Hello there and welcome back to the Happy Healthy Hustle podcast where we explore the
intersection of health, happiness and productivity.
In this episode today we have a wonderful guest and I can't wait for you to meet her.
Sydney Torres is a certified functional health coach. She helps women balance their hormones
naturally so that they can live life on their own terms. With that, welcome Sydney. Thanks
so much for being here.
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited just to be here and just to chat with you.
Yeah, we're going to actually focus on a few fun and juicy topics and I'm going to get
started because Sydney is certainly super knowledgeable. As you just heard, she's a
certified functional health coach. So I would like to figure out why and how can we become
an advocate of our own health? What would you recommend Sydney?
Gosh, that's such a great question. I would say we have to just always become our own
health advocates because basically in this day and age, nobody else is going to care
about your health like you do. And you know, like how many times have you gone to the doctor
and you've mentioned your health complaint and you've been blown off or you haven't been
taken seriously or you've been told that your lab work is normal but yet you still know
something's not right because you just feel horrible. I think just I think a good starting
place would be is to start learning to start learning more about your own body. Just have
like basic having that body awareness and seeing like what things work for you, meaning
like what foods to eat, what foods make you feel good, what foods make you feel bad. I
think is a really good starting place because what we put in our mouth is either going to
help us and push us towards health or if we don't put good things in our body, it's going
to push us in a direction that we don't want to go, which would be unhealthy and pushing
us more towards that dis-eased state. So I would say first and foremost, number one,
just having that body awareness and just making the best food decisions that you can for yourself
and for your family. That's important because the more you connect with your body, the more
you learn to listen with your body needs and it could even vary day by day or week by week
depending on you know like especially if you think about women, we have cycles that we
go through and our bodies need different things depending on where you are in that cycle right
there. So how can we get started in finding the voice of our body? I mean because at the
beginning you might be like I don't really know like usually ice cream makes me feel
good but I know it's maybe not the best thing for me so how do people get started in finding
that maybe healthier foods are what make them feel good? Do you have a recommendation on
like an easy way to get started? I think a really good easy simple way is just what foods
just kind of like just kind of like stepping back a little bit and just asking yourself
what foods make me feel really good? Meaning when you eat this particular food, how do
you feel? Does it give you energy or after you eat it do you just want to become a couch
potato and do nothing? Another thing that I also like to do which I know can be very
challenging for some but I feel that this really really helps just basically writing
keeping like a food journal for a minimum of seven days and I used to be the type of
person where when this was recommended to me somebody's like yeah you should really
keep a food journal this way you can like track like how you feel if you had any like
adverse reactions and I was just like oh gosh no no I am not going to write down what I
ate it's just going to be too time consuming but once when I was I was going through like
my own health challenge with like my gut and with my hormones and with food I got to a
place where I could not eat anything it was bad so it kind of like forced me to start
writing down what I ate and it was actually a blessing in disguise because once I started
to journal everything I was able to start now to make connections between what I was
eating and how I was actually feeling physically and mentally and then you know like at the
end of the week I would really I would just sit down and I would review it and I would
I would say oh my gosh this is I've been eating you know x y and z food but it was just making
me feel horrible so then I said okay well if that's making me feel horrible let me switch
it up so I would just have to kind of like switch out the foods that didn't make me feel
good and then just start to add in the good foods I started going to the farmers market
in in my local neighborhood and then just not only was I supporting like my community
but supporting like local farmers and the produce was good and a lot of times the cool
thing about going to your local farmers market is they'll let you sample the food they will
have like usually they'll have like little trays out or something and you could even
ask them before like before you purchase it like oh hey do you mind if I sample this so
I think that's just another great way is just to you know ask for a sample if you're at
the farmers market and just kind of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone to try
new things try new foods or new experiences that you weren't open to before because I
think once we have like that open mind just so much good comes out of it and then you
try something new and you're like hey wait a minute I like this and you know it just
it also gives you kind of like trying those new foods it gives you like like they say
you should eat the rainbow of foods and now when you're open you just have more opportunity
to eat more of the rainbow foods and you'll just have more diversity for not only for
yourself but for yourselves as well they'll they'll really like it too.
