#43 Running on Empty for 25 Years — Heidi Swapp on Injuries, Grief, and Refusing to Age Like Her Mother

What do you do when you've spent 25 years running on four hours of sleep, Diet Coke, and sheer willpower — and your body finally hands you the bill?

Heidi Swapp built a household name in the creative industry running a very successful scrapbooking business. A mom of five, primary breadwinner, and pioneering figure in the scrapbooking world for over two decades, Heidi was the woman who wore exhaustion like a badge of honor. 

No sleep? Superpower. Skipped meals? Basically a flex. Sound familiar?

But life had other plans: 

• Watching her mother decline from primary progressive aphasia — a devastating brain disease that stole her words before it stole everything else — lit a fire under Heidi that no deadline ever could. 
• Add a hormone-free hysterectomy that quietly packed on 40 pounds in nine months, a string of serious injuries (torn hamstring, rotator cuff surgery. 
• A daughter's traumatic facial injury two nights before graduation.
• A son's blown ACL threatening his entire senior sports season.

The end result is like many of us: you've got a woman who had no choice but to figure this out.

In this conversation, Heidi sits down with Jess and Dr. Kylie to talk about what it actually looks like to rebuild your health from the ground up in your 50s — not with a perfect plan, but with one decision at a time.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why Heidi operated on four hours of sleep and no food for decades — and what it cost her
• The moment her mother's diagnosis made her realize Alzheimer's might not be inevitable
• What nobody told her about going hormone-free after a full hysterectomy
• How lifting weights at 52 changed her body, her confidence, and her entire outlook
• Unlearning a lifetime of fat-phobic diet culture (and why breakfast was the hardest hurdle)
• The Wolverine stack: how BPC-157, TB-500, and GHK-Cu supported her son's ACL recovery — and her own healing (Get all three of these in the KLOW stack)
• Microdosing GLP-1: what she noticed, what surprised her, and why she keeps coming back to it
• NAD, MOTS-C, and how her current peptide protocol supports brain health and longevity
• Why protein, sleep, and nervous system regulation have to come before peptides can do their best work
• The gut-brain connection she wishes she'd understood when she lost her son to suicide 11 years ago
• How a mom's health sets the tone — not just for her kids, but for her grandkids too

This is one of our favorite episodes. I know it will be yours too. Connect with Heidi on her Instagram @heidiswapp

Please share this episode. I guarantee someone you share it with will learn from it and be inspired to create change in their life and family. 

Want to connect more with the hosts? We'd love it! Connect with Jess at B2BwithJess.com/peptides or on Instagram @jessb.talkshealth. Grab your Blood Work & Peptides Mini Guide for free at drkylieburton.com. 

Ready to explore peptide therapy for yourself? Visit the company we recommend for pharmaceutical peptides and receive all the one-on-one support that comes included at drkylieburton.com

Want to offer peptide therapy in your business? Whether you're adding it to your existing practice or building something new, learn how to get started—and how we'll mentor you along the way—at drkylieburton.com

Legal Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new health protocol. Dr. Kylie Burton and Jessica Briecke are affiliates and may receive compensation for referrals. Individual results may vary.

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This is PepTalk: Peptides Unpacked—science made simple, results made real.

Transcript

Peptides Misunderstood And Reframed

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Peptides are powerful and often misunderstood. And we're here to change that. One conversation at a time. I'm Dr. Kylie Burton. And I'm Jessica Brickie.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

This is Pep Talk, Peptides Unpacked. If you've ever been in the scrapbook industry, you're gonna recognize this name. Her name's Heidi Swap, and she's our guest today. Just tell us a little bit about your two history together in the scrapbooking space.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

It's so funny. Um, I was just telling Heidi and you the story that I had a scrap, a baby little scrapbook company 20 some odd years ago with my big old pregnant belly hocking, you know, scrapbook store to scrapbook store, just saying, This is what I've got, and it was great. And it was we had a really great little thing. We showed up um, I don't know, nine months later to the big show out in Las Vegas. And when I say big, Kylie, the show was Vegas for one. That's what we did. It was Vegas for one, but at the convention center there, and I don't even know how many square feet, but like I mean, there were four, that was back when there were like four ball four humongous rooms, huge, dedicated. It just it would people would go for days because you couldn't get through and look at everything because there was so much to look at. Um anyway, so Heidi was obviously in that space for a long time. And so for me at that time, it's like that's what we wanted to aspire to, that's what we wanted to grow, and we would see from a distance and we would say to be here when I found out that we were gonna get to do this today.

