00:00:03:07 - 00:00:16:23
Chris
Hello and welcome to the ending Buddy Burnout show. We are your host, Chris and Phile, co-founders of a multi winning functional medicine practice serving busy people with energy, mood and gut issues.
00:00:17:00 - 00:00:24:21
Filly
Well, business, addictive doing, people pleasing and perfectionism might be the norm. It's not normal and it's a major contributor to health issues.
00:00:25:00 - 00:00:38:04
Chris
Our goal with this show is to give you a holistic root root cause approach to healing your body so that you don't have to continue doctor or diet hopping or popping a gazillion supplements hoping something might stick.
00:00:38:05 - 00:00:46:07
Filly
So get ready to heal your body. Get your spark back deeply, connect with yourself, and step into the life of your dreams.
00:00:46:10 - 00:00:56:00
Chris
Let's dive in.
00:00:56:02 - 00:01:21:14
Filly
Hello, it's Philly he on the podcast. I am here with an awesome interview with someone that I greatly and deeply admire, and that I've literally been following for years on Instagram and have been binging her podcast for the last few years. So we are so privileged to have Erin Holt, the Functional Nutritionist, a powerhouse functional medicine practitioner based in the USA.
00:01:21:16 - 00:01:46:08
Filly
I was so excited when Erin said yes to coming on to our show. I've been following Erin for years on Instagram, and I started listening to a podcast a few years ago. It would have been like 2020 during the Covid times when I was trying to find answers to my third body burnout flare up during Covid times, I remember feeling so stuck with trying to heal my symptoms.
00:01:46:10 - 00:02:24:05
Filly
None of the usual physical functional medicine protocols that had worked last time were working. This time. And when I came across Erin's podcast where she talks about intuitive functional medicine and healing or bodies of the self as a whole, the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, energetic body, I knew that I'd found the missing piece to my own healing. So previously I'd been trying to just treat myself and clients as if we were just one body, a physical body, when actually that method is incomplete and reductionist and will never lead to deep and long term healing and health.
00:02:24:07 - 00:02:48:12
Filly
So get ready for a banger episode. We really go deep into deeper root causes, and Erin's Own healing journey, which is incredible in itself. and and so much more. I was just so excited. I actually got off it, I think 5 a.m. to interview Erin. If anyone knows me. Well, I love sleep like I usually wake up between 7 and 8.
00:02:48:12 - 00:03:27:01
Filly
Just naturally don't love waking up to an alarm clock. But I got up early for Erin because it was so worth it. And I'm so excited to share this conversation that we had today with you officially. Who is Erin Holt? So she's a functional nutritionist, a Stanford trained compassion teacher, and founder of the Functional Nutritionist, an online clinic, an education platform that specialises in intuitive functional medicine, blending evidence based practices, functional lab testing, mindset and energy medicine for a unique and customised approach to women's health.
00:03:27:02 - 00:03:51:17
Filly
Erin is also the founder and director of the Functional Nutrition Academy, a functional medicine practitioner. Training and mentorship. You can find Erin rabble rousing on the Functional Nutrition Podcast, a weekly show dedicated to all things health. Now, before we jump into today's episode, just want to, do a quick little announcement. I turned 40 this year. I actually turned 40 in May.
00:03:51:18 - 00:04:13:13
Filly
It is now June. but to celebrate that, we are doing a 40% off primary for my book Ending Body Burn out in June. So if you want to grab my book, if you haven't yet, or if you want to grab a few coffees to share the love with friends, families, colleagues, clients, then you can, head to the show notes.
00:04:13:13 - 00:04:47:09
Filly
And I'm going to put a link there to a 40% off. The book fulfils 40th birthday, so get on it, peeps. all right. Awesome. I will talk to you soon. people, we have someone so exciting on a podcast today. This is Erin Holt, the functional nutritionist, and I've been listening to Erin on her amazing podcast, I think for like 2 or 3 years and following you earlier on before that on Instagram.
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Filly
So I'm so excited to have you on our podcast.
00:04:51:01 - 00:04:57:19
Erin
I'm so excited to be here. And I can't believe you woke up at 6 a.m. to talk to me about that post. That is the most exciting thing of all.
00:04:57:19 - 00:05:19:19
Filly
I think it's squinty, my squinty morning eyes. Okay, so we love when we have guests on. We love to dive right into your personal story of buddy burnout because we are the body burnout show. So are you happy to go there? I know you've had quite the the journey, so wherever you feel like you'd like to start, what did it look like?
00:05:19:19 - 00:05:23:03
Filly
What was happening in your life? All the things.
00:05:23:05 - 00:05:52:10
Erin
Like, if only there were just one moment of burnout I could tell you about, right? Like, sadly, it wasn't, by the way. I mean, I think I first started really experiencing burnout, when I was in college, and I don't I mean, I wouldn't have been able to self-identify as burnout. I just crashed, I rode my self so hard that I crashed because at that point, I didn't really understand how to listen to the messages of my body.
00:05:52:10 - 00:06:17:07
Erin
So I just blew past all of them until it became like a major crisis. So I had to take three separate medical leaves of absence from school, because I just pushed myself so far beyond my capacity I couldn't hang. I would get like severe panic attacks. I had a tremendous amount of low back pain. so my stress really manifested in panic attacks, which kind of make sense.
00:06:17:07 - 00:06:44:12
Erin
But pain, which not everybody really recognises as, oh, that's a sign that I've pushed myself too far. I struggled with eating disorders through high school and college, and into my early 20s. And so I was anorexic and then bulimic. And, a lot of the eating disorder behaviour flared up during those moments of stress and pushing myself past my capacity.
00:06:44:14 - 00:07:09:17
Erin
so those are that was like my first foray into burnout. and then, I started to take better care of myself. You know, I changed some habits. I changed some behaviours. We can go into that more in depth. And then after I had my daughter. So my daughter's almost ten. So ten years ago, is what I had, like a real colossal crash.
