Healing my gut & losing weight Pt. 1

It has been 8 months since I went on a life changing journey of healing my gut. It has not only healed my gut, but has helped my mental health and energy levels. I feel better than I have ever felt. It was never about the weight loss for me. I have received so many questions about my journey so we are diving in with 2 parts!
This episode we cover:
My symptoms, goals for my healing, my test results and care plan, the role of mental health in this journey.

About Claire:

Hi! I'm Claire - a mama, dietitian, and yoga instructor. I am passionate about helping others achieve their health + wellness goals through personalized nutrition, and especially have a passion for helping other mamas regain their health along their motherhood journey.

Instagram:
@claire.s.wellness
@nuvitruwellness

Website: https://nuvitruwellness.com/austinnutritionist-clairestewart/

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Transcript

It's got to be. One of the top questions I get asked is, have you lost weight? How much weight have you lost? And that's such a triggering question for me, One, because I'm so much more than my weight and to talking about my weight with other people might trigger them to be in an unhealthy spot. But since March 2023, I've lost about £35. And I don't even care. £35. I don't care. I don't care if I was £35 heavier because the mental health and physical health that I have that I didn't have before March are so much more worth it than losing £35. I'm excited to talk about my journey with healing, my gut with my dietitian, Claire. I will call her my friend at this point, but this is a good when you guys. I really hope you take everything I say to heart, but also with a grain of salt because you are worthy. You don't need to lose weight. You're beautiful just the way you are. But getting a hold of your health is quite literally life changing. I'm so nervous, Claire. And I don't know why. I feel like my palms are sweating. I'm just so nervous to talk about these things because I've kept so many of them private or, like, just sprinkled things here and there on social media because people come for me and you know this like, you know that I have a big social media presence and people have been coming for me since we started working together. But yeah, I know you're nervous too, right? We're just saying this off camera. Yeah, that's it. So it's such a vulnerable topic for not just you, but so many people. And so it's it's hard to navigate talking about it, but I'm so glad that you are sharing your authentic, completely honest journey and what you've gone through, because I think it's so important for people to hear. Claire, a registered dietitian and mom and wife. I also teach yoga a little bit here and there, but primarily registered dietitian for me, True Wellness, which is a functional medicine, functional nutrition company. And we help women with primarily gut health and hormones and so that's who I am. And I've been working with you, Nina, for about eight months now. So it's been a journey and a really awesome partnership. I know it's crazy. It's crazy that it went so fast. And I made a video on the very first day I talked to Luana and I posted on Instagram and I saved it in my highlights. I don't know. Did you ever see those highlights? I did, yeah. Yeah. Working together. Johanna was like, You know, Nina is sharing about this on social media and she has a following. And I was like, my gosh. So I was always so fun for me to like, see you sharing while in the process of things. Yeah, So I, documented my entire journey and I've stopped a little bit towards the end just because I there's not as much to report, but also it's really hard to constantly be repeating myself. So you work with Johanna, and you're a registered dietitian in LA. Hannah has this company called Newbie True Wellness. And I've talked about her before, and she's been on my podcast a couple of times, and it's funny because Luisana came on my podcast last year some time, and she pitched me, she asked me if she can come and visit. Sure, why not? I never heard of got health stuff before. I was like, okay, like people who have pooping issues, you know, I've never like, really investigated and I have ADHD and I am a highly sensitive person. So when I research something, I am going to research it to the bare bones. So Ohana came on a podcast. I didn't think anything of it. And then I saw somebody talking about healing their gut on social media like somebody I follow and trust. And I was like, interesting. And she had lost a ton of weight. I was so intrigued, I was like, maybe I need to do what she's doing. Because at the time I was like at the heaviest, I had ever been. I had just gotten off antidepressants a few months prior and I was just like really struggling. So I started looking into gut health stuff. And my first step was I went to Tic TAC and I typed in gut health in the search bar because I don't know about you, but Tic TAC has everything like and you know, you have to take it with a grain of salt, but generally you find good information. And I just was down this rabbit hole and all these people like promoting certain things that they want to put you on and do for you. And I found out a lot of information about gut health and healing, and that intrigued me. And it intrigued me more so because I had all these other issues and not just for weight loss and I even like it literally. I've never admitted this to anybody, not even my husband at the time. I even considered I was like, What if I just went online and think, Wow, yeah, a link crossed my mind and then I instantly