0:00:01 - Adrienne Barela
I don't know if you follow Gabby Bernstein. She always says, do you less and attract more, which I love. But this is the thing if you're go, go, go, you're in fight or flight. Essentially, your body is perceiving threats, whether that's a deadline that you put on yourself or you're sitting in traffic whatever.
And when you're constantly in that fight or flight mode, you don't feel safe. There's no way to be creative if you don't feel safe first. So it's like Malzow's hierarchy of needs, if you will. We constantly need to be anchoring ourselves and grounding ourselves throughout the day so that we make sure that, yeah, we feel safe, Because if we don't, we're not creative, we can't think of the new idea. If we don't quiet this fire, the big ideas don't come.
0:01:02 - Betsy Jordyn
So welcome to the Enough Already podcast. I'm your host, betsy Jordan, and today I have a very special guest with me. I have Nin Borela, who is an expert in gut health and just health overall, and I desperately wanted to have her on the show because one of the things that we as entrepreneurs deal with all the time is just being super busy, stressed out, and it's so easy for us to lose sight of just taking good care of ourselves and why that's such a critical component of our long-term success. So I wanted Nin to come on here and share all of her insights around staying healthy even though you're super busy. So, without further ado, welcome to the show, nin.
0:01:42 - Adrienne Barela
Thanks. It's so great to be here. I love your show and it's so inspiring to see here everyone's stories and if I can be of any help to anyone out there listening today, I'm very honored.
0:01:54 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, I'm so glad you talked about being inspired by stories, because I know you have a story. So before you became a health and wellness coach, you had a different career, so why don't you share a little bit about your journey from working for other people to starting your own business, and what your business is all about? Sure.
0:02:15 - Adrienne Barela
So my path has definitely changed over the years, and after college I really focused on marketing in my studies and I love the idea of advertising and being creative and got to go to New York after I graduated and I had had some health issues growing up. Of course, we all have the occasional need for antibiotics and just little things that would come up and then you know, little skin infections like eczema that would just go away on their own. So I never really thought too much about it, honestly, because I was pretty healthy. But when I was in New York I just burned the candle Both ends, literally and that's what I thought Well, you were still in college, you were burned the candle.
Well, I did it in college. I did it most of my life.
If I'm honest, I, you know, when you're a type A personality, you just kind of it's always like what else can I do? What more? It's never enough. And between sports, you know, growing up in high school and getting straight A's, doing the same in college and then going off to the big city, it was, I think, a lot on my body and just something that's very common for most people today, and so it was fine for me to live off of six hours sleep a night for like over a decade. I mean, I don't for a long time, wow, and it wasn't.
And so things, the train started slowing down for me, you know, in my 30s, and I really started paying more attention to my health. I was, yes, getting you know I had some digestive issues at that point. Skin issues kept coming back more frequently. I get these weird rashes, just like maybe too much information. I would start getting panic attacks and having heart palpitations and the anxiety. And then, all of a sudden, after my daughter was born, when I was 36, I had gained, like I lost some weight initially nursing her and then overnight gained 10 pounds, like literally, and I was like, whoa, okay, pump the brakes. Now the wheels are coming off the train.
Things were just a mess, and I started paying a lot of attention to my health and started listening to all the podcasts and reading all the books and then eventually got my certification as an integrative health practitioner. Because I had eczema for a year and my dermatologist was like, oh, just put some cortisol cream on it. You know, we don't know the cause, but this should help. And I'm just like, no, I think I've got a gut issue. Actually, I'm going to go try to figure that out.
She rolled her eyes at me and then I said, see, yeah, and I was not, you know, not going to go back there again. And then my hormones, too, had been off. My thyroid was low and even though traditional doctors were saying it's actually fine, according to functional medicine labs it wasn't. And so I just started putting all this together and got my certification. So now I get to help people heal in the ways that I was, from a gut perspective, from an adrenal perspective, adrenal health and hormones, because they're all connected and Western medicine likes to keep everything in silos. But yeah, our body works as a system.
0:05:44 - Betsy Jordyn
So there's so many ways that I want to follow up on that conversation because it feels like.
it feels like one thing, as it relates to just your transition from, you know, working for somebody else into working for yourself is it really came out of your own pain and struggle, you know? So the whole idea is like we heal others in the ways that we've been wounded, so that we don't ever experience those wounds again. And it seems like that's very much what led you to this entrepreneurship calling, which is you wanted to take your own story forward. Is that accurate?
0:06:14 - Adrienne Barela
Completely, and it really was more prevalent during the pandemic, when I just saw so many people suffering really for no reason and I didn't see the government necessarily, or doctors or anyone talking about. Well, here's how you actually can improve your immune system, and I was like, well, why are we talking about that? That actually could save, you know, a lot of people here, as opposed to just talking about, you know, staying indoors and shedding in which, yes, we all needed to do for a time, but we didn't get the whole picture. And so I like to say there's, you know, we need doctors, we need Western medicine for these save lives, like that's so important. But we need both sides of the story. We need the preventative side too.
0:07:01 - Betsy Jordyn
So was it nerve wracking at all for you to give up any security, to say, all right, I'm going to hang up my shingle, I'm going to do my own thing. Or was it nerve wracking at all to say I'm going to put myself out there? Your business name Can you tell everybody, because you have a really great business name, sure, like it's a good play on your name.
0:07:18 - Adrienne Barela
Sure, Healthy with NIN and there's really. I probably could have come up with a better name, to be honest, but it just seemed like like, come with me, like I will. You know, I want to provide the roadmap and I'm going to do?
0:07:33 - Betsy Jordyn
you mean this isn't a double entendre like healthy within.
0:07:37 - Adrienne Barela
That's not. I know you would think so, but I wasn't that clever at the time.
0:07:41 - Betsy Jordyn
I thought you were.