00:07:09:17 - 00:07:31:15
Erin
And again, way, way, way past burnout. Still had not honed the machinery to learn to listen to my body at that point. so pushed it to the limits and ended up being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. So that was a little bit more of like the wake up call for me to be like, okay, so obviously I am doing something that I'm not supposed to be doing.
00:07:31:15 - 00:07:46:09
Erin
So what is that? What does it look like? And how can I start to change this? Because now I have a baby to take care of. So I have to learn how to take care of me so that I can take care of her. So yeah, a lot of lot of burnout moments for me, for sure.
00:07:46:11 - 00:07:53:03
Filly
The autoimmune condition, because you had something quite interesting happening in your body. Can you talking to that?
00:07:53:05 - 00:08:13:07
Erin
Yeah. I just kept not feeling well and I couldn't quite figure it out. And, you know, at this point, I feel like I'm sharing my story, but probably half your listeners are like, me too. That was my story, too. So I kept going. My doctor's my traditional, conventional, you know, primary care physicians. And just saying I don't feel right.
00:08:13:07 - 00:08:32:19
Erin
I couldn't quite articulate. I'm like, I don't feel right. I'm exhausted. I'm in pain. And they're like, well, yeah, you're a new mom. That's kind of just the way it goes. I think culturally we're so okay with mom being burnt out, strung out, pushed at capacity. We're just like, yep, that's just how it goes bad. Sorry. so no one really paid that much attention to me.
00:08:32:21 - 00:08:51:01
Erin
and that went on for a year. And then I started noticing physical manifestation. So, like, my hands were swelling, my fingers were swelling, and I'm like, this is not okay. and I ended up having to kind of like, lose, you know, lose my cool in the doctor's office one day where I'm like, I'm not leaving until I get some answers.
00:08:51:01 - 00:09:10:14
Erin
So let's figure this out together, guys. And sure enough, they they drew a tremendous amount of blood and found some antibodies. And long story short, I was diagnosed with a, autoimmune condition called systemic sclerosis or scleroderma. So that really is what pivoted me into a.
00:09:10:16 - 00:09:11:07
Chris
Whole.
00:09:11:07 - 00:09:35:20
Erin
Healing journey, because with conventional medicine, the autoimmunity is a bit of a question mark. They don't really have a whole lot of answers for you. I think some people experience such validation and relief when they get diagnosed because, you know, you can go ten years with mystery health, you know, symptoms and not have any answers. So when you finally understand, okay, something really was wrong with me.
00:09:35:20 - 00:09:57:10
Erin
You feel validated, but that I always like I'm like, that's just like the start of the journey. Because even with the diagnosis, there's not a whole lot of really practical solutions or answers, to help you understand why. And so I found myself doing a lot of exploring. And that's kind of what led me into functional medicine, was that diagnosis because I'm like, this can't be it.
00:09:57:11 - 00:10:01:09
Erin
There's going to be some more answers for me out there. Yeah.
00:10:01:11 - 00:10:18:07
Filly
I know when you said this is my I'm sharing my story, but it's probably half your listeners story. It is actually there's so many things that you just share that I'm like. Yeah. That was my story too. Yep. I wasn't diagnosed with the autoimmune condition but I remember things got quite bad after my first baby. Doctors like this is just normal.
00:10:18:07 - 00:10:24:00
Filly
This is what it's like to be a new mom. I'm like she's one now. I'm getting worse each month, not better.
00:10:24:02 - 00:10:48:16
Erin
This is not normal. And you know, at that point, I think it's important to say I was doing all the right things. I moved my body, I went to yoga, I meditated, I, I at that point I was already a nutritionist by trade. I was a yoga teacher. I ate really well hydrated. I was doing all the right things and still my body just couldn't, couldn't like recalibrate itself after having a baby.
00:10:48:21 - 00:11:00:05
Erin
It was like the proverbial straw. I was like, that is that was too much for us to handle. And now we're fundamentally coming undone. Even though you're giving it all, all the right inputs, like it just couldn't handle it. Yeah.
00:11:00:05 - 00:11:04:22
Filly
And at that stage too, you'd recovered from like, the anorexia bulimia.
00:11:05:00 - 00:11:16:01
Erin
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good distinction. At that point I was in full, full recovery, full remission and was fuelling myself really, really well. So, it just didn't make any practical sense.
00:11:16:03 - 00:11:29:11
Filly
Okay. So functional medicine practitioner. Right. Cause what do you think is like, the deepest root cause that led to the burnout? for.
00:11:29:11 - 00:12:02:16
Erin
Me personally, and again, they had like a half of the audience, maybe 75% is going to be like, yup, this sounds familiar. For me. It was perfectionism over functioning. I a lot of my self construct my identity. How I saw myself, my value, my worth was tied up with needing to be the best. The example that I always think about when, when I was in school for nutrition and dietetics, you have to take.
00:12:02:16 - 00:12:19:06
Erin
Okay, organics organic chemistry. Now, I'm sure some people love organic chemistry. nutrition professional, but like, they want to talk about, like, how to roast broccoli. They're not super interested in, oh, you know, but I was always a really, really good student. And so if I was going to be in a class, I was going to study and I was going to do well.
00:12:19:11 - 00:12:38:17
Erin
And in that class, I go for our first exam. I got such a good grade, such a high grade that I actually broke the grading curve and like set that, like set a new parameter for myself like that. That was like, okay, this is what I have to do to succeed. Now I have to get such a high grade.
00:12:38:17 - 00:13:05:11
Erin
I have to set myself so above my peers that I'm literally breaking grading cards. So that's what I mean by being the back. I'm like, if I'm not blowing past my own benchmarks that I'm failing and you know, that'll burn you out really fast. But it's a losing game. But I had no sense of self without that. So I would do that in every aspect of my life, just continuously push myself.
00:13:05:13 - 00:13:32:14
Erin
the feeling like I have to do everything myself. I mean, I think a lot of new moms can relate to that. Nobody can do it as well as me. so I have to do everything myself, and I can't accept help. And, those things are like a one way ticket to burnout. And if again, if you aren't able to heed the signs in the messages and the dialogue of your body, you're not, you know, you're not listening to the messages when they're little whispers.