felt guilty. I was like, No, that's not like, no, I mean, not no shame. Like people who for the people who do it, you do you. I don't care. Like, I don't judge. But like for me, it just felt like it was so out of character for me. And I was working so hard to, like, uphold this, like empowerment image for women. And meanwhile I was not feeling empowered myself. Right. So what would you say your wife for coming to us was then? Was it to work on your guy? Was it weight loss? Was it to just feel about her? Like, what would you say when you finally made the decision to pay for the program and jump in? What was your why? Yeah, so I like I said, I went down this rabbit hole and I was like, I don't know. I don't know what to believe. I don't know what to trust. And I was like, I remember talking to Ohana on my podcast about this, and so I messaged her, jumped on a call, and my wife at the time was I was I felt like I was at my lowest point physically, not mentally, like mentally I was in a hard spot. I mean, I had hit rock bottom mentally a couple of years prior to and you know, this and a lot of my listeners know this. I have been working on my mental health for a long time. I was diagnosed with postpartum mood disorder and then everything just kind of unraveled and I dealt with a lot of issues mentally as far as that. But I think where it started for me is when I got off my antidepressant, I knew I wanted to be off my antidepressant because I didn't like how it made me feel. And I also felt like I was ready because of therapy to just kind of take that next step and see if I could do it. No shame against medications like everyone in my life is on medications. I believe they're amazing. For me personally, I wanted to try to get off the medications. I got off the medications and things were really hard. And I was I live in Wisconsin, so things were dark and gloomy and snowy. It was winter, and when I reached out to the Hannah was March and my why was I think I was really depressed and I was really depressed and I was really tired. Like, I know that sounds so simple, like all moms are tired, We know this. But I was like, beyond and tired. I couldn't stay awake. I wasn't sleeping well. I was up all night. I was irritable with my family. I had no energy and I was slamming caffeine like it was going out of business. I was like two cups of coffee in the morning. Coffee. And the thing is like, it gave me so much anxiety. I was literally having like palpitations and chest pain, but nothing was wake me up I remember you saying that when you came to us, you were like, I'm extremely fatigued every single day I feels impossible to get out of bed. And, you know, I know the the mental side of it is really, really tough for you at that point, too. And symptom wise, too, from the beginning. I don't know if you want to share some about like the reflux you were experiencing constipation because it was it was such a mixed bag of what you were coming to us with, right? I was really tired, and my biggest thing was I had really bad acid reflux, so my my ultimate why was I have so many Ys? But the reason I was like, I need help with my gut because I've had acid reflux since I was in my early twenties. I've been on a my parasol and I don't get it. I want to be healthy. Like, why is all this happening to me? I was having severe acid reflux like more than normal up until about a year ago. I was always on omnipresent. I never had Breakthrough Hartford, but I was having breakthrough and heartburn every single day. And on top of that, I've always been like, always been constipated, always had issues, constipation, and the only way I would I could go to the bathroom is if I drink caffeine. So constipated, acid reflux, tired, exhausted. And I was really, really depressed. Like I was having a hard time mentally. And I never really connected that to my gut health until I saw an tick tock like 80% of your serotonin levels in your gut. So I was like, look at that. Well, there you go. Yeah. So I had a lot of, a lot of whys but what's funny is that my, I shifted from weight loss to like, wait a minute, I have so much more work to do before I can even lose weight. Like, I have to really take care of myself and then even realize I wasn't taking care of myself until I went down this rabbit hole. I thought I was doing just great. I was in therapy. I, I was working out and I came to Ohana and I talked to Tom. It was it was pricey. Like, I remember thinking, like, holy shit, these packages are not cheap. But then, you know, like, you think about you're working with a provider, you know, like someone who's dedicated to you. And so we wait out the pros and cons and I was like, I have to do this. I don't know what else to do. I don't I don't know who to trust. There's so many people out there saying, like, I can help you with your got help. I don't know so many. So that's how we met. Yes. So when you met me, Claire, what were your initial thoughts when I told you what was going on with me? So when you share all of your symptoms, a lot of those that you just mentioned, you also mentioned, you know, the headaches and the brain fog. I don't know if you even remember that, but you've talked a lot about just constant daily brain fog. And we went over the extreme fatigue, the bloating, the constipation, the reflux, all the gut issues. But I think you're also having some joint pain at the time. And then the stubborn weight loss, which is kind of the elephant in the room. Right. I think a lot of your followers know that you have lost weight over this journey. But one of the things I really want to highlight is that you did not come to