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Ep 7: Why You Should Chew Food Thoroughly (and Other Nutrition Hacks That Work) w/ Beth Malcook image

Ep 7: Why You Should Chew Food Thoroughly (and Other Nutrition Hacks That Work) w/ Beth Malcook

Aligned Living with Dr. Autumn
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25 Plays5 months ago

In this episode of Aligned Living, Coach Autumn welcomes Beth Malcook, a certified holistic functional nutritional counselor, to chat about the often underestimated role of nutrition on overall wellness, and how you can holistically integrate mental, emotional, and physical health. Beth, with her background as a social worker, began her journey into nutrition 18 years ago after losing her mother to cancer, which inspired her to learn how stress, poor sleep, and inadequate nutrition contribute to chronic health issues. Beth shares tried-and-true advice, emphasizing simple steps that will have you asking yourself: "Why didn't I think of that?"

Intro and Outro Music Credit: Savage by Beat Mekanik, Free Music Archive, License type: CC BY

Please visit: www.autumnswain.com

Contact: [email protected]

IG: @drautumnswain

FB: Autumn Alena Swain

Episode Resources:

Contact Beth Malcook on Instagram @bmalcook

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Transcript

Introduction and Podcast Mission

00:00:05
Speaker
Hello there. I'm Dr. Autumn, leadership consultant, wellness coach, author, and I'm incredibly grateful to be your host of the Align Living podcast. I'm here to equip you with the tools, inspiration, and practical tips necessary to lead a life of wholeness and pursue greater Shalom in your life and that of your families, teams, and communities.
00:00:34
Speaker
My mission is to empower you to lead from a place of holistic wellbeing. It's time to say peace out to the fatigue, fog, and frustration of living in a place that lacks abundant wellbeing. Join me as we embark on a comprehensive exploration of spiritual, physical,
00:00:56
Speaker
mental, emotional, social, and economic well-being all within the comforting embrace of one podcast.

Passion for Nutrition and Guest Introduction

00:01:12
Speaker
Hey, good people. Dr. Autumn here and welcome back to the Aligned Living Podcast. I'm just so excited to have the opportunity to chat with you today about one of the most important things you could do in your pursuit of wholeness. And it happens to be a great passion of mine. So we are talking all things nutrition today. Now hear me out. This is going to be both helpful
00:01:39
Speaker
hopeful. So our guest today is going to bring not only some really simple tips, anyone, no matter how busy or full your life is, can integrate into even the busiest of lifestyles. But she's going to share with you a few of the most fundamentally important things to know in regards to nutrition as well.
00:02:02
Speaker
The gap we've been talking about that exists in between your reality and how you desire to feel, how you want to be, energized, focused, inspired, and so forth, believe it or not, nutrition is connected to all of these things in some way. So you will hear more about that in this episode. So here goes and thank you for listening.
00:02:26
Speaker
So welcome Beth mall cook to the show. I am just super excited to have you here today. Um, it's such an honor to be with a good friend and who I consider an expert in the space of nutrition. Um, I just want to give you guys a little bit of insight into who Beth is. And then, um, we will jump right in and she will get to share with you some of her insights into this world of nutrition I'm so passionate about. So anyways, um, a little bit about Beth.
00:02:53
Speaker
She is a wife and a mom of two. She's also a fantastic friend of mine and even better human being. She is a certified holistic functional nutritional counselor. Okay, that is a mouthful. A certified holistic functional nutritional counselor. I love that. But more than that, she is also a person of faith that really believes
00:03:16
Speaker
in the integrative nature of our whole selves which is what I talk about all the time with this Align Living podcast. She actually was a social worker before I met her as well and so knows the value of mental and emotional well-being too. But today we're actually going to hone in on her knowledge and passion around nutrition. I just wanted to give you a little insight into her background because sometimes if we speak of one area but we know that people also just have an understanding and passion for the whole person it kind of changes how
00:03:45
Speaker
We hear things. So to give you listeners a little context, early on in my relationship with Beth, we did some health coaching together. So she's really helped me learn so much of what I know in the realm of nutrition. And through that process, she's just become a dear friend. And although we serve people in different avenues, our philosophies around nutrition are just so similar. So I'm really excited for you all to hear from her. So here we go, Beth.
00:04:15
Speaker
I know that we can't get into all the details around nutrition today, but I want listeners to walk away with some foundational understanding of nutrition and just a few important things that they could focus on on this journey towards wholeness.