00:13:32:14 - 00:13:56:19
Erin
You're waiting until they become screams. And it's like, almost like to. It's harder to recover. now I'm like, I've kind of owned those skills over the years. So now there's certain things that I recognise like, oh, okay, I'm cruisin for a in here. So if I, I'm more sensitive to caffeine, you know, like if I drink, like, half a cup of coffee in the morning, I'm like, I feel weird.
00:13:56:19 - 00:14:12:11
Erin
That's usually a sign that I'm over stressed, over maxed out if my sleep gets interrupted. I'm a really good sleeper. So if I start waking up in the middle of the night, that's a sign. If I am not recovering well from my exercise, like if I go to the gym and I'm getting injured, that's usually a sign.
00:14:12:11 - 00:14:35:07
Erin
Just generalised anxiety. Digestive wonkiness those are all little red flags. Like you're doing too much. You're pushing yourself past your capacity. You're defaulting to those old patterns, those old like wounds of, oh, I don't feel like I'm doing enough. Who am I without doing the most? And so those are all indications from my own body that tell me, okay, it's time to pump the brake.
00:14:35:07 - 00:14:48:06
Erin
It's time to slow down. but really, the root cause is what's so physical drivers. And it's more so like the mental and emotional drivers and the identity and how I see myself.
00:14:48:07 - 00:15:04:12
Filly
I'm curious, did you get that at the start or did you. I mean, because it sounded it sounds like you change your diet in the lifestyle habits or that sort of stuff, but we still at this point, when you got the autoimmune diagnosis, still running, those perfectionism, overachieving patterns.
00:15:04:14 - 00:15:21:21
Erin
Oh yeah. Because then I was like, I'm going to be a perfect healer and I do everything perfectly. I'm going to fight. I'm going to get find the exact root cause mould. Is it mould? Okay, I'll get that. I'll handle them all. You know. Is it food sensitivities? I'll cut out all the foods. No problem. Yeah. I was like, I'm going to be a perfect performer here because, you know, this is what I do.
00:15:21:21 - 00:15:43:16
Erin
This is where I shine. This is where I excel. And so I became, like, hyper fixated and obsessed and hyper vigilant with finding the exact right root cause, which, by the way, that rarely ends well. You know, that's hyper vigilant, is not putting your body in a parasympathetic resting digest healing state. It's keeping it pitched in that fight or flight state.
00:15:43:22 - 00:16:07:17
Erin
So no, that that unfortunately took some time. But the big thing I will say that happened in that moment and the thing that I when I look back, I'm like really proud of my former self. And like she understood the assignment, she she decided in that moment that she was going to make herself a priority. And that's a bit of a radical thing to do with a one year old to say I am now a priority in my own life.
00:16:07:23 - 00:16:32:05
Erin
Not only a priority, but the number one priority I had set myself as the number one priority in my life because I was that scared. You know, I had a doctor say like, this thing could kill you. You will be on medication for life. And that was a big wake up call. Like something has to change. And so I just very much so committed to my own healing process and just showed up for myself every single step of the way.
00:16:32:07 - 00:16:46:01
Erin
It it unfolded quite beautifully over the next ten years, in a lot of different ways. But I, I continued that to honour that commitment to myself, where I'm going to be a priority and I'm going to show up for myself, I'm going to have my own back.
00:16:46:03 - 00:16:50:16
Filly
I love that. So what did the journey for you look like in healing?
00:16:50:20 - 00:16:56:02
Erin
My God, how much time do you do? You have ten years. It looks like let's.
00:16:56:02 - 00:17:01:16
Filly
Do it at 6 a.m. here. So I've got like the the ten hours. All right. No.
00:17:01:16 - 00:17:28:04
Erin
Perfect. I yeah. Well this I like I said, I started explore functional medicine because conventional medicine, the conventional medicine model didn't really have a whole lot of answers for me. I, you know, autoimmunity is described as the body attacking itself. And I think I subscribe to that idea for a little while, and now I really don't. The body doesn't just turn on a dime, the body doesn't just start attacking itself.
00:17:28:04 - 00:17:51:14
Erin
Your body is trying to protect you at all costs, against all odds. And so it's a self-preservation protection mechanism that that is happening. but at first I was like, okay, well, I just understood this, like, root cause, you know, functional medicine is a systems biology approach that says, all of these things going on inside the body are interconnected.
00:17:51:16 - 00:18:14:05
Erin
And so if you can identify where the dysfunction is happening or where the imbalance is happening, then we can bring the body back into balance. And I really, really liked that. So it started more with the physical body. I, you know, to be honest with you, I put myself on the auto immune paleo protocol AP.
00:18:14:05 - 00:18:19:21
Erin
Are you familiar with that? Yeah. Okay. So do you think you're familiar with that?
00:18:19:23 - 00:18:23:15
Filly
Yeah. Again, some. But you can explain to a little bit.
00:18:23:16 - 00:18:49:04
Erin
It's very restrictive. So it removes any food that has the potential to be antigenic and confuse the immune system. So it removes all grains. It removes eggs. It removes all nuts. It removes all seeds. It removes all nightshade. It's it's it's very, very restrictive. At the same time, I also tested positive for Sibo small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. So I put myself on a low Fodmap diet.
00:18:49:10 - 00:19:18:16
Erin
So I put myself on to routine. Yeah. At the same time. Yeah. And as I explained, I had a history of disordered eating and I was like, listen, this I did not for all through hell to recover from 13 years of disordered eating, to find salvation through a restrictive eating pattern like this cannot be the way. And so early on I'm like, I'm not doing the healing through the food restriction.
00:19:18:16 - 00:19:39:16
Erin
That's insane. Like, I don't I don't know what I believe in up there. God or the universe source, but I can't believe that they're going to give me this assignment. That seems insane to me. So I, I didn't go that route. I didn't go into the food fear as much as I could have. but I did go into environmental theatre.
