's a cycle that feeds itself.
And then we can't sleep at night because we have high stress and cortisol. So, um, that was long winded, but those are the typically the few things that I look at to begin, because I feel like we can all use a little bit of care in those categories as well.
Passionistas: Yeah, that's amazing. I think that we all, everybody we talk to has sleep issues.
And I know we do. Um, you talked a little bit about some of the things that you can do, but like, can you kind of dig a little bit deeper? And I know it's, Different for each person, but some general rules of things that we can do to make, um, our sleep patterns better.
Stephanie: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so never medical advice, always work with a practitioner as well.
Um, but some things that you can do is one, if you're finding that you're waking up in the middle of the night, you can have a, like a small protein snack before you go to bed, because that's going to help to. It's going to be a precursor to help with your melatonin and help you stay asleep throughout the night too.
So that can be really helpful when we're having a really high stress, just to support that blood sugar regulation before you go to bed. Um, another thing is making sure that you turn off screens a couple of hours before bed. I think that's the most difficult thing for most individuals is because we're working, checking emails, looking at social media up until the moment we go to bed.
And so we're really stimulated. Um, and then our brain continues to go, go, go. Either before we fall asleep or we wake up at that two o'clock hour and continue to think about our to do list as well. Another thing that is for some individuals, it's not for everyone, but journaling before you go to bed, and it doesn't have to be a long prompt, but even just writing down your to do list for the next day can be really helpful.
So you don't have these thoughts. Pinging around your head, once again, when you wake up at 2am, or just writing things like having a small gratitude journal to writing things that you feel grateful for before you go to bed. Any type of reflections can be really helpful for grounding before you go to bed.
And then also having like calming either teas or adaptogenic herbs can be really helpful just to help with that stress response too. Like like sleepy time teas, chamomile can be really helpful, uh, for the right people. Things like ashwagandha as well as magnesium glycinate are great supplements to support sleep.
Uh, getting your blood levels checked, B6 can be really helpful too, um, that's extremely helpful for insomnia. And then making sure that your room is, um, cool enough so your, your, your room isn't too warm and you're really supporting that, the sleep environment for yourself as well.
Passionistas: That's fabulous advice.
The screen thing is so hard. So hard for all of us, right? Just got to check that email one more time. And I personally feel like I do things on my phone that I think are relaxing me like, oh, I'll play a game. I'll do a crossword. It's like, no, it's still a screen and it's still not good for me. And I, I can't break the habit.
I need to work on that. You also say that connection is really important. To physical health and as women that are building a community, we would love to hear more about that.
Stephanie: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so it's I'm sure a lot of your listeners have heard of the Blue Zones, uh, out there. And so they are different places throughout the world that have been studied to be the healthiest of all the different places in the world with longevity, but not only longevity, but quality of life too.
And a lot of what comes down to it is we've heard of the Mediterranean diet, but they also have a lot of connection between One another. And so taking time to have lunch with each other, have coffee or a glass of wine or having their, um, community in general has been shown just to really improve overall health and wellbeing.
And I think that we saw this quite a bit throughout the pandemic where we all went remote and although we were, we were connecting through Zoom, it wasn't the same as being the same room as another individual as well and really being able to feel their energy that they have and really, um. Yeah, just connect with them in general.
I think that we're in such an individualized culture in the United States in general, and we overestimate the value of connection. And this is why I am just, I love what you two are doing, because supporting each other is not only going to help one another, but it just helps all our entire community thrive as well.
I was surprised when I was younger, I did quite a bit of traveling abroad and I saw how in different communities it was more of the all encompassing connection that it wasn't as an individualized culture. People were willing just to go out of their way to speak to you, to help you along the street. Um, And it just changed my entire outlook, my entire view of what society really needs, I think, and to really be able to thrive as well.
Passionistas: Yeah, and I think as East Coasters, you know, we all grew up in a world where our families were all really close by, if not in the same house. It was a very European mindset of the people who migrated to the United States from Europe and stayed in New York and Boston and Rhode Island, that feeling that like, you knew your family, you're, you were connected to your grandparents and your parents.
