Podcast Episode 19. Kelly Engelmann:  Overcoming the “Feel Like Crap” Syndrome

Transcript

Matt: Welcome to season two of the Robertson and Easterling podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. I’m Matt Easterling

Craig: and I’m Craig Robertson, Matt and I are board certified family law specialist who have put together one of the brightest group of attorneys in Mississippi, specializing in divorce and other family conflict.

Matt: In this season of the podcast, you’ll hear from more real people discussing the most difficult season of their lives. We will also introduce you to more of our network of professionals who help hurting people in the healing process.

Craig: So now once again, sit back, relax, take a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay. You found us. And what you’re about to hear is going to help. Welcome to today’s show. I’m excited to introduce our guests today. We have Kelly Engelmann of enhanced wellness living with us today. And those of you who have listened to the podcast in the past, know that at Robertson Easterling, we have a real goal and objective of providing our clients with holistic services and to try to sit with somebody and meet with somebody right where they are. And you can’t do that well without thinking about their health and wellness. And so Kelly is here to talk with us about that today. Kelly, thanks for joining us.

Kelly: Thank you for having me. I’m super jazzed to be here. You know, anytime that I can step in and speak to people about their next step in their wellness journey. So, for you guys listening, please lean in and we’ll talk about, you know, where you are in your health journey and what are the next steps. Maybe that will be the most impactful for you. So anytime I get an opportunity to do that, I just love it. So thanks for having me.

Craig: Well, the first thing I want to talk to you a little bit about is this concept of a food first approach to wellness, Matt and I love food.

Matt: Obviously I love it too much,

Craig: but they, um, a food first approach to wellness explained to us and our listeners what that means.

Kelly: Yeah. So that’s my, one of my little taglines because, you know, I got into the functional medicine space after having been in conventional medicine, which was fee for service. So you would see a patient, you would talk to them about their health issues and you would prescribe something, typically a medication and they would be on their way and that can help, but it can only get you so far. And so what my patients taught me over time is without really focusing on some foundational things like nutrition and food, you can only get so far with your health and wellness. And so, when I developed my functional wellness practice, enhanced wellness living, I decided to explore that whole concept of food first and what that would look like for a patient. And I’ll be honest, I was blown away at the results. The difference between having, you know, one or two modalities that you can implement versus layering nutrition first with those other aspects on top of that, the results are just unbelievable.

Matt: So, I mean, in your experience, what percentage of the population is not implementing a proper diet?

Kelly: Oh gosh, a huge, a huge portion of the population. If you look at our obesity rates in the state of Mississippi, there are over 37% and that’s obesity, that’s 30 pounds over ideal body weight or 30% body fat, 77% overweight. Okay. So that tells me that we’re overfed, but we’re under nourished, right? So there are certain nutrients that don’t want to get too technical, but there are certain nutrients that are considered anti-nutrients like sugar. So sugar is very nutritionally expensive for the body. You eat sugar, and then you use up all your minerals to out process that sugar. So you’ve just leached your body from valuable minerals that it could be using to drop some key metabolic pathways for hormone balance and energy and vitality.

Craig: Let’s back up just a little bit Kelly, cause this is just fascinating. And I know we could spend the whole time talking about these concepts, but, uh, tell the listener a little bit about your story and how you even got started in this well in the medical field to begin with.

