Integrative Medicine for Real Life in Palm Harbor

In this episode, we sit down with Kaylin Morris, APRN—founder of Salty Roots Integrative Wellness—to talk about what integrative medicine actually means and why so many people are looking for care that focuses on the “why,” not just the symptoms. We cover simple, realistic shifts that can improve energy, digestion, hormones, and overall well-being.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why more people are seeking proactive, wellness-focused healthcare
• The biggest wellness levers: stress, sleep, movement, and nutrition
• How gut health connects to hormones, inflammation, and mood
• A practical elimination diet approach to identify food triggers
• What it’s like starting a concierge-style wellness business in Palm Harbor

About the Guest:

Kaylin Morris, APRN, is the owner of Salty Roots Integrative Wellness. She helps clients address issues like fatigue, hormone imbalance, anxiety, and digestive concerns using a whole-person, integrative approach.

Links:

• Website: https://www.saltyrootsintegrativewellness.com/
  
  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/your_integrative_np?igsh=MXg2Yjl3NjN6bnk1eA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
  
  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576972228264&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=qQ8BTj2h5sTOlUf7&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F1FTxTPwip9%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#
  
  
• Palm Harbor Local Newsletter: https://palmharborlocal.com/newsletter/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 1:00 Nursing Journey And Wellness Pivot
• 4:10 Patients Getting Sicker And System Frustrations
• 8:10 The Rise Of Wellness And Telehealth
• 12:32 Why Nursing And Early Career Lessons
• 17:25 What Nursing Really Demands
• 22:25 Keys To General Wellness
• 26:20 Stress Management And Daily Routines
• 31:22 Meal Prep Tactics That Actually Work
• 38:19 Starting Salty Roots And Early Hurdles
• 44:30 Finding Ideal Clients And Community Partners

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, the podcast dedicated to building community and sharing inspiring stories from the heart of Palm Harbor. I'm your host, Donnie Hathaway, and today we are joined by Kaelin Morris, who is the owner of Salty Roots Integrative Wellness. Now, Palm Harbor Local is all about spotlighting individuals and businesses who are making a difference, overcoming challenges, and fostering connections right here in our hometown. If you're passionate about growing together, getting involved, and celebrating the people who are making Palm Harbor thrive, you're exactly where you need to be. Now, in today's episode, we'll talk about how Kaylin's personal health experience led her to starting her own business. And we'll also touch on some of the challenges she's facing as a new business here in the community. And lastly, we'll talk about how integrative medicine can really help you feel more like yourself. Now don't forget to connect with us on Instagram at Palm Harbor Local for behind the scenes highlights and join our weekly newsletter at PalmHubLocal.com. Now let's dive in and build community together. What led you to start the company?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00

Um, I've worked in healthcare since I got out of high school. So right out of high school, I always knew I wanted to be a nurse. So I went to nursing school, worked my way up through Baycare, the local hospitals, um, went through their nursing program, but I very slowly started to see not even necessarily like a shift, but over the years, like when I first started, I'd have maybe like one or two diabetic patients. And a couple of years later, on my shift, I'd have four or five. Like you just saw the everybody getting sicker. And then I started working in a company. I was working for an IV company, a local IV company, and I got introduced to the more like wellness side of healthcare.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37

Um, you know, in my brain, and I think most people when they go to nursing school, they're gonna work in a hospital. Like that's what they're gonna do. That's what you think of when you think of nursing, right? And then I was like, this is actually pretty cool. Like, this is a different clientele. These people are proactive with their health. Like, I'm really enjoying educating them on the different vitamins. And so when I went back to school to be a nurse practitioner, I knew I was probably gonna always end up in more of like a wellness space, but the education stuff's geared more towards traditional medicine, sick care, things like that. So out of school, I went right into primary care because I felt like I could learn the most there. Like, let's let's learn everything we can, you know, let's treat some diabetes, some heart disease. Um, and I very quickly learned in that space that there's a lot more people looking for like wellness-focused practitioners than you realize. And until you start having conversations with these people, you don't really realize what they're looking for. Um, I had so many women every week, you know, sitting across from me just like this during their appointments, crying that their marriage was falling apart. They didn't feel good. They knew that, you know, I had my babies and I haven't been right since in actual tears because they just couldn't fix what they were feeling. And I was like, I was referring them out to different practitioners that I knew of in the area. And I was like, you know what, why can't I do this?

SPEAKER_01: 2:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:00

You know, if I'm sending them all to find to fix their problems and I know how to fix it, I'm just kind of constrained with insurance and things like that. Why don't I create what they're looking for? And so I started talking to my husband. I took like a year learning everything I could about functional medicine, taking courses, learning hormones, learning more in-depth the holistic side. And then Salty Roots was born.

SPEAKER_03: 3:24

Cool. Yeah. So did you when you're growing up, like, did you always want to be a nurse?

SPEAKER_02: 3:28

14 or 15 years old on.

SPEAKER_03: 3:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:30

I wanted to be, yeah. I wanted to be a marine biologist before that.

SPEAKER_00: 3:33

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02: 3:34

So I could swim with dolphins, you know. Um, I learned there was much more to the job than that. And so we shifted to nursing. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 3:41

Cool. And um, so I want to go back to what you said about like you started noticing more and more patients come in with with diabetes. Do you think that was just like you think that was like a a a good observation or a good overview of like general population just getting sicker? Or is it just kind of your just what you were seeing, right? You just happen to get more of those.