And I think as we moved West, we all kind of dispersed. And so we need to kind of recreate that. core structure within our lives that, you know, makes, made life feel more stable back in the East Coast is from our experience. Um,
Stephanie: Absolutely and it takes a village, right? Like they always say it takes a village to, you know, raise a human, but it also takes a village just to support one another as well.
And I think that as we continue to move all around the country and all around the world, we start to lose that. Um, that connection with one another as well, and it can start to feel lonely and overwhelming, and as we continue to, you know, move throughout our lives and stress increases, and we have these hormonal imbalances, really coming back down to that connection is so powerful and so important just for overall well being.
Passionistas: But conversely, you mentioned this earlier, We have social media, which is this kind of false sense of connection on so many levels. And you, you were talking about kind of how we think we're getting information from social media, but it's not necessarily the right information or accurate information. So how can people kind of filter out the noise of social media when they're focused on things like you know, their health and their, their mental health and their physical health.
Stephanie: It's hard. Um, it's hard. I think it's a blessing and a curse too. And because even when we think about perimenopause and menopause in particular and women's hormones, there's so much good information out there. Um, and I'm like very thankful for what social media has brought some light into what women need, as well as then we're seeing more books being written about it, more research coming out.
It's just fantastic what social media has done. I think that it's just doing your research a little bit more about who is actually reporting this information, making sure that they are credentialed. If they are a MD or naturopath, a registered dietitian, or a CNS, then you know that they have significant training to be able to report on these type of health conditions and then see if they are using any studies for their information as well, um, which, comes with a grain of salt because some scientific studies are going to be a little bit swayed depending, you need to be able to look at it to see if there is any controversy on with the studies itself.
Um, but I think that most important that you could do really is just looking at the credentials of the person that is reporting some of this information and just seeing if they are affiliated with any type of companies, why they may be promoting certain products. Certain information and in particular certain products.
I see so many supplements out there which are, you know, aren't third party tested and that always makes me a little bit nervous for different people, like everyone to be influenced by supplements that are promising us, you know, more energy, less brain fog, better sleep. And we don't know exactly what's in these supplements, but we also don't know if you're taking any medications or if you're already taking other supplements, if there's any interactions.
And so that's why it's really important to also work with a health care practitioner.
Passionistas: Yeah. You've mentioned a few times that, you know, this is, these are individualized approaches and there's not a one size fits all, um, solution. So what are some of the factors that impact people differently that would, that makes the need for this individual approach?
Stephanie: Gosh, everything. Um, genetics plays a role, but really lifestyle is the most important too. And so we know for a long time, so especially thinking about autoimmune conditions, like and we always thought that genetics was the main reason why you would have an autoimmune condition, but it's been shown that about 20 percent genetics and 80 percent is epigenetics.
So that is dependent on your lifestyle. And so are you, um, doing day to day? What is your diet like? What type of toxic exposures are you seeing? Are you, are you, um, that are present in your life, as well as what is your stress, sleep, etc.
And so I think that's where the individualized approach really comes into play, is just coming into supporting, I always try to meet my clients exactly where they are, to support them for success, and not to give them a plan that's just going to completely overwhelm them. And I think that's what we see a lot of times with functional medicine as well as holistic and natural medicine is that it's this all or nothing type of approach rather than integrating different healthy lifestyles and nutrition factors that will really just support the person's individual life. And so when we're thinking about like, You know, a busy woman entrepreneur who is taking care of her family and taking care of their, you know, immediate family as well as their parents and running a business, probably doing like a really restrictive diet and a really difficult, um, exercise plan is not the right fit for them.
It's really just seeing exactly how to support their dietary intake. They probably, they may not have enough time to cook every single day. So how can we increase that nutrient density? How can we increase protein in particular and then healthy fibers into their diet when they're not going to just continue to overfill their plate and then feel overwhelmed by trying to then take care of their health alongside everyone else's?