Heidi Swap And Full Circle Roots

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Full circle.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Excited. Yes, it is full circle. So thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Thank you for giving me a little bit of credit because normally in this space, I don't have that, I don't have that much credit.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

I so one of my girlfriends, I told her the other day. Um, she used to manage a fairly decent sized graph book store um again, 20 years ago. Um, and she worked for me for a hot second and she did some of the consumer shows. And I told her, because she's literally like one of the only people that would get it. I said, guess what's coming on our podcast? And she couldn't believe it either. So you still have that credit all over the place. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, and and it's still something that I do. In fact, it's still the mainstay of my business, it's still how I support my family, and it's still like a deep passion of mine to document and to foster creativity. And interestingly enough, uh, along, I mean, you said it was 21 years ago. Is that what you said? Yeah. I started in the industry 25 years ago, and I've been doing ever since in every evolution and iteration, and it's changed a million times. And so here I have this platform of women around the world that are in my same age category. So I just turned 54, and most of these women, I mean, it's it's a variety of people who are a little bit younger, a little bit older than me, who have raised their children, who have given them their whole selves to their families for years and years and years, and are getting to this spot, 50 something, 60-ish, and going, I feel like crap. And all those hot, all those things that I used to love to do and document, like all the travel and the the hobbies and the friend groups and getting to get, you know, all these things, it's starting to just I don't do that anymore. I don't, you know, I don't feel good enough or you don't have the energy or whatever. And I like so back then it was like these consumer shows, and you're selling into mom and pop scrapbook stores, then it turned into Target and Michaels and Hobby Lobby and even Costco, and we're working to get our products into these big retailers. Magazines became blogs, became Instagram, and this, you know, 25 years of insane changes, but the women have stayed the same. My my fans and followers and friends have stayed the same. And as you listen to them and you hear from them, you know, now it's grandbabies, now it's different areas of life, more time. And I was feeling the same thing that like I didn't feel the same anymore. Um I watched my mom decline massively. She got uh she was diagnosed with a disease called PPA or primary progressive aphasia, which most people know because Bruce Willis has it.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

So it's a brain, um it's a brain disease. And most of the women my age are dealing with aging parents and adult children, and you're just kind of the sandwich age.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, I'm the same age. I'm 54, also it's the sandwich age. And you know, my parents are aging, my mother had a stroke, my father has cancer, so we're dealing with all that. And then my kids who are 27, 24, and 21, they they're out of the house, itch, itch, heavy on the itch. Keep trying. Um, it is a very difficult season in life, and yet we are, I feel like this group of women that are recognizing we don't want to age, maybe like our parents have. We want to, as Kylie knows, I say all the time, we want to live longer better, we want to be stronger. And my journey personally with peptides, I I know we'll get to your story in one second and how you got here, was because I dove into the education to be certified to help my clients that were not being treated well, in my opinion, and being treated, treating with um especially the GLPs irresponsibly. I needed to understand it in order to help them. But in that research, I realized, oh my gosh, this is gonna help my brain. And I will do anything to help my brain, which is where my journey began. I started microdosing GLPs because I wanted to lower my risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. That's where it began. And now I'm I am all in. I am a peptide girl. It is, it is in every aspect of what I do in my office when I'm treating people, working with people. Obviously, Kylie and I had this podcast now, but at the end of the day, I want my body strong, but that's great, that's easy enough to do, but my brain has to stay strong. And that is what I'm chasing. I am chasing that constant brain protection. But what so you're recognizing all this being in yours, what brought you so what it present?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

I mean, really, I will say, so I guess you you know this journey that I've been on, and that means that as a mom, five kids, and I've been the primary breadwinner in my family, and a creative, I'm I'm I'm a creative, and when we say that you're a creative genius, just say it. That I have extreme ADHD. And in order for me to function, I did my my moming during the day and then my work at night. And so I completely sacrificed my sleep. Yeah. Um, and so in order to do that, you have to fuel with caffeine and sugar. That was the only thing that I like that was yeah, and because I did move really quickly and I I was very um active, but I was not healthy. And and I kind of knew that I did think at that time that not have not sleeping was a superpower. Like I I like really was like, I only need four hours of sleep. And I'll it's a brag. It was a brag, right? Like it was like,

Midlife Energy Loss And The Sandwich Age

SPEAKER_01 8:05

yeah, 100%. Yeah. And I also, I mean, also probably my brag was I haven't eaten all day. Sure. Yeah. Yep. Guilty of charged. I don't even need to eat. I'm that superhuman, you know, and I like I really thought I was awesome. And yeah, I mean, things were not great. And I was probably pretty grouchy, and everybody just accepted that, you know, you know, like, I mean, I was good. Like, I if I could hit my deadlines and the next day I was I was happy as can be. Here's what happened is so my mom, I told her my mom got this um disease, and I watched my mom be very, very cognizant of her health at that stage of the game. So her mom also very cognizant of her health. But the difference is, and and you guys would agree with me back then for my mom, my grandma in my young age, my mom's momming, my grandma was super worried about her cholesterol. Yeah, and she was put on statins. And my grandma was just she was horrified that she had to be on medication. She was horrified that she had this horrible high cholesterol. And so it was like, cut out eggs, cut out red meat, you know, that story, no fat. Right. And so my mom, like what I remember, my mom, and and we say this very lovingly, our family was fat phobic. And so we were taught you don't eat fat under any circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