Kelly: Yeah. So my story, you know, I graduated high school and wasn’t sure what my path should be beyond high school. I didn’t have any funds for education. And so I was blessed that I went to work at an ice cream store in, in Laurel, Mississippi, Swinson’s and it was owned by an OB GYN. And I worked there probably three or four months. I was one of their top performers. I could make about a hundred bucks on Saturday and tips crazy for back in the eighties, right in ice cream shop. But anyway, he hired me in his practice. After about three months of being in the restaurant, he goes, I want you to come to work at my clinic. And so, I went to work at his clinic and he took me to the, or with him. And I was fascinated by the operating room. I was 16 because this was before I graduated that I worked at Swinson’s. I think we could only work if we were 17. And I had a best friend that worked there 17 and they never asked me my age. So I was 16 when I started working at the ice cream place and then went to work at the clinic, took me to the, or, and I, I became fascinated with the OR and then realized I could do a program for one year as surgical tech and Jackson. So right after high school, I moved here and did the one year program at Hinds. And then when I completed that, I started my prerequisites for nursing and just, just took off from there. So it’s hired as an OR tech, graduation was August and I was hired in April before graduation to work with an orthopedic group. And so I got my feet wet in orthopedics doing total joint replacement, which was awesome and then continued on education at night, um, getting my prerequisites for nursing and then landed myself in nursing school at UMC completed that and then went on and did my graduate at Southern.

Craig: So how did you make the transition from a more traditional medical approach to the functional medical approach that you work in today?

Kelly: You know, I’ve always been an athlete, so I’ve always been fascinated with wellness, right. I just had a wellness mindset at a very early age, but it was all related to fitness. It was all related to what can I make my body do? And so I was a marathon runner, but my nutrition suffered greatly.

Craig: You know, I think that, I guess I’m a child of the eighties and nineties also, and I was an athlete, played baseball in college and it’s just not something that we talked about beyond a pregame meal. It really didn’t matter how you feel your body, but it just seems like the general public is more educated now and that it is more, more mainstream for there to be these customized diets for fueling athletes. And then everyday people like me and you.

Kelly: Right. So absolutely. I had one nutrition course in our pre-nursing education. And then I had a, you know, maybe one course in our graduate program for nutrition, but it was all based around macro nutrients, like carbs proteins and fats and, you know, moderation don’t eat too much. Right. But it wasn’t really targeted on micronutrients, you know, really. How does the body bio transform what you’re eating into a usable form of ATP and energy? You know, we didn’t learn any of that in my primary education. It’s I stumbled upon nutrition actually, Dr. Doug Odom that we were talking about earlier as, as my collaborator back in the day, um, he introduced a concept to me, fruit and vegetables in a capsule kind of Jetson food back in the day.

Craig: Yes. Jetsons food, meaning the Jetsons, we’ve got our law clerk listening and he’s like, what are they talking about?

Kelly: Yeah. So the, the wave of the future that we’re living now, all this virtual stuff, um, if you go back and watch the Jetson episodes, it was all about,

Craig: They had Iphones way back then

Kelly: They did. And they had Jetson food. So the Jetson through the Dr. Odom introduced me to is actually a fruit and vegetable extract. And I became fascinated with the concept of whole food, nutrition and a capsule. Right. It’s easy. You can just take it, no need to. I mean, just eat my brownie and take my capsule. That was what I thought I could do. Right. So I did that for awhile, but then I started digging into the research behind and I realized that those little capsules, dehydrated fruits, and vegetables and berries could change gene expression. They could alter levels of inflammation. They could decrease oxidative stress. And I thought, wow, if it’s, if the capsule can do that, what could food really do? And so I went back and got a second master’s degree in metabolic and nutritional medicine from the university of South Florida medical school. And what I learned there just transformed my practice completely because I felt like at that point not to implement a food first approach was malpractice. I mean, once you learn actually what the power of food has the ability to do, how could you not teach that?

Matt: So when is it that you went to the South Florida medical school?

Kelly: So I finished that program in 2012.

Matt: Okay. But you’ve been doing functional medicine for much longer than that

Kelly: Since 2004. So yeah. So from 2004, until I completed that master’s program in 2012, there was a lot of independent study. So I was buying conferences to go to and the company that makes that fruit and vegetable extract actually had twice a year, they would have a nutrition specific conference where they dug into the nutrition, all the new research coming out on nutrition. And that’s what got my appetite wet in the beginning. And then I realized there were so much more and there was a formal way to get educated on nutrition.