SPEAKER_02: 4:03

I mean, obviously it's not general population. Most of these people were in the hospital, likely because they have several different conditions bringing them there. Um, but you just started seeing an increase. And I would find myself, this is probably gonna sound terrible as a nurse because we're supposed to be compassionate people, but you would go in and you know, get ready to give them their insulin or check their blood pressure or whatever it might be, and they're, you know, I want a cheeseburger, I want a milkshake. And I'm like, no, like there's gotta be something better than this. I don't want to say it's frustrating, um, but as somebody who's trying to help you get better and fix yourself and, you know, get healthier essentially, right? That's our goal is to be healthier. I was finding myself very frustrated in that space. And I knew that it was no longer like for me to be in that. So that's why I went back to get my master's um to become a nurse practitioner, to have a little bit more of an active part in like the actual like overall healing journey and not just, okay, the doctor gave me these orders, here's your medications. Right. I wanted a more active role and let's educate you, let's make sure that you know we're checking off all of our boxes and we're are you exercising? What does your diet look like? Like all of that matters when it comes to being healthy.

SPEAKER_01: 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:14

And I don't think like there's a time and a place for um traditional medicine. Obviously, we need antibiotics when we're sick, things like that. But you have to kind of start with your lifestyle to actually make a change in how you want to live your life.

SPEAKER_03: 5:28

Do you do you think people are like actively trying to? I I mean, I know there are there are people like actively trying to change your lifestyle. Is that something that is I know it's people are more aware of all the things that go into like living a healthier lifestyle? But like the the, you know, the people you're talking about before were like, I just want a cheeseburger. Um, is there, I'm trying to think what I want to ask here, but is there a shift in more people are focused on their health than there has been in the past? Or they're they're more active in trying to be healthier than just like I'm gonna do whatever I want and I'll go to the healthcare system when I need to go to the healthcare system.

SPEAKER_02: 6:06

I think you're always gonna have those people that I want to live my life the way that I want to live. Um, I like my food the way that it is. I don't want to change, especially from my observations and like in the older generation, just because that's how they were raised. Um, but I definitely am seeing a shift in like the like the Gen Z millennial um space. There's um, and I've even done like extensive research. They're spending a lot more on what they consider to be wellness, you know, yoga, um, juicing, diets, healthier food. So I definitely think there is a shift. Um, a lot of people say with COVID and kind of the shutdown, with COVID, what were they telling you from the beginning? Those that were at higher risk for death, ending up on a ventilator in the ICU, were those that were elderly, overweight with heart disease. So I think that kind of shook everything up a little bit. And people were like, okay, so if I don't end up with obesity, heart disease, then I'm if I'm healthier, I will do better with this.

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 7:05

Um, and so I think that it kind of woke a lot of people up and it did kind of shift everything a little bit. More people are working from home. Their, you know, work-life balance has become a big focus. And I think a lot of that plays a part into like a healthier lifestyle in general. People want time to decompress, to have time to exercise, to, you know, not just work eight to eight every single day and commute back and forth. Um, so I think as a whole, like the the way that we live our life is shifting and it's putting a bigger focus on like wellness priorities.

SPEAKER_03: 7:37

Yeah. And more of that stuff is available now than it ever has been in the past. Right. There's a demand for it here, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_02: 7:43

And with telehealth becoming much bigger with COVID because everything was shut down, we had to do everything virtual. It opened a door to give access to everybody. You know, we can do a lot more virtually now than we could before. And I think it's a great thing for healthcare. Um, because, you know, who has time in the middle of the day to take, let me drive 30 minutes to my doctor's appointment and to, you know, take a lunch break. Um, you know, they can just hop on their computer on their lunch break and have an appointment. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 8:12

Was telehealth around before COVID, or it's kind of like just getting started, but still not widely used?

SPEAKER_02: 8:18

It was around. Um, but I think because we had no other choice during COVID, like that was the only way to really seek health care. Yeah. Like I know the office that I uh worked in in primary care, we were all virtual for a long time. Like you could still go to the hospital, of course, but people were so hesitant to go to the hospital because they had to go alone. There was no visitors, um, you know, all of that, that they were trying to do what they could to stay out of the hospital. So you were seeing more doctors of visits and things like that. Even my own primary care doctor, it was all virtual for a year, year and a half before they started seeing patients again.

SPEAKER_03: 8:51

Yeah. So what uh when you were like 14, 15 and you decided like I'm gonna be a nurse or I want to do healthcare, like why, like what was it that that led you to that?

SPEAKER_02: 9:00

Um, my dad has worked for Baycare my entire life. Oh, cool. Um, I even went to elementary school down the road from Morton Plant Hospital. It was not the school I was zoned for, but back then, like I'm old, um, they if you worked at the hospital, your kids could go to the school. That way they were close by. Um, so it was kind of, you know, a drop-off on the way to work. They're if they get sick, they're right here. And so I went to school with all of my friends. Our parents all worked in the same hospital. And some those that transitioned with me from like elementary to middle to high school, we're still friends to this day. Um, their moms are nurses. My dad's always worked in maintenance. So I just grew up in a hospital setting. Um, and I think just being surrounded by those people, I was like, I could do this. You know, I want to help people in some way, shape, or form. Back then I didn't know exactly what that looked like. I originally went into nursing wanting to deliver babies during my OB rotation. Very quickly, found out that wasn't for me. No, it's a beautiful process for myself. Um, but it wasn't what I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life. And so I shifted more towards um, I actually started in like orthopedics. So like hip replacements, knee replacements, things like that. And obviously you have your sports injuries, but the majority of that is uh the elderly um or people that you know aren't that healthy and develop arthritis and things like that and end up needing those things later on down the road. And their recovery can be kind of hard, but I love that. Um, I love being able to help them get out of pain, get out of bed, walk again, things like that.

SPEAKER_03: 10:32

So very cool. I guess like what it for anybody that that is interested in in becoming a nurse, like what is it like being a nurse? Like what you know, what is the thing? I mean, you just mentioned some of it, right? But what what have you enjoyed about it? Um, what are some challenges that you've had to deal with and stuff?