Passionistas: You mentioned toxic exposure. So what is that and what are some examples of that?
Stephanie: So unfortunately we live in a very toxic world and I always have that caveat because there's only so much that we can do. And I think that when we start to look into the research of our toxic exposure, it can feel daunting and a little bit overwhelming as well.
Um, in particular for women, I'm thinking about our exposure to xenoestrogens. So it's a lot of our health care products that we use, um, a lot of our beauty products that we put onto our skin, onto our hair, our makeup, as well as pesticides and herbicides. They have something that's called xenoestrogen, so it binds to estrogen receptor.
Um, and can dysregulate our hormonal balance, and so that's one of the biggest ones that I work with for, with women is to make sure that we're decreasing our exposure to xenoestrogen, so then we can support our hormonal balance, because it's not only going to, one, dysregulate our hormonal balance, it also increases, um, our toxic load in our liver so we need to support our detoxification in our liver and then can increase inflamation in our digestive system so we are not having regular bowel movements not able to actually excrete these excess toxins as well. Um, so that's a big one. The toxins that we have in our food system, thinking about water, our air quality is a big one too, especially now that we're all working from home and living on the west coast and having fire exposure, making sure that we have air filters and that we have clean air inside of our house.
There's studies that show that the inside of our house is much more toxic than the actual outside of our house as well. And so supporting that inside of house and the very least opening your windows 10 minutes a day to get that fresh air to move through so there isn't too much stagnant air in your cider house. And then we deal with a lot of mold in the Pacific Northwest.
So just being really mindful of just any type of mold exposure, too. I think those are the biggest ones. And plastics. I think that's typically where I start with most folks is in their kitchen, making sure that you're not microwaving in plastics. Thinking about your cookware, anything that you're heating up because when you put that hot food.
With the plastic, you're going to be absorbing all of those microplastics, which is going to cause a lot of inflammation in the body as well.
Passionistas: Yeah. So much to think about. So, so, so much. That's why we need people like you. Help us through it. I think it's so interesting too, the, the makeup. We've had a conversation with other people about this, um, who are on the makeup industry side of things, like that, what we don't, what we don't realize we're, how we're putting things on our skin is affecting our internal health.
I think people just think, oh, putting this on and the, you know, wearing toxic products and even paint. We've interviewed women who make natural paint and it's like the toxins and things like paint and um, that you just, things you don't even think about getting into your body and affecting you.
Stephanie: Oh my goodness.
Absolutely. That's amazing. The non toxic paint. That's great. Um, and with the skin too, it's the most absorbent organ in our body. And so we don't think about it. Is that, that's what it's meant to do is to absorb different, you know, nutrients and different things into our body as well. And so of course we need to think about what we're putting onto our skin too.
Passionistas: Yeah, yeah. My husband, um, just recently developed allergies. Um, I was sick last year and he, he was so bent on keeping the house clean and staying healthy himself that he was cleaning and washing and scrubbing and he actually developed skin allergies to all the household cleaners and personnel cleaners in the house.
So we had to go through our whole house and purge. Everything, you know, household cleaners, shampoos, soap, everything, and get all natural stuff. And it was So great. And it just feels so good. Every time he pulls something out, he's like, can I use this? I'm like, yes, everything in this house is okay for you to use.
So it just, it was, you know, I wish that everyone could do that. Cause it's like, oh, we don't have any harmful chemicals in our house any longer, just really great, you know? Um,
Stephanie: And once you take it out of your house too, you start to notice that when you're exposed to it, like you start to feel. different.
You, some people get headaches or they start to feel a little brain fog when they have that exposure too. So it's really fascinating when you're exposed to it all the time, you don't notice then, um, what it's actually doing to your body.
Passionistas: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He carries a little, his own individualized soap around with him now.
So if he goes anywhere, he can wash his hands.
Stephanie: That's great.
Passionistas: Yeah. Um, so talk about what the process is with someone works with you. What can they expect and sort of a just general overview of the process?