And my think about fat-free products were I mean, I'm 36. It was bad. I remember those in high school, like it was fat-free everything, and that was the thing that you wanted.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yes, and so butter was banned, but I can't believe it's not butter. Oh god, asterisk oxymoron, yeah. Okay, so Diet Coke, good. I can't believe it's not butter, good, yeah. Fat-free fro yo, this big good, right? And and my mom exercised and she was fit and she was cognizant, but she would not eat fat. And cholesterol was the bad guy, and that is how I grew up, and so I also didn't eat fat. I also prided myself on just low, low calorie, but I didn't understand. Okay, so that's more restrained. Yeah. Um, and I never was like super overweight, but I was not healthy. And right when I had to have a hysterectomy, I'd have full hysterectomy five, six years ago now, and that was right when we were having to put my mom in like a care facility. And I was looking at and I was crashing out. So I had I had a hysterectomy. My doctor said, You don't need to worry about hormones. You're young, you're gonna be just fine, don't worry about hormones. And I was like, Yay, because I don't want to have to figure that out. That sounds terrible. Because again, I I was too busy to worry about my my health. Like, I just needed to do what I was doing, eat cookies and drink caffeine, and I was good. And then my mom, like the reality of what was happening with my mom was devastating. And at that time, I realized, like, oh, this is gonna happen to me. I was having extreme brain brain fog, and the first the first inklings in my mom's disease was like this, she couldn't say words. And primary progressive aphasia affects your ability to communicate. So instead of just attacking, it doesn't attack, it's not like your memory loss, it's your communication. So your language goes. You can't say words and you can't understand words. And then it affected like her ability to eat, and and then it was like progression into dementia. And I just thought, oh, this is me. My mom had onset at age 60, and she was dead by 72, and

Watching A Parent Decline Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I was 50, and I was like, So I have 10 years before this is gonna happen to me. And I started to get really curious about brain health specifically, and I remember the first time I learned from Dr. Daniel Eymon, you would know, and he said Alzheimer's is 90% preventable. And I was like, wait, I thought it was genetic. I thought that this was my destiny. And then I went down like this really deep rabbit hole of wait a minute. So I so you're saying there's a chance. You're saying that I don't have to have this. And when I started learning about cholesterol and its effect on brain health, when I started learning about sleep and it's important to brain health, when I started learning about lifting weights and its importance to brain health, I was like, okay, okay, like, okay, I'm changing everything about myself because I will not do that. I won't do that to myself, I won't do that to my family. And my I lost my mom at 72. And that is just, it is just too young. And it doesn't have to be that way. And the understanding that we had, and so boom, I was on HRT, and I went from feeling literally like I was dying, like I put on 35, almost 40 pounds of weight from the time that I had my hysterectomy, and it was a full hysterectomy. From the time I had the hysterectomy to nine months later, I'd put on 40 pounds, which I'd never I mean, when I was pregnant, I hadn't even put on that much weight.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

And I I got on the HI HRT and it was like a little bit of a resurrection. I was like, and and we're back. Like, holy cow. And at that point, I was like, everyone needs HRT. And that was still a really bad, naughty word. Like it, you know, I got a lot of a lot of pushback. Um, and I couldn't believe how good I felt and I had a sex drive in the first time in like 25 years, and I was like, wow. There's something to this, right? Like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Your husband's like, why don't we find this 20 years ago?

SPEAKER_01 14:55

I know. Well, I was like, how come I've been being pissed about sex for 20 years? What's happening? Anyway, I was so thankful because it changed my outlook on wanting to take care of myself. So I still haven't discovered peptides at this point. At this point, I met a trainer who, you know, you know, Chelsea. Chelsea, yep. And she started training me. And never in my life to that point had I lifted weights. And I I believed the only way to exercise was to go out and literally kill yourself at a high-intensity class. Um, I'm from Utah, and so um high fit was like the gold standard of killing yourself. Off, you know, like orange theory, go and absolutely blast yourself and then be exhausted further. And incidentally, like, I mean, I have a brother who's an ultra marathoner, my dad was a marathon or like I it's not movement unless it's so extreme that you that it's as close to come as close as you can to come to dying, that's the that's exercise, right? And so I really thought and I and I tried to do that. Um so so lifting weights was interesting because I was very shy about it. And when Chelsea kind of got a hold of me and and started teaching me what I could do, like it was so exciting. And it would took a full year of me exercising lifting with her to where I actually noticed like in the mirror. I started putting side-by-side photos together, and I tell people all the time, you guys take the pictures. Yep. Those before photos are life-giving.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

They are hard to take and it's hard to face them. And I tell people, take them, put them away. You never have to look at them again. But you're gonna want to, you're gonna wish. So when you pull them out, yep, you do that comparison, you're like, damn.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

