How to Age Well After 40: Travel, Stress, Joy & Healthy Foundations

Opening advice on choosing one healthy habit 0:00

We have to go for the one thing that we can get nailed down first and whatever that may be. If grounding is not your thing, you don't like bugs and you like being outside, well, don' t choose that one as the on you have t do. Think about the five things I mentioned or think about even one things that's maybe not even on my five list, but one think that you can do that you feel good doing and it benefits you. And master that. Nail that down to the point it is second nature, no matter where you are, you could be traveling in Italy and you're still going to make sure you try to do this.

That's what I would do. Welcome to Take Back My Brain with Lori Hammer, where real healing starts in the brain. I'm Lori, a functional nutritionist and mom who's walked the path from anxiety and burnout to clarity and calm. Each week, we're going to dive into brain-based tools like amino acid therapy, gut health, fasting and faith to help you reclaim your energy, emotions and sense of self. Welcome back. We're going to have a fun conversation today. I have with me Dr. Janine Krauss, and she is a naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist, host of the Health Fix podcast, so make sure you go find that.

Podcast intro and guest background 1:22

It'll be in the show notes too, but it's a phenomenal podcast. She's on a mission to help men and women over 40 boost their energy, fire up their metabolisms, reduce pain, and guess what? She loves life and adventure. And so we're going to have an amazing adventure-filled conversation today about health and travel and wellness. So Dr. Janine, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me on Lori, I appreciate it. Oh, i'm so excited to have this interview today and we were just talking about time zones before we got on here because oh my goodness, this woman here is crazy.

She's in three different timezones all the time and I would love just to kind of dive into how does that disrupt our nervous system, our circadian rhythm, like what does it look like for you? Oh my gosh. It can, it can be wild. And so, you know, I practice out of Washington state and, and so I live on Pacific coast time most of the time, And then I lived in the, in Wisconsin. So I'm on central time. You know what, where I'd live most time and then a lot of times I bounce around and today at this podcast I am in Colorado.

and one of biggest, one the biggest things that you have to, to look at is keeping one schedule. I tend to keep myself in the Pacific time zone and, you know, that regardless of what your phone tries to tell you where you're at, I will typically sync myself to my schedule of the circadian rhythm for the pacific timezone because I work later into the evening, even though I'm in Wisconsin. So it's one of the things that I think for a lot of folks to think about keeping on whatever time zone you're at.

And even when you travel overseas, you know, looking at it and going, okay, what can I do to like reset myself for this complete shift?

Time zones, circadian rhythm, and travel routines 3:14

And see like, Okay, I'd normally go to bed now. Okay. Let me just do that. Reset myself and go forward. so sticking with one timezone is a good idea. Yeah, that's a really tough one. How on earth do you live in wisconsin and then practice out of Washington? So I have a telehealth practice, but I also will go back to Washington quarterly. So it's a little bit of a fusion practice. I used to practice out of Washington state for over a decade. And I love my people so much, I just couldn't stay away.

Yeah. Beautiful state. I love the area. Although Wisconsin is beautiful too. And I'm glad we're here, but it is so fun to travel and do all sorts of fun things. That is kind of your mission too, is to get people out and traveling and resetting their nervous system and just finding more joy in life. As a doctor all these years, what has led you to I have such a passion for travel and all those things. Hey friend, just a quick break to remind you if calming your brain is the missing piece in your practice or in you home, my Mind Thrive certification course teaches you exactly how to do that with targeted amino acid therapy.

So it's real science, real results, no band-aids. Enrollment is now open. Link is in the show notes. Back to the It's the one thing that when I tell folks, like, I wish I could just write you a prescription to go and sit on a beach, you know, for a week. And people get so excited about it. They're like I don't really know how I'm going to do that. What are we going do? I've got this. I got that." And it brings me joy to be like, let's figure this out. Because we get caught up in our protocols. We get cut up and in eating clean and trying to do all the things.

