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Lori Loughlin had it all: a career as a beloved TV icon, a happy marriage, and two loving daughters. But in the world of the ultra-rich and famous, success seemed to rest on the wins your child netted. And there was no bigger win than getting into a top college. So Lori left nothing to chance… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cindy: (00:00) This is Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast episode # 12. I’m Cindy MacMillan and today’s guest is Lori Burke. Cindy: (00:08) Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women over 40 who are trying to be everything to everyone and forgetting themselves in the process. Each week, join Cindy MacMillan as she interviews coaches, spiritual explorers and celebrants from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. Cindy: (00:16) Welcome back to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. Thank you for being with us today and I am so delighted to share my conversation with Lori Burke with you. Lori Burke is a certified Clinical and Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. She offers a variety of advanced hypnotherapy protocols and services to help her clients with overcoming fears, anger, and resentment; breaking undesirable habits and developing new, healthier ones; resolving self-limiting beliefs; programming for professional success; getting to the root cause of anxiousness; stress management; raising self-esteem and self-confidence; spiritual exploration, and more. . Cindy: (00:39) Lori, welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I'm so excited to have you. Lori: (01:31) Oh, well thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Cindy: (01:34) I'm really interested in hypnotherapy. So before we start, can you go ahead and just tell us what does exploring the seasons of life mean to you personally or in your business? Lori: (01:47) Well, the seasons of life to me are the phases that we go through that highlight those times of change in our lives, times that make an impact on who we are. And I think we hit those pivotal points in life, those points where we start another season and head down another path and we maybe move towards a new way of thinking or of being. And I think every season has its opportunities and lessons. And depending on how we handle those lessons, we can either look at them as opportunities to grow or we can struggle with them. Cindy: (02:26) Thank you. And you're so right about those seasons of life being those opportunities to grow if we just change our mindset around those. So I'm really fascinated by your story. Can you walk us through how you went from being a software engineer to a clinical hypnotherapist? Lori: (02:46) Yes. I actually get a lot of shocked looks from people when I tell them that I was a software engineer before becoming a hypnotherapist. It all really began about 10 years ago; I was a software engineer at the Kennedy Space Center and my life was pretty much running on autopilot at that point. Everyday kind of looked like the day before and one day my husband and I decided that we wanted to try yoga. So here we were, a couple of left-brain people, neither of us had ever stepped foot in a yoga studio before and neither of us was really sure what yoga was. And we had seen pictures of people in all these bendy positions and decided that we needed something maybe a little more on the beginner level and preferably something private. So we contacted a local yoga teacher, took some private yoga lessons, and she would talk about things that we had never heard of before. Lori: (03:52) And it was then that we had realized that there was this whole other side to life that we hadn't been aware of. I was pretty left-brain and I love the science behind a lot of the mind, body, spirit, metaphysical stuff. And I found Dr. Joe Dispenza's work and Dr. Bruce Lipton's work absolutely fascinating. And if you're into any of Dr. Joe's work or any of Bruce Lipton's work, you know that they talk a lot about reprogramming the mind. And I love that description, reprogramming the mind and they provide a lot of scientific background on it and their books and workshops. So I just ate that stuff up. I mean, I absolutely loved it. Well, roundabout 2012, I went through some of my own personal turmoil; some of those messy bits you talk about. And I ended up seeing a therapist and then I saw another one and then another one. Lori: (04:51) And I just couldn't quite get to the point of feeling better by talking about my issues over and over. And I knew there had to be something deeper going on, but I just, I didn't know what. So someone had suggested to me that I try EFT, which is Emotional Freedom Technique, and some people also refer to that as Tapping. And they gave me the name of a wonderful practitioner in Pennsylvania. So I worked with this practitioner for a while and we did some really good work and I learned a lot about being able to clear out old emotions about healing, old emotional wounds. After that experience, I became so open to all these alternative modalities out there. Well, one day, totally by accident, I landed on a website about either hypnosis or hypnotherapy. And it really caught my attention because it was right in line with that whole reprogramming of the mind that Dr. Joe Dispenza and Bruce Lipton talk about. Lori: (05:58) So from there I decided to enroll in a hypnotherapy program and learn more about it. Not really from the intent of changing careers. I was just really interested in it. Well, I got about halfway through the program and I realized at that point just how powerful this work can be. So at the end of the program I found myself at a major crossroads in my life. I was working at the Kennedy Space Center, which is arguably one of the most exciting places to work and I worked with a really talented team of software people. They were just really good people and I got paid really well to do what I did and yet I was beginning to feel at that point like I had a deeper purpose. Like there was something else that I needed to be doing and when I put together my life experiences, the things that I've been through in life together with my hypnotherapy training and then the training from Joe Dispenza and Bruce Lipton's work, I knew that I had a lot to offer people and I also knew that if I didn't pursue this, it would be like having a tool that can help people, but like I was withholding it because I was afraid to leave my own comfortable situation. Lori: (07:20) I also felt somewhat of an obligation to pay it forward because others had helped me through my rough times and now I felt like it was my turn to do the same to pay it forward. So I was at that point of making a huge step. Now I have to tell you, I was in my mid fifties at the time and you know, some felt that it was just a little too late in life to be making such a drastic change. True to my adventurous nature. I did it anyway and I've really never looked back. It's just been incredibly fulfilling to be able to participate in life transformations of my clients and I just, I just feel so honored that they allow me into their personal lives and into their pasts to do this work. It's just really fulfilling. Speaker 1: (08:11) Lori, what I like