00:19:39:16 - 00:20:11:05
Erin
Like, what in the environment is causing harm to my body? And that was that was really, really stressful. but I, I really worked on gut health. I really put I took myself through some GI protocols. I really worked on supporting detoxification and supporting the liver. I worked on rebalancing my hormones via nervous system support. So I really prioritised, getting myself into parasympathetic healing mode, supporting the nervous system.
00:20:11:05 - 00:20:33:10
Erin
I kind of just did all the different standard issues, things that you would expect with the functional medicine approach. And that worked. You know, I recovered physically. I would say I got like 80% of the way better. I had to work on, you know, pushing myself like that tendency to push myself past my capacity. I had to, like, really learn.
00:20:33:10 - 00:20:59:08
Erin
Okay. When am I pushing myself too far? How can I dial it back? But I was feeling pretty good. You know, the issue is that I still lived in fear of getting sick. It's like my body had a little bit of PTSD from being sick because it was so hard, and it was so scary, and it was so awful, and it was so isolating that I'm like, I don't want to go back to that dark place.
00:20:59:10 - 00:21:16:07
Erin
And so I would be a little bit trepidatious around eating certain things or being in certain environments. I just was like, I didn't like to travel. I don't want to go on an aeroplane and like to over commit myself to social things because I'm like, what if I get sick? But what if I get sick? And this I carry this fear around with the backpack.
00:21:16:12 - 00:21:39:21
Erin
And I realised one day I'm like, this is too heavy for me to carry. So there's got to be another way. There's got to be another, another way to like fully healed. My physical body feels healed, but man, mentally and emotionally like I am a strung out menace about this stuff. And that is what, you know, prompted, like another layer, another level of healing.
00:21:39:23 - 00:21:50:22
Erin
looking at more of my beliefs and, the emotions that I was carrying around. So, yeah, I'm sure we can get into that, but that was a big part of the healing journey as well.
00:21:51:00 - 00:22:20:23
Filly
Thanks so much for sharing that, because I feel like a lot of people who get stuck in their healing journey, it's like I'm doing all the things, I'm eating well and it's like talks and, you know, I'm sleeping and I'm being mindful with my exercise. But when that deeper level of like programming those unconscious core beliefs is still there, so hard to like to reach that the not that there's a pinnacle of optimal perfect health, but you kind of get stuck where you're living, wrapped up in bubble.
00:22:20:23 - 00:22:44:12
Erin
Wrap like Bubble Boy, I know. Yeah, like the world. Then it's safe and it's really hard existence. I mean, the hypervigilance with the I call it health hypervigilance, art, health dieting, and that it's just, it's a, it's a real struggle. and people come by it. Honestly, I think that these are the people that their positions or their, practitioners are like, oh, you're a hypochondriac, you're overreaction.
00:22:44:12 - 00:23:05:19
Erin
Or maybe the people in their life think they're overly sensitive, or they're making a mountain out of a molehill. They don't really. You know, they don't understand why they have to be so sensitive about things. But we come by that honestly because we're terrified of getting sick again. We're terrified, that the next bite of food or the next environment we put ourselves in is going to actually cause physical harm and physical symptoms.
00:23:05:19 - 00:23:15:18
Erin
And that's a real, real thing. And there's so much work, that we can do to help somebody kind of back themselves down from that, from that hypervigilant state. Yeah.
00:23:15:23 - 00:23:42:00
Filly
Yeah, definitely. I'm just like Yeah. That's necessary too. That's. Yeah. Yeah I was in that those few years of I can't eat histamine foods and gluten is bad and dairy is bad and like oh no I'm smelling a perfume going down the shopping aisles like, thinking that it was healthy when actually it was flaring up the sympathetic nervous system.
00:23:42:00 - 00:23:48:04
Filly
So like the fight flight response constantly in the guise of I'm healthy.
00:23:48:06 - 00:24:12:20
Erin
Which can actually activate symptoms too. You know, it's like the mind we hear all about the mind body connection. I really love Candace Peart's work. I think she she's just was a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant researcher and scientist. And, I think we owe a lot of our modern viewpoint, because of her. And I just don't think she gets that credit that she deserves.
00:24:12:22 - 00:24:42:13
Erin
But, she coined the term body. Mind. One word. No hyphen, because in her research, she's like, they're one and the same. You know, there is not one without the other. And so if we are in that hypervigilant state with anything, whether it's our health or anything else, if we're worried, if we're in fight or flight response that actually does that can and will activate symptoms in the body, in this like feedback loop style and so that can actually activate the immune system to kind of be on that, like that, that hunt, that attack.
00:24:42:13 - 00:25:03:15
Erin
And so it can rev up the immune system. So when our minds are in that fight or flight or that activated state, we can actually receive physical, sensation and physical feeling. So it's not all in your head. It might start in your head, but it's not all in your head. It's it can actually translate to your physical body and how you feel in your symptoms.
00:25:03:17 - 00:25:07:23
Erin
and so that's just been such an important thing for people to understand.
00:25:08:01 - 00:25:29:20
Filly
I actually really liked, this week's podcast of yours. what did you title it? Or there was or maybe there was an Instagram. post that said life restoring. Don't just give your clients. I don't just take via text to increase your credit. And it's actually about safety or feeling unsafe in the body.
00:25:29:22 - 00:25:37:11
Erin
oh my gosh. Yes. And I'm like those those are the posts that gets zero traction. People like, just tell me what supplement to. Come on. Yeah.
00:25:37:13 - 00:25:42:18
Filly
I love all those ones. And he of like, like.
00:25:42:18 - 00:26:14:16
Erin
Yeah girl. Well I mean the the good news right pro column is that female hormones are finally getting time. And this time, you know, people are like, oh, women have different hormones than men. Maybe we should look into that. You know, you guys are crazy. You're just on a different cycle. Wow. So I love that there's so much talk about hormones because it's been a long time coming, but there's almost like this overt infatuation with them, like, okay, my progesterone is low or my oestrogen is like, what specifically do I do?
00:26:14:16 - 00:26:30:07
Erin
I'm like, we can't play whac-a-mole with hormones. It's not like this one's low. So we're going to give you this to raise it. The hormones work in concert with one another. They work in balance. They work in harmony. It's like a symphony. And so it's not as simple as saying this is low. Therefore we're going to give you this to raise it.