And we forget to have fun and we forgot to just let go a little bit. That's where I was like if I could just write everybody a travel prescription, I would. Over and over again. I know me too. Cause some people come to me and I'm like, we could just put you on a three month vacation, even a week vacation to start with, but let's do three months and just get you reset. And I don't know. Most people can't do that, people do one to two weeks and then figure out how to have a vacation day, you know, once a or several times a month or what it might be.

So when you're helping people with that. What does that look like? So we're sitting down and thinking first, what actually brings them joy? What do they want to do? How do the decompress? A lot of people aren't even sure anymore. Already in survival mode. Yeah, they're like, I don't know. What I like to, do I have no idea. And so the the way we kind of sink it is I have a series of questions and I go through them in terms of like what what kind Of things do you like to do? What things you dream about if you look at certain videos or magazines and know like I would love to be there right now Let's figure out how we can either, you know get you somewhere or like that or we an environment with that because most of the time we have people that go on vacations, right?

And then they need a vacation from the vacation. And it's like, how do we figure out the catalyst, you know, the vocation being the catalyst for them to start new habits,

Why travel matters for nervous system reset 6:31

to get new thought processes on, on life and how they're doing it. Right. Cause we need it as a reset. I always tell my husband, he's such a Vacation Planner and he is good at it, but he wants to jam pack everything into. all the days that we're gone. So we can see everything, which is fun. And he plans very fun vacations, but sometimes I'm like, babe, I just need to go somewhere and not do anything. Like no expectation. If we decide to for a hike, we go for hike. We decide go to the beach, go the to beach.

Do we want to eat? We don't. I don' want it to be so regimented. It's hard not to have a regiment vacation. Yeah, it is. Cause you know, if you go to a new place, you're like, I need to see this and this spot and that spot, and check all the boxes. And so sometimes it's thinking through like okay, where's a place where maybe there aren't a lot of boxes to check, but you can get an equally restorative type and of a vacation and you get some adventure in there too. I had an old mentor and he would always say, you should always pick a place that you can go back to all the time consistently because then you're not wanting to do all of the crazy stuff.

You're just going to go there because that is your happy place, your safe place. Your rejuvenated place whether it's a lake or a beach house. you know, some cabin in the forest, he goes, pick a place that's yours, go on other vacations, but when you need that rejuvenation, you go back to the same place because then your body doesn't have to adjust to any of that. Do you feel that same way? Absolutely, absolutely. A lot of people ask, my family and I go to the Cayman Islands every year, and a lot people are like, aren't you bored as heck there?

Because my in-laws have had a timeshare there since like 1989. And that's the thing. I'm like no, that where I completely disconnect because we've done all the tourist things. We've all done the things, I know all of the little secret beaches that I could just go lay out and forget about everything. It's absolutely correct. Absolutely something. That is such a beautiful thing. So I would love some advice when people are traveling. I'm going to go to Italy and I am going hike in the Dolomites, which is not restful, but I feel like it's going be really rejuvenating because it is just out in nature for days on end and just working your body and not on your computer.

And I think a lot of people need that. What advice do you have for people? How do we plan this vacation? Yeah. So one of the first things is making sure that when you do plan it, you give yourself some buffer time because going like, say we're going to go to the Dolomites. If we go there, we land and like the next day, boom, your right out hiking. That's, that's going great on the nervous system so hard.

Planning restorative trips with buffer time 9:20

So hard. And we don't think about it, right? Because we're like, I have a week, you know, or whatever amount of time, and I've got to pack it in. So buffer. Pretty much most folks know what they need. Sometimes I'll test it with heart rate variability screening. I will use that for folks. You're going to go, you guys are going on a basic trip that you're gonna drive. And let's see how long it takes your HRV to be affected from this driving and how it improves in that time frame. So we do some test runs, but typically what I'm going say is maybe you might need a day buffer, maybe might you need two day buffers.