about that story so much is one you making that leap in your fifties but two you saying that you, are very left-brained and yet you were open to all these different possibilities. Lori: (08:28) Absolutely. I mean, I still love the science of just about everything, but I think that yoga experience really showed me that there is another side to life. And in some things, I feel like science hasn't quite caught up to it. But it doesn't mean it's not there. It's, it's just one of those things that you need to, you know, take a leap of faith and have some belief. Cindy: (08:53) Yeah. I love that. Can you tell us exactly what a hypnotherapist is and why that works? Lori: (09:01) Sure, sure. Um, it's probably helpful, to begin with, a good definition of what hypnosis is. A lot of times clients come in for their first session and even at that point, they're just not quite sure what hypnosis is or what hypnotherapy is. And they usually associate it with what they've seen on TV or what they've seen in the movies or on a YouTube video. And that's not what I do. So what's hypnosis? Well, hypnosis is a naturally occurring altered state and we all go in and out of a hypnotic state on a daily basis when we wake up in the morning and when we fall asleep at night. It's that sweet spot between being fully awake and being asleep. It's, it's like being in the zone, so to speak. And it's that state where if you're doing something creative that takes all of your focus, like painting or sculpting or knitting, something like that, you may be so hyper-focused that you don't even notice if someone walks into the room and starts talking to you. Lori: (10:10) So that's an example of a hypnotic state. If you're driving up the highway and you kind of zone out and then you realize that you missed your exit five miles back, that's a form of hypnosis. And when you're in that state, your subconscious mind becomes open and accessible, which is where the reprogramming occurs. And that brings us to hypnotherapy. Now, hypnotherapy uses the hypnotic state, that state of the opening up of the subconscious mind to apply tools and techniques to communicate directly with the subconscious mind. Where that reprogramming takes place. So in my practice, I generally use a light to medium state unless a deeper state is required to apply these tools and techniques. Now, while someone is in hypnosis, they're fully aware and they're fully in control and they would never do or say anything that they would not normally do or say or anything that goes against their moral code. Lori: (11:14) I know a lot of people have questions or concerns about that in the beginning. The only time that they're not fully aware is if they become so relaxed that they do fall asleep and that does happen occasionally. And when that does happen, I have to kind of nudge them and bring them back to a lighter state so we can continue with our work. But the client does hear everything that's said. And the reason that hypnotherapy works so well is that it can uncover and access the root cause of most issues. That being the memories, the emotions, and beliefs that reside the subconscious mind. See normally during a conversation, the conscious mind is on full alert and it doesn't allow access to the subconscious mind, at least not from a reprogramming standpoint. It's like having a read only file on a computer and there's a little guard at the gate of the subconscious mind that prevents that. But in hypnosis, the conscious mind and that little guard at the gate are relaxed and that allows me access to the subconscious mind and that allows the reprogramming to take place, which is why it works. So well. Cindy: (12:30) Lori when you're working with someone and you ask them a question is it because they're so relaxed, they're able to answer and answers are able to come forth easily. Is that it? Lori: (12:45) Yeah, and sometimes when you relax the conscious mind, the analytical mind, the stuff starts to come up from the subconscious mind a little more readily. I know I've worked with several clients who initially they don't even remember a memory that's causing their problem. But as we start to work through it and all this stuff starts to come up and then they're able to make that connection, I usually tell them when we start working together, it's like having a champagne glass where the bubbles initially stick to the side of the glass. But as we go in there and we start to stir things, some of those bubbles are going to start to come up. And those are things that come up out of the subconscious mind as we do our work. Cindy: (13:30) I liked the way you described that those bubbles come up. Yeah. So how often do you hear, I don't know who I am? Lori: (13:41) Actually. I hear that a lot from women who have been in the role of a mom or wife or daughter, and suddenly that role in the way that they knew it goes away. Um, children become more independent or they leave home to start their own lives. So my client's role as a wife may go away due to divorce or death. So you know, you can have the empty nesters that create a void. You can have a divorce or death and that creates a void and suddenly they're standing there in a bit of an identity crisis. Really. And I've also seen this happen with women who have had the same career for many years. Suddenly their job goes away or they decide that they're going to retire and it creates a void because they confused who they were with what they did. You know, somebody may say, um, you know, who are you? And they'll say, Oh, I'm a software engineer. Well, a software engineer isn't who you are. It's what you do. And if you ask people who are you, many times people will have a response that includes a job title and or role. So when they get to these points in their lives, they may feel stuck. They don't know how to move forward. A role that they've fulfilled for many years is no longer there. And they come in and they say, I, I just don't know what the problem is. I just don't know who I am. Cindy: (15:11) Yeah, I absolutely understand where they're coming from when they say that because I've been there myself going, well, who am I? You know? Yeah, but you're right. Most times when you talk to people it is their roles that come up. Absolutely. How do you work through that with them; through hypnotherapy? Lori: (15:37) Yeah. A lot of times they'll come into midlife and they'll have a lot of emotional baggage and if they've been distracting themselves with fulfilling a role, they may not even know that that baggage is there. Although I've had quite a few women come in and they have things like chronic fatigue syndrome, which means they're tired all the time. But with no real cause and emotional baggage can be pretty heavy. So one of the major things that we do is to help them to unload that emotional baggage and to go back and take a look at things like their self-limiting beliefs and figure out where that came from so that we're able to get in there and resolve it. And then we go ahead and we, you know, build up their self-esteem and their self-confidence. And get some goals in place. So they unload what they had from their, you know, from their past, from their childhood. We get them on stable ground, we turn around those self-limiting beliefs and, and we offer them