Your Functional Timeline and the ATMs of Health
When dealing with chronic illness, it’s important to investigate the “root cause” of what’s going on in the body. Often times treatments for autoimmune disease involve medications or interventions to manage or suppress symptoms, but they don’t always dig down to the root to see what’s going on at a deeper level. When we’re working in functional medicine and looking at things through a functional nutrition or functional medicine lens, it really is all about identifying the root cause of disease and understanding how your personal history influences disease expression. The most important tool in the functional medicine toolkit is the functional timeline. This tool allows us to put our presenting illness or symptoms in context with our entire life, and helps to identify the roots of illness to move towards resolution. In this post, we’ll look at the functional timeline and the ATMs, or the antecedents, triggers, and mediators of health!
Your Functional Timeline
and the “ATMs” of Health
When dealing with chronic illness, it’s important to investigate the “root cause” of what’s going on in the body. Often times treatments for autoimmune disease involve medications or interventions to manage or suppress symptoms, but they don’t always dig down to the root to see what’s going on at a deeper level. When we’re working in functional medicine and looking at things through a functional nutrition or functional medicine lens, it really is all about identifying the root cause of disease and understanding how your personal history influences disease expression. The most important tool in the functional medicine toolkit, in my opinion, is the functional timeline. It’s something I take all of my clients through when I work in one-on-one programs with people, and it’s almost always how we start out because we can't move forward unless we really understand where we've been in our history. This tool allows us to put our presenting illness or symptoms in context with our entire life, and helps to identify the roots of illness to move towards resolution.
Why we use the Functional Timeline
Even if we have the exact same diagnosis as someone else, or even if we don't have a diagnosis, just the same symptoms, what led us to that place is going to be very different. In order to move forward and work to support the body in a way that makes sense for you, it’s important to understand the whole tapestry of you, and what led you to where we are now so that we can move the needle forward and actually make a difference in your health.
The “ATMs” of Health
Antecedents
First, we look at antecedents. This is where we'll try to identify what factors in your life, genetic or acquired, may have contributed to the illness or condition. This can be your family history and what's going on on either branch of your family tree.
Antecedents are things like:
Prenatal exposures
Being born prematurely
If you’re a twin
Vaginal birth or C-section
Understanding what happened during our infancy and early childhood:
Early nutrition
Formula-fed or breastfed
Allergies
Dietary insufficiencies
What we want to understand with antecedents is that they’re things that have to do with our genes and our very early history, and they're not necessarily things we can control. We kind of accept that they are there, and they might give us greater insight into what's true for us. We also have to understand that our genes are not our destiny.
The study of epigenetics allows us to understand how the expression of our genes can be influenced by our environment. As we go deeper into these next steps - triggers and mediators - we begin to understand how our genes are influenced.
Triggers
Triggers can really be seen as the final tipping point leading to the expression of illness. Here’s how you can create your timeline and identify your triggers:
Grab a piece of paper.
On the left-hand side, you have your antecedents and birth that you just uncovered.
Then draw a line that goes over to the right side of the paper. Think of this as a timeline of your progression through the years. I do a really in-depth timeline for my one-on-one clients where we leave no stone unturned.
I typically section it out into childhood, teens, twenties, thirties, and so on.
As you work across this progression start to ask yourself: What was going on around that time? Going all the way back and starting in childhood, maybe you had a lot of infections and you took antibiotics a number of times for strep throat or ear infections? That can influence what's going on in the gut. Did you have Epstein Barr or Lyme or other infections for example?
Trauma and adverse childhood experiences can play a factor here too. This is something I've been thinking and talking a lot more about recently in light of everything going on in our world right now - understanding racism and systemic racism, and understanding how racism affects our bodies. And we know this is not a new issue, right? I've been learning and understanding even more recently, how things like inherited and ancestral trauma and daily microaggressions can directly affect our health.
As you move across your timeline, triggers can even be things like a big move, a job where you didn’t feel like you're really you're seen, heard, or treated well. It can be a toxic relationship or difficult family dynamics.
Sometimes these events just add up over time, and sometimes we might actually see there was a big period of stress or an event, and then we start to see the manifestation of illness or symptoms right after that. As you detail your life events you begin to understand how they contributes to this tapestry of you.
Mediators
Mediators are the factors that are ongoing and prevent the resolution of the problem that you are seeking help with in the first place. Essentially, they're what make you feel better or worse. Broadly, they can be things like diet, nutrition, food, sensitivities, and stress. I'll tell you right now the main one I’ve seen working with hundreds of people over the years is stress. To be more specific, how different stressors on our bodies and how our bodies deal with this load of stress and how that influences how we feel.
