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Hello there and welcome back to the Happy Healthy Hustle podcast where we explore the

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intersection of health, happiness and productivity.

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In this episode today we have a wonderful guest and I can't wait for you to meet her.

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Sydney Torres is a certified functional health coach. She helps women balance their hormones

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naturally so that they can live life on their own terms. With that, welcome Sydney. Thanks

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so much for being here.

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Thank you for having me. I'm so excited just to be here and just to chat with you.

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Yeah, we're going to actually focus on a few fun and juicy topics and I'm going to get

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started because Sydney is certainly super knowledgeable. As you just heard, she's a

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certified functional health coach. So I would like to figure out why and how can we become

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an advocate of our own health? What would you recommend Sydney?

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Gosh, that's such a great question. I would say we have to just always become our own

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health advocates because basically in this day and age, nobody else is going to care

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about your health like you do. And you know, like how many times have you gone to the doctor

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and you've mentioned your health complaint and you've been blown off or you haven't been

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taken seriously or you've been told that your lab work is normal but yet you still know

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something's not right because you just feel horrible. I think just I think a good starting

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place would be is to start learning to start learning more about your own body. Just have

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like basic having that body awareness and seeing like what things work for you, meaning

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like what foods to eat, what foods make you feel good, what foods make you feel bad. I

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think is a really good starting place because what we put in our mouth is either going to

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help us and push us towards health or if we don't put good things in our body, it's going

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to push us in a direction that we don't want to go, which would be unhealthy and pushing

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us more towards that dis-eased state. So I would say first and foremost, number one,

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just having that body awareness and just making the best food decisions that you can for yourself

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and for your family. That's important because the more you connect with your body, the more

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you learn to listen with your body needs and it could even vary day by day or week by week

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depending on you know like especially if you think about women, we have cycles that we

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go through and our bodies need different things depending on where you are in that cycle right

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there. So how can we get started in finding the voice of our body? I mean because at the

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beginning you might be like I don't really know like usually ice cream makes me feel

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good but I know it's maybe not the best thing for me so how do people get started in finding

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that maybe healthier foods are what make them feel good? Do you have a recommendation on

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like an easy way to get started? I think a really good easy simple way is just what foods

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just kind of like just kind of like stepping back a little bit and just asking yourself

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what foods make me feel really good? Meaning when you eat this particular food, how do

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you feel? Does it give you energy or after you eat it do you just want to become a couch

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potato and do nothing? Another thing that I also like to do which I know can be very

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challenging for some but I feel that this really really helps just basically writing

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keeping like a food journal for a minimum of seven days and I used to be the type of

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person where when this was recommended to me somebody's like yeah you should really

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keep a food journal this way you can like track like how you feel if you had any like

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adverse reactions and I was just like oh gosh no no I am not going to write down what I

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ate it's just going to be too time consuming but once when I was I was going through like

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my own health challenge with like my gut and with my hormones and with food I got to a

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place where I could not eat anything it was bad so it kind of like forced me to start

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writing down what I ate and it was actually a blessing in disguise because once I started

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to journal everything I was able to start now to make connections between what I was

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eating and how I was actually feeling physically and mentally and then you know like at the

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end of the week I would really I would just sit down and I would review it and I would

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I would say oh my gosh this is I've been eating you know x y and z food but it was just making

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me feel horrible so then I said okay well if that's making me feel horrible let me switch

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it up so I would just have to kind of like switch out the foods that didn't make me feel

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good and then just start to add in the good foods I started going to the farmers market

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in in my local neighborhood and then just not only was I supporting like my community

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but supporting like local farmers and the produce was good and a lot of times the cool

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thing about going to your local farmers market is they'll let you sample the food they will

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have like usually they'll have like little trays out or something and you could even

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ask them before like before you purchase it like oh hey do you mind if I sample this so

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I think that's just another great way is just to you know ask for a sample if you're at

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the farmers market and just kind of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone to try

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new things try new foods or new experiences that you weren't open to before because I

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think once we have like that open mind just so much good comes out of it and then you

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try something new and you're like hey wait a minute I like this and you know it just

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it also gives you kind of like trying those new foods it gives you like like they say

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you should eat the rainbow of foods and now when you're open you just have more opportunity

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to eat more of the rainbow foods and you'll just have more diversity for not only for

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yourself but for yourselves as well they'll they'll really like it too.