0:07:44 - Adrienne Barela
No, it's just more about I'm. I'm here with you going through it Like I'm an accountability partner. And you know, as a lot of consultants out there listening know like it, it takes a village sometimes it's hard to do things on our own. When we go alone, we go faster, when we go together, we go further. That whole you know proverbs, so it's just kind of like with like this is a community.
0:08:11 - Betsy Jordyn
So did you have any anxiety, though, about like doing your own thing or putting yourself out there, or did this passion and this frustration of the gap just drive you more?
0:08:22 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, I had no hesitation, I just didn't. I didn't know the exact direction I wanted to go, but I I just kind of tried to turn within and be more intuitive about it. It wasn't a question, I was going to do something. It was just kind of like okay, what does that exact path look like? I don't know. I just my parents were you know both, they still are entrepreneurs and, and you know, contractors and things like that. So they've always kind of done their own thing. My husband's the same way. We own a tea business and I've never been afraid of taking risks like that. To me, it's not a risk when you're following your heart.
0:09:01 - Betsy Jordyn
So and your aunt has been on your on the show as well, so she was. I don't remember which episode Lisa Kanda was on our show and she's your aunt. She's the one who introduced us. She's our LinkedIn expert, so it's all in the family for sure.
0:09:16 - Adrienne Barela
Yes, and my grandmother was a teacher and I have another aunt who's a teacher and I think teaching just kind of runs in the family, like when we have some great information, we want everyone to know about it.
0:09:26 - Betsy Jordyn
So yeah, so can I go back to what you talked about with your own journey a little bit more? So I think what was interesting about, like the health issues that you ran into because I think I don't know if it's like just for me or for other people around me is like when you hit like the burnout point, we're like, oh my gosh, where'd that come from? But what you were describing is there were all these signs for years and years and years, and it was like at the tail end that all of a sudden you hit the crash. So if you were looking at health issues, especially when you're dealing with somebody who's like juggling, you know a busy job and you're busy with your family like what are all the signs that you know health issues and burnout is is imminent, it's coming your way.
0:10:12 - Adrienne Barela
Sure, I mean. So there's a lot I could say here. I'll start with. I like to say all disease begins in the gut. I didn't come up with that, hypocrities actually did, and for a good reason. Our immune system is right outside of our intestinal wall and so, and our digestive systems and entryway into our body, and when we're stressed, our body won't allow us to digest. So you hear the term rest and digest. Well, when you're constantly going, and that means eating at your desk or eating on the run and things like that, your body's not going to be able to actually digest your food. So that's like a big thing. You'll start to notice that you get more bloating because now, all of a sudden, you're more constipated. All the fun things that I get to talk about with my clients, but it's just like that's not good. We gotta be going a couple, two, three times a day, and for me back in my twenties it was like once every few days if I'm being honest so that was a bit.
That was a number one sign or a symptom. And then not feeling energized after you eat. So if you feel sluggish after eating, well, maybe you're not eating the right things, or you're not digesting, or your blood sugar is off. So there's different things that can start to tell you, yeah, this is not actually working out the way it used to. And so there's different stages of what I you know. It's adrenal fatigue, in other words, where stage one your cortisol is high, that's your stress hormone that your adrenals pump out when we're in fight or fight, and it's just high all day and you feel like superwoman. You can do anything, life can throw anything at you and you can just take it all and then give me a side of this over here and that leads to stage two, when you actually start to notice the symptoms, and you can be in stage two for quite some time. So stage two is the-.
0:12:13 - Betsy Jordyn
Before you go to stage one, can we just summarize stage one, Cause there's some things it seems like you're aware of now, like in 2020 hindsight?
but, it seems like just from a pure symptom level in stage one is there's certain things around like how well you're digesting or not really digesting, so like stomach aches might be something or that bloating, that kind of thing, and then it seems like there's just like a level of exhaustion is another thing. When you were talking about the eczema, is that a stage two thing or is that a stage one thing?
0:12:47 - Adrienne Barela
That's more of a stage two thing, because now you've got this chronic inflammation because the digestion's had some issues for some time, and so it could be different for everyone, of course, but it's usually more of it could be stage two. Where you're now, you have something called leaky gut, which-.
0:13:05 - Betsy Jordyn
Before we get into the specifics of the solution, I just really wanna tap in cause, like I think for a lot of people, like they don't even know that the gut is actually even a part of it or what it is.
So, like I just wanna like get the experience of like okay, for years before you came to the solution. It's like okay, so there was exhaustion, and then there's like unexpected weight gain, and it seems like there was all these pre-signs to say, wait a minute, there's something in as an issue where if you, maybe, if you notice these symptoms like so wonderful, like there's some way we could just like kind of like tick off, like what are those like early warning signs, and that if you don't know these early warning signs, then you're gonna be in like stage two yeah and yeah.
0:13:49 - Adrienne Barela
so exhaustion's where you could get, you know, nine, 10 hours of sleep a night and you still don't feel arrested. When you have digestive issues what used to be, you know some gas and bloating a little bit now you're running to the bathroom after every meal. You know a lot of people suffer from that irritable bowel or something. You know IBD or you have GERD. So in essentially you have a lot of acid reflex.
And this is really misconception that some people think, oh, it's because I have too much stomach acid, when actually you don't have enough. And this happens when we're running, burning the candle at both ends because our digestive system is not functioning properly. We're actually not producing enough stomach acid. So then that's when we don't have enough in our tummy. It won't signal to our esophagus to keep the valve closed and when you lay down it can creep up, so it's actually not having enough in there to make that signal. It's a malfunction and people will take. I did this, I took Tums all the time at heartburn a lot, and I would do all of the things. And a lot of people are on PPI, is now proton pump inhibitors and take that and what actually happens is now, if you don't have enough stomach acid, well now you can't actually break down protein, but just from a pure symptom level.