00:26:30:10 - 00:26:48:04
Erin
But more so looking at the overall environment that the human being is in, saying what in your environment is contributing to our hormones? A big thing that I've been talking about lately is like, if you don't have time in your life to be an active participant in your own healing and in your own care, you don't have time to produce hormones, babe.
00:26:48:07 - 00:27:08:18
Erin
You know, like that's one of the reasons you got the hormone imbalance to begin with. So we have to just look at our overall life rather than, you know, like I joked, taking vertex for low progesterone. It's like where in your life do not feel safe. Where are the messages coming from? Inside the house, inside your body? Where the message is coming from your external environment?
00:27:08:18 - 00:27:31:22
Erin
We have to look at all of that to truly balance the hormones and bring the entire body back into balance. And that's obviously a very large conversation, and it requires people's willingness to want to do that work, which is why, I mean, there's so much critique of conventional medicine, as I think there should be. Right? There's this parental vacation I know better than you.
00:27:31:22 - 00:27:52:10
Erin
I'm the external authority figure on you. There's no way you could possibly know that. You know what are you spending time on WebMD? There's this, like, medical gaslighting. Like there's no way you can know your body and come on, like, that's so silly. But yet also a lot of other colluded in that, you know, to some extent where we're going to our doctors being like, just tell me what to do.
00:27:52:11 - 00:28:10:19
Erin
Like behaviour change is really hard. Is there a pill that I could take instead? My life is hard. I am busy, is there an easy answer? And so it's like in order for the system, the broken system to change, we're part of that system. So we have to be willing to change our approach to health appearing as well.
00:28:10:21 - 00:28:36:02
Filly
This ties in with what weaves into same is seamlessly what I wanted to ask. So you practice intuitive functional medicine? which I mean, I'd followed you on Instagram for quite a while and then I don't I can't even remember what then took me over to the podcast, but it was definitely a party. My journey where I'm like, I feel like, you know, I've done the lab tests, supplements, all the lifestyle stuff.
00:28:36:04 - 00:29:01:17
Filly
Actually, it was during Covid and then all my health issues showed up again, and this time nothing physical would budget. And so I was like, what is going on? I feel like I've like exhausted all my tools in my tool bag. What else is there? And your podcast and what you talk about, like, especially around the body in the mind and and I'll get you to explain what you mean when you say intuitive functional medicine.
00:29:01:17 - 00:29:24:18
Filly
I'm like, oh my gosh. Like it was. You actually really helped me through your podcast. To me, to be able to have a different angle of, oh, there's other stuff, like there's other stuff stuck in my unconscious, in my subconscious, in my nervous system. Okay. Awesome. So even though you were saying, oh, those parts where it's just like, just take this thing and all your issues with Vienna don't get any traction.
00:29:24:18 - 00:29:37:02
Filly
I feel like there's definitely people who are like, so feeling lost and almost like, is there anything else that final out of how you feel, what you do?
00:29:37:04 - 00:29:48:18
Erin
Oh my God, that's the best. That's the best thing you could tell me. I know I'm like inviting people quietly on a magical mystery tour. I'm a over here. I wouldn't know where. And it's going to be great.
00:29:48:21 - 00:30:04:09
Filly
Yeah, but it's not like you use the word woo woo, but I'm like, there's so much science behind it, though. Like. Like it's like you said, the body in the mind. They're not one. It's not one or the other. It's. You cannot separate the two because we're we're the one thing.
00:30:04:09 - 00:30:35:17
Erin
We're the one being. Yeah. The whole the whole kit and caboodle. I think of Gabor, but I also really love his work. And he says that the pieces can be studied separately, but we can't fully understand any of them without grasping the whole picture. Right. So we can compartmentalise the thing that we try to do that in modern medicine, we have all of these specialists, but the more we like pull the pieces apart, the less we see the human being behind the pieces, you know, like the less we can put it together.
00:30:35:17 - 00:30:59:06
Erin
And healing is to be whole again. That's what the definition of healing is. When it gets to make all again. So healing is wholeness. And so if we're pulling ourselves into bits and pieces, it's really hard to to achieve, to achieve healing and wholeness. but yeah, intuitive, intuitive functional medicine. I think I got a little bit burnt out with visions.
00:30:59:06 - 00:31:26:00
Erin
I burnt out, a little bit over a little frustrated perhaps, with how functional medicine was going. I mean, I'm so grateful for it. I'm so grateful for a root cause approach. I'm so grateful that there, are people that are willing to do that. And, and also it has its limitations. Might the frustration point for me is that people were going to conventional medicine and they weren't getting any answers.
00:31:26:02 - 00:31:48:05
Erin
And so functional medicine was being promoted as this like panacea, like, oh, conventional medicine won't fix you, but we will. And then they were getting dropped in functional medicine, too, because some of the same exact issues were mapping over into functional medicine. And I'm like, oh, this is really frustrating for me. I love some of the aspects of functional medicine, but I don't think it's the whole kit and caboodle.
00:31:48:09 - 00:32:14:03
Erin
And so I kind of coined the term intuitive functional medicine, which is how I practice and how I trained practitioners to practice in it all has to do with just bringing people back to themselves. That's really that's really what it is. I believe that our bodies have the capacity to heal. we're just never taught that. So it's one of my missions to teach people that, again, that does require a desire for somebody to actually want to do that.
00:32:14:03 - 00:32:42:00
Erin
And want to heal. They have to be an active participant in that healing. But I think of rather than like the authority figure, in the parenthetical version of I Know Better Than You, I think of healing relationships as like co-creation, like we're co-pilots on this adventure together. And rather than me as the practitioner holding all of the knowledge and all of the power and all of the authority, it's recognising that that we're in this together.
00:32:42:04 - 00:33:15:22
Erin
And I actually trust that, you know some things about you, too, you know, and I want to lead you back to yourself. I want to teach you how to self source more answers than you're outsourcing, you know. And if you don't trust yourself yet, that's cool. We'll work on that together. But really, that's what intuitive medicine is to me is is connecting people back into their intuition, into their own inner authority, teaching people that they can trust themselves, you know, returning people back to themselves.