Matt: In your practice, what, I mean, what type of correlation do you see with people’s diets and the effect on their mood? They’re stressed, depression, things of that nature.

Kelly: I would say 80% of the dysfunction that we experience as people, you know, the headaches, fatigue, GI symptoms, the like crap syndrome is related directly to what we eat. It’s huge. And it’s so underestimated by most people, they don’t really correlate. They don’t really pay attention to how I feel when I eat certain.

Craig: Let’s talk about the person who first is introduced to your practice and to the educational materials that you guys provide for your clients. Because I know that the people that we see are in there were in real crisis, their, their world is upside down and they’re looking for a new beginning. And whether that new beginning is in the relationship that they’re in, or whether that new beginning means that they’ve got to walk away from a relationship through a divorce. But I imagine that you experienced something similar in your practice, that people are in a they’re in a bad spot and they’re wanting to, to be in a better place. And so talk about your, your clients and the type of common things that you hear from someone in your initial interaction.

Kelly: You’re absolutely right. And it breaks my heart that people do wait so long before they seek care. And I’ve been doing this for a very long time, since 2004. And so at this point in my career, I typically do see kind of the worst of the worst. I get a lot of referrals from other providers that they’ve tried, other things that just aren’t working and they need a different approach. And so a lot of times they’ll come to me and they feel like they’ve tried everything. They may feel like, you know, gosh, I’ve done the keto diet, I’ve done intermittent fasting, I’ve done this, I’ve done that. And nothing really moved the needle too much. And so we have to really take a step back and look at them metabolically. So we do rely heavily on lab testing, you know, specific blood testing and biomarkers that can tell us where someone is from metabolic standpoint and give us guidance on what’s going to help move needle the most for them and get them the best result.

Craig: Yeah, because you hear about a lot of this probably is not the right word, but fad type diets and get well quick type schemes. I mean, we’re marketed to constantly for some nutrition drink or some workout routine. I can haven’t thought about this in years, but I can remember being back at Mississippi state in an economics class, back in the early to mid nineties and the marketing professor was talking about all right, the what’s the new thing? And it was really all about lifestyle and diet. It wasn’t the old fashioned red Coke. It was a diet Coke. And so just the even health and wellness beginning in the nineties. But a lot of times it’s there it’s, there’s a fad associated with it, but, but food is not a fad. I mean, people have been eating great food for as long as we’ve had people.

Kelly: Right. So what we do with food is the fad, right? I can remember back in the eighties, it was T factor diet. It was all the low fat. And you saw these new low fat products hit the market. And as a result of that, people that were eating that way back in the eighties, which that’s my age group have a lot of trans fat deposits in their cell membranes. And so a lot of times hormones don’t work well because there’s trans-fat still sitting there. Those things sit on the cell membrane wall for years and years and years, unless we do something deliberate to clear them off. So yeah, everything from the T factor diet was extremely low fat. And now we have the keto diet where everybody’s eating high amounts of fats. And a lot of times those fats are very inflammatory fats. They’re not paying attention to the quality of fats. And so that can get them into trouble very similarly, as much as the low fat.

Craig: Well, let’s talk about just what, what’s the average person, what are they complaining of? I mean, I can tell you what I complain of would be low energy and stressed out and burning the candle at both ends. I mean, we’re coming out of the season of social distancing and everybody sheltering at home and we’re now at the weight gain associated with that. But it’s been, the world slowed down for a season while that was going on, but it seems like just slowly but surely things are picking up and the pace of life is beginning to pick up. And so what are you typically seeing with folks when they’re, what are they complaining of for lack of a better word?