Oh it's amazing that you're bringing up so many great points there so I like the food
diary because I'm certainly with you it sounds really intimidating and it sounds somewhat
onerous but at the same time you have to take care of your body and I don't remember really
what I ate yesterday so I would have to start writing it down too and then looking back
at the end of the week is sometimes actually a very neat exercise in general because it
also shows how your mood fluctuates throughout the week and you could even maybe identify
certain foods that your body needs on certain days because those days may be more
stressful at work or maybe in your personal life and that you might want to add those
foods as a preventative measure on those days to create a little bit more of a booster especially
you know you need that on those days.
I also love the fact with the farmers market because I go to the farmers market all the
time and I take my children and they are sometimes you know apprehensive about trying new foods
so the samples are amazing I remember they sometimes give out little wedges of oranges
and my children are sometimes like oh I don't want to peel an orange but then they get the
wedge of the orange you're like no actually this is super easy I don't even need to peel
it I could just cut it in like quarters and I could just eat out the the meat of the orange
I don't need to even like peel it and get it all messy so those are such amazing points
right there and I want to kind of come back to this food and mood connection what are
maybe some foods that you could eat to boost your mood do you have something to recommend
us to where you're feeling like I need to eat this this will bring me in a good mood.
Yeah I think this is a really good question but we have to realize that we're all bio
individual so the food that I eat that's going to boost me up and make me feel good is not
necessarily going to be the food that you're going to eat so this is when this is a good
opportunity to play around you know try different things and find you know find that collection
of foods that that increase your energy for example like what works I'll just kind of
like share some of my favorite things oh boy I love to make smoothies and now that the
weather is getting hotter and it's spring I'm just like okay I was I've been like chomping
at the bit for smoothies because I live in a place where it snows so it was just it was
Christiana it was like way too cold for me just to be making smoothies during the winter
time like I wouldn't like obviously more of those warm foods but I just started back my
smoothie I brought them I brought it back maybe like a week and a half ago and I love
moringa I just love to put the moringa powder in my smoothie because it not only it just
has so many great benefits it's it's like loaded with iron it's loaded with magnesium
it's got a little bit of potassium in there and it just I can just tell when I mix it
in there it just it gives me that energy that I need just to like really get myself going
because I am not a coffee drinker I've never liked I've never liked coffee I've never liked
the smell of coffee so I don't use like that caffeine per se to get me going I just I love
my moringa powder with my moringa it's like an herb from Asia that it's like they they
ground it up into a powder and it's just it just has so many so many health benefits you
know it helps with like joints it helps with mood it helps you know to get some of your
minerals in there so it's just like it checks off a lot of the the healthy benefits on that
uh on your checklist so I like that I love um just eating fresh fruit I love to eat like
raspberries blueberries blackberries those are some of like my favorite things that just
kind of like give me energy and kind of like boost me up I think more of the fruits boost
me up more so than like anything else.
Those are great tips and um I've seen moringa and because of marketing I remember that um
I want to say it was 2022 or 2023 had a trend that was called moringa moments and I told
my students about it and they researched it too and I love it you're adding it into smoothies
that sounds super simple and I'm sure that many supermarkets will have the moringa powder
given that it was identified as a trend you can probably find it in conventional supermarkets
as well and then just add a little bit and get a feeling for how it resonates with your
body because as you say we are all different and that's the beauty of it um that your moringa
moment might not be necessarily at all my moringa moment but in the same way you can
also maybe use moringa in a lot of different ways maybe you can even bake with it or you
could um maybe you know just sprinkle a little bit on top of a granola so just play around
with food just you play around with what type of foods you eat so how you use them and what
you eat is sometimes the beauty of it um there are no rules for things so let's maybe talk
a little bit about um now we are preventing things we're eating healthy um we're we're
listening more to our body what else could we do and maybe let's talk a little bit about
now you're really not feeling well and you need to go and seek out a doctor and um you
know you go in and you tell them about your history maybe you've been bringing your food
diary along along to really show what homework you have done already what else could we do
when we try to really seek out some professional advice i would say one of the biggest things
and i'm really trying to spread the word and just help people is along with being our own
health advocates i think it's so important for us to learn how to start reading our own
blood lab work and when i say this i'm not saying that we have to be an expert i'm not
saying that at all what i'm saying is we need to know the basics so because how many times
have you gone to the doctor and you've had like some sort of condition and one of the
what's the first thing they do they always always run blood lab work so once that lab
work comes back you go back into the office or they'll call you on the phone and they'll
say okay um sally patient your blood work is normal but it they say it's normal but
