Ep 76 How to Heal Autoimmune Disease and Get Your Life Back with Dixie Mehrens

The day I was given Dixie Mehrens' business card for AIP Certified Health Coaching was a day of relief for me and a huge answer to prayers!  I was drowning in all my research about Hashimoto's disease and the AIP diet. I had no idea what step to take next, and I knew I needed help. Booking a consult call with Dixie gave me hope! Signing up for her program was a no-brainer!

Dixie Mehrens is a Functional Medicine Certified, Nationally Board Certified and an AIP Certified Health and Wellness Coach. She started Refreshed Vision Health Coaching to support women with autoimmune disease after overcoming her own Crohn’s, thyroid and adrenal diagnoses. 

She used food, faith and Functional Medicine principles to calm her immune system and stop symptoms and now helps others do the same. 

In addition to one-on-one health coaching, Dixie hosts an 8-week online group health coaching program called Reboot with AIP, is a contributing writer to HealthMeans, and is currently writing her own book. She is a wife of 24 years, a mom to a daughter in high school and son in college.

CONNECT WITH DIXIE MEHRENS

• refreshedvisionhealthcoaching.com
• dixie@refreshedvisionhealthcoaching.com
• https://www.facebook.com/refreshedvisionhealthcoaching
• https://www.instagram.com/refreshedvisionhealthcoaching/

CONNECT WITH MANDY

• insta @mandycreativevision 
• facebook @mandyscreativevision

RESOURCES 

• Robb  Wolf
• Loren Cordain
• Rupa Health
• Autoimmune Wellness
• The Paleo Mom/Dr. Sarah Ballantyne

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Transcript

Ep 76 with Dixie Mehrens

Mandy: [00:00:00] Hey there you are listening to the dream big and kick ass podcast. I'm Mandy, your host, and I am so glad you're here. If you want encouragement, inspiration, support, empower. Then join me as we talk about real life stories of finding and following your purpose, overcoming adversity and living out your dreams.

If like me, you believe that life is too short to be caught up in insecurities fear and feeling defeated. Then hang out with me. And let's dream big and kick ass together. Hey, Hey everybody. Uh, thank you for being here today. I am. Before I introduce you to today's guest, I want to tell you a quick little story about how I actually found her or met her.

Um, it was several months after I had received a Hashimoto's diagnosis and I had jumped into AIP, um, trying to learn how to eat that way [00:01:00] and everything. Researching like crazy. And I was just in research over overload, like information over. And so one day I was just praying, God, please show me what. I don't even know what to do next.

What's the next step. I have no clue of all this information. Don't know what to do with it. And I had a list of like supplements. So I was wandering around natural grocers. One day probably shouldn't have been driving that day cause I was so foggy brain. And so the health and wellness, a lady there she's like, Hey, let me give you the.

This is card for this lady. Who's an AIP certified coach. I said, what? AIP certified coach. That's the thing. And she's like, yeah. I was like, well, sign me up because I needed help really bad. And so I went home, I checked out our website, I got on a phone call with her. And I knew that this is what I needed to do.

And I joined her AIP bootcamp and it was a eight week program that she's going to talk about today. And man, it has changed my life and she's changed my life. And I'm so [00:02:00] happy to introduce her to you. So let me roll down the info on her. Let's see, Dixie Marez is a functional medicine certified nationally board certified.

And an AIP certified health and wellness coach. She started refreshed vision health coaching to support women with autoimmune disease after overcoming her own Crohn's thyroid and adrenal diagnoses. She used food, faith, and functional medicine principles to calm her immune system and stop symptoms. And now helps others to do the same.

And in addition to one-on-one health coaching, Dixie hosts, an eight week online group health coaching program called reboot with AIP. She is a contributing writer to health means.com and is currently writing her own book. And I'm excited to hear more about. She has a wife of 24 years, a mom to a daughter in high school and son in college.

Dixie. Welcome. And thank you so much for being here today. 

Dixie: Thanks [00:03:00] for having me, Mandy. 

Mandy: You bet. So let's just jump right in. Let's talk about the programs that you offer specifically. The one that I joined reboot with AIP. 

Dixie: Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay. So reboot with AIP, it's an eight week online group health coaching program.

It really helps women learn how to lower inflammation, calm the immune system, stop auto-immune symptoms so they can feel energized again, stop the pain, stop the symptoms, you know, and really get back to doing the things they've been called to do in this life because they need their energy and their health to do those things.

And so there's a lot of education that goes on with the program I'm in the modules. Each week we meet one-on-one or in the group coaching session and kind of go through some mindset, you know, conversations. So we can learn how to change this because this is where change happens. Right? Change, change our mindset.

Mandy: Absolutely. And it has helped me so much. And I've told so many people about it too. Like you've got to get ahold of Dixie because she helped me so much. So what started you on this, this [00:04:00] health journey of yours. 

Dixie: Oh, okay. So tell you, it may be a little bit about my story. Um, so I initially in my twenties, I went to college and I got a business degree.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I knew I needed to go to college. Um, so I got a generic business degree because all of my teachers in science at the time. They were not great and they did not turn me on to science and I didn't get it and it didn't hit home with me then in hindsight, um, that should have been the route I went, but I didn't know.

I didn't know back then. Right. And so I worked in corporate communications for about 10 years, and then I stayed home to raise my kids after a series of moving four or five times in four or five years. Um, and then being diagnosed with Crohn's in 2011, Ooh, that's kind of, when I kind of hit the bottom and it was like, wait a minute, we, we were so active.

We, um, you know, I have done a marathon. I have been skydiving. I have mountain bike [00:05:00] canoeing and camping and walking on the beach and. You know, we do 10 mile bike rides and I just was very, very active and I had two little kids and it's like, wait a minute. It changed what my future looked like. And it was like, this is not the future that I imagined.

