Episode 1: The Secret To Unlocking Your Inner Health Detective

Hi, and welcome to the very first edition of Genie Nutrition Secrets.

My name is Angie White. I'm a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner, a health detective, bio-hacking geek, and love helping people to take back control of their health.

This is my first podcast, so just from the outset, I just want to say, bear with me. Thank you so much for listening. I'll do my best to make this a really informative, useful podcast for you. As I improve, hopefully, you'll see things change slightly and I'll start to implement the improvements based on the feedback I get from listeners.

So basically, the way that these podcasts are going to work, every week, I will be producing a podcast, which will give you one secret, and one takeaway that you can easily implement into your daily lives. So it's not too overwhelming, it will just be very small steps. When you start to add them all together, you should really see they're making a big difference towards you reaching your health goals.

I'll also try to keep them to under 10 minutes. Not sure if this first one's going to make it, but overall, I like to keep them to under 10 minutes, because then it's something you can just listen to either before work or on the way to work, or just going out for a walk with the dog. It's just really easy for you to incorporate into your week. So hopefully, it's something that you'll look forward to. But as I say, if there's anything you'd like me to change, any feedback you can give me, then I'll tell you how to do that at the end of the podcast.

So a little bit about me as this is the first one. I am a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner. I qualified back in March 2016. I have to say, it was one of the best decisions I ever made to do that course. It's taken me into a direction that I only ever dreamed of going. I'm a qualified accountant, so that's my background. It's obviously a big shift going from accountancy into being a health practitioner. But it's certainly one that I'm not regretting. It's a transition I'm currently making, and I absolutely love it. Like most practitioners, I've had my own health issues. I'm not saying they're completely gone. I'm still on my own health journey and always will be, but things are so much better than they used to be and the fact that I'm still going through a few issues myself, means it really helps me to relate with my clients and really understand what it is that they're going through.

So it all stems back, like alot of people, to my childhood. I didn't have a great relationship with food as I was growing up. I don't really remember a huge amount about my childhood, but I do know that I used food as a bit of an emotional crutch going through the usual hormones, school, just generally going into young adulthood. Most of my memories are of food. I even remember at school being in the queue for the warm iced buns. They used to sell them for 30p! It's those kinds of memories that I have from when I was growing up. And when I left school, it didn't really improve. I spent most of my 20's going through a cycle of sugar addiction. Be it fruit, chocolate, sweets, cakes, bread, ice cream, biscuits, pretty much any form of sugar, I'd eat Snickers for breakfast etc... As a rule, my 20's were a bit of a blur. They had some good points and some low points but generally, I just don't really remember a huge amount about it.

At my heaviest, I got to about 17 stone but I always dressed well and I've always looked after myself. I guess you could say I'm a bit of a girly girl. So I wear nice clothes, and I breathed in whenever I was in front of the mirror. But when I saw photos of myself, it was a bit of a shock. It just made me think about how unwell I looked, and how unwell I felt. So I went from diet to diet like a lot of people do, be it Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Slimming World as well as my own crazy diets. Now, they did all work to a point. But the thing was, the novelty was a big factor. So I'd start something new. It didn't really matter what it was as long as it was new, and it was the first time I'd done it, it would work, because I'd be committed for a period of time but once that novelty wore off and the motivation disappeared, all I'd end up doing was bingeing on the food that I'd deprived myself of through whatever diet it was I was on. So I tended to just gain back pretty much all the weight I would lose, and I would just go through this cycle of yo-yo dieting.

And that was pretty much throughout my 20's. As well as the weight issues that I had, I was also really suffering from a digestive perspective as well. I remember having IBS symptoms from about the age of 18. I had stomach cramps, diarrhea, gas, and it was really exacerbated whenever I had sugar. My skin was constantly flushed. It was uneven, spotty, and I was getting cold sores, sometimes even on a monthly basis. My hormones were all over the place and I used to cry over the littlest of things. I just felt like I had absolutely no control over my emotional state, which, having a full time job in accountancy, is not really the best thing. And just generally, it wasn't a nice place to be.