Kelly: So yeah, so a typical person coming into my door, the number one complaint is fatigue. The number two complaint is unwanted weight gain. And a lot of these people are working really hard trying to, you know, change their body composition without success, lack of sleep, you know, sexual dysfunction of some sort, which, you know, I think of sexual function is kind of the barometer to the overall health picture. So when things start changing there, that’s a sign that some other things are really going on, inflammatory states, lack of hormone balance and that kind of thing. And all of that, in my opinion, as a result of being overfed and undernourished sleep deprived. And over-scheduled, if we had to boil it down to lifestyle behaviors, that kind of land us to a place of lack of vitality and fatigue and inability to perform the way that we want to perform.

Craig: So where do you start?

Kelly: Yeah. So the starting point is really sitting down with them and having a really honest conversation about, you know, what it is that they’ve been doing, how are they feeling, helping them connect some dots about how they’re feeling and what they’ve been doing so that they can begin to understand that we try to take them on a journey, you know, or join them on their journey, wherever they are, so that they can understand how much power and control they actually do have to change their physiology. So that’s the beginning. And then, like I said, we rely heavily on testing. So I have them collect a set of biomarkers, lab tests, blood test, sometimes stool cultures and salivary testing as well, looking at hormone levels. And with that information, we can direct a plan of care that will give them some results.

Matt: What does it take for somebody to, uh, I guess good or not a good idea of where they are and what they need to do in order to?

Kelly: Yeah, so we start making changes with that very first visit as far as nutrition, but it takes about three weeks to get labs back. And at that lab visit, we go over all of this labs in, in great detail and help them understand where they are so that they can make wise decisions. I don’t dictate the changes they make. I lay it out for them and they have to embrace it. You know, it’s up to them to make the decisions of what they’re willing and able to do from a lifestyle perspective. You know, some people it’s a matter of tweaking. You know, they’ve been working really hard in the fitness space, but they haven’t been paying attention to their nutrition. And that’s where we have to focus for some of them it’s clearing the slate and starting over, like, let’s detox your pantry, let’s detox your relationships. Let’s set some clear boundaries and, and, and move forward. So it really depends on where they are and what they’re wanting to accomplish. I’m very goal-directed. So I want to know what their goals are.

Matt: Obviously, or as one might expect. And, and in our practice, we see a lot of people that are in distress, and usually they are looking to find something to help towards self medicate their problems at the moment, whether that be food or alcohol drugs, whether it’s pharmaceutical and illegal. What effect does that self-medicating process have on your body?

Speaker 2: (18:14)
Yeah, so my I’ll say my drug of choice when I was going through difficult times was running and even something as simple as running in excess can have, you know, a negative effect. I was running and then eating whatever I wanted. Like I said, I would have brownies and ice cream for dinner because I could, because I wasn’t overweight. Right. So, my mindset was I could do that. And just like with anyone using a substance to ease their pain, they think they’re doing themselves good in the beginning. And then it becomes, you know, more of a habit and more of an addiction, which I don’t typically deal with in my practice. I usually refer that out to counselors and things like that. Let’s get that settled before we start making any drastic changes, but there’s a price to pay for all of it. There’s a, uh, you know, the body is going to try to reach a state of balance any way that it can at robs Peter to pay Paul. But at some point you reach that tipping point where there’s no return you can’t back up and do what you did before and have it work because you’ve depleted your metabolic reserves.

Craig: Well, I think that, you know, I’m thinking of, um, of a mom, who’s in a difficult marital relationship and their husband might be working all the time and maybe they’re a stay at home mom and they’re, and they’re taking care of three kids. And it just seems like an almost insurmountable task for them to make these types of lifestyle changes. It seems like it would be somewhat, um, somewhat overwhelming for someone in that particular position. How do you baby step someone into a more healthy lifestyle?