Understanding our mediators is really the heart of the work that I do with clients, and some of the questions we want to answer are:
What makes you feel better or worse?
And then how can we leverage that?
It sounds very simple, but as many of you who have gone through this process will know, it involves deeply understanding your body. That’s why the functional timeline is so useful. We can really understand your antecedents and your triggers and your unique physiology to help us know which mediators are actually going to make a difference versus which are not for you.
This is also why a standard protocol doesn’t always work because you haven't actually pinpointed which mediators are actually going to make a big difference for YOU. That's why we use tools like food and symptom journaling and different coaching techniques to understanding this and to figure out what works for you. We want to understand the roots - understanding stress, understanding your life history, understanding how you relate to the world, understanding how you relate to work. We use these pieces to figure out what's true for you, and we want to ensure that you learn how to take care of yourself for the rest of your life.
Through these processes and through functional nutrition coaching, we're able to bring a lot of this to light so you can start to feel really confident about what works for you and what doesn't. It doesn't have to feel like a mystery where you just keep second-guessing yourself and questioning what you're doing, jumping from one intervention to the next.
This helps you to get rid of all the overwhelm and noise so you can feel calm and connected to what works for you. And then you can use these tools for the rest of your life, so that no matter what season you are in, and no matter what comes at you, you know what your mediators are. You know what you need to move you forward into more vibrant health. That is the power of using functional nutrition timelining and working through a functional lens.
I really love it when we start to put these pieces of the puzzle together and clients begin to have “aha” moments! I've coached so many women and men through this process and moving from that place of feeling stuck and confused to breaking through a lot of these blocks and truly understanding how to care for your body for the rest of your life.
Check out the audio below for more information on functional timelining and the ATMs of health. If you’re giving this functional timeline practice a try leave me a note in the comments below, I’d love to support you!
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Tools to Help You Support Your Immune System
If you've been experiencing stress and uncertainty recently around everything that's happening with COVID-19, I don't want you to feel like you have to go through it alone. I've been working with clients and teaching this information for many years, and I feel very called to take the knowledge that I have to guide you and give you the tools to help you feel empowered and supported!
We’re all in this together, and while it might feel like life is really up in the air and very challenging, there are some practical tips to help you navigate through these times and some steps that we can all take to support our bodies, our immune systems, and our mental & emotional health.
Tools to Help You Support Your Immune System
If you've been experiencing stress and uncertainty recently around everything that's happening in the world, I don't want you to feel like you have to go through it alone. We’re all in this together, and while it might feel like life is really up in the air and very challenging there are some practical tips to help you navigate through these times and some steps that we can all take to support our bodies, our immune systems, and our mental & emotional health.
I've been working with clients and teaching this information for many years, and I feel very called to take the knowledge that I have and give you the tools to help you feel empowered and supported! A word that I keep hearing recently is “uncertainty”. I think we’re all feeling that, and we’re all trying to make our way through this uncertain time, but please know that I’m here to guide you and give you the tools to navigate through this.
THE 4 KEY PIECES FOR SUPPORTING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
When it comes to supporting the immune system, there are four major pieces to think about no matter the novel virus, bacteria or pathogen present. And they're things you've heard before - nutrition, sleep, stress and movement. Although it’s tempting to look for the magic bullet, there is no one single thing that’s going to create a robust and healthy immune system. Instead, try to look at the big picture here and how all of these pieces are working together for you. How is our digestive system functioning? How is our hormone system functioning? How is our immune system functioning and can we optimize the function of our body by using these foundational tools?
1. NUTRITION
As a collective, we are putting so many external precautions into place that are super important right now, but we also want to be sure we’re supporting our internal systems to be resilient against anything we might encounter. Are you looking at the very basics, and really paying attention to what you’re putting in your body? Are you eating good nutrient-dense foods like fruits and veggies, quality proteins and good fats? Are you avoiding sugar and overly processed foods that are going to dampen the immune system? You might be surprised to know that refined sugar actually suppresses the immune function by suppressing the white blood cells. The production of white blood cells and white blood cells actually shrinks in response to the exposure of white sugar which is fascinating! This helps us to understand how what we put in our body really does have a profound effect on our ability to be resilient to disease.
I always recommend getting as many of your nutrients as you can from food sources, but you can also consider supplementing for any deficiencies you may have. Just be sure before taking any supplement that you check in with your practitioner for guidance on the right dosage for you!
A few key vitamins and nutrients that can help support a healthy immune system:
Vitamin A: This can help to protect against infections, increase white blood cell production and support T cell function.