In my late 20's, I came across a website called Food Focus, it's basically a calorie and meal tracking website. You put in your weight, and you put in your height, and how much weight you want to lose, and it basically figures out what your calorie content should be. So it's very old school. As we know now, calories is, by no means, the only part of the story. But back then, I was a bit of a techie. I liked technology. I like doing things online. So it worked quite well for me. I actually managed to lose five stone in a couple of years just by calorie control. So it worked, from that perspective, in terms of that one goal. But the thing was, I was still eating and drinking the same processed junk that I was having before. I was just eating it in small quantities.

I was hungry most of the time. My hormones were still all over the place. I had constant sugar cravings, and I still had bad skin. I was obsessed with my weight. I used to weigh myself religiously every day. The daily morning routine was pretty much that of delight or disappointment depending on what the scales told me, so it really wasn't fun. I did feel so much better about my body in terms of what it actually looked like in the mirror. That definitely gave me more confidence, but health wise, I really didn't feel like I was in good form.

So in September 2009, that is really when things started to change. I bumped into a old friend of mine, Keith Tucker. He was in town with his business partner, at the time, Clare. They were advertising for bootcamps. I was chatting to Keith and telling him about where I was at and what I was going through. He basically said, "Why don't you come along and try it?" So before I knew it, I was going to boot camps at 6:30am every week day. I met some really great people, and just got into a good routine around exercise and started to actually really enjoy it. I joined his nutrition course pretty soon after starting the boot camps. And really, that was the basis of nutrition and the foundation of nutrition that I'm using still now with my clients eight years later. So it was a huge thing for me to meet him, and to throw myself in headfirst into the whole nutrition/exercise/ lifestyle type of environment. It was really refreshing.
I'd previous to that, been surrounded by people basically eating the same way as me, or people who just really didn't need to worry about their diet. It was really, really nice to be part of something where I could actually relate to the other people there and what they were going through. The thing was, even though I had started to learn a lot about nutrition, I was still really struggling. It was like a yo-yo effect. I was suffering from disordered eating. I never really got a diagnosis, but it was a very destructive eating pattern. I'd mentally and physically sabotage my efforts time, and time again. And because I'd learned so much about nutrition, it almost made things worse, because I couldn't stick my head in the sand. I couldn't just ignore it. I couldn't carry on going, "Oh, yeah. I'm just going to eat this. It doesn't matter." I knew it mattered. I really did, and that almost made it worse.

Also, at the same time, I couldn't exercise. I did a 10k run, because I'm a bit stubborn, and decided I was going to do it no matter what, and after that had major lower back problems and achilles problems. So I wasn't able to do the boot camps anymore. So this started a spiral of healthy eating, and then compulsive bingeing. And then more healthy eating again. It would just go on like this for quite a while. So I recognised pretty quickly that there was an issue and went to see multiple therapists. I did CBT, which is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I did hypnotherapy, counselling. I went to Overeaters Anonymous and I did Emotional Freedom Technique with a good friend of mine, Liz Hancock.

They all helped. They really did. They all played a really big part in the whole journey that I'd been through up to that point, but they weren't enough in themselves. And over the last, I'd say, seven or eight years, I've just really started to, bit by bit, step by step, get more in tune with my body. And part of that was working very closely with Keith Tucker. Now he, as I said, he's a very good friend. He's an amazing personal trainer, a nutrition guru. He's also a very skilled Neuroskeletal practitioner and he introduced me to Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, which is also known as FDN, a few years ago. So I ummed and aahhed about it for probably a couple of years.

I love testing. I love seeing things in black and white. I felt it was that push I needed to actually do the therapeutic approaches that have been given to me. I just needed to see those test results. It's just something I was really passionate about. And during my sessions with Liz Hancock, I started to feel really enlightened to the fact that I was very passionate about it. And actually, I wanted to help other people in the same way that the testing had helped me.

