What’s Up, Beautiful People?
Hi there, I’m Katie (for those who don’t know me) and I’m officially a blogger—haha WHAT? I have no idea what I’m doing, but thank you for being here anyway! I’ll try keep this intro short and sweet so we can get to the juicy stuff.
As a kiddo growing up in Indiana, I was all about the sports. I played everything from kickball, baseball, football (yes, you read that right—flowing blonde locks out the bottom of my helmet and everything), and basketball. If I wasn’t inside watching Reggie Miller battle it out with MJ or enjoying a Colts game at the RCA Dome, I was pestering my dad to come outside and shoot hoops with me. With being an athlete, I believe, comes an innate understanding of human movement and having the urge to learn more about the human body.
After graduating college with an Exercise Science degree, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. Become a PA? PT? a coach? None of those were sitting well with me at the time. I was in the process of moving out to Colorado to be with my fiancée who is now my beautiful and loving wife, Kasey. I did some googling and decided to go to massage therapy school since I’ve always had an interest and you don’t have to talk to people (which was the greatest lie I have ever told my introverted self—I’ll get to that in another post down the road). Long story short, I became a licensed massage therapist, moved to North Carolina, and started working immediately at the most wonderful place. I was gaining clients, enjoying my job, including the job itself and the people, but then there was a shift when I got pregnant with our daughter, Riley.
It was like a new phase was coming and I needed to make a career change. To move onto a ‘big-girl’, ‘valid’ career, so I believed. I was tired of explaining my job to people. Whenever I told them I was a massage therapist, I got the ‘oooh’ response like the person was sexualizing it or not taking it serious. I would then have to follow up with ‘no, it’s not like that..I work in a medical and therapeutic clinic where I actually help with dysfunction and injuries.” THEN they’d take me seriously. Anyways, I thought being a PA was an adequate route to provide for my family and a career that people respected.
After our princess was born, I let my boss know I was not going to be coming back as a massage therapist because I needed to acquire hours to apply to PA school. I started working as a medical assistant at a local orthopedic office. I wouldn’t say I loved it, but I did learn a lot and knew it was just a steppingstone to the bigger goal. Little did I know that it was exactly what I thought—a catalyst to the rest of my life; just not the life of a PA but rather, a functional nutritionist.
It was a normal day. I picked up my chart and called the patient back. In walks a sweet, Southern woman. I asked her what her height was, and she said she was 5’3”. She got onto our scale which read 302 lbs. I walked her into the room to get her history and story as to why she was being seen at the clinic: “Sweetheart, both of my knees just hurt so bad all the time. I don’t know what to do anymore.” I typed this in the note, asked if there was anything else for the doctor to know, closed the file, and walked out of the room. I was in the room for about 4-5 minutes give or take. Not even 2 minutes later, I hear a beep and red light at the door, which notified me that the doctor needed something. I walk in and I hear “two knee injections, please.” I go and get the injections ready, wait in the room with the now dejected patient, as she states the doctor said to “just lose weight and come back to see me in 3 months.” My heart was broken; I mean, it absolutely shattered. I saw no referral to nutrition or counseling. What was even worse was I saw the same patient 3 months later, but instead of being 302 lbs., she was 310, and the injections didn’t take care of her knee pain.
I mean, no one and I mean NO ONE is going to take “just lose some weight” with no additional help and just do it. It’s near impossible. If you know of someone, I need a little bit of their behavior change secrets! This was the moment I knew there was a better way, a more humane way. This lovely woman has a story, as do you and I. It’s much more than the weight. What really is causing her knee pain? Is it low grade inflammation? Is it a chronic autoimmune condition? Is it food sensitivity? Did something traumatic happen causing the manifestation of her symptoms? Who knows. But what I do know now is that this woman needed an advocate and someone to at least just listen. Not listen to respond with, “oh, just lose some weight,” but rather, “I hear you and know you’re frustrated about your knee pain. Let’s figure this thing out. First, let’s start with your mother’s health preconception, including any environmental toxin exposure.” That may sound silly and unorthodox, but one would be surprised as to what all plays a role in their lives today.
Now I must add this tidbit because the orthopedic doctor I worked with is a savant, an absolute genius at what he does. I’m not saying that he is a bad or uncaring doctor; he’s just doing what he is trained to do. It’s the healthcare system. Doctors and other health care practitioners don’t have the time to sit and get the patient’s full story. It’s a get in, get out mentality to be able to handle the patient load that is coming through the doors.
Okay, back to it. The same week I had the encounter with the woman at the clinic, I had called my mom out of the blue to check in. It started as just a normal call—“hey, how are ya?”
Mom: “Oh, I’m great! Just got done seeing my functional medicine doctor.”
Me: “Like physical therapy for your shoulder?”
Mom: “No no no, I sat down with a doctor for two hours to go over…”
Me: *interrupts* “uhhh two hours? You sat with a DOCTOR for two hours?”
