Success: The Fast Road to Burn Out
The story in this podcast is one I think most of you will relate to. Chasing the “dream”, the big job, family, exercise. And then realizing how burnout you feel once you get there.
Stephanie Graves shares her story of transformation from burnout back to health and balance. For 10 years, she was in the medical field as a physician’s assistant (licensed PA). Stephanie enjoyed her job and the professionals that she worked with. However, after 10 years and knowing something wasn’t right with the care she was able to provide, she began a journey to improve her health and the health of others.
Stephanie, like many others, got burned out. The high patient turnover rate, raising children, running marathons, eating what she considered healthy, and lifestyle we’re catching up. Stephanie made the bold decision to heal herself. During this process, she learns that her exercise and diet were not supporting her health. Anxiety and digestion issues plagued her. Stephanie began to study functional nutrition and that was the turning point for her. This was the genesis of TheFunctionalHealer.com
What is Functional Nutrition?
Functional nutrition and functional medicine or a holistic approach to health. By first getting the body clean and reducing systemic inflammation caused by many foods, the body will naturally reset to a healing state. Once the body is in that healing state, other factors can begin to be addressed. Lifestyle factors such as stress, trauma, anxiety, weight gain, unhealthy habits, and emotional resiliency.
Combining both traditional and functional medicine in cooperation with the client’s doctors provides a thorough and holistic path back to good health.
During Covid, Stephanie made the radical change to leave her profession and start her business, the Functional Healer. She offers individual client consultations conveniently online for anyone in the US. She is currently developing programs to reach a wider audience. She is available for new clients as well.
Take a listen and see if her story resonates with you. It is a common story here in western culture. Stephanie can show you the path back to good health and abundant life.
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#thefunctionalhealer #stephaniegraves #functionalnutrition #functionalmedince
The Podcast Transcript
Josh Meeder 0:00
Welcome to the great things LLC podcast. The show celebrating inspiring people who are making an impact in the world, creating conscious businesses that are in alignment with their own personal values. Each episode shares the wisdom, experience and intention of those that are following their dream. Visionaries that have chosen a different path, found their purpose and create joy and abundance while helping others. Whether you’re already a trailblazer, or still searching for your own path, these stories will inspire you towards being the best version of yourself. Welcome to the great things, LLC Podcast. I’m Josh Meeder, your host and today, I’m really excited to share the story that Stephanie Graves is bringing forward because I think it’s going to land and resonate with so many people out there from being highly performing highly successful doing everything, the mom, the family, the work to what a lot of people find is a quick path to burnout and impacting your health and Stephanie story show, she’s going to share that, and what she’s come through how she’s come through and what she’s doing today. So first off, welcome, Stephanie. It’s great to have you on here.
Stephanie Graves 1:10
Thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited to be here today.
Josh Meeder 1:14
Yeah, so Stephanie and I, and her husband, Ryan met several years ago at a wellness workshop and just had a really great connection to fantastic people, lovely parents, and just really found a good connection. And since that point, Stephanie, I, you know, I followed both of your adventures. And, you know, let’s set the table a little bit for the audience here to share where you came from, you know, from the physician’s assistants, the successes, the challenges you had, and what kind of really brought you to the point where you had to make a shift?
Stephanie Graves 1:47
Yeah, absolutely. So, yes, you’re correct. My background is as a physician’s assistant, which I practiced for 11 years. And initially, it was very rewarding. And I really felt like I was making a difference helping people particularly in my first job, I worked in surgery. So that was pretty much like instant gratification. You know, I was seeing what I was doing right before my eyes helping people. As time went on, and as I had children, twins, and then a son, my priorities shifted. And during that time, I was also struggling with my own health crises. And I felt like I was just being bounced from provider to specialists to nutritionist, and no one was really taking the time to listen or to help me or to do any of the deeper work that was really needed to uncover what was going on. They were just merely treating the symptoms. All the while, too, as I mentioned, I was starting to have some professional disenchantment, if you will. As I was going through the wringer as a patient, I saw on the other side, how patients were just being it was like a wheelhouse bring being brought in and out as quickly as possible. So I knew there had to be a better way. And being the one high achiever, I guess, or maybe even a little bit stubborn person that I am, I was unwilling to accept that I was just going to be on prescription meds for the rest of my life. So I explored a different avenue. And a local one, a friend first introduced me to functional nutrition. And instantly I was I was hooked, and I enrolled in the coursework, and I completed two levels of certification. And, and then I started implementing it not only in my health, I mean, the issues that I was struggling with radically changed. I was no longer living with daily debilitating pain. And then I was being able to, I was given the opportunity to share this knowledge with all of my patients and seeing firsthand the radical transformations that were happening in their lives and giving them their lives back.