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Oh it's amazing that you're bringing up so many great points there so I like the food

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diary because I'm certainly with you it sounds really intimidating and it sounds somewhat

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onerous but at the same time you have to take care of your body and I don't remember really

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what I ate yesterday so I would have to start writing it down too and then looking back

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at the end of the week is sometimes actually a very neat exercise in general because it

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also shows how your mood fluctuates throughout the week and you could even maybe identify

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certain foods that your body needs on certain days because those days may be more

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stressful at work or maybe in your personal life and that you might want to add those

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foods as a preventative measure on those days to create a little bit more of a booster especially

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you know you need that on those days.

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I also love the fact with the farmers market because I go to the farmers market all the

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time and I take my children and they are sometimes you know apprehensive about trying new foods

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so the samples are amazing I remember they sometimes give out little wedges of oranges

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and my children are sometimes like oh I don't want to peel an orange but then they get the

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wedge of the orange you're like no actually this is super easy I don't even need to peel

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it I could just cut it in like quarters and I could just eat out the the meat of the orange

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I don't need to even like peel it and get it all messy so those are such amazing points

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right there and I want to kind of come back to this food and mood connection what are

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maybe some foods that you could eat to boost your mood do you have something to recommend

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us to where you're feeling like I need to eat this this will bring me in a good mood.

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Yeah I think this is a really good question but we have to realize that we're all bio

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individual so the food that I eat that's going to boost me up and make me feel good is not

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necessarily going to be the food that you're going to eat so this is when this is a good

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opportunity to play around you know try different things and find you know find that collection

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of foods that that increase your energy for example like what works I'll just kind of

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like share some of my favorite things oh boy I love to make smoothies and now that the

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weather is getting hotter and it's spring I'm just like okay I was I've been like chomping

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at the bit for smoothies because I live in a place where it snows so it was just it was

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Christiana it was like way too cold for me just to be making smoothies during the winter

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time like I wouldn't like obviously more of those warm foods but I just started back my

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smoothie I brought them I brought it back maybe like a week and a half ago and I love

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moringa I just love to put the moringa powder in my smoothie because it not only it just

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has so many great benefits it's it's like loaded with iron it's loaded with magnesium

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it's got a little bit of potassium in there and it just I can just tell when I mix it

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in there it just it gives me that energy that I need just to like really get myself going

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because I am not a coffee drinker I've never liked I've never liked coffee I've never liked

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the smell of coffee so I don't use like that caffeine per se to get me going I just I love

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my moringa powder with my moringa it's like an herb from Asia that it's like they they

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ground it up into a powder and it's just it just has so many so many health benefits you

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know it helps with like joints it helps with mood it helps you know to get some of your

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minerals in there so it's just like it checks off a lot of the the healthy benefits on that

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uh on your checklist so I like that I love um just eating fresh fruit I love to eat like

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raspberries blueberries blackberries those are some of like my favorite things that just

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kind of like give me energy and kind of like boost me up I think more of the fruits boost

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me up more so than like anything else.

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Those are great tips and um I've seen moringa and because of marketing I remember that um

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I want to say it was 2022 or 2023 had a trend that was called moringa moments and I told

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my students about it and they researched it too and I love it you're adding it into smoothies

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that sounds super simple and I'm sure that many supermarkets will have the moringa powder

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given that it was identified as a trend you can probably find it in conventional supermarkets

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as well and then just add a little bit and get a feeling for how it resonates with your

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body because as you say we are all different and that's the beauty of it um that your moringa

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moment might not be necessarily at all my moringa moment but in the same way you can

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also maybe use moringa in a lot of different ways maybe you can even bake with it or you

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could um maybe you know just sprinkle a little bit on top of a granola so just play around

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with food just you play around with what type of foods you eat so how you use them and what

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you eat is sometimes the beauty of it um there are no rules for things so let's maybe talk

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a little bit about um now we are preventing things we're eating healthy um we're we're

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listening more to our body what else could we do and maybe let's talk a little bit about

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now you're really not feeling well and you need to go and seek out a doctor and um you

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know you go in and you tell them about your history maybe you've been bringing your food

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diary along along to really show what homework you have done already what else could we do

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when we try to really seek out some professional advice i would say one of the biggest things

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and i'm really trying to spread the word and just help people is along with being our own

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health advocates i think it's so important for us to learn how to start reading our own

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blood lab work and when i say this i'm not saying that we have to be an expert i'm not

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saying that at all what i'm saying is we need to know the basics so because how many times

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have you gone to the doctor and you've had like some sort of condition and one of the

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what's the first thing they do they always always run blood lab work so once that lab

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work comes back you go back into the office or they'll call you on the phone and they'll

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say okay um sally patient your blood work is normal but it they say it's normal but

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why is it i'm still feeling horrible why is it i'm still having um symptoms it could