some new beliefs. And when you have healthier beliefs in place, that causes some pretty healthy and uplifting emotions to go with that. And somebody who feels good and believes good things about themselves can move forward with confidence. Cindy: (17:03) Well thank you, for explaining that to us. What are some obstacles that you help women with in your practice? I know we talked a little bit about self-limiting beliefs. What are some other things that you help women with? Lori: (17:19) Yeah. Most of the common issues they come in with are anxiety, depression, insomnia and weight issues. They're feeling stuck. They're feeling like they're unable to move forward in their lives. And the overwhelming majority of those issues began long before they showed up in my office. In fact, most of them are the result of those emotional wounds that we just talked about from childhood. And when I explain this to clients for the first time, I usually get the, Oh, you know, it can't be that I've only had this issue for the past five or 10 years, but a lot of times it's hard to identify the root cause of a problem just by looking at it from the surface or from the conscious and analytical viewpoint. So many times the client just can't believe that their issue is coming from something that occurred in childhood. Lori: (18:13) But as we start to clear things out and we start to get some of these things resolved, they see and feel the difference and they're able to start making that connection. So it's, it's really a learning and self discovery process, as far as those feeling stuck or not being able to move forward, that has a lot to do with fear in one form or another. And for the most part, we tend to live our lives in our comfort zone. And this is the zone where life is pretty predictable and the likelihood of any surprises is pretty minimal. And as long as we live every day, like the day before, we feel relatively safe. But unfortunately it can also result in that feeling of stuckness. You know, maybe my client wants to write a book or start a business or change careers or get out of or into a significant relationship but just can't seem to move past the fear of, of doing that. So with hypnotherapy we uncover and resolve the root cause of that fear. You know, sometimes it's low self-esteem or low self-confidence that we need to look at or maybe there's something in her early childhood that led her to form beliefs about herself or about her circumstances. And then we get back into those self-limiting beliefs and resolve them. And once those limiting beliefs are etched into the subconscious mind, they pretty much stay there until they're reprogrammed or transformed. Cindy: (19:52) It almost sounds like you are helping your clients connect the dots. Speaker 3: (19:56) That's exactly it and it's really about learning and a self-discovery process. Yeah. Cindy: (20:03) In the last three to five years. Speaking of beliefs in the last three to five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most changed your life? Lori: (20:17) I think the number one thing, the number one thing that really changed the course of my life was realizing that you are never too old to change course. And I tell my clients, if you're still breathing, it's not too late. It can take, you know, some preparation or some extra training or some extra planning of some sort to make these huge changes in your life depending on what it is, but it's not impossible. I had done some research on people who either switched careers or had become famous or successful even after they were 50 years old. And what I found was really, it was interesting that it was really encouraging too, the first person that always comes to mind is Louise Hay and she did, she didn't publish her first book until she was 50 years old and in fact, she didn't start Hay House Publishing until she was in her sixties so that was really encouraging. You know, we don't have to work and work and work and then hit that retirement age and then, you know, it, everything goes on autopilot from there. I mean, we can continue our lives, you know, the excitement goes on. It's not too late. Cindy: (21:39) I consider myself a lifelong learner. And so I feel like when you stop learning, it's almost like you stop living or you become on autopilot as you're saying. Lori: (21:51) You certainly stop growing. You know? And sometimes the fear keeps us from putting ourselves into potential situations where, you know, what if this happens, what if that happens? And you know, the thoughts about it can be worse than actually going through it. So allow yourself to grow. You know, you, you may make some mistakes along the way. That's okay. We're all human. But without those mistakes, you don't have the learning and the growing and, you know, I think we should keep life exciting. Yeah. Cindy: (22:24) What you just said, allow yourself to grow. I love that. So Lori, if you could turn back time and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell her about the season of life that you're in right now? Lori: (22:40) I would tell her she's got a lot of seasons to get through until she reaches the one I'm in now. So I guess I would, first of all, I would encourage her to always follow her heart, to stay adventurous and to enjoy and appreciate the seasons along the way. Even those challenges, those, what you refer to as messy bits, especially those messy bits actually, because that's where the greatest lessons are learned and that's where the most growth occurs. Um, so it's, it's hard to see that sometimes when you're young, but yeah, of course, I would tell her all of this and then she would roll her eyes and smile because being in the season she was in at 18. It's hard to imagine being in the season I'm in, in my late fifties. Cindy: (23:31) Right. So is there anything that I should have asked you, but I just didn't know to ask you anything that you want to tell us? Lori: (23:40) No, no, you're pretty thorough. Pretty thorough. Cindy: (23:44) Well, I really appreciate you being on the podcast. That means a lot to me. So how can people follow you on your journey and support you? Lori: (23:52) They can check out my website, LoriBurkeHypnosis.com and I'm also on Facebook. I'm on two places, Lori.BurkeCHT or LoriBurkeHypnosis, and I've begun to post some just some very short clips on subjects that are associated with hypnotherapy or hypnosis in some way or associated with the work that I do. I occasionally have workshops and I'm hoping to do some webinars in the future, you know, and I would certainly post those on my website as well. Cindy: (24:30) All right, well thank you very much. I appreciate you being here. Lori: (24:34) Thank you so much, Cindy. It was such a pleasure. Cindy: (24:37) Thank you. Speaker 2: (24:38) Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life. I enjoyed my conversation with Lori Burke and I especially liked it when she said, " It creates a void, because they confused, who they were with what they did.” . (24:54) How many times have we confused who we are with what we do? I listen to the Karen Kinney Show and get her newsletter. She said, “peacocks are the perfect representation of embodied authenticity and confidence - which is way different than arrogance. Peacocks don’t think they’re special. They simply go around looking and being exactly how the Divine made them.” So isn’t that what we should do…simply be who we are. Visit our website, CynthiaMacMillan.com, and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Until next time, live inspired!