And then you get in to the hiking, then to everything. And on the back end, you also need to look at like, okay, how can I get that buffer? Now this might shorten your time in a particular area, but yet it's going to help you ease back in so that you can reap the benefits and keep them going. Because research is showing, if you're gone for a week, You can have benefits for up to three to six weeks afterwards, even into like a couple months, depending on, it could go up if your gone more than a So, buffer time is like always, always there.

And downtime after you come home too, so you're not like jumping back into, you know, recording 27 podcasts the next day after coming home. I've probably been known to do some stuff like that. Could you explain to the listeners what HRB is? Yeah, so heart rate variability. This is looking at the beats in between. So your heart rates beats and then seeing the time in-between those beats. And if it varies quite a bit. That means your nervous system is more regulated. If it's tighter and so less time between each beat and it is not variable, that means we're stressed.

The nervous is feeling that stress. And so I like to have folks doing that as some kind of way to give a gauge because our brains will tell us one thing and things internally are happening in a completely different direction. completely. Is there a particular device that you recommend? I've just started using something called Alanga. It's from a company in Czech Republic. The reason I like it is it's not something I wear all the time. Because I noticed with health tech wearables, sometimes you can feel achy.

I had to take my whoop off Because my wrist was aching quite a bit. And so this one you put on in the morning for a little less than three minutes, it takes your measurement and you're done for the day. Like you pull it right back down and now we don't have something that we have on over and over. Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. I know everybody says the Bluetooth is fine. Bluetooth fine, but I don' know. If I've not felt it really, like I just don''t feel good if I have a wearable on. And I've seen it because I do some biofeedback and stuff with people and their bio feedback will change, you know, if they take their wearable off and I see, other things shift as well.

So I'm not sold on the fact that we should be wearing, Bluetooth devices on ourselves.

Heart rate variability and wearable tech 12:28

I agree with you. At first I was super into, I am like, oh, this is so cool. And of course I had my own. I went like head over heels into it. I like had the aura ring and then I got the whoop and you name it, I was playing with things but I'm garments and yeah I started to just like get weird aches and like my finger would ache. And so now as soon as I took it off I don't have it but another thing I've seen too and this is something that relates to travel but something may be relevant to some folks to think about is our cars all have wifi now.

and the phone is connected to the car. When I take travel trips in my car, I will have the worst HRV results. So I'm depleted after I've been in the care for long periods of time. It is another thing for folks to think about on the front end and back end of travel. Get out of the cars. And we don't have a car yet that has Wi-Fi and I've intentionally done that and we need a new vehicle and it'll connect, but it doesn't Wi Fi. So I'm still looking at like 2016, 2017 vehicles, you know, like a Toyota Highlander or something, because I just don t want Wi fi in my vehicle for as long as I can possibly prevent that.

I wholeheartedly agree. And I have data from when I had these devices. My baby is my 2007 FJ Cruiser. It is, my baby. I will never get rid of it because it has a key. You know, and it's just getting older. So it is like, you know of course you get to that point where like what do I do when i buy cars? But yeah, I got the data looking at the two of them from the HIV and I never had travel in multiple hours in the car affect me like it does now with my stinking Wi-Fi fancy. vehicle. Is it disturbing?

It is disturbing because travel is stressful enough, you know, just riding in a car for 16, 18 hours, wherever your destination might be, or even just flying in the plane. But that car, I know with the Wi-Fi on, it just doesn't feel good. I got in at Tesla, my friend's Tesla and I was in there for about five minutes and my daughter was the backseat and then I turned around and we connected eyes and she nodded her head at me because she was feeling it too. Yeah. Yeah, I probably couldn't even last like much more than a couple of minutes in one.

I've actually never been in on, but I feel like I couldn' Yeah I didn't like the feeling. We went hiking in Joshua Tree and we camped there I think we were out there four or five days. So there was no wifi, no signal, nothing. It was phenomenal. And so we got back into town and all they did was turn my phone on. to check text messages or whatever, and I could feel it. You don't realize the impact of what Wi-Fi has on your body until you don t have it in the middle of nowhere and you can't use it?