Beth's Personal Journey to Nutrition

00:04:30
Speaker
So physical wellness is one of the six key areas that I focus on in a line living, and we both know that nutrition is just such
00:04:38
Speaker
an essential component to our wellness journey. I know that we both have the soapbox around getting to the root cause of the problem. I know we're passionate about holistic lasting solutions. I want to ask you though, when did this
00:04:56
Speaker
begin for you? When did this journey begin for you? How has it played out in your life personally? And I guess in other words, would you just let listeners in on some of the whys for you in your life, like whatever parts of your story you want to share that led you just to want to serve people by supporting them in their health and wellness goals through nutrition? Yes, I love that question. But first, I'm going to say thank you because I have an immense amount of gratitude for being on here with you today and just having the opportunity to share, but also just
00:05:26
Speaker
You're just such a blessing in my life as a gospel friend and as an incredible leader in all communities I see you function in. And so I just want to say thank you for letting me share. I will kind of start by saying, I think this
00:05:42
Speaker
deep dive started for me about 18 years ago when I lost my mom to cancer. You know, I really started to do a lot of digging. I couldn't understand how somebody is golfing one day and, you know, moves on.
00:06:00
Speaker
passes away four weeks later. It was just super wild to me. And in my 30s, I experienced a lot of stress in my profession. As a result, I saw the impact that stress and lack of sleep and poor nutrition and decreased immune function has on somebody because of the things I struggled with personally. I had
00:06:20
Speaker
anxiety and depression. I had shingles at the age of 30, which is not normal. I had acne. I had one and then another autoimmune condition that was popping up. So really, I guess I had sought traditional Western medicine help and no one was talking to me about what was going on in my lifestyle or environmental factors or nutrition or anything.
00:06:46
Speaker
It was kind of like target practice, honestly, and I never could really figure it out until I started taking this kind of deep dive after I lost my mom. And so that was my first step into the wellness education space because the more I learned, the more I couldn't understand why people weren't talking about prevention. And I was seeing a healthcare system or a medical system that was much more reactive than it was anything.
00:07:15
Speaker
I started to get just more aware of how this world is just inundated with chronic illness. I mean, they say there's a hundred now autoimmune conditions. It takes on average somebody three years and four practitioners to be diagnosed. We see an epidemic of metabolic issues for people, diabetes, cancer, hormone imbalances, mental health issues, autism,
00:07:42
Speaker
And it's just alarming how this is happening at this growing rate in a world that we keep having medical advances and even
00:07:54
Speaker
I don't know, we see a lot of pharmaceutical interventions and we're not getting to the root cause of what's going on for people. And I guess I had the audacity to think that if I could help one person at a time, just to empower them with mindfulness around their body. And really because we do live in a world where we're over marketed to and the information is confusing.
00:08:19
Speaker
to empower people to learn about their bodies and really support their health from a preventative approach. I knew that that could, even if it made a difference for one person, it was a worthy cause and it just kind of sparked a fire in me on this path. And that's only grown over the last 18 years. So yeah, that's how I got started.