And it was getting to the point where I was having trouble going places. And I had two little kids that I wanted to do things with and sure. I got one day there was, we were on the way to the. And I remember I had to pull into a fast food place and I have about these two kids in the car and I'm like walking them in the car saying, don't you move?

They were good. They were good kids. And so they stayed in the car, but then, you know, with Crohn's, you're always running into the bathroom and it's like, you know, this in life. And I was exhausted and fatigued and all the other symptoms that go along with auto-immunity and it was like, that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.

And I said, something had to change. And so I went on that journey of educating myself. What can I do to address the root cause? And I, I just remember that whole process being so lonely, so hard, so [00:06:00] difficult because people can't see auto-immune. You know, I remember I was so depressed at the time. I remember thinking, I wish my legs were amputated because then people could see my pain and see my disability because they couldn't see it.

They didn't know what I was struggling with. And I think with auto-immunity we go around and we put a brave face on a lot of times I'm veering off a little bit, but I think we've put on a face sometimes because people can't see it and they don't take it as seriously as they should, even the. The person with auto-immunity, you know, we put on this brave face, we're not bleeding.

Mandy: We're not, we don't have this gaping wound that we're bleeding, you know, need to stitch up or anything like that. So it's, it's hard to. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. 

Dixie: It's just hard. And so, and I tell my people in my program too, that autoimmunity is as serious as cancer and nobody looks at it that way, but they're really like sisters, they're really like two sides of the same coin where with cancer, you don't have enough nutrients to Mount up a response to clean up after free radicals.

And so tumors develop, [00:07:00] but in auto-immunity you don't have enough nutrients in order for these. For the immune system to mature immune cells and to regulate itself and to learn to differentiate between self tissue and foreign tissue, foreign proteins. And so both of them are nutrient deficiencies and you can get both, but, um, if somebody says, well, you have cancer, they would T oh, sit down and rest.

Let me get you something make a meal for you. Let me clean your house for you. We'd fall all over to help people. But when you struggle with auto-immunity, everybody just thinks you need to power through and keep going to work and keep doing the same level of performance and productivity as you always have struggling internally and physically to get through the day.

And so. Anyway, that works into my story because it was so hard to go through that. I didn't want other people going through that. So when I finally figured out figured this whole thing out, that's why I became a health coach because I wanted to help other people get through this, quicker, easier, faster, more efficiently, and not do it alone.

Mandy: Um, yes. Cause [00:08:00] man. You do feel alone, you do feel like, oh my gosh, well, how do I do this? Because you're not getting any information from your regular doctor. I, I didn't, um, you know, and they're the, you know, they're supposed to be the people to kind of help you navigate this kind of thing, but they're not doing that in.

So we thank thankfully, I'm a researcher, thankfully, I'm a teacher, so I like to learn and you know, and so I just dove in, but yeah, 

Dixie: with me too, it's like the, when the doctor says, well, we don't know why this happens to you. I'm like, are you kidding me? It happens for a reason. And I know mine is digestive, so it's very clear and very apparent when I eat something, I shouldn't . I get pretty immediate results.

And so I'm lucky that way, but so I'm, I'm correlating this to food right away. And the doctor is saying, well, food has nothing to do with it. And I'm like, well, yes, Yeah, that's what started my search and I stumbled upon an elimination diet, and I had a lot of trial and error [00:09:00] with different diets along the way, trying to, trying to figure it out on my own.

But this, this complete comprehensive elimination diet helped me pinpoint exactly what triggers my symptoms so that I can stay away from those and give my body what it needs so that it can function optimally. And I also had to seek the help of a functional medicine practitioner. Often with auto-immunity.

Um, it isn't just food and lifestyle. There's usually something else under the surface that has also contributed to this. And what I often see with my, with my clients is that there is usually some event in their life that. Was the straw that broke the camel's back. Usually it's a stressful event or a change in their life, whether it's hormonal change or move or divorce or something that triggers it.

And then it expresses, but along the way, there was a whole lot of little symptoms that were occurring that were being treated individually. And so. I had to go to a functional medicine [00:10:00] practitioner to, to have things like SIBO treated. SIBO is small intestinal, bacterial overgrowth. They treated that twice.

Um, heavy metal toxicity, um, adrenal issues and hormone issues. Yay. Premenopause um, I did gene testing because your genes are, you know, are influenced by food and lifestyle too. And sometimes if you don't express all of your genes correctly, you need supplementation to support your body. So I was taking a lot of supplements, but.

After addressing things that are the root cause I feel better now than I did before my diagnosis. And it's like 10 over 10 years older now. And I feel better now than I did that. And so it's worth it. It's way worth it. And that's what I wanted to help other women. Is feel that type of energy, feel that victory finally, of getting to the other side and getting through the muck and the emotion and the change process.

That is just so hard. 

Mandy: Yeah. It is hard. And thank you to you because you, you encourage me every week when we talk. Cause there are times it was like, oh my gosh, can [00:11:00] I just get a break? Can we just like, have a breakthrough here, know what's, you know, know exactly what I need to do, you know? So, um, But yeah, it is a process and you have to keep, continue to peel back the layers.

So, so let's talk about your certifications and how, how they've helped you along the way, how you're using them to help others. It's kind of just piggybacking on what you probably just said, but, um, some people may not know what this functional medicine, medicine, certified health coaches, what that is and things like that. So let's talk about that. 

Dixie: Yeah. Okay. So, um, When I went back to school in my forties, I needed to get some science credits and I thought I was getting them in order to become a registered dietician. But after I realized what advice I would have to give people that I did not agree with, because after doing the elimination diet, I learned a whole lot about how food affects your body.