"Bonus episode" Since the disappearance of Amiah Robertson many people from all over the world has come together in numerous facebook groups trying get answers, but with so much drama those who are really trying to fight for Amiah are labeled as trolls. So Lori and I had two special guests that were labeled as trolls to give us a break down about why they are trolling for Amiah Robertson. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crimepursuit/support
Creating an online community sounds easy in theory—but what does it take to build a thriving community? How do you interact with your group? What are some of the best ways to add value? If you’re struggling to answer these questions, Lori Kennedy is here to answer them. Lori is the founder of the Wellness Business Hub, a business consultant, and host of ‘The Business of Becoming’ podcast. She’s been in the health and wellness industry since 1999 and is passionate about helping entrepreneurs in alternative medicine learn how to run successful online businesses. Outline of This Episode [0:40] How to build a community [1:55] I introduce our guest, Lori Kennedy [2:40] Lori’s background as an entrepreneur [5:55] Why Lori created her first online community [9:40] How do you cultivate a thriving community? [18:40] Mistakes people make in FB groups [20:25] You get to be the leader and the expert [25:50] Where should you be most active? [30:30] What holds people back? What is the ‘why’ behind your online community? Lori was completely honest in this episode: she launched her first online community because she felt alone. Her friends were school teachers or worked in an office. No one truly understood her entrepreneurial journey when she launched her nutrition practice in 2007. It was just her, diving into the unknown. When your path is so different from everyone around you, it’s important to find somewhere you belong. Her mission was to create a community where she could collaborate with clients as a leader and a peer. She wanted to help others in her industry not feel so alone. Of course, being able to learn from each other was an added bonus. You must be intentional about your community’s structure Lori pointed out to us that you must be intentional about your community. If you have your why in place, how do you want it carried out? She didn’t create her first group to make money or be a lead gen pool—even though it does do those things. But she wanted a judgment-free zone for colleagues and peers to come together. That’s pretty powerful stuff. So she recommends writing a vision statement. At the time, hers was to “Create a community of alternative health practitioners that are 100% supportive of each other (where they can) be totally and completely honest and vulnerable”. What vision do you have for your community? What is its purpose? Do human beings lack the ability to be real? Honesty and vulnerability are the cornerstones of what makes Lori’s Facebook community so successful. If you desire to have a community where people are real—then YOU have to be real. People see through false bravado, sales techniques, and know when you’re being fake. So Lori shares silly photos and embarrassing stories to create an atmosphere of playfulness and comfort. Whatever you do, be sure you’re being real with your group, even with ‘touchy’ subjects. Speaking of, Lori’s mission is to change the stigma around making money. She wants her group members to celebrate their milestones. To share their wins and show new members what is possible. You should be proud that your business is succeeding and making money. Be sure to listen as Lori chats with us about mistakes to avoid making! The balance between connecting and selling Even if the primary goal of your Facebook group is to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs in your space, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for selling. It IS your business after all. You get to be the leader and the expert—so share your expertise. Lori publishes high-quality teaching content and tutorials. She does Facebook Live rapid-fire coaching sessions. She always prefaces the ‘selling’ with a disclaimer but follows it with powerful content that compels you to work with her. It goes to show, if you are consistently offering value in a community that shares its successes and failures, you’re doing something right. If your job hinges on helping your community find success, do it! Everyone needs a little accountability and support. Don’t be afraid to dive in and give it a shot. To hear how Lori is active in her community and her tips for success, listen to the whole episode! Resources & People Mentioned Lori Kennedy on Instagram Lori’s LinkedIn The Wellness Business Hub Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/ Site: www.jamespfriel.com Interested in being a guest on the show? Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/ Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com
Moms all over the world have the Caden sisters to thank for normalizing post-pregnancy shapewear. It all started in 2008 when Lori Caden's sisters were sick of hearing complaints about the new mom's post-baby belly. So Lori, Jodi, and Kari developed the first doctor-recommended, postpartum compression wrap, the Belly Bandit. Thanks to its list of die-hard celeb fans like the Kardashian sisters, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Alba and more, Belly Bandit products now include C-Section Recovery Undies, Belly Wraps, and Mother Tucker Leggings and are sold in over 1,000 retailers and 86 countries. The Caden sisters joined Michael and Alli to talk about Belly Bandit's 10 years in the maternity industry, helping women feel their best before, during and after pregnancy, and the power of women-focused, solutions-based business. Learn more at @bellybandit and bellybandit.com. Don't forget to follow @alliwebb for #BTS of Raising The Bar and subscribe and rate us! Use coupon code " " for $10 off your first box at www.fabfitfun.com Get 45 days of Acuity Scheduling absolutely free - no credit card required - by going to acuityscheduling.com/bar. Produced by Dear Media.