Oh, I keep falling on the hand.
0:15:20 - Betsy Jordyn
Yes, so no, you know what I love about you, Like, I just want to pause for a second. What I love about you is you're so knowledgeable about what it is and it's like now it seems like you've gone through this and you see it everywhere. You know like. You see, like oh, when I was struggling with this, but like, but I do think that there's something that's important I really want to make sure that we emphasize is like that, like the burnout and the crash and all of that seems to be a late sign and that that's like.
I really want to paint that picture of like well, what is all those early signs, you know, and then it's like then what happens at the crash? And then let's talk about the solution, because I think it's hard to recognize. That's why I don't mean to harp on, I harp on that, but it's like. I know, for me is personally, when I went through burnout, like when you were telling your story, it's like, hey, wait a minute, it wasn't like. When I just like like it's like I totally burnout after I moved cross country, it was like exhausting but, it's not like oh, it's a shock.
Like that that was coming for me. I should have been paying attention to it and I should have made interventions, like long before that situation. So that's why I want to say like all right, five warning signs that it's on its way, it's inevitable. You know, before you hit stage two, where it's like crash and burn, you know like what are those five signs and then what are usually the symptoms of like now I'm at crash and burn phase, yeah.
0:16:41 - Adrienne Barela
I mean. So besides the not feeling rested when you sleep, no matter how much sleep you get, and maybe the presentation of skin issues, which is very common, hormones can start acting weird so your cycle might not be as predictable. Yes, overnight weight gain is a very good sign that something's wrong and this is often in a lot of my clients and it was for me the need for kind of alcohol at night to wind down, lots of caffeine in the morning to get up. So if you find yourself needing to kind of numb out at the end of the night, that's actually not normal.
It's common, but it's not normal, so that's a good sign. And then being irritated by the people that you used to love is a good sign, because what happens is, if you're giving filling everyone's cup except yours, well, now, at the end of the day, they wanna hang out with you, which is normally would be an energizing activity, but you haven't done anything for yourself, and so it's almost you get angry at them because it's like well, what about me? I haven't served myself yet, so relationship yeah.
0:18:01 - Betsy Jordyn
So phase one is like you're, so you start to see like these symptoms and it seems like they start getting worse and worse and worse. So it's like I sleep and I don't get enough. You know, I eat and it doesn't seem to be satisfying. I have relationships but they make me cranky, you know. And you have all of these situations. And now I'm in, so I'm phase one and I don't make an intervention. And now I'm, now I'm in phase two. So pay me a picture of what happens in phase two If I skip all of those warning signs. And now I'm here.
0:18:29 - Adrienne Barela
So those are all exacerbated. So now you might not have a cycle at all, like a lot of women are going into early menopause, believe it or not, in their 30s, because they are just their court is all so high, so that could be an issue. Digestive issues can, yeah, just get really worse and you'll notice that you are getting sick more often. So you might have had a cold like every few years, growing up normal, but now you're getting two, three colds a year or something that's going to take you out for a week or two and then you have this lingering cough, let's say for months after, and sound familiar. But it's part of just low adrenals.
Your court, you can't. Your immune system's so exhausted it can't fully give everything you need to repair. So that's a sure sign. Full on addictions can happen in phase two and just, yeah, just autoimmune and things like that can start to happen. Because now you do have the sleaky gut issue, you're more sensitive to food because you have food leaking into your blood, it's not fully digested and your body's attacking, and when it starts to attack proteins from food that happen to look like, oh, your thyroid or bacteria that might be in your joints, all of a sudden you can get things like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, so autoimmune really starts to present itself during this phase.
0:20:03 - Betsy Jordyn
So it sounds like then. So like somebody's in the phase one, where it's like they're starting to get the symptoms and the things are not going well Now all those symptoms are just-.
0:20:13 - Adrienne Barela
Exacerbated.
0:20:14 - Betsy Jordyn
Exacerbated, they're in your face, they're almost debilitating and it seems like there's many choices that you're alluding to that somebody can go to. So if they have addiction issues they'll go to addiction counselor. If they have like burnout they might go to like a regular doctor or some of the other ones. Like, can you tell me like the different ways, because you've mentioned this functional medicine, which seems to be different than traditional? So, like, what are the choices of somebody has and why are they limiting and why is maybe like the functional medicine about our solution Functional?
0:20:49 - Adrienne Barela
medicine really looks at the body as a whole and what it needs to thrive optimally Versus. You know, Western medicine doesn't take into consideration that the brain is connected to the gut, which is connected to our hormones, for instance, and they're all talking to each other. So we want really to take a holistic approach, Because if you just isolate certain things and you're not, you're just treating symptoms versus actually identifying the root cause of how this started in the first place.
0:21:29 - Betsy Jordyn
So would a definition for functional medicine, which would make sense, for consultants and coaches are listening, because we're all systems thinkers, so it's sort of like taking systems thinking and applying it to medicine and a more specific way, exactly.
Okay. So, and what's better about it is because you're not managing a bunch of symptoms, versus, like, if you went to a mental health therapist or if you went to addiction counseling or you went to just a traditional doctor, it might be symptom management, but going to someone like you it's more of a holistic perspective, it's a functional. It's functional medicine. We're looking at your, all the different parts of you, and what might be causing it for you.
0:22:10 - Adrienne Barela
Exactly, and if you don't ever get to the root cause, well, you never actually solve the problem.
You can mask symptoms for a long time, but then, unfortunately, medications come with side effects and then you're on a second medication to deal with the side effect from the first. And so you start to go down a path you know not always of course, but for the most part where you're not really getting the help that you're promised. And that's from a short term standpoint. Yes, we need to have these interventions, but if you want like something that's more of a long term solution, well, let's take a look at, like you know, trauma is one thing like if you had trauma as a child that doesn't just go away and if you don't address it it can live in your, your tissue. Actually, your body holds on to these things until you can deal with it properly, but that can actually lead you right into adrenal fatigue. So you want to know the root cause and then you can address each root cause. There's usually more than one, and then one big thing. That kind of tips you over the edge.
