Journey to Well
We are not created to do this healing journey or life alone. In fact, it was Bessle Van Der Kolk who expertly shared “healing happens in the presence of an empathic witness”. That is the heart of this podcast & my business : to witness. You can expect a plethora of conversations on nervous system regulation, breathwork, human design & astrology, cycle alignment, energy & spirituality work and so much more. We are all on a journey back home to ourselves, rediscovering our innate power within & I am thrilled to take this journey to well with you. be well xx
Journey to Well
Holistic Health Made Simple | Meghan Pherrill
Holistic health coach Meghan Pherrill (1/3 G center Projector) shares her journey from medication dependence to wellness advocate, emphasizing simple, sustainable health practices. She advocates for a personalized approach to nutrition and movement that focuses on listening to your body's signals rather than following complex rules.
• Starting with small, manageable changes rather than complete lifestyle overhauls
• Finding movement practices that excite you, whether yoga, walking, or strength training
• Simplifying nutrition by cutting out processed foods, refined sugars, and seed oils
• Identifying food sensitivities through methodical elimination and reintroduction
• Limiting health information consumption to avoid overwhelm
• Preparing foods in ways that support better digestion and nutrient absorption
• Trusting your intuition when your body signals something isn't working
• Taking ownership of your health journey instead of following trends
You can find Meghan at Balance by Meghan across all social media platforms and on her podcast, Balance Your Life.
Let's connect on social media! You can find me @ _journeytowell
Be sure to reach out and say hello 🤍
Book your Intro to Human Design Chart Reading here!
Ready to dive deep? Explore our signature 1:1 coaching experiences ALIGN or EMBODY here!
Craving guidance, expansion or growth? Let's connect.
https://journeytowell.net
Book your 1:1 virtual Soma+IQ™ Breathwork session or Human Design chart reading, learn more about my coaching packages & find Seacoast NH in person events - all on my website ⬆️
be well, my friend
xx Hannah
Hello, welcome back to the podcast journey to well. So today is a fun one. We did a little podcast swap, so I was on Megan's podcast a while back and now I'm having her on my podcast. So Megan is our guest today. She's a holistic health coach, yoga and meditation teacher and a podcast host of balance, your life podcast. I am super excited to have you Another. I was actually just. I just had a podcast recording the other day and I always bring up my guest, human Design, and she's also a projector and I was like I have not had projectors on my podcast, it feels like for months, and now two back to back. So Megan's a one three G center or heart center authority projector and we are going to talk all about holistic health, all about simple, effective ways that we can just stay healthy and keep our bodies and minds and spirits functioning at 100%. So, megan, thank you so much for coming on. I will let you introduce yourself, however you would like to introduce yourself to our audience.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and it was so much fun having you on my podcast. At the time we were talking about all things human design when you came on, and a few weekends ago I just finished doing at a yoga festival. I did like an intro to human design workshop and it was so much fun. Yeah, so, like always happy to talk about human design, it's like such, such, such my thing. But, as Hannah was saying, my name is Megan Farrell. I am a certified yoga and meditation teacher. Not only do I teach others like students, students online in studio, I also certified other teachers who are hoping to kind of bring this gift to other people. I'm a wellness content creator, a wellness advocate. I'm really into holistic health and I am a top Canadian podcast host. So that is kind of me summed up in a nutshell.
Speaker 1:I don't know how I missed this, that you are Canadian. Like I feel like I must have looked up your human design when I was on your podcast and I was just pulling your chart the other day and I was like, oh, she was born in Canada. And then you're saying, you know you're visiting family. Like I don't know how I missed this, or maybe I just forgot it, but we love that you are here. Thank you so much for coming and congratulations on your success of your podcast. That's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you very much. It's been a very long up and down road. As I'm sure you can relate, I've been doing this for 2018, so, like seven years, it's been really fun. Starting out, people were like a podcast, what's a podcast? And now everyone's like, oh, podcasting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool yeah. And now I feel like everyone wants to do a podcast, but it's a lot of work, so I definitely feel the success of your podcast, thank you. So let's talk nutrition, let's talk holistic health, let's talk um, even biohacking a little bit. Maybe we'll get there. I don't know so much about that, but one of the things that I really appreciate about you and your platform is a lot of what your heart is in is making fitness and lifestyle shifts that are really simple and easy. The words and the phrases I always use is like easily digestible and and easy to do, because we can get really overwhelmed with all of the rules, right, like all of the shoulds. We should be doing this, we should be doing that, we we should be sleeping eight hours and eating a certain amount of food and in a type of food, and exercising. So I'm curious to hear a little bit about your background. What got you interested in all of this, what were the pain points of the story along your journey?