Um, I did not agree with My Plate and the food pyramid anymore. And so I, um, started doing, trying to figure. What degree I wanted to get some wanted to help [00:12:00] people. I wanted to have a certification behind my name, that I could actually help people with this. Um, officially, you know, not just as a person that has been through it.

And so I have, of course had been helped by a functional medicine practitioner. And so I looked at the functional medicine coaching academy and they had a certification program that, um, qualified me to be able to sit for the board exam. And I was like very intrigued by that, but I had no idea at the time that I went through it, that it was really.

I really didn't know what I was getting myself into because it was a lot more psychology than I imagined. I didn't really realize that, but with the functional medicine piece of it, where they really focus on the pillars of health. So. How food impacts the body, how sleep and movement and stress management or lack of it affects the body and how having purpose and having healthy connections impacts our health.

And so we went through all of that and the impact it has on the body and all of their different food plans that functional medicine practitioners use, um, in practice. [00:13:00] And so that was a great foundation, but then to sit for boards, Had a lot of study time. I put a lot of hours in studying for that, for that test, because it's done by the medical, the American medical association.

So that qualifies, um, they're beginning to qualify health coaches that are nationally board certified to use insurance CPT codes. So hopefully people can start turning that into their insurances. Nice with that, that that's where they really talked a lot about, um, positive psychology and motivational interviewing and appreciative inquiry where I help bring up the, the strengths that you have.

Um, take, take examples from past successes you've had and ask, how can you apply that to this new challenge that you're facing, um, and just really bring out the best in you help bring up that self-confidence because people don't make changes until. They decide. And in order to decide, you're kind of making these pros and cons lists and the pros have to outweigh the cons and you have to get to the point where you make a decision.

And again, this is where the change happens. So there was a lot of, [00:14:00] a lot more psychology involved in that than what I had anticipated, but, um, it's fascinating and it's very effective and it really helps people. More lasting changes than doing it on your own for sure. And how we ask the questions and draw that out of you.

And so that's what I kind of learned with my national board certification, but then of course, knowing my background, it's the elimination diet. That really is my passion and what really made the biggest difference for me. So I went on and got my autoimmune paleo protocol. AIP certification so that I could really teach the science in behind why and how these particular foods interact with the body, why they're removed, why the body needs nutrients.

The immune system is a huge nutrient hog really needs that in order to function properly and often with auto-immunity, people are having other issues too, like hormone issues or poor detoxification or poor sleep, or, you know, hormone imbalances and just the stubborn weight. And, you know, we just have all these complex.

Everything's interconnected. And so I [00:15:00] wanted to learn the science behind that. So I could really empower people to know what's happening in their body, because I think when you know, that knowledge is power and then you can make a different decision. And I think marrying all of those together, um, just, is it just, it's such a powerful mix, the knowledge and the being able to make the change and bringing out the best in people and you can really kind of just really make change happen. Finally. 

Mandy: Absolutely. Cause whenever I was going through the modules and when you were talking about the science stuff behind it, this is why you don't want to eat this particular kind of food, because this is what it's doing to your gut and all this kind of thing. I was like fascinated. So, you know, I was nerding out on those and that, that's what gave me the power to be able to go, okay, no, I can't eat this because it's toxic to my body.

I can eat this because it's nutritious to my body. Yeah, it was very empowering. 

Dixie: I was that kid that the parent, my parents would say, just because I said so. And I'm like, ah, I want to know why I got in trouble for [00:16:00] talking back a lot, because I'm like, why, why? I want to know why. 

Mandy: Yeah. Okay. So let's talk a little bit more in depth about AIP then. Like how, who came up with that? 

Dixie: Okay. Well initially it was. Kind of fathered by Rob Wolf and Loren Cordain, um, you know, really kind of came from the paleo movement. And then Dr. Sarah Ballantine kind of really took it to another level and really started validating it with science. And she would look at all of these foods and say, how do these interact with the gut lining?

Because what happens when we eat food is that these proteins are going through our body and our body's supposed to be breaking them down. And if you think of a chain of pearls. As like a protein, it's supposed to break it down into the individual little pearls. And then that gets absorbed through, into the bloodstream and gets carried throughout the body where it needs to go.

Well, if it's not broken down and you've got a, several of those getting. The immune system is going, wait a minute, you're too big. You're not supposed to be in here and it attacks it. And so she would look at all these foods and say, which foods are interacting with the gut lining and causing it [00:17:00] to be permeable and allow these foods through, how do you know, is there more pros or more cons to this food for people with auto-immunity?

And so she just validated it and really gave it some good science and research in behind it. And so. Yeah. So that's really kind of how it developed. And then the auto-immune wellness group, Mickey Trescott and Angie Alt, um, nutritional therapy practitioners. They really, really are kind of the experts in the industry for this.

They're the really, the ones look looked to for. Even more of the science, they're doing lots of clinical studies that are showing the efficacy of AIP and really, really validating it with clinical studies that show people with IBD can have a 73% remission rate where you can't achieve that with medication.

And they're showing that with Hashimoto's, they're showing up with RA and they're just continuing to do more and more studies. And then they train the AIP certified health coaches too. So. Yeah. Does that answer your question? 

Mandy: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. You're always very thorough. 

Dixie: Sorry. 

Mandy: So [00:18:00] then we've no, no, no apology needed.

Um, so we've touched on this a little bit, but like, let's talk about the difference between functional medicine and traditional medicine. I mean, you've, you've sprinkled different things throughout, but let's kind of zoom in on that a little bit. 

Dixie: Sure, sure, sure. Okay. So conventional medicine, really? What U S doctors really aren't trained in nutrition.