Could you speak to some of that? What is Wi Fi doing to our nervous system and our body in general? Yeah, so Wi-Fi, 5G, Bluetooth, all these different things, they all emit a vibration. And the best way I've been able to kind of describe this to folks is that that vibration, much like music and how music makes us feel, vibrates ourselves. It vibrrates all the cells of your nervous system. And it's in a way that's highly positive, like not positive good positive but positive charged. And we, our body needs something a little more neutral to almost more of a negative charge that we can discharge a bit.

So all of that positive charge we just become imbalanced in what the body likes in terms of its voltage. All of this coming at us and vibration, we become out of balance. And Chinese wise, like, they didn't even have this stuff 5000 years ago, but they talk about it in such a great way to explain it. But for lack of a better term, it's just we start to vibrate differently when we're around all these things. So all of yourselves kind of do, I do this a lot. I'll say I feel like I'm shaking from the inside.

And that is those coming in and your body being like, whoa, I'm overloaded here. And so this is why a lot of folks will talk about get outside, get your feet in the ground.

Wi-Fi, EMFs, and travel stress 16:50

Put your foot in sand, put your in dirt. All that because we can discharge a type of charge. And so really what it does to our body is it vibrates each and every one of our cells in a different manner than what they like. Then when it becomes to a point where it's overloaded, now we can start to have damage. It's not in the form of You know, for some people it can be drastic, but you can feel heat, you feel a burning sensation, like that vibration inside out. You can also feel it in that area. And what that does long term, if we look back at the Chinese medicine thing, Chinese Medicine says we could get Qi and blood stagnation.

So Qi is vibration. It is the ENFs. coming in and then the blood flow slows down in that area because the body's like, oh, I don't know. I didn't want to bring any blood there. And also because we vibrate differently, we don t circulate blood. This could be the start of disease in a lot of different areas. That's the scary part. It is. Do you think our bodies can adapt over years to all these new frequencies? You know, I certainly hope so. I hope that we're designed intelligently enough to do that, and I do believe that when we look at resetting ourselves.

So having the knowledge to be able, in the wherewithal, to reset yourself and work on your own personal vibration, we can. And I think we could put up blocks to it, too. It's just a matter of figuring out what works for you. Yeah. Well, that makes a lot of sense. You're so, I feel like you're like my soul sister because you concentrate on so many of the foundational pieces. Like we can go off into, you know, biohacking and HRT and all those kinds of things, but none of those really work unless we're talking about foundational.

And so what are your top five foundational that you teach all of your patients? Filtered water, very good filtered water. Today I've got a little lemon in mine just for funsies, but so many people are drinking poor quality water and this is, you know, I will hear folks say, well, why I have my wine membership or I'm spending money on that, take that money and get a filtration system for your house. Absolutely, the water is so important because you're putting, this medicine for you and hydration equals circulation.

in the body. And your shower. Make sure you have a good shower filter. A whole house system. I will argue all day long for a whole-house system for everyone. But if you can't do the whole House system to start with or you're a rental, get a really good Shower filter and a drinking water filter, and then make sure that you cook with it. A hundred percent. Yeah, do not skim because you're cooking like that. You think the water's gonna be no, this is food This is your medicine. And so yes water is non-negotiable Number two for me is usually get outside in some form.

We're absolutely wherever however, and granted, you know, Iowa, Wisconsin It's not like in the middle of the winter. Or we could just take our shoes off and get our feet, You know in ground doesn't it's a little cold Gosh, love people that can do it. But you know, you can, hug a tree, touch a, tree. And my dad laughs and he calls me the ultimate tree hugger, but he's like, no, she actually hugs the tree like really hugs a treat. But just being able to hold onto a tree touch, I had the best education when I lived here previously in Colorado of shaking the hands with the spruce tree and holding onto the different types of needles and seeing what they feel like.