You know, it's like super, super exciting. Do the measurements, do the before pictures. That is the best thing that I ever that I ever did. So we're going a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Can I push pause really fast? Yeah, because I want to highlight a couple of things here. You said that you grew up with that notion of fats are bad, as many did in that generation, and then the whole exercising thing, you have to unlearn that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Only I didn't yet, because I was still superhuman. Okay, so I was lifting weights and not fueling. So you were going all day without eating, which is why it took me one whole year to even notice the difference. And finally, then Chelsea gets through to me. Now I'm older than Chelsea, and even though she can kick my ass, I'm a little bit like I think she was a little afraid to like say, no, really, you need to eat. And so it took me a full year to decide to actually eat. And then you're right, the unlearning um was difficult for me. Even putting better.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

I wanted to bring that up because it's something that whether it's our relationship with money, our relationship with food, our relationship with marketing and sales, like because that's what we're told, our family relationships, like these are all things that go into our journeys. And if we don't see it as unlearning, it's gonna be a limiting belief and it's gonna be a pause on the journey.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And so you really like the whole entire time when you start, you have to really think about those stories you tell yourself. And that and it took me a long time. So now we're talking, I'm talking about I had my hysterectomy hysterectomy in 2020. And in 2021, we were gonna have a wedding, and in 2022 we had another wedding, and so it was really only motivating, like I was really I just wanted to lose the weight. And right, you want to look good in the pictures. It was hard for me to think I just need I mean, I was really focused on the lifting weight, and then by the time the second wedding came around, and I had this muscle on me that was burning the fat, that I was feeling better, that I was looking at the photos, and then I was like, wait, so you're saying that at age 52 at this point, you know, 50 52 ish, I was 48 when I got the hysterectomy. I was like, I mean, I was putting on a bikini and I was like, I have abs. I could see them. And I

Unlearning Diet Culture And Sleep Myths

SPEAKER_01 19:55

was like, I was shocked. I I didn't even have I didn't even anticipate that I could get that I could get there. I did not know that a 50-year-old woman could change her entire body. I did I I thought it was too late. Right. And so then when I started, like, and we just started with breakfast because I was a I mean, I was a non-eater and a candy alcoholic.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Right. So that breakfast had to have been a very hard while that had to be really hard. Breakfast, if you're a non-eater, breakfast is an incredibly difficult, that's the hardest one to overcome.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And so I'll tell I'll tell you, I can't do recipes because that's thinking and effort and planning. I can't do menu plans. Don't give me a menu. So what I learned and what Chelsea helped me figure out is that I just needed to prepare protein. And so if I just had protein accessible, then all I was doing is like I guess like the way I dress. Like I have these seven t-shirts and these seven bottoms. Like I let I keep it every one of my bottoms can go with every one of my tops, and that is how I eat. Here's my protein, I have some vegetables, and and this is just how I do it. It's not a menu, it's not a recipe, it's just what I feel like. And when I started eating actual protein, and I was like, well, somebody said, if you eat protein breakfast, then you can manage your mood. And I was like, wait, you could improve our mood. Because I was a pissed Indian for a long time. And I still sort of am a lot. And I think that that's the gift of menopause.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

You're a mom on a mission.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Put up with a lot less, but I was, I was angry, I was angry. Um, and at this point, I still hadn't learned how to regulate my nervous system. So that that was a big part that didn't come until I had done all the things and still wondered, why? So why am I not floating on cloud nine? This little nervous system situation. But so I figure out eating. I'm actually drinking, not drinking 12 diet cokes a day. I still drink one and I know it's bad for my brain, and I'm working on it.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Um that's a big deal in Utah. Because let me explain something here. We don't we have Starbucks, but there's not really a line at Starbucks. The lines are at swig. And that is where we get the pop, the soda pop. And it's this cultural phenomenon that when I came back from Portland after school, I was like, what in the heck are these things? They're everywhere. Do you live in Utah? I yeah, I'm in Ogden.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

It's true, it's true. And so so weird for me because we don't have that in New York. It's such a like I I hear you say that to me all the time, and I've seen it on my dirty little secret reality shows that I watched. Um I can't believe that that's a thing. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

It's it is, and it anyway, it tastes delicious. So sorry.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

It's a struggle. And and there's by the way, there's um there's this whole push now for soda to be coming back online and everybody's talking about their crispy cokes. It's it's very popular these last few weeks.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Yeah, yeah, it's delicious. So it's a problem. So so I worked on sleep, I worked on hydration, I worked on protein. These were really big ones. And um and then I had this season of injuries, and so this is where we start getting into the the peptide game. Um so so it's been three years, three years this month, and I was in the best shape of my life. Like literally, I looked good, I felt good, I was sassy because of it. Like I it was great. Um and I'm sorry, yeah, this is two years ago. Okay, no, it's three years ago. Okay, sorry, sorry, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Um, I fell trying to start a motorcycle and completely tore my hamstring, like gone from the insertion point in my bum, completely tore, fell up down by my knee, like gnarly. And I was so mad. So enter in the maddest I've ever been in my life because I had done all this work and immediately I was like, I'm gonna lose it. Gone, I'm gonna lose everything. And um, I knew that it was gonna be four months before I could like hike again. Hiking is my fake, my favorite. Um if you live in Utah, you hike. Yeah, and it's you're not you're wasting your time here. Right. And um, so I didn't know if I was ever gonna get back. And so I had to have surgery, which was just devastating. And I'm on crutches for the entire summer, which was just devastating. And then at that four month point, I get cleared to start like hiking again. And I go up to wake up my daughter because she's an early morning drill teamer, that's also a Utah thing. Um, and I fall down the stairs and tear my rotator cuff.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