Speaker 2:And and then we'll get into some some tips and tricks- yeah, thank you for bringing that up, because it's something that, even being in the space myself, you know I often listen to other podcasts and other doctors and experts. I have them on my show as well and sometimes even I'm like this is very overwhelming. There is a lot of information to digest and sometimes it's very complicating and you're just like let's just keep the super simple kind of my. I'm just like let's just keep the super simple kind of my. I'm always like let's go back to basics. What are the basic things that we did, you know ancestrally, and then bring them into the modern world. And it's honestly, it's ironic that I teach these stuff, this stuff, and then I educate others on it, because I was not that person growing up. Like growing up I had. I was considered a severe asthmatic. I was diagnosed very young with obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety. My food of choice was chicken fingers and fries and corn.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh corn I know If you could get me to eat like carrots was like, oh, she's eating carrots. Like, well done. I was just like not that person. Even nowadays, you know, it's funny for me to eat something like sourdough bread or sprouted toast and my mom's like all I could get you to eat was white Wonder Bread growing up.
Speaker 1:Like this is such a 360.
Speaker 2:White Wonder Bread growing up like this is such a 360 um, and for me it really started not to drag it out too long. But I really really struggled in in elementary school and high school with, with my health, and I was put on all these antidepressants and anti-anxieties. I went through three different ones before one actually stuck with me and I was on the brink of being suicidal, like I. You know, I was a self cutter and these medications at this time came into my life where I absolutely needed them. I never really felt alive though with them and I never really felt sad anymore. I just kind of like zombified Nutrition mindset. My emotional well-being was never brought up. It was just, you know, here's some pills to take and you know, to each their own, and sometimes there's a really good time and place for that, especially if someone is hovering on that edge of being suicidal. But I just, you know, I slept. I was sleeping all the time. At the time I was sleeping like 10 hours. I'd come home from school I'd have like a two hour nap. I had no social life because it just revolved around being tired all the time. And when could I get a nap in or sleep all the time, and when could I get a nap in or sleep? And it wasn't until I met my now husband.
Speaker 2:But my boyfriend at the time and I was 19, turning 20 a lot of things happened where my grandfather, who I absolutely adored, got incredibly sick and he was dying. And when he did eventually pass away, I was so emotionally distraught that I forgot to take my medication for like three or four days. And my boyfriend husband now was like you know, megan, he had been on this exact same medication for like a month and he was like absolutely not, this stuff sucks and took himself off of it. I was on it at this point since grade five, like a long time. And so he had said to me you know, megan, you can do this your life. Like, I'm going to be there for you, we'll get through it together. You know, you've already like three or four days. It's kind of been out of your system. Let's just keep going. And so I did much to my doctor's absolute horror, who found out like weeks, maybe even a month later because I stopped cold turkey. It's not recommended to do that, yeah no.
Speaker 2:It worked for me. But you know, I experienced withdrawals. I went through more sleeping than I'd ever was doing previously, and but it was just every single day. It was like okay, that's one more day under the belt, two more days under the belt, three more days, and I just kind of kept going. I was right, I was just at a point in my life where I was ready to come off of it.
Speaker 2:You know, I remember being not that I was ready at the time to have kids, but asking my doctor if I want to have kids, like how does this work as far as this medication? And it was kind of just brushed under the table like oh well, lots of people are on antidepressants. And I remember thinking but that doesn't answer my question Like what happens to a growing baby if I'm on this medication? Again, not in like I'm planning to do this next year. It was just always in the back of my head of like how is this going to affect me later on? And that's never discussed, at least not with me and a lot of people. I know it like it's in the moment type of medication, but it's not like what's going to happen in the future with this. So once I came off my medication I was just one, I wasn't napping anymore and I was kind of like, what do I do with myself? Like I have all this time now to like do things and it sounds so like woo woo, and I don't consider myself religious at all, but an actual little voice in my head said try yoga.
Speaker 2:And I had done yoga when I was about 15 or 16, from my mom had brought me to it and she thought, at the very least it might help you with your breathing and asthma and controlling how to you know so you don't have I would have asthma attacks very easily and very quickly. And she just thought, you know, sometimes this might buy us time to get you to the hospital by learning how to breathe properly. And I mean, it was in like a dingy basement, unfinished basement, with a bunch of middle-aged women at the time and they just never vibed with me and I was like, well, like yoga, okay, I had this crappy little mat from that time that I enrolled. It was a horrible mat, but you know, I just I threw on the first 20 minute yoga flow on YouTube, did it? It kicked my absolute butt like I. I've always been smaller, but like that, I was not healthy, I was not fit by any means and I was like could barely get through this flow. And right from there I committed to okay, I'm gonna do this exact video three times a week until I master it, and then I'll move on. And, you know, three days became four days, four days became five days. Slowly it became every single day.