They really aren't trained in lifestyle. Um, and it's just kind of the way our broken system is. I think they go to medical school, really wanting to help people and it kind of, they kind of get sucked up into the system and they aren't able to spend a lot of time with you. They it's really kind of really driven by pharmaceuticals and people have come to kind of expect that you expect to go to the doctor and get a prescription to solve your problem.

And unfortunately that's not really solving our problems anymore. It's really masking them. And it's, it's not, it's a pill for an ill kind of situation where we're not really dealing with the root cause. And so functional medicine kind of steps back and says, wait, whoa, whoa, let's go upstream. What's causing this to happen in the body.

And it's usually a cash pay [00:19:00] system. A lot of them don't take insurance. So a lot of people are kind of shy away from it for that. But I'm telling you, you really do get what you pay for with this because they spend a lot of time. And even when I went to the functional medicine coaching academy, a practitioner will sit down with you and we will take a timeline and we will look at all the things that happened in your life, like different sicknesses and illnesses and rounds of antibiotics and car accidents and injuries and surgeries and big life events.

And we can see just looking at the. All of the things that fed into where you are today and how it led up to your disease and the disease expression. And so we can kind of backtrack that and say, okay, this is what your body's missing. This is what it has been exposed to. Let's deal with the root cause and give the body the nutrients it needs in the, in the information it needs to function optimally.

And so, you know, they're, they're not opposed to pharmacy. But, um, they really want to address the root cause and often that's diet and lifestyle, and we kind of eat our way into auto-immunity. We kind of need to eat [00:20:00] our way out and lifestyle lifestyle plays a huge, huge role. I mean, if you're not getting enough sleep and your chronic.

Driving yourself and, you know, staying up really, really late and getting up really early for work, which I did that for years when I was working for years to, um, your immune system does a lot of its heavy lifting while we sleep in a lot of cleanup and repair. And if you're not getting enough of that, that contributes.

If you're not managing stress, that's going to mess with all the hormones. And so there's actually things we need to do in addition to. To address the root cause. A lot of times we can't keep doing what we've always done, or we got to do something different to get a different result. 

Mandy: Absolutely. Absolutely. Talking about the difference between, um, The different doctors when I was at, with my regular doctor and I was going through your program and we were talking about all these different things. And then we were talking about all these different, um, tests that are out there, tests are available.

So I sent her a text asking her about this list of tests. Like, Hey, I'm learning a lot about AIP. I'm learning a lot in my [00:21:00] coaching class. And. Could we do start with some of these tests and one or more or whatever. And she's like, well, we don't do those tests here, but if you check with the functional medicine practitioners around town, though, one of them would probably have them or one of them will probably do it for you.

So like even. Like she made, she was, that was pretty much just a solidifier for me. Like, okay. Yeah. All right. I need to go to functional medicine practitioner and she did all she knew and all she was able to do within her practice or whatever. I don't know. But yeah, it's hard. It's like, I don't mean any disrespect for them, because like you said, I guess they're just not taught that the nutritional.

Dixie: Well, and they're also really handcuffed with insurance. You know, uh, people have come to expect to really rely on their insurance for this. And I have found, even though I pay cash for functional medicine practitioner, I, it has been so much more effective. I always talk about is investing in my health and it's okay if I'm paying cash now, because I won't pay for it. My insurance and sickness and [00:22:00] hospital bills later. 

Mandy: Exactly.

Dixie: But also, you know, there are ways now even without a functional medicine practitioner where you can order your own online tests. You can get those online now. And so, um, and then you just need some help with some interpretation probably. And there are, there are companies out there.

I I want to say like Rupa health is one. Um, there's, there's a lot of people online that will do that for you now. And a lot of practitioners are working virtually. So, yeah, they are. Yeah. And I found that it's also cheaper. A lot of times for me to pay cash for these tests, then for it to go through insurance and then me pay the pay the difference.

It just doesn't even make sense. The way the wholesale market we're all up.

Mandy: They mark it all up for the insurance. Yeah. It's infuriating 

quick sidebar here. If you can visualize yourself achieving a goal, then you have the capacity to make it happen. I truly believe that God doesn't give you dreams for nothing.

He has equipped you to make them reality. So [00:23:00] trust him and take a baby step or even a huge leap towards your dreams today. One way you can do that is to create an epic vision for. If you need help getting started on that, just go to my website, maybe saw your.com and grab my free three-step guide. It'll help you figure out what to display on your board and we'll help you narrow down at 30 day goal.

If you need some extra one-to-one help on that. I offer online dream building sessions. Just check out the work with me, tab on my website for more details. I'd love to chat with. 

So. You're a big time researcher. Let's uh, what's your latest topic that you've been immersed, you know, immersing yourself into and what are your go-to resources?

Dixie: Okay. So. There's a lot in that question. Okay. So what am I researching right now? Well, I'm in the process of writing my own book. I really wanted to write a coaching book that helps people coach themselves out of auto-immunity. Um, there's just a lot of power in asking yourself self reflective questions.

And I want to kind of take the AIP program that I have and kind of put it in book form. For people [00:24:00] to be able to coach themselves. I want people to have access to it. I want to make an impact right away. And, um, there is a roadmap to healing using food, faith, and functional medicine principles. And I can put it on paper and I want to help people feel hopeful from that.

Um, give them a roadmap and then I'm reading a book now, also on. Chronic pain. I'm fascinated with chronic pain. And I have a lot of, I have a lot of people who, you know, clients who have chronic pain and a lot of nervous system issues. And I always know that the cells remember, you know, it says the body never forgets, it keeps score.

And so, um, it's an extremely difficult thing for people to deal with chronic pain. It's like, it just never go think about having a. All of the time, the time. And it's just, it's just horrible. And people with CRPS it's an auto-immune disease or are a with joint pain. There's just a lot of that with auto-immunity.