Josh Meeder 4:21
And on let’s for the audience, so functional medicine, verse allopathic in the traditional because I think one thing people see is like doctors and nurses, they went to school, they study, they know how to be healthy. And and it’s a difference between functional medicine and your traditional medicine of the West. Could you maybe just help for the listeners who aren’t familiar with functional medicine as to what that is?
Stephanie Graves 4:46
Absolutely. I think that’s a really great piece to dive into. So yeah, so functional medicine. First, let’s say traditional Western medicine and doctors are wonderful. They are trained in Medicine, they are not trained in nutrition. And I can speak from a vantage point of a PA. I mean, I think our nutrition education was maybe like one lecture. So in traditional Western medicine, it’s medicine. And it’s mainly just symptoms. So you go to the doctor, you’re depressed, you get an antidepressant, you have diabetes, you get a medication to treat diabetes. And my world in the functional world, we’re looking much deeper, looking to the roots of what caused your depression, what caused your diabetes? And how can we make shifts to the internal terrain through various diet and lifestyle modifications, where the dysfunction took root, the internals rain in order to create, you know, real sustainable change. So we’re peeling back the layers and more and more and digging deeper, to identify what it is that caused that so we can treat that. And again, in essence, resolve, you know, their symptom or disorder.
Josh Meeder 6:08
So, as I understand it, and am experienced and other friends in the field, I think one of the things that just to touch on a little bit is the challenge with the almost the psychology of the American public, and their approach to medicine, because it’s go to the doctor to feel better to alleviate the symptoms, but you’re really not really hitting that root cause. So getting into the functional medicine goes deeper, but it is a longer more gradual and gentle. Shift. If Yeah,
Stephanie Graves 6:39
yeah, absolutely. And I often have to remind patients or clients to, you know, for example, you’re coming to me for anxiety, it took you 46 years to get to this point, it’s going to take more than one visit to feel better, you know, so there’s a lot of undoing and unraveling. And yes, well I do is exploring much deeper. So that does take more time to really investigate all of the factors that are influencing disease or symptom expression.
Josh Meeder 7:07
And we’ll get into this a little bit later. But there’s also not just the nutritional aspect, but the emotional, the spiritual, the entire body, where trauma can come in, can reside in those different things. So it’s a more holistic, and I think it’s a more intuitive approach that people just innately understand. But it does take some work and some investment in yourself to get there. But let’s jump back to your story. So you’ve been, you know, you’ve found success, you’ve found a path that you really liked. And then there were some disenchantment, you have these things you’ve gotten now through your functional certification. Where where’s this now starting to open up to you where it leads you today? With the functional healer.com and the services you’re providing?
Stephanie Graves 7:52
Yeah, so before the functional healer was officially born, I was still working as a PA, I was homeschooling my children. And like you said, it was a quick path to burnout. I mean, I’d already been burnt out for years. But I got to a point where I just couldn’t do all the things and my PA career was not fulfilling to me. Yes, I was helping people, but on someone else’s clock and dime and I had to fit into a box that I didn’t really fit into anymore. So had to take make a really big decision, I couldn’t homeschool be a PA and start a business all within the span of the same time. So I made a really big decision that I was going to leave my super stable well paying with amazing benefits pa career to really just dive into this path and my passion and be able to provide medicine in a way that I feel is most meaningful. So yes, and March the functional healer.com was born. And I launched my website and I’m currently accepting new clients when I’m working with on a one on one basis and in the near future. I would like to launch a program to to be able to help more people because that’s kind of where you get stuck with one on one you can only help so many people and honestly I just want to help everyone because there’s so much misinformation out there and so many people are doing it wrong, myself included. I thought I was doing all the right things. I thought I was eating healthy. I thought by running marathons I was in top physical condition but in reality I was I was not you know I was doing a lot of the wrong things. So I’m really just here to educate people, provide them with the information, share my story and help guide them along the way because it’s it is overwhelming and it’s it can be scary to do it alone. Um,
Josh Meeder 10:01
and with the right direction and the baseline, you know, we’ll talk a little bit about how find finding those baselines, finding where your stasis is, once that’s in place, it becomes building. And, you know, going back to making the decision, this is where, you know, I know I’m really curious about is, that is a place where so many people find themselves, you know, in a disenfranchised position in their career unhappy in their life wanting to make a change, but sometimes trapped by circumstance and finance and income and, and all the things around it, like, how did you get past that fear? What was your support system? Or was it just such a lightning bolt of clarity? You had no other choice? I’m really fascinated to see what was got you over the hump there.