Speaker 2:I noticed these changes in my body where I thought, you know, maybe the chicken fingers and fries aren't serving me, maybe I should include some more vegetables. But it was slow, like it. It literally started off how can I add more vegetables into my diet? I wasn't jumping to a new diet or anything, it was just let's get a few more veggies under the belt, you know, let's maybe try something that's not a chicken finger or fry, and and it slowly just kind of built from there. And I, you know, I'm 34 now, so this has been a really long time, but I feel I'm now at a place where I'm very into nutrition, I'm very into optimizing my health and all of that stuff. But it started off really easy and basic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and thank you for bringing that up, because I know we typically like to share our story when we are at the end, which, if you're not watching this video, I'm doing that in quotes because I don't think we ever really arrive anywhere. We want to arrive somewhere and so we present our story in this beautiful little package of arrival that you know, now I'm this holistic health coach and you know I can teach you all about biohacking and all these lifestyle changes, but we all started somewhere. That's something that I really taught when I started my YouTube channel, um, because I started way before I was ready. And I started and told myself I know it's not going to be perfect, but we're going to start and we're going to make those incremental changes. And same with nutrition.
Speaker 1:It can get very overwhelming, and I'm sure I mean you could speak so much more eloquently about this but it can get so overwhelming of I need to change so many things. But thank you for sharing the example of I just wanted to incorporate more vegetables or maybe try a food that wasn't my norm of chicken fingers and fries, and then didn't even worry about the rest at that time and just kind of focused on let me do the same yoga video. I also love that part of your story. Let me just master the one yoga video, because I've tried to do that in the past, of like. Let me just get what was it. It was, oh shoot. What was his name? Travis, travis, some something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, travis Elliott, yes, and he has this flow and like it kills my shoulders and I was like I'm going to do this for a month, and I mean my mine's not a success story. I don't think I did it for a month, but it was the thought that counts. Yeah so thank you for making that distinction of just kind of starting starting somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's kind of dive into that. So I know that a lot of, like I already said, a lot of your journey and what you started was kind of my tribe listening age range tends to be like late twenties and the thirties, or even like 50, 55, 60s. So, kind of keeping those in mind, where would we start if we're feeling like you know what I'm resonating with, I feel tired all the time, or I have depression or anxiety, or maybe I'm on a medication and there's nothing wrong with that, but where, where would you recommend kind of, hey, let's dive into this area?
Speaker 2:Well, I would say first of all, like if any of this is speaking to you and resonating with you, there's absolutely a reason why. And the first thing, like you know, there's different ways that we can take this, but the first thing I would say is, when you get a chance to speak to your doctor, ask them I'm think I'm ready to come off of my medication. What is the protocol for doing this? And if you have a doctor who's like I don't think you're ready for this, you know there's there's more to this find a new, new doctor, because there should be a doctor that's willing to help you. Take the steps back and you know, for me it was very extreme, but for some people it's gotta be a very gradual thing. But if you're like, if you know in your heart of hearts that you are ready, there's a doctor out there that will absolutely help you. That being said, too, you know you can also look at if you have coverage, because I know you're in the States it's actually the same in Canada. So we do have basic health care. That's covered. However, things like functional medicine and naturopathic doctors, they are not covered, so they're out of pocket If you have the luxury of having insurance or some extra money, see if you can get a panel done.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, when we come off of this medication, our nutrient levels are all out of whack and that can make it really hard to kind of come off this medication. But let's say that's not even an option. Let's say you're like okay, I have a doctor's appointment in a month, I'll ask them. Then let's start optimizing things right now. What do you feel most called to? And I say that because if I tell you, well, you got to start with nutrition, and you're like I really have no desire to start there, it's not going to be sustainable, you're not going to be excited about it. So if I'm saying things like movement or exercise, nutrition, maybe meditation, and one of those things is called to you start there. Let's say it's movement and you're like okay, like I feel like I'm really called to movement. What movement seems exciting to you Is it? Is it yoga, is it Pilates, is it weight lifting or weight training? Or maybe you're like I don't know I, who do you look for inspiration for online? And what do they do? And you know, if you're watching some of their content, maybe you're like I don't know I, who do you look for inspiration for online and what do they do and you know if you're watching some of their content, you're like man, it looks so cool what the things they do in the gym or those cool yoga poses start there and you don't have to.
Speaker 2:I'm a very big proponent of I love community. Studios are great. Studios are not always or gyms. They're not always cost effective for a lot of people. Throw on a YouTube channel. That is exactly how I got started. I also.
Speaker 2:I'm that person who will actually work out from home. I know some people need to physically go somewhere and do it. That's not me. I'm like it's hot, it's here. I don't have to think about, like getting in a car or walking anywhere or talking. It's like it's here. I don't have to think about like getting in a car or walking anywhere, talking, it's like.
Speaker 2:It's super simple. You can start with 10 to 20 minutes of a yoga class, too, or pilates. It does not have to be this hour-long thing. Just get yourself. You know, as I was saying to you with the travis, elliot, and you're like. You know it might not have been eloquent, but it's the intention of just like unrolling your mat or grabbing a pair of running shoes. You could even start with walking, put on a podcast, put on music that feels inspiring to you and just walk around your block. If that's, if that's where you start, that's absolutely amazing and that's moving in the right direction, and then stick with that thing.