0:23:22 - Betsy Jordyn
So how do you work with your clients to get them to figure out the root cause? Like, like. Tell me your title. Like are you? I called you a health and wellness coach. Is that the actual right word? Or would you say you're a functional medicine coach? Or what would you say is your label?
0:23:36 - Adrienne Barela
My labels integrative health practitioner. That's just the certification I have through the integrative health practitioner Institute, which is run by a board certified naturopath. So I'm not a doctor. I did not go to med school. I don't diagnose, you know, or cure disease or any of that. I'm a coach and so that's my title, and when I work with a client, it's really like taking time to go through Well, a long questionnaire, of course, but I want to know like different stories about every aspect of their life, from their nutrition to their sleep, to their digestion. And then there's trauma, hormones, like we're going to look at all of it and then we can kind of start talking about well, you had a surgery when you were this young, and then there was a car accident and then there was, you know, a death in the family, and like things started to spiral after that and we kind of like take a look at like where did it start?
0:24:33 - Betsy Jordyn
Oh wow. So you're going like really deep into someone's life.
0:24:37 - Adrienne Barela
Yes, when I work one on one with my clients, that's what we get to do.
0:24:41 - Betsy Jordyn
So if you were going to talk to me about like the burnout I had after moving across country, you would not just say, oh, what was so stressful about the move? You'd go back to my history of like why would moving in general be traumatic for me, is it you know? And why is it affecting my health this much?
0:24:58 - Adrienne Barela
Absolutely.
0:24:59 - Betsy Jordyn
Absolutely, because we. I should have told you that, because you're going to put me on the hot seat.
0:25:03 - Adrienne Barela
I know I'm going to be telling everybody this.
0:25:06 - Betsy Jordyn
I know I would be vulnerable here. Fine, go for it. I'm serving my audience, I'm here for them.
0:25:13 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, so why? Why let's talk about it? Because I mean you're inviting me to now. If you're comfortable, you can share. You know like what moving is stressful overall. However, there's something deeper when you're uplifting your entire life. You know what I mean and did that happen for you before?
0:25:37 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, god, you are going to make me go vulnerable. Well, like, moving has been stressful for sure in the past, like having to do stuff, you know, even like I remember, you know, moving when I was young kid, you know, and I did. I was like 14 and responsible for the moves. That was like. So it's always kind of like a triggery thing.
But with this particular move it was really a difficult because there's so many life transitions that were going on simultaneously that it was. It was so, like, you know, because my business had been going through an evolution. I became an empty nest or you know other relationship was different, you know, like got married, you know, and then move cross country and like all these things that sort of like made me, me were kind of like changing and I did not anticipate being in a different, different state with a different terrain, not being in the Florida sunshine, like I didn't realize, like how big of a change I was really embarking on. So I was so focused on I got to get the, you know, I got to get the house packed and I got to get this situated and I got to handle the mortgages and all of that that I did not even think for a second like wow, I've lived in Florida since 1991.
You know, I'm used to the sunshine, you know, and all of a sudden it's cold and snowy and I don't have children in the house and my whole career was organized around my kids and it was like a lot of change all at once and we're not really built to take on so much.
0:27:11 - Adrienne Barela
I mean, I will say the universe will give us not to get too boo boo, but it gives us what we can handle, and it gives it to us for a reason, and if it does end up putting pushing us over the edge, well there's a reason for that, and so this can could have been a cycle that you're seeing now, but it probably happened before in your life, at some point where there was a big upheaval and we didn't even know if you properly address it so that we could come out of it stronger. And so it's. It's reappearing now in this time of your life, and that's what just continues to happen until you actually address it. That's like your soul's challenge.
0:27:53 - Betsy Jordyn
And that's interesting. So there's a lot more that's going on. So, like, when you're dealing with the health issues, you can't isolate the health issues from your personal. You know, like your personal emotional issues and I think you were mentioning too, like as a high achiever type of personality like our goal is like well, I just like got to. You know, just to pull it down and work harder. You know, rather than like I just need to take a break. You know, like I just need to. I just need to reset and figure out what in the world is happening here. We just get busier.
0:28:24 - Adrienne Barela
And there's a reason, you know, we all want to be the perfectionists and the type A's, because we're trying to prove ourselves and get validation and and get the approval from someone, and that's something that we can trace back to our younger years. And once we understand that though it's not all gloom and doom, because that's that's the good news is like when you understand that part of yourself, well, now you can actually, almost like, re, raise your inner child and say well, how else would be a better approach for this? If your younger self is going through this again, how would you take care of them?
You know, and so you start to take care of yourself and if you don't put yourself first, no one else will. But that's the path to healing. Is actually saying no, no, I need the ups and salt bath three times a week. I need, you know, this hour for myself every morning and you really for the well oil machine to really happen for you and your business, your, your listeners and their businesses like they have to prioritize themselves.
0:29:33 - Betsy Jordyn
I think it's really interesting that you say that, because I think that there's something about, like, when people are, especially if you're leaving corporate and you're starting your own business, there's all kinds of upheavals to even begin with, because, like that's a big transition and if you don't process that, then it's like you're kind of already going into deficiency.
And then if you go into like super strategizing mode and you're not taking care of yourself, and that even begins itself for that recipe I know what you're saying makes sense like what really helped for me is like I did get I did decide to quote unquote indulge like my you know my burnout, like the exhaustion, and I took a bunch of time. I went back to the beach and I spent a lot of time just sitting at the beach and it's just like and literally what you're talking about is like figuring out how do I take care of myself at a very core level, and that's made all the difference. And even from a strategy standpoint, like all the things that I did know that I was hovering around forever are like starting to come, like boom, boom, boom, boom you know where because I did do that self care and I wonder if a lot of times, like we're stuck with like the lack of clarity of what we want.