And spruces more spiky so you can feel it a little bit more. Friendly fir, they're nice and smooth. So holding on to just the needle packets even picking them up, holding onto them if it's cold out and being able to touch something that's going to give you a little discharge. So, getting outside, sunlight, you know, all of those are in that realm of stumbling. Yeah, absolutely. What else? Okay, so then the next one is fun. And this is one that I had to actually learn myself because I'm driven to work myself right into the ground and then forget about fun, And so fun has to happen even before all the other things, because we can get so looped into, you know, I've got to follow this protocol.

I got do this detox.I've gotta eat so clean. It's like, no, wait a minute, let's, are you enjoying life doing all that? And if you're not, there's no point. There's not point whatsoever. So that's my next one is get out. You gotta have some fun. No matter what, be a kid, play, do those things. Go stomp in puddles, go do something fun, yes. Go swing on the swing. And while you're out there, which comes to number four, is circulation. You know, you are moving, your walking, You're doing even mobility work.

I am a big stickler on if you have pain anywhere that's blood and G not moving. We got to get that moving So mobility, motion, circulation, that's my number four. And then number five is looking at how do you see things? How do perceive things, where's your brain at? And this is going to be so fun to have you on my podcast and talk about taking back the brain because so many of us, myself included, halfway through my practice, like literally, I started to like, who owns this practice?

Five foundational health habits 22:08

Because I felt like I wasn't owning it, I was just working in it. And we get this weird thoughts of we don't have choices. We don' have the idea that we can do whatever we want, we just have to think in a different manner and it really just perspective. I think that's key for so many things. Having the perspective to make the decision to move, make a decision, to go outside, knowing that those are good things and putting aside like, I'm with you. I had to really hone in on my schedule and I am always rechecking and saying, are my clients, which I love and want to help as many people as I possibly can, overtaking the fun in my life and the joy?

I just had my grandbabies this morning for a couple of hours and it's so fun. And I don't want miss out on any of that. because I'm working and so focused. And yes, those are things that we're going to have to do. But I was talking with a client yesterday, she hates her job. I said, well, are you going change it? She goes, what? I do think now I have too, because she's so sick. Right? And so we allow ourselves to stay in these crazy cycles when we know we need to get out of them or we are in toxic environments that have we have get it out in order to heal.

100%. It's for so many women. And this is why you don't hear me in my five foundations. You don' hear hear talking peptides. you Don't here me talking hormones because none of that, like you said, works unless we've got the foundations, if you're not happy, nothing is going to work. Right. We've gotta find your joy. I mean, God created us to live in joy, the joy is our strength. Talking about all of those foundations, because all those will help reduce inflammation and stress and sleep, and yet we get so caught up.

We can get caught in, oh, I've got to go outside and ground if I don't ground, then we can make that very good thing not very for us and cause stress. Yep. So I would love for you to speak to you. How do, cause there's so much information out there. You know, I'll fall in the trap to it. you fall into the Trap. I know all the listeners are like, okay, got to get, do the five things that Dr. Janine just was talking about. Okay. Yeah. Those would be super helpful, but pick one. Pick one because you can't follow every protocol.

And if somebody says, Oh gosh, don't go in the sun. Dr. Janine and Laurie said, go into the Sun. You know, which one do you pick? So what do, how do help your clients navigate all of those things? That's the best question ever because yeah, we could easily have a morning ritual of 35 things you have to do and if you don't get them done, you're going to be stressed out. And the five things I just mentioned, what do you do? And in the bottom line is, like I said, everyone is different. We have to go for the one thing that we can get nailed down first and whatever that may be.

If grounding is not your thing, you don't like bugs and you like being outside, well, don' choose that one as the you have do. Think about the five things I mentioned or think about even one things that's maybe not even on my five list, but one that you know you can do, that feel good doing and it benefits you. and master that, nail that down to the point it is second nature, no matter where you are, you could be traveling in Italy and you're still going to make sure you were going try to do this.