Speaker 2:Like I did yoga for years before I was like ready to introduce something else.
Speaker 2:It became Pilates next, but I mean like years, and maybe you're like after a few weeks you don't feel like you're called to it anymore. Or you're like let's try Pilates and see if that's that's something different that I'm vibing with. Try that. You can do what I did start with a couple of videos and master them. Or you can, if you're like that person who needs something new, consistently search for a couple of people. I mean, I have a YouTube channel when I was first starting out yoga with Adrian, I consider her very beginner friendly, but she's awesome to get started with and you can start with there. There's other people that I very much gravitate towards online for different types of yoga classes. But again like if you just see somebody online and you're like I really like their flows, or like they've talked about somebody, try out who they're recommending or what they teach and see if that vibes with you, and then, on the flip side, if it's like meditation or nutrition, just start to get curious about what you feel called to do.
Speaker 1:I love that Yoga with Adrienne, totally agree, love her. She has a nice variety of flows, which I feel like is nice. And and I like the exploration, because sometimes I know I've done this, I've tried a yoga video and just been like, oh, that was just not good. And then you're like, oh, I don't want to do yoga on YouTube anymore. And it was one person. That doesn't mean that you don't like all of the videos and explore. Like you said, maybe go to the gym and see how that feels, or go to a studio and see how that feels, or do it at home, because we all have these different preferences, but at least me and we're both one threes, so maybe that's why we're agreeing. But I like to explore and try it out, because I always say like I don't know if I don't like something or if I do like something until I try it, and that goes for everything food, workout classes, exercise, people like I don't you know, like I don't know until we hang out or I don't know until I experience it.
Speaker 1:That's really the three line in human design is learning through that trial and error and starting where you feel called is huge because and thank you for saying that, because I think we do, especially as humans we do give away so much of our power, right Like I've just tell me what to do and tell me what the right way to get back in shape is, or gain more energy is, and it doesn't always work for us, and then we think something's wrong with us and that's not the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would like going off of that too, without being overwhelmed by a million different people online. If there's one person you resonate with online and you vibe with everything that they're saying, follow some of their advice. Like, my husband loves Gary Brekka and if Gary Brekka is talking about something he's like I'm gonna do it, like you know, but that works for him where he'll just like give it a try, give it a shot, and sometimes he's like, meh, not for me, and other times it becomes like an obsession with him. So the online space is absolutely great, but I, you know, there you could also be like, but I follow 20 people online who talk like, get rid of them. Pick one or two people that you resonate with and if they're telling you to do a certain thing and you're vibing with that, great. If that feels called to you, give that a shot. Otherwise, yeah, follow, follow what. What interests you follow? What is kind of making you excited? You're like, oh, I feel like I could give that a try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do we, how do we keep from being completely overwhelmed in a world where we have so much information? And nutrition is a really, really tough one for me. I remember I took I was not a nutrition major in college, but I just took random classes for credits that I was interested in and I took a nutrition class and I remember kind of walking out and I was like this is the most confusing class because it's like, you know, eat 20 grams of protein but you can't eat this kind of protein at this time. And like, eat these vegetables but don't eat those. And I mean it was like so much contraindications in my mind of like and so much information. And then you go to like social media and you follow nutritionists or dietitians and, like you have so many contrasting opinions. So how do we keep from being completely overwhelmed and finding ourselves in that freeze of indecision?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, let me just say like I completely understand that I am on a crusade right now. People are hating on vegetables and I'm like what? Why vegetables? Why do we hate vegetables? You know, and I get through those phases to like personally, I really do like a lot of what oh my god, I'm just totally blanking on his name Paul Saladino talks about. I also fully do not agree with everything that he talks about as far as spinach and kale and all this Like Paul spinach is not going to kill us and all this like Paul spinach is not going to kill us, but I and I do.
Speaker 2:I like there's bio. Individuality absolutely plays a huge role in it. However, there are some very basic things that we can start with Not always easy, but one we can cut out the processed food, and I know everybody's like. Okay, I know that, but really look at the processed food that you're eating. You would probably be surprised by how much of it is. You cut that out and you will make a massive difference in your overall health if you cut out the refined sugar. Again, look at the back of your labels of food ingredients. Sugar is in almost everything. It is mind-boggling how much sugar we consume on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:I love a dessert. I am a dessert girly. I can find and I make it all the time. I have tons of recipes that I either post online or I'm, you know, sharing in the future and stuff of refined sugar-free desserts and they are incredible, incredible. I actually can't eat a lot of dessert now that has sugar because it's so overwhelming to my senses because I've cut it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if we absolutely cut out the seed oils which I think most doctors and experts would agree are pretty bad for our health they're very inflammatory we cut out the processed foods, we cut out the refined sugars, then you can kind of get curious from there. I think those are very easy, basic things, but they can also get that under your foot for a bit, because it might take you a month to really find food that doesn't have that stuff. If you're replacing it, I'm a big believer of just going back to the whole foods shopping for fruits and vegetables shopping, for I personally feel like a lot of us would benefit from animal-based protein. I am not here to say you have to have a steak for breakfast and dinner and grass-fed beef for lunch, but I do think we should be consuming animal-based protein. That being said, you know like there are some vegan and vegetarian dishes I do like, but you have to be mindful as well, as a lot of this stuff is filled with fillers I mean, any food really is.