And so when you do a little research into trauma too, and that affects the nervous system, it's all has to [00:25:00] do with like the vagus nerve and how your cells respond and, um, the memory and. I'm going to learn about resetting the memory of the cells and resetting that vagus nerve, that calming down that sympathetic nervous system.

Because I think that requires a multi-pronged approach, mind, body, and spirit, when you're re resetting that whether you've had. Capital T or lowercase T trauma. It doesn't matter, you know, physical trauma, mental trauma, it doesn't matter. It affects your body and there's subconscious things now that cause your body to express, um, and have that stress response and stress is probably the number one thing outside of food.

That really triggers auto-immune symptoms. And so I'm fascinated with that. So that's what I've got. My book on my nightstand is about chronic pain. I love it though. My, um, my go-to resource and what I always tell people in my program is that anytime you're going to search for anything. Add the word functional medicine in your Google search at the end of it so that you can get a root cause approach [00:26:00] answer to not a conventional medicine answer, but more of something that's going to be more holistic and address the real issue, not just what conventional medicine tells us out there, because I think we really just need to be advocates for ourselves and do some more research and educate ourselves.

And then yeah, go ahead. 

Mandy: I've been telling people to do that too, to add functional medicine to the research, to their search. 

Dixie: Absolutely. I think it really helps. And then Autoimmune Wellness and the paleo mom are the two other ones and a bunch of functional medicine doctors online too. So using the word functional medicine it'll help.

Mandy: And the paleo mom, she's an she's a doctor. 

Dixie: She's Dr. Sarah Ballantine, the one that does the AIP part. 

Mandy: That's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. As I knew that there were, it was the same. Okay. So you were a featured speaker for the 2021 AIP summits, monthly live webinar, where you shared tips and tricks for traveling while thriving on AIP.

And, and these, these are tips that really, really helped me because, uh, as soon as I learned about them, I was going to. [00:27:00] A road trip, like a couple of weeks after that. So it's definitely was helpful for me. So can you give the listeners a few tips? 

Dixie: Sure. Um, I'll kinda tell you a little bit about what I do and then hopefully they can glean ideas from that, but, um, plan, plan, plan.

That's what I say. Um, I have a lot of food sensitivities after doing the elimination diet. There are no grains, no dairy, no. So I, no legumes, no, you know, I have to really just eat meat and vegetables. I have to really focus on that. And a lot of places have marinated meats that have things in them. They can't.

So it's just, it's hard to eat out. There's no fast food place I can really go. No. Um, and it's not healthy for you anyway. And so it's imperative that I bring my own food. And so I always stay at a hotel that has a kitchen in it, not just a microwave, um, but, but at least two burners, like a Homewood suites or something like that, an extended stay kind of a place.

And when I'm driving, I always pack a cooler. And bring my own pre cooked meat, pre cooked meals who wants to cook on vacation. [00:28:00] I still don't want to cook on vacation, so I will do a lot of it before I go. So I'm just rewarming meat and steaming vegetables, putting it in my thermos and taking it. When we go and precooked meat, like, you know, even chicken tenders, I can throw it on a salad.

I'm not really cooking. Then I'm just taking it out of the freezer and I can pack it in a suitcase. And check it in my bag and I can get to the hotel, put it in the fridge defrost, and I have it for the week that I'm there and it just works great cause I'm not really cooking much. Um, and I'll order groceries online and have them delivered to the hotel so that I don't have to grocery shop.

I'm not going to grocery shop on vacation, not going to do it. And so, um, yeah, so those, those are just some of the tips that I really use to save time and to, and, and I also kind of keep my list. So I can use it for next time I go. 

Mandy: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It totally helped me. Cause I, I did, I batch cooked a bunch of meat threw in some veggies that I can roast or sweet potatoes because they were easy.

[00:29:00] I can just throw those in the microwave. And so yeah, I brought my whole cooler. Uh, but yeah, it's doable. It's doable. Like you said, you have to plan, you got to plan. 

Dixie: I'm not going to stop living just because I have food sensitivities. I want to go do things and I want to feel energized when I do them too, you know?

And so I have to feed my body what it needs in order for me to have the energy, to do those things on vacation that I want to do. And I don't want to be sick. I don't wanna be stuck back in the hotel room. 

Mandy: No. No. So in your experience, what are the biggest challenges people with autoimmune issues face.

Dixie: Well, I mean, you still have things like the pain and the fatigue and the brain fog and the skin issues and the gut issues. And you've got all the physical pieces to that puzzle. And each of those autoimmune diseases are a little different and express differently. So you have that. But I think one of the bigger struggles is really having some hope because you're not given a lot of hope.

It's just going to get worse. And we're just going to give you medications to help you manage your symptoms. And you feel like your body's betrayed you and it feels very. [00:30:00] Discouraging. I mean, I know when I got mine, it's like, that is not the future. I imagined for myself, everything changed and it's only going to progress and get worse.

No, no, thank you. I think you need hope. Yeah. The single thing that was the hardest for me is that I needed help. I needed to find a solution. I needed to figure out what the root cause was and address that. Cause that is not the future. I want it. And making changes as hard. Yeah. The other part of it and doing it by yourself is very hard.

Um, it can feel overwhelming. You don't know if you're doing it right. You don't know if, um, is this the right change? Is this the right thing to eat? Is this the wrong thing to eat? It's can be just, there's a lot of detail in it and you have questions. And so having that support going through it, would've made all the difference for me.

And that's exactly why I do this. 