You know, like I know, you've been working on a course, yeah, and it's like you know you've been working on that for a while, but it's like I wonder, it's like you know the self care in the creative expression. You know, do they go hand in hand with one another and you could actually get more speed.
0:30:52 - Adrienne Barela
Yes. So I don't know if you follow Gabby Bernstein. She always says do you less and attract more, which I love. But this is the thing if you're go, go, go, you're in fight or flight. Essentially, your body is perceiving threats, whether that's a deadline that you put on yourself or you're sitting in traffic whatever and when you're constantly in that fight mode, you don't feel safe.
There's no way to be creative If you don't feel safe first. So it's like Mao's hierarchy of needs, if you will. We constantly need to be anchoring ourselves and grounding ourselves throughout the day so that we make sure that, yeah, we feel safe, because if we don't, we don't, we're not creative, we can't think of the new idea we, if we don't quiet this fire, the big ideas don't come.
0:31:51 - Betsy Jordyn
So can you say that again is we can't be creative until we feel safe, Until we feel safe, and when you're on the run, you don't feel safe. That's really powerful, like creativity comes out of safety, not fight or flight Never.
0:32:09 - Adrienne Barela
The best solutions come when you're quiet. Think about when you're in the shower. You come up with the best ideas.
0:32:15 - Betsy Jordyn
At least my husband does.
0:32:16 - Adrienne Barela
Or when you go for a walk, meditation, you know when you quiet the world around you and you feel safe in that all as well. You go on vacation, you went home. Now things become very clear.
0:32:31 - Betsy Jordyn
There's no noise. So when you're really talking about, like, resolving your medical issues, they're really not at the medical level, they're really at the perception level, they're at the self-care level. It's all around like how do I feel about my like inner child and how well I'm taking care of that part, and if you could start working on that, then it seems like then you could start working on the other root causes. Is that accurate?
0:32:58 - Adrienne Barela
or it's not the only thing, but yes, it's a huge part of it. Stress is one of the biggest disruptors. You know that we have, and so psychologically, yes, but also like when we're chronically inflamed, that's a stressor on our body. So you really want to take it and again the big picture. But you can go one at a time, and when I go with my clients we go through habit stacking. So every week we're going to add one or two more things, not too much, because you don't really adhere to anything if you're taking on the world at one time, but just little things that cover the digestive part, you know, the chronic inflammation part, the psychological part, the nutritional deficiencies that many people have, so on and so forth.
0:33:45 - Betsy Jordyn
Okay. So to back up and say, all right, big picture, so we could be, you know, high achievers, or go, go, go, go, go go, we start to get symptoms. So it seems like phase one is actually there's a phase zero. Phase zero is I'm go go go six hours of sleep. It works until it stops working.
0:34:02 - Adrienne Barela
So for you it's like yeah, so phase okay.
0:34:04 - Betsy Jordyn
So it's working until it stops working. And then somehow it stops working. So phase two is it worked for a while and now it stopped working. So now I have a baby and now I gained 10 pounds overnight, yeah, you know. And now it stops working.
So then it seems like choice point crisis is either like get help, continue doing, you know, continuing to clean down, get help. But then my choices are I can go to like traditional providers, or I can go to a functional medicine type of person like you. And then, with this functional medicine person like you, as a coach like you, the first step is is doing a truly holistic assessment of everything, looking at not just the symptoms, not even just looking at your symptoms, not even just looking at your nutrition, your blood work and all that other stuff, but also really recognizing the emotional side that leads you to this part. Then we got our diagnosis, we start addressing that. Then it seems like then we move into is it another phase where now we're looking on solution development, where we're able to now start doing habit stacking, where it's like we're going to start changing our habits, changing our mindset, I assume with these habits as well, exactly. So let's talk about some of those initial. Is there, like some triage quick wins that you always recommend, or is it always customized?
0:35:29 - Adrienne Barela
No, in fact there is a very specific protocol. It can be slightly customized depending on your situation. You know, if your hormones are this way and someone else's are this way, like you might take different herbs, like that kind of customization. However, we're going through really this model of nutrition and movement and stress management and like all the things in a very easy to do way. It's not overwhelming because you can't change your entire life and in one night it takes like I go through a 12-week program and there's a lot of good reasons for that, but it's really like the most, you know, just kind of like dance your way into health, you know, slide into it, as opposed to like struggling. You're not going to benefit if it's too much as thrown at you at once.
0:36:25 - Betsy Jordyn
So if there's struggle, then it's going to hit that fight or flight, which actually works against what you're trying to do. Yeah, so like what are like? So if you're going to say like like a couple nutritional tips and a couple movement tips, are like a couple like what are like. Could you tell me the categories and a couple tips within each of the categories?
0:36:44 - Adrienne Barela
Sure, From a nutritional standpoint, most of us aren't getting enough fiber. That's a huge one. And so one thing I go with my clients is we work up to because you can't do it overnight, Really seven or more cups of fruits and veggies a day. Now if you're starting at one or two, you don't jump to that because you're you will explode. It will not be pleasant. In other words, you kind of gradually get into that.
0:37:14 - Betsy Jordyn
So you start off with how many fruits and veggies a day, and then what's your optimal.
0:37:18 - Adrienne Barela
I like to say like a cup of berries is a really good thing to have, and then like six or more cups of vegetables.
0:37:27 - Betsy Jordyn
So two of those six cups of vegetables a day. Oh yeah, so that's the starting point, or is that the ending point? That's the ending point when you're starting when you're starting.
0:37:38 - Adrienne Barela
it's just like if we can get at least a cup of produce into each meal, let's start there and then we will add Because not?