Stephanie: Sure. Um, general overview, like I said, we start with a discovery call just to learn a little bit more about each other.
We have the initial consultation. That's where we do a deep dive into their backgrounds. I have a good understanding of their lifestyle, um, their diet, as well as, um, How to really support them. Then we'll order any functional testing if that feels like a good fit. I don't always do that just depending on where that person is, if it is the right fit for them as well.
It's always a conversation, never push anything. And then we create start to create a foundational plan. And so for some individuals, I may be a little bit more, um, Maybe be a little bit more into like an actual dietary plan. And then for some people, and we really work on just shaping their meals and making sure that we have more balance like we talked about, really supporting that blood sugar regulation.
I like to look at also type of blood work. So if you have any blood work from your, primary care physician prior to coming in, I love to see that first because I look at it through a functional approach where I'm able to see a lot of nutrient deficiencies right through your regular blood work. So nothing even special.
And so we can make sure that we're supporting your overall intake through supplements and dietary intake too. For the right people, I may have you record maybe a three to five day diet diary. It all depends on a person's relationship with food too. I always just want to make sure that I'm meeting my, my clients where they are. And that way I look at it more just for their overall nutrient density for their micronutrients too, and that we're getting full nutrient capacity and supporting all different parts of your body.
Um, and then we'll meet every about four to six weeks and continue to build upon this plan and see where. What is working well, what isn't working too well, and my overall goal is to make sure that my clients can leave me, you know, within several months to a year, depending on what their goals are and what we're working on, and know exactly how to support themselves.
And then when life happens, when they get derailed, how to get back on too and understand why their body may be reacting to a certain. Food, a certain lifestyle, whatever it may be, and then how to support them moving forward. I always offer my clients too, um, message support in between so that if something ne it doesn't feel good in their body, or if they're like, Steph, this recipe is just terrible.
Like, I need , I need something else, then I'm there to support them and they're not just out there trying new things all, uh, alone because I think that once again, that connection, that accountability and just having that support is so important as we're moving through our different, um. You know, health journeys.
Passionistas: Are there any kind of recent medical. Or even mental health discoveries that you've become aware of in your work that have really surprised you or seem especially helpful and important, um, because it seems like things are being discovered all the time.
Stephanie: Yeah, I think the gut microbiome, we're continuing to learn so much about it and I'm just fascinated and we're going to continue, it's going to continue to explode over the next 10 years too.
Um, we have seen that with different types of neurodegenerative diseases There is a decrease in specific microbes in the microbiome, and so if we're testing the microbiome and we start to see a lower amount of certain of these specific strains, then we can support them and increase them as well, so that we can support then overall brain health and congnitive health and because when we’re thinking about neurodegeneration it’s not just losing memory, not losing memory but it’s learning cognitive function, it’s your mood, it’s like being able, like it’s happiness it’s being able to sleep. There are some many different things that come along with it.
And so when I think that a lot of times what I hear from folks is that they start to feel brain fog, you know, they're like, Oh, my focus is a little bit off. And to me, just because that's common, it's not normal. We need to understand why that's happening, because that's showing that there is inflammation in the body. And before we get too far down the road, I'd love to correct that as soon as possible.
And that's why I do a lot of gut testing too, just to see exactly what's happening underneath the hood and seeing if we can support that gut brain connection.
Passionistas: That's amazing. So what are we not asking that we should be asking? I'm sure there's a million things.
Stephanie: Oh my gosh, that's so hard. There's so much.
I feel like there's a very good, broad view of what I offer. Um, I think that what's really important that I just would like to leave your listeners with is, one is to always find a healthcare practitioner that you resonate with because there's a lot of different healthcare practitioners out there, and not every single person is going to be the right fit for you.
And it's okay to feel as if, you know, you've worked with someone for a little bit, and you're not getting the results you want, and you want to try a different approach. And because you are individual and we all have a different health journey. And even though our condition may be well, you know, well studied, you're different.