SPEAKER_02: 10:50

I mean, I I love my job. Um they say nursing school is probably one of the hardest things you can do. I don't know if that statistic still stands, but when I went to nursing school, you know, 15 years ago, um, it was one of the hardest degrees to obtain. It takes a lot of dedication, um, but you have to know a lot, right? You have to know when to intervene. We're the doctor's eyes and ears. You know, we're the ones that are on the floor with the patients 12 hours a day. You have to know what's normal, what's considered progress, what's a setback. Um, you're taking care of somebody, you know, sometimes three days in a row, it depends on how you set up your schedule. Um, their family members are depending on you. You know, it's not just, oh, I give them their meds. Like sometimes you're holding their hand before surgery. Sometimes you're helping them through physical therapy. Um, and that was my favorite part was watching the recovery process, being that most of my time was spent, you know, doing ortho and neurosurgeries. Like I said before, it was a lot a lot of back surgeries, um, brain surgeries. Once that transitioned into the hospital I was working in, hips and knees. So getting them up and moving and getting them back to their day-to-day was something that I really enjoyed. Um, and like I said, when I transitioned into like the wellness space, helping people live healthier lives, um, I found a better or a bigger passion in that. You know, they would come in, I'm taking a trip for a week. I need to make sure I don't get sick on the plane. Or, you know, I even had some patients that were, you know, I'm trying to kick a habit, whether it was alcoholism or drugs or whatever it might be. Because I think IVs really came in, they were hangover IVs first. Like when they came on the market, that was the big one. Um, it was uh like a hangover bar. And so some people would use that, but they would use it, you know, just to improve their lives. Lots of athletes, um, things like that. We would get, you know, bucks players and lightning players and things like that. And they were all trying to be proactive. And when I realized that there was this big group of people like wanting to be proactive, I was like, I like this so much better.

SPEAKER_03: 12:57

Yeah. So cool. Yeah, it's a different, a different, um, a different mindset. Yeah, I think. Yeah. What are what are some some keys to um let's just start with like general wellness, you know, to to living a healthier lifestyle.

SPEAKER_02: 13:12

Like what do you have to do to like um I think biggest thing that you need to do is kind of take a look at how you're living your life um and stress. I think with our culture today where we're go, go, go and we don't ever really rest, um, stress is the biggest thing that kind of throws our bodies off. And then the diet that we eat. Um, because we're all so go, go, go all the time and so stressed, we're grabbing quick food, you know, Chick-fil-A or Chipotle, and there's definitely healthier options out there now to grab quick food, but that lifestyle kind of you have to take a look at that and like how can I how can I make a difference? Like now you have meal prep companies that you know help you stay on top of your meals, things like that. So looking at how you're living your life and what tweaks you can make to reduce your overall stress, um, because stress is um what's the word I'm looking for? It does a lot to your body that you don't even realize that it's doing. Right. You know, it's interrupting your sleep, it's stressing out your adrenal glands, um, which is in turn causing a bunch of like inflammation in in your body. And the body is great at adapting and doing what it needs to do to try to stay um healthy in homeostasis, you know, to stay equal. Um, and it's great at doing that until it's not.

SPEAKER_01: 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:30

And then once it's like broken, yeah, and once you're feeling those effects, the damage is kind of already done. Um, so if we can kind of stay on top of that ahead of time before the damage is done, so we can maintain it versus having to fix it, yeah. That is a big thing. Um, exercise is a huge one. Building muscle mass is probably one of the best things a male or female can do for themselves. And I know a lot of times the female aspect gets like a stigma with I don't want to get big and bulky. And I think that's done very well being debunked over the last several years.

SPEAKER_00: 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:04

You know, people say, I want to tone, and there's no toning. Like lift the weights. I promise you, you're not, unless you're taking, you know, performance-enhancing drugs or something. Most women likely aren't going to look like a man from working out.

SPEAKER_03: 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:16

They need to be lifting heavy.

SPEAKER_03: 15:18

Um, yeah, like that takes a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02: 15:20

It does. Yeah. Um, skeletal muscle is probably one of the best things you can do for, you know, stabilizing your hormones, regulating your metabolism, insulin resistance. Um, with the introduction of GLP1 therapy, insulin resistance is something that people are now it's a term they're familiar with. Um, but the one of the best things you can do for that is reducing your stress, exercising. And that overall as a whole, sets your body up for success in every other aspect.

SPEAKER_03: 15:48

Yeah. So let's talk about like the stress aspect. Like, what are some ways that you um either you personally or you recommend like you know, looking at your lifestyle and like, okay, how can I reduce my stress, right? Especially if you're, I think most people are, you know, working with another for another company or whatever, and they have uh a set schedule and task and agendas that they have to stay on top of. So how do you manage all that in a in a healthy way?

SPEAKER_02: 16:14

Um, yeah. So I mean, I'm a mom. I'm uh I have a working husband, I have two boys. Um, we do travel baseball. So we are very, very busy. Um and so for me, that looks like sometimes, you know, I wake up in the morning just to have an hour to myself before the chaos starts to kind of gather my thoughts, plan my day, work out if it's a day that I'm gonna do that where I can't do it during the day. Um, I tell everybody when you wake up, take 15, 20 minutes, go sit outside, even if the sun's not up, better if the sun is, but our schedules don't always work like that, especially during certain times of the year. Um, but go, you know, drink your coffee outside, go for a walk. If you set your day up, then you tend to do better. Like for me personally, because my day gets so hectic with the kids and everything. If I don't work out in the morning, I'm likely not going to work out at all that day. Um, so I try to prioritize that. Um, you know, I meal plan. That's like one of the biggest things for me is I I prep food. I make sure that we have food ready to go.

SPEAKER_03: 17:14

How are you doing that?

SPEAKER_02: 17:15

I try to do it weekly. Um, I'm weird and I won't eat anything anything in the fridge after three days. So it's like a Sunday-Wednesday thing for me. Um, Wednesdays just for me happen to be a day off that I don't do a whole lot. So that works for me. Um, but in my practice, I try to tell people like I really try to meet them where they're at with whatever their life looks like. If we can get in, you know, if they enjoy yoga, take a yoga class or two a week. If you enjoy walking, go walk the need and cause way, you know, get outside and do something for yourself. And it doesn't have to be much. Um, a lot of people, depending on how their brains work, planning just helps reduce that stress. Um, having healthier options, even when you're on the go.