Speaker 2:But you know I'm really looking at things like I avoid soy in a lot of my food. It's not always easy, but soy is one of those things that it is an estrogen mimicker and it can really kind of cause havoc in our lives and it's in everything Seed oils. I get rid of refined sugars and processed foods from there. You know, I think it's again getting curious, kind of getting to know yourself. If you do not have the luxury of running labs and just seeing what food allergies and stuff are, you kind of have to do it yourself and it can be a little bit time sensitive and consuming. But I'm also like what else are we doing with our time? Right, like we want to be? I think most of us want to feel good most of the time. So if I'm eating things that are not making me feel good, I'm usually going wonder what it is that's not making me feel 100% recognizing to that it can change.
Speaker 2:I used to be absolutely fine with dairy. Post-pregnancy, my body all of a sudden is like we don't do dairy anymore. Dairy is like a problematic for me. Now I've done enough healing that if I eat something once in a while with it, my body can detox it and kind of get rid of it. It's just if I consume it all the time, even if it's small amounts, but every single day for a little while, it in my body appears as skin rashes. So I know that that's usually problematic for me. You know a lot of people struggle with gluten. I think you can get very overwhelmed by being like I have to go gluten free, dairy free, all the frees, dairy free, all the frees. But truly like tuning into your body and as you cut out certain things like the refined sugars and stuff, you will kind of eat something and start to be like this doesn't make my body feel so great. Or maybe I had a really bad bowel movement afterwards. That's usually as silly as it sounds, an indication that there's a food sensitivity, there's something more going on. Or you know, if you've got really bad gas afterwards or bloating and stuff, these are all indications and signs of like maybe something's not super kosher going on in our stomach.
Speaker 2:You can also simplify things as you're starting out. You know, keep it super simple, start with fruits and vegetables and start with a meat and kind of. You know, maybe it's just a meat bowl of different variations of meat bowl for a while, until you're like okay, like I'm ready to introduce chicken in. Maybe there's certain problematic foods that trigger you or you've thought in the past are problematic, that trigger you or you've thought in the past are problematic.
Speaker 2:I'm also not somebody who does really well with raw vegetables. I know that about myself because I would eat like a salad and I would have like not the greatest gas afterwards. So I'm somebody who really gravitates, even in this blistering heat. I'm that person who will have a soup. I love bone broths, I love cooked vegetables. Those work for me and that is something that was just experimented on and learned. It was like when I had raw vegetables. How did my body feel afterwards?
Speaker 2:You know I am putting together like this little food diary which I know people hear that and they go oh my God, no, but truly, you know it's super simple and it's easy to keep track of. And then you know you're not just going through life trying to guess all the time. Well, like, am I gluten free? Like, can I eat it, can I not? Can I eat dairy? Can I not? You know, some people do very well with dairy and some people don't, and it's really just individualized and kind of you kind of have to figure it out on yourself just by experimenting with different foods.
Speaker 1:Thank you for bringing that up, because I do working with some clients and then just knowing people personally, having that connection of here's what I ate Now, here's what I'm experiencing, first of all, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a practice that I don't even do perfectly, but recognizing, because sometimes it's like hours later and then you don't think about, oh, I had dairy earlier, maybe that's why my stomach is upset, or or maybe that's why my, my belly hurts as I'm going to bed or eating right before bed. Right, and not really making that connection of I ate a big meal right before bed, I wonder why I'm sleeping so poorly and really learning the, the, the language of our body and how our body is speaking, so curious how that journey was for you, like, how do you stay consistent in that journey? How have you found success? And really paying attention? Because that, to me, above all of the tips that we could give of like eat this or do that, or you know, biohack this way, that really is the gold is learning how our body is responding to things versus, yeah, go eat a steak for a breakfast for the next week.
Speaker 2:I was kind of thrown into this. So there was a time where I just I just intuitively felt like, oh, dairy doesn't work for me right now, pulled it out, noticed a huge difference in my life. This was years ago. I introduced it slowly back in, was okay with it, got pregnant. I went to hell. But my, my husband, my baby, my toddler, has some food and when we were trying to figure out what was going on with him. So he had some eczema and the doctors at the time were like here's some steroid cream, he's gonna have to be on medication. And I was like not accepting that, absolutely not, that's not happening to my child. So I went to a holistic nutritionalist and I knew just from being in this field that eczema is an autoimmune response. Like anything like that is like there's something going on in the body and this, like your body, doesn't do things for the hell of doing. I'm sorry, can I swear on this?