Like your, your history and what's happening to you is different than everyone else's. And so it's really important and just to feel that you are supported along your healthcare journey. Um, and that we can't continue to put everything in a box when we have physical pain. One, if it's common, it doesn't mean it's normal, but also we need to think also what else has happened in your life.
Are you Are you supporting your mental health? Are you supporting, um, your sleep and your connection? Are you doing things that bring you joy? Because those are all going to, um, influence how our body is able to heal. And then if we're able to be present for not only ourselves, but our loved ones in our lives too.
Passionistas: Is it ever too late to really take a step back and look at your health and figure out what's happening in your body like this?
Stephanie: No, I don't think so. Because you can always support overall quality of life. And so I think with any single ailment, you, there's always an increase in quality of life in general.
Um, I, for personally, my grandfather had Parkinson's disease and this is what brought me into a lot of that. Got brain connection and going deeper into it. And when I learned just something as simple as movement for Parkinson's disease has shown, uh, phenomenal increase in overall quality of life, it's like, it's really just starting to see what you can do to support your wellbeing, and then not once again, going into those little successes from day to day, um, and meeting yourself where you are every day and to support just that growth too.
Yeah, it's just, it's just important always just to, to support where you are in that day too, especially along your healthcare journey.
Passionistas: So, um, talk a little bit about what type of clients you're currently working with and how people can find you if they want to work with you.
Stephanie: Sure. Um, so like I said, I work with a lot of digestive health and hormonal balance.
Um, I do a lot of work with, like I said, like different digestive health, things like Uh, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, IBS, Heartburn, all the things you don't want to talk about out loud. We'll get into detail, you'll feel very comfortable, I promise, but also hormonal balance. So perimenopause, menopause is probably the biggest that I work with and I also work with fertility and supporting during pregnancy too.
Passionistas: That's fantastic. Um, who were your role models when you were growing up in, in terms of living kind of a healthy lifestyle.
Stephanie: I would say, um, my mom was my biggest role model. And so just watching her health journey, and it really was so influential for myself, just to see what you are capable of doing. And, uh, especially when we're looking at both physical and that mental health and how your diet and lifestyle can really play such an influential difference in it.
And she continues to be my role model. She's amazing. Um, that'd be the most. And then also, like, My grandmother, too, who's, uh, just phenomenal human, um, and still just thriving. I guess I would say my whole family. Also, my great Helen Rose. She was 88 years old and still in a singing and dancing group. She lived to be 101, continue to travel and to date and just live, you know, you continue to just continue, uh, knock off things on her bucket list.
And that's why I think that we need to not think about age as the end all is more just like I said, supporting that quality of life because life just doesn't end at whatever number some folks think it does. We have so much life to live into our hundreds and we can continue to grow. And so once again, it's just meeting where you are at that moment when we're thinking about physical and mental ailments.
Like we may not always be our best one day, but that doesn't mean that down the road we can't get to where we want to be.
Passionistas: Yeah. I love hearing stories about women like your aunt. We had, we had many Italian aunts like that as well that lived into their hundreds and lived alone and had fabulous lives. And it's the joy, right?
It's, it's, it's the joy that I think keeps us all going. So I think that's great. And the discovery, like the curiosity and the trying new things and the traveling and all that stuff that just keeps your mind younger. You know.
Stephanie: Absolutely.
Passionistas: Yeah. Yeah. So what about professional mentors? Have you had professional mentors along the way?
Stephanie: Um, yeah. So I work really closely with someone's called Katie Mora who's in functional medicine. I think that she, I'm her mentee as of now, and I've learned so much from her and Um, Dr. Carrie Jones is also the queen of hormones, I've done a lot of trainings with her too, and then just continuing to work through different webinars, books, um, a lot of for hormonal health, I would say, Esther Blum is great, Dr. Viva Ram is great, um, oh, I'm missing a good one, Dr. Lisa, um, I forget her last name, but she, she wrote a book just on the menopause brain and the excess brain, which is also phenomenal. And so there's so many powerful women writers and doctors out there that I look up to. And if I could take every single training out there with them, I would, um, we'll see, but yeah, there's so many great mentors out there.