SPEAKER_01: 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:57

Um, and prioritize sleep. I'm big on telling everybody to sleep. We try to, you know, go, go, go. When I was in nursing school, when I was doing my nurse practitioner, I would be up till two, three in the morning studying, charting, because that's when my kids went to bed. That's when I could get everything done. Um, but that's not good for your health long term. You know, long term. Um, we can do it short term. We can do anything short term, but doing it constantly if you get into that habit, you know, I tell my patients, make sure you're getting eight hours of sleep a night, at least six, if you know, depending on what you need. Um, but sleep is a big one and diet is a big one to kind of help your body adapt to the changes that you need every day.

SPEAKER_03: 18:38

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like the meal planning um is huge. Because I've noticed that too. Like when, you know, the busy days that I have, if I don't have lunch um prepped or thought out, then that's when I'm like, either I I don't eat till later in the day because I just don't have time, or or you know, you're eating whatever you can get to quickly.

SPEAKER_02: 18:59

Yeah, whatever's in the fridge, something you can grab or a drive-thru, you know, whatever you can run in and grab. Um, like my husband does, he owns his own construction company and they're like notorious for like 7-Eleven gas station food, right? Grabbing something. I'm like, you're gonna drive me insane. With I get in his truck and I see the wrappers and I'm like, You can't do this. No, I literally prep you food, just take it with you. I even bought him like a crock pot for his car where he could heat everything up but just plug it into the truck. And he still would just rather, you know, go grab Chipotle or burrito or something.

SPEAKER_00: 19:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:30

Um, but if you're trying to prioritize your health, a little bit of planning and effort does come into play, but it makes a big difference in the long run.

SPEAKER_03: 19:38

How much time are you spending like prepping meals? Because this is like we've we've gone back and forth on this. We've done, you know, meal planning in the past where we've prepped the whole week, or we'll cook a bunch of meats and freeze them and and and you know, have them throughout the month for dinners and whatnot. But it takes a lot of time usually to cook all those foods and you know, get it organized and whatnot. Uh so how much time are you spending?

SPEAKER_02: 20:02

So I think I'm the oddball here because um when I my first experience with functional medicine came from correcting a lot of bodybuilding mistakes that I made in my early 20s. Um I did competitive bodybuilding and that I was literally told what to eat, how much to eat, what time to eat. And so I've been meal prepping in that sense for 12 years. So now I've kind of got it down to a science where we throw a bunch of chicken on the grill, we throw a bunch of stuff. It takes me maybe an hour and a half, two hours max. Nice. Um, but that's with it used to take me four or five hours when I first started. It was a long process until I kind of learned to simplify it and make it easy. So now I can get it done in a short amount of time. Um, but for somebody just starting out, I would say prioritize your proteins, like prep those because everything else, as long as you have that, you can throw a salad together, you can put it in a wrap, you know, things like that. But having a grill is uh a big game changer in that aspect because you can cook a lot more at once, I feel like, but just over time it does get easier. But it takes me maybe two hours max.

SPEAKER_03: 21:09

Yeah, that's not bad. I think we were like four, four hours.

SPEAKER_02: 21:12

Yeah. It was daunting when I first started doing this. I was like, there's no way I can do this every week.

SPEAKER_03: 21:17

Um, especially with kids and stuff. Yeah, yeah. How do you spend it?

SPEAKER_02: 21:19

And I didn't have kids at that time.

SPEAKER_03: 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:21

So having to like incorporate that with them, it definitely got more difficult. But you kind of learn what works for you and what you enjoy. Some people don't like leftover food, reheating things. So if you can find just a couple staples that you do enjoy, yeah, um, it makes it easier too.

SPEAKER_03: 21:35

Are you cooking like a variety of different options like throughout the weeks or are you just eating the same thing?

SPEAKER_02: 21:40

I cook the same thing and I kind of like I will do plain grilled chicken, but I can maybe throw some barbecue sauce on it one day, yeah, taco seasoning on it another to kind of change it up. So I cook it very bland so that I can kind of make it into what I'm in the mood for that day.

SPEAKER_03: 21:56

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, because that's I feel like I'm my wife is the opposite. She likes the variety and to change things up and stuff like that. I could probably eat, you know, chicken and rice or chicken and potatoes or and veggies and stuff, you know, most days of the week and yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:12

For me, right now I'm on a I don't like eggs kick, but I don't I've eaten eggs for breakfast every day for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01: 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:19

Um, so right now I'm in a funk with eggs, but and I can't do like I can't meal prep eggs. That's something I have to cook every morning.

SPEAKER_03: 22:25

Yeah, yeah. Um so what are you eating besides eggs then?

SPEAKER_02: 22:28

We're struggling with that. That's what we're trying to figure out. Um, because breakfast proteins I feel like are hard with whether you're putting in like a bacon or sausage, but those are like real fatty.

SPEAKER_03: 22:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:37

Um, so I'm forcing them down.

SPEAKER_03: 22:40

Um eating, we're just not like eating.

SPEAKER_02: 22:42

Yeah, I'm not enjoying it very much. Um oatmeal, you know, overnight oats, things like that, where you can put you know some collagen or some Greek yogurt.

SPEAKER_01: 22:50

It's great butter or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:51

Yeah, Greek yogurt has a really good um protein count with it.

SPEAKER_01: 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:56

Um, so putting that in, you know, with some granola or oatmeal in the morning, or trying to find alternatives.