So basically, FDN, in a nutshell is a type of detective work. We're looking for the root cause of disease instead of treating symptoms. We're basically looking for healing opportunities. I work with my clients to build an individual DRESS for Health Success Program. DRESS stands for Diet, Rest, Exercise, Stress reduction, and Supplementation. It's really rewarding. I'm just amazed. I've watched, time and time again, men, women, young adults, literally following the process and starting to see chronic health issues that they've had for years, sometimes decades, actually pretty quickly improve. That is so rewarding. Just seeing them get in tune with their bodies, and what it actually needs. I just love it. I absolutely love it.

But I knew that there was a piece missing. Some of that came from working with my clients. Some of it was from just my own knowledge of myself. The missing piece was around the subject of eating psychology. So as well as the nutrition and lifestyle that I learned through Keith and through Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, I decided that I wanted to enroll in the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, which is run by Marc David. And I'll be using these podcasts to share with you, as well as the nutrition and lifestyle concepts, we'll deep dive into some of the more personal, emotional, and psychological issues that really get in the way when we're trying our hardest to reach our health goals. So there you have it. That's me in a nutshell!

Now, before we close the very first episode of Genie Nutrition Secrets, I want to share with you Secret Number 1. So this is one of the most important things that you will ever learn about nutrition which is, there is no perfect diet. We are all unique. This might be something you already know. But sometimes we just need reminding of it. Our nutritional needs are constantly changing and for every scientific research paper that you find that says that a particular diet or a particular nutrient or ingredient is the new perfect diet, or the new super food ingredient, there will be just as many proving that it's not. So which one do you believe? It's so confusing. I just cannot tell you, literally, the amount of people that have said this to me.

What I want to just put out there, just give you something to mull over, is what if we were to stop searching for the perfect diet? What about, if instead, we were to start listening to our bodies? What if we were to start responding to the signals that it's sending us?

So, your task for this week, and it's a very important one, is to change nothing!

Just start listening. Start listening to your body, and don't worry. I'll explain what that actually means in a minute.

Oh, and by the way, I should have said, these podcasts are going to be transcribed, so you don't need to worry about writing anything down. Just go to my website, which is genienutrition.com. You'll see a link for each podcast along with the transcribes, any links to any products, websites, studies or anything like that that I've referenced during an episode.

So going back to listening to your body. Basically, what this means is, about one to two hours after you've eaten, what I want you to do is just to watch out for anything that you notice.

So we're thinking about things like mood. Are you feeling in a really good mood?
Or are you starting to feel a bit grumpy, irritable? Are you really, really stuffed after a meal? Or are you just left feeling really hungry, like hunger pains? Or is it just about right?
Satisfaction, how satisfied did you feel after the meal? Are you left wanting more? Or actually, was it just about right?
Digestion, are you bloated? Have you got gas? You got stomach cramps? Or have you noticed that the stomach cramps that you usually have aren't there?
It's good and bad. It doesn't have to all be bad, notice the good things as well, because that will really help you to start to build a picture of what you do want to be eating rather than focusing on what you don't eat.
Energy level, so are you falling asleep at your desk at three o'clock in the afternoon? What did you eat at lunchtime? Think about that. Or have you got tons of energy, and you're just really happy and just full of energy, think again, think about what you've had.

Just start to build those pictures, and just really notice what's changing. The thing is, when you give your body the nutrition it needs, you really do start to notice these things. It sometimes can be instant, sometimes it takes a while to notice. It can actually take over a few days for it to really kick in. So you do have to do this over a period of time. But if you just start, for now, just listen. Just be aware. Just make a mental note. You can write it down if you want to. But you don't have to. It's just about starting to listen to your body.

So next week, we'll start to go into a bit more detail about one of the other skills that will help you to become your own health detective. That's what I want for you. I basically want to give you the tools so that you can tune into your own body, and not heavily rely upon health professionals, me or anybody that you're looking to for answers. What I would love for you, is to be able to look to yourself. That's my main aim, okay? And if I can help you along the way, then of course I will do.

So that's it for this week. Thank you so much for listening. If you have any comments that you'd like to share, or if you have any questions, just post them in the comments field, which you can find at genienutrition.com\secret1. That will be along with the transcribe of the podcast. And if you would like to rate Genie Nutrition Secrets on iTunes, that would be amazing. So have a great week, and remember, start listening. That's all you need to do. Thank you!