On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Laurie Seely on the show to discuss gut health. Laurie is a Certified Health and Wellness Coach specializing in helping people repair their gut from Candida, IBS, and Heavy Metals Toxicity. In this episode, we discuss: -The number one question you should be asking your doctor at your next check up -How you can assess the health of your stool -Simple solutions to improve your gut health -Laurie’s long journey to overcome Candida -And so much more! Resources: Laurie Seely Website Laurie Seely Facebook Young Living Parafree Candida, IBS, and Heavy Metals Education Facebook Group FREE GIFT: 7 STEPS TO KILL CANDIDA CHECKLIST For more information on Laurie: I’m a Functional Medicine Health Coach, a lover of Young Living Essential Oils, a mom to a beautiful little girl, and a professional opera singer, formerly in the chorus at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. I suffered for years with IBS and all the horrible, embarrassing symptoms that came along with it, including a raging candida (yeast) overgrowth. Eeeeew! With help from my health coach and the School of Applied Functional Medicine, I learned how to kill Candida and repair my gut. I am a health detective! Now I teach people how to kill Candida and repair their gut through workshops, group programs, essential oils, and 1-on-1 coaching. Many of my clients find surprising side effects such as extra energy, clearer skin, fewer wrinkles, better digestion, less need for medications, lower blood sugar, and clearer thinking! Laurie Seely Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy: 00:01 Hey Lori, welcome to the podcast. I am happy to have you on. Laurie Seely: 00:05 I'm so happy to be here. Thank you Karen. Karen Litzy: 00:08 Of course. And as we were talking about before we got on the air, the way that we were introduced to each other is through Christine Gallagher, who's a really wonderful business coach and she was part of my women in PT Summit, in our inaugural summit a couple of years ago. And so I just want to give a quick shout out to Christine for the hookup here. Karen Litzy: 00:31 She’s great. So now obviously in your bio I talked about the fact that you're a functional medicine health coach, but I have a feeling a lot of people aren't exactly sure what that is or what that means. So would you mind giving the listeners a little bit of background on to what that is exactly. Laurie Seely: 00:48 I got a certification as a health coach and then I continued at the school for Applied Functional Medicine and they offer another certification. And basically that's where I learned all my stuff. You learn about just really how to be a health detective because there are so many symptoms of dis-ease that a lot of doctors will label as an illness. And I was very interested in this kind of, it's not really medicine, but I was very interested in this kind of health detective work because I went through this whole thing myself with IBS and Candida and I still had a couple of pieces left to really, really find health for myself. And it was at this school that I've finally put in the last couple of pieces to make that happen. And so, in the process I became a functional medicine health coach. Isn't that cool? Now I help other people that had the same sort of problems that I once had. Karen Litzy: 02:08 Yeah. And I feel like oftentimes that's kind of the way life takes us, right? We kind of have these experiences and we figure them out for ourselves and then we try and delve a little bit deeper to widen the net and then help others. So I think it's great when you can kind of make that change. But a question, what were you doing before you were a health coach? Laurie Seely: 02:32 Well, I was an opera singer actually. I was singing fulltime in the chorus at the lyric opera of Chicago, which was really, really fun. And actually I just recently quit there. I was doing both at the same time for a while, which was a really difficult juggle. And I feel like this is where my heart lies and my passion now. So yeah, I was an opera singer. Karen Litzy: 03:12 What a career, what a career switch. Yeah. I love talking to people who have had different careers within their life because I always think like it gives people hope, you know? So if you're not doing exactly what you love right now, that there's hope, you may find that thing that kind of, like you said, gives you your passion. Right? Fantastic. All right, so now let's talk about the health coaching aspect of things. So let's say I'm one of your clients. I come to you and I've already been to my doctor or maybe I'm going to see my doctor. So what are some important questions that maybe doctors should be asking us that they're not? Maybe that, yeah, we're not delving into as much. Laurie Seely: 03:49 So I think that the number one most important question a doctor can ask you is what does your poop look like? And specifically, what does it look like and how often do you poop? Because that is your body's way of telling you when there's something wrong. I learned that functional medicine school that most dis ease begins in the gut. We don't say all because we just want to, you know, 99.9% of disease begins in the gut, I would say, right? And that's your first indication. That's your body telling you, hey, there's something wrong. You know? And so we need to be educated on our part. What poops should look like. Right. And I feel like this should be like on the commercials on TV instead of like, you know what pharmaceutical drug can help you with your IBS. Laurie Seely: 04:52 They should be telling us what our poop should look like so it doesn't have to go all the way to IBS. We can see right at the beginning, you know what, I'm pooping little marbles like that's, that was my problem for most of my life. Little marbles with occasional bouts of diarrhea and I went for close to 40 years not knowing that there was anything wrong. If one doctor had asked me what my poop looked like when I was say 12 years old and I was old enough to kind of tell him, well about nine times a day I'm pooping little balls. He'd be like, wow, there's something wrong with you. We need to figure out what it is. And I feel like there's so many people who are in the same boat, you know, it never would have gotten to candida for me. I had a yeast infection for a year, every single day. And if somebody had asked me at 12 years old, what does my poop look like? I just, I feel like it never would have gotten that bad. And I feel like there's so many other people in this world who are in the same boat, you know, and who are maybe at some sort of state of disease that really could have been kind of nipped in a bud years ago when it was much less. Karen Litzy: 06:05 Hmm. Yeah. And so if we're going there, right? We're going to talk about poop right now. We're in it, we're doing it. Laurie Seely: If you have a conversation with me long enough, it'll eventually go there. Karen Litzy: Yes. This is it. Obviously a very good question that your doctor should be asking, but now if people listening to this next time they go to their doctor, they can bring this up, correct? Laurie Seely: 06:33 Yeah, absolutely. And you want to be very clear because even doctors can mess up with this. You know, there was one chiropractor that I was at who asked, we sort of, we get treated in the same room, a bunch of us, and there was another client, they're getting treated at the same time. And she was making comments that kind of made the chiropractor and me kind of go to, sounds like you're constipated, but we didn't say that. And he asked her, how's your digestion? Laurie Seely: 07:04 She’s like oh, it's fine. And then he left the room and I said, what does your poop look like? How many times do you poop a day? And she said, Oh, I'm pooping like once every 10 days. Oh my God. Yeah. So I was like, wow. Like I didn't want to alarm her, but I sort of explained, you know, that it shouldn't be that way. So, that's the thing, when you talk to your doctor, like get gross, get like in it, tell them what it looks like, what it feels like, the texture, the smell, how long it takes to pass, because they need to know all of those