Speaker 2: (19:52)
Right. So we asked, you know, how fast do you want to go? Do you want to go slower? Do you wanna go fast? You get better results. If you go fast, obviously faster results. Um, but there’s nothing wrong with making slow changes, especially if we’re not in a crisis mode. And if we could just start one, you know, adding in the good, we oftentimes we think about lifestyle change. We think about what we have to stop doing, and that just seems impossible. And so sometimes it’s adding in the good stuff. So adding in a good wholesome breakfast, and that may be the first place to start. It’s adding in some good whole food nutrition to start the day,  carving out some quiet time. So you have time to think and process, and you don’t feel so overwhelmed all the time because in that situation, when you’re essentially a single mom dad’s working, but he’s not able to participate in the childcare. And you’ve got three kids all the time. It can be very stressful and overwhelming, and I’m having some time to kind of sit and process. I think it’s super important when you’re trying make change.

Craig: Yeah. I had someone mentioned to us that, you know, taking a good brisk 30 minute walk can have the same effect as maybe taking a Xanax.

Kelly: Absolutely. If you could bottle up every benefit of exercise and put it into a capsule, you couldn’t keep it on the shelf. I mean, it just does so many things for the body, so yeah. Good. 30 minute walk, stretching your legs and letting your mind wander a is great medicine.

Craig: I’ve heard you talk about this idea of starting with food, air, water, and movement, speak to our listeners about that.

Kelly: Yeah. So as Americans, we’re exposed to a lot of, toxicants a lot of things in our environment that have the ability to kind of clog up our pathways for good hormone balance. And when you talk about fatigue and you talk about insomnia, those are result of hormones are just not working well. So when we, when we talk about putting together a concept that people can really grasp onto and take action on, you know, clean air. So air filters are chronic of a great concept to have in the house in the bedroom, not having carpet in the house, if you can avoid are great ways to accomplish clean air, clean water. So air filter, water filters are great. Um, in our clinic we use the Berkey.

Craig: Yeah. I’ve got one. Actually my mother-in-law gave us one.

Kelly: Yeah. So the Burkey’s are great inexpensive ways to do filtered water. A lot of people are walking around with water bottles and I’m not against water bottles, obviously when we’re out and about, we have to grab a water bottle every now and then, but some people will drink bottled water, exclusively. That’s all they drink. And as a result of that, they’re getting a lot of phytoestrogens are getting a lot of estrogen content right there in that plastic bottle that they’re drinking all day long and they wonder why their hormones don’t work well. So, if we can clean up the air, we can clean up the water and then we can start cleaning up the food. Then we’ve done a really good thing to help patients. And then adding movement in, like, you talked about that 30 minute brisk walk, those are just foundational things that really anybody can do. And I think if we ask ourself the question, we can all be doing better, right? There’s always something we can tweak and do better in the, in that realm. So just keeping that in the forefront of decision making,

Craig: Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re sitting in on an initial consultation with me and Matt and we’re talking to a dad and the dad is he gets up in the morning. He goes to work. He’s, you know, he spends eight, eight and a half hours in a, in a stressful job. And then he comes home to his wife and his, and his three kids. And for whatever reason, things aren’t working, he’s stressed out. He can’t sleep. Maybe he’s drinking too much in the evenings to unwind. It feels like he has no time for himself. What’s going on with his body. I know what’s going on with his legal situation. Um, but what’s going on with that individual as a person from standpoint.

Kelly: So when I hear that story, it’s a very common story actually. Um, I think the first thing that my mind goes to is how inflamed is that person?

Craig: Yeah. What do you mean by that? Cause that was one of the things I wanted to ask you about is this idea of inflammation and how it affects our overall wellness and health.

Kelly: Yeah. So as I mentioned a little bit ago, as we walk through life, we’re exposed to a lot of toxicants that bioaccumulate. And so if we’re leading that typical American lifestyle where we are, you know, over-scheduled, and we’re not paying attention to our nutrition, we’re not staying hydrated. We’re not getting movement. Then those bioaccumulate accumulate more. There’s no way for them to leave the body. And so, as they bow accumulate, as I mentioned before, you can get it, get to a tipping point where that bioaccumulation becomes a symptom and fatigue. It’s typically a symptom, fatigue, leads to irritability. So with irritability, you’re not relating well to your spouse or your children and probably not to your coworkers either. And that just creates that whole cascade of stress. So really thinking about, okay, how can we walk him from where he is and asking him, okay, are you comfortable here? You know, is this working out for you?