us with the intention of losing weight. It may have been your subconscious mind, right? What you shared about schedule my results or should I? Do you know, X, Y, or z to just lose weight? But when you came to us, you shared with us like, I literally wrote this down in our first meeting notes you shared with us that weight loss was not your primary goal, and it was not your primary y. You wanted to feel better, you wanted to feel healthier. You wanted to be able to show up for yourself and your family in a better way. And you knew that you could feel better. Yeah, I had just been open to the fact that you could feel better than you were. I. I forgot about some of those other things. Like headaches was such a big one for me and hormonal acne. I remember thinking like, I know that sounds so material to care about your acne, but I remember thinking like, I've never had acne like this before. I mean, my chin was just covered and it was cystic acne and it hurt so bad. And I remember feeling guilty that I wanted to lose weight. I felt guilty that I didn't want acne and I didn't want to lose weight because I didn't love myself. I wanted to lose weight because I knew that I was unhealthy. I was tired, I was exhausted. I could barely go up a flight of stairs. Wasn't the mom that I wanted to be. And that's one thing I think is so important for people to hear, is that weight loss is such a triggering topic to people because even the people that want to lose weight because they want to be healthier is hard for us to talk about it because then you're instantly like, well, you're just feeding it to diet culture. But really, like for me, my weight was literally weighing me down and not because I didn't feel beautiful, not because I didn't want to eat the things that I'm eating. Like I felt beautiful, like I felt strong and powerful. And I showed up on social media as a size 1214. Like proud, like wear what you feel good in where the body that you have. Like I was proud and I felt beautiful. I never felt like I needed to change my body. But I also knew that I was like £40 heavier than I was before kids. I mean, that that says a lot, right? Like, what did that do to my health? Right? And I think that's such an important highlight because, you know, as you know, and as we've talked about, we have so many people that come to us with weight loss as their primary goal. That's the only reason they're seeking out any help is because they want the number on the scale to be lower. And I think the reason that you have had so much success, to be honest, is that that wasn't your primary, why you were already super confident in your body and yourself and in the way that you looked and you did truly love yourself. You weren't just saying that like you really did. And I could feel that in our first session together. And I knew you were going to succeed because you were doing this because you wanted to feel better. And when you're going off of those internal wins, the success is a lot of the time is so much greater than it is when you're just hyper fixating on the number on the scale. Like, I don't even I don't remember how often you weighed yourself or like when you even waiter's. But it was later on in the process and it was kind of just like a happy, exciting win because we had already been making so much internal progress with you in the way that you were feeling was already so much better. But what was that like for you with weight loss as a past trigger? And I know you've shared about, you know, with your listeners and with me this struggle with, you know, binging and restricting and kind of more of an eating disorder type mindset. What was that like for you going through the process with us and also doing it with the world to see? Yeah, I, I remember I didn't weigh myself in the beginning. I weighed myself initially because you needed an initial weight, right? And I did it for a long time. And part of it was because I didn't care, but part of it was because I just didn't want to get into that mindset because for me, in order to heal myself for the whys that I listed, I had to make that choice every single day to keep those my why's. Like, it wasn't just simple. It wasn't like I woke up today and was like, I don't care about if I lose weight. I just want to give up caffeine. Like for me, it was like I had to literally remind myself, This is why you're doing this, because you need to get healthier. And, you know, throwing the word healthy out is also a trigger for people. Like, what does it even mean? We're not going to get into that. But for me personally, I was not well, I have lupus. I was having lupus flares. I was having like hormonal acne, like so many other physical issues that my body was telling me, like, something's not right. You're not the healthiest version of yourself. Right. And so first of all, I wasn't weighing myself and I had to make that choice every day. And I know I never really worried about the scale as much as I used to. Like, I used to really worry about the scale, but like, I'm in a place where I feel like the scale can tell us a lot, but you can't really label yourself based on what the scale says. Anyways, that's a whole another topic we can get on, but just a side note too. Before I came to you guys, I worked on Intuitive Eating with my therapist for a good year, so bingeing is something that I had issues with in, you know, this. And when I came to you, I told you like, I don't want to be restricted, I don't want to count calories, I don't want to count macros like those things are very triggering for me because I did them for so long. And I go down this like if I restrict