things. And sometimes the doctor's going to get grossed out by that. And you know what, find a different one because you need to be able to talk about this stuff. Karen Litzy: 07:45 Okay. So let's talk about what it should look like. So there is a chart called the Bristol stool chart. So can you tell us what it is and what it should look like? Laurie Seely: 07:59 So on the chart it goes from number one to number seven. So number one is constipation and that's the tiny little balls. Number seven is diarrhea, that's watery stools. And number four is Nirvana poop. Like exactly what it's supposed to be like. It's like soft serve, ice cream texture. And it's not going to smell very much. It's going to be light brown in texture, easy to pass. We're talking one or two minutes and it's all gone all out and it leaves almost nothing to wipe. So that's the, the good stuff. And then they have, you know, the different levels in between one, four and seven also. So you can, you can Google that. There's like great illustrations online. Karen Litzy: 08:50 And so obviously if you're at a one or a seven, we pretty much know something's up, right? Yep. So four is perfect. What if you're at three or a five? I mean, are these things to be worried about? Laurie Seely: 08:56 I honestly, I don't think so. If you're at a three or a five, it's probably not your norm. If that makes sense. Like you want to look at where, where is it usually? Right? What is your pattern? If you have a couple of days with a little bit of stress and suddenly you're pooping tiny little balls, but then you get back to a number four after that, you're good. It was the stress you got over it. Right. Do a little yoga, some deep breathing, you'll be fine. Same thing happens with diarrhea. You know, a lot of people get stressed diarrhea. So if that's a temporary thing and it's due to stress that's temporary, then you're fine. Laurie Seely: 09:49 If it's happening all the time, then you need to know that, yeah, it's a problem and you need to do some detective work there and that's time to do a stool test or to do any number of blood tests for parasites and stuff like that. So that's time when you want to, you want to find out what's causing it. A lot of times like, okay, so I went to my gastroenterologist, I said, I have IBS, I'm constipated all the time. Sometimes I have diarrhea. I told her the whole story and she said, we don't know what causes IBS. Laurie Seely: 10:24 So that's another indication that you need a new doctor. So that's what I did. I got a new doctor because there are so many things that cause IBS and that's time to just find yourself a health detective and figure it out. There's a great test from the Meridian Valley lab called a comprehensive stool analysis and Parasitology times three. So that will tell you all of the expected beneficial flora that you want in there. It'll measure imbalanced flora. Any flora that's dysbiotic or like out of crazy, out of balance. So you know exactly really what's supposed to be there. It's also going to measure how much yeast you have in there because everybody pretty much has yeast in their digestive tract. It's just when it gets overgrown and it's bad. And then it also measures like mucus and then it checks for parasites and it's a three day test. Laurie Seely: 11:26 So if you find a doctor that gave you a stool test and it's just from one bowel movement, that's not a good enough test. If it finds something cool, then you got lucky. But it's good to test over the period of at least three days. There are some stool tests that go up to six days. So the reason for that is that the bacteria and the parasites and the candida, it all travels in groups like in clumps, they like to stick together like a school of fish, right? And from one bowel movement you could be full of parasites and in one bowel movement you pass a whole bunch that doesn't have any parasites in it because they were hanging out somewhere else in your colon. So that's why you want to test over three days. So then you have a pretty good chance that if there's any parasites in there, you've found them. Karen Litzy: 12:27 Yeah, that makes sense to me. And now let's say you do this test and something is positive. Where do you go from there? Laurie Seely: Well, there's a lot of things you can do about that. It depends on your doctor. He might give you a pharmaceutical antiparasitic drug to take, which can be effective and there's the possibility that it's not effective as well. You always want to retest. What I do with my clients is I use a product from young living essential oil as it's the best thing that I've found so far, the most effective and it's called para free and it's full of various essential oils and all. So, other ingredients that are known to support intestinal health and are, I can't say that they're known to kill things because it hasn't been approved by the FDA, but I've seen in my practice and in my own body and in my mother's body, that it clears up parasites. Karen Litzy: 15:29 So now let's say you do this comprehensive stool analysis and you find something, it's treated either by your physician with the pharmaceutical or through the essential oils, but I guess it's probably important to note that with the essential oils that like you said, they're not FDA approved and they're not studied or tested. It's just more like anecdotal stuff. Laurie Seely: 16:01 There are many case studies and actually it seems like from the case studies that the para free is actually more useful. Karen Litzy: 16:14 Well it would probably behoove someone to do some research on that because it's hard to I think get buy in from a lot of people when something isn't well-researched. That's a word I was going to say, test it. But research is probably better. Probably a better way to put that. So, you know, at least someone will, we'll do that to help people make a better decision. Laurie Seely: 16:50 Right. Well, here's a thing, the reason why they're not FDA approved is not because the FDA looked into it and disapproved them. It's because the FDA doesn't want to waste their time on something that can't be patented because they're natural ingredients in there. They're not synthetic versions of natural ingredients it’s the actual natural ingredient. And so those things can't be patented and they can't, you know, companies can't make money off of that. And so the FDA doesn't want to use their funding on that. Karen Litzy: 17:23 Right. Yeah. Well hopefully someone can do like a nice comparative study between that and a pharmaceutical and see what works and what doesn't. Laurie Seely: 17:34 I think one of the issues that pharmaceuticals are usually aimed at just one thing. And the para free has been useful in treating a wide range of parasites. So it's like throwing a huge blanket on it. You Kill Them all. But you're right. You're right. It'd be nice if it were more widely publicized. Karen Litzy: 18:05 All right. Now let's say we talked about this a little bit. Let's say you're on the one of the Bristol stool chart, which means that you're constipated and everyone at some point in their life has been, and we know it's not comfortable, so how can we relieve this? Laurie Seely: 18:29 So there's a couple of different ways. It depends on what's causing it. So before