SPEAKER_03: 23:03

But yeah, I've gone through, I've done the overnight oats before, and I would do like um, I would add peanut butter, sometimes I'd add protein powder to it, um, and then some fruit or something in the morning. But I'm on I'm on the egg thing right now, where I just eggs and maybe a slice of toast or something, avocado or whatnot. But yeah, meal prepping is I think that's I think that's huge, right? To just make sure you're you're eating the way you want to be eating. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about like your your business and and starting that. Like, what was that process like for you? Investing is extremely important, but it can also be somewhat confusing. With taxes, asset allocation, stocks, bonds, and funds. To know what to do with all this could be overwhelming. Jacob Wade is a financial coach and will work directly with you to put together a roadmap for your money, for life. Jacob has built a name for himself as a finance expert, and you can find his writings in places like ForbesAdvisor, Money.com, Investipedia, and Time.com. But he has a passion for helping people create a clear and simple investment roadmap to buy back their time and retire with confidence. If you could use a financial coach on your team, then simply go to palmorlocal.com backslash roadmap to book a call with Jacob today and see if hiring a financial coach could help you crush your 2025 goals. Don't wait to have that same feeling next year of not hitting your financial goals. Connect with Jacob today and let's make 2025 your best financial year yet.

SPEAKER_02: 24:31

It was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Um, like I said, my husband owns a company, so I had a little bit of an idea of like the paperwork aspect of starting it, right?

SPEAKER_03: 24:40

Did he start his own company too? He did. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 24:42

Yeah. Um, him and my cousin had started a company, a demolition company. And so as far as like checking the boxes as to what you do to start a company, I had that. But like I said, I took uh almost a year like taking different certifications and learning different things because I really wanted to have a good knowledge base. Some people learn as they go. Um, I needed to have like the way my brain works, I needed to have a good foundation before I could jump in and start seeing patients. And, you know, there's a saying in nursing like you don't know what you don't know until it comes across your desk. But the biggest struggle has been getting my name out there. Um, and I think educating everybody on what functional and integrative medicine actually is. I still get the what does that mean? question. And so getting my name out there, finding ways like this, like doing a podcast. I do a lot of seminars. I found like doing them with local gyms have been pretty successful. Um, those are the kind of people um like Burn Boot Camp is a big one for me. Um, my demographic that I really focus on is middle-aged women. Um, so doing a hormone seminar at Burn Boot Camp has been really, really great at you know, driving traffic into my business and just building those community partnerships for referrals is a big one. Um, we're still in the process of building all of that up and you know, trying to get recognition, but um it was a slow start for sure and challenging, I would say. I don't think people realize how challenging some people they just make it look so easy.

SPEAKER_00: 26:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 26:14

You know, if you see other people doing it. Um, but like I said, just trying to find the clients, the right clientele, because um, a lot of integrative medicine is not covered by insurance.

SPEAKER_00: 26:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 26:24

So that's a big challenge for us is you know, finding ways to make it affordable and finding those partners. You know, it took me a couple of months to find, you know, I have a third party company that I use for lab work now and things like that that it were able to help me package everything to where it can be affordable for my patients because that is my big thing. We all have to make money to survive, right? Um, but I don't want my patients to feel like the healthcare that they want is unattainable because of price. So I I tried really hard. I did a lot of um like research in the area to what's comparable um price-wise, what other people are charging, and I kind of put myself in the middle of the road there um so that I'm not deterring my patients from you know access to because of price.

SPEAKER_01: 27:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:11

I did find a big hurdle with, you know, you see all these like care credit and cherry, like all these like um healthcare financing companies.

SPEAKER_00: 27:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:19

Um, but because right now all of my services are virtual or I come to you, so I do concierge style medicine. Um, those aren't an option for me right now because they want you to have a brick and mortar building to offer the financing. Um, so I'm having to kind of find new ways to offer that as an option to my patients as well.

SPEAKER_00: 27:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:39

But yeah, so just building up those things, you know, forming an LLC, malpractice insurance, finding the right malpractice insurance. Um, I did meet with, you know, an attorney that specializes in healthcare to make sure I was doing all the right things legally and things like that. The state of Florida requires you to work under a physician as a nurse practitioner for two years or so many hours, three years or so many hours before you can practice on your own. So I obviously had to do that, but I learned a lot in that time um working in regular primary care. Um so it was a lengthy process. Yeah, but I've learned a lot.

SPEAKER_03: 28:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 28:17

As far as that goes.

SPEAKER_03: 28:18

And you said so it took you probably a year before it was like, I'm gonna open up this business and before you actually like I'm open.

SPEAKER_02: 28:26

Yeah. My LLC was formed probably seven months before I started actually seeing patients.

SPEAKER_03: 28:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 28:32

Um, just getting all of the pieces together before I felt like I was ready to actually take on a patient. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 28:38

Was it hard to wait that long or or you felt comfortable because you just you were doing the work behind the scenes getting it ready?

SPEAKER_02: 28:44

Yeah. Um I originally went in like, oh, I'll form my LLC, I'll be seeing patients in eight weeks. Um, so it it just ended up taking that long before I felt like I was ready. And it didn't feel like I was missing out because I was piecing everything together. I needed to make sure everything was ready to go. Yeah.

unknown: 29:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 29:04

I think, you know, from the outside, it always seems like everything happens so fast. But in reality, you know, all that takes a long time. And and you're still working to build and find your ideal clients and that sort of thing. Exactly. Did you know? This is something that I had a hard time with when I started in real estate was figuring out who my ideal client is, like who I wanted to work with. And it probably took me years to to really hone in on that and realize, like, oh yeah, this is the type of person that I uh, you know, want to attract to me. Did you, since you've had experience in in nursing and in, you know, different wellness spaces, did you know who your ideal client was from the get-go?