Mom: “Yeah we went over my whole life, did this timeline thing, and they asked me all these questions about growing up and all that”
To be honest, I don’t even remember the rest of the conversation. I just knew this is what I had been looking for my whole life. I quit my job, got enrolled into a Master’s program in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at the University of Western States, and actually called Boss Lady back asking if I could come back to work as a massage therapist in the meantime—that’s where I work currently. Never burn bridges, people!
What is functional medicine, you may ask? Hell, I didn’t even know about this realm of medicine until 3 years ago. The basic definition is that it is an individualized, preventative, root cause approach to healthcare. I like examples better, so this is the one I like to share with people who can’t wrap their heads around the idea. Let’s say you go into your doctor’s office, and they say that you need to be put on blood pressure medication, they prescribe a pill, you fill it, start taking the medication, and you go for checkups every so often to make sure the pill is lowering your blood pressure. In the functional medicine world, a practitioner may see that your blood pressure is abnormally high, but instead of going right to prescribing a pill, they take a timeline of your life. What’s your family history like? Not only diagnoses, but really, how was your upbringing? Was it stressful, joyful? Any traumas that took place? Oh yeah, when and what was going on? Any triggers from that trauma? What was your diet like as a kid/teenager/now as an adult? It seems like from your past medical history, your blood pressure shot up around 2016—did anything happen around that time? Oh, you got divorced and lost your mom in the same year? That must have been traumatic. I could keep making up a story, but I think you get the point.
Hypothetically, have you ever thought high blood pressure could just be because we’re all freaking stressed out in our lives? Most of us don’t even breathe properly. It’s real—go watch some videos on it. I had my breathing wrong until I was 27 years old. If we don’t breathe properly, or we’re running around with our heads cut off and your body thinks you’re in fight-or-flight mode all day every day, or we’re filling our arteries with shit “food” (more like preservatives) from our favorite fast-food restaurant, or if something on social media triggers you…over…and over…and over again as you’re scrolling—those are all things that can raise blood pressure. If you decided to quit taking the blood pressure pill the doctor prescribed, your blood pressure would shoot right back up if no other changes are made. Now I’m not completely shitting on conventional medicine—I’m not one of those people. Like many things, there is a time and place for it. Emergencies, surgeries, chemotherapy—life-saving measures. But are we always in a life-saving mode? Nah. We’re just trying to live. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here.
So why am I doing this? I could say something like “oh, I love helping people” or “what I post may empower someone to live a healthier life”, but I’m going to make a bold statement. I’m done with the new ‘empowerment’ bullshit we believe and relish in these days. Sounds harsh but let me explain. The definition of empower is to “give someone the authority or power to do something”—let me say (type) that again…to GIVE someone the AUTHORITY or POWER to do something. I have NO right whatsoever to GIVE anybody the AUTHORITY or POWER to do anything with THEIR lives. Authority and power reside in the souls of each individual being, and it is up to each of whom to give the power and authority to themselves to do what they wish with their own lives—especially when it comes to health.
I tried for so long to be the superhero and fix problems for family members, friends, clients, coworkers, you name it. Any issues that would come up or anything that I could see objectively was something I felt was my responsibility to do for them. But what I didn’t know was that I was not even a superhero for myself. Once I learned the ins and outs of my own inner shit, beauty, shortcomings, and everything in between, a reclamation began, and I took back the ONLY thing that is completely and fully mine—my life. That leads to the title of this very blog, which is a phrase I thought about in a massage session while being stuck in my own thoughts: evolve and conquer.
Evolve and conquer. To ME, that’s what life is about. It’s not about being perfect or winning all the awards. It’s not about pleasing others. It’s not about being a ‘good girl’ and not getting into trouble (well, I just unloaded my Inner Child). It’s about taking your first baby steps toward bettering yourself, becoming a master of whatever it is you’re working on, conquering it, and the last step is the most important–enjoying the result. Enjoying the view. Enjoying who you see, who you are. Because once you physically see what you believe, the rest of the world will do the same. Wash, rinse, repeat.
This brings me back to my point of you can’t change someone else. It starts and ends with you. It’s just the residual effects that may ignite that fire in someone to do something for themselves. What if the person you’re trying to change loves the way that they are? What if that’s the way they want to live this life? THAT’S FREAKING BEAUTIFUL—although, I know it can be painful and confusing. But it’s THEIR life.
To wrap it all up, the overall goal of functional medicine is to give the power back to the individual to live the life they want. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, occupationally, you name it. Rely on your own body to tell you what’s up. Keep track of any symptoms and be an advocate for yourself if something ‘just doesn’t seem right.’ Too often we trust the blood tests, imaging, and healthcare professionals more than we trust ourselves and our bodies’ innate wisdom. Too often we cover up symptoms (which is just a word for our bodies’ trying to communicate something) with medications so the real issue isn’t resolved. If something ain’t right, then something ain’t right.
I could go on and on, but this is already much longer than I anticipated. I look forward to keeping this a space of personal thought, education, and overall, an igniting blog for anyone out there. Till then…
Cheers,
Katie