Speaker 1:Yes, okay.
Speaker 2:Your body doesn't do anything, for the hell of doing it. It doesn't just decide that it's going to blow or have eczema or psoriasis or like it. There's absolutely a reason why the body is doing it, I believe because our body is meant to always be in homeostasis and it's always trying to get back to neutral and that homeostasis state state you know what I'm trying to say You're right, like like part in your life.
Speaker 2:And so I went to this holistic nutritionalist and she's like let's take a look at some of the food allergies that he has. And then from there we took out the problematic foods wheat, dairy gluten at the time, because he was so young, it was a lot of citrus fruits, because that can be really hard on a baby's digestive system, not necessarily for adults, but she was like I was nursing at the time. So she was like what he does, you've got to do. So I took all of that stuff out and it was very simple. It was like a couple of vegetables that we could have, some grass fed, grass-fed, uh, beef, she was happy with that. Or chicken um, pasture-raised chicken, um, eggs. Eggs can also be really problematic for people and they don't necessarily know that. And everyone online is telling you to eat 12 eggs a day. So you know, if you have acne, try taking out eggs for a bit and see if that goes away. So we took out the quote-unquote, those big foods for a bit and I was like what do I eat? Like, yeah, all the stuff I have now. I'm a toast girly and what do I eat now? And so you know it was, and it was things like wheat. Why wheat? Because wheat is usually heavily sprayed with glyphosate or herbicides and stuff, so it's not always the food itself, it's what we've done to it, yeah, and so I took a lot of that stuff out, I'm not kidding you. Within I think it was 11 days exactly, his eczema disappeared completely and it wild. I was like I don't know what to do with my life. I have no idea what to eat anymore. Um, but like I just started, this is when, like, I had been mindful about my food at first, but I really started to get. I had to get really good about eating at home and making everything from scratch. And, like I said, when you look at a label of something soy too that was another big thing we took out of our, my son's, diet, because soy is really, really problematic. Again, it is one of those most heavily sprayed crops across North America. It's in everything. So, while a small amount might be okay for you, it's just it's like death by a thousand needles, right, like it's. It's in everything. Refined sugar too. Also. You know, get rid of that. So a lot of things that I was forced to do, but it made me. When you have no choice but to do these things, it really kicks your butt into gear, and so you know it was very simple.
Speaker 2:I started off with just like creating these grass fed grass finished meatballs. I was given the OK for white rice. So you know I would make white rice and I would soak it for as long as possibly can. Again, when you soak things like that, it helps to take down Not that this is always a problem for people, but you might have heard the term lectins can be a problem for people, which is why some people hate spinach.
Speaker 2:If you cook these things, if you sprout these things, they usually take away or at least eliminate a lot of lectin problems. So you know that was, if you're going to have rice, you need to soak it for as long as possible, but then I would cook it in things like bone broth, which is really gut healing. I'm a big believer that if you have an issue, it's probably because your guts out of whack. It just is right Like you get you. Also, it does not not benefit you to focus on healing your gut and like reducing inflammation in your body. So it really started off with grass fed grass, finish beef, bone broth, rice, and you know he did really well with things like broccoli, so I would throw that in.
Speaker 2:I try to focus on healthy fats and fiber. We need fiber in our life people, we need those vegetables, we need things to help get eliminated from our body Protein. So you know, I do love a source of protein on whatever level you can get it. And then it was like kind of the carbs afterwards. And again it doesn't necessarily have to be carbs like horrible carbs, but like sweet potatoes are considered to be a carb, white rice is considered to be a carb, and I stuck with that same meal in different variations for a really long time until I started to okay, let's, you know, let's get creative here, let's let's do something more like add a different vegetable in. And I think if you focus on eliminating those problematic foods that I was talking about, you will really notice a difference.
Speaker 2:And then you know, you experiment. You take four days to a week. I like to give myself a week and you pick one food item that you're going to introduce back into your diet. Maybe it's butter, right, like maybe you start cooking something into butter and seeing how it reacts. You don't do anything else, just butter. Four to seven days, you will notice if your body is reacting to it. Right, because it's not always like you said. It's not always an immediate response, but sometimes it's like I ate it in the morning, something happened at nighttime and like what's happening here. But if you have just one food item that you've introduced back, you will automatically be like oh, that's exactly what it is. Okay.