Mandy: Yeah. I'm so glad you do, because like, I don't, I really don't think, I mean, I don't think I could have. As long as I have without. Knowing you and without being a part of your program and everything, I [00:31:00] don't know that I could have done it. Cause there are days it gets, it's still frustrating.

It's still, I mean, I've come a long way and I, I can do things now a lot, lot easier. It's a lot more natural, a lot more like, oh yeah, I'm just gonna, you know, like this morning I threw in a couple of pork roasts into the crock pot and you know, I'm gonna have those for dinner and then shread them up. freeze some of it and all that stuff.

So a little bit batch cooking done today, but before it was just like a major, major, like, oh my gosh, okay. I have to set aside this much time. And I got to like, you know, you have to really, really plan, but once you have done it multiple times, then it's just like, anything else practice makes perfect. And you can, you know, you get better at it and it gets easier as you.

But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I would have done without you.

Dixie: It's having the courage and the inspiration and the knowing that it's going to get better and that it does get better. And then it becomes a lifestyle. And then you can just be so much prouder of yourself for what you did to [00:32:00] get your body back, and then you want to protect it. You want to keep your health.

Mandy: Yes. You don't want to go back. Cause I mean, I definitely have felt, uh, I have a lot less inflammation in my body. I have a lot less pain in my body. Like mine. I was hurting all the time and I didn't even realize how bad bad it was. I was like, you know, I couldn't even really get out of bed. I was moaning and groaning. becasue it hurt so bad. And I just thought, oh, well I guess this is what I'm gonna, I don't know. This is what my body is doing and that's normal. And I would ask around I'm like, is anybody else hurting? Like this it'd be like, no. So then I was like, wait a minute, this is not okay. This is, I'm like, I'm only 50.

Like, what am I going to be feeling like if I'm 80, like, this is not cool. I got to do, you know, figure this out. 

Dixie: We often settle and just feel like it's aging or it's just, well, this is just my disease. This is just what it is. And that's really a victim mentality and we need to go on, I'm not going to settle for that because I have life to live.

Mandy: Absolutely. [00:33:00] Absolutely. For sure. So what recommendations do you have for somebody who's struggling to be heard and when it comes to their heatlh? 

Dixie: I get so frustrated with this part of it with doctors not listening, I've had some good success with the doctors. I think doctors, when they go to medical school, they really do want to help people.

And if you can provide good information to them, like good research that that shows, Hey, other people have benefited from this. You're going to either have a doctor that says don't listen to Dr. Google. Not going to be partner with you and you need to walk away and find a new doctor, or you're going to find a doctor who's open to it and willing to try new things.

And that's the better case scenario. But I would just say, don't settle because you're the customer. You know, when you go to the doctor's office, you're the customer and doctors are come across sometimes pretty arrogant. And you need to really go in prepared, go in with your bullet list of questions, go in with, um, to focus that conversation.

Cause they don't have much time with you. You aren't going to get to have a conversation really. You better have your bullet points and be [00:34:00] succinct in what you're going to say. 

Mandy: Yeah. 

Dixie: But, and have the results or the tests that they can reference and look at and say, Hey, what's it going to cost? You know, what's it going to hurt if I try this, are you open to me trying this?

And if they're, they're not, I would ask them to write that down in your chart. Because most of the time, they don't want to refuse something that you are requesting. And so. They'll go along with it. But a lot of times it's because insurance has handcuffed their hands too. And they're going to tell you, well, insurance, isn't going to cover that test.

Right. And so, um, you, sometimes you can ask them, you know, what will it take for insurance to cover this? What needs to be, what needs to be wrong with me, for the insurance company to cover it. Right? And then you can say, oh yeah, that's a problem for me too. Um, and you can, you can get around it. You can ask them what, what can I do to get the insurance to cover this?

How can you help me with this? Ask them to advocate for you within. And again, if all else fails, you can always order your own test online, or you can, um, find another doctor who's going to partner with you and it's going to be on your side and is going to help you again, [00:35:00] this is where functional medicine really shines.

So, you know, if you can't see a functional medicine practitioner, it's just not financially possible. You really got to find a conventional doctor. That's going to work with you and be your partner in it and be open. The idea of new information coming out, right? 

Mandy: Yeah. Because do they even have time to do all that research? I mean, if they're, if they're in that system where they're having a roll through people every 15 minutes, you know, because of the system that they're working for, you know, do the, I mean, they don't have time to research. I wouldn't think

Dixie: they don't. That's why, if you're bringing them an article, that's a researched article, clinical trial clinical journal that study that shows, you know, um, national institutes for health, you can Google all sorts of things on us.

On different auto-immune diseases and treatments that are in functional medicine veins and how they treat them in a lot of times, functional medicine practitioners and their blog articles we'll have links to the references. And if you can click on those and take that and just even print it out. So he has a copy, so he can just see it when you're sitting there in the office.

And he's like, okay, well, we'll try it. [00:36:00] If you want to try it, I'm game. I'm going to see you again next month. Anyway, so

it doesn't hurt to ask being your own advocate is really big. 

Mandy: It is, it is huge. It is huge. Yeah. So who or what motivates and inspires you? 

Dixie: Definitely my, definitely my clients, because I hear their stories. I see their pain. I see the things that they have to deal with and then that they, they, they overcome it and they find a way to make it through, um, you know, with all their symptoms of here's an example.

I had a client who. She couldn't get, she couldn't get up the stairs and this is the house she raised her kids in, you know? So there's sentimental value to this house. She loves this house, but she had RA and she just couldn't do normal things anymore. She couldn't get up the stairs to her bedroom. She couldn't do dishes.

She couldn't get through the day without a nap. She was in a lot of pain. She just couldn't do things like she used to. And she's just. All she's seeing is things going to get worse. And she was going to have to go on immunosuppressants and she just didn't want to do that. She was [00:37:00] really scared of those.