Core Components of Nutrition and Health

00:08:44
Speaker
Man, I know we're talking about nutrition here, but one thing you said that just
00:08:49
Speaker
gives me goosebumps is like when we get really passionate about something you want to have an impact, it could either like be overwhelming and cause us to just freeze up or we could say let me just start helping one person at a time. And so I loved that that was really, really good. So now to like dig a little bit deeper into actual like practical ways that people can improve on their
00:09:13
Speaker
nutrition. You know, it's interesting when I talk to people, I'm like nutrition's super simple and super complex at the same time. It's like this interesting dynamic because basically what I mean by that, you know, but for the listeners that some initial things anyone can do to have a real significant impact on their health can be simple sometimes with just some basic nutritional adjustments. However, it also can continue to get more complex
00:09:39
Speaker
when you begin, like you said, to look at all the misinformation and miseducation out there. And then when you start to consider the tiny variables around what exactly to eat, maybe where deficiencies are, how to source our food, absorbability, Wendy. It does get a little bit more complex, but what I want to do today, just for time's sake on this podcast, I would love for you to
00:10:03
Speaker
share with us, if someone's just starting out on this journey, what are a few initial things that you would suggest that they just start with? Yeah. And I think if I can take one or maybe two minutes to kind of explain the approach that I think is very empowering actually from a holistic nutritional kind of functional nutrition approach is that
00:10:30
Speaker
Yes, food is an important part of it, but the things that we experience, the diagnosis, the symptoms, if you think of your body like this tree, there's three roots and there's many, many branches, right? And I always like to look at the leaves because when we see a flower that's wilting,
00:10:46
Speaker
We don't go, what's wrong with the petals? We tend to go, what's wrong with the soil that it's in? Why isn't it functioning optimally? And I think the empowering piece about this is nutrition does play a key role and is something that we can have control over. And really the three roots when I look at functional nutrition are genetics.
00:11:10
Speaker
and digestion and inflammation, I think it's important to know that even though we're led to believe that we're a victim to bad genetic cards, and we are told it's not a if, but when are these things going to play out in our life? It's just really not true. Epigenetic factors play a role. It does have to do with nutrition. It has to do with lifestyle factors, movement, mindset, environment, community. All these things can
00:11:40
Speaker
determine if these genetic expressions are turned on or turned off and truly only a small fraction of diseases are truly caused by genetic defects. And so I think that's empowering because it just tells us we don't have to be like blah, blah, blah, like we're told because of a genetic disposition. Like we do have more control over that and nutrition is a big part of that. So is digestion and that really does take us to our discussion because
00:12:09
Speaker
If it isn't so much what we eat, we aren't what we eat. We are actually what our body can digest and how that food is used through digestion for information for our body and fuel for ourselves. And so I can talk a little bit more about that if it's helpful because I think digestion, an important thing with that is just to know it even just starts in our mouth, like slowing down and like chewing our food
00:12:38
Speaker
And starting the digestion process with enzymes in our mouth that we produce naturally, God is so good, right? We produce saliva and it starts to break our food down, specifically carbohydrates in our mouth. But often we're eating, we're watching TV, we're looking at our phones, we're running out the door. We're not even helping the digestion process. And that's one of the things that we need to do.
00:13:01
Speaker
if we want to get the most from our nutrition. Obviously, that has to do with the quality of nutrition. We can talk a little bit about that too. Then inflammation. I think about inflammation. I think about chronic illness, immune issues, deficiencies, or autoimmune conditions. That also plays into nutrition and lifestyle habits.
00:13:26
Speaker
I just think the general message I would send is a lot of us, we have high demands on our bodies. Our bodies, we have jobs, we have stresses in life, we have
00:13:37
Speaker
if you're a parent or maybe you have elderly parents or you have all these responsibilities and we want our bodies to function like a car that has an amazing engine that goes really fast and really strong and purrs like a kitten. I don't know a lot about cars, but if we had a
00:13:57
Speaker
a really nice car, we're not going to put the worst gasoline in it and expect it to perform, right? And so I think about our bodies. We want it to perform. We want it to keep up this demand that we put on it and the speed that we expect to get out of it. But we're not putting in the good stuff, right? And we kind of learn if we put in the better things, we support our bodies, you know, we're going to get better results because, again, food meets physiology.
00:14:26
Speaker
is information for our cells and fuel. So I don't know if that answered your question, Autumn, specifically. So in summary, I guess the message I want to be is empowering that we get this message drilled into us that we don't have control over
00:14:44
Speaker
how we feel and that's not true