Craig: Yeah. The answer to that is going to be no.

Kelly: Okay. So what are you willing to do to change? Right? Because some of them are not willing to give up their alcohol, right? They’re not there yet. Some of them are, but alcohol is a really big inflammaging.

Craig: I feel like you’re looking at me too deeply when you, when you say that. Um, so we might, we might have had a glass or two of red wine often during the dough. It’s six o’clock, there’s nothing to do. So, but there is a great bottle of wine that we haven’t tried yet.

Matt: But when you say inflammation, how is that manifesting itself inside somebody’s body? What, what specifically is inflamed?

Kelly: So I’ll, I’ll start by saying that the two most common sources of physiological inflammation that are unrecognized. Cause I think that’s the easiest place to start. One is dental issues. So not paying attention to dental, hygiene, having bleeding gums and things like that. That’s a source of internal inflammation that no matter what you’re doing well, that’s going to keep things stirred up. The other source is gut inflammation. And a lot of times the oral inflammation leads to gut inflammation. So it’s kind of a, you know, one of those things that no one really thinks to look at. So you have that source of inflammation brewing and it’ll show up as hormone disturbance. When a cell is inflamed, you can’t get hormones intracellular very easily. So you could be producing testosterone just fine, but it’s not getting intracellular. You could be producing your thyroid hormone or your stress hormones just fine, but it’s not going to get intracellular so that you have the positive benefit of it. So inflammation blocks, intracellular uptake of nutrients and hormones.

Matt: Would that mean somebody that’s experiencing that you could test their, their testosterone and it might show that they’re producing adequate, But their body’s not utilizing it or absorbing it the way its suppose to?

Kelly: Absolutely. So they may clinically look like they’re low testosterone, but when you really get down to the root of it, it’s actually inflammation. And that’s the fun thing that I get to do is really say, okay, yes, you could go on testosterone to help with your symptoms, but let’s clean up your inflammation first and see what happens in the body responds and starts producing.

Craig: So alcohol is a culprit. What are some of the others?

Kelly: I don’t, I’m not against red wine. I think it’s great. I drink red wine myself for saying that, but it can’t access, right? It shouldn’t be. And what else are you putting in that cup? If you’re drinking hard liquor, are you putting in some mixers and some sugar in addition to that alcohol, that makes it hard.

Craig: So, so alcohol can be a culprit. Wheat I here is a common culture.

Kelly: It can be a culprit. Gluten in the United States is for the most part, genetically modified and heavily sprayed with chemicals. And so yes, gluten can be a really big inflammatory for some people.

Craig: What are some other common inflammatory sugar is the number one.

Kelly: Sugar. Sugar, sugar, sugar, yes. Inflammatory for sure. Cut sugar. Totally out of order. You should cut most sugar out of your diet. You get a lot of sugar, just, you know, fruits have sugar in them. You get a lot of sugar, carbohydrates have sugar. So you’re getting enough sugar just through natural foods that you don’t really need to add sugar to the diet. So if you could cut back on one thing, I would say sugar would be it and sugar is so addictive. It’s just as addictive as heroin. So for that person that really has the personality of craving, you know, a lot of times when they do give up their alcohol, then they go into sugar.

Craig: I’m sliding the bowl of Skittles away from me.

Kelly: Skittles are the worst and get them out, save the day.

Craig: But along with a long car ride, I mean just a little bit of candy.

Kelly: So what are you associating that with? Like think back to your first Skittle experience, like last Skittles,

Craig: Just summer and fun. And actually what I think about, and I even read a little bio piece on it. I was a baseball player, like I said before. And so I grew up around the ballpark in South Jackson and it was snowcones. I mean, especially we’re getting into, we’re moving into summertime and Mississippi. Um, maybe by the time this is airing past summertime, but you know, a good blue snow cone that just is it’s fun in the sun and sugar. Are you trying to take everybody’s fun away?