00:33:16:00 - 00:33:40:23
Erin
I think, you know, with all of the technology that we have available, whether it's a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor, or an RV tracker or whatever, it's like we have all these data points, these functional apps with so many external data points, but it hasn't brought us closer to ourselves. In fact, more people are asking like more of the nitty gritty questions, like how many grams of protein should I have?
00:33:40:23 - 00:34:10:14
Erin
And what does it mean when they're said, what does it mean? It's it's like, what if those data, actual data points, pull you closer back to yourself? Great. If they take you further from yourself, they're not a tool that is working for you at this moment. And so that's a little bit of of my frustration. And the one of the trends that I just have been seeing over the past few years is somebody will go to a functional medicine practitioner and they'll spend $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 on all of these functional labs, and they walk away with more questions than answers.
00:34:10:16 - 00:34:28:14
Erin
And I just, you know, I don't I don't see how that's connecting anybody back to themselves. How is that really finding a root cause? I just have a lot of problems with that. And to be clear, we leverage functional labs in our practice. It's just we try to do it with discernment and with precision, and there's an intention behind it.
00:34:28:14 - 00:34:55:05
Erin
And I'm trying to use those extreme external data points on the lab to connect people deeper to themselves. So to use your process for an example, if we run a hormone lab, we see low progesterone. I'm not saying okay, low progesterone. Here's the biotechs. Here's some chase trade Barry here we go. I'm saying oh interesting. I wonder what's going on in your life that is teaching your body that it's not safe enough to populate and therefore produce progesterone?
00:34:55:07 - 00:35:06:14
Erin
Let's have that conversation. Let's use this external data point to figure out what's going on inside of you. And that is what the intuitive functional medicine model is to me.
00:35:06:16 - 00:35:23:02
Filly
I love it, I love it when I study functional medicine. Great that oh my gosh, like what you what you've created to for practitioners I think you I don't think anyone else in the world is doing it actually. Correct me if I'm wrong.
00:35:23:04 - 00:35:28:02
Erin
I don't know. I have to, I like that I'll take your take that.
00:35:28:02 - 00:36:00:21
Filly
I'll take that. Like the physical and metaphysical. I think it's just such a beautiful, holistic approach that yeah, it's definitely missing in the functional medicine world when that was my frustration to, so with conventional medicine, it's like, yeah, that's a reductionist model. And, you know, it's only looking at the pieces that then like, there's so many natural therapies that do a similar thing that, you know, they're still providing natural solutions, but not really looking at how all the bits and pieces of ourselves interconnect with each other.
00:36:00:23 - 00:36:22:12
Erin
Exactly. So it's like you could run, a mole test, you could run a hormone test and you could run a, stool test, and you walk away with all of these supplements. You know, it's like we've replaced a pedal for every ill with a supplement for every imbalanced lab marker. and that is not what a root cause is.
00:36:22:12 - 00:36:46:08
Erin
That's what it's become. That's what functional medicine has become in some circles. That's not what it was designed for. and that's not how we get through healing. You know, that's just like playing whack a mole with imbalanced lab markers or spot treating the lab rather than treating the human being behind the lab. And that is that's a big frustration point for me with functional medicine, because that's what we're seeing a lot of.
00:36:46:10 - 00:37:08:00
Erin
And then then it gets a bad rap because of that. And people are like, conventional medicine failed me. Functional medicine failed me. I guess I'm a hopeless mess. And that's what breaks my heart as people are walking away being like the one thing that was supposed to save me couldn't. Therefore I'm unsolvable, I'm unfixable, I'm unkillable, and it's very hard to heal when we believe that we cannot.
00:37:08:02 - 00:37:13:07
Erin
We cannot, you know? So that's what that is. I feel real strongly about that one.
00:37:13:09 - 00:37:34:09
Filly
Yeah, I love that. So circling back to the perfectionism, high achieving. I'm curious. not like maybe specifically how you unravelled all of that because that's hard. Like, it's hard stuff to change the deepest part of yourself. but also how do you do it with clients as well?
00:37:34:11 - 00:37:57:15
Erin
with so with myself, I. I was very motivated to change. I believe in like growth and evolution overlay. I'm always trying to improve myself. I'm always trying to to grow, to evolve, to become the next iteration of myself. I'm really excited. I always envision my future self like, come on, let's go. We've got more work to do.
00:37:57:21 - 00:38:19:00
Erin
And so I'm very motivated, self-motivated to change. And so if I recognise there are patterns, I also don't have a lot of patience for myself. Like complaining about the same thing over and over and over and over and over again without actually making change. So I noticed that I was stuck in these patterns and I'm like, I need to get myself out of them.
00:38:19:02 - 00:38:43:10
Erin
and so for me, it was a lot. I did a lot. I did a lot of spiritual work where I met parts of myself, inner child healing. I did a lot of subconscious belief work looking at the beliefs that drove my behaviours and questioning, like, are these really true? Do these have to be true? It could something else be true?
00:38:43:10 - 00:39:10:10
Erin
Or what do I want to feel instead? This is the way I feel now. This is where I'm thinking about things now. What would feel better? Believing that I was worthy of feeling good. There was a lot of work. And so I did some of this through journaling. I did some of this through meditation. I did some of this through, certain subconscious reprogramming and neuro rewiring practices, a mixed bag of tricks.
00:39:10:12 - 00:39:30:22
Erin
And so when I'm working with clients, I am also using that mixed bag of tricks, depending on where they're where they're at and what level of healing they're looking for, because not everybody is ready. Some people just need to work on dialling in their nutrition. You know, not everybody needs to go full steam ahead where we're going to heal the subconscious beliefs.
00:39:30:22 - 00:39:50:02
Erin
You know, maybe we need to start with working on the physical body and getting you feeling strong enough in your physical body. Before we dive into it, it takes resources, you know, it takes, capacity to do this level of healing and people have to be ready for it. And so if I'm working with somebody and I sense any type of resistance, I'm not bulldozing past that resistance.
