Ep.24: How to heal from the inside out with Alexis Tanner, Holistic Nutritionist

In this lightning episode, I talk to Alexis Tanner, aka The Nutritionist Mama, about how she took control of her life, and healed herself using food, supplements and lifestyle changes. Stress, abuse, causes so many internal issues and ailments, but you can in fact, heal yourself, and it starts from the inside out. You can follow her on IG at @thenutritionistmama or via her website at: www.thenutrionistmama.com.

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome everybody to The Survivor's Playbook. I'm your host, Chantal Contorines, and this is the podcast for every survivor of abuse. If abusers can have a playbook, then why can't survivors also have a playbook so that you can learn to live a life you love despite what the abuser in your life does or doesn't do? And today, I am so incredibly excited to have on somebody that I met on the online space. Alexis Tanner. You might know her and if you don't, I highly suggest that you follow her on Instagram. She is the nutritionist mama. Thank you Alexis, so much for being here today. And for talking about your area of expertise. This is very long overdue. I feel like it's so long overdue. Can you tell our listener what it is that you do, how you help people, what you've experienced in life, and what your area of expertise is? Absolutely. Okay. So I am a holistic nutritionist. I became a holistic nutritionist about 10 years ago. I work with moms who are basically trying to move from a survival mode to thriving. And the reason being is because, I have spent the. Majority of my life trying to climb out of survival mode. And it started with a chronic illness at a young age. I was diagnosed at 13, but symptoms began years prior. So I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. I navigated the Western medical system for a long time. And how did that go for you? Not very well, on a lot of medications that address the symptoms but not the root causes. And, injections for pain, epidurals for pain, different types of treatments that never really, like I said, address, address the root causes, until I became a nutritionist and learned what those root causes were and basically. Got myself on the path to healing naturally through food supplements and changing my lifestyle, just doing a complete overhaul. So I've definitely dealt with a lot of stress in my life, starting from a young age and, especially I became a single mom when my child was very young. Navigated some very complex situations. And even when she was young, my dad died very suddenly, so navigated that just a lot. And, here I am standing, thriving rather than surviving. And I like to work with my clients to help them get to where I am because it is possible and it is possible to do it from a natural, holistic perspective. And I think that's the key. It's, it sounds overwhelming changing your lifestyle for so many people because people are so full, their lives are full. Society creates so much, absolute busyness. And so changing your lifestyle sounds like a daunting task. But the alternative is that you're medicating yourself for years and years, and actually not addressing the symptoms, you're merely masking over them really. As most people who have dealt with stress, so many people listening, you are dealing with chronic stress. You are in, fight, flight, freeze, or fawn during your relationship. Certainly post-separation because post-separation abuse is a real thing. It's alive and well with an abuser. And if you're navigating any of that post-separation divorce, quote unquote co-parenting with your abuser, your body is. Flooded with stress, at all times, and you were in a stress response, the entire relationship, even when it was a good, like even when you had fun, even when you were on like a Disney cruise, your body was heightened. You knew that at any time the good times could end. Unexpectedly without any precursor, and the stress could start again. So your body was hypervigilant. And that creates stress. And stress creates chronic illnesses, which is exactly what Alexis does. And so you have a choice. Here's the thing is people don't like to take action. They don't like to change things because things quote unquote, are working just the way that they are, but are they really working? Are you actually living your optimal life or are you merely putting bandages over things? And when we do that, we're actually not addressing the source. Be that like your mental health, your emotional health, your psychological health, or your physical health. So somebody is coming to you, how, why? What is the process? you don't wanna be living with chronic pain. You don't wanna be constantly, depleted on every level because of the stress that you're under. And there are ways to actually change your life for the better, long-term, that are like completely natural, that don't require a prescription or, constant visits to your doctor or the specialists. Yep. So mainly these moms are coming to me very overwhelmed, bashing their heads against the wall because the options they've tried are not working or not working well enough. And many of them have done what I've done. Navigated the system and they're not getting the answers they need. So the start and a lot of them, like you said, are living with a chronic illness either undiagnosed. Because it's hard to get a diagnosis sometimes. Especially with something like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue where there's no definitive blood tests. Let's say it's like a diagnosis of exclusion, or there are moms or women who are living with multiple chronic illnesses, that's very common and they are on a lot of medications. So the starting point is, a quick call with me, 15 minutes, just 15, 20 minutes to get to know me and to learn about my background and the programs I run and to decide whether we're a good fit. And then, and that's key for any professional that you're working with. It's that professional needs to know that they can help you and you need to know that this is a person that's going to get you to your end goal. Exactly. So when they decide to move ahead and they don't have to decide on that phone call. Obviously you can go away and think about it Follow me and get some free advice first. I run a two month program. It's called eight Weeks to Thriving. Basically, you're transforming your life in eight weeks. So you do a, 90 minute intake with me where I take, your entire health history, and you may have not done that with a practitioner before. I want to know every in and out piece of information about your life from birth till now, because it all plays a part in your healing journey. It's all very holistic. So we chat for about 90 minutes and then I put together a very individualized plan because everybody is biochemically unique. I'll experience my chronic illness in a different way. That person B over here will experience it because their genetics are different. And that's something I also am very passionate about is, under or knowing my client's genetics. So that's something I've recently incorporated where. If they're interested, they can do a genetics test and send me the information and I can create an even more individualized plan based on their genetics, which is very cool. we meet once a week, 45 minutes. We do a, either a phone call or a Zoom call. And each week we build on the previous week and there's handouts, there's information, whatever the client wants or needs I can provide. And then we also do Voxer support in between sessions. So they work on changing their food habits. They work on changing their lifestyle habits. And what I mean by lifestyle habits is it could be something as simple as changing out the, bath products they have Some of them can be very toxic on the liver, on the lymphatic system. So we wanna switch those out or we wanna switch the way that you cook, like maybe limit your microwave use, maybe switch to cast iron pans, maybe filter your water. There are so many different ways that you can change the way that you're eating and living, and it all works together bit by bit to create a much healthier body. And on top of that, we do supplements that are, that work for you. So obviously supplements that are high grade are, can get expensive. So we start with the s. The ones that'll give you the biggest bang for your buck and then you can decide what you wanna add on from there. As an example, I just went through my supplements from the last 10 years and I had so many that I've done through trial and error on myself.'cause I pretty much healed myself. I would say that I. Went to different holistic practitioners, but I put the pieces together on my own. Like I'm a reader, I'm a researcher, trial and error. What works, what doesn't? So I went through those supplements and got rid of whatever I don't use. So that also, I take that trial and error outta my client's to-do list. I've done it. You were the Guinea pig. You were the Guinea pig. I've done 30 years. Okay. I know what's going on in your body. And many chronic illnesses or many stressed out moms, they're. Their bodies will, how do I explain this? Yes, it may be reacting in a different way because of your genetic component or genetic makeup, but the healing journey is similar. What I'm gonna recommend is quite similar, but obviously different based on your genetic. So I'm not gonna suggest supplement A to somebody with this genetic mutation, or it might suggest a different dose, that kind of thing. Yeah. That, does that answer your question? It absolutely does together bit by bit. And the coaching, obviously, to have a coach to help you through it, to text, Hey, I'm at the grocery store. What should I purchase? Or what's a good meal for this or, yeah. Here's the thing, is that. Because this podcast is for survivors of abuse, we are dealing with a segment of society which is actually much larger than I think people want to believe is there And also, There's so much abuse in the world, and so many people have no idea that they're even victims of abuse. Oftentimes for years after the actual relationship ends. It's typically, that delayed realization is very common. But even if you're not a victim of abuse, but especially if you are, life is just so stressful nowadays. There's so much information. There's so much go do. Achieve, with very little support. And the thing is that. my wish for every human, but especially survivors because you are a special breed of humans. Survivors of abuse are typically the kindest people I've ever encountered. They're generous to a fault. They're thoughtful. They're present, they're engaged, they're, so benevolent, they're loyal. They're trusting and they give until they have nothing left. If you want to not only show up for yourself because you deserve this special treatment and you deserve to live a life that you love, but if you have children, your children deserve