Practical Dietary Tips and Immune Health

00:14:47
Speaker
at all. And so I want that to be encouraging. And also just this, we can talk more about this in detail, but just this focus on nutrition from can I digest it? I just my food. Can my body use this food for fuel and information for my cells? And then also just decreasing inflammation in our bodies so that we have a balanced
00:15:09
Speaker
you know, body that promotes good immune function, not overactive or underactive, but just overall balanced health.
00:15:18
Speaker
Okay, yeah, that's so good. So I guess I'm going to ask you a question like right in line with that a little bit because I think what's so helpful about what you just shared was it's helping people understand this bigger picture of what's essential for our bodies to function. I would love to hone in a little bit on a couple really, really practical things. So you talked about gut health and inflammation and so forth.
00:15:42
Speaker
On a day-to-day basis on a nutrition level of what people could actually consume or habits they can embrace, I would love for you just to touch on, for example, how a person could use nutrition in the first place to reduce inflammation in their body. I know you said it was one of the three pillars. The reason I'm asking this is because I feel like people are starting to know, okay, I have these issues and I know I have too much inflammation in my body, but I think
00:16:11
Speaker
They're not sure where to go from there. So what were some things a person could practically do to start reducing the inflammation in their body?
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah. So when I think of inflammation, I think of immune function and chronic immune challenges, you know, whether that's allergies, eczema, autoimmune conditions, joint pain, colitis, cancer, infections. And obviously the immune system is super complex, but we do know it's important to clear or try to minimize factors that contribute to inflammation.
00:16:43
Speaker
And two of those big, important epigenetic factors are food and environment. So it could be sugar. Sugar is a big problem in our world, refined sugar, not sugar that comes from things that God has given us, like fruits or vegetables, but refined sugar, processed sugar. Gluten can be inflammatory for people. Dairy can be too. I mean, we're all different. We're all different people.
00:17:13
Speaker
one food can create an immune response in some people that it doesn't in other people. It could be environmental like mold, GMOs, fluorides in our water, BPAs. So really for optimal function, we're just trying to balance the immune system. So a couple of ways to help support that is adequate sleep. Relaxation, when we're in a chronically stressed
00:17:39
Speaker
world or environment that impacts inflammation. Eating a diet rich in diversity and offering different antioxidants into your, you know, introducing those into your diet, like eating the rainbow. Sugar, again, I'm going to hit on this because this is a big deal. Like sugar actually decreases our immune function. It actually depletes
00:18:03
Speaker
nutrients that our immune system depends on to be strong. And so when we eat refined sugar, we're taking a double hit, if not a triple or quadruple hit, right? Community, it's an important part of decreasing inflammation in our body and supporting immune function, meditation, prayer, mindset, and again, supporting healthy gut health or microbiome. Those are important things.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's all super good. I love that. I would love for you if you don't mind expanding on when you said one of the important ways to decrease inflammation is to eat a diversified, diverse foods, eating the rainbow. Can you give us an example of what
00:18:51
Speaker
a healthy, complete meal would look like. What does that look like? What's the nutrient profile in a meal that you might make yourself for dinner that's healthy? The average person, I think, maybe doesn't fully understand what you mean by diversified eating.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah. When I think of diversified eating from a fruit and vegetable standpoint, I just think of variety of colors, right? So that's one thing. It's super important to have a diet rich in vegetables because they help with oxidative stress. They help combat oxidative stress. They have antioxidants, right? So
00:19:34
Speaker
When I eat, I try to focus on quality of food, diversity of food, and blood sugar balance. So for example, I'm always incorporating a protein. Okay, always is a very strong word. I aim to always incorporate a protein source, a fiber source, which is usually my vegetables.
00:19:55
Speaker
and a healthy fat and Healthy fat might be a healthy oil that I'm using like an olive oil extra virgin olive oil or avocado or maybe I'm adding flaxseed or chia seed So I always aim for protein fiber Healthy fat and if I'm gonna have carbs which there are good sources of complex carbohydrates. That's my focus and
00:20:25
Speaker
quinoa, brown rice, sweet potatoes, even maybe some fruit, because I'm just trying to avoid the things that are processed because those are actually going to hamper digestion, if that makes sense.
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think this is really good. I think that's helpful for the listener to like even understand like where do I start in the way of like what I should be consuming. And so, and then, you know, we'll probably won't get in this today it'd be really really fantastic, but I just encourage the listener to consider maybe we could put in the show notes some good sources on
00:21:02
Speaker
how to know where your food is sourced, because the nutrient density of your food that you're eating, it really matters where it's coming from. But obviously for time's sake, what I would like you to touch on, because I know it's like a big passion of yours. I know you mentioned this earlier, but
00:21:22
Speaker
It's really well known now.