Good sources: Sunlight, liver, grass-fed butter, fatty fish, egg yolks, fermented cod liver oil.
Vitamin D: Adequate Vitamin D helps decrease the severity of autoimmunity and enables monocytes to kill more viruses. It also activates T-cells so vitamin D is critical in overall immune support.
Good sources: Sunlight, liver, grass-fed butter, fatty fish, eggs, fermented cod liver oil.
Vitamin C: This is also great for supporting the immune system and it’s antiviral, antibacterial, a natural antihistamine and boosts antibody production.
Good sources: Camu Camu, goji betters, Incan berries, papaya, red bell peppers, strawberries, and oranges.
Minerals: Both Zinc and Selenium are both really awesome for boosting immunity and play important factors in supporting the immune system.
Good sources: Liver, organ meats, grass-fed beef, oysters, scallops, lamb, oats, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts.
Herbs: Another option is to include herbs and adaptogens to help support healthy immune system function, but again, check with a health practitioner to make sure they’re right for you.
Good sources: Elderberry, garlic, echinacea, turmeric, and even mushrooms like shiitake, reishi, chaga, cordyceps, etc.
2. SLEEP
Sleep is one of the biggest mediators in supporting a healthy immune system! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrated that getting less sleep can substantially increase the chances of catching a cold [1]. Sleep might feel really elusive or might come really easy to you, but prioritizing good sleep is not to be overlooked when supporting a healthy immune system and body!
3. STRESS
Stress activates our fight or flight and secretes cortisol which affects our immune function so in times like this when we’re facing challenges and really feeling all the uncertainty it’s useful to have some tools in place that you can use to manage your stress. Being able to move through these times with more grace and ease is not only going to help our mental state, but it's actually going to help our physical body and help our physical immune system to be more resilient.
Meditation: Maybe for you this is a breathing exercise or a guided meditation that helps you relax. It can also be simply putting your hand on your heart and deciding how you want to feel that day.
4-7-8 Breathing is one of my favorite, go-to techniques to drop into the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. Learn how to do it here >>
Surrender: The idea of surrender is something that really helps us to let go of some of this need for control that we feel when we’re dealing with the unknown. I personally speak out loud what I want to surrender or let go of, or write it down “I surrender…..” in my journal. This is my favorite meditation from Sara Blondin about Surrender.
4. MOVEMENT
Movement has wonderful anti-inflammatory and immune-supportive benefits! We don’t have to run long distances or do intense workout classes, however, to get these benefits. Getting outside for a walk around the block, doing some exercises at home, or heading to an exercise class are wonderful ways to move.
These are the four main pillars of supporting the immune system, and they never change. Check in and see where you're at those pieces right now and know that there is so much that we can do to support ourselves through this! You have the tools, and being able to incorporate them in our lives in a way that feels good and sustainable and having this knowledge is the most important piece for long-term immune support.
If you need more support during this time I’m here to help you! Through 1:1 coaching we go into all of these piece (and more!) step by step and we really figure out how to support your body systems and put things into place so that we create this really thick, resilient baseline for you. The goal is that you know how to take care of yourself, no matter what, through any virus, through any bacteria, through any really stressful period of time. We. Have. The Power. Know that I'm here to support you, and I know that we will move through this together.
Click here to listen in iTunes
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If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
The 5 Traps Keeping You Stuck on Your Healing Journey
Clients often come to me feeling really overwhelmed about all of the conflicting health advice out there and like they've jumped around from intervention to intervention with only minimal success. They feel confused about what step to take next and feel like nothing has worked for them. Supporting health has come to feel like a full-time job and the pressure of putting the puzzle together all on their own begins to mount.
Over my last 9 years working in healthcare I’ve seen time and again places where we tend to get stuck. There are five “traps” I commonly see people get stuck in (sometimes for years!) keeping them from where they want to go on their healing journey. By shedding light on these five common traps, my hope is that you’ll know what to look out for and avoid getting stuck in them!
The 5 Traps Keeping You Stuck on Your Healing Journey
Clients often come to me feeling really overwhelmed about all of the conflicting health advice out there. They feel frustrated and like they've jumped around from intervention to intervention with only minimal success. They feel confused about what step to take next and feel like nothing has worked for them despite big efforts. Many begin to feel like supporting their health has come to feel like a full-time job and the pressure of putting the puzzle together all on their own begins to mount.
Over the last 9 years working in healthcare I’ve seen time and again places where people tend to get stuck when embarking on any healing journey. There are five “traps” I commonly see people get stuck in (sometimes for years!) keeping them from where they want to go. By shedding light on these five common traps, my hope is that you’ll know what to look out for and avoid getting stuck!