So anger, like double whammy, like wow, am I mad? And now here's the thing. My whole, like, it was already really hard for me to do my work and not be mobile. Now I now I'm down an arm. And so work is really a struggle. Plus, I'm the team mom for the drill team. And so I've got I've got all this stuff going on. I'm trying so hard not to get fat. Like, like, because this is my fear. These are the stories I tell myself if I can't do that, you know, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna go back to all my fat clothes, and and I've never felt so good. So so I doubled down on nutrition and got all my surgeries, rotator cuff surgery, which incidentally not great, um, get done, and things are feeling good. This is two years ago, and my daughter, who is getting ready to graduate, this is her senior year, this is all the glory. Two nights before graduation, she's in a massive golf cart accident. And there's six kids on the golf

HRT Strength Training And Protein Basics

SPEAKER_01 26:55

cart, they're out racing around, it's nine o'clock at night, um, up in the hills. So it's not on a golf course. This is, I mean, the kids around here drive on golf carts, and there's six kids on it, six 18-year-old kids on it, and everybody is it tips, rolls, and Capri gets stuck on it and it rips her face off. Just her nose, her lip. And if I could, I mean, the pictures all the way down to her to her skull. I mean, it was devastating. One other boy was injured, and it was his foot and his ankle that was hurt, but the other four kids were able to evacuate without without a problem. Um two nights before graduation. And now I've got this 18-year-old who has destroyed her her face. Um, so we so I'm angry. I'm angry. So we go about trying to trying to help her. She needs several surgeries. Um and I'm trying to think the timeline. So she's going along with these surgeries, and we come around now to the next spring. This is one year ago. And my son, who was a junior at the time, this is my youngest. First game of the rugby season, he's a rugby player and a hockey player. First game of the rugby season, it blows out his ACL.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Well, juju do you got going on in the house?

SPEAKER_01 28:42

I got two highly depressed, high-achieving kids that have lost the things that they have a purpose for. And if you do or don't know this, you may or may not know this. But 11 years ago this year, I lost a son to suicide, my 16-year-old, which was my second oldest son to suicide. And so my nervous system, my a my PTSD was raging. And I was like, what are we gonna do to heal? Everyone. Everyone. And and actually, like, we're coming back around, but my hamstring still like I'm in pain, I'm just not the same. And and I start learning about peptides. And I start learning about these healing properties of soft tissue, of bone health, of gut health. Mind you, my daughter um was in had an extreme concussion and traumatic brain injury from from this, and we'd been dealing with that. Um, she was still dealing with dizziness, she was still dealing with just health, just recovery. Sure. And and I had a kid that was a senior year, and I didn't want him to miss out his senior year of sports. So I said, you know what, whatever it takes, let's try these peptides. There's nothing to lose. And so one month, so it was about one month from the time my son got injured to when he could get the surgery. We had him on those peptides every day, Wolverine stack. I don't know if we can even call it that, but right, it's the my favorite. Yep, the BPC and the TB500, the BPC 157, the and the copper peptides, the GKKCU, yep. And um, I had my son on it, I put Capri on it, and I got on it. Same stack. Say that same stack, same stack. Okay, we all took it nighttime, ipermellin, morning, everything else, diligent. And Connor, now granted, he's an 18-year-old boy. Um it was amazing how quickly he was back up and moving. And he had a really progressive surgeon, I will also say, um, and that was also my shoulder surgeon who was very progressive, who was like, get out, get moving. He never even had Connor in a brace. Like he was like, This is how we do. You take it easy, but you do. Right. And he knew we were on the peptides. Um, and when I tell you, so Connor had that ACL surgery in April. Actually, it was he was injured in April. He had surgery in May, and on October 1st, he was cleared to be on the ice plane hockey season, and he played great. And he just finished his rugby season, senior year rugby season as an MVP as the MVP.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Six months back on the hockey skates, and I'm sorry, but I've got a neighbor who's two doors down. It's a girl, she's the same age, same injury, same surgery one day before, Connor. And did not have the same healing story. No, there's a lot of things that cause things that can influence that, sure. But and I'm gonna tell you that as a mother, I did not wake up my son Connor the entire summer summer. That entire summer, he slept till probably noon, and I didn't care. Yeah, because what I knew about healing was was that it happens when you sleep, and I just let that kid sleep. And so I think that that's a big part of it. He's learned about eating protein, and that kid will come in and he will take the prepped protein and just serve it up on a on a burrito or on a better ice or whatever. Like he understood the power of protein. And the same thing happened for my daughter. Um, we had changed the way we were eating, we had changed into um weightlifter, weightlifting people. And so both of my kids, these are the only two kids left at home, and they were going to the gym with us and they were eating like us, and they were they were actually sleeping, even though they're in this stage of life, Connor sleeping in the morning. Yeah, you know, and then so when Capri went away to school, um, she just finished her sixth surgery on her face. Um, but when she went away to school last year, she meal prepped, she lifted weights, she got outside and walked, and like just it's hard because you don't you can't know and you can't see. But the I mean the peptides are magical, and you should see me like I can on my leg square, I can get all the way down. I don't even feel it. I don't even high rocks girl, you have to get all the way down, and frankly, Capri and I are signed up for iRox, high rocks in September together, how fun. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna do we're gonna do it women's telephone, but I'm as I'm scared, but this is why I'm so passionate about women's health, is because it's not just for the mom, it affects her entire family, and it changes the outcome and the outlook and the prognosis and the longevity of her entire family because she's the one that's that's prepping the meals, she's the one that's pacemaking that whole family, whether she knows it or not, or whether she wants to step up to it or not, you know, and I think if you can be a mom that can see yourself as I'm an active, I'm healthy, and yeah, I mean, I still make cookies on Sundays, right? Like, sure. He's still you're not a purist. No, and I mean, I could never, but I honestly like the peptides aren't gonna work unless you're working the peptides, they are a tool, you know, and and so I think that you know, you talk about the GLP one, and I have done some microdosing of the GLP one, and I'm astounded at what it does to my body. And I'm not very consistent about it, and so I'll be consistent for like a month and I'll be like, dang, girl, you know, and then and then I'll get distracted or I'll run out or something like that. And then I'm like, what why am I feeling so bloated? You know, why am I feeling so this and that, not changing really my diet? It just makes you function better. My skin. I cannot get over what that does for your skin. And it just, I'm I'm sorry, but this is the moneymaker for me, right? Like it makes you feel more confident, it makes you feel better about yourself. And I guess that there's a lot of people that only worry about what it looks like on the outside. I'm far more worried about what it's saying on the inside. I'm far more worried about what my numbers are, I'm far more worried about what my what I feel like. I'm far more worried about how I'm actually functioning, how my brain is working. One of the most, one of the craziest things that happened recently was that I had some friends challenge me to learn how to play pickleball. And when I first, like my brain was, I'm like, when is my brain gonna catch up? And it took me, it took me some time. But and Dr. Raymond talks about this all the time, like play paddle sports, the best thing you can do for your brain. And now I'm out there with my kids because I decided that I was gonna play pickleball, and and then everybody comes along, you know, and so I think that you know, I also have a podcast and talk