Stephanie Graves 10:49
Yeah, well, you know, a little bit more about our story than the rest. But for the past four years, my family and I, we’ve basically just been going on leaps of faith. And thus far, it seemed to work out pretty well. You know, we’re still all alive and well. So that’s kind of where we were at, we also had a really big move to move from North Carolina to Maine. So it seemed like the perfect time to take this leap. But yeah, there was definitely pushback from family. And I think just for fear of not being financially secure with three young children, you know, which is understandable. But again, I have a much bigger vision and dream for all of this. And I couldn’t do that in the constraints that I was in. And I think more now than ever, people need to hear, you know, the message that messages that I have, and they need functional nutrition in their life. So I can’t just sit back and be quiet about it anymore.
Josh Meeder 11:54
From as small business coaching and standpoint, it’s amazing how much the people who love us the most sometimes are, I don’t say your biggest critic, but our least supportive because they do have our good intentions in mind and our best interest, but they might just not see the the alternative path. Was there anyone in your profession or your career that help really, you know, encourage you along or support you through this process of transition? Or did you just go solo and jump off the cliff?
Stephanie Graves 12:26
I think I just went solo and jumped off the cliff. Yeah. I mean, the doctors that I worked for my last job were were very supportive. And for the most part, they like, let me practice the way that I wanted to. But again, we did kind of butt heads a little bit at the end, and nothing bad, just the way that they practice versus the way that I practice. And it just kind of got to a point where I just couldn’t do that any longer. And again, we were looking at a move, so it just kind of seemed like the stars aligned.
Josh Meeder 13:00
Yeah, well, you know, kudos to you, to Ryan in the family for being able to have that support in that faith to do it, because that’s a huge move and want to really acknowledge that. And so now we’re here today, and your practice is starting up. And when we were talking, what really struck me was was your story and how common it is, you know, with those in the high performing roles, those in the parenting roles, those in relationships, all these things coming in from life and in life is a fast pace. So I know you you’ve always cooked well, and you know, you enjoy good food, but even that sometimes is the wrong food for our body. So when I heard it, it’s like, oh, yeah, do I know anyone who’s high performing high functioning, maybe high anxiety over functioning, over achieving, you know, struggling with perfectionism? Like, that’s pretty common out there. And so how let’s start there, because that’s, you know, from what we discussed a fairly big population that you have, what do you do with those folks? How do you take that first step and roll back what they’ve developed over 1020 30 years of lifestyle?
Stephanie Graves 14:12
Yeah, yeah. So for any client, no matter where they’re coming in, the first step is really is to clean up the diet. So it may seem not important. But as cliche as it sounds, everything really does start in the gut. So if you’re constantly eating inflammatory foods, and those are an intern, sending inflammatory messages to your brain, since your gut and brain communicate very closely, the longest nerve in your body, then that’s only going to perpetuate and worsen any of those, you know, ruminating thoughts or anxiety or fear of failure, any of those things. So, really just and also, the biggest thing is meeting people where they are to so looking at their food journals. Are they eating sandwiches? Foods, yes, okay, let’s remove those in a stepwise fashion if they’re not, or once they’ve done that, then really just looking at lifestyle. And for me, I feel the biggest thing that I did was to, to drop my body into that healing state because when you’re in that constant fight or flight mode, that sympathetic response, the same response that’s triggered when you’re running away from a bear. Or if you’re chronically stressed, because of job, kids, relationships, lack of sleep, under eating, even all the things, the same response is triggered. So really, dropping into that healing state, the biggest thing I found was taking things off my list was removing responsibilities and obligations, and really just focusing on the things that really filled me up and kind of disconnecting from some of those other things. So for example, like I said, I used to run marathons. Now I do yoga, and I walk not because I don’t love running, because it wasn’t serving me, because honestly, I was running, looking back now in hindsight to escape. From what, from my reality? So really just looking at the things that you’re doing every day? Are they bringing you joy? Or are they depleting your energy? Or are you using it as you know, an escape or a coping mechanism, and really just sitting with yourself and exploring what you’re doing every day?