SPEAKER_02: 29:41

I had an idea. Um, one of the courses that I took in in that year time, that was one thing they focused on. Like they made me take like a character test, like a personality test to kind of find my ideal client. Um, and what my ideal client looks like on paper from that test is significantly different from what I'm actually attracting and getting into my business now. Um, and I don't hate it. Um, I think while those can kind of point you in a good direction, how your personalities bounce off one another makes a difference. Um, I went in thinking, oh, I'm gonna treat all these gut diseases, all those digestive health problems, right? Because that's initially what brought me into functional medicine from my own personal story. And I still love doing that stuff. And that that plays a major role in anything that you treat in like a functional space because the gut has such a pivotal role in balancing your hormones and the way that you handle stress and everything like that. Um, but I just found more women gravitating to me for hormonal issues and anxiety and fatigue and things like that, and giving them, I don't want to say giving them their life back, but giving them back their energy and helping them feel more like themselves is actually very rewarding. And it was something I didn't think I initially wanted to do. Um, but still being a new company, I feel like we're I'm still learning exactly who that like you said, it took you years.

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 31:03

Um, but it's definitely different than what I expected going into it.

SPEAKER_03: 31:07

Yeah, and I think that's it. I think you know, you for me, it it took me like looking at like who all you know, all the different families and stuff that I had worked with and and figuring out which ones I enjoyed or we just connected with the best.

SPEAKER_00: 31:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 31:20

And then going back to me, okay, that how do I define that group of people? Right. So yeah. Um it's yeah, it's pretty cool. And then once you hone in on that, you know, you can, you know, all of your messaging, all of your marketing and stuff is is talking to that that person, right?

SPEAKER_02: 31:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 31:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So talk to me about like gut health too, because I know that's um, I know that's important, you know, as as you mentioned, but I feel like just from my perspective, that's not something that that's talked about very regularly.

SPEAKER_02: 31:52

You know, it's not. Um, you know, we live there was a an a TikTok trend going around a couple months ago that was like it was IBS, like hot girls have IBS too or something like that, is what they were saying. Um and women are finally starting to talk about all the digestive problems that they have. And a lot of that comes from the diet culture that we have. You know, we were taught to eat, you know, 900 calories, 1200 calories a day to lose weight, the processed foods that we do consume, even if they're quote unquote healthy, you know, from the the grocery store, it's still processed and full of a bunch of junk. You know, I myself, I've I've I'm not gluten intolerant, but I do much better when I'm not eating gluten. You know, testing-wise and stuff, I don't have any like gluten sensitivities, but I overall feel better when I'm not eating gluten. But I've noticed that if I eat like something that's labeled gluten-free, I don't tolerate it very well. My body doesn't like it. It has to be stuff that's naturally gluten-free.

SPEAKER_00: 32:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 32:50

You know, um potatoes, things like that. So if I get like a wrap that's normally made from or pasta, well, pasta is a really good example. Pasta is supposed to have gluten in it, the way that it's traditionally made. So when you start throwing in all these other things or all these other chemicals to make it what it's supposed to be to not have gluten, my body doesn't agree with those aspects.

SPEAKER_00: 33:12

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 33:12

You know, the process things that go into that or sugar-free. That was a big one for years and years and years. And even my patients with diabetes, I would rather them eat the sugar. You know, drink a normal Coke versus a diet Coke. If you're gonna, if you're gonna drink one, because the chemicals that they use to make it taste good, to making it sugar-free are almost worse for you than just having the sugar and what the, you know, your body will fix the insulin spike.

SPEAKER_01: 33:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 33:37

Um, or the medications you take, your insulin will will fix that. But all of those chemicals, it breaks down the your gut lining and the barrier. And once that is impaired or damaged, then you have that's where you get your irritable bowel and all your digestive issues and the bloating and things like that. After I had my second son, there were weeks, and this is how I actually found functional medicine for myself. I would have to lay down on our tile floor face down because that was the only thing that would take the pressure off my stomach after I would eat. Like I was so bloated and so uncomfortable. Um, I met with a functional nutritionist. We did like a 30-day um like detox diet almost where we took everything out of my diet and we slowly reintroduced foods. And that's where I learned like while I'm not gluten intolerant per testing and things like that, my body doesn't like gluten. I feel better. Like we took everything out dairy, gluten, uh, red meat. You know, I ate a lot of vegetables, a lot of fish for a long time, took cheese, caffeine, all of that up. Yep, one thing at a time. Um, so that way if you do react, you know what you're reacting to. Yeah. Um, so we call it an elimination diet.

SPEAKER_01: 34:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:52

So you strip it down to bare bones, you know, like I said, vegetables, uh very few few fruits, and then you slowly introduce them. You know, one day you might add legumes back in. Yeah. And then the next week, if you're tolerating those well, like let's add in some dairy, but like not full dairy. Like it's not let's not start start throwing cheese on everything that we're eating, but slowly reintroducing things to see how our body is reacting to those foods. So most of my patients that have digestive issues, I always start with an elimination diet because we need to know. And that's probably the most effective and cost-effective way to do that without going to do all kinds of like food sensitivity testing and stuff like that. Um, just take it out of your diet and see how you do.

SPEAKER_03: 35:37

How long does that take?

SPEAKER_02: 35:38

There is a doctor that um I I I learn a lot from him, Dr. Hyman.

SPEAKER_03: 35:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 35:44

He is great and he can do it in about 10 days. Um The elimination diet. Yeah. You do you take everything out for 10 days and then you slowly start uh reputting it back in. I do it for my patients probably over the course of six to eight weeks.

SPEAKER_03: 35:57

Okay, yeah. Um the entire process, six to eight weeks.

SPEAKER_02: 36:00

Yeah. My patients work with me um initially, the initial foundation is about a 16-week process, no matter what we're working on. Um, because like I said, we do everything in phases because if I throw everything at you at once, you're probably not going to respond well to it. We don't know what's actually working at that time. Um, and a lot of people, if they're uncomfortable, they stop what they're doing, you know, instead of just saying, Yeah, you know, oh, now I'm in pain. I don't want to do this anymore. So if we do it slowly and we know what's helping and what's not, we know how what we need to tweak. Um, so it takes about 16 weeks working with me, but the diet about eight weeks or so before we're introducing foods and doing well.