Speaker 2:If it's butter, then maybe it's probably likely a dairy intolerance or sensitivity. Pull it back out. And I would say, pull it back out for a week until the symptoms reside and then you can start to introduce something new. Maybe it's a citrus fruit, maybe it's a piece of sprouted toast. Try to avoid the white wonder bread, if you can help it. If you're going to have toast, try to do like a sprouted version of it, or sourdough, right, and then introduce that back in for four to seven days. See how your body reacts. If you don't have a reaction with that within that family, try to find some more foods that you can introduce and see if you know. If you don't have a reaction, you're probably like okay, I'm probably okay with gluten at this point or wheat at this point. You don't have to introduce every food group from there, but pick you know three or four things that you can introduce from that food group and see like, is it a problem for me or is it not?
Speaker 2:It can be a very long, tedious, you know, journey.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking I was like man. I did this quote unquote elimination diet with my son almost a year ago and there's foods that we're just getting around to introducing because, again, he's a toddler. So I've had to go really, really slow with him. He can't always say my stomach hurts or like my throat scratchy, so it's been me just trying to like, like, watch him for different you know signs and symptoms and stuff. So it's been really slow. You don't have to go as slow as that, but sometimes it is super slow and I'm a big believer that when we pull these things out of our diet and give our body a chance to heal again, if you're dairy sensitive and you go out once in a while and you have an ice cream, for most people it's not going to be the end of the world. They might get a little bit of a girly stomach, they might not, but they'll usually bounce back from that. It's just if it's like dairy sensitivity, and we're drinking milk in our coffee every day. That's going to be problematic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's really learning that. And I love the invitation of pulling things out for a week and then reintroducing them for, you know, four to seven days, because it will show up. And it's so much easier when we pull one thing out because it's really hard to be like okay, I ate 10 different things today between you know my meals and drinks, and now I need to just magically pinpoint what is affecting me or aggravating my body, and we don't always know.
Speaker 2:So, love, that invitation, I remember. I remember with the nutritionist. She'd be like so what do you think the problem? Food is, and at the time I was so proud because I thought he had a very robust diet. Right, these are all the foods that he eats, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, we went through the list and took things out. But and look, if you have the money or the insurance, get a test done like bypass all of this, so you don't have to spend the time doing this. But in case that's not an option for you, this is another way to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and thank you. I mean because there are so many different options. We have so many options today, which is a real benefit and we can really make these small changes. Another thing that you brought up that I just wanted to kind of close with before our final questions is the way in which we prepare our food. I mean, that's a whole other podcast, to be honest, but with the with the rice and soaking the rice or cooking the spinach or you know, playing around with, I don't really think that my body handles raw foods as well, which, honestly, is very. If you ever like study Ayurveda that's kind of what they say is is never eat a raw vegetable because it takes your body more effort to process that and it's harder on your body than eating cooked fruits and vegetables. My mom is very into Ayurveda, so they'll like cook their apples and, you know, cook dates and make all these. I mean it's that's a whole, that's a whole podcast, but but play around with it for you where you are.
Speaker 1:I love that invitation because it's not always. It doesn't always have to be oh, I can't. I just can't have spinach, right. Maybe it's the modality in which you're consuming the spinach, or maybe what you're cooking your spinach, and maybe you can't have the oil that you're cooking your spinach in or the butter, but you could do like a grass fed butter or a tallow or ghee, or maybe you do. Do you know an avocado oil or olive oil or something like that?
Speaker 1:So so many things to just play around with, and I love the verbiage that you use of like curiosity and explore, and that's obviously a huge part of, like I said, a huge part of the three line in human design, but it's it's just such a beautiful invitation to explore with all of our um lifestyle changes. This, this everything that we kind of talked about with nutrition, also can be applied to movement and fitness, which I love. Um, before I ask you last question, and we're going to do a little bit of human design, but is there anything else that you really feel like? This is something that I would die on this hill to preach, that I want to make sure that everyone hears today.
Speaker 2:I would just say, like we were saying with the social media world, it's both fabulous. That's how you and I met. But if you are consuming content and you're like I don't know what I should be eating because this person has told me a thousand different things, unfollow them. Like, truly start to limit who you're looking at and like find one, maybe two people that you can look to for inspiration and that you resonate with and that you vibe with. You don't have to consume, like you know, like the one three in my mind. Like I can do endless amounts of research and be like what do all the different experts have to say about this?
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's just like there's like a few people that I look to for inspiration and other than that I'd let the noise in the background go because it it doesn't affect me. It doesn't, at least at this point in my life. I'm not resonating with it. Maybe later on, but right now, just like, don't listen to all the noise and truly trust your intuition If something is niggling at you or saying like, stop following that person. Or like stop eating this food, trust that.
Speaker 1:You probably know that I oh gosh, what was I reading? I think it was a book, and it was like you know what works for you and what doesn't. It's just our minds that try to convince us that it does that. Oh, I could still do this, or I can still be in this relationship, or I can keep eating this food. And you actually know that you can't. But it's it's our brains, our minds, trying to logically talk us out of it.