Passionistas: Um, personally speaking, what do you think your best habit is?
Stephanie: My best habit, and it's been very difficult for me, is to slow down, um, because I'm Type A as well, and I always say I'm a Type A in recovery, and so even just with movement, or if I'm like, like, just making sure that instead of having really like high intensity working out or running, which I like to do, I've been really honing in more into that gentle walking, stretching and seeing how that benefits my overall wellbeing.
And I think that sometimes when our lives are so fast paced, it's just so powerful and shows so, shows so much strength to be able to slow down and reflect within.
Passionistas: Yeah, that's a great one. That's really important. Um, is there a lesson. Um, that you've learned on your journey so far that really sticks with you?
Stephanie: I'm trying to think. Um, I feel like there's so many. For my own journey, it's not to underestimate, like, for my health journey, not to underestimate things that have happened 15 years ago and all, like, and how that's going to influence your health moving forward too. And that's why with my clients and patients, I always try to dig in to see what could have been that root cause.
And because if we continue, If we don't look underneath and we don't do functional testing, we don't see exactly what's happening, we're going to be throwing, you're going to be wasting more money on supplements and these protocols that aren't really addressing that root cause too. And from my own experience, that's what happened to me.
And so I think that has really changed the way I practice.
Passionistas: Yeah, that makes sense. Um, What's kind of your number one piece of advice for a woman who's starting on this health journey, uh, of discovery?
Stephanie: Number one piece of advice is to write down your whys. What, like, why do you want to become healthy? What do you want to achieve from becoming healthy? Because I think it can be really easy to put your own self care, um, to the side when you're taking care of everyone else in your life too, and to come back to the reasons why you're making time for prepping that healthy food, or to get that gentle movement in, or relaxation techniques.
Having enough sleep can be really powerful when life just becomes really stressful and overwhelming.
Passionistas: Yeah. What's your secret to a rewarding life?
Stephanie: Finding joy. Um, and I always say childhood joy too. That moment, you know, where you just have that, that warmth in your chest and that like uncontrollable laughter or whatever that might feel like to you and making sure that you make space for that joy. For myself, it's getting outside and to be out in nature.
Um, I just feel like a child in awe, especially out here in the Pacific Northwest whenever I make time for that.
Passionistas: Yeah, that's the perfect place to be to experience that. That's for sure. Yeah. Is there a mantra that you live by?
Stephanie: No, I don't believe so. More, one thing I continue to work on is just I am present and just being present in the moment. And I, and to be quite honest, it's difficult for me, especially as a business owner, always looking forward. Um, but it's something that I have continuously tried to be, to really put a lot of thought and effort into and making sure that when I'm with you know, my loved ones, friends, family, everyone that I'm just giving them my all and to focus on that present moment.
Passionistas: Yeah, that's fabulous. So we have one last, uh, two part question, which is what is your dream for yourself and what's your dream for women?
Stephanie: My dream for women is just to feel at home in their bodies and to really understand just how to nourish their bodies and understand that nourishment looks different every single day.
Especially when it comes to, I say food, because food is a very emotional topic. And we need to remind ourselves sometimes that food isn't just the nutrients that's in it. Food is also connection. It's celebration. It's being with family and our traditions. And that is all just as nourishing as the actual nutrients too.
It's just finding the right time and place in supporting yourself and what you need. Gosh, my dream for myself is just to continue to support women in their health journeys, as well as continue to find my present, um, and live my best life and have my joyful life too. And so, yeah, continue with the path I'm on as of now and making that space for my joy alongside.
Passionistas: Thanks for listening to The Passionistas Project. Since we're not only business partners, but best friends and real life sisters, we know how unique and truly special our situation is. We know so many solopreneurs, activists, women seeking their purpose and more, who are out there doing it all on their own.
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