0:37:47 - Betsy Jordyn
everyone big, I guess, is that? No, it's not so a couple of produce at each meal.
0:37:53 - Adrienne Barela
So breakfast, lunch and dinner you're going to have a couple of produce Like so what would?
0:37:57 - Betsy Jordyn
be a produce at breakfast.
0:38:00 - Adrienne Barela
So you can do like a sauteed spinach, or if you make a smoothie, like I do, you can do like mixed greens, and then you can do like a smoothie and a couple of berries, you know. So you can actually get two cups in there. So there's different ways to do it. A smoothies are really easy way to kind of set the foundation for the day, and when you have good fiber, good fat and good protein all together, your blood sugars balance.
0:38:26 - Betsy Jordyn
So what's a good protein and a good fat, so you can do you know, chocolate in that list, by the way.
0:38:33 - Adrienne Barela
And chocolate's definitely great from a magnesium standpoint. If you're doing, you know, like the 72 or whatever, plus like dark chocolate, have it after meal.
0:38:46 - Betsy Jordyn
Not on a stomach.
0:38:49 - Adrienne Barela
But yeah, it's definitely healthy. There's a lot of antioxidants and organic chocolate especially. But yes, you, you know you're not going to deprive yourself. It's 80 20. You want to bet be able to enjoy your flex meal or whatever every week, of course, but if you're eating great the rest of the time, sometimes you don't even want the chocolate Sunday at the end of your flex meal. You're just like eh. After a while.
0:39:17 - Betsy Jordyn
So a cup of vegetables and a couple berries a one cup of berries a day.
0:39:23 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, and your smoothie is great, a great way to start, and then at lunch you can have like some steamed broccoli. I like to do leftover lunch, so I make a lot of dinner the night before and then I it makes it easier for me and I do this for my clients have left or as the next day for lunch. You don't have to think about it, you just heat it up.
0:39:40 - Betsy Jordyn
Oh yeah, that's true, especially if you're working at home, especially if you're working at home and then if you're at an office you can get you know, the glass, the microwave, safe glassware and heat it up.
0:39:52 - Adrienne Barela
And then, yeah, there's at nighttime. We don't want to go too heavy on the carbs necessarily, but like a complex carb is could be okay, like a sweet potato with your animal protein and like a salad or something, and it'll digest slower. But then you don't want to like eat and then go right to bed. You actually give yourself two or three hours like three ideally before you go to sleep. Now, that that's hard for an entrepreneur, because sometimes we don't get home to leave. Sometimes you know plan ahead so we do our best and if that means eating a soup at night, that's a little easier to digest, maybe that's a way to go.
0:40:31 - Betsy Jordyn
So it sounds like, then fiber needs to be in your diet. So that's one of the categories, and so the way to get that fiber going is eventually. You said seven cups of fiber a day and one cup of berries today. One cup of seven cups of vegetables, one cup of berries. But we could start off with one cup of vegetables at every meal and one cup of berries per day. That would get our fiber going. What's the next category? Or did I get that right?
0:41:01 - Adrienne Barela
You got that right. And then just don't forget to make sure there's fat and protein with each of those meals.
0:41:08 - Betsy Jordyn
What are good fats and what are good proteins, and what if you're vegetarian?
0:41:11 - Adrienne Barela
If you're vegetarian. So legumes, beans are wonderful, tofu organic, because the other, non organic, is just genetically modified. So go the organic route, route with tofu. But yeah, you can get out protein from a lot of different sources. I will say, as a vegan, it can be a little harder. You really have to pay attention because not all vegan proteins have the full range of essential amino acids. What do I mean by that? That's just animal protein has nine essential amino acids. From there your body can actually make the rest of the amino acids it needs. Vegan or vegetarian protein. If it's not, eggs will say it's just doesn't have everything. You need to eat a lot of quantity to get it and then you're adding on calories. So you just have to pay more attention.
0:42:03 - Betsy Jordyn
Got it so. So you need to eat some like gift to have protein and fat at every single meal you do. And what's considered a fat?
0:42:14 - Adrienne Barela
My favorites avocado. So like a half of an avocado is a great source of fat. You can drizzle like two tablespoons of olive oil onto your steamed veggies and like a little salt and pepper maybe. A squeeze of lemon is like an amazing dressing. Olives you can maybe cook with some coconut oil if you want. So things like that.
0:42:36 - Betsy Jordyn
So, if I get so we get the fiber and the nutrition situated. What are the other categories and what are quick wins within those categories?
0:42:45 - Adrienne Barela
So we talked about let's see, I like so from a digestive standpoint, I always recommend, before you eat, preferably not at your desk Box breathing before meal box. You know it, box breathing, box breathing.
0:43:05 - Betsy Jordyn
So breathing or breathing breathing like in and out, okay breathing.
0:43:10 - Adrienne Barela
We're not going to do any breathing. Look, he's under my feet. That's why I keep looking down.
Um yeah, you want to breathe in through your nose for four counts, hold it for four counts, breathe out through four counts through your nose or your mouth and then hold it again and you do like four or five cycles of that. Now you've actually activated your parasympathetic nervous system just by doing that. No one knows you're doing it, so you could actually even do it at a restaurant. But when you do that now, your body's ready to rest digest.
0:43:48 - Betsy Jordyn
So that's easy to do, easy to do really quick.
0:43:51 - Adrienne Barela
No one knows you're doing it. It's kind of like a little secret, like Pugels, if you will. So it's just one of those things that actually make a huge difference in your digestion.
0:44:03 - Betsy Jordyn
Okay, so from the food and nutrition standpoint, then, what it sounds like then is we start off with box breathing, not breathing, breathing.
0:44:12 - Adrienne Barela
Breathing.