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be like hormones digestion bloating gas it's just like okay pick your your symptom and

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insert it here and i just also want to say that if the doctor is telling us that our

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blood lab work is quote unquote normal and you're still having symptoms i can tell you

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right now that is not normal something's going on with inside your blood work that is causing

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that downstream effect and it's about getting to the root cause of why and what is causing

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this outer manifestation of these different signs and symptoms so this this is where um

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knowing the basics of our blood lab work so if you go into the doctor like i said and

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they say oh it's normal you as a patient can say you know what could you print out and

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mail me a copy of my blood lab work or you if you have um one of those what do they call

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it christiana the um the patient portal you could log into yeah you could log into that

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and then you could um you could access it that way and you could print it off so it's

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easier for you to go through and then just start going through like maybe like the different

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markers maybe going through your you know like your uh wbc which stands for the white

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blood count maybe if you're having um because i know i deal with a lot of people that have

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thyroid issues you know and just knowing how to read a basic thyroid panel looking at like

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your tsh your free t4 your free t3 your thyroid antibodies your reverse t3 just knowing the

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basics gosh it it would help prevent so much and then you can start to become your own

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health detective and then you can you know go back to your doctor and say hey i noticed

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um i was looking at my own blood lab work and i noticed um something is not right it

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could be either um in range or without of range let's talk about this and you can you

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know dig a little bit further and i would say if your doctor is um what's the word i

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want to use if he is resisted i don't want to say he if your doctor is resistant and

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they don't want to help you then that would be a great time to find a new doctor because

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our doctors should be empowering us as patients our doctors should want to nurture our bodies

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our doctors should want to if we're on medication our doctors should be helping us to get off

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of our medication and not putting us on medications yeah that's great advice because if you do

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the blood work your insurance or yourself if you don't have insurance is paying for

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it so you don't only have rights to find out from your doctor whether it's normal or not

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normal but you should also be able to get the actual results and of course with the

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you know internet you could pretty much research any value and figure out exactly what's going

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on and read more about it because the more knowledgeable you are and the more aware you

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are really what is considered normal the more you can start looking out whether that's for

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certain foods or whether that's for certain functions in your body and then become your

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own health advocate so i like how you're really empowering us to figure out you know the science

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behind it and it doesn't even have to be complicated it could just be a few values you're looking

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for but you're noticing that maybe something seems amiss especially for women frequently

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we say oh it's just in your head and that's unfortunate because there doesn't always there's

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not necessarily always that empowerment that you feel and you need to keep going so i love

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sydney that you are empowering women so that they can live life on their own terms and

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keep going and you're giving them the strength and the courage to dig down a little bit deeper

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how can we find you and get a hold of you if we want to learn a little bit more i know

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you have your own amazing podcast but where else can we find you tell us a little bit

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about you and your ways of getting in touch with you yeah i would say um the best way

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to get in contact with me is uh you could always email me i'm always um i'm always here

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to like talk to people it's like if you want to talk you just you just hit me up and i

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am just always willing to talk i'm always willing to listen my email is info at balance

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health now.com and also i have a website it's www balance health now bhc which is virtual

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health clinic um abbreviated.com so that's just another place to um kind of learn a little

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bit more and you know like never be afraid because you know like so many people are just

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like overwhelmed especially with the internet and um just searching their different condition

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it gets overwhelming and a lot of people just don't know where to start and i always say

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a good starting place is just to open a conversation like open a conversation and contact christiana

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you know or open a conversation with with somebody else um that deals with your particular

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you know condition but just just i encourage you just don't be afraid to ask and don't

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be afraid to start because that's like that's the hardest part it's just starting and once

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you start you know you get that momentum built up and it's just it just it goes up from there

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so all good things come from that. It's really good and honest to share because some other

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people might have the same experience so you might actually had it yourself or maybe you

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had another patient that had that and then once you hear about it you can already just

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by acknowledging that the person experiences it already help mentally and making them feel

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like oh there's actually some validation to this there's some truth to this it's not just

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in my head it's really something that i'm experiencing and that i'm feeling i'm acknowledged

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with and now i'm getting that empowerment to learn more about it and i'm feeling i'm

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becoming my own health advocate. All right that's it for today's episode of the happy

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healthy hustle podcast if you have any suggestions for future content or any feedback please

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let me know. I would also love to share with you that i'm about to launch my journey to

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wellness program and i'm sure that you as a happy healthy hustler would love to be part

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of this wonderful 21 day transformational program. It gives you some quick and easy

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tools that you can use at home to get your health journey started. Stay tuned and until

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then we'll catch you next time.