Josh Meeder 16:47
It’s interesting on that part about change, because I would imagine this is probably one of the hardest hurdles or objections for people is changing habits, right, we are creatures of habits, our brains are literally wired, to seek comfort and avoid discomfort. And it almost is like a grief process giving up a relationship that you had. So if you’d liked your morning bagel, you know, with your cream cheese, and you’ve done it for five years, that kind of creates a loop a pattern. And, and so it’s you almost have to go through a grief process of changing habits. And when you’re not aware of that, that sneaks up sideways sometimes. But let’s talk I want to just go back a little bit to help kind of bring the audience in on the concept of inflammatory foods, and really, why why is the food causing inflammation? And how is it affecting your brain? You know, just to bring people up to speed on that?
Stephanie Graves 17:43
Yeah, absolutely. And that was a great point you mentioned before. So one of the things that I do that’s very unique is I provide a ton of education in my visits, because again, it makes it much easier to give up that morning bagel, if you understand the negative implications it’s having on your health, versus just saying don’t eat the bagel, you know? So yeah, so there’s four common kind of groups of foods that are inflammatory, so gluten, dairy, processed foods, and refined sugars, and each of them cause inflammation and slightly different ways. But either way, like I mentioned, your gut and your brain are connected to the longest nerve in your body. And those signals actually go both ways. So anything you put in your mouth, sends messages to your brain, good, bad or indifferent. Vice versa. Anything that’s happening up here sends messages to your gut. So that can often be a telltale sign to if anxiety, depression, ADHD, any mental health symptom can present as gi side effects, which is what I was experiencing. Also, interestingly 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut. So if you’re constantly just putting foods in there, that are inflammatory depleting your body of serotonin that’s also going to help you know negatively impact how you’re feeling overall. So the first step again, is really just to remove those inflammatory foods. And then once we’ve done that, then it’s called clearing the Muddy Waters, if you will, then we have a much better idea of okay, what’s really going on and they are what you know, their their main complaint was once removed these things that we know are skewing the picture. Now, now, where are they at and oftentimes, just cleaning up the diet can be significant enough for resolution. Certainly not always, but can oftentimes have a big enough impact. That you know, maybe very little is needed elsewhere.
Josh Meeder 19:59
That was what I was getting That’s because diet in you know, found this personally to is so much impacts everything you know, I’ve heard the statement you can’t outrun your mouse. So if you’re not eating well, there’s no amount of running you can do. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the affliction of running marathons like you have. So I’ve stayed away from long term running, but the basis of cleaning up the diet, like what are some of the things that are common that you might see with your patients and in your clients after just cleaning up their diets? Is it you know, more mental clarity, increased energy, better digestion? What do you see typically, after the diets been balanced?
Stephanie Graves 20:37
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it depends to where they came in out. But, you know, yes, a lot, you know, loss of abdominal pain, or if they were having cramping, or diarrhea, improved skin, you know, no more eczema or acne, improved energy. better sleep really just runs the whole gamut. So these inflammatory foods, oftentimes, the body has to supply its own energy to break them down. And, and then in return, there’s usually little nutrients gained. Because generally, those foods don’t have a ton of the nutrients. Yes, gluten and dairy may have some nutrients, but at its core, whether or not you have food sensitivities, or not those those foods do cause increased inflammation in the body. And we know that inflammation is one of the roots of all chronic diseases. So yeah, I mean, it really, it really does run the gamut. And I know for myself, I mean, I certainly abstained from those foods. If I were to have something, maybe I would be symptomatic. Maybe not, you know, now that I’ve gone so long without them. Personally, I like feeling good. So I don’t like to take it by chance. But oftentimes, people or clients will say, oh, like, you know, I went out to eat, and I had a pizza or something. And that was that night, I was sick in the bathroom, you know, all night long. So I mean, your body is giving you signals. Every day, it’s just whether or not you’re willing to listen to what it has to say, or if you’re just gonna continue pressing on.