And she had been doing AIP for some time on her own, but wasn't quite getting the results that she should have or that she expected. And so we started working together and started pinpointing some of the little things, the little nuances in there that maybe were still in our diet that really shouldn't have been, or what happens a lot of times is people rush the reintroductions and don't really listen to their body.

There's a really a specific way you should do them. To get the information that you need from your body. And so she kind of had rushed those and that goes back to emotional eating. So we had to address that. And so after addressing those things, now, she feels better than she ever has. Her rheumatologist has taken her off some of her medication and says, you are my star patient.

You are my best patient. What are you doing? And she told him, and you know, they still don't believe it. After the, after she said that he didn't believe her until the next appointment, when she was doing even better, her labs came back even better. And he lowered her meds again and said, okay, wait a minute, tell me again what it is you're doing.[00:38:00]

And so he'll listen this time. He was pretty amazed. And so, you know, they really work hard. People really do work hard for this, but when you want the end result, when you focus on what it is you want your health for, and what's really important to you out here, and then you put the work in to get it, um, that.

Clients just amaze me. They motivate me this. This is why I keep showing up. I love seeing results like that. I want them to feel good. I want them to live life. I always say, if you're still breathing, you have a purpose. You have, you're here for a reason. And so you want to, you want to be there for your grandkids.

You want to be active. You want to do the things in ministry or in work or wherever you are in life. Um, and you need your health to do that. And so I want them to get that. So it's an honor to be a part of their stories and to be part of their journey, it really is. It's humbling. And it's like, um, just amazing.

It's it's what gets me up every morning to do this. 

Mandy: Yeah, absolutely. That's I love hearing stories like that too. And that's kind of why I've been trying to, I've been trying to tell my story as I go along [00:39:00] so people can. Can learn and probably, you know, hopefully apply some things to their own lives and get on their own journey.

And I have actually had several people actually reach out to me and ask me some questions about things and stuff that I didn't even really know that they were, that they had seen a post that I put up or whatever. But I'm so excited and so glad to answer any questions that I can answer, or at least tell them, you know, what I've done.

And this is, you know, this is what happened with me or whatever. And it's helped them to, I think somebody, there's another friend of mine that, um, she's like, okay, I guess I do need to go to a functional medicine practitioner now hitting the wall, basically with the doctors that she's going to. So yeah. I can see how that the stories.

Inspire and keep you going. And, and I was talking to Dr. Ozment last week, whenever I was interviewing her. And she was just talking about how, you know, she just wants to keep getting the word out and wants to keep getting the word out about functional medicine and about how you don't have to. [00:40:00] Fall into the norm in the, the status quo of how medicine works.

Dixie: Absolutely. 

Mandy: So you've already talked about your diagnosis, but if you want to add any more to what big obstacle have you overcome in your life and how then tell us a little bit more about that? 

Dixie: Well, obviously overcoming my diagnosis was huge, but, you know, cause it did change how I travel, how I socialize.

There's a lot more to food than just. Food, you know, food has memories, it has connections, you know, a smell can remind you of things. Um, we socialize around food. It changed how I do things spontaneously. I have to be more prepared and plan ahead for those things. And so it really did change how I do life and.

That was pretty profound. And I think when I look back, I really do see how I went through the stages of grief through that, because I kind of grieved what my life used to be like and what it is now. And I I'm at a place of acceptance now where I am thriving. Yeah. But it is, [00:41:00] it was something that I had to go through and I don't want to say the AIP diet is so bad that you're going to give up foods that you're never going to be able to meet again.

And your life is going to be miserable. It isn't going to be like that. You're going to have a lot more freedom on the other side, when you have your health back. Yeah. Um, it is still a big change. And if you find out that there's a whole food groups, you can't eat anymore, it does change how you do things a little bit, and that's going to be part of it.

And I want to help people get through that to it, because I think that was my husband didn't know what was happening. I didn't know I was going through the stages of the grief of grief at the time. Yeah. He didn't know how to help me. And you know, you're married to this person who knows you better than anyone in the world, and they don't know what to do.

And so really a lot of the, the journey comes back to you having the resolve within yourself to want it bad enough to pull yourself through it. And I want to draw that out of people so that they can get through that so much quicker because you shouldn't do that alone. It's just really. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

That's where my heart is. Yeah. [00:42:00] And I can tell. Yeah. And I'm so glad it happened to me now. And I would have never said that when I was going through it, I am glad it happened because I couldn't be the person I am now without having gone through that. And so that happened for a reason too. Also a lot of it was my fault, you know, I saw all the symptoms happening and I didn't address the root cause I re I remember, okay.

I was a newlywed. I, my husband was vice president of Merry maids. The first 10 years of our marriage, my house was cleaned every week going on fabulous incentive trips. We had great friends. We had a good church group. My life was fabulous. I was depressed and anxious and having these panic attacks like what?

That means that should have been a red flag to me. And instead I went to the OB GYN and she gave me an antidote. And so I covered up the symptom and that's probably one of the first big symptoms. Like I shouldn't have had that at all. I had a great job. I had a great life. There was not a thing wrong [00:43:00] to be in that situation.

And, and then I struggled with infertility and part of that was being on birth control. And then back in the day I had whole bunch of dental issues. It was the seventies, we were in a depression, kind of in the seventies, you know, we had all this inflation and things. And so, you know, my dad had been out of work a couple of times.

We'd go to the dentist. And I remember getting cavities filled and back then their eye, their idea was to take more of the tooth now, their ideas to preserve most of the tooth as much as they can. But back then they took a little extra, just to be safe, right. So I had all these dental fillings and, and things that needed to be replaced later.