myself, then I will binge. However, part of this program, there is a lot of restricting and I really want to speak on this because I think it's so important to understand how it worked for me. But just to speak on the weight loss thing first. So weight loss for me, it happened and it was exciting, but it was not as exciting as all the other things that I was feeling and loved. Yeah. So I gave up caffeine and that was probably the hardest thing. I actually like. Eating soup for a week straight was for Canal, but caffeine was the hardest thing for me. I was having headaches, like really bad headaches. I remember talking to you every day like, What can I do about these headaches were so bad for you. Yeah, the caffeine withdrawal lasted like a good seven days for me. But then after I think it was around the week to mark is when I was like, okay, this is working. I started having more energy and I was sleeping better. I remember telling you, I don't remember sleeping last night. I woke up my by myself without an alarm clock and I was like, What happened last night? I woke up at 6ami used to vaguely remember that coverage. Yeah, I remember you saying like, yes, like when your body has done the work that it needs to do within its gut, you will naturally wake up by yourself because that's when your body is doing all the restoration. Right. That's. So. that's, I feel like I'm going in circles here. Your question was how has, how has losing weight been on social media. It's been really hard. Like I think hard for myself personally because I put so much pressure on myself about representing the middle middle sized woman, and representing a woman that loves her body no matter what. And I still represent that. Like, I still stand by that. But early on, people didn't really say much. But then when they noticed the weight loss, I got a lot of messages about how you're not middle midsize anymore. You're lying about your size. How much weight have you lost? Are you on a Zantac? And you know, all those types of questions and. Yeah, I had and I was so scared because at that time Ozempic was like really popular. So I was like feel like, why wouldn't they assume that I don't blame them? Why would like, I get it, I guess I did the same shit. But for me the weight thing was a big trigger because I did it. No, I felt like I built this image around who I was as a size 1214 midsize woman. And I was. I felt lost. I was like, I'm losing weight now. And I feel like people are looking at me. And I just felt like they were looking at me differently. Like like I was a traitor. Like I was letting them down. It wasn't relatable anymore. And that was really hard for me. And that was one of the biggest reasons I didn't share how much weight I lost. Also, I think it's triggering to hear how much weight people have lost when you're not in a healthy mindset. Right, Right. And when you desire that for yourself, too. I think that's a part of the reason why it can be really triggering. And I just want to say, I think you've done an amazing job of sharing your journey on not emphasizing weight loss, emphasizing your health, and you've made it very clear in what you've shared with everyone that you are prioritizing your internal health, your gut health, lowering inflammation, all those things we worked on from the get go. Like those two things were improving your gut and lowering inflammation and you've you've shared really honestly and openly about what that process looks like for you. And I think that's why, you know, the way comments came later on, because it was just the natural progression of you healing. And I think it's really cool for other people to see that there's another way to lose weight. You know, if weight loss is maybe a subconscious, you know, hope and desire for them, but they don't have to do something just to lose weight. They can do something just to be healthy. And that maybe the way their body responds is by letting go of stored fat, that it doesn't need. And you can still feel confident in your body the whole way through. When I came to you and said weight loss is a big trigger, talking about weight as a big trigger, what How do you respond to someone like me when when we because you you know, you you work with people like me all the time. You know, that weight loss is going to happen with your program, right? Like one way or another. Obviously, that's not the primary intention with it. But like you've told me many times, when you're fueling your body and doing for it what it needs, it's going to do what it wants. And there are so many reasons. I was holding on to weight like one of those, probably like cortisol level. Yeah, but what was your thought Like I came to you with all these issues. What was your treatment plan for me? Yeah. So first off, hearing that, you know, you wanted to lose weight and it wasn't your main focus was like a breath of fresh air. Kind of like I said in the beginning for me, because we do get so many women and I think this is representative just of the, you know, the public and women in general is that their primary goal is weight loss. Weight loss is the only thing that's on their mind. And it kind of comes back to that was in that conversation and like, I don't care how I feel, I just want to lose weight. And as impact does have a lot of side effects, one of them being GI issues. And so like in your case, you would have been left, you know, feeling worse GI wise and once you stop the medication, probably gain the weight back and so on the whole coming back to that, it was really refreshing for me to hear that. And I knew right off the bat that you were going to do really