1. Information overload
We have a plethora of information available these days about how we can support our body using things like nutrition and lifestyle shifts. Information is power and it’s amazing to feel like we can take some control ourselves! But the flip side of this readily available information is that there’s so much of it, and a lot of times it can be conflicting depending on what source you’re reading.
When we are constantly receiving and taking in information we can get ourselves into a state of information overload where we feel overwhelmed and confused. I’ve seen a lot of people get stuck in this place and have been there myself early on in my journey with autoimmune disease and it doesn't feel good!
The antidote to information overload (or the information trap) is to make sure that you are not just consuming information all the time but are also taking the right action. And I totally get it - we want to consume information cause we want to learn and do everything we can to feel better. It's wonderful to learn all of these empowering things about our health! In order to get results and figure out what works for our own unique bodies, however, It’s important to make sure that we are also putting things we’re learning into action and assessing how things affect us. If you feel like you are constantly taking in information and don’t have a clear sense of what actually works for your body, a conscious break from consuming information and focusing more inwards on what information, cues, signals and insight your own body is giving you is a great idea!
2. Focusing on food as the sole pillar of health
Food is information. Food is fuel. Food has the undeniable power to support our bodies, but when it comes to healing, food is not everything. What often happens when we start to delve into a healing journey is we start with food as the main pillar of health.
If we continue to only focus on food as the single pillar of health, then when our life and health don’t improve as we want them to, we feel like the only option is to restrict more and more foods.
We may then wind up feeling like we only have five foods that we can eat without having symptoms! Focusing on food as the sole pillar of health can sometimes bring us to a place that feels really frustrating and restrictive and strains our relationship with food and nourishment.
Food is a very important pillar of health, but it is not the only one. Take a quick inventory and see if you feel stuck in that place. If you do, try “zooming out” a little bit and looking at all of the other pieces of nourishment in our lives and things that determine our health such as stress, sleep, our relationships, our mindset and our beliefs about ourselves and our health to name a few.
3. Ignoring digestive health
We’ve all heard the saying that we are what we eat, but really we are what our bodies can do with what we eat. So, really, we are what we digest, assimilate, and absorb.
Like I described earlier, food is typically the first entry point into healing and takes a lot of focus for a good reason. You might be eating a beautiful diet, but finding that digestion is off, you’re not breaking down and absorbing food or you’re still having a lot of other downstream health issues despite eating well for your body.
In addition to what you’re eating, it’s also important to consider how your body breaking down and absorbing that food. That has a lot to do with just the health of the digestive tract and the digestive tract is so important because it's where food meets our physiology.
I talk a lot about digestive health because it’s so key to overall health and any healing journey. I have an online program I created specifically for people getting stuck in this trap because I see it so often. The Love Your Gut Program is a self-paced online program that really helps you move through this and understand not just what you're eating, but how is your body using that fuel and how can you support a healthy digestive system from top to bottom!
If you feel like you’re eating really well but you’re still feeling stuck, make sure you’re also tuning into your digestion and how your body is utilizing that fuel.
4. Skipping over the foundational elements of health
The fourth trap that keeps many of us stuck is not spending enough time in foundational areas of health before moving on. We tend to look towards “higher-level” interventions which might be things like herbs, supplements or protocols to treat a virus or an infection. The trap I see people fall into is trying some of these higher-level interventions without feeling like they've really got a strong foundation or baseline.
Make sure you check in on some of those foundational elements. What's your stress like on a daily basis? Are you going to the bathroom regularly? Are you sleeping regularly? Do you have afternoon energy crashes? And do you feel like the foods you’re consuming work for you on a daily basis? Are they being broken down and absorbed well into your body?
You have probably done so much good work in those areas and learned a lot about yourself, but they’re things that we will have to continue to tend to through our entire life. Sometimes you might spend more energy on one than another, but these foundational pieces of health are never pieces we’re completely done with. Remember to keep asking yourself some of the basic foundational questions and building physiological resilience before skipping over them and considering higher-level interventions.
5. Jumping around between different protocols
The fifth and final trap that I see a lot of people get stuck in is jumping around from different protocol to different protocol. And again, I've done this one myself too! You might try something like a gluten-free diet, and while it helps with your digestion, you still have joint pain. So you think, “Okay, well someone told me about Keto, I'm going to try a Keto diet!” And then that might make you feel a little bit better in your body, but it doesn't feel sustainable. So then you might try an Autoimmune Paleo Diet or GAPS or any other number of protocols looking for the one to resolve all of your issues.
Have you ever felt like this? I find that this is a really frustrating place to be! You’re always switching gears. You feel like nothing's working. It seems like you’re trying everything and you feel like you’re just throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.