why is it i'm still feeling horrible why is it i'm still having um symptoms it could
be like hormones digestion bloating gas it's just like okay pick your your symptom and
insert it here and i just also want to say that if the doctor is telling us that our
blood lab work is quote unquote normal and you're still having symptoms i can tell you
right now that is not normal something's going on with inside your blood work that is causing
that downstream effect and it's about getting to the root cause of why and what is causing
this outer manifestation of these different signs and symptoms so this this is where um
knowing the basics of our blood lab work so if you go into the doctor like i said and
they say oh it's normal you as a patient can say you know what could you print out and
mail me a copy of my blood lab work or you if you have um one of those what do they call
it christiana the um the patient portal you could log into yeah you could log into that
and then you could um you could access it that way and you could print it off so it's
easier for you to go through and then just start going through like maybe like the different
markers maybe going through your you know like your uh wbc which stands for the white
blood count maybe if you're having um because i know i deal with a lot of people that have
thyroid issues you know and just knowing how to read a basic thyroid panel looking at like
your tsh your free t4 your free t3 your thyroid antibodies your reverse t3 just knowing the
basics gosh it it would help prevent so much and then you can start to become your own
health detective and then you can you know go back to your doctor and say hey i noticed
um i was looking at my own blood lab work and i noticed um something is not right it
could be either um in range or without of range let's talk about this and you can you
know dig a little bit further and i would say if your doctor is um what's the word i
want to use if he is resisted i don't want to say he if your doctor is resistant and
they don't want to help you then that would be a great time to find a new doctor because
our doctors should be empowering us as patients our doctors should want to nurture our bodies
our doctors should want to if we're on medication our doctors should be helping us to get off
of our medication and not putting us on medications yeah that's great advice because if you do
the blood work your insurance or yourself if you don't have insurance is paying for
it so you don't only have rights to find out from your doctor whether it's normal or not
normal but you should also be able to get the actual results and of course with the
you know internet you could pretty much research any value and figure out exactly what's going
on and read more about it because the more knowledgeable you are and the more aware you
are really what is considered normal the more you can start looking out whether that's for
certain foods or whether that's for certain functions in your body and then become your
own health advocate so i like how you're really empowering us to figure out you know the science
behind it and it doesn't even have to be complicated it could just be a few values you're looking
for but you're noticing that maybe something seems amiss especially for women frequently
we say oh it's just in your head and that's unfortunate because there doesn't always there's
not necessarily always that empowerment that you feel and you need to keep going so i love
sydney that you are empowering women so that they can live life on their own terms and
keep going and you're giving them the strength and the courage to dig down a little bit deeper
how can we find you and get a hold of you if we want to learn a little bit more i know
you have your own amazing podcast but where else can we find you tell us a little bit
about you and your ways of getting in touch with you yeah i would say um the best way
to get in contact with me is uh you could always email me i'm always um i'm always here
to like talk to people it's like if you want to talk you just you just hit me up and i
am just always willing to talk i'm always willing to listen my email is info at balance
health now.com and also i have a website it's www balance health now bhc which is virtual
health clinic um abbreviated.com so that's just another place to um kind of learn a little
bit more and you know like never be afraid because you know like so many people are just
like overwhelmed especially with the internet and um just searching their different condition
it gets overwhelming and a lot of people just don't know where to start and i always say
a good starting place is just to open a conversation like open a conversation and contact christiana
you know or open a conversation with with somebody else um that deals with your particular
you know condition but just just i encourage you just don't be afraid to ask and don't
be afraid to start because that's like that's the hardest part it's just starting and once
you start you know you get that momentum built up and it's just it just it goes up from there
so all good things come from that. It's really good and honest to share because some other
people might have the same experience so you might actually had it yourself or maybe you
had another patient that had that and then once you hear about it you can already just
by acknowledging that the person experiences it already help mentally and making them feel
like oh there's actually some validation to this there's some truth to this it's not just
in my head it's really something that i'm experiencing and that i'm feeling i'm acknowledged
with and now i'm getting that empowerment to learn more about it and i'm feeling i'm
becoming my own health advocate. All right that's it for today's episode of the happy
healthy hustle podcast if you have any suggestions for future content or any feedback please
let me know. I would also love to share with you that i'm about to launch my journey to
wellness program and i'm sure that you as a happy healthy hustler would love to be part
of this wonderful 21 day transformational program. It gives you some quick and easy
tools that you can use at home to get your health journey started. Stay tuned and until
then we'll catch you next time.