Well that bacteria translocates in the body. And I had a bunch of immunizations to go on a mission trip to Africa. Oh, my goodness. I had them all at once because I didn't want to go back and get multiple rounds. And I thought that was going to die that night, having all that rushing through my body. And then, and then the insomnia started after that.

And so, gosh, when I look back on all the little things on my timeline, I can see [00:44:00] all the little things that contributed to it. It was never one thing that contributes to auto-immunity. And so if, if there was, you know, an obstacle or. You know, a mistake that I made or something like that, it would be because I didn't deal with those, the root cause of those things then.

Mandy: Right.

Dixie: It all ends up working out though, because it's 

Mandy: yeah. But like, you didn't know then to pay attention to that, I guess. Right. Cause that's what I think too. Like I had all these red flags going on for, for years and though, and I was trying to seek help. I was trying to like, you know, I went through, I don't know how many doctors.

And they would address certain things, but, but never, oh, let's get to the bottom of this. Oh, let's really figure out, oh, you know, it, was never very thorough at all. And, and then the treatment they were giving me, like it wasn't helping, it was some, some have actually made it worse. And so. Yeah. I mean, like you do what you know, and I'm [00:45:00] so glad I know more now and I just keep learning and keep learning and keep learning.

Dixie: Yup. Yup. And it's funny too. And I geek out on the science piece of it. So every time I look at one of those things in my past, I can, I can re relate it back to a Crohn's diagnosis. Like there are studies that show that, and I'm like, are you kidding me? So like every single thing I could possibly have wrong, I pretty much did or had, or was exposed to or.

Yeah, the heavy metal in my bones from growing up. And, um, I dunno, tick bites and, you know, I had strep throat and all those rounds of antibiotics and the infertility and the hypothyroidism and the, um, birth control pills. Did, you know, 90% of people who are on birth control pills ended up hypothyroid. 

Mandy: Oh my God.

Dixie: If you knew that when you were on birth control, maybe you'd make a different choice and it could be coincidental. It could be coincidental because a lot of people are on birth control and a lot of women get hypothyroidism, but 90% that's pretty high. That is high. That is high [00:46:00] anyway. So when you look back at all these things, everything has a consequence.

Every health decision you make or you're exposed to has a consequence. And you got to think about that because it doesn't happen in it. It's all interconnected at all. Affects each other. 

Mandy: Yeah, all the, all the puzzle pieces, it's like a 5,000. So I was telling Dr. Ozment, it was like, it's like a 5,000 piece puzzle.

Cause there's so many different things that play into it. And so many different things to address, um, in order to get your full picture, you know, the right picture that you want, the perfect picture. So, yeah. So what is your vision for your life for the next 5 years? 

Dixie: Well, we're pretty close to being empty nesters.

And so we've been talking about RVing for awhile. We're talking about relocating to maybe to Florida. I love the beach and we'd love. 

Mandy: I'll come visit you.

But what's funny is when I named it Refreshed Vision Health Coaching, I never thought about initializing it to RV health coaching. So I still want to do what I'm [00:47:00] doing despite that.

And so, um, cause I can do it online. I can do it virtually. And so I'm just relocating out of cold, Oklahoma. 

I know we fricking sleet today and tomorrow, but. So, what is one thing you'd like to leave with our listeners, an anecdote or a valuable lesson, or, um, a joke, something that keeps you going. 

Dixie: I like to remind people with auto-immunity. I think too, that their body is not betraying them. It's protecting them. It's protecting them from something. So the question is, what is it protecting you from? What were you exposed to? What is it not getting that it needs your body is designed to. You know, that immune system is protecting you, it's doing its job.

So the question is let's remove whatever it's having to guard against so that you can get back your health. Yeah, that's huge. And I think when you get that mental shift that your body's not against you, it's for you, it's doing, if you have favor, [00:48:00] it's like something clicks and you can start giving it what it needs to do, its job.

Mandy: Is there anything else that you would like to talk about? 

Dixie: I get questions once in a while, about what the, where did refresh division come from? Refreshed Vision Health Coaching. And I see a lot of people with autoimmunity that lose hope for their future. And it's like, you know, the little refresh symbol, like when your browser refreshes and it populates with new information, I feel like we need to do a reset.

And, um, and even with reboot with AIP, I don't know where I got all these computer terms. I don't, it was subconscious, but with reboot, when you shut down your computer and do a hard shut down and bring it back up, it works properly. And we want to do that with the body. We want to do a hard shut down and bring it back up and then create a new vision of what we want our health to look like out here in the future.

So let's refresh that vision and get that, get that picture out here of what you want your health to look like, because I think you need to thrive. You need to have something to look forward to and you have to purpose and direction. Otherwise you don't where you. Yeah, where are you going to end up if you don't have a [00:49:00] plan?

And so I think that's part of where the name came from. 

Mandy: Yeah. And that's a good way to good reason to have a vision board, to put your health goals and your health vision of where you want to be, where you want to go, how you want your life to look absolutely vision board. So how do people get in contact with you?

Dixie: Yeah, I'm on Facebook and I'm on Instagram and my website. It's all the same. It's refreshed vision health coach. Dot com. Awesome. Thank you, Dixie so much for chatting with me today and for being on the podcast. And I know that the listeners are going to benefit so much from hearing what you have to say.

Awesome. Thanks for having me, Mandy. You've been at, you've been a great person to get to know over these last year or so, and your journey has just been incredible and I, I am really proud of you and you've worked so hard to get your health back and you're continuing that journey and I'm just happy to be part of it. Yeah. Thank you. 

Mandy: Thank you. Please subscribe to this podcast. So you don't miss any upcoming episodes and share it [00:50:00] with three friends that could use some encouragement and remember to dream big and kick ass.