SPEAKER_03: 36:41

Yeah. Do you think everybody should do that at some point? Like just to I do.

SPEAKER_02: 36:45

Yeah. Yeah. I I think you're not really gonna know your body. And the more you the better you do know your body and what you can tolerate and what you can't, um, the better you'll do, especially when you're out running around and you have to grab something quick for food. You know, we've all kind of been there where we eat something and we get home, we're like, okay, now we don't feel good, our night's ruined, I'm done. Yeah. Um, if you know the things to avoid, I think it helps.

SPEAKER_03: 37:08

Yeah, I like that. Um, I I took out dairy from my diet, and and I've I, you know, I think it's it's helped, but I've never gone through the elimination diet, and I felt like that might be a great thing to try.

SPEAKER_02: 37:21

Yeah, I I think it works what well. My youngest son, he has a ton of um allergy issues, eczema, things like that. And I grew up with eczema, but back then we didn't know what was causing it. Eczema is 90% your diet. It's likely a food intolerance of some kind. Something in your body is reacting and causing all of those skin issues. Acne, same thing.

SPEAKER_03: 37:43

Yeah, that's why I stopped dairy.

SPEAKER_02: 37:46

Yeah, most skin issues and rashes and things like that do come from what you're consuming in your day-to-day diet. And so at a very young age, I took dairy out of his diet and it got significantly better. Um, some people still look at me like I'm crazy when I suggest that. They're like, they're kids, they need milk. I'm like, there's other alternatives, we can figure it out. And you know, a lot of women too are finding like even if they're breastfeeding that first year, they have to take diet dairy out of their diet because their kids are having such bad reactions to it. So, yeah, if you can do an elimination diet, if you can tolerate it, and it's really the first couple days are hard, yeah, um, for sure. But once you get past the, you know, it's three to four days before you're actually feeling better. Um, and people even notice, you know, I did mine about three days in. I walked into work one day and they're like, you look very bright today. Like the bags under my eyes were gone, the puffiness in my face was gone. Um, people start to notice that very quick. Once whatever is um stressing your body out and causing inflammation is gone. Um, the changes happen very quickly.

SPEAKER_03: 38:51

Sounds pretty cool. So let's go back to like what you talked about, like defining functional integrative medicine. How would you define that? Like someone's like, Oh, I've heard that before. I'm curious. What's it about?

SPEAKER_02: 39:03

Functional medicine is actually a newer term. It's basically what they they took integrative medicine and rebranded it into the term functional medicine, but it's looking at wellness as a whole. Um, you know, Western medicine, we kind of put band-aid fixes on everything, right? So you come in with high blood pressure, we give you medication to treat your high blood pressure. You come in with diabetes, we give you medication to treat your diabetes. Um, instead of looking at, okay, what's going on in the body that's causing this? Why do we have high blood pressure? Where in our diet, where in our lifestyle did we go wrong? I don't even want to say wrong because sometimes there is genetic per things that, you know, lead to it and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. But why is this happening? So functional and integrative medicine looks at the why. It looks at your mind, you know, your mindset, your stress levels, um, your genetics play a role in that too. And then your lifestyle. You know, what are we eating? What are we consuming in our day to day? What Or are we exposed to in our work fields? You know, those working in hospitals were on chemicals all day long. Um, construction companies, they're exposed to, you know, everything all the time. You know, all of those chemicals, all of the asbestos and things like that. So, you know, what does your work environment look like? Um, you know, anxiety and depression, those are largely related to gut issues as well. Um, and I think a lot of people don't realize that the gut plays a bigger role in mental aspects of our health as well. So we look at the big picture.

SPEAKER_03: 40:34

So go back to that real quick. So gut because of like hormones and and stuff, or how does that how does that so the gut is actually considered your like your second brain?

SPEAKER_02: 40:42

Um so a lot of like your serotonin is produced within your gut, even though it, you know, the the initial production um is related to your gut lining and things like that. Obviously, the neuroreceptors in your brain matter, um, but what you're putting into your diet and into your body directly affects that. Um, there was even a study on Parkinson's disease that there's two different forms of that, one that starts in the gut, one that starts in the nose. What we're consuming in our diet is obviously the gut orientation or origin. Um, you know, do we eat a lot of processed foods as far as like the nose origin one? Are you, do you, you know, live near a golf course where you're inhaling the chemicals from a golf course all the time? Things like that. So all of those, even though Parkinson's is more of a brain disease, yeah um, the origination of the disease is actually what you're taking in and what you're consuming in your body, is what this exact um study looked at. So it's all it's all correlated, it's all um related. So if your gut lining is impaired, which with functional, we take a much deeper, there's certain tests we can do to kind of look at what's actually going on in your stomach. What bacteria are we growing in there? You know, is it the good, you know, you hear of good bacteria in your gut. Do we have enough of the good bacteria? Is there something bad going on in there that is overgrowing and taking over the good bacteria so it can't do what it needs to do? And that all plays a role in anxiety and depression. Hormones is a big one with anxiety as well. A lot of women feel like they develop anxiety as they become a mom. I 100% felt like that. And learning all of this, I've had anxiety since I was a child. I just didn't know what it was because it would present as a stomachache, as nausea, as vomiting. Um, I would get so nervous over something, I would make myself sick. And so, as coming into as an adult and learning what I know now about anxiety and depression and other things, um I now know what it is and I know how to control it better without, you know, and there's some situations where you absolutely need, you know, an SSRI or an antidepressant medication and things like that. But my goal for my patients is hopefully to not need them long term, to just kind of use them to get us to a more comfortable space where we can actually work on the problem. And so integrative medicine does exactly that. I might use medications temporarily to help immediately alleviate some symptoms, but we're going to figure out why these are happening and what we can do to fix them in the long term. So we don't need these medications forever.