Gut Health and Digestion Tips

00:21:24
Speaker
I feel like that the gut is the second brain and that's a huge statement. That's like, whoa, like your gut, your stomach, your second brain or your whole digestive system. Really. Um, so I know you touched on why gut health is so important, right? Like we're taking things we need to absorb it, but what are actually a couple of practical things that almost anyone, regardless of, you know, budget or lifestyle can do to improve their gut health?
00:21:48
Speaker
because it's so important. So like, what are a couple of things that people can do that you'd recommend off the bat? Yeah, I think a lot of people don't really understand I didn't like truly that our gut is our second brain. Like during fetal development, it starts basically our gut and our brain is the same thing that separates by the vagus nerve. So that connection is undeniable. And our gut health or our microbiota impacts the production of neurotransmitters and hormones and
00:22:16
Speaker
serotonin and all the things that obviously make our brain function well, right? We need those things. So one of the best things again, I'm going to go back to the basics is like chew your food slowly. Like my grandma, our grandmas, some grandmas would say like, chew your food 20 times. And it wasn't because they didn't want us to choke, which really they didn't.
00:22:42
Speaker
But it was because the chewing process, like we break our food down starting in the mouth. I know I talked about that, but that's really important to understand because we start to produce saliva. That's part of an enzyme breakdown of our food. And then mechanically, we're chewing our food. And the more we chew our food, the easier our food is to digest. And it makes the breakdown process that we have, the biochemical process and the process for
00:23:10
Speaker
our whole digestive system, it makes it easier for that food to be broken downstream if we chew it really well to begin with. So just sitting down, chewing our food well, a lot of us are deficient in a high enough amount of stomach acid that has to do with just the quality of food we're eating. It has to do with
00:23:33
Speaker
Our environment and so one of the things I could give a tip around is chewing our food is very important Some people like to eat fermented foods as a way to support digestion. So whether that's kimchi You can do fermented foods like pickles you can do You know, a lot of people will do yogurt obviously if they don't have like a dairy issue they can do
00:23:59
Speaker
apple cider vinegar, whether you do it as a capsule or you do it actually as apple cider vinegar in a liquid, those are also ways you can actually support the digestive process. And then honestly, obviously, there's digestive enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics. So there's different ways that we can support the digestion process, if that makes sense.
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And you already talked to everyone about the importance of eating the rainbow. And when you're getting more fruits and vegetables, you're getting more high quality, fibrous foods as well, which I know is really important. I always tell people, make sure you drink more water. You start eating healthier and you're dehydrated. You don't want that as staying super hydrated. But that's super helpful, just a starting place for people.