Josh Meeder 22:25
Yeah, for all the expenses and technology we have for medical diagnosis, the body is one of the most accurate in one of the first lines to get that your body and your emotional state will be telling you that and then segwaying with the emotional states, so kind of now going into, we’ve got a clean diet. And there’s these other underlying issues of whether it be trauma, anxiety, resiliency, lack of resiliency, what is kind of step two, in the process that you’re guiding your clients through?
Stephanie Graves 22:57
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, step one is definitely cleaning up the diet to like I said, is how can we get the body into that healing parasympathetic state, so dropping down from that survival mode state that so many of us live in all the time to getting into that healing, parasympathetic state, so that could look different, again, for everyone could look like removing things off your, your, you know, to do lists, scaling back on exercise, focusing on sleep, doing trauma work, because the body, the physical body, so it holds so much emotional trauma? So there’s obviously various modalities to do so. But doing trauma work, in my experience, has been the most profound healing for me to really get to the core of why am I anxious? And how do I moved through this so certainly, you know, doing everything functionally brought me leaps and bounds ahead of where I was and then doing trauma work really just kind of brought everything together for me.
Josh Meeder 24:08
The trauma work and you know, being familiar in in that myself for years, I’ve always heard the example is you know, your you have your brain and it’s the computer and like computers, there’s an operating system and no matter what your pro program, you slide into it, it still runs based on the operating system and that trauma work is actually getting into the brain and rewiring the operating system so it performs differently. And a lot a lot of times whether it be in coaching in my profession or in yours, those trauma wounds whether they be the third grade where you didn’t get the you know, called for the school course or you felt dumb because of an AP test, manifest and come out completely sideways in unexpected ways and until you can touch on that place. You kinda repeating subconscious patterns.
Stephanie Graves 25:02
Yeah, yeah. And it’s wild to once you start doing the work to see the stories that have been created over time and exactly, and it takes a lot of practice to, to rewire your brain. I mean, I’m, I’m at a much better place now with my anxiety, but I do catch myself, sometimes getting caught in that loop and my, and my husband, you know, he’s also very much invested in this work. So it’s nice to have a support person who can recognize it and be like, Hey, Stephanie, I think you might be, you know, in anxiety mode right now, like, you know, take a step back. So that’s, that is helpful. But, um, yeah, and I find that another analogy that I use, whenever I was in, working in practice, as a PA, before doing my functional training, I used to tell people that treating any mental health disorder is most effective with pharmacology and therapy. Well, I don’t really promote pharmacology, in that sense any longer. So where I am now I feel like treating any mental health or, you know, trauma response is most effective through functional nutrition, and doing some sort of trauma work blending those together to really just treating the whole comprehensively.
Josh Meeder 26:23
Yeah. Which is a good point, I hope, I hope out there is that there’s the shift towards understanding that where there’s not one modality, not one magic bullet, it’s a holistic approach to physical, emotional, and mental health all together. Yeah. So we’re getting into that baseline, that healthy state environment. Now you’ve gotten your diet under control we’re working through we’re kind of figuring out issues, we’re starting to catch patterns and things and becoming more aware of our reaction. What are what are the where do we go next? What’s that look like?
Stephanie Graves 27:02
Yeah, usually, at this point, if, again, the diets optimized, were more in a healing state would be looking at labs. So I usually don’t look at labs, right? You know, away not until maybe the third or fourth visit, even and seeing are there some markers there that are off, that could use some shifting up to the functional range to an essence also help downstream factors. And the way that I look at Labs also is very different than, say, your primary Doc, I’m looking at the functional range. So where is it that you’re, for example, vitamin D, is functional? So where is it most optimized? Versus your dog is looking at the pathological range? So they’re looking at where does the disease exist? I’m looking at labs to try to catch it before that point before you’re really ill. And we can bring things back up to baseline, you know, gently, that way. So yeah, looking at labs to see if there’s anything there that could be shifted or could explain what’s still going on. And also, you know, adding on any support of supplements to so it’s really important to do the diet, and the dietary cleanup, and then working on getting out of that fight or flight mode first. Because if you just come out of the gate hot with supplements, and there still is inflammatory foods, and you’re still not in a healing state, they’re not going to have any room or space to work, you’re basically just going to be wasting your money. So there is some work upfront to be done before we jump into fancy protocols and supplements and those exotic things I think a lot of people just jump to first.