Kelly: Absolutely not. And I’m so glad you mentioned that because a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be beige. You know, it doesn’t have to blend in to everything else. It can really be a fun lifestyle to live. It’s just a matter of redefining some of your fun and coming up with ways of living that you really are excited about.
Craig: Well, everybody wants to feel well and everybody wants energy and everybody wants happiness and vitality. And that’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking when we’re talking good food, good air, good water, good sleep, healthy movement. I mean, we’re talking about fundamental needs of a human being and relationship and shelter. And I mean, this is base level human experience and necessity, right?

Kelly: Absolutely. So one of the fun things that I do in my neighborhood, what I’m known for is taking cocktail recipes and recreating them kind of in a craft healthy way with less sugar. And that kind of,

Craig: Okay, go ahead and give me particularly, and our listeners, your favorite recipe.

Kelly: So this weekend I did a did margaritas with whole oranges that I blended up in my Vitamix and then the juice from lemon and lime and Patron and a little bit of… And they were fabulous. I mean, everybody really loved this sounds absolutely. Yeah. So, um, but no filler, no sugar, no. I mean, no added sugar and no, you know, no mixers or things like that that can, can have some chemicals and sugar in them. So I love to do that. And, and the point in doing that is really to show people that you can still have fun and you can still have treats. You just want to be smart about what you’re doing.

Craig: Let’s spend a little time talking about some, some of the big picture services that you guys do at enhance wellness living provide for people, uh, really across the Southeast, but more particularly here in central Mississippi.

Kelly: So our flagship really is around helping someone develop a lifestyle that promotes what they’re trying to do with their physiology. So we do a lifestyle program. And within that program, I mentioned earlier, testing is important. So we do a lot of testing along the way to make sure that they’re meeting their goals physiologically.

Craig: Now, when you say physiologically, that means the, how the body, the body’s composition.

Kelly: Yeah. So we measure body composition is part of that. So we use InBody as a way of measuring body composition. So we can look at the visceral fat, which is that intraabdominal, dangerous, inflammatory fat. We can look at subcutaneous fat muscle development versus water. So it really helps us see physiologically what’s going on. And that’s an inexpensive point in time tests that we can do, but also digging deeper than that. Looking at biomarkers for inflammation, you know, following those inflammatory markers, to make sure that we resolve that intrinsic level of inflammation so that things work better.

Craig: You know, I’m starting to feel bad for, whoever’s going to try to transcribe this podcast and all of these big words that are being said. I am going to have to listen to this back like two or three times. But what I’m hearing you say is we, we see where the body is and where we want the body to go.

Kelly: Yes. And so measuring over time to see that process. So that that program is personalized and individualized. Um, but within that program, we offer tools and resources like a curriculum. So, there’s education content going to help walk them through those steps that they need to take from a lifestyle perspective. And the more they hear that information and the more they apply that information and we tweak it with their office visits and time with me and my health coach, the better it becomes just part of what,

Craig: And some of this is as simple as understanding how to shop in the grocery store. You know, it’s funny. I had a, um, I meet with a group of great guys on Tuesday mornings and we talk about life and what’s going on with us. And, not long ago, we got together for steak night at a friend’s house. And so I swung by fresh market and, uh, I picked up some multicolored carrots and just some simple little things. And these guys were mesmerized that there are carrots that are, that are purple and white and yellow. They’re like, I’ve never seen a multicolored carrots before. And I’ve always heard eat the rainbow, unlike Skittles that you say, nobody else can have any more ever. But I said, guys, we’re going to take a little field trip to the grocery store and I’m gonna show you all these great things like avocados and carrots and this world of food that you didn’t know anything about that they didn’t serve it. The fast food restaurant.