0:44:13 - Betsy Jordyn
We do that. We make sure that we are getting at least three cups of vegetables a day, ultimately getting to seven one cup of berries a day, and then each meal there's protein of some kind along with fat, and we have that at every meal. So, like that's the nutrition bucket. Once we're out of the nutrition bucket, what are the other buckets of things that we should be paying attention to?
0:44:38 - Adrienne Barela
So, from an adrenal standpoint, usually one of the other things that affects it is our circadian rhythm is off. So we'll talk about bringing the candle at both ends. Usually that means we're waking up super early, going to bed late at night. We really need to be getting optimal sleep. What I used to do, six hours a night for most of my life growing up, I can't do that now and be able to function as a human being and I think a lot of people are in the same boat Everyone needs a different amount of sleep seven to nine hours, you know, somewhere in between, ideally eight and you want to wake up within the same 30 minutes and go to bed within the same 30 minutes every day.
Because you start to get in this rhythm where your quarters all spikes in the morning, which is supposed to do, and it's supposed to be as low as right before bed, and if you're not, if you're on the computer at 10 o'clock at night, that blue light's going to signal to your body. Well, now it's still daytime, I don't need to. My melatonin isn't rising. The core's all still up, melatonin's its counterpart, so it's staying down here. You got to really get off the devices like a couple hours before bed, if you can.
0:45:57 - Betsy Jordyn
So it seems like there's a protective, because if you're not eating before you go to bed, that's also another way to signal to your body. So, like that, eating leads into the sleeping and the sleeping is about like a set time. So it would be better if you're going to say I get up at six every morning and I go to bed at 10 every night and that's my routine within 30 minutes.
0:46:18 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, and honestly, since we're entrepreneurs and consultants and in badasses, we can delegate and we can get things done and systemize things, there's no reason that we should be doing all of it.
0:46:30 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, even if we were, it's still our choice of like what success looks like.
Like we set our own schedule, you know like we could choose our time off. I think it's so fascinating, as we all want to have time freedom, and we leave our jobs and we become the worst bosses ever, like worse than anybody ever worked with. I remember the other day I was not feeling well. Well, actually, when I got COVID I had COVID last month and I was like feeling awful and it's like really awful, and I had to call my daughter who lives with me. I'm like can I take the day off? Yeah, you do work for yourself, mom, but she's like you absolutely need to take a day off.
And then you know a day turned into a week, but anyhow, but the so we go to sleep at our set time within 30 minutes. What if somebody says like, oh, I can't really sleep well, can I take a melatonin, or? You know, I live in Colorado. Edibles are, you know, illegal here, you know, can I do that, or should I kind of have a little bit of wine or something to sleep? Would you recommend sleep aid, or is there something else that you would recommend to help you know? Make that sleep happen.
0:47:32 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, you can definitely add some melatonin in or like an edible, or CBD or something to that, but that's not a bad effect. Just know it should be temporary, like I give yourself a month at the most Because once you start waking up at the same time every day and going to bed at the same time, your body will naturally get into that rhythm and your levels will go where they need to go. So if you need it to get started, that's fine. Not the wine, though, because that'll actually give us terrible sleep even though it helps us fall asleep faster.
Intuitively, you don't get the quality of sleep, the same quality of sleep. Oh, you actually wake up feeling groggy.
0:48:16 - Betsy Jordyn
Interesting. Okay so sleep's the second category. What's the? What are the other categories?
0:48:22 - Adrienne Barela
So, as a good anchor in the morning is when you do wake up, get outside and get morning light, because that actually will help get that cortisol upward needs to be, which later will signal it to dip in melatonin to rise. So morning sun is kind of like your alarm clock and your sleep aid all in one. Oh, get outside first thing in the morning, maybe just have a glass of water, because you should be hydrating also to flush out all those toxins that you've been busy detoxifying all night. Then, yes, that will help you have a better night's sleep. And then some movement in the morning too, 10 to 20 minutes longer if you can, if you want to do like a 45 minute walk. But that those three things water, movement, light will just help flush out the toxins and get you energized for the day.
0:49:17 - Betsy Jordyn
So, like 20 minutes, go outside, grab a water bottle, take a 20 minute walk. Listen to this podcast while you're walking.
0:49:25 - Adrienne Barela
Hi, bye, bye. Listen to the podcast.
0:49:27 - Betsy Jordyn
Yep yeah there you go and you know, just do that. So now we have like movement, so we have like the movement. Is the water in its own category, like, or is that just? Is that part of the nutrition Like or is the water its own thing?
0:49:43 - Adrienne Barela
It is its own thing. Hydration most people don't know that you should get half your body weight in water a day, and that could be different depending on what water you're drinking too, because not all water is hydrating. If you don't have any minerals in your water, you can do something like add a pinch of Himalayan sea salt and like a squeeze of lemon to get some potassium and sodium in there, which will actually make you more hydrated. But or drink some nice mineral water and yeah most people there's like that water challenge.
I forget what it is like. Drink gallons of water a day or you don't need to do that If you're not doing hard labor out in the sun all day. You really don't need to do that. Just half your body weight in ounces. Start there.
0:50:31 - Betsy Jordyn
So, if you so, is there any big categories that we haven't hit that you help your clients with?
0:50:38 - Adrienne Barela
Um, I think knowing your why is a big one. Knowing your like your purpose and just making sure you tune into that every day because we lose that a lot of the time when we're in the grind and being intentional and doing that kind of grounding work in the morning is really helpful. It kind of helps guide your decision making throughout the day.
0:51:04 - Betsy Jordyn
So, even though there's different pockets of categories, it feels like there's could be overlap, like you could do double duty and different things.
0:51:10 - Adrienne Barela
Oh yeah.
0:51:11 - Betsy Jordyn
Like if I'm doing movement, I could do yoga and then I can get connect and I could be more meditative and I can get connected to my why and all of that kind of stuff.