Josh Meeder 28:54
Well, that’s where all the Instagram and the Facebook ads are coming in this one pill for $100 a month subscription will cure everything that you have. And it’s really not the case.
Stephanie Graves 29:04
Yeah, absolutely. And then,
Josh Meeder 29:07
so now you’ve really helped someone along, you’ve identified it, you’ve done in the labs, you’re testing, and now you’re kind of doing into that stage of fine tuning and balance and ongoing lifestyle. How does that work for a client long term? Because I would imagine and I know the business is young, so you’re not into that level, but like how do you see helping your clients, you know, be healthy for their lifetime through the different stages of life?
Stephanie Graves 29:37
Yeah, and so I mean, I would like to still see them for routine follow up if they’re, you know, stable, doing well, maybe two, three times a year really looking at labs to track to make sure that we’re still on track, or do we need to adjust anything or is anything new coming up? So tracking and reassessing? And then that’s where like I said, programs I do have doing lots of brainstorming right now on programs that I would love for new clients, and then also existing ones kind of like as a maintenance program that they can follow, you know, through their duration.
Josh Meeder 30:18
Alright, so kind of rounding this out a little bit. And there’s just a couple other questions that came up. One. So if if you people know that they’re not where they need to be, but what are some of the, say indicators or the red flags that Hey, someone is in a spiral of inflammatory eating or overstressed environment? What body signals are what are signals are they getting to look for? Yeah,
Stephanie Graves 30:43
there’s a lot of signals for sure. But the two are the three biggest indicators, that signal that someone you know, is in a poor state, or that they would not be in a healing state would be sleep. So if someone is not sleeping, no healing will occur. Sleep is so important. It’s like an it’s these three things are non negotiables, to healing, so someone’s not sleeping. That’s a huge red flag. If someone is not pooping as glamorous as that sounds, that is also a huge red flag. I mean, at its core, moving our bowels is removing all of the toxins from our body. So if someone isn’t doing that regularly, that means those toxins are accumulating within inside of you. Or if someone’s blood sugar is dysregulated. If their blood sugar is just doing this all day long, it’s going to be really hard to implement any sort of healing protocol. So those are also three things that to look at when someone’s coming. You know, when they’re complaining of migraines, and they’re not pooping? Well, first, we need to make sure we address that before moving forward. But I mean, as far as symptoms that people could be complaining of when they come to me, again, it’s vast, it could be migraines, it could be insomnia, abdominal pain, diarrhea, rash, burned out, just, you know, exhausted flatlined. food sensitivities, ADHD, anxiety, depression, joint pain, menopausal symptoms. I see just about everything currently.
Josh Meeder 32:33
could imagine well, we, there’s a lot of help needed out there. And just to kind of give people a little bit of a framework for what is healthy. So from a sleep perspective, what would you suggest? Like how many, you know, what’s an average bowel movement process and then the sugar throughout the day, what does that look like is that times of extreme exhaustion like the after lunch crash, you know, just to kind of with understand that within
Stephanie Graves 33:00
for sure, yeah, for sleep, I would aim for seven to eight hours kind of minimum of ideally on uninterrupted sleep, and I and I did a post recently, of like the sleep non negotiables that people can refer back to. And then bowel movements once a day, like one to three times a day really is normal. And you want them to be, you know, not super loose, but not diarrhea. And then blood sugar regulation. Yeah, you may notice that you’re really irritable, or you’re really tired, or you’re waking up in the middle of the night and you’re wired. Those can all be signs that your blood sugar is dysregulated. And you can get even just little glucometers off of Amazon to track your blood sugar throughout the day. But a really good way to balance your blood sugar is to try to eat a good source of fat, fiber and protein with each meal or snack, and that will help balance your blood sugar. So for example, My son loves fruit. And he would eat fruit all day, which most people be like, that’s great. But fruit does have a lot of sugar. So you know, he eats an apple is blood sugar is gonna go up real quick. And then it’s going to come right back down. If he pears that say with peanut butter or a handful of nuts. It’s gonna cause a more stable blood sugar reaction so that he’s not hangry 20 minutes later asking for a banana chasing.