the most optimal parent they can possibly get. And if you are a victim of abuse, you counter parent your quote unquote co-parent, your children's other parent is depleting your children is not an optimal parent, right? So you really need to. Take what you know and twist it around and really put yourself first, and that's really hard for so many survivors because typically you are a giver. you don't like to invest in yourself. You'll buy your children the$400 pair of runners for their basketball, but you won't even think about spending money on yourself. That is the truth, right? I am guilty of this. I will buy my children, whatever it is. Whatever they need or want. And then I'll be like, oh, actually I'm gonna put those shoes that I want in my cart and I'm gonna look at them for three years.'cause I can't justify the$150 Sounds familiar. But what you need to do is you need to invest in yourself on every level. And that also starts with a financial investment in your healing.'Cause when you do, when you invest in yourself, when you connect and you align with the proper experts in every area, you can actually start to create a brand new life for yourself. And when your bucket is full, it naturally, spills over onto your children. When your children come home to you from your exes, from their other parents, and they're completely dysregulated, if you are running on fumes, if you have nothing in your tank, you are gonna show up as more reactive. Less patient, more, prone to yelling or losing your temper and not the kind of parent that your children deserve. When you pour into yourself what has been taken from you, you show up as a better parent for your children. Just because you are calmer, you're more actually regulated yourself because you've done the work. You are healing yourself on all the levels, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physically, spiritually. And so you're able, to tackle your children when they're hard. You're able to, Be creative, to pivot, to reframe, and to truly create a life that you love. I don't want you to merely just be surviving for 18 years until your children age out of the system. I want you to be able to actually thrive despite what the person in your life who abuses you and your children does or doesn't do. And the two can happen. You can have tremendous joy and peace and happiness, and still have sadness and grief and the stress that this other person creates, they're never gonna change. They're always gonna be the same, but you can change. Yep. And that starts with your mental, emotional, physical, spiritual health, which is exactly, what I do as a holistic nutritionist. I wouldn't have been able to get to where I am today in my life without the education and knowledge and experiences that I have, which is exactly why I just love what I do because I spend my time teaching others how to get here. Yeah, it's just amazing to work'cause you don't have to live that way. You don't have to live with those limitations anymore. There is a place for Western medicine. Of course there is. Absolutely. Of course. But they don't know everything. Nobody does. Your gp. As wonderful as they are, as kind as they are, as educated as they are, they have a general knowledge about. Superficial things. They're not experts in any one field. so much of what we can do is ancient medicine. It's, going back to the basics, As opposed to, just getting more calcium naturally in other ways as opposed to put back into foods. And this, these are simple ways that we can actually start to heal from the inside out and then show up as better people for ourselves, for our friends, for our children. Now what would be like your five top. Tips or strategies or tools or takeaways for the protective parent who's listening to this right now and who really wants to, take action and start changing their lives? what are your, five top tools, tricks, strategies, takeaways for the protective parent who really wants to take action and really wants to start changing their life. Oh my God, from the inside out, I know. No pressure. Five things, no pressure at all. There's like probably like a thousand, but what are the like top five? Top five. Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna do this as best as I can. I love western medicine for acute and emergency care. And then I love functional medicine for long-term health. So top five I would say, magnesium supplement with magnesium along with L-theanine because it will lower. Your stress, it'll help lower the stress levels and calm your fight or flight system. There's a supplement that I take, that has both combined, protein focus on getting enough protein. Take your weight, half it and get that in grams. That's bare minimum. Okay. for example, like I'm one 20, get at least 60, but I get close to one 20. there are many ways to get protein in, I know this sounds I don't know. Journaling or find a way. to get the stress, like to move that stress out. for me to move stress, I learned that walking was my meditation. Like people would suggest meditating and I'm like, I can't sit and meditate. I'm too anxious, or I'm too stressed or walking. And nature is something that I highly recommend. But journaling is, I find also like journaling out your thoughts, especially before bed, so that you can sleep. Also, you also can start to see patterns of behavior. If you are journaling about your ex and what they're doing, you can see that there's patterns and it also helps