SPEAKER_03: 43:19

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's pretty cool. Like once you start um, I think like taking your health seriously and doing all the things preventatively and stuff. I've noticed, you know, a big difference, like cutting out dairy, cutting out alcohol. Um alcohol's a huge one. Yeah. Huge. That yeah. Once I started doing that, and then you take a step back and you look at the business of alcohol and marketing and stuff around it, it's just it's kind of wild to to think about you know, like how that one uh industry, uh drug, whatever you want to call it, um has has played a role in the in the health of of our country, you know. It's it's so massive.

SPEAKER_02: 43:57

It's a it's poison to our bodies for sure.

SPEAKER_03: 43:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 44:00

Even in in moderation. It doesn't matter, you know, though even if you drink once a week, once a month, yeah. Um, the damage that it does to your body just that once, taking that out of my diet. And I've I was, you know, the 20-year-old that was out all the time, as I think most of us were, because we just don't know any better then.

SPEAKER_03: 44:18

Um what you're expected to do.

SPEAKER_02: 44:20

Exactly. You know, you turn 21, it's kind of a rite of passage to be able to go to a bar and have a drink.

SPEAKER_01: 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 44:25

Um, but taking it out, and I've only recently in the last year, like taken it out of my diet completely, and it makes a huge difference. And my husband doesn't drink. Um, and so it's for me, I think, a lot easier. Some people, if they're just around it a lot, they're just like, oh, I'll just have one.

SPEAKER_01: 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 44:42

Um, but the damage that it actually does to your gut lining and to your brain and everything else, it's it's really not worth it in the long run. Yeah. Even just to have, you know, spend a Sunday watching football, drinking a couple of beverages of your choice, you know, it's not worth it.

SPEAKER_03: 44:57

So it's crazy. So what are um if somebody's listening and and they want to, you know, start taking their health a little bit more seriously, or they're they're kind of on that path, what are like three, let's say three things to to start with?

SPEAKER_02: 45:12

Exercise is a big one.

SPEAKER_03: 45:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 45:13

Um, if you're not doing and it doesn't have to be this huge life change where you commit to a gym and you're going six days a week, even just like I said, getting outside and taking a walk a couple of times a day. That that not only helps your mental sunlight, right?

SPEAKER_03: 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 45:27

Um, sunlight just getting outside, but I mean it's just good for your overall health. Um, so some form of exercise that you enjoy. And that is my my big thing with my patients is I want you to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, we're not gonna, you're not gonna keep up with it. So find what you love, whether it's yoga, lifting weights, you know, going for a walk on the causeway, you know, um after dinner walks are a big one. Take 30 minutes with your family at night. Not only is it helping your family bond and putting the screens away and everything, um, but you're you're moving. Um look at your diet choices. You know, we again, it doesn't have to be a big overhaul. Maybe just incorporating a little bit more clean protein into your diet every day because protein helps preserve skeletal muscle and we need muscle for health. Um, and then making sure you're, even if your diet's not perfect, which most of ours aren't, making sure, you know, you're taking a vitamin D supplement, a magnesium supplement and some B vitamins every day, I think make a big difference as well. I tell all my patients um right off of, you know, from the beginning, we need to be consuming vitamin D. Magnesium is a big one. If my patients tell me they're having sleep problems, that's the first thing I put them on before we go anywhere else, because most of the world or most of our country is magnesium deficient and vitamin D deficient, even though they don't realize it. They're like, I live in Florida, but if we're not consuming the D, the sun can't do what it needs to do to convert it to its active form. Um, so your diet is a big one, exercise, and then you know, figuring out a way to deal with the stress in your life. Stress plays more of a role on chronic disease than I think most people realize. Yeah. And obviously, stress relief looks significantly different for everybody. So whatever that looks like for you, yoga, reading a book, you know, what journaling sometimes. Um, but try to stress relief, diet, and exercise are the the three main things that you can do.

SPEAKER_03: 47:21

I like that. And and keeping it simple too, like you mentioned, right? Whatever, wherever you're at right now, just do something that seems easy.

SPEAKER_02: 47:27

Yeah. It doesn't have to be, like I said, you don't have to overhaul your life.

SPEAKER_03: 47:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 47:31

Some a couple subtle changes, and they can be one at a time.

SPEAKER_01: 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 47:34

You know, maybe this week you meal prep.

SPEAKER_01: 47:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 47:35

And then maybe next week you try to take a yoga class. Um, it doesn't have to be crazy, it doesn't have to be all, you know, all the change all at once. Just little changes make a big difference in the long run as long as you just start as the big thing.

SPEAKER_03: 47:50

Yeah, I like that. So if anybody's interested in in getting in touch with you and and um learning more about you, how do they what's the best way for them to do that?

SPEAKER_02: 47:58

Um my website, uh salty roots integrative wellness.com. It takes you right to my booking calendar so you can book a consultation with me. I offer free consults. They're 30 minutes. We kind of there's an intake that's involved that I send you ahead of time so that we're not spending that 30 minutes just asking questions. Um, it gives me a good clinical background, and that way we can spend that 30 minutes really kind of getting to know if we're a good fit to work together. My Instagram is integrative underscore NP. Um, we put a lot of like educational, we're filming a lot of content for that right now. Um, I'm trying to turn that into more of like an educational piece so everybody you know can learn just like we talked about today, the different aspects of what functional medicine is, what it entails, and things that they can do every day to kind of help promote wellness in their own lives.

SPEAKER_03: 48:44

So I like that.

SPEAKER_02: 48:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 48:46

Thanks for being here, Kaylin. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02: 48:47

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03: 48:48

Yeah, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Palm Harbor Local. We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors who make this show possible. So let's be sure to keep supporting these local businesses in our community. Until next time, stay connected, stay involved, and let's keep making Palm Harbor an amazing place to go on.