Josh Meeder 34:41
And those are the small changes to write the awareness. So you’re not saying cut out or change or completely. It’s just like, do it slightly different.
Stephanie Graves 34:49
Yeah. And that’s a huge thing too, that I also really stress is. I mean, I could I could recommend 25 things to You know, you are the next person. But that’s not helpful. There’s a literally a part in your brain, the amygdala, that your fear center that if you try to do too much too fast, it’s like, no, no, no, I’m comfortable being miserable. Let’s not rock the boat. So by making these one degree turns, cumulatively, and over time, it really can make a huge
Josh Meeder 35:25
impact. Right? Well, what do you have for the audience out there just as kind of your closing advice from getting yourself to healthier? Whatever you’re doing? And I’ll share your links here in the comment section. But feel free to tell us a little bit about what you have going on with your business as well.
Stephanie Graves 35:44
Yeah, absolutely. The last thing I’ll say is, I have a huge amount of respect for physicians, because I know how hard that they work. And my experience being in the field that the system is just broken. There’s, there’s way too much stress put on them to expect to know everything, which in turn puts a lot of pressure on the patient, because then they’re playing Dr. Google, and they’re feeling overwhelmed, and not heard. So that’s where I come in to step in the middle, and really just provide that education and that nutritional and lifestyle support that they’re not getting otherwise. So yes, if you are someone or feeling that you’re not up to par, and not feeling well, just knowing that there is another way. And if you’re feeling frustrated, again, or overwhelmed with the medical system, that’s what I’m here for. So I would love to be able to help you and guide you through this process and getting you back to your best self because really, you deserve it. And I know I’ve heard so many people. So many people are just so tired, or sick. And oh, well. I’m just getting old. That’s really not a valid excuse. You know, you should still be able to enjoy your life and feel well.
Josh Meeder 37:03
Yeah. And to the listeners out there. You can work online and remote with anyone anywhere in the country. Yes, thank
Stephanie Graves 37:11
you. COVID. Yep. So I am doing virtual concepts consults around the world.
Josh Meeder 37:21
That’s wonderful. And do you interface with your clients, physicians if needed?
Stephanie Graves 37:26
Yeah, absolutely. Particularly when it comes to labs to so I can order labs through a third party. Generally, insurance doesn’t cover it, which side note, I also don’t accept insurance. And that enables me to be able to provide the best care and not have to check their boxes or play within their square. So generally, I’m doing contact with their providers regarding labs and requesting labs that I feel will best support their care. And generally, they’re I mean, they’re agreeable to that they, they more so than the patient just showing up with a list of labs that, you know, I said that I want it. So yeah, I’m super open to communicating with them. Because overall, we’re, I’m there to support their mutual client or patient and I want what’s best for them. So I’m not trying to say that the physician is wrong or do anything behind their back. I’m there for them. Really?
Josh Meeder 38:29
Yeah, it’s a beautiful collaboration, actually, because there’s prevention and maintenance and then emergency and in correction, you know, musicians have a great place and a great skill set and resources, but it’s also at a certain time, so I love the collaboration you’re bringing with that and, and it’s really, as you mentioned, it’s for the patient’s best interests. So I’m a good Stephanie. I appreciate not only your friendship, but I love watching what you’re creating. I wish you all the best here. And if you want to reach out to Stephanie, please check out the links in the product. In the comments below. You can find her online you can find her not only on the web, but on social media. And thanks again for the time here, Stephanie, and look forward to seeing you and Ryan in the near future.
Stephanie Graves 39:20
Yes, thank you again so much.
Josh Meeder 39:25
Thank you for watching. If you liked what you saw, be sure to hit that like and subscribe button right now. Stay tuned and check out the channel for other interesting and informative videos.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