That's what I do. Yeah, because we don't want people feeling guilty about not doing the thing or the seven things or whatever the things might be. I had a client one day, she came in, and she was crying. And she's like, I just can't do it all. I'm like what are you trying to do? And, you know, the things that I gave her and then she listened to some other person and was like none of it works. No, it's not working because you're stressed out. Yeah. It's with so much information out right now and so many stuff that contradicts and I just had this conversation with my friend yesterday here in Colorado.

How strict can you be on eating and still Enjoy the food that you're eating, you know, at this point. And at the end of the day, You have to tap back into you and be like, what feels right to me? What feels best to Me? Because you can try to do all of these protocols. If it doesn't fit into your cycle, your life and your routine, it's lost on you. Yeah. And you need to be working with a practitioner that understands that too. So, you know, I always tell people, if I'm going to tell you everything that's optimal and then you get to me, this is what I can do right now.

Yeah And then that what we'll do now and as you're able, we will add in the other things that I am recommending. You don't have to do every single thing. but it all does build on each other. So it's just keeping all that in mind, just making sure you've got a good mindset, get some good sleep, drink good water, eat good food, and love your life. Yeah. And if being a perfectionist around eating clean, taking your supplements, being healthy is causing your own strife, because I will see so many folks, they're doing all the things, Like, I'm impressed, right?

I don't know. I am not even that dialed in. That's awesome. But if you're not enjoying doing that, what is the point? You know, like, back to what we mentioned before, joy. What brings you happiness? Do that. Whatever it is. Yeah. And then if you feel happy and joyful, you can dive into hormone replacement therapy, peptides, all those kinds of things. But those shouldn't, I don't feel, and I know you felt the same way, like those are not your first line of defense. No, absolutely not. And right now, I mean, it is something that makes me cringe because it seems that everyone needs hormones, right?

And everyone need them right away. That's like where we're starting with things when we are dabbling into health over 40. I guess it's probably I'm a little biased because I am the one that people see when things don't go well with the hormones.

How to avoid overwhelm and pick one habit 28:38

They're not going to see me if they're doing all right with them. It's sad right now. We're in a space where, you know, we're still searching for that magic thing that's going to make everything go away and us feel amazing. And sorry, guys. That's not it. When talking about hormones and stuff, if you have foundations in place, do you see as many people needing like hormone replacement there? Because our body has a natural rhythm and I feel like we should be able to go with that natural really well without the need of outside hormone help if at all possible.

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely see some people do not. I have some women in my practice who are in their 80s and their adrenals are doing great on making their hormones. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? I think that's the thing we're forgetting about is that we are designed to decline on hormones naturally as we get older, and we were also designed for our adrenal glands to take over. And of course, adrenal gland's equal, you know, the gland of stress management, back at step one here where stress is not being managed well, it makes it very hard to let the body do what it needs to do naturally.

And sometimes we've got to override it with the hormones if it's really interfering in someone's life. But no, there is still the possibility to make your own hormones just fine without hormone replacement therapy. And I think people really need to hear that. So I love the fact that you just say that, so say it again. It is absolutely possible to make your own hormones from your adrenal glands at any, you know, any age over 40, 50, 60, 70. And, I've seen it, in the 80s. it is, absolutely, possible, to, make, your, own, hormones.

You can do this. Yeah, and I don't think, people understand the ability of the body. We think oh, well, it's declining. I had a gentleman say to me one time, he goes well testosterone goes down as I age. I said, yeah, not to zero. So you shouldn't have to have testosterone therapy. Let's figure out why. You know, let's change your diet, get your metabolism boosted, your glucose regulated, maybe do some muscle building to boost that testosterone back up. All those foundational things. Yeah. Yeah, we, I mean, it's just, unfortunately, just how society has been, you know, We've been taught, there's a magic pill for everything.

And now it kind of morphing into, You want to live amazing. You wanna look amazing, then let's keep these hormones going. Being on both sides of the fence and working on folks in both arenas, It's like, wait, There are people, like I mentioned, that can still make their hormones. What is the secret? there. And, you know, I've got men in my practice too that are in their 70s and 80s that still making better hormones than someone in the 30s. Like, what is the problem here? What's the common denominator?