doing a stool test, I would try, what I'm going to tell you now, I would first look at how much water are you drinking every day. So the rule of thumb for how much water you should be drinking is you see how many pounds you weigh, divide that by two. And that's how many ounces of water you should be drinking every day. So if you weigh 140, you should be drinking at least 70 ounces of water per day. Right? Now there's a lot of people who are already doing that, but there are a lot of people for whom that would be quite a bit of water. That's really what we need to be doing because, the number one and the Bristol stool chart is an indication that your stool is dehydrated and you're still maybe dehydrated just because you're not drinking enough water, it's possible that the muscles along your colon aren’t functioning absolutely properly and that you're just moving along slowly because there's not enough water in your stool. Laurie Seely: 19:36 So that's the simplest fix. Right? And then also if you do that and you find that it doesn't fix it or it improves it, now you're still drinking more water. Another thing to do is consider that maybe you don't have enough magnesium intake. So a lot of us don't have enough magnesium just because we're not getting it anymore from the fruits and vegetables because of modern day farming practices. It's not in the soil. So if it's not in the soil, can't be in the vegetables and that's where we're supposed to be getting our magnesium from. So we use supplements. So there's, the form of magnesium that helps to stimulate the bowels is called magnesium citrate. And so you just see, you try taking some magnesium citrate and there's a very easy way to figure out how much of that you need. Laurie Seely: 20:32 You want to get the powdered version because it's easier to lower or raise your intake right then like taking a capsule. And so you start with half a teaspoon of magnesium citrate. And you do that for about three days because it takes a while for it to build up in our bodies. And if after about three days you're not moving along the way you want to be, then you raise it by another half teaspoon and you just keep doing that in three day intervals like that until you're where you want to be. And it's possible that you might go up a little too far and have diarrhea and then you know, for sure that half a teaspoon or less than that is what you need. Karen Litzy: 21:17 Right, right. Yeah. So it's a little bit of trial and error there, but I get it. Laurie Seely: 21:22 I mean that if you're trying to do things naturally, that's how it is. Karen Litzy: 21:27 Yeah, for sure. Okay. So we've got lack of water, lack of magnesium. Anything else that can contribute? Laurie Seely: 21:35 Well, we always say we should have more fiber. Right? And that could be part of it as well. So you want to make sure that you're eating enough vegetables because I never recommend a person to get their fiber from things like shredded wheat or bread or things like that. But that's what we see in the media, right? We see like, oh, have your high fiber bread and that's going to help you. Well, wheat actually can irritate the colon. Whether you have a sensitivity to it or not because of the way that it's being produced nowadays. It's a very common irritant. And so that could be, I mean, maybe you're eating bread and that's your problem, right? So if you feel like maybe it's a fiber issue, then the way to get fibers through vegetables and I'm talking about like spinach, Kale, leafy Greens. Karen Litzy: 22:34 Yeah. So that makes sense. So you want to start having more water, kind of eating a little bit healthier and things may even out for you. Okay, great. So is there anything else with constipation that we didn't go over about kind of how to relieve it or what might be causing it? Laurie Seely: 22:55 Well, those are the places that I would start. And if you don't make any headway there, then got to find yourself a health detective, I think. Karen Litzy: 23:07 Yeah. Yeah. All right. Sounds good. Now you made mention of this earlier, but, and I know it's part of your history and kind of why you became a health coach, but talk a little bit about Candida and what it was like for you for 10 plus years. Laurie Seely: 23:28 So, my whole life, this whole thing with my digestion just kept getting worse. I didn't even know that I had a problem. I was unaware of it. That's why I'm here. Like educating people about it, bringing it into the light. Eventually I started having like three to six or more yeast infections every single year, which I also didn't know, but that's considered frequent for yeast infections. And then eventually, this is a little while after I had my daughter. My immune system just tanked and so did my thyroid and I had a yeast infection for every day for an entire year. I remember spending a week at Disney with an itch that I couldn't scratch. It was just horrible. So that's when I finally, I took the plunge. I was googling the whole time, like, there's probably a good 10 years that I was like, why am I getting so many yeast infections? Laurie Seely: 24:32 And I would Google that and it would come up as a candida, you know, a systemic candida infection. I was like, no, no, no. It couldn't be that, because then I of course googled the remedy for that. And it just seemed like so hard and such a problem to go through that I was like, no, it's gotta be something else. It can't be that. So when I finally admitted it, I mean, that was the first day of the rest of my life, you know? And, I started my journey to health Karen Litzy: 25:11 So aside from having the recurrent and constant yeast infections, was there anything else that you noticed that maybe you ignored? Laurie Seely: 25:20 Yes. Looking back, I started to have, when I wasn't constipated, I was having far more urgent diarrhea, which actually led to like public accidents. Very, very embarrassing. And I got some allergies that I had always had some allergies, but it was just so bad that I was seeing an allergist and I was using Flonase and other steroid nasal sprays. And of course that was just making my problem worse because steroids actually kill gut bacteria and that was the root of my problem. And then after that allergies then more yeast infections. That was I think the allergies and the more frequent diarrhea that I didn't put it together. I didn't understand. Karen Litzy: 26:19 Yeah. And that always seems to be the way because especially when you're in it, it's kind of like hard to connect all those dots, right? Because you're just trying to take care of the symptoms. Laurie Seely: 26:30 I was constantly putting band aids on symptoms, not realizing that they had a common cause. And sinus infections also. Yeast kinda likes to live in the warm, wet areas and sinuses are a really good place for them to take up shop. And I had that problem too. Karen Litzy: 26:50 Gosh. What a way to go through life. Laurie Seely: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's so many people who are really experiencing this all the time still and also haven't connected the dots, you know. Karen Litzy: Well, you know, hopefully you can raise a little bit more awareness for people and have them be a little more aware of how they poop yes. And what it looks like and the