well because you weren't going to get caught up on the number on the scale, because that number fluctuates up and down a lot during the healing journey. And I was, you know, there's lots of up and downs, ups and downs in lots of ways along the healing journey and when you're not so caught up in the number on the scale, you're free to focus on your other wins. And that's what keeps you motivated so I knew you were going to going to be successful right from the start. And, you know, our plan for you starting off was we have to fix your gut first. You have reflux, bloating, constipation and all of those things. Why they may sound common and normal bloating after you eat every single meal is not okay. Constipation is not okay. That's our the clinics are body's primary detox organ. We have to be eliminating daily to meet doxing. Well, that's the part of weight loss. And so our our plan from the start was heal your gut and reduce inflammation. And so, you know, we're not going to get into the weeds of what exactly you did, but we started you on an initial gut health protocol. And what that looked like was for pretty restrictive, intensive weeks of dietary changes. And I know you shared that it was restrictive. So how do you want to share a little bit on like how you felt with the restriction during that initial phase of healing? So when I talked to Ohana, she made it very clear to me that this was a temporary restriction. And you even said to me, like, this is our end goal is to have a very diverse diet. And that's all I needed to hear I didn't want something where I was being restricted for life and knowing the science and the reason behind why we were restricting things helped me mentally. And I had to just remind myself, like, I'm not eating sugar right now because there is a bacteria in my gut that literally thrives off of sugar. So for me, you like teaching me that and educating me on that. Like really helped get me through it because I wasn't just not eating sugar because sugar is bad. I was not eating sugar temporarily. Lee Because I was trying to heal something that was in my gut. And we we found that out through my stool. You're still got my stool test, which I'll have you touch on a little bit. But so for as far as restriction, as long as I reminded myself because I do have a binging issue and if I restrict myself for the wrong reasons, I will binge and I, I still can easily like if I'm not fueling my body when I'm hungry and I'm not like eating enough protein and stuff, like I've just learned my body now that if I'm not doing the things that it needs, I will binge and and then I shame myself for it. So restricting for me in the beginning was not hard because I knew that there was an end goal. As far as where we are now, we're restricting gluten and I've chosen that personally. Like you didn't tell me I had to. I just had chosen that because I like how I feel when I'm not eating gluten. However, I have craved it and I have eaten it and like my kids will get covers and I'll I'll occasionally get covers of them and eat a burger. So it is something that I have to choose every single day to make a decision around. I have to decide like, I know this will make me feel a certain way. Am I good with that? Like, am I am I okay with that? Because if I'm okay with that, I'll do it. So it's something I have to have a conversation around in my head. But I don't ever say to myself, You cannot have that because it's so bad for you. Yeah, I don't it, it's, it's, you know that if you eat this it might make you feel X, Y and Z. And then every single time it does. Like my mom had a six year surprise birthday party. I knew I was going to eat cake and eat the food like I was not going to restrict myself. I decided for myself like, we're going into this balls to the wall. Well, we're doing it, but it is what it is. I will probably feel like shit. I even said I might have half a glass of wine. Side note for my listeners that don't know, I also stopped drinking alcohol eight months ago and it was I told that I was like, That's a big deal for me. Like I want to drink. Like we go. We go to concerts all the time hard, but I have zero desire anyways. That's a whole other topic. We can talk about another time, but of trials we could go down. I know. So just back to the bingeing thing. I went to my mom's birthday party. I had the meal like and I got to choose the menu because I threw the party. So it was a gluten free menu, but I don't know what oils they were cooking with. Like butter is a big trigger for me. I did have a little bit of wine. I had the cake, I had a cookie. So the next day I kid you not. I was also on my period. So I think they were kind of like a mix. I had the first migraine I've had in seven months. Wow. And I was laid up on the couch. I was miserable. So my point here is I don't restrict myself. I will go out if I am having a craving, I will do it like I had some chocolate today. That wasn't the sugar free or whatever. No added sugar and chocolate, clean chocolate, quote unquote. I had some today. I felt bloated afterwards and I know that can give me a headache and I know that it can make me feel shaky. But I did not make myself feel bad for eating it. But I have to choose that. It's not easy. It's not like, whatever. I literally have to say to myself, You are not a bad person for eating this chocolate. Yes. Yes it is. Okay. So important. Such an important conversation because food does not make you good or bad. It doesn't make you a good or bad person. There's no morals in food. You're the one choosing to feel like you're a bad person because you ate a quote unquote bad food or to