with documentation. It's like a win-win for everything. So one thing is you wanna get very good sleep. Deep sleep. If you're not sleeping, obviously your body is just gonna start to deteriorate. And I know when you're under high stress, it's so hard to sleep. Are there supplements? Yeah. So I don't recommend them long term. Because you can rely on them and then your body gets wonky. So I'm actually staring at the supplement that I recommend to my clients because when I'm having a rough go and I'm awake till 1:00 AM I can't sleep, I get up and take one. So it's called Somino Pro and it has L-Theanine Melatonin and five HTP. I don't love melatonin long term, so that's a great one. You can have magnesium before bed too, that'll calm you down. Or like a calming tea, like just this bedtime routine of turning off your screens, maybe a weighted blanket or crack open your window to have fresh air regardless of whether it's winter or not. Just, I'm a big fan of year round window open and blankets on top of me. Same. And then I know the stress and anxiety can be so through the roof. So there, and again I don't like to say, take this supplement, take that supplement. I prefer to look at food first. But I'm trying to give them like,'cause you haven't had your intake consult yet with Alexis. So she's just giving you information without even knowing you. So if you are very anxious, you can take another supplement. It's by the same brand as the Somino Pro, it's called Calm Pro. And there's these chewable tablets, you can take just a bunch of them and just calm your nervous system down. So yeah, there's so much that you can do to calm your nervous system down and. Get, Your body at a fight or flight, like you just want it at a fight or flight for a part of the day. Yeah. And then you work towards all day. And then every day. This is it. So this is where I am. I am not, when I feel the fight or flight, and again, I have a genetic mutation. I know we're reaching time. I have a mutation that makes it so that I hold on to stress much longer than someone else who doesn't have this mutation. So I'm very aware of this and I know, the strategies to use to move it outta my body quicker, shall we say? Yep. Yep. And this is what working with you will do, is you'll actually give people specific tools that work for them. This is it. And it worked. I'm like living proof. I wish everybody got to work with me or somebody like me. Yeah. so here's the thing is there are some people, there's a lot of people say, oh, I just can't afford this. It's not on my budget. And for some people that is literally the truth. They are living up to their eyeballs in debt, credit card to credit card, paycheck to paycheck. They have no resources, no assets, tons of debt. They rent. They don't have family who can support them. And then there are people who actually can afford it. They. Choose not to. So those are the people who do have assets, who do have savings, who do have friends and family who could support them and want to support them because so many people just want to help you through this. But they choose not to. And so for the first group. That's why there's lots of free information. Both Alexis and I give lots of free intel because we understand that financially some people simply cannot invest. They just don't have it in them at this particular state in their life. But for those who are listening and fall into the second category, who just don't want to invest, the thing is prevention is always the best medicine always. Always. And if you can't prevent, then you should start taking action now because it's going to prevent long-term something, whatever that might be. honestly, your health and on all levels, emotional, mental, psychological, spiritual, physical health is your biggest return on investment. if you don't have your health, you have nothing. You have nothing coming from somebody who has lived with a chronic invisible illness For the majority of my life, we're talking like all over body pain, fatigue to the point, can't get outta bed. It affects every ounce of my body. And now I sit here and have this talk with you. I don't have very much pain in my body right now, even after working an eight hour day with children So yeah, It is the best investment you can make. A hundred percent. You can have tons of money in the bank and assets and houses and savings and RSPs, and I don't even know what. But if you are struggling day to day and you're stuck in survival mode and you're not actually living your best life, who cares about the money? Who cares? Yep. And you, you can't be creative and you can't live your life to the fullest and you can't show up for yourself and those around you. Thank you so much, Alexis, for taking the time you just already worked a full job and it's nighttime where you are right now, so I so appreciate you coming in today, to share with our listeners, what they can do to help themselves long-term. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to The Survivor's Playbook. If today's episode helped you feel less alone, more confident, empowered, and more educated, please share it with somebody else who may also need it. And if you're ready for deeper support, you can join my monthly membership or grab free tools on my website, all links are in my show notes. Remember, your clarity is your power. Your calm is your resistance. You are not crazy. You are not alone, and you are not powerless. Until next time, keep going. I see you.