Injuries Family Trauma And The Need

SPEAKER_01 37:35

to a lot of practitioners where um we're talking about functional medicine, usually and root cause stuff. And I've learned so much because I'm definitely a Western science kind of a girl. Like, and I and I'm definitely like, if a doctor tells you to, yes, you do, you know, that kind of a girl. Like I'm an obedience girl. I live in Utah, I have scrupulosity, all the things, right? But we sit and we talk about like all these terrible processed foods and all these terrible habits that we have as Americans and this terrible American diet. And I'm like, and like the magic of these peptides and the technology that we have and the information that we have, and taking the black box off of estrogen, and like, this is an exciting time to be a 50-year-old woman.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yes, you know, you've had this um lived experience with your mom, where you saw obviously, yes, she unfortunately left you at 72, which is my opinion, she's too young. But those years prior. But that's just gonna say, but really those years prior. Right, really hard. And so when we talk about when you were talking about you as a mom kind of leading, leading the way for everybody, it's so true because everybody is so quick. Well, it runs in my family. They had this, so I'm gonna have this. It's like this exceptional thing that you've decided. But the reality is what we have handed down aside from genetics is habits and thoughts. And that is really, in my opinion, a large reason why people are deciding for this. And so when you change that, not only in your food prep, but in showing your family simple things like sleep and the importance of sleep and rest, you could still be that go-getter and build big business and do all the things that you have to do, but also making sure that you're not taking yourself off the list in order to do those things. You still have to work out, move weights, eat well, sleep. And in those other hours, you can rule the world. But you're not going to rule the world for very long and very well if you're not prioritizing your time and then teaching that to your kids. So that changes their whole life.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

I just barely have a brand new six-week-old grandbaby. Oh, congratulations. Our very first grandbaby. And we've got one more coming in about a month. And I just realized that I not only wanted to be emotionally available and fun and engaging a grandparent that was going and supporting, but physically I wanted to be able to keep up. And I wanted the activities that we did to be hiking and playing and adventuring and not coming to my house and I mean they can they can stamp at my house if they want.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

They can they can craft us too.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