Speaker 2:Or if you're looking for a sign, that is your sign. Like that's, that's another one, like, if you're like, if I should do this, give me a sign.
Speaker 1:It's like you know then you should do it and along those lines of not getting caught. So let's do a little bit of human design at the end. Um, one of my favorite things that I love doing is just pull one little piece of my podcast guests uh chart and share it with them. So, since you're kind of talking about having too much information, information overload you, you might not know this, I don't know, so I'll have to. I'll have to see at the end but we have two energy centers in our head in our human design chart. So I talk a lot about energy centers. Hopefully by now listeners are like okay, hannah, stop talking about energy centers, but I'm obsessed with them. They teach us so much.
Speaker 1:So if this is your first time listening to an episode of mine, we have these energy centers throughout our body. They roughly, they are pulled from the chakra system, so they're going to look kind of like the chakra system. So our first energy center is the crown, just like the crown chakra, and then right below it we have a triangle facing down, pointing down, and that's our Ajna, or our third eye. Both of yours are open. Both of them are undefined. I'm sorry you do have defined gates in them. But having that and knowing that, especially that top, that crown, energy center being undefined, how we best move through the world is by getting inspiration from other people. So when we have a defined crown and defined Ajna or just a defined crown, we might not need to pull as much inspiration from others. But I have an undefined crown as well and then I have a defined Ajna. So getting on social media and, like you said, finding those people that I really resonate with and then pulling information from them, but then as I'm processing it down, kind of navigating and you use the word intuition like navigating what really sits with you and sticks and what resonates and then what doesn't.
Speaker 1:Because with the undefined or open centers we can get very overwhelmed and you have a lot of undefined centers. You only have two defined centers. I'm sure you've really navigated this in your life eloquently. I mean at this point I'm sure it's like pretty eloquent now and like a second nature, but we can get very overwhelmed with all of the outside opinions and all of the energy and all of the information. So I love that you kind of gave that example or that advice of find a couple people.
Speaker 1:Don't allow yourself to just mindlessly scroll like search nutritionists and then just scroll through all of the abyss of nutrition information, because we can get super overwhelmed. But having that undefined crown, we still need that inspiration. We need, like that's actually how I gain a lot of or I used to. I don't so much anymore, but especially in the beginning of my journey, I used to like find people that I really admired in human design and looked at like how are they creating reels, how are they reaching their audience? And then how can I kind of mold that information and process it and use it to make it feel very Hannah and very aligned with my vision, but still getting that information? So anyway, that's, that's your human design tip. I'm sure have you heard, have you learned, about energy centers? I'm sure you talk a lot about them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's funny as you were speaking. So the way that I kind of look at like the head center is like people who have it defined tend to I'm not saying this is applicable to every single person, depending on your gates and stuff, but I find that they're a little bit more like set in their ways and like set in their ideas, whereas, like with mine being undefined, I've always been like I get that perspective, I get that side of things too, and you're like I like I think this way, but then somebody will counter it or show me a different way and I'm like oh, I never thought of it that way. That's a great point, and sometimes I will take that information. Other times I'm like I still don't necessarily agree or vibe with that, but I'm glad I heard your perspective on things.
Speaker 1:That's the kind of way that I've looked at it and like you were saying I'll take a couple of things from different people and I make it my own. So I'm glad you kind of like reiterated that, because I'm like that's exactly what I do. Yes, for sure. Oh, love that, love that affirmation. So where can people follow up with you? Where can people continue to learn? I know that you post a lot of really great little hacks and tips and ideas on your social media, so how can people stay in contact with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for that. So, across all social media platforms TikTok, youtube, instagram it's balance by Megan M-E-G-H-A-N. I have a quite a large following on TikTok, but people mostly will DM me and chat with me on Instagram, which is totally cool with me. I have no problem with that. I have a quite a large following on TikTok, but people mostly will DM me and chat with me on Instagram, which is totally cool with me. I have no problem with that. I have some YouTube stuff out there as well, and then my podcast is just balance your life podcast.
Speaker 1:Love that. Last question is if you were standing on a stage and you had one minute to share one message with the world, what would that message be? Okay.
Speaker 2:I think it would be. You are stronger than you believe. You are capable of more than you give yourself credit for and you have a big life to live. That is your life. Don't do it for anybody else. Don't follow what anyone else is saying or doing online. Do things because you want to and because we have one shot at this life. Make it fun, make it your own, you know. I would also also say like health to me isn't just a trend or it allows us to optimize our life and to do all the things that we want to do if we're healthy. If we're sick, we don't get the opportunity to do any of that stuff. So I hope that was under a minute.
Speaker 1:That's my little spiel hey, some people go way over a minute, so you're totally fine. No, thank you so much. That's such a beautiful reminder and we have so much life to live, and how do you want to choose to live your life? I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1:Megan.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Hannah.