feel like a good person because you're doing good. And that's where honestly people end up failing at some point or another and reverting back to old habits. If that's your motivation. And for you, what you're saying here is that you you put in the healing work like it was hard in the beginning, but you had a really deep motivation to stick with it. And you're now at a point where you do have freedom and diversity and variety in your diet and you can really eat whatever you want. You put in the healing work, you can eat whatever you choose to, but the things you're choosing to fuel your body with our health promoting because you know how good you can feel now people want to drop. Yeah. And when you do have those things that are fun foods at celebrations and holidays, you choose to enjoy it and you move on and you recognize like, Ding, I have a bad migraine. This isn't fun. I don't really want to do this again tomorrow. But you also have freedom to know that on my birthday, I can do this again if I want to. And yeah, that's really fine. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely not as easy as it sounds like. I will sometimes get in my head and say I. I just ruined everything. I did this and I just ruined everything. Like all this hard work. And there are days where I feel bloated and I'm like, This is my fault. I ruined everything. I just worked really hard and I have to literally, like, get in my head and be like, No, you didn't. One day is not going to do anything like you are worthy. And it's something I have to remind myself and I'm not perfect. It's it's a mental I think it's a mental struggle I will have for forever. But like, I really want to make it clear that I am choosing the things like sugar. For me, sugar is a big one. Like with my lupus, Like sugar is a big one and gluten is a big one. When I have sugar and gluten, especially like multiple days or like weeks in a row, I feel it, I feel sluggish, I feel tired. I am getting acne again. It's literally my body telling me like, hold on, what's happening? So it's not so much a restriction for me as much as it is. I know that I know how I can feel without it. It's not a bad food like it's not bad. I just know that for me, I know how it can make me feel good. Yes. That is so important. I can. I cannot harp on this enough that the food that you're eating does not make you a bad person. But it comes down to the health and the choice of the individual as to whether or not they want to choose to eat foods or not. And a lot of that comes with the hard work that you've put in. I mean, this isn't just eight months of us working together, and this is also like you mentioned, your past work of working with a therapist and working through, you know, valuing yourself and self-worth and you working through past trauma and working through why you were even bingeing and restricting in the first place, because that that comes from a deeper work as well. And so, yeah, there's so much more to it. We're still working together because it's still a journey, right? Like, yeah, and just, you know, reach a certain mark and you're done and you're healed. Like it is a, it's a forever journey. Claire and I are going to do part two. That's going to be a little bit more technical like what did we do, What did it look like, What's the plan now? But just to kind of wrap it up, will you tell everybody what your treatment plan looks like? For me, obviously we did a very intense four week elimination diet, right or backwards, eliminate. What would you call that like at all? Yeah, Yeah. And then what other things did you have in plan for me? I know we did a small sample. Yeah. So we started you off right away with a stool sample, which is a test we call the gut tumor. And it's a super in-depth test. Gives us 25 pages of information. So that's where we started you off right away, because we knew from the get go that most of your issues were stemming from an unhealthy gut. Right? The joint pain, all the inflammatory symptoms, the acne, the clear GI related symptoms, all of that was coming back to your gut because ultimately our overall health comes back to our gut. If our gut is unhealthy and inflamed, all different types of symptoms can manifest and they look different in everyone's bodies. That's why this is so individualized, so we did that test. We found that you had some high inflammatory markers or digestive enzyme function, high intestinal immune system, response overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. I think you mentioned that with the sugar, which though is actually worse for sugar cravings, because those bacteria want you to feed them, to keep them strong and overgrown and pathogenic. And you also have some low levels of good bacteria. So that's where we brought in some specific probiotic strains that you needed. And later on, we even found age pylori. Right? So that's where this is an ongoing journey. But we started you off with that stool test because we have to have answers to know which direction to go. So we're not just guessing. And then diet wise, we did a foundational got healing protocol in the goal was to reduce inflammation and irritation. In your gut lining, we focused on foods that were really easy to break down and digest, to take the load off of your body, because every time you ate, you were not feeling good, you were feeling bloated and tired. So we focused on really easy to digest foods, and each week we actually brought in new foods. So our ultimate goal was to get you to a very diverse, balanced diet. But we had to make things really, really simple to start off so that your gut could heal because