But I um I think that my belief system is that the moms are always the center of the universe, of their families. And the mom sets the tone, the mom sets the pace, and it's not only a responsibility, but it's a it's an opportunity, you know, and we're gonna have these grandkids that their parents are working their little their brains out, and you know, it's a different world that we live in. Moms and dads are gonna be eating, and the convenience and um quick food is gonna be so important. And when a grandma can show up and be a support and encourage her and and do that by example, not only by example, but also just like, and this is how we have fun, and and this is what this is what we do, this is who we are, this is the kind of family that we are, then it's it's just going to empower those generations. And so when I saw my mom, when I saw her mom start to lose confidence, and that like technology is a big part of confidence, I think, with older people, like you can't keep up with the kids on. And um I just started noticing women starting to take themselves out of the game and let everybody else run the show, and and maybe the grandma shows up my grandmas are the show, healthy grandmas are the show, and that's what I want to be for my family. And when I realized that I had the power to decide that I didn't have to worry and wait and expect Alzheimer's to come or a broken hip, or I mean, I've had I've had the injuries, and I think I'm I'm not afraid of I mean, I don't want any more injuries, but but I don't live in fear of that, and um, and so now I guess for one year, I guess now a little over the year, and now in in addition to a Wolverine stack, I'll take an NAD and an a MOT C and um and I'll do a little microdosing with some GLP1. And I feel so great. And it's it's a lot, I think there's a lot to tell people about, and I certainly don't do it on my scrap, on my page, you know, it's kind of like I'm waiting for it to see where it comes. I think when I talk to people about it, they're like, well, why don't you get it? You know, like

The Wolverine Stack And Real Recovery

SPEAKER_01 43:45

I um wanna I summarize one thing.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

You had to walk through all of those many stages to get to where you are to see the value in the peptide, because the peptides are a tool that don't, while They will be helpful. They may only be helpful short term if you don't have all those things that you had in place. I think you had to walk through that first and understand the nutrition and the sleep and all of those things. And then when you layer it on the peptides, that just is a game changer in general. And there's two thoughts behind that. One, those tools can be used to help you make the changes that maybe you weren't able to do. Maybe there's too much inflammation in your body. Maybe you have too much food noise, addictive patterns, thoughts that are scattered that you can't clear up. And so those tools will help you to make those changes that you need to, to move your body, to nourish your body, to rest your body. The other side of that is somebody like yourself or me that you're walking the talk already, and now you want to take it to another level with peptides. Now you've got all these great things in place, but we can do better. We can heal quicker. We can do all these other things and take it up a notch in our longevity journey, our sexual wellness journey, whatever it is that you're seeking out with peptides. So they are magical. They are incredibly powerful. Your story is remarkable on every level. From learning from mom and grandma to all the way down to, you know, the grandbabies that are coming, but what you've done for your youngest children by showing them this healing journey that five years ago you wouldn't have been able to show them.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

And I'm telling you, like, I don't need to live to be 140, whatever that Brian guy wants to do. Well, based on the way the world is going, I don't know that I want to be around Brian. I'm like, dude, 140, what are you thinking? But but here's what I will say. I want to be able to like ring every drop of life out for as long as I possibly can. And and I'm telling you, I'm vain as heck. So yeah. So I want to look good while that happens. The the biggest drawback, I'm gonna tell you the biggest drawback of the peptides is that I gotta get my hair cut like two weeks quicker every time. And I have this short hair, so it's pretty tricky. Um, but you should see Capri's hair. I mean, it is my daughter's hair is fantastic. Her skin, I mean, her face, her healing is absolutely astounding. She does have a great doctor, but I think the greatest thing of recognizing this world that we live in is taking that opportunity to optimize. And you do have to make a choice because it is really easy to drive through, to, to grab a drive-thru, and it and the and the crap is so rampant. And frankly, I've got a lot of people, and and I'm just starting to kind of coach women in this in this health space, um in with lifestyle habits, because I think that was something that I just I didn't ever prioritize. But what we have available to us and even like just like the availability of red light and the availability of I mean here in Utah now there's this there's a contrast therapy place on every corner. And I love it so much. So women will say to me, but it's so expensive. Like that bag of protein powder is 60 bucks or that costs this much. And I'm like, You want me to tell you it's expensive? Is feeling like crap. You want me to tell you it's expensive is memory care providing. You want me to tell you what's expensive is not being able to get up after out of your chair. You know, it's just a hundred percent worth it, and every like, and it's never too late. Like, that's the other thing that is crazy is that any effort that you start making, like we used to think our brains didn't respond, and now we know that we have so much, so many ways that we can empower our brain. And with peptides, when you get that, like that stack, whatever the Wolverine stack, and you're optimizing your skin and your hair, and you know, your glow, you're also optimizing your gut. And here we are thinking, like, oh, it's working on my skin, but really it's not working on you're doing it on the inside, right? Really, what's happening? Yeah, and and so, like, I just think it's the most exciting thing ever. So thank you for your podcast, and thank you for talking about it. And I did all the talking, so sorry about that. Oh, it's a great story.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