consistency and this smell and all that stuff so that hopefully we can, cause you know, what you put in your body's got to come out, right? So, I think it's important that we pay attention to what our body is doing because like you said, our bodies are pretty good at telling us when things are wrong. When things are out of homeostasis and if checking your poop, that seems pretty easy to me so then you could say, oh, this doesn't seem right. Maybe I should call my doctor about this. Laurie Seely: Exactly. Yes, exactly. Just have to pay attention. Karen Litzy: Yes, we have to pay attention. Well, now is there anything that maybe we didn't cover that you feel like who I really want your listeners to know this. Laurie Seely: 28:21 I think we got everything. Karen Litzy: All right, well then I have one last question for you and it's a question that I ask everyone, and that's knowing where you are now in your life and your career. What advice would you give to yourself, let's say right out of school, or maybe in your case when you first started getting into the opera world? Laurie Seely: 29:05 Oh, well this is, yes. Advice that I wish I'd had. Just keep trying get used to hearing no. Laurie Seely: 29:20 Because in the opera world we deal with a lot of rejection. There's a lot of auditions and you might get out of, I don't know, 20 auditions, you might get one job. So I really would have liked to start to hear that, to know that it was normal. You have all these auditions and just get one job, you know? But I have a very stick-to-it-ness sort of nature to me and I rolled with it. Karen Litzy: 29:52 Gosh, I'm sure so many people have been in your boat many times over and would have loved to have had that advice. And now you have, which I'm very grateful for, something for the listeners. So what is a Freebie for people? Laurie Seely: 30:10 So I have a seven step program that I use with my clients to help them get over candida and repair their gut. And I have a blog post on my website that goes through those seven steps. And it also has a very handy downloadable checklist that you can use as you're going through the program. Laurie Seely: 30:42 So, and it also has a very nice list of Anti-candida foods, foods that are allowed and not allowed on the anti-Candida, a diet that is very handy to print out and just hang in your kitchen so that you can check it every once in a while and see what kind of recipes you want to make for yourself. Because when you're doing the Anti Candida Diet, it can be very difficult and very depressing to try and figure out what there is that you can eat without feeding your candy jar. So for anybody who sort of was thinking, oh, that might be me, I don't know, you can go to my website and check out that post. And there's so many other posts on there about IBS and Candida and food sensitivities and all that stuff. You can go down quite a worm hole on my website. Karen Litzy: 31:33 Perfect. And we'll have the link to the seven steps to kill Candida checklist. We will have the link to that in the show notes over at podcast.healthywealthysmart.com so you can one click and it'll take you there. And where can people find you? Laurie Seely: 31:55 I am at laurieseely.com and I'm also on Facebook at Laurie Seely functional medicine health coach. And I also have a group on Facebook called Candida Ibs and heavy metals education group. Karen Litzy: 32:14 Awesome. And again, we'll have all the links to that. So if you have questions you want to get in touch with Laurie, you can pop over to her website. If you weren't writing all this down, you can go to the podcast website, click onto it and it'll take you right there. So Laurie, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about poop which is a first for me on the podcast. Laurie Seely: So that's awesome. I'm so glad I get my bad for you. Karen Litzy: It was at first. And hopefully people, no pun intended, got a lot out of this. So Lori, thanks so much for coming on and everyone else, thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes!
On Win's Women of Wisdom today, Best-Selling Author, Win Kelly Charles welcomes LoriHarder. Lori grew up in the tiny town of Marquette, Michigan. Lori was an overweight kid in an overweight family. “Bad genetics,” She was told, which is easy to believe when it’s all you ever hear. The kids in elementary teased Lori about her weight and her religion, which turned her into a little girl with anxiety and full-on panic attacks. Lori was homeschooled in high school, and her family’s religion did not allow for sports or extra curriculars. Lori’s teen years focused on dieting, exercising, binge eating, and becoming totally obsessed with body image. Lori sure learned how to self-sabotage, but she knew if she didn’t do something big, then Lori would end up locked in a padded room. One day Lori was watching a fitness competition on TV where strong, beautiful women displayed superhero-like acts on stage. Whoa. Lori’s world screeched to a halt. Lori wanted to be just like these women, and she wanted to provoke powerful, positive feelings for others just like these women were doing for her. From that day on, Lori had a magnetic pull to the fitness industry. Lori begged her mom to buy Lori every fitness magazine that she could find and all kinds of workouts on VHS (remember those?). The second that Loricould drive, she wanted a gym membership. As Lori shifted her focus to fitness, not only didLori improve her body, but she started to feel amazing. Feeling strong in her body put me in control and lit a fire inside of her soul that got Lori thinking about new possibilities for her life.Lori wanted to show others that, they too, had the power to change, so Lori dedicated the next two decades of her life to educating herself on food and fitness. In the last eight years Lori have awakened new curiosities. She have learned a heck of a lot about self-love, business, finding your tribe, empowerment, cleansing your environment, relationships, protecting your energy, becoming resourceful despite your lack of resources, and doing what it takes to just freakin’ go for it. In the last eight years, Lori have had epic failures, disastrous relationships, business ideas that have gone up in flames, heart-wrenching experiences, and soul-crushing criticisms, all of which have caused me to second guess herself and my beliefs. Lori have almost thrown in the towel. But real change can only happen if you never give up. So Lori never did. She chose to keep getting up after life’s beat downs. Lori have trumped talent, had some powerful wins, and some knee-hitting moments of gratitude. Lori have found her truest of relationships and am proudly rocking her million-dollar business. Lori is the CEO of her life. To learn more about Lorivisit http://loriharder.com/. To learn more about Win Kelly Charles visithttps://wincharles.wix.com/win-charles. To send feedback to Win, email her atwinwwow@gmail.com. To be on the show please fill out the intake at http://bit.ly/1MLJSLG. To look at our sponsorships go to http://www.educents.com/daily-deals#wwow. To learn about the magic of Siri go to https://www.udemy.com/writing-a-book-using-siri/?utm_campaign=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email.
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