To avoid and move out of this trap it’s helpful to instead ask yourself about any intervention or protocol, “What did this tell me about my specific body? What did I learn in this experiment?” Ask yourself what you’ve learned and how you can use that information to move forward from a more informed and empowered place rather than jumping to another protocol or strict template.
The foundation of everything is tuning in to your body and learning from the information you gather from it along the way. I want to tell you that no matter where you are at and how many times you’ve gotten stuck, it is possible to be healthy, to have energy, to feel good in your body, and be able to do the things you want to do!
I hope this helps you get clarity around what to look out for along the way to avoid these common traps and start putting the pieces together for sustainable and vibrant health!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Cultivating Resilience
Do you feel like everything you eat affects you negatively or causes symptoms? Do you feel stressed out and easily irritated? Do you feel like if you stay out late once or veer off of your healthy plan, you pay for it for a week?
If so, you might feel like your body lacks resilience, or the strong baseline it needs to make it through the day. Whenever we think of cultivating resilience we usually think of someone being resilient or strong in spirit. Resilience, however, can also be seen as a physiological trait. A basic definition of resilience is the ability to accommodate change. This post explores resilience and how we can begin to cultivate resilience physiologically.
Cultivating Resilience
Do you feel like everything you eat affects you negatively or causes symptoms? Do you feel stressed out and easily irritated? Do you feel like if you stay out late once or veer off of your healthy plan, you pay for it for a week?
If so, you might feel like your body lacks resilience, or the strong baseline it needs to make it through the day. Whenever we think of the term resilience we usually think of someone being resilient or strong in spirit. When we say someone is resilient we usually mean that they remain strong in the face of adversity and are able to withstand life’s challenges.
Resilience, however, can also be seen as a physiological trait.
A basic definition of resilience is the ability to accommodate change. This can be change in our lives, families, communities or change in our bodies and organ systems. Resilience can further be defined as the physiological response to change as mediated by the nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system.
At a recent event I went to Dr. Jeffery Bland, the founder of The Institute of Functional Medicine, gave the example of a hummingbird to illustrate this concept of physiological resilience. When you look at the hummingbird it appears stationary, but when it’s slowed down you can see all of the hard work that’s going into keeping that bird in one place!
That’s an example of what’s going in in our body to keep us at homeostasis or a healthy baseline. As Dr. Bland illustrated with the hummingbird analogy, there are a number of different stressors that can influence our ability to stay at a healthy baseline. These can be stressors such as nutrient deficiencies from a suboptimal diet, our environment, daily stressors like a busy schedule or work deadlines, lack of sleep, relationships and support systems etc.
Whenever we have symptoms, feel out or balance or have a diagnosis of disease in our current medical system we look for ways to get rid of the disease. To eradicate the symptoms. If we have chronic sinus infections, we want to kill the bacteria. If we have autoimmune disease, we want to shut off an overactive immune system. While this approach is sometimes necessary, if we don’t also address the reason why we got the sinus infection or the autoimmune disease in the first place and work to build resilience in the body and inner terrain, we won’t actually get to the root of the problem.
If we take biologic medications to control the immune system or antibiotics to treat the sinus infections but we don’t work on proper nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress management and taking care of the body, it’s difficult to build that thick baseline for the body to be able to handle change and daily stressors of life and avoid recurrence of disease or symptoms.
So, how do we begin to cultivate this resilience?
Whenever I work with clients we put a lot of focus and attention on the critical importance of strengthening your baseline so you can eat a more diverse array of foods that don’t send you into a flare-up, work a full today without feeling like you’re totally exhausted at the end, and move your body and exercise without feeling like you have to recover for days afterward. If we try to move forward without first establishing a strong baseline, it’s a whole lot harder to achieve sustainable outcomes.
I’ve seen many clients attempt to skip over these pieces or think they’ve already done them only to find themselves stuck in a cycle of being “on or off the wagon” still feeling so up and down with their health after many years. Once we go through, step-by-step, the ways to create a strong, resilient baseline for that specific person, clients instantly see the puzzle pieces that were missing for years.
Cultivating resilience means that we work through the foundations of giving the body the proper nutrition and hydration it needs, work on how the body is absorbing and utilizing those nutrients through supporting gut health, and tone the nervous system by reducing and managing stress. We also work on mindset, who you are as the person eating the food and moving through your day, and give you all of the tools you need to feel strong, resilient, and less reactive to this wild ride that is life!
What a relief.
Watch the video below to learn more about cultivating resilience and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on looking at resilience through this lens!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