00:39:50:06 - 00:40:09:04
Erin
I'm meeting people where they're at and when they're ready. they, you know, I trust that that they'll find me. so I have a program called manifest Your Health is a group program where we're doing a lot of that stuff that we're talking about in on the sales page. I ask a question in, this kind of helps me discern.
00:40:09:04 - 00:40:31:09
Erin
Are you ready for this work or not? And it is. Does your diagnosis, if you received a diagnosis, does it feel like validation? Does it feel like a warm hug, a warm blanket, a safe space, or does your diagnosis feel like a too tight jacket that doesn't fit anymore? Because that's where I got with my I told you at the start of this, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition.
00:40:31:15 - 00:40:53:16
Erin
I do not identify with having an autoimmune disease anymore. I don't say that about myself because I have changed so fundamentally, I don't. I no longer associate with the person who had that. My entire identity has shifted to such a point that it's changed my physical body. And so but you have to be ready for that. I was ready for that.
00:40:53:16 - 00:41:19:06
Erin
I was tired of carrying around the diagnosis, like that heavy backpack and dragging around wherever I went. It felt like a sentence that I didn't want to live without anymore. And so I chose. I decided to change that, change the entire identity. Who was the person that was diagnosed with that illness? I'm going to be somebody different. And when I decided to be somebody different and start living out the identity of that new person, my entire physicality changed.
00:41:19:06 - 00:41:35:04
Erin
My entire physical body changed. And so that is that is the the ripple effect of doing the mindset work. Changing at the level of identity is that your physical body can shift, but you have to be so ready for that work.
00:41:35:06 - 00:41:36:02
Chris
00:41:36:04 - 00:41:56:07
Filly
Just I love that you asked that question around the diagnosis. And I think to a someone has done kind of like the standard functional medicine treatment or testing as well, like the diagnosis could also be I have Cebu or I have adrenal fatigue or I have detox issues.
00:41:56:09 - 00:42:19:00
Erin
Yeah. And then the diagnosis can become the identity. You you identify with somebody who has that condition. And as long as your identity is wrapped up in that, you cannot heal from something you identify as being or as having. So there has to come a point of filtering, that sense that you have to change your relationship to it.
00:42:19:02 - 00:42:40:19
Erin
And this is where we have to be so careful, especially for those who have been gaslit and told that like, it's all in your head because this conversation can easily go down that path, and that is not what I am saying. And that's why I say you have to be so ready for this work. You have to be at a certain point in certain stage in your healing journey to like, really embrace this.
00:42:40:21 - 00:43:00:20
Erin
But I feel like if you're there when I hear this, it feels like medicine. It feels like salvation to be like, oh, there's another way. Kind of like what you were saying earlier. Like, I, I'm doing all the things. There's got to be another way. When you hear somebody talk about another way, that feeling of relief should wash over your body.
00:43:00:20 - 00:43:06:09
Erin
And that's how you know, okay, it's time to it's time to take the next steps in your path.
00:43:06:11 - 00:43:20:05
Filly
I love that, I love that, oh, there was a podcast. You talking about science? Science meets the sacred, which I feel like encompasses everything that we've talked about. But can you talk into that? And.
00:43:20:07 - 00:43:42:23
Erin
Yeah, I, you know, so I remember I was on I forget exactly what happened somewhere on Instagram. You know, we're all we're all good juicy things happen. And I was like, going back and forth in the comments of some of these posts with this med student and who knows, more than a med student. Nobody. They know everything.
00:43:43:01 - 00:44:08:01
Erin
And so I was explaining my health history and like kind of what I had gone through, and she said, I'm sorry that that happened to you, but anecdotal evidence is not evidence. And I actually fundamentally disagree with that. When we talk about evidence base, I believe that we get to be the evidence. My situation, my experience actually is valid.
00:44:08:03 - 00:44:29:09
Erin
And I just think that that idea of like anecdotal evidence is in evidence. It's like, what a way to rip women away from their power. No wonder why we second guess ourselves, because we're being taught all the time. You can't possibly know what's going on with you. Your experience is not to be trusted. And we're being told that our experience isn't valid and it's not real, and it doesn't matter.
00:44:29:11 - 00:44:55:14
Erin
And when we raise our point of view, or when our point of view or our experience is consistently and continuously invalidated, we begin to learn how to silence our internal point of view. And when we do that, we lose trust with ourselves and we lose trust with our body. So at the very start of this conversation, when you were like, what's your experience with burnout?
00:44:55:14 - 00:45:16:19
Erin
I'm like, I have so much. It's because I didn't trust myself. I didn't know how to listen to myself. I was taught that all of my internal stuff was wrong, bad, inappropriate and invalid, so I didn't know how to listen. I was never taught that. I was taught the exact opposite. And when we can't trust ourselves, when we don't trust ourselves, we have no choice but to reach out to external authorities.
00:45:17:00 - 00:45:45:08
Erin
External data points to look outside of ourselves, to say, please tell me what's wrong with me, because there's no way I can know this. I've lost touch with myself. I've divorced myself from my body. I've lost communication. I've gone dark on myself. I don't know how to do it anymore. And so much of Intuit like intuitive, functional medicine and honouring the sacredness of our bodies as teaching people, teaching women like we know inside, we know we just have to re-establish that connection and re-establish that trust.
00:45:45:13 - 00:46:08:08
Erin
Because, you know, your body is so ancient. It is so wise. We carry the wisdom of our ancestors in our physical bodies that we have to have reverence and respect for that. And it doesn't mean that we throw out the science we can learn from the new science. We can learn from that. But the science shouldn't override the wisdom inside of our body, right?
00:46:08:12 - 00:46:22:21
Erin
We don't need science or white paper to catch up to what we already know to be true inside of ourselves. And I think that the distinction, I don't think it has to be an either or. I think it gets to be an end. Both. We can we can do both. We can access both.
00:46:22:23 - 00:46:24:00
Chris
Yeah.