Kelly: Good for you. That is awesome.

Craig: I doubt anybody’s going to go, but see my, I was lucky that my wife loves food. We love food. That’s one of the things we have in common. And, um, she was doing all of these things before. I even knew that you should. So talk about the other services that you guys offer.

Kelly: So we have some ancillary services. Obviously, we lead with the foundation, but our ancillary services support everything else we’re trying to accomplish with the patient. So, there are situations where a patient may need extra nutritional support through therapy. So, we do offer some customized formulas to help get them up to a good baseline and help them accomplish what they want to accomplish. And then we offer therapies around sexual health. You know, I believe that sexual health is the barometer for your overall health. And, you know, with, with men that may be what gets them in my door. You know, maybe they’ve had fatigue, maybe they’ve had irritability and maybe they’ve had some middle domino weight gain. They can deal with all of that. But when they start having decline in sexual function and that they’ll show up,

Craig: I mean, you know, it’s funny, it’s not funny, but it’s so true. And telling that you talk about that because Matt can attest to this at one of the questions that we ask our clients as a measuring device for what’s going on in their marriages. Well, let’s talk about your, let’s talk about your sex life and not in a weird way. I mean, when’s the last time you guys were intimate and if we’re finding that, Oh, well, gosh, it’s been two or three years or, you know, it’s yeah twice a week. We’re great. And so it really gives you a real indicator as to, in our case, the health of the relationship. But as I think you’re expressing just the health of the individual.

Kelly: Absolutely. So for, you know, for men and sexual dysfunction, sometimes it’ll show up as maybe had a bad experience. And so they’re a little bit more timid to engage. And then the longer you go in between the less blood flow they have. And so it just turns into the elephant in the room. And so it’s really nice to be able to walk them back to a good place of function and confidence and, and, and have that relationship restored that the way that they want

Matt: Kelly, as we start to wrap this episode up, are there any things, any tips that you can give our listeners maybe before they’re able to come see you, or maybe they’re not going to actually be able to make it in to see you, but things that everybody listening right now could implement that pretty much across the board is going, can help you.

Kelly: Yes. Thanks for asking that. I think that’s a great way to end our discussion today because taking action really is what it’s all about. And what I want you to hear is you have the power to control your physiology way more than you realize. So, some key things, number one, stay hydrated, hydration status is huge. You start building yourself, get a headache or lack of energy. A lot of times it’s because you’re walking around dehydrated. So when we think about rule of thumb, drink half of your weight and ounces a day. So if you weigh 120 pounds at 60 ounces a day at a minimum, if you’re out and about exercising and sweating, you probably need a little bit more than that. Pay attention to the color of your urine. Urine should be clear, not cloudy. So just use that as your guide to stay hydrated. So hydration is super, super important and foundational for nutrition. That’s part of your nutrition.  Eating more fruits and vegetables. So adding fruits and vegetables to the diet, um, we mentioned earlier, eat the rainbow, eat the rainbow right now, everything is available right here in Kroger. You know, Kroger is doing a great job of stocking produce. So is whole foods. So the new reason why you shouldn’t take a tour through that produce section and, and eat the rainbow movement, have your body move every day. We are not meant to be sedentary. So whatever movement needs to look like for you, walking is great, yoga is great. Just move. And then take some quiet time every day to kind of reflect whether you do that first thing in the morning. That’s where I like to do mine. Or maybe at the end of the day, you want to reflect on your day what you got accomplished. What do you want to accomplish tomorrow? And just be intentional.

Matt: Yeah. And so for those that maybe can get in to see you, where can our listeners find you?

Kelly: Okay. So the best place to find us is on the internet, enhancedwellness.com. And you can find us there if you just Google enhanced wellness in Ridgeland, Mississippi, we’re right there. And we’ll be happy to see you in the clinic.

Matt: Thank you so much for being with us today. I know that I learned a lot and I hope that our listeners did too.