I think we kind of know. You know? Stress. Right. Yeah. So it's just getting people to understand the stressors, whether it is chemical, physical, or emotional and how to navigate that and to really take good care of ourselves. We've lost that. We have absolutely lost that. And it makes me cringe that we're not teaching this in grade school, even into middle school. Instead of all those lectures on how not to get pregnant and putting condoms on bananas and stuff, it's like I would much rather have had someone teach me.

how to do the foundationals, how cook better, you know, to get outside and play. You know even though at a younger age we get it but like why? And then people are going to tell you as you get older you need to be an adult. I wish that someone would have like, I don't know what it was, because I didn't have that permission, right? We felt like we needed permission to still be a kid and I think it would be great for someone to just be like Do whatever you want. Do what I want, have fun. Yeah. I love my daughter.

She'll be 20 this year and she has a group of girls and they still have game nights. They still go out and like play, they go to the park and play tag still and kick the little bits off.

Hormones, stress, and the power of foundations 32:48

jungle gym equipment and make parents mad. But nonetheless, they're having a good time. You know, that they make that a priority and they are having fun. And I didn't when I was, you know their age, I would just like work, work work school, school school. I know I'm stressed, anxious and eating disorder like my life was a wreck and I am looking at these girls thinking good job girls. Good job, because it's going to benefit you when you're 40 of what you are doing now. Yeah. I'm impressed by the younger generation in that realm.

We just got, like you said, we were taught to grind hard. You work hard, that's how you succeed. And you just keep up that pattern. My goodness. the damage that it's done to a lot of women over four years. Yeah. Oh my goodness. We just see burnt out women all the time. Anything you want to leave the listeners with? I think the biggest thing that if I would go back to maybe even 15, 16 years old when I started to work, when they started think about my career and moving forward, I never realized that I actually had a choice, you know, in terms of exploring all of the different interests I was in wanting to do for my career.

I mean, it was like, I want to be a pro snowboarder or I wanted to, be, do something in the medical field and help people. And those were the two things that, totally different, but, those are the things I had in my head. And I wasn't given a lot of nurturing in terms of there's all these different things out there. Why don't you look at it? It was all the like, well, then you got to be a doctor. You have to a be doctor if you want to help people. And no choice in between and creativity in it. Yeah.

Being a naturopath was my way to rebel in the doctor field. I was like well if they were going to tell me I have be to doctor, I'm going be witch doctor that does needles and herbs. I'm going to be the crazy one here. They're crunchy doc. Yeah, yeah. Totally granola doc, I am down. And so anyway, that was my way of rebelling. But at the same time, you know, And men too. I think it's just something that we have a choice, but we also want to explore all of our options. And that's one thing I'd love to tell the younger folks out there.

It seems like they kind of got it though. They are seeing that you don't have to follow a traditional pattern of what your parents or grandparents had the idea. That's how you do things. You know, the teacher, nurse, doctor or lawyer. I mean, that was like what the four options. Yeah, and pick one. And so, choice. It funnels all the way into you can choose how to design your life. You can chose how you design you life around what you want and you choose what want in your own life and what don't.

If you don' like whats going on, you have the ability to change that because that is also your choice, so that's it. Amen. Preach it, sister. Yeah. Absolutely. So good. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I love this conversation. And I think it's so, so important to have a continuous conversation as women around all these topics. We so, so do. Well, thank you everyone for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. Make sure you share this episode because I know you know a bunch of women who need to hear this too.

So I will see you in the next episode. God bless. Thanks for listen to Take Back My Brain. If today's episode helped you connect with hope or direction, I want you to follow the show, leave us a review and share it with someone who needs it.

Choice, joy, and closing reflections 36:38

And if you're ready to start your own healing journey, Explore our courses and our coaching programs at lorihammer.com backslash store. So until next time, remember you cannot medicate away a nutrient deficiency and healing your brain isn't just possible, it's powerful.