00:46:24:02 - 00:46:49:22
Filly
I love that goosebumps. Love it okay. Last question I don't know if this is like a big one or like yeah I do this this and this. So I just I watch you and I'm like oh my gosh Aaron's creating another thing and another thing and another thing. So you would like it manifest to the like in, in a way that I haven't seen fruit like in my life.
00:46:49:23 - 00:47:07:12
Filly
And how do you so you've been on this big long journey yourself. you teach other people how to do it and practitioners, how does current version of Aaron stay well and balanced and not burnout?
00:47:07:14 - 00:47:23:19
Erin
I don't personally personal goal of mine is not to achieve balance. I don't think I'm a balanced person. I think I'm pretty imbalanced when it comes to things that I really care about and really want to do. You know, like, I just, I give myself permission to be intense for the stuff that I really want to do.
00:47:24:01 - 00:47:38:16
Erin
And I also give myself permission to, like, pull back from things that I don't really care about. Like my not to say I don't care about sports or my kids sports, but like my husband does that, you know, like he's he's going to all my daughter's games and practices and I'm just like, I will catch a few, you know?
00:47:38:16 - 00:48:14:21
Erin
So I permit myself to go all in on the things that feel really important to me. And I also permit myself to pull back on other things, too. a big way that I prevent burnout is by setting boundaries, upholding boundaries, creating energetic boundaries, not running other people's thoughts, opinions, projections, programs, constructs through my body. You know, being okay with doing things my way, not feeling like I have to be beholden to how other people want me to do it.
00:48:14:22 - 00:48:37:04
Erin
there are some people who don't like change. They don't like when people grow and evolve, and that's their experience. And I don't have to hold myself accountable to somebody else's version of what they think I should or should not be. That's not my business, and it's not for me. And so really owning that and like letting myself have my own experience is a huge way to prevent burnout.
00:48:37:06 - 00:48:59:16
Erin
and I also, I just believe that I am co-creating with something bigger than myself. I really, really deeply in my heart and soul believe that I am in co-creation, and so I get to lean back into that. I feel like in a deck, I do create a lot, and I trust that I have an idea of coming through me, that it's coming through me for a reason.
00:48:59:16 - 00:49:15:05
Erin
And, that I feel like I get to, yeah, I get to benefit from, you know, the divine in source. and that helps me not burn out that that's how I do it, I guess.
00:49:15:09 - 00:49:23:11
Filly
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it sounds energising, as opposed to this thing that I have to force or push up the heal.
00:49:23:13 - 00:49:26:01
Chris
And, I don't know.
00:49:26:03 - 00:49:37:06
Erin
If it feels like I have to force it. It's like it's usually, you know, I'm trying to get better about, like, if this field hard and I have to force myself to do it, it really should be, you know.
00:49:37:08 - 00:49:38:03
Chris
00:49:38:05 - 00:49:55:11
Filly
And I feel, I, I feel like you definitely practice what you've preached because sometimes and I again, a podcast that I was listening to, I'm like, oh my gosh, why she like stuffing that? Like whether it was a call. So I can't even remember what it was. But you like, this is going great. But you know what? I'm not feeling it anymore.
00:49:55:13 - 00:50:08:15
Filly
I'm feeling pulled into this direction. So having that trust in, you know, wisdom and being aligned to the bigger purpose values is energising when you can trust that and channel into that.
00:50:08:17 - 00:50:28:06
Erin
It also like, listen, how am I going to get on a microphone and tell people how to trust themselves and find their own intuition? If I'm unwilling to do it for myself, you know, if I get an intuitive method, it's for me, it's intuition above all else, I don't if it doesn't make sense on paper, but my gut is telling me to do it, I still do it.
00:50:28:11 - 00:50:49:05
Erin
You're probably talking about your hormone revival. I had a three month for 5 or 6. Yeah, I had a it's a three month hormone program, hormone rebalancing program. And I made a ton of money, so it was profitable for the business. a lot of people loved it. I sold out round after round. People had such wonderful experiences.
00:50:49:10 - 00:51:12:12
Erin
People would get pregnant, they would, like just so many wonderful things. But I was just like, that was something that I felt like I was forcing myself to do. And I just got the intuitive hit, like, time to close it down. And I just I had to listen to that. And that's so important to me because that if I don't listen to it, that is when I burn out, that's when things start to feel really wobbly and imbalanced.
00:51:12:12 - 00:51:14:21
Erin
So intuition above all else.
00:51:14:22 - 00:51:39:16
Filly
Yeah. Love it. So cool. All right. This has been awesome. Thank you so much. I know the listeners are going to love it, but I am like just so happy my heart and my soul and my practitioner self is like, brimming with so much inspiration and motivation. So thank you so much on the show. Oh my.
00:51:39:16 - 00:51:44:18
Erin
Goodness. Thank you so much for having me on. It was awesome and hopefully, people enjoyed the show.
00:51:44:20 - 00:51:54:21
Filly
Very good. So if anyone wants to find out more about what you do, how, how best should people find you? And I'll make sure I'll put it in the show notes.
00:51:54:23 - 00:51:55:17
Erin
I say.
00:51:55:20 - 00:51:56:19
Filly
Podcast.
00:51:56:19 - 00:52:07:22
Erin
Is the Functional Nutrition podcast and Instagram I'm the functional nutritionist on Instagram too, so those are the two best place. Those are where I hang out the most. So those are the two best places to find me.
00:52:08:00 - 00:52:13:18
Filly
Awesome. All right. Well thank you so much and I hope you have a lovely day.
00:52:13:20 - 00:52:21:20
Erin
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me on.
00:52:21:22 - 00:52:32:00
Filly
Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you. If you'd like to give us extra smiles, drop us a review and spread the love by sharing this episode.
00:52:32:02 - 00:52:58:02
Chris
You can also write your own state of burnout and the root cause contributors by taking our Ending Body Burnout assessment on our website. And if you're interested in learning about that group or one on one ending buddy burnout programs, shoot us a DM via Instagram or Facebook. Have the best day ever.
00:52:58:04 - 00:52:58:15
Chris
For.