I really loved it. I I resonated with this a lot because I'm speaking in an in-person networking event in Salt Lake County in a couple weeks, and the topic is you're built to win, but you're running on empty. You're gonna go do the things anyways, because that's what us women do. We're gonna go hit the goals, we're gonna go make the marks, we're gonna go do the things. Let's feel good while we do it. And then from another perspective of, you know, I now have a nine-year-old, a six-year-old, and an almost three-year-old. So for the first time in my life, I'm out of the baby phase and I love it. And I'm like, okay, now I get to spend a little bit more time on me because Chloe's gonna be in preschool in the fall. Like, it's four hours a week of like freedom. What can I do with that? Yeah, yeah. So it's a different lifestyle or different stage of life, but it's the same concepts. I want my brain to be rocking and rolling and strong when I'm 85, when I'm 45, and when I'm 40, 35. I'm 36 now. But I do that not just for me, but as a mom, we set the standard for our house. We set the standard as a leader for those of us who are watching us without even realizing that they're watching. And in this day and age with the mental side of things, like I want to make sure the mental side is prestigious.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

We could have a a we have a we could have a whole nether conversation about that mental health piece, um, especially for you as you've got these kids that are gonna go be teenagers, whether you like it or not, right? And when you go to the high school and you watch what the kids are eating, and you watch what they're consuming on their phones, the fast, the fast consumption, and you think about how much they're sleeping

Longevity Tools GLP1 And Mom Leads

SPEAKER_01 50:45

and how they're interacting. Um, you know, I mentioned to you that I lost a son to suicide, and there was there's a lot of factors, and that, and that is the thing about mental health, is that there's a lot of factors. And if I would have known all the things that I know now, um, you know, I think when he first passed away, I was really passionate about suicide awareness and talking to kids and um helping parents talk to their kids and improve those relationships, which are so important. And fast forward to now when I start learning that these key neurotransmitters that are missing are being formed in our gut. And and you know, people have said to me, Well, your gut's your second brain. Like I've heard it a million times that I had no idea what it meant. But when you can't make serotonin because you're eating Cheetos and energy drinks, then you don't have a lot of hope, especially when you're not sleeping, and especially when you're on social media 24 hours a day. It's it's tough, right? And so for you, your kids are gonna see like, oh my gosh, we go outside and we do this together and we incorporate these healthy habits and we prioritize our sleep and we do it together, you know, and you're not gonna be able to protect them from every heartbreak. You're not, you know, only the work gets. My goal is to have a safe home.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

They know that when they come home, home is safety.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

And and having that conversation, you have it has to be lead with it has to be led with some healthy lifestyle habits that feel normal and that feel safe and that feel fun to them too. Like, not like not the punishment. This is our hard part time, and this is how you're different, you're grant, and you're and you don't get to do what the other kids do, you know, like it's a tricky balance. But the mental clarity, the nervous system stuff has to happen first with these healthy lifestyle habits, and and it's tricky at every stage. At every stage is tricky, but it's so worth it.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

But it's worth it, and it's it's priceless. Yeah, what you're doing now is priceless, but not just the now, but for the long term. Yeah. Oh guys, we could keep going on and on and on. Uh Heidi, where can they find more about you?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Well, if you want to scrapbook, I'm still scrapbooking. Um, and my Instagram is just HeidiSwap. And I get, you know, I don't, I I can't, I'm not allowed to just talk about fitness stuff on there because people get mad and they want me to talk to talk about creative stuff. Um, and so I also have um a page that's called Join Shift Collective. And I have a dream of having a women's health platform that helps to support women who are kind of

Mental Health Gut Health And Teen Life

SPEAKER_01 53:55

in that 45, 55, 65, and I don't like to say reclaim their life because they're really habits that we've probably never had. So I like to say that like it's your your second act. I like to say that it's your new normal, it's you're starting fresh. And I was even talking to some women at church, they're in their like 30s, 30, kind of eking up on 40s, and they're like, Oh, I wish I would have gone to hair school, or I wish I would have done this and that. And I'm like, girls, girls, don't you worry because you've got your 50s coming. This is your time. You can do anything you want, you can be anything you want. I used to think it was old, and it's not. It's like, I mean, and they say it all the time, it's kind of like being a teenager for old people. This this is your time. And it's exciting. I feel I've never felt better, I've never looked better, I've never had a more enthusiastic outlook on what life can look like. And um, and I just think it's a I just think it's a great time to be alive, honestly. Agreed. So come and find me, hit me up. And then come scrap scrapbook. It's pretty fun.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

Jess, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Um, so you can find me also on Instagram where I am JessB.Talkshealth. I am talking all things peptides as much as we can get away with in the new meta. We're gonna crack down on everybody way. Um, but all kinds of other functional wellness stuff. So you can find me there. You can also catch me uh at my website, which is b2bwithess.com, and there you can find peptides and find some of my programs and all things wellness and peptide related. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

If this story resonated with you, if anything you've heard on this podcast

Where To Find Us And Share

SPEAKER_02 56:05

resonated with you, please leave a review and share this. There are more 50 year olds out there who need to hear this message than you think. So simply click share and let somebody find it and get answers to what they have been praying for. I'm Dr. Kylie Burton, and you can find me at my web, my website, drkylieburton.com. This is Pep Talk, Peptides Unpacked. See you next time.