0:51:19 - Adrienne Barela
Of course there's overlap, and you know not. Again, we're not in silos here and not everything has its own lane. They're all. They're all talking to each other. All the systems in your body and all the things that you do can have multiple effects on different parts of your body.
0:51:36 - Betsy Jordyn
So we talked about a lot of different things that would really help somebody really just get to that optimal health, especially as a busy entrepreneur. What would you say is like the one thing, though, if you just walk away from listening to this podcast, just do this one thing, and this will make the biggest difference. That's so hard, I know. I'm like asking you to pick between your children and which one's your favorite.
0:51:59 - Adrienne Barela
I know. No, I think I think the most important thing maybe the morning routine, the wake up, the hydration, the light, the movement. If you could start every day that way, you already know you're setting yourself up for a good night's sleep, you're partially there for your hydration, you feel pretty good and optimistic, so you're bound to make better decisions the rest of the day. So I'd say, start that morning off right.
0:52:24 - Betsy Jordyn
And if somebody wants to learn more about your program and how they work with you, could you tell a little bit about like your website address and a little bit more about your program?
0:52:33 - Adrienne Barela
Sure. So my website is healthywithnincom, very easy, and so is my Instagram. And if they want to learn more about my program, my program is called Microbiome Mood Metabolism Reset, just because most people I am working with have a lot of issues that are. They all are connected in those three realms. So we go through a 12 week program one on one, but I am going to be launching a group program soon, so stay tuned for that.
0:53:07 - Betsy Jordyn
That's awesome and it's. I think he said you were working on some freebie on your for your website. Is that accurate or do I not remember that accurately?
0:53:16 - Adrienne Barela
I do have a freebie now. So one thing we had and talked about is detoxification, and I do take my clients through that. You kind of want to remove the things that don't serve you before you add a bunch of stuff in. So detox is something I do every quarter and I do have a free functional medicine detox guide on my website so you can download it from there.
0:53:38 - Betsy Jordyn
And it's like, as a right on the homepage, easy to easy to find It'll be under services and if you scroll down you'll see the functional medicine detox.
0:53:47 - Adrienne Barela
It's very cool.
0:53:49 - Betsy Jordyn
Um so so, as it relates to what your, what your journey, is just as kind of like as a recap like it sounds like, then, your whole business and your whole vision as a coach really was birthed out of your own personal experience and out of your own pain, and you went and figured out a solution, and it sounds like you did a lot of hard work, a lot of research that other people don't have to do, so it seems like you did more than just looking at your degree. It seems like you've done a lot of other other things that brought this whole business to life. Is that?
0:54:24 - Adrienne Barela
Yeah, I mean, you know, when you are interested in something, you kind of dive down that, that rabbit hole. Well, I did that for I think I don't know how many thousands of hours, but a lot. And you know, there's great professionals out there, experts in different areas. I've gone through so much of their materials and use it on myself and use it on my clients that I'm now able to, plus my certification, kind of build a roadmap of what all these amazing things in one program that would just take you literally thousands of hours to put together by going throughout the same thing. I did so I went through the process, I sacrificed, and now I'm able to offer that to you.
0:55:05 - Betsy Jordyn
So it seems like going back full circle is like that's the secret to entrepreneurship and really building a line business is that you can be confident and you can be bold because you know you have a solution that works, because you tested it, you've tried it, you got, you did it on yourself and I think that that's a really important just example for other people, because everybody wants to have a business that's completely aligned with their passion, but I think we forget that the root word of passion is from the land, which means to suffer, and your business came out of your own suffering, so other people don't, and I think that that's really powerful and you could see the radiance in your face and you could see what it what it's all about.
So I definitely highly recommend working with men and even though she made it safe for me to share my personal story, so it's fine, I know it's going to work for you, and is there anything else that you would want to tell me about just being healthy while being a busy entrepreneur, or anything about what you do, your journey to entrepreneurship? And I'm just not asking you the right question.
0:56:15 - Adrienne Barela
I would just say for most people, like we've seen folks heal thousands and thousands of times there's no reason that you can't there, you will, you'll do it. So just be confident that if you follow the steps I say, clarity is clean, consistency is king. Once you have clarity and you're consistent, you, you know it's going to happen. There's no doubt about it. So you know, you just yeah. I just don't want anyone to think that it's not possible for them, because everything is possible. I know that now.
0:56:54 - Betsy Jordyn
I love that, and I mean you and I are so aligned in so many different ways and I wish I could have stolen that line because I would have been really cool from my website. And so you know you're, you're living example. You can create the business that's on your heart. You can make it work, you know. But it's really trusting that intuition and believing in it and really honoring your own story and your own journey of transformation that it's all possible. And so you know, when you just honor and tap into, like who you authentically are, but consistency, courageous consistency, to go out and try to do something differently, I imagine, as people want to implement your ideas, you know our, you know our lizard brains can be like, hey, wait a minute, this is different, but it's really talking yourself off the ledge to say, all right, I'm going to do these new habits and it's going to make a difference.
0:57:45 - Adrienne Barela
So I think that's why you start with one or two habits a week. You don't go overboard.
0:57:52 - Betsy Jordyn
I am so grateful for you to being on the show. I've learned so much I'm I have much to ponder about my own burnout journey story, so thank you for that and for everybody's listening. Thank you so much for joining me and being a part of this journey with NIN, and we are all going to be working on healthy with NIN here and and again. Thanks for listening and I will see you all next time. Thanks so much for having me. It's been such a delight. Thank you for tuning in. If today's episode lit a fire on you, please rate and review enough already on Apple podcasts or subscribe wherever you listen, and if you're looking for your next step, visit me on my website at BetsyJordyn.com and it's Betsy Jordan with the Y and you'll learn all about our end to end services that are custom designed to accelerate your success. Don't wait Start today.