your body had this amazing ability to heal your intestinal lining can the cells can turn over and renew and your bacterial levels can change. And it's amazing what the body can do when you give it the chance to. So that first month was was the hardest part. And then after that, we started to introduce even some more foods like, you know, grass fed dairy and sprouted grains and legumes. And now you're at this point where your diet is very diverse and you know, your triggers, your triggers are really clear to you. And that's that's kind of what the process looked like. Let me know if you want me to share any more details, but I know we're going to go a little more in-depth in the next chat. Yeah, I know we can talk more about that in the next episode. I did have one last question for you. When women come to you, you say one of the top reasons, one of their top whys is weight loss. What do you say to them? How do you how do you shift that? Because I feel like that's such I get it. Like I get it, the weight loss stuff. But how do you shift it? Do you have them? Because for me it was really important to be in tune with my body. Like I had to really think about it, like, my God, I'm having acne, I'm tired. Like all these things that you don't really think about. You just think it's normal. Part of motherhood, but it's not right. It's not so simple, you know? I don't feel good. And this is just my life. Yeah. So how do you. I mean, I feel like with your job, you probably partially have, like, a therapy aspect to it. Like, you really want to work through some very deep things with people. When someone comes to you for weight loss, how do you work through that with them to make it less about weight loss but more about whole wellness? Definitely. So when when we get people who whose primary goal is weight loss, which like I mentioned, most people come to us with that primary goal, it takes a lot of work to shift their perspective. And honestly, it usually takes a couple of months. Some people change their mindset. You within the first couple of weeks because like you, you they start to recognize how much better they feel in their focus does shift to, wow, this is worth it because I feel better and I don't care so much about the weight anymore. But it takes months for some people for their mindset to shift, and some people's mindset never shifts. And a lot of what that looks like conversation wise is bringing their attention and awareness to why their body is holding on to excess weight and bringing their attention and awareness to the fact that that might be the last thing to improve. You're you might not see weight loss until month four, month eight. But our primary focus here is to heal your body from the inside out, because when your body is functioning properly and optimally, when you are having regular daily bowel movements that are solid and formed, when you're not bloated, when you're not having reflux, every day, when you're not tired anymore, you're going to feel like the best version of yourself. And that's also simultaneously when your body will feel safe and comfortable letting go sort of out that it doesn't need. So it takes a lot of conversation and mindset shift around this even idea of weight loss and like what weight is, why your body's holding on to excess weight. And then there's of course through that conversations of, you know, why do you want to lose weight? Do you not like yourself? Do you not like the way that you look? And a lot of healing work to get to the point where they do really appreciate and love their body, where it is right now in this moment, and recognizing the fact that if I don't lose any weight at all, which you probably will through this process, but if I don't lose a single pound, will I still be happy with my body? And I think that's, you know, a really hard question for a lot of people to work through. So this is not just a physical process of diet and supplements. There's a huge emotional aspect to this whole journey. Yeah Very emotional. Giving up caffeine was emotional. And now I don't even know, like I can't even look at it without getting heart palpitations. all right. So Claire and I are going to do, like I said, a second episode to talk more about the nitty gritty. I feel like people just really needed to hear this part before they could really understand why and how I healed or am healing so you guys will have to come back. Thank you, Claire, for your time. Before we jump off, can you tell everybody where we can find you? Yeah, definitely. This was so fun. You can find me at maybe true, honest dot com backslash Austin Nutritionist Dash Claire Sewer. I think you know, we'll probably share the link but if you want to reach out to us we would love it to help you. And we do a free explorer call. So that's really fun to just kind of talk through things and figure out what's going on in your body and see if we even are a good fit for you, where we're not going to tell you that we're a good fit if we're not. And yeah, we would love to to work with anyone that wants to go down this journey, but you have to be ready for it. Yeah. Thank you, Claire. I think you're welcome. I love talking about this stuff. I hope that this episode was beneficial for you. I hope that you took something amazing out of it. I feel like I could scream it from the rooftop about how important it is to take care of your gut. It has literally changed my life. If you follow me on social media, you'll know. And with that said, if you did like this episode, please leave a review. Please subscribe to the podcast and follow me over on socials and obviously come back next week.