Making Nutrition Manageable for Busy Lives

00:24:44
Speaker
Um, so I have a another question for you. I think it's really relevant to the target audience here, because you and I both know life is like, so full, like really, really full. So what are some of your favorite tips or tricks or habits that a person can embrace on this nutrition journey? So they're like, I'm pursuing holistic, pursuing Shalom, I want to eat better. I know it could seem intimidating, just starting to think about like,
00:25:14
Speaker
some things to do. I'm just curious to what are some of your favorite simple habits that can have a big impact that maybe share a few of them and listeners could walk away with one thing that you're like, okay, I'm going to do this out of those few things. What are some things? Yeah. I think it is important when people give lists of things. I do think it's important to not pick all of them. You know what I mean? It's not about perfection. It's about
00:25:43
Speaker
Small changes add up right that they can become really big
00:25:50
Speaker
have really big downstream impacts, just making small changes, but doing them consistently. So I'll give some tips, but I'm not by any means suggesting somebody jump in on all of them at one time, but maybe slowly add onto them as they have small successes along the way. So first of all, I think it's just important to bless your food. I think it's important to be grateful that we have food, that it's readily available. And some of our food sources aren't always in our control and they're not always the best. So just asking the Lord to
00:26:19
Speaker
nourish your body with what you're eating, right? Bless your food. Eating, I call them God foods, you know, focusing on foods that grow from the ground, from trees that have run on the ground. I do think the quality of food is important with industrialized meat and stuff. Quality does matter, but just really focusing on things that don't necessarily have, I say in my house, barcodes, right? They come in boxes in the center of the grocery store, try to stay on the outside, right?
00:26:48
Speaker
Um, staying hydrated is very important. Um, having good quality sleep, like that's easier said than done for some people. And so that's very important. Um, it's very important to go to the bathroom. If you're having a hard time going to the bathroom, that is something that I would start looking at because it's very important for your body to get rid of toxins and eliminating that direction is one of the ways we do that. And so having regular bowel movements is very important.
00:27:19
Speaker
Um, having a healthy and supportive community. I mean, we were not designed to be alone. We were not designed, we were designed to be a part of a community and to have those people pour into us and for us to be a part of their lives. And I think that that helps with health. A lot of statistics about that. Um, last two things, I would say three things, decrease alcohol, refined sugar and processed foods.
00:27:46
Speaker
There's lots to that. Move your body, however you do it. It doesn't need to be an hour and a half. Get out and take walks, especially if you can do that for 10 minutes after you eat to help balance blood sugar. That's amazing. A little bit of walk, 10 minute walk back and forth. And then just emotional and spiritual health. I mean, it is connected to our overall health and it's really important. So those are a couple of things. Like I said, don't jump on all of them, but take the ones that you feel
00:28:14
Speaker
Like I could do that. I could succeed at that and I could add maybe one and then another and then have it stacking as you would probably call it autumn, right? Yeah. Yep. Yep. No, I love that. I actually, I've never heard of that before. I can't believe it. I've been in this space for so long, but foods that grow in the ground or run on the ground. I like that run in the ground because I'm so big on like whole foods, plant-based eating. Um, but you know, when it comes to our like animal products, like it, that just speaks a lot to.
00:28:41
Speaker
the quality of the animal pride for thinking about things that are running around out in the world. So I like that. Grow on the ground, run in the ground. I want to remember that one. The other thing that you said that really I think is
00:28:53
Speaker
super significant. Oh my gosh, I'm having a mind blink here. But you know what, I can't remember. So anyways, it'll come back to me. But what I wanted to say was just along these lines of life being so full.

Self-care and Daily Routines

00:29:10
Speaker
And you know, I appreciate you just affirming what I was saying, and they just grab one or two things, you know, and walk away with those. But
00:29:18
Speaker
In a world where people feel, you know, overwhelmed, I would just love just to wrap up here before I share my Coach Autumn's tip of the day. But what's a word of encouragement for the overwhelmed person? Yeah, because I feel like there's so much information coming at us and it can be overwhelming. I would recommend just starting getting a good solid start to your day.
00:29:46
Speaker
Like, you know, if you can have a routine in your morning that incorporates that prayer meditation and just slowing down for a minute, you know, um, and starting your day from a nutritional perspective, like the best that you can in that given day, I just think there's something that it sets you up for. And for the rest of the day, you know, if you're, if you're eating well and you're fueling your body well from the beginning, um, and I guess, especially for
00:30:16
Speaker
that the parents that are listening to this, if you do not feel well, it doesn't help anyone else in your family. And so as a mom, I give myself permission to exercise and to take care of myself because when I was not well, it had this trickle down impact across my whole family and it isn't selfish to take care of yourself because you know what? You're taking care of all these other people, right? And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no one's going to take care of you.
00:30:46
Speaker
And I think that that's an important thing that sometimes moms need permission to do. Dads need permission to take care of yourself because you matter and you've got a lot of responsibility and it takes good fuel and it takes intention to keep up with it. You know what I mean?
00:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's so good. And I think that's probably one of the most relevant examples is to love yourself so you can love your family well. I even think of leaders, I started out in community development who felt so responsible and committed to their mission that they'd sacrifice their wellness. And that's a big part of the reason I started this and started the whole line living community and everything was because
00:31:30
Speaker
It's like in order for you to lead well and be well, whether it's your family or a team, like whatever you're passionate about, like leading from the front, taking the time to care for yourself is like, is loving your neighbor and loving your family and, you know, loving your mission and the people you serve.
00:31:46
Speaker
Thank you for sharing that. It's really, really good. I do want to give you some space right after I share my tip to let people know where they could find you. I don't know. You could think about it as I'm sharing my tip, but if you want people to find you on Instagram or wherever you might want
00:32:03
Speaker
I always like to leave listeners with a space that they could reach out. But anyways, before I jump into my tip of the day, I did remember, in case the listener is like, what the heck? What was that mind blank? When you were talking about just moving your body and being overwhelmed, so I have
00:32:22
Speaker
recently been through some of the most stressful seasons of my entire life and everything shifted and what habits I had around exercise for the last 15 years had to change completely. And so I'm like, okay, I just need to move my body. If I can't do X, Y, Z, you know what? I set this goal to do 10,000 steps a day. I haven't missed a day. What's been beautiful about it is I just find spaces and ways just to get out and walk and move my body
00:32:47
Speaker
And the other benefits of it is I have the space to do other things like work on my mental, emotional, spiritual health and be in nature.

Conclusion and Contact Information

00:32:55
Speaker
So it is such a good reminder that just movement in general, whatever that looks like, like not to put yourself in a box. But my tip for the day actually is not related to that.
00:33:08
Speaker
I want to challenge you all today just to take care of your gut like that's the thing like if Beth and I could say you know there is something like super important like eat well yes be like your gut is connected to your mood your immune system everything so my my encouragement my practice for you is to make.
00:33:26
Speaker
a choice to do something about your gut health, whether it's integrating probiotics or more high quality soluble fibrous foods, whatever it might be, drinking more water to do something for your gut health and start being conscious of it. And that is my tip for today. And with that being said, Beth, this is, this was amazing. Thank you so much for being a guest with us and pouring into the Align Living community and our listeners here. I do want to give you space, like where, where can people find you, contact you,
00:33:55
Speaker
I mean, I'm on Instagram, but just under my name. So, um, yeah, super easy. I'm on Facebook. Um, my holistic nutrition counseling will be starting and it's called roots to resolution. Um, but I don't have anything formal set up for that, but yeah, easy to find.
00:34:20
Speaker
Perfect. And I will make sure all that's in the show notes for you all so that you can get that information. And anyways, I hope you all have a blessed day and thank you again, Beth. You're amazing. I appreciate you and your friendship and keep making a difference one life at a time. Love you, girl. Thank you for tuning in to the Aligned Living Podcast. I'm Dr. Autumn, your guide on this journey to Shalom or wholeness.
00:34:50
Speaker
Ready to embark on this journey of self-discovery and transformation? Head over to autumnswain.com to learn more and to dive deeper